पानीसे तस्वीर कहा बनती है, ख्वाबोंसे तकदीर कहा बनती है
किसीभी रिश्तेको सच्चे दिलसे निभाओ, ये जिंदगी फिर वापस कहा मिलती है
कौन किससे चाहकर दूर होता है, हर कोई अपने हालातोंसे मजबूर होता है
हम तो बस इतना जानते है, हर रिश्ता 'मोती' और हर दोस्त 'कोहिनूर' होता है

- Who else can it be but the Great Gulzar :-)

Blowing Up Russia - Alexander Litvinenko and Yuri Felshtinsky

A Small Corner Of Hell, Dispatch from Chechenya -  Anna Politkovskaya

Putin's Russia - Anna Politkovskaya

The Age Of Assasins - The Rise And Rise Of Vladimir Putin - How Scary Are Russia's New Rulers  - Yuri Felshtinsky

Mahalakshmi Saras 2016

Where: Bandra Reclamation
When: 16-28 January
Timings: 10am-10pm

कल ख़ुशी मिली थी
जल्दीमें थी रुकी नहीं

Trust Gulzar to know the state of our minds :-)

There is no telling what might pop out of an old attic. When we cleaned up an old storage space at my mom's place recently, three items - which I had not seen for years - popped out.

One, a puppet of a man - even as children we had not been able to describe it more than this. It is a dusky (read black!) man, wearing a headgear, a short green pant and a pair of over-sized shoes - way too oversize for his thin reedy legs. Dad had brought him back from his office trip to Germany - why I have no idea. Back then, I used to find the puppet exceedingly creepy and still do. But surprisingly, when he was recently unearthed from the dusty, cobwebby confines of the storage and mom declared her intention of throwing him out along with other junk items, my brother (to whom I had sent his photo on whats-app with caption 'Guess what we found') and I put up a stiff resistance. It is one of those items from a shared childhood that we can collectively laugh over as we pick it up and look at it. The puppet stays.

The second item shares this trait with the puppet. It is a pressure cooker from the toy cooking set I used to play with as a child. There used to be a stovetop along with it - which was way too over-sized for the cooker to fit onto it. But that must have been thrown out. When I sent this photo to my brother on whatsapp, I got a big smiley along with the message 'you used to cook imaginary food in this and ask me to eat it'. That part is true. Him and the younger brother of my friend next door were made to eat imaginary food from little plates as we both girls did our make-believe cooking. :-) Needless to say, the pressure cooker is staying as well.

The last item is of a more recent vintage than the two items mentioned earlier. It is from the days when the SSC exam was given a lot of importance. They used to have special magazines dedicated to the exam study like e.g. दहावी दिवाळी. The said item is an issue of the said magazine - it contains a history paper solved by me, in my handwriting. It shocked me a little, to see that I could write so much in one sitting once upon a time, and that too in such legible nice way. Now, my handwriting starts turning illegible halfway through taking down a recipe while watching a show. I neglected to maintain it - it is that plain and simple. Sad, but true.

Maybe I should start writing one paragraph in Devnagari every Saturday morning, the way they used to make us do in the school :-)

Note to self for future trip

Mainland China, High Street Phoenix

Most of the times when I go to Phoenix I haven't decided in advance where I am going to have lunch. But last weekend I knew that I was in mood for some Asian food. There is only one place that serves it there - Mainland China.

I was sorely tempted to order Nasi Goreng once again - it was unbelievably delicious last time I ordered it. But I had made up my mind to try something new this time around. So my choice was Burmese Pan-fried Noodles with chicken and Stir-fried chicken with Chilies, Garlic and Hot Basil. The server informed me that the noodles will be cooked in coconut milk (I wonder if it was because people are allergic to or don't like coconut milk!) and that along with chicken it will contain some vegetables (I have no idea why he had to put in that disclaimer!). We said that we are fine with both these things.

Now, I don't know if we are lucky every time we order from their menu or their chefs, by some culinary magic, manage to turn every dish into a delicious riot of texture and flavors. I suspect that it is the latter. The Pan-fried Noodles were cooked in rich coconut milk and the perfectly cooked generous chunks of tender chicken just melted in one's mouth. The Stir-fried chicken had all the flavors of Chilies, Garlic and Hot Basil blend into a thick out-of-this-world sauce coating the chicken pieces. Each morsel was an absolute delight.

Now if only they would serve some Khimchi instead of the pickled peanuts as soon as you are seated and some fortune cookies along with your bill, my world would be just perfect!