My WedDefday

I think I found what I would be listening to work all day :) The things I do, to get through excel sheets and power point. What a corporate slave.....

Egg Plant Bruschetta

I obviously was not planning to make Egg Plant Bruschetta right now. Who makes things out of brinjal willingly (secretly I do because i love them) :) I planned to originally make baegun bhaaja with nice steaming hot parantha but  moving my lazy ass after a nice spa filled day may be a mammothian task even for Ganapati Bappa today. I decided to snack for dinner.

This is what I made, despite the laziness

Ingredients

Eggplant, sliced (6 slices)
1/2 tbsp Ginger Garlic Paste
1/2 tbsp Soya Sauce
1/2 a Tomato (without seeds), diced to squares
1/2 a capsicum, diced to squares
1 Chilli, finely chopped
1 tbsp Oil (olive oil preferably)
1 tbsp Tomato Sauce (ketchup)
1 cube cheese, grated
A few coriander leaves

Salt, to taste

Marinate the eggplants in salt, soya sauce and ginger garlic paste for half an hour. 15 mins is fine too. Heat a pan in low flame and add the oil. Remove excess liquid from the eggplant and place it on the pan once the oil is hot.

In the meanwhile mix the tomatoes, capsicum, chillies, tomato sauce and some salt to taste.

Turn the sides of the eggplants after 5 minutes. You should see that it is caramelized on one side. Now place the tomato mix on the eggplant. Add the grated cheese on top.

Keep it on the pan for another 5 mins. Take it off the pan and garnish it with some coriander leaves and olive oil drizzle.

Have it with Red Wine :)

The night when Mumbai turned into an open Discotheque

While the music blaring outside my window comprises of awesome desi songs one can go full porky on..(SIGH i wish my friends were here, would have been on the streets) , I have been youtubing distracted from the world outside my window for this new post rock band I came across. It has influences of Radiohead, Sigur Ros, and the kinds, good day to share.

Band Name: Her Name is Calla - :)

The first half of this song is super awesome...can visualize it in so many interesting movie situations.

And this one has a good build up... Many different kinds of sequences, many kinds of stories, many kinds of....

And then guess what appeared on the suggestion list. A heartbreaker ofcourse

Friday Knight

This has got to be coolest and the most thoughtful present ever :) This is what I am doing on a Friday Knight. If I am not overtly overwhlemed post the read, will definitely try writing about it.However, I am most likely  to remain in a state of awe and shock with the awesome contents of this brilliant book :)

Plenty Moons Ago

There was a time of man and  his honour

Promises engraved not on a stone, but into his soul

Where truth swelled like sunshine,

Lies and traitors rebuked for shame

There was a time of shame

There was punishment and justice 

Where the guilty stood in admission

But with grace and courage to own up

There was a time where a man owned up

To his responsibilities, to his King,

To his Kingdom, and his beloved Lover,

Pride of Goodness bloomed in his heart

There was a time where a man had a heart

Sensitive to tears and pain, in empathy

Building great Kingdoms and Homes

Where he stood as bastion, through sacrifices and pain

There was a time when man understood pain

Not his own, but her tears.

He fought wars for her and slayed evil Kings,

He bought the moon back to her feet

There was a time when a man worshiped her feet

As a symbol of love and admission to femininity

Protecting her from the misery of the world

And fighting for her honour

There was a time of man and his honour

Honour of being the man. Honour for Love, 

For Bravery, For Destiny, For Pride

For Life, For Her and Her Honour

There was such a time, plenty moons ago.

The Knowing

Ignorance is hardly a choice and it being called "Bliss"is just an inevitable social cover up like the Virgin Mary. While ignorance is a function of faith, the dilution of its method may be far from initial comprehension. The method of dilution itself works in two steps -  At first, Gradual and then, the One fine day. Gradual dilution is like a benign tumor. It just grows on you, in you. You knowingly or unknowingly become comfortable with it and the curve of the function will hardly be steep, until one fine day. The "One Fine Day" is the cruder and most effective step. It mostly follows naivety of trust and blind faith. It cuts like a knife. It like this. For Eg: As a victim of consumerism, you Believe in any news you hear and see with or without skepticism. You go on for sometime.You believe. You preach. You Blog. You advertise. For some people it takes a lifetime. But that is because you have grown as the part of the system like the tumor. No harm yet, but just growing, ignorantly while your intelligent human mind is absorbing the perils, the destruction, the heartbreak to follow, feeding the chasm of your light-hearted personalities And then one fine day, it happens.It breaks. For some very evolved species, the naivete may just cease to exist. The cynics. Good for them but the process is important to appreciate whats comes next. And its not until you get up and see through it, when you know it is that One Fine Day. That explains that you are not just the victim of consumerism anymore, you are crossing over to the dark side. "One Fine Day" is not an expression. It is The moment of reckoning. It is when your personality starts becoming complex with the pollution of the real truth, albeit for the better.  While the illustration is used to substantiate the method, the point of ignorance transcending towards the Knowing is  the matter of importance here in its most profound cognizance. The use of the word Knowledge becomes a cliche and an unnecessary conclusion to the point, as Ignorance is only paucity of Knowledge in the realms of the literary and more sophisticated world. The profoundness lies not in knowledge, but the progress towards the Knowing. Its when you look beyond the knowledge of injustice, heartbreak, destruction, manipulation, tactical maneuvering, white lies, deep lies, compulsive lies, all of that, and beyond the justice story of the victim and the acquitted, beyond the painful process of the method. Its not a reaction. Its not a hate mail. Its not a consumer complaint. Its not a spiteful revenge. It is not Marxist.

When you can watch the world  pass by with that sweet smile of victory, a victory of attaining complete awareness and knowledge, when extreme reactions cease to exist, you know you have the Power of the Knowing.

My Travel and Living

The last one year, has been quite eventful. From moving into a new city, to getting into a new job, from meeting new people, to living a new and a different sort of life. A beautifully strange year, it has been. . The Bombay Struggle wasn't really a struggle again in the conventional Bombay way, but yeah, its been a struggle all right. Except for the house hunt. That was the stinker. Literally. But this interesting year will be cherished. A Sweet Pain of some sorts.

During all this "the struggle", I have had the luxury of the conventional escape. The elaborate  - Travel and Living.

In this one year I have travelled to over 13 different villages in Western Maharashtra, atleast 9 cities in India and 3 different countries. I also had a chance to travel to Spain, but that's another story. The chance will strike back again sometime :D planning. Saving. Ok, just planning.

Dubai was my latest. Two of my closest friends live there. Hence this was a blessing in disguise. A break after horrible two months. It was blissful to chill with them. I was taken out for the sight seeing, for dinner, for drives on the fantastic Dubai Flyover, shopping (gee) -  packed 3-4 days with no sleep- my forever gracious hostess, indebted to her always :)

View from "At the Top" Khalifa.



Visit to Singapore in Feb. Stayed at Sentosa hence was close to all the touristy stuff. My good luck had a close friend again come over to Singapore at the same time. The sad lonely trip became awesome :)

The Merlion ofcourse at One Fullerton.

Udaipur staying at UdaiVillas.  The most beautiful place ever. It was a dream. Partied at Jal Mandir till late. The folk dances, the food and everything, that is royal and exotic. One must try the Thai Massage at the Spa there. Its heavenly. And MUST meet the Oberoi Chef, Gaurav. I had the most exotic and awesomest icecream in the world as a part of the chef's experiment.We were the last of the guests in the season. I had a mushroom olive oil and truffle icecream  :) Yes weird but effing awesome. And oh! His awesomest basil dosa. Oh my god. Slurrrpp.

  

Must take these pics when you are in Rajasthan :)

My favourite location, of all the places, was Vietnam. Hanoi and Ha Long Bay were absolutely gorgeous. The food was brilliant, the city was beautiful, visited some local homes there which was supremely interesting. A fantastic holiday spot.  However, I went there for work. Not complaining. 

 

 Ha Long Bay

 A floating fishing village

My favourite food experience at Hanoi were these restaurants - The Tamarind, Quan An Ngon, and Wine Vine Boutique Bar and Restaurant. While Tamarind is all vegeterian (we had a lot of vegetarians in our group), Wine Vine served the best french food ever. The risotto there was the best  I have ever had apart from the usual frenchie stuff. Quan An Ngon was a perfect place to try out the local Vietnamese food. Ordered frog legs that they ran out of . Must try the pork spring rolls. The Vietnamese know how to cook. Tamarind was a good place for the weak hearted. Its totally safe for vegetarians.  But I dig the meat and the sea food. Brilliant. Mussels, Crabs, Pork, weird fish preps which i cant pronounce, baked oysters, and all that jazz.


The most exciting of them all were my visits to the Maharashtran Villages. The customary milky chai (which i am not very fond of) in every household. The highway food with different preparation of the star marathi dishes, the ghauti chicken with some local indian bread in Ahmednagar, shopping reallly cheap plants in miles and miles of nurseries on the pune highway, well one and half months was spent in just mad village hopping. The most beautiful ones were Ranjangaon, Talegaon(not a village anymore), and Karjat (popular farmhouse destination for bollywood)

This is from Daund, my most frequently visited village.

 Local nothings :) 

 A place where I would like to buy my farmhouse. From Pune to Talegaon :)

Ranjangaon. A village surrounded by hills from all sides. 

 My 300 bucks plant shopping

 :) a must

 Karjat Gaon, Right after the rains

                                                                                                                                  The famous missal pav

 Local Flavours