Petals!

It's a Sunday afternoon. Adi's gone out to play and I don't know why but I am missing my mom's tea time snacks that I grew up munching when I used to come back from school. No Fuss about Food My mom says that even as a child, I never fussed about anything, particularly food. Except the smelly jackfruit, mom says that you could give me any type of food and I would eat it without any fuss. Even spinach! She says I loved the different types of cakes that she used to make that always for me.  My Mom's Best Cooking Days Our home in Africa always had baking smells. In the afternoona, Mom would bake cookies, cake, and each time it would be a different type. My friends used to love the chocolate mousse she used to make. For every birthday, she used to bake the cake for me. But she wasn't that confident with the icing so we had some other expert help her with that. Mom loved spending her afternoons making naadan snacks like 'unniappam' and 'murukku' a...

Schools all over the country are celebrating the birthday of Lord Krishna (also called Janmashtami) by making the little ones dress up as Krishna. It happens that I had gone for an urgent three day trip to Kochi and come back and next day, Adi's off to school. I get a teacher's note saying he should dress up for the occasion. I know I need to get him a flute and a crown of feather but I am back home at six thirty, dead tired after a hard day's work and I need to sit with Adi to help him catch up with all the lessons he missed while we were in Kochi. So, I decide that I will dress him up well in the traditional attire but I won't go to the market for the feather. The very act would drain my energy further and by the time I get back, Adi would be too tired to do his homework. So, now, D-day comes. I got Adi dressed up in a traditional Krishna costume that we had bought during my recent trip from Guruvayoor, the famous Krishna temple in Kerala. I put a little bit of ey...

If you are one of those people who are cynical, please don't read this post. It's not for you. If you are one of those people who want to know what I have to say with an open mind, fine - you are welcome to read. I request you to respect my beliefs as I do yours. I led a perfectly mundane, happily normal life till Swami (Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba) chose to make His presence felt. In April 1987, my parents became His devotees. But I wasn't yet a devotee. Firstly, I wasn't convinced about Swami's divinity. Though a child, I had an insatiable curiosity on religion and spirituality. I had read the Bible, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the autobiography of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda at least twenty times. At that time, I could have easily recited the Bible because I sort of knew it by heart, having read it several times over and over again. While I had respect for these spiritual and religious concepts, they didn't 'click' with me naturally...

Salt N Pepper movie - I heard so much about it from my Twitter friends. I was praying for the movie to reach me here. For those who love food and romance, this movie has IT. With food as the movie's main theme, I was totally glued to the movie's starting point that showed different types of tasty food in different stages of creation and presentation. Colors oozed from the dishes, each distinct from the other. You would have seen the audience licking their lips in anticipation of the next dish, such was the visual delight of the movie when it began. SALT N PEPPER - REAL FOOD & REAL CHARACTERS Aashiq Abu's 'Salt n Pepper' is simple, brilliant and stays in your heart forever. The story revolves around Kalidasan (starring Lal) who is an archaeologist but is more obsessed with food - the scents, the taste and the texture of food that takes him to the past and beyond. Maya (starring Swetha Menon) lives in the same town and works as a dubbing artiste.  Personally,...