hula hooping

how do you get inspiration to hula hoop?

It might be because you are visiting your cousin who is an avid hula hooper and has a nice bright hula hoop at her house. On one empty lazy afternoon, you decide to try to learn how to hula hoop.

Or it might be because you want to impress someone.

To lose weight.

Just for fun.

Whatever your reason might be, I took up the challenge to learn how to hula hoop. My cousin is an avid hula hooper and has a nice bright hula hoop, I want to impress someone, lose weight and I happen to think its pure fun. Many years ago, I had a dismantle-able hula hoop which was rather small for my height. I could hula hoop around my legs for many minutes. Though I'm not completely out of touch, I cannot manage hula hooping at waist level yet.

Being homeless.

I turned eighteen years old, having never lived in one place for more than two years. Even less, in one house. Those were barracks, small rooms, apartments or bungalows but never homes I could call my own. Even though I lived there, I was in a perpetual state of preparedness to leave. My parents had their rightful homes to go back to at Mumbai and Pune. I never got a chance to stay there for more than three weeks at a stretch. Those were still houses to visit during vacations. Not homes. After school, I stated studying architecture in Pune staying with my grandparents, where I knew that although that was rightfully my own house, it was never my home. I lived in Surya and Vasanti's house for a few months in Auroville. It was called House sitting, not home sitting. And for a good reason – Its supposed to be a house for me, not a home.

As I left Pondicherry, when everyone was going back to their respective hometowns, I was not. I was just returning to Pune. Everyone has a home they call their own. A home to go back to after a hard days work. A town they grew up in. A town they call their own. I never had that. Probably never will. Wherever I go from here, will not be my home either.

Last night at my uncle's place, I stayed up for a long time, thinking about this. And when I finally did... I slept rather well.

I am truly- a homeless woman.

Time flies.

And loss becomes easier to cope up with. Lately, I have come to realise That time does heal if you let it.

That fateful St. Valentines day five years back changed my life forever. But its only after he passed away could I understand what my father really meant to me. He left me with a sound mind, a strong will and a spirit I never knew I had. He was instilling it in me gradually while I was blissfully unaware of his ways.

I was a daddy's girl. And men who have that kind of a relationship with their daughters raise them up to become Independent, strong and spirited women. I cannot say the same for Mammas and their boys, but that is another subject.

When I saw him alive for the last time, the thought that we might never see each again did cross my mind. But it was not supposed to be him, it was me. Even as I bid him farewell forever, I knew he had had no regrets ever and he lived fully the kind of life would always have liked to.

And now five years later, I can write about it without feeling bitter or despondent. Maybe just slightly nostalgic.

And after two long years of not using my watch, I got it fixed today. I instinctively wore it on my right wrist as I always had. I smiled and realised that all the pain and betrayal had gone. I was back to being what I was instead of being what I was becoming for my erstwhile flame.

Time heals.

Once upon a time...

Once upon a time...
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

When I was seven years old, my father took me with him to test ride a premier padmini. A breezy light greenish blue. It was a unique colour.
But we bought a white one eventually. It was our first car, and then came the first road trip - Jabalpur to Suratgarh in 4 days. Through the dry, dusty landscapes of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
We sold it off in Srinagar five years later.

The 5 minute banana cake in a cup!

Not my birthday yet! - Ttv
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

Ingredients:

1 mashed banana

1/2 cup maida

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 nicely whisked egg

1/3rd cup butter

1/4th cup milk (might need less, its just for the right consistency )

Mix all the ingredients together in one direction only!!!

pour the milk slowly till you get the right consistency of the cake batter.

Pour it in the cup making sure its only half filled.

Set your microwave on approx 700 W, and bake the cake in the cup for 2 minutes and 30 seconds only. Anything more than that will make it rock hard :P

The cake will rise after a minute. it might seem to spill out of the cup, but that will not happen. it'll settle well.

Let it cool in the cup. You can remove it later, or eat it out of the cup itself. Ideally, you can eat it with ice cream for a quick dessert.

If you don't like bananas, make it a chocolate or vanilla cake by adding 1/4th cup cocoa powder or some vanilla essence. Or make a carrot cake by adding grated carrots in it :P

work in progress...

busy setting up the exhibition
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

My flickr friend Aky Cookie took my interview for his blog recently. It was a funny session, and I think the outcome is quite so.
I was very earnest about it. have a quick read here
In other news, i'm still processing and uploading my snaps from Ahmedabad and Baroda. Also, P@P invited me to give a smilar presentation as the one I gave at Bangalore recently. I think I'm getting better at public speaking! Its on 4th December, and if you are in Pune then, do drop by at the New Art Gallery, Apte road at 2 PM. I realise its siesta time for everyone, but I have some hope of seeing a decent audience.
I accidentally attended a book launch at Landmark Pune this friday. I wanted to spent some time exploring the graphic novel section there yet again, but unfortunately that section was blocked off by chairs arranged for the event with people already having occupied them. So I had to wait for the authors and editor to officially launch the book, read a bit from it and interact with the audience. Not that I minded. I had some time to kill. The book is an anthology of short stories written by urban authors, both young and old.
I wan't too impressed by whatever i heard being read out, but got so intrigued, that I bought the book. I could have read it then and there, but it wasn't too expensive, you see. And I was hoping there would be something in there that i'd like. Indian fiction has disappointed me till now.
Maybe I'm just prejudiced...

my version of the Black Keys song: 'Tighten up' Shot one fine november morning.

Performed by me and my little guitar!

Unexpected gifts

Unexpected gifts are truly worth cherishing. Dr Vivek M from Bangalore, sent me five rolls of 120 film. I've never felt happier! I'm going to enjoy taking every photo from my old medium format cameras now!

My experiments with intuitive and improvised cooking -V - the making of the Kashimiri 'Kahwa'

sometimes, I drink some tea in the afternoon. I have a stock of some mildly flavoured tea bags so the effort is minimised to heating up water and adding sugar and dipping the tea bag into the hot water.
Today afternoon, I was watching a movie on TV at teatime, and was contemplating having some tea. I glanced up at the kitchen cabinet and saw almonds which reminded me of Kashmir and the kashmiri Kahwa. I have lived in Srinagar for a couple of years during my childhood and remember the first time I drank that wonderful flavoured tea. I really love good aromas of food and drink, and what can be better than freshly brewed Kahwa with the aroma of Cinnamon? And the mild flavour of cardamom and saffron along with blanched bits of almonds and pistachios in the brown-green liquid!
So instead of drifting, I made some kahwa for the slow, lazy afternoon.
Here's how its made

for a pot of tea:
Ingredients:

1. Green tea leaves. I think the Kashmiris use some specific type of tea, but I don't know which.

2.cinnamon powder (dalchini)- maybe 1/3rd teaspoon or a little less (or 1 stick of cinnamon bark)

3. saffron - 3 to 4 pinches (I didn't find where it was hidden in the kitchen, so I didn't use it)

4. cloves - 4

5. Cardamom - 2 - mildly crushed with peels

6. Few almonds - maybe 6-8

7. Few pistachios - maybe 6-8 again

8. water... 4 cups

9. sugar as required. maybe 3-4 teaspoons.

To make the tea, boil water along with the cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and sugar. take the water off the fire and add tea and leave it standing for 5-10 mins. Strain the tea and add saffron
Heat over a low flame and add chopped pistachios and almonds.
And you have fragrant and delicious Kahva!

The new one!

The new one!
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

Yes! I finally bought a new macbook Pro 13". Wo bhi Karz me dub ke!
I hope I can repay my creditor on time!

my experiments with intuitive and improvised cooking IV - 'Makai kadhi'' (Corn curry)

We've been eating some really heavy traditional food and sweets lately. So Today I decided to make something a bit different for lunch.

I looked around the house and found two corn cobs and decided to make some sort of corn curry.

So I found this nice recipe for corn kadhi, but its not like the kadhi we make with dahi.

Ingredients:

Corn from 2 cobs

1 cup onion

1 cup grated coconut

3 cups milk (also depends on how thick you want it to be)

4 teaspoons khuskhus (poppy seeds)

a few cloves (maybe 4-5)

4 green chillies... more if you like your curry hot!

Dalchini (cinnamon) 2 sticks or 1 tea spoon.

2-3 small cardamoms

1 1/2 table spoons oil

2 tea spoon lemon juice

6 garlic cloves

2 teaspoons grated ginger

chopped dhania (coriander leaves). depends on how green you want the curry to look, but i used almost half a cup.

So here's what I did:

Step 1:

Boiled the corn cobs till cooked and separated the corn grain from the chaff. That is a lot of corn!

Step 2:

Take the chopped onion, grated coconut, green chillies, ginger, garlic, poppy seeds and coriander and grind it to make a paste.

This is how the paste looks like.

Step 3:

Heat some oil in a vessel and fry the above made paste in it.

Add the cinnamon, cardamom and cloves. Then add the lemon juice and stir well. And finally add the cooked corn and milk and mix well

Add salt.

You might want to add some more water or milk.

While cooking, the whole house is filled with the subtle aroma of cinnamon.

It looks equally appetizing and tastes really good!

How is it possible...

that everyone I know likes the movies 'before sunrise' and 'before sunset', but me?

Backup shackup

After the 4 gig flash drive, the logical progression was to go for something bigger - a 1 TB western digital external hard disk drive! after spending so much money on it, I would like to think that my data is finally safely backed up (even if it really isn't)