Gajar ka Halwa & Malpua

Gajar ka Halwa was a big disappointment in my life! Growing up, you see in almost every Hindi movie the Maa tell her Beta that she has made Gajar ka Halwa. And suddenly the entire atmosphere of that scene changes from one of confrontation to peace...or sadness to bliss or something along those lines...

Now this is not today's day where you could just go out, find a restaurant who made a North Indian dessert, and try it out. Even something as basic as wheat was just starting to make it's first appearance into South India and folks where experimenting with their first chapatis.

So finally on my first trip out during college, I did try this miracle dessert. And it was disappointing....don't get me wrong...it was not bad at all to taste...but it wasn't the magical elixir I expected from watching all those movies....!!

Anyway...now that am obsessed with this 'aaj se teri...' song from Pad Man, am starting to sense a similar feeling about a Malpua. Never heard of it before. But it seems to be able to right every wrong as long as "Bas mere liye tu maalpuve....Kabhi kabhi bana dena...."

Good People!

I think you and I, we belong to the 'good people' category. We are mostly happy, but then we get mad once in a while at folks we know and folks we don't (commute anyone?)and we get the blues once in a while....

Look at the breakup of gun related deaths and you can see how having easy access to a gun while one is at the height of one of those emotional rides pans out.

Suicide tops, followed by homicide of someone you know.

Am totally cool with that. These are personal choices. This is a free country.

HOWEVER....

Fact 1: 18% of Americans have reported some sort of mental illness.
Fact 2: There are 3 million plus public school teachers in this country.

Now if someone is thinking about arming 3 million people locked every day in a classroom full of kids that are not even theirs, I have to call BULL on that!

A cultural queue jump!

Had a 3 hour connection in Narita. Inbound flight was 2 hours and change delayed. We barely had 45 minutes to get to the next gate. Boarding had already started. Got out of the aircraft and looked around to see if anyone was there to assist. And sure enough, there is a lady holding up a HOUSTON sign.

Walked up to her, showed her my boarding pass. She told me what I knew already 'your flight is in 45 minutes. You have about 30 minutes to get there before they close the gate'. The something encouraging 'wait here, let's get all the Houston passengers and I will take you there'.

Another 5 minutes, and 4 of us are following our guide through the airport. We get to the security check. There is a long line. She goes 'We cannot let you cut the line. But you are free to do what you want. This is where I leave you. Best of luck!'

HUH?!!

Figured later it was a cultural thing. Anyway, we were let in by other passengers closer to the x-ray machine and made the flight!

You could have just let us go on our own though!  :) 

കഞ്ഞി !

കേരളം, ശ്രീ ലങ്ക, തുടങ്ങി സിങ്കപ്പൂർ, മലേഷ്യ, ചൈന എന്നിങ്ങനെ ഒരുപാട് നാടുകളിൽ കഞ്ഞി കിട്ടും. വെറും കഞ്ഞി, തേങ്ങാ ഇട്ട കഞ്ഞി, കോഴിയും പന്നിയും ആടും ഇട്ട കഞ്ഞി, അങ്ങിനെ എത്ര തരം കഞ്ഞികൾ!!!

മിക്ക സ്ഥലത്തും  താമസിക്കുന്ന ഹോട്ടലിലെ റെസ്റ്റാറ്റാന്റിൽ പ്രാതലിനു കഞ്ഞി കിട്ടും.

കേരളത്തിൽ രണ്ടു സ്ഥലത്തേ കഞ്ഞി കാശ് കൊടുത്തു വാങ്ങാൻ കണ്ടിട്ടുള്ളു. ഒന്ന് ശബരിമലക്ക് പോയപ്പോൾ വഴിയരികിൽ ചൂട് കപ്പ കഞ്ഞി എന്ന് ബോർഡ് വെച്ച തട്ട് കടകൾ. രണ്ട് - കൊച്ചിയിലും തിരുവനന്തപുരത്തും ഉള്ള ചില ടോപ്പ് സ്റ്റാർ ഹോട്ടലുകൾ. ഇതിനിടക്ക്‌ ആർക്കും കഞ്ഞി വേണ്ടേ?