My Mom's Kitchen Shelf

My Mom's Kitchen Shelf. And my entry to the CLICK May 2008 event.

This month's theme is "Beans 'n Lentils". I have always been a fan of Lentils or Daals. And only now do I realize, that they are a manna. Very nutritious and tasty and quick to cook, especially for Baby food.

Let me share my recipe for Baby food. This has variety and considering that it has to be made day after day, for 3-4 meals a day, very convenient, as it does not require much thought. Rice, Daal & Veggies mentioned below can be used in different permutation-combination.

Ingredients:

Rice: White, brown

Lentil/Daal: Moong, Toor/Arhar, Masoor

Veggie: Carrot, Potato, Cabbage, Spinach/Palak, Cauliflower, Sweet potato

Salt & Turmeric

Broken wheat: Optional

1) Wash equal portion of Rice, Daal & Wheat in pressure cooker.
2) Add double quantity water.
3) Add a pinch of salt & turmeric powder.
4) Add chopped veggies
5) Pressure cook to very soft.
6) Puree a meal portion.
7) Store the remaining in Fridge. Puree fresh when required.

It's a form of kichdi. But once pureed, it gets a look of Pudding or fruit-less Custard. This pureed food is the best till Baby is toothless.

What I Did This Summer ?

Summer vacations. We are half-way through. Schools might start in a few weeks. I don't remember much details about my vacations, except it was fun, just games outdoors with my brother and friends or visits to Grandpa home in Udupi. That totally changed with college and after starting work, I think I completely forgot what it means !

It's only now with the challenge of entertaining my cousins & nephew, who are here for the vacations, that I am slowly going back in time. Initially it's just TV and their usual outdoor play, and some tinkering with mobile phones. With nearly every adult having his/her own mobile, each different make & model along with their Games, that's a lot of keeping-them-busy. But there is a limit to how much TV one can watch. It's a wakeupcall only when one of them gets a headache. So now I was the organiser, rather than the vacationee.

Kids are notorious for getting bored every minute. So this is a list of things for them to do which requires minimum adult supervison.

Gadgets:

1. Photography: Thanks to Digital cameras, they can take unlimited photos, make mistakes, learn, experiment. Also add mobile camera phones.
2. Computer games, DishTV, TataSky games
3. Other video games
   
   Games: No matter how modern times, traditional games are always at your rescue.
4. Scrabble
5. Chess
6. Cricket
7. Swimming or just thrashing around in water tank
8. Byheart a book on Capital & Flags of all Countries. It's fun to toss around a Capital quiz at dinner
9. Word: Boggle, Name-Place-Animal-Thing
   
   Projects:
10. Paper Puppets: Draw out characters (like Joker) or objects (tree, ball). Stick it to another paper, with a broom stick in between. Cut around the outline. That's one puppet. And then play out a story from behind the sofa. Yesterday, we taped one such play, and then spent rest of the day, laughing at every rerun!
11. Socks or cloth puppets, if you have more time to guide.
12. Leaf Project: Collect leaves of different plant. stick them in project book. Label them.
13. Book reading: Out loud
14. Scrap book: Give each child a diary. Let them cutout & paste any picture that catches their fancy. From old magazines & newspapers. Cars, cricketers, mobile phones, nature, animals, etc. Watch this scrap book grow with each vacation.
15. Drawing book: 10 drawings per vacation. Inspiration is all around us. Household objects, plants, animals, etc.
    
    
    Outings: Picnics at
16. Lalbagh
17. Cubbon Park
18. Museum tour: Art & Science Museum at Kasturba Gandhi Road; Innovatice Film City has numerous ones (Dino, Fossil, Wax, Ripleys Believe it ot not)
19. Big Banyan Tree
    
    Finally:
20. And then signoff the vacation with an Essay on, "What I did this Summer !"
    

Voted !

For the Karnataka Assembly Election on 10-July-2008.
For a government that will complete all the in-progress Road work.
And a whole lot more.

My Daughter's Room

Made this watercolor for a Drawing competition.
Topic was "Vision 2020".
So my entry was - "My Daughter's Room in the Year 2020" !

Up in the skies

My baby's second flight. On our way back from Pune.
Clouds looked like delicious ice cream scoops.
Despite many attempts to show her the clouds, she simply focussed on the window glass pane. Maybe it was too much glare for her.

Zindagi ka Language

Zee Studio is showing 'Mind Your Language'. Finally 7pm has a fresh show to see, after nearly a decade of F.R.I.E.N.D.S rerun on the same slot.

MYL is a terrific laugh riot. Each episode is a gem. They should really coin a phrase - 'as patient as Mr. Brown'. Phew what a class of students ! Each one better than the other.

There is a certain innocence / naiveté in watching these retro shows. Zee Studio is also showing 'Doogie Howser MD' & 'Wonder Years', which were a rage on Star plus, when cable television was brand new in India.

And much before that, we had 'Yeh Jo Hain Zindagi' on Doordarshan. That must have been 1984-6. I had vague memories from it. I always thought that Shafi Inamdar, Swaroop Sampat & Rajesh Bedi & Sathish Shah were the integral part of the show. So the exit of Ranjit & Renu, midway during the show, to Dubai, was a big surprise. And as I child I seriously wondered every week, as to why didn't Ranjit, Renu & Raja realise that it was Sathish Shah every time in different getups ? :)

'Jane Bhi Do Yaaron' also came around this time. Sathish Shah in this movie gave me a scare. My impression was that, this was a horror movie, rather than the sarcastic comedy it actually was. Again, I was a child then, and watching him as a corpse in all that night lighting in theatre did give it a scary feel.

About 'Yeh Jo Hain Zindagi', a few months back Star Plus showed it every weekday morning. It was a good thing to run in background while getting ready for office. When compared to the sophisticated sitcoms of today, it does appear more tacky or naive.

But that was a charm too. To see how things were in the early 80's. Their home, furniture, the phone & Fridge. Parathas for breakfast. Social life before mobile phone & cable television. And a lot of today's TV & movie stars appeared in this show, when they were gangly newcomers. Vidhu Vinod Chopra appeared in one episode as a film director. It was a short comic role and it was funny to see how gangly & awkward he was.

This show must have run as a weekly for years on DD. But showing it daily on Star Plus, exhausted it in a short time.

In Love

As on July 12th, I crossed a major milestone in my life. I became a Mom ! To my lovely Daughter !

To sum it up - Absolutely unbelievable ! I am still reeling in disbelief. Hubby is equally affected. Even while going through the mundane routine, we still manage to float in a dreammy world. Her face, her smile, every little twitch of eyebrow, her eyes, everything leaves us speechless.

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows

The first book I read, in my new life, was Harry Potter Book 7 ! My Hubby remembered to buy it dot on 21st July, even while hunting around for baby stuff. And I read it while my baby slept. So I pretty much gave up my sleep time as well. But unlike other HP, I didn't sit through the night reading it. I am not that much of a superwoman.

Was good. Was definitely better than HP-B6. In sharp contrast, things move a lot faster here. Actually a lot of things happen here. Any crawling would mean, trible the size of book. And things get solved so fast, so obviously that its pretty incredible. But fine, since we want to know how it all ends, this is acceptable.

So much of the stuff was pretty crisp. Her trademark humor was sprinkled only a little bit. Everyone we knew, everything we knew, make an appearance here. And the Dumblerdore-Snape arrangement, that was not much of a surprise for me. From the way Snape kills & Dumblerdore dies in HP-B6, it definitely looked like an arrangement. And good thing it was.

And death, boy there is atleast one in every chapter. The only ones that moved me were the 3 during the war.

Happy New Year !!! 2007 !!!

Lage Raho ... Munnabhai

Munnabhai is great stuff. Good thing they got the idea of making Series instead of Sequel. That gives them enough freedom to play around with story, characters & actors, while repeating only two of them - Munnabhai & Circuit !

This movie also opens with a kidnapping. But removing Munnabhai from this equation, make the MBBS kidnapping a better one. Anyway with the camera totally focussed on Circuit for this part, I could check-out all his gold jewellery.

I say, nothing beats watching a movie undisturbed, continuous & good quality picture on a big screen. And sharing every joke with hundreds of the audience. I somehow missed MBBS in theatre and got to see it only on TV - part by part. That means, I saw the middle first, ending next and begining last.



Apart from kidnapping, there were other patterns again, for our comfort. The father-son conflict & resolution. Swami look alike, who tackles the Spitter. Title song played against an interesting collage of Ladies. While 'Munnabhai MBBS' song showcased all regions, 'Bole toh bole ... Lage raho Munnabhai' featured all professionals.

Songs were defintely better this time. I mean, MBBS songs are not memorable but caught on. This one had better quality ones. And indefinitely hummable. Like 'Bole toh bole ..'. And 'Samjho ho hi gaya' was good timepass. Pal pal pal came at a very good moment actually. When things were to turn wrong for him. Of how now he has to stand alone.

Vidya Balan had to chirp throughout, which she did well. And do the dramatic bit for only one scene - which she did even better. Her Parineeta expereince must have come handy here. And Dia Mirza looked stunningly beautiful.

Dialoges were in ekdum Bambaiya dialect, keeping with the tradition started by Abbas Tyrewala. And this time, they had more profound things to talk about, ofcourse in light & digestible tone.

It was fun to watch Munnabhai translate Gandhiji's sudh Hindi advice to his Bambaiya Hindi. And pretty much adapt Gandhiji's solutions to a relevant one for today. Thus giving birth to Gandhigiri, as against Gandhiwadi. Isn't this what it's all about ? Use the idea. Don't fossilize old methods into unbreakable customs.

The press conference bit was quite a breaker. I guess, it was to tell us that, we know all the solutions, it's within us and we don't need any 'spirit' for that.

Rang De Basanti & Lage Raho Munnabhai are two very different movies in terms of style, but with the same good intention. Both made in the same year and successful in box-office & popularity. I doubt anyone thought such a thing can happen in Hindi Cinema. 2005 & 6 are producing one Gem after the other.