Happy New Year

We wish you and family a Happy, Prosperous, fun filled and peaceful New Year.

Regards
Anoop and R

Confession (?)

D'vali-2010, originally uploaded by -xh- aka aNoop.

It is a strange feeling when you come back to your blog and realize that the place which meant so much in the past is now like a ghost town... I walk through the by lanes, looking at the dusty store fronts and musky glass panes, the discolored walls and peeling pains.. and I feel sad...and a twinge of pain, some where in my heart. my dear blog, I do miss you. I do.

The Silence of Rain

The rain I know when I was a kid, is different from the rains at Bangalore. The rain here sounds harsh - the sound of rain falling on roof tops, the sound of rain lashing on windows of high rise buildings - this sounds nothing like the rain I have grown up with, or I have fallen in love with - but still, I love this rain too.

Rain has a life of its own - calm and wild at the same time, serene and harsh at the same time - I think it is the duality of its nature which makes it more interesting.

Have you ever tried to listen to the silence of rain? No, you can’t try it in a city - when you sit inside your car with rain drops falling on the roof of your car, which is stuck in the traffic jam for last one hour, listening to the silence of rain will be the last thing in your mind, usually.

Get out and go to an open field, or to a hill, or to a river side - the whole picture changes.
The moments when you are alone, with rain playing the harmony for your company - moments like that are best to listen to the rain and enjoy the silence of rain.

There is silence behind every sound. Listen to the rain - the sound it makes when the drop falls on the leaves, on the ground, on the water puddle - listen to the sound of the wind - take all in, and concentrate. Filter out everything around you, and listen only to the sound of rain drops falling around you - enveloping you in a soundscape of its own - and reach for it - grab it and wrap it around you - and when you are fully immersed in it, the silence behind the sound will draw you in - the silence that allows the rain to sing.

PS: this post was triggered by this song

Spicy Aromatic Chicken Curry

Marriage have made me lazy - the weekends which were a flurry of activates are now very less - most Sundays we laze @ home. Sunday cooking is something I love, and many a times, I improvise or come up with new recipes. ( Touch wood, no one ever fell ill after what I prepared :))

Chicken - 1 kg, cut to medium / small pieces
Onion - 4 medium size, thinly sliced
For the masala:
Coconut - 1 whole, grated
sun dried red chilies – 6
mace – 1
Black cardamom – 1
Green cardamom – 4
Bay leaf - one small
star anise -1
cinnamon bark – a small piece ( around 5 cm length)
Thyme - a small pinch
Fenugreek seeds - a small pinch
clove - 4 nos
coriander powder - 1 table spoon

Put the grated coconut in a heavy based non-stick pan and dry fry it over medium flame till it turns dark brown. Put the flame to low and add all other ingredients and keep it on the flame till you get a nice aromatic smell. Let it cool and then make a fine paste of this using your mixer-grinder - do not add more water than required it to make it a fine paste.
Clean the chicken and cut it to medium / small pieces. Mix the chicken well with this masala and a handful of curry leaves and marinate for an hour.
Heat 4 tables spoon oil in a wok with heavy base, add the onions and sauté them till they become translucent. Add the marinated chicken pieces along with the masala and add 3 cups of water, cook the chicken in high flame for fifteen minutes (keep the wok covered while chicken getting cooked)
After 15 minutes, remove the lid and adjust the water level and cook for another 15 minutes on medium flame. Sprinkles curry leaves just before the chicken is taken off the flame.
Goes well with ghee rice / plain rice/ Idiyappam (nool puttu) / appam etc.
PS: if you need the dish to be more hot, use only sun dried red chilies – don’t use chili powder or green chilies.

Flower Power

Went to the annual flower show @ Lalbagh last saturday - the crowd was very less, and I could click some snaps of the flower show (last time when I went there, I did not even get inside the gardens after I saw the crowd)

Some of the clicks:

From Lalbagh_Flower_Show_2010

From Lalbagh_Flower_Show_2010

From Lalbagh_Flower_Show_2010

From Lalbagh_Flower_Show_2010

From Lalbagh_Flower_Show_2010

From Lalbagh_Flower_Show_2010

From Lalbagh_Flower_Show_2010

From Lalbagh_Flower_Show_2010

From Lalbagh_Flower_Show_2010

For more fotos click here

ps: feels good to be back here - and I hope, I will not be taking another break soon :)

miles to go....

miles to go...., originally uploaded by -xh- aka aNoop.

Shot en route to madikeri. The road is awesome - excellent surface, nice straights, wide sweeping curves, very less traffic. The road from kushal nagar to madikeri is getting laid now, so, one more month, and we will get some nice twisties to enjoy.

We chanced upon some excellent back roads near madikkeri - narrow roads, challenging tight turns, breath taking scenery - had a real dose of corner carving adventure there, and to top it off, we took the madikkeri-dubare route while coming back, which is filled with lot of fun twisties.
Jeevs was at his usual best - he never complained, and did the ride without any issues.

This was R's first real long ride -2 days, 623 km of pure fun!

yellow whispers...

yellow whispers..., originally uploaded by -xh- aka aNoop.

after a long long break, testing the waters again... :)