Savour of September Challenge – Sept 3

It’s a wonderful Saturday and I’m happy to post on the third consecutive day! (Given my recent records, it’s definitely an ‘achievement’ to boast!)

Pondering about food, there’s an important aspect involved in it, which is abstinence from partaking food, or simply put as fasting.

Fasting from food is a very dominant practice/ritual found in most cultures, societies around in the world, in the guise of prayer, self control, protest, gratification, health consciousness or anything that one would love to term it!

Mahatma Gandhi’s satyagraha included massive fasting protests, and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that these protests had a great impact on the British regime in India and paved way for our Independence!

On a personal note, I fast on a single day in the whole year; on the day of Vaikunda Ekadasi. I have quite adorance and reverence for this day, which makes me undertake this form of prayer.

Well, more to come and more to write. Will get back with more on food!

Cheers
God Bless

Savour of September Challenge – Sept 2

Going ahead with SS Challenge, day 2 is for duo merry! Food, when shared, is always fun. Exceptions do exist, when solitude gives good company while having food.

Nanari Sharbat, a cooling drink

Sharing good times, along with a good friend, with good food for company, remains etched in our memory for a lifetime!

Chocolate Icecream!

Gaining a friend, who has same taste in food as self, is a boon, rather a blessing! I’m sure not everyone is going to disagree with me here!

Spiced Buttermilk

With these thoughts and pictures, let me conclude the second post on the SS Challenge! And gear up for the third post!

Cheers
God Bless

Savour of September Challenge – Sept 1

It’s a new month, a new coach added to the rollercoaster of 2022! With my A to Z April Challenge still struggling to go ahead, I thought of undertaking a simpler challenge for September, and decided to carry out the Savour of September Challenge!

Well, I’m going to just post some colourful pics, some memoirs, some info, some thoughts on Food, throughout the 30 September days, and that’s going to be my Savour of September Challenge!

Potato curry, jointly cooked and aligned with friend!..few years back..

Food, has always been quite an intriguing topic of conversation, throughout the history of mankind. Being a basic necessity for survival, food is quite an important part in every living being’s life on earth (and beyond too, probably!)

Food, being a necessity to everyone, is a luxury to many, a commodity, fun, topic of debate, thrill, and lot more..

Quoting my own quote, I wish people be conscious of what one self eats, and not be conscious (well, not bothered) of what others eat! (that’s a huge topic of debate, for another day!)

Thus saying, let me start the SS Challenge and conclude the post for the day!

Freshly cooked Idlies

Cheers
God Bless

Food Glorious Food

It’s a while, and it seems like I’m on an exile. And when I decided to return back to post, what can be better than one of my favourite topics, rather the favourite of many – Food, Glorious Food!

Food is the basic necessity, for survival for any organism. For some organisms, food is a matter of life and death, for some it is a luxury, for some a celebration or a fantasy, or happiness, or divine, or something beyond.

I was always taught from childhood that food (any food) is divine, and should always be treated with respect. Food must never be wasted, but at the same time, our body must not be overloaded. This is perhaps the only lesson I’ve religiously followed until now!

At this moment I recollect a conversation from one of my favourite books – The Pregnant King. //And I run to fetch the book, to type the lines as they are, from the book//

– – Once, while wandering in the woods, they came upon the carcass of a wild buffalo teeming with maggots. ‘How disgusting’, cringed Shilavati.

‘I don’t think the maggots will agree with you’, said Prasenajit. Shilavati realized the wisdom in her husband’s simple words. The human way is not the only way in this world. – –

One’s disgust is someone else’s food, someone’s waste could be one’s food, and that’s the way our beautiful universe is meant to be.

Let’s stop with philosophy and move to the fun part. Did miss saying food could be fun? Yes food must be respected and not wasted, yet there can be a lot of fun over food. Trying out new cuisines to eat, or cook, trying new recipes, spending a calm afternoon with only food for company, a romantic time with beloved and food! And wading through the tough times, or celebrating happiness, or nothing for that matter, food always and should come in, to be a part of that moment to complete it, in my honest opinion!

When it comes to food, one habit of mine seems to be a boon as well a curse. I’m still to determine, from where I’ve acquired this habit of eating slow. I have no idea of when, or how it started, but I’ve always eaten slowly. This comes as a great boon because, eating slowly come with a lot of benefits, as discussed everywhere. And it becomes a nightmare while having a formal lunch with team members!

I’ve got several advises too, to speed up the process of my eating. But why would I give up the temptation to relish the moment, slowly 😀

Have food, have fun and please do not waste them!

P.S.. Food, Glorious Food, is one of my favourite poem, from Oliver Twist

Cheers

God Bless

Love you, Honey!

A very fine, misty Saturday morning. You open the fridge and gulp the last remaining, yummy champakali, dipped in honey, and then you realize you are supposed to start your diet today!

Any system requires ‘quality’ fuel to function smoothly. The very complex system of human body, too. When we speak of ‘quality’ fuel, it lays emphasis on a balanced diet i.e.. a proportionate combination of nutrients, proteins, this, that, taste, health (uff and whatever) etc!

Quite often we tend to take advantage of this complex system of our body, and just pump in any kind of fuel. As it ages, any machine is subject to wear and tear, and then the results of the ‘imperfect’ fuel, start showing signs. One of the many age old proverb says that prevention is better than cure. So the best way to avoid any complications in health, is to maintain a good diet.

One can start being into a good diet, at any moment. No nudges, no promises, no guilties, no grumblings..just start a healthy, balanced diet, and one can see several short term and long term effects, which improve the working condition of the body, physically and mentally.

And please, never conclude to the ‘fictitious’ fact that a balanced diet consist of some bland, tasteless, colourless, flavourless food. As mentioned earlier, good food is always inclusive of every aspect, health, taste, flavour, /keep adding/, etc. While taking all these into account, it is no wonder, that one of the best food that nature has provided us, is the simple, yet gorgeous HONEY!

This sweet thing has all the qualities of the ‘perfect’ fuel, to keep this system running smoothly. With all the best sugars (glucose, fructose, titanic rose 😛 ), without any cholesterol, honey is literally one honey of a wonder-food!

Just a few drops of honey, when included in our daily food can work wonders. Listing few of them, to my knowledge.

1. Starting the day with a cup of warm water or green tea, mixed with a spoonful of honey, can aid in speeding up the metabolism, thus controlling weight gain and constipation.

2. Having a spoonful of honey, with some ginger gratings, can instantly cure a sore stomach.

3. A spoonful of honey, with pepper, is a sure relief for sore throat.

4. Honey is capable of getting digested quickly, and that’s the reason, most medicines of Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Siddha are taken with honey.

5. Sugar is literally an ‘angelic’ demon. Substituting sugar with honey is an ideal way to deal with the harmful effects of sugar.

6. A glass of warm milk mixed with honey..you can imagine! 🙂

7. Sweets prepared with honey, are more delicious (healthy too!) and provide a better taste too

The list can simply keep growing. Such are the benefits hidden in this vicious, golden liquid. So check out here – Dabur Honey for recipes, tips, advices, information on honey. Also check out the Honey Diet, to Stay Fit and Feel Younger!

It’s actually okay, when you cheat on your diet, not occasionally, but rarely! So don’t strain or pressurize and enjoy the cheat foods. They’re one hell of guilty pleasure!

Cheers

God Bless

Vacation Chronicles ~ 3

Melkote

Following the earlier two posts – Vacation Chronicles ~ 1 and Vacation Chronicles ~ 2 – The stones are alive! here goes the third and concluding post on my vacation.

This post is completely dedicated to a beautiful, clean, serene, divine, calm, picturesque, peaceful, little town in Karnataka, named Melkote. It is at a distance of about 50 kms from Mysore and has good, accessible road from there. And still, i’m still out of adjectives to sing the praise of this place!

Raya Gopura

Melkote, also known as ThiruNarayanaPuram is more of a pilgrimage center, than a tourist spot, and that’s the main reason we were there (remember I had mentioned family vacation/pilgrimage in the earlier post?) The CheluvaNarayana Temple and the YogaNarasimha Swamy Temple atop a small hill are the important temples, apart from a few other ancient, antique temples here.

CheluvaNarayana Temple

Melkote is quiet, little town with few ancient temples, many clean and pristine ponds surrounded by lush greenery, simple and traditional homes, clean roads, little shops, a Sanskrit college and academy, scenic vistas, humble and helpful people, which makes a person fall in love with this place again and again!

The YogaNarasimha Swamy temple is situated atop a small hill. Visiting this temple requires a climb of around 200 rock cut steps, which are covered by lush greenery, and occasional stone mantapa. There were many monkeys and goats along this way too, giving us a good company.

And not to forget the yummy Puliogare and Chakare Pongal that we got to taste here. Simply divine! And for the uninitiated, Puliogare and Chakare Pongal are a delicacy present in many South Indian Temples. They are supposed to be second most important aspect of the temple, the first being the Lord 😉

That’s me, on the way to YogaNarasimhaSwamy Temple, atop the hill.

From the various experiences that I had here, the one I loved the most are the divinity and the cleanliness of this place. Divinity is beyond the scope of any explanation and our understanding! So moving on to the cleanliness aspect, the temples, roads, ponds, public washrooms are maintained so well in this little town!

Overall, the pilgrimage to Melkote was nourishing to the soul, pumping up more faith into the mind and lifting up our spirits.

Check out the following links, which provide more information on Melkote. Please do pay a visit to this place and get an experience of a lifetime!

Melkote – Wikipedia

Melkote – Anudinam

***The pictures included in this post were taken by me***

Cheers

God Bless

Maggi Muddle

The latest raging discussion is about the Maggi noodles issue; that it contains lead, and some other unsafe substances. <for your reference>

Maggi noodles is (was) supposed to be the favourite food of a vast majority of Indians in the past decade, including me. And all I can say now is that, this company has lost the trust of this vast majority!

And sharing my experience of how this company lost my trust!

I started indulging in Maggi noodles, somewhere when I was 8-9 years old, and it was instantly one of the best food i’ve ever tasted. And having noodles was a weekly routine. At times, many times in a week.

After few years, I used to get stomach ache immediately after eating this noodles. It happened more than once, and too insignificant to be considered as coincidental also. But I hid this fact from my parents, because they cared for me! If they knew that food item causes health issues in me, even the name of it would be banned from my home. I feared it, and I thought some tasty thing is more important than my health. The stomach aches continued, but vanished, maybe after few months. Probably my system got accustomed to it.

Later, there were rumours that this noodles contained wax over it, which is harmful too. It was then my mother came up with this idea of boiling the noodles in a separate container, strain it (so that the wax is removed) and then cook it again with the masala packet provided! Never did anyone come up with the thought of replacing Maggi with any of the other (better or worse) brands.

The one which I cooked, adding the ingredients on my own. But missed monosodium glutamate, and whatever wasn’t mentioned on the packet

It became more than a comfort food, and having a bowl of self-cooked Maggi noodles on a rainy evening was more than an heavenly experience! I even bragged over my ‘achievement’ of recreating the Maggi masala on my own from scratch, by glancing over the ingredients on the packet. Guess what, I had missed lead, monosodium glutamate and God (probably Nestle too) knows what else i’ve missed to ‘enhance’ its taste.

The ‘2-minutes’ affair is a known fake thing, but no one bothered about the time standards. When I started maintaining a good diet, I was warned that noodles contains ingredients that does not good, but I choose to ignore them.

And now, glaring reports all over the country, over the substances present in Maggi noodles. Have they misused the fame people has given them? Or have the people misplaced their trust? Or it is both, and something more?

This isn’t an isolated case of me, but many other guys out there. We had a trust over this brand, and it is shattered into several pieces! And the reputation of other brands are also at stake (i’m hoping the skeletons from others to tumble out too)

All I get reminded now are..Choose wisely, One cannot fool, all the time and one cannot get fooled, all the time! 

Cheers

God Bless

My 10 point Wish List

Here’s my wish list on 10 things I wish to do, before checking out of earth…

1. Travel to remote places in India

India is a land of million colours and there are so many unexplored, less-crowded exotic places where I wish to not just travel ,but also stay for a few days. Some such places in my list are Orchha, Somanathapura, Netala (I won’t disclose the rest 😉 )

2. Create a mystical artwork

I’m awed with works of geniuses like Leonardo daVinci, Michelangelo. So some day I want to create an artwork with some hidden codes, over which some one can ponder over.

3. Sing National Anthems of at least 20 countries

Some assume that singing the National Anthem of a country to which we don’t belong to, is disrespectful to both the countries. But I feel that the admiration and respect that I have on a country makes me learn its National Anthem. Right now I can sing 4 National Anthems (inc my nations’). I just want to expand it.

My Beautiful Food

The clock displays… 10:01:01 PM

Soft and fluffy, hot and round, lies the majestically golden Chapati on a Fidenza plate, crowned with a dollop of butter, melting slowly and spreading all over like a meandering river. The aroma of fresh Chapati from the tava, combined with that of the disintegrating butter makes you forget the rain that’s lashing outside. The butter laced vapours make you forget the FIFA match glaring from the TV. The fluffiness makes you forget the assignment that you need to complete by tomorrow morning. As you attempt to count the number of brown spots on your Chapati getting soaked with the oozing butter, you also tend to forget that the Palak Paneer is sitting nearby and craving for your attention, where you are diverted to now!

Made from fine and fresh Palak, think and green, with Paneer cubes swimming all around, gracefully dances the gravy of Palak Paneer in a Round bowl. The light golden cubes make a good contract with its royal green surrounding. The spicy and tangy vapours arouse your taste buds, teasing you to take a large serving. You resist and chide the thick gravy with a wooden ladle, moving in a clockwise direction. The aromatic vapours gush out in a frenzy, taking you to places beyond the heavens. Slowly you take a big serving and land it on your plate. Not satisfied, you take one more. But only an another helping satisfies you for the moment.