Elementary, S4, E4

I don't care much for Morland Holmes. But I am glad he stepped in when he did to give an opportunity to Watson and Sherlock to work for NYPD again. I wasn't too thrilled about their freelancing idea. The cases may not always be something to write home about but I like the duo working with Gregson and Bell. They make a good team :-)

Supernatural, S11, E9

Okay, I might have said this before and I will say it again - I seem to lose the plot entirely when it has biblical references.

Does God have a sister as per the Bible? What does she mean when she says that in her creation the world would be a blissful place? Will everyone in it be without souls? Doesn't sound like a nice place to me. I laughed out aloud when she touted one of its USPs as the place without any rules. Sounds very much like the world that we all live in - the one created by God :-) At any rate, I am not too thrilled about her hitting on Dean.

And just exactly what is going on between Sam and Lucifer? Is this series trying to portray Lucifer as gay? If not, why the references to sharing a berth inside the cage? All that explanation about the darkness damaging hell's defenses sounded like a lot of baloney to me. Surely Crowley would have caught on to it sooner or later.....unless he was in on the plot and that seems unlikely. I wonder what weakened the spells cast by Rowena. I suspect that she has done it to curry favor with Lucifer.

It might not be such a bad idea to shut her up forever in Lucifer's cage in the Season Finale. If Hell and Cage haven't tamed Lucifer, this surely will :-)

Raja, Rasoi aur Anya Kahaniya (16 Dec, Epic Channel)

This episode was about the food in the southern part of the country. An interesting story was told about the origins of the dish 'Aviyal'. When the Pandavas were supposed to stay in exile anonymously for a year, they sought refuge in the kingdom of King Virata. Bheem was employed in his kitchen but knew nothing about cooking. One day he just took all the veggies available in the kitchen and cooked them in coconut milk. The king liked the dish and we today know it as 'Aviyal'.

Mysorepak is one of my all-time favorites (just writing about it has me salivating all over the keyboard!). It seems I have to thank one of the Wodiyar kings for the sweet. He had asked one of his chefs to prepare some different kind of sweet. 90 years later, the descendants of that chef continue to make it.

Another interesting story is about the famous 'Patthar Ka Gosht' of Hyderabad. This one is connected to the Nizams that ruled the city. As the story goes, one of the Nizams had been on a hunting trip to a forest when he felt like having Kebabs. The chef, not having the kitchen appliances of the day at hand, looked around, chanced upon a slab of granite and used it to grill the meat. The stone imparted a special flavor to the kebab that the Nizam loved. When he returned to the palace, he ordered the chef to make kebabs the same way thereafter. Even today, the city households cooking the kebab in the kitchen grill it on a granite slab :-)

P.S. The program also mentioned that the Falaknuma palace of the city has a dining table that can accommodate 101 (100 guests + Nizam) people. The room where this table is kept has paintings of various culinary items on the walls. In the good old days, when there were no menus, the Nizam used to point out at one of the paintings and the chefs would fetch it for him. :-)

Techfest at IIT, Powai

IIT Bombay is hosting a science and technology festival called 'Techfest'.
When - 26 to 28 December
Venue - IIT Campus, Powai

Entry is free but carry photo ID