THANDA THANDA COOL COOL !

May is drawing to a close and the heat is getting on my nerves.

Add traffic to my list of woes and I encounter no swerves.

There is no looking back once I step out on the road.

I follow the vehicles and abide by the one way traffic code.

Summer is a pain in the neck but I know how to keep my cool.

Listed below you will find recipes that can make you drool.

Keep ample milk, curd, butter milk and greens in the refriegerator.

Load it with capsicum, cucumber, turnip, radish, mint and coriander.

Buy some shallots and peel  them at your leisure.

Store them in the refriegerator along  with ginger.

All that you have to do is mix, match and blend.

Grind, filter the veggie pulp and serve the coolant to a friend.

If this sounds confusing, let me make it more clear.

I wanted to say “ When I am here, why fear.”

Pick up any green or any vegetable from the list above.

Remember ! the vegetable breathes too. Handle it with love.

Wash it, peel and grind it to a smooth paste.

Add buttermilk, a green chilly, ginger and salt to taste.

Determine the number of veggies as per your choice.

Gulp in a couple of glasses without making too much noise.

For example, for a litre of butter milk you could add juice of one lemon,

liquid extract of one cucumber,one onion, one garlic and a cinnamon.

Replace cucumber with any salad vegetable as you please,

Churn out coolants like a professional, just like that and ensure peace.

These are some coolers to keep you cool throughout the day.

Forget not your constant companion, the H2O, the elixir of life they say.

Drink water to your heart's content and live in cool harmony.

Also know that the way to anybody’s heart is through the stomach..Isn’t that true but funny ?

               

CHAI MUSINGS !

Time and again I repeat…”Please do not pull me out of hibernation and more so when I am happily engrossed doing the same mundane chores over and over again.” But I also understand that friends who care are friends for keeps and that invariably brings me back to cybernation. Clearly understand that I am not addicted to the web. I am a blogaddict and if you so wish you are most welcome to address me as Blogaddictakka . 

It’s been a great Saturday so far spent with family, friends on the web and Madan Mohan. Please do not mistake him to be a Malviya. Long back I took a vacation from politics and recently installed the Gaana and Saavn apps on my smart phone. Very recently, unable to hold on to the pressure of continuous charging, my Samsung Galaxy went for a six and inspite of several resurrections, continues to be in a comatose condition. The Madan Mohan I refer to is the famous Hindi lyricist. I love the lyrics he composed and the music………..and I am now back to listening to old melodies on the web.

If music is therapy, good food is sacrament and so I continue from where I had signed off earlier during the day. It was coffee in the morning. How about a tea trip now ?

Its unbearably warm in Chennai and the last one week has been scorching hot. In fact the mention of the word “Tea” has raised my morale for the moment and since afternoon I have been virtually travelling up to the hills, into the tea gardens and beyond.

I have friends in Ooty, Kodai and Coonoor.One of these days I am going to gate crash into one of their homes. I know they will welcome me with open arms. I am friendly you see. Mind you I am not bragging. My friends here, there and everywhere are good natured and compassionate. I am sure that they are not going to mind my company for a few days.

But ! still ! Instead of delving deep into fantasies of a visit to a hill station, which I do not see happening as of now or even next month, let us get into tea basics right away…

My favourite brand is Brooke Bond Red Label and in case you happen to be around in my vicinity please feel free to drop in. Do let me know if you would like your Tea light or strong. I am not a connoisseur of tea in the strict sense of the term. All that I can say is when brewed well , the aroma of the tea is certainly inviting.

A true connoisseur of tea will never have it with ginger, cardamom,fennel or basil. These kill the aroma of fine tea. The shiny golden brown transparent liquid gold has to be had without additives. That is the sign of a true connoisseur.

 Tea making, my way, is child’s play. As opposed to tea making as a ritual in some parts of the world, here at home it’s yet another mundane chore. In order to bring some variety into tea making and make the process interesting I have this habit of investing in colourful tea pots. That, I never use them is a topic for another blog post. Kindly bear with me. Here is how you brew it my way.

Pour water in a vessel. Add tea leaves and bring it to a boil till a fine infusion of the golden red colour is achieved. If you wish to have flavoured tea, you may add cardamom powder, ground ginger, basil leaves or fennel seeds as per your choice. Strain the tea water. Add milk and sugar and serve with pride. Chilled tea with lime is another favourite drink of mine.

I appreciate your patience for reading my post and if you have any doubts feel free to email me with your queries. I would only be too glad to help and I could also suggest choosing the best brew.

Incidentally the best aroma and flavours are experienced only on the hills, in the midst of tea gardens to be more specific and well ! for that I think all we need to do is arrange for a simple tea party…..

Coffee Akka Brews !

I am going to be I, Me and Myself yet again. Having received word wide recognition and acceptance, with all your permission and to further my interests in my cooking journey,  I solemnly declare that I will not stray away from my path. On that note,  without going into the details of why I am what I am, and because all of you are already too familiar with me, I will head straight to the matter I wish to briefly elaborate in precisely a few hundred words. So let’s begin.

From today, that’s being a Saturday, I will describe a foodie day a day, so that, at leisure or at work, some of you or most of you may be tempted to try out these basic recipes. Now please do not flare up if what I am going to say is already known to everybody.  As always I will keep reiterating and stressing on the most important fact that practice makes perfect and perfect recipes can make you drool.

So let’s begin with the humble coffee. I do not brag. I simply live in a charming city named Chennai and I reside in the hub of the commercial spot and because some of you may have forgotten let me repeat yet again. I reside very close to famous coffee outlets..So let’s not waste any more time.

Head straight to Dr Nair Road near Holy Angels School where you will find a Coffee Day Outlet. Just ask for a 50-50 blend of Plantation A and B. The shopkeeper will pick the choicest roasted beans and grind it in front of your eyes. I buy only 250 gms at a time and if I run out of it, all that I have to do is to take my Scooty out for a ride. It is as simple as that.

Got the awesome aromatic powder?  Now wake up. Its 5AM.  Put three tablespoonfuls of coffee powder in the top compartment of the brass coffee filter.  Pour hot water slowly so that the powder becomes moist.  After a few seconds pour a little more of the hot water taking care that only half of the top compartment is filled .

Keep half a litre of Heritage Milk aside. Place it in a copper bottom vessel and allow it to boil. Do not add water to the milk. Once the milk is boiled, take a heavy eversilver davara and tumbler. A pure silver davara and tumbler will do fine too. Pour hot milk into the tumbler. Add the first few drops of the concentrated coffee decoction that has collected in the lower compartment of the coffee filter. Add sugar, stir well,sprinkle Nescafe instant on the froth and proudly serve it to yourself……

A TIRELESS MOTHER WHIMPERS !

Yesterday, someone, I do not remember clearly who, but I am absolutely certain that it is a friend from a friendly forum who wanted to know when I was going to write a post again. "It's been long since you wrote a post" read the post on the wall...I was touched :-)

"I do not  know," I replied in a comment which has been liked and comments have been replied by many members of the august group. I was surprised to find the inactive members participating in the thread.

One friend said.."Are you really serious? I bet you must be joking."

Another said..."Oh ! Really ! You do not know when you are gonna write next !"

"Take a break and come back with a bang said another."

"Hey! Hang on there said another."

I scrolled down the replies, revisiting the likes again and again to stay updated with the latest count which kept increasing much to my despair when it struck me……..

"Hey the LIKES are pouring in for the four worded comment. " I DO NOT KNOW ".

Are they pleased about my inability to come up with a convincing reply? I wonder. I, the self proclaimed author, am in the dark about when I am going to resume writing once again...EEEEks...this is scary ! Will I never be able to resume writing once again ? How am I going to keep up my reputation ? Will I no longer be able to irritate the readers with my long boring posts?

When they read my posts, I read their minds. :-)

Anyway there have been a few  things taking up all of my time. Since a friend has posted the query on the wall, I am duty bound to respond immediately. I think it is my responsibility to explain why I am not writing about I, me and myself these days. Old habits die hard. Having been trained to be efficient in correspondence, I respond herewith...

Seriously,  house chores and office duties do take up a lot of time.

But, honestly, let me tell you, I have not blogged because I am just not doing anything. I am working on ideas to make the best use of the space available at home and build a library of medical books. I have been trying to arrange and rearrange  the books for many years now without much success and I will gladly welcome any viable space saving solutions. Till such time that I find a permanent solution, the medical books, text books volumes 1, 2, 3......  will lie in neat heaps, some in untidy mounds, some strewn all over the floor, on the beds, on the side tables, on the sofa, on the Diwan and on the Dining table. So you can very well imagine my plight. I am constantly rearranging the position of books to create space to eat, move and sleep. One day, I will be residing in a medical library which I will call my home.

Anyway, I am prepared to meet such an eventuality and till such time that the home becomes a full fledged library, I will continue to refurbish my wardrobe. I plan to hire the services of a Tambong who may be compelled to take a week off from work to help me with the washing, starching and ironing...Now how the heck do you expect me to write?

I am watching movies so that in the midst of all this craziness, I can continue to remain sane. I am attending weddings and upanayanams, visiting the veggie vendors, hanging out with friends and making mojitos. I am doing mundane things, I guess, all simple real stuff....other than blogging.....

Ten years later.....

Aah my poor blog. I have been ignoring it for some time now...So here I go..I will give a title later.Right now I am too sleepy !

It's the 30th of April, two months since I retired from government service. Friends ask me ." Hey ! You Rocking Woman, how's life post retirement ? How are you spending your time these days? "....to which I reply..

" I am taking it easy. I am an early bird and as always I am up at 5AM .The only change in my routine as I see is that I am not in a hurry. I do try to finish my chores before my Godmother arrives and now that I am a full time homemaker, I have requested her to come twice a day. She is a trusted worker and together we go around the house cleaning and scrubbing, mopping and washing, rinsing and dusting as if we had never done all this before...I was diagnosed with OCD many years back...

To all my friends who are still curious to know, I tell them...."My morning begins with the filter cuppa and a scan of the newspaper. Earlier I would just have the time to go through the headlines. Now I have all the time in the world to read atleast three newspapers every day, solve the crossword and chat with friends online.

As I look back and recall my years of service in the department, I am pleased with myself. Starting with typing on the Remington using the carbon paper, banging the side bar each time to move to the next line, to manual noting and drafting initially in ink, later in ball point pen and finally when I did graduate to work on the Personal Computer I was on cloud nine. My learning journey did not stop there. With the world wide web opening several avenues for self learning, I mastered the art of cut copy paste and became friendly with word, excel and access.

Today friends and relatives around me are so concerned ..."You have been so busy and active all these years. What are going to do now ?" they ask me. Please be engaged "..they also say...I am amused.

I am not perturbed though. After all these years of hard work, though I do appreciate the confidence people have in me, why should they be so interested in what I do...I ponder. What I wish to do or not to do is my choice...The younger gen is vocal about their choices..So why can't I ? I am just going to sit back and relax.

I also tell them...."Recently I acquired the latest hologram tech enabled mobile phone and that is a boon indeed. Got a few apps uploaded, some senior citizen friendly and I am learning to use them. I am doing a little bit of social service. I sleep in the afternoon. I go for a walk in the evening. I have never been so active ever before. I also continue to write, draw, try out new recipes, meet my friends to paint the town red....I chuckle...

Earlier in January this year, I had submitted my pension papers to the Personal Claims section. Jagriti the officer in charge is a 25 year old young girl recently recruited. As I spoke to her, memories of my first day at work came flashing by..

I joined service in June 1990 and I was twenty five years old then...how time flies...I thought...

It's been many years now and what a journey it has been...a journey of highs and lows but I consider myself fortunate to have served in the prestigious organisation. I was slipping into the past unmindful of the present.The Seventh pay commission is in force and I am happy with my pension package.

"Maam! please sign the papers and submit it with a recent photograph," ...Jagriti had said. Overwhelmed with memories of my stint in the department I was getting emotional.Your retirement benefit cheques will be handed over to you on 28.02.2025 on your day of retirement she said.....

From 1st of March, I started drawing my pension.......Forgive me for the abrupt ending...This post is due to be up on this wall only on 30.04.2025 smile emoticon