Friday, December 25, 2015

2015 Christmas Family Potluck

This Christmas 2015 was a perfect time to rekindle the bond within the family.

Family, food, presents and opportunity to be together made this Christmas 2015 even warmer.


The dishes I shared for POTLUCK were:-


1. Chicken balls (instead of meatballs!) and Salsa dip

2. Toast toppers


Chicken balls + Salsa dip
Toast toppers


More potluck images at:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.459398880924370.1073741832.446175785580013&type=3

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

What's cooking?!


This has been an all time venture. Yes, I do home-made dishes as well

Due to constraints, I had to briefly cut short my menu to:


Do not miss the weekend special

Visit my cooking website here

For further details, you can contact me using the ''Contact Form'' on the left side of this page.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

A Celestial Munnar trip...

Work life and home chores, several years passed by and I was in no position to think or settle in for a relaxed break. This has been long thought and planned with another family; and so far been my best at Siena Village, Munnar (built in 2000). Will write about the resort sometime soon.

Munnar is like 130 Kms from Kochi and it is situated 1800 meters above the sea level. It seems that the ideal time to visit Munnar is from April to June.

We had a pretty scary road challenge on our way to the resort. Supposedly this road is no longer used to get to the resort. No one informed. Will gather more information and write about this as well in a later post. 

We started from - Kakkanad, Cochin at 9am and reached Siena Village, Chinnakanal - Munnar at 3.00pm. Note: Never trust the GPS, especially when there are several routes to reach your destination!

This was our October travel, pretty cool and yes, we did experience rain on and off. The temperature en-route Munnar was beginning to cool up with mild blocked ears as we started going up the high range hills. Few pictures during our Munnar trip

Road to Munnar

The fog and steep curves - deadly road challenges

When the clouds touch the hills

Elephant Safari in Munnar.


Mattupetty Dam, Munnar - Boat ride, nope; not a chance. Overbooked for the noon and evening!


One attraction we did miss out is the Eravikulam National Park - it was an endless queue!

Some of the other sightseeing places in Munnar are Plantation tour, Tea Garden Visits, Kolukkumalai Tea Garden, Tribal Colony Visit, Indo-Swiss dairy project, Rajamalai, Devikulam, CSI Christ Church, Marayoor, Top Station, Eco Point and Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary.

Now that we have an idea of Munnar and how to go about, we hope to visit this awesome breath taking place again!

Saturday, September 5, 2015

IIK - Nivea Independence Day 2nd week Quiz Winners

IIK in association with Nivea had launched an online quiz content this Independence Day. Every week, the contest will select 12 lucky winners.

2nd week - I happened to be one among the lucky winners. Received KD 50 gift voucher from LuLu Hypermarket sponsored by Nivea.

Thank you IIK and Nivea... and LuLu :) 

http://www.indiansinkuwait.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=36256&SECTION=0

Thursday, May 7, 2015

2015 New year Resolution - Save Money! (Part 2)


At the end of 18th week (7-may-15), I hope you managed to get your little piggy savings at KD 783

Keep going; feels good on the achievement so far. Moreover, the weekly deposit is decreasing; it should get easier hereon. 

In due time, you will be MORE overwhelmed with your self motivated efforts :)

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

The spirit of Vishu 2015

Alright, I am taking this bit from my e-friend - Wikipedia
Vishu is an important Kerala festival celebrated in the month of "Medam" - marking the New Year in KeralaVishu is celebrated with much fanfare and vigor in all parts of Kerala -  It is considered a festival of light and fireworks, decorating lights and bursting of firecrackers.

Other elements of Vishu include buying of new clothes for the occasion, the tradition of giving money and the Vishu feast or Sadya, which consist of equal proportions of salty, sweet, sour and bitter items.

So, I am diving to the best part of it - The feast!!! Now, my sadya did not go as elaborate as its supposed to be - ran short of helping hands and time *tsk*

Ended with the minimum of rice, beans stirfry, ladies finger khichadi, green gram curry, ginger curry and pappad.


Beans stirfry

Ladies finger khichadi - Super favorite dish!

Green Gram Curry

Ginger Curry - mind blowing awesome!


Alas! no banana leaf. A tray plate did justice :)

Table set - with banana, pappad, banana chips, mango pickle, beans stirfry, ladies finger khichadi and ginger curry served perfectly round the green gram-topped- warm rice! 



Sunday, March 8, 2015

Another resemblance to Nirbhaya and the DOCUMENTARY


These disturbing news forced me to write down yet again; yet again because its again a rape. This time (infact all the time), a disturbing one and in eerie resemblance to the Nirbhaya case. Another Nirbhaya; now, a 6-year-old molested in Ahmedabad, mutilated with iron rod.

Never ending debates, discussions, commentaries, candle lights, documentaries - I personally find all these futile attempts to convey a message across.

Gruesome rape (any degree) should be painfully punishable - not just death sentence. A long term sentence followed by hanging to death does not seem to instill fear in a rapist. (Well, that's how I felt seeing this unaffected, lack of remorse species in the documentary). Additionally he* claims that the death penalty will make things even more dangerous for girls - now when there is rape, they will just kill the girl. Death! Thank you for the warning! One would opt death after a gruesome rape, you zero watt!

(* - Not worth using his name out here!). 

At least, and yes... at the least for this particular TOPIC of rape, I believe in action - an extreme action! Since all the government sets is "humanity based judgement", we in unity should take action. A huge extrajudicial mob - fearless and ferocious (others excuse), fully equipped to tackle the forces should break into the prison, drag these species out and left to our degree of torture! 

What I did not like about the documentary

1. Interviewing this moron and having me hear his remorseless talks
2. As a human being, he gathered in me heaps of hatred and an outrage to do something brutal to them. Mental disturbance!
3. I know the incident - heard it several times hoping and praying justice will be done. I was personally affected by it. However, a graphic representation of the incident all over again.  

Again re-enacting the whole incident was like a mini movie - having an innocent girl with a dream, several villains, a rape incident and aftermath and a final 3-5 mins conclusion on educating the mindsets! Did I just miss those 2 "confident" supporters - who seemed the Gurus of Women & Rape! What was the idea behind this video?! I do not remember any other documentaries - say for example, On Kasab?! All this documentary did to me was Point 1, 2, 3!

If the idea behind the documentary is - Changing mindset of people, how they should value woman; I suggest an exclusive, independent, full impact documentary - not a conclusion!

Now the argument is on the ban of the video, FOR or AGAINST the video, unethical BBC, changing the mindset of people - the list seems endless but missing the PRIORITY RIGHT NOW

Dealing with this rapist and any one who even thinks to rape in the future!

Calling out for a mob to break into the prison, drag them out, deal with them for hours together and finish them! Salute to Nagaland unity!  

The law should not be as "simple" as death by hanging! Or the nation will begin and continue to resort to Extrajudicial Mob Action!

Monday, February 23, 2015

This man will make you re-think watching porn in the future



Ted Talk, Ran Gavrieli highlights a social issue not many of you must have ever thought of, Watching porn must be a very prominent part of the urban lifestyle today but what you often fail to realize is the social implications of it all.

There is a lot more damage porn is doing to the society than you can ever imagine


I thought it necessary to share this piece of information out here.

Please take a moment off to watch this video. It might make you change your mind about watching porn

http://m.mensxp.com/special-features/today/24296-this-man-will-make-you-rethink-watching-porn-in-the-future.html


This is in addition or should I say in conclusion (?!) to a topic I blogged several times - 



http://juveltweets.blogspot.com/2013/04/on-hearing-5-year-old-girl-brutally.html



Saturday, January 3, 2015

Gossip and Rumors




Got the below image (quote) from the internet. Pretty apt, I say!