Akshaya Thrithya

Or Akkha Teej (famously called back home in Rajasthan) brings back a whole lot of memories to me. This festival is one which was always celebrated in my village (Deshnok – Bikaner dist) in Rajasthan with a lot of relatives and when I say lot, I mean a whole lot of them (nearly 150 people in one house)!!!

As per the Jain tradition, today is the day when the first Thrithankar (Rishabh Bhagwan) broke his fast after completing one whole year of giving up food of any kind and living only on water. Jains consider this day as very auspicious and people who undertake similar fasting rituals break their fast with sugarcane juice today. This day also marks the foundation of the city of Bikaner and hence it is kind of a double joy to residents like me…

This is the day when there is kite flying activity happening from day break till night fall!!! Normally all the male folk indulge themselves in flying kites and if you do happen to visit Bikaner during this time, you can actually get the feel of the festivities upclose… There are even bets placed on who cuts the most kites, whose kite flies the farthest and so on and so forth!!!

The women folk indulge in cooking the very famous and scrumptious Khichda (made 4 times in 2 days) and this is made from wheat, bajra and jowar with lots of ghee. Apart from Khichda, there is badi ki sabzi, laapsi and ambalwaani (tamarind water). The food is served only in silver utensils under the guidance of the eldest person in the house…

What I clearly recollect about this day is my grandmother who would make sure that each member of the house is well-fed and usually would be the person who would pour homemade ghee on our food… And she would do this with her shaky hands and considering that she was over 80, you could imagine the amount of ghee that would fall in the plate!!! :-) hmmmmm heaven…

Sadly over the past few years, this kind of celebration is no longer happening, esp. after the demise of my grandmother. Everyone has kind of moved on with their lives and bringing everyone together to celebrate the festival would be a Herculean task… But I have just this one wish that I get to relive those wonderful days of fun and laughter. Hope it does not remain as only a dream :-(

Some facts on Akshaya Trithya

It usually falls on the 3rd day of bright Vaikash and is considered very auspicious particularly in Hindu tradition. Many couples get married today as it is considered to be the best day of the year – in fact my parents got married on Akshaya Thrithya and so did Aishwarya and Abhishek Bachchan. Though am not sure if buying gold or silver is auspicious but down south this seems to be the tradition.

Oh glorious day!

I am at bliss… I cannot express just how happy I feel today… It is difficult to choose the source of this feeling… either because of the brief-break from work (till Apr 29) or the weather or may be a combination of both…

I am loving every bit of it – just sitting at home doing nothing… Watching some chick flicks (as the hubby terms it!!!), spending some “quality time” (don’t get to do this often) in my neglected house and missing the husband (read that!!!).

Off late life has been a bit stressful for me and so decided to take this break… to refresh the mind and the soul and what better way to do it but to spend some lovely time at home… let me tell you, for a working person there is no place heaven other than home.

And what a way to start my holidays – its raining cats and dogs here and the sight is just awesome… the pitter-patter of the raindrops bringing me relief from the heat and soothing my nerves… The birds near my place chirping away to glory while I call the husband and tell him what exactly he is missing ;) (Devilish grin)

And so to ensure that I don’t miss the moment - I am gonna pick up a book, sit in my balcony with a hot cup of nice filter coffee while I leave you with a nice view of my balcony… The nice trees and greenery surrounding my house… my way of sharing my thoughts through the picture – am sure none of us want to miss even a bit of it.

Culinary skills at its best…

Thanks to Vijay who has helped in supplying me traditional Tamil recipe’s to satisfy my husband taste buds while I have submerged myself in Vidhu Mittal’s book Pure & simple for the north Indian dishes.

You can check Vijay’s blog here, but sadly he does not share any of the recipes on his blog – you will have to write to him for that! Lol… kidding – actually he was kind enough to ask me if I needed help to improve my cooking and I shamelessly said yes!!! :-0 sorry Vijay for the additional trouble I give you on and off!!!

A book review - I happen to come across this awesome book at a rendezvous with Sunil’s team-members one evening and was floored with it. So impressed was I, that I ordered this book from sapnaonline.com. Voila I received this in a day’s time and from then on I haven’t stopped myself from experimenting and trying out new stuffs. Am really amazed with her cooking techniques.

What I like about this book is that it not only gives you clear cut instructions but the recipes are simple and very easy to understand and isn’t lengthy at all. Apart from the recipes there are also additional information given w.r.t spices and all kinds of accompaniments. A very helpful book not only for beginners but also the housewife kinds...I give 5/5 on this and definitely a must have for any girl.

As far as Vijay goes – what can I say; he is the closest blog friend I have! Thanks so much.

Will the real honest politician please stand up?

I am in a dilemma – with the elections around the corner I am clueless on the appropriate candidate to cast my vote! I feel no one here deserves to be on the heading lurch!

Have you seen the petty fights and the cat fights that the members of each party are indulging in? It is disgusting! What kind of maturity are they displaying? I don’t think democracy means pelting stones at each other just for the sake of the throne… I really feel sad for us Indians – we have no place to go… We are back to square one!!!

The guilt (of wanting to vote but don’t know whom to) is following me each time I think of the elections – I have a lump in my throat at just the thought. Each party is filled with corruption and manipulation. Tomorrow will never change for us…

Why can’t we have someone who is well educated to carry the load for us, or why can’t we have a panel filled with educated and responsible people working for us. Yes they are working for us but the way it is portrayed, it’s always the other way around

My one question is that, these people claim that they are servants of people then how come they declare assets worth crores? Doesn’t that account to corruption? I don’t think they are born with all that money but yet can get away with it… and the common man still struggles with unemployment, inflation, increasing interest rates, etc. Is this the way India is going to prosper? They don’t really seem to be worried about all these problems , it is left for us to suffer in pain while they keep cashing on…

I am seeing an aggressive phase of elections in Indian history – the role of media to advertise candidates like it is some kind of a product that they are offering… I see them everywhere – on blogs, on TV and even on the local radio…. It is the new segment of Indian political drama!!!

End of it all – there will be no change – we will continue to have problems. We will still be targeted by terrorists while they will always get VIP protection, we will still have no valuable additions to our assets while they will show an increasing trend in the value of assets, we will still strive to add to our savings while they will cash it all in their bank account and all this in the name of growing India!!!

Obama says that Indians are the main competitors to the US and also that they are highly intimidated by us… But the reality something else… When all our talent is being eaten up by the politics of this country... We are cash rich country but unfortunately the cash is sitting with all the politicians and yet we beg IMF / World Bank for money each year.

Be Brave India. We still have to do our duty as all responsible citizens are required to do – Cast your Vote but think twice before you do that.

My day out

The long weekend was perfect way to spend two lazy days at home at the cost of one outside – well… that was the threat I gave my poor husband. Well whatd'ya expect, a girl needs a break after all! I just needed to cut loose from my crazy life!!!

So off we went on our drive!!! Roped in Shaatz & Dia and drove down to the old town of Mysore. It's about 130kms from Bangalore and takes you approx. 3 hrs to reach . We started around 9ish on the 11th (Sat), enroute stopped at Kadumane (at the outskirts of Blore) for a quick breakfast. Now, though I would have preferred Kamat Lokaruchi anytime we were too late and being a weekend, it would have definitely cost us a lot of time. That place is crowded even on a normal weekday… And weekend was totally out of question. The feedback on Kadumane – you might as well give it a pass…

The journey was nice with green pastures around when you move further from Bangalore. We finally reached Mysore around 12ish. Dia wanted to go to the Mysore Palace and we thought it would be a good idea for us to revisit the place and get a little nostalgic!!! Am sure all of us would have visited the palace during our school days…. After an hour & a half long trip around the palace (with the heat accompanying us) including a little bit of shopping (wee bit :-0), our tour of the old place got over at 2pm – just in time for lunch! We did work out quite an appetite!!!

For lunch we headed to another palace – Lalith Mahal (on the way to Chamundi Hills). Well, I was more than impressed with the palace than the food!!! But, we were so hungry that we would have even managed with grass if we could lay our hands on it. I had been there nearly 20 years ago and wanted to see if anything had changed (not that I remember it all that well)... I vaguely recall the place being so blue-blue and let me tell you that it hasn’t changed one bit!!!!

After a “bharjari oota” (sumptuous meal), we headed back to Bangalore around 3.30pm. Thankfully the weather gods were kind to us and the drive was a pleasant one with slight drizzle as well… The mood was perfect for some hot Chai (Coffee for me though) and some Maddur Vadas at Maddur Tiffany’s. With Sharath’s awesome driving skills on display, we finally reached home by 7pm, thus putting an end to my wonderful day out.
What the heck! It was fun to the core!!!

PS:- Unfortunately I have no pictures to show off!!!

Chikungunya

Is back and with the summer at its peak, it is infecting each door it passes.

My parents are infected with the disease for the last two days and what I do hear from our doc is that there has been an outburst reported recently, therefore my parent’s case does not come as a surprise to him.

What I do like to know from him is that, how did it manage to make an entry into my place with my mother ever so painstakingly particular about cleanliness not only at home but the surroundings as well. Now that’s a mystery to all.

And we try to find that one infected mosquito, I’ll leave you’ll with certain practical facts of the disease.

1. How do you catch Chikungunya – through a mosquito
2. Symptom – Usually begins with some pain in any part of the body, slowly moving to the whole body in totality and after which you’ll probably catch a shiver and finally fever (up to 103 degrees)
3. Duration – for an average adult, fever will probably last not more than 2 days or so but might take a while for the body to recuperate.
4. Action – Take a crocin immediately and rush to your nearest doc asap.
5. Diet – avoid all items of urad daal.

Precautions – since it is better than cure, my suggestion is sanitize your respective homes by whatever means you prefer be it Hit or burning a coil or by using any other disinfectant. My preference is Kachua chap coil. Just to inform you guys, normal All-out or Good Night mats WILL not help you in warding these mosquitoes.

Disclamer - The above mentioned action plans are from my own experience. Please use the best means you know.

Best of health always and keep clean.

Heatbeat

Seriously! Summer is something that I wholeheartedly hate… I wish it was winter all through, contrary to Sundru’s opinion (if it were for him I would have already melted away, the boy likes no fan/ air-condition even on a very hot summer day). Phew, we have two more months of such misery before rains strike again very typical of a Bangalore climate, we aren’t sure when the rains come or go or when it is sunny or not, the weather here has a mind of its own - if you’ve been here you’ll agree with me.

Usually the problem with Bangalore is, it gets highly affected with climatic/weather changes surrounding the place. For example if it rains in Chennai it will rain here and so on and so forth. It gets annoying after a while...

So, what do I do to beat the summer heat?
1. Drink lots and lots of water – preferably cold (earthen pot) not ice water (well that too sometimes, since I don’t have a clay pot at home)
2. Nice fresh homemade juice – nimboopani
3. Fan always at the maximum
4. No makeup – I do that either ways!
5. Wear loose cloths so that it doesn’t stick to your body - I like Kota -Doria sarees...very nice & cold... :)
6. Keep windows open all the time (there's a nice big tree right next to our apartment which keeps our drawing room cool)
7. Preferably if time permits have bath twice (again cold)
8. Drink lots of Tender coconut water - nothing like it
9. Dont venture out in the sun too much - not good for your tan as well as your head (gives me a headache)
10. Carry coolers all the time
11. Wash your face atleast 5 times - it's good for your skin too...
and last but not the least dont forget your sunblock.