I called my home today and got the update from my sister that she just finished her GATE exams(Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering for doing her post gradutaion in engineering). It just took me back to my engg college days where i also had gone ahead and written this exam with all of my friends. I really don't know why i decided to waste 1000 bucks on that, because I did not prepare anything and just gave it because everybody else was giving it. Anyways this word "GATE" reminded me of a funny incident that happened that great day!

We finished our exams in St Thomas college at Trichur. After giving the exams, we decided to go to a friend's house in Trichur as the train to Ernakulam was in the evening only and we had plenty of time in between. We reached her house and had lunch and then sat there for some time. Then we decided to go to another friend's place and we got into the car and just as my friend's father was taking the car in reverse , he suddenly asked "How is Gate??". At that point my full concentration was on the car reverse and had my eyes set on their "gate".

I had completely forgotten that we had given a G.A.T.E exam in the morning and was wondering why is he asking about his "gate". I mean, it just looked like a simple ordinary gate!! So I hesitantly replied, "Ya its a good gate, I mean... "(what on earth was I thinking?!). Then my friend elbowed me and said "Gate exammmmmmmm " . By this time , my friend's dad noticed the confused look on my face, and realized my stupid blunder and started laughing out loudly. I am not saying anything more, just imagine my situation...

So that's my little gate story! Do you have any funny embarassing incidents like this???

Hope my sister get some good results in this "gate"exam though!

Praying for her...

~Luv

Resh

I was lucky to visit Florida last X'mas with my friends. Everyone were interested in some or other adventurous activity - para sailing, para gliding, snorkeling, scuba diving....Scuba diving was out of the list in first few seconds as we need to know swimming for this and in our group of four , only one knew swimming. Next in the list was snorkeling. We inquired at one place and came to know that we should know swimming for that too. All were a bit disappointed, but the ray of hope came when the lady in charge at the second place told that swimming is not necessary!!! I was also very happy (i really don't have any idea what i was thinking then!!!). To tell the truth, I had not given much thought into what is snorkeling/scuba diving or rather i did not care!! I was just getting excited about doing something adventurous with friends (silly me!!!).

I do not know anything about swimming and tends to panic in water. When we reached the place for snorkeling and started putting on the outfits, tension started to sink in. I started becoming nervous at the thought of going into the water all on my own! Even though my friends did not know swimming much, they were very excited (or at least they wanted us to believe so ;) ) . So I tried to take it with a smile, but Sree could make out my tension and tried to comfort me. Finally our turn came to jump into the water and my heart started beating fast (yes......butterflies in stomach). I climbed down the steps of the boat and sat on the side bar and put on my snorkeling fins and slowly tried to slide into the water(scary!). I was in water by then, but still was holding the bar and was hanging there with my head fully above water. I didn’t get the courage to leave it and go. Sree tried to make me leave my hand from the bar and balance my body in water, but all i did was go under water and come up in panic with salt water in my mouth, nose and ears!!!!

After all these panic episodes, the people in charge (realizing my pathetic condition!!) decided to give me some additional support by providing me a body surfboard. Even after so many trials, I was not able to balance on that board and stay in the same position and float on top of water!!!Then they came up with something called a swimming noodle, which I can use to float along with some one else….however i still managed to take in a very good amount of salt water(even with all that safety mask and gear !). Finally they gave me a boogie board (more like toddler stuff!) on which I can lie down properly and it also has a rope that can be pulled by another person(yes yes…he was pulling me in water like a man jogging with a dog!!)..I was feeling so embarrassed that i decided to give up and go back, but somehow got on top of the boogie board and Sree guided me through the water with the rope attached to it(that's how i finally did snorkeling ;))…He had a very tough time with me , out there….. I was concentrating more on different ways to panic rather than balancing!!!

The view under sea was amazing after all that hard work. It was worth every second of the effort we did to keep myself afloat!!…I recommend it to every one who does not panic in water(oh it really doesn't matter ;), go ahead and give it a try!).…its beautiful!! Amidst all these confusions, we still managed to take our snaps of snorkeling ..check out the two snaps here… one the 'picture perfect' snorkeling snap of us.

Yes…this is a new kind of disaster that had hit my home yesterday night. It lasted for about 2-3 hrs and the after effects continued to the next day also. Having fulfilled my wish to enter into bloggers world, my new goal was to post some very successful recipes that I had tried out. But I realized that I cannot blog any of those recipes , since I never checked the exact amount of turmeric or red chilly or coriander or jeera powders...for that matter any other ingredient. I will have to try them all once again with exact measurements!!! Mean while I thought of trying something new and that’s how I came up with the idea of Batura (I know…I over estimated my culinary skills !!)

I started off by mixing all the ingredients for making the dough. I did not have second thoughts about the experiment even though I didn’t have baking powder. The recipe asked to use sooji/rawa for maintaining the puffiness of Batura. Why not??? I added sooji. It had big grains, but I felt lazy as usual(as my mom says LAZY can be my nick name!!) to grind it to fine powder. The dough was a bit sticky, so I added some oil (as per instructions) and left it covered with a wet cloth inside the oven (you need a warm place…and no, I didn’t switch on the oven!). I was supposed to keep it for minimum 3-4 hrs, but I took it out after 1.5 hrs (patience is a virtue…when will I learn that??). Also If I keep it for 3-4 hrs, we would be having dinner next day early morning at 1 or 2 .... My dough didn’t look exactly as the one in recipe video (what did I expect??).But I went ahead with full confidence and started heating the oil in the kadai.

I was ready with a spatula to press the Batura softly in oil to get even golden color and puffiness. I took the Batura and slowly slid into oil, and to my shock, it stayed at the bottom of the kadai as if it was shy to come up!!! I tried to lift it up with my spatula and finally after 3-4 mins it decided to come up. Then I started pressing gently to puff it up and give an even golden color. 5 mins…10 mins….No, it doesn’t seem to puff up or change its color. Finally I gave up and took it out….I almost got an idea of my wonderful Batura and decided not to tell Sree . Let it be a surprise!!! Yes, it turned out to be quite a surprise for him, but not as pleasing as I had expected when I started out the experiment…..!!

So finally we had our oil soaked, hard, rubbery, white, flat baturas made with maida(difficult to digest..) late at night. When I started out, I never thought I would have so many prefixes for my end product. So now you know what not to do if you are planning to make Batura. I had planned to post the wonderful recipe of Batura with a mouth watering snap and finally I had the privilege to write how it became an utter disaster and what not to do!!! Whatever , does every one get a chance like this??? ; D


~Luv
Resh

Recently I stumbled upon this you tube video which talks about the meaning of the word Arangettam (‘Arangettram’)Arangettam??? - different views

I started thinking whether I made a mistake by choosing this title for my very first post (I like to dream that people from all parts of world are reading it ;)…of course there is no harm in dreaming...) Most of the people who doesn’t know the word seem to imagine it as some type of spider or insect or eight legged animal(quite absurd!). All these doubts and this video took me to my beautiful childhood days. I had the privilege to learn dance from a young age since my house is near to the famous Kerala Kalamandalam. It follows the old Gurukul method. I couldn’t attend this system, but was lucky enough to learn dance from very good teachers who graduated from Kalamandalam. In the initial years we study about the different mudras, bhavas (rasa), adavus (basic steps). Once we attain some level of perfection in all these areas, we go ahead and start learning beautiful compositions. After years of study, once the Guru (teacher) feels his/her student is capable of performing for long hours in front of a big audience we get to do our Arangettam. It is the solo debut performance where he/she gets to showcase her talent in front of a big audience for the first time displaying all that she has learned all these years.

I was very lucky to have my Arangettam done at the famous Guruvayoor temple. It’s always very difficult to get bookings there and might take one year to get a slot for one group. We finally got it in April of 1997 and all the students learning under my Guru (teacher), ready for Arangettam, were selected and each allocated with 2/3 performances. I had two performances in BharataNatyam and one in Mohiniyattom. We got to select our costumes and jewellery. I got two beautiful dresses one in yellow with maroon border and one in peacock blue color. Friends and relatives of the young 'dancers' came and every one was busy with one or another - Rehearsals, Make up, arrangements (full of excitement!!!)…That’s when we realized that some other dance group is also given almost same time slot as ours. A big argument started between the two groups. Both the groups had so many students anxiously waiting for their performance in front of a very big audience for the first time.Finally both agreed to cut down on some of their performances. Since I had 3, one was removed from my list (there goes my peacock blue dress!). Still I was happy that I got to wear two different types of attires. ( Mohiniyattom has the most enchanting , beautiful dress according to me...).

After a lot of commotions our dance program started and I finished one of mine (Mohiniyattom) and started getting ready for the next. There was a beautiful spirit and innocence between children as they were helping each other with make up, dress and other things where as some of the elders were pushing their kids to first finish their own make up before helping out others(Guru is busy on stage and back stage is always full of commotion!). My second dance was the last in our program list. Finally when my turn came conflicts started between the two groups again and they decided to start off theirs right then. I was shocked and sad to learn that I won’t be able to perform this one also. On the stage, behind the curtains a big fight ensued between the parents and others. Both sides were not ready to give up at all. I was standing in a corner helpless (all made up and ready!). Finally it seemed to go no where and I couldn’t control myself and started crying (What else can a 14 yr old do?). Some body in the other group saw me crying in one corner in full make up and finally decided to give up and let me do it !(Tears have great powers :D). So after a dramatic stage fight and tears, I finally got to perform my dance with my worn out make up in front of Lord Sri Krishna.

But I stopped dance soon after, as I was going to 10th std (Yes, you are supposed to concentrate for board exams without any other distractions…!!). That was the biggest mistake I ever did. I didn’t get a chance to perform on any other stages there after and that was the end of my classical dance life. If there is another life, I would love to learn classical dance and music as they are precious knowledge one can ever get in their life. According to me, blessed are those who get to learn and perform a lot in the field of Indian classical dance and classical music…..


~Luv
Resh

It all started off like this. “Why don’t you do some thing productive than Orkut and You tube when you have time?”, “How do you spend time at home?”, “Don’t you get bored of sitting at home?” These are some of the questions faced by a person who is on leave and sitting at home in US as dependent. All these questions resulted in my decision to take American driving license. Being a proud owner of an Indian driving license (taken 8 years ago!), I was more than ready to do this. I applied for an appointment and started reading the DMV book earnestly. I got a lot of previous year question papers and realized that they just repeat the same questions in a different order (Sounds like studying for University exam right?). I went to the DMV office like a student ready for exam and after finishing all the formalities took the test. As I suspected, all questions got repeated from previous papers. Still I managed to fail two or three questions, but came out happily with permission to drive along with a licensed driver. Of course the licensed driver being my hubby, I was more than happy.

On the next weekend we decided to start off the driving lessons. Having taken driving license in India after all those ‘H’ and clutch and gear changes this should be a small kid’s job (My stupid thoughts!!!). Brimming with full confidence we started off in a small parking place near to Carlsbad City Library. I was doing a reverse to take the vehicle out of the parking place and to move on to the road. As per the instructions, I put reverse gear and took the vehicle back and next second stepped on the accelerator to zoom ahead. Instead of going forward our car zoomed behind towards the Lexus, a devil in disguise!!(What else can you expect when you are on reverse gear??) . Thinking about our bank account, we called all the gods and our vehicle stopped just 3 inches away from Lexus. My husband had his first heart attack (he doesn’t have a hand brake to control me....totally helpless!!).

Hiding my embarrassment and still thinking of proving myself in front of him, I changed the gear took the leg off from brake and moved ahead. Our car started to move smoothly, except that it was moving at the pace of a snail! Still positive I raised the speed and moved forward. When we were about to reach a stop signal (I didn’t notice of course:)), he asked me to stop the car. In that moments excitement I pressed on accelerator with full force instead of the brake and our car zoomed ahead with pride at the stop signal.. (second heart attack!). My confidence level dropped considerably. Instead of proving myself I am giving him panic attacks. Still we decided to go ahead, and that’s when it happened. Someone frustrated with my pace, shouted from behind our car “Get out of my way you*#@$”. This time I had the heart attack. Everything went blank and I could feel the heat in my face and before any thing happened tears started rolling over my cheeks (yes, I am blessed with very good tear gland!). I decided to stop driving at that moment, but had to move ahead before I get showered with all the 'bad' words in US from the frustrated person behind our car. I somehow managed to do that, but stopped at the nearest possible place and moved into the comfortable passenger seat with a red embarrassed face. That put an end to my driving lessons.


My hubby's precious Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor...Still in one piece(after all my adventures!!).He takes so much pride in this vehicle and sometimes makes me wonder if he loves it more than me!!! After all these incidents and panic attacks, he still wants me to take license before going back to India. I am still thinking ……. (Should I or Should I not?)

(Here is the link for a hilarious clip on what not to do during your driving lessons:D (in malayalam)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggI__8_lw7c)


~Luv
Resh