**** I solemnly swear that i am upto no good in the kitchen****
.With just two months left, before i jetset off to Florida, i was faced with one of the greatest challenges in my life. Learn how to cook.
.The only dishes and avenues i had explored in cooking so far include hot water, maggi,top ramen,boiled rice, chapathi, dhal and paneer butter masala(thanks to the Everest Masala Mix).
.But cooking in a kitchen and that too under the stern eyes of an uncompromising mother equates to facing HT's paper without preparation. I think i might even prefer HT's paper.
Hmmm ,so i took a deep breath and took the plunge into the world of culinary delights.
But , slowly , i warmed upto cooking and began appreciating the art in it. Cooking involves so many intricate details . Right from the way the vegetables should be washed and cleaned, the way they should be cut or grated and the sizes they should be cut into, the amount of salt you add etc. They might seem trivial issues to start off with , but they can be mastered only with experience.
Hmmm, somehow i managed to pass muster with the "Peerkanga Kootu" and "Aviyal". Being the notorious person i am , the devil in me wanted to do something different and experiment. My mom was away shopping on Tuesday evening .
I thought that this was a perfect opportunity to suprise her. I started rummaging around the larder and the fridge. I found the "Idly Maavu" of the previous day. I remember her telling me, that dosai can be made only with a Maavu thats atleast a day old, because the "Yeasts" are very lazy and take a day to puluchify the Maavu. I had just finished eating Kellog's Corn Flakes with my evening coffee,as she had left. Putting one and two together, Cornflakes Dosai was born.
CORNFLAKES DOSAI
Copyright and All Rights Reserved : Vignesh Sundaram , Dated : 05/18/2010
Empty about quarter of the cornflakes box onto the mixer and add two tumblers of water. The amount of water added is very crucial as ,too much of it will make the paste very watery and too little of the same ,will make it too thick.
Run the mixture for about 3 minutes and empty the paste onto a plate.
Now mix this paste homogeneously with the Dosai/Idly Maavu.
Now, add a few teaspoons of oil on a nonstick pan and gently spread the Maavu on it.
Repeatedly toss the Maavu until it becomes a dosai .
Cornflakes Dosai is best served with Molaga Podi.
When my mom returned ,she was frankly outraged and horrified at what i had done. But ,she slowly calmed down and then reason dawned on her , that her lazy son had actually put some genuine effort. She rated the dosa "Parava illa " or "Passable".Not a bad beginning!!!
************************TO BE CONTINUED**********************
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
Holidays - One with a bit of difference ...
.Finally ,the three months are here . May, June and July . The time i had allocated for exploring different avenues and unwinding , but with a bit of difference.
.Doing anything close to the heart and out of the box, was literally impossible during my second and third year hols ,because of the burden that came along with projects. Now that i am pretty free, except for the VISA formalities, these three months provide an excellent opporunity to refresh my mind and body, before i head off on a gruelling and demanding Masters course (where i am sure i will find little time to pursue my hobbies ).
.First of all, i am planning to prepare a reading list and try almost every genre. Currently i am reading a thriller by Michael Crichton, a gutwrenching romance novel by Cecilia Ahern and a popular economics novel by Stephen Dubner.
.Second , are the daily bouts of jogging at 530 AM in the morning around Nageswara Rao Park. (Thanks to Madas and a certain side thoppai).Still undecided about returning to Hotel Savera for swimming .
. Most importantly ,learning cooking from my mom. Put the "Pizhaiyaar Suzhi" today with Peerkanga Kootu :D:D:D.
. Last but not the least, my upcoming assignments with Landing Stage . Though the dates have not yet been confirmed. "Footloose" is currently in production ,with the inaugural expected to be staged in the first week of June at Sivagami Pethachi Auditorium , MCTM School, Alwarpet. Really excited about this.
.Hmmm, hoping that i can do something meaningful these holidays.
PS: "Time spent well is a job well done" --- Robert Clive .
.Doing anything close to the heart and out of the box, was literally impossible during my second and third year hols ,because of the burden that came along with projects. Now that i am pretty free, except for the VISA formalities, these three months provide an excellent opporunity to refresh my mind and body, before i head off on a gruelling and demanding Masters course (where i am sure i will find little time to pursue my hobbies ).
.First of all, i am planning to prepare a reading list and try almost every genre. Currently i am reading a thriller by Michael Crichton, a gutwrenching romance novel by Cecilia Ahern and a popular economics novel by Stephen Dubner.
.Second , are the daily bouts of jogging at 530 AM in the morning around Nageswara Rao Park. (Thanks to Madas and a certain side thoppai).Still undecided about returning to Hotel Savera for swimming .
. Most importantly ,learning cooking from my mom. Put the "Pizhaiyaar Suzhi" today with Peerkanga Kootu :D:D:D.
. Last but not the least, my upcoming assignments with Landing Stage . Though the dates have not yet been confirmed. "Footloose" is currently in production ,with the inaugural expected to be staged in the first week of June at Sivagami Pethachi Auditorium , MCTM School, Alwarpet. Really excited about this.
.Hmmm, hoping that i can do something meaningful these holidays.
PS: "Time spent well is a job well done" --- Robert Clive .
An ODE to my REMwriters
College's over .Senti.Period.
Enough has been spoken and written about the above two topics. But , from those tears and loquacious senti speeches , common sense will arise and spread all over the 2006-2010 batch of NIT Trichy. We will realize that we have to move on ,as one of my friends pointed out "Whether you do so or not , life moves on ". Its important you keep pace with life , otherwise you might just be left behind. In such a busy and rapidly growing and fluctuating setup that our life is , memories sometimes do take a backseat. Some of us even tend to forget our past ;bright or murky ,however it was.
.This is where memoirs step in . "REM BOOK" . A simple, yet amazing concept. When examined in a profound way, its more than a collection of few thousands of words in various handwritings ,some scrawny and some neat. A REM BOOK is a document that speaks clearly about what people think about you, your worst,your best ,your lows and your highs. Its a reflection of how you were to them and what you meant to them. Its a simple tool to document a person's emotions towards another one. As i keep on saying, simple yet amazing.
.To all those ,who spent precious time writing out my REM ,this post is a small way of saying ,how much i value your words. They are just not letters on a sheet of paper.
.First of all a big thanks to Shaik Rameez Raja ,for starting my REM in a colourful manner. Hope your life's as colorful as your entry was. Sticking to colorful entries, Karthik Ananthanarayanan deserves a special mention also. :)
.I also wish to thank Anusha Balan for courting my book for more than 10 days and coming up with an entry worth the wait :). I wish to thank Dhivya Sashidhar, Angela Vattoth, Harini Ananthapadmanabhan, Aishwarya Seshadri, Visalakshi Meena, Varun Srivatsan , Santhanagopalan Vasudevan,Vishnu Ponnuswamy,Selvamuthukumaran, Duraipraveen,Sujay Subramanyam,Vignesh Naganathan,Praveen Kalish, Arun Vishwanathan ,Vijay Krishna,Yasser Farook, Aditya Venkataraman,Arpit Raj and Santosh Prakash for their invaluable words and time :D. Thank you ,guys.
.Now for the entries which were really different and had something extra in them. Srinivas Jayaraman for his four sides of paper which documented my best and worst times in college :D.
Bharatram Pattabhiraman, for his two sides ,which bear testimony to an ever-growing friendship and warmth .
Abinaya Govindarajan for an entry which was full of straight talk . An entry which had meaning in every sentence and which made me think a lot.
And ,finally, Anand Krishnan for making me cry. Dont think i can get over this one.
And to end on a lighter one , the "Handwriting Oscar" goes to Abinaya Govindarajan and the "Handwriting Razzie" to Srinivas Jayaraman :P.
PS: Sridharan Ramesh , you still haven written my rem despite i putting up with you as a roommate for two years.
PPS: Harshavardhan Rajendrababu, i am not giving you my rem till i leave.
Enough has been spoken and written about the above two topics. But , from those tears and loquacious senti speeches , common sense will arise and spread all over the 2006-2010 batch of NIT Trichy. We will realize that we have to move on ,as one of my friends pointed out "Whether you do so or not , life moves on ". Its important you keep pace with life , otherwise you might just be left behind. In such a busy and rapidly growing and fluctuating setup that our life is , memories sometimes do take a backseat. Some of us even tend to forget our past ;bright or murky ,however it was.
.This is where memoirs step in . "REM BOOK" . A simple, yet amazing concept. When examined in a profound way, its more than a collection of few thousands of words in various handwritings ,some scrawny and some neat. A REM BOOK is a document that speaks clearly about what people think about you, your worst,your best ,your lows and your highs. Its a reflection of how you were to them and what you meant to them. Its a simple tool to document a person's emotions towards another one. As i keep on saying, simple yet amazing.
.To all those ,who spent precious time writing out my REM ,this post is a small way of saying ,how much i value your words. They are just not letters on a sheet of paper.
.First of all a big thanks to Shaik Rameez Raja ,for starting my REM in a colourful manner. Hope your life's as colorful as your entry was. Sticking to colorful entries, Karthik Ananthanarayanan deserves a special mention also. :)
.I also wish to thank Anusha Balan for courting my book for more than 10 days and coming up with an entry worth the wait :). I wish to thank Dhivya Sashidhar, Angela Vattoth, Harini Ananthapadmanabhan, Aishwarya Seshadri, Visalakshi Meena, Varun Srivatsan , Santhanagopalan Vasudevan,Vishnu Ponnuswamy,Selvamuthukumaran, Duraipraveen,Sujay Subramanyam,Vignesh Naganathan,Praveen Kalish, Arun Vishwanathan ,Vijay Krishna,Yasser Farook, Aditya Venkataraman,Arpit Raj and Santosh Prakash for their invaluable words and time :D. Thank you ,guys.
.Now for the entries which were really different and had something extra in them. Srinivas Jayaraman for his four sides of paper which documented my best and worst times in college :D.
Bharatram Pattabhiraman, for his two sides ,which bear testimony to an ever-growing friendship and warmth .
Abinaya Govindarajan for an entry which was full of straight talk . An entry which had meaning in every sentence and which made me think a lot.
And ,finally, Anand Krishnan for making me cry. Dont think i can get over this one.
And to end on a lighter one , the "Handwriting Oscar" goes to Abinaya Govindarajan and the "Handwriting Razzie" to Srinivas Jayaraman :P.
PS: Sridharan Ramesh , you still haven written my rem despite i putting up with you as a roommate for two years.
PPS: Harshavardhan Rajendrababu, i am not giving you my rem till i leave.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Keerai Masiyal and More ....
Setting : Dining table of an old but grand Iyer Aathu in Mannargudi...
. So after three hours of a tiring bus journey , and with the horrible heat and the sapping humidity to contend with , we were literally cooling our feet in the wonderful milieu of this house. Finally, Santa's grandma called us for lunch. The dining table was of pure teakwood, and had some antique charm attached to it , as did the whole of the house. She had kept three plaintain leaves on the table, fresh and sprinkled with water .Sujay and Santa sat next to each other and i sat at the head of the table . I was already feeling a little weird. Not because of my hunger, but ,because of my pangs of guilt . The moment i entered the house , i could observe the staunch 'Aacharam' they practiced ,and , i could not predict how they would react , if they found out that i eat non-veg and that i am a mongrel half-iyer etc...
.Coming back, first came the tantalizing aroma of the 'Urulaikezhangu Podimas '. Did i forget to tell that she had already kept a tumbler of 'Thaengapaal Payasam' . Then came 'Paruppu Kadaiyal' and then the usual 'Murungakka Sambar' ( I could remember her eyes twinkling when she said that the Murungakka's were home-grown). But , i could already feel something different. Santa's grandma was very happy and i could guess the reason . I could imagine the boredom she and her husband would be going through ,day after day, living in this grand house . But with no soul to turn to , no one to speak to , what does opulence and grandeur and count for ??? It was then that it struck me that, this little jaunty trip of ours , meant loads to her . I felt a bit of warmth running through me ,suppressing my thoughts of guilt. And how i can forget the amazing 'Keerai Masiyal ' . It marked the stamp of authentic Brahmin cooking ,and i had never tasted anything like that when it comes to Keerai (sorry mom :)). The best moment of this whole episode was when i asked for more of the same . She said sheepishly that ,she had made very little of it and , that it was over. I guess my guilt by now, was completely overrun , by a growing feeling of warmth extending from my stomach to the heart . Think i knew at that moment , what people mean when they say ' The best way to a person's heart is through his/her stomach ' .
.His grandparents were very happy to have us around . We had a whale of time , exploring the house , taking pics on the 'Oonjal ' and , to round off things brilliantly ,it started to rain. I still remember Santa's grandpa 's 'Rustic' remark about his looks. We were happy to be of some use to two kind hearted people and, its these instances i feel , that lend a bit of meaning to my life.
.Moments worth living for !!! :):):)
PS : Thanks, Santa :)
. So after three hours of a tiring bus journey , and with the horrible heat and the sapping humidity to contend with , we were literally cooling our feet in the wonderful milieu of this house. Finally, Santa's grandma called us for lunch. The dining table was of pure teakwood, and had some antique charm attached to it , as did the whole of the house. She had kept three plaintain leaves on the table, fresh and sprinkled with water .Sujay and Santa sat next to each other and i sat at the head of the table . I was already feeling a little weird. Not because of my hunger, but ,because of my pangs of guilt . The moment i entered the house , i could observe the staunch 'Aacharam' they practiced ,and , i could not predict how they would react , if they found out that i eat non-veg and that i am a mongrel half-iyer etc...
.Coming back, first came the tantalizing aroma of the 'Urulaikezhangu Podimas '. Did i forget to tell that she had already kept a tumbler of 'Thaengapaal Payasam' . Then came 'Paruppu Kadaiyal' and then the usual 'Murungakka Sambar' ( I could remember her eyes twinkling when she said that the Murungakka's were home-grown). But , i could already feel something different. Santa's grandma was very happy and i could guess the reason . I could imagine the boredom she and her husband would be going through ,day after day, living in this grand house . But with no soul to turn to , no one to speak to , what does opulence and grandeur and count for ??? It was then that it struck me that, this little jaunty trip of ours , meant loads to her . I felt a bit of warmth running through me ,suppressing my thoughts of guilt. And how i can forget the amazing 'Keerai Masiyal ' . It marked the stamp of authentic Brahmin cooking ,and i had never tasted anything like that when it comes to Keerai (sorry mom :)). The best moment of this whole episode was when i asked for more of the same . She said sheepishly that ,she had made very little of it and , that it was over. I guess my guilt by now, was completely overrun , by a growing feeling of warmth extending from my stomach to the heart . Think i knew at that moment , what people mean when they say ' The best way to a person's heart is through his/her stomach ' .
.His grandparents were very happy to have us around . We had a whale of time , exploring the house , taking pics on the 'Oonjal ' and , to round off things brilliantly ,it started to rain. I still remember Santa's grandpa 's 'Rustic' remark about his looks. We were happy to be of some use to two kind hearted people and, its these instances i feel , that lend a bit of meaning to my life.
.Moments worth living for !!! :):):)
PS : Thanks, Santa :)
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