Moggina jade

She woke up with a thumping heart and eagerly looked around. Looking affectionately at her sister, she remembered the fun she had on the day when her sister was being dressed up. How she had looked at her , in awe, waiting for the day she will be the one to sit infront of that mirror. How she had visualized herself sitting on that stool, with the long braid , all decked up, posing for the photo.She knew she was one of the fairest and prettiest in the family. People told her so. Her father had promised that he will take his favorite daughter to the best studio in the city.

Why is everyone sleeping still? Why is the Sun God delaying his presence till now? Can’t he see that I am anxious to see the day? Can’t he sense my excitement?. Yes, today is my day. The day of moggina jade. Last week, Lalitha had her hair plaited beautifully, adorned with lot of flowers, ornaments all over her head, looking so beautiful. Her moggina jade photo did not do justice to her. I hope mine comes out right.

She didn’t realize that she had fallen asleep again, till she woke up to her mother’s tinkering in the kitchen. Grinning, with the image of her perceived photo, she skipped to the kitchen, to help mother with the burning of the woods for cooking. Mother was busy, but seeing her up so early, smiled with a twinkle in her eye. She laughed out loud, hugged and buried her face in mother’s saree.Mother was sure to deck her up so good. She always had very good taste,knowing the right ornament to choose , the right height for the plait.

I better hurry up and get dressed. Ah! This silk langa ( long skirt) looks so pretty. So what if it is a hand me down. Everyone looks different in the same clothes. This jade feels kind of heavy. Who cares? A little discomfirt for a beautiful photo? All my friends have a moggina jade photo except me.Where is Anna? He said he will be here by 5:00 to take me to the studio. Anna !!

She hopped onto the best studio in the city, holding her father’s hand. Putting one palm over another, she posed for the camera with mingled feeling of satisfaction and elation. Yes, It was her day for Moggine Jade.

PS: The story is fiction, but the photo is not. In fact, I have no clue how mother felt on that day. 🙂

PPS: Wonder what happened to the custom of Moggina Jade photos.

 

Writing is a habit…

You know how you wish you had been writing a diary, just to jot down your thoughts. Thats what blogs are for. With all this writing and sharing in mind, I had started a group blog of some friends, eons ago. It was going well till people became lazy about writing and I started Suroba. Recently, One of the friends had this thought about how “Writing is a habit” and decided to jot it down in our group blog. I guess she was visiting the blog after a couple of years and did not know that it is almost non existent now.This link is for my dear friend “S” who wrote this blog post “Writing is a habit” at our old group blog “All that you can think”

WRITING IS A HABIT – by Bumblebee

 

Puttu Payir Pappadam

“I will make Puttu( a Kerala delicacy). Something you have never tasted before”, proclaimed I, to my parents and went on to make the worst Puttu ever. It was like eating Raw wheat flour, with some coconut shreds, though the accompanying kadala curry was very good. Poor Mom and Dad. Tried their best to smile, with watery eyes , wondering what sin they had committed ,forced to eat raw flour. Was she taking revenge for hitting her as a child, thought the mother or Was it because I wouldn’t let her read “The Pirate” by Harold Robbins in her 10th grade, thought the father. Poorva Janma Karma, they decided and took the brunt of it.

Alas!! I wish they had tasted my Puttu yesterday. Practice maketh a woman’s puttu perfect. No! Not just practice, also the food processor. Helps to get the right consistency of the flour with water.In case you are wondering, how a Kannadiga married to a Tamilian gets hold of Puttu maker and makes awesome Puttus, here is the scoop. Having a Malayali MIL helps you to learn puttu and aapam recipes. Puttu, Payir, Papadam is what the combination is called. In TN restaurants, Puttu with Kadala curry is popular too. I made Puttu, blackeyed peas curry with Appalam.
Here is the puttu maker.

Ingredients
2 cups Wheat flour ( Rice flour is more popular)
water, as needed
1/2 cup shredded coconut
salt, as per taste

Preparation
1. Mix the flour& salt with water in a food processor, till you get the right consistency. There should be just enough moisture so that if you grip the flour,it should bind, but otherwise it doesn’t.
2. Make layers of flour and coconut in the puttu maker and place it on the bottom vessel, which essentially holds water for steaming.
3. Thats it !! Steam it for five minutes and enjoy it with whatever you want.

The original PPP is puttu with rice flour, payiru with whole moong dal sundal and fried pappadum.

My PPA is puttu with Wheat flour, payiru with black eyed peas and spinach gravy and fried appalam. And as you can see, I added shredded coconut, just as a bare necessity.The recipe definitely calls for more.

Note: If you are wondering why I started posting recipes again,I was guilt tripped. For some reason, all my posts are getting posted in some food blog aggregator called Foodbix. And so, a recipe it is.

 

Moo to Man

1982,there was this little kid, who wouldn’t leave the theater after watching “Moondaram Pirai“, crying ” Kamal..ku ippidi ayiruka koodahu.” ( this should not have happened to Kamal) after seeing him go mad in the last scene.Something she gets teased about , till today, by her sister. The same girl tried talking to Kamal’s brother, to somehow get his autograph though it didn’t materialize.If she was not an ardent fan, I don’t know who is.

Yes, the girl has blossomed into a woman, not fanatic anymore, though she cannot resist watching a Kamal movie till today. And so, Manmadan Ambu happened , despite warnings from friends who had bad reviews. Who cares?Any movie with Kamal & Madhavan is good for me.

I would rather watch a Tamil movie which has some good looking men,however old they maybe than one where the hero is a self proclaimed udhavakarai( good for nothing) , trying to woe girls with his blood shot eyes.

I would rather watch a movie which is a laugh riot in the climax than one which starts all funny but ends with everyone dying.

I would rather watch a movie which has some poignant moments with a very realist cancer patient than one where diseases are simplified or over complicated.

I would rather watch a movie set in a cruise ship and beautiful locales than one with too realistic village belles .

Yes, there were a couple of gaping loopholes, but, the movie was very entertaining. Everyone crossed their t’s and dotter their i’s. And, Surya in the first song was an added bonus.. Drool..

My main plus point with the movie is that it was realistic, in certain scenes. Just because one’s friend has cancer doesn’t mean one cannot have fun or laugh. I loved the fact that Kamal breaks into a song , once he gets the money for his friend. That is what life is all about. Happy and sad moments.

 

2010

Celebrated Wedding anniversary – Check
Parents visit to US – Check
Parents-in-law visit to US – Check
House hunting – Check
Went through the stress of moving houses – Check
Stress of selling a house in this real estate slump – Check
Job switch, with hopes of a better career jump – Check
3 Marathons for Suresh – Check
1000 + odd miles of running for the whole year ( 1000+ by Suresh and odd by me 🙂 ) – Check
Numerous half-marathons, pacific coast trail runs by Suresh – Check
Payout – Check
Lot of good food , cooking, baking and eating out – Check
One international travel – Check
One travel within US – Check
Volunteering – Check
Regular scans with usual scanxiety – Check
Adventurous new job including stolen laptops, boss quitting 3 weeks after hiring you and your new hire bailing out at the last moment – Check
IPAD – Check
Landscaping the new house – Check
Wine making using grapes from our vineyard – Check
Brewing awesome beer ( call it beginner’s luck 🙂 ) – Check
Blogging – Only “Che” , no “ck” coz it stopped after august. 🙂

I would consider 2010 as one of the most eventful years , with more happy times than sad. Not much to regret. Content. Wish the same for 2011, with more blogging included.

Wishing everyone a Happy, healthy and Prosperous New Year!

 

Veg Dilemma

When I came to the US, I was very intrigued by Zucchini. Went through the same cycle as every Indian and assumed it to be cucumber, only to realize that there was nothing cuckoo about it, just plain Houdini. I stir fry it, grill it, sambar it , poriyal it..well..u name it. Houdini is a magician and magic becomes stale after a few shows, say what? Let me…
We visited Greece couple of weeks back, for Suresh’s participation in the historic Athens classic marathon. Athens was very much like Banglore,similar roads, lot of two wheeler traffic and people jumping lights. Awesome ! Made me homesick. If everything feels like home, why not the food ?? For some reason, Grecians think Zucchini will be liked by every single vegetarian. A fail safe concept. No, the king of vegetables, eggplant(aka brinjal) has his share as well. One needs to keep the king happy, after all. Most of the menu cards had English translation ,which on translated, read

( list contains vegetarian only due to the author’s lack of knowledge in meat dishes)
APPETIZER

1. Grilled vegetables ( Zucchini, Egglplant and Peppers)

2. Steamed vegetables( Zucchini and Peppers)

3. Eggplant Salad ( Blended eggplant and yogurt sauce)

4. Spinach Pie

The Main course did not have anything worth mentioning for a vegetarian.

Five days, for lunch and dinner, I had one of the above, except for the last day when the Chef made me cry with some steamed Beans… Yes, God exists !!

The food was not great,but it was fun..

Runners from Suresh’s running group, post-race dinner..I took the photo while digesting my Spinach Pie.

Greek dance at the restaurant

 

One more take, Saar..

Hey, if not that guy, why not this one?? “Oru Madhavan illa na, oru Ganesh Venkatraman. They are both handsome after all.” and so went my thoughts when it was decided that he will be a surprise guest for our light music event,as he is currently shooting here. Thus started my journey of trying to take a decent photograph with this guy, though I never knew about him till then. Lets call him GV.

Take #1 ( The day before):
Being the MC, had to meet him on Friday, to explain our cause and give some notes. Very professional till the last minute, when I prompted someone to take a photo in my Iphone, in front of some 10 random people ,with an awkward expression, “This is for my niece.” Did I say he is really young?? Sigh! He posed with a tired smile.

Take #2( On the stage):
I was literally waiting on my toes for GV’s arrival , as things were getting delayed and we were nearing the break. To my credit, photograph was not in my mind then, though I had Suresh ready with the canon rebel xsi.This warrants some history. Suresh and I play a cat and mouse game , when it comes to stage photography. Either the lighting is not right or the photographer is in the wrong position or I am not still and posing, while talking in the mike.Yeah!! You heard it right. Won’t it be easy if we could just stand there and pose.Anyway, a determined Suresh was ready for the show this time, when alas he had to leave the auditorium for volunteering efforts.The task was handed over to S, a very good friend, whose photography skills can be relied up on …or not. Have you heard of the saying that a picture can speak a thousand words.. I present you with three thousand words.. you be the judge

In case you are a california resident and start wondering if there was an earthquake and how you might have missed it , rest assured, there was none. Assuming we were walking around too fast on the stage, the third one, which was taken when GV walked down and we were just standing around, really beats me.. I am sure the photographer had some trick idea in his mind. Just what, I don’t know…

Take #3:
S, fully satisfied and patting himself on a job well done, went out to have dinner. Myself and Saumya were gaurding GV , while he was interacting with the audience. Iphones, Samsungs and blackberries came out, people clicking to glory, which was mostly husbands taking photographs of their wives with GV. 🙂 I had this gut feeling that S did not do a good job and so , we were frantically trying to reach him as he was the …ahem…camera man.. Saumya, being the resourceful Bharathiya Nari, fished out her iphone, looked at GV and said,”Hey Ganesh, stay still. Let me get one click with Shoba.” To his credit, he didn’t flinch and posed. Meanwhile, I asked another friend with an Iphone, to click one, as a backup.

Take #4:
With messages being sent via various people to all corners of the auditorium ,S was finally located and he came running with the camera. Feeling awkward, especially as I was telling everyone that the photo session was over , while steering GV back , I feigned nonchalance and said ” Hey G, I think that guy wants to take a photo. Can you please oblige him.” . Here comes the next thousand words,

S says he was standing on something wobbly… do you believe it?

Take #5:
Just before GV was leaving and we were all thanking him, S came huffing and puffing, followed Saumya’s tactics, fished out his Iphone and asked GV to pose with me once more. By then , I was blushing as I am way beyond my teenage years and damn! it does feel odd to ask for photographs. But, he clicked and grinned ear to ear, saying, ” My best photo of the day”. Little did I realize that he really meant it then.

STEVE JOBS AND CREW!! THANK YOU FOR THE IPHONE.

 

Concerts galore

Bery Bery Busy Beekend. Two concerts.First one, a fund raiser , which needed lot of planning as I was part of the MC team. Played by a local bay area band ,Ilayaragam. Flawless rendition and a night to remember, not just because of the songs, but also the money raised. From the time I have MC’ed for the Cancer Institute Foundation,this is a first, where lot of people came forward and donated. Pure Bliss. Feels good.

The second concert, was our own ARR… My friend K, who took me to the show, likes being ontime for any appointment ( read that as 1.5 hours before time 😀 ) and there we were, outside the arena, shivering at the entrance,though not long,thanks to K’s friends who had a booth.As for the concert…..Pure entertainment, though we didn’t recognize any of the singers except for ARR & Hariharan. Found that the shaved head was Benny Dayal this morning and also that the Shaan look alike was Jay Prakash from Hosanna fame. Very poor GK!! My only saving grace was that K ,who accompanied me had a slightly lower GK than me,making me swell in pride for knowing most of the songs. Rahman has grown and come out of his shell. Good for him!! We were sitting so far away that most of what they talked on stage sounded like some gibberish , making me and K fill in the words with our own nonsense… You can have fun even with gibberish and poor audio, I tell you. Its all in the mind. The couple of young ,good looking girls who sang “Nanna re” were awesome.It is tough to sing and dance at the same time. As K put it, ” You cannot look beautiful, dance and sing like that at the same time. Thats an unforgivable crime.” 😀 ARR started the show with “O Saya” , immediately followed by “Adhiradi dhaan” from Shivaji. Quite a few Tamil numbers, adding to lot of people’s jubiliation. Just wished Hari sang more.

A weekend to remember, lots of fun. Has to be….if I can take time off from work and type this blog, all with a splitting headache.. Yes, a weekend to remember..

And Oh!! if you want any details about the actor Ganesh Venkatraman( Arif Khan from Unnai Pol Oruvan & the sardar in Abhiyum Naanum) including his height and weight, ping me as I tried to learn as much as I could, to introduce and talk about him to others during our CIF event,as he was a special guest. About my photos with him….a blog post soon to follow with some photos.. All that happened, warrants a seperate blog of its own.Stay tuned.

 

TGIF!! Yipee !!

Life is reeling at a fast pace. I was jokingly mentioning to friends that I am the director/engineer and technician in our startup. No kidding.. I am director by morning and engineer by night, with the technician sprinkled in between. Sigh!! Its not going be too late before I start singing on of my favorite songs …..

I love love love this song, the emotions that Mukesh brings out are awesome.

 

Blank

Since I am suffering from blogstipation, just jotting down some random thoughts or pearls of wisdom if you want to .

“Corporate life doesn’t let you know how you are perceived till you leave.” – Pearl of wisdom from a veteran when I said that I felt humbled and overwhelmed by the respect I seemed to have gained in my previous work place.

While climbing up the ladder in one’s career, it is interesting how the firms chosen have been shrinking in size. From a 20000 employee to 13000 to 4000 to 12. With all the pros and cons. The cons being nothing is taken for granted and every penny counts. The bigger the firm size, the more freebies you get. The smaller the firm size, the more headache on how you spend. Sigh!! The pros being flexibility, more control and of course better learning. Well ,the CEO sits next to you.Yipee!! or not 🙄 . With 12 people, there is no where else to go , anyway. 🙂

A new house, with a long commute, a new job , with a tight schedule… Hmmm.. Take life as it comes and flow with it.