Mutterings*

You will need: ·    500g of grated juggery (I got lucky, I've found grated juggery from the indian store. Will add more pics).  2 cups thick coconut milk (I use coconut milk cans or pitikara polkiri powder) 8 large eggs / 10 small eggs (or 18 eggs if double the recipe) About two cloves worth of ground cardamom One ground clove  1 tsp vanilla (I know you can add cashew, I've never been a fan) Directions:  I like to vary it up, and try different dishes. Pre heat the oven to 320F. Fill an oven safe dish with water half way, and place it in the oven, one rack below where the watalappan will go on top.  In a large bowl mix the coconut milk and jaggery, cardamom, cloves.  Stir well until the jaggery is dissolved.  Whisk the eggs with the vanilla, in a separate bowl, and add the coconut milk and jaggery mixture to it.  Mix well. Strain into oven proof moulds / ramekins. The straining i...

Time stops still, while the sun sets every evening. I try my best to catch each and every single one of them. I am acutely aware of how little time we have, and increasingly I am reminded the finite number of sunsets in my life are constantly missed by the daily chores after work. So. I try to sit on the balcony and take in the colors of the sky, as they fade. One sunset, never the same from another.  That is breath taking. We don't need to climb mountains or fly to exotic lands to look up at the sky every evening. This is the beauty of it all.  Each and every  evening as I gaze west, the parking lot below in the apartment complex disappears. Over the hill tops on the horizon , as I sip my chocolate laden milk tea (knowing the cholestrol that is going in to my system), not caring I am missing a visit to the gym and making mental notes to figure out a better schedule that includes this moment in my day, I take it all in.  As the fading ligh...

I wish I could learn oh, so many things. As I get older, I realize my time is short. Besides, having to make a living really cuts in to my free time. Plus, studying never seems to end, either. I know, personal goals and the cultural brain washing we have been through, that pushes us to gain an 'education' not knowing what that really means in terms of income and returns in the long run. Anyway. I digress.  I suppose at this point, I will always be a life long learner of some thing or the other, and the following list, at this point has been a constant so far : 1) Learning chess - I must join a chess club. My personality does not allow me to be a good chess player. I am too impatient. I also find that I am too lazy to learn the strategies, so I remain a mediocre wanna be forever. I should find a chess club.  2) Knitting and crochet - Something I learned from my grandmother. I have grand notions of sending scarves and new born baby gifts to everyone I know, to ...

It's been a while since I jotted down anything that felt like nothing. Inspirations come and go. Funny how they are fleeting. Like a feather in the wind. Once past,  it is lost forever. What ever inspired a thought and torrent of words,  never return. Disappear in to the air,  just like where ever it came. I started writing that a while ago, and then it just stayed as a draft, like most of posts usually do. I AM MALALA (2012) Last night I watched the TED talk of Malala's father . Yes,  the girl who was shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating for education for girls in Pakistan. What an inspiration. I realize there are other view points on the issue. However,  the point is they were doing good work before the NYTimes documentary and before all the international attention. Unfortunately the same hype has helped them,  keeping the story alive,  western whatever regardless. What an amazing father. Especially his closing line. Such an ins...

You know, how just when the world starts to seem magical and nice... Everything becomes hazy and confusing...you start seeing double visions and all you can do is sleep. Hibernate almost, completely unaware of what is going on or why it is not where you would like it to be. But isn't everything happy, you ask yourself? Well, that's exactly the point. It is. It is. "Then why? What's the matter?," I ask myself. "I don't know, I just don't know. Something just feels off."  I reply to myself. Deep long breaths seem to help. Reading lists, on and on. Partly it is all the things that need to get done, and things just become overwhelming sometimes. Deep slow breaths. Short, manageable tasks. Focus. Time management. All this, so hard and yet so urgent. It's ok to hibernate sometimes, I tell myself. Recharge a bit, and even collect some extra energy for times ahead. All those people in my head, loved ones I want to send thing...

"Waiting is a part of travel. We anticipate the arrival of the train." Spotify music plays in my ears, as the train swooshes past me to a stop. The distinct two warning bells sound, warning pedestrians of the incoming train on the track (In case they try to kill themselves, I suspect). I must blog more, I tell myself. I like the sense of belonging, even if it is only in the sphere of the cyber world. A sense of fellow beings, a spirit of kindredness. No judgement, other than sharing of opinions. Not that I was ever much of a blogger, or a bearer of any deep thoughts. Everything is so on the surface, so, fleeting. Why is everything so,  fleeting? The iron or whatever metal footstep like things that decorate the train station platform, have been removed. Stolen, I imagine by hooligans. Sniff. Now an ugly space, on the otherwise pretty station platform. Dirty with wear and tear. Mostly, by a minority if the population tied to this limbo lifestyle, as we go about our...