15 Aug 2020: Our 74th Independence day 🇮🇳 We had flag hoisting in our apartment complex in the morning. On the digital front, Google announced this special day with a colourful doodle😘. The public holiday also had a special treat for the residents of our apartment. Oven Story, a homegrown pizza brand was here to…
The magic masoor dal ✨
The humble masoor dal today has become one of my kitchen staples. Dal tadka made from masoor dal is addictive and the taste is so distinct that once you have tasted it nothing else will do😋. My discovery of this very common dal happened very recently; during the lockdown. Till then I used to make…
POTD: Vallam 🛶
There is a road, a highway actually in front my parents home in Kottayam, Kerala; along the banks of the Meenachil river. The river water has spilled onto the roads again this monsoon. While the buses and cars have stopped plying, it’s time to bring out the vallam, the small black beaked boat popularly sighted…
Another August Monsoon in Kerala 🌴
Sitting in Bangalore, I can romanticise the monsoons in Kerala. But the people in Kerala esp. in this month of August will fail to see my excitement. It’s a hat trick for the state in terms of the floods in August; this year is third time in the running🌧. From the past two years’ experience,…
Free reads from Medium
Taking up the 3 free reads from Medium happens on the 1st of every month and August was no exception. It’s just that getting down to writing about it took some time. Here they are: [1] 5 Things You Should Do Before Lunch by Shaunta Grimes We definitely do more than 5 things before lunch;…
Catching a rainbow 🌈
Everyone agrees that rainbows are magical. Their rare appearance make them a miracle and hence when you chance upon one it definitely feels special. Whoever sees one, will start calling everyone else around to come and see… It began to rain abruptly on Saturday evening🌧, but stopped within an hour. Soon the clouds gave way…
Adding a new rhythm to my mornings🚶🏻♀️
There are no school buses to catch, breakfast to be hurried or lunch boxes to be packed. In fact, mornings have become so leisurely and calm that it is an absolute pleasure to wake up to a new day. I spent most of the early morn sitting by the balcony window with my tea and…
Breakfast bites 💕
Good morning 🌤 Friday evening we had a visit once again from the Carnival Cakes & Breads people; they had a couple of new items on their menu this time – Focaccia bread, veg puffs, egg puffs and vada pav😘. The egg puffs were in demand and were over in the first thirty minutes of…
Breakfast Bites 🥣
The kid is starting the chapter in Maths titled Permutations and Combinations; I recall my P&C days, never understood the logic clearly and just managed to scrape through. Wait, the teacher is talking about Harry Potter, I am all ears – TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE – he says any guesses on the significance of the name?…
Plan for palak (spinach) 🥬
Mornings in Bangalore are glorious and unpredictable; you can wake up to chilly mornings with grey cloudy skies, sometimes a silent drizzle, maybe just a peek of the sun or clear cloudless blue skies with warm sun. Today was a latter kind of day and the residents were making most of it; there were more…
Celebrations always begin with biryani 🥳
It’s the first day of another lockdown in Bangalore, but that’s no reason to celebrate !? But today is also the day when the kid’s board results were announced. He passed with distinction and that’s a perfect reason to celebrate🥳. It’s a qualifying exam, not a competitive one; it’s the first hurdle the kids jump in…
Sweet Carnival 🧁
Good morning⛅️ Tea and a butter croissant🥐, a perfect start to the day ! The butter croissant is from the local store Carnival Cakes & Breads; they had a sale outside our apartment complex yesterday and we bought quite a lot of bakery items. If the start of today was sweet, yesterday night was a treat…
Good reads for the monsoon 2020 #2 🗺
“We were the usual: nine-to-sixers, investment-makers, mall-goers, office-trippers and city-slickers. We were life-going-to-seeders.”…reads the opening para on the back cover of the book. Usual is common and common is boring; so what do they transform into? The authors are the writer couple Devapriya Roy and Saurav Jha. This is my third book by Devapriya Roy….
Sour necessity
There has been a sharp spike in the daily count of COVID 19 cases in Bangalore. The IT hub of India hosts a large number of people from the neighbouring states and the newspapers on Sunday reported that the residents, anticipating another round of lockdown are fleeing the city; the inter-state borders are open and…
Breakfast bites ☕️
Sunday morning, breakfast is being served outside, literally😀. We have a stall from the food chain A2B set up in the visitor’s parking lot outside the flat and they are serving hot south Indian fare. This has been a new happening since the Unlock 1.0 began. Masala dosa and vada with sides of sambar and…
Words for Change 🎁
1st day of every month has a pleasant surprise waiting. I get to read 3 Medium posts for free. Medium is an online publishing forum. Most of the posts are on self-improvement, the titles of the articles are so enticing that you can’t resist the urge to click and see what nugget of wisdom follows….
Trivia 🔺🧪
“Sodium is a loser” says the Chemistry teacher. Why? I wonder from the kitchen. I am making breakfast and the kid’s first online class is underway. “Chlorine snatches away the electrons” the teacher says next. “Sodium is electropositive, has the tendency to loose electrons; while chlorine is electronegative, has the tendency to gain electrons.” I…
Monsoon memories 🌧
The books arrived one by one on different days; I tear open the plastic envelopes in happy anticipation. Finally I have the five books to read through the monsoon months of June, July & August. Am living in Bangalore, but half of me is synchronised to the events calendar in Kerala🗓. By 2 June, monsoon arrived…
Good reads for the monsoon 2020 #1 🦋
Alphabet Soup For Lovers by Anita Nair is a fabulous read. This 200 page food love story is perfect to finish in one sitting. However, the end won’t leave you satiated….you will see😃. The back cover of the book detail a Malayalee couple – Lena Abraham and KK who own and run a tea plantation on…
Breakfast bites 🌅
“Your online class will start in 15 min⏰” I shout from the kitchen. Some things never change. Earlier the line used to be “Your bus will be here in 15 min…get up !!” The kid would be awake, just lazy to get out from the warm covers. Mornings in Bangalore are chilly now. But still…
