.. the tangine

bubbling away in my emile henry clay pot....

Chicken Tangine with Fennel for dinner tonight...

S,my foodie friend (and I don't mean that only in keeping with Jones way.. she is a real foodie) told me about tangines.. moroccan stews of various kinds,cooked in a dish of the same name, a shallow clay pot with a tall conical lid (see picture above), a few weeks back. I have attempted make them a few times after that, with moderate success..

After picking up fennel bulbs from a new, well appointed, gourmet store in the neighbourhood, aptly called, The Providore, I decided to make a Chicken Tangine much to the delight of my family.

It is a simple recipe with onions, garlic, ginger, saffron threads, salt, tumeric and a moroccan spice mix (ras el hanout, is what they use, I had to make do with a pared down version) with parsley sprigs or corainder leaves as bouquet garni; dunked into the pot with the chicken and fennel..and cooked for a couple of hours on a slow flame.

Served the stew with some couscous to my oohing and aahing family :)

Baking at last...

Bread making was always a disaster...mine always looked great, but were either too hard or too soft or just unevenly baked or textured, ever since college days. How did I still earn my hotel management degree.. well bakery and confectionary was only 1 of the 17 subjects we did at school, and yes, there were ways to get by :) ...

which was sad, because I love bread.. all kinds from the scrumptious croissants and baguettes in Paris boulangeries to the maska bread with a hard crust, from a local 50 year old Parsi bakery..

I figured my problem was with the quintessential eukaryotic micro-organism called 'yeast'. I am yet to learn how to work well with yeast.

So I gave up baking all together for many years. And then, I discovered quick breads.

Quick breads are breads made without yeast but with a chemical raising agent like baking powder, baking soda etc. They can be either savory or sweet.

So here I am, baking a batch of scones, at midnight, when the rest of the household is asleep, so that I can grieve for my baking disaster in private, if need be, i.e.

Well, it was'nt so bad this time. My scones are unevenly shaped and a little darker than I expected them to be, but boy!, they are delicious. My midnight feast tonight was a lovely warm scone, fresh from the oven, with a low fat version of clotted cream and jam. .. which I made !!!!

touche!

Harshada

I have seen Harshada grow into a smart, confident, young girl almost in her teens from a sickly looking 5 year old taking unsure steps into my house, holding onto her mother's sari pallu, over the last few years. Ah! the things education and general exposure to life can do to a young fertile mind of a child.
Mangal, her mother has been working for our family for the last 7 odd years. Though Mangal has her many faults, prefering to spend her evenings after work romancing her various boyfriends, she does'nt want her daughter to have the life she has and does everything she can to make sure she does'nt have to. Her husband, many years older, turns a blind eye towards her infidelity but dotes on his daughter.
Harshada goes to school. Till last year she went to a municipal school, this year she moved to a bigger school which, I believe, is not free anymore. She also asked her mother for a computer. Her mother barely literate came and asked me how much a PC would cost.
I was a little taken aback and decided to speak to Harshada myself. I met her after a long time..corporate life had been taking a toll on me for the last few years and I had little time for anything else.
She had grown up.. a little woman, poised, confident, spoke hindi fluently, strangely perceptive and mature for her age. She looks after herself most days at home after school.
I convinced her to do some basic computer courses before making her parents buy her a computer they could ill afford. She happily agreed.
So I took her to Aptech to register her for a level one Vidya course, her delighted parents in tow, as soon as her summer vacations started . One got her a cell phone and the other showed her the bus routes and got her a pass.
Harshada completed her course, she comes home to practise on one of our laptops on Sundays sometimes. She wants to complete the level II in her next vacations and learn to speak english, she writes and understands the language fluently though.
She bought JB a book to learn marathi for his birthday, on hearing about us struggling with the marathi lessons for school, from her mother.
I have asked her if she will teach JB marathi..She will be paid for the lessons, her first little job; and we will also teach her english in return.
Looks like she will have a different life than her mother after all.

50 books at Twist n Tales..

I don't think I ever bought so many books in a single purchase at Twist n Tales, the neighbourhood bookstore, as the owner and my dear friend of many years likes to call it.
Sumi told me about TnT and it's warm and thoughful owner J when the place opened many years back in 2002 and so began my journey with a little bookstore in my neighbourhood (it is not 'my neighbourhood' anymore, we moved). I still don't know what I cherish more, my evolving friendship with J, TnT or the things it did to me. TnT is for book lovers and serious readers. You don't see stuff like CDs, toys, magazine or any such trash, that can distract you from focusing on the wonderful, neatly categorized selection of books, carefully handpicked for the store, by it's owner. If I am not mistaken, bulk of the revenues (apart from what they make from supplying to schools and other institutions) come from the loyal customers of TnT who are now slowly and unwittingly becoming a neighbourhood community. Fond of stereotyping (as M accused me many years back) as I am, there is such a thing as a twist n tales type of person now : besides being an avid reader: thinking, value driven, socially conscious of the environment around and above all liberated in mind and spirit. One of the perks of J's jobs is also making friends out of potential TnT people she meets browsing around in her store or even otherwise..If is means anythings and adds on to her credibility, J is very well networked with the NGO crowd (a TISS hangover perhaps :) ) and has started promoting local authors, launching them (she comes up with some great ideas for thematic book launches), organising book readings and helping them with other knick knacks such as finding illustrators for their book covers, shooting the wind with them to explore ideas etc. ( A backward integration is also on the cards, yes)
There is also such a thing as a TnT young person too: a kid who has grown up on the books from her store, has had free career counselling from J and has probably done a summer job or internship there and while working at TnT has picked up some fantastic work ethics and office skils.
Over the years, I have also found answers to my various problems there.. books to augment my knowledge base when I moved to HR (being an Ex-HR professional and a successful one while she was there, J connected and understood quickly what I was looking for, her recommendations hold me in good stead even today!), an internship for Cinderella to learn some critical life skills and yes she is a TnT young person today, meaningful gifts and presents and after many years connecting to books (other than work related stuff). JB, all of ten years today, is a voracious reader and has a mini library of his own, most of which came from TnT. He is waiting eagerly to be old enough to be able to do a summer job there (the tyke does'nt realize working at a bookstore is a lot of work and not just endless supply of books to read all day long!)
So... spend an afternoon selecting books for return gifts for the big birthday party coming up this weekend and chatting with J about parenting, books and her exciting business expansion plans over the planned lunch and unplanned coffee. Have offered to volunteer when her work with school kids and libraries takes off, and give in to my other interests.. kids, books and reading. Touche

meal at the basus..

tonight's dinner is Vietnamese style spring rolls with a dipping sauce and my mom's version of chicken kedgeree.. comfort food on rainy days! recipes and pictures to follow...

Inception...

what stayed an hour later was... brilliant story...Christopher Nolan.. Leonardo DiCaprio..dreams,layers, the sub conscious, extraction, inception, the spinning brass top..Michael Caine, good production, gripping (we even skipped the trip to the ladies and the coffee counter), Elean Page, great visuals. Can't get over the movie. Though I had heard and read a lot of good things about the movie, it still exceeded expectations. A definite contender for the awards this year..

hoping...

for a miracle.......at least that's what it seems now.

steam chicken breast with citrus and coriander

Came across the wonderful recipe by Phil's cooking academy on you tube. Interested cooking method.. Steam cooking in foil.
check it out here
Instant hit with the family... and very very healthy

Aloo methi with a twist..

No, you don't need to buy the fresh methi (fenugreek) leaves, have the maid clean it the day before, chop, cut blah blah..

You can use Kasoori methi out of a packet or if you have enough help in the kitchen or are enthusiastic enough .. make your own kasoori methi. So the recipe, here goes...

Potatoes: 5-6 medium size

Dried methi or kasoori methi: 2-3 tablespoons

For tempering

Methi seeds: 1 teaspoon

Whole cumin seeds: 2 teaspoons

Green chillies: 2-3 nos

Garlic cloves: 5-6 nos.

Boil potatoes in the pressure cooker till done. While the potatoes are boiling, soak kasoori methi in a cup of water.

One the potatoes are done, peel and chop into small peices.

Crush the garlic cloves and green chillies with a mortar and pestle or the back of a large knife together.

Heat oil in a kadai or frying pan and temper with whole cumin seeds, methi seeds and a pinch of hing (asofetedia).

When the seeds start spluttering, put in the crushed green chillies and garlic cloves. saute for a couple of minutes.

Put in the potatoes and give them a good stir in the kadai or frying pan.

Now, squeeze out the methi from the water and sprinkle it on the potatoes and mix well.

Saute for a 4-5 mins more and then remove from heat and serve hot with chapattis and hot yellow dal.

Comfort food.. yummm!!!

Homemade kasoori methi in a jiffy..

Wash a bunch of methi leaves well so that all the mud etc is cleaned out well.

Pluck the leaves off the stem and place them on a dry kitchen towel to wipe off the water as far as possible.

Flatten the leaves on a plate in a single layer and put it in the microwave for a minute.take the plate out, stir the leaves and put it back for another minute or so till the leaves are completely dried out.

Store the dried leaves in a airtight glass bottle and use as and when required.

childhood memories.. ajwain wali arvi

I lived on a diet of bread, milk and fruits as a child. My mom's skills at serving lightly cooked vegetables full of colour,flavour and nutrition were wasted on me. I took to cooking a little late in life and have been making up for the lost time ever since....

Ajwain wali Arvi is a typical north indian vegetarian side dish and is usually a hit if balanced well with spices..

Ingredients

Arvi (about 750gms) also called collocasia stems

green chillies

dry masalas (red chilli powder, roasted cumin powder, corainder powder, dry mango powder, tumeric)

salt to taste

green chillies

ajwain (caraway seed)

Method

Boil the arvi, after washing it well, in a pressure cooker. Peel the brown skin off and cut the stems into 2-3 peices.

Heat some mustard oil in the kadai and put a teaspoon and a half of ajwain and green chillies.

Add arvi peices when the tempering starts spluttering.

Add the dry masalas and saute well till the masalas are nicely roasted.

Serve hot with chapattis and enjoy!

beet and gajor chechki.. an colorful bengali side dish

This is recipe nor the next one are originals. They have appeared on my blog because I tried them out and they were a hit with friends and family. The photos are original though!

I usually use 3 beetroots and 2 medium sized carrots.

Some green chillies: slit

kalo jeera (nigella seeds)

salt: to taste

tumeric and chilli powder - to taste

Cut the beetroots and the carrots into matchstick size pieces.

Heat about 1 teaspoon of oil in a kadai or pan. Once the oil is smoking, put the green chillies and kalo jeers (about1.5 teasp) till they start spluttering.

Put the carrot and beetroot in the kadai, stir well, cover and let it cook for a while

Once the veggies are cooked slightly, add the salt, tumeric and chilli powder and stir. Cover and cook till well done.

Really, it is that simple.

les temoins..

I have been watching a lot of foreign films (as in foreign language by foreign directors,non english or american or british films ) since I have been off work. It's like being in a different country among different people for two hours. If the film is well made, you also get a glimpse of the socio-cultural environment of the land.

One such film I recently saw was a french film called 'witnesses' which was also the entry from France for the Toronto film festival.

A young gay french guy, Manu, from the provinces, arrives in Paris and gatecrashes into his sister's apartment. He soon befriends a middle aged doctor,Eros, who introduces him to the sights and sounds of Paris and also some of his friends. The film is set in the 1980s when the AIDS epidemic broke out. It has a wonderful potrayal of how the lives of the friends, manu and eros and the couple they are friends with : Mehdi and Sarah are affected with the outbreak. That, the French are known for their ability to respect individual choices when it comes to sexual preference, love,marriage,relationships etc is obvious in the way the complex relationships of these friends has been depicted in the films. "I don't care who he sleeps with so long I win in the end'' says Sarah to her friend, about her boyfriend Mehdi, when she finds out about his amorous relationship with a man. The films deals with the outbreak of AIDS affecting one and all on the streets in a manner which I have never seen before. It is all very subtle and matter of fact but very real and focussed.

A powerful film which leaves you wanting for more..highly recommended.

kumror, chana chechki

Kumro and chana, with apologies to minakshi dasgupta

I started out to make a chechki which is defined as a stir fry of vegetables cut into small peices with a tempering of panchphoron or kalo jerey or whole mustard seeds. We like our veggies like cut big and chunky so I decided to do a variation, which was somewhere between a ghonto and a chechki.

so here goes..

Ingredients

Pumpkin, approx 300gms, cut into large chunks

2 medium size potatoes

Kabuli chana, soaked overnight and boiled: 1 1/4 cup
Parval or broad beans : about 150 gms
1 onion- grated
3-4 dried red chillies
a green veg - one can use potol or sheem (english names pointed gourd and broadbeans)
masalas
salt
Red chilli powder
tumeric
corainder and cumin powder
garam masala powder

tempering
panch phoron
Pour a little mustard oil in a kadai. once the oil is hot, put in the dry red chillies and about a 1.5 teaspoons of panchphoron. After they start crackling a little bit, add the grated onion and saute for a while. Add the vegetable one by one in the order they cook.. potatoes, punpkin and then the beans or potol. Cover and let is cook for a while. Mix all the masalas in a little water and then pour it into the kadai, mix well. Add a little hot water at this point if you want a little gravy. Add the chana and mix well. Cover and let is cook till done.

Serve with steam rice.

Ready to eat...

minakshi dasgupta... thank u v much

His angioplasty hit me hard, the uncertainity of life came closer home. It is hard enough to keep a marriage going and a marriage with baggages??? A lived to eat, I did'nt want that to change for him, at least. So everything else took a back seat.. I have been experimenting with oil free/low fat, vegetarian versions of almost everything he liked to eat.
The most popular dishes out of a bengali kitchen are primarily non vegetarian.. macher jhols of various kinds, kasha mangsho, chingri malai curries and the like. The vegetarian part of the bengali cuisine has potential too.. One day, when there are enough recipes for a seperate blog, I will move all this to a food blog, till then read on....

musings from the corporate world

.. ogilvy noor!!??? A whole vertical dedicated to marketing to the muslims, courtesy O&M... ''world's first bespoke Islamic branding practice'' ..Still can't get over it. I have heard of marketing campaigns targetings various demographic segments earlier; the blacks, the hispanics, the NRIs... whatever, so ideally should'nt be reacting to this one, right? What is this going to do? differentiate or assimilate sensibilities ? Are we going to end up highlighting differences which we did'nt notice, which just went into the melting pot of all cultures that make India? Would I feel the same way if HTA came up with something called HTA-Shubh, marketing to the hindus or something of that sort ?

A and me

I figured I don't mind A's patronising anymore!!! being much older and very aware of it, he advices (most of it unsolicited) me on even simple household chores. Realised it has stopped getting my goat anymore!!! what's next? looking like him? they say people start looking like each other when they grow old together....

a summer to remember...

The met department said that the monsoons are likely to hit the city in a couple of days. Summer is finally over, school opens, the dusty foilage will soon wear a fresh green look. I have taken a few months off work and spend the summer at home,no holidays, no travelling, no cousins visiting, just plenty of family time..
JB... he did so much.. learnt french, practiced piano every single day, developed a taste in old classic movies with me, spend hours in the pool, had friends over off and on, and when we would let him, tried cooking. I did all of that with him..I have almost started missing him when he's in school.. an obsessed mom: you bet! I am so proud of him. We were always close, but now we are closer.
A: Illness has brought us closer than we were. Food kept us together, now eating right and cycling has.
Me: watched lots and lots of movies.. developed a taste for award winning films in foreign languages, period films and war movies. Cooked, cooked and cooked... JB says I make the best pasta in the world :) :) well he likes my rissotos and roasts too. Brought my vegetarian bengali cooking as close to perfection as I cooked. Finally started finishing a book in a week. Honed my parental skills,lost a little weight (still a drop in the ocean), finally started cycling and so much more. My to do list still had a few things to complete before I get back to work..
If not for anything else, for being able to bond with my son, for ruffling his hair or giving him a big hug as soon as he gets back home from school, for watching A grin in pleasure when I produce another zero oil delicacy from the kitchen, for finally noticing the beautiful gulmohar trees flowering in all their glory in summers, for growing up a little... this is one of the best summers I have had in a long long time

mumbai meri jaan ?....no way!

after a long long time, a trip to mumbai and got to do stuff I always wanted to:

1. Lunch at Britannia, one of Mumbai's most famous Parsi restaurants in Ballard estates.Famous for it's berry pulao and many other mouthwatering parsi dishes...dhansak with brown rice, sali boti etc. not to forget cool drinks like ice cream soda from parsi run factories.

Also encountered Mr. Boman Kohinoor Irani (picture), one of the partners of Britannia, who insists on taking every order himself despite his frail demenour, failing eyesight, memory etc but an unbetable spirit neverthless..

2. Buying crockery from good earth.. a well appointed lifestyle store epitomising the chic indian look. The largest collection of aesthetically put together designs of crockery and furnishing, difficult to make up your mind.. each peice on display is a collector's item in it's self. I was taken aback at the space they have at their disposal bang in the middle of the now upmarket lower parel area.Also had tea at the tasting room with my two elderly aunts and sister in law. The stylish tea service is done in the beautiful good earth crockey... an experience and fragrance (the store has scented with their own mix of essential oils.. I am told a mix of bergmont, lavender and lemon) to remmember and look forward to in the next visit.

3.A visit to Red Blue and Yellow: A much talked about store when it opened.. though I thoroghly enjoyed my visit, I found the ware disappointing or may be I expected much more.

4. Lunch at the Indigo Cafe: BIL, SIL and me stuffed ourselves at the cafe in Andheri (W). A truly satisfying European meal. Spotted Manish Malhotra lunching with what looked like a young intern at the next table..

on the whole a satisfying trip..

Next trip.. drive on Queen's necklace and lunch at olive or goa portuguesa

waiting, waiting and waiting... sigh!

this and that

Day 1 : down with cramps, bad bout of food poisoning, high fever, in bed the whole evening

Day 2 : cycling in the hills in the evening, cooking, giving the kiddo a nice scrub

what the hell am I trying to prove to myself???

amazing science

Watching JB struggle with names of summer and winter fruits and vegetables got me thinking.. there aren't any summer fruits and winter fruits and vegetables at all.. everything is available round the year now. Most of them are just grown in simulated conditions when the weather is not conducive.
it got me thinking... nothing will remain the same anymore. I wonder what I will teach my grand kids. You may not need acres and acres of farmland to grow tonnes of grain anymore, you may not even need soil to grow plants anymore, plant reproduction will happen in labs and trial farms, cereals will also be sources vitamins and minerals, mothers won't scream at their kids to eat their veggies any more, every law of nature is being challenged, the world as we know it is changing at a much faster pace than one can fanthom.. my brush with food revolution slowly sweeping the world has left me humbled ...

Confused soul

The one thing I can do endlessly is.. watch movies on the home theatre in our bedroom cooled by an oversized airconditioner (A and I had a lot of arguements when we first bought it, but now the sturdy oversized AC is the only thing that manages to cool a room filled with a large LCD and a home theatre system, a PC and 2-3 laptops)

bridge on the river kwai and more...

JB and I have been watching a lot of old movies this summer.. we started with The eagle has landed, Guns of navarone and just finished watching The bridge on the river Kwai, The movie still doesn't fail to mesmerise, even in the world of blu rays and 3 D televisions.Alec Guinness potrayal of the spirited and dignified Col Nicholson is captivating and leaves one asking for more. Needless to say JB loved the film.

afternoons and coffeespoons

A quiet afternoon at home, sigh!, wish there were more of these

smiling thru summer

Things I am doing this summer:
1. Finally getting on to a bike.
2. Swimming almost everyday for a couple of weeks
3.Watched JB learn taking baby steps mastering french
4. learning to appreciate a whole new genre of movie - old war movies, period films.
5. Spending more time with A than I ever have since we got married.
6. Finally reading a new Amy Tan
7. Cooking cooking and cooking and loving it all the way. Rediscovering Jamie olivier and bangla ranna
8. Having friends over to spend the day
...... and more. God where did my life go all these years. A welcome break from work after a long long time.

Duplicity Starring Julia Roberts, Clive Owen

Dear Ms. Roberts,

Will you please please not have the saaa...mmm....e expression throughout the whole god dammed film. I liked duplicity though, for its anti-climax and slickness. A good watch.

Your fan since pretty woman
Bubble

Of Mr.Khan and Mr. Khan

Dear Mr. Aamir Khan,
I have been a great admirer of your work for many many years. I have watched all your fims from QSQT to 3idiots in the first week of their release. I even tried joining a fan club till I realized the founder was cuckoo.
I think you are one of the most versatile actors in the industry today.
But I am disappointed with you.. you shunned awards in India on the grounds that they were biased and there was too much politicking and lobbying happening around them and yet you did the same thing for Lagaan at the Oscars!!! Isnt there enough lobbying and politicking happening there too! then why the double standards?

Dear Mr. Sharukh Khan,

Way to go!!! Kudos to you for taking on the fanatic bunch of hooligans who call themselves a political party.

cheers...

I love my life

why oh why am I trying to be supermom... movie plans on a weeknight, dinner parties that start at 11 p.m. on a Sunday night, gourmet meals with no help....:( all with a full time stressful job.

Tommorow is strawberry smoothie and bowl of dried fruit for breakfast for junior, brunch for cinderella.

at work: analysis of a recently completely survey and a search for a financial analyst for a new business line.

and oh yes, I loooo... ve my blackberry curve.

happy to be back

hey I'm back.. what I have been upto these days, well working, keeping the house , socializing but god ! I missed blogging. gettting addicted to facebook and linked in.I have a love hate relationship with my virtual social life.

As for now, I am back at the gym for the umpteenth time, a bigger better and more encouraging one... and a much more motivated me!

My MBA registration is finally happening in the next couple of weeks.

Work.. have moved up the rung and learnt soo soo much in the last one year. Going strong and looking forward for more

My folks.. have been good, dad's finally found something meaningful to do here. had some great times with them this week

entertainment.. brothers and sisters.. I'm hooked :) planning to finally complete my promise to dada about the NFAI membership this week

Vicky Christina Barcelona

just watched the movie which won an award for supporting actress for Penelope cruz who actually appears in the second half of the movie. The movie talks about romance, love and longing of .. well.. every kind.
based in the spanish countryside the movie is about the relationship between a painter, two american tourists and his ex wife.

more later

I am back folks!

... after a long long time.
so where have a been.. well lots has happened, A is working in Paris, JB is growing up, cindrella seems to be doing OK with her writing editing whatever and me.. well one friend less, still immersed in work in what seems to be an endless wait for the fruits of my labour.

bonus weekend

Finally got to spend some precious time with Junior. Took him for a buffet breakfast at Sun-n-Sand's coffee shop - carrots and celery. A bright sunny place overlooking the pool. came home, hung around and then took him cycling in the evening.
did some ' science experiments' at home from his book on 'cool stuff'. drove around with him listening to 'boomtown rats'.
I think he is an interesting kid, I don't know too many 8 year olds who can discuss boomtown rats, coldplay, the story of hunchback of notredam and composition of the soil in the same breath.
passed up a trip to the salon, to watch him wash his cycle and earn his first bit of pocket money. I think getting him to earn pocket money doing small jobs and chores around the house, is a good idea, - could teach him some valuable lessons in life .

lions for lambs

Lions for Lambs finished abruptly.. just when things seemed to be warming up.
A college professor inspiring a gufted student to do ore meanigful things with his life. Two of his former students in Afghanistan battling for their lives in the battlefront, a probing reporter talking to a senator, inching his way to the white house, about a new military initiative launched in Afghanistan.
Merly Streep, Robert Redford and Tom Cruise.. the movie can't be bad I though when I saw it at the DVD rental store.
A thought provoking movie after a really long spell of crappy song and dance hindi movies I had been watching for a while
Lambs.. military strategist who have never faced the battlefront, planning wars from their air conditioned offices miles away, lions.. the brave and the courageous men, inspiring and driven who actually fight driven by their idealism.

the half centuries in my life..

old people liking me is getting a litle out of hand. now my in laws wants to come and stay in our city. and I am trying to think no there is nothing wrong with that, just more convinient if something happens, we will be right here to look after them. Of course, my parents being in the same city helps, or does'nt it ? dunno, don't want to think about it.

In my moment of weakness I did ask my in laws to move here once and now, 8 years later ,they said yes!

eight birthday parties

I asked JB what he wanted me to do differently (for him) after his eighth birthday, "just go to the gym regularly mama" he said.

we are having two of them, one at home for his building friends and one at the farmhouse with a swim in the river, boat ride etc thrown in. and some fabulous presents - a bike, lego and the like.

hollywood trivia

he has to be a dish.. he is tom hanks' s eldest son. No where as successful as his illustrious father but just as handsome.. no much more.

Colin Hanks is a dish..Watching ' my mom's new boyfriend'... man he makes it totally worth it

just like saif ali khan did in ' thoda pyar thoda magic'. The movie was so silly.

But I am definitely going to google Mr. Hanks tonight...

the half century birthday

had a great one week with 12 people in the house and another 7-8 guests staying at various places - I thought the duration was perfect.. neither too long nor too short. Got lots and lots of brownie points from the in laws and the extended family. A said he was 'overwhelmed' ...

the party went off well - one of the better one most people had seen.

on the whole everything was well worth the year long effort put in to make it happens.

half century parties

So we are finally all set for both the half century parties and the 7 house guest we are going to have over the next week or so and 8 more over the weekend..

Spend most of the day organising the house, towels, sheets, table linen, embroidered coasters for my tea set to impress MIL, monogramed handtowels, trendy curtains in my bedroom, new plants for my living room, extra household help, RSVPs the list goes on..

Boy! I missed the house proud me, glad A kept out of my way.

Goa - some more hues

''it is very easy to like someone.. a meaningful relationship happens when you can tolerate the not so nice things about that someone..'' whoa! when did I come up with that one.

Had a great mini holiday in Goa with the family - my favourite moments: collecting seashells on all fours with Junior on the beach, watching A grin after a awesome meal at Mum's kitchen in Miramar after sulking the whole day.

We did all the stuff we had'nt done a lot in our previous visits to Goa - spend hours and hours on the beach, explore Goan food in every meal - Ahh! the awesome goan curries - Vindahloos, Sorpotel, Xacutis, Caldeen, Rechardos, Ambotiks etc etc - rediscovering sanas - a local bread served with the fiery hot curries - the sweetness accentuating the taste.

Old Goa - tells you a story - the ruins of tower of the church of St.Augustine towers, the Basilica of Bom Jesus, the Christian arts museum, Se Cathedral.. all nestled in approx 1.5 - 2 sq kms of the world heritage site.I only wish I could spend some more time walking around the site on my own - had to leave in a hurry, nobody else seemed interested enough.

The science musuem under the national council of science musuems in Miramar was a discovery too. Would definitely spend some more time in my next trip there with Junior - infact probably a whole day. should be an enriching experince for the kid - he wants to be scientist, more specifically a geologist.

Not to forget, also acquired my first peice of designer wear..

Finally off to Goa.. could do with the break. Was getting inordinately addicted to work, my laptop..Zooming out in the real sense .
looking forward to connect with my son and family.. :)

shaurya - movie review

one of the best hindi films I have seen this year. It talks about issues like ethnic cleansing.. desi style. brilliant performance by all actors - kay kay menon, outshines everyone easily in his role as the quasi fascist brigadier with a strong dislike for all muslims. Rahul Bose : we know you speak good english man. How about actually acting for a change. Doing alternate cinema these days does not make you a great actor. you can do crass commercial stuff and still be a great actor. As Sharukh Khan had said in one of his interviews : " people say that I act the same way in every single film, what they don't realize is how difficult it is to do the same stuff over and over again."

watching Narayan Muthy on 'Unstoppable Indians' on NDTV profit.
he says "articulate the values and walk the talk" about how he ensured he was creating a value based organisation .. very very powerful speaker.. Some more of Murthy speak "we infosyian's are not used to giving high marks to ourselves" I find listening to Mr. Murthy very very inspiring. Would love to work for a company which has a chief mentor like him one day.

reminds me of my many conversations with you D.
Suffering from writer's block at the moment. ..

Oscars 2008.. the big day approaches

We are so close to approaching the D-Day, the Oscar nominations for 2008 are to be announced on 22 nd January and I am no where near compiling my list of favorites.
So these are the movies I intend watching in the next 10 days (I don't know how!!) which most pundits claim are the favorites for this year..

1. Atonement
2.My Blueberry nights (would have seen it earlier, but Norah Jones reminds me of someone I despise, but I shall watch it now)
3.Reservation Road
4.No Country for old men
5.Charlie Wilson's War
6.American Gangster
7.Kite Runner (though I am pretty sure this won't win, even if nominated for the same reasons walk the line did'nt, the book is too widely read. Everyone has an opinion.)
8. The Diving Bell and the butterfly.

Mad Money and Bucket List are on the list as well. Nothing to do with an oscar though.

The bong connection

Made maccher jhol this afternoon which would have definitely made mother-in-law from Kolkata proud.
The Maach was rohu fish (the fishmonger swears it is a sweet water fish from the rivers of Gujrat) and the jhol was patla jhol or thin gravy made from tomatoes, onions and masalas and delicately flavoured with kalo jeere

A good sunday afternoon watch..

'Summer with Nikita' is an idylllic Ingmar Bergman film.. story of two adolescent lovers, harry and nikita who fall in love, go on a boating holiday in summer, get married and have a baby.. The movies was banned in the year it was produced in the US was being too explicit (1957.. not too sure)
The local DVD library (which has suddenly gone up in my estimation) is doing a retrospective on bergman films and movie hungry people like me are riding it. They did one on hitchcock films, then satyajit ray films, award winning foreign films and than finally bergman films..way to go, guys!!

The 80th Academy Awards, 2008

.. will be held at Kodak theatre on 24 th Feb 2008. The pundits have started predicting the front runners... none of the films have generated the kind of euphoria which one saw with the release of crash or the departed or walk the line last year.
The DVD library has none of the films on the favorites list.. I hope I get to see them on time this year.

one of the few things I would definitely like to do before I turn 40 is do the film appreciation course and see one full international film festival..

Finally watched terms of endearment on DVD one evening.I had been trying to watch the movie for a long time but never really got round to it. The movie is an adaptation of James Brook's book, beautifully made. Shirely McLaine is brilliant and Jack Nicolson..still breathtaking. the movie is the story of the lives of a mother and daughter over 25 years (or more, I lost count). It makes you laugh and cry both at the same time. Some how reminded me of Eric Segal's 'Love story'.
Much as I ride the pace at work, I miss my movie evenings. There were several of those earlier.

'Slummy mummy' is what they call them these days.. I came across the term in newsweek which said that momzillas is actually becoming a phenomenon.
Scary huh!

highs and lows of motherhood

Junior's rough copy for school was finishing. We had only 5 pages left in the beginning of the week. Irritated on being reminded three days in row to get him a new one, I gave him some money in a brown envelope and told him, "buy it yourself, from the staionary shop in school''.
He came back today from school with a brand new 200 pages double line copy from school and handed me the brown envelope with the change.
.....my son is growing up, I'll miss him :(

ernesto 'che' guevara

I have always been fascinated with che... ever since I found his biography among my fathers humongous collection of Communist literature as a teenager.
Ernesto che Geuvara, an obscure Argentinian doctor who lead the Cuban revolution with his band of guerillas and overthrew the then reigning dictator, Batista.
There is always been some amount of mystical romanticisn associated with Che's image. Even more after his death. He was killed by the army (or some say the CIA) in the Bolivian jungles organizing guerilla fighters in 1967.
Cinderella recommended a mexican movie called 'the motorcycle diaries'. the movie is based on a journals written by Che and his friend Alberto who travel all over South America to do their medical residency at a leper colony at the banks of the Amazon. The movie starts as a travellogue but ends on a sombre intense note. It succesfully shows Ernesto's transformation from a fresh faced school boy romping around the country side to an intense young man troubled by the social injustice of the South American poor.
After watching the movie a few times I revisited my fascination for handsome and charming Che. This was a couple of years back and once again my fascination with the poster boy of communism was forgotten in the sands of time.
2 years later, at home, irritated with my illness, while surfing channels I came across a TV program on the history channel on Che..
and so I write on..

2008 Oscars countdown..

My Oscar party list of invitees seems to be growing steadily...SIL & I will finally have the party together across the globe, at the same time. She will serve dinner and I will serve breakfast :)
The list so far..
1 film critic, 1 writer, 2 students, 1 doctor, 1 film director and teacher of film studies, 1 grandma, 1 HR head honcho , 1 ex HR head honcho...
eclectic enough ? think so..

High on life

I am high on : kids, work... :)

kids : Cinderella topped in two subjects in SYBA , Junior is getting a trophy for academics and coming first in quiz .
work : rocks
my food.. never fails to diappoint

The Joshi museum of miniature railway, Pune

Finally, I took junior and cinderella to the JMMR in Kothrud, a very maharastrian locale in Pune.I had been hunting for the place for the eversince I heard of it 2 years ago, finally found the address and phone number in a book called 'my Pune, travel book' under the things for children to do section.
Located in a robust, husting and bustling lane off Karve Road, the local maratha fervour is unmistakable. You see dozens of educated parents trudging into the museum every Saturday and Sunday with little tykes in tow.
The musuem has a giant turntable on the first floor with a huge miniature railway set up - there are all kinds of trains (42 kinds claims a pamphlet) and mechanical toys: a moving ferris wheels , a circus tent which goes up , a chimney which emits smoke, cars which move and accompanying commentary in Marathi, people who can't understand marathi are given headphones for english commentary.. the whole thing is orchestrated : It is a 20-30 mins show.

The museum was set up by Bhau Joshi, an engineer and a miniature railway enthusiast, who unfortunately died just six months after the
museum was inaugrated. His son Dr.Ravi Joshi runs the museum now.
The place is quaint , old fashioned and devoid of modern trappings but surprizingly well organized.

(the museum is only open in the weekends between 5-8 p.m., special arrangements , however, can be made for block bookings, tickets cost Rs.25 per head for adults and children above 3 years.)

Needless to say, Junior, Cinderella and me had a great time. Junior spend all morning today trying to re create the set up with his cheap chinese train tracks I bought him from the hobby shop as a souvenier, Lego and matchbox cars.

the basu trail..

I thought i had to immortalize this ...

A and I have been chinese food ethusiasts for for as long as I can remmember. Our association with chinese food started in Kolkata . In Kolkata everyone likes chinese food..the city has restaurants all over the place and not to mention Tangra or old china town.
A ghetto of chinese residents in the north eastern part of the city. But the chinese here are far from economically challenged. Most chinese families here live in huge mansions and run fairly various business : tanneries, chinese sauce production units, successful beauty parlours and almost all of them run chinese restaurants on the ground floor of their mansions. The community is very close knit and it is not unusual to come across a big mama in one these restaurants who understands little or no english. These restaurants are always run by members of the family.. you would more often not find the daughter or daughter in law of the family handling the till and ushering in guests. The food is what I would call Indian Chinese or Calcutta Chinese as it is known in other parts of the world.
Also this is the only place in Kolkata where one could get alcohol even on dry days ..if you can get past the long line of cars and cabs that is.
At one point A would have his lunch everday in a restaurant in Tangra called 'lily's kitchen'' which served the best panfried noodles I have ever had .
When we moved to Pune, chinese food options were limited, so we decided to start cooking at home. thanks to A's travels availability of ingredients was never an issue.
And our cooking at home evolved over a period of time. As far as chinese is concerned A is strictly a recipe book chef. We started with books like easy to cook chinese to land of plenty by Fuchsia Dunlop.Fuchsia Dunlop is a hot favourite with us.. She has studied Sichuan Cuisine in Chengdu from the Sichuan institute of higher cuisine.
She consults with a restaurant called 'bar shu'' in chine town near SoHo in London.
We celebrated A's 49th birthday in Bar Shu this year. A discovered the restaurant on one of his trips to London about a year ago. He frequented Bar Shu so often that the staff did'nt realize he did'nt live in London. He had a pattern. he would go for a drink to this pub across the street from barshu called the 'the dog and duck'' and then have dinner in bar shu before calling it a night. He did this trail with clients, colleagues and friends who then coined the term 'the basu trails'' for these evenings .In my one week in London, I had dinner there 3 times.
Bar Shu serves exquisite Sichuan food. We do almost all the dishes on the menu at barshu and to quote some of over zealous admirers of A's culinary skills 'you do them better''.. dan dan noodle,mouth numbing chicken, boiled beef, preserved eggs and the like.

movies and me..

Just got back after seeing ocean's thirteen with Cinderella. George Clooney and Brad Pitt seem to be growing hotter as they grow older.. or maybe it is my evolved taste in men. the older the better.. so long they are not grandpas.
Ocean's thirteen is definitely a much better watch than Ocean's twelve.. though all the three are a great recommemdation for your personal DVD library collection. Steven Sodenberg got all of them in and you even got a glimpse of Andy Garcia..
The same setting.. las vegas casino and boy! I loved the dialogues. This film definitely lifts your spirits..

Saw a very different film with A last night: ' Amadeus '.. a sublime film. Will write about it when I have finished watching it..

one has moved on in life..

to a new job, opportunities and relationship.

Things have really changed since I lasted posted anything on this blog. I wanted change and boy! what a change it has been!

Work is engrossing and exciting.. an opportunity to create something from nothing. I could develop this into a core competency one day.
And I have finally found a mentor. We have a intellectually stimulating relationship. He says, he was like me when he was younger... that is the nicest thing anyone has said to me in a long long time. Wishful thinking though!

we are back!!!!

and delighted to be..

movie and more

So the oscars came and went. I made sure I had watched all movies nominated for best movie or best direction by then. The Oscar ceremony is telecast live early in the morning at 6 :00 here in India. I thouroughly enjoyed the show. Thought it had a casual air compared to the cere,monies in the previous years. All their hosts are humorous but I never saw John Stewart or Billy Crystal with a vaccum cleaner.
Some of the movies I saw recently :

1. The Good shepherd A slow but interesting movie about the founders of the CIA and the circumstance under which it is formed.
2. The Illusionist : a love story with a twist.

Both are recommended.

It's good to be back. Had problems posting because I still have'nt upgraded to the new beta version of blogger and I don't have a g- mail login ID. I did'nt want to create yet another e-mail ID. I already have 3.

The oscar countdown begins : 19 days 6 hrs and 45 mins to go

Ever since I realized that I had an above average interest in films, the oscar night is a big night for me too.
I start watching all the films which have any sort of nomination as soon as the nominee list is announced.
So this is what I have seen so far :
The Departed
nominations : best picture, best direction, best actor in a supporting role (Mark Wahlberg), writing (best adaptive screenplay) and best film editing
My take on the film : A modern day goodfellas. Brilliant film. The second mob movie I loved. It was refreshing to watch a movie that did'nt mention the word 'terrorism' a zillion times.
I have'nt watched all the films so can't say if it stands a chance to win
Little Miss Sunshine
Nominations : Actor in supporting role (Alan Arkin) Abigail Breslin (Actress in a supporting role), best picture, writing (best original screenplay)
Heartening movie on a dysfunctional family coming together when the little girl enters the Little Miss Sunshine contest across the country.
My take on the film : I think the film has stellar performances by many other actors ,other than the ones nominated. A good watch. Even inspirational for some.
The Devil wears Prada
Nominations : Best actress, best costume design
My take on the film : It is Meryl Streep all the way. The lady never let's you down. As a magazine editor in the fashion world where even her smallest word makes and breaks careers, she is potrayed as a woman in power who is powerless when it comes to her personal life.So much versatality in the same film. A must watch. Beautiful costumes for those who are interested.

Look out for more oscar news on this blog.

the highs and the lows of learning

I was averse towards developing myself technologically.. probably just a mental block.

So last year I decided to stop depending on others and learn to do things by myself.

So here is what all I learnt :

1. uploading images from a camera (after aquiring a digital camera)
2. loading the ipod (after acquiring one - a gift from A)
3. burning/copying CDs (after being given a laptop in my last job)
4. Scanning documents

I have considered them small achievements looking at the value they brought into my life just like driving did 4 years back.

I gave up my new job and landed myself a new one. Most of the stuff I will be dealing with is stuff I have never done before. I had arrived at a learning plateau in my old job. The situation scared me. I don't know if it was a lack of learning opportunities or the unwillingness to find them. anyway it was time to move on.

Today I learnt to chat. I chatted with my ex colleagues and my brother while going through a pile of resumes..like a true wet behind the ears chat(ter) I used emoticons with every sentence I typed..

I have just finished reading 'pitching the tent' by Anita Diamant. The book is about Anita's life, her first and second marriage, her relationship with her daughter and her jewish faith. Loved the book though it is a bit of overdose on Judaism.
learnt about the concept of 'marital love'. I was releived.
A and I have drifted to state of being, which I used to think was abnornal despite feeling fairly contented.

Marital love is..
1. sharing cupboards
2....hobbies
3. KIDS! and gloating over them
4. buying presents which are not wrapped and have price tags attached and seeing nothing wrong with it.
5.being objective about each other and still wanting to live with A
6. looking forward to A coming back after business trips and going back to sleep as soon as he lands after a quick hug.
7.exchanging glances across the room and knowing exactly what he is thinking.
8. not being able to fib to each other. getting caught when we do!
9. being able to laugh about fights
10. organizing surprize birthday parties.. once in 7 years.
...... well you get the drift.
a lot of water needs to flow under the bridge to get to this stage. A and I have been through a lot in the last 8 years of marriage. There are issues we resolved, some we have'nt and still others we never will.
Life goes on .. day after day, month after month, year after year.. some things never change.
I don't think I would have anyone else cook sichuan food for my birthdays.. ever .
State of being. I like it this way.. at least for some things in life.

once an author always an author

Just finished reading 'cat o nine lives' by (sir) Jeffrey Archer.As with every other Jeffrey Archer book I've read, I found it extremly engrossing.

Jeffrey Archer landed in jail accused of various illegal activities- providing false alibi, insider trading and few other things.And guess what the man does - continues writing publishing book(s) on stories he sniffed out, from his fellow inmates, in the high security Belmarsh prison. Though his political career ended with his conviction, he continues raking millions with his best sellers, some of which were written during his prison term.
Cat-o-nine lives is a collection of short stories of criminals of various kinds.Some seasoned, some novices. The though that it is fact and not all fiction makes them even more interesting.
Enjoyable reading!

the year that's gone

Year 2006 has been good to us.
Here are things that made me smile that year
1. junior's wise cracks.. seem sharper by the day.
2. Cinderella changed and her step-up article.
3.A's new guitar
4. Junior's attempt to play piano and guitar
5.our new Toyota Corolla
6. Dad in the media
7. Mulshi after the rains
8.Driving to Goa.
9.three new job offers (all doubling my current salary)
10. my certification
11. realization that I love chocolate.
12. walkathons
13.Dr T.
14.my new bose wave music system- a surprize gift from A after I oogled at it for 6 years. I am still confused about what made me happier : that A remmembered I wanted it or the bose itself.
15. Wagah border :closing of the gates ceremony.

Cinderella makes us proud

I watched her handle herself at the Sasoon hospital. I felt really really proud of her. She seemed to know how to behave, how to dress (faded salwar kameez), how to organize.She suddenly seemed grown up, responsible, self assured. And she stood out.

Bob Geldolf Fans

The husband bought a Yamaha C70 guitar.I came back home one evening from work and found the husband and Junior strumming their respective guitars with their feet up. I think A was always a closet musician.

He harboured hopes of forming a Basu band..till I dashed them by refusing to learn any form of music.
Music has always been an integral part of our household.The CD wall is the most used storage space in the house. So I guess it was only a matter of time till we moved to the next level.. jamming at home.

cinderella says, couscous is growing on her

I made some couscous salad with the leftover couscous in the refrigerator. We all loved it. My first ever attempt and my very own recipe. Here goes :
1 cup couscous (before cooking), cooked in a little chicken stock and butter.
a bunch of very fresh corainder leaved
freshly ground pepper
Juice of 1 lemon
1 red onion thinly sliced
half a cup of green peas, blanched
half a cup of button mushrooms chopped into 4
half a cup of chopped green onions - very fresh
3 pods of garlic
1/2 a cup of red and yellow peppers chopped
olive oil
salt to taste
1. saute the garlic and red onions in olive oil. When the onions start to change colour,add the mushrooms and then the peppers.
2.once the vegetables are nearly done(they should not be well done) dunk them in a salad bowl with the couscous.
3.throw in the corainder and the green onions, season with salt and pepper.
4. add lemon juice
5. Toss well and serve cold.

At the moment I feel I can eat couscous everyday.

Couscous is originally a dietary staple in the Mehgreb or the north African countries like Morocco, Libya, Tunisia and Algeria. Couscous is has now become popular in the middle eatern countries and France. The American call it pasta but excuse me, I beg to differ.
Couscous was traditionally made from the hard part of the hard wheat triticun durum which resisited grinding with a primitive millstone.The couscous grains are made from coarsely ground semolina (coarsely ground durum wheat) which was once a labor intensive process but has now been mechanised.
Steamed couscous is usually served with a meat or vegetable stew in the countries of it's origin or mixed with greens or fruits as a salad, in other countries.

the new James Bond

Cinderella and me saw Casino Royale on Saturday night. I think Daniel Craig makes a great JB. He still can't beat Pierce Brosnan though.
Things that worked well with Daniel Craig were :
facial expressions are almost perfect
almost sophisticated
he looked tall
great BOD!
felt human - Bond cries!!
felt human - he actually falls in love!
Things that could have been better
sophistication
Could have looked more intelligent, he almost looks like all brawn and no brain kinds.
(Pierce Brosnan takes the cake even in a black shirt and denims in talk shows)
Bond is Bond effortlessly. The new Bond has worked hard to be Bond and it shows!

Casino Royale has this retro effect through out the film. Somehow that adds to the charm. On the whole a good watch.

Dhoom 2 seems to be taking the multiplexes by storm. the night the movie premiered it seemed as if the entire state had come out to see the movie. Al multiplexes are running a min of 6-7 shows a day of the movie.Finally saw it today with Cinderella. There is a lot more intelligence used in making the film. though one almost does'nt notice it because of a whole lot of eye candy. frankly the film would have been just fine without Bipasha. It is Hritik all the way. I realized that Hritik was a great actor while watching one of his worst films ever - Main prem ki dewani hoon or something. Even in a pot boiler like that one can't take eyes off him.He is soo mesmerizing. I enjoyed the film though I am still wondering whether I liked it better than the first one or not.

this and that

I have always liked movies of any genre based on real life stories.
The latest one I saw was ' The Ron Clark story'. It is a story of a dedicated teacher who lands up teaching a bunch of kids at a school in Harlem, NY. The story is about how he turns around a bunch of kids labeled as under-achievers in to high performing students

Ron Clark seemed real to me even before I discovered that he was for real. I always thought Mathew Perry was one of the best out of the 'friends' lot. He seemed much more versatile than the others in the sitcom. After being seen as Chandler all these years, I must say he does justice to the role making Ron Clark come alive on screen.

The film is a simple, straight forward and touching.


moving on, the maid is on French leave. We seem to be doing fine at the moment though.

eerie coincidence

As a part of my assignment I had to create an ad for a hotel to boost sales! (what else, IGNOU assignment writers at their best)
I looked through a conde nast issue I found in my old magazine chest and cut out a picture of a majestic looking hotel on a cliff overlooking what seemed to be miles of ocean. It was The Ritz Carlton, Half Moon Bay, California. Frankly, anything you wrote as a headline or a copy would have been a waste. The picture said it all. You suddenly wanted to be part of the picture.

I flicked on TV and decided to watch Discovery travel and living. In a feature on hotels, today's episode was on The Ritz Carlton, Half Moon Bay!!

Saturday..

Still doing my assignments.. groan. They get more and more bizzare.

Saw 'being Julia' yesterday. Annette Benning in all her splendor. All others pale in comparison. This was the second time I saw the movie. Loved every bit of it.

A is travelling again. He always manages to think of some interesting things for me to do every time he travels. This time having his Bose headphones delivered to Mumbai to some place en route the international airport. oh! and there is a small condition attached : the driver should not be sent to deliver them.

the bong leanings

I am not technically a graduate though I did sort of graduate from college many years ago. The course I did, did'nt make you a graduate though it did make you slog and pay much more than other undergrad courses. The government decided to correct that,and has now asked all the ex students to do a small course and get their graduation degrees. I enroled a couple of months back.
I am ecstatic! In my family you needed to be a post graduate to be considered human and a science graduate to be considered educated. I was neither. Though neither of my parent's ever made me feel that way, I always felt like the black sheep as far as education was concerned.
So after 10 years here I am furiously writing pages of assignments. The only things I have written in the last 10 years is lists, practice sheets for my 6 year old and cheques . This is an experience an half.
Though it has taken my multitasking to a new level, I'm not complaining. It is also taking me closer to a post graduate degree which I always aspired for .

The deadline for my assignments is the 31 st. I have completed 4 1/2 out of the 6 that I need to do. The last 1 1/2 are really dragging on. Groan!

My friends called me a quasi bong. Maybe that is why all this is so important to me.

paella for everyone

I made the paella for Shalu's party last week.I made loads of it. Shalu says her guests loved it.
I send a batch to Sumi as well. She and her mom had it for dinner one night. Her mom has had the real thing.. in Spain. She said mine was awesome and very close to the real thing. I scored well on that one!

The mighty paella

Sofrito










my paella- yum!

Cinderella got me some charming gifts last time she went to Spain. Some paella mix/seasoning, saffron and a fabulous cookbook. I read the book called ' kitchen in Spain' religiously. Somehow I was sort of apprehensive to do it the first time. So a couple of weekends back I mustered up the courage. The chorizo sausages and the serrano ham arrived, picked up dutifully by A from Selfridges food store on his way back from London.

The Paella, as I know has many variations. You can put practically anything into a paella : eels, wild duck, rabbit, snails, chicken, clams, squid whatever. A few basics one needs for paella : a flat bottom cast iron pan & short grained bomba rice (you can use any non starchy rice like arborio), some nice sofrito ( a mixture of sauteed ingredients that flavour the paella) so here goes..

Fiesta paella with chicken and shellfish

Rice 300g
stock/cooking liquid for rice 1lt
500g prawns
500g chicken peices
300g squid
150g pork (I used serrano ham)
garlic
green peas
tomato
chorizo sausages (2 in my version)
Saffron
pimentos

cook the prawns in boiling water. reserve liquid. peel some of the prawn and keep the rest as it is.
Heat the oil, saute the ham, squid for a few minutes.
Add the green pepper and garlic and saute. (your sofrito!)
Add tomato and increase heat.
Add the peas and the liquid (mine was a mix of chicken stock and prawn liquid)
Once the liquid starts boiling add the saffron and the rice. Add black pepper, salt and bay leaf.
stir a couple of times to distribute ingredients.
Lower heat till the liquid is simmering and DO NOT stir again.
once the rice has cooked, arrange the whole prawns on the top and garnish with the pimentos.
Wait till the liquid is absorbed and serve paella in pan and serve with a wedge of lime.
Yummy!

Stew kolkata style

One of the purposes of posting photos and recipes on this blog is also to immortalize my mother in law's recipes. So here is the first one.

When the MIL was in the hospital recovering from her surgery, I offered to get stew for her one day for dinner. She gave me this recipe, it was an instant hit with the family.




ingredients
1/2 lb chicken boneless cut into small bitesize peices
1 lb vegetable mix (you can use anything, I used raw papaya, carrots, beans, potatoes, parvel or potol- I don't know what they call it in any other language, cauliflower or brocolli and cabbage leaves), all these vegetable have to be cut into large peices
2 tb ginger grated or paste
1 1/2 small onion gratde or paste
garam masala : cloves, cardamon, cinnamon, bay leaf
chicken stock
milk and
1 tb refined flour

method
1. heat a little oil in a pot or deep pan, heat till it smokes. Put the garam masala and let it splutter. Then add the onion and the ginger and saute till it brown a little on medium flame.
2. Put all the chicken, vegetables in, in the order they are cooked (potatoes first followed by carrots, raw papaya, parval, brocolli and cabbage). Saute for a couple of minutes once they are all in.
3. Pour in about 1 lt of chicken stock and let the the vegetable cook in the liquid.
4. Once the vegetables are nearly done, add the milk and sprinkle a the ref. flour in it. This is done to make sure the milk does'nt curdle and also thicken the liquid a little.. If the stock looks a little too liquidy, add a little cornflour to thicken it a little. The consistency of the stew should be thinner than thick soups. Put in a couple of bayleaves at this stage and voila! your stew is ready.
If you want ot make a veg stew, just leave out teh chicken and follow the same recipe with veg stock.
Serve hot with bread or pao

and now let's talk about food

my blog has a tag line that says food, kids and the mom. I have spoken a lot about the last two so now I decided to concentrate on the first one.
Food is religion for us. If you ask my 6 yr old, who cooks in your house ? he will say, " Sindhu aunty (our cook cum housekeeper), baba (A), mama (yours truly) and me.
Food is what brought A and me together. Our first conversations were on food, when our marriage showed signs of cracking, we started cooking a lot at home and building up our recipe book collection. When we go on holidays, the times we enjoy the most are those spent exploring and dining in restaurants. the only things we shop for when we travel abroad is food/food ingredients. In the recent years, the most loving looks I got from A were on the dining table or in the kitchen and not in the...
We consider cooking an art. Our core competencies are in south east Asian cuisines. My husband cooks only SEA food. I am a little more adventureous. I have tried my hand at Indian (mostly bengali and south Indian), continental (european food, though this translates into Indianised french/english food in most Indian restaurants and Anglo Indian food in Kolkata), chinese, thai, vietnamese, laotian, north african (provided I get my hands on the ingredients, this cuisine is not very popular with my family though)..
My mother in law is easily the world's greatest cook as far as bengali and kolkata style anglo indian food is concerned. She lays a good table, remmembers the food preferences of each and every individual she has ever cooked for. She has also been my tutor for kolkata food (which is essentially anglo indian, bengali, mughlai). Her enthusiasm for food is infectious and her kids (my sister in law and my husband) have inherited both her love for eating as well as cooking.
My sister and brother are also foodies. They would appreciate and enjoy a well cooked meal from practically any part of the world ! Like A, this is how I bonded with my brother deeply, as an adult !!
So you see food is well ingrained in my being. and now for the real thing..

Will be posting a lot on food once A returns my digital camera..

Internet connectivity is misbehaving. Even with 2 broadband connections and one dial-up connection. Would like to post more often but can't, regrets!

Nostalgia..

I bought Mr. Galliano's circus by Enid Blyton for junior or maybe for myself. Reading the book out to junior brought back some happy memories of my childhood. My sister and I thrived on Enid Blytons..the famous fives, five findouters, the school series of St. Clares, Mallory Towers and dozens of others.We lived in their world. We wished we were in boarding school too. Our pretend play had lot of the Enid Blyton elements. That was globalization for you in those days when we only had Doordarshan and Radio Ceylone.
That's how I got to know what a caravan is before I saw one during a vacation in germany.
That's how I got to know what ginger ale tastes like and warm scones taste the best with clotted cream.

My first pic, yipee!

English tea at Selfridges. A pot of Darjeeling tea with scones served with conserves and clotted cream.
A suggested I could have the real thing at the Ritz.I passed.. after looking at the price tag : 300 pounds!

P.S. Thanks for the madame butterfly blouse, plumpie!

60 students in a class

Went to junior’s school today. His teacher looked at me a little accusingly and started to tell me how he needed writing practice as he was very slow. Midway, she realized that I was actually listening and asking her intelligent sounding questions like ‘ what do you think is the problem’ , ‘does he seem sleepy or tired’ , ‘do you think he does’nt understand’ or ‘is he distracted with something'..Usually she hears things like , ‘I make him practice at home, he seems fine then’ or I don’t know what to do, he does this at home too. She suddenly asked me if I work . I told her I was a training manager and worked full time which is why she did’nt see me at school more often. She seemed suitably impressed. It was as if a crown had suddenly sprouted up on my head. I promised her that I would get junior to practice regularly this term.
Here is what I really need to do : make myself more visible as a parent, offer to volunteer, you know, make charts to decorate the classroom etc, seem very concerned as a parent and ask her for a feedback every now and then, and oh! then maybe, actually help junior with his writing a little bit. His grades will be much better next term and I don’t know how much the writing practice would have contributed.

Junior was born in the city of his father’s birth – Kolkata. A went to St. Xavier’s, regarded as one of the best schools in the country, by many. That was the school A and I had hoped junior would be in one day.
Then we moved to Pune. We decided to send junior to the school he goes to today. This was a school known for academics and sports. Though junior shows more signs of being a showman than a sportsman right now, he thoroughly enjoys school. We hope the school would give him a grounding he would have never got if we chose to send him to one of the new age international schools where the school fees runs into lacs and they have AC school buses and classrooms.
By Indian standards we lead what I may term a ‘priviledged life’. We have a housekeeper (who likes to call herself a ‘governess’ these days, I not too sure she knows the difference) , a gardener (for our 25 pots) , a couple of maids and a chauffeur , multiple cars..we stay in a up-market building, holiday abroad almost every year, eat in fancy restaurants, stay in fancy hotels have multicuisine dinners at home, put up Christmas trees every year with the same élan as we light our diyas and so on.
My husband and I work hard for the life we lead and by default the kids have become a part of all that too and as Shahrukh Khan had once said in an interview, "If I am driving around in a rolls royce, I can’t ask my son to ride in an auto"
We chose the school we did, for junior, to make sure he met and learnt to appreciate people from diverse cultural, social and economic backgrounds. And I think we are pretty much on the way there. His class has 60 students and the teacher knows very little about each child till a parent decides to show up in school and makes sure the child gets ‘the’attention one way or the other.
My son is an avid reader. At 6 he reads and understand books which most children almost twice his age usually would’nt, without any proding from us. He has the gift of the gab and loves performing. Somehow she has'nt seemed to notice that!
There are two choices I have : like most other parents make sure the teacher gives him an opportunity to use his skills or let him learn to fight for his place. My motherhood instincts push me towards the first but I would feel more at peace with myself if I did the latter..

we are back...

The last two weeks have gone by in a flash. The MIL was in the hospital for almost 2 weeks getting her knee surgery done. Though we were in one of the best rooms at the hospital, the attending nurses and she seemed to be playing dumb charades all the time. Neither spoke hindi too well and surprisingly most of them spoke broken or no English. I presumed it was a dangerous situation for a patient who is or has undergone 2 major surgeries. So FIL would spend the day there and I would stay back most nights and some evenings.
The good thing was that junior was packed off to mom’s place where he underwent a crash course in hindi, got a typical north Indian zamindar (landlord) style massage or malish done 4 times a week and learnt to fly kites.

ramblings..

I am down with a bad throat infection..gets especially painful in the nights. As usual I am avoiding seeing the doc. Only if every doc was like Dr. T. Sigh!
I don't think I will be able to last out an entire hour with Dr.T outside his clinic. But there is something about him- an oozing confidence and contentment which comes easy with success. Ok if you are a patient. otherwise it feels more like arrogance..

the week..II

So I am not very good at writing travelogues..
The best part of our trip was the day we spend in Birmingham at the Aston university - my husband's alma mater.
It was a trip down memory lane for A. We managed to locate his first apartment - Vauxhall court now known as Vauxhall house, the pub he downed several beers on Saturday afternoons - sack of potatoes, the Aston business school and the computer science center - now much larger, modernised and richer .
A insisted we buy something from BHS at the market square , for old memories sake..he shopped there often as a student 24 years back. So we picked up a dress for me and a tee for Cinderella in similar prints.
We watched one of the football world cup matches at a pub called 'Shakespeare' while waiting for our ride back to London. The atmosphere was infectious..For once I felt inclined to follow the world cup. maybe I would have if I stayed in London longer.
The train ride from London to Birmingham offers fabulous views of the lush green english countryside. I wish we could have spend some more time driving around the countryside, maybe next time.

A week in London - I

We got back from London last weekend. London was wonderful. I was looking forward to spending time with the husband.. I did that and much more.
We went for a musical ' we will rock you' which had almost all of the Queen's famous songs. It was playing at the historic Dominion theater.. I have been to broadway musicals too.. did I find the west end ones any different..not really, no.
We ate in lots of exotic restaurants, mostly chinese restaurants in chinatown and Soho. I also had an awesome spanish meal and lots of pub fare. English food.. well, the least I can say is that I'm not surprized that chicken tikka masala is becoming the national dish of England.
Missed sighting Keira Knightly and Johnny Depp by a few seconds. And this is how that happened : The husband and I decided to stroll around Leichster square one night after dinner with friends. While we were there, hand in hand soaking up the atmosphere, we saw a policeman clearing the path from the Odoen theatre to the car park, for guess who, ' the invitees for the premier of "Pirates of the Carribean II" '! In moments, we saw the who's who of the british cinema walking down the path in all their designer regalia.To say the least we were stunned. I saw Salman Rushdie with his son (presumably) who glanced at the two desis gawking at the parade.We also saw Orlando Bloom.. I almost could'nt believe my eyes!

cinderella and the prince..

So Cinderella is finally going out with nice boy. I was ecstatic.. to the point of being embarrassing. I had been bumping into NB off and on for a couple of years now. Looking at him was like looking into the crystal ball and seeing junior.
Well he came over for lunch, I met him in his official capacity of the boyfriend of the princess of the manor...

Feeling much better now. Looks like our much awaited UK trip will finally be happening. Called the TA and was told my visa should be done in 2-3 days.
This whole process of applying for a visa has put me off travelling abroad, especially a visa for the United states.
We have to start working on that once we get back from London.
This year has been a good year travel wise. In the last one year these are the places I have been to :
1. Amritsar, Delhi : same trip
2. Mumbai : countless times
3.Goa
4.Hyderabad (this was work so really does'nt count)
5. Kolkata
6. Kashid, Murud and Janjira- all on the Konkan coast.

Trips planned for the remaining part of the year :
1. UK : London, Birmingham, Lake district (maybe)
2. US : New york, Boston
3. Lucknow (I don't think I will have enough leave left for that, it might get pushed to next year)

I love travelling.. and this looks good.

free, free falling...

I feel as if I have hit the rock bottom. I don't know what is going to help me lift my spirits. My passport is going for visa processing tommorow. Even this has failed to lift my spirits.
My state of being somehow seems like a huge compromise. I know I have made choices.. but one does have the right to feel upset with those choices. I was happy with all this till a few weeks ago. And then in the last week I realized what would have happened if I had'nt made the choices that I did.
A as usual is hardly empathetic. You can be empathetic if you try and understand the other person. I don't think he has ever made the effort to do that for me or anyone else.
I also need some mind, body and soul therapy.
I have this feeling of emptiness , I feel as if I am in a free fall in this emptiness, the light seems to have gone out and it is pitch dark. I feel no pain. I have hurt so much that I feel numb. I don't feel like crying wailing or talking. I feel weightless.

We had an awesome dinner tonight. It was called ' grilled prawns with wasabi mayonnaise'. And of course A had to make me painstakingly make fresh mayonnaise flavoured with english mustard powder, dashi granules, rice vinegar, sugar and salt. I kept thinking the mayo will become too heavy at a point and curdle. But it turned out nice smooth and fluffy.
There was a side dish of sauteed veggies as well . I have an obsession with our intake of roughage.I make sure there is enough in every meal.
A has discovered the magic of getting virtually any chinese cook book he wants. He just orders on Amazon.com.Usually the discount is equal to the shipping cost to India. We get the books at practically it's original rate.

this, that and there

The painters are finally moving out tommorow. We had almost started getting used to them being around.

The brother has finally got his well deserved raise. His affluence is beginning to show. He actually called from his cell and had a 8 min conversation.It would be " hey! call me back" after the first 2 mins till about a month ago.

I have a trip to Goa scheduled at the end of next week and one to London the following week..

The sister and parents are going to be in Europe sometime in the next couple of weeks - seperately. Talk about a globetrottong family!

Junior told me he was digging for diamonds in the sand pit for me. He came back with a few white pebbles and told me they were 'jewellery stones' and I could use them as I wished.I hope he remembers this for a while.He has promised me a merc as well. I hope he remembers that too.

getting back to this and that.

we have finally moved back.. finally started cleaning up. No, the painting is not over yet.The electricals have got done, most of the new furniture and furnishings have been ordered, fuses have blown, patch ups have been done and junior's vacations have come to an end.
The only thing which really bothered me was not being able to watch movies as and when I liked. I could have done it if I really wanted to. But on most days I was too drained out to even think about it.
I really think I can spend a lifetime only watching movies.
I don't think I missed blogging that much though.