Something's cooking...

Although i like cooking, this time i decided to go healthy, some salads kind of thing which could compensate my hunger cravings... It's difficult to resist Indian food in particular as everything used in preparation is balanced stuff. Turmeric, garlic, ginger, cumin seeds, mustard, curry leaves etc...all these are used in our every day cooking and all these contribute to our body system in a very particular way which has been going on for ages now.


Anyhow, today i prepared two western salads at home which was received well (considering everyone at home has such tasty food from my mom) by the audience (my mom, elder brother, sister-in-law, niece) and myself as well. Coleslaw is the most easiest to make (search google, its just a three point preparation) and Russian salad  is another beautiful salad (beautiful because its very easy and less complicated in conception and preparation and taste).

  My Russian Salad with egg-less mayonnaise and Olive dressing

My mom has contributed a lot teaching me how to cook as she made it a point to teach things in the kitchen at home after my sister got married long back in order to survive without depending on others for food when i am alone. From choosing the right tomato for one day, three days storage etc to the texture of a ridge gourd in choosing the best one right from outside... My food is experimental most of the times when i get bored from the conventional practices (eating the same stuff the same way every day). For example, i don't like dal (lentil) as it is after it is cooked (sometimes the dal gets settled down at the bottom in few south indian dishes). Instead, i grind it in a blender and make it a smooth paste and then i use it in my further cooking.

These days my mom feels happy to leave me to myself as she is rest assured that i won't die of hunger by any means, come what may. She doesn't have a reason to hear from me that i am not getting food while she is on a pilgrimage with my father...

No one can give a definition of life, it is what it is, the way it is. Knowingly or unknowingly every day something or the other adds some meaning in understanding our life as it is...

relationship with nature

Sun rises, sun setting, the stars, 

the beauty of the full moon, the new moon,

the whole of universe is in order;

it is only human beings who are in disorder

because they have lost their relationship with nature,

they have no beauty.

- jiddu krishnamurti 

(www.jkrishnamurti.org)

Marie Bunes

Dreams do come true and so did it happen with me when my long time pen friend visited my place, Hyderabad on December 23, 2011 at 7.15 p.m. for the first time in our eleven years of friendship.

Seems like 2011 is the year when all my dreams (wishes) came true. I got my first SLR, Canon 550D from my childhood friend of 27 years of acquaintance who while talking to me on my 32nd birthday ordered the SLR online and it reached me. Also the ipod i've been waiting for so long also came to me in 2011.


The biggest surprises of all, my pen friend, Marie Bunes's visit to India for the first time also happened  in 2011.

Meeting Marie was the only pending thing in my wish list for a long long time and it just happened. That's the reason why i am sharing my joy, happiness with everyone through this blog post.

Despite being so tightly placed with schedules, Marie Bunes made it to Hyderabad, India and spent 12 days altogether with my family, meeting relatives and friends, celebrating Christmas outside her home for the second time in her life away from her mom & dad, sticking to the itinerary without ever judging or complaining, enjoying the best of Indian cuisine (her favourite being Paneer Butter Masala) along with wada pav, pav bhaji, pani puri (her favourite), making a pilgrimage to the famous Hyderabadi restaurant, Paradise to have the traditional Hyderabadi Biryani (she's a vegetarian BTW) and my mom's lovely food, wearing the traditional Indian Saree, mehndi sessions (twice when she arrived and the day of leaving)... visiting the historic places in and around Hyderabad, spending a night at Jiddu Krishnamurti's retreat centre in Hyderabad, Naimisam, travelling in trains for the Indian commuting experience (both in sleeper class which is used by 90% of train travellers and AC class), spending the new year in the serene natural atmosphere of Rishi Valley, KFI, South India, learning few dishes of Indian cuisine along with custard fruit salad (learnt and prepared herself and fed us all), visiting all the temples in the vicinity to know the Indian way of spirituality (Ramakrishna Math, Ananda Buddha Vihara (the only Buddhist monastery in town), Tirumala Tirupati temple, Lord Rama's temple, Lord Ganesh's temple etc). The most important of all, despite few hours to her return flight to Oslo, Marie patiently sat and prepared 'Greek Salad' with her hands (i asked her to prepare something which she eats in Norway usually and here was a thing which we tasted for the first time in our lives). With feta cheese (goat cheese from Greece), olives, olive oil, green leaf lettuce etc, it was all a new experience of a different taste. A Norwegian preparing Greek salad for the Indians...

Coming from a free society to a culturally sensitive society, Marie adjusted pretty fast and adopted to things very well.

Highlight: a friend of mine asked me a few days before Marie landed here, 'how is your friend going to stay in such a small place? you think she will be able to stay and adjust?' I just had only one reply to him, 'Our hearts are bigger than our humble home, so she will definitely enjoy her time at my home and with my family.' Marie in fact surprised us all during her stay. She turned out to be a simple and humble human being. Just like everyone else. It's only that we think much about others and are more cautious about things, otherwise, life is the same in the east and also in the west. Food to eat, bed to sleep, life to enjoy, the way it is...

 

Before Marie landed here, i was a bit skeptical as to how she would take things here considering that things are a bit different in India and India is not West but i heaved a sigh of relief when she told that she wanted to be an Indian in India and is okay with anything with no expectations at all... Assuring further, I also told her that i am going to give her an Indian experience because luxuries and all that can be had anywhere in the world even in the middle of a desert but to enjoy life as it is in India, the way we live every day and get along with the things can be had only with an    Indian family when one lives with them, is something special. I didn't change anything at home for Marie's stay so as to give her a peek into our actual real life and she also lived comfortably (i think). Love was the only common things among the people whom she met, family members, relatives or friends. What else is free to give to anyone to feel the bond between lives? We don't own anything on this Earth. I laugh every time reminiscing this sentence which stuck me sometime back, "I own a piece of land on Earth..." Share and enjoy...that's what life is all about...

12 days just flew by with Marie and she left to Oslo on 3rd January 2012 at 6.15 p.m.

To quote Kahlil Gibran, "Seek friend always with hours to live. And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed."

Celebrating Marie Bunes's birthday with a collage...

Some things happen because they have to happen...

32+

Completed 32 years of existence on Earth today. Before i woke up, the rain had already started rushing to fill things around, soaking the land and bathing the leaves and watering the trees. Rains didn't bother the dogs from sleeping outside my room but i thought about the birds which would be drowning in the rain early morning. Maybe after a long time for the sake of the earth, they might have taken shelter somewhere safe. Through my window, i could see leaves dropping water drops in line. I could hear the sound of rain in my room. I felt a bit lazy and dizzyy although it was time to get up but nature was so invigorating that my brain went into dancing mood in sleep for some time.

Birthdays are just reference points because it is the time when everything began. It has been a wonderful, long journey till now. From unknown to something known. Life has gone through so many things... Recollecting things is very difficult though because right now my mind is completely empty. Nothing to think at all. Feels amazing how time flies by and how everything is moving around...

I thank my parents for gifting me this life to myself to live...

I've entered 33 today leaving 32 behind. Moving forward, i don't have any idea till when.....all that i know is to never look back... Its past. It has nothing to do with the present. Future, i have no idea again...

My lessons in life - an article by Azim Premji

Click HERE to ENLARGE

   

YOU ARE WHAT YOU ALLOW

Read this some time ago, sent by a friend and thought why not share this with everyone i know...

YOU ARE WHAT YOU ALLOW

The story is told that a man who often felt insulted by people once went to a very wise man and told him about his problem.

   
He said: “I am easily insulted by people and it really hurts me when people say bad things to me”.

 
The wise man asked, “if someone gives you a gift and you don’t accept the gift, who does the gift belong to?”

 
“Well”, the wise man said, “if you don’t accept the gift from the other person, who does it belong to?”

 
The man replied, “Obviously to the person who is giving it to me”.

 
“There you go,” said the wise man, “that’s the answer. So if someone insults you and you do not accept the insult, who does it belong to?’

 
 For us to be insulted, be belittled, angered, wronged, we must accept it from the giver. The minute we accept it, it becomes ours, we own it and it becomes our stuff.

   
I know this is much easier said than done, but often people project their stuff on to us. If we accept it, it becomes our stuff. We are then offended, angered, wronged and so forth.

   
This is about choice and how we choose to allow the world and others to affect us. To live positive lives we need to think about the following:

 The good opinion of other people:

People’s opinion is actually just that, their opinion, we can take from it what we want and extract from it the good and let the rest go.

 
Often they mean well, which is beside the point. What you choose to accept, will influence your life.

You are what you consume:

You have to ask yourself : Do you consume a lot of negativity and insults? If you do, you will obviously be affected by this. It’s the same in what we eat and drink, what we listen to and what we watch.

 
If the stimuli are negative. If you drink too much alcohol, soon you’ll be drunk. IF you listen to too many negative things, soon you’ll be miserable and negative.
 

Let the change start with you:
By now you know that in order to receive less negativity in your life, you need to be less negative. If you want to see better and more lovable people in the world, you have to be more lovable and a better person.
 
Someone once asked me: How do we create a world of less crime? I told them it starts with them. The person then replied,”I don’t do any crime”. I noticed a pack of copied music CD’s and asked, “are these your music CD’s?” He replied, “Yes”. I said,” I know where you can start to help prevent crime”.
 
So give the gift of love, respect, positivity and a better life and refuse to accept the “gifts” of insults and negativity.

...society is not some mysterious thing. It is what you are. ..

A friend's mail:

We all know this. Somehow, in our day to day lives and perspectives, we never bother too much about it or deeply see the implications of such a lifestlye on our lives.
 

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Auckland, New Zealand | 1st Public Talk 28th March, 1934

Society is nothing else but the expression of the individual multiplied by the thousand. After all, society is not some mysterious thing. It is what you are. It is pressing, controlling, dominating, twisting. Society is the expression of the individual. This society offers security through tradition, which we call public opinion. That is, public opinion says that to possess, to possess property, is perfectly ethical, moral, and gives you distinction in this world, confers honours; you are a great person in this world. That is what, traditionally, is accepted. That is the opinion which you have created as individuals, because you are seeking that. You all want to be somebody in the state, either Sir Somebody or Lord, you know, and all the rest of it, which is based on possessiveness, possessions; and that has become moral, true, good, perfectly Christian, or perfectly Hindu. It is the same thing. Now we call that morality. We call morality adjusting yourself to a pattern. Please, I am not preaching the reverse of it. I am showing you the falseness of it, and if you want to find out you will act, not seek the opposite

Wha is happening on the World Earth Day?

Yesterday (21 april 2011) i read this in a book: "Trees can survive without human beings, but human beings cannot survive without trees. So, let us respect and save our trees."

Today is Earth Day. Incidentally, our Earth is chocking to death. Its burning like anything. Some day it will face death.

It will be, development at the cost of humanity. But what is the use of development when there is no one to enjoy it? Why this greediness and for whose benefit? In the next ten years, all the cities of the world have to brace up to be ready to live in a water world. By 2035, more than half of the cities living by the water will be soon have enough water to be called the underground cities. Glaciers are already retreating and will perish in a matter of no time. Trees are being felled by millions everyday and how many are planted, replaced?

What we are witnessing is a dangerous trend. All human beings, just be prepared to face the unimaginable...

Lets plant more trees and take care of them like babies. We need them, they may not need us...

This is Life!

 Read this beautiful message somewhere:

"We never get what we want;
we never want what we get;
we never have what we like;
we never like what we have.
 
Still we live, 

still we love, 

still we hope. 


This is Life."

26/11 accused Kasab luxurious days...

Probably India is the only country which treats its prisoners in such luxury that now Kasab, the only surviving terrorist caught is accusing India of morphing his photograph (6/12/2010) and even the live video taken in the Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus in his latest allegations.... ha ha ha.... Except for laughing at the dismay of the Indian system....there's nothing much can be done...

Its been more than 2 years now that the trial is going on and Kasab is guarded by elite commandos in a secure prison with even the proceeding happening in the underground court in the same jail, judiciary moved for his protection...

Anyhow, an illiterate villager from somewhere in Pakistan is getting such great ideas himself is worth giving a thought. Of the hundreds of allegations that he made against the Indian Government this is the latest one in December 2010. I hope Kasab is not released if things go on this way...

Of the several demands requested by him, he is fed good food and chicken briyani being his famous cuisine. The government is spending huge amounts of public money in protecting a militant who was supposed to be hanged long back. But India is delaying the verdict. Why?

And India is also a country where politicians, businessmen and high profile bureaucrats are left free even if they are accused in siphoning billions of rupees of public money. The more the high profile, the easy getting away is.

It isn't a surprise as to why Kasab, the lone militant among the ten attackers caught alive is leading such a luxury life in India when our guys themselves are such big croocks...

P.S: this is a similar story in many countries across the globe.....pity state...