Yet again

I get to enjoy a beautiful sunset along side a cuppa hot masala chai!

Well, where there is good news, there is bad news too - a traffic jam spanning a length of 4km up the hill. More like the evening peak hour (1700 hrs) traffic when everyone wants to get home before its dark. I hate being stuck in a traffic jam or even witness one from a place far away from it.

End of hibernation

I cant believe its been more than a month since i scribbled something.

I have been tuning to MTV more often these days. I fail to understand the theme behind most of the music videos. Most of the time, its one of the below or combinations,

1. gory makeup

2. undressing

3. licking

4. u kill me, i kill u or you die, i need to die too.

5. breaking,smashing, causing total damage

Where are those good old videos of amazing dances or even those recording rooms - where they just show the singer and his mike and these technicians working in the mixing room.

I only watched 2 videos today and they almost made me throw up - Lady Gaga - Paparazzi and Poker face. I wish there was a way to psychologically un-see something!

When the sea had him for supper

We do enjoy glorious sunsets every evening but not all days are clear sky days and we dont always experience this beautiful huge orange ball touching the waters, because the villains called clouds hide the scene. Yesterday turned out to be one of those lucky days and by the time i realised and fetched my camera, he was half-eaten. Here's the last bit of the swallowing act by the mediterranean.

Marriage cuts men's health problems risk

Says an article in the Times of India -

"volunteers aged 57 to 85", "long marriage lowers a man''s chance of developing serious health problems." "how strong the effect of being married and having strong social bonds can be"

So says their research, but in practical life we say thats the high-risk age. My dad always says, beyond 60 years of age everything is like bonus - be it health, wealth or happiness. Lower's man's chance of serious health problems - is that so ? Thats when most married men retire and their immediate worry is money, younger son or daughter's education, one of their marriages. That's when a son or daughter comes up and tells them that he/she wants to marry his/her love who doesnot belong to their caste or religion or economic status or which ever way they want to spot a difference. Thats when obesity is at its peak due to stress from all the family related issues and stress due to idleness since he's retired. If their kids are happily married, they are probably on the other banks of the ocean so 'paasa malar' might be killing them. The husband and wife staying all by themselves at home start acting like kindergarten kids. They will start worrying about Sashtiabdapoorti and about satisfying their sambandies on such occasions - giving them equal importance and maruvaadais. There were days when they used to make kadala urandai and murukku just like that for a snack, but a slightly bigger in size paruppu thengai would be like a nuclear bomb issue on ocassions like engagement, weddings or son/daughter's seemandam or the 'kapu arasi kadali' on the new born's namakaraman becomes imperative than the child's name.

Phew! the list is endless. May be their research specimen should be an indian male. I would blame this unwritten tradition which people have been blindly following and imposing on themselves just for the sake of the onlookers. When nearly 60% of folks aged >50 are already diabetic why do they stress so much on paruppu thengai, adirasam and laddus ? When asked they would answer its for the children - ahh, well done, time to spoil the next generation's health too. More nerve-wracking are these kids' birthday parties these days. Will write about it later.

I found this statement the most hilarious - "No matter how much you bicker after marriage, but walking down the aisle is actually good for health, especially for men," OMG, ask any south indian groom - that would have the most worrying and horrifying hours of his life - shirtless and the trancy dhoti worn in such a way that when it falls apart he wouldn't know which end he should pick up first. The return from Kashi yatra - with kodai, coconuts and a small bag hanging down his arms, a walking stick, pancha gacham and anga vastram - i think this can be compared to walking down the aisle fund of the vidhesis. Are they trying to say, if an average man has gone through this kind of a marriage - he can handle anything in his 60s ?

Suklam Bharatharam and filter kaapi

My dad just gave me this so-far the most hilarious meaning of the shloka,

Suklambaradaram - 'Suklam' is white/bright so it refers to the pure white milk

Visnum - the dark colored dacauction

Sasivarnam - like the color of the moon (is the moon really brown ?)

Chaturbhujam - 4 hands involved, 2 hands of the wife who offers the coffee to the 2 hands of the husband who accepts it.

prasannavadanam - the ever smiling face of the person who drinks (here, its is the husband)

dhyayet - peace prevails till he drinks

sarvavighnopashantaye- removes all odds or bad mood and makes the husband that pleasant person after-coffee.

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi

From us and from our hand-made eco-friendly terracota clay Elephant God!

Standup tamil comedy

I have watched this one many many times and every time i watch it, i enjoy it like it is the first time. I appreciate his move for the cause of charity!

ABRACADABRA = 9 = 4+1+4 in Hebrew

Now that i know Hebrew, i find this amazingly interesting!!! Even otherwise, this one's self explanatory :-)

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abracadabra

Amram Kehati [2]claims that the source is Hebrew and the ABRACADABRA has to be read from right to left as in Hebrew. ABRACADABRA, when phonetically pronounced from right to left, reads in Hebrew ארבע-דאח-ארבע. The Hebrew word דאח is the word אחד with rearrangement of the letters. This was done to confuse the daemon or for various witchery reasons. The evil, dark forces and the daemons kingdom in the Jewish Kabbalah are represented by the number 9 (the Hebrew word תשעה) or the Hebrew letter ("טית "ט). Since the ABRACADABRA word has to diminish a letter a day for nine (9) days it has to have enough letters. The Hebrew word תשעה is too short because it has only four letters. Therefore, the Hebrew word ארבע-אחד-ארבע was created. The Hebrew word ארבע is the Hebrew word for the number 4 (four) and the Hebrew word אחד is the Hebrew word for the number 1 (one). Therefore, ארבע+אחד+ארבע equal 4+1+4=9 and it represents the dark forces and daemons kingdom. This explanation for ABRACADABRA succeeds where all other previous known explanations and sources did not explain why the patient has to wear the amulet for nine (9) days. In Hebrew the "ABRACADABRA" should read as "ארבעאחדארבע" and the amulet should be as follows:

א-ר-ב-ע-א-ח-ד-א-ר-ב-ע
ר-ב-ע-א-ח-ד-א-ר-ב-ע
ב-ע-א-ח-ד-א-ר-ב-ע
ע-א-ח-ד-א-ר-ב-ע
א-ח-ד-א-ר-ב-ע
ח-ד-א-ר-ב-ע
ד-א-ר-ב-ע
א-ר-ב-ע
ר-ב-ע
ב-ע
ע

Varalakshmi Pooja 2009

The pooja always falls on a friday and the occasion starts on thursday evening. Each family has its own way of celebrating or worshipping the Goddess. Some draw the face of Goddess Lakshmi as a rangoli, some draw a face on a coconut with tumeric and kumkum and create a kalasham for the body. Some have a face made out in silver and thats us. On thursday we got to dress up the Goddess and welcome her home. The dressing up became a tricky experience this time in Haifa. Usually, we use a coconut against which the face is supported and use a brass utensil, called the sombu for the lower body and adorn her with some silk cloth and jewels. But, as mentioned in my prevoius post, i arrived here with the silver face alone. Made alternate arrangements for the sombu and used an orange in place of the coconut.

On thursday evening we are to dress her up and formally welcome her home.

The prashad for the evening must be a yellow rice! It slowly got changed into Venpongal over the years. Little A always looks forward to a sweet when i mention the word Prashad. He thinks only God can make sweets and any prashad is "God given". So i made a little Sharkarai Pongal, true to its name i used brown sugar due to unavailability of jaggery. In his usual way, he hen picks all the cashews tastes it and thanks God and also assures him its tasty! This time he made it a point to say it in hebrew - "thayim" meaning tasty.

On friday, the tradition goes like making prasadams the whole of the morning, followed by the pooja at the end of which a yellow thread - the saradu is tied onto our right hand wrist. A friend of mine asked if its a simple pooja or a hard one. I think it all depends on how much we are capable of doing given the time and the situations and surroundings and most of all patience. The usual prasadams are Mothakam, vada, payasam, idli and appam. Dont ask me why idli of all things. And more over i'm not supposed to eat curd or buttermilk the whole of friday. Yet again, i do not know why! For me more than anything, the region dictated the way i did the pooja. As they say live like a roman in Rome, i prayed like an Israeli in Israel, with candles and oranges. When the Jews observed Shabbath from Friday afternoon, we observed varalakshmi vratham! Talking about prasadams, i got to make vada,payasam and idli. Performed the pooja in my own possible way with some sloka chanting and my MIL had sent me a scanned copy of how to perform the pooja. It was all in tamil! With my "ezuthu kootal" knowledge of tamil managed to read through it. For people who want to do it the simple way, just chant the Lakshmi Ashtothram . Just like all the poojas start by worshipping the elephant god, Ganesha, this pooja too starts of by worshipping him.

A new Ganesha, a cone like structure is made out of turmeric and the akshadai and flowers are offered to him as we chant some slokas and mantras. The same is offered to Goddess Lakshmi as we chant mantras on her name (the ashtotram).

I drew a Soundarya Lahari rangoli (this deserves a separate post) and placed flowers on it as i chanted the ashtotram. Did i mention that i finally bought a bouquet if roses and lilly and managed the hibiscus and arali (its the tamil name) from a nearby park.

All set and done, I dont think the Goddess ever dictated means of worshipping her. I truly beleive only the interest involved and devotion and dedication matters. The pooja doesn't end here for me. Today evening, i'm supposed to take an arathi for the Goddess, welcome home some sumangalis (married women) and offer them thambulams. Tomorrow evening or the day after i.e on sunday morning i'm supposed to leave the Goddess to rest in a rice barrel.

Hmm, let me go see how i can go about doing these now.

Almost forgot to mention, the person performing the pooja is supopsed to wear the nine yards, madisaar, and yay! yay! i did it!

All Set

Am talking about the Varalakshmi Vratham. I thought i arrived in Haifa with the essentials for a complete festive year here too. But only as my MIL asked about the vastram, did it ring a bell that i had only carried the Varalakshmi mugam and not the accessories. My khoj for a perfect traditional indian wear for the Amman started a few days ago. I was hunting many a things in parellel - banana leaf, coconut, a sombu for kalasham, jaggery to make mothagam and appam, turmeric sticks etc etc. Discovered the plaintain in the gym, made alternate arrangements for the kalasham and as a friend suggested am gonna try subtituting the jaggery with brown sugar! I got the turmeric sticks from Akko along side sukku, sitharathai for little A's cold treatment. Talking about coconut as a support for the mugam, am going to use an Orange from the land of the Citrus.

Anyways, the dress for my varalakshmi was still a big question mark. My MIL suggested to just use a new blouse bit - that south indian currency which makes a full circle from door to door in an agraharam aka community. I didnt have any of that too, why would i carry blouse bits to Israel ??!! I'm totally against this whole blouse bit thing and for Navrathri i only distribute small useful gifts with the traditional vethalai pakku.

Coming back to the hunt, i visited many a baby shops looking for cute baby girl dresses that i might make use of as a vastram, but Alas! Its summer and one can guess the type if dresses available here for kids. I had made up my mind to even use the belly dancing cloth studded with gold coins that the dancers wear around the waist as a last resort. Luckily after nearly 3 days of khoj i found this one, that kind of looks like a traditional indian colored skirt - the red skirt! The only other color that i came across apart from summer colors like pink, lemon yellow, white....

A pretty long baby skirt, i cut it out, alter here and there, put a stitch or two to get a short pavadai and upper cloth. This is how it looks right now.

Am going to go look for some flowers now and if i dont succeed, i'm going to buy a bouquet!

Solar eclipse of July 22, 2009

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_July_22,_2009

This is scary - http://www.garagegames.com/community/blogs/view/15946

More scary stories, http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090720/sc_afp/scienceastronomyeclipseasiatourismsuperstition

Solar eclipse : All roads lead to Bihar

http://jaibihar.com/solar-eclipse-all-roads-lead-to-taregana-in-bihar/10306/

Truth Behind Google chrome logo

Times when even junk fwd emails carry some really good ones like this,

Rain in Bangalore

Couldn't resist sharing this picture, captured from Nandi Hills on a cloudy ~ rainy evening in Bangalore. Thanks Saurabh for sharing this :-)

Hummus and an easy sandwich

Its was 4pm was the time to think and plan for the night's dinner. I wanted to try something new. Checked the refrigerator and the can of chick peas caught my attention. I thought why not hummus or falafel balls. Hummus is wa easier than the later, which involves oil and frying etc etc.

So here we go, yummy hummus ready in no time (10 min).

1 can ~ 340 gm of chick peas
(If you do not have a can, soak the chick peas overnight, boil them for 45 min in a big sauce pan or in a pressure cooker up to 3 whistles, allow it to cool)
10 ml lemon syrup
10 ml olive oil
4 garlic cloves
2 - 4 red chillies (depending upon your the spice level)
2 tea spoon Tehina (If you do not have Tehina/tahini at home, try making a paste out of 50gm of sesame seeds)
To add more flavor one could optionally add, cumin powder and pepper powder.
Salt, to taste.

In a mixer or food processor, add all the above ingredients and grind by adding small portions of water as and when essential. For folks who do not like the smell of raw garlic, you could toss the sesame seeds (instead of tehina),garlic cloves and red chillies in little oil, allow them to cool and grind them well into a paste before adding the rest of the ingredients.


OK my hummus is ready. Now what for dinner ? Little A and I played some indoor cricket. It was around 6-ish and i had to pick AA from work. Way back home we were discussing about dinner with dishes involving freshly made hummus. We had pitas and some vegetables for a good sandwich. We hit across this idea of a good crunchy mushroom-pita salad with hummus spread :-) What a long name for an easy dish!

No sooner did we enter the house, i was at it - cutting cucumbers, tomatoes and boiling mushrooms. AA takes over the stage in frying the mushrooms in olive oil and red wine. Most of the time, the mushrooms dont reach or survive till their desired end, they get eaten up much before that. But this time they survived since i was busy helping little A with his dinner. Anyways, AA quoted the pitas with hummus, filled it up with the cut vegetables and those crunchy mushroom chunks. To add an indian touch to it, we sprinkled somce spicy coriander thogayal (made out of coriander, urad dhal, tamarind and red chillies. No coconut!) - left over's from the day before.

Thats it, end of a quick hummus making and quick sandwich for dinner.

Whatsup in G8 ?

Right from the Presidents to the news reporters, is this what they are all bothered about while at the G8 ?

http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/92794/?fp=1

President Obama is in the middle of the G8 conference, where he and other world leaders are trying to fix the climate, the global economy, and about a million other terrifying problems. And yet, all anyone can talk about is a photo that supposedly shows the U.S. president and French leader Nicolas Sarkozy checking out a young woman's posterior.

Once news of the photos broke, searches on "obama looking at woman's butt," "obama checking out butt," and the pun-tastic "tail to the chief" all soared through the roof. Also buzzing was the name of the young woman who Obama and his French counterpart were supposedly admiring: Mayara Tavares (some news outlets are spelling her first name "Mayora").

So who is Ms. Tavares, anyway? According to TheWeek.com, she is a junior delegate from Brazil. Lookups on her name are up an astounding 9,212% in one day. And while some are looking at the photo as proof that Obama and Sarkozy could use some manners, a video from "Good Morning America" absolves the two of leering. Well, it absolves Obama, anyway. Sarkozy, not so much.

Video : http://www.yahoo.com/s/1098534

Apple corer

While AA was looking for some Noddy videos for little A, he came across these kid's recipe videos. This one's called Noddy's Apple Car Delight.

http://www.sproutonline.com/sprout/recipes/detail.aspx?id=36c04c2b-a36f-4226-827c-997a0181a10a

After watching this tiny video, AA and I looked at each other, eyes wide open and with the same thought - "Are you thinking what I'm thinking" kinds. It was the apple corer which amused us the most. We didn't care a damn about the recipe, the cooking time nor how it tasted at the end of it. Our first thing on the to-buy list for the weekend was,
1. Apple Corer.



We were not even sure if we get them here in Haifa or anywhere in Israel for that matter. Our enthusiasm to own it was like, we were even ready to drive to IKEA (60km away) the same day.
Luckily i had to do some daily needs shopping yesterday. We ran out of milk already. Usually we pick up our weekly needs on Friday morning. But, this week, blame it on the weather, we consumed our milk tetra packs little earlier than usual as those cold-choco-drinks every evening! Anyways, while i was eying those delicious summer mangoes, AA was eying for the corer - and he did triumph! Not even for a second did we think that we would locate it in the hypermarket that we frequent every week. It's called the Shufersal. It's like Israel's Walmart, a one stop shop for everything from Vegetables to Spice corner to a Pharmacy.

Anyways, we welcome home the corer. Along with it, we happened to buy many many seeded fruits :-) in order to test it! So we enjoyed a good-evening-fruity-snack. Once again in the morning a good number of apples and plums for breakfast. I'm making little A to play a game with it, like using it as a telescope or seeing or spotting me through it and then the apple becomes his friend and he eats it too without any complaints!



As i write about this corer here, a friend of mine just mentioned about the age-old slicer or the wedger. The slicer opens up the apple and gives us 6-8 slices, separates the core and the apple for a second would like a fully bloomed flower. But that's very very beneficial for instanct consumption and for very very orthodox men and women. But for travel or to make recipes with apple rings or for folks who relish every bite of the apple, the corer is the best! I love to bite the apple as is and enjoy it, rather than slicing it up and allowing it to get DARK or brown or oxidize. I don't care about my grandmas saying - echal,10,11... The only hindrance till date was the core and the seeds. Towards the end of it as i approached the core, i always felt like a mouse or squirrel trying to grab those tiny chunks between the seeds. But now, hurray, the corer has relieved me of that trouble too.

Baking turned out to be a "piece of cake" for Dr. A

It was a fabulous birthday weekend. It all started with my aerobics classes, leaving behind dad and son spend some quality time with each other. By the time i could return they had finished the weekly grocery shopping too, how sweet! Grabbed some breakfast and off we were to the Grand Canyon , said to be the largest mall in the Mediterranean area. We walked and strolled into almost all the outlets from Toys r us to Office Depot to Swatch to those tiny nameless shops around the lobby area and near the elevators. A small handbag/purse shop caught my eyes. Common don't we women love purses ? I spent a full 30 minutes trying them all on my shoulders standing in front of the mirror and chose the below two! All these days and months and years i have been carrying those big tote kinda bags, now its again time for the small and chick ones. End of those diaper and wet wipes era in my purses. There's only room for keys n' cash and mobile baby!





In the evening, after a refreshing cup of chai at home, Dr. A comes up with this idea of baking a cake for me! OK, the birthday cake's no surprise now. But we were totally unprepared. There weren't any cakey things at home. After a round of CSI - Cake Scene Ingredients investigation, we discovered he could simply do a chocolate brownie with the available butter, choco chips, flour, eggs and sugar.



He beats and stirs and bakes and then yummmmm appears the royal chocolate brownie! At 6:30pm local time, his creation comes out, this was the biggest surprise of the day. It looked amazingly beautiful, tasteful and the whole house was smelling of butter and chocolate. Neither did A or I expect it to look so shiny and wonderful, the very look n' smell told us that it was going to taste great! We looked at it like a new born and Dr. A it's Brahma, i couldn't have appreciated him more. But, alas! it was his birthday cake for me, and we had to wait for the clock to show the 00:00 hours mark for me to have the cake and eat it too. That night, we kept our dinner very very light - 2 plums and a peach each, since we knew our dessert was going to be v. heavy. We waited and waited, it was only 9pm, at 9:30pm, Dr. A after all those visits back and forth the dining table for those little peeks of his creation and making sure 'it' was doing OK and thoroughly resisting his temptation to taste his creation - comes with this brilliant idea! "Hey, its 12 o' clock in India, why not cut it now" I did not even think or wink or waste a millionth of a second, i just sprang over and was right in front of the cake waiting for a knife to be given to me. In all that enthusiasm and eagerness to taste the cake, we totally forgot to take pictures. We sang a fat-forwarded "happy birthday to you" and then atttttaaackk! It was yummm!!! It didn't taste like a first timer's bake at all. After we had nearly finished 2/3rd of it, appreciating and narrating and re-describing of how he made it and how well it had come out, we realized we did not take any pictures of the whole cake, of me cutting the cake... none at all! Those 30-40 minutes, i had forgotten all about my birthday and it was more of a day celebrating A's debut with the brownie baking !! Managed to save those last few pieces and took a pic to share with family and friends. That's the cake part of it.





On the d-day, wishes pouring in from all near and dear ones around the globe, outside - it was a gloroius bright and sunny day and we decided to go to Zikhron-Yakov. Zikhron is a small picturesque town on a hillock about 35 km from Haifa. To be precise, the look and feel of the town is like Auroville ~ Pondicherry - the promanade, art and handicrafts shops, shoes and accessories, lovely homes converted into coffee shops and wineries adorned the town. Their windows amused me the most.


The below is actually a bank.




Someone's residence.

An underground coffee shop!



A full fledged apartment converted into a mall.


This place is famous for its wineries too...


The main walk way,

MJ... He set you free...

Jackson dies, almost takes Internet with himHow many people does it take to break the Internet? On June 25, we found out it's just one -- if that one is Michael Jackson.

The 16 young yet mad men

Ha, they even had the guts to post their pictures and declare in public, their love for Rakhi Sawant. They call the program 'Rakhi ka Swayamvara', is this some kind of a spoof ? I think NDTV is just trying to bring up the viewership by casting programs with the so-called controversial bomb shell.

http://movies.rediff.com/slide-show/2009/jun/25/slide-show-1-the-men-who-want-to-wed-rakhi-sawant.htm

LOSERS! And even worse are the folks who are going to sit in front of the idiot box and watch it!
Arrrrgh!

Rajini 'Chang' Kanth

What's in a name ?

Reading this article, i was reminded of a lame joke from the movie 12B, when Vivek says, "excuse me" the other foolish friend of his who is name-hunting, chooses 'Excuse me, thanni kondu va', 'Excuse me, blah blah...' and on and on.


http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=NLetter&id=f2e22148-cda9-4263-b9d1-24b7a9c74a8e&Headline=What%27s+in+a+name%3f


There was also this time when parents wanted their kid's name to be a combo of their names like, Nilima+ Harshit = Nihar, Veera + Nisha = Varsha etc. Had we followed this, we would have had only 2 names, Umar or Arunima kinds. I dont even know if the 1st one is a boy or girl's name, all i know is, its arabic. A friend of mine once asked for some name suggestions, and his only condition was "pera ketta chumma adhiranum", i had nothing to say but, "apo Sivaji nu vei".

I think for many a parents these days, naming the baby is a far bigger discussion and debate than to have a baby or not!

Talking about little A and our name hunt, it was all simplified - Srikrishna was already given to us. It was like our ears were being bombarded with that name from all around. To me, names like Arjun, Krishna, Vishnu never lose their fancy. All of the thatha,paatis, kollu thatha paatis, independently and unanimously mentioned "Krishnan-a" (its a krishna ?) when we said its a boy! It is very common and more cliched to address a new born as Krishna down south or even all over India. Added to it was when the paediatrician(a die-hard Cuddalorean and JIPMER alumni) , gave the tiny little one to AA & to me saying, "kutti krishnan porandurukkan" (little krishna is born), as if we didn't know =) Brannon and Rogers had already told us about it! And he uttered the same "kutti krishnan porandurukkan" when he showed the new born to his grand parents who were chanting "narayana, narayana, krishna, krishna" waiting outside the labor room. AA & I wanted a name with 'Sri' too, later, we started saying out names in alphabetical order and the very first name we both uttered, chose and liked, went well with Srikrishna, our jobs made easy, we said so be it and everyone liked it.

Father's day and Carrot Cake

Happy Father's day to all those wonderful, kind and loving dads in the world and the soon-to-be-dads in the year 2009.

Father's day and carrot cake ? Well, this is just an other excuse for me to bake something and tell little A and his dad, "only for you". Speaking about Father's day, it all started when we went to hostel. Till then it was a day like any other day. We could say it as westernization or effect of 123greetings.com or what so ever, all these days and dates started getting some importance in everyone's life when the families started living apart. These dates attained more significance through the Woman's day, Father's day, Mother's day sales and special offers in all the outlets.

Anyways, what did i do for father's day ? I sent an SMS to my dad, "Happy jappy yappy Father's day" to which he replied "Tan q". I myself find it quite funny, because we are the funny kinds, my dad's more like Anupam Kher the dad in most bollywood movies. We are not the psenti-emotional kinds. When we get together, it is mostly fun, gossip and more fun! But the two factors that can make any soul get emotional are age and distance! Our phone conversations do not last long, unless of course there is some real vambu (!). It would always be the usual and at the end he says, "eat well, stay well".

True to that advise, i made carrot cake the healthy way to eat well and stay well.





Ingredients:

For a good 12in * 2in carrot cake

* 2 medium sized carrots - grated
* 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup all purpose flour
* 3/4 cup sugar ( brown or white)
Folks with high triglycerides count may substitute this with 1/4 cup honey and add more raisnins and dates as below to add that sweetener.
* 1 tsp baking powder
* 1 tsp ground cinnamon
* 3 tsp olive oil (note: you can use any veg oil or canola or even butter, as a healthy aspect i used extra virgin olive oil)
* 1 egg, just the white
* chopped walnuts, pecans, dates, apricots, raisins (any number and variety of dry fruits in proportion ot the flour)
* 1 tsp vanilla essence
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 175 C/350F.

Beat the egg's white alone, throw away the high-cholesterol yellow. To the beaten portion, add sugar, vanilla essence, olive oil, baking powder, salt, cinnamon powder and mix well. Add the flour and the chopped dry fruits as much as you desire. I actually added 5 walnuts, 5 pecans, 4 dates, 4 apricots - all chopped. Now add the carrots and mix well . If the batter is still thick, add the milk little by little to loosen it.

Pour into a greased pan or aluminum foil. Bake for 40 minutes.

One can add icing if they wish, but i feel the icing makes my healthy cake, unhealthy :-).

Eat well, stay well and have a great day all of you who have been blessed with great dads and those to whom God has been unfair to, i know the loss is irreplaceable, I'm channeling all my love and energy to you so you can have a great day too recalling all those pleasant memories.

Can the world get smaller than this ?

http://www.google.com/goog411/index.html

Holding Babies

Indian thatha-paatis (grand parents) will have a heart attack if they see someone carrying a month old baby this way. Babies below the age of 3 months or atleast till the stage their neck becomes stable are said to be handled with great care. First time mother's would listen to those advices on ' art of carrying new borns' umpteen times a day from their parents, grand parents and more from the 'adutha aathu' (from the neighbourhood), 'adutha theru' (next street) vambu maamis (gossip aunties) and paatis. These jobless vambu maamis think they are the God sent mesiahs to preach child care or the mid wife incarnations always pouring those unwanted and embarassing advices. The conversations when they are around pretty much go like the age old Woodword's gripe water advertisement. Wondering what will have to say when this picture too ?!!

1954 Prediction - a computer in 2004

Attempted Pita Breads...

They are best had with Hummous & Tehina, so they say!

But for a die hard desi, it goes the best with Tomato pickle and Raita...yumm!!!

The mode of preparation, i followed as is from the link,

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/pitabread

used - instant yeast+salt+honey (no sugar)

flour - whole wheat flour 2 cups + 1 cup white flour

The story behind MS Blue

http://www.nallisilk.com/nallib2c/history.do

1951

"One crisp summer morning in 1951, the late M S Subbulakshmi, one of the greatest names in Carnatic music has ever known, walked into a Nalli store with a blue thread in her hand. The thread was of a particular shade of blue, on that she wanted a sari fashioned out of. As that particular color was not commercially available. Nalli experimented with dyes in their own workshop and true to Nalli's reputation, she got her wish. from then on. that particular shade of blue came to be known as MS blue."

The brushing song!

In order to make brushing his teeth a pleasant and a happy thing for him, i came up with a song. I always stood beside him in front of the mirror and sang and danced as he brushed. The song is as simple as ,

"side to side, side to side
side to side, side to side,
on your left, front back,
front back, front back,
on to your right front back,
front back front back,
up and down, up and down,
up and down, up and down,
side to side....up and down (how many ever times, till I'm satisfied with his brushing)
splash as you spit, grrrrrrrrrr garggle and splash as you spit "

By 'splash' I just meant the sound of water gushing out of his mouth as he spit but instead he used to spit and splash literally all over the mirror. I used to just control myself and not go ballistic about it - ain't matter now, since i feel hygiene comes first and then follows discipline involuntarily. May be it was my mistake and i should not have uttered splash at all in the first place. But it was too late, since he liked my composition and knew the song fully and i was afraid to make any changes. And moreover brushing his teeth was more important than the mirror getting wet. Kids do understand a lot, all we need to do is TALK. We explain to him that he needs to brush twice everyday in order to get rid of the bacteria. And if he drinks his milk before brushing in the morning, the bacteria is going to go into his stomach and cause stomach ache and blah blah blah. He understands this fact! Over understood to the extent that he got too finicky and when ever he ate an ice cream or chocolate or anything sticky, he would want to brush. Anyways, after a few days of splashing all over the mirror, he came up with the question, "When i spit, is the bacteria going to go to the mirror ? Mirror ku edanum ayduma (is anything going to happen to the mirror)?" I rolled my eyes and said, "Yes, Mirror paavam daane" and that's it, he is a very clean spitter since then ;-)

OK, above is all old story, now, the reason behind this post is, i was downloading some peppy Hindi songs in order to burn a CD for the car, so we can enjoy some non-stop desi music during our weekend road trips. I played a few remixes as i got going with some house hold chores and side by side doing some bollyrobics choreo ;-). All of a sudden he comes running to me, "Amma, yaaro unnoda paatu padra shano shano-la" (mom, someone's singing your song on shano shano) He became so sad, he almost couldn't digest the fact that someone else was singing the same words that i sing for him. Just too possessive! Seriously, i never knew that such a bit existed in that song, since, all along we were listening to the original track and only today i played the remix.

Here is what he listened to between 0:49 and 0:53,

It only took half a decade for that change

I saw Khalnayak "only" yesterday.

We were in high school and the super duper 'controversial' hit song, "choli ke peeche.. (1993)" was a big no-no in the house hold. I personally loved that song for that wonderful choreography (spare the 'kuku kuku' parts which is very silly) by Saroj Khan and am a big fan of Madhuri dixit. The age old chitrahaar on wednesday nights used to cast that song once or twice in a month or in Rangoli on sunday mornings. That once in a month darshan of madhuri's hit song was itself a big thing and where do we ask for the movie ?




In 6 years time, came "nimbuda nimbuda nimbuda.. (1996)", where Aishwarya danced the ditto sequences of hip swaying, dhak dhaks, knee up kick kick sequences - the same Saroj Khan choreography and the same-to-same steps one after the other. And guess what, i still remember Saroj Khan winning the Filmfare for best choreography for both these 2 dances which were more or less the same, net-net she got an award for her original composition in 1994 and then copied it over to once again grab the award.



Anyways, all that ain't matter now. What am trying to figure out is, when Madhuri did the same number, the song was not accepted by any parent, neither was it a song for those school day/annual day celebrations. Everywhere it faced a 'no', school to college to home to parents to grand parents. Only because, it starts with "choli ke peeche kya hai". Ofcourse, the very next line makes it clear to the perverted minds, "choli mein dil hai mera". So, what was the big deal ?

When Aishwarya, wore the same kind of clothes, did the same hip sways, it became a family thing,a family movie. Why ? Because Nandini was from a very traditional background of musicians ? Because Ganga danced for the villian whereas Nandini dance for the hero ? Or has the attitude towards dressing changed ? Have the Indian families become more liberal in just a span 5 years ? Choli was a sinful word ? But, every bride these days wears only a lehenga - choli for her wedding reception ? Effect of westernization ? But lehenga-choli is very much Indian, so do we call it Northernisation within India, where the the whole of India accepted the north indies (rajasthani here) dresses ? If such is the case, may be i should argue as, for the rest of India to agree upon and accept north indian dresses, has it taken them holy 50 years time from 1947 ?

Yes, of course now they are and have adapted to the westernization because every kuppan and suppan has crossed the Atlantic. Post Y2k, the world has shrunk and so has everything on and in it. Its a mad mad mad world, no one knows why and when and how people change and what makes them change.

That 2 minute notice

... before he sank into the deep waters of Mediterranean.

Garma garam whole wheat cookies, anyone ?

Weekends are for car wash...

Who said car wash is only for big cars ? His hot wheels need some cleaning too, says A!

Ever spotted a red hot moon ?

A quiet beginning for the much awaited long weekend

Breakfast by the beach, this is 'forever' fun!

The sinusoidal wave

Am talking about the love-hate-love wave of little A with his play school. The first day he thought was a bliss and was the happiest ever kid on earth. So many kids to play with, umpteen number of puzzles and blocks and bikes and skate boards and what not. Actually the whole first week went well, we gradually increased his time at school, 2 hrs, 4 hrs and the he willing did 6 hrs, i.e the fun packed 9-12 morning hours and post lunch siesta from 12-3pm. In spite of not understanding a word of hebrew, he coped very well and i was going ga ga over it. Then came the big interval, the Pesach or Easter break for about 1 week and the real movie starts here. He had totally forgotten about school!

Every morning was a saga to wake him up and get him to get ready and we saw the other side - the cry baby in him! Never has he cried so much, not a drop of tear when he gets his vaccine shots, he used to take them like tiny mosquito bites. OK, he did cry a bit when we got him tonsured, but that too towards the end of it for a few minutes when the falling hair irritated his eyes. The next time was when his ears were pierced, even this didn't last long. Some bitter crying was during my sis's wedding when A and I had disappeared early in the morning to welcome the then groom's side. But all those are excused since he was hardly 18 months old. But this 'no school war cry' was something which we never anticipated from him. He got more and more aggressive and it came to dislike-> hate -> abhor! Every morning we got into a deal, "Today, if you stay a good boy at school, then i would take you to the pool in the evening", then some mall, a park, a zoo, a great weekend trip and what not. This went on for 2 weeks. He didn't know their language, nor did the other kids understood English and he was frustrated to a large extent. He used to yell at his teachers, only 1 among the 4 understood and spoke English, so only she fell a prey to his screams, "call my mom, call my dad, call them now, i don't want to be here, i want to go home..." kinds. In fact Israeli kids are known to be very aggressive at school, so all the more and he learnt the worst :-(. One month of play schooling and he was getting no where.

We arrived at a point where we had to start all over again from zero. I started accompanying him, stayed with him for the initial 1 hour saying that i was going to be his friend at school. With the little hebrew i know, made friends with his play school mates and patched them up with A, then assured him that i would be back in 2 hours time, before his lunch was served and promised to take him home before the other kids got to bed for their afternoon nap. Arranged play dates on weekends, this really helped to a great extent. This continued for about 2 weeks and at last triumphed!!

Now, its like I drop him at school, walk into his class with him, sit with him and do a puzzle or two as he finishes breakfast and he would by himself say, " Inum 4 minutes-la kilambiko", meaning, you can leave in four minutes, he is obsessed with 4 - his birth date! And eventually when i say, "its time" he would just give me a big hug and a loving kiss. Doesn't stop there, his orders before i leave still remain, "come before they sleep and take me home!".

So, It has taken solid 2 months for him to get used to the whole play school thing. First time play/preschoolers moms, celebrate not when you see your toddler loving the play school at first instance, the trouble is only after the first few days. They usually complete this love-abhor-love sinusoidal wave before starting to be OK with it. But, as we all know every kid is different and they take their own sweet time in coping and this may not be the case with kids who are used to day care.

News

Nearly a week after the 2009 elections, i turned to some news pages to check upon whats happening back home and this is what i come across on http://ibnlive.in.com/,

Kolkata spared, Aila kills 24 in Bengal battering

Vienna Violence: Akal Takht appeals | 2 killed in Punjab

Tuesday twister: DMK in but oath-taking may be put off - equally tragic to TN

No bail for Satyam auditors, trouble at Satyam BPO

Assets worth millions seized from Delhi govt officers

Hmm, where is this taking India to ??? Looking at it from an other angle, so many people killed in natural calamities flood,storm etc etc, plus these unwanted politically, religiously motivated killings, burning of buses and vans and trains, accidents due to negligence and lack of proper infrastructure and security blah blah, the list is endless.... why hasn't India's population gone down per se ??

As i learnt it in school, "Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country - JFK", know what, i feel i have done some good, by not voting for these irresponsible jugheads.

With great power comes great responsibility. Oh, does it, really ? Because with Indian politics we only experience, with great power comes greatest atrocities.

Summer!!

Come summer, people freak out in such fancy vehicles... obviously with SPF 45+, else we would all turn into kaanja karuvaadus...

Wisdom is pain! Ignorance is bliss!!

Am talking about that wisdom tooth jutting out of my gums tearing them apart! For God's sake, do i need them now ? - i mean, wisdom ? After all, what am i going to do with an extra pair of teeth ? Eat better or eat more ? No, thanks! am already doing enough of that now!

Just read on yahoo answers,
Why are they called wisdom teeth ?
Because they give wisdom to the dentist to make alot of money removing them.

So true, they appear after so much of a pain that can even be compared to the labor pain as a new born comes out and the end result only to get removed!!!

"Kudukkara deiyvam, gums-a kizhuchuttu kudukkum-a ??"

What a waste of wisdom ?!

Bet She'an

Bet She'an, a valley bordering Israel and Jordan, has many interesting facts and places of visit. For a nature lover, there is Gan Hashlosha - a waterfall and a stream that surpasses the visitor with its aqua-bluish-greenish waters. It is a natural spring whose waters stay warm through out the year. It is also called Sachne in Arabic meaning 'warm' or Gan HaShlosha in Hebrew., meaning Garden of the Three. The name is in memory of three men that were killed in 1938 stepping on a mine, while guarding the area.
For the kids, there is the kangaroo park just adjacent to this water body and its called Gan-guru. In hebrew, Gan is park and combination of Gan and Kangaroo renders Gan-Guru.

The highlight of Bet She'an is the ancient roman city which is only half excavated. The entire city was destroyed in a massive earthquake in 749. This is exclusively for a person who can appreciate architecture and history.

By architecture i meant, even the simplest, bare essentials like toilets and baths were constructed and provided with utmost interest and care. Managed to capture a few signage that explained their stages of bath.

A much more interesting and a rather phenomenal excavationsat Bet She'an are the Roman public toilets.
You can see the "toilet seats" sticking out from the wall. One cheek on one and one cheek on the other, and you're good to go! Underneath was flowing water, as irrigation was routed through this area as a public sewage system. The waste would be washed downstream. The groove in front of the seats was for the placement of leaves which would be used to wipe.

Additionally, the Romans believed in enjoying one's time in the restroom. Therefore, live musicians would play for the enjoyment of all, since they didn't have magazines to occupy their time while seated. Additionally, these public restrooms were for both men and women. When one was in the sitting position, his/her robe would cover the front side. Thus, the phrase, "cover my feet," would refer to going to the bathroom.

PS: Shan or She'an coincidentally means 'peace' both in hindi and as well in hebrew. Should i rename this post as Bet She'an - "bathroom mein shaan"...;-)

Strawberry + Walnut pie

My baking debut - glad it came out well!!
Happy Mother's day!!

Common road sign in Haifa

Thopu karanam

Not long before they start teaching Sandhya Vandanam!




So, this is our age-old thopukaranam reinvented. When i was a toddler my grandma made us do it every day in the morning before heading to school and it was also a means of punishment when we cousins fought amongst us. A 108 thopukaranams is a practice or a prayer which is followed by many a men even now, for example one of my uncles does it as a special prayer when he prays for someone's speedy recovery of health. And i bet he has always had a blood clot on his thighs which wouldn't heal for the next couple of days. Three years ago, when i came back to India while i was heavily pregnant, in my last trimester with little A, my mom begged me to do at least 9 every morning in order that i have a normal delivery. It doesn't stop here, even the post pregnancy fat could also be gotten rid off with daily thopukaranams and it did work for me!

Hence the thopukaranam is not only the super brain yoga, but the head to toe rejuvenating yoga! After having written and realizing the goods of it, its high time i restarted my thopukaranam regimen.

PS: Thanks to Chiku who sent me this link and made me scribble today!

Nazareth

Nazareth, an old Jewish town is where Jesus grew up and is a very important Christian/Biblical pilgrimage center. This is the native town of Jewish Mary and the town where she got married to Joseph of Nazareth. The main attraction is the Basilica of Annunciation, where Gabriel, the angel announced to Jewish Mary about the birth of Jesus and they fled to Bethlehem and returned to Nazareth after a while where Jesus spent the rest of his childhood, so they say! because the place of birth of Jesus is still a mystery and the modern day scholars still argue between Bethlehem and Nazareth.

But, you know what, i was totally surprised to see that the town comprised of only Arab population today. Arabic is the most spoken language, folks hardly speak Hebrew or English. It is said that at the Basilica and St. Joseph's church, the services were also initially conducted only in Arabic.

Basilica's Main entrance,
Main Grotto of annunciation, this is where virgin Mary was told by the angel about the birth of Jesus

The old caves/Grottos can still be seen under the Basilica and St. Joseph's church or let me put it this way, the churches were built over these old jewish caves.

The huge dome, said to be shaped like a white lily.

A corner restaurant,
Bang in front of the Basilica of Annunciation,

A coffee shop where you get freshly ground coffee powder from the beans of Kenya, Columbia, Turkey etc etc.