Vibrant food!

Beautiful colours in food!

Bombaatt breakfast dishes

Some tiffin items I tried instead of the usual toast and cereal. They were quite easy to make and my Mother has taught me well. I have used all ingredients carefully without much oil.
I must admit however that the Upma was made for dinner rather than for breakfast since I ran out of veggies!
As I mentioned in my last post , I have photographed my food to impress upon my mind as to how healthy and nutritious Indian food is. Something which I can pass on to my children and theirs.

I will upload some lunch and dinner items in my upcoming posts where I have experimented with a variety of dishes. Enjoy the beautiful sights till then and get cooking!

I love food!

Change is the only constant thing in life they say. However, it's been 3 years in UK and I find nothing changing, well except the soaring prices of everything. I long to return to India and re-experience life amidst my people, my culture, my land. All things apart, I am 100% Indian at heart. I just love my country too much. A tiny example, food. 

Food is the Bible of my life. Well not really. But nearly so. There is something so wonderfully satisfying about food and what makes it even better, is one's ability to enjoy it. I have been experimenting with lots of new varieties of late and I find that I just get better. My next post will be some sample recipes. Although I have promised myself that I will not succumb to photographing my food, it just looks so pretty on my prettier crockery waiting to be eaten with zest. It would seem almost criminal to not have a photographic memory of a sense of personal culinary achievement!

I try to possess healthy eating habits, a gene passed down from my Mother. Something that I will always be grateful to her for. I am a vegetarian and don't entertain turning 'Ovo' as well. All the food that I cook, I enjoy preparing lovingly be it for myself or my friends. I eat it with more passion and do not waste a morsel. Some friends say that I inspire them to initiate cooking.

I don't cook any other cuisine apart from Indian and a rare pasta in a blue moon. Indian food, high in nutrition and taste and low in all the bad stuff that docs warn you against, is the reason why we have the lowest rate of colon cancer in the world. I ensure that I hold on to my South Indian heritage by eating idli and dosai at least twice a week. Abroad, that IS something!

Since I am at work at the moment, let me stop this post right here, lest I shift my focus towards food and forget the lab! It's already lunch time, so might as well take a break! Look out for some pretty food pictures in the upcoming posts. 

Chow, I mean Ciao!

iPhone and HTC Desire

It's been a while since I posted. And what better way to grab people's attention than a blog about 2 hip things - The iPhone and HTC Desire. Be warned, this is not an article about the features of these phones, but simply me using 2 totally alien gadgets. Finally, from a scientist to a gadget geek!

Now not having been an Apple fan since inception, I was naturally not receptive to the idea of ever buying or owning any Apple product. But beggars cannot be choosers when I received the iPhone 3G from the Mister for my last Birthday.

At first, it seemed OK. Good body, quality, solid mass. When I unlocked it and browsed through all the little icons it seemed pretty good. I have a MAC desktop at work and I hate it. The keyboard is unfamiliar and the window controls are the other way around! So naturally lay my skepticism for all Apple gadgets. The iPhone however changed my views and I guess that was the idea for Steve Jobs. To invent something that everybody could use, enjoy and feel 'in'.

In the UK at the time when the iPhone was released, only O2 sponsored 3G connections. 3G is quite slow and more so since I have a plethora of apps that really keep me occupied on the train, bus and even during seminars. Most apps are free and require constant updates.

Though the iPhone does have an iPod, I still maintain a separate iPod that my dad got me when I left India. Maps was another feature that I found extremely useful especially when Ashwin and I visited Paris.

After using the iPhone for almost a year, I received a HTC Desire from Ashwin as a gift. A friend of mine had been using it and she seemed quite comfy with it. It was a co-incidence that I received the Android phone. Android is a more stable, sturdier and performance-driven. Some apps are difficult to come by freely, but other features such as Google Maps and Google Talk are very familiar and a joy to use. The other thing which I don't like about the iPhone is not being able to customise ringtones without a funky software, but this is not a problem with Desire.

I have been using both simultaneously now and I find that I still like the iPhone probably due to familiarity and ease. Call quality is similar in both. I haven't had a problem with data reception as well. The Desire I find is packed with more features and is user friendlier as it has options to customise your display and icons and everything basically which the iPhone doesn't let you do.
I will fully switch over to Desire when I am not lazy enough to transfer all my data.

Now over to posting something more interesting!

Live without prejudice

When I first learned that I may have to move to the United Kingdom, I wasn't too keen on it, honestly. As time went on, I realized that I would have to get on board eventually. So I started preparing myself mentally for the transition. Physically, I was capable of enduring any hardship, as do most human beings.

When the date of my journey started inching closer, I was a little biased; not only because I sort of had the mental makeup that I just wouldn't adjust to life there. After all, every country has its own fun and quirks. When it came to the UK, I wasn't so sure about the fun.
I didn't have a choice - I had to move ! I had a lot of prejudice and negative impressions about England. I had a talk with my folks and they seemed that I would do all right there. It seemed that simple (well, to them).

So I went. I landed there on a Sunday - Boy was I shocked when I entered the city. It had its English charm; it was quaint, but also it was so modern ! The buildings, the transport, the people everything about the city made it so mystique. I liked it on sight immediately.

The little I knew about the UK, was from TV and lets be honest here, TV shows always don't paint the correct picture about any culture - a brilliant example would have to be our 'Saas-Bahu' soaps.

The population of this city is about a little more than a half million. I found the world in this place. Its expensive all right, but the living is good and I feel that anyone would get used to this way of life quickly and with minimum fuss.

Its hassle-free, in a nutshell.

Now all my thoughts whilst I was in India proved to be wrong. I was scared and judgemental. I don't want to be that way and I certainly look forward to continued pleasant surprises in this land.

Chrome

So, heard about Google Chrome from my Ma the other day. Decided to try it and see what the fuss is all about. Turns out, there IS something indeed to be made a fuss about !

When I searched for Chrome on the google search engine, I didn't have the slightest idea what it is - a browser, application ? So, I downloaded it and installed it.

When I double clicked the icon on my desktop and was transported directly to a page that said "Chrome", I realized what the fun is ! You can actually type the query on the usual address bar and it generates the search result. It also boasts features like fast and safe browsing, the option of opening multiple tabs, displays other Google application links, generates suggestions for your search query and plus get this -- it saves and imports all your bookmarks that previously existed on firefox. I really enjoyed using Chrome. It was, in a nutshell, hassle-free.

Although I still use Mozilla, I like using Chrome for all my googling. And I love the new tab browsers that Internet Explorer took forever to implement. Makes all your work easier and works great in an office too (especially true when you have a game running and your boss walks by).

My next big task is to teach my Mom how to use it; well she's not exactly computer comfy.

All the info and the download is available here

So happy browsing ! Enjoy !

Multi- tasking

I have started multi-tasking.. again !!

I was cleaning my shelf and found my pencil box from high school. I opened it and found about 6 to 7 ink pens lying in it. I took one out, cleaned it in water, steamed the nib with my breath and filled it with ink. I didn't have a dropper so I took an empty syringe which pretty much did the trick, only I spilled about 10 drops of bright blue ink all over my pant !! Anyway, with the urge to write using this pen only, I started with the idea of writing something on a small scribble pad.. But I ended up writing a short story! ( The story will be one of my next posts) 'Twas fun.
Then I got yelled at by Ma, because I wasn't paying attention to her shouts for dinner. So reluctantly pulled myself out of my eternally occupied chair and headed to the dining room, with my pen and book in one hand, a towel on my shoulder, my other hand controlling the volume on my iPod, the cell phone tucked under my arm and my feet dragging my 2 pairs of bathroom slippers ( I've always wondered why I need 2 pairs of in-house slippers !) .

Now call that multitasking.

Another of my favourite bi-tasking activity, which I perform frequently, is talking on the phone and removing chipped nail polish from my toes. I had stopped this habit for a while and picked it up yet again !

I think I've passed on this multitasking thing over to my husband. He does it too ! You know how? While watching TV (usually the same ol' cricket reruns) he actually eats junk food !!!!!

Now, that's what we call -- It runs in the family !