Letter From Ex

I came into your life almost a decade ago, do you remember?

Do you remember at all... how we spent those wonderful times together?!

The first thing you did every morning was to think of me!

And the last thing that ran on your mind was me! Of course me!

Every morning we would walk, sometimes jog, and even run...

And that sip of fresh fruit juice was so much fun.

They are all still so fresh in my mind, oh, do you know?

Like it all happened just a while ago!

There were times when you missed meeting me in the morning...

you would make sure to meet me before dusk. Trust me! That was truly rewarding!

I was so proud of you my love...

proud of your dedication, your passion and your deep love!

Do you recall how we spent time together planning your day?

From food to dance to jog to play!

Do you ever look back and see how I pushed you beyond your limits?

I wiped your tears, I made you smile, I boosted your energy and I often lifted up your spirits.

I was your strength, I was your confidence, I was your pride and I was your joy...

Somewhere deep within, I very well knew - I was part of you, and so were you!

Then came a day!

It was your big day, or so you say!

For me, it was the most dreadful day!

Yes I repeat, I echo, I shout a countless times!  It was the most dreadful day!

You promised me that we would live together forever! Didn’t you!?

But you used me, you got all you wanted... and then you were gone! How could you!?

I wondered, I questioned, I pondered!

And then, I waited ... I waited... I silently waited.

I tried reaching you, I tried talking to you,

I walked in your dreams, I tried to wake you.

None knew my grief except The One watching from above.

My Dear! You were so lost in your new found love.

Time passed, but memories stayed

My feelings for you never changed!

Deep within me I knew you would come back to me someday,

I knew you needed me, you craved for me and you missed me every single day!

I am waiting once again to be your strength, your confidence, your pride and your joy...

Once again I want to be part of you, and so would you!

Truly yours,

Exercise

“Exercise” referred to as “Ex” here, is writing a letter to his girl, asking her to get back into the routine of exercise. She had worked out so well during her pre-wedding days. She was so dedicated back then, but over time she got too busy in her new world that she totally forgot to give some time for fitness. So “Ex” is sharing his feelings and how he craves his girl to get back to action. We all often keep such short term goals, and dedicate ourselves only until we reach that goal. After that, we tend to ignore, we find excuses.

Exercise and fitness is not just for a week or month or until a wedding or a party is over. Do not ditch it after your goal is reached. Choose it as a lifestyle. Be regular. Make it a habit. Do it daily – for rest of your life. Make it your partner for a lifetime. It will turn out to be your strength, your confidence, your pride and your joy. 
#FitIndia

Fried Veggies: Many in One

We all want varieties in our meals, don't we? Who would want to eat the same fried rice for both lunch and dinner? Or who would really want to have only biscuits for tea time snacks?! We do want to try out new stuffs, but at the same time, the one working on it often ends up exhausted trying out too many varieties on the same day. So, I came up with something that can ease out things for you, but at the same time it still provides variety to everyone at home.

Using one base recipe, we can derive at below three (or even more) variety of dishes:
1. Fried Rice
2. Spring Rolls/ Fried Momos
3. Steamed Momos
4. Others: Veg Noodles, Macaroni

Many in One

At first, prepare the fried veggies in bulk and keep it aside. Next, you may decide to either cook rice  for lunch(fried rice), or prepare dough for momos for evening snacks (steamed or fried).

Ingredients:

• Vegetables: 2 onions, 2 Carrots, beans, 1 capsicum, lots of cabbage, onion springs
• Minced Ginger and Garlic 
• Salt and Pepper
• Oil for frying
• Equal quantities of maida(all purpose floor) & wheat floor for preparing momo dough
• Cooked Rice for fried rice

Preparing Fried Veggies:

• Chop all vegetables into small pieces. 
• In a large pan, add sufficient oil. Once it becomes hot, add ginger, garlic and then onion. 
• Once this turns golden, add rest of the vegetables and cook them on medium flame without adding water. You may close it with a lid for faster cooking, but remember to keep stirring it frequently.
• After around 5-7 minutes, you will notice that the veggies turn a little translucent, indicating that its cooked. It better to leave the vegetables a little crunchy. Add onion springs and cook for less than a minute. Now add salt and pepper powder. Stir well and turn off the flame. 
• Keep some veggies aside for momos and use the rest to prepare fried rice as mentioned below.

Preparing Fried Rice:

• To the same pan which has the fried veggies, add a spoon of soy sauce. Saute on high flame for a minute and turn off flame. 
• Then add cooked-and-cooled rice and mix well. 
• Adjust salt & pepper as per taste. Your fried rice is now ready to be served.

Preparing Momos Outer sheets:

• Mix equal quantities of wheat flour and maida. 
• Add salt and water. Mix well to bring it to the consistency of poori dough. 
• Keep it covered for 20mins before rolling them.

Preparing Fried/Steamed Momos:

• Make round balls out of the dough and press them flat with a rolling pin.
• Now at the center of the flattened dough, place the vegetable fillings as shown below.
• Slowly pinch and bring the edges together and seal them.
• This is now ready to be deep fried (medium flame) or steamed in a cooker (medium flame, without whistle, for 15mins).

Spring Rolls/Fried Momos

Steamed Momos

Note:

• Momos turn out very delicious when we add cabbage in large quantities.
• To get an Indian flavor, you can choose to garnish the veggies with chopped coriander leaves instead of onion spring.
• Both momos and fried rice tastes best when served with tomato/chili sauce.
• For more spice, you can add chopped green chilies while preparing fried veggies, or alternatively use hot spicy sauce.
• Instead of adding cooked rice, you can choose to cook noodles or macaroni, and add the same fried veggies to it. This gives you veg noodles/ veg macaroni and adds variety at home.

Inner Beauty

We reached the school at 10:15 am. I was happy to be there well ahead of time. Our appointment with the Principal was scheduled at 10:40 am. We were here to seek admission for my daughter for her second grade. As me and my daughter stood there scanning around, we noticed that the lobby was filled with quite a lot of applicants. Kids of age groups starting from probably five to fifteen were there – all waiting for their turn. We walked towards two empty seats and sat beside a man who suddenly smiled, not at us, but at his mobile phone.He was hooked to his phone. As we sat, I could see an old couple, in their 60s, sitting opposite us. There was a little girl beside them, mostly their grand-daughter who was in her early teens. She was dressed in denim, and looked very stylish for her age. She had straight long hair with beautiful bangs. I could see ear-pods plugged into her ears and she seemed lost in her own world. At the far end of the lobby, I could see two little boys impressing one another with their fidget spinners.

Beside me, was a mother-daughter duo just like us. Looking at them, it was very clear that they came from a very simple family. Their looks, their clothing, their body language all looked very simple, yet neat and crisp. While the mother was getting her papers ready, the girl, who was around my daughter’s age was unwrapping a peanut chikki. Her mother did not talk much, however the girl seemed very chirpy to me, which drew my attention towards her.

She asked her mom “How’s chikki prepared Amma?”

Her mother, preoccupied with the documents replied “With peanuts and... sugar of course.”

As the girl munched her chikki, she once again questioned her mom “Amma, my tooth here hurts a lot as I chew this sweet, does it mean there is a cavity in there?”

The lady, with her head bent down, still verifying her papers, replied “Finish your snack quickly, ours is next.”

The little girl popped the remaining chikki into her mouth. Fixing her hair she asked her mother “Is my hair too oily Amma?”

Her mom now lifted her head up, looked at the girl and began “Yes dear, it indeed is a little oily, but that doesn’t make you any less adorable. It’s how well you are going to answer today that will be making you look adorable. It’s your confidence, your attitude and your mental skills which will brighten the beauty in you”. She continued “Dress only to look neat and elegant, nothing beyond that. Don’t you think people like Sudha Murthy, Abdul Kalam and even your grand-mother are a perfect example of this? Now let’s go in with a smile and give your best sweetheart. Your attitude will add on more beauty to you which your dress or hair can’t!” Saying this, she grabbed the girl sideways by her shoulders and kissed her cheeks and said “love you”.

I was simply awed by the young lady’s response and nudged my daughter in admiration who was listening to all this silently. There came her timely response at once: "DO NOT JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS..." and in unison we said..."COVER" as we all chuckled together softly. 

Looks matter, I agree. But in an attempt to impress others, if one starts working too much on their appearance, then rest of the aspects will be side-tracked, especially among kids. So teach your children to look neat and presentable. Nurture young minds to learn to strive towards enhancing their skills and talents.  Let their whole potential be used to intensify their inner beauty, not in enhancing their outer beauty. And always remember, "Never judge a book by its cover". You never know what lies inside.

Goddu Saaru

I prepare this special rasam whenever anyone at home catches cold/ cough. Its an excellent relief for cold/cough or even fever.

Main Ingredients:

Toor Dal - 2 spoons
Curry leaves - a few
Garlic pods - 3
8-10 pepper seeds
coconut grating - 2 spoons
turmeric
half spoon rasam powder
tamarind - as per taste
jaggery - as per taste
Salt as per taste
Ghee - 2 spoons
water.

Seasoning:

Ghee
mustard
jeera
curry leaves
1 garlic pod
a pinch of hing (optional).

Method:

Roast the toor dal in 2 spoon of ghee. After a minute add curry leaves, garlic pods and pepper. Roast until they change color.

Then put this to mixie/blender. Also, add coconut grating, half spoon rasam powder and tamarind.

Transfer the contents into a thick bottomed vessel. Add as much water to get the runny rasam consistency. Add  turmeric, jaggery and salt as per taste and bring to boil. [Remember, it gets thick as it boils, so add enough water. Just 2 spoons of toor dal/coconut is sufficient for a family of 4].

Complete it with a perfect ghee seasoning - by adding mustard, jeera, curry leaves and garlic.

Serve it hot with rice. Tastes better with liberal serving of ghee and of course plenty of love ;)

Oats Oats Oats... Oats Everywhere!

We Indians do not use much of oats in our daily meals. But, these days its become quite a trend, even among us, to consume oats for breakfast. I had 2 kilos of oats lying in my kitchen shelf and I had absolutely no clues how to use them. It looked so dry and tasteless. I tried a few online recipes, but none of them impressed our taste buds.

One cool morning, I craved to eat hot spicy upma for breakfast, but I fell short of rava. Suddenly the thought of mixing some oats flashed my mind. I went ahead and tried mixing rava and oats in 3:1 proportions. To my surprize, my upma turned out so well. Another day, I mixed some roasted oats while preparing poha. Even that was a hit. My ideas went on growing. I added oats while preparing dosa/idli batter in small quantities. It blends so well that no one could guess I added oats in my dosas. 

One fine day, it was time to experiment on my chapatis. I added wheat flour and oats flour in 3:1 ratio. And bingo! There I ended up with soft fluffy chapatis as always.

Given that, oats is so beneficial to health, I want all my near and dear ones to enjoy your usual Indian breakfast, with a little dose of oats in it. Try my below tips and get healthier.

- Simply roast a large bowl of oats in a pan, until it slightly changes its color.

- Once it cools down, take half of it, put it into a mixer & make a fine powder of it. Store it in a jar.

- Take remaining roasted oats and make a coarse powder and store it separately in another jar.

- Use fine powder while preparing chapatis, paratas or akki rotti.

- Use coarse powder in Upma, kesari bath, poha or while preparing idli/dosa batter.

- You may add approximately one-third portion of oats powder to the actual main ingredient. If you are hesitant, use smaller quantities initially and you may slowly increase its proportion.

Some facts on oats:
- Oats are very rich in dietary fiber.
- They have a range of healthy cholesterol-lowering properties.
- It prevents heart disease.
- It reduces the risk of diseases like high blood pressure and diabetes.
- It is known to enhance immune response to various infections.

Idli Fries

It was raining heavily this evening and my tummy craved to eat some yummy french fries. But, given that both my kids were sleeping, I had no chance of going out to satisfy my taste buds. So, my brains did all the crazy processing and came up with this yummy idli fries.

Ingredients:
Left over idlis
Oil for frying
Chutney/sauce to dip and eat

Procedure:
Simply cut the idlis in any preferred shape. I cut them to match the size of french fries.
Deep fry them in a pan with medium flame.
Serve with coconut chutney or tomato sauce.

I enjoyed the rain and the crunchy snack... so did my kids. I never ever thought left-over idlis would bring so much delight to my taste buds. Truly scrumptious!

Smiles and Tears

We are blessed with smiles on our lips and tears in our eyes. Yes, you read that right. Both smile & tears are a blessing to us which lets us express our feelings. Smile comes out naturally and so does tears. Do you ever control your smiles for any reason? No right? Then what makes you control your tears sometimes? Its nature's way of expressing things. When you are happy, your lips smile... when you are sad, your eyes bleed. 

But often, we throw fake smiles onto our lips, and we hide our tears beneath, thus going against nature. God has given us tears to express ourselves, not to suppress it. So when you are hurt, don't hold back, just shed a few and lighten your heart.

Don't hide your tears, don't put on a fake smile. Be yourself at least with the ones you love. Crying doesn't mean that your are weak. Laughter need not necessarily mean that you are happy. So, take that mask off and see how it makes you feel much better from inside.

Cherish Life

The tiny digital clock read 5:15 a.m. She was lying on the bed still half asleep. She hugged the pillow next to her imagining it to be her husband. She longed it really was her husband and not merely a pillow. But he was gone forever. It was already a month after the tragedy. She was not convinced yet that it was all for real. The untimely death of her husband still seemed like a bad dream.

She couldn't sleep. She woke up and prepared 2 cups of coffee as usual. One for her and one for her dead husband. She almost forgot that he wasn't there. Wiping her tears, realizing that he is no more, she placed the extra cup of coffee in front of her husband's photo, not knowing what else to do.

Some days she would cook extra food for her dead husband. She would sometimes order two meals at the take-away counter without realizing that she now needs only one. During weekends, she would forget to cook, because it was he who always cooked on Saturdays. At times, she would keep the door wide open at dusk, expecting her husband would return from work as always. At every step, she almost made everything for her non-existent husband. Accepting the death of her husband had become impossible for her. She had almost lost her mind. She wished that her non-existent husband would come back to life. She wanted him to exist. She could feel the pain in her throat, in her chest. Her heart ached. She wanted to scream, she wanted to cry, but she was unable to do so. Her hands became stiff, she couldn't move.

Suddenly she woke up, unable to breathe. She had a hot flush. She could hear her husband snoring lightly next to her. It was a nightmare, she consoled herself. She saw the clock. It was 5:15 a.m, just like in her dream. She got off the bed and came to the balcony to get some fresh air. Suddenly, she could relate to everything. She clearly got the meaning of it.

. . . .

The couple had an argument 2 days back over a silly matter, and that was enough for them to stop talking to each other. They did not exchange smiles, no chit-chats, nothing. No "Good Morning", no "hi", no "bye". She almost treated him like he did not exist, and so did he. In the morning, she would prepare breakfast for herself and ignore him altogether. He would leave to office without a word.  In the evening, she would sip her coffee all by herself. At night, though it was his task to make the bed, he would just clean his portion, leaving all the mess on her side.

She wanted him to become non-existent. Even if he was right in front of her... she acted like he wasn't there. She ignored him. She gave him a deaf ear. She did all her daily routines like he doesn't even exist. 

As a matter of fact, just the opposite happened in her dream. He was dead in her dream, She wanted him to come to life. She did her daily routine like he existed, right beside her. She yearned that he once again came to life.

She felt very sorry for what was happening. She realized that they did not cherish their relationship enough. When in anger, she always thought that he did not exist. And in her dreams, she wanted her dead husband to still exist. 

"Better ignore his mistakes, than to ignore him... altogether" she thought and went back to bed, gently squeezed his nose so that he stop snoring, hugged him lightly and felt warm when he hugged her back. It was as easy as that.  

Through her dream, she learnt a lesson for life. Cherish the ones you have in your life, because you never know when they won't be around anymore. 

Appy Halwa

There were plenty of apples lying in the fruit basket at my home and I didn't know what to do with them. That's when I suddenly recalled the yummy halwa I had at one my my friend's place. It was not the right time to call her and check the recipe. So I simply tried it my own way and it did come out well. I love this simple and healthy halwa. My kids love it too. Thanks to my friend Priya for introducing this simple and yummy dish to me.

Ingredients:
Green/Red Apples - 4 (Grated)
Milk - 1 cup
Milk powder - 4 spoons (optional)
Sugar - 1 cup
Ghee - few spoons
A handful of dry nuts - Cashew/raisins/almond

Method:

• Take a thick bottomed pan and pour 3 spoons of ghee.
• Once it is hot, put the grated apples and stir. After a minute, add a cup of milk to it. With occasional stirring, cook them for around 12-15 minutes on medium-low flame. 
• Once they are all cooked add sugar and mix well. 
• At this point you may add milk powder if you wish to enhance its taste. Mix the milk powder with very little water and pour it into the pan. Cook further for about 5 minutes. Keep stirring.
• Add few more spoons of ghee when you notice that the halwa is almost done. You will see that the halwa comes out clean without getting stuck to the pan when you add ghee. Turn off the flame.
• Roast dry nuts/fruits of your choice in ghee and garnish them on top of your halwa. I added cashew, almond, raisins and figs.

Your halwa is now ready to be served. I love it chilled. My husband loves it hot. Try it the way you want and enjoy your yummy halwa.

I am EVERYTHING

As a kid, I was pampered, I was loved, I was taken care of like a little gem by my parents. I meant everything to my mom. She treated me truly like a princess. Not just then,.. even now I am the same little princess in front of her eyes. Probably back then, I was EVERYTHING to her. And yes, she was EVERYTHING to me. I remember instances of my childhood days when I cried imagining how life would be without her. Others' tragic stories of losing their parents would bring chills down my spine. Indeed, she was my world.

Then I grew up, saw the world around. At some point of time, started seeking out for that special one who would be my EVERYTHING. I wanted to be someone's world. As time flew, I did find my man. We got married, And yes.. he was EVERYTHING to me. I was EVERYTHING to him.

I saw my mom getting me married off with pride and laughter and smiles. But at the same time, her heart would have ached to let go off me. I never realized it back then, not completely yet. But definitely, it needs a lot of strength to lose a part of your world to someone and yet keep smiling.

Days passed by, and then months, years. Me and my husband were busy making a world of our own. Time flew, and then the most beautiful thing happened. I call it the "miracle of life". Yes, seeing a "mini-you" in front of you, with tender hands, toes and a tiny body is truly a miracle. Sweet little babies, they have magic within them. Without ever giving a try, they just become your new world. 

I never realized when and how, but now I see that my little ones are my EVERYTHING and I am EVERYTHING to them. Anything goes wrong, anything tiniest of all, the first person that my kids cry out for is ME. I feel so special to be someone's world. Yes! over time, I have moved out of my mom's world, I have let my husband drift away in his own world and now I'm totally immersed in my kids' world. I sense a feeling of satisfaction, pride and fulfillment in being their EVERYTHING.

Time waits for none. A few years from now, I am sure, my little birdies will grow and start exploring the world and would want to move out of their nest. They will seek for someone who will be their EVERYTHING. Will that hurt me? I am unsure. But when I have momentarily dumped my mom and husband, I too deserve that same pain. It wont hurt too long I am sure... because I am a MOM after all, a STRONG MOM.

There is still a long way to see them create their new world, until then I just want to hold on to this moment and feel happy being EVERYTHING to them. 

Oops! Kids are pulling me back into their world. Sorry mom, sorry hubby and sorry to all my loved ones for not giving enough time to you. I am a MOM after all, a BUSY MOM, a very very busy one! [sigh]

And yes, hope my hobby of blogging gets back to life with this new post. 
Gotta go.o.o.o... 

Dry nuts Modka/Karigadbu

Ganesha festival's must-have is modka and karigadbu. It was mom's suggestion to make it healthier by adding dry nuts to the fillings. 

Here's a quick recipe of it...

Dough:

Maida: 2 bowls

Few spoons of ghee

Salt to taste

A pinch of soda

Water

Filling:

Dry nuts of ur choice: almond, pista, walnut: half bowl (coarsely powdered)

A handful of Raisins

Kadlepappu: powdered 3 spoons

Dried coconut gratings: 1 bowl

Sugar: 1 bowl

Elachi: 2-4 for added flavor

Frying:

Sufficient oil for frying

• Mix the filling ingredients together and keep it aside as shown in below picture. 
• Mix the dough by adding water and bring it to a consistency little harder than poori. 
• Make small balls and flatten them using a rolling pin(almost the size of poori).
• Fill the flattened dough with dry-nuts-filling and seal them to desired shape.
• Deep fry until they turn golden brown.

They are now ready to be served.

Teacher's Day

Ritvi's first Teacher's Day this is! She started her school (child care actually) around 8 months back.

Her teacher has helped her all this while... teaching new stuffs - be it in language, music, crafts, manners... indeed just a few to name. She has helped rikki craft wonderful arts and sent us surprises often on special occasions like mom's/ dad's day.

Now it was my turn to present her wonderful teacher, something in return, as a token of appreciation.  So I decided to prepare a greeting card with rikki. I came up with this.

I didn't expect it to come out this well. It brought back my school days' memory and both of us had good time crafting it. Well Rikki did enjoy tearing and rolling the bits of paper and I did enjoy chiding her away everytime she tried to grab the completed flowers. Haha.

Challenge time for Mommy

Mummy - busy having dinner...
Daddy - absconding...
Baby - busy in her own world...

Dinner plate in one hand... countless thoughts running on my mind, I chew my food in a hurry. Rikki comes running towards me and pushes Jumbo* onto me. I hold him with my left hand. Then she pushes Jumbo's shoes toward me. I manage to grab it. She demands me to put on the shoes to jumbo. OK. I love challenges. No problem I say, and manage to tuck in Jumbo's foot into the tiny shoes with one hand.

Then, she gives me her comb. Then a small band. That's no big deal. I take it from her.

Now its something like this. One hand is messy with food. With the other hand, I manage to hold Jumbo, put on his shoes, also took the comb and the band.
OK. Its circus time now guys!

Next, Rikki asks me to tie her hair with the band. I manage to fool her and pretend to have tied.

Its not over yet.

She then raises both her hands and asks me to carry her.
She even threatens me with her screams.

Show some mercy girl. I have only two hands!!!

An attempt to catch her actions and expressions!

Moms should be blessed with ten hands. Two are just not sufficient.

On second thoughts, I think moms should be blessed with ten husbands, at least one will come running for help. When I said this to Adi, he did come running toward me... not for help or anything close to that. You can guess why! :) :) 

*Jumbo is her cute little big soft toy - an elephant! :)

Nutties n Fruities

I am back here after a real long time. And here is my first mobile article. Feels sooo good to blog sitting in a crowded train :) 

I have this wonderful healthy recipe for kids. I'm sure mums, dads n aunts will love too.

It was hubby's idea, mum's recipe, my effort and Rikki's treat. Preparing this mouth-watering snack was pretty simple and a quick one.  Try it out...

Ingredients:

• Dry nuts - cashew, almond, walnut, pistachio
• Dry fruits - raisins, dates, figs
• Ghee - 3 spoons
• Jaggery - approx lemon size

Procedure:

• Grind all nuts to a coarse powder
• Cut the fruits into small pieces
• Roast them all with ghee for a couple of minutes
• Heat the jaggery with little water to form a thick syrup
• Switch off the flame and add the powder to the syrup.
• Form small round balls when the contents are still hot/warm.

Additionally you can add some khus-khus or dry coconut for enhanced taste.

Our whole family loved this healthy snack. Go give yourself and your family a treat too.

Walnut Chutney

Walnut Chutney is very very simple to prepare and it goes well with Dosa/Idli. Its similar to the South Indian coconut chutney, but far more healthier than that :) Try it out yourself...

Ingredients:

Walnuts: 10-12 in number

Ginger: 1 inch

Garlic: 1-2 pods

Green Chilli: 3 or as per taste

Coriander Leaves: 1 handful

Coconut gratings: 3-4 spoons

Yogurt: 1 bowl

Salt as per taste

Method:

Put all the above ingredients and mix it thoroughly in a blender/mixie adding sufficient water. The chutney is then seasoned with ghee and mustard. If needed add one red chilli to make it spicier.

As simple as that! Try it, taste it and enjoy it!!!

Warm Welcome

Any minute she could knock and say "Mom, I'm all set to come out." We were all prepared to welcome her. I had packed for my hospital almost 2 weeks in advance with all mom-n-baby essentials. My mom had neatly stitched a number of baby clothes & was eagerly looking forward for her arrival. My dad had already booked a ward in the hospital. My husband waited for my call so that he could fly to India immediately. My sister was all set to welcome the little one.

THE DAY finally arrived. It was May 26th early morning. I woke up from bed & knew the wait had come to an end. I quickly freshened. Meantime, my mom prepared some breakfast for me as I needed a lot of energy in the hours to come. I had breakfast & drank a big glass of milk & we geared up towards hospital. My labor pain had begun. On our way, I called Adi. Luck favoring us, he straight away got a direct flight from Singapore to Bangalore.

We reached hospital & in minutes, I was taken to the labor ward. The nurse monitored me & my growing pain. I think, in a woman's life this is the only time when we wish for more intense pain. I wanted more of it. That would shorten the delay. More the pain, lesser the duration of wait.   

My parents were excited, happy, tensed, worried & a whirlpool of emotions filled their hearts. Luckily my baby didn't keep the wait too long. She was quick. By noon she squalled out loud, bringing smiles on everyone's face. She looked like a pink doll... so tiny, so tender, so lovable, so innocent - words are not sufficient to describe this little wonder of the universe.

I was exhausted, true! But it was NOT the movie-kind-of-experience I had expected. I thought I would cry, yell, pull, sweat and all those kinds you get to see in films. It was definitely a memorable experience which can only be felt. It is too personal to share it all here. :) Nevertheless, it was an unforgettable, lifetime go-through that I would cherish all my life. Her first cry, her first touch, her first looks have all formed a pleasant imprint within me.

Welcoming Ritvi on 26 May, 2011

Baby Bloom

Isn't it a wonderful idea to grow a plant/tree to mark the birth of our little one?
Yes! I did just that! To mark the blossom of our little baby, I decided to plant a flowering plant in our (my moms) garden.

We got a large pot with beautiful pink and yellow hibiscus plant.  My mom loves flowers and she would relish adorning it to The Goddess.

Just like how the lovely flower shines with the first rays of the sun, I hope my baby too smiles bright each day of her life...

Just like how the plant absorbs all of nature's goodness and blooms, I pray that my little one too, absorbs all the goodness of this universe... 

Just like how the blossom brings smile on our face, I hope my darling too, brings joy and happiness in everyone's life...

Born on 26th May, I hope both my little flower and the pink-n-yellow flower gets nurtured the right way. Hope they get all the nourishment one can find in this nature.

I have planted a flowering plant in my mom's garden. Also, I have a little avocado plant growing in my in-laws' back yard. Hope to get some fresh n tasty avocado fruits in a few years from now. ;)

Well, for all those who want to do something like this, I suggest you sow a sapling and see both the plant and your little one grow as the years pass by. I suggest you plant a fruit bearing tree. You are helping nature by growing a tree. At the same time, you and your little one can enjoy the fruits it will bear in years to come.

I wanna win...

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Just Arrived

We've been expecting this for months
Our new baby has finally arrived...
We are deliriously happy to announce
the birth of our little angel...

Born on 26 May 2011, our little girl is doing fine and I am enjoying my motherhood...

Celebrating Life!

My Fav: Masala Puri

Yet another amma's recipe down here. I prepared this yummy chat over the weekend. It has too many ingredients and i keep forgetting them. So I have put it here to help myself recall when I'm lost in the immense deep world of recipes & ingredients :)

Ingredients:
Ingre A:
Potato - 2 (cooked and mashed)
Peas - 1 bowl (cooked and semi-mashed)
Ingre B:
Mint leaves - 1 bowl
Coriander leaves - 1 bowl
Ginger, Garlic - minced or paste
Green chilly 5-7 in number
Black pepper 15-20 in number - powdered or coarsely ground
Cloves 5 in number 
Cinnamon - powdered
Ajwain 1 spoon
Cumin Seeds 1 spoon
Fennel Seeds 1 spoon
Salt as per taste
Ingre C:
Onion - 2 chopped into small pieces
Carrot - 1 grated
Lime juice - few spoons
Ingre D:
Sev, Puri, Boondi, or any variety of such mixtures would do. You can prepare them all by yourself or just run to the nearby shop if you are like me :)

Method:
- Cook potato and peas (Ingre A) and mash them and keep aside.
- Use a blender/mixie to make a green paste of Ingre B by adding sufficient water.
- Now in a large thick bottomed wok, add some oil & once it becomes hot add mustard.
- Add mashed potato and peas to the wok. Also add the blended green paste.
- Add sufficient water (around 2-3 glass or more) and bring it to boil stirring occasionally. Add salt as per taste and let it boil for sometime and your pani is now ready.

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Serving:
- In a bowl, add sev, semi-crushed puri, boondi, chopped onion, grated carrots. Then, pour some pani over this mixture. Finally you can garnish it with a few drops of lime juice & some more onion, carrot and coriander leaves. Serve it hot.
- Remember to eat it hot and fresh - otherwise, the mixture becomes soft very soon and its crispiness goes away.
- Note: You can refrigerate the pani for upto 2 days and re-heat as needed.