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 Idli Dosa Vada Sambar !!! A Madrasi was / is someone who could be constantly mocked at for his /her stubborn obsession with Idli-dosa-vada-sambar. Not without reason. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.  Hotel Saravana Bhavan does roaring business not in the 20 odd outlets in chennai, but more so in its 43 branches outside India.  If one ever analysed the customer profile of their overseas branches you would know why I say this. Although this is a highly under researched  area in the matters of Culinary Adaptations,  it would be safe to hypothesise that a Madrasi’s  tastebuds are not very adapatable to cuisines with external influence. Prolonged exposure to alien culinary influences have forced many a Madrasi to flee for survival and take the next ship / boat / flight/ Train/ bus / bullock cart back home to a staple of idli-dosa-pongal-vada-sambar.  A certain Srinivasan Ramanujam, whose brilliance and obsession with figures (o...

FDFS  ( First Day First Show) I know i am recyclcing this post ... that appeared some time ago. Consider this the revised edition. Because  today is  12/12 . For most Madrasis it is an auspicious day ... as auspicious as a diwali or pongal Click on the video to expereince the festivities. For a detailed account click here and  read on. http://www.deccanchronicle.com/141212/entertainment-kollywood/article/fan-frenzy-builds They say it is not like what it used to be in the good old days . This is how it was in Madras in the good old days. Summer vacations were never complete without watching the latest Rajinikanth release in Kapali or Kamadhenu theatre.   Paatti   (Grandmother) would wait for us grandchildren to arrive  so that she could take us for the Rajanikanth movie that had just been released. In other times of the year ,  Paatti   would settle for nothing less than the first day first ...

Eh... Madrasi ! Chapter one : The Eternal Summer ... It  is a city I love to hate.  It was always a city I loved to hate. I am not sure about it any more though. Chennai – then called Madras was where we were packed off for our summer vacations.  The very next day after the annual exams, Appa would see us off at the Railway station and the 24 to 36 hour long  train journey  in the second class sleeper to Madras would begin.  He would join us for a weekly holiday  later during the month. Madras was where my parents were born.  Madras was where my parents grew up.  It was for them their annual homecoming to affirm their roots.  As children we did not have much of a choice in where we get to spend our summer vacation.   And summers they were.  Madras was, is and will always be known for its summer. The eternal summer. The sultry, sticky and humid weather that is hot, hotter and the hottest at the best of time...

Sky blues... Insisting on a window seat when boarding a flight Watching Mega Cities look tiny and tidy from that height Its traffic looks like a sparkling row of red and golden necklace in the night. But the best of views from the skies is clearly when it is broad daylight  ... Here are some of the snaps taken over the French Italian Alps enroute Rome aboard an Alitalia flight.  This picture taken almost seven yeas ago, is etched in my memory as possibly one of the best views from the clear blue skies of the snow covered Alps beneath ...   Submitted for the Thursday Challenge where the theme this week is BLUE

Tea leaves readings As a first generation immigrant, his father owned a Tea shop.  When he was a young boy he would help his father, when he would leave the shop in his care from time to time.   It was a city that was at the cusp of becoming a buzzing metropolis. The myriad of people whom he observed  over the years at the tea shop left  a rich  understanding of human behaviour imprinted in him. Years later, it was his accurate sense of instinct and his ability to judge people, situations and reactions that marked him out from other people around him. His point was simple. If you are tuned into your instincts and observe and register  everything around you, however trivial and disconnected they may seen at that time,  you  will learn to decipher the patterns and see beyond the obvious .   This post is written for  100 Words on Saturday Prompt   for Write Tribe  on the quote ...

It takes all kinds to make the world. Kew gardens is a wonderful treat for plant lovers and those serious about conversation of Biodiversity. Here are some from their Orchid collection taken in Feb 2012. Submitted for the Thursday Challenge where the theme for this week is garden. 

PUDCHYA VARSHI LAUKAR YAA - 2014 It is that time of the year when there is music and drum beats being heard all over. There is'nt as much dance, fun and gaiety as it is in Mumbai or  Pune. But then this is Bangalore. Down south and down right conservative. Ah... that is probably unfair to say the least. Conservative atleast in relative terms. If you were foolish to go drive on the roads today, you would be pleasantly surprised at how well co-ordinated the traffic is, considering it is the 3rd day of Ganesha and most idols atleast in this part of the country go for the immersion today. Much has been said every year about using the Clay Ganesha idols who being devoid of colourful paints, would not pollute by dissolving toxins from the harmful chemicals in the paint into our scarce and already polluted water bodies. Apparently in the good old days, Ganesha idols would be made out of all the mud and slush that was available in abundance by the lakes and rivers beds where...

Reducing my carbon foot print.  This post is a confession of a introspective middle class urban consumer. It was one of those mad mornings when I was fixing breakfast, packing lunch, catching up on some yoga and  getting ready to work in no particular order.  Gouramma my domestic help arrives about 15 minutes late  from her scheduled time and  I know I am going to get terribly late to my meaningless monday morning management meeting.  My bloodpressure has shot up to insane levels and I am trying to multitask. I have my dough for Rotis  readied while I get on to the job of peeling the vegetables. Gouramma watches me  peeling away the chunks in a hurry. She tells me she could do with taking the skin with her to her home and if she may do so.  I ask her what would she do with it? And that was when she gave me her two cents worth . She said ‘you people’ waste a lot of wealth.  From where she comes, the skin , the most...

At 39,000 feet above sea level dusk traverses across time zones. From an airplane window it feels like you are chasing time. The dusk is longer than at sea level. Clicked on a Panasonic DMC -LZ8 Submitted for Thursday challenge   where the theme this week in SKY. 

1. Golden gate Bridge although technically on  the outskirts of San Francisco, symbolizes the beautiful city whose fringes today are where the silicon valley took birth.  In Itself the Golden gate Bridge has inspired many including Vikram Seth's poetry and the Logo for CISCO.            2.  Temple of Zeus is probably the oldest structure standing from the roman era. The Temple of Zeus along    with the Temple of Athena at the Acropolis symbolize the grandeur of the ancient Greek civilization and its buzzing capital city Athens.               3. Originally meant to be the clock tower for the monastery and the Church built nearby, the leaning tower of Pisa is a structure that intrigues many an architect standing well , not so erect but tall 400 years after it was built.  What did the Big Ben tell the leaning tower of Pisa ? If You have the inclinat...

Its the time to mango - season 4  This year's  mango season passed by so uneventfully.  The deserving  climax to the mango season comes when the market gets flooded with the Neelam variety.  David Davidar dedicated his book the house of blue mangoes’ – Neelam in native Tamil signifying the colour Blue.  While there is nothing blue about the Neelam variety , it is probably named so because it leaves you with the summer blues, nostalgic memories of yet another incredible summer gone by . Neelam seldom gets exported ( that leaves it inexpensive for the locals to enjoy) . And that is because the sweetest of Neelam mangoes have a bug or two living at the center of the mango that the FDA outside of the Indian borders would be mortally paranoid about.  A true conossiuer of mango would hardly get put off by the bug. The bugs choose the best neelam flowers to lay their eggs. With time, the flowers ripen into fruits and...

Independence day Free trade - Indian Flag button gets made in China India celebrates its 68th Independence day today.   It is a national holiday on 15th of August except for essential services.  On 15th august thousands of IT & BPO workers go to work and get paid a double wage in lieu of a holiday on July the 4th just so that the essential services for the rest of the world does not take a back seat.     The Retail sector is on a overdrive today.  We could possibly rebrand independence day and Republic day as India shopping days.    Anyway no one is complaining. Why spoil the party.     Times have changed.  'Being Indian' is not any more about being   ‘Swadeshi’. Miniature Indian flag buttons - Made in China is sold on traffic signals by the same beggar who on other days begs at the traffic lights  holding a miserable looking new  born infant who is probably out on rent....

 They were moments. Moments Of Sheer Awe. Moments Of Gratitude. Moments of Silence. Moments Of  Urgency Moments Of reflection These were everyday happenings. The sun has been rising unfailingly for centuries , for millions of years. From the time the universe was created. And yet there was  sense of urgency to capture that moment and record it. The Sun, the water, the mountains and the sheer wonder and magic of all that they nursed within them. Linking to Thursday challenge  with theme Water (  Swimming, Boating, Fishing, Lake, Ocean, River,..)  and to Write Tribe Pro blogger Week 3