My Sketching

Not many know I do sketching at times. Its not that I am very interested, but drawing I got it in my genes. To set expectation, I am never trained, so my drawings are not as impressive but I can handle a pencil. Yesterday for somereason I was digging my cupboard, and found few old sketches which I drew to kill boredom. It used to take an hour for these sketches but my mind used to feel rejuvenated after that.

Here we go few of my sketches.

Pencils used 2b, HB. Either of it works if we know how much pressure needs to be put on to get right shade. Else you can use both. You also need an Eraser and a pencil sharpner. Planing to start off with a Buddha sketch, Hopefully I will be able to get it as its been years I haven't got pencil in my hand.

Heere kai Bajji

I love fried food. Specially bajjis/pakoras. Once I get a thought of having them I will be restless till I make and have it. Specially during the rainy and winter season, this is a must. When you dont have mood to have curries for dinner/lunch, this is best option to have with rice and dal.

Earlier I had to wait for my mother or sister to prepare it for me and it doesn't feel good asking everytime right. Once I went to my aunts home when I was staying in hostel in my Engineering days and you know if you stay in a hostel you will be craving for good home food. And if it is bajji/pakora forget it. She made these pakoras in front of me. I loved it and i just watched the way she was preparing them. It took only 10mins to prepare for 2people.

I tried them at my home and now I experiement these bajjis with different vegetables like onion, potato, brinjal, snake guord ,ridge guord,raw banana. Except for onions the batter mix is same for all other bajjis.

Here I will tell you how to make ridge guord bajji(heerekai bajji). You can try with different vegetables, except bitter guord considering its bitterness:).

Cooking time:20mins for 4people.

Quantity:10-15 bajjis

Ingredients:

1/2 Ridge guord
4tbs Bengal gram flour
1tsp Chilli powder
1/2tsp Ajwain/jeera(optional)
1/4tsp Baking soda
1/4tsp Turmeric
Salt to taste
Oil for deep fry

Add flour, ajwain/jeera,chilli powder, turmeric, salt and soda in a bowl.

Mix it well by adding water. The batter should not be too thin or thick. It should be thick enough to stick to the vegetable.

Peel only rough surface of ridge gourd. Slice it width wise. Dip the slice in batter and deep fry till the bajjis are cooked.

Serve hot with coconut chutney or pudina chutney.

Note: You can prepare the batter with gram flour, little soda, salt  and water. Other ingredients are just for extra taste.

Tips:
1. You can use any vegetable instead of ridge guord. You can also use same batter for Aloo, Snake Guord, brinjal, boiled egg, raw banana.
2. You can add jeera powder to the batter.It tastes good and its good for people who have gastritis problem because of gram flour.
3. If you feel the batter is too thin, just mix flour again till you get a required thickness. Make sure you add salt if needed after adding flour again.
4. When the bajjis are ready, toss the bajjis with chilly powder/chat masala for a chatpata taste.
5. This is oily stuff, so make sure you exercise well to keep yourself fit. If you are not supposed to take oil, please control your temptation and have 1-2max.
6. Gram flour is not good for people having gastritis problem. If they have more, your stomach might get upset. So control and have in limits. If you have gastritis and gram flour is strict NO, replace the gramflour with all maida flour(All Purpose Flour). But I still prefer gram flour and have in limits.
7. You can top these bajjis with finely chopped onions, coriander and lemon. I am sure you will love it.

Missing grandmother

28Aug, 2014, the day to be remembered as a loss to Aroli's when the person who gave birth to Aroli brothers passed away. Thats My grandmother, wife of Late Aroli Ashanna. My grandfather, who expired in 1994, exactly after 2decades, my grandmother left us. Let me tell something about my grandmother. We heard that she had undergone lot of troubles in her life. In a male dominated society she was left alone with no support from my grandfather. She was 7years when she lost her mother, she was taken care by her sister. She got married at very young age, then she had kids. One of my aunt, my dads elder sister passed away at very young age, for reason not known, my grandmother was grieving alone, as my grandfather and great grandfather just left saying "Its all destiny. Let the ladies take care of these, men will not be involved". North Karnataka, I still see as a male dominated society where woman is still just a slave or maid for men. Not to generalise, but its there in most of the North Karnataka areas. Women still eat after men eat, they don't talk when men are having a discussion, its considered as rude. A working women still has to take care of domestic work and then manage her office work.  Never ending story if we get into this topic. My grandmother grew up with this kind of society around her. Probably because of this she was such a tough woman that she wasn't so emotional, or may be she never expressed it.

                My relation with my grandmother I remember is from age 2. I was attached to her more than my mother. I always avoided facing my mom, may be I was scared of her. I always used to be with my grandmother. She had this habit of going to her neighbours house and gossip for hours. Her schedule used to start from 430pm to 830pm or 9pm. I used to accompany her, don't know what she used to talk, but i just remember i was playing around or sit with her listening everything but never tried to understand what they spoke. I had this habit of leaving what I see/hear then and there,never came back and told my mother what happened.It became so routine that if i didn't find my grandmother at my home after I come back from school, I used to run to these neighbours to find her.She used to carry me on her shoulders where ever she went. Be it to a neighbour home or to a far distant place for a family outing. I used to be with her, Sleep with her. I also had habit of putting my leg on her, which she patiently moved aside.  In my grandmothers home, none asked us what time we eat, sleep, study. It was a kind of luxury. But we were watched with whom we are and where we are. My grandparents used to pick and drop us from school. A best time I spent with my grandparents. It was real fun. In 1991 we moved to Shimoga, I left my grandparents who loved us the most. I was too young to feel for them, but I only felt for was my freedom was curbed. And most important thing was staying with my mother, that was very challenging for me:).

As time flew, we got detached from our grandparents. 1994 when my grandfather left us, we were too young to think of anything. We were just happy that we will meet our whole Aroli family in raichur again. Now after 20years, we never cared how our grandmother lived without my grandfather. She was very tough and very straight forward woman. She never used to think what she speaks. This used to annoy us and we had a feeling that she never loved us. This is what a long distance relationship makes us believe I guess.5weeks back my mother asked us to see my grandmother as she was bed ridden, She fell from step and broke her joint and since she was diabetic, it was hard to recover. I had an attitude of why should I go and see her. I had to take leave and I hate travelling.I just gave reasons for not seeing her. My cousin brother uploaded pic of my grandmother who was in hospital, and I was shaken when I saw her. I was so upset, my eyes were filled with tears and I decided "Enough,let me meet her". The very next day I travelled to Raichur. First thing I did was, I went to her room, she hardly could speak or see. I held her hand and she started crying. So did I, but I held back my tears . I didn't want to show emotions in front of my family and a nurse who was taking care of her. But yes my heart cried a lot which I am not sure if people can feel it. I am a person who wont even breathe when I visit a patient. But here I was different. I was with my grandmother who was bedridden, I was sitting beside her, holding her hand and patting her head as if she was a small kid. Somewhere my old love for her had blossomed again. After all she is my grandmother who took care of me like her own child.

                A week before her death I got a dream that I went to see my grandmother she was playing on her bed. I asked her how is she, she smiled and spoke to me like a kid, that she is all fine. Then nurse came with a sad face saying, its all gone. I couldn't understand as my grandmother was still sitting happily on her bed. Nurse said she hurt her hand by hitting it to cupboard. Then my grandmother showed her two hands . There was just an iron rod on both hands,I was scared and just woke up. When she left us, we travelled to raichur. We heard people saying she hurt her hand by hitting to cupboard and the wound was incurable. She was diabetic and that wound just spread like anything and she was bleeding. She lost her consciousness. She was just breathing and she breathed last on 28th aug,2014. I hate my dreams and my intuitions as most of them will be true, unfortunately. Good never happened, but bad intuitions/dreams do come true. I was beside her body whole night , I slept only for 1hr . My heart was crying, and there were people who came from far places and cried for her. I felt happy to see that at the age of 80also people come and cry for a person. Whatever the age is, all that matters is their presence. Everyone knew it was obvious that she wouldn't be surviving for many days, but it was hard to accept when she left us. All she gave us was memories. After cremation, we checked her bag which she left, all she had was few of her clothes, broken toys and albums. Albums? Yes, she had collection of photographs, not hers but her grand children and great grandchildren. She loved us the most, but never expressed. All we could do was to feel sad for her, but what is the use. We didn't make her happy when she was alive, what will change when we cry when she is no more. She didn't ask for any property. She was just asking for some importance of her in our lives which we never gave. Few things which we can learn from her

               

                1. Her bindaas attitude, She lived happily in whatever she had. She never had debts .Whatever my grandfather got she lived with it.

                2. Cooking, she was awesome cook. Even simple dal used to taste so good. She used to make burfis and delicious laddoos.

                3. Amazing crafts person. Be it building a Taj Mahal with injection bottles which she used to collect from hospitals, or making animals with cigar packets.Knitting shawls, tailoring, and rangoli, noone can beat her in that. Every neighbour used to wait to see what she is going to draw during sankranthi festival and new year.She gave tough competition for people who tried to compete with her for rangoli.

                4. Very good reader. She loved reading. she used to read novels, magazines and news papers. Probably this is one thing I really want to do which I am inspired by her.

               

                She suffered a lot during her last days. Hopefully God will not give that kind of death to anyone. Somewhere we were happy she was relieved from pain, but still we are sad that she left us with only memories. Yes, I am sad that my grandmother left me but what hurts me more is I couldn't make her happy when she was alive. Bidding goodbye to her, here we start a new life without her . After all life just goes on. How much ever tough we are, we are always emotional somewhere inside. A blood relation is a blood relation.Though we are far we still cry for our loved ones. May her soul rest in peace.

NagaraPanchami

Today is NagaraPanchami, the day where people offer prayers to Snake God by offering milk. I didn't know unless one of our apartment uncle asked me to drop him to a temple.Sometimes I feel scared what if I forget all these customs what am I going to teach my next generation? I am not sure about the reason why people follow these customs, but few things I like to follow blindly.

On Nagarapanchami day, my mother used to make us wake up in morning , get ready and offer prayers by spilling milk in coconut cup with jaggery. You will find the snake sculptures in temples and we pour jaggery milk to these sculptures. I love following these customs without questioning on what and why we do it. FYI there will be special poojas on this day in Kukke Subramanya Temple,Karnataka, near to Dharmasthala. If you are an Atheist atleast you can enjoy the nature around the temple.

One good thing about Nagarpanchami is the feast, specially laddus. My mother makes different varieties of laddus on this day. One such laddu is made of sesame seeds which produces heat in your body. It is said to be good for health during winter season. My next plan is to try preparing these laddus and posing the recipes in my blog. Just a small effort to keep these blind customs alive for next generation.

Masala Vada: Perfect for chilled weather.

Cooking time: 20mins(exlcuding the dal soaking time of 30mins)

Ingredients:

1/4                 Chana dal(Bengal gram)
5                 Green chillis
1 inch piece  Ginger
1/2 cup          Dill leaves (finely chopped)
1/4 tsp          Baking Soda
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying

Soak dal in water for about 30mins. Grind green chillis, ginger first and then add the soaked chana dal and grind it to coarse. Take the mixture to a bowl, add salt, dill leaves, soda and salt to taste.

Mill well. Take the small ball of this mix and shape them to flat patties.

Deep fry these patties. Serve with lemon rice or as a side dish for lunch or dinner.

If you are having for evening tea, serve hot with coconut chutney. Perfect for chilled weather.

Tips:
1. Make small and flat vadas to get a crispy vada.
2. You can also dip it with spicy yogurt (more in malayalam,Perugu chaaru in telugu/majjige saaru in kannada/Kadi in hindi) and serve.
3. Dill leaves are optional, you can make vada without dill leaves also, but dill leaves gives an awesome taste and aroma to the vada. You will surely love it.
4. You can also add onions, coriander to the mix. This will give a different taste.

My Car Driving Experience

Audience: Women especially short ladies.

Driving is necessity and its thrilling:

Situation makes you do wonders. Don't believe, here you go. Exactly one year back, I didn't know driving. I was completely dependent on my cab/brothers if I had to go out. Either I was not interested or I didn't dare to.

I always have heard men saying girls cannot ride or drive, specially gear one. I believed it somehow. But now probably I wouldn't agree for it:-). Driving is very simple and I suggest go for gear one. Its a necessity and also its fun.

How to drive? Follow this

1. First thing, get into a car at the driver seat and understand the system. (Go to coaching if needed. Have a driver beside you.)
2. Adjust the seat accordingly for a proper leg room. You will find a liver below the seat which is used to adjust the distance of your seat from the pedals. You can also adjust your seat for proper seating position. This is similar to the seat adjustment in any push back seat buses you might have travelled. Few high end cars provide seat' height adjustment also, but low end cars it doesn't support, and its not really necessary as it hardly makes any difference and it depends on the car that you are driving. If you ask me its not so important.
3. Adjust the mirros, center mirror, side mirrors. You need to look into these mirrors only when you are changing your lane, else you can go your way looking forward. Understand how much wide you car is and go ahead.
4. The wheel is called the steering wheel, which is used to control the direction of the wheels. Try rotating it and see how the wheels move when you rotate the wheel. This will give you fair idea on how much you need to turn your steering wheel to move your car in particular direction. This is the first thing you should know to control.

4. At your legs, you see three pedals. Left pedal is the clutch, middle pedal is the brake and the right one is the accelerator. Adjust your seat in a way that you are able to press these three pedals to the floor.

5. Now understand the gear shift knob. The knob looks as below.

Neutral : By default the gear will be in neutral position. Test it by moving the gear knob around. You should be able to move it freely.

First Gear: Move the knob to left and then upwards. This gear is used to move the vehicle. Remember this gear is only to move your vehicle for short distance. Once the vehicle moves, change the gear to second.

Second Gear: Press the clutch to floor, pull the gear knob back from 1st gear, it will come to neutral. Now move the gear knob to left, then downwards and slowly release the clutch. This gear you need for driving as the first gear is only to move your vehicle. Rest everything can be controlled by second gear. Its safe and it goes in minimum and manageable speed. So if you are a learner, then always be in first and second gear. Once comfortable go for higher gears.

Third Gear: Press the clutch to floor,get the gear back to neutral from second. Push forward(straight), you will be in third gear.This gear should be used once the vehicle picks up the required speed in second gear.

Fourth Gear: Press the clutch to floor, pull the gear knob to neutral and then downwards(straight). Use this gear once you are used to speed.

Fifth Gear: Press the clutch to floor, get the gear knob back to neutral . Now move the knob to your right and then forward. Use this gear very strictly if you are comfortable handling the speed. .

Reverse gear: This gear is used to take your car in reverse direction. Move the knob to right and then downwards(straight)

You can see how to move the gear knob on knob itself, but you need some basic to understand that signs also.

Now you are all set to drive. Ask someone to accompany you till the play ground in car, where you have ample space to experiment your driving skills, and start with first gear and then second. Practice it, you will get confidence in 3 days only.  First understand your steering wheel, and then switching your gears and moving your legs on right pedals.

Want some inspiration?Here is my story
I am not tall and I never felt confident enough for anything as people always referred to me as short girl even if I wasnt that short, but cant we change the way we look or we are, right ? To feel good I started using sandals whose heel size is  3 and half inches. But somewhere this didn't help, and  I always had inferiority complex for the fact that I couldn't drive or ride a bike and be independent.

My problem was I didn't have time. May be it was just a reason. When time came to rely on self, I went ahead and started driving. Believe me I hardly attended 12 driving classes out of 25 and that too at 8pm, 20mins class. For sure it didn't make me an expert.I took my car out once, to small distance accompanying my brother, then alone, then to main road and then whole Bangalore, nothing stops me now.

Want to see my car, here it is:)

Mistakes :
I wont say I didn't commit mistakes while driving, but as far as you and others on road are safe, nothing should bother you:). My mantra is whatever happens to car, don't worry your safety and others safety is highly important on road.  What mistakes I did

1. I was about to hit a divider once. This was because of my lack of concentration on road. Luckily escaped.
2. I was taking left  while coming out from a gate and unknowingly I took the cars front wheel on footpath near a bus stop and luckily got the car down without any dents. I realised what had happened only after noticing that people standing at the bus stop were staring at my vehicle and my cousin brother was in shock sitting beside me and explained on what I did :D. This was because of my incorrect calculation while taking a turn.
3. I was overtaking a lorry without knowing to calculate the speed of the vehicle I was overtaking. As a result there was a miraculous escape from being hit by a heavy lorry on a flyover. Always calculate the speed of the vehicle you are overtaking because when you have to get back to the same lane after overtaking, you should make sure that there is enough distance between your car and the moving vehicle which you overtook, to avoid collision.
4. Escaped from a roll-over while driving on flyover at 80speed on 5th gear and suddenly moved the gear to 2nd instead of 4th . A drastic slowdown of the speed which gave a scary jerk and vehicle stopped. I was lucky in this case also. This happened because I only knew how to use 5th gear without knowing how to come down from 5th gear.
5. I was trying to move a vehicle with my handbrakes applied. It took me few minutes to realise till my friend told me I had to release the handbrake. Silly mistake happened because of absence of mind.

This was my learning experience and this didn't stop me from driving. I am mentioning it here, not to scare you but to help you learn from my mistakes. Learning is never ending, so I will update if I learn something new.

Tips:
1. Never ever panic. Very important. Practice and this panicking and fear will go away.
2. Keep using half clucth while applying brakes unless you are comfortable with brakes. This will not stop your vehicle but it will surely use all your petrol. Its okay loosing few bucks while practicing:)
3. Half clutch is big problem if you don't practice. Its needed to move your vehicle upwards if the road is not even. And always switch to first gear when  you have to drive uphill. These days even roads are like uphills in Bangalore.
4. If you feel your vehicle going backwards anytime and your brakes are not working, please use handbrake. It will stop your vehicle. This is important to avoid hitting objects behind your car.
5.If you feel you are not able to manage on road, just stop the vehicle and take your time to go ahead Don't care who honks or who shouts. Specially if someone is coming from front and you are scared to face that vehicle, stop for a while , once the vehicle passes , you start again. Nothing is going to change in 5mins unless its emergency.
6. Observe the driver when you are not driving. See how he moves the wheel, his legs and how he switches the gears. This is very helpful. Ask doubts. Few tips I also got from my cab driver.
7. Anytime if you feel your vehicle is speeding just lower the gear, the speed will automatically come down.
8.Not all people are good on roads. You will find people commenting cheap, or make fun, block your way, unnecessarily honk to panic you, and also bang your vehicle sometimes if they know you are single women driving. It happens mainly with autowalas, truck drivers, lorry and any other public transport drivers. Not sure if its male ego, but remember never get down the car. If you are in public also see if you can really fight because when you get down, no one will come to support. Public will just have fun watching as they feel women are always wrong on roads. Welcome to the realworld.
9. Avoid isolated areas, if you take also make sure you don't stop your vehicle anywhere for anyone. Don't give lift to strangers you never know what kind of persons they are.

Onemore thing, not all are lucky to get access to cars if you have husband or brother who owns the car . They are generally not keen in giving it to a lady for experimenting atleast. I was lucky that my bro left the car  at my home and left to Germany  for three months and I got access to the car. I suggest use the opportunity when the guys are not around and you have access to car. Just take it and go for a drive. What atmost  will happen ?Dents and scratches, nothing else right, chill. Tell same to your men and tell them thats  how we ladies feel when they mess up our kitchen:).

I also got few scratches and dents and that was fine. BUT ITS ALL FAIR YOU KNOW. FACT IS I AM DRIVING A CAR.

I hope this post will inspire you as I was also inspired by other ladies who drove on roads confidently. I used to admire them, now when I drive I don't feel anything, but others admire. Good Luck ladies. Go out , live your life. Drive and enjoy the feeling.

Garlic chilli paste for dosa

Bored of plain dosa ? Here you go, a very simple and easy paste to spread on your dosa for a funny and yummy taste.

Ingredients:

5                              Green chillies

1 small cup           Coriander leaves

8                              Garlic cloves

Salt to taste

Grind all the ingredients together to a fine paste.

 Now add little water to make it a little dilute to spread over dosa.

When you pour and spread dosa batter on dosa pan, spread the garlic chilli paste also on dosa and leave till the dosa is done. 

Serve this dosa with coconut chutney.

For better taste you can use ghee instead of oil for dosa.

Tips:

1. Add more garlic in the paste for better taste.
2. This chutney will soften your dosa. If you want to have crispy dosa, use little paste, and serve it hot. If you keep for the dosa with this paste for long time, it will soften the dosa.