"Idhuvum kadandhu pogum"

Few days back I was talking to my dad about things I hate the most and those which irritate me and put me off, thoroughly. I was constantly talking talking and talking and whining as far as possible, dad was patiently listening, he did not speak a word in-between my jabber. Just then I finished he said one sentence in tamizh-it goes like this,

“Idhuvum kadandhu pogum”

It means, even this phase of problem/worry/crisis will move on. This really encouraged me. The sentence looks so tiny but has an incredible meaning to it. It boosts a person so much, further it makes us think in a wider perspective as the phase will move on. From then on whenever I face some crooked situation, I remember his words, it makes me look forward and hit upon solutions.

I wanted to share this piece of information for those who think troubles always exists and never goes from us.

So whenever you are down, say this sentence to yourself. It really works...

Keep smiling :)

Cooking Cooking and more Cooking !!

Panner butter masala, Gobi manchuriyan, Dal fry, palak panner, aalo Gobi masala etc etc. sounds delicious right? Yes! Eating all these is not a big deal, but how to make all these? Always we cannot rely on restaurants. Off late I developed little interest in cooking, but never wanted to try out in a full fledge as I am scared of kitchen work. Initially I had this impression that kitchen work is all worst, its one big time headache blah blah. But nowadays I started liking it. Currently the time has come to show my cuisine talents.

One evening I walked into Spencer’s daily grocery to buy some butter to make ghee, suddenly my eyes stopped to an attractive packet of panner, the cover of that packet had a print of panner masala. It really looked yummy! Immediately I took it and placed it along with other stuffs I bought. On my way back home, I was thinking why did I buy it? I don’t know how to make it, and my mom will also not like doing north Indian dishes. What to do? I never tried north Indian dish by my own.

Then I reached home, without my mom’s knowledge I kept the panner deep inside the chiller. I desperately wanted to have panner masala but I did not know the preparation method. After sometime I opened the chiller to see whether there is any method of preparation behind the pack. Wow!! To my surprise I saw the method, it all looked simple. I needed few extra things to make the dish. Since it was around 9pm, I could not go out and buy the missing items.

Next day morning around 8am I went to market and got the absent ingredients. I was all set to surprise my mom and brother. I told my mom not to come to kitchen as I am going to surprise her. (Thou she does not like these dishes, I wanted to show that I can make what I like and eat happily). This is the foremost time I am trying a north Indian dish completely by my own. I started to cut vegetables; onion, tomato, ginger, coriander. Eyes went real red after cutting onion. After a while I washed my face and continued to do my work. With the help of few links from internet I somehow finished the dish. I am all set to garnish the panner masala with some coriander and ready to serve.

And this is how my recipe looked :) (camera mobile, clarity will be little low)

Now I am yet to taste the recipe and all set for the first taste of it. Trust me; I was really scared how it would taste. I was praying all God’s before I was about to go for the initial tang… oops! I am afraid to taste, what if it tastes bad:(. I decided to give to my brother first, let him taste and give me the remarks.

I quietly went to my brother and showed him the dish and gave a spoon to taste; I closed my eyes when he went for it. There was silence for 10seconds and then I opened my eyes, he was so damn amazed and said “I never expected you to do such a wonderful thing in the first shot! Wow!” my face was brightened with joy, and then I felt like tasting, yipeeeee, it was awesome; next mom had a savor of it and was happy to know I can cook well. I felt very proud of myself.

Later I was all tired after doing the recipe, it is not a big work but for the first time it was bit hectic; and then I realized how mom used to feel tired after doing so many dishes. Really great. Hence I learnt one thing; eat what you like by cooking on your own, it will taste better and the best. :)

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Here is the method of preparation !

Heat butter in a kadai and add the onion puree and fry till they turn light brown in color. Add Ginger-Garlic paste to the brown paste mixture and saute for sometime. Then add the chillipowder, coriander powder, tomato puree, turmeric powder, garam masala powder and salt and saute for sometime. Now Add the soaked paneer cubes, some water and allow it to cook till the gravy becomes semi-solid. Finally garnish with coriander and fresh cream. Panner butter masala is ready :)

Sand conversation!! Lovely Bessie

“Hey frds 2day pucca at 5.pm Bessie; barista meeting point”…. This is the SMS which goes to divi, pri, cr, chand, anu from me, as I am the Bessie planner… friends are too studious in such issues, lol.. They will reply immediately for confirmation… I used to organize and usually I will be the last to come.

By the time I reach barista everyone would have come and they would blissfully be chatting (obviously veti talks). There I see my gang, I usually spot my gang by cr’s smile (not that she has smiling face, but her bunny teeth will strike you for sure)lol relax cr ;)

From there we go to our usual place ie: round sand conference ;). Here the conversation starts by our genie anu “hey temme some gossip” actually there won’t be much to gossip but we will speak some crap, on the other end cr will be quietly listening, but beware she is up to something; what is it?!?! Yeah, her ususal masala kadala and molaga bajji. We all have to go with her to eat molaga bajji else she will kill us ;)

I would not prefer going to the stall as soon as we enter beach, hence I generally drag her to water, cursing me she will come, most of the times madam would take care of slippers but every time I pull her to water. Oh yeah!! Here comes our yap yap girl, pri!! “Hey lets take a foto yar” her standard dialogue, hearing this I generally try to run away, as she will grab my mobile and asks to click for her posses. By and large her posses are similar either tilting her head to right or left and EEE her teeth ;) not to forget that she is glued to cr while taking pics.

In all this hungama anu will be in one corner; doing what?!!? Well madam will be over phone, I used to wonder why she came to beach?!? With lots of expressions she will be talking, talking and keeps talking, till when!? Till either her charge gets over or the other persons credit gets over, which ever is earlier ;)

Now comes divi, almost doing nothing but operating her mobile, she is never on call as she will not call any single soul on earth, she only messages. There comes a future predictor, she sees divi and says “madhavan mari unaku paiyan varuvan ma” she will be fascinated by it and gives her few pennies. (This is what I call business tactics) ;)

Usually divi and anu will not come near water. Myself and pri are the brave girls to stand in water; cr will gain the poise after seeing us. Standing in water is real fun, especially when cr is there, she will go backwards when tides come in some 100km, for that she will jump and go back, comedy only she does. Hehe...

After all water joy we dust our pants and head back to the pavilion. There cr yaps for molaga bajjai, certainly even we love eating it, but she always gets enthu when she sees those long long molagas hanging like designer pearl, till we get our royal plates we will be seated in plastic chairs and again we will start chatting, nearly it will be some love stories or about our class… usually when our sand conversation ends the mighty girl chand will come, number one lazy I must say, darling loves to play truth or dare. She is a pucca sport and does anything, but we should be equally ready to play with such a sport. Madam is our standard sponsor especially for ice creams.

Skies gradually turn to dark blue and we are forced to draw a closer to our lovely sand conversation. Now it’s really time to get back home, most of the times Myself, divi and chand use to walk back. When we cross frankiee shop, I will look at divi, she such a cutie pie understands from my face and offers me a frankiee. We both owe so much to each other may be crores ;)

Some how 2 to 3 hours will go with all these fun and joy don’t know how it goes just like that. CR, pri, divi, anu and chand the most precious friends I earned during all these three years of my college life. Thanks to all of you.

But there is always a special mention for CR and PRI for being there whenever I needed them. Thanks sweeties. :)

Sigh!! What a great fun we had in beach, ragging each other, laughing for silly jokes, talking everything from A to Z and always being together and united. It’s always blissful and such memories always have a special room in all these young hearts today, tomorrow and forever.

Now all are waiting for next Bessie meet and there goes the SMS……….. 1 message received :):)