Cheers to Summer 2008!

Tomorrow comes to an end the most awesome and the most different month of my life.

I keep thinking that I will write a nice long blog on all this, but till that happens, this will suffice.

Cheers to Summer 2008!

whats cooking these days part 2

white chane/punjabi chole(for 3 people)
ek katori chane
2 medium sized pyaaz
2 medium sized tamatar
1/2 inch ginger(adrak)
2 harimirch
namak to taste(3/4th teaspoon)
aam choor(3/4th teaspoon)
chana masala/chicken masala(catch/everest/MDH)
sukhi methi(calld kasuri methi)
kali mirch sabut(3-4)
elaichi(choti+moti:2-3)
coffee powder
dhania

overnight bhigo ke rakho..

take chane and add elaichi and ltl salt nd water to just cover in cooker..let it boil on high flame..den keep on sim after 1 whistle fr 20 mins

side by side prepare masala..add oil, den pyaaz den adrak den harimirch den oder masalas nd all...aftr onions turn pinkish brown, add tamatar..keep stirring...till masala pak jaaye...after ample time, add chane..nd 1/2 teaspoon coffe powder..(add water also of chane: DNT THROW IT AWAY)..let it mix..add dhania also...keep mixin under heat..
and punjabi chole are readyyyyyyyyyy!!!:):)

PS: now tats it...more aftr my training..am bored of this now..3 dishes more than enuf..:):)

whats cooking these days!

Just putting recipes here so that they're always accessible to me and also to show off what all I am cooking these days:)

Lemon Chicken (to be served as starter)
1 spoon oil
1/4th kali mirch
1/4th jeera
chicken(2 leg piece)..
salt:1/4th
lemon:1 lemon

first add oil, den jeera, den kaali mirch, den chicken..keep mixing on sim..den add lemon..keep stirring..now switch off gas and keep it covered..and thats it..its simple..its less oil..nd its yummyyyy

Gravy Chicken (main course)
onions(3)
garlic-lassan(7-8 pieces)
adrak(1 piece)
tomatoes(2-3)

cut onions and lassan(garlic) and adrak..make paste if mixie..add to kadhai..add oil...let it become brown/dark pink..
then add tomatoes(2-3 big ones)..mix..
add salt to taste(1 teaspoon)..chicken masala if available..haldi..long..elaichi
mix and make gravy..now add chicken pieces(3 leg pieces)..keep heatin till pak jaaye..
do it on sim flame..
if u have to make chicken wid gravy, add to cooker..add water to just cover the chicken..heat..

chicken ready tra la la la

Absurd..

We all have our idiosyncrasies. Some weird habit thats so normal to us, but annoying to others. Some people talk too much, some talk too less, some shake their legs continously, some knock their fingers, some drag their feet while walking, some sing tuneless and continuous, some sing in tune and continuous.

But its weird how, if you like someone, either as a friend or as a lover, the same habit becomes a sign of familiarity. Something which was annoying earlier, becomes an action you tend to love and miss. Thats the reason I think we can never criticize or find faults with our loved ones. Because we fall in love with their absurdities too. Absurd isn't it?:)

A beautiful statement by Carrie
"Somewhere out there, is another little freak who will love us, understand us and kiss our three heads and make it all better"- Carrie Bradshaw (Sex and the City)

Some days don't end the way you wanted them to..

Happens and Happens.

Cliched yet different!

Just came up from a long session at the mess table with everyone narrating their love stories. I got all mushy at the end on how sweet every relationship was. Also, I realised how a common link ran through the building of relationships. It was almost as if there were random combinations of the same parameters. Maybe that is a very non romantic way of looking at it, but its true.

Every relationship can be divided into two categories-with senior and with batchmate

With batchmate: It starts with the inevitable bonding during some arbit project in December. Infact statistics will show maximum anniversaries during December. Maybe some Christmas spirit spills over to India also. Meals together, night outs, movies. The project gets ditched, but the relationship reaches completion..

With senior: Some fundae for some company, resumes, scholarships, fundaes for insti activities, MI seniors, dept seniors. Intellectual sessions leading to the gal being impressed. Resume gets made, schols get awarded and you get hitched in addition..

The weird thing is that inspite of every relationship story being cliched, with the same tricks and games being played, yet its still so sweet and beautiful to listen to..!!

Hats off Cupid!!

For the unphoenix

One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs
Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls

These are lines by Saeb-e-Tabrizi, a seventeenth century Persian poet while praising Kabul.

These are the lines that Laila, the protagonist of A Thousand Splendid Suns remembers when she is returning to war torn Kabul after the US forces have defeated the Taliban there.

These are the lines that every citizen can find befitting to describe his/her home nation.

Just finished reading this touching bestseller in which Khaled Hosseini has tracked the history of Kabul from 1980s to now. It seems a pity that a country so beautiful is destroyed and shattered by war. All because of power play. Power play, a game that twists your conscience and breaks all your moral bindings; wrenches the heart right out of your body and hurls it away.

In such times of adversity, what does it take to survive? Laila survived. She did not come out unscathed or unscarred. Memories of the terror, nightmares of the massacres continued to haunt her, but still she learnt to live with hope again. She still had the courage to come back to her home country which had taken away everything from her-her parents, her youth, her freedom. But that was Laila. She was undefeated by the war demon. What about the thousands who succumbed to the terror the demon yielded? What about the thousands who didn't have the courage to return? Everyone is not a phoenix.

And for those unphoenix(pardon narrative license), I mourn today.

PS: Bunked a CAT class to finish the novel and write this blog. Back to the world of books, I am loving it!