Cooking and Us

To my Swedish classes sometimes I do carry lunch - the last few times it was some rice variety with veggies or greens. Of course a different one every time, given my appetite for good variety of food and love for cooking. I was initially apprehensive to carry Indian food, with so many flavors, but as i got to know my friends' love for food and their readiness to try out different cuisine I got comfortable.

Some of my new non Indian friends here, are especially fond of Indian food - and more of the spicy, hot varieties. And I do offer them my rice whenever they are around and being great foodies that they are, they relish my methi rice, spinach rice, rajma masala and so on.

The most common question I'm asked is "Do you cook everyday?"

"Yes I do", I say. The fact is, I cook twice a day - like most of us Indians - Breakfast and lunch to be packed in the morning and something fresh for dinner in the evening. That makes it three mostly different meal a day! When the fact that I do cook everyday itself is quite indigestible, I do not mostly get into the details!

And then I'm asked for details like whether I cook in the evenings and save the leftovers for lunch  next day, how long do i spend in the kitchen, whether I cook before breakfast or after breakfast and so on. [The fact is most of us Indians do make breakfast too - cereals and bread are only emergency breakfast items for us :) ] 

And they wonder how many hours a day I slog off in the kitchen. But the fact is that cooking fresh for every meal hardly takes a lot of time - especially when you have some experience and when you like it. How long does it take to make a flavored veggie rice, for example? Cook rice in a pressure cooker, and while it is cooking or cooling, saute some veggies in a pan along with some spices and mix it with the rice! Tada! Yes, it is that simple! And those who do know cooking did agree with this - it doesn't take more than 15 minutes of your active time - especially here, when most veggies are available in frozen form! This is it, unless I'm trying out some extravagant item for the love of cooking.

This left me wondering how different our lives are and what could be the reason for this...

Firstly, I've grown up eating fresh food for every meal, almost always... and that has continued even after marriage at the in-laws' place. And it was the same even when I had a full time, super busy life. So it is in a different country too, where you get ready made foods of all kinds. Food and cooking has been an inseparable part of our lives. When I can't or on't want to cook, D offers to cook. Not that we do not eat out, but it is something we do occasionally or the fun of trying out different places, or when we really feel like it.

Second, the concept of frozen foods for us Indians is quite new. And I bet many have not yet embraced that lifestyle yet. Refrigerators are a recent inclusion in our kitchens. And we hardly know about the freezers - except for the small compartment at the top of the refrigerator, that is used to store ice-creams or to make ice cubes!!  

Thirdly, we believe that eating fresh and homemade is healthy.

And not to forget many of our elders' beliefs that left overs should not be eaten the next day. In many households even today, cooked stuff are not stored in refrigerator, let alone frozen!

Of course many urban families have embraced the western culture of frozen and ready to eats, but I'm sure there is a large chunk of people like me who still hold on to the old roots!

Svenska and the new friends

Of late, I'm trying my hands at learning Swedish - going to classes here, called SFI. It's fun and very nice to learn a new language. Swedish has been a lot more easier for me than Japanese, that i tried to learn a couple of years ago. May be because of its close relation to English. However, it is significantly different from English in terms of vocabulary and grammar. 

Classes these days are a lot fun filled! We have people from different countries, from all over the world... from countries like Ethiopia, Somalia to US and UK. Out of them all We are one close group of about 10, two from Italy, one each from Kenya, UK, Vietnam, France, Bosnia, Germany, Moldavia and ofcourse me from India. Its almost like a global conference during the breaks!! And we've been going out for cofffees, for museums etc and loving it all.

Also had a series of luncheons where one of us cooked lunch for all the others a day and it was fun. My methi malai mattar, capsicum gravy and jeera rice were a hit, though quite on the spicy side. People even asked me for the recipe ;)

And ohh btw, i'm taking my second test tomorrow - level C in just abt 2 months... Going back to school at 30 is fun indeed! 

The Writer's Blogger's block

Every night, just before drifting off to sleep, these awesome brilliant ideas pop up in my mind, about something that i should write. I'll get nice awesome words and sentences as well, that I’ll decide to put on the blog first thing in the morning. I am quite determined to remember them till the morning as well, trying to memorize the ideas and words!! Getting up then and writing is not something that i do...

And the next morning starts with getting up late and hurrying to cook breakfast and lunch before D leaves. And then I sit with my laptop, along with my bowl of breakfast, and may be the TV ON too... And as a pre-programmed application, my fingers first open the Facebook and go down the feed from all friends, all updates useful, useless and the links and the forwards (shares) and so on... And also some notifications on friends liking or commenting on my posts... And then the blogs to check for new comments and stats... I'm talking about my food blog here; that is a more happening place than this one! And then the blog updates of other bloggers and pals... And then some news may be, and I just completely forget the idea of writing, let alone the most-determined-to-remember ideas... Huh!

And after all these I feel a bit sad that a brilliant idea is not recorded :(

The idea of writing a great post has just got dissolved....

Hmm... I know I should not let this happen... I should concentrate more on writing and give more importance to it...

Hope it happens soon...

4 weeks in Goteborg!

Ooooo…. It’s almost a month, and so soon! We’re in Sweden now, in the city Goteborg. D had to move here on work and I followed him! Leaving behind everything ;) Took a break from work, which was a good change. Loving this new place, esp since it is summer here and the weather is pleasant. I have all the time for myself, a total contrast to my life back home… loving this change.

We’re traveling quite a bit on weekends, exploring various places in and around Goteborg. And doing a lot of walking! And also I’m cooking a variety of dishes… experimenting new stuff. Of course the food blog is more active now! Hope the same here too :)

Will be back soon with more updates!

Ciao

Updates!

Ok, some updates before the year ends!

It's been so busy of late that there's hardly some breathing time! Seriously!!

As always, end of October calls for a special tripof the year and this time, it coincided with a birding trip we had planned with BNHS to Point Calimere. And well, since it was our anniversay time, we wanted a couple of days for ourselves too, so planned Pondicherry again. Another post on the place we stayed and such will follow, don't know when!

Oh by then, BIL, N (D's brother) had found his girl after a long search, and it was his engagement shopping followed by the engagement itself the week we returned. From there started our busy busy schedule, with wedding preparations already started, and to add to it, my sis's wedding also got fixed! Another round of shopping and arranging and time for her engagement!! And two weddings to prepare for!!

Meanwhile FIL was pretty ill for two weeks and there was quite a bit of running around hospitals. Thank God, he's better now. This means more wedding work on us now!

Between all these, our home needs a repainting and that is starting today. I'll be taking all the leaves off (that i generally save for trips and more trips) for this... But looking forward to a fresh looking place :)

No year-end trip this time :'((((

And yesterday was D's birthday and I celebrated it with a lot of josh, just the way i wanted to. Last two years were kind of disappointing for various reasons, and this time, i guess i made up for it - a nice home cooked lunch, a candle light dine out, a calendar printed with pics he had shot, and a surprise camera lens he wanted :) Made his day, and mine too :))

Thats it for now!

The first showers

It rained last night; the first showers of the year. All the heat that had started accumulating is cooled down now. Everything seemed to have calmed down this morning. The rains had washed away all the dirt, and all the dust had settled down.

The roads looked so clean this morning, and the trees so beautiful and cheerful, in spite of having lost their leaves. Though barren and dry after the fall, the trees now seemed to have got a new hope to grow new leaves. And the birds were cheerfully chirping and seemed to be getting ready to build their nest for breeding this season. There is a fresh look to everything around. Everything seems to have started life afresh, anew.
It was such a pleasure to drive to work this morning.

From scorn to smile

I wasn’t in a very good mood this morning when I started from home. When in such state my usual norm is to speed off past whoever possible on the road, and honk the horn loud and long at others who are mis-driving - my way of yelling at people when they’re not driving right and when I’m off mood.

So, today there was this small car in front of me, who I was desperate to over take and was following it at the same speed since the road was narrow. At one point the car suddenly shifted from its lane and slowed down without any signal at all. I managed not to hit it, by slowing down my old active too. Got irritated more and honked loud as usual, cribbing about the guy driving.

Oh well, just at that moment, I saw a small cute little puppy, crossing the road, just in front of the car. It had just missed getting run over by the car, thanks to the mis-driven car! Immediately my mood changed, and my scorn changed to a smile. I wanted to acknowledge the driver for having saved a life, just in time.

I sped faster, and came parallel to this car - turned and smiled at the middle aged gentleman on the driving seat. He too got my point and smiled back heartily.
Well, now I no longer wanted to speed past him, though I could, but instead, followed him at his pace. And I was happy rest of the day :)

Happy New Year 2011! And a peek into 2010...

Happy New Year 2011!

So, how was 2010?
Well, for me it was quire uneventful, I must say. It was neither too great, nor was it that bad. It was just ok, with nothing much happening.

To keep up the tradition of summarizing the previous year like always, here I go.

Trips and Travel:
There was no travel at all for the first 3-4 months of the year. The first one being in late April to Munnar and Thekkady by drive! It was a wonderful trip, especially loved the drive of 500+km one way on amazingly good roads. Started doing a bit of birding, in a very amateurish way. Receiving a cute little birthday present on a drizzling morning, out of the car on a deserted road from Munnar to Thekkady was the highlight ;)

In July, there was another quick travel to Kodur, Shimoga with inlaws, again by car, and a little more birding!

August, as always is the worst month for me. This year also, it was no different. Too much of work, too many poojas (it being generally Shravana masa), and added to it, some health issues:(. Huh, how I wish there is no August in the calendar!

August and September also had some early morning or evening visits to some nearby places for birding. Learnt some basics of birding from seasoned birders meanwhile.

October, as always is a promising month, with some special trip-of-the-year planned! And this time it was to the west most part of India - Rajasthan, primarily around Jaisalmer.

November had a surprise in store - a naturalist training in JLR, Bannerghatta, got to know some wonderful and inspiring people, and a whole new world of naturalists (and to be) opened up in front of us.

Early December had another short visit to Mandagadde, Shimoga, Bhadravathi, and late December had a marathon trip to Chitradurga, Hampi, Magadi kere, Davangere, etc.
So, this is all about the trips!
Oooh hasn’t this been a birding-year? Yes, it surely was :)

Work - it’s been a great year work wise, with things going smooth for me in spite of some turbulence around.

On the personal front, however, there has been not much of progress, except of course, me growing older by another year and also wiser! None of the few set milestones were met, nothing great happened.
Anyways, it was quite a good year and enjoyed it.

Hoping 2011 will be the year of milestones! Once again a Happy New Year to one and all.

The “Who gives a S***!” attitude

When this new lead joined our team a few months ago, we were all quite shocked to get used to his way of talking. His talk would be full of ‘French and Latin’, as he calls it! And being in a conservative environment earlier, we’d all feel quite uncomfortable listening to him use words like sh** so many times in every sentence.... his favorite one being “Who gives a Sh**!” And he being our lead, and having no issues with him in any other way, all we could do was to get used to it.

Well, now after all these months, we’ve got so used to it, it’s no longer a weird statement for us. On the contrary, it is one of our ‘well-being mantras’. Yeah, seriously! This “Who gives a Sh**” attitude comes as a savior, at least to me when I’m on the verge of breaking out or breaking down. I just tell myself this mantra, and off I am, back in my safe state.

Of course, it’s not been easy to adopt this attitude, especially for some extra-sensitive people like me, but a little bit of practice is what it takes to change our attitude. Good thing is that I’ve taught Dee also this, and he too is picking up. And at least this way, I mostly avoid going deep into depression and striving hard to get out of it.

Now, this mantra comes to my rescue in many situations like when someone’s trying to put me down, or get me into a verbal war or try to intentionally or unintentionally hurt me, try to demand too much of me or go on complaining endlessly, treat me with no concern and many more. Of course this should be carefully applied and can not be and should not be applied to people who really really are concerned about you! And beware, apply it only when you know you are right.

Shocked and don’t like this new, completely opposite attitude of mine?
Well, who gives a Sh**!

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Today is the same as yesterday, tomorrow will be the same as today. Everyday seems just the same, identical to its previous day and next day. The more I look forward to a change, the probability of it gets lesser. The closer I feel I am, the farther it appears to move. There were times when I had dreaded change, but now I’m just longing for one. The more things I do to wade away the monotony, all those things start becoming monotonous.

The hope that a new year is a new beginning or that a new month brings in a change or that a new week would be different from the previous is all just a mere hope. It might take ages in reality. But I’m sure one day things will change, and for good..... dreaming of things that I’m awaiting for everyday makes the wait easier. As long as the dream itself has not become one boring part, there is color in life.......

P.S. - Well, on second thoughts, life has not become that boring too..... but still, it is monotonous enough for me to go ahead and post this :)

A new block buster movie in Bangalore at 50 bucks!

Yeah... this used to be possible about a decade ago during our college days when we’d occasionally go to theatre to watch movies. And then came the malls and multiplexes, replacing the ordinary single-screen age old theatres. With this, rose the cost of movie-watching too. Watching a movie in Bangalore costs anywhere between 150 to 500+ bucks, depending on the day of the week and the movie.

Also the tickets need to be booked in advance. And driving to any of these ‘multiplexes’ which are at least an hour’s drive from home in heavy weekend traffic is a pain in itself.

For people like us, whose weekends are mostly quite unpredictable, planning out a movie-watching program had quite become a saga. We also missed a movie or two since we got tied up in some priority work though the tickets were booked. Due to all these, our movie watching had terribly reduced in the last year - just one movie in the whole of 2009!

We realized this early this year and were contemplating on some of the latest hit movies - Paa, 3 Idiots and so on, trying to decide upon the date and place, when we came across this ‘Venkateshwara theatre’ very close to home. Of course, we knew we should expect a cinema hall of the 90’s, but nevertheless wanted to give a try. So on a Saturday, quite unplanned, we just went in search of this hall in very narrow lanes. The then-showing movie was ‘Suryakanthi’, a kannada recent release. Though the movie was not so great, the cinema hall was pretty decent - for the 40 bucks that we gave per ticket! It did remind us of our childhood cinema halls, but I should say the sound system was not that bad, and the push-back seats were decent too.

Okay, we thought, we can just drop in here 10 minutes before the evening show, even on weekends, and watch some average movies. And to our surprise, the next week, when we were planning to go for 3 idiots and searching through the newspaper for the show timings in Forum, we saw that our dear Venkateshwara theatre was playing ‘3 idiots’!!!

At 5-30, being very sure that we won’t get the tickets for the 6pm show, that too on day 2 of the movie showing here, we still left home thinking we’ll buy tickets for the next day. And to our surprise, at 5-45, there were still ‘Balcony’ tickets available and for 50 bucks each!! And the hall was half empty! For a movie that is costing about 300 bucks in multiplexes, with all the complications, one sixth the amount was a great fair deal! The movie-count for this year is already 2 now, and I’ve decided to keep a watch on all the movies playing here.

A flashback into 2009

It’s another New Year, and strangely this time, I’m not feeing anything new, with the New Year!
Still, would like to come up with a high level report of the year, to look back after a few years!

January was not so good, with Dee meeting with a small accident and having an ankle sprain. Then came some unexpected, shocking uncertainties at his work place. That was followed by some more, shocking uncertainties at my workplace! The economic slowdown had kind of hit our company too.

In spite of these, or rater due to these, we just wanted to take a break, and early February, headed for a trip to the beautiful backwaters of Kerala – Alleppey and Ashtamudi. Had a wonderful break from all the tensions.

March was mostly uneventful, except for Dee confirming his booking for Sarpass trek and me cribbing about it!

April started with some disappointments and continued to be not so great, with hardly any peace of mind. Dee left to Sarpass, and I went to Ooty with mom and sis and had a good time.
Spent early May waiting for his return, and then the rest of the month just flew off, happily.

Went on a driving trip with 2 more cousins to historical places – Belur, Halebidu, Dwarasamudra, Doddagaddavalli – admiring the monuments of Hoysala dynasty.

July was pretty much occupied with some medical treatments, and some poojas – the typical Shravana maasa!

Another short and tiring trip to Dee’s grandma’s place in August, followed by more festivals!

September was quite eventful, with our Dasara preparations, and an unexpected 15 km leechy trek in Bedaguli forest range with Dee’s team. I was so glad that I could trek as I had not been on a single proper trek with Dee so far, due to my repeated ligament injuries.

October was a super busy month, starting with a trip to Wayanad, Dee’s trip to North Karnataka for flood relief work, my preparations for wedding anniversary gifts for him, followed by the trip of the year – a beach resort in Pondicherry to end the month.

November also had another disappointment and a trip with inlaws to Coorg :)

And December too had an unexpected trip in store – a one day visit to Shimoga to attend a wedding. Followed by year end vacation, during which 4 days was spent at mom’s place and another trip to end the year at Agumbe.

Whew! That’s quite a number of trips last year!!! Anyways.... Enjoy life to the fullest, travel as much as possible was the mantra of 2009 :)

Let’s see what’s in store in 2010......

Wish you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year 2010.

Another year...

So, today is the last working day for this year! Thanks to this company which has a year-end shutdown for almost 10 days!!! Yayyyyy!!! Having 10days off is really a good break.

Lots of plans for the hols, should see what i do and what i procrastinate! Let me list them down here, so that i have some commitment to it, and then i'll review it in the new year. (Yeah, i dont have any plans to blog in the hols, but may be i'll prepare some things for it).

Okie, these are a few things that i want to do.....

• "CLEAN THE ROOM" - Yeah.... every corner of room is screaming and yelling at me, asking me to clean it. I promise Dee every week to clean and revamp it over the weekend, and the weekend just flies off, with so many other stuff. Dee is still having patience and hope that i will do something about it! But somehow i am not getting the mood for it..... Yesterday i was going through some interior decoration blog, and wow! was i so fascinated??? Hmmmmm... it's high time i do something about it.......
• Stay and relax at mom's for 4 days?? Now this looks doubtful.... But i have to stay over there to help her as she has injured her hand after a fall last week.
• New years celebration - Hmmmmmmm...... Not sure what i do about this one..... But i want to celebrate one New Year's eve like people generally do :P - Like partying the night off :P. For me it's generally been staying at home or celebrating with food with family.
• The trip (or pilgrimage;)?? ) wih extended family - Hmmmmmmm...... I wonder how it is going to be..... hope it'll be good. Imagine 4 pairs of elders (read in-laws) and me the only bahoo...... But i'm glad there are some good cousins and of course Dee to give good company too :) Hope it'll be good......
• Meet friends - Uff..... this one's also been postponed from quite some time, planning to meet some at least in the hols....
• A make over :P - Ha ha... i always dream of getting a makeover but dread about it when it comes to implementation! Have plans to get a new hairstyle at least, let's see if i get the courage to :D
• Some rest - Err lots of rest, actually!
• A picnic with Dee - Yeah! he's promised me this ;)

Okie... i'll stop here! No point in just noting things down and not being able to do it!

Wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperos New Year 2009!

A month of change...

Ok! I completed one month in this new workplace..... After working for over four and a half years in the previous place, I had got so resistant to change; but completing a month here, I feel the decision to change was not bad, after all!

Though the kind of work or the amount of it that I do is not much different, here are some note worthy changes this change has brought about:

• I don’t get an automated mail reminding me that I am late, if I log in to work at 9:00:01 a.m. (ya, late by 1 sec :D) Neither will I get a mail if I work for 8 hrs 59 min 59 sec, instead of 9 hrs! All I need to bother now is about my work being completed.
• I don’t need to wake up tense, get ready, gulp something and rush to work and wink at the entrance, only to realize I am late by a few seconds (I’m referring to the Iris recognition system to get into the office)
• I don’t need to put my hand bag, lunch bag on a x-ray scanner, mobile with a hologram on a conveyor belt and pass through the metal detector to make the security guards sure that I am not carrying any electronic storage devices into or out of the office (No, no, it wasn’t any rocket-science that I was working on, yet so much of security)
• I don’t have to commute 20km one way through the heart of namma Bengaluru city and spend a total of over 3 hours on the road in Bangalore’s traffic; instead, now, I have to ride for 15 min one way on a country-side road, which sometimes I feel is the road only for me, as there is no sign of what traffic is or what a signal is, pass through a couple of hamlets and wonder if it’s actually Bangalore!
• I don’t have to trouble Dee to drop me and pick me up everyday, making him drive for almost 4-5 hrs a day :)
• I don’t have a chance to crib that I don’t get time to read, as I have all the time now to read even two books in a week!
• I don’t have an excuse that I don’t have time for exercise as I do have enough time for it
• I don't have to wait till friday to go to office in casuals; he he.... anyday is friday now :)

On the other hand,

• I don’t get those tea time gossips and lunch time walks around the campus with my buddies :(
• I don’t get a chance to wait for a petty excuse to go to mom’s house directly after work saying that’s so close; now I have to wait only for weekends to go there. Neither can I go there for lunch once in a while, get pampered by mom and get lazy to get back to work :(
• I don’t get to drive with Dee to and fro everyday, talking non stop and entertaining him; I have to wait for him to get home before I start jabbering :P

Anyway, the negatives are few, as compared to the positives. And I’m pretty much happy about the decision.