BLOG NO. 100

Yippppeeeeeeee!

I am thrilled to post BLOG NO. 100 on “Flaming Sun”. I started my blog on June 27, 2009 with news of the publishing of my novel THE MALHOTRA BRIDE. It’s been a wonderful 10 months and I hope you all enjoyed the journey as much as I did.

Catch the Short Stories, Recipes, tips on Health, Film Reviews, tips on connecting with the Maker, Food Reviews, some nostalgic moments from my life and more on Flaming Sun.

Thank you, all my readers, who have encouraged me through your comments and emails. :)

Quick-fix Meal: PALAK SOUP

This is the second in the line of quick-fix meals for singles. This soup is nourishing, easy to make and moreover, pretty low on calories. You will end up licking your bowl, I promise!

Ingredients 1:

Palak – 1 bunch (chopped) – DON’T remove the stalks as you will lose out on so much of vitamins and minerals.
Carrot – 1 - medium-sized (peeled and cut into pieces)
Moong Dal (பயத்தம் பருப்பு ) – 4 tsp
Salt to taste

Ingredients 2:

For flavour and thickening:

Milk – ½ cup – 50 ml
Cheese – 1 cube (grated)
Cream (मलाई) – 1 tsp (optional)
Powdered Black Pepper – ½ tsp
Corn flour – 1 flat tsp

Method:

Take a pressure cooker or pan and cook Ingredients 1 along with 2 cups of water till you hear one whistle. Let the mixture cool a bit, strain the water and keep it aside. Run the vegetables and dal in a blender to a smooth paste. Mix the water that is kept aside and boil the whole mixture on slow fire. Add some more water if the mixture is too thick.

While it’s cooking, blend Ingredients 2 in the mixture. Add it to the cooking soup while stirring continuously. Boil well for five minutes and your soup is done.

Tastes delicious along with toasted bread! It’s really yummy when you have it with the ready to toast garlic bread available at Birdy’s outlets. Slice the garlic bread roll and toast on a skillet (तवा) till golden brown and enjoy with the Palak Soup.

Festival: PUTHAANDU NAL VAZHTHUKKAL (புத்தாண்டு நல் வாழ்த்துக்கள்)

Today is the Tamil New Year. This is known as Varushappirappu (வருஷப்பிறப்பு) or the birth of a new year. The year begins in the middle of the month of April as per the Tamil calendar and the New Year’s Day falls on the 13th or 14th.

The Tamil people celebrate it with a delicious meal consisting of பாயசம் (kheer), பச்சிடி (a mix of curd and salad vegetables), sweet பச்சிடி (usually made of mango and jaggery), sambhar (சாம்பார்), rasam (ரசம்), a dry vegetable (கறி), a vegetable in gravy (கூட்டு), fried pappadams (பப்படம்), rice, curds and pickle – all served on a banana leaf.

The one speciality is always vepambu pachidi (வேப்பம்பூ பச்சிடி) – a mix of flowers from the neem tree, jaggery, salt, sautéed red chillis and a few spoonfuls of tamarind juice. This particular dish offers a blend of all tastes, namely sweet, salt, sour, spicy and bitter. The idea is to expect the year to be rich in everything.

Wish one and all a Very Happy New Year!

Quick-fix Meal: TOMATO OMELETTE SANDWICH

This is a new section that you will be seeing more of in the near future. This is mainly for those friends of mine who live alone, have very less time to fix meals for themselves but are quite bored of eating out. I presume that they all own a few utensils – saucepan, skillet and the like, a stove and other basics.

Tomato Omelette Sandwich is a favourite of mine. It is easy to make, filling and healthy.

Ingredients:

Small tomato – 1 grated or chopped fine
Small onion – 1 chopped fine
Green chilly – 1 chopped fine
Coriander leaves – 1 tsp (chopped)
Besan or channe ka atta – 4 tbsp
Salt to taste
Oil – 1 tsp

Method:

Mix the above ingredients thoroughly with a few spoonfuls of water. This dough has to be in the consistency of Dosa dough.

Heat a skillet and add a few drops of oil. Smear the oil on the skillet, add a large spoon of the dough and spread it on the skillet about the size of a bread slice. Keep it on slow fire and cook for a couple of minutes before turning it over. Wait till done. This is it. Your tomato omelette is ready to eat.

Use it as a sandwich filling. Toast two slices of bread if you have a bread toaster or toast them on the skillet itself. Place the tomato omelette between the bread slices, add some ketchup and your sandwich is ready to eat. You may even use fresh bread as it is.

Optional: Add a few slices of cucumber, tomato, onions, boiled potato or lettuce to your sandwich. And/or a cheese slice could be added.

If you have the patience to make the spicy green chutney, then nothing could taste better as a sandwich spread. Will blog this recipe very soon.

In the meanwhile, I hope this works for you!

Melodrama: SANIA-SHOAIB ENGAGEMENT

The Sania-Shoaib story is still going strong on TV. The full-time soap opera is dragging their names through mud while keeping the public entertained. Everyone’s talking about it, whether for or against the couple.

Bombay Times even ran an April’s Fool feature around their wedding reception.

While the supplement is running interviews with other ‘single hotties’ about their take on the issue.

Star News has a daily feature on Shoaib’s alleged marriage with Ayesha Siddhiqui. And other TV channels such as IBN Lokmat are not far behind. Ayesha’s family members, especially her father and mother, have been ranting, raving, crying, cursing and yelling in turns at press conferences. Makes one wonder what kind of a drama William Shakespeare would have come up with on hearing the details of this issue.

Tongue-in-cheek:

Will this issue that has been blown-out-of-all-proportion bring about an improvement in Indo-Pak relations?

I personally feel it is a great boost to the stumbling Indian economy.

1. The TRPs are obviously soaring for the various TV channels that are making hay while the sun shines.
2. It is not just the tabloids but even respectable newspapers have made the Sania-Shoaib affair, front page news.
3. A few lawyers must be minting money on this issue.
4. Many websites are running features on the controversy that seems to have become the hottest issue in our country.
5. Astrologers are going overboard with their predictions on whether the wedding will take place and if it does, how long it might or might not last.
6. It is a hot topic of discussion on online social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
7. Bookies are taking huge bets on whether the two will tie the knot or no.
8. A guy from the streets who gives predictions with the help of his parrot has parked himself outside Sania’s residence at Banjara Hills in Hyderabad and is making money offering his two-bit worth on this issue to anyone who is interested.

Wonder what more one can expect before the news fizzles out and some other melodrama takes its place.

Food Review: 5 Spice @ Bandra

This was my second visit to this restaurant and my first one with the family. Luckily for us, we had booked a table before reaching the venue. Despite that, we had to wait for about 15 minutes. Such was the rush and that too on a Wednesday night. Amazing!

Plus point 1: The food and service was definitely worth the wait. It was my son's birthday and we were a group of six. There were two other birthday groups on the same floor. It was one gala celebration as a cake was cut at each table and all of us joined in the birthday song.

Plus point 2: We ordered a chicken dish and veg fried wontons for starters along with some non-veg soups, a veg 5 spice soup and a Peking soup - all yummy.

Plus point 3: Then we ordered one rice, one noodles and three gravies. The portions were large and more than enough for all of us. And everything was perfectly cooked and seasoned.

Plus point 4: The best was the blueberry cheesecake that we had. It was better than the Strawberry one.

Plus point 5: The waiters were always at attention without breathing down our necks.

We paid the bill of 3700 for a few beers, tequila shots and the food quite happily and went home with a warm feeling.

Spirituality: MUKTI CLASS ON 4.4.2010

Yesterday was a Sunday and the first local Mukti Class was conducted by Sri Bhagavan through skype.

The Dev Darshan Hall at Ghatkopar (W) was arranged for the same. The hall was luckily huge and airy and could take the 1500-odd crowd quite comfortably.

But the sound system was terrible. Luckily for me, I had read up the lesson as conducted by Bhagavan at Ahmedabad, thanks to my friend Anuradha Chandrashekhar.

Sri Bhagavan came on the screen and greeted us and started with the lesson immediately. He uttered some sentences and we repeated them seven times along with Nivedhanaji and Asmitaji in Hindi and Marathi as instructed by the Lord.

1. My thoughts are not mine.
2. My mind is not mine.
3. My body is not mine.
4. There is listening but no listener.
5. There is seeing but no seer.
6. There is doing but no doer.
7. Things are happening by themselves.
8. Self is but a concept.

After repeating these sentences seven times each, Bhagavan asked: Then what are you?

A few from the audience replied: We are Atmas.

I have given the gist of Bhagavan’s reply here. I could not hear the exact words.

Sri Bhagavan: That’s right. You are all Atmas that have come from the Paramatma. You are but witnesses to what is happening around you. You have taken the combination of Body-Mind-Spirit as Sat-Chit-Ananda. You are actually Satchidananda Parabrahma. I will utter this sentence in Hindi three times. You say it along with me. I will then disappear from the screen. You chant this mantra for 49 minutes while Amma and I will give you all a powerful Deeksha. Most of you will attain Jeevan Mukti at this point. Even if you don’t, you will attain mukti in a day or two. Complete the chanting and then take Deeksha from the Padukas.

"Main Swayam Satchidananda Parabrahma Hoon"

Saying this three times, the Lord disappeared from the screen.

We chanted this in Hindi and Marathi as we liked for 49 minutes. The guides told us when to stop. After this we took Deeksha from the Padukas.

A powerful Deeksha session indeed!