Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Ceremony of Mathematics

There was a time when i used to depend on my dad for so many things. The best was my Math. He was my Math Guru all till class 9. I remember i was in class 2 that time. I wouldn't move a page of my Math book without my dad not sitting next to me. Its not that i couldn't but Math was a ceremony for me which had to be performed only sitting next to my dad. It was one of the ways i could get full undisturbed attention from him :-). So before every math exam at school, i would wait for him to return home from work and start giving me a revision of the curriculam. Till the time he wont come, i wont even open the book. I would sleep, play with my toy scooty and peep from the balcony every half an hour to see if he was coming. And inspite of my chilling out like this, i would score excellent on the next day of the exam , all because of the solid preparation my dad would have given me before the exams on a regular basis. Once i remember he was extremely late, he called me saying he is stuck and will come home late night , so he asked me to start the revision on my own. But i blatantly refused, how could i start on my own :-). So my father came back late, gave me a revision for a couple of hours. Next day the exam was a cake walk :-)
Now its my turn to give back something, i feel very happy when my father emails me, chats with me, sends photos ,attachments. Not a big deal but gives me a great satisfaction that i have made him interested in all these things and he can use them well . Slowly i hope to teach him more of these internet thingies ..

Thursday, August 14, 2008

India turns 61!

India turned 61 a few hours back. I am not a big follower on politics etc but i just hope that issues like communal riots which have broken out in the past 61 years many times, poverty which has afflicted millions, terrorism which has left us crippled many times should come down this year in India. Everything is defined by the people of the country. The least we can do is to not have biases against different religions or communities. India has been secular ever since its birth and we must maintain that feeling in our minds not just to print in the books. If all citizens do this minimum possible of living together as Indians and hold no distinctions between north or south or east or west or based on religion/caste etc , India would be a much more peaceful state. On controlling these internal issues we can stand much stronger against thousands of other issues which India faces.

Now coming to the celebrations , I am sure lots of colorful Kites must be decorating the skies. I do miss the unsuccessful Kite Flying attempts with my brother M. Although this time when i was in India we both did have one attempt successful. I bought a Toy Story huge plastic kite from here when i went to India. One fine windy morning, me and M went down to fly the kite. I was holding the manjha for him as usual. The wind was very high and our Kite went up flying! It was so much fun..

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Busy Busier

Work is getting busier every day and personal time seems to be shrinking. I need to do something to strike a balance, manage time better so that i can do some relaxing things. My Kite Runner is lying near my bed waiting to be read, Planet Earth is waiting to be watched :-), Star Wars is waiting to thrill me with the sound effects. There are 10 other things like my audio book, movies. Ah! so many things to do, so little time. Hope this high pressure time goes by soon..

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Shahi Paneer..Yummy!


Weekend means time to try one new recipe.This time it was the turn for Shahi Paneer, my all time favorite since i was a child. Any time i have gone for dinner to a restaurant in Delhi, there has been hardly any time when i didnt order this Punjabi delight. So i gave it a try.
Here is the recipe:

-Cut fresh Paneer into triangles ( i like traingles better than cubes and my favorite restaurant Supas used to serve it that way). Heat oil in a pan and add fresh ground cumin powder, salt and some red chillies powder. Fry the Paneer triangles in this till golden brown.
-Take 2 big tomatoes and puree them in a mixer along with some cashew nuts, coriander leaves, a couple of kish mish and curd.Also mask a small piece of fresh paneer in this puree to give some thickness.
-In a kadhai , fry onions with ginger till onions are dark brown. Now add salt, turmeric powder, chillie powder, amchur powder and black pepper to this. Add one cinnamon stick also and cook for a while till you can smell the cinnamon fragrance.
-Add the tomato puree mixture to this and cook for 10 minutes till the color becomes red and cinnamon smells strong.
-Add the Paneer triangles to this gravy and cook for 5 minutes.
-Serve hot with chapatis. Enjoy!