The little red soldier

A giant brown thing was blocking his way. Annoyed, he looked up at it. It seemed like it had no beginning and no ending. It was just huge! He made his way down what seemed like an infinite path. It took him some time but he eventually got to a corner. He could only make a left turn and so he did.

Another infinite stretch of brown greeted him. So he continued trudging along. He walked and walked but had to make a sudden stop. There was something bright red in his way. It seemed different from the brown...a bit soft and juicy, maybe. He tried to climb over it but slipped. Finally, he managed to sneak into a teeny weeny gap and continued his walk...but not for long.

A pale green thing blocked his path next followed shortly by a yellowish-orangish smelly thing. As he went closer to inspect it, the giant brown thing moved! As it seemed to lift off suddenly like a helicopter would, a few little brown pieces fell down. One piece would've landed on him had he not jumped to the side in the nick of time. He breathed a huge sigh of relief and was trying to figure out his next move when the brown thing landed again right next to him...with one small difference.

It had a little curve near where he stood. A small indent that altered the shape...and consequently his path.

Curious, but also scared, he walked slowly into the curve. To his surprise, he found someone just like him, albeit a bit bigger, standing there. They gave each other a once-over and then the bigger of the two smiled and said, “This whole wheat bread is simply divine but the cheddar cheese stinks and the tomatoes and cucumber are soggy”!

Growing (up) pains

Growing up and being a grown-up are two different things altogether. One means you're older, maybe a tad wiser. The other means that you're in a position where you must do a few things to merit that title. Like teaching your kids, setting an example (a good one, obviously), passing on tradition and customs and so on.

Today, we celebrated Tamil New Years day like we always do. We ate. Period. But like I always do on festival days, I dressed up my children in Indian clothes. My tomboy daughter didn't want to wear a 'paavadai' but I insisted and said "I'm going to wear a salwar". And she said, "That's not fair, amma. You anyway wear salwars. If you want me to wear a paavadai, then you wear a sari"!

Touche!

And so we celebrated, wearing paavadai, kurta-pyjama, dhoti and sari!

My first lesson in this new year is the realization and acceptance that I have a lot of growing up to do to in order to call myself a grown-up.

And all thanks to my 'little grown-up'.

Right Choice Baby, aha!

50 paise for the small one and 1 rupee for the big one. That's how much I used to pay for Pepsi Cola. And this was many years, maybe even a decade, before Lehar re-introduced it in India. So where did I get it from and that too for such a piddly sum? My school canteen!

It did not come in a glass bottle but in a plastic tube. It was not brownish-black but multi-coloured. It didn't need an opener, just one's teeth. 'It' was not a drink but a Godsend-divine- crushed-ice thingy that made everyone long for recess! And the dirt and grime in the ice box that it was stored in added to the flavour, of course! What a hit it was especially during sports time and awfully hot summer days, which were aplenty in Madras! But by the time I was done with school, it was gone. Replaced by cooler drinks and fancy ice creams that became a part of every child's life, therefore every school's canteen.

And now, it's back...'Chillicks' is its new avtaar. It's packaged differently, stored in a cleaner way and costs a whopping 10 rupees. But I can't get myself to try it. It feels weird.

Pepsi Cola in a clean tube for 10 bucks? Nah. I'll just hang onto my memories of the old one...the original.

The Entrepreneur

Not everyone has the ability to make a dream come true. It takes a lot of hard work, dedication and guts. Congratulations and good luck to Petawrap!

Soup split

1 by 2, 2 by 3, 4 by 5 and anything else by anything else. It's all possible. When you order soup in India, that is. A very common practice that experts say results in more soup per serving per person than if one were to ask for an extra bowl and split it themselves! In fact, I even know people that do this for takeout!

Can you imagine the restaurant doing this though? Will they actually fill out two bowlfulls, then take a 3rd one and evenly split from the other 2? Or are they so used to this strange request that the guy is a pro at it and knows exactly how many ladles go into each? Whatever it is, the request has never fazed anyone in any place that I've been to. The only requirement is that the person doling out the soup has to be a math whiz...how else would they understand 23/30 should such a request come by??

On a related note, I wonder if this tactic would work with alcohol. Margheritas please...3 by 4 but all for 1!

Festivals, fun and food! - Pongal

This year I've decided to blog about the million-odd (exaggeration...) festivals that are celebrated in India starting with Pongal. Not like an informative blog about the significance or anything (Wikipedia will have that) but about the different food that is cooked and eaten on those special days. And a little about my experiences cooking them.

Pongal is just about coming to an end. I don't think any other festival has this much food, especially the different dishes made with rice. I feel like I'm about to burst and we still have one more day to go. I've successfully (even if I say so myself) made vadai, semiya payasam, venn pongal, chakra pongal, avial and gotsu. Tomorrow's menu is thenga saadam and thakali sadam.
Reads like a whole host of dishes, but all very simple and easy.

Here are the lessons learnt from my experiment:

• Pressure cooking jaggery with rice, milk and water is not good. It alters the taste of jaggery as well as lengthens the cooking time (Read tart chakra pongal and complete waste of gas).
• Always put in a small 'blob' of whatever you're trying to fry in the hot oil and NOT a whole batch so that a quick taste and texture check can be done. (Luckily the first few pieces were used for the pooja so not eaten by us. Sorry God!)
• Anything that needs to be stirred should NOT be in the back-burner especially when there is something in the front burner also. (Burn marks...duh)!
• The pressure cooker must be closed tight. (It isn't really pressure cooking otherwise).
• All ingredients should be kept ready so nothing is left out in dish. (Raisins went missing in chakra pongal)

This post is a day too early you might wonder...we still have the last day of Pongal left and two more dishes to be made. The expert cook that I am, I'm supremely confident that nothing will go wrong with those. Maybe I'll post some pics to prove it.