Recipe: VEGETABLE CUTLET

Image Courtesy: http://friskycook.blogspot.in

Vegetable Cutlet was probably the first dish that I learned to make. I was not too fond of cooking when I was young. When I was studying in Std. IX, my school participated in an exhibition. I joined a group of girls who were making vegetable cutlets at a counter. Having tasted the dish only in a restaurant, I was fascinated to see that it could be made with not too much difficulty.

Today, I have added and deleted a few things to make the absolutely delicious cutlets that all the members of my family love.

Ingredients:

Potato – ½ kg
Peas – 50 gm
Carrots – 100 gm (chopped fine)
Beans – 50 gm (stringed and chopped fine)
Chopped Coriander Leaves – 2 tsp
Bread Slices – 2 (I prefer brown bread while you can use white too)
Corn flour – 3 tsp
Bread crumbs – 2 cups
Salt to taste
Oil – for shallow frying

Masala ingredients:

Garlic – 3 cloves
Ginger – ½ inch piece
Red Chilly Powder – ½ tsp
Oil – ½ tsp

Method:

1. Pressure-cook the potatoes, peel the skin and smash it with a pav-bhaji masher in a large mixing bowl.
2. Boil the peas, carrots and beans in a pan with salt and water. Drain the water completely and add to mashed potatoes.
3. Blend the masala ingredients to a smooth paste in a mixer and add to the vegetables.
4. Add salt and chopped coriander leaves.
5. Soak the bread slices one-by-one in a bowl of water for a few seconds, squeeze out the water completely and add them to the vegetables. Bread gives the cutlets extra crunchiness.
6. Mix all the ingredients gently and shape them into balls the size of an orange. You will get around 10-12 of these.
7. Mix the corn flour with water to a thin consistency in a bowl.
8. Take a ball of potato mixture and roll it in the cornflour-water mix while making sure that it’s completely coated.
9. Remove the ball immediately and roll it in the bread crumbs spread on a plate.
10. Now flatten the ball before shaping it as per your choice. Making it round is the simplest way. I make my vegetable cutlets oval in shape. There are cutlet moulds available in the market if you want stylish shapes.
11. Shallow fry the cutlets on a non-stick tawa or an iron skillet over a slow fire till golden brown. There is no need to use too much oil. Add as and when required.

Serve the super-yummy cutlets with Green Chutney and Tomato Sauce. Believe me when I say that the vegetable cutlets taste finger-licking good.

I avoid deep frying for two reasons - the cutlets absorb too much oil which can get quite nauseating and there is a chance that they might break into pieces when placed in hot oil for frying.

Sharing: HOW TO BLOG

A few of my new author-friends from Indireads were keen to know how to blog. I have created this article especially for them and of course, for anyone else who is interested.

What’s a Blog?

A blog is a personal space where you can jot down whatever you feel like. You can keep it private, share it with just some friends or open it to the public. It’s basically like an e-diary where you can pour whatever runs through your mind. There is also the extra facility for adding photos, videos and links.

Better yet, the blog space is absolutely free of cost. So what are you waiting for?

Blogspot and WordPress are the most popular forms of blog spaces available on the internet. Having never used it I have no idea how WordPress functions, but I am sure there is a whole load of information that you can find on the internet.

I will call myself an expert on Blogspot offered by Google. I used this blogspace for my blogs.

How to set up a blog on Blogspot?

Go to www.blogspot.com and sign in with your gmail id. Click on Create a new blog and the screen will show you Title & Address.

The Title can be changed whenever you please but the address cannot be. Think well and come up with one. Mine goes like this – sundarivenkatraman.blogspot.com.

Then are a number of standard templates to choose from. Explore and check them all out. That can be quite a cheering experience as there is a wide variety to select from. And it can be changed at will too.

Explore all the buttons and keep experimenting with the design. That’s the only way to improve your blog.

You can fit the settings to your taste on whom you want to see your blogs – only yourself, specific email ids of friends that you can invite or the whole world.

How to post articles?

You have a title for your article and then the blog itself. Type this out on a word document. Many people do it in a notepad, but please note that a notepad does not offer spell-grammar check and that’s the reason why you find a lot of typos on blogs. Reading a badly spelt article can be quite irritating. Don’t be lazy! Use a word document to type out your blog. Check for spelling & grammar and then copy paste the whole thing on a notepad.

Why do we do this? Sometimes, the web does not accept symbols and punctuations used from the different kind of TEXTS (Eg.: Georgia, Comic Sans, Calibri, Bookman Old Style) that we use on word. These may show as gibberish on your blog. That’s the reason it’s important to paste the whole matter on a notepad and then paste the title in the box meant for it and then the blog into the body space meant for it.

Labels or Tags

There are also Labels or Tags as they are commonly called. These are very important in any article posted on the web. Generally, your article or blog has a unique title; then there is your name (author’s name) and of course, more labels can be used depending on the article posted.

For example, when I write a film review for Special Chabbis, my tags will be:

Film Review, Special 26, Special Chabbis, Akshay Kumar, Anupam Kher, Manoj Bajpai, Kajal Aggarwal, Jimmy Shergill, Divya Dutta, Neeraj Pandey, Viacom 18, Sundari Venkatraman, 

Ensure that all tags are separated by commas and the last one is also followed by a comma. Automatically, the labels will be listed alphabetically.

The labels are important for your blog to get picked up on Google when someone searches using different keywords. That’s the reason why I have used two different versions of the film’s name Special 26 as well as Special Chabbis. Try to cover as many suitable words as possible and make sure that you get your spellings right. That’s the way to enhance the chances of your blog getting picked up on Google Search.

Posting a picture

There is no compulsion to post a picture. But if you do it, it definitely garners the reader’s attention. If you are picking the picture from the internet, do give credit to the host website. It’s only polite.

Umpteen features to make your blog attractive

There are a number of features that can make your blog interesting and all the tools are available at the back end at the click of a button. Every feature is self explanatory and don’t hesitate to explore. Keep checking out the tools, use them and see the final product instantaneously. You can keep adding and deleting to your heart’s content.

Making your blog popular

You can post the link on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and a host of other social media networks. Make the effort and email the article link to all your contacts. Invite your friends to follow your blog.

Well, I think I have managed to cover the basics. You are welcome to get back to me for any queries via the comments form.

Happy Blogging! It’s a whole new colourful world out there.

Sharing: Becoming a Published Author

Click here to send a Digital Rose to your Valentine

Sanya is a young 22 and totally lost when she leaves home in London to holiday with the Sharmas in Mumbai. Believing herself to be in love with Arth, she finds that she is more attracted to Ansh, his twin. Watch Sanya bloom under the love and nurturing offered by Ratna Sharma, the twins’ mother and how she evolves into a confident young lady. Will she find love?

That’s for you to find out when you read my e-book named Double Jeopardy.

It’s finally happening after waiting for 13 years.

It has been my dream to become published since the year 2000 when I wrote my first romance novel. Writing was a bolt out of the blue for me as I could never string two sentences together before that. But that did not stop me from dreaming of becoming a published author the moment I finished writing my masterpiece.

I did get The Malhotra Bride published at a cost only to realise that it was a waste of effort, time and money. Well, that’s water under the bridge and I don’t want to concentrate on that any more.

Indirom is a fresh chapter and I finally have found the right platform to publish my work. The publisher has the perfect tagline – romance for the Asian soul.

I have been a fan of romance since the age of 13 and avidly read Mills & Boon as well as many historical romance books. For all that, I found that my daughter was never interested in reading western novels. The moment I penned my first novel, she read it very enthusiastically and so did some of her friends who could never relate to western characters. That’s when I realised that there was a huge market out there for romance novels with Indian characters.

But getting published was a different ballgame altogether. I had tried a number of Indian publishers as well as foreign ones – the first one beings M&B, of course. But all I can say is that my file consisting of rejection letters grew bigger and fatter.

Did that stop me from dreaming of getting published? Never! It was obviously the call of the soul as I just could not give up my dream.

Well, Indirom happened to me after 13 years, in the year 2013, in answer to my prayers. Just as I have always believed that something will turn up for me, some day.

It was a lucky day when someone contacted me via LinkedIn all thanks to my friend Nilima Kadam Mohite’s recommendation calling me ‘Indian Mills & Boon Queen’ and as they say the rest is history.

My e-book DOUBLE JEOPARDY, can be purchased on www.indirom.com from February 17, 2013 onwards. The website will be officially launched on Valentine's Day with 14 books available for purchase.

Click Here to LIKE my author page on facebook

You may Click Here to LIKE Indirom page on facebook

You will be able to purchase my e-book Double Jeopardy and other romance novellas if you CLICK HERE

Film Review: VISHWAROOP

THE FILM IS A DAMP SQUIB

Cast: Kamal Haasan, Rahul Bose, Nassar, Shekar Kapur, Pooja Kumar, Andrea Jeremiah,
Director: Kamal Haasan

It has been a while since I watched a film in the theatre as I find that most of them are too violent for words. I have kept away from the big screen since four months which is some kind of a record.

I was to have seen the Tamil version of this movie on the day of its release at Chennai. Well, the plan fell apart when the film was banned from the theatres. Yesterday, Kamal’s interview with Arnab Goswami was quite moving with the actor doing his best to hold back his tears. That’s when Venkat and I thought that we should watch it if and when it released. Well, it did today and we went for the evening show.

THE STORY: Nirupama (Pooja Kumar) has a doctorate in nuclear science and is married to Kathak dancer-teacher Vishwanath (Kamal Haasan). It’s a marriage of convenience for both of them as Nirupama had been keen to move to the USA to complete her PhD while Vishwanath appears to be a Transgender. Nirupama plans to ditch her husband for her boss. She hires a private detective to find something against her husband that would help her file for a divorce. The detective is killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and Vishwanath and Nirupama are kidnapped by terrorists. That’s where Nirupama discovers that her husband is not quite what he appears to be.

I will stop here to avoid giving out spoilers. The film belongs to the crime fiction/thriller genre.

MY PERCEPTION:

Well, let me give the positive feedback first.

• The film is not too long and runs for about 2 hours and 20 minutes. Thank God for that!
• There is but one song that has been choreographed by Birju Maharaj and the 58-year-old Kamal Haasan’s Kathak performance is excellent. All other music is only in the background.
• The cinematography is superb.
• Editing by Mahesh Narayanan is perfect.
• Rahul Bose has done quite well as the villain.

Now that I am done with all that, let me get to the minus points.

• I am amazed that Kamal Haasan and his brother had the gumption to invest about a hundred crores in this film. Well, one cannot deny that it has been well-researched. But it ends abruptly, leaving the audience wondering what the hell they paid Rs. 220 for! And to think I waited four months to watch this one on the big screen!
• The film is totally violent after the first couple of scenes. At the end of it all, if we had good triumphing over evil, it would have still been worth a watch. But…. ?
• I can accept that there is no glamour at all as that could have taken away from the film’s main story. But the end is so lame that one wonders what one had been waiting the whole time for.
• Actors like Nassar and Shekhar Kapur have been wasted with minuscule roles that have no impact.
• While Kamal Haasan has acted well, he looks too old for the role of an active RAW agent. Why don’t you grow up, man?
• Films like Ek Tha Tiger and Agent Vinod are drawn on similar lines. While Salman’s flick went on to mint more than 100 crores, Saif Ali Khan’s thriller did not do that well at the box office. Well, both these films are way better than Vishwaroop. They definitely had much more entertainment value. Need I say more?
• It’s best that I don’t say anything about Pooja Kumar and Andrea Jeremiah. You can’t call them sidekicks nor can you call them glamourous. I wonder where that leaves them!

A sequel has been planned. Is Kamal turning senile?

VERDICT: After all the hype with the ban and tearful press conferences, the film is a damp squib.

RATING: **Shaky

*Silly
**Shaky
***Smart
****Snazzy
*****Super

How I envisage life on EARTH on December 21, 2012!

Strangers hug each other

Archangel Michael: We have told you often, you are and will continue to be the cause of all the rest. Your questions remain. When? You are the key. What? You are the key. How? You are the key. And the larger the scope of change you look for, the more of you are part of the key. Do you understand? So if you are looking for huge changes, spend time giving energy and thought to what those changes will be.

Archangel Michael

Click here for reference link for the above-mentioned quote.

I was quite excited to read this message from AAM as I had been planning to write a blog on what I feel will be the scene on December 12, 2012. What comes after that date can of course only get better.

Click here to read what my Antaryaamin has to say about the onset of the Golden Age.

It’s barely a week to the dawn of the Golden Age on December 21, 2012. Can you feel the excitement in the very air we are breathing in?

I can hear my heart thudding louder than ever and my pulse fizzing in anticipation of the great times to come.

A few scenes that I could envisage in my mind’s eye:

• The air feels so clear and invigorating with not a particle of dust. Pollution is a thing of the past. Can you imagine that!
• The sky is a brilliant blue with fluffy clouds floating around
• The trees and plants are a brilliant green with love emanating from them as they sway in the gentle breeze with joy
• There is no honking as people are not rushing any more to get from one place to another. They take more time to experience the atmosphere and all things around them
• Automatically, the lack of noise brings forth the sounds of birds singing and squirrels screeching
• The very air is filled with excitement, joy, harmony, unity, balance, love and peace
• All the terrible insects, pests, viruses, etc. have all gone back to where they came from and Pandora’s Box is finally shut tight, not to let any of these out
• The Doctors are super-excited as they write out discharge sheets for every single patient in their hospitals. All medical tests turn out negative and everyone is given a clean health chit. Well, maybe some of the gynaecologists will find themselves busy as they help welcome new citizens into the world.
• No report of a single death
• The Police Department enjoys leisure as not a single crime – theft, rape, murder, whatever – is reported. Accidents are unheard of!
• The Military, The Air Force and The Navy are deployed on peace missions as war has ended forever in the world
• The Fire Department is celebrating the dawn of The Golden Age by singing and dancing with joy
• The Mainstream Media has been going about their work as usual while the newspapers go for print till the Zero hour. Suddenly, everyone AWAKENS at 00.01 AM on 21.12.2012 and they call off the printing of the papers as the news is all negative. There are no printed newspapers available on December 21, 2012 while online updates - all positive - appear as if by magic while everyone in the industry has been working hard through the night.
• Strangers stop to grin at one another and share warm HUGs

Into this scenario glide in our Star Brothers and Sisters on their Spaceships to dance along with us in JOY! 

I invite each and every one of my readers to share their views as comments on what they can foresee for December 21, 2012.

The Oncoming GOLDEN AGE

Picture courtesy: http://www.vibrakeys.com

Third Dimension

The third dimension is where we are existing just now, that is, the earth as well as all the living things dwelling on her. This is called the Physical Dimension or Physical Plane, where every being has a well-defined physical body.

This is also the dimension of Duality. Good-bad; beautiful-ugly; day-night; light-dark; truth-lies; etc; etc; etc. exist on this plane. The positive aspects cannot be recognised without the negative aspects on this dimension. This is also the Karmic Plane.

Fourth Dimension

This is the Astral Plane. This is where the spirits go for rejuvenation after death. There is no physical body as that has already died and only the soul or light body is present on this plane. The soul undergoes a lot of experiences and teachings – all wonderful – as it continues on its journey towards the LIGHT.

Fifth Dimension

This is the Mental Plane. This is where the Earth and all of us are headed towards. This is the plane where we can create anything and everything with our Minds. There is only the state of ONENESS and we will live in absolute joy and harmony. ‘Lack’ will disappear forever.

December 21, 2012

• This is the last date of the Mayan Calendar
• This is also the culmination of the Kali Yuga, a cycle of 5000 odd years
• This is also the end of one large cycle of the four yugas (Sathyuga, Tretayuga, Dwaparayuga & Kaliyuga) consisting of 26,000 years

Beside all these, there is one more importance attached to this date. This is the exact mid-point in the age of the Universe. The Universe has reached its middle age since the Big Bang Effect.

Sri Bhagavan of Oneness University says, “The Neanderthal man could never have imagined life in the 21st century. In the same way, the 21st century man cannot visualise life after December 21, 2012.”

There are a number of angles to this and loads of information on the internet. I prefer to read and believe what resonates with me – gels with my instinct and feelings. I watch videos of Sri Bhagavan and listen to his teachings rather than read what his followers say as these are mostly their personal interpretation of what He says. Then there is www.the2012scenario.com that brings together original articles as well as a number of write-ups from around the internet. These are all positive and hence my favourite.

Sri Bhagavan of Oneness University is the tenth (Kalki) avatar of Lord Vishnu and He has come down to save Mankind from the clutches of Kali just as predicted in Hindu mythology. What proof do I have?

Well, when I first went for a class at the university in 1997, the first thing we were asked to do is ask God for proof that Bhagavan is what He claimed to be. Rameshji, the teacher who conducted the class, insisted that if God is as powerful as we believe He is, He can definitely give us proof that He is what He is. We did not have to believe blindly.

This definitely struck a chord within me as I have never believed in formal prayer. I have always been what one would call a rebel. I have always believed in God but refused to follow any ritual unless I could understand what it was all about. Asking for proof is what I did and I definitely received what I asked for.

Refer link: http://sundarivenkatraman.blogspot.in/search/label/Spirituality

Refer link: http://ascensionmiracles.blogspot.in/

Well, to get back to the subject at hand….

There are different schools of thought about whether the earth is going to the 4th or the 5th dimension on December 21, 2012.

Some claim that we had entered 4th dimension on October 28, 2011 and have faced an extremely turbulent period on our way to the 5th dimension that we enter on December 21, 2012.

There is The 2012 Scenario that goes with the idea that the earth will just move through 4th dimension in a flash before entering the 5th on December, 2012.

The ultimate destination is the 5th dimension, of course. Even if it is the 4th, it is a pure positive place of ONENESS, where Duality will not exist. This is a concept that is very difficult to grasp as we have never ever experienced this in our human state.

I believe this is the first time – an experiment – when beings move into the 5th dimension with their physical bodies. Of course, our bodies have been slowly converting from carbon base to crystal base over the past few years. Each individual’s conversion pace depends on their karmas, diet, spiritual nature, time spent with nature besides other things.

But everyone who is alive at that point in time will definitely transit into the GOLDEN AGE. Can’t wait for it!

Film Review: OMG OH MY GOD!

The film brings forth TRUTH!

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal, Prabhu Deva, Sonakshi Sinha, Mithun Chakraborty, Govind Namdeo, Mahesh Manjrekar, Om Puri
Director: Umesh Shukla

Well, I am back to the world of blogging after a very long time – a month and a half, actually – and this one is a review of a film that touched my heart. I simply loved OMG that sounds like a clarion call for the advent of THE GOLDEN AGE. Read on to find out more…

THE STORY

Kanjibhai (Paresh Rawal) owns a shop selling idols of Gods of various religions along with other items used in rituals. He is a typical business man who would not think twice about cheating people to make more money. More than that, Kanjibhai does not believe in anything without proof. This includes ‘God’. He opts to remain an atheist as no one is able to produce the proof of the existence of God.

During an earthquake, Kanjibhai’s shop crashes down, breaking all his stock to smithereens. He is set back by more than 40 lakh rupees while he has a loan on his house. The insurance company refuses to pay him any compensation insisting that the earthquake was an act of God and the policy does not cover such a circumstance. Finding himself and his family just one foot away from being left out on the streets, Kanjibhai decides to sue ‘God’.

That’s when Krishna Vasudev Yadav (Akshay Kumar) comes down to earth to help the atheist. Now why would God do such a thing? That’s for you to see the film and find out.

MY PERCEPTION

I simply adored the concept of the film. And it was quite well made. Paresh Rawal has sailed through his role as Kanjibhai. The character is so realistic and truthful and probably brings forth a number of questions that most of us want to ask but dare not do so. Kanjibhai takes a hit at blind faith, rituals that have ceased to be meaningful and the power of God-men. All these have been my personal pet peeves. Is it surprising that I just loved the film?

The film runs for just about 2 hours and has been made quite well. While it’s quite heavy on the dialogue side, there is no other way the director could have got forth what he wants to tell the public. I heard that the film has created a load of controversy in many places. If you see the film, you will not be surprised why that must be so.

Nikhil Ratnaparki deserves a special mention. While he does not have too many dialogues, his expressions say it all. I have seen this actor in many films, but somehow have never been able to find his name in the list of casts in imdb.com and Wikipedia. Surprising!

The film brings to light a number of instances where people have suffered losses without being compensated by their insurance companies. They have no help from any source. These are definitely based on real life situations and move one to tears. A hard-hitting truth!

We have seen Akshay Kumar as a Khiladi and also as a comedian – sometimes stretching into mindless comedy. But in this film, in the avatar of Lord Krishna, the actor is subtle with very little to talk. He is simply amazing and somehow managed to instill God’s faith in the person watching the film.

VERDICT: If you are open to seeing a different point of view that will awaken you to TRUTH, then you should not miss this one. I will go so far as to call this a futuristic film.

RATING: ****Snazzy

*Silly
**Shaky
***Smart
****Snazzy
*****Super