The Winter !!!

I do love rain but if there is a season which I love the most is WINTER. I am lucky enough to witness many types of winter in my life journey and hoping to witness many more.

Let me share my experience of best winter so far.

Coming from India, a diverse country not only in culture but weather wise too. One can find different weather in different region. I have traveled the 4 corners of the country I.e; north- south, east- west. And enjoyed winter in all region. North has all the season to its extreme and south has all the season to a little less extreme but as we move form place to place, it changes and bring new flavors. And so far I have enjoyed Rajasthan’s winter the most. A place of sand and castles.

Let me share some facts from google.

Fossils Discovered Indicate Rajasthan Desert Was Submerged Under Sea 47 Million Years Ago. Also, it was found that thousands of years ago, Saravasti river would course through the Thar Desert on its way to the Indian Ocean. However, some studies suggest that the increasing dry climatic conditions of the Thar choked up the river.

There is a lot to it and if you enjoy history, do google about it.

Back to weather and my love for winter, the climate in the Thar desert is like any other desert. Hot in the day and cool at night. The summer days are way much hotter but the nights are cool and the winter days are warm but the nights are colder. And that’s what I love about the place. Wandering around in the day time, enjoying the little activity going around, enjoy being out, relishing greasy food and in cold night enjoy the warmth of my home with hot cup of ginger tea after dinner and watching the only show coming on TV with family.

Those memories are so fresh.

Then there are days when my sister and I playing in the courtyard in the beautiful sunny afternoon and have kulfi from the local cart vendor. Having cold stuff in the winter afternoon taste much better than having them in summer sunny afternoon. And when tired, lay under the sun and enjoy the warmth. The warm wind blowing would melt all our thoughts leaving us at the moment as if we are in meditation.

Many more stories to go before next winter comes. Hoping to share few more from my bucket of stories.

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Dosa

Recently, I saw one of my fav instagrammer who is from London was learning dosa from her Indian friend and it brought back memories of my way of learning dosa. I am still not 100% good at it because the trick is super tricky.

Now if you are a south Indian, you will say, what’s the big deal in making dosa? Since it’s in their DNA. But the rest of the world do not feel the same way especially when cooking is not in their priority list.

I come in the 2^nd category where cooking is more of necessity than passion. And so it took me some time to get my hands on it. Let me share some secret tips I learnt by burning many dosas.

1. If you have only one tava which you use for making roti and dosa too. Be careful, if tava is not greased well before making dosa, then dosa is going to get stick to tava like any leech to a human leg. And that will lead to a log of work
2. If you use too much oil after the 1^st greasing then your dosa is gonna die way before it could even be served. So a big no no to to much oil.
3. Here comes the fire. You will need to keep it on check. If you have a thin tava and it heats up easily then after laying the dosa batter on the tava, reduce the flame.
4. To make another dosa if the tava looks like cooling off then increase the heat again and this process goes on and on
5. If using an iron tava, keep the flame mostly high since iron tava take time to cool off or heat up.
6. Now comes the magic and that is to never flip your dosa… once you lay down your dosa like a sleeping baby on bed, no more touching… But do add some comfort oil in the corner of the dosa to easily scoop up once your dosa is ready to go
7. Most importantly, which we all ignore… How to lay the dosa. Too much or too less pressure is a big failure. Have a balance when you put the batter on the tava and rotate either clockwise or anti-clock wise. This is something to practice or you will never get it.

Those are few of my secret tips but again every vessel of every kitchen is different like our DNA. Do try and try and try until you get it.

Happy making DOSA !!!

The Ramen from Korea

They say, there is a fine line between passion and obsession and I think I have gaily crossed that thin line and cavort from passion to obsession. I am not guilty about it at all.

We all have that one place we want to be in without challenging any of our outrageous desire but be in the moment. Having Ramen in Korea is one of those passion I have been holding up from long and it clearly have turned into obsession during the pandemic when I know I yet have many more months, days, nights, hours to be in that moment.

And when you are obsessed you wanna create a situation replicating the actual one which by the way never occurs. Your brain happily shoot up the image and make it look much beautiful then it actually going to be. Your heart raise faster then needed and after a lot of straggle between your heart and brain you finally take that decision.

Yes, I did it and ordered the RAMEN only. Thank god to today’s technology that I could get it in my comfort without travelling 1000’s of miles.

There are 5 pack of different flavor and I am once again confuse which one to go with 1st. While, I take another long road to decide on that and share the final product with you all.

Hold on to it till then… you will not be disappointed !!!

Nothing went right so we took left

It was pitch dark outside and the slow flow of rain made the sound of tick-tock, tick tock on the roof of our TT. I was gazing outside the window and drifted to sleep.

Boom!!!

We all woke up from the sudden sound and soon realized that our bus has come to a halt. We shouted to our driver asking what happened and in a sleepy tone, he gave a response “I am not sure”

We all got out of the TT one by one. And there were three set of people.

1^st set of people, feeling shocked and just wanted to reach the destination.

2^nd set of people, enjoying the weather during this break

3rd set of people or rather a human being, ME, who was super annoyed to be woken up from my sleep.

It all started that day at 8 PM when we were supposed to leave Bangalore for our most awaited trip to Chigmangalur. We had it all planned. Hour by hour, day by day, night by night and I guess second by second too. But how can a trip be completed without any complication and lots of bump?

So were our trip too…

But we did not lose our hope and managed to get started from Bangalore at 10 PM. And it was only 1AM when we encounter a bump in our journey. Understanding the situation, it was finally revealed that our driver was sleepy and was moved away from the road hitting a big stone bringing us to the halt. So we decided to take a break so that driver can take some rest, freshen up and we continue with our journey.

I was finally awake and started to walk slowly in the pathway, soaking in the aroma of the air while the wind blow on my face and hair. It was an amazing feeling. No thoughts were running in my brain after a long time and I was in the moment. Slow rain continued and time by time lorries/truck passed by flashing the bright light on us and honked before drifting apart. Those head lights felt no less than a pair of big curious child’s eye. A sudden breeze left me cold and I quickly wrapped my arms around me. It felt like I was already in my destination.

My friend called me back to reality and once again we started with our journey.

Our driver started to feel sleepy again to our surprise and could not drive that well, which made us take yet another break around 4AM. But the break was to our advantage since the nearby place was breath taking.

We let the driver sleep in the Bus and started to walk toward the open area and found few shops open and inquired about the place. They informed us that if we walk for another 1km, we will reach a view point for sunrise. Hearing this brought back our enthusiasm and we decided to go for it. Walking looked difficult since the road was muddy and wet from the last day’s rain and it was still dark. Chill cracking throw our bone, we continue on our path.

Our tallest friend who was way ahead of us shouted, “guys, comes fast and look”. We ran towards him and was stunt by the view. It was a huge curve of land covered with the greenery till the end we could stretch our eyes.

We found a spot and waited for the sunrise and at the same time super hangry. Our tall friend volunteer to ran back to shop and get us some food. And we all in one rhythm said yesssssssssssss.

Another friend joined him. It took them a while to come back and we continue to enjoy the view.

Our friend were back with hot Maggie in plastic cover and handed 2 of us each cover, we dig in and it was time for sun rise.

Sitting in a spot, hot Maggie in our hand, and a green land in front of us… the sun felt like a new plant blooming from the ground and connecting the land with a bloomy red sky at 1^st then painting it to a beautiful orange color. No amount of words could describe that moment.

Happy with filled stomach we started back to our journey to Chikmangalur.

This Journey taught us a lot. Knowing that we will be late to our destination and stop cribbing for the current situation and turning it to our advantage is all about our look towards the current situation. It’s all in our head where we can take the situation we want to take. And we decided to take the situation as our early start of trip rather than being upset on not reaching the destination.

I await for more such trip!!!

Travel- A lot more then the word…

Travel is much more then given in the definition. The whole meaning changes when associate with a particular human being. And the meaning enriches as the human come from different country.

And as the human being evolve, travel evolves too and bring a total new flavor to it.

Yes, I am a traveler and my journey is much more important than my destination. This journey could be the walk from my home to the super market or the journey from my country to a whole new country.

Walking and absorbing the surrounding and getting a whole new prospective with every inhale of the air of information, my database changes.

And while in the early morning thinking of Durga puja which is going to be different then ever took me back to the days I did a lot of pandal hopping. Yes, this time there will be no pandal hopping there will be no buying of new saree, there will be no more excitement. But I will make my Durga puja memorable because I am determine to do so by turning the pages backwards and walking those path again.

Right now I am in that time… time where I stand happily in the line of getting bhog, laughing, drinking in the loud Durga Maa enchanting of the Mantras… And suddenly I am distracted, distracted by the conversation the two guys are having about my current company.

I increased the listening power, cancelling all other noise but their. I love my company BTW and its always mesmerizing to hear other’s opinion.

Well they did not much appreciated the company and thought my company will not survive the current acquisition since the acquiring company is much bigger than our company. I am still in my company and my company is doing well and did further more acquisitions.

Sometimes, its our personal hope not dented by anyone’s opinion is the hope all we need.

Awaiting for Durga Puja….

Jai Jai Maa