The Friday Special

Living in the UAE, its not a rare thing to see people doing Namaaz even in the scorching sun. And there comes Friday afternoon...Everyone is out near the nearest mosque with their prayer mats and filling themselves with the rays of the Sun and the Almighty... A nice sight of devotion added with the colorful array of the prayer mats :-)

The people in the above photo are actually sitting on the road in front of the mosque (To be more precise, its near the parking lot but where there is a lot of vehicle movement)

And above is only a part of the swarm of people leaving the mosque after the Namaaz...

Whole Wheat Pizza

After a long search for the exact Pizza recipe which turns out to be really good, I got one from here: http://www.rakskitchen.net/2010/03/home-made-pizza.html

The pizza made was really good. But, there was a constant guilt factor that kept pestering me that it was full of all-purpose flour which is notorious for its not-so-good-for-health status. So, there I was, hitting the "Enter" key on Google Search for a whole wheat based pizza, but could not get my hands on such a good thing. (Or rather, I wanted to try out something on my own).

Then, I thought I will modify the recipe from the above given link, so that it was 2 parts whole wheat flour and 1 part all purpose flour. And, there I was in the kitchen, making the healthier pizza.

To tell you the truth, it was not entirely like the pizza made from all-purpose flour. The wheat flavour was apparent, but nevertheless, it was good and more than the taste, it was 60% "I am eating healthy" feeling :-) It made our stomachs a bit heavy also, and we had to reduce our dinner intake that day by almost 75% (I did the pizza at around 6 pm)

So, now I have a good recipe on my hands which I can readily share with others. And below is the final product...

Yes, you are right...Those are mango pieces on the right half of the pizza...I should never forget that my husband is a huge mango fan and he wanted those pieces...I was not so adventurous like him and the left half is me and my kid's half :-)

And this is the yeast-milk etc mixture made in the beginning of the process. This bowl has a base that is heart-shaped and the mixture took that shape. Giving you a chance to see not a bleeding heart, but an yellow heart :-)

May29 Resolution

Who said there has to be only a new year or a birthday resolution? There can be a resolution on any day of the year and here is mine, on the 29th of May, Two thousand and eleven :-)


Reading many blogs, I feel like I should regularly update my blog as well. But, laziness kicks in and I, of course, succumb to it. Whom has laziness spared? (Or, is that an excuse I give myself?)


Anyway, coming to the point, a sudden spark of thought in my head told me that I should update my blog regularly (remember the resolution I talked about earlier?) and here I am writing it (hoping there would be someone in the cyber world to read it...Else, I will visit my blog myself and increase the "No. of times visited" count.. LOL)...


Anyway, coming to the point AGAIN, I have decided to update my blog with not only paragraphs, but also with photographs and recipegraphs...Interesting ones that happen in my day-to-day life...So, one day, sometime in, may be, the year 2020, when me and my daughter browse the web together, we can see at my blog and have a giggle together...No wonder she will pull my leg asking me, "What amma...You were so out of technology, writing blogs and all?"...May be, during her time, many more unumaginable things would happen...What say?


Ok.... Here you go...

Q's to Him

Lot of times, I have wondered how things happen and how God has been such a miracle in creating wonders...Some of them are here...

--A live video of a baby inside a womb when it kicks and goes around
--Snapshots of how the early man did his early chores
--The first e-mail sent through a proper e-mail service
--The exact count of species of all living things...Mind you...ALL living things, from the smaaaaaaaaalllllest to the laaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgest in this world (excluding flora)
--The working of the brain and how information passes so quickly when there is someone's touch on your skin
--The working of the various systems in the human body
--Journey of a person after his death
--What's there on top of the blue sky and down under the ground?

The list could be endless and am sure you will have even more questions like this...Let us keep pondering and let Him see our blogs and answer them :))))

The Age Factor

Many a time, I have seen a confusion on how people tell their age. On being asked "How old are you?", they say, "24 running". "Running" ???????? A funny choice of word to tell the age...


The right statement would have been, "23", ain't it? Which, indirectly, rather, directly means, "23 years complete, and obviously, currently my 24th year is ongoing".


1st year birthday party is not celebrated on the day the baby was born, but after the baby has completed her first one year...This is the explanation that I usually give to such confused people :-)

Routine

The alarm rings...
Waking up...
Folding the bedsheets...
Brushing, bathing, etc etc...
Read the newspaper...
Breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner...
Kid management all the while...
Washing...
Browsing...
Mailing...
Etc etc etc etc etc etc...The list is on and on and on, and different for each person...

All this routine is sometimes boring, just like this Times New Roman font :-)
That too, it gets worse when the dull hormones in your body take toll...

I really wonder how the sun has been rising, the moon has been shining and the stars have been twinkling for all these billion years...What a great routine...Is that why they say Nature is beautiful, just because she follows a very organized routine ??????

A new mom

Being a mom is absolutely amazing, with no words to completely bring out the feel...

But, the 0.0000000000001% sad part is that it brings along the need to be very responsible on the new human who is, on a majority, dependent on the mom...Leading a carefree life all these days, this new life is beautiful, yet a bit complicated :-)

Do all moms feel this way? Or am I exaggerating?

"The Terminal'--Terminated my work :-)

It was after reading a simple blog that I downloaded "The Terminal" movie, the actor being Tom Hanks. Wow, what a great acting by Tom Hanks...You would have read the same appreciations on Tom Hanks in many situations, but nothing wrong in repeating the truth, what do you say?
:-)

I downloaded the movie with no big expectation, in fact. And playing the movie also fell in the same category. But around the 10th minute the movie started, the words going on in my mind were, "Yes. I should see this movie, TODAY itself". It was so captivating.

Tom Hanks is at his best in this movie, as always. The plight of a traveler getting caught in a foreign country, with an "invalid" country's passport and a strong will to satisfy the promise he had made to his father, is beautifully portrayed.

The director, Steven Spielberg has brought out a hero in Tom Hanks' character Victor, by making him invincible to the tense situation prevailing -- he cannot go inside the country, nor can he fly back to his own country. The scenes of how Victor "earns" US dollars inside the airport and how happily he munches his burgers are indeed practical and funny as well.

Victor's stunning and most unexpected answers to the airport official makes the latter slap himself and makes the viewer go back and forth in laughter. Victor's innovative ideas of turning one of the airport's gate into his own sweet home and making a gift for his girlfriend make us to tap his shoulder in appreciation.

The climax makes you think for a moment, "Oh!! Victor has not kept his promise to his father". And there occurs a twist to the tale. Yes, Tom Hanks is a hero and he has to satisfy the audience :-), which he readily does.

The movie is humorous in many aspects. The movie is of "make-you-sit-on-the-corner-of-your-seat" kind. The movie is mildly romantic. The movie is a nice entertainer.

Tom Hanks has delivered brilliant performance in this movie, with his foreign language and his inability to understand US English. At a point, I felt, "Oh my god. How difficult it is to remain in a nation, ignorant of that nation's language"...

Hats off to Steven Spielberg for such a simple-yet-strong storyline and a brilliant direction...

"We are very generous in giving whole-hearted appreciation :-)"
(I guess you will understand why I have given the above in quotes, once you see the movie and give a careful ear to the dialogues)

I am sure you will enjoy the movie, just as I did. Do watch it at the earliest !!!

The Home Arrest

It's not "The House Arrest", rather, it is "The Home Arrest". There is a difference between "a house" and "a home". A house is made of bricks, cement and mortar. On the other hand, a home is made of hearts and its a place where your heart longs to be.

It's been around 3 months I am at home which was the last thing I ever wanted to do. Right from my graduation, I have been working and rarely have I stayed at home, jobless. But, that's not the case now. Personal reasons have made me stay at home.

Its a combination of boredom and freedom, mixed in the right amount, I should say. You do not have the pressure of rushing down to work, work pressures and the like. My mornings get mostly occupied with household work and afternoon naps are an added bonus if you are at home :-) (and which many of us love). Evenings are pleasant, with you expecting for your better half's arrival and a great grin in your heart is on the verge on seeing him come back from office :-)

To confirm with the thought that each action has an equal and opposite reaction, there is also a tinge of boredom associated with this home arrest, though that is a rare phenomena, just like the comet's appearance and disappearance. With the freedom of Internet access, freedom of taking a nap whenever you please, freedom of doing what you please, this boredom vanishes away in a jiffy. Or may be, my mind has got used to this way of thinking...

Every one should have access, I feel, to this kind of life once in their life. I say "once" because I don't think I would be able to survive for long, in this kind of mechanism. So, for a period of time, this would be a great booster for yourself, and some great chances are awaiting you to pamper yourself and to enjoy your freedom, which one is entitled to.

So, enjoy this Home Arrest :-))))

A Gita quote

Karmani ave adhikars te
you have the power to act only
ma phalesu kadachana
you do not have the power to influence the result
ma karmaphal hetur bhoo
therefore you must act without the anticipation of the result
ma sangostu akramani
without succumbing to inaction

This is a quote from the Gita...The meaning, of course, was copy pasted from one of the websites.
But, nevertheless, this touched my heart...One of the greatest philosophies of life, and one of the commonest things that we do, unconsciously, is clearly shown out in this verse of the Holy Gita.
Gita always says, "do must this, and you must do that"...It might seem to be very difficult to follow...But, the depth of the saying is something that really requires a lot of thought and understanding.
The above quoted text is something very easy to understand but very difficult to implement. Our wavering mind just thinks of the result while we are doing something----the must-happen positives and what-could-happen-negatives...
Just doing...Just doing that task is something beautiful in itself...More than the result, the contentment which you get is something amazing...Let us experience that !!!

Listen...

"Chirp of birds, zzzz of wind, flap of leaves, flow of water, whisper of clouds, sizzle of waves, cry of baby, laughter of a child, silence of love, love of relationships, hug of hearts...These are the beautiful sounds of life. You should not miss these"...Our ancestors told...

"Tap of keyboards, click of mouse, sip of coffee, fan of CPU, screech of brake, whistle of security, cribs of neighbour, yell of boss, snore of spouse...This is what I am hearing today, Grandpa..."

Think about it...Sounds prescribed by our ancestors are still near us; only that the drums of our ears are banging at a high volume to some other music to such an extent, that we have intentionally become deaf to these sounds of life...

Expectations

You expect a few things from only a few people...And, sometimes you end up in regret...
It is an irony that we expect that we should not expect anything from people...

My first blog

My first blog - This is how people usually start their first blogs. But I am not going to do it, because this is not my first blog. I have some LLOGS - Local Logs, which have not gone into any blog sites. May be, you can have in a different way - this is my first official blog on a proper blog site...

Anyway, enough of all the self-praises about myself ( I know it is self-praise. After all, self-realisation is the first step towards attaining higher levels of personality, right? ;-) )

Live in the Present - I strive to have this as my theme, motto, principle, of life, or whatever you call it, or any other crap also, if you please so...Does it, in any nearest horizons, sound something meaningful? Many a time, I keep reading it, and sometimes, get lost in finding out the exact meaning of this phrase. I feel its too philosophical, sometimes.

But a little deeper insight into this - an insight that requires a very normal mind, may be, something very normal like mine - will lead you into a dense convulsions of your thoughts, struggling to figure out the intricacies of this phrase. Just concentrate for a minute on your awesome thought process. You will find out that your mind is either thinking about yesterdays' happenings...Ranging from your official chores like, Have I filled in my timesheet? Have I delivered the code? Will the cheque I posted yesterday get cleared or will there be any issues? Or, your personal commitments like, Will he think about my words otherwise? Will I create a false impression on my friend because of the words I spoke yesterday? etc etc...The list goes on...(The word etc reminds me of a comment - "etc - A word that people use to show that they know more than they actually say". But, the etc I have given above explains itself in the sense that, we are daily victims of the many events that are camouflaged behind this "etc"...)

Or, to feed forward, your mind thinks about tomorrow..."When is the next release? How many bugs are going to be assigned in my name? How will my partner be like? ... And even here, etc is no exception :-)

But, seldom does the mind think about this current second. The clock ticks every second, and the mind races like a very fast cheetah behind the time, thinking about the future, and mosquito coils flash back into the past. And, in this process, the poor present is in soup.
Everytime I think about this phrase, I try to concentrate on this moment, but this pendulum-like mind keeps oscillating between the past and the future, and most of the times, I fail :-(
I am still trying and trying and trying...Let's see when this trial comes to an end...Will it, at all?
In a couple of those instances when I succeeded in my attempt, I find that it is an awesome experience - not worrying about the future and not feeling guilty of the past - Just getting aligned with the second-hand of the clock gives you so much fulfillment, which I cannot explain but should be experienced...