Go ......Someplace Nice

I'm back

2011-11-05T07:22:00.010+01:00

Life changes so much after a long break. Suddenly it is like I had to manage a new job, new house, new resposibilities and it took time to settle down with the new old things. I haven't been doing much apart from work, cook, gym and meeting friends. All the painting and sketching kit was packed away in the darkest and the least accessed drawer in the study, until last week.
My parents visited me and my dad got me a 1980's news paper supplement which had a big frame of a heroine of those days, he wanted me to sketch her. I immediately started off the sketch and here it is.

When we left to Brussels a year ago, we had left our tulsi pot at one of our relatives house and after returning we got it back but during this shifting business the edges of the pot was damaged. recently mom fixed it with some left over white cement. I had some left over pot paints and redecorated the tulsi pot. This coming monday is Tulsi vivah and the pot is all decked up like a bride before the wedding.

And why did I have some left over pot paints?

I had been to a handicraft exhibition in Malleshwaram 2 years ago and had liked a pair of painted clay dolls there. After having spent on lot of junk items at the exhibition I had very limited cash and with that I could not have bought these dolls no matter how well I bargained. But I had no intention of leaving these adorable dolls. So I bargained with the vendor to sell me the similar pair of dolls which was freshly made and was yet to be painted. He agreed easily and I hand painted them at home.

BRU to BLR

2011-07-08T09:23:00.002+02:00

After having cribbed endlessly about the weather , expenses and language problems faced during my stay in Brussels , now all of a sudden there is a change in the outlook since I'm counting down the last few hours to take off. Seeing everything with 'graduation goggles' has definitely erupted a blast of mixed emotions about this place.

Brussels's love for a clean and green environment and save biodiversity is a thing to remember. There was this bird counting activity on one weekend, initiated by Brussels municipal council. we are supposed to keep munchies for birds outside the window and keep a watch and count the types of birds that visit. The collective statistics on this will be the approximate birds in Brussels. Coming from a country whose population is 17 % of the total world population it was hard to accept the fact that some countries do invest in activities such as bird counting. I cannot imagine doing the count of crows or pigeons in India. Reckon sparrows would be easier due to its depleting count.

Every year beginning of spring, a pair of peregrine falcons visit Brussels and nest on a tower of the Brussels cathedral. There a webcam has been setup so that the locals can get a glimpse of this rare birds raising the chicks. From the time the falcons are first sighted you can watch online live and follow the number of eggs laid that year, hatching, feeding until the final take off. There are screens put up at the base of the cathedral for visitors to see this event. If a dog is run over on the road, the bloody body will be left untouched and by the end of the day, the remains would have be bulldozed along the road with no traces. Sadly this happens in my native country.

Most of the museums here have free entry on the first wednesday of every month. On one winter wednesday afternoon, after a museum visit, I was strolling by the open area near the museum and was on a photo clicking spree, just like the group of fairer narrrow eyed Asians. An old man with a grocery bag was crossing this area and I watched him as he went near the asian group and stopped over to tell them something and then started walking towards me. In my head all I could think was " Gosh!!Am I not supposed to click photos here?", "Will he give a piece of his mind now? ", " does he hate Asians for crowding his walk area ? ". He came over and pointed at the museum building and said " Today museum is free. it is good. go now". And just like that I started to like Belgians and Belgium museums.

In the second week after arriving here, I had gone grocery shopping and was totally confused with all the products since everything was in dutch and french. I wanted to pick up chicken and I knew it was called 'poulet'. But when I looked in the freezer section , it was stacked with different types of poulet. 'Cuisse de poulet' , 'poulet kip' etc. There came an old couple, aged in 80s, who picked up some sort of poulet from the same section. With no staff in sight, I decided to ask this old couple to help me out. I greeted them in english and asked if the pack I had picked up was actually of chicken leg pieces. Unfortunately they did not speak english and they stared blank into my face. I realized that and thanked them anyway and started searching for the staff. The old couple wanted to help me anyway and they came over to me and tried to say that it was chicken. I knew it was chicken but was not sure as to which part of chicken and I could not tell them that anyway . seeing my confusion the old lady handed over the basket she was carrying to the old man, bent her frail knees , flapped her outstretched arms while making the noise "Caca Cacaawww Cacaaawwww...." made a quick walk hither tither. And I could not help but admire them. I was so overwhelmed by their gesture I smiled and nodded to show that I understood and thanked them profusely. A lovely charade it was.

All the weather cribs are long forgotten and I surely have lots of good memories of my stay in Belgium and the travel trips to the nearby countries. 'Loss of pay' comes to an end as I write this and am so eager to get back to my home , work , friends, coconut based gravies, mangoes , jackfruits........ .. ... .....

Fashion illustrations

2011-06-29T19:01:00.002+02:00

SilverRidgeStudio on etsy is one of my favourite shops. Love the way Cate has dabbled with water colours to depict fashion and I too tried my hand at some of them and it is definitely going to be hung on my wall at home.

Indian Bride

Ellen Von Unwerth is Cate Parr's favourite photographer and when I saw some of the photographs and I too was enthused to make some quick sketches.

More watercolour

2011-06-29T12:34:00.000+02:00

Even after having cribbed a lot about Belgium and its language problems I still can't get enough. Our friend's daughter is a year old and they wanted to start teaching English alphabets to her. After carefully searching the english book store here found a chart of alphabets but all the 'is for' were weird unknown reference and definitely not the ones what we studied in India. It was not B is for Beer and C is for chocolate, since Belgium is famous for it, but surely not something that was easy for Indians.

So I decided to make one for the little one, myself. I had some A4 sheets and painted them with watercolour and coloured pencils.All I have to do now is to stitch and hand bind it to make a handmade alphabet learning book.

water colour on A4 plain sheet was a baaaaad idea and the paper crumpled. Let's see how long this lasts in her hands..:)

our garden backyard

Luxembourg

Puranpoli / Holige / Stuffed sweet bread

2011-06-03T10:24:00.000+02:00

VR recently mentioned that I would be returning to India as a better cook. And to think of it, yes, I have tried so many new recipes and I know what I'm good at and definitely know what VR likes. I recently got the craving to have some hot puran polis and immediately called up mom for recipe. Initially when I started to cook whenever I asked her for recipe I specifically ask for the detailed step as I would find a very simple seasoning very complicated. So even till date she explains me the same way but I hurry her up by completing her sentences and she gets angry ..."I will not tell you, you go search on your internet" ... ! And so I listen to her as she tells me the exact measurement, temperature, colour changes, textures etc. And all I do is listen attentively. You can do multitasking and mom can do multitasking but when mom is telling you something then you cannot to do multitasking.

So here is the recipe:

For the outer dough
all purpose flour /Maida : 1/2 cup
Wheat flour : 1/4 cup
Cream of wheat : 1/4 cup
Oil: 3/4 cup
turmeric - 1 tea spoon
salt - 1/2 tea spoon
Sugar - 1 table spoon
water - 2/3 cup+

For the filling
Chana dal / split chickpeas -2/3 Cup
Toor dal / Split yellow lentils -1/3 cup
Sugar - 1.5 cups
cardamom powder - 1/2 tea spoon

Procedure :
Cook the pulses together in a pressure cooker.

Dissolve salt, sugar and turmeric in water .
Wheat flour is optional and the quantity can be replaced by more of all purpose flour. Knead into a soft ball same like that of chapathi. Add 1/4 oil and again knead again for another 5 minutes. add the rest of oil on top and let it sit for half an hour.

Drain the water from the pulses and save the stock for making tomato rasam. Add sugar to the dry mixture in a heavy bottomed pan and heat it on low flame until all the moisture evaporates and the whole thing comes together like a sticky mass. The stuff actually loosens itself from the sides and this is the indication to take it off heat. Add cardamom powder and mix well.

At this stage mom generally grinds the stuffing(without adding water) to get an even mixture. These days she uses the murukku press mold rather than the mixer to blend the stuffing.

Make medium sized round balls of the stuffing and keep aside. apply oil on your palms and pinch out the outer dough, half the size of the stuffing. Flatten it lightly and then place the stuffing inside and pull the sides all around it towards the centre. Press down slightly and then roll it flat with a rolling pin. Apply wheat flour/ maida while flattening.

Transfer the rolled poli on to a hot griddle. once it gets golden brown spots then flip it. each side will not take more than 3 minutes. This should be dry roasted.

A dollop of ghee on hot poli.!!! ahaaaa

Work area

Roasting the poli

Serve Ubatti with ghee / sweet milk

Tips:
1. You could add fresh grated coconut to the stuffing for a softer texture. add it while heating the cooked pulses.
2. Toor dal is optional and can be replaced by chana dal. but toor dal makes the poli softer.
3. The insides of the chana dal should be cooked well. Mine did not cook very well and so the inner most part of the chana dal was still a bit hard. and since I do not have a mold or a mixer, after heating the stuffing, I tried to mash it with a spoon. So I pressed it anyway and it cracked out of the outer covering in some places.
4. The griddle should be medium hot.

The plate story!

2011-06-02T18:26:00.000+02:00

Run, mom.. Run!

2011-06-01T14:00:00.000+02:00

Tools studied today,
1. Pen tool
2. Creating fractals
3. Paths
4. Text around the path

Beginner Digital Art

2011-05-23T18:57:00.000+02:00

Started and ended with CS3 only. no prior sketch was made.

A friend with another friend's spectacles.

Dilwale Dulhaniya lejayenge

A mixed media artwork- pencil sketch, acrylics & CS3 edits

2011-05-23T16:03:00.002+02:00

Started with just a rough sketch and acrylics and ended up with an outrageous portrait not worth uploading. So the stock taken on day 1 was quite useful and worked on it with CS3. And finally I am closing this project .Not a perfect one but am glad that pictures taken at various stages of development did help me save this work.

Acrylic with water medium - Day1

Acrylics & CS3 edits - Day2

Edited with adobe PS CS3 - Day 3

Acrylics

2011-05-20T15:25:00.001+02:00

I spoke too soon about acrylics ,I guess, and the jinx has cast on...!
I overpainted and ruined my friend's portrait. Need to do some adjustments now to fix it. I just couldn't get the arms and shoulders right and finally decided to make it abstract and finally discarded the plan.
Undoing in watercolour is soooooo easy.... :(

The only respite is that I had a saved copy where I had coloured 50% and what could be better than photoshop to fix and recolour. trying my hand digital painting again.

Digitally modified acrylic

Still WIP. Have to remove all the hardlines and do tonal adjustments. But I like it so far. A sense of relief that the whole thing is not destroyed. :)

More is less in watercolour and less is more in Acrylics

2011-05-19T10:45:00.000+02:00

When I decided to dabble with colours, I chose to start with water colors as they are supposed to be easily 'undone' and activating the water colour is easy unlike acrylics. I have distanced myself from oils because of its slow drying property. Even though I had got myself a set of acrylics colours I never dared to play it on the expensive cold pressed sheets. Recently from the flea market, I got a 20 pages A4 size drawing sheets, which had the texture exactly like the cold pressed sheets, like a for just 2 Euros and I tried my hand at acrylics and loved it a lot. Loved the way acrylics holds on to the paper and the rich strong effect it brings to the whole artwork. Only that you have to be quick and plan your moves in advance since the paint dries too fast. There is so much more to learn but after these 3 starters I have learnt one thing for sure: More is less in watercolour and less is more in Acrylics.

Bee and Blue rose

Lady with the orange rose

WIP - A friend

Sleeping sides

2011-05-11T11:23:00.005+02:00

Sunday nights are the worst of all nights because you don't get sleep early and the thought of going back to work early in the morning keeps your irk quotient on the ticker. As I was tossing and turning on the bed with eye-blinds on, VR was watching his mind-relaxing-episodes of 'Yeh jo hai zindagi'. The times of snuggle-sleep is long back gone as after five years of marriage we do not compromise on our sleep; we sleep on the respective half of the bed and mostly with backs facing each other, not because we are angry but because that happens to be our favorite sleeping side. That is when VR's phone alarm started to beep. VR checked it and switched it off and said ''anniversary'' as he resumed watching the silly soap. Without stirring even a bit from my side, scared if my sleep would go off, I asked ''anniversaryaaaa...? who's anniversary? ''.I did not get any reply from VR. For birthday's you can set the alarm for 12 AM but for anniversary you do not generally do it unless it is your own anniversary and you want to remember it for your wife's sake to avoid all the nagging sessions .. "you do not remember any of the dates" "you do not love me anymore" etc etc. Jolted by his silence to my question I started to think what date it was in May that was important and while pondering over it I realised that it was the day of our engagement. I was awestruck by his thoughtfulness and a strange sense of guilt creeped in as I turned around to hug and wish him. I rolled over , grinning from ear to ear and whispered " it is our engagement anniversary, Happy anniversary!" . For a moment there was silence and I thought I will get to hear a play back session from him .."You also do not remember any dates " ..blah blah...! But there, his eyes grew larger as he saw me from the corner of his eyes and with a stiff neck and a wider grin he turned around and said "yaaaaaaa... our anniversary ...Happy Anniversary to you too... but actually the reminder was for my uncle and aunt's wedding anniversary!" ......!!!
And there we were laughing out loud, realizing the accidental discovery. Sleeping sides were not of worry any more. I snuggled and made my way into his arms to watch the rest of 'Yeh Jo Hai zindagi' till we fell asleep.

Guide to Indians coming to Brussels - Part II

2011-05-04T17:18:00.003+02:00

After living here and learning from the mistakes a re-look at the guide for Indians coming to stay in Brussels.

1. Winter

We came to Brussels just at the onset of winter and it is quite a bad time to come to any European country. The initial enthusiasm to see and feel snow lasts only for a week or two before you start realizing the 'side-effects' of snow. You better own good quality woollen wear and leather accessories to stay warm. Woollen scarf, socks, thermal wear, leather gloves, cardigans/jackets. You could buy all these at stores here too but they are very expensive. A good woollen cardigan for ladies can cost you from Euro 150 onwards. And sport shoes will definitely not work during winter here, no matter how fancy it is. You need to get yourself a pair of good leather boots if you intend to be outdoors during winter. It looks tempting to go out and feel the snow on your palms and the moment it touches you can feel it seeping in and soak you numb.

2. Residence permit procedure

Call it unfortunate but It did take 5 months to get our residence permit and since our visa had expired a week after we landed here, we were practically stranded in Belgium and we could not travel out of country. We consoled our desperate travel hearts blaming it on the weather and we pinned our hopes on spring. It is heard that the commune for 1000 Brussels (Central area, Schuman and near by areas where the Pincode is 1000) is generally a slow one and it takes a long time before you hear anything from the commune for police verification and hence the delay in getting the residence permit. The steps involved in getting one.

a. Within a week of landing in Brussels, you need to find the house and get the house agreement. To create the agreement you should give the agent 1 month rent as advance and also have 2 months rent deposited in the bank as guarantee. And to open a bank account you need to have your house agreement. You will be given the key to the house only when you create the bank guarantee.

b. With agreement and other legal documents visit the commune early in the morning. The serpentine queue to get a token starts growing from as early as 7 AM although the counter starts issuing them only at 8.30 AM. You give the documents and get an acknowledgement letter from the commune. Commune sends an intimation to the police for verifying the details.

c. After some days you will get a letter from the local police of your area asking for you to visit the police station at a specified time. This step is skipped at times as sometimes police just sends the report to the commune without you having to visit them.

d. After receiving the police report commune then sends a letter of appointment to your house address.

e. You meet the authority at the specified appointment and based on how much you are ready to pay the time taken to send the residence card is decided.

i. 35 Euros for a normal processing. It could take minimum of one month

ii. 150 euros for fast processing. The card will be posted within 3 working days

iii. 200 Euros for super fast processing. The card will be posted next day itself.

3. Travel within Belgium

a. The Belgium train transport SNCB is quite good and you have packages to local sightseeing/family/adventure based on your interest levels.

Caves, beaches, adventure sports etc are some of the category. It works out very cheap since the price includes the to and fro train travel and entry to the major attractions in the town of visit.

b. Museum entries are free on first Wednesday of every month. Royal museum of fine arts and the Japanese tower & Chinese pavilion are worth a visit.

c. Keep checking the http://www.brussels.be/ website for any upcoming events. We got Atomium entry for half the price on feb 14^th as it was the anniversary of its completion. Buy one get one free.

4. Travel to nearby countries

a. Thays, eurostar are classy super fast trains but very expensive to travel in unless you book the tickets atleast 2 to 3 months in advance.

b. SNCB trains are what you will resort to if you do not plan in advance. They connect to most of the well popular destinations at much cheaper rates but they are very slow. Ex: Thalys connects to Amsterdam from Brussels in just 2 hours where as SNCB can take upto 3.5 hours.

c. Eurolines is bus service. If you have the time and patience then can opt for this service.

d. www.inbag.org is an Indian association in Ghent which organises tours around Europe at a very reasonable rate. You can opt to be a member of the association.

For all travels I check tripadvisor first. It gives a comprehensive understanding of the destination, hotels, B&Bs, tips and most importantly reviews.

5. Shopping:

a. The shops can put up sales only in the month of January and June and you can bag huge discounts on products. However in some shops the leftover from the sale-months are dumped in the corner rack of the shops and if you hunt you might get some good stuff.

b. Flea markets are held at Midi and clemenceau on Sunday mornings(6 AM to 2 PM). Fresh vegetables, fruits, Mediterranean specials like variety of olives and dry fruits, meat, sea food, second hand goods etc. There are other flea markets all through the week in different parts of Brussels. Antiques, paintings, vegetable markets etc.

http://brussels.angloinfo.com/information/29/markets.asp

6. Things to get from India

a. Pressure cooker set

b. Rolling pin (for making rotis)

c. Pair of tongs (making phulkas)

d. A pair of pliers (Pakkad)

e. Small deep pan for seasoning

f. Tea vessel with a lid

g. Nail cutter

h. Mortar & pestle

i. Strainer

j. Set of Tupperware boxes for carrying tiffin/lunch

Ladies special

Plucker (for Eye brows. Parlours are @&*# expensive). you can find wax strips for eyebrows here.

Although you get all the above mentioned items here too they might be very expensive.

7. Notes on food

a. Europe is known for its farm fresh cheese and butter. Try different brands and get to know them.

b. Best salted butter I have tried so far : Beurre D’Isigny. Others are chimay,president, kerrygold, carlbourg etc

c. Butter for making ghee: Rochefort (blue pack which is unsalted).

Look for butter made from milk (Beurre de lait). And nowhere on the pack you should find ‘Sel’ or ‘Doux’ (meaning salt in French and dutch respectively). Any cooking butter made from milk and which is not salted can be used for making ghee.

d. If you are a vegetarian then before buying cheese check the ingredients on the pack. If it says it contains ‘Ouef’(eggs) or ‘Animale’(animal) then you might want to think over. I have read about how some cheese is made using rennet and ever since then I always ensure that I read the ingredients very carefully.

e. The concept of drinking water from the tap is quite alein and my hygiene soul repels even to take a sip. So we buy bottled water from the stores.

f. A trolley bag to get groceries is very much recommended and can cost you from 7 to 10 Euros.

g. Mixer : you can get a makeshift mixer with 2 jars for 15/- at the clemenceau/midi flea market. there are two types of mixers available One with all plastic and two jars and the other one with plastic base and a glass jar. We bought the first one. Though It does not look sturdy it is good enough for light grinding. I usually make ginger garlic paste, coconut chutney and other masala powders in the small jar. I use the big jar for making dosa batter. But recently I used it for grinding parboiled rice as the recipe called for it and ended up spoiling the mixer.

Click here for part 1

Swimming whimsies

2011-04-06T11:49:00.001+02:00

Swimming is a very good exercise, everyone says, a must know thing in life, a life saving and weight reducing talent. I wasted the first 20 years shying away from swimsuit and the next 5 years feeling I that I will never need to know to swim, I can always manage with a life guard. The next 2 years I whiled away thinking of buying a swimsuit and the sheer laziness delayed the whole retailing. In the recent years there is this great urge to learn to wade in water, an urgency like if I don't know it then I might not survive. it could be also a way to shed those extra kilos I have put on.

After trying yoga, aerobics, treadmill and walking I am resorting to swimming to cure weight problems though I know the root problem here is nothing to do with the way I burn calories but the regularity of burning and the way I intake those calories. I have put on more weight around the waist and there is no life growing around close by, it is just thick adipose tissues spread over layers like double sandwich. It is spreading like tumour across my thighs, arms, neck and face.

I have stopped going on long walks, exercises- yoga as directed by Ram dev Baba in his CD "yoga for obesity / Motape ke liye" , quite irregularly, and eating more and more of the fresh european farm produce- farm chicken. I realized that I'm an emotional eater, I tend to eat when I'm sad or bored even though the neurons do not give any indication of hunger nor does the stomach growl when I binge on food.

With a swimming pool just few steps away from home and lot of friends who knew swimming volunteered to teach me to swim ,I had no other excuse but to set aside the inhibitions and dive into the chlorine water. Once in the water, I had different problems to face. I have myopia and I wear spectacles for a clear vision and while I'm in the pool the glasses will remain in the warm dark enclosure of the changing room. So I have to be very close to the instructor friend of mine to see what she is asking me to do. Apart from vision problem, I have ear problems too. I get ear pains if water tunnels near the drums and hence I am obliged to wear ear plugs, also a fear that I might get ear fungus like I had got when I was a kid. So with these conditions I am just a deaf and blind girl and it becomes very difficult for the instructor as well as for me to comprehend the gestures.

So I have one solution to tackle one of the above problems. I will get a LASIK surgery done so that way I can atleast have a good vision and will have to tackle only the hearing problem when trying to swim.

But to think of it, they say, if you are not able to do something right then break down the problem and then attack it, If I do that here I will end up with lot more problems and more dependencies and to attack all those it might take years. So not always does breaking the problem work, you need to just ignore the side problems and attack the original main problem and after all others seem redundant and negligible.

I dream of colours

2011-04-04T15:44:00.001+02:00

Spring sure is a great time in Europe. Lovely tree blossoms, bright colorful bulbs and all the exotic blooms brings a sense of freshness and joy. For having lived in a tropical country all my life spring did not really make a lot of difference and neither did I appreciate the 12 hours of daylight, which I spent away playing with the kids from the neighbourhood. For me the season 'Spring' was only in text books. Only now I can understand all the fuss and noise about spring and its beauty. No wonder 'Spring' has been an inspiration for so many poets and all through my schooling I remember having to learn some of the spring poems and sonnets by-heart. The poem by William Wordsworth, "I wandered lonely as a cloud", beautifying the golden daffodils is quite a memorable one. Being familiar with all the usually grown Indian seasonal flower plants like jasmine, rose, hibiscus,lotus,lilly etc, daffodils was quite a new for ears and I was quite fascinated by the bunch of yellow waving daffodils.

I saw a sea of yellow daffodils lined up along the streets in Antwerp and all I remembered was William wordsworth.

Daffodils stretched in the never ending line

Daffodils along the streets in Antwerp

Daffodils tossing its head in sprightly dance. Held the base of the stem to get a steady shot.

I dream of colors

I painted this today. Splashed all the colours from the palette and still feel that it is not enough.

Chinese Sparrow

2011-03-30T13:41:00.002+02:00

Trying to keep myself occupied while waiting for the match to start.
Referred this tutorial for doing this one. Using up my pre washed sheet for this one. The sheet is a bit buckled , yet to straighten it out and I am so eager to upload it too.. (:D).

After the match started I could not concentrate and I had started overpainting.
So Stopping it right away!!! huh!

India at WAR

2011-03-30T13:07:00.002+02:00

You play with people when you want to socialize. If you hate somebody and do not want them in your social network why even play with them!

Watching India & Pak semi finals of Worldcup 2011 and everytime I see the rivals clad in green all I can think is the 26-11- Taj attack, J&K war of 1965, kashmir pandits, kargil war, partition, Gandhiji. All comes in a flash and I hate the fact that India is playing against them. It is a matter of India's pride and prestige at stake here. Also by wanting to win against them in a sport, we want to send a message to them that we have the upper hand.
I hope and pray that India wins here.

fastest painting

2011-03-30T08:30:00.001+02:00

No reference, no memories, I just wanted to paint something and I dipped the wide flat brush into a mix of colours and made this.Hardly took 10 minutes including the setup time. Now I know what to do if I forget to buy a greeting card for an occasion. Splash some colours and write up some nice wordings serve with warm hugs! :)

Antwerp

2011-03-28T12:52:00.000+02:00

A beautiful port city adorned with sparking diamond stores like a bride decked in diamond accessories, a nice calm river side, shopping alley with huge buildings and big discounts. Ah! strolling through the city was a joyous feeling.

There are two types of trains that can take you to Antwerp.
IC- intercity are fast trains with limited stops. duration : 40 mins
IR - interregional trains with many stops and is slow. duration: 1 hour.

We reached the Antwerp station at 11 AM and we visited the Info centre at the station to collect the maps. there were lotsa places of our interest. The station itself is one of the must see places as it has 4 levels with escalators connecting each. the huge tiled arch glass roof lights up the entire open area. The architecture of the building is a must see and the view is magnificent.

Stadsfeestzal

Once outside the station, we walked past the diamond stores and reached the main shopping street- Meir and entered the grand Stadsfeestzaal, shopping arcade. in the open area in the centre of the building is an eatery place- La Place.
We walked towards the grote market of antwerp and saw the giant hand in stone representing the Antwerp's "hand". Curbing a lot of temptation to enter the shops we walked straight into the grand place, crossed the cathedral and reached the triangular open area where a huge monument representing Brabo throwing the giant's hand into the Scheldt river, surrounding this are the guildhouses.

Guildhouses

Along the banks of river Scheldt

You can take a ride around the city on the horse carriages starting from there. We walked further north west and saw the river side. With the onset of spring it was quite a view to take in but I'm sure in summers it will be even wonderful with the sun glazing up on the river and all trees full with fresh leaves. strolled along the river side for a while, sat on the bench and refilled ourselves with some cookies and coke.

We walked further and crossed the river through a 500mtr long tunnel built 32 meters below the river. there are 2 levels of steep escalator you need to take before you reach the beginning of the tunnel. View of Antwerp standing on the other side of the river is beautiful.

We walked back through the tunnel and walked past the KBC tower, the farmer's tower, the first skyscraper of European continent and again passed the shopping street of Meir. and this time couldn't resist and went inside and got deals on some items. Happy and content, we headed back to the magnificent station of Antwerpen and headed back home.

A day trip to Antwerp was excellent and we could cover only 40 % of it. Yet to see the Diamond district, Zoo, aquarium and port. So another saturday +sunny day >>>>.Antwerp!!!

Afghan

2011-03-25T09:16:00.000+01:00

There are some things that leave a profound impression on you for ever and you always remember it even if you have seen it only once. The photograph of an Afghan lady with light green eyes which was on the cover page of NatGeo magazine, taken by Steve McCurry, is one of those images. And when I got myself my charcoals to try my hand at charcoal paintings, the first thing that struck me was this image. I did not refer the image then and attempted it and here it is.

In the whole box of charcoal sticks, there were hard ones and soft ones but I being myself, hurried and saw only the soft ones and used them to make this sketch. I was not sure if I could get the lightness of the eyes in a bichrome painting more importantly the emotions from the original,mix of scared, shy, angry feelings of the girl. Since I could not get all those emotions , I wanted to deviate the attention a bit from the portrait and hence drew a heart with a dagger. I do not have the kneaded eraser to work on charcoal as with that I intended to show a pigeon flying away. Well, let's see.. With the travel plans starting now I don't want to concentrate more on charcoal. :)
This is more like a two dimensional portrait without much depth. need more practice.:(

Got the license to travel.... yaaaaaaaaa!

2011-03-22T14:45:00.000+01:00

Finally after 5 months of waiting I finally got my Belgian residence permit and that means I can travel out of Belgium. And I have a huge list of places to visit before I return to India and the planning starts now...;)

We came to Begium a week before our visa was expiring and since we did not have the the multiple entry visa type and since our visa had expired, we were confined to this state unless we chose to back and not return again. the whole process of registering at the commune for a residence permit is quite painful NOT worth going through again now as I already have the permit...yyyyyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy!

celebration with this vin rouge :)
Aquarelle on my last sheet of cold pressed paper. I am actually equivocating if I really need more paper or should just save up the money for one of my travels. It's a hard choice to make between both the things I love to do. But I'm sure I will have an excuse to buy more sheets considering that I will not be travelling on weekdays so as I wait for the weekends, I definitely neeeeeeeed(mind that this is a 'need' and not a 'want') some source of entertainment.

Train

2011-03-15T20:17:00.001+01:00

Brugge is an hour's journey from Brussels by train. Generally for long distance travels I carry a book to read this time I took along the sketch book with me with an intention to sketch the view outside only to realize that the train moves too fast to register any frame. So I tried sketching the insides of the train. Not very neat but it does look like an inside section of a vehicle!

Landscape

2011-03-14T18:38:00.002+01:00

   After waking up from a post lunch nap taken on the couch in the hallway, there is always a weird uneasy feeling.Even a strong concoction of ginger and tea leaves just manages to go down the oesophagus without stimulating or activating the cells that make you feel active.The only way out is to go out and take some fresh air.
   I and my dad loved to go on the road less travelled, keep going without any particular location in mind and then traverse the way back the same way or apply sense of direction and head back home. I felt this was the best way to know the local area and also develop a good sense of direction. I have learnt to 'read' the atlas just like any other novel , solely because I would watch my dad do it. When I was a kid, I loved to go through the last section where squared sections with India map had triangles, dots, squares all scattered on it. The locations of ores , refineries, river, railways maps, airways and others. I could not locate any place but would categorize the map as north, south, east and west India and fun, while at it.
   Once, as a school assignment we had to map all the rivers of India. My dad made me go through the reference book and asked me to make a note of all the major rivers first and then closed the book and asked me to draw all of them. without the reference it was just impossible for me to draw them on the plain dotted map. I new the exact location and length of only some of the rivers like Kaveri and Narmada as there were slightly sloped lines across the map , one in the south and the latter middle of the map to just below the Kutch. With his watchful eyes just hovering above the pencil and the map, and the fear of being knocked* on the scalp, it was very easy to get the shaky wavy line of the river. I confidently started the line for Narmada from starting from somewhere below the kutch on west coast till the middle of the map and looked up for his consent. When he said 'No! Draw again' my ego was hurt. I drew again the same way with some additional curves and shakiness and raised my head. He said NO! Now my ego had disappeared and the confidence was shaken and If I were a cartoon then my scared eyes could be seen above the scalp, scared when I will be knocked. This went on for a while before he got frustrated and played carrom. He said river always merges with the sea/ocean and not the other way round. So all I had to do was draw the same shaky line starting from the middle of the map to the point below the kutch!! Though it was forbidden to draw the river the wrong way my confidence was back stronger as I knew the location of the river Narmada.
Last year when I had visited my native place, Sagar, a small town in the malnad region of Karnataka, I and my dad happened to see this beautiful scenic place nearby. The picture and myversion of this memory in water colour is below.

*knocked - while tutoring, for any wrong doing, he sometimes hit the head, with his fingers, as if the head was a striker on a carrom board. It was not painful but sharp enough to get the mental fluid tension to go score high.

Happiness costs 585$ !

2011-03-10T15:52:00.001+01:00

Whoever said money cannot buy happiness, I tend to disagree here.
I don't know how housewives sit at home all day long; If we have long weekend and idling the extra day at home , I get utterly bored and I will be looking forward for work. It's an another thing that towards the end of the week I obviously crave for the weekend. now with sabbatical, I try to keep myself busy here with browsing, sketching, painting, movies, television and cooking but for how long can I engage myself in these activities. I need a great deal of self motivation to do anything that doesn't please or interest me and I oblige at times only to get disappointed and feel low. a year back I had the frenzy to own a SLR camera because everybody was having it. Though I hardly ever tried to learn the SLR jargons and its complexities, yet I wanted to own one. And with so much time at hand these days it was a good time for me to learn the professional photography and finally VR got me my first Digital SLR. A good beginner DSLR with lots of features. I have gone through a lot of tutorials, videos and sites and learnt all the SLR glossary/terminology; all I need is to go out and get that started!
with the new DSLR, VR has bought me happiness.:)

Cats and gals

2011-03-08T18:20:00.000+01:00

Today was a 'so-so' day with 2 OK sketches and 2 bad ones . 2 cats and 2 ladies. Uploading all to showcase the learning curve. the curve doesn't seem to go better at all. Spent around 15 - 20 mins on each and killed the afternoon nap time.

1. windows desktop wallpaper with kitten sleeping on a guitar. Initially decided to watercolour it but the pen with which I was drawing, smudges and is not water proof. So made this one with just the pen. The kitten doesn't look very innocent in this as it was in the original. yet overall it looks neat.

2. Had saved this tiger pic for one of my concept sketch but you all know, I have a great backlog of such concept sketches. this was another model for today's sketch.

3. Had sketched this girl with the scarf sometime back and todayI was all geared up to do a watercolor on to a sketch done with pen, I redid this girl in the pen and played on it with colours and I had vanished her innocent, sweet and she looked weird.

4. Was trying to make a sketch of a friend and I overdid the eye lids and the cheek bones and decided to stop it. I do not want to tag the friend as this looks crude and does no justice to her pretty face. But I really liked the top she is wearing.

Conclusion:

I'm probably better at drawing animals than human portraits.

But again, this is learning so all sorts of sketches are self-appreciated.

Far east museums

2011-03-08T09:54:00.002+01:00

Brussels has around 100+ museums out of which I have shortlisted my favourite ones which I want to visit atleast once. First wednesday of every month is free museum entry and I plan the day out well in advance to make use of the 'free' entries. This time I went to this museum called "museum of the far east" with a friend who I had met in Brussels. This museum has a Chinese pavilion and a Japanese tower. The dark grey coloured wooden supports inside reminded me of a typical ancient Kerala house, the water body right outside the Japanese tower was like a country side backyard in a typical south Indian village and I remembered my grandfather's place in Golgod. Phew!!!

Visitors are allowed only till the first floor of the Japanese tower and the inside walls along the staircase are lined up with Japanese stained glass paintings. Since no description was in english it was quite disappointing to just see the displayed items. The entry to Chinese pavilion was hidden and we had to take 2 rounds around the structure to find the entrance, which of-course was worth the search. the whole structure inside was painted in golden shade with huge mirrors and sculptures. The first floor had themed rooms painted in the same shade of the china-ware displayed inside the room. And one of the rooms had just different tea pots and just beautiful collection. The visit would have been very disappointing if not for the beautiful chinaware.

Best part :
We can take pics inside the museum
China ware was fantabulous and a treat to the eyes.

Sad part:
All descriptions are either in French or Dutch. Anything in English would have been very well appreciated.
The museum itself is quite far and the direction boards are very confusing. Even google maps shows incorrect tram-stops.

Chinese Pavilion

View of Japanese tower at the entrance

Stained glass artwork

Loved the bamboo and Geese on this urn.

Japanese porcelain artwork

Japanese paintings on Japanese porcelain

Japanese tower- Ceiling

Showcase

Chinese paintings on Chinaware

Eye catchy Chinese lanterns inside the museum cafetaria

Chinese Pavilion

Light fixtures

tea pot

Pargola

Look who is here ? peeking pigeon

And I got the pigeon framed

It was a nice bright sunny day

And I was there! :)

And here we are! :)

Stencil work

2011-03-02T09:20:00.000+01:00

Happened to come across a nice blog header while surfing long back and made a mental image of that but unfortunately do not remember the site where I had seen this. On one of the green theme washes I had done I made a stencil of a stag on some cheap mus eum pamphlet paper , which I realized I shouldn't have as paper soaked colour and spoilt my final result.

Drew a rough sketch of a stag on the paper and cut out stencil. Tried it on a plain sheet of paper before using it on the intended washed sheet and it came out pretty neat. I tried again with a lighter wash and I had done it again. It was neat and crisp.

By then I had wet the stencil enough for it to soak and I let it dry for a while used it on the cold pressed sheet. BAM!!! the colour spread out from the stencil and the ears and hind legs were smudged. Always I am very careful about painting on the washed sheets since they are of watercolour, any second coat of water paint can scrub of the below layer and the whole painting can look patchy. Well we should learn from mistakes but never do deliberate mistakes. This was more of a result of hastiness. I should have let the stencil paint dry off totally before using it again.
Will try some kitchen paper stencil next time.

Then I 'reapaired' it and all I have now is a patchy crude result. Will try for a neat one next time.

Dark Knight

2011-02-24T16:52:00.004+01:00

There are many incomplete sketches in my sketchbook and I blame it on the lack of classroom knowledge on sketching. Like say this "dark knight" concept, I had picturised it long time back but I did not know how to implement it as I cannot draw just out of my imagination, I need to have an object or a picture in front of me to see the light and shadow areas. So most of the times, I scribble a rough sketch to record the concept and the idea behind it and just leave it at that and spend time sketching from a photo or already completed painting.These blank pages are the ones I wish had gone missing when someone else is skimming through the sketchbook. Today I chose to complete one such sketch, used my own hands as template. Would have preferred a nice slender hands with long fingers instead of the stout ones nevertheless quite happy with the outcome. By next two weeks will try to complete atleast 4 more of such.

The original idea has the red bangle and the title was different too, but with this title I have half a mind to colour the bangle so leaving it as The Dark Knight!
After a month of completing this I have changed my mind. Red bangles it is!!! And there is a queen too..:)
Dark Knight saving the queen!

Now it is COMPLETE!

Bisi Bisi gasa gase paysa/ hot drink from poppy seeds

2011-02-20T19:47:00.001+01:00

The authentic karnataka restaurant in Bangalore,MTR/Maiyyas, serves this hot-gasa-gase-payasa in a silver cup. Wiki too says about this poppy drink - "In Karnataka cuisine, Gasagase Payasa (Kannada: ಗಸಗಸೆ ಪಾಯಸ) is very popular in southern part of the South Indian state of Karnataka. It is a liquid dessert made out of white poppy seeds, jaggery, coconut and milk."
Until recently they had only one outlet and that was on lalbagh road. A very old building where lunch is served in batches based on FIFO basis. The couple of times I ate there with my friends, I had had this poppy drink in silverware so after marriage when I took my hubby and inlaws to the place, I had raised their expectation about food, poppy drink in silverware, I was eagerly waiting for the silvercup and to my disappointment it was grape juice in a steep cup. VR made great fun of me that day and said that I had imagined all the silverware stuff. However I learned later that the silver cups are served only in the first batch and the later batches get only steel cup! When MTR opened Maiyya's in Jayanagar, I was surprised and overwhelmed to see them serve gasa-gase-payasa in silvercup for all and at all times. My mom makes this gasa-gase-payasa which was an absolute tasty drink that induced sleep. I do not understand the concept of 'heat' in the body, which she referred a lot. If you have boils on forehead, irregular headaches, 'moving' back pain(like now if the back pain is on the left of your waist, tomorrow it could be on top right shoulder), 'gas'-issues then she would say "Heat jalla" "Tampu Korka" < To make cool > ! And the whole menu for a week is changed. Garam masala items is reduced, red chilly based gravies are cut off, fries off, Tamboli and kadi is seen more often. More importantly Ukda-tandla paej and gasa-gase-payasa are the star attractions. I am yet to understand this 'heat' and 'cold' concept but I know why we feel drowsy after having this drink. After all it is a derivative of opium. After today's lunch I drugged myself and VR. :)

Hot poppy drink for a good siesta on a cold afternoon

Ingredients:
Poppy seeds: 3 table spoons
Cloves - 2
Cardomom powder- a pinch OR 1/4 tea spoon
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Milk - 2 cups
grated coconut - 2 tea spoons
water - 1/2 cup +
Servings:
can make 2-3 cups

Method:
For this preparation we need to dry roast the ingredients. Heat a pan , add cloves and poppy seeds. keep stirring until the poppy seeds starts to splutter. cover the pan. Add grated coconut and fry for another 2 minutes. now let the mixture cool down and then grind to a smooth paste.
Mix the ground paste with milk,water and sugar and dilute it to a drinking consistency and heat the whole potion to desirable temperature for drinking.

Notes:

I did not dilute the drink a lot and so you can see the dense pulp settled at the bottom. It is fun to bite on the titbits of this seed while drinking

Make sure not to heat the potion for long(should not be boiled) as the coconut will curdle the milk. It should be just hot enough to drink. You can even drink it cold but traditionally it is served hot.
Use a pan with a lid. Poppy seeds splutter out a lot.
Instead of coconut you can add nuts too. Since I did not have coconut here I toasted hazel nut, cashew nut and almond (1 each) in the above recipe.

Plum Blossom

2011-02-18T12:25:00.001+01:00

Another colour+ another wash + youtube search + copy cat= a nice cute painting + lots of joy!

Chineese painting is simple but the quality of the end result depends on the type of brush , paper, the technique and confidence in each stroke. I do not have any chineese brush or ink or anything chineese but for the chinaware bowls stashed farthest back in the cupboard for being so delicate. So to make this, I used a normal round brush with the tip slightly pointed . Plum blossom is actually light pink in colour but since I had this sheet washed with faded peach-orange I used a mix of crimson and purple to get a darker shade of blossom, which would stand out against the background.
I referred to this ChineeseCalligraphy's channel for painting this one.

Fluke wash > Artistic art

2011-02-18T12:18:00.001+01:00

I tried my hand at painting with a double loaded brush and it was a disaster.
My notes on double loading
1. It is best to use thick paints like gouache or acrylic
2. Tubes are better as you can place the colours next to each other. No half pans as you drain out getting the pigment on the pallete.
3. Nice wide flat brush is a must
I generally keep a roll of toilet tissue near the painting area as named by VR, I'm a bit clumsy and I often drop or spill things. Today when doing the double loaded wash I realised the roll was empty and so I took this kitchen roll to dab the excess paint from the sides of the washed sheet and voila!! I had the nice design of the kithen towel on my washed paint.

Thrilled with this tissue effect, I made a fresh wash of ultramarine blue on a new sheet and dabbed another kitchen towel and I have this nice paisleys etched on. Not a perfect wash as I was more keen on dabbing the tissue yet the results are amazing. I might not be able to do any painting on these sheets but I intend to do some sketches or a doodle.

Sabbasige Saru and Palya / Dill leaves gravy(Bassaru)and side dish

2011-02-17T11:34:00.001+01:00

There is no vegetable that I do not like and especially I love green leafy vegetables and I still wonder how I have myopia inspite of eating healthy food. Everytime I visit the Indian grocery store here in Brussels I pick a bunch of Methi leaves, Dill leaves and coriander leaves. I make Methi rice and methi paratha and with Dill leaves Basdsaru and Sabbasige vada.
My grandfather's house is a village and the locals there make dishes out of the variety of leaves found just around there. I have eaten and relished all the kinds of chutneys and kadis/tamboli which mom makes. everytime she visits grandpa's place, she takes 'tippi', the talktaive, pan chewing neighbour who does all the chores at my grandpa's palce, and gets lotsa variety of leaves,berries and fruits. And for one week we are served all sorts of chutney, Tamboli(chutney + water + seasoning).
Mom makes this gravy with coconut and this time the coconut I got from the Indian store was spoilt. So I slightly changed the recipe and it was delicious.

Method for Bassaru :
Ingredients:
Dill leaves : one bunch / chopped - 1 cup
garlic - 3 table spoons
Cumin seeds - 1 table spoon
Onion - 1 cup
cashew nuts- 4/5
coriander powder - 1 tea spoon
tamarind pulp- 1/2 tea spoon
pepper powder - 1 table spoon
greeen chillies - 3
sprouted green gram - 1 cup
Black eyed beans - 1/2 cup
Method:
Pressure cook sprouted green gram, black eyed beans and chopped dill leaves together. Add more water so that the stock can be used for the gravy. Once cooked, drain the stock and keep aside.
Heat oil, add cumin seeds, slit green chillies, crushed garlic. Add the cashew nuts. Once the nuts start changing colour add onions, salt and fry till golden brown. Add pepper powder, coriander powder. Let it cool and then make a paste. Add the paste to the stock, add tarind pulp , adjust salt and bring the potion to a boil. Garnish with coriander leaves if required.
Can be had with rice or ragi mudde.
Also you can reserve half a cup of water for the palya.

Ingredients for Palya:

Onions:
mustard seeds- 1 tea soon
crushed curry leaves -1 tea spoon
Urad dal - 1 tea spoon
Boiled Potatoes : 1 or 2
green chillies - 3
cherry tomatoes
Garam masala - 1/2 tea spoon
Method:
while pressure cooking the pulses, keep 1/2 potatoes in the top tray if needed.
Heat oil, add mustard seeds and once they splutter add urad dal.once golden grown, add slit green chillies.Add sliced onions and fry till they turn translucent. now add the drained vegetable dump, boiled potatoes(peeled and diced) and mix well. add water if it is too dry. you can retain a bit of the stock and add to this istead of water. adjust salt. cover and simmer for 10 minutes. add garam masala and cut cherry tomatoes. these tomatoes need not be cooked and by adding this in the last the dish looks colourful. they have a sweet and sour taste which goes along well with the palya.
Garam masala is optional as the cooked dill leaves itself gives a nice taste and aroma.

I cook in the night and hence the pictures are quite hazy and dull. It does not reflect the great taste it had..:)

Kindle Case

2011-02-17T09:52:00.000+01:00

There is no reasoning for the prices at which some of the items are being sold. A kindle whole costs 140$ and the kindle case costs 50$. A case that is 1/3 price of the item itself is too expensive and hence we did not order for the cover when we purchased a kindle. So VR suggested if I could make something out of knitting wool. I googled and found lotsa types of knit covers from very simple ones to complicated ones and I joined the bandwagon of Knit lovers.

My second knitting project and I'm happy the way it has turned out.
Yarn : Rapido for beginners from PhildarNeedles: UK #7 . already had it.
Crochet needle . set of 4, different size,
Fancy Button.
Next time I'll try to make more snug fit type so that there is no need of button.

Brussels in colour

2011-02-13T20:04:00.000+01:00

After bearing months of grey and black and its shades, spring is the much awaited season which brings along loads of green wilderness, long day light hours , beer-barbeques and parties in the backyard garden. But there is so much of colour around even before the onset of spring. Here is a photo blog of Brussels Metro stations, graffiti , random arts and more.

Graffito along the side walks near the Chappelle

All are one!

Watch out!!

Jazzy escalator with wooden laminations

Art at one metro station

View from the Atomium

Valentine specials

Art at Heyzel Metro station

the new spring collection!! love the vibrant collection of colours

Wonder what is inside.

Graffito

Need more colours then you definitely need more Europe!

Necessity, need, want eh??

2011-02-11T14:47:00.000+01:00

Necessity WAS the mother of invention. Not any more! How can you categorise the newest designer wear, e-reader , Luxury cars, Ferrari racing car, IPad , Super sleek - paper thin laptop as necessity? all of these(and many more) are luxury items. We do not really need them as we can survive and very well be happy without them, although the 'need' of it keeps throbbing within you. I will not deny that the e-reader kindle what we recently purchased is an invention of the greatest minds; however we did not really NEED it. It was on my good-to-have items list and I gave hundred reasons to ourselves justifying why I need to own it and if I did not have one then how badly our reading habbits would be crippled and how boring the everyday journey to office would be. As a matter of fact I haven't read any book in years and a point to be noted is that reading puts me to sleep. Also the journey to office is only half an hour and most of the time I would not be able to read it as the trains are extremely crowded in rush hours and even if I tuck it in the bag, chances are that kindle might crack. So I am in possession of a highly risky , highly priced, highly delicate commodity which was not a necessity.

Kindle probably will be helpful for people who love to read, ofcourse, and where there is not enough place to stack the books they have read already. Well even they can give off books or circulate amongst friends, donate to the library to make space. Best Idea would be to join a competetive circulating library who have the latest books. Yet they need the kindle.

Say kindle is a necessary item, who can explain designer wear. Want want want!

All our 'needs' are fulfilled and only 'want' is wanting.

So the 'want of luxury' is the mother of invention these days.

LunchBots Giveaway for Twisted Recipes @ Scatter The Batter

2011-02-11T11:18:00.002+01:00

If you have got lucky anytime, by adding 'some' ingredient to a familiar dish and got a lip smackingly surprising outcome, then write about it at Scatter the Batter and you might be lucky to win the compact lunchBot giveaway.

Bamboo

2011-02-09T16:28:00.004+01:00

Olive green, lemon yellow, mint green , lime fresh colours are instant mind freshners. From the entire palette of colours I love these shades, in fact all the bright hues that is a derivative of mixing green and yellow. Now since I have learnt to 'wash' my sheets before painting on and the job is so cool that I wash 3 -4 sheets at a time. I have done couple of sheets with this mint green, lemon yellow and olive green. I cannot really clearly accurately .. ly ..ly ..differentiate these but I know that the dried paint will belong to the green-yellow family. I feel like framing them just right away.
I really should learn to stop overdoing a painting. I tried to add effects and I was just spoiling the whole picture and had a hard time un-doing it! I really should get myself a wacom!

After painting this I made ginger, pepper and honey flavoured tea. Yes! I sprinkled a pinch of pepper powder in my tea and it was awsome!

Green - Tea.. Pictorially!

This is with the help of Henri Li's tutorial.

Clearing up stock - PIZZA

2011-02-04T17:29:00.003+01:00

I am a grocery shop junkie! everytime I visit the stores I end up buying more that what I had to buy and only regret it when I have to carry it back all by myself. Yeah! I'am a nice wifey who doesnt like to bother her hub on weekends.I do grocery shopping on fridays so that for the weekend VR gets a wide variety of options for his meals and there is enough stock for all that he wants and second because the store where I go, gets fresh stock on friday. Though I buy vegetables only once a week sometimes it lasts for more that that and sometimes they go waste as well. Yeah! it is painful to throw things away but I prefer it to be stashed in the bin rather than in the belly. So last week I decided not to buy anything until I have finished up all the perishable items. Hade made egg fried rice lastnight so the last 2 onions and leftover halves of capsicum got over. Potatoes were over in the beginning of the week itself.
All I am left with is 1/4 pack of paneer , half can of corns, little cheese and 3 tomatoes. And all this can be in only one dish ... pizzzaaaaa. So making pizza for tonight. Moreover since it is friday I dont have to pack lunch for VR ...so this is perfect for friday nights.
So tomorrow VR and me both will go for grocery shopping! Yeah! can't be a good wife all the time. At times we have to nag, crib and send men for grocery shopping. It is our RIGHT! :)

Crispy juicy pizza

Neither do I have a pizza stone nor a baking tray. So the only option for me was to grill the base first and then top with the sauce and toppings. I got this tip from Shilpa of aayis recipe.
All the steps below looks complicated but it doesnt involve much hard work. But I threw the dough on the grill and squatted in front of the oven for the entire baking time.Curosity! Phew!

Ingredients for the base:
All purpose flour - 3 cups
garlic - 1 table spoon
water - 2/3 cup+
olive oil - 2 table spoons
yeast - 1/2 sachet (instant yeast)
salt - 1 tea spoon
sugar - 1 tea spoon

Ingredients for the sauce :
tomatoes - 3
oregano coarse powder- 1 table spoon
basil - 1 table spoon
salt - 1 tea spoon
sugar - 2 tea spoons
olive oil - 1 table spoon

Topping
marinated paneer - 1 cup .
sweet corn - 1/2 cup
cheese - pasta cheese (1 cup+) or mozarella

Marinade for paneer
salt -1 pinch
cumin powder - 1 tea spoon
coriander powder - 1 tea spoon
curd - 1 table spoon
mix all the above ingredients in a bowl and add diced paneer and mix until the paneer is coated well.
Keep aside for half an hour. If you are keeping it for longer then refrigerate it and remove it half an hour before baking the pizza

Method : for the base
heat 1 tea spoon of olive oil in a pan and add the crushed garlic. fry till golden brown.
Mix the flour, salt, sugar and yeast together then add the roasted garlic and water and knead well. It should be softer than the chapathi dough that means it is a bit softer and stickier than the chapathi dough.
Apply olive oil as coating ,cover it with wet cloth and keep aside for an hour. The dough would have raised and would be double in volume.

Dough when initially mixed

Dough after the first rise.

Now punch the dough and knead again very gently for a minute. apply olive oil, cover it with a wet cloth and set aside for another half an hour.

Method : for the sauce
heat oil and add crushed garlic and once the raw smell goes add chopped tomatoes, salt and sugar. cover it and let it cook until tomatoes are all mashed up. now add oregano and basil.

pizza sauce

Method: for pizza

grease the grill , place it in the middle rack and preheat the oven to 250 C for 10 minutes.
meanwhile take a small ball of the dough and flatten it with rolling pin. thickness should not be more than 1 cms for this type of grilled pizza. brush the dough with olive oil and place in the oven directly on the rack. after 6 minutes flip it around. after another 4-5 minutes remove it from the oven. then spread the pasta sauce evenly. spread cheese and then throw some corn and paneer cubes on it. Place it back in the oven for another 8-10 minutes at 250 C and 4 minutes at 150 C(until all the cheese is molten).
Spinkle pepper powder/ chilli flakes.

Notes:

We can make pizza without stone or tray.
For the sauce onions and capsicum can be added
Place an allumium foil/ cooking sheet on the base of the oven to avoid any droppings on the oven floor.
Mozarella cheese definitely gives a better flavour for pizzas.
Pizza base can be prepared without garlic.

Oven settings:
Oven rack in middle rack throughout

Preheat : Heat from top and bottom , 250 C , 10 minutes.
Pizza base baking: heat from top(Broil), 250 C, 5-6 minutes for each side.
Pizza with the toppings baking: Broil mode , 250 C for 10 minutes , heat from bottom and top at 150 C for 3-4 minutes. the second part is to make sure that the pizza is completely done both at the base as well as toppings.

Other sites referred for making this: vahrevah

Paneer paratha

2011-02-04T14:49:00.000+01:00

I had made paneer paratha last saturday and it came out just too good. I generally dont over eat and my appetite is that of a pigeon, inspite of that the fact that my BMI is on the edge of the upper cut off is a matter of concern though. Yet I managed to overstuff myself that day as it was too deliciuos and it did not need any accompaniments.

Ingredients for the stuffing:
Paneer (Indian cheese)- grated - 2 cups
mashed potato - 1/2 cup
ginger garlic paste - 1/2 tea spoon
coriander leaves - 1/4 cup
mint leaves - 2 -3 leaves
garam masala powder - 1 tea spoon
coriander powder - 1 tea spoon
cumin powder - 1 tea spoon
paprika powder - 1 tea spoon

salt - to taste

dough: for the outer covering :

Wheat flour

salt

water

Method:
For the outer covering mix all the ingredients and knead it like chapathi dough and keep aside for atleast half an hour. Mix all the stuffing ingredients and keep aside for 10 minutes.
Take small balls of the dough and flatten it with a rolling pin make sure that the sides are thinner and the centre is thicker relatively. you can do it with a hand too. place a spoon full of stuffing at the centre of this flat dough and cover it up. Roll the stuffed ball in dry wheat flour and flatten it with the pin. do not make it very thin. fry it on the hot tava like chapathi by applying oil on both the sides while frying. you know it is cooked when both sides get the golden brown patches.

VR loves potato in everything. In maggi, in potato curry, chicken curry, any green vegetable stir fry. So evertime I use the pressure cooker for cooking rice only , I steam 1 or 2 potatoes and stack in the refrigerator and use it up within 2 days. I had a small piece of cooked potato left and I used it up in this paratha stuffing and no regrets about it.

Notes:

Mashed potato is optional but I like to put it because helps bind the stuffing together and it gives rich flavour to the parathas.
Sugar is optional. I like my paratha to get that spicy and with a tinge of sweetness.
You could use finely chopped green chillies instead of paprika powder for the spice quotient. I dont like to get them in my mouth while eating hence skipped that.

This week I had boiled sweet potato instead of potato. I used this in place of the two ingredients - boiled potato and sugar. It came out very good!

No use of having a new 'page'! huh! Last resort > import blog

2011-02-04T14:14:00.000+01:00

I wanted to link my recipe blog with this one and make my blog look more like a website with two different tabs. Art and recipes. However Blogger doesnot support that and by default all the posts are published on the default blog. there is no way you can categorise the posts by pages. This second page is very static although in that page you can provide link(s) to your other blogs. I had this for a while and did not like it at all. Too many clicks to reach the recipe site! Hence decided to merge the posts and imported the foodie blog onto this one itself.

Water colour - Devi

2011-01-31T13:10:00.001+01:00

I never used water colour since school days and I hardly know any techniques for water colouring. So went through a lot of materials and did my research on acrylics, water colours and pastels and bought myself a Winsor and Newton student grade, water colour set box. I wanted a built in palette as I did not want to mix colours on a separate dinner plate(as was suggested by some websites).
Compact set box 14 half pan colours
2 brushes - round synthetic brushes
8 " * 5" cold pressed note pad(20 pages).

During one summer holiday, I remember using my brothers' old and used camel water colour box which had 10 half pans. When I got posession of the box all the pans were having craters in them and yet I was glad to use it to colour the leftover pages in my school notebooks. I made some bad paintings which then ofcourse were my proud show items. I never tried painting again as I never got a hang of it.

Now with so much time at hand, I thought of trying again. I had tried oil painting some months back before I came to Brussels, which too was a bad experience. I chose the the 'girl with the pearl ear ring' painting to start of and did the outlines and laid the first coat of paint and this coat did not dry for almost a week . I am short on patience and I couldn't wait for the oil coating to dry and so had to leave it half way through.

Before buying water colours I considered acrylics as well but since acrylics cannot be 'undone' like water colours I chose to go with water colours first and then upgrade to acrylics.

Deezden is a very good design website, I love the art work which Dithi shares there. She had shared this 'how to draw a goddess for kids' in Gnaana and I liked it a lot. So made my first water colour painting.

A bit kiddish but whatever! You have to become a kid to learn new things isn't it?

Girl with the scarf

2011-01-31T12:43:00.001+01:00

Realised that I have done enough portraits and this might be the last one for while now. Long back while browsing I happened to see this portrait of a girl with a scraf I had saved it and over the weekend tried to sketch her. I completed it but lost to maintain the innocence and the hearty smile as in the original picture.

I need a break from portraits and try something else. Kind of loosing interest to get into details.

SoundHorn Please - CSN giveaway

2011-01-29T09:47:00.000+01:00

Get Lucky on Valentine's day..! check the -Sound Horn Please- CSN store give away.

Valid till 14th Feb.

Get Crafty with Robert Crafts

2011-01-28T18:44:00.000+01:00

http://www.robertscrafts.com/ - One stop for all that you need to get crafty! they have this freebie friday today and winners are entitled for a cool frame as giveaways. Check this link RobertCraft Freebie Friday for more details.

Motor Cycle Diaries - Che Guevara

2011-01-28T14:14:00.003+01:00

Motor cycle Diaries is a great movie. Loved the book first and thats when I got to watch this movie. Amazing spirit, brilliant acting, superb real life hero.

Tried my hand at watercolour portrait again. The proportions are all distorted but I really liked the way eyes are in this and also its intensity. Should try for a better finishing too.
Despite the blemishes, I prefer the water color portrait to the pencil sketch. The stern and fierce look of a 'Hero' is standing out here.
Since I'm run out of the cold pressed sheets, used my sketchbook for this painting and lessons are learnt. you cannot repair aqua paintings on sketchbook without spoiling the surface.

Someplace Nice!

2011-01-28T12:04:00.001+01:00

Someplace Nice! I wonder how I could forget this title. I love this title and I always wanted to keep it as the name of my venture(still wondering venture on what..? boutique, restaurant...???!!!).
First place where I'm publishing this. Yaaaayyyy!

Minutes count

2011-01-28T11:25:00.001+01:00

Life is fast! is it? couple of days back I was very frustrated with myself for taking break from work and opting to come to Brussels with my husband and that too during winter. European winters are the worst and anyone can go crazy sitting at home the whole day unless you have something to keep yourself busy with. I have sketching , painting and facebooking to do and so I'm kind of fully busy but even this can get boring once in a while. So until few days back I had this routine.After VR leaves for work, I slept again and woke up only at noon this way I felt that half the day was already over and I had only 5 more hours to run the errands before VR returned. This felt good but however I started putting on more weight since I slept more. So I had to stop this routine.

These days once VR leave to work I make tea, wash utensils, clean the house and sit for my art work. Sometimes I skip breakfast deliberately and somedays I forget to eat. Its only when my tummy starts grumbling I force myself to give the work a break and make something for myself like soup and thawed vegetables or a sandwich or I have the left over meals from previous dinner. The soup I have is interesting as I just have to add hot water to the sachet of soup powder and while the water is heating, I can solve the puzzle printed on the back of the sachet. Sudoku, crossword, word finder, number games are all there. I enjoy making soup and solving these puzzles as well. Even the waiting time is busy.

I'm on all this work and some days I just go for long walks and somedays I get on knitting. Other days I just watch a movie. At 5 I start to cook dinner and from 6 to 7 I do exercise. I do Ramdev baba's 'motapa kam karne ke aasan' (Obesity removing yoga poses)'. Somedays I skip that too and just browse until VR comes back. Then we have dinner, watch TV for a while and sleep by 10 PM.

There was old man who lived in our neighbourhood a decade back. He was probably 70 and a retired man. His sons managed his business and all he did was watch TV,eat,sleep on his easy chair, walk in the evening and chew pan. He would say "Kelsaanu illa purusottu illa" "No work at all yet no free time". I found that funny then but now I understand what he meant.

Life surely is busy!

Reuse - Pencil and Brush organiser

2011-01-28T10:55:00.001+01:00

These days I save anything that can be reused. Some of the most useful items are food packaging boxes, insides of tissue rolls, packaging thermocol, used toothbrush etcetc. Since I dwell mostly on pencils and paints these days and was finding it difficult to pick anything from the flimsy clumsy zipper bag where I had dumped all the paint and sketch accessories. So made this organiser with 6 tissue rolls and a rectangle food packaging box(came with the mushrooms). I have brushes, graphite pencils, pens, colour pencils, shading pencils, mechanical pencils. The only remaining thing is to paint these rolls and I'm sure it will look fabulous.

It looks neat and compact now.

There was a time when I would yell at mom for saving all these kind of items. she kept them to do some craft work and she always said "you never know when they will be useful". I asked her to buy whatever she wanted from the market yet she never stopped saving them. Some times she would forget that she had saved something and it would just lie around for years then one day while cleaning she would throw all of them away and start collecting afresh.

I always say "I never know when I'll become like my mom"! :)

Vegetable Seller

2011-01-25T14:12:00.001+01:00

Somehow I like to sketch portraits and as I am writing this I realised that most of my pencil sketches are of women. 3 from the Raja ravi verma collection, Monalisa, Lady with the pearl ear ring! Yeah! Girl power!
Picked this one from Prabhu's photostream .In his photos, even the local market looks like a must visit place ,the countryside hillstation looks like a foreign tourist place.
Thanks Prabhu for letting me refer it for this sketch.

vegetable seller

Rotring Pen works

2011-01-24T17:45:00.005+01:00

There are some days when you want to see a splash of colours, get inspired and go vibrant and some when you just want the dull grey, yet sharp contrasts to play around and go along with the melancholy induced by the dull cloudy European weather during winters.

Banana plantation

Orchard Fresh

Drawcipe for Mushroom Curry

Heavy Weekend -Happy weekend

2011-01-24T17:20:00.001+01:00

Internet and Idleness doesn't seem to go along together. There are so many things you can do by just sitting at home with the help of internet. you can manage an entire business by just sitting at home. Decide what you want to do, order the necessary items online, Learn how to do it on the internet, take pics, upload and sell online. when you are bored hit the recipe blogs and pick a dish and try it. If there was internet when my mom was my age, and if my mom knew to browse then I'm sure I would have had a very good fahion boutique to take care of by now. My mom is a super woman, she stitches, does craft work, she does yoga, she does gardening. She is like the 'handy-man' of our house .she can fix anything that is not right. She is always busy. She learnt to ride a bicycle when she was 45 and soon she bought herself a two wheeler. she roamed around the town in that for groceries and other casual visits. Now at the age of 55 she learnt to drive and she has got a driving license!
I am amazed the enthusiasm she has for learning new things and her determination she has to get it done. She is my inspiration.

Every time I make something special, I loose the urge to have it myself and I want someone to eat, taste and give honest feedback. Usually my husband is the guinea pig for me.
Variety of Indian breads!
Friday Dinner:

Bhatura with Paneer butter masala

Saturday Breakfast :

Paneer paratha with a spoonfull of butter!

Paneer paratha in the making.Was very happy when paratha fluffed up like this. a bread with a stuffing generally doesn't bloat but the stuffing was spread so evenly it did.

Sunday Brunch :

Butter dosa with Potato side dish

Recipes will be posted in the recipe blog soon.

Look out--- Its Changed!

2011-01-21T11:12:00.002+01:00

Yes..I changed the blog's outlook and renamed it too..! I get bored of seeing the same thing and this happens quite often. Even at home, I keep changing the positions of the cot, TV and vases giving the excuse of cleaning. This change to the blog was long due and I always wanted to link my Recipe blog to this blog. Here it is!! :)

Walking Joys

2011-01-20T13:48:00.001+01:00

I love to go on long walks and espcially tread those paths which I have never gone before as I love to explore new streets, better shortcuts for home, nicer grocery store. Today after strolling headlessly just took a deviation and went to this Cinquantinaire park near the house. Huge park with a huge monument and an old arms and weapon museum. Surrounding this are huge trees and plain grassland and some neat benches here and there. At this time of the year all trees are barren but still I could note bunches of green still on the trees. I went closer only to find parrots perched on the trees basking the fading sun. It was soothing scene for the grey dull sore eyes.

When I first came to Brussels, I went to this park on the day when sun shone bright and sat on the bench and made this sketch. After fifteen minutes,the cold had seeped in through the layers I had on me and my hands were going numb. So managed to scribble and complete the sketch.

Wishes on a rainy day

2011-01-19T11:40:00.002+01:00

It is 9 PM. There is an important exam scheduled for tomorrow and I'm busy preparing for it against the hurdles which are coming up just to hinder my studies. My friends come over or my favourite movie is playing on TV or the power has gone off. Mysteriously I raise against all of them and study in the candle light trying to finish the syllabus . While studying I fall asleep when there is atleast 1/3 portion yet to be covered and wake up the next morning only an hour before the start of the exam. And I suddenly realise that I'm not in the town where I have to take the exam.I'm at my grand father's place which is a village 7 miles from the town where my school is situated. I have to rush and reach the venue if I have to pass the exam. I somehow manage to get the hall ticket, pencil and pen box and leave the house. There is no one to drop me and hence I walk around a mile, up to the main road to board a bus. With just fifteen minutes remaining I'm just hoping and being positive as I have studied atleast 2/3 of the syllabus. I board the crowded bus and then conductor asks for ticket. Panic button is rammed again. I do not have any money. I plead the bus conductor giving excuse of exam and also write down my house address as gaurantee while promising to repay him next day. So I manage to reach the venue 10 minutes late and school corridors are empty and the entire school is dauntingly silent. I see all my classmates busy scribbling lenghty essays on the white sheet of paper. I explain my teacher the reason for the delay and look for my place to sit and settle down with a sigh of relief. The moment of relief is only for a short while as I'm SHOCKED to see the question paper. It is a different subject and not the one that I had studied last night. I gape at the paper in disbelief while tears roll down my eyes! and I wake up! The most horrifying and the worst recurring dream I ever get is over, for today. It lingers in the head throughout the day and is kind of disturbing.
There are some memories which are very dear to me especially the childhood days where we 5 cousins would meet at our maternal grand father's place on the 2 months long summer holidays. It is a small village called Golgod. Grand pa's house is a huge tiled roof house with a big verandah in the front , end of that were steps leading to the garden which my grandpa had grown. Jasmine, hibiscus, red pink white roses ,Coconut trees and at the end of the garden was a small neat stream. In summers it would get water upto two feets which was very fine with us to do fishing,water walks and also bathe occasionally. when it rains heavily the water rises upto the banks and we stay indoors and watch the twigs, old shoes, tree branches and clothes drifting in the muddy water. On the banks of this stream is a big granite stone where the laundry is done by the maids and next to that is a sickle sharpner stone installed. I always looked out for that stone before stepping into the stream as below this stone there was something that looked like a snake.Sometimes there were snakes and sometimes reflection of coconut palms on rippled water. whatsoever it was I never went alone in the streams because of this. To cross over this stream, one feet wide tree trunk is placed across. without practice you need to do a bit of circus to get across. On the other side of the banks is a huge paddy field where rice is grown and that borders the bettlenut plantation. Entire day in those holidays we were outdoors on our interesting expeditions, looking out for cashew farms, making camp house of fallen palms, climbing trees and chewing mangoes. We also did farm chores and earned precious titbits for that. We did broom the verandah, picked fallen beetlenuts, cut grass for the cattle, removed weeds from the beetlenut plantation, picked fallen palm branches and dragged them to the shed, reared the cattle and drove them home safely, built fences , plucked raw mangoes for the elder ladies to make pickle, stole the sweet ripe mangoes and kept for ourselves, dug small false holes for dogs to get stuck and fall.
we also did stuff that angered the bunch of grumpy ladies. like bathing in the stream, stealing milk powder and chocolate drink powders from their pantry, which were very costly then. We stole dry fruits and munchies and brought it back to the camp house or the tree house and had it leisurely while playing cards. at times we even traded those stolen items in the game. We mocked the cows when they were milking them. Touched the pickled mangoes with our hands. made noise and jumped in the attic post lunch when they took naps.

I guess this is etched in my memory and that too in the easily accessed part of RAM,hence most of the time I get dreams related to this place. Like I meet an old college friend in Golgod while the college I studied was 500 miles away from this village. Or the exam venue is in Golgod and I'm in a far off place the night before it. Or I happen to bump into my ex boyfriend when I'm on one of those village expeditions with my cousins. My husband is making a house of palm trees in the fields.

Everything revolves around Golgod.

Fantastic feeling to have been there in my life,
the serene green fields brings a sense of relief,
a tinge of sadness for I see it seldom,
Nostalgia creeps in while skimming the photo album.

First venture at making a scarf

2011-01-13T09:23:00.002+01:00

With the fluctuating interest levels that I'm known for it is hard to stick to one particular activity. The unknown and never done before always appeal me.

So I chose knitting. rambled through lot of websites and

finally managed to learn the basics from some free tutorials on youtube.

here is my first attempt at knitting.

Yarn : Rapido for beginners from Phildar

Needles: UK #7

I had read that if you pick a light coloured yarn it is easier to knit and so i picked a neutral colour and a dark colour for contrast colours however mid way through I was not happy with the colour and changed it.

it still looks nice...:)

Musings - 2

2011-01-03T10:06:00.004+01:00

If employees of Infosys were called as Infosites and those of Wipro were called as Wiproscions would it have made any difference?

Slow roasted cherry tomato spirelli pasta salad

2010-12-31T21:22:00.001+01:00

For new years' eve wanted to try something new and chose the slow roasted cherry tomato pasta salad from Kalyn's kitchen. I had all the ingredients for this and started it right away.

zucchini - 1 whole slit into thin long pieces.

cubed yellow pepper - 1/4 cup .

cherry tomatoes: 10
basil - 2 tea spoons
oregano - 1 tea spoon

celery leaves - 1 tea spoon

garlic - 1 big clove/1 tea spoon crushed

olive oil - 1/2 cup
cooked pasta - 3 cups
cheese - 1 cup (I used Emmental cheese)
pepper - 2 tea spoons
honey - 1 tea spoon
Method:
Preheat oven to 130 C for 20 minutes.
Prepare the marinade by mixing Olive oil , oregano and Basil.
wash and cut cherry tomatoes into half and mix with the marinade.
I do not have a cookie tray here so used a wide baking sheet folded the edges, more like box, just to contain any cooking juice that would ooze out. Grease the baking sheet with oil and place the tomatoes cut side down one by one , Roughly spread garlic on top. Place it in the oven for around a total time of 6 hours. Let the remaining marinade remain in the bowl.
I started making this very late in the afternoon, around 3 PM and I wanted this ready by 9 PM for dinner. So after 4 hours of cooking(at 7 PM), I increased the temperature to 175 C for about 10 minutes and then reverted back. At 8 PM I saw that skin was all dry and the little juices which had come out were turning blackish(which is very normal). at this point I turned the tomatoes and roasted for another one hour.

- Slit Zucchini, apply marinade and then roast it on the skillet till it gets slight brown color at random places. turn it around to get the same effect on the other side. now dice them into cubes and add it to the bowl with the leftover marinade.
- Toss the yellow ball pepper on the skillet for around 2-3 minutes and add it to the marinade bowl.
-cook pasta as per directions and drain.
- Add cooked pasta, cheese and pepper into the marinade bowl.
- once the cherry tomatoes are done, remove from the oven, cut each into 4 pieces and add to the bowl and mix well.
I added a tea spoon of honey to get a sweet tinge though would have preferred pineapple.

Eve of 2011

2010-12-31T19:30:00.001+01:00

Another year has passed by and the same feeling prevails every new years eve. I am an year older! Definitely cannot say have grown wiser as I am in as much of a confusion as I was in 1999. The state of mind then and now is almost similar in terms of having to choose a career,interests,love,life, marriage, friendship and promises. It is hard to decide when you are not clear of what you want and you can overcome that by only prioritising. But along with prioritization which your mind does your heart also should be in sync. somehow they were never in sync for me through out I guess. And to complicate matters I take resolutions which hardly last a month.
To evade these thoughts from diseminating further I am cooking a three course meal.
Menu for 2011 Eve
1. Mushroom cheese fry
2. Spirelli pasta cheese salad with slow dried chery tomato and yellow ball peppers
3. Banana nut cake with vanilla and chocolate pudding layers
Recipe in other blog
all accompanied with Belgian Draught and fruit infused beer.
Hope this year I will be able to get both my head and heart in sync and do things which will not make me regret the next year.

Musings - I

2010-12-31T17:02:00.000+01:00

How is it that 'Bloody Mary' still appears in the bar-menu without being offensive to neither the queen nor any community?

Guide to Indians coming to Brussels - Part I

2010-12-30T16:21:00.003+01:00

Living in a country where English is not the widely spoken language, can be intimidating at times. The initial settlement time can be quite long. Unlike the US and UK where atleast 2 Indians can be pointed out on any street at any given time, in Belgium it is not common. Not that it matters even if you locate Asians because no smiles are exchanged except for some cold second glances.

1. Weather:

They say Belgium weather is ‘mild’. I wouldn’t classify it as mild for one reason that the weather here is never predictable and this winter was quite harsh on us. Even weather forecast you can see predictions only for 3 days ahead. You cannot plan for a weekend trip a week in advance, based on the weather. Apparently in Belgium it should not snow but due to global warming the country is facing colder winters.

We have seen so far the coldest is -10 C during November/December. Snow is random followed by rain.

2. Travel

After arriving at the airport you can either take a taxi, train or bus to reach the city. Taxi can cost you 30-40 € to reach the city centre. Train is 5 € from city to Rogier, a station in north of Brussels capital region. Once you reach Rogier you can take the metro to any other place. Bus connects the airport and the various parts of the city. We live in Schuman, where you can see many Europe union buildings. The following buses connect to the airport from here.

Bus 12: Express with very few stops

Bus 21: airport to Luxembourg station via Schuman.

a. Train: trains are outgoing railway connections and they are there in the following stations. All Train stations are maintained by SNCB. Sometimes the Metro Stations and the train stations are in the same underground holes like in Schuman. The Luxembourg station is also called as ‘Luxembourg’ so initially it can be confusing with the country Luxembourg. The tickets are not sold everywhere. I have seen them only in grand central station. Once you get the ticket, make sure you write the from and to places of travel along with the date as soon as you board the train. Ticket checking is random and you can get fined if you have not written the travel details on it.

i. Schuman - Train and Metro in same place

ii. Grand Centrale - Train and Metro are separate but both are very close.

iii. Gare du Midi - Train and Metro

iv. Rogier - Train and Metro in the same place.

v. Luxembourg - Only Train. The closest station to this place is Troone.

b. Metro: There are Metro rails which run around the Brussels City. They are maintained by STIB. There are kiosks and vending machines in every underground where you can buy travel cards of various denominations like one time travel, 5 jumps , 10 jumps. Each time you travel you have to swipe the card at the entry points and it is valid for an hour. Some stations like Rogier are modern and to enter or exit out of the station you need to swipe the card else you can get stranded there. There is random checking here too.

c. Trams: Trams run along the roads again maintained by STIB. The Metro Travel card works here.

d. Bus : They are maintained by STIB. The Metro Travel card works here too. The timings of the bus is also published at the bus stops. You can pay by cash for a single trip in the bus(driver collects them). Inside the bus there is a monitor which shows the current and coming up stations. When the stop of your travel destination is the next stop then don’t forget to press the blue button found on the handle rods. Once you press the button a light near the exit door is lighted and this tells the driver to stop at the coming bus stop. Sometimes they will not stop at all if the button is not pressed.

e. Cycles: There are cycle kiosks ‘VILLO’at some specific places where you can pay and chose to ride around the city. Once done you can leave the cycle at the kiosks.

3. Housing/Accomodation: you can contact estate agents to show you the house and provide him/her with the specifications. It is always good to take a fully furnished apartment/house and have a checklist of items you would definitely need. Alternatively you can check for houses on websites(Immoweb.be) as well. If you just walk around in the city, you can find pamphlets stuck on walls reading ‘A Louer’ and ‘A Vendre’ which means ‘For rent’ and ‘For sale’ respectively. There will be contact information on the pamphlet and you can call and choose to see the house as well. Good thing is the agents are paid by the owner so you do not have to pay them anything. One month rent is paid as booking and 2 months advance is deposited at the bank as guarantee. This will be in the bank and when you are leaving the house, your owner needs to sign to release the amount.

4. Residence permit: Within one week of landing in Belgium you need to find a house, make the house agreement and go to the commune (based on the location of your house) and register there. List of documents are published on the Brussel website.

Communes are open on weekdays between 8 to 12 pm only and there is a huge queue to take the token. So people go early morning like 7 AM and stand in line though the window for token opens only at 8 AM. Once you get the token, you are called serial number wise for giving the documents and registering. You will get an acknowledgement letter on day 1. Next there will be a police verification at your residence. If you are there at home when the police comes then that is easy, else either they will leave a note for you to come to the police station or check with your neighbours. Or sometimes without verification the report is sent to the Commune. Once commune receives this report they send a letter to us at our residence to visit the commune at the specified appointment time. You have to go there and again take token and you might be questioned about your stay etc and if all is well you will get the card based on how much cash you have. To get the card within one day, you have to shell out 200/- and if you do not choose to pay anything then you might get the card in another month’s time. The whole process end to end can take 2- 3 months.

5. Grocery store

a. Garam Masala : this is in Ixelles and you get almost all Indian groceries, masala and vegetables here. Maggi, south Indian sona massorie rice, bitter gourd, all kinds of masala and spice powders, puttu powder, Dosa mix etc. Almost all the pulses and masala packets are of the same brand – a lady wearing a red veil and grinding pulses with the grindingstone. ‘Chakki peesing’ J.

b. Green Pepper: this is also in Ixelles and close to the first shop.

c. Compte De Flandre : this is a metro station, 3 stations to the west of Grand Centrale station. (grand central > Debrockere > St Catherine > compte De Flandre). Ask anyone for the Fortis bank and just opposite to this there is a store where you get all Indian/pakistan stuff. There are other shops in the same street where you get the roling pin, cutlery, Indian kadai and tawa.

d. Alimentation general stores: they are found at every corner and they too keep Indian Masalas and stuff which are priced highly.

6. Other household items and groceries

a. Colruyt : is the cheapest good store with fewer branches.

b. IKEA : there are two stores: one in zaventem(East of Brussels) and one in Ceria(south west of Brussels)

c. DELHAIZE : found almost everywhere.

d. GB Carrefour and Carrefour express : found almost everywhere.

e. Lidl : at Ixellles is also very cheap.

7. Prayer place

a. Centre for Bhatki Yoga: Rue Royale 185, 2nd floor, Brussels
This place is somebody’s house where they do bhajans and devotional reading on saturday afternoons only.
b. Radhadesh : Château de Petite Somme,6940 Durbuy (Septon)

8. Chocolates
You get lots of varieties of chocolates. Neuhaus and Leonidas stores are there almost there everywhere. Out of these known brands, Leonidas is comparatively cheaper. Cote d’or chocolates are found in most of the general stores.

For part II click here
Useful Links:

http://www.brussels.be

Zucchini Bread

2010-12-28T19:18:00.002+01:00

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 2 cups (150 grams)

Instant yeast - half sachet (6 grams)

Sugar – 2 tea spoons

Salt – 1 tea spoon

Olive oil - 4 table spoons

Grated zucchini 1 cup)

Butter –unsalted

Egg – 1

Milk – 2 tblspoon

In a bowl mix flour, yeast , salt and sugar. Add zucchini and egg into this mixture and mix it up until they bind together. Add more flour if required and knead the dough for 10-12 minutes. It should be softer than the chapathi/roti dough. Now apply oil on all the sides of a big bowl and transfer the dough into it. Leave it covered for an hour. Remove the raised dough from the bowl and mould again and transfer to a greased baking tray. Let it rest for 30 minutes. The dough raises again and is doubled in volume. Place the baking tray in the middle rack of a preheated oven for about 30 minutes. Remove the tray from the oven, apply butter on top and place it back in the oven for another 10 minutes.
I served it with tomato chutney for breakfast.

The electric oven I have here has the temperature knob in celcius and the baking type knob has three indicators. Heat from bottom only, Heat from both top and bottom , heat from top only /broiler. I kept it pointing to heat from both top and bottom.

Preheat time: 175 C for 10 minutes

Bake time: 175 degrees for 30 minutes + 10 minutes.

Next time I will add garlic and chilli flakes to this just to give a punch.

I referred to the below links for baking this bread
aayisrecipes
JoyOfBaking
Rose

Mushroom cheese roast

2010-12-28T18:42:00.001+01:00

Ingredients:
Mushroom : 100 gms
Rice flour : 2 tea spoons
Fine semolina(Bombay Rava): 4 tbl spoons
Chilli powder: 1 tbl spoon
Salt to taste.
Grated Cheese – ( I used the leftover mixed pasta cheese)
Slit mushrooms into half apply salt and leave it aside for a while. Mix all the other ingredients and a pinch of salt and roll the mushrooms on this dry batter. Heat a pan and drizzle oil and place the mushrooms . We are going to toast mushrooms only once on each side. Once it is slightly brownish on one side, turn it around and now make clusters of mushrooms i.e just place 4-5 mushrooms close to each other and then top it up with the grated cheese. Once the cheese melts pan out each cluster. Serve hot. It is just DELICIOUS.
Notes: Make sure that the while frying the heat should medium for both the sides. If you keep it very low then it will take longer to cook mushrooms and meanwhile they become soggy. If you keep it at high flame then it will get charred.

cake or bake?

2010-12-06T12:43:00.017+01:00

I always thought baking a cake at home was very difficult task because of the effort that goes in while making the batter. You have to whisk the batter thoroughly if you want a fluffy bread cake. When I was a kid I loved the plain cake which mom would make it at home in a pressure cooker. We did not own a microwave nor did we have a blender. So mom would knead and mix the batter briskly with her fingers. She never liked cakes because she was a vegetarian and she hated the smell of egg cooking. However MOMs are MOMs. If you tell her that you want a pinafore dress just like what Kajol wears in Dilwale Dulhaniya le Jaayenge then no matter what you do to pursue her she will just not buy you one. If you tell her that you want a piece of cake just like they pile up in the gass counters of a bakery then she will not buy you that either instead she will make it at home for you. And hence she made cake just for me. Soft fluffy plain yellow cake with a thin light brownish crust at the bottom, hidden inside the air vents were mixed nuts and raisins.
When I started working one of the first things I bought for myself was a microwave oven with grill convection all in one oven. The day I got the microwave installation done I went through the entire manual and the recipe booklet and headed right to the stores to get ingredients for baking a cake. I mixed the batter and whipped it and put it in the big flat plate like microwave safe dish and all i got was a flat tasty crispy cookie. The batter had not risen either because the baking powder did not react well or because the microwave was not right. I’m generally categorized by people as ‘Typical Arien’ and I do live up to the attitude they expect me to wear all the time ‘I never do mistakes’. :) Well after that microwave was used just for reheating for almost a year and later I actually messed with the batter several times and made better cakes.
When I landed in Brussels a month back with all the hours of the day just for myself and a builtin oven at my disposal, the craving to bake had gotten back. Every day I have a project to finish ..errrrr or let’s rephrase it. every day i have a project to START. Projects like going for long walks without any particular direction in mind and then heading back home OR like going to the park and sketching whatever appeals me OR Cleaning the house OR baking projects. But baking projects was a double challenge because in Belgium, French and dutch are dominant languages and all hoardings, address, ingredients, usage everything is in those two languages and in some cases German too. Only on some imported goods you can see some rumblings in English. Even at the stores if you ask someone to translate they give blank stares. So I have to do my homework before going to the super market to buy anything. Inspite of the homework I end up getting lost in those counters full of ‘options’ I get for one single item. I wasn't sure of what I would end up with if at all I followed a recipe from a US/UK blog for baking cake using the products available here which are described only in french... a French SHO(r)T Bread ? (considering my earlier experiences of cake turned cookie, here a cake can turn into a short bread too), and probably a must visit to either a dentist or a pathologist after trying to devour it. So I decided not to bake cake bake pastas instead.
I made baked pasta one day with spirellis and vegetable lasagne the next day. my first attempt at baked pasta and it was appreciated very well by V. When there is cheese at home I cannot think of anything else but recipes with cheese. I had fresh mushrooms and I wanted cheese. So made this mushroom cheese fry Indian style.
Ingredients:
Mushroom : 100 gms
Rice flour : 3 tbl spoons
Fine semolina(Bombay Rava): 2 tbl spoons
Chilli powder: 1 tbl spoon
Salt to taste.
Grated Cheese – ( I used the mix pasta cheese)
Slit mushrooms into half apply salt and leave it aside for a while. It leaves out water. Mix all the other ingredients and a pinch of salt and roll the mushrooms on this dry batter. Heat a pan and drizzle oil and place the mushrooms . We are going to toast mushrooms only once on each side. Once it is slightly brownish on one side, turn it around and now i make clusters of mushrooms i.e just place 4-5 mushrooms close to each other and then top it up with the grated cheese. Once the cheese melts pan out each cluster. Serve hot. It is just DELICIOUS.
Notes: Make sure that the while frying the heat should medium for both the sides. If you keep it very low then it will take longer to cook mushrooms and meanwhile they become soggy. If you keep it at high flame then it will get charred.
I loved my experiences with pasta, baking and cheese. Here is a pic of the same. presentation is baaaaaad and rough but all is maaaf for the taste.

Au Revoir...

R.A.D.I.O

2010-02-06T21:30:00.005+01:00

Radio was only in kannada, I presumed, when I was a small kid. My dad is a radio fan. He has a portable radio which he took everywhere and played it all the time . On the bathroom window sill while he is shaving.below a chair in the balcony while he is scanning the newspaper in minute prints . on an uncovered pillar on the terrace with the antenna of the radio closer to the rod . while there is a power cut and the family would trek the terrace for a moonlight dinner. Night at bedtime hindustani vocals or classical or instruments would be played until all of us are snoring and mom would get angry and turn it off to put a stop to her tossing and turning to get sleep. Early morning the day would start with sanskrit news and then while I throw my tantrums for brushing my teeth kannada news would be on to mellow down my mom's voice . I would stomp my feet and run around the house avoiding a boring upma being stuffed in my mouth while kannada- chitrageetegalu would be on the background giving the rhythm to my mom's chase.
In a smaller town life is so simple. You don’t have to pack lunch and have cold stale food instead you can run back home sit on your mom's lap and get fed . The only hitch is that you will have to eat faster than you can ever do and if you cannot you will have to gulp it down else it will keep piling in your mouth. Trust me mom's hand never stops when on something , until the task is finished. It keeps the pace and rhythm and keeps coming at you periodically and no breaks are ever entertained. The quantity is not reduced if you say you are not hungry but if you are hungry you will get double more than what you have asked for and in the end again the quantity doesn’t reduce. the feeling is same. So the best policy is to get stuffed according to their estimation and either munch a snack after that or the body itself would throw up the excess food. I preferred the latter because if you ask for snack chances are that either you might not get it at all or that
My dad's office and my school were pretty close by and the lunch break timings were same. Hence my dad would pick me up from school and we would have lunch together while the radio was giving out the last bits of the noon-news. Kannada chitrageetegalu would follow till 2 PM during which a family siesta was scheduled. I would squeeze in between the wall and dad near to the radio , lean my legs on the wall , watch the country flags poster, listen to Dr.Rajkumar or SP Balasubramaniam and doze off. That’s how I know most of the kannada songs only and not a single movie for which these songs were pictured.
When I was in Pre university classes watching television was not encouraged and moreover cable TV was disconnected only DD was available. I could not sneak in the foyer to watch TV as both of them would be there. And the sound from the tv was too tempting to concentrate on studies. I have heard through most of the television serials and imagined it and I m updated. Radio for some reason was not used much by my dad in the evenings. That was the trigger point for me to start listening to the radio on my own. I would tune into VivdhBharati to listen to Hello farmaish, pitaara , Jaimala , Bhule Bisre Geet, Hawa Mahal , Bioscope ki Baatein. I would listen to the RJs talking to their pyare Shrota- mitr throughout the evening . Only first few days I kept tuning and re-tuning to get the right signal and with a hope to listen to songs of new movies. However that interest died down as the backlog of things to do at school increased and I started enjoying whatever came on radio. Later on I was so used to the radio that I could study only if there was radio even though I did not listen to what was playing, it had to be there. It would help me keep my concentration on the subject and also cut me out from the rest of the world. This is again my dad's thought and it worked very well for me.
Travel is a part of work life and very few are lucky for whom it isn't. the routine grind of setting the alarm and snoozing it several times before the dawn breaks on you is so very usual. The only thing I would look forward to was to sit in the bus and listen to the radio and take the much needed nap before I reached the work place. I remember on 91.1. they had this amazing RJs called Chaitanya with an amazingly mature, calm, authoritative voice and it was a treat to listen to him. And listening to RJ Vasanthi was like listening to your grandmom stories the stories that take you to a different world just like how the movie Avatar did with those 3D glasses.
Somehow the radio channel wars had begun and just like how "Mumbai-kars"got the Amchi-Mumbai fever, kannada fever was spreading and all channels we tuned into played only kannada songs. Not that I don’t like them but I knew only those songs which I had listened to in my parents room. And I had sleepless travel to work place.

Phew! Just in time when the topics to discuss in the carpool had died down RadioCity comes up with 'one song only once per day' which became an instant hit with my fellow carpoolers. Every old song they played it would take us back in time and we would discuss about the movie and its whole cast. All our memories are so off that nothing strikes and we do google it to find out and share the information. lets see how well you remember :the song goes like this "Chori chori jab nazarein mili..." Bobby Deol and a flop heroine -Neha starred in this movie. whats the name of the movie? ... Guess... ? it is NOT Barsat. what is it? I'm yet to google it..! :)
3Rs : nothing beats listening to Radio , Reading a book While raking a hot cup of tea. Yeah you can make it the 4Rs as well... add a bit of thrill and romance to the set up - Add Rain. :) .
even today whenever I tune into Vividh Bharati it brings back those memories of my school-friends, studies, Udupi,the then-famous songs - like songs from movie-Ishq, sweat-you know the humidity in Coastal areas, mosquitoes - Again humidity and rains, the time when I weighed lesser and could easily manage to squeeze in with my parents in a twin-bed, and it is precious.

Whopppa...!!

2010-02-02T18:19:00.004+01:00

Cannot seem to believe that time has just flown by. It is more than a year and there is not a single entry in my blog for year 2009. well, I have to pledge that I'll make sure that I blog at least one entry per quarter!
And this one is not counted for any quarter!!

Failed to Nail my Nail-Biting Ritual!

2008-06-30T11:52:00.001+02:00

No More Bite"- Nail enamel did work brilliantly only for a few days though. I used to find it so bitter in those early days that anything I ate with my fingers would taste bitter. So nothing was Finger-licking good! Now it doesn’t taste as bad and I have started to like the taste which of course is duly defeating the whole purpose of why I apply it.

I started biting nails when I was in high school. My dad would bite nails whenever he sat in front of his PC and back then best imitation always was a talent well appraised . So whenever mom asked me to show ‘how dad does at his desk’, I would promptly-proudly show off my skills by actually biting my nails off.

Ever since then I have been biting nails and have been successful in reducing its size to half. Sometimes I bit it so hard that blood would ooze out of the edges and I couldn't eat anything hot or spicy with my hands. People say that you bite nails when you are scared. But I bit it for no reason. while watching television, listening to lectures, talking to friends, before dinner , after dinner. every time. It is more of an involuntary action in a comfortable position, which is usually my desk where i can rest my elbow on the desk and bend the arm in such a way that it is right next to my mouth. So usually one can find me with one hand on the mouse and the other in the mouth. eeeshhh!!!

At times I get so engrossed in biting I don’t realize that my head would have bent in a way cats do while eating fish! How horrible I must have looked and how disgusting it must have been for people to watch an ugly chewy head. Whoever has caught me biting nails might have thought a 100 times before ever shaking hands with me! So many a times mom has hit my hand when biting. Relatives, friends, neighbors everybody asked me not to bite and I never gave heed to what they said. Still after years, the count of which exceeds the count of my abominable nails, I still do bite. I have promised to many people and taken resolutions on the beginning of every new year ! But I have agreed so far with the fact that resolutions and promises are meant to be broken!

Two years back I met with an accident and just before falling out of the vehicle in which I was seated, I hit the handle rod that gave a internal crack to my front tooth. The tooth was quite sensitive for some time and I could not drink too cold or too cold,if I ever did then it would pain excessively. But even then I never refrained myself from chewing nails!

When my engagement date was fixed, I panicked and was overwhelmed with self-disgust! I was scared and ashamed to show my ugly filthy fingers to my would-be hubby. That’s when I decided to grow my nails and let myself out of this self 'infliction of pain'. But I had to do something about the nails for that D-day. I purchased artificial nails and glued it to the base of my nails , pretty confidently that it would stay unperturbed on them during the whole course of the event. It looked like a wig on a bald ugly mannequin. But the world was against me using false nails, I presume. Just before I stepped on the stage my would-be mother-in-law was supposed to take me by my hand to the podium and Bam! there it was ! She held my hand and all those pieces of plastic fell off my fingers and my nails were bald again when I reached the stage. !!

Recently my friend who is averse to my nail biting habit got me an Revlon nail enamel that is too bitter to be brought anywhere near the face. But the bitterness did not stand strong against the years of hard work and efforts my tooth enamel has been bearing to keep my nails short and trimmed always!

Well, that’s it. looking back and over the years and bestowing glory upon my feats, I have finally made up my mind to stop biting. It is a conscious effort willingly applied to fulfill the wish-list of my dear ones.! Hope I do succeed in this deed to show that I have a strong will-power and also that I do care for myself as well as for those who care for my nails. My nail’s well-wishers.

Ad-Hawkers

2008-06-05T12:52:00.002+02:00

Sometimes what you have in abundance can make you fall prey to failure. Anyways,
One ad which really was very captivating in the recent times is the Happy Dent ad where in they show that chewing the gum makes your teeth so white that they can replace a bulb in the night! The concept, visualization is so very well framed and of course backed by a fabulous sound track. The same goes for the Vodafone ad which features the cute kiddo and the pug.. happy to help. Ad making is not an easy business. When a 10 second of ad can cost lakhs and in that minimal time period the whole concept of the product, usage, value of the product, how it is different from other competitors, punch line everything has to be brought in in a very effective way to capture the audiences’ eyes and mind.
I bet that 65% of the buyers of the product in the market are those who are sold to the product’s advertisement. These people are the total Risk Takers who are so much appealed by the ad that they instantly buy the product because it is new. Sometimes buyers buy the product because of recommendations by their friends, neighbors, colleagues . thay are the safe players. they also go through the product review published in newspapers, internet , user experience etc.. they are Choosy! There is another class of buyers who buy because their kids or other family members are forcing them to do so.

To make a product appeal to the audience, the ad maker has to (I’m not an ad maker but say probably I would ) think of so many varied stuff.
1. User / target audience
a. Teenagers, adults, senior citizens
b. Upper, middle, lower class (though the definition of the class has changed, I still use it to broadly classify between the Ambanis, Bachchans, Tendulakars, Wadias, Premji,Revankars Prabhus etc by their annual earnings)
2. ad jingle
3. The visuals (I can think of Lipton Taza where all green and white in the ad)
a. Shooting location (it has to be the tea mountains of Darjeling)
b. Colors used in the ad(a gal dressed in green and white salwaar) has to match with the product wrapper(green coloured tea plants on)
4. The audio
5. The concept – story line, dialogues, punch line.
6. Comparison with other competitors in the market
7. Product Company’s stand in the buyer’s market and share market
8. Already launched successful product by the same company
9. Brand ambassador for the product. l
10. The cast ..kids or gals or guys or both or all

Sometimes a beautiful face can sell anything and sometimes they don’t.! Jogger’s Park starrer Perizad zorabian advertising for cement ad is one thing which I loathe. How can some pretty faced model can add any value in a cement ad when the competitors use elephant to convey the strength of the cement?
The soft-drink ad makers seem to make their ads with the theme of their competitors. When Coco Cola came up with blue coke, Pepsi never left a moment to mock coke about it, in their next ad.
Also remember Wheel washing detergent powder? Well, another detergent ad made this very clear in their ad- ”wheel se mukti paavo, lo trishul apnaaoo”. However, Surf always seem to come up with original innovative ideas.
Master card ad is so wonderfully made..”There are something money can’t buy for everything else there is master card.” How inspiring that ad was.How can we not think of “Sar Utha ke jeeyo” of HDFC standard life insurance where an old man gets down a train rejecting the offer his son gave him. I remember when my FIL wanted to take an insurance, and when the company people came to tell about the various offers, he asked them tspecifically what was the plan which says ‘sar utha ke jiyo’ and he took that up. See how each mad makes an impact on the viewers mind. The Master card ad had me and the latter had my FIL buy it.
Finally I like to sign off with this Monster ad ! Cheers to all those creative thinkers who bring out a new dimension and value add to the products and services we use daily, making it a matter of pride to consume them.
“Caught in the wrong job, log on to Monster”

Knowledge is not power it is fear!

2008-05-27T06:08:00.001+02:00

I booked a flat yesterday. After a lot of “site”-seeing, I bought an apartment in Nandi woods finally. I did not have much knowledge about Vasthu except that the house should not be south facing. I never considered vasthu as a major factor for buying a site but I was very specific about the light, wind, spacing between the 2 buildings. This flat is a corner flat with 3 sides open and east facing. So I immediately booked it. now I’m studying Vasthu and reading about the concepts and applicability of it. South east kitchen and east facing house constitute 80% of vasthu compliance blah blah… !! So applying this the flat that I have booked has some 3-4 main key points which are perfect vasthu compliant but the other 30% is not. Now that I’m quite knowledgeable about the vasthu concept the fear and regret has conquered me. So knowledge does not always mean power!
Anyways, I discussed this with my mom and she convinced me that a vasthu pooja before occupying the house would do good and definitely negate all the negatives that could have been caused because of non vasthu complaince.
So I have got my knowledge-power back now! Any new house surely I’ll apply my vasthu knowledge and then buy/build it.
Internet made me powerful !!!

Bengal Porridge (chane dal kichdi)

2008-05-09T10:10:00.001+02:00

One day I happened to go home late from work and decided to take takeaway instead of cooking and apprently my FIL thought of helping me out and he had cut vegetables for stir fryand also kept rice and dal in the cooker. That was really sweet of him but since I had got take away dinner we decided to save the veggies and dal for the next day and stuffed them in the refrigerator.
Next day I saw that rice and chana dal were kept in the same bowl and cooked together. I did not know what to make out of it. For pongal or khichdi we use moong dal(split green gram). I could have tried making chanadal payasam out of it but the proportion of rice should be less than chana dal but here it was the inverse proportion. so I asked him what do I make out of it. he asked me to prepare spicy khichdi out of it. I was lost. As usual I called up mom for help! she asked me to use the same ingredients as pongal (pepper corns, ginger and cumin seeds) and mix the seasoning with the cooked rice and heat the whole mixture. However while cooking I added spices/garam masala items along with the other items to it and it came out very well. And these days I make more of Bengal Kichdi than Moong kichdi and love it. Accidental discoveries!

Ingredients :
Rice - 1 Cup
chana dal(bengal gram) - 1/2 cup
green chillies slit length wise - 3-4
Chopped ginger -1 tsp
curry leaves - 7-8
Bay leaf -1/2 leaf
Cinnamon- 1/2 inch stick
cloves 3-4
Pepper corns 7-8
grated coconut 1/4 cup
chopped coriander leaves

Wash rice and chana dal and drain .
Heat oil add bayleaf, pepper corns, cloves and cinnamon. fryfor 1 minute. Now add green chillies, chopped ginger and curry leaves once it is fried add the drained rice and dal. Fry for 2 minutes and add water and salt and close the lid of the pressure cooker. leave for 10 minutes.
Once cooked, add grated coconut and coriander leaves and serve with hot ghee. If needed squeeze half a lemon to give it the tangy taste.

Since in my case, the chanadal and rice was already cooked I added the seasoning to the cooked grains and then mixed well and garnished with grated coconut and coriander leaves served with ghee.

Hopes or Nopes

2008-05-09T05:52:00.000+02:00

Ver well said - "Hope is the reason for living" !!! I always wake up in the morning with a hope that the day will go good. does it end at that? No. Hope continues to rule my day over each activity. I hope that the pancakes I prepare turn out good, I hope to reach office early,I wish to get less work atleast on friday so that I can leave early. All is hope for this living.
But it is also said that "Desire - the reason for unhappiness" ! I equate hope to desire. If I dont hope that the pancakes I make to turn out good and if it goes bad, then I would feel really bad ; true ; but had I hoped for it to turn out good and if it went bad then I would have felt really reallly bad!! so that is the toll hope takes on us. It is better to fall from a chair than from a wall and even so from a building. So the take is - Higher the expectation, higher is the disappointment for not meeting the expectations.
Is it as simple as it sounds? Dont hope. live life as it comes. No... it is really a hard thing not to think of one thing that makes me feel happy about. But just imagine the joy you experience when you do not expect anything and it comes to you on its own.. ! It is like somebody giving to you the most costliest designer wear you always wished for, dreamt of, spoken of , for FREE. Isnt' that overwhelming joy boundless? Yes it is!
So the moral is "Always start with a hope that you would not start hoping for the best start!"
[:)]

Politically political

2008-05-08T11:30:00.001+02:00

Vote is on my mind... vote is in my soul... !! Ever since I found out that my name is on the voters list, I am really excited about the whole idea of ballot, voting machine and of course getting my nail painted black!
Now that the voting day is closing in, I'm getting kinda frantic about who is the most deserving candidate, which party I should be voting. I cannot ask anyone for their opinion because that it is a totally private info and should not be revealed. I checked over the internet about the various candidates and all I could get was a sheet with age, name, party and home address of the candidates from my part. Also the soft copy of the affidavit signed by each of the candidate, the copy of the receipt for the payment they have done to get some form etc etc. Why do I need that information? whether they have signed some affidavit or not or whether they have paid the dues or not how would I be benefited? government would have already validated that information and given them the ticket to stand for election. By posting those docs I do not get any information about the ability of the candidates to be an able leader in future.
what am i gonna do with their address? I wont go marching to their house and judge whether he deserves my vote or not by gauging the size of his house and the no of car he owns.
It would have been such an easy task for voters to choose their leaders if govt would publish in one place name and place of all the candidates and their qualification, achievements politically or otherwise, good work done for the area they represent and a small write up about what their plans are for their area if they get elected as the leader.
I do not mind the hoardings of party leaders or the series of party flags lined along the street what I do mind is bursting crackers in the middle of the road in the name of party publicity there by creating traffic jams in the city known very well for its jams. I do not like the fact that villagers are lured with alcohol to come to the city for party demonstration. They are brought in local buses stuffed even atop buses and made to spend the night on road sides. Poor guys agree for all that cause they get alcohol as compensation.
Anyways the whole election process is a big budget movie with good actors and confused,fooled and disappointed audience!!!

Jhunka / Chick pea flour pudding

2007-12-18T14:16:00.000+01:00

Jhunka
Ingredients:
chik pea flour/Besan Flour :4 tblspns
Onion medium sized : 2-3
Coriander leaves: 2 cups
Green chillies 3-4
mustard seeds: 1 tblspn
salt

Method:
Heat oil and add mustard seeds. Once they splutter add chopped green chillies and fry them. Now add finely chopped onion and fry till onion turn golden brown. Now add salt and then besan flour and stir mixing all the ingredients till the flour changes to light brown. Add finely chopped coriander leaves and cover the lid for 2 minutes. turn off heat and julka is ready to serve with Chapati or Rice flour Rotis/bhakri.
With puri the same can be made like a gravy. once the flour turns light brown, add 1cup water and let it boil. The water mixes with the flour and turns into a thick paste.

Magge Koddel - Cucumber gravy

2007-11-27T15:11:00.000+01:00

Ingredients
yellow big cucumber / mangalore cucumber /Mugge(konkani) - 1/4 kilo
Dried Beans (black eyed beans)- 1 cup
Red Chilli 3-4 (To be fried in a 2-3 drops of oil )
Grated coconut - Half shell
Tamarind - 1/4 table spoon
Garlic cloves - 15 OR Chopped Onion - 2 OR teppal -6
salt
Soak the seeds in hot water and let it be for an hour. After which cook the seeds till they are soft(not mashed).
Peel the cucumber ,discard the seeds and cook the diced pieces in 1/2 cup water.
Grind the chillies, grated coconut and tamarind together to a smooth paste.
Add the cooked seeds to the cooked cucumber and bring to boil. Now add the ground masala and salt and cook for 10 minutes.
Heat oil in a separate pan and fry smashed garlic till golden brown and then add it the curry.
Instead of garlic cloves, Teppal or onion can be used in the same way.
Magge Koddel is ready.

Kanyadaan!

2007-11-05T04:37:00.001+01:00

Almost a year since 'grihasti' I realise now what is kanyadan. In simple words it is parents disowning their daughter and the girl's journey to find a place for herself in a new house and make it her own home. Be it love marriage or arranged this is the case...!

not so bad Upma and Uppittu

2007-10-19T13:55:00.000+02:00

Well ... the title might have hinted what I intend to write here... Trust me.. I hated upma all my life but now I guess I can have it atleast once a week.

Ingedients:
Rava / cream of wheat / cream of rice -1 cup
onion 2
tomato 1
Ginger garlic paste -1/2 tsp
Turmeric - 1 pinch
Sambhar/rasam powder - 1 tblspn
Urad dal -1 tsp
Chana dal -1 tsp
Jeera/cumin seeds- 1 tsp
Ghee 2 tblspns
Mustard seeds 1 tsp
Curry leaves 5-6
Coriander leaves chopped 2 tblspns
Grated coconut - optional - 1/4 cup
green chilli 2
salt 2 tsp
sugar - optional 2 tsps
lemon juice 1/2 tblspn (amchur powder can also be used.)

Pour rava in a dry pan (without oil ) and fry it for 5 minutes on a low flame until rava turns slightly golden. Keep stirring as rava gets charred very soon. turn off heat and pour the contents in another vessel.
set aside 2.5 cups of water in a different vessel for heating.
Heat ghee and add mustard seeds. once they start spluttering add urad dal, chana dal and cumin seeds. once the seeds are fried add ginger garlic paste. fry for a minute. Add curry leaves, chopped onion and tomato.fry for 2 minutes. add sambhar powder, turmeric, the heated rava and mix well. fry for a minute and then add the hot water. simmer and cover it with a lid.cook for 5 minutes. add lemon juice and grated coconut on top before serving.

Note
Rava to water ratio is 1:2
Any 2 items of cut vegetable like cabbabge,capsicum,fresh green peas,diced potato,beans carrot can also be added while frying onion for a more colourful look and healthy breakfast.

Tause Idli - Cucumber Idli

2007-10-01T09:20:00.000+02:00

I love any dish with cucumber. Cucumber pachadi, cucumber hulela, cucmber idli, cucumber uppittu... !! my mom makes lotsa varieties with cucumer alone and I love all of them. And if Im visiting home then cucumber idli will be the breakfast item always! this time she had made it little special by cooking it in 'Haldi Paan'.

Ingredients :
Rice 2 cups
Cucumber 3
grated coconut 1/2 shell
haldi paan
salt
sugar

Soak rice for an hour or 2 and drain water and leave it for dyring on a cloth for an hour or so. once dried grind the rice to a coarse powder(rava).

The baking vessel what you see in the picture is a little misleading so let me explain that as well. We had purchased a cookware called AMC and it has a pair of bowl which can be used as an oven to bake stuff. we need to place water in one bowl and place the grater as a grill/support and then cover the set up with another bowl. we can bake cake also in the same set up.

Heat a pan and pour the peeled and grated cucumber. keep stirring it until the cucumber leaves out water and then add salt and sugar. mix the rava and grated coconut in it and keep stirring on a low flame for 10 minutes. When all the water is drained out turn off heat and keep the mixture to cool a bit say (for 5 mins). Now place the mixture onto the leaves and fold the leaves from all sides so that mixture doesn't pour out. and place it in the baking vessel. stack the filled leaves side by side and then cover the lid. cook for 15 mins. serve hot with butter/chutney.

To make Idli the ingredients remain the same. No need to heat the mixture before filling it in the leaves. It is cooked in normal idli vessel without the leaves.
keep the baking vessel ready and then mix rava and the rest of the ingredients in a pan and immediately place it in idli bowls and place it in the pan.
Cook for 20 minutes.
Note:
In the first method, the heating is done to remove the excess water from the mixture. if this is not removed then the water will drain from the leaves leaving the muddo very dry.
In the second method, the baking vessel has to be set and hot only then the ingredients are to be mixed.

Role Reversal

2007-09-27T11:18:00.002+02:00

"Maaa.. I'm getting late... I will not have breakfast. I dont like your upma anyways....!! " I yelled tying my shoe laces. I can hear mom running around in the kitchen packing lunch box for me. She also pours hot milk in a glass and comes towards me.. I frown picking up my school bag and stomp! "I dont want milk ma...." Her eyes widen as if to eat me up and she makes me drink atleast half glass. I grumble all the way and complain to my dad. Dad has dug his head deep into the newspaper to have a mute ear to all the morning chaos that happens at home.

I pull up my sock, grab the lunch box say a grumpy bye to everyone and run to catch up with my friend who has been waiting all along for me, to go to school.

years later in MY kitchen

"Gosh..I had snoozed the alarm 3 times before finally throwing myself out of the bed rushing to start the usual morning chaos.....!!! switch on the geyser, pick milk from the bag hanging on the door knob,put rangoli,think of breakfast menu, pack lunch, get ready yourself...." I was late so made upma today! but somehow it didn't turn out well and I was scared that my husband would say "I will not have breakfast. I don't like your upma anyways....!!"
It is amazing how Time rules our lives and makes the past look like a delightful dream!
I'm thankful as my hubby is a real sweet heart and always appreciates my effort and not the final outcome![:)]
it is a bonus bonanza for me if my efforts result into very good outcomes!

Karate Kodambo / Bitter gourd gravy

2007-09-25T06:45:00.000+02:00

I love bittergourd for one good reason that it is bitter.. :)
my family loves bitter gourd in any form. The traditional form of this recipe requires 'ambado'/ 'Amate kayi'. since I did not have them I used tamarind instead.
Ingredients
Bitter gourd 2
Urad dal 1/2 tblspn
Coriander 2 tblspns
grated coconut 1/2 cup
Tamarind juice 4 tblspns
Jaggery 3 tblspns
Red Chillies 4
curry leaves 4-5
Oil 4 tblspsn
Salt

Bitter gourd should be cut into thin small slices. Thinner the better. Last I happened to dice it into small pieces and the gravy was too bitter.
Heat 1/2 tblspn oil and fry coriander seeds,urad dal and 3 red chillies separately. grind it with coconut and tamarind.
Heat oil and put mustard seeds once they splutter add 1 red chilli. once the chilli is fried add curry leaves and all the bitter gourd , cover it and let it be on low flame till the gourd turns into a dull green colour which would take about 10 minutes. do not add any water during the process. the gourd should be cooked in oil only. now add salt and jaggery and let it cook for 5 mins. Stir it once in a while so that it doesnt stick to the pan. Now add the ground masala and 1 cup water and let it boil.
turn off heat and serve hot with rice/chapathi.
If left over this gravy can be eaten with bread next day for breakfast.

Tomato Chutney

2007-09-24T17:05:00.000+02:00

Not all my family members eat non veg.. For breakfast this Sunday, I had to prepare veg and non veg separately which is a little tiring. with guests at home, cooking both varieties is a pain. So made bread omlette for the eggies and the super fast tomato chutney. one of my friend is a great cook and when I used to stay with her before marriage, she would make this chutney occasionally on sundays. So this recipe is picked up from her.

Ingredients:

Tomatoes medium sized 2
Cumin seeds 1 tblspns
Chilli powder 1/2 tblspns (optional)
Pepper 1.5 tblspns
Sugar 1/2 tblspns
salt

Heat oil and put cumin seeds in it. Once it changes colour add the finely chopped tomatoes, cover the pan and leave it on low flame. let it cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer it till the tomotoes are cooked well. add 1/2 cup water to the same and once boiled.
This tomato chutney has a tangy sweet and spicy taste and gells very well with bread/toast. I havent tried it with dosas. Will update once i try.
When i tried it last time i could not find pepper powder so I had put pepper corns in oil once jeera was fried and then put the cut tomatoes. It tasted very good but i happened to bite a corn and I was all flying after that. So I had to remove each of the corn from the chutney before serving. So this time I put powder and it was awsome!

Fast Dalitoy - Yellow Lentils gravy

2007-09-24T13:12:00.000+02:00

Tell me one GSB who doesnot like the traditional dalitoy..! I remember when we were in Udupi for samradhane(feast on occasion of some puja), our family and our next door family would go to the temple, reserve seats for each other and drool until the food was served. I agree that my mom and grand mom were a good cooks but the food served in the temple was a delicacy.

This dalitoy is a slight deviation from the traditional dalitoy.

yellow lentils/toor dal 1 cup
green chillies 2-3
ginger garlic paste 1/2 tblspn
mustard seeds 1/2 tblspn
coriander finely chopped
cumin seeds/ powder 1/2 tblspn
coriander powder 1/2 tblspn
ghee/ oil 1 tblspn
salt
tamarind juice 1 tblspn

While placing the dal in the cooker, add a pinch of haldi, drop of oil, jeera seeds/powder and coriander powder.
heat oil/ghee, put mustard seeds, once it starts spluttering add green chillies .once the chillies are fried add ginger garlic paste. mix well with the oil and then add the cooked dal,tamarind juice and salt. let it boil for 2 minutes and then add finely chopped coriander leaves and turn off heat.
serve it with hot rice.

Ridge gourd Chutney (Ghosale sira chutney)

2007-09-24T06:14:00.000+02:00

My mom is a great cook too and a health freak. she has such a good figure even now that I look like her big sister. She must have plucked hair from her head making me eat all the healthy stuff she prepares.
She makes Ghosale sira chutney (Ridge gourd skin chuntey) which I just adore. I started cooking when I came to Bangalore to work and one day I brought ridge gourd, removed the ridges and make the usual upkari with grated coconut. and with the ridges i thought I could make chutney. Directly ground the ingredients and the ridges. it tasted so bad that i could not ‘repair’ it! all went to the drain. It was then i called helpline mom and asked for the recipe. The main point was that I had to fry the ridges..!!(too long a story for a simple chutney isn’t it..:))well, here it is
Ingedients:
Grated coconut -3/4th cup
Ridge gourd (medium size) - 1
Cumin seeds -1 tblspn
tamarind juice 1 tblspn
pepper 2-3
oil - 1 tblspn
Asafoetida - 1 pinch
green chillies 2-3
Salt

Method:Heat oil in a pan and put split green chillies and cumin seeds. Once it changes colour put the ridges only and fry it. let it for 2 minutes and then put 1/4 glass water and cover the pan with a lid. let it be on low flame for 10 mins.turn off the heat and let it cool.Once cooled grind it with the rest of the ingredients.Heat 1-2 drops of oil and hing(Asafoetida) in it and add it to the chutney. (my mom says hing phullenu ghalka which in literal English translation means ‘fluff up Asafoetida’)
Ghosale sira chutney is ready to serve

Note:if the ridges are not cooked well then it gives a not so good raw taste.

Intro to Crunch-Munch

2007-09-24T05:44:00.000+02:00

Never knew blogging could be such an addiction. After marriage the major difficult task I faced was cooking. Cooking a simple dinner would take hours and the exhaustion after that would wreck any good mood following! I would call up mom before cooking and ask for the in-detail recipe and note it down. still while cooking it some more doubts would crop up. So instead of calling up on mom decided to check the internet. I must admit here that I am very much impressed and inspired by Shilpa of Aayi's recipe. the way she has written about cooking the simplest meal with pictures is very good. for example, some months back frying chapati/roti was an alien thing to me no matter how many times my mom told me the correct way, I would mess it up. Finally Aayi’s recipe helped me. When so many foodie blogs are there what is so special in this blog one might wonder! well, my intention is to try and post fast to cook meals which would be beneficial to the blog visitors as well as to myself at a later point in time.
So here is my try ... ! Crunch Munch it is!!

Buddha

2007-09-21T09:38:00.000+02:00

Some days back I was just browsing through Flickr to see some different from usual errr.. actually weird photos clicked by camera crazy people and happened to come across some pictures of Gautam Buddha . The serenity of Buddha's face captivated me instantly and suddenly I felt myself more relaxed. I browsed more and saved various pictures of Buddha on to my PC for later viewing. Ever since then I have been constantly looking and reading about Buddha. I happened to read one thesis written by someone from Oregon university; The thesis says all about Gautam Buddha's initial days and why he left his wife, about his preaching .... in the end it says "Buddha attained Nirvana and to celebrate the day Indians celebrate Deepavali, the festival of lights!" I was a bit surprised by what was written. We celebrate Divali for a totally different reason. Anyways who is to correct the Oregon university professor!!
Today I was a little disturbed and I knew the easy way to cool myself. So pushed the halt button to my work and started browsing for Buddha pictures and was surprised to see lots and lots of Buddha statues in gold, across the east Asian countries. Buddha led an example for simple living, he renounced from all the worldly pleasures of mankind and went in seek of peace. Why do we have so many statues of Buddha in gold or any pricey material? Well certain questions dont have an answer, even if they have there are subjected to individuals perception and cognitive content!!

Did it really serve the purpose?

2007-09-03T13:05:00.001+02:00

Was just reading my own blogs today and realised how silly and immaterial old posts seem! Either my attitude towards the subject has changed as I 'grew up' since I had written them or because it really is drivel!
Anyways, I Intend to write more of gimracks as I cant think of anhthing but that now!

Decibel pinnacle !!! 'No Sound Horn'

2007-07-31T06:00:00.000+02:00

Honk of cycle , scooter , bike , Rickshaw , car , bus , tempo , truck , Rickshaw’s tampered silencer, heavy generator, public party music, wood cutting, public announcements, FM, people talking laughing and guffawing, phone ringing, hitting of keyboard by a software professional… aaaaaaaaaaarggg…raising decibel levels has created a volcano of ear fluid within the fort of my ears.

Peak time, congested road, vehicles stacked miles behind the traffic signal. Necks craning to see the color change from red to green. The moment the signal turns green, everywhere there is honking. Oh yes..! everybody has had a tired day and wants to get back home or wherever as soon as possible. Honking doesn’t mean that vehicles closer to the signal would give way to the ones at the far end of the stack..! everybody is moving, nobody intends to be on the road for long, stuck in a traffic. Then why honk. It wound not aid in anyway.

'Sound horn please' was a sign usually found on the rear end of trucks. But the note has to be rephrased to ‘NO SOUND HORN unnecessarily’ and put on the rear of every vehicle!
But who would put it in the rear of every rider's head.

Birthday Or Mother's day ?

2007-07-30T10:25:00.000+02:00

Yesterday was my friend's birthday... ! Coincidental get together, cake and camera and cheers..! not many of us(us as in the gang of gals' members) were there.. But my friend's mom had come to town to be with her daughter on her birthday. Since the B’day gal was there at home itself we could not throw a surprise party and since the lazy bug had bitten us, we were not very enthusiastic about going out. So we brought the cake in the B’day gal’s presence, cajoled her to light the candles herself and set the table... ! camera clicking, we all clapping and cake licking..and the carnival ends.
All throughout the birthday celebration aunty was there watching us, smiling, singing along..! she watched us go crazy on our silly jokes. She watched her daughter enjoying the day, receiving wishes, gifts and phone calls since midnight. She was silent and smiling . That’s when I watched her… and it felt weird that we were celebrating. Why do we celebrate our birthdays? To commemorate that we were born on someday. We forget that mothers brought us into the world undergoing a great deal of pain, trouble and anxiety. I don’t even have equivalent words to explain the pain they would have gone through , probably I can’t even mention about it until I give birth myself. And on the birthday we celebrate our arrival into the world with friends! Aren’t we missing out on wishing the mothers and leaving a congratulatory note?
Shouldn’t we be spending at least a day, especially birthday with our mother?
On my birthday I think of how old I am, and how I had celebrated my last birthday, who all did not wish me last year, all the statistics of wishers, wishes and gifts I have received over the years. Of all the permutation and combinations of who all I had wished on their birthdays but dint get wishes from them on my birthday. I try to rethink and recollect the B’day celebrations of my first years but nothing much comes to my mind. But mothers have all the memories of our childhood right from our very first birthday. Not even once have I thought about the fact that my mother was the one who brought me into this world and I should be congratulating her and being with her, making her feel that the pain she had gone through years back this day, is worth it. Birthday is in fact Mothers’ day. They also should be receiving calls, gifts and wishes! I don’t need to pick someday, which is irrelevant to her and celebrate it as Mother’s day. It gives me a sense of pride and gratification if I celebrate my birthday with my mother. Yes! it is like sharing the lime light but should we even think about it of all the lime light and other sacrifices that they have done for us?

Tuesdays with Morrie

2007-06-28T05:39:00.000+02:00

This is from an old blog...

I finished reading this book called Tuesdays with Morrie. . The ending is so touching.. I almost cried today in the bus when reading it. It reminded me of my grandpa who was suffering from cancer and after I came to know that I never got in touch with him. It was in 8th std when one day I came home from school and mom broke the news to me that he is suffering from cancer. I just said Oh! And then came to my room and cried.
I was the youngest among the cousins and my grandpa’s pet. If we wanted a treat from him I was the ambassador. I would find a suitable time – after lunch when he sits and chews paan. At that time I wud go and make paan for him and pester and butter him up for treat... our treat meant going to the town and having the then famous 'Gadbad' ice cream at the usual joint. He likes kittens a lot.. he had a huge belly which when he sat on the chair would create a concave structure between his chest and his convex belly , a gap enough to place a kitten. That ancestral house had cats, dogs, cows, buffaloes, bull, hen, cocks and even peacocks and peahens at some point. Everytime the cat gave birth to kittens we 5 cousins would select a pet and claim it to be our souvenir. I would place the best looking kitten in his concave structure and he would just love it.. and tat was the time.. I would broach the topic and after a lot of Yes and NOs he wud finally agree. I visited him only once after I came to know that he had cancer. That was a month before he died. I entered the house and saw a thin bony structure with sunken eyes sitting on the easy chair which had pillows on each of its arms and near the head rest. It was my grand father. I cud not recognize him ,There was no concave structure. His belly itself had become concave. He did not even have the strength to move his hands or legs. Or even nod for that matter. When I went close to him... There was a faint smile on his face which he brought after so much of effort. Somebody had to help him stand with major weight of his body falling on them. He wud either sit on the easy chair or on the bed. I did not speak to him much as I was scared. I went straight to the kitchen where my grany was preparing his lunch. rice boiled and mashed to a fine paste. When he strong and fine he wud throw his lunch plate away if at all rice was little softer than the ‘standard’. I just wondered how things change. After his lunch two people helped him lie down on the bed. And granny brought a cup of oil and she started rubbing him on his stomach. He had intestinal cancer. He had been operated also but since te malignant had spread all over the operation was a failure. I was sitting in the hall not having enough guts to enter the room where he was lying. But he wanted to see me.. talk to me..he asked granny to call me in. I came in. and stood in the corner. G pa raised his fingers inch above where it was and motioned me to come long his side. I looked at granny... She too nodded her said and asked me to sit next to him. And then she asked me to take some oil and apply it on his feet. I took the oil and rubbed his cold feet. The pain was killing him inside. He would wail all night crying in pain. Granny and my 2 cousins could never sleep. Whole night they would take turns to apply oil and ease his pain... but that would never do. He wanted to kill himself before the pain killed him. He tried to commit suicide one day. One afternoon he went to the yard where in a shed the pesticides were kept. He was opening the bottle when one the cousin saw him and stopped him...!I rubbed his feet and he wailed. He asked me to come close to him. I bent over and saw his sunken eyes. I got so scared that I suddenly jumped out of the bed and came out. After that I went to the fields and sat near the pool and cried cried. Until my cousin came and asked me to come inside. I went home but not to THAT room. Later in the evening when I had to return I went to his room to say good bye. I saw his back was to the door and was half asleep and wailing..so I sneaked into the room and touched his feet superficially so that he doesn’t wake up. More than he waking up I did not want to see his sunken, hollow cheeks . I came out as quickly as I could from that room and I went back to my place. That was it. I never saw him again.!

Today when I read the book it reminded me of my grand pa so much. In the book Morrie tells how much he needs human attention. He is lying on his death bed and waits for someone to come and talk to him; rub his feet. Even my grand pa wanted that. Not from somebody else but from me.. I was his best grandchild. He loved me.. I too loved him. but I was not the good grand child. !After reading that book I feel I cud have atleast rubbed his feet,at least kissed him on the cheek, said a proper good bye. NO. I did not do any of these.. I feel so sad about it. I regret what I did not do..!!

Bad cold makes me feel old

2007-06-25T11:33:00.000+02:00

Sun arose tardily putting all its might to rip apart the monstrous grey clouds, to take a peep into the woods
devilish engulfing clouds bullied the rising sun blocking the laser sharp rays as much as they could
I let the breeze brush my skin, sneak into my ears, ruffle my hair and blow my mind
Mean that I am , enjoyed the cloud’s dominance and savored the cold weather
I drove for quite long, now down with bad cold and almost caught fever!

:(

Weekend Wimbledon

2007-06-25T08:42:00.000+02:00

Everytime I happen to watch the tennis matches, only the finals, as they are held on a weekend.. but this time I have decided to watch every match that is played. I want to watch non famous people play.

Resolutions broken..so far
1. To stop biting my nails
2. To maintain the tone of my voice irrespective of the situation or mood. In other words to control my emotions.
3. To execute the above resolutions successfully .. [Sigh]

Will I ever be able to that????

Cheaters caught red handed at the gas station

2007-06-21T05:50:00.000+02:00

This incident happened sometime in the last week at the HP gas station (southern end of Brigade Road).

There were 4 people in the station and two of them asked and re confirmed the quantity of fuel we had asked, at least 3 times, took the money and set the digital meter for the same. At the same time there were two guys near the rear end of the car. We found that fishy we thought it is best to check on the person fuelling the car . Apparently that guy had kept a big empty Castrol can behind our car and was pouring all the fuel into the can instead. no sooner we had gotten out of the car than the person who was fuelling removed the nozzle from the can and stuffed it in to the car inlet, and asked another guy to reset the digital meter on the board . We asked him what he was doing and why he was doing, He had the audacity to say that the fuel in the can was for the ‘other guy’. After yelling at them for the treachery, they reset the meter and put the fuel worth what we had asked.
The dodgy act was so well co-ordinated and incessant even after catching the guy red handed. This doesn’t seem like the first time they are doing it. The station is one of the busiest as it is near Brigade road and hence it makes it easier for them to cheat the customers, I guess even more after dusk.
Suppose you are alone in the car and want to fill fuel then you really have to have super power to note the meter settings, keep an eye on the guy who is fueling at the rear end of the car and also simultaneously watch the car dashboard. the last can be avoided if you raise the panes and lock the car before you step out.

Fixed by fixtures;Moved by gestures

2007-06-21T05:33:00.000+02:00

why is that we are forced to opt discomfort over convenience, fearing the society?

self welcome - the best advantage you can have over anybody else...!

2007-06-20T13:25:00.000+02:00

I have spotted the Blog spot ... ! watch out for more blogs on this spot..!