Sizzling South Indian Mela(m)

It is always tricky to plan weekends here, thanks to the lovely British weather (by the way, I do like cold n grey weather!). The last weekend was thankfully sunny, though a little chill. That didn’t deter us from making a quick trip to see what the South Indian Melam (an initiative by ‘INDIA NOW’) was all about. Actually, blame the TV adverts for luring us to it! All those pictures of steaming hot dosais/vadai, and ofcourse the cultural events 🙂 (lest I sound too shallow ;-)) were so inviting!

We reached the Mela venue by around 2 pm, and had originally planned to leave in a couple of hours, but ended staying till the very last show, which was a completely dhamakedaar performance by Shiamak Davar‘s team in London. (Will come to that later, as one sentence in passing simply doesn’t do justice to the amazing performance that it was!)

We were greeted with a mellifluous rendition of ‘Vaishnava Janato‘. Sadly, there was no encore 🙂 The compère Ms.Ambika, conducted a lovely little music exercise with all the children. There must have been atleast 20-30 participants, who sang along to Sa-Re-Ga-Ma with gusto.

It was a delight to hear, and an eye-opener too, about an art that we must not let die, but instead try to pass on to the future generations.

There were more performances – vocal, Bharatnatyam, etc. (I can’t review those as I’m not much of an art connoisseur) and an impressive ‘Kalari Payattu‘ performance too, that the boys were particularly interested in!

There weren’t as many ‘stalls’ as one expected. However, there was a great little massage offered at very reasonable prices. Another hot-dog/fries/coffee booth, that served awesome french-fries at delightful prices 😉

The stall for the ‘Save the Tiger‘ campaign, in my opinion, could have benefited with more prominence. The Diabetes UK team was strategically placed a few stalls away from the one with the droolworthy hot South Indian food 🙂

State Bank of India who were one of the Sponsors, held an exciting Raffle contest, with the prize being an iPad!!! Sadly, the winner of the raffle wasn’t around. Sigh!!! I wish…er.. never mind!)

Hot Dosai in the making… and different varieties of chutney to go with it… yummm…

Needless to say, the ‘food’ staff, hosted by Turmeric Spice (I hope I got the name right!), saw an endless queue 🙂 And it was well worth the wait. We ordered hot dosais and simple yet delicious lemon rice!

As they say, the best things in life come to those who wait! The last event was a Bollywood dance performance. I wasn’t expecting much, and the delay was putting me off.

However, when the troupe finally arrived, they took us by storm!!! The Shiamak Davar team in London pulled off a spectacular performance, making even the audience dance to the tunes of Chikni Chameli and Chammak Challo!

The compère /host, Rohan, did an OUTSTANDING job of drawing the audience into the performance.

Even the man behind the show, Mr.Manish Tiwari (Managing Director, Here&Now365) couldn’t escape grooving to the tunes of Chammak Challo 🙂

The audience learnt some easy steps, particularly some Shahrukh Khan motions, and the delightfully funny ‘nodding Indian head‘ 🙂 Team Shiamak had the entire audience spell-bound, and hungry for an encore (which again, they delivered beautifully).

We truly believed their quote – ‘Have Feet – Will Dance’. Add to that, they gave a gift voucher (‘free dance session’) for all the participants.

So, that was a truly scintillating finale to an exciting event.

Well done Team South Indian Melam 🙂 I think this was a good start, and do hope we see many more such events, that bring us closer to ‘home’ and help showcase our arts and culture.

Brrrreakfast – 365 project – day 2

The picture says it all 🙂

PS 1: My dearest and most adorable non-Chennai friends – Please oh puhleez don’t call this DO-SA. It is a DosaI 🙂 🙂 🙂

One of my best friends back in college used to say ‘DosA and Sambhurr’. Had she not been so dear to me, I could have killed her Every time she massacred the word DosaI by calling it a DosA. Its like me saying ‘Barota’ instead of ‘Parantha’ 😛

PS 2: Day 1 of Project 365 is right here, in case you wish to know what this project is about.

Awfully Awesome Parathas

If you are wondering about how silly the title is, wait until you see the pictures. They are self-explanatory 🙂

I received an email from dear Swaram, about recipe exchange. The crux was that it should be a simple and easy-to-make recipe. And this is what I ingeniously came up with:

1- Take any left-over steamed or cooked veggies from the previous day, or the day-before 😉 as long as there is no mould/fungus on it, that should be fine 😈 To this, add, a pinch of Salt, Turmeric, Jeera Powder, Aamchur, Pepper powder (I use this instead of Chilli powder, so that even Kids can eat it. Psst: By kids I mean moi 😉 I hate spice ;-)), Ginger-garlic paste.

2- Now mash it up really well, or even better, just quick grind it in the mixie without any water. You should end up with an AWFUL looking gooey paste.

Btw, I used a little bowl of freshly steamed Beans, Carrot and Peas and another little cup of left-over aloo-gobi sabzi. No, I didn’t mix the two, now even I cannot stand such a disgusting concoction 😉 I made two different types of parathas 🙂

3- Take a small lemon-sized ball of dough, and divide it into two. Roll it out into little circles. Drop a lump of the awful mixture into one circle, place the other circle on top, and press the edges together to seal them. Now roll them out into a big paratha, but don’t let the goo get out through the edges.

4- Cook this on a hot Tava, and remember, wherever the goo has indeed squeezed itself out, just add a few drops of ghee and let it roast.

Trust me on this folks, the left-over-mixed-veggies-parathas taste AWESOME. Needless to say, they are extremely nutritious too.

Try it out for yourself…

(P.S: Warned you in the beginning : These look awful, but taste awesome. Do try!!)

Friday Feast – Palak in a Jiffy

I hate cooking. Period.

Therefore, if at all I try a recipe, it just HAS to be something really quick and easy. So is this recipe for Friday Feast… Palak (paneer or aloo, whatever!)

Step 1 – Very very very roughly -Chop palak (spinach), onion and tomato (separately)

Step 2 – Cook these individually (i.e. palak in one pan, and onion/tomato – together with a little ginger-garlic paste in another) on a medium-high flame for about 5-7 mins.

Leave it to cool.

Do whatever you like for 15-20 mins. Check your Facebook status, Leave some spam comments on other peoples’ blogs, Tweet if you like… just enjoy.

When you are back:

Step 3 – Grind onion/tomato mixture first. Heat a teaspoon of oil in pan, throw in some jeera, a bay leaf and the ground mixture. Grind the palak, add that too.

Step 4 – Add all the powders you have in your kitchen – salt, chilli, haldi, dhani, jeera, garam masala – just whatever you like, really 😉 Don’t bother too much about quantities and proportions. You like it salty, add more salt. Like it spicy, add extra chilli or pepper powder. Its YOUR recipe, so cook it the way you want to!!

Let it simmer for 3-4 mins.

Step 5– Optional – Add either soft paneer, fried paneer (yummyyyyy ;-)) or boiled potato. I chose boiled potato simply because it wasn’t as fattening as paneer!

And the best part, eat this with roti or some really yummy aloo paratha.

That utterly drooolicious paratha, btw, is the easiest thing ever! Gets done in less than a minute!!! All you have to do, is dial lunchbrunch.co.uk and order it home 😉 (Thanks, Kanagu, for that awesome tip ;-))

Hectic Chennai & Bloggers Meet – Chennai Diaries Part III

Why is life in India so busy??? No time to stand and stare….

No time to blog, even! Or perhaps it is just me, unable to adjust myself to the really hectic lifestyle in India.

This is how a typical day starts … Wake up to early morning calls from the Milk(wo)man and sounds of stairways being swept and cleaned. And ofcourse, the newspaper neatly tucked into the grill by a really busy newspaper-boy 🙂

This followed by a quick breakfast of toast (or dosai, if lucky 😉 ) complemented by the noise of a wholesome fight over water, between a skinny, grumpy watchman and an obese, grumpier apartment resident!

Following this fiesty morning start, the day just whizzes by uneventfully, punctuated by umpteen rings on the poor little doorbell (indicating visits by servant maid, watchman, servant (again), salesgirl, post, watchman (again), courier folks, medical shop assistant, courier folks (again), flower-woman, laundry (iron) boy, laundry boy again – this time to deliver neighbour’s clothes as neighbour isn’t at home, exactly 15 mins later, neighbour himself, to collect the pile of laundry!, casual visit by some other neighbour…the list goes on. If lucky, we are also blessed by a visit from above-mentioned-grumpier-resident’s grumpiEST wife who rattles on for half an hour, about her plight and that of her entire family tree!

In between all this, naturally, the phone rings ATLEAST once an hour. Crank calls, Telemarketing guys, Relatives whom we like, relatives whom we hate too ;-), Ex-colleagues, Calls for little birds who have already flown this nest, a couple of wrong numbers…. (hey, what fun is it without those wrong numbers!)

And to think that in between all this interesting socialization, we also need to take care of our mundane chores and Live a little…. phew…!

Like I said, Life in India, is absolutely hectic.

Which explains why, despite having such fun in Chennai, and taking notes in the mind, about interesting events/tidbits, I’ve found no time at all, to log into my dear virtual world!

There was this one scene that has been captured in my mind. Unfortunately, I did not have a camera on hand at the time. It was THE MOST CREATIVE lighting solution EVER! Enroute to the airport (to pick up my lil sis who flew in all the way from Hyderabad), we saw this road rather dug up towards one side. Someone had put up a shabby little wooden fence, more as a ‘sign’ and less, as a protective measure! The best part was, the lighting solution on the fence. The same someone had simply fixed a little bulb onto one wooden pole, and had upturned a red plastic pot (the ones we use to collect water in!) over it. And voila! We had a beautiful red lamp glowing away in the hazy darkness of a typical Chennai evening 🙂 This is one time I REALLY cursed myself for not having taken a camera or phone along! Sigh!

And did I mention our little Blog Meet? A few of us (the same group that had met earlier on in January this year) met up at this supposedly quaint restaurant called Dhaba Express. Uma was the first to arrive. Dressed in a chic blue kurti, one would never imagine she was a Mommy, and that too, of teenage kids! She brought her vintage chocolate cake, as always. And it was such a treat!!! The darling that she is, she even gave me a huge chunk to take back home for the Brat! Thank you, Uma, and May You Bake many more 🙂

Aaroo joined almost immediately. We never read each other’s blogs, but trust me when I say, no trip to Chennai is complete without meeting her 🙂 The three of us managed to squeeze into the low-levelled tables and got chatting.

Kanagu walked in a few minutes later. First, we did a Hi-Five to celebrate our Success in the BPL contest (and to show off to Ums and Aaroo 😉 ) Once Anish joined, we are all chatting away like long-lost friends. Anish again, has been off the blogging radar for long, but it was fun to meet him in person.

As you know, VIPs always arrive late. So did our Prince Villiam! After many phone calls and SMS-es between him and Ums, he finally made it to the event! Looking neatly scrubbed and perfumed, he barged into the scene, gulped down some Aam Panna, and rushed out after a few pics were clicked! So much for a guest appearance!!

Amidst all the chattering, the power went out for about half hour. We diligently used this time, to hog the totally yummy and absolutely delicious chocolate cake without being seen by the restaurant authorities ;-).

Pics will be posted soon(est). Why I cannot post them today, is a sad story in itself. But that post, is for another day!

For now, let me just say, I am glad to be back on WordPress and Facebook 🙂 Hope to catch up on all those posts in my Reader really soon.

Cheers folks!

🙂

Indiblogger and Indivine again

Hey Peepals,

In case you are an Indi-Blog-ger and are checking out the latest posts on IndiVine, please do ‘promote my post’ titled ‘The Two Minute Tikka’ which I am quite sure, you lovely people, have already read.

Here is the link:

http://www.indiblogger.in/indipost.php?post=5269

Thankooo.

xx

(P.S: Have a good weekend!)

The Two-Minute Tikka

How to make authentic-looking paneer-tikka in just two minutes. And that’s a promise!

Step 1- Place non-stick tava on hob, turn on the heat.

Step 2- Take a minute to chop the paneer into large cubes, soak in an instant marinade of ginger-garlic paste . Add a pinch of haldi, chilli powder, talcum powder…you get the drift, right? Just dump all the powders you find in your kitchen!

Step 3- By now, you see those fumes from the Tava, don’t you? Go ahead! Drop those cubes in gently. Drizzle with oil.

Step 4- Go for a walk, a crap or a pee. Whatever! Just goooooooooo!

Step 5- The final step! Within another minute (or so), you will sense that burning smell. Now, return and take a look at that pan!

You will quickly realise how authentic that Tikka looks. Beautifully smeared with charcoal all over. Covered in smoke! Infact, your entire kitchen will resemble a tandoor!

(On second thoughts, we could probably rename this ‘Smoked Tandoori Paneer Tikka’ or something that sounds just as exotic!)

So, all you need to do now is scrape the stuff off the Tava, spread on a white porcelain plate, garnish with fresh coriander and add a dollop of tangy chutney or ketchup.

(Awwww…..how I wish I had taken a picture of the da*n dish yesterday! You would have loved to see it!)

Bon Appétit!

Oh Goody! – Shilpa Shetty’s USP

So! What guarantees success?

Perfect timing? The right product? Excellent marketing gimmicks? Or some really strong USP?

Marketing gurus like Kotler have written/spoken at length on this topic. And have come up with sound marketing principles. He talks about having the right product, at the right place, right time and with sound promotional tactics.

Today, I would like to present you with a Case study.

Ever since her time in Indian Cinema has come to an end, our great Bollywood actor (the victim of racial attacks, the ‘household name’ in Britain), the ONE AND ONLY Ms.Shilpa Shetty, has been taking the world by storm! In simpler terms, she seems to be raking in the money globally!

The brand ‘Shilpa Shetty’ has come of age! It is internationally recognized, and much famed/touted for various reasons, right and wrong.

Take a peep into some of the things she has been upto:

– The much in-vogue Yoga with Shilpa – I honestly do not know how much she believes in this science or how much she has mastered it! Nor her contribution (if any) to Yoga. However, she has skillfully taken over the role of Brand Ambassador of all things connected to, or even remotely connected to, India.

– Her range of fragrances was a success! I cannot believe why anyone in their senses would want to waste money on something associated with her! Is the NRI population so utterly devoid of its sensibilities, or is the western world taken in by her (lack of) charm?

– Recently, flagging off our Independence Day parade in NY! Isn’t this atrocious? She is NOT the Indian ambassador , and she certainly isn’t the face of Indian culture, BY DEFAULT. What continues to stun me is the utter stupidity of the people who selected her. Should the honour not have gone to a more deserving, nay – simply, a deserving candidate?

– And now – this – Curries! (P.S: If the curries are anything like her, I would rather scurry!) I cannot believe she is going to ‘invent’ curries! There are lakhs of Indian cookbooks and guides. (Btw, there is this really smart Indian cooking blog I came across the other day 😉 ) She and her partner (in crime?) announced the invention of new blends of spices!

– Its incredible, the way she takes full mileage of her famed racial incident with Jane Goody and uses ‘Jane’s memory’ to cash in on another opportunity! Poppa-dom! As if there aren’t enough Poppadom brands in the market already.

So! The brand ‘Shilpa’ is a success (if publicity/fame is an acceptable measure of the same). It is widely recognized, and rakes in the moolah!

And, all this, without having any sound or unique product or service (?! ;-))

She defies Kotler! She defies the principle of needing to have some product offering of SUBSTANCE to be able to sell it! In much-bandied about MBA jargon.. ‘she has made a paradigm shift’.

So its good news for all the wannabe successful young girls/lads out there!

Here is the NEW and IMPROVED secret to success:

You need a TUMMY!!!

Yes that’s what you need. A nice big tummy!

-You do not need first mover’s advantage.

-You do not even need a good product!

T

-All you need need is TIMING!  Time your launch after death of your so-called-tormentor, caching in on her memory! Like you have been the thickest friends ever.

U

– Next you need a USP. However shallow and silly it might be. 

Dear Shilpa’s USP is that she is hailed (well, mainly by herself) as a survivor!

Not of drought, famine or war (or even Swine flu!). But of a silly squabble between bickering Nautankeys on a Reality show. That catapulted her into a whole new global arena altogether!

M

–Money (as always)! A rich business magnate boyfriend surely does help!

M

-And ofcourse, Mummy! Don’t ever forget that Mummyji will tag along with her gullible little girl as they parade all over the world.

Y

–Yoga! Ofcourse..how could one forget? It is the secret to tranquility and ability to think clearly. Plus, a BIG PLUS, its Shilpa’s key to beauty and success. Google it, if you want to!

So there! You have successfully whined your way to fame!

You really are an international heroine – no pun there! 

Goody goody, Shilpa! Your poor attacker is long gone!

But you still continue to haunt us 😦

(P.S: Kotler might learn a lesson or two from this young lady!)

(P.P.S: Reg. the ‘Y for Yoga’ – how am I supposed to come up with some fancy jargon with ‘Y’ of all the letters in the alphabet?! So, if you can think of an attractive Y-word, do let me know so we can give a logical conclusion to the TUMMY strategy 😉 )

The ‘first-night’ dialogue

‘Shhh…What are you doing?’
‘Nothing unusual…considering it is our first night!’
‘This is against the law. I mean, custom!’
‘Law? Custom? What rubbish! You got to respect basic instinct, honey.
She giggles.

‘I’m so tired, Pavan. Greeting those thousand guests with a plastic smile! Ugh..my jaws are stiff!’
‘Okay…but I hope you aren’t too tired to…’
‘To…??’
‘To…ahem…you know…’

‘Pavan, stop that!’
‘Stop what? Doesn’t everybody do this? I mean, am I infringing on someone’s rights here? Is this violation of the law?’
‘No…but…’
‘No BUTs, this is a perfectly natural reaction..a raw necessity, if I may say so!’

‘Think of this – what if someone hears? There is, but a thin wall between our bedroom and your parents’.
‘Right! And they’re probably doing the same thing.’
‘PAAVVVVAN!!’
He smirks.

‘Pavan, you really need to stop now.’
‘You didn’t mind before we got married!
‘That was different. It was the start of our relationship…everything you said/did was exciting/amusing’.
‘So What’s changed now?’
‘Nothing..its just rather uncivil’

‘What the heck, Malathi? This is getting too far. I mean, this is all your parents’ fault.’
‘Whaaat?’

‘Yeah, they set the menu for our wedding function! They ordered all those puris and biriyani and gulab-jamoons and ice-creams! They are the cause for my eating too much and having this stomach upset.’

‘That’s enough, Pavan. You really must stop farting now, or all you’ll get is the couch! Good night.’

Defeated and deflated (well, literally!), Pavan sulks away into slumber.