VEGETABLE UPMA

This is a nutritious and light evening or morning meal. It takes about 20 min to make. You can add any vegetables that are readily available at home. You need semolina to make this. Its a south Indian dish.

Ingredients:

1 glass of Semolina
1/2 cup of chopped vegetables (carrots, beans, peas, corn pieces)
4-5 curry leaves
1 green chilli or red chilli
Salt to taste
1 large onion chopped (optional)
Water
2 tbsp of oil

For Tadaka:

1 tsp of mustard seeds
1 tsp of urad dhal
1 tsp of channa dhal
Hing powder (if you are not using onion)

Method:

1) In a pan, add one tbsp of oil and add the rava or semolina. Fry it by stirring gently for about 5 min until the semolina turns light brown.
2) Place the fried semolina aside in a plate for cooling.
3) In the same pan, add 1 tbsp of oil add mustard seeds, urad dhal, channa dhal.
4) Once the mustard seeds sputter, add the chilli and the vegetables. In case you add onion add the onion and chilli. Fry the onion until golden brown and then add the vegetables. Cook the vegetables for 5-10 min on low flame until they are half cooked.
5) Add water (1 1/2 glass of water for 1 glass of Semolina) and salt.
6) When the water just starts to boil, add the rava little by little and keep stirring so that lumps are not formed.
7) Turn down the flame to the lowest, cover the dish and let it cook for 5 min.
8) Add the curry leaves and your upma is ready to be served with chutney or pickle. Serve it hot for it to taste the best.

Your yummy upma is ready!

Rema

DIAMOND CUTS

This is a very simple dish. You can make this and have with your afternoon cup of tea. These are few of things that were made as a part of the Diwali preparations along with an array of sweets and other sundry items.

Ingredients:

1 cup of All purpose Flour
Salt as needed
1 tbsp of Jeera seeds or ajwain seeds
1 tsp of sugar
4 tbsp of Butter
Water as needed
1 tbsp of Red chilli powder
Oil for deep frying

Method:

1) In a vessel add the flour, salt, sugar, jeera or ajwain seeds and red chilli powder.
2) Add the butter and mix well with hand so that the butter melts and merges with the flour mix.
3) Add water little by little and make a fine dough similar to the one used for chapati(not too stiff). If the water is of excess add a little more flour to make it less watery.
4) Make a lemon sized ball of the dough and roll out with a rolling pin exactly like how you would make a chapati. Using a knife make crisscrossing lines on the base, so that you get diamond shaped pieces of dough.
5) In a pan, heat oil for deep frying. When the oil is ready, check it by placing a very small piece of dough on the oil, if it sizzles immediately the oil is ready.
6) Deep fry the diamond pieces and your diamond cuts are ready!

Diamond Cuts

You can have them with your afternoon cup of tea. Or if you like it with your dips or ketchup, you can serve it with the same. It takes about 15-20 min to make from scratch. Enjoy!

Rema

MYSORE MASALA DOSA

This is the specialty of most of the south Indian restaurants and a favorite for the dosa lovers. It is a little spicy but the aroma of the garlic chutney with the potato subzi inside a hot crisp dosa is unforgettable and unbeatable. Here is the recipe for all you dosa lovers who want to recreate the magic at home!

Making the dosa batter:

For making the dosa, we need fresh dosa batter. I usually make the batter at home by soaking two glasses of idli rava(sometimes its more than 2:1 depending on the variety used) for one glass of urad dhal. If you are not able to get idli rava you can use normal rice instead. Just before soaking, dry roast the rice until it turns slightly brown(My mother in law let me know this tip). Soak the rice/Idli rava and urad dhal separately in 2 pans for about 6-7 hours. After soaking them, wash thoroughly and grind the urad dhal to a fine paste and add required amount of salt. Slowly by adding the idli rava grind this whole thing to as fine a paste of possible. Sometimes if the idli rava is coarse, the dough remains coarse or else it comes out as a very fine paste. Its best to know which suits best depending on the kind of Idli rava you get. If its coarse its best to use rice itself. For the dosa the batter that we have ground can be used immediately. But for idlis, the batter has to ferment outside for atleast 12 hrs to get really soft idlis.

After preparing the batter this way or if you can purchase fresh dosa batter, we can proceed to the next steps.

For the garlic chutney:

1 garlic
2 red chillies soaked in water for 10 mins

For the chutney, grind the garlic pods after peeling them along with the red chillies. Your chutney is ready!

For the potato subzi: 

I want to refer to a previous post of mine titled Dhal and Potato Subzi for the recipe. Its a very simple recipe. Takes about 10 min to make if you have boiled potatoes at hand.

Making the Dosa:

 Next I will refer to the actual recipe for making dosa with the batter. You need a really hot flat plate (Teflon coated) and you can sprinkle some water on it to check if it is hot enough. If the water sizzles away instantly the pan is ready! You can take a scoop of the dough which is semi-liquid and add it at the center. you make circles starting from the center going slowly outwards. The dosa slowly increases in size and if the batter is over you can quickly add a little more. Make a medium sized dosa (ensure it doesnt cover the entire pan, for starters it could be difficult to handle a really large dosa!). Once the dosa has browned on one side invert it by placing a flat paddle under the dosa and flipping it gently.

Wait for about 1 min after flipping to remove the dosa onto a plate. The longer it stays the crisper it gets! But watch out that it doesn't burn.

Serving:

After placing the dosa on a plate apply a layer of garlic chutney on the interior of the dosa and stuff with the potato subzi. I have served here a plain mysore dosa(it doesn't have the stuffing inside) along with tomato chutney.

For the Tomato chutney:

Ingredients:

2 ripe tomatoes
1 green chilli
Small amount of fresh corainder leaves
1 tsp of red chilli powder
1 tbsp of urad dhal
Oil
Salt to taste

Method:

1) In a pan, add oil and add the urad dhal. Allow it to slowly turn light brown.
2) Now add the chopped tomatoes, chilli, corainder leaves and fry well. 
3) Fry until the oil starts to separate from the sides.
4) Add salt and red chilli powder

Just before grinding

5) Grind it to a fine paste by adding very little water if needed.

Tomato chutney is ready!

Do let me know how this recipe turned out and if you have any queries.

Rema

BISIBELE BATH

Today I am sharing here the recipe of Bisibele bath. This dish originates from the state of Karnataka. It literally means hot lentil rice in Kannada. You can modify the recipe to suit your taste (chillies) and use the available vegetables.

Ingredients:

1 cup of Rice
2/3 cup of Tuar dhal
2 tbsp of Sambar powder
lemon ball sized tamarind
Salt to taste
Hing powder
Turmeric powder
1 tsp of Sugar
1/2 cup of chopped carrots
1/4 cup of peas
1/2 cup of chopped beans
1/4 cup of capsicum chopped
1/2 cup of chopped potato
1 large onion chopped finely

To Grind:

1 tbsp of Dry coconut powder
2 red chillies
1 tsp of Tuar dhal
1/2 tsp of til
1 tsp of Corainder seeds
1 tsp of Cumin seeds
1 piece of Cinnamon bark

Method:

 1) Pressure cook the rice and dhal together in a pressure cook for 2-3 whistles. The quantity of water for rice is 1:3 and 1:2 for dhal.
2) In a pan soak the tamarind in water
3) Into a large pan, add the tamarind water by pressing the juice out of the soaked dry tamarind. Or you can use tamarind paste if available directly with water.
4) Add the chopped vegetables into the tamarind water. Add sambar powder and salt to it.
5) Add hing powder, turmeric powder and sugar.
6) Allow the vegetables to boil until its well cooked and raw smell of tamarind leaves.
7) In another pan, add a tsp of oil and fry all the dry ingredients(add the dry coconut after all the other ingredients are fried well).
8) Add a little water and grind the fried ingredients to get a fine paste.
9) Add the cooked dhal to the vegetables and add the paste.
10) In a pan, fry the chopped onions in little oil or ghee till its golden brown.
11) Allow the vegetable mixture to come to boil before adding the fried onions and mixing well.
12) Add some water as the sambar has to be little watery.
13) Add the cooked rice to the sambar and your bisibele bath is ready. Serve it hot with chips, pappad or raita.

RAITHA

In a vessel, add chopped onion, cucumber and add a little salt. Add chopped chillies and corainder leaves. Add curd just before serving.

HOMEMADE PIZZA

Hi! Just yesterday we made pizza at home, for dinner. I made the pizza right from scratch. You need to get a few things right for this wonderful and filling dish that anyone can savor. First thing being the dough, which needs to be really soft and tender after allowing it to rise for 2-3 hrs. Secondly the ingredients for the toppings especially if you would like to re create a particular type of pizza.

Let me start with the recipe for the dough:

Ingredients:

250 gms of All Purpose Flour
1 sachet of instant yeast (about 11g)
Warm water
1 tsp of sugar
Salt required amount
2 Tbsp of Olive oil

Method:

1) In a large pan, add the flour, sugar, salt, yeast and mix gently.
2) Add the warm water little by little and mix the dough to form a good sized ball of dough(which shouldn't be too watery, if it is add some more dough)
3) Add the olive oil and coat all over the dough, so that it forms a non sticky and fine dough.

Now we need to let the dough rest for 1 1/2 to 2 hrs in a warm and moist place. You can cover the mouth of the vessel with a wet handkerchief. The dough rises slowly and starts letting out  a different smelling gas! You can gently knead the dough after 1 1/2 hrs to release the gas and the dough returns to its almost original size.

Next using this dough, I made four balls of dough after kneading the dough gently for a minute. You can preheat the oven for about 1/2 to 1 hr at 230 celsius. Let the balls stay inside the pan for 10 to 15 mins. The more the dough stays in to raise the more fluffier and tastier the pizza becomes. So you can leave the dough to stay for few more hours to rise. you can also store the dough made in freezer for later use. That way, you can make the dough and let it stay in the fridge until the day you feel like having a pizza!

 After about an hour the flour almost doubles in size and is ready to be rolled into pizza bases.

For making the Pizza:

Take the ball of dough and using some flour knead it well to make a circular base by patting it from center outwards with your fingers. And in the edges you can pinch it a little upwards. Brush a little olive oil on the base before adding the toppings.

Ingredients: 

Kimball's garlic and tomato pizza sauce
Hunt's fresh tomato, basil and oregano tin
Olive oil
Capsicum slices
Mozzarella Fresh Cheese (Made from Cow's milk)
Pepper powder

Method:

1) Take the base that you have patted out of the balls that we rolled. Spread a thin layer of olive oil on it.
2) Apply a layer of Pizza sauce on it and place a few lumps of the fresh tomato pieces on it.
3) Apply a layer of grated cheese on the entire pizza and apply small amount of olive oil around the pizza. You can apply the pepper powder also if you want.

4) Transfer the pizza to a pan to place in the oven. The oven is preheated at 230 celsius for half an hr.
5) Bake the single pizza for 10- 15 min. If you like crisp pizza allow it to stay for a little longer (you can roll out a very thin pizza base for crispness).

You have a very yummy margherita pizza ready!

 A slight variation to this very simple recipe is the addition of capsicum pieces, which adds to the flavor and makes it look very colorful.

I hope you will try out these pizzas and let me know how you liked them!

Rema

  

BREAD JAMUN

I love the Gulab Jamuns that we make with the ready mix Gulab Jamun packs, we get in the store. But this recipe given by my mother in law is equally good. And we can make this with all the remaining bread you have at home and ready to use ingredients already available at home. 

Ingredients:

5 Bread slices

1/2 cup of sugar

1 cup of Water

Rose essence

Oil to fry

Method:

1) Take the bread slices and cut into medium sized square pieces. One bread slice should yield about 6 pieces of bread to fry.

2) Fry the pieces of bread in oil until it is well fried and place it on tissues to soak up excess oil.

3) Put the sugar in a pan with the water.

4) Boil until the sugar dissolves completely and boil for another 2 min. Switch off the flame. Put two drops of rose essence.

5) Soak all the fried bread pieces in the sugar syrup. Keep aside for 15 min.

Bread Jamun is ready to serve! Do try this and let me know how you liked it.

CABBAGE MOREKUTH

This is an innovative recipe using one of the most common and liked subzi 'Cabbage'. What we usually do with cabbage is make a curry or make a dhal kuth. But this is something different and has a different taste than the usual curry.

Ingredients:

1/2 kg  White Cabbage
1 green chilli
5 Tbsp of grated fresh coconut
2 tsp raw rice
1 tsp of Jeera seeds
Curry leaves
1/2 cup of Fresh thick Yogurt
Salt to taste
Turmeric powder
Oil for Tadaka
1/4 tsp of Mustard seeds
1 tsp of coconut oil

Method:

1) Cut the White cabbage into small pieces. Allow the Cut cabbage to cook in some water, salt and turmeric powder.
2) In a cup soak the raw rice, jeera seeds for half an hr.
3) Add the soaked rice, jeera, coconut, green chilli, curry leaves and grind to a very fine paste.
4) Add the ground paste to the cooked cabbage and allow to cook for 5 mins on low flame.
5) Add the coconut oil and yogurt and switch off the flame.
6) The kuth should not be very watery. If the water seems excess, you can add some rice flour paste to it(add little water to a tsp of rice flour and mix well). The rice flour lets the mixture thicken a bit.
7) To this add the tadaka with the oil and mustard seeds.

The cabbage kuth is ready to serve. You can serve this with rice, rasam and pappad. It can be had for lunch or dinner. Please leave your comments or queries about the dish. Thank you!

MANGO RICE

Hello Everyone! Long time since my last post. Today I am sharing a new recipe that we tried out at home for lunch. With my in laws here and our love for mangoes in the season for mangoes, this was bound to be tried out! So here I am writing down the recipe for the yummy mango rice. Both for all of you who want to try this at home and as a record for me to try it later. Let's get started:

Ingredients:

1 cup Basmati Rice
1 tbsp Red Chilli Powder

To Grind:

2 small green mangoes
2 tbsp of fresh grated coconut
2 Red chillies
1/2 tsp Fenugreek seeds
Fresh Curry leaves and Cilantro leaves
Salt

For Tadaka:

Hing powder
1/4 tsp Mustard seeds
1/2 tsp Urad dhal
1/2 tsp Channa dhal
1 tbsp Groundnut
Salt to taste
Required amount of Gingelly Oil
Turmeric Powder

Method:

1) Grate the green mangoes after peeling them.
2) Dry roast the Fenugreek seeds in a pan.
3) Add all the ingredients in the Grinder and make a fine paste. Add little salt while grinding.
4) Keep the Basmati rice to cook with little less water, so the rice grains are separate (not sticky). I used long grain basmati rice. After cooking the rice, spread the rice on a large plate and allow to cool. Sprinkle a tsp of Gingelly oil on it. It ensures the rice grains are not sticky.
5) In a pan, add 2 tbsp of Gingelly oil and when it heats add the mustard seeds, urad dhal, channa dhal and Groundnut. Allow the mustard seeds to sputter and the dhals to turn slightly brown in color. Add the turmeric powder, the ground paste and little water. Turn the heat to a low flame and cook slowly for 5-10 mins. Add red chilli powder and salt to taste. You can add some curry leaves to this as well.

6) Cook until the oil starts to separate out of the paste. Turn off the flame.
7) Add this paste over the cooked, cooled rice. And mix gently.

Your yummy mango rice is ready to be had. You can have it with little curd and pappad. Enjoy!

Do comment and let me know how you liked it!

DHAL AND POTATO SUBZI

This is one of the easiest combination of dishes which you can make for lunch or dinner. It has a good taste and since there is dhal, there is good nutrition value as well. This is a quick and appetizing meal.

Here is how I make it:

JEERA DHAL

Ingredients:

1 tsp Jeera
1 tomato cut to fine pieces
Small piece of ginger
2 Green chillies
Small bunch of corainder leaves
1/2 cup Tuar Dhal
Turmeric powder
1 tbs Madras Curry masala/Garam masala

Procedure:

1. First put some oil in a pan. Put some jeera seeds and let it spurt a little. Add turmeric powder.
2. Add the ginger, chilli after slicing them finely. Add the corainder leaves to this. Stir well.
3. Add the finely chopped tomato to this and let it fry nicely until the tomato gets squashed by the stirrer. Add salt and Masala (if you don't have both the masalas, you can even put red chilli powder, it will give a basic dhal.)
4. Add the tuar dhal after rinsing it in water, and add Water such that for every 1 cup of tuar dhal there is 2 cups of water, hence add about 1 cup of water.
5. Transfer this whole mixture to a pressure cooker and pressure cook until 2 whistles. Stop the flame and your dhal is ready.

Hence a very tasty dhal is ready and has the goodness of jeera seeds. It takes about 15 mins to make this.

POTATO SUBZI

Ingredients:

1/2 kg potatoes
1/2 cup of green peas
Small piece of ginger
2 green chillies
Small bunch of corainder leaves
2 tb Garam masala
1 large onion sliced finely
Mustard seeds
Salt to taste

Method:

1. Wash the potatoes thoroughly. Slice each potatoes into four halves. Pressure cook these by putting them in a vessel and keep all the pieces soaked in water. Wait for one whistle.
2. Peel off the skin of the potatoes.
3. In a pan, add oil put mustard seeds. When they start spurting, add the chopped green chillies, ginger and coriander leaves. When they get slightly fried, add salt and masala. Saute the onions until golden brown.
4. To this add boiled potatoes and stir well. So that the masala and salt blend in well with all the potato pieces. Add the green peas. Let it fry well for five minutes on medium flame.
5. When the pieces get a golden brown coating, turn off the flame and your subzi is ready.

This makes a delicious and sumptuous meal when served with rice or Chapati. Try these dishes and let me know how you liked them. My family really enjoyed this meal when I served it with rice. :)

DIWALI DELIGHTS

Hi Everyone!!!!

Last weekend was Diwali.. And I would say last weekend since here in the middle East it is the start of a new week on the Sunday :) SO we should change the term Monday Morning Blues to Sunday Morning Blues :( :)

This Diwali was special for the reason that it was our First Diwali in the Middle East and Ved kutti's First Diwali EVER!!!!! So I made a few namkeen and a sweet dish... Please try these dishes and let me know how they came out. Leave a comment if you liked any recipe. Thanks!

RIBBON PAKODA

Ingredients:

1 cup Besan
1 cup Rice Flour
2 tbs Butter or Ghee
2 tbs Sambar powder
1 tbs Omam seeds or Ajwain seeds
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. First take all the dry ingredients and mix them in a Bowl
2. Add butter and melt it by pressing with your hands
3. Add little water and make the dough. It is a little difficult to mix it as besan sticks to the hand. Once you have mixed it so that the water content is as much as you would use to make a sticky chapathi dough, Rinse your hands. Next take some butter or ghee add it to the dough, just enough so that once you mix the dough again completely it shouldnt stick to your hand.
4. Heat oil in a Kadai.
5. Take some of the dough and put it into a strainer. You will get this at any Indian store. Take a plate with straight slits. Mine had three such slits in one circular plate. Adjust the screw so that if you rotate the dough comes out of the slits in the form of thin long rectangular shapes.
6. Check if the oil is hot enough, for this just drop a small piece of dough into the oil. If the piece goes down and rises up immediately, the oil is hot enough.
7. rotate the strainer and get enough strands into the oil and deep fry. Once it is golden brown on both sides its cooked well... you can remove it and let it cool on tissues.



MIXTURE
Mixture is one of the easy items you can make with things available in the house.

Ingredients:

1 cup Broken chana dry roasted
1 cup Groundnuts
2 cups Sev
5-6 Biscuits (Any type that you like)
Peppermints
4 tsps Sambar powder
Salt to taste
Hing powder
Curry leaves

Procedure:

1. Take a Tawa and Dry roast Broken Chana, Groudnuts, Biscuits, Hing powder, curry leaves and salt one by one on high flame for few minutes.
2. Put each of these into a big container as you finish. Add the peppermints, Sev(I have given below the procedure to make this) and sambar powder. Mix everything well and your mixture is ready!

SEV

Ingredients:

1 cup Besan
4 tbs Rice Flour
2 tb Butter/ Ghee
Sambar powder
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Mix all ingredients and prepare a dough using the same method as the Ribbon pakoda dough.
2. Check if oil is hot.
3. This time in the strainer used to make the ribbon pakoda put the plate with small holes.
4. Squeeze the dough through the plate to get noodle like dough and deep fry it until golden brown.

DRY FRUITS SWEET

Ingredients:

1 cup almonds
1 cup cashews
1 cup walnuts, pistas
1 1/2 cup sugar
water

Procedure:

1. Take all the dry fruits and dry grind it in mixie.
2. Dry roast the powdered nuts and do so until the raw smell is gone and the mixture starts turning brown.
3. In a pan take some water (about same as sugar qty) and add sugar and boil until 1 string syrup is ready. to check if it is 1 string consistency, take some syrup in your hand and check between two fingers if one string is formed. If it is formed the syrup is ready, if not keep boiling until you get it.
4. Add the powdered nuts to the sugar syrup and heat until the mixture starts boiling or starts rising.
5. Empty the pan into a greased plate and let it cool.
6. Once its warm, take a knife and make square cuts or diamond cuts.

HOUSTON MEENAKSHI TEMPLE

We visited the Meenaskhi temple of Pearland, TX on last sunday.. It was the first temple we visited since Pongal this year. This temple is styled like temples in southern India.. I dont think I have seen a temple anywhere else here in the US(I have visited a few temples in different states) that has the temple as a separate entity or building complex without the restrooms, Prasadam centre in it.. It was like for the time we spent there we were magically transported back to India to one of the beautiful temples in southern India.. :)

There were four smaller buildings inside the main rectangle and the main temple or shrine is located at the center. The smaller buildings contain the shrines of Ganesha, Navagraha, Muruga, Krishna and Shiva.. In the main shrine building there are the Idols of Meenakshi Amman, Venkateshwara, Shiva Lingam...
It was a peaceful and wonderful experience in all... We stayed for some time saying prayers and then went to have some prasada.. there was only curd rice left(as we were one of the last few left in the Temple and were past the closing hours of the temple :) ).. but the food was so yummy.. :) One thing about temple prasadam is though it might be something simple like curd rice or tamarind rice, its so delicious and fresh..
I am waiting now to visit the temple again :) There are a number of other temples in Houston.. We will visit those in the coming weeks and months (will write blogs about them too )...

HOUSTON

We shifted out to Houston on 2nd February from Champaign,IL. After over an an year and a half, we moved out from U-C exactly when I had fallen in love with its quiet, small town university atmosphere. I have come to even miss the winters and sub-zero temperatures!!!! Yeah that's right!!! I miss it. I like the appearance of snow (though I agreeeeeeeeeeee......not the slipping and slithering ice!!!). I would any day exchange icy environs for hot 'humid' climate! We had uncovered and explored every small and big beautiful streets or anything worth seeing in U-C. I guess there weren't too many to enlist but it was mostly the pleasant, quiet, academic environment that really got to me. I remember when I landed for the first time, I immediately sensed how pleasant and peaceful this place was, so well suited for academic perusals. I also realized why people want to come to the US to study further. What with all the facilities and world class professors.
We traveled from C in our car and along the way, the level of snow was visibly reducing :( with the temperature steadily rising. Around mid day we hit a gas station at St. Louis and outside the temperature was so pleasant that we didn't have to wear our heavy coats anymore. This time while we passed the St. Louis downtown, we passed so near the Arch that I couldn't help myself click away as and when I could sneak one. I say sneak because I was the navigator and downtown can be so confusing. You almost always have to take a turn when you see a moment which is perfectly camera worthy. I missed the Dallas downtown that way. :(
So we kept moving and took stops whenever we needed to stretch our legs. We reached my husband's uncle's place around 10 in the night. Though the children were supposed to be sleeping they were up and waiting for us... :)  We had a swell time eating great food and laying back for a day in their place.. It was still a little chilly in Arkansas. But once we hit Oklahoma, it was warm! And the more you head south, the more it gets warmer. The drive from Arkansas through Oklahoma to Texas border is a beautiful one. You pass over mountains, tunnels and over rivers. It was splendid. Thanks to some goodies from his aunt, we nibbled away along the way!

Once we entered Texas, EVERYTHING WAS BIG. The roads were bigger and the cars were bigger.  And there were vast plain fields on either sides. We covered this stretch pretty fast. We reached Houston around 7 pm. The weather was so pleasant that I needed only a sweater. Now its been over a week in Houston and I am getting used to the place. Its a huge city and a different atmosphere.. There are a lot of Indian restaurants, grocery stores and temples(not so much a biggie for ones in big cities. But it certainly made a difference as we came from a really small town of Champaign). We went to the Meenakshi Amman kovil on the Sunday. It was such a beautiful temple and we were too late for the dosas and idlis but the plain curd rice which we got was so simple yet so yummy....... :) It ranks among one of the biggest temples I have seen in the US and a very beautiful temple.
I am writing this blog after such a long time and This is my first blog of this year. I am too late for the Happy new years and Happy pongals.. But I want to wish you all the same! Good day!

Rema

GRE DIWALI!!!

I gave my GRE test recently. Glad that after prolonging it for almost a year, I could finish it and be satisfied with my performance.. :) Its fall season here.. The most beautiful time of the year.. Its as though God got even more creative with a painting brush and bright colors! They make such amazing pictures. Every time I go out I go equipped with a camera to capture yet another tree that has changed its color or one I missed out on the last time!! ;)

Because I was studying( this is an approximate statement. I was probably wasting the time away and feeling guilty!) I haven't been watching many movies. I am happy to say that it is actually good to spend time doing other things even its cleaning or browsing net than watching movies. Movies are a good pass time but excess of it denies you the pleasure of enjoying more worth while things in life.

We had two important festivals last month. Navaratri and Diwali.. :) Enjoyed both of them.. My GRE test was on Diwali! ;)

MYSTIC RIVER

I watched 'mystic river' yesterday. It has a rating of 8 in IMDB. The movie is about the life of three friends who grow together in the same neighborhood. They live in this neighborhood all their lives and how each of their lives turn out differently in the end. One boy named Dave is abused in his childhood. He is kidnapped by two men and held in a secret location for 4 days before he escapes captivity somehow. Another boy named Jimmie is the bravest in the group. He later becomes the head of underworld of the area. He changes after his return from jail when he finds himself responsible for his daughter who is left motherless. He fears that he may not be protecting and taking care of his beloved daughter well and chooses a more peaceful life for her sake.

The third one named Sean who later becomes a cop. He is successful and does well in service. Dave is always a bit fearful and acts paranoid. The story takes a turn, with the death of the Jimmie's daughter. He is destroyed by her death. He wants to find the killer of her daughter and punish the killer in his own way. He unleashes his gang who investigate for him. Sean, the cop is assigned to the job of finding the killer of the girl. He and his partner go around investigating.

The storyline of the movie is built around the anonymous criminal who committed the crime and how the crime spoils the friendship between three friends. Dave's character is always a little less confident and droopy. He was in the bar the night she was found murdered. He returns home that night with blood on his hands and his wife is shocked to see him like this. He explains that he had been mugged on his way home and he had attacked the mugger and sustained injuries. She believes him but in the paper finds no mention of death of any man.

All the local news channels are covering the murder of jimmie's daughter. Dave's wife suspects that her husband might have murdered the girl. She hides this little secret within herself even as she helps out as a support to Jimmie and his wife. The inspector also does his routine work questioning everyone who was in the bar that night and interviews Dave as well.. He doesnt really suspect Dave of doing anything. But slowly when they find the presence in the back of his car of someone's blood. The blood type from the sample matchs that of Jimmie's daughter, he becomes a suspect.

Meanwhile Dave's wife tells Jimmie of her fears that she fears Dave might have committed the crime. Jimmie takes this to his heart and asks his men to bring Dave to a bar where he would question him personally. Dave is drunk and Jimmie questions him. Dave tells him everything that happened that night. He had been returning home after staying in the bar when he saw a man molesting a boy in the car. He lost control and killed the man by repeatedly beating him.

This was the reason why he was blood stained when he returned home that night. But Jimmie wouldn't believe him. He kept pestering dave and promised to let him live if he told that he was the person who killed his daughter. In the end Dave tells him that he killed Jimmie's daughter even though he hadn't. Jimmie stabs and shoots Dave to death. Sean the cop on the other hand finds a breakthrough in the case. he finds an ambiguity in the 911 call made about the murder. he discovers that there was someone entirely different who had committed the murder. the girl was in love with a boy and his brother had killed the girl. as they were planning to leave for las vegas where they would get married. This boy was very possessive of his brother. So he and his friend had killed the girl.

Dave was a person who lacked confidence and loved his only son very much. He was destroyed by an incident in his past. That came to haunt him, making him murder a man abusing someone else. He was abondaned by his wife, who feared that he had killed Jimmie's daughter. It is unfortunate for Dave's son who lost his father at a young age and his wife who not knowing what all Dave went through, thought him to be the murderer. Jimmie who lost his daughter took law into his hands and unnecessarily killed his friend. It is a complex and well woven story about the relationships between friends and how it all changed when there was suspicion. You can argue that what happened in childhood to dave was the reason for everything that happened. This is an incident that affected not just Dave but all of them for they were never normal again. There is a reference to it in the end when Jimmie mentions how he felt that the three boys were trapped in the secret place, still unable to escape from it. It is a movie well worth watching. It is suspense filled. You feel sorry for Dave and his family.

OLD MOVIES

Why do I like old movies? Well let me tell you what kind of movies I like in general. I like movies that have a great story to tell, like stories of courage, determination and inspiration. Also I like movies that have a lovable character. I have seen a few old movies to see that most of the ones that I have seen seem to have a central lovable or strong character. Sometimes it seems to be just about the emotions and relationships than any real story.
They seem to concentrate on how this one or more characters was in his or her life. And the movie may or may not have a great story to it. For example, one movie i watched recently was hush hush sweet Charlotte. The movie was about a woman. how she had grown up being blamed for her lover;s murder. In the end we find out that she hadn't killed her lover. But even though we can argue that there was a murder mystery. the movie in fact revolved around this one character mostly. Not on the story. This is one thing that gets highlighted.
I also like adventure movies. With some suspense and action. Most of the old movies are good. some of them have ended abruptly but they are good because of the great characters they have projected.

MADAME CURIE (MOVIE REVIEW)

I watched this wonderful movie the other day. It was a such a sweet, inspiring tale of Madame curie's life. How she met Dr Curie who later married her and how they both did amazing things. In the beginning she is portrayed as a poor student who has an amazing love for science. She is doing her major in physics and mathematics from the university of Paris. She is handpicked by her teacher to be the one who would do an internship with a company. She accidentally faints in class of that teacher and he is very kind to take her to a restaurant and buy her food. As even though she denies not having lunch he knows that she hasn't had anything to eat.. And then he tells her that he has picked her out of the entire class to do the work. She is elated. But needs some lab to work.

The prof solves that problem by telling her that he would ask Dr curie if he can lend her the extra work room he has. When the prof asks him he replies that he could share his lab as it is large not knowing that the person the professor is sending is in fact a young lady!! But when he finds out its too late. She arrives the next day to work in the lab. And he fumbles about. So the doctor who didn't like any woman because they were a stumbling block to his work now found that he couldn't work without her around. So a happy year passing. She then informs Dr Curie that she is leaving the univ to go back to Poland to stay with her father.

Now he cant stop himself from asking to stay there and study further but she is adamant. Later after attending the convocation ceremony which he said he wouldn't attend because he didn't like crowds. he comes to her house and agitatedly asks her to if she would please come and stay with his family in the outskirts of Paris for a week. She agrees to his astonishment! and they spend a good time there.. And right at the start of it, Dr Curie rather poetically explains to her how much he loves her and how beneficial such an alliance would be for both of them. this scene is so touching. It is not just I love you marry me. Its more of: since we both are such great scientists and I cant work without your presence, lets wed and be together and help each other out. Though it seems rather formal. In fact their marriage was a heart warming event. They stayed true to each other till the end and they achieved marvels together.

After marriage Madame curie as she was now called starts researching for her doctoral degree. she works on radioactivity. For this she needs a bigger lab, where she could work on isolating a new element. Her husband Dr Curie supports her cause from start to finish. They are allotted an unused shed as lab room and she accepts. They both work and clean the place. They manually melt the ore pitchblende and from it isolate the elusive radium after four years of hard labor and work.

After this they were awarded the Nobel prize and a brand new laboratory. Mean while Dr Curie asks his wife to continue the work, they have been doing even if one of them were to pass away. One day while he is returning from a jewelery store carrying a pair of golden earrings, thinking how beautiful Madame looked in the first evening gown she ever wore in her life, that day for the felicitation ceremony, he dies when he accidentally comes under the wheel of a carriage. Madame curie is devastated. But later she finds courage in Dr Curie's words and continues researching. She is only one to win two Nobel prizes in Physics and Chemistry. It was an awesome feel good movie. It talks of their mutual love, admiration and all the hard work they put together for their accomplishments. Their legacy will live on. And Madame Curie will live on to inspire thousands of women who are now researching and following her lead in various disciplines.

Rema

WONDERS OF THE EYE

The human eye is one of the most expressive element of the human being. It is also very beautiful. There are some things that cannot be expressed in words, but they find expression in the eye. Sometimes, the eye expresses the deepest thoughts in the heart of a person which they were probably blocking from being seen by someone.

I once heard a story where a young girl asks a saint where is god? he says child go and look in your eye in the mirror. You will see the soul and hence god. The child does the same. And is bewildered to see that there is so much hidden behind the small eye! There was beautiful sparkle and she couldn't take her attention away from the deep things that seemed hidden behind this beautiful organ.

On a scientific note, the human eye is the reason we can see this world. If the eye was similar to watching through a lenses or glasses at the world. which would put a tinge of some color say blue or green in everything, we are probably looking at the world the particular way that it would look if I wore a stained pair of glasses before them. Its amazing that even though we perceive that the eye is made of the same kind of flesh and blood as the rest of the body we are seeing through it!! on the other hand we cannot do the same with ordinary skin!! this is how amazing life is!

It is true that the eye is one of the most expressive organs. Even animals that don't speak find expressions for some of their deepest desires and thoughts in the eye. But I also sometimes feel sad that this very expression can be surpassed or used to advantage by certain people in certain professions. Like the acting profession. I feel amazed to see how convincingly people can act in movies and probably in real life!! They use this very almost divine expression to their advantage. So it leads me to think that expression of the eye is beautiful when it is combined with the child like innocence. I find a child's eye to be the most beautiful and most expressive one. As a child is innocent and open to different things as it has not formed the so called personality (ego!!)