Glass Painting

My husband travels a lot and hence I am left with a lot time at hand…So I decided to indulge my creative side by taking up painting…Since I am a huge fan of glass paintings…I joined a glass painting class…I must say the class turned out to be fun and I am immensely proud of my painting…

Here is the procedure...I am sure even an amateur painter will find it easy to follow.

Materials –

• Glass piece – can be thick/thin, transparent/opaque, square/round (all a personal preference)
• Design of your choice
• Tracing sheet
• Glass colours
• Glass liner – thick and thin
• Brush

Method –

• Place the tracing sheet on the design and trace it out.
• Now place the glass piece correctly on the tracing sheet. Make sure that the margins are of equal length on all four sides.
• Take the thick glass liner and trace out the margins and the design onto the glass piece. Thin glass liner can be used in case the design includes some fine detailing. Be careful not to smudge the paint. This has to be left to dry for a day or two.
• Fill in the painting with the glass colours. The glass colours have a transparent quality to them. They make the painting look luminous.
• Painting with glass colours tends to put air bubbles all over one’s painting; from my point of view these can add character to your painting but in case you don’t want the bubbles they can be easily removed by pricking with a safety pin.
• You can use the brush to give final touch up to the margins.
• Leave the paint to dry and voila the painting is ready to be framed.

Dhalia/Broken Wheat Upma

Don't like dhalia? Probably you can read the following entry and try out the recipe...Broken wheat is actually very nutritious and recommended as a regular diet and substitute for rice in case of diabetic patients...Anyway read on...

Here's putting something mildly...I hated the broken wheat upma that my mother used to prepare for my grandmother who by the way is a diabetic...And because of it's unappetizing appearance, I never found it palatable even when I was dying of hunger...

All that changed after marriage...When cooking became my part time job :)...I tell you, after 1 year of marriage I had completely run out of ideas on what to make for breakfast...Anyway the lack of breakfast ideas led my husband and me into exploring new avenues and my resolve (of not eating dhalia) gave way...And I hate to admit it...The upma I made actually turned out so nicely that I have started loving this particular dish...By the way this recipe has been adapted to satisfy a normal person's (non diabetic) taste buds...The recipe given below should be enough for 2 people

Ingredients-

• Broken wheat - 1 cup
• Carrots - 1 (finely chopped)
• Peas - 1/2 cup
• Onions - 1 (finely chopped)
• Tomato - 1 (finely chopped)
• Green chillie - 1 (sliced into 2)
• Ginger (finely chopped)
• Coriander leaves (finely chopped)
• Water - 2 cups
• Salt to taste

Tadka-

• Refined oil (a generous amount) - personal choice
• Asafoetida - a pinch
• Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
• Channa Dal - 1/2 teaspoon
• Curry leaves

Procedure-

• Wash the broken wheat properly and keep it aside.
• Heat some oil in a pressure cooker, add the asafoetida, mustard seeds and channa dal.
• When the mustard has crackled add the onion, ginger, green chillies and curry leaves.
• After the onion has turned pink add the tomatoes and fry till the tomatoes are cooked.
• Add the carrots and the peas and fry for a minute.
• Add water and bring to a boil.
• Add the washed broken wheat, salt and finely chopped coriander leaves.
• Close the cooker lid and allow the upma to cook for up to 2 whistles.
• You can serve the dish with coconut chutney.

The New Year has brought a major writer’s block at its helm....

Poi Solla Porom

The new flick Poi Solla Porom turned out to be one of the few Tamil movies I have enjoyed in a very long time and it seriously restored my faith in the quality of Tamil movies that are being churned out nowadays… This I say on the basis of my last sojourn into the Tamil movie realm… I am talking about my last viewing that’s Dasavatharam for you...Which by the way was immensely torturous to the visual and the auditory hubs of my poor brain….And it led to me getting a full blown headache…
Anyway to continue with Poi Solla Porom… I was really worried about booking tickets for this movie since it was not just my husband and I but my parents and a friend as well who we had invited out of the zeal for turning the whole outing into a big family get together...Ok! Now talking about my husband, he has a really high tolerance level when it comes to Tamil movies… No let me rephrase it saying he has a very high AFFINITY towards Tamil movies…that means he can watch any Tamil movie and his favourite channel is KTV (I am rolling my eyes as I type this)…Most Tamilians will agree with me when I say that KTV is the stupidest channel in India if not the world and the movies that are played on this channel would make you want to hang yourself…But my dad on the other hand has absolutely no interest in movies of any kind…and I on my part had done some emotional blackmailing and compelled him into coming with us…So you can imagine what would have happened to me if the movie had turned out for the worse :)… But all’s well that ends well so here’s where I will start with the movie review…
Poi Solla Porom is the Tamil remake of Khosla Ka Ghosla which I had heard was worth a watch and I assure you the remake is just as good if not better…Anyway the story revolves around a typical middle class family which consists of mom, dad, 2 sons and a daughter… Dad has big dreams for the house he is going to build on the land which he bought with his retirement money…The elder son that would be Karthik (he is so cute!!) is portrayed as a stand offish character with goals and ideals which includes going to the US but not his family…His girlfriend is a part of some drama troupe… the younger brother is a student I think…Dad gets royally swindled by a real estate agent who has the backing of a land shark played by Nassar… the rest of the story deals with how the family tries to get back the land with the help of Karthik’s friends…
The movie is really natural and evokes myriad emotions from the audience…All the artists fit their characters to the boot…Be it the dad played by Nedumudi Venu or Mouli and Balaji as the drama troupe artists who play very significant roles in the movie’s climax or Bosky as the passport agent and of course Nasser as the land shark who conveys all his dialogues through expressions rather than speech (he hardly has any dialogues in the movie, but with his expressions he has given a truly brilliant performance)…And the guy who plays the younger son Om is also really good as a character who doesn’t think before acting…The song and dance routines at all the wrong situations (typical of most Tamil movies) have been removed from the forefront and have been added to the movie as background scores…A relief I assure you…This movie has all the makings of a hit and I hope the Tamil audience accepts it… I definitely approve and would easily give it a rating of four and a half on five :)…As Tamilians say - Half mark cut for the music which was not very appealing… Other than that I have no complains about the movie and neither did my family… and we were smiling as we got out of the movie theatre…

Bangaluru

The transformation of Bangalore has been categorized under the label “improvement of infrastructure’….I for one question this - is that truly what these changes mean to the city or to the citizens…has there been an improvement of any kind…because either I am too myopic to notice the improvements or the authorities have not exactly lived up to their assurance of awarding the public with a better Bangalore…
I am not sure about the other sections in Bangalore, but I can clearly notice the appalling changes taking place in and around Indiranagar…I have lived here for the past 18 years and in the early years it was truly a joy walking on the tree lined roads in and around this area…especially 100 ft Road and CMH road… the peace and serenity of the place contributing to making Bangalore the garden city and the pensioner’s paradise…the exquisite bungalows adding their own charm to the whole setting…the parks in almost every layout were plain delightful…
But the trees have been cut, giving way to roads, metro lines, etc… the whole landscape looks dull and lifeless…the sight just brings tears to my eyes…the remaining trees sport a layer of dirt and grime due to the increasing pollution levels…the whole weather pattern has changed because of the absence of trees… Bangalore was never this hot or water starved before…and there weren’t these many power cuts…
The roads have been quarried time and again for laying of cables to satisfy the needs of the n number of software companies which keep sprouting every other day… there is not a decent piece of road or pavement left anywhere in Indiranagar anymore…
The bungalows have given way to commercial establishments… the noise pollution has driven people into selling their homes and moving to quieter areas (if there are any of those left anymore)….
There is a rule saying - for every tree being cut, two trees have to be planted… I seriously wonder where these trees are being planted... isn’t anyone worried about how these developments are going to affect us? Are the authorities doing something about the worrisome alterations that are taking place? At least I see the whole scenario as moving in reverse rather than forward where infrastructure improvement is concerned….
Why is the government focusing its energies on silly issues such as the non existent night life in Bangalore (a topic of hot discussion I assure you)? Seriously why so much concentration on closing of pubs before 11 p.m. and banning of dance bars?
The existing infrastructure is taking a beating…Why is no one paying attention to that? People are talking about it as in its just on paper but where’s the action being taken?
What about the hours of load shedding? What about connectivity? What about quality of the roads being constructed?
In general the changes even though they are coming about at snail’s pace are devoid of any quality… in harsher terms the work undertaken by the government is purely substandard…
I seriously don’t know where these changes are leading but if these issues are not addressed pretty soon, in a few years Bangalore is going to become unlivable…

Wishing the readers of this space (if anyone's still reading this space)... a happy Ganesh Chaturthi :)

Hali Mane

The restaurant called ‘Hali Mane’ in Malleswaram turned out to be a real treat to the senses (especially taste and smell)…The name literally translates to village house and you would expect it to serve authentic Karnataka cuisine…besides which you can find the usual North Indian dishes like paratha-kurma and naan/roti/kulcha with butter paneer masala on the menu…
I wanted to taste something different so I tried akki roti that’s roti made out of rice flour and ragi roti made of ragi flour…these are served with 2 types of chutney…they tasted really good…
They also serve ragi balls with I think sambar...not sure…its supposed to be really healthy but as with most people, I decide if a dish is palatable or not by the looks of it rather than its nutritive factor…so eating that was totally out of the question :P…
The second time round (this place is totally worth the second visit) we had meals it’s a mixture of North and South Indian dishes… I liked the way the meal was served…they give each person a bottle of mineral water and serve each dish separately rather than pile everything on the plate all at once …also you can order the separate meal for kids which serve smaller portions ...you are served a tambulam (that’s nothing but paan), banana and ice cream to round of the meal…on the whole it was satisfactory but I was not very impressed by the side dishes served with the naan…the subzi’s could have tasted better…
I feel they can completely do away with the North Indian section of the menu and come up with more dishes that can be billed under the category of ‘authentic’ Kannada food…but I can sympathize with most restaurateurs who open restaurant for the masses and are in the constant fear of going under if their hotel does not have the multi cuisine tag attached to them… But Hali Mane seems to be doing pretty well for itself judging by the never-ending crowd outside probably because it’s able to provide quality food at inexpensive rates…but to tell you the truth the major USP for me was the cleanliness aspect…