Diet Avakka - Served Fresh

If you are one of those who must have pickle but worried about the excess oil and havent figured out an effective way to have it without worrying about the extra calories...here is a proven technique to help you enjoy that special Vadu Manga or Avakka whole heartedly.

Things required
Urugai (Pickle) with excess oil - of course
Pickle in small microwavable container that has lid that is twistable - ie air tight lid - Quantity: sufficient for 3 to 4 aloo parattas
Microwavable lunch container having main course for which Pickle is required
Lunch bag of some sort carrying these 2 boxes with item - packed and zipped
Small Pickle container placed on top of the lunch box - this is important
Few paper towels
...And an enthusiastic boy (preferably 3 years of age)

This morning I am ready to leave to work with my well packed lunch. Priya does a great job of packing lunch for me and the lunch box is a very special gift I get each day. I have to accept with out much shame or remorse that I carry lunch to work on most days.

Saatvik is all set for his school and he absolutely has to help Dad carry his lunch bag to the car. The bag strap when extended completely, is unfortunately taller than the dutiful son. So the bag gets a few swings within the axis of the strap, moves a few times up and down and bounces off the floor. By this time, anger overrides gratefulness and Dad has yanked the bag from Saatvik. I did thank him but I have to admit not whole heartedly.

Normally I dont have a clue what is packed in the bag before I actually eat my lunch and sometime even after...
But today for some reason within the office, I could smell great Avakka pickle more than anything else. Initially I attributed it to the many false alarms of aging that I have been lately using when I mis-judge.

I move on...in and out of a few meetings, gym and now I am ready to eat. I open the bag and I am invited to a great aroma and a very colorful orange interior bag (normally it is white). You guessed it right.

Few paper towels, back and forth to the pantry and I start eating. Now I really and whole heartedly thanked Saatvik for a wonderful dry pickle serving. It was perfect.

I can vouch for the process, it works. If you have all the ingredients and an enthusiastic personnel, give it a try and you will be able to get a Diet-Avakka for your next lunch.

Cars, Cabs and Cellphones

Yet another traffic episode...

Here I am driving today to work...I lost my chaffeur privilages. Reminds me of "I got a new car this week...my wife will use the new one and I will be relegated to the old"...This is typical when couples in the US get their second car.

My situation after moving back is a little different. We finally decided to get a second but smaller and an automatic model to suit Bangalore traffic.

I am now using the new car (reminds me of guys driving a scooty) until she gets used to the Bangalore roads and traffic. It is only natural that I will be relegated to the old car soon.

Back to traffic story for today...

On the santro to work...during the commute, I notice a vehicle too close for comfort in the rear view mirror. A Qualis SUV Cab, literally stuck to my little Santro's bumper. As if that werent enough, the Qualis driver wanted to ensure that I notice his flirtations with the santro bumper by honking and flashing the headlight.

Well...that is it and he had it...Or may be not. I parked my instincts when I set in to drive a toy car. So my rage has turned into resignment. I religiously put my left indicator in frustration, wait for the next opportunity to move out and give way. Of course as a responsible driver I had to wait before I moved out. But our Qualis Cassanova cant wait...more honking. Finally I cave in, allow him to pass. He moves in front of me, narrowly squeezes past a couple of other cars and moves forward - looked more risky than his stunts with my car.

Well...he is now stuck in traffic and I am in his blind spot. We are not moving. I notice that this is a Cab and it has a note on rear windshield that reads, "If you notice rash driving, call...". And you know what happens next

Now I am busy dialing this number from my cell and at the same time maneuvering my way as the signal changes green...I get through first shot - must be my lucky day.

"Hello...Helli...evaru (Who is it)"
"I am calling to report rash driving of one of your vehicles..."
"Elli...(Where)"
"Marthahalli overpass...Driver is rash and has been getting close to many vehicles and cutting across lanes when there is no room for movement. Vehicle number is ..."
I have to write the reply I got in English.
"No...I was driving quite ok..."

I see our Qualis stud who is now right in front of my vehicle, talking to me from his cell phone.

So much for rash driving report...I guess the sticker should have said,
"If you notice rash driving, call the driver to discuss"...

I hang up...laugh out loud and move on.

Winners and Losers

Morning of June 25th 2008, driving to work and about less than a km away. Stuck in a traffic jam in CV Raman Nagar...

I am at least a couple of signal full-cycles away, before I can turn right. The opposite side traffic is just as bad. As the signal turns green there is a growing urgency for each vehicle to pass through without having to wait for another cycle of the signal.

This is a 2 lane traffic on both directions of the road with concrete blocks for barricade, a few dis-oriented to let some one to cut across or just an example of an ill-supervised municipal work.

To my right I see few school kids trying to cross the road, boys with red shorts and ivory colored shirts and girls with red skirts. All wearing short ties and of course the heavy vintage backpacks - couple of 5 year olds, one 8 year old girl, couple of 5 year old and one more 8 year old boy, all joined hands in that order from left to right. These kids are standing on the other side of the road from my car. When the signal turns green the cars and bikes zip across as if there is on a dedicated run-way. This group had to stay on course, actually stay put in the narrow side-walk and not make the wrong step on the road. After this the traffic thins with just a few miscreants zipping after the red light.

Throughout, the 8 year old girl in the middle of the group is in-charge, fully in control of the situation and confident - she looks carefully on either side, monitors the traffic, stops the other 8 year old boy when he took a wrong step right after signal turned red and pulled the chain back. After some quick analysis, springs into take the decision, pulls the two sides of her control to get past one half of the road. They are mid-way but still have challenges. The kids are now balancing one on each block barely able to balance as the width of the block can just about house the little feat. This side of the traffic is fairly ok as we are still crawling. Makes a quick decision on the fly and pulls across the group to the other side of the road...Wallah mission accomplished. It was quite an excitement to watch this flawless execution.

This girl personified many things - courage, in control (took charge despite there being another kid of the same age group), cool as a cucumber, timely decision making and perfect execution. My hero and winner...

During times when children take school bus or get chauffered to school, a sight like this makes one wonder how much is too much or too little a real world exposure.

Visibly awe-struck observing the 3 minute road-crossing drill and wondering how the kid pulled this one off, I notice something else. The other side of the road has stopped and my side of traffic is moving to grab the opportunity to get past the intersection on green. Couple of bikers in front of me, in their infinite wisdom decide to squeeze through the few dis-oriented barricades, drive on the wrong side of the road and get back in to the lane just to get a few vehicles ahead and not wait for another signal change. Interesting that there are such educated idiots and such inspiring kids all within eye's reach - one exhibiting exemplary leadership qualities with high moral responsibility and the other shamelessly flaunting their indecency and lack of responsibility.

These losers cannot take anything away from the inspiration I drew this morning from a group of kids.

Sleeping Chameleon, Moving Snails and Hanging Gulab Jamuns...

Here is an insider's view into my last weekend...

One may wonder what does a Sleeping chameleon, moving snails and hanging gulab jamuns have in common...

Dora, Diego and Boots went into the unexplored areas of the new house garden and its neighbouring layout. Lately this is one of my favourite escapes to fantasy land with my kids...Kaavya does an excellent Dora impersonation and you guessed it right - Diego and Boots are assigned characters by Kaavya. I played Diego's role and Saatvik will play Boots until he figures out who Boots really is. Diego often wonders how character selection by sisters are similar across generations.

Kaavya is 6 and Saatvik turns 3 in the next couple of weeks.

We took our usual stroll to explore and with the hope of striking some thing spectacular. I normally pray that we come across cool things that would excite my kids. But mostly nothing too memorable - dried leaves in the garden, shell and trash in beech have been the previous bests. This one was special and I am sure this gold mine we hit will be one of those to stay for a long time to come. Read along...

We started our journey trying to explore stones to build a temple under the Temple tree - this ones for another blog.

Ho..Ho..we spotted something. Deigo spotted a brown, stripped snail crossing the road...Snail with its tentacle, eyes and rest of its body out of the shell and moving at snails pace of course.

Boots has never seen a snail before. The last time Dora and Diego ventured in Snail adventure was in the beeches of Chennai. Diego had this crazy idea of taking them home in bottles. Dora of course agreed. Mami (Dora's mom) never in favor of such crazy ideas. Mami has a foresight of Nostradamus (particularly for Diego's ideas with Dora's enthusiasm) and almost always can predict doom. So clear that one may wonder if there is a conspiracy to make clairvoyance a reality. We got the snails home and overnight they all perished, all 4 of them. We woke up next day to the welcome aroma of dead snails in a bottle. If you guessed we left the bottle closed, you are probably Mami in some Dora fantasy house. We did not. However, in our over enthusiasm we had just 4 inches of extra water - yes we drowned the snails. These were land snails.

Back to the snails over zebra-crossing...Dora's enthusiasm is so predictable...First thing that comes out was, "...can we take this one home...". Diego a victim of past predictions, was smart for a change (normally known for pushing his luck and falling flat) and reminded Dora of the Chennai, "Snail in a bottle"...

After watching the snail move a few paces and taking the infamous mobile mugshots we moved on...

We moved on and I spotted a Jamun tree (Jamun is a local name for a variant of Plum). I stopped by to show Dora (and Boots of course) that here is a Jamun tree. Dora was quick to clarify to Boots that this is where he gets his favourite Gulab Jamuns...this was not a joke or anyway an attempt to fool Boots. Dora actually believed that Gulab Jamuns came from this tree. Next few minutes, Diego spent time trying to explain the difference between the Gulab Jamun and the Jamuns in a tree, with intermittent convincing argument from Dora that they were one and the same.

Thus ended a very rewarding hour of exploration. On reaching home, it was topped by spotting the Chameleon. The Chameleon that slept at night clinging to the branches of a barely-living hedge plant. It was pretty late the previous night when I saw this interesting sleeping beauty and decided to take pictures to show it to Dora and Boots when they wake up the next day.

Now that they saw it after our exploration the day after, they had to look at the pictures to be convinced it was the same one that was sleeping last night. Diego for once felt like everything was falling in place and brought the picture taken in the digital camera...Dont ask what was Diego doing at 10pm with a Digital Camera in hand the previous night.

Rest of my weekend went away indulging in Abuela's food and sleeping through the 18 overs of the T20 innings. Managed to see over 7 and 13 - both of which were non-consequential.

In some ways my weekend was nothing but a Sleeping Chameleon at snail's pace with loads of Jamun. Thanks to Dora, Boots and Mami - One heck of a weekend.

Bangalore Traffic Opportunities...

A thought...thanks to Bangalore, its traffic and some part of me saying why not...

Life is not as valuable in this part of the world...thats what some say. Another perspective, people are not too worried about what happens to them when they go about in a chaotic environment...Dont care so much about lack of first aid or emergency care as much as how can I save a few extra funds for kids school, how can I make my next 100 bucks, will I have my next meal or how much more do I need to walk to get to the nearest bus station. Yes, there are far more battles to be fought in a normal day in this part of the world than to think about planning for emergencies. "...here emergencies are every where, so there needs no special care..."

That said, it is a fact that it is difficult to get immediate medical attention for an emergency - be it a road accident, someone suffering from a heart attack or an injured child at school or home. If you have to rush some one to hospital, you will rush but your commute will slow you down. Such is the traffic condition in the roads of Bangalore. It is impossible to take someone to the nearest hospital or provide the right medical attention on time.

Why not turn the slow and often parking-lot like traffic into the world's high density first aid infrastructure. What if 1 in 5 or 10 cars on the road is equipped with first aid kit and driver trained in first aid and may be CPR. Now the need to save time or give the timely medical assistance can be well met. This will enable faster aid and provide timely attention to what may be a life threatening accident. Such an infrastructure can be a huge benefit to normal public on the road as well as to the poor who cannot get such attention even if the roads were free of traffic.

Why not start a small yet powerful campaign to create first aid readiness on wheels in Bangalore...and advance that to having some kind of radio facility to page these mobile first aid helpers at times of need...may be the license plate or a little rear wind shield sticker showing that this vehicle carries first aid personnel and first aid.

We may have just turned traffic filled streets to the most accessible life savers.
From being the most populous medical transcribers to being the most populous mediacal aid workers. Pretty powerful transformation uh...

Every bottleneck has an opening or a lid. We just need to open the lid for the water to flow, opportunities to gush out.

I am seriously considering why not...as a first step, I am committing to the idea by writing about it than just thinking about it.