i love salads... fruit, vegetable, fruit and vegetable...easy to make, easier to eat! here is what i have been doing lately...
Fruity-vegetable salad
I have used:
one each of
guava
tomato
tender cucumber
carrot
pear
5 jackfruit pods/bulbs, deseeded
half a cup of dahi (yoghurt) made of double toned milk
a quarter tsp each of ground black pepper, mustard ( you can ground about ten teaspoonfuls and store in a glass jar )and salt for the dressing.
cut all the fruits into small cubes; stir into dahi, pepper, mustard and salt. pour over the fruit-vegetable, mix well, cool for a few minutes and dig in.. it is truly filling, lovely taste and non-fattening!!
you can go with any combo of fruit and vegetables or just a fruit or vegetable really.. i tried with just tomatoes and it was yummy!! i keep changing the fruits... papayas are a great favourite of mine... apples are crunchy and mangoes are ...indescribable! try cabbage, capsicum, green gram sprouts also...
ensai... as they say in our own tamil movies....
Monday, May 25, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
The Chennai Marathon, August 2008
The Chennai Marathon.
I don’t quite know what I imagined it would be like. We, some of the lady officers of the Railways in Chennai, did go for ‘practice runs’ on two Saturdays and completed the Chennai Run- all 7 kms of it, without stopping, although the speed at which we ran wouldn’t have set any records on fire! Quite a few registered for the run, but it was only the four of us (vk madam, hema, rathi and I) who religiously ‘practiced’ as we say in our part of the world and the four of us who completed the run. We congratulated ourselves each time… it’s a piece of cake we told each other, we would breeze through….
The big day arrived..31st August, 2008 it was. Believe it or not, I was like a little kid before Deepavali, I could hardly sleep! I was so excited! Did the others feel the same way? Yes they did, they told me so….as I said, Sunday dawned nice and bright, in my area. At the appointed hour I presented myself, complete in our logo-marked t-shirt, tracks and running shoes at the place where we were all to board a bus which would take us to the starting point of the race. Unfortunately, due to one or two laggards, we got a tad delayed and by the time we arrived at the Island grounds from where the run was to be flagged off, the place was a sea of humanity. People everywhere, in every direction, in colorful t-shirts and tracks. There were thousands of school children, all assembled there by the diktat of higher administration one gathers. Still they were there and that was important. Anxious parents stood alongside- I don’t understand, why when they came along with the kids, they couldn’t just join in the run. I really don’t. Perhaps, they too didn’t quite know what to expect just like me. Or for that matter the organizers themselves!!
In the end, we joined somewhere in the middle with a few thousands ahead of us and what seemed like a few hundred thousands behind us. There were many announcements in Tamil, the local language, much extortion to be safe, and take care of the child next to oneself as one’s own child/brother/sister and so on. Green, blue and white balloons were released and we watched them become tiny white specks high up in the sky. We waited and waited for the chief guest to arrive and eventually he did and somewhere up ahead, the flag was swung and we were off… at least the first few hundreds were off… and we? We started shuffling ahead!! So much for running! We were hard put to stay on our feet, there was a mass pushing from behind. If one was not alert then one would surely fall? And there would be a stampede?! However, we started finding gaps, and three of us started forging ahead and started to slowly jog our way through people of all ages, shapes and size. There were school bands playing well known tunes, there were loud speakers blaring away and all the while we steadily moved forward. There were videographers along the way, capturing the moment for posterity. Before we knew it, we had completed two kilometers and had arrived at Anna Square. As we jogged across the road, we found water sachets being distributed- 830 AM, the sun was already high in the sky and people were sweating buckets and water was very welcome. But we didn’t go to get one, people crowding around people distributing water was very off-putting and we just carried on. Soon we found that running was not the safest thing to do on marina that day! Kids sprayed water over each other and once they finished, the plastic sachets were just chucked on the road. Before long, the whole stretch of road was covered with litter, mainly plastic water sachets. Carefully and steadily we jogged our way to the light house, took a U-turn there and jogged back to Queen Mary’s College, where there was a reception committee of sorts, noting down the chest numbers of the joggers who passed through the human tunnel that had been formed at the ‘finish-line’. Feeling thrilled with ourselves for having completed the run, we got ourselves some bottled water and waited for the others to join us. We found our transport waiting in the appointed place and left feeling very accomplished and good. All of us stopped off at the restaurant in Sterling Club for a well deserved break fast and broke up to go home… I talk about that marathon even today.
P.S. last week I got a certificate from the organizers… for participating and completing the 7-KM Chennai Run!! I couldn’t stop showing it off to all and sundry, I tell you!! And guess what?! It was signed by Ms. Kanimozhi, the charismatic daughter of the present CM of Tamil Nadu.
I don’t quite know what I imagined it would be like. We, some of the lady officers of the Railways in Chennai, did go for ‘practice runs’ on two Saturdays and completed the Chennai Run- all 7 kms of it, without stopping, although the speed at which we ran wouldn’t have set any records on fire! Quite a few registered for the run, but it was only the four of us (vk madam, hema, rathi and I) who religiously ‘practiced’ as we say in our part of the world and the four of us who completed the run. We congratulated ourselves each time… it’s a piece of cake we told each other, we would breeze through….
The big day arrived..31st August, 2008 it was. Believe it or not, I was like a little kid before Deepavali, I could hardly sleep! I was so excited! Did the others feel the same way? Yes they did, they told me so….as I said, Sunday dawned nice and bright, in my area. At the appointed hour I presented myself, complete in our logo-marked t-shirt, tracks and running shoes at the place where we were all to board a bus which would take us to the starting point of the race. Unfortunately, due to one or two laggards, we got a tad delayed and by the time we arrived at the Island grounds from where the run was to be flagged off, the place was a sea of humanity. People everywhere, in every direction, in colorful t-shirts and tracks. There were thousands of school children, all assembled there by the diktat of higher administration one gathers. Still they were there and that was important. Anxious parents stood alongside- I don’t understand, why when they came along with the kids, they couldn’t just join in the run. I really don’t. Perhaps, they too didn’t quite know what to expect just like me. Or for that matter the organizers themselves!!
In the end, we joined somewhere in the middle with a few thousands ahead of us and what seemed like a few hundred thousands behind us. There were many announcements in Tamil, the local language, much extortion to be safe, and take care of the child next to oneself as one’s own child/brother/sister and so on. Green, blue and white balloons were released and we watched them become tiny white specks high up in the sky. We waited and waited for the chief guest to arrive and eventually he did and somewhere up ahead, the flag was swung and we were off… at least the first few hundreds were off… and we? We started shuffling ahead!! So much for running! We were hard put to stay on our feet, there was a mass pushing from behind. If one was not alert then one would surely fall? And there would be a stampede?! However, we started finding gaps, and three of us started forging ahead and started to slowly jog our way through people of all ages, shapes and size. There were school bands playing well known tunes, there were loud speakers blaring away and all the while we steadily moved forward. There were videographers along the way, capturing the moment for posterity. Before we knew it, we had completed two kilometers and had arrived at Anna Square. As we jogged across the road, we found water sachets being distributed- 830 AM, the sun was already high in the sky and people were sweating buckets and water was very welcome. But we didn’t go to get one, people crowding around people distributing water was very off-putting and we just carried on. Soon we found that running was not the safest thing to do on marina that day! Kids sprayed water over each other and once they finished, the plastic sachets were just chucked on the road. Before long, the whole stretch of road was covered with litter, mainly plastic water sachets. Carefully and steadily we jogged our way to the light house, took a U-turn there and jogged back to Queen Mary’s College, where there was a reception committee of sorts, noting down the chest numbers of the joggers who passed through the human tunnel that had been formed at the ‘finish-line’. Feeling thrilled with ourselves for having completed the run, we got ourselves some bottled water and waited for the others to join us. We found our transport waiting in the appointed place and left feeling very accomplished and good. All of us stopped off at the restaurant in Sterling Club for a well deserved break fast and broke up to go home… I talk about that marathon even today.
P.S. last week I got a certificate from the organizers… for participating and completing the 7-KM Chennai Run!! I couldn’t stop showing it off to all and sundry, I tell you!! And guess what?! It was signed by Ms. Kanimozhi, the charismatic daughter of the present CM of Tamil Nadu.
Monday, March 30, 2009
weight loss review
september 2008...that was when i reviewed my weight loss.. and my fans would be wondering why i have been lying low. well for good reason. i havent thought about it thats why! yup! yeah!! yes!!! portion control, exercise, careful eating, counting calories etc has slowly become a part of my life and routine. desire to 'taste' this food or that food, eat "just for taste" has definitely taken a back seat. i have been chugging away at it slowly and steadily.. the proverbial tortoise, that is me.
and the results? good, very good. in fact, great! almost 18 pounds dropped another 18 'only' to go...
fruit and milk for breakfast, phulkas, dal and subji for lunch, snacks mid morning and mid afternoon comprising marie bisc. and tea with sugar free, dinner veggies, fruits and yoghurt..yes to the fried stuff also but in very very tiny quantities.. so life isnt that bad.
i wrote all of the above in march '09!! and forgot all about the draft waiting patiently for me!! but havent forgotten that i want to lose weight. between then and now, i have made a trip to singapore and one to west lafayette.. my daughter's fridge is full of delicious stuff.. but control, control, that was the mantra and i returned from w.l. without putting on an ounce.
well between march and now, that is 8 months down the line, you would expect i would have lost at least 8 lbs? no such luck, and of course i have only myself to blame, dont you know.....but it is not back to 69.5 kgs.. i am , shall we say, "maintaining" at 59.5kgs... yup, ten good kilos gone and good luck to me. my target as you will see on calorie count is 52 kgs.. but that really seems such a long way off...
lately, and that is about a week back, i resumed jogging... and good timing.. monsoons have set in!! i am fed up- but give up i wont. i have been casting around in my mind to discover equally calorie burning activities- indoors, that is important. at the moment going to the gym is not an option. let us leave it at that for the present.. it is not an option.. so what to do? still working on it, meanwhile i have an old stationary bike i sit on and pedal away... not difficult pedalling and all that, i dont want to lose interest in exercising, and it really hurts the seat, you know ? to be sitting and cycling for more than 20 mts at a time... the fat must be fast vanishing from there, i suppose, was not so difficult once upon i time....still, easy cycling uses more energy than just sitting around on your seat right?
and the results? good, very good. in fact, great! almost 18 pounds dropped another 18 'only' to go...
fruit and milk for breakfast, phulkas, dal and subji for lunch, snacks mid morning and mid afternoon comprising marie bisc. and tea with sugar free, dinner veggies, fruits and yoghurt..yes to the fried stuff also but in very very tiny quantities.. so life isnt that bad.
i wrote all of the above in march '09!! and forgot all about the draft waiting patiently for me!! but havent forgotten that i want to lose weight. between then and now, i have made a trip to singapore and one to west lafayette.. my daughter's fridge is full of delicious stuff.. but control, control, that was the mantra and i returned from w.l. without putting on an ounce.
well between march and now, that is 8 months down the line, you would expect i would have lost at least 8 lbs? no such luck, and of course i have only myself to blame, dont you know.....but it is not back to 69.5 kgs.. i am , shall we say, "maintaining" at 59.5kgs... yup, ten good kilos gone and good luck to me. my target as you will see on calorie count is 52 kgs.. but that really seems such a long way off...
lately, and that is about a week back, i resumed jogging... and good timing.. monsoons have set in!! i am fed up- but give up i wont. i have been casting around in my mind to discover equally calorie burning activities- indoors, that is important. at the moment going to the gym is not an option. let us leave it at that for the present.. it is not an option.. so what to do? still working on it, meanwhile i have an old stationary bike i sit on and pedal away... not difficult pedalling and all that, i dont want to lose interest in exercising, and it really hurts the seat, you know ? to be sitting and cycling for more than 20 mts at a time... the fat must be fast vanishing from there, i suppose, was not so difficult once upon i time....still, easy cycling uses more energy than just sitting around on your seat right?
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Indian English
i have been nominated for a training course in singapore...well, one can never say, the course itself could get cancelled in which case no seeing singapore at government expense yaar, but theek hai, sub chalta hai...but the reason why i mentioned this is this: no sooner nominated, i did a google search on singapore, found out this and that about the place and while doing that, my attention was grabbed by a hyperlink "indian english" and i was curious...now how many times i must have seen that phrase in the hundreds of pages i must have read on the net i cannot say, but this time round it did catch my eye and i said to myself, really? indian english? now what is that?
now of course, i speak it, i write it, i read it, and i do everything possible with it... but i didnt, sort of think of it as 'indian english'...know what i mean? being 'convent educated', and then having gone to a CBSE school where i was taught english by an anglo-indian, i think you are that, no sir? (maria philip sir, are you reading this blog?i do remember very fondly, you and your enactment of "Othello"), i always thought that i spoke british english albeit with a thick south indian accent (wow! i have admitted to that??!!!) and of course was too uppity re the american english. but u cannot escape american english, right, esp when you have hazaar relatives living in america, and your favourite movies are all hollywood made!! and you end up writing a bit of that also ( that word! now i can view that without cringing!!).
never has another wikipedia page given me more fun time than the one on indian english- and made me so thoughtful...i went on hmming all the time when i read that page, and guess what, (is that american?), at the end of the reading, and did it take time! i was at peace with myself and my english. i no longer worry about not speaking perfect english, i am not worried anymore that i am, day by day, becoming more american-english speaking, and i am positively proud now, of speaking our kind of english. and i wont be judgemental about any kind of english, it had to take that page to make me this!!
btw, do you know that spellings are not going to be a big deal in the CBSE exams anymore? yup! i remember reading somewhere, an article which starts out as english and with many spelling changes becomes german!!maybe that is where we are heading!!
ciao!
now of course, i speak it, i write it, i read it, and i do everything possible with it... but i didnt, sort of think of it as 'indian english'...know what i mean? being 'convent educated', and then having gone to a CBSE school where i was taught english by an anglo-indian, i think you are that, no sir? (maria philip sir, are you reading this blog?i do remember very fondly, you and your enactment of "Othello"), i always thought that i spoke british english albeit with a thick south indian accent (wow! i have admitted to that??!!!) and of course was too uppity re the american english. but u cannot escape american english, right, esp when you have hazaar relatives living in america, and your favourite movies are all hollywood made!! and you end up writing a bit of that also ( that word! now i can view that without cringing!!).
never has another wikipedia page given me more fun time than the one on indian english- and made me so thoughtful...i went on hmming all the time when i read that page, and guess what, (is that american?), at the end of the reading, and did it take time! i was at peace with myself and my english. i no longer worry about not speaking perfect english, i am not worried anymore that i am, day by day, becoming more american-english speaking, and i am positively proud now, of speaking our kind of english. and i wont be judgemental about any kind of english, it had to take that page to make me this!!
btw, do you know that spellings are not going to be a big deal in the CBSE exams anymore? yup! i remember reading somewhere, an article which starts out as english and with many spelling changes becomes german!!maybe that is where we are heading!!
ciao!
Friday, March 13, 2009
Swaminarayan temple in delhi
Last week, when i was in Delhi, and "we are put up" as we say in this part of the world, in Mayur Vihar,my husband and i decided to go to "Akshardham". Often have i passed this temple on my way to and from Mayur Vihar, and every trip i made to delhi, i'd tell myself, "this time i will surely go there" but wouldnt get round to doing that. what is there behind those high walls, i kept asking myself but didnt find the time to find out, alhtough i have been to delhi hazaar times.
finally, on the day before holi this year, we made the trip to akshardham. here is what i experienced.
we drove to the temple; at the entrance, we were asked to alight from our car... obviously, the 'security' at the gates said, you cant go to the parking lot.. get down here, and walk to the temple; right we said and off we got and walked to the row of 'counters'. at counter no. one we got a form which we filled in to store our mobiles phones and my "ladies hand bag". we were asked to remove the batteries from the cell phone.. there goes my called list i thought but we obeyed and we were given a token in token of having received our goods. btw, at this point i must make it a point to tell you that there are arrangements available for you to fill in the form comfortably, pens dangling down strings harnessed to upright writing desks, where you stand and fill out personal details. you can store away any number of mobile phones, in fact families are encouraged to put all their stuff in one lot and not fill up 'n' number of forms... but you need to give only one mobile number. be sure to remember the number, coz you got to rattle it off when you go back to collect your 'things'. there is much security check, and seriously, at one point i thought this was more like taking a flight than going into a temple. much later i recalled that there was an unpleasant incident a few years back in our of our States in a similar temple.. no wonder, in retrospect... i think.
right, after the security frisking, and boy did that girl frisk me, yes, separate counters for men and women, we were in....
and gosh, what a grand sight... truly magnificient.. well manicured lawns, huge huge structures, carved and stuff like that. quite reminded me of halebid and belur. to enter the main temple of Swaminarayan, you need to take off footwear (you are allowed to keep your socks on) and store them away in the 'boot house'. the guys manning the boot house ask you "how many people" and depending on the number, we said two, they hand out a bag of appropriate size. well, we said two, and the boy handed over a small bag, in which we mushkil sey stuffed (my) nike and (his) adidas shoes.. not sounding hoity toity here, just to say that those shoes can really be big for those bags!! after that we climbed a wide flight of stairs and entered the temple.... what ornation! what carvings!! such high ceilings!! so peaceful! so cool... i was quite awestruck. having recently returned from rome, recently, as time goes interms of yugas and years, and having spent much of my stay in rome gawking at ancient structures, i couldnt help but feel the goose pimples that grew over me at the thought of walking down halls and corridors which would form history. todays people are tomorrow's ancestors, right? i had visions of people of the 25th century looking at akshardham and saying, this is how our ancients lived.. look at the carving on wood and stone and granite.... and so on and so forth. the huge huge huge brass murti of Swaminarayan was impressive... was it only brass? i wonder. i wouldnt be surprised if it was gold... no expense has been spared in the building of this temple. and it is like no other temple i have seen in india....
a couple of hours is just not enough. one should plan to spend a full day at this temple. go around 11 ish in the morning after breakfast, and spend the whole day there. on holidays esp, u would need the time, coz the place would be crowded like anything and you would have to spend a goodly hour in the various 'Q's. we didnt go on the boat trip nor did we see the exhibition- we just hadnt planned on spending the whole day there. we thought it would just be like any of the many other temples we have been to. go, pray, return...
actually, this is not just a temple of worship, it is also a tourist attraction...know what i mean?
like here,in india, in our 'normal' temples, you will not find washrooms, far less so immaculately kept, receptions where American-accented prettly sari-clad young girls 'volunteering' handing over the glossy pamphlet and explaining in detail what one would find there. this young girl told me, that 'Swami narayana bhagwan hai'-i had asked her if they beleived He was God, and she said He is God and the conviction shown in her eyes. huge huge lawns with lovely seasonal flowering plants, mosaic floors spic and span, silence, no oil lamps, and come to think of it, no bells either, except where you do the "abhishekam" and the poojari rings the bell...no flower offerings, no breaking of coconuts... yes, to repeat, to the toilets/washrooms, heavy security, a snack bar, and a full fledged food court. we bought 'kachoris' (2 medium sized ones for 12 rupees, or was it 15? piping hot and tasty as tasty can be) and a kulfi, equally reasonably priced, sat under a tree and ate, in bliss, marvelling at the fact that the kachoris, so neatly presented, so tasty was so "not at all expensive", talked about the whole show and came to the conclusion that there was a lot of NRI believers' money plowed into this enterprise, that it must be a no-profit venture. there is the souvenier centre selling all kinds of religious knick-knacks and gifts....
its a temple not only for swaminarayan, but there are shrines for the other gods of the indian pantheon, krishna, vishnu, shiva, parvati, lakshmi...i dont recall brahma... but that could just be my memory, these days 'it is failing like anything', as we say in my part of the country...
i havent seen the temple my husband's cousin and others built in Iowa, but i have heard them talk of it, and i beleive it must be something like Akshardham only on a much smaller scale... he talked of 'Swaminarayan', a kitchen (which of course our temples in south india do have), washrooms and so forth...
its like nothing like i have experienced before in india... if i was to draw a very loose comparison, than i would say it was like being in the Vatican!! so many similarities between india and italy... but that is the subject matter of another blog...
anybody who visits delhi, must, must, must see this place... it is worth spending the whole day there... and it is quite a sobering experience, very awesome and above all, so, so peaceful! i came away very thoughtful and slightly envious of the project managers who executed this project...this is purely from a professional point of view....whenever i see the Arakonam-Chingleput broad guage line,or other similar railway projects, i feel a sense of pride and possession, since i was involved in that project and i kept thinking how proud the people who envisioned this project, who dreamed it, who put it on paper and then on the land must feel about it...
all in all i had a great time.
finally, on the day before holi this year, we made the trip to akshardham. here is what i experienced.
we drove to the temple; at the entrance, we were asked to alight from our car... obviously, the 'security' at the gates said, you cant go to the parking lot.. get down here, and walk to the temple; right we said and off we got and walked to the row of 'counters'. at counter no. one we got a form which we filled in to store our mobiles phones and my "ladies hand bag". we were asked to remove the batteries from the cell phone.. there goes my called list i thought but we obeyed and we were given a token in token of having received our goods. btw, at this point i must make it a point to tell you that there are arrangements available for you to fill in the form comfortably, pens dangling down strings harnessed to upright writing desks, where you stand and fill out personal details. you can store away any number of mobile phones, in fact families are encouraged to put all their stuff in one lot and not fill up 'n' number of forms... but you need to give only one mobile number. be sure to remember the number, coz you got to rattle it off when you go back to collect your 'things'. there is much security check, and seriously, at one point i thought this was more like taking a flight than going into a temple. much later i recalled that there was an unpleasant incident a few years back in our of our States in a similar temple.. no wonder, in retrospect... i think.
right, after the security frisking, and boy did that girl frisk me, yes, separate counters for men and women, we were in....
and gosh, what a grand sight... truly magnificient.. well manicured lawns, huge huge structures, carved and stuff like that. quite reminded me of halebid and belur. to enter the main temple of Swaminarayan, you need to take off footwear (you are allowed to keep your socks on) and store them away in the 'boot house'. the guys manning the boot house ask you "how many people" and depending on the number, we said two, they hand out a bag of appropriate size. well, we said two, and the boy handed over a small bag, in which we mushkil sey stuffed (my) nike and (his) adidas shoes.. not sounding hoity toity here, just to say that those shoes can really be big for those bags!! after that we climbed a wide flight of stairs and entered the temple.... what ornation! what carvings!! such high ceilings!! so peaceful! so cool... i was quite awestruck. having recently returned from rome, recently, as time goes interms of yugas and years, and having spent much of my stay in rome gawking at ancient structures, i couldnt help but feel the goose pimples that grew over me at the thought of walking down halls and corridors which would form history. todays people are tomorrow's ancestors, right? i had visions of people of the 25th century looking at akshardham and saying, this is how our ancients lived.. look at the carving on wood and stone and granite.... and so on and so forth. the huge huge huge brass murti of Swaminarayan was impressive... was it only brass? i wonder. i wouldnt be surprised if it was gold... no expense has been spared in the building of this temple. and it is like no other temple i have seen in india....
a couple of hours is just not enough. one should plan to spend a full day at this temple. go around 11 ish in the morning after breakfast, and spend the whole day there. on holidays esp, u would need the time, coz the place would be crowded like anything and you would have to spend a goodly hour in the various 'Q's. we didnt go on the boat trip nor did we see the exhibition- we just hadnt planned on spending the whole day there. we thought it would just be like any of the many other temples we have been to. go, pray, return...
actually, this is not just a temple of worship, it is also a tourist attraction...know what i mean?
like here,in india, in our 'normal' temples, you will not find washrooms, far less so immaculately kept, receptions where American-accented prettly sari-clad young girls 'volunteering' handing over the glossy pamphlet and explaining in detail what one would find there. this young girl told me, that 'Swami narayana bhagwan hai'-i had asked her if they beleived He was God, and she said He is God and the conviction shown in her eyes. huge huge lawns with lovely seasonal flowering plants, mosaic floors spic and span, silence, no oil lamps, and come to think of it, no bells either, except where you do the "abhishekam" and the poojari rings the bell...no flower offerings, no breaking of coconuts... yes, to repeat, to the toilets/washrooms, heavy security, a snack bar, and a full fledged food court. we bought 'kachoris' (2 medium sized ones for 12 rupees, or was it 15? piping hot and tasty as tasty can be) and a kulfi, equally reasonably priced, sat under a tree and ate, in bliss, marvelling at the fact that the kachoris, so neatly presented, so tasty was so "not at all expensive", talked about the whole show and came to the conclusion that there was a lot of NRI believers' money plowed into this enterprise, that it must be a no-profit venture. there is the souvenier centre selling all kinds of religious knick-knacks and gifts....
its a temple not only for swaminarayan, but there are shrines for the other gods of the indian pantheon, krishna, vishnu, shiva, parvati, lakshmi...i dont recall brahma... but that could just be my memory, these days 'it is failing like anything', as we say in my part of the country...
i havent seen the temple my husband's cousin and others built in Iowa, but i have heard them talk of it, and i beleive it must be something like Akshardham only on a much smaller scale... he talked of 'Swaminarayan', a kitchen (which of course our temples in south india do have), washrooms and so forth...
its like nothing like i have experienced before in india... if i was to draw a very loose comparison, than i would say it was like being in the Vatican!! so many similarities between india and italy... but that is the subject matter of another blog...
anybody who visits delhi, must, must, must see this place... it is worth spending the whole day there... and it is quite a sobering experience, very awesome and above all, so, so peaceful! i came away very thoughtful and slightly envious of the project managers who executed this project...this is purely from a professional point of view....whenever i see the Arakonam-Chingleput broad guage line,or other similar railway projects, i feel a sense of pride and possession, since i was involved in that project and i kept thinking how proud the people who envisioned this project, who dreamed it, who put it on paper and then on the land must feel about it...
all in all i had a great time.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Acharapakkam again!
We were on NH 45 again, this week end, and guess what, yessssss, it was the iyyiru otel in Acharapakkam again, that saw us trooping in, early in the morning for breakfast and late in the night for "light tiffin" instead of 'meals'. The idlis were still steaming and the vadas were not yet made; we were offered 'boori' and pongal, but no, we preferred to wait for the idlis and vadas.. and boy was the wait worth it! never have i eaten such super vadas, i tell you. as the men in the family would say it, we "cannot, means cannot" make such vadas "at home". as they would have it, ours drip with oil, they can squeeze out the oil..etc!! secretly, i have to agree to this observation, galling though it is. the hot-hot idlis, vadas and sambar-chutney went down the hatch in no time at all, and shamefully, i had room for a boori also, as it turned out. so that too was despatched quickly, washed down with coffee..yummy....
i thought i would not be able to eat a morsel more for a week. but no, i didnt reckon with that organ i call a stomach...it is just a huge inflatable baloon, i tell you. i have to remind you that i am on this weight loss mission. or so i would have everybody believe. not if you had seen me in action yesterday. i ate like it was my last breakfast and last lunch. yah, the lunch i must tell you about that too....we went to Vaitheeswaran koil you see. and after devoutly offering prayers, (of course, after consuming sambar with vengayam and all that, but we are convinced that the manasu should be suttham -the mind/heart should be clean! that is important) we traipsed off to this small mess close to the temple. there is this mami there, who makes these heavenly meals. when we went though, they were prepared to shut shop. they told us that if we were willing to have sadaam, sambar and extra appalam, they would serve us food, but there was no kai (vegetable side dish) left. if we would wait just a few minutes, rice was 'just' getting ready and we would be served food in '10 minutes'( the mami went off to make some kootu also, we saw her carrying away some cabbage) we agreed with alacrity and sat ourselves at the bench. no sooner than the banana leaves were spread in front of us, (those were our 'plates'- in most of the messes and otels they serve food on banana leaves and quite hygenic that is too), than another group walked in followed by a boisterous leader. seeing that a large clientele had gathered, the quanties were increased in the kitchen i suppose. the 10 minutes stretched on and on and after an eternity, but it was only an hour, food was served. steaming hot rice, boiling hot sambar which had almost no dal in it, appalam,hot kootu, hot rasam and watery buttermilk and lime pickles. just you try serving food like that at home and pralayam (massive floods, actually, disaster) would strike, but there in the mess, we all ate the saapadu like we had been starving for a week. the worst culprit was I. gosh, how i ate! all calorie counting went out of the window and i ate the rice and irrigation (watery sambar and more watery rasam), like it was devamrutham (nectar for the gods). and ate and ate, all the time chiding myself for hogging like a pig. i kept on at it though, telling myself that i would "make up". anyway, i must record here that i thoroughly enjoyed myself, letting go like that after a long time and since it was all rice i didnt feel as guilty as i would otherwise have felt had it been not rice, even 4 cups of it, but 6 pooris. yes of course, breakfast was conveniently forgotten about, i was struck by this short bout of amnesia in that regard and i ate with gusto. lunch over, and feeling satisfyingly fit to burst, we loaded ourselves in our car, which had it been human would have cried from the sheer extra weight of its passengers, we went off to a couple of other temples, Angarakan and Budan.
On our way back we stopped off for a cup of tea, yes, at a way side tea kadai with the shiny copper boiler. and then set off toward chennai. come night we trooped in again at the otel for, as i said earlier, 'lighta tiffin'. this time i didnt have amnesia, and remembered the lunch with the correct quantity of shame and i had already in-my-mind decided that i really ought to skip dinner however light it might be. also the stomach for a change displayed the existence of a firm mind and refused to accept a morsel more, and so the day was saved with no more food being consumed by me. but the thought of coffeee was irresistible, and human that i am, i partook of that heavenly drink and patted myself on the back for turning my back on the lovely sinful looking dosas and oothappams; instead while the rest of the gang ate their dinner, i marched up and down the sidewalk and got closer to the 10,000 step mark for the day. actually my target for a day is 14,000 steps, but yesterday, despite all that temple walking, i could not manage more that 10500. reaching home close to midnight, the last thing i wanted to do was walk 4000 steps more! forget it i told myself, walk extra tomorrow!
and yes, i have made up, so to speak. i got up at 5 and walked 10,000 steps, skipped a cooked breakfast and stuck to a guava, some papaya, a banana and a glass of milk. and i am back on the bandwagon after that acharapakkam otel visit!!
i thought i would not be able to eat a morsel more for a week. but no, i didnt reckon with that organ i call a stomach...it is just a huge inflatable baloon, i tell you. i have to remind you that i am on this weight loss mission. or so i would have everybody believe. not if you had seen me in action yesterday. i ate like it was my last breakfast and last lunch. yah, the lunch i must tell you about that too....we went to Vaitheeswaran koil you see. and after devoutly offering prayers, (of course, after consuming sambar with vengayam and all that, but we are convinced that the manasu should be suttham -the mind/heart should be clean! that is important) we traipsed off to this small mess close to the temple. there is this mami there, who makes these heavenly meals. when we went though, they were prepared to shut shop. they told us that if we were willing to have sadaam, sambar and extra appalam, they would serve us food, but there was no kai (vegetable side dish) left. if we would wait just a few minutes, rice was 'just' getting ready and we would be served food in '10 minutes'( the mami went off to make some kootu also, we saw her carrying away some cabbage) we agreed with alacrity and sat ourselves at the bench. no sooner than the banana leaves were spread in front of us, (those were our 'plates'- in most of the messes and otels they serve food on banana leaves and quite hygenic that is too), than another group walked in followed by a boisterous leader. seeing that a large clientele had gathered, the quanties were increased in the kitchen i suppose. the 10 minutes stretched on and on and after an eternity, but it was only an hour, food was served. steaming hot rice, boiling hot sambar which had almost no dal in it, appalam,hot kootu, hot rasam and watery buttermilk and lime pickles. just you try serving food like that at home and pralayam (massive floods, actually, disaster) would strike, but there in the mess, we all ate the saapadu like we had been starving for a week. the worst culprit was I. gosh, how i ate! all calorie counting went out of the window and i ate the rice and irrigation (watery sambar and more watery rasam), like it was devamrutham (nectar for the gods). and ate and ate, all the time chiding myself for hogging like a pig. i kept on at it though, telling myself that i would "make up". anyway, i must record here that i thoroughly enjoyed myself, letting go like that after a long time and since it was all rice i didnt feel as guilty as i would otherwise have felt had it been not rice, even 4 cups of it, but 6 pooris. yes of course, breakfast was conveniently forgotten about, i was struck by this short bout of amnesia in that regard and i ate with gusto. lunch over, and feeling satisfyingly fit to burst, we loaded ourselves in our car, which had it been human would have cried from the sheer extra weight of its passengers, we went off to a couple of other temples, Angarakan and Budan.
On our way back we stopped off for a cup of tea, yes, at a way side tea kadai with the shiny copper boiler. and then set off toward chennai. come night we trooped in again at the otel for, as i said earlier, 'lighta tiffin'. this time i didnt have amnesia, and remembered the lunch with the correct quantity of shame and i had already in-my-mind decided that i really ought to skip dinner however light it might be. also the stomach for a change displayed the existence of a firm mind and refused to accept a morsel more, and so the day was saved with no more food being consumed by me. but the thought of coffeee was irresistible, and human that i am, i partook of that heavenly drink and patted myself on the back for turning my back on the lovely sinful looking dosas and oothappams; instead while the rest of the gang ate their dinner, i marched up and down the sidewalk and got closer to the 10,000 step mark for the day. actually my target for a day is 14,000 steps, but yesterday, despite all that temple walking, i could not manage more that 10500. reaching home close to midnight, the last thing i wanted to do was walk 4000 steps more! forget it i told myself, walk extra tomorrow!
and yes, i have made up, so to speak. i got up at 5 and walked 10,000 steps, skipped a cooked breakfast and stuck to a guava, some papaya, a banana and a glass of milk. and i am back on the bandwagon after that acharapakkam otel visit!!
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Tiruvannamalai Girivalam
On Saturday last, we went to Tiruvannamali to 'do' the Girivalam. Tiruvannamalai is a town about 180Kms from Chennai city in the State of Tamil Nadu in India. There is the Arunachala hill at the foot of which is situated the shrine of Lord Arunachaleswar. Devotees from the world over throng this temple town especially during the tamil month of karthigai, which falls in November-December and worship not only at the temple, but also circumambulate the hill which is the Girivalam- Giri means mountain and valam is circumambulation. the girivalam path is about 15kms, which is just a little short of 10 miles. it is especially auspicious to do the girivalam on karthika pournima, but girivalam is done the year round on pournamis, ie full moon nights.
we made it a point to avoid karthika pournima; devout though we are, we also shy away from crowds and bodily discomforts. on karthika pournami, zillions of devotees arrive in tiruvannamali and the girivalam which normally takes about 3 or so hours would take on that day close to 6 hours we were told, coz the crowd would move inch by inch. we baulked. so we landed the next evening. we arrived around 730 in the evening and after finding our bearings set off on the girivalam path at about 815 in the night.
it was a pleasant night, the moon seemed almost full, it shone bright with nary a cloud. there was a super breeze. we walked barefoot, that is the only way to go and started off without having dinner. now, the devout, again, do the girivalam after fasting the whole day. we ate the whole day and skipped dinner!! well, seriously, after evening tea, we consumed nothing. this, i fear was not for religious reasons but practical thoughts reigned our minds... full stomach, would we be able to walk 15kms?
the start of the path was not so bad, the road is nicely paved, tarred and all that, and we didnt find it at all difficult. we were a group of 7, and of the 7 i was the city born and bred, not used to walking barefoot on roads anyway; still it was not at all difficult. the breeze was so fresh, so cool, something that we have become strangers to in the city. there was a portion of the road where the street lights had failed, but we didnt really miss them, the silvery moonlight was strong and lovely. no wonder the 'elders' had laid down that girivalam should be done on pournamis... where were the electric lights in those olden days? they had good reasons for everything, our elders sure did....
all along the path you find hundreds of maths, ashramams and temples. of note are the 8 lingam temples where you are supposed to worship- i suppose that gives one a much needed break. also along the path are many wayside shops selling tea, coffee, bottled and packaged water, cool drinks and coconut water straight from its God-made container!! ah for the tea... the shiny copper boilers dispensing hot water for the tea. whoever has had the experience of drinking tea from a way side tea kadai in tamil nadu would swear by the tea. our family tours often, making these kutti-kutti pilgrimages. and a number of "mamas and mamis" (uncles and aunts) from our village join us and we have a jolly good time eating in way side 'otels' (hotels) and drinking tea in the tea kadais.... there is a small hotel in acharapakkam on the NH45 which is a great favourite of ours. my friends from the world living in america and europe would cringe to enter a place like that, i suppose coz it seems so unclean... frankly, i cringe too!! but not only do i enter it, but happily hog the hot idli sambar and poori that is served there without fear or favour. 'agattum parthukalaam' is my motto then (let it happen we will see). to tell the truth, so far nothing untoward has happened to my tummy. does it speak of the inner cleanliness in the otel or the inner lining of my stomach? oh but i digress.. to come back to the girivalam.... the path was horribly strewn with empty coconut shells, plastic cups, donnais and leaf plates, sugar cane chewed till it was not possible to extract another cc of juice and so forth. surprisingly, considering that such an ocean of humanity had passed that way just the previous day, you would think the smell of urine and sh.. would be overpowering right? but no, the latter was remarkable by its absence and the former, well there seemed some assigned special spots were the odour was so overpowering that it was intolerable, but otherwise, not at all what one would expect. in fact again remarkably, ok.
the last two kilometres of the valam are to my mind the worst. they are in the town and the road tarred though it was, was strewn with tiny pebbles and we were slowed down considerably by that fact. where we were able to walk 13 kms without even thinking about it, the last two were very trying. in the process, we took the right side of the fork rather than the left to go to the temple and thus missed out on the isana lingam temple, worshipping at which is essential, it is believed, for the girivalam to be poorthi (complete). i fretted a bit at that; but after a late night snack of barotta-kuruma-coffee, or set-dosai as per choice, we did the girivalam once again, this time "car-walking"- when you go around the hill in a car it is car walking, and the elderly or those that cannot do it on foot resort to this! and why not? how else can you possibly do something if you are not able to? (i endorse the "doli" concept also, which you find in sholighur for the same reason- more so, coz it puts bread, or rather rice in a family's mouth!) and when we did the car walking we took the right turn, this time the left fork and saw the isanalingam temple and for the record the girivalam was completed. i am filled with wonder at the training and conditioning of our minds- i actually had walked 15 kms around the hill, not a jot of doubt about that but, since i had not seen the isanalingam temple, i was fully prepared to accept that i had not "completed" the girivalam!! mind you, i am supposed to be highly educated and in a "good position"!!
its not a bad idea to carry a bottle of water and apart from some money and small change to give to the mendicants who are found all along the way, you dont need anything more to do the girivalam.
oh by the way, when we went around the giri the second time, we found a whole lot, a whole lot more people on the road, and that told us that people started out even later than we did. so it would seem that at least in the month of karthigai, maybe girivalam is done on all nights. dont know about other months, though.
we saw the jothi atop the hill.. in fact even as you approach thiruvannamali, you sight the jothi. it is such a magnificient sight.
i am thrilled that He saw fit for me to do the girivalam and see the jothi too..been wanting to do this for a long time, but that it should happen in karthigai, and during those very ten days when the jothi is lit..... thats the blessing.
we made it a point to avoid karthika pournima; devout though we are, we also shy away from crowds and bodily discomforts. on karthika pournami, zillions of devotees arrive in tiruvannamali and the girivalam which normally takes about 3 or so hours would take on that day close to 6 hours we were told, coz the crowd would move inch by inch. we baulked. so we landed the next evening. we arrived around 730 in the evening and after finding our bearings set off on the girivalam path at about 815 in the night.
it was a pleasant night, the moon seemed almost full, it shone bright with nary a cloud. there was a super breeze. we walked barefoot, that is the only way to go and started off without having dinner. now, the devout, again, do the girivalam after fasting the whole day. we ate the whole day and skipped dinner!! well, seriously, after evening tea, we consumed nothing. this, i fear was not for religious reasons but practical thoughts reigned our minds... full stomach, would we be able to walk 15kms?
the start of the path was not so bad, the road is nicely paved, tarred and all that, and we didnt find it at all difficult. we were a group of 7, and of the 7 i was the city born and bred, not used to walking barefoot on roads anyway; still it was not at all difficult. the breeze was so fresh, so cool, something that we have become strangers to in the city. there was a portion of the road where the street lights had failed, but we didnt really miss them, the silvery moonlight was strong and lovely. no wonder the 'elders' had laid down that girivalam should be done on pournamis... where were the electric lights in those olden days? they had good reasons for everything, our elders sure did....
all along the path you find hundreds of maths, ashramams and temples. of note are the 8 lingam temples where you are supposed to worship- i suppose that gives one a much needed break. also along the path are many wayside shops selling tea, coffee, bottled and packaged water, cool drinks and coconut water straight from its God-made container!! ah for the tea... the shiny copper boilers dispensing hot water for the tea. whoever has had the experience of drinking tea from a way side tea kadai in tamil nadu would swear by the tea. our family tours often, making these kutti-kutti pilgrimages. and a number of "mamas and mamis" (uncles and aunts) from our village join us and we have a jolly good time eating in way side 'otels' (hotels) and drinking tea in the tea kadais.... there is a small hotel in acharapakkam on the NH45 which is a great favourite of ours. my friends from the world living in america and europe would cringe to enter a place like that, i suppose coz it seems so unclean... frankly, i cringe too!! but not only do i enter it, but happily hog the hot idli sambar and poori that is served there without fear or favour. 'agattum parthukalaam' is my motto then (let it happen we will see). to tell the truth, so far nothing untoward has happened to my tummy. does it speak of the inner cleanliness in the otel or the inner lining of my stomach? oh but i digress.. to come back to the girivalam.... the path was horribly strewn with empty coconut shells, plastic cups, donnais and leaf plates, sugar cane chewed till it was not possible to extract another cc of juice and so forth. surprisingly, considering that such an ocean of humanity had passed that way just the previous day, you would think the smell of urine and sh.. would be overpowering right? but no, the latter was remarkable by its absence and the former, well there seemed some assigned special spots were the odour was so overpowering that it was intolerable, but otherwise, not at all what one would expect. in fact again remarkably, ok.
the last two kilometres of the valam are to my mind the worst. they are in the town and the road tarred though it was, was strewn with tiny pebbles and we were slowed down considerably by that fact. where we were able to walk 13 kms without even thinking about it, the last two were very trying. in the process, we took the right side of the fork rather than the left to go to the temple and thus missed out on the isana lingam temple, worshipping at which is essential, it is believed, for the girivalam to be poorthi (complete). i fretted a bit at that; but after a late night snack of barotta-kuruma-coffee, or set-dosai as per choice, we did the girivalam once again, this time "car-walking"- when you go around the hill in a car it is car walking, and the elderly or those that cannot do it on foot resort to this! and why not? how else can you possibly do something if you are not able to? (i endorse the "doli" concept also, which you find in sholighur for the same reason- more so, coz it puts bread, or rather rice in a family's mouth!) and when we did the car walking we took the right turn, this time the left fork and saw the isanalingam temple and for the record the girivalam was completed. i am filled with wonder at the training and conditioning of our minds- i actually had walked 15 kms around the hill, not a jot of doubt about that but, since i had not seen the isanalingam temple, i was fully prepared to accept that i had not "completed" the girivalam!! mind you, i am supposed to be highly educated and in a "good position"!!
its not a bad idea to carry a bottle of water and apart from some money and small change to give to the mendicants who are found all along the way, you dont need anything more to do the girivalam.
oh by the way, when we went around the giri the second time, we found a whole lot, a whole lot more people on the road, and that told us that people started out even later than we did. so it would seem that at least in the month of karthigai, maybe girivalam is done on all nights. dont know about other months, though.
we saw the jothi atop the hill.. in fact even as you approach thiruvannamali, you sight the jothi. it is such a magnificient sight.
i am thrilled that He saw fit for me to do the girivalam and see the jothi too..been wanting to do this for a long time, but that it should happen in karthigai, and during those very ten days when the jothi is lit..... thats the blessing.
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