blahness....and some food....!

Hi people..!
It has been a long time since my last post...
The past week was pretty hectic....I had an interview, met my favorite cousin , baked chocochip cookies , had a night out with my girlies and in the meanwhile, managed to have lots of fun...!
So, this week hasn't quite been keeping pace with the last one...
It wouldn't be wrong to say that it has been pretty boring and filled with 'almost nothing'...
So today after i filled myself with a load of chhole chawal made by mom for lunch, I just could not suppress my urge to cook something (although I was already completely full..!!) .
This time as usual, I wanted to try something new.

And what I came up with today was this FUSION BREAD UPMA...

This is how it came about.
I took 3 slices of brown bread, soaked them in water and mashed them properly.
I chopped some garlic, 1 onion , a tomato and a green chilli.
Took a wok , added some oil, and spluttered some mustard seeds. Then I added the onion , garlic and the curry leaves. After that came the tomatoes and green chillies.
Then I seasoned it with salt, red chilli powder and black pepper powder. And here comes the 'fusion' bit...! I also added some dried oregano leaves....(hehe...!!experimentation...!!)
Then I added the mashed bread, gave it a thorough stir, added chopped coriander leaves and a dash of lime juice to finish...!!!

And here is how the final product looked after a couple of spoonfuls.....

I hope it looks as yum as it tasted....!!!
The oregano and the lemon in the end really added a zing to it..!!

Try it guys...it is sooper easy...!

Also,  here is a picture of the vanilla chocochip cookies that I made...

Hope you enjoyed reading...!!
Till next time....
Cheers......!!!

the movie magic...!

Hi friends...!
As they say, in India there are only two things that drive people crazy - cinema and cricket..!!
And I proudly belong to the former...!
I dont know if this is something to be proud about or is plain unfortunate that I do not know anybody in my life who loves and 'lives' the movies as myself... I hope I find someone with the same enthusiasm soon.
I would like to confess though that I can not enjoy those dhishum dhishum kind of flicks.. apart from that there is really nothing that I wouldn't agree to watch...! And I guess I am really proud to admit that there are hardly any movies that I have seen and haven't liked...!
My observation is that when people watch a movie, they have some pre-conceived notions or expectations about it such as how the story line should be, how much romance should be there , what kind of humour would there be.... And as we all know, in life there is one thumb rule- expectations breed disappointments. So my funda is that whenever I am going for the movies, I keep my head absolutely blank and i look forward to being surprised..with an open mind and heart...!!
In every movie, if you have the eye for it , you will definitely find something which would inspire you, give you a new idea or make you smile...! Movies are like Alladin's magic carpet which take you to a fantasy world, to the places where you have never been and probably would never even go and makes you experience those feelings which you may not have felt uptil now.
One such example is 'AIYYA' -  a hindi movie released in 2012, starring Rani Mukerji and Prithviraj.
I am sure many of my friends will raise their eyebrows if i tell them that i loved the movie..! I agree that there were a lot of moments when I felt like fast-forwarding the movie, but there was definitely no dearth of happy and fun moments..! It was filled with the little joys that a simple marathi girl experiences when she sees the man of her dreams...! And in the end, everyone goes home happy and she finds the love of her life and her life partner in the man of her dreams, which is actually one of the many rare occurences in real life...!!

So I say, you have to have the eye of an observer , a dreamer and an optimist...!

I hope one day all of you would love the movies as much as I do...
I hope you find your passion if you haven't yet....

And I am yet to find a person who shares my passion for the movies ......!!
Are you that person...??? Would you like to be that person...!?!

:)

P.S: Here are a few pics of the Vanilla Custard cake and south-indian style lunch that I made recently .... Enjoy..!!

vanilla custard cake with chocolate sauce...!

south indian meal- yumm...!

Stay happy people...!!
Till next time..... :)

..life's not so bad.....its not so bad..!

The festive season is here...and the festivities are going full swing..!
As mentioned in my earlier posts, I love everything about this time. So much so, that I try to immerse myself in everything going around me, in a bid to forget all the stresses that I go through on a daily basis..
One important thing about me I would like to confess here is that I like to see the world around me with my 'rose-tinted glasses'..!I like to see the positivity and hope in most of the things that I do. Sometimes, I lose track, sometimes I get bogged down, Sometimes I doubt myself and stop believing in my own ideologies.

But , time and again life 'sees' me...! It sends down someone or something along my way to help me have a better perspective at the things in life that are really important.

I just recently met up with a very dear friend of mine. And after a nice cup of coffe and a good amount of time chatting with him over the 'wats-happening-in-ur-life' conversation, I came back home with a much more relaxed and clear frame of mind. After hearing his story,I realised that all the things that i feel sad about in my personal life and all the things that I fret about seemed really petty..! There is so much that can happen in life and getting stuck at relatively smaller problem doesnt really help the plan..!
I realised that being strong from within...strong from the core is what is required of all of us in order to survive...survive with our heads held high..!
I have been lucky enough to have some perfect examples of this...and I hope to get inspired and get my strength from people like them..!!
So, here I am extending a big thank you to all the people who have ever been in my life.....because believe it or not- I have secretly learned something or the other from all of you...and I mean ALL OF U...!!


Here are a few pics of some soul-cooking I did for lunch..!

delicious, aromatic pulao with a twist..!

:)

P.S: The twist in this simple looking pulao is that I added 'aloo masala ' to this..!!


Have loads of fun...everyday..!
Till next time....
Cheers..!!

my favorite time of the year..!

Hello friends..!!

The season of festivities is already here..!

DIWALI...!! I cant find the right words to express how jubilant i feel around this time of the year....I guess, the least i can say is that this season makes me feel alive..!

I live in Delhi and this time of the year is THE TIME TO BE IN DELHI...!Whichever way you look, there will be lights and hustle bustle....not to mention the heavy traffic jams on almost all the roads around here at all times of the day...(but today I wont like to talk about that.....You see, m happy today..!!) All the markets are decorated and lights are put everywhere...!

So, m also trying to fully exploit this festive season....and so much is happening around me...

Most of the day passes by in a jiffy....This is going to be our first diwali in our new home...and we are going all out in a bid to decorate our house with all our hearts ..! We usually start the day by choosing one part of the house and trying to make it look as shiny as new..! Every other day, me and mom go out for some diwali shopping which have so far included bed linen,  kitchen ware, crockery, and the diwali decoratives..!

We also try to squeeze in frequent visits to our maasis and mamas.. and some uncles and aunties..!

Me, being a food 'live-r'..try to find some time to have a hand at cooking something or the other....So, recently i made some egg bhurji...with some simple flavours and two of my favorite ingredients- black pepper powder and coriander leaves..!

I also made a chocolate cake...after much permutation and combination of the ingredients as well as the method of cooking...! What i mean is , my oven broke down...so, i tried to make a cake this time in a pressure cooker..!!Well, in all honesty, it wasnt as good as one made in oven...but nevertheless, it tasted just fine...!!

So, here are a few pics of the food that I enjoyed....

egg bhurji..!

my yoghurt chocolate cake..!

I hope you liked my pics...!!

Do leave comments on your views...

Till next time...

Cheers..!

funnnnnn day....!!!

Hi readers...!!!
I hope all of you had a fun weekend....!!
Well..I had a blast...!
Sunday...the 4th of November saw a very happy birthday of my friend...(whose pics you must have seen in my earlier post with me)...So thanks to her, I had a whole day of amazing fun...!!!
Let me spell it out...To begin the day , I got some beautiful lovely yellow bunch of flowers for her...(psst..i recently realised that I love yellow...!!I even own a lehenga in Yellow..!!). I went to her home...hugged her...wished her...had a rasgulla (the big white juicy one..!), and headed out to Promenade-Vasant Kunj...!
Since it was already 3 PM, we straightaway went to ITALIA in Ambience mall, Vasant kunj. Believe me guys...it calls for a must visit from everyone...!!The food there was awesome.. Since my friend is a vegetarian, we ordered a pizza with basil pesto,artichokes, green olives and sun-dried tomatoes..!!!Yummmmmm...I so did not miss my chicken..! Alongside we also had bruschetta with mozzarella and tomatoes...( Divine...!) and Devil's Kiss ( which was a concoction of guava juice,rock salt,mint leaves and tobasco sauce..) .
After a hearty meal, we went to Blu O where we were joined by another friend... And as embarassed as I am admitting the fact that i had never 'bowled' ever in my life and that i fell on my bum on my first attempt at bowling.....I would also like to announce that i hit a 'strike' on my first 'flat on my bum' attempt...!!!! Yipppeeee...!! It was hilarious and soooper fun..!! It turned out I was reasonably good at it...and won in the first round....We played a couple of more times and had never before fun...!!!!
Then, we were joined by another friend and we went to 'UNDERDOGS- sports bar and lounge'....That was a first for me too.....I had never played pool before...and tried my hand at that too...!! Sooper fun again...!! Although I have to confess that i sucked at it...and was the focus of all the jokes of the evening...!!
Since , it was my first visit to Underdogs, I had no idea that they had so many more sports to offer....I saw a carrom board table and many more such sports...!! And if you are not someone to play...you can just grab a couch and watch any one of the many screens for your favourite sport..!!
It was a super fun day for me...and i cant begin to thank my friend enough for this exciting day...!


Go visit these two places in Ambience mall , Vasant Kunj if you already havn't...!!!
I hope you have as much fun as I had...!!
Cheers...to happy days like these...!!


P.S: Sorry....I've got no pics to show you guys.....!!I guess you can now figure how busy I was having fun that I forgot about clicking..!! 

...i will find........

i wanna make someone happy....
i wanna see someone smile....
i wanna see those tears of happiness....
i wanna see those grateful eyes....
i wanna be the reason.....
i don't care if m the reason....
i wanna know d reason...
i know somewhere inside me it lies...

i wanna do that to myself....i wanna do that to a stranger...
that ecstasy in the eyes....that longing to hug someone tight...
that desire to cry happy.....that desire to jump to the sky n above..
that feeling that your heart's gonna burst....
i wanna show someone that loving is what i love..

i long to be the reason...i long to have that power...
i know it resides in me...i just need to find that key...!
i will keep tryin ...coz i know thats what keeps up my drive....
i will keep tryin ....coz to find that moment i will  strive....


i keep tryin....
n one day i will find...................

i quit my job.....wise or stupid..!??!

Yes, as mentioned earlier i resigned from my job in September, and I am at home since the beginning of the month..And I am wondering 'Did i do the right thing..?'..
For some background  I would like to mention here that I am a physiotherapist but was working in a very reputed hospital since the last one year.
As I was working there, I started to realize that I was becoming more and more frustrated as the time passed. I had uneven uncomfortable shifts. I had almost no social life and i had night shifts too. Well, I guess everyone with a medical background would feel that this is what happens with them too ..but they dont quit..! They hang in there, slowly and slowly trying to make this a 'given' in their lives.
Call me stupid or call me unambitious or lame....but I am not someone who would give away their peace of mind for something as temporary as a job..! I wanna be happy..and my happiness lies in the little things that we do when we are relaxed and are actually observing life...I agree that some of you would choose a job over some peace of mind which 'you can achieve once you have accomplished earning some more money'....but when I prioritized, I figured that that's not for me..!
Maybe I am one of those lucky ones...I can actually afford to give away my job (in terms of the monetary aspect).But I don't think I need to live under the burden of not doing justice to myself just because I am one of those privileged ones.

I may be lame....
But i chose...........
And  I am HAPPY..!



P.S: Here is the pic of some yummm Italian style peas and baked potatoes with a hint of oregano and chaat masala I made yesterday...! Check out the pic...and share your views....

what is being 'too emotional'...!?!?

hey...
A few days back a friend of mine said that i was 'emotional'..and he said it in a way that implied that I wasnt supposed to be 'emotional'...! Although, he derived his much craved fun at pulling my leg and irritating me but it left me thinking a lot about what exactly people mean when they say you are emotional..!

See, I am from a medical background and I have psychology for a year in college , and from what i  understand about 'Human behavior and emotions', I believe that human behavior is a composite of various emotions that they experience. These emotions can be anger, love , gratitude , happiness or jealousy and so on.
Therefore, in my opinion expressing your emotions is an essential part of being a normal human being..! You know..that is an essential part of our 'being'...! In fact, the people who suppress their emotions either react to certain situations inappropriately or eventually end up getting professional help..

I also wonder sometimes that if we were to hide our emotions, what would life become..? No gratitude...no fights between jealous friends....no missing each other and making up after those fights......and no romantic moments...!!! I mean, it would just take away all those beautiful and real moments that really mean that we are 'alive'..!
I read somewhere and have also observed that if we keep our emotions bottled up for a long duration, those cramped up feelings will find a way out through your mouths or your actions in a much worse way than could have been in the first place... I think that would be a much more sorry state to be in...!

There are certain psychological disorders also which entail reacting to certain circumstances in life in an abnormal way , but what I referred to in the above paragraphs pointed at the usual normal circumstances.

Here is a small questionairre that you would like to go through:

1. Do people, not only family members tell you that you are too emotional ?
2. In an over-heated moment, do you tend to take impulsive decisions that you later on regret?
3. Do you have many arguments and blow up easily?
4. Do friends and relatives handle you with kid gloves?
5. Do your emotions suck the life out of you, change easily and quickly, and generally whip you around?
6. Do you weep and often in the absence of major setbacks or great losses? (I'm not talking about a tear or two but more gut-wrenching)

If you have answered too many of these in affirmative , you may want to seek counselling.

In the end, i would just like to add that life is challenging. But we need to be humans and empathetic and symapthetic towards our own lives and of others. Because, without that our lives would be a cold computation of everything around....

And so, I choose to be human......!!!
And, I choose to express.....!!!!

Cheers..! :)

my new-found hotspot in d 'haat' of delhi..!

Hey people...!
Today was a really busy day for me......but it also gave me one of those moments when you accidentally see the reflection of that corner of your heart that had long been forgotten amidst the daily hustle-bustle of life..
Confused...?!?hehe...let me spell it out..
I really hadn't got much sleep last night for some stupid reason..and therefore, when i woke up this morning I wasnt really feeling energetic the way i like to feel for a 'gooooooood morning'..! I ran some errands in the morning , made some delicious pulao for lunch (again..!) and was just starting to make up my mind for catching some sleep when i got a text from a friend of mine for some outing....After much contemplation, we decided to visit the 'Delhi Haat'...
There is one more thing that i'd like to mention here..The people who know me know that i dont really go out with my little sister (who happens to be 11yrs younger than me..!). But to my mom's n my sister's surprise, i actually agreed to take her out with me..So she called another friend of hers. Now there were the 4 of us; me, my friend, my sister and her friend..!
Now we reached Delhi Haat around 3o'clock..Also, since navratras are going on...we could not have any of our kind of yummy food...(which loosely translates into CHICKENNNN...!!) So, we had some chhole bhature and stuff and just found a nice spot where we could sit and talk and make fun of all the funnily clad people there..!! (devil face..!!)...So we sat there for a good 1 hour , had some kulfi and did some more gossiping..!
Then in search of some good gol gappas, we went to 'punjabi rasoi' which is in a corner away from all the shor sharaba...!That area of Delhi Haat actually seemed much more hygienic than a lot of other corners. Then right there i found my adventure of the day..! Next to that place i saw a small play area where there were some slides, some swings and some of that stuff. It wasnt really a very elaborate area but was good for some fun time. As soon as we could get hold of those swings , we just sat on them and spread our wings and closed our eyes to a flashback of our childhood..! I couldnt help but go back almost 15 yrs when we used to go to children's park near india gate and played on the swings till our bodies ached and mom dad dragged us out of that park..!! It was just a taste of those golden days when there were no worries except some home work from school and what i was gonna eat when i rushed to the kitchen....With each thrust forward on that swing, my heart sang...'lalla la lalla la...'..!! Believe me...i was a child once again and i loved it...!!!
That unexpected experience totally relaxed and re-energised me...!
I think i have indeed found one place where i'd go back again and again....as my 'go-to' when i am in search of some destressing...!!
Here are a few pics of the day......

dats me n my friend..!

dats d big giant tunnel i was riding..!

the sliiiiide....!!!!

well...dats the one on the swing..!!heaven..!

I hope you guys check out that place for yourself and see and experience what i did today...!!
I hope you have just as much fun as i had..!

Till next time.......stay happy...!!


P.S: Sorry about the bad picture quality...they were taken from my sister's phone...

......my obsession...!!

Hey.....Hows d sunshine..!?
Well...the day is going pretty good for me..! I have absolutely been enjoying my day...relaxing...and cooking..!!
Conforming with my self-confessed obsession with using rice in my cooking...I again made something with rice-an indian Fried rice dish..! Well, the good thing about this is that I used leftover boiled rice from last night..!
Here's how they looked....

So, if u guys would be a little interested in what all i put in it...here's how it went:
First, i chop some capsicum, tomatoes and garlic (lots of garlic..!). Also, i sliced one onion, soaked some soya nuggets and microwaved some peas.....Then , i took some oil in a wok. Put mustard seeds in it. Once they spluttered, i added the chopped garlic and sauteed it. After that, i put the chopped onions and sauteed them too till they were a little pink. Then i added my chopped tomatoes and some chopped green chilli. I like my food a little spicy and i like to have some innovation while i cook....so, i added some readymade  'aloo masala'..!!tada...!! I put some regular seasoning as well...This was followed by capsicum, peas and the soaked nuggets...Then i put the boiled rice...Cooked it a little...Sprinkled lots of coriander and some dash of lemon...!!!!And VOILA....!! The most yummy rice....!!(Psst...i say that every time i look at what i make...!! )


Well, i hope you liked my yummy rice as much as me..!!
Till next time.....
Be happy...!!


P.S: I apologise for the sloppy pics...i know i could have done better...!! But it was just too tempting and i just could not wait any longer to eat it down..!! (which i did in about...5 mins...!!)

Hey guys....
I remember I promised myself that i will write more often... and there were two reasons for it..Firstly, coz thanks to one of my bestie I wanted to maintain this blog that I created about 2 yrs back and secondly, and more importantly , I LOVE writing...!
Having said that, I also realise that I havnt been able to keep my promise time and again..!And I repeatedly apologise to myself for dis...(coz der are not many readers here to apologise to...!! ;) hehe..!)

So, here I am today...again on dis endeavour of keeping my promise dis time..!

There is not much to say actually...today I can just tel u about wats been happening these days...
So, here goes the list:

1. I QUIT FROM MY JOB...!!! Yaaaaaaaaay...!  well it may sound a little weird to some.. I mean usually people are not really dis happy on leaving der jobs..esp wen dey hav no other source of income...! But I guess m not really one of those people...m I..!?! ;) Let me explain a little..Although I was working for a very reputed brand of hospitals,  it wasnt making me any happier..I was stuck in weird and boring and uncomfortable shifts (which included night shifts too..!). So, eventually I figured that der was no point working in a place that did not give me any kind of personal or professional satisfaction....Better sense prevailed and I resigned...!    (pssst......I am not one of those who r okay wid just earning money even if dey dont have an ounce of happiness in der blood..!)
2. So, no job now and lots of time at hand..! Dis precious time I plan to utilise for all d things dat I always wanted to do but cudnt coz of my shitty job..!! Firstly, I have again started taking driving lessons and hopefully dis time I will not let it go waste and will actually become a gud driver...!
3. Well m a fooodie....a big time one..!N I love to cook too....n if i can say so myself...a not so bad one..!So , I cook with all my might..I search d net...search my own compilation...n cook cook cook..!!Nothing makes me as happy...! (plz dnt have any high hopes..i cook normal daily eatable home food..with just some of my innovations...) Like yesterday i made some yummy mixed veg pulao...n I added all the possible veggies dat wer available in my fridge...these included peas, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, beans, carrots , capsicum , soya nuggets and brinjal..!!

dats bhindi...sundar aloo and my sundar pulao..!!

I hope it doesnt luk too bad..! dis is my comfort food..! 

Well...so there it is...life is moving...and  m flowing with it....better than earlier..!

So..dis is it for now guys...

Till next time..(and i hope dats soon...!)

love...b happy u all...! :)

after a lonnnnnnnng gap.....phew...!!

well...life as it is....is a rollercoaster ride...!!so dynamic...whats there one moment might not be there the  next moment..that is what is d beauty and fun of  this thing called "LIFE"...!!
its been a long time since i last wrote ..been busy with life ..as they say it...i guess it has almost been an year since i last wrote.
but today i just read a blog written by my best frend....so that is what inspired me to write again...i guess i had forgotten.
Been so busy with sorting out my life that i almost forgot the things that truly give me peace...set me 'free'....!
sometimes i read people's blogs and i wonder what talent there is around here...!it makes me wonder what can i possibly write...i dont think i have any particular interest in anything...i m not too interested in beauty and make-up..neither can i write about food..(i mean..ofcourse i live to eat..but i dont think i have the expertise to write about it..!!)....the only thing that i really can write about is what i feel...through the day...coz that is what i love the most...i observe life..i observe people...tiny little things i see, i learn.....and i dont forget.......
i think the best i do is when i express what i see and feel.....
i hope someone out there is reading what i write and maybe identifying even a tiny bit with what i wrote.....
i hope i keep writing...
catch ya soon....
lots n lots to come..!!
cheers...! ;)