Cookery: Mixed vegetable pakodas

How deep fried is your love?

I made these pakodas for lunch yesterday. Yes, i can deep fry anytime. That's how much i love fried food!

All ye health nuts, go away now!

I learnt to make this version of pakodas from my mother who never ever experiments but she did try to this one time and it was a super hit. (Btw, i have a lot of recipes for fries!!)

{Recipe}
I threw in equal quantities of finely chopped carrots, potatoes, beans, cauliflower, american corn kernels, onions and peas and lots of coriander. It was about 2 cupfuls in all.

Add besan / chickpea flour - enough to cover the veggies, about 3 tablespoon, i'd say. Add salt to taste and 1 teaspoon read chili powder. Also add 1 and half teaspoon ginger garlic paste. Add water. Mix.

The mix shouldn't be watery at all... add water little by little till the dough comes together. Heat oil in a iron wok or non-stick frying pan (i prefer the former... it's healthier i think!). Drop small lumps of the batter and fry for a bit in low flame. Raise the flame after a minute or two. Remove when they are golden brown. Serve.

Awesome as is. But you can serve with homemade mint or coriander chutney.

{All my cooking is andaz se / approximate so that's how my recipes posts will be! Sorry!}

I want to go someplace beautiful

When you can't do something you want to do that very thing. It happens to me a lot. And right now, i want a holiday. I want it so bad, that i feel like i need a holiday. Work and life has kept me busy for quite some time now and my last holiday that lasted longer than 36 hours was almost a year ago.

I think i need Goa.

4 days in front of the sea, doing pretty much nothing but looking at the waves and sipping the occasional iced Mojito. Gorging on delicious food. Bike rides at sun down. Foot massages under a beach umbrella. The sand clinging to my feet after a dip in the sea.

I do need Goa. And i need lots of luck to make it happen.

{The Arabian Sea Bay of Bengal from a hillock: Vizag, Apr 23 2013 on a work trip} (Amended: Thanks to my IG friend @banglorean for his input and better knowledge of geography!)

Weekly Challenge #13 - Night Photography - Done!

The bridge

Challenge #13 - Done!

I was to go on Friday night, but Raam ditched me. On Wednesday night, i tugged a friend along to Tank Bund at around 9:30 PM so that i could take pictures.

The lovebirds had all left for their homes, the vendors were not there, the night was cool and pleasant. The city at night is at its magical best... i love the lights and its reflections in the water. A few drops of rain too fell during the night but not enough to send me scurrying for cover. This was such a beautiful experience... i'd love to do it again.

Sepia toned 

The blue lights of The Park

Pillars holding up the city

The Buddha

You can see more pictures on Tumblr.

I organized it neatly.

Round one of my morning breakfast in the recent past. If i have the patience to, i start my day with a few soaked almonds, a cup of green tea with sugar, and a fruit platter. Round two is generally a couple hours later and as unhealthy as can possibly be.

What is your morning routine?

{Inspired by Things Organized Neatly}

Weekly Challenge #8 - Print It - Done

I printed about 100 pictures on Friday last, and wanted to put them on my wall over the weekend. I even waited at the studio while they were being printed :)

A sudden trip delayed plans of putting them up on the wall... but i finally managed to put them up, albeit with magic tape only. For now these pictures are up on the guest room / study wall, but i am thinking i want to move this to my bedroom on the green wall.

Then i can stick some pretty flower pictures on the guest room wall. :)

PS: Excuse the lousy photo. A better picture coming up soon. 

20 things about photographing in Manual Mode

I click mostly on manual mode. I have tried to do that ever since i got my camera and learnt to use it a little. I know a lot of people who have fancy cameras and they prefer using it on Auto or Aperture Priority; they believe that the camera is already preset with options so why take the headache...

If you are like me and and are still learning the ropes and want to learn more, this site i came across recently might be of some help. If you are the one-who-only-uses-the auto-mode then this article here may help you get started.

Confession: I can't use manual focus yet, but i will get there someday.

{Photo: Pink Cluster, Aru's balcony, Aug 2011} 

Weekly Challenge #8 Print it

I have been using my Nikon D3100 since about 2 years now, taken more than 10000 pictures and haven't printed a single picture so far.

I kept telling myself i will do it tomorrow or the next week or the next month (yes, that's a typical procrastinator thing to do.)

So this week , my challenge for the week is to print a few pictures.

This means I have to sort through the mass of pictures i have, select some, go to the studio, print them and then of course, put them up on the wall.

The clock's ticking and going by the sporadic blogging here, you know this week's filled with work. Wish me luck!

{best friends: photo taken at Pondicherry, when i was visiting Kedar}

Lovebirds

Two crows come everyday, and sit on the branch of a coconut tree outside my window for a chat. 

Weekly Challenge #7 - Wake Up to See the Sunrise - done

I took pretty terrible pictures... mornings are always troublesome for me! But i completed the challenge... so YAY!

Weekly Challenge #7 Wake up to see the sunrise

Last night, at midnight i was thinking i hadn't decided on this week's challenge. And i was also thinking about getting up early to watch the sunrise at the beach... considering i have never done that ever. At least not that i remember of.

So i had to catch the sunrise over the sea... and i can do that only on the beaches on the eastern coast so i knew it was now or probably never....

So i thought, that for this week's challenge i should do that.

Now anyone who knows me knows that i don't like to wake up early.

Hate it. Loathe it. Detest it.

But i HAD to do it.

I had actually thought i'd wake up to see the sunrise tomorrow, on my last day here. But this morning despite last night's sleepless night i found myself waking up before the alarm woke me up. I tried to go back to sleep but that wasn't happening. Though an extreme sense of laziness was quickly trying to overpower my mind and i was in two minds... I decided to wake up and just GO.

So at 5:55 AM i found myself walking down to the beach. It was bright already but the sun was just about making an appearance.

Pictures coming soon, not just someday!! :)

XOXO
Ambica

PS: If you'd like to see my older challenges, you can find them here.

PPS: That's an old picture, something i had clicked in Goa, on my last trip there.

Good Morning

How was your weekend? Mine was spent working and was nothing special. This week and the weekend is also going to be crazy-busy :( but i am looking forward to a lot of things :)

{lemon tree pic taken at the Sunny Side Up garden}

Snapshots from Vizag

I was in Hyderabad on Thursday. Suddenly I found myself on a train to Vizag to help a friend. I was dreading the heat and the sultriness but Vizag is full of surprises...

The weather is much much better than in Hyderabad. The temperature is bearable. I am living next to the sea. And there is a beautiful breeze all the time. This is so peaceful and lovely.

I took some pictures yesterday morning at the RK Beach that i wanted to share..

Walkers, sitters, exercisers and cyclers - on a holiday morning!

the old priest on a walk

Sailboats

They look like beautiful winged creatures

son skates while father walks

the playful lab puppy who kissed me and left me

friends forever

identical twins, dressed identically. 

everything is matchy matchy, including the glasses they are wearing.

Wishing you a beautiful weekend!

Another week ends...

This week almost drove me nuts. What with dinners and work and plans and travel plans and the bomb scare and shopping trips and meeting friends and meeting clients, i don't know where this week went.

I am travelling. Leaving to Mumbai for a week and i still haven't packed my bags. I know I gotta go now, so i will. My blogging may be sporadic because i plan to get some things done this week that i have procrastinated since 15 years. More on that later...

You guys have a fantastic weekend and see you soon.

Love. Hugs. Cheers. 

My Feathered Friend

A pigeon flew into my new home and made it's nest here. Even before i had moved in. 

Many years ago, i had destroyed a nest when i was a newly married young girl and had wanted everything in house to be perfect. No eggs in my perfectly vegetarian setup please. 

This time i let the nest and the pigeons be. 

Despite the littering and the pigeon poop that fell on the freshly-washed clothes. Well, then can be washed again quite easily, i said to myself. And if it's on the floor, sure, it's an eyesore, but i can just pretend it's not there. 

There were two pigeons who would take turns in taking care of the egg. A white one with speckled feathers and a dark one who was just dark, boring grey. They'd fly out the moment someone stepped in to the verandah. I made sure I din't hang out there and let them incubate the egg in peace.

Till today. When the breeze at this house, that I loved dearly, blew the nest down. Down on the balcony floor lay a nest, that was unharmed. Egg-shells too that hadn't cracked. There was also a little yellow chick that didn't survive the fall. 

No one is to blame for the mishap. Except all of us, who cut trees indiscriminately and leave no green behind. 

So birds have to make nests in small ledges instead of trees and live at the mercy of the wind, heartless folks like the old me and heaven-knows-what. 

Both the pigeons are still hanging out there. The balcony feels weirdly empty without the nest. I am hoping they will rebuild their nest in the cane basket i have placed there, lay eggs, and hatch them. 

Another week ends...

Today, I start the weekend on a good note. Literally so. Sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan is playing at Shilpa Kala Vedika and a friend just invited me. Yay!!

Tomorrow, there is a lot to do. I have to make ice cream pops for my weekly challenge and photograph them. Will keep you posted on my experiment with the fruits i have on hand! And then I have to make dinner for a friend and his folks who are moving to a new home

On Sunday some friends are visiting. We are basically going to chill and herald the visit of summer with cold beers. This is going to be my first beer this year :D Cheers to that!

In between all this madness i hope to go see another film - Silver Linings Playbook, Lincoln or Zero Dark Thirty. I'd like to see all 3 but everyone's too busy so i may get to watch just one.

I am looking forward to my action packed weekend... What are your plans?

The Spanish Mosque

Last May, when it was sweltering hot, a friend who is crazier than me very sweet agreed to do a photo walk with me.

Our first stop was the lovely Spanish Mosque that you can find at Begumpet, very close to Intergraph / Airtel. It's so close, right there under my nose, yet i never stopped to look. Perfect start!

We then went to the Hyderabad Public School where we had to lie to go in, a dargah somewhere near Shamirpet where there is a do minar, pretty much like the Char Minar minus two, a deer park where there were more dears than deer and finally, a church in Sainikpuri.

Yes, we were pretty dead by the end of it and we are crazy as you think we are!

Dear N, 

I look forward to more adventures with you. What should we do this summer lady?

Waiting impatiently,

A

Bow wow: 2 fun posts

one
Pictures of pets and their owners, when they were both young and when they are now older. Cute.

two
A fun look at life living with a dog by The Oatmeal that had me in splits.

Pic of lonely dog on beach taken by me. 

A long hiatus and Wunderhauz

I had been away to Pondicherry and though i promised myself to begin blogging, the Internet refused to work and i had to wait to come back to resume writing on this very neglected blog of mine. 

It was hot. Swelteringly so. Till there was a little respite after 3 days. The incessant and irregular power cuts just made it worse. The mosquitoes made sleeping difficult.  The roads are narrow and bumpy. Yet, I'd highly recommend a trip to Wunderhauz in Chinna Mudaliar Chavady, about 8 km before Pondicherry. No, i haven't gone completely insane yet.

Remember Kedar, my Wundershop friend? He has constructed a house in CMC that has 5 spacious rooms, old furniture lovingly restored,  colored glass windows, surprising details that you will continue to notice 3 days into your stay, a big open courtyard with a beautiful cashew tree, a hammock that hangs on it, a swing you can spend the entire day on, a cane mat you can lay anywhere and lie down on when you feel like it, where you feel like it, the only sounds you hear are the chirping of birds, or the rustling of leaves, the vegetables are fresh, the food that the cook / help Hamsa makes is finger - licking good, and there is this adorable size zero dog who will shower you with love and make you feel special. Then there is the fact, that he knows a lot of people so they visit and you can socialize or maybe not, if you are not up to it.

You could go visiting people who live in forest communities and get spooked by the rustle in the undergrowth, the stillness all around and stories of big vipers. You could go on a 45-minute long walk to the beach even though it is ten minutes away, because the longer road is pretty. You could hire a moped and drive down to the quiet beaches or just use it go around the village, or to Auroville to eat fancy food, or to Pondicherry for delicious meals, walkabouts in Frenchtown, a movie or a spot of shopping. Or you could drive down to Dune, hire a fisherman's boat on a pleasant day, and just hang around in the middle of the sea or jump into it, fully-clothed (If you are wondering if i did that, i did that. Of course, you couldn't call what i did jumping in, it was more like slinking in...). You could make Pondicherry the base and go to Madurai for a 2 - day trip, or Kodaikanal, or one of the many nearby temple towns if you feel like it.

So yes, it's like this perfect getaway, pretty and not too expensive, silent, yet there is ample opportunity to socialize and meet new people and have interesting conversations with.

As for the power cuts, Wunderhauz will be running on solar power after this week, so that problem is solved. And the weather is already getting better. The mosquitoes... hmmm... you can choose from odomos / mosquito net / electronic mosquito repellant; a small price to pay for the fantastic vacation you will end up having.

{To see pictures of Wunderhauz, click here. To experience my kind of a vacation, contact Kedar on 09751869781.}

PS: There are loads of other things you could do in Pondicherry, and i intend going back for more, sometime soon... 

News to share...

I have something to tell you. About something new. It all started with a picture and some words and a shared love for poetry.

A friend and i are collaborating on creating something together. I am trying to get not too excited about it but it's not working...  i mean i can't curb the excitement... it's working alright...

Will keep you posted and share details soon. Wish me luck, please. And pray it works out.

I am also going to be a little less regular on this blog, for just a teeny bit. I hope you don't mind.

{Photo by me. The sun in hiding, Anjuna, Goa}

Bombay, not so blue

Grey skies. Peeling paint. Dilapidated buildings. A little forlorn. A little forbidding even. More concrete. Less green.

And yet, Mumbai is a city i can't get enough of.

I reached on Monday afternoon (you remember the goof up?), and went on a really long drive across the city to New Bombay.  To meet a really old friend. Befitting. Considering i was meeting him after 14 long years, what was 30-odd kilometres? We traveled back at the end of his work day to pick up another old friend from her workplace.

WTF! The day is going alright after all :D
After chai at her home and a lot of discussion we headed to WTF in Khar... mid way for a lot of people who were going to be meeting each other for the first time. I was anxious without cause... because everyone got along just along fine. Nothing like a cozy place and a little alcohol to make everything alright. Bollywood and politics and advertising, lots of spicy food, some gossip and music that was not too loud made for a fantastic evening. Of coure,WTF is very casual, with fairy lights and nothing too glossy so that made it perfect for me! And you can also wear your favorite denim short skirt in Bombay, even if you have to use public transport to travel.

Going to town
The next day my friend had me picked up. We then headed to 'town'.  Spotting star's homes on the way we went on the Worli Sea Link which is the one of most beautiful parts of Mumbai for me. Sadly, i couldn't stop to take pictures, because you really can't do stuff like that in Bombay...

Driving around 
We drove around, stopping to take pictures - old pretty buildings, shady avenues, green trees, people driving like normal people do, even a little bit of blue sky, and not so much traffic.

Must do's that i did 
A walk on Marine Drive, lunch and beers at Cafe Mondegar's, street shopping on Colaba, tea at the Gateway of India, more tea at the Taj Palace was part of the lovely but pretty tiring day.
(Don't my coral pants look lovely?)

Dinner and drinks
Another friend to meet. Another WTF to visit. This one at Versova. Rather nice but pretty crowded, maybe because it was Friday evening. Dinner at Mia Cucina next door followed where i feasted on Mango Pana Cotta. The food was apparently good too but i was too tired to eat. And we spotted a starlet here - Shruti Seth! So another Bombay essential - check!

Versova
After an entire night of yapping (i still can't believe we met after 14 years and still had so much to talk about, just not filling in the blank spaces about what we have been up to, but we could talk about life and work and books and songs) we headed to the rather dirty Versova beach. Except it was beautiful in parts. Like boats on the sea, and of course the waves. And the blue blue sky.

More food and more shopping
A short nap later and lots of laziness on my part, my friend and i headed out again. This time for lunch to Urban Tadka. A very kitsch and colorful place, the food was spicy but good. The jalebi rabdi dessert was my favorite part of the meal.

We headed to Tresorie at Infiniti Mall for a gift for the other A, I couldn't find anything, but honestly, i was sleep walking by this time! We had little time but a trip to Lokhandwala yielded a pair of loafers (turned out to be the wrong size, i was that zoned out!). I did some window shopping - beautiful footwear but i had already picked up 5 pairs for myself in Colaba so i resisted.

We went back to Versova, packed and left soon to catch that bus to Goa. But that's another story, for another day.