Valley of Flowers

One Indian Girl (Chetan Bhagat) - A review

2016-12-01T16:52:00.001+08:00

I seldom pick-up a book by an Indian author - I know, I know! Still - I don't. After reading numerous discouraging review, I did pick this as it was available in my Kindle Unlimited account.

Its all about one Ms. Radhika Mehta - a Delhite currently living in London (a very successful investment banker). She decides to take a plunge into the sea of marriage (in Goa) - and from here the story starts. You get to read her life history - what she did ...blah blah!

The story moves back to New York - 4 years ago and drops in one guy, Debu - who works for some advertisement firm. Immediately they strike a bond and you can visualise a bollywood movie with a break-up, tears, etal. Amidst all this - you have a mom character from India who pesters out heroine to get married.

Then the story cuts to present - Debu is back and understands what love is. When the bride and the groom (another sad guy!) are busy exploring Goa and getting to know each other, drops in the 2nd / 3rd guy of our story, Neel.

Now from Goa, we are in the past - Hong Kong, where the our heroine does'nt waste time. She desperately needs someone to lend his shoulders - to forget Debu. And yes, ofcourse, you guessed it!

Cut to present - Goa. A bride, a groom and 2 former lovers. What does Radhika do?

This book has such a sad storyline - the author has no clue what he wants to convey.

Chetan Bhagat thinks that

- a nerd - has no clue about personal grooming (remember the brazilian waxing?) even though she is from Delhi and has a sister who straight from any bollywood movie.
- a woman will suddenly decide to wear a dress and goes out for shopping. She has probably never shopped before but manages to get a outfit which attracts our first loser - Debu.
- a woman after one serious relationship, will plunge onto any man next available. She knows its all about "no strings attached"
- a woman - on the day of her wedding - finds her former boyfriends visiting her (who have now understood the meaning of love). Not knowing what to do, she cancels her wedding. Couple of weeks later, readers find her travelling and "living in the moment".

Do we really need such a book, something which has no story and no depth what-so-ever. I find it to be very insulting - Chetan has no clue about women. Just by writing few sentences about waxing, shopping, crying and using F word in the very paragraph, does not make a book let alone about a Indian girl.

I wonder why did we cut so many trees to publish such a book..

More mixed media challenge - Green

2016-04-02T19:25:00.000+08:00

Couple of days ago (to be very honest, it was months), I discovered the world of mixed media. It was countless videos on the Youtube and blogs which taught me what is this all about.

With very little supplies, I started my journey. This is my third piece. I stumbled upon this blog called "More mixed media challenge - green" and really wanted to participate. So here is my entry.

I have used some metallic colours from "Encore! ultimate metallic" stamping pad and it is hardly seen in the photo. Hopefully the close-up picture will do the justice.

Legoland - Johar Baru

2013-10-28T12:53:00.000+08:00

A trip to Legoland, just across the border, was long due from our side. After exploring options of bus vs taxi travel, we decided to opt for taxi (drop-off at Kotaraya bus stand) at $55, one way.

It was raining heavily and despite 3 hours wait, we manage to reach safely. The immigration at both Singapore and Malaysian end is pretty neat and quick compared to the airport immigration. The taxi driver often hands over all the passports to the officer at the Immigration check point and transition is smooth.

After 3 hrs or so we were dropped off and we took a Johar taxi to Renaissance Hotel, costing MYR 30. After resting for sometime we decided to hit the JPO - Johor Premium Outlets. This 2 floor structure houses numerous branded stores - some of them factory outlet too. One word here: don't look for a specific pattern/style of product. Most of them are collections from previous seasons and might not be the current trend. One best part about these outlets are that there are couple of brand outlet exclusively for men!! My better-half was much pleased and even bought a pair of shoes!! (I had to coax him to get one - otherwise he was looking out for stuff for me!!).

A view from the drop-off area

One big shout for all Ladies: Do checkout Fossil, Coach, Tumi outlets. You will not be disappointed!! Yes, ofcourse - there are stuff for kids but then I could hardly find anything from Gap.

After a super-charge breakfast, we took a taxi to Legoland. The drive was smooth and it costed about MYR 75. Sept 7th - my DS's birthday and we wanted it to be a very special birthday. For quite sometime we had been planning to visit Legoland - but then never happened. And when finally it happened we chose his birthday as D-day!!

Legoland, Malaysia

For more information on visit Legoland

Yes! All things here are made of lego!!

Food: If you wish to buy/eat food outside the entrance of Legoland, the options are plenty. Inside Legoland the options are very limited for a vegetarian.

After loads of fun, we returned to Singapore via SMRT taxi. Surprisingly there was no weekend crowd and we reached home very soon that we anticipated.

Immigration - Singapore

Vadu Mangai / Mavadu project - 3

2013-07-17T15:50:00.000+08:00

Everyday after my bath, I gave the bottle a gentle shake so that all juices from the vadu could react with the salt. Slowly the dry salt-filled bottle was filled with aromatic liquid. hmmm....

Unfortunately, I could not record the further magic as I was travelling. But yes, do have couple of photos to show what I did next.

In a kadai, add few drops of gingelly oil and roast couple of red chilles .

After the chillies are cooled powder them along with few mustard. Put the powder inside the jar containing the mangai. Over the due course of time, the flavour and the spice penetrates the vadu and soon you'll get to enjoy the vadu mangai.

Vadu Mangai / Mavadu project - 2

2013-03-10T18:31:00.001+08:00

Day 2

Take the dry, washed tender mangoes in a bowl and add castor oil (I added 3 tablespoon) just enough to form a coating on the mangai and turmeric powder.

Tender mangai dry and ready for the next stage

Adding castor oil and turmeric

Beautiful coating on the tender mangoes

Use your finger and gently toss the tender mangoes so that a coating of oil and turmeric is formed on the skin. Make sure your hands are dry before you handle the tender mangoes.

Leave them aside in the same bowl for about an hour or so.

Bottle them with salt just about to form a coating on the skin of the mangoes.

Salt - ready for action...

Vadu mangai bottled - let the magic begin!!

I did not have any ceramic jars to bottle these lovely vadu mangai. Instead used a 'Horlicks' plastic bottle. Yes! it did serve the purpose. Make sure that the bottle is completely devoid of any smell or water. You or the vadu mangai will never like any kind of interference apart from the salt on the mangoes..

From now onwards, I plan to give this bottled vadu mangai a gently shake everyday morning after my bath (just like my grandmother) for the magic to begin...

Vadu Mangai / Mavadu project - 1

2013-03-03T21:11:00.001+08:00

Vadu Managi or the Mavadu pickle is my all-time favourite and my childhood memories are filled with them. I remember my grandmother buying them in huge quantities and processing them to create the magical green tender mangoes which can go with practically any dish and also by itself. (I used to steal them from kitchen and relished it when I was reading comics...vadu and comics - my big favourite!!!) We used to buy them in Jayanagar 4th block complex. (Since it was summer holidays for my school, my father and I used to visit City Market and get them. After bargaining and hassle we would return home victorious!)

Tender green mangoes (vadu mangai / mavadu)

There used be a seller specially for mangoes whose stall used to be in a corner, inside the shopping complex at Jayanagar. My mother used to specifically request him to get them from City Market, Bangalore. My father used to often make rounds to Jayanagar 4th block complex to remind that mango seller. In those days when telephones, hand phones, texting and Internet was non-existent, these frequent trips were the only device which served as reminders. When finally the mangoes arrived, the activity began. The huge jaadis (traditional ceramic pickle jars) were brought down from the loft and cleaned. I was asked to look after them when they were sun-drying during the early summer of Bangalore. The mangoes were carefully washed and allowed to dry on its own. I cannot forget the task of wiping the mangoes (inspite of them being dry...oh ho! pati...) to remove any leftover water - it was this task that entertained me during my summer school holidays. Castor oil and turmeric were added to the tender mangoes and were stored in the huge jaadi. Later salt was added to the mavadu.

Jayanagar 4th block shopping complex (photo courtesy: AravindTeki)

Everyday morning, after her bath, my grandmother used to religiously open the jaadi (whose mouth was covered with a Veshti (dhoti) cloth) to give it a gentle stir to arise the sleeping mavadu. The mavadu used to respond to that gentle stir and would start to give out sweet juices. The strong aroma once the jaadi is opened is still lingering in my memory. Before the red chilles were grounded and added to the salted mavadu, I used to get few to taste. Infact there used to be a little quantity taken out from the main storage jaadi and thus the usage would begin.

Once the vadu mangai would be ready the magical love story would begin. I am a big fan of pickles, especially vadu mangai and will certainly call it a magical love story. A story between a person and a beautiful tender mango. I have eaten it for breakfast with idlis, dosas, uppumas. Lunch would never be complete without a vadu. Even during my school days, my mother made sure that a tiny tender green vadu would peek out from my thayir sadam dabba. (I would consume the thayir sadam first and then suck the vadu mangai slowly). Dinner would definitely be with a vadu mangai. Even the vadu mangai jalam (the spicy, salted mango juices) would not be wasted. They would be relished with plain rice, uppuma and even idlis!!! It was weird combination but who cared? I just LOVED vadu mangai....

Today, for the first time in Singapore, I found vadu mangai in a store at Buffalo Road. After getting my usual veggies, before the billing, I happen to catch the sight of beautiful tender mangoes deep down in a red crate. I smelt it and immediately my senses woke me and screamed at me that this was indeed the vadu managi. With a big smile I came home and started planning its journey.

I thought of recording each and every step and enjoying the magical journey. I don't know the origin of mangoes. It could be from any part of earth - still its charm would never diminish. All I know that I am going to enjoy this journey, recollecting the details from my childhood and trying to create the magic what my grandmother used to do.

Day 1:

The mangoes are carefully washed (if there are stalks with the mangoes do not hesitate to include them - yes the batch I bought did not have any!!!). Don't forget to catch the sweet smell during this time.

Mavadu, after a good wash

Carefully lay them on a tea towel and allow them to dry. Allow the vadu mangai to dry completely.

Mavadu left for drying

Brownies - sans egg, all purpose flour, butter

2013-02-14T16:51:00.001+08:00

From the time I tasted brownies, here in Singapore, I have fallen in love with them. I can go on eating, bite after bite, yet there is not satisfaction. I always want more and reach our for the next piece. During my stay near Siglap centre, we used to get brownies from Royal Cakes. I began hunting for a good recipe when I got the confidence that I too can make brownies a home. I stumbled upon this blog http://www.lovefoodeat.com/ and discovered Chinmayie's brownie recipe. I have tried a few time to follow her recipe of brownies but failed each time to get those prefect ones. Last week, I managed and I fell in love with these brownies all over again. THANK YOU, Chinmayie Bhat.

Book review "The Memory of Water"

2013-02-14T16:37:00.002+08:00

My second book "The Memory of Water" was absolutely a treat to read. A slow moving yet very gripping story about two sisters. Alternating narration / peek by characters mixed with emotions, conflicts, fear, water, colour - you can find it all. I simply could not put the book down even though this is not a murder mystery but had all the element into it, woven with emotions and feelings. This is my third book of this author (I have not written about her paranormal romance novel that I had read earlier...) and I loved every word of it.

The story is about two sisters, one dark secret they share. 'Time' forces one of them to move out of home and the same 'time' forces her to come back home. Does she find the comfort of a home, does she want to stay back, does she has to fight with anyone or fight for anything? - these are the question whose answer will be found in the book.

As always I have enjoyed Karen's book.

Viswaroopam - a review

2013-02-14T16:29:00.003+08:00

This movie starts off with Mami - Pooja Kumar (PK) talking with a psychiatrist about how unhappy she is with her husband (note the usage of tambrahm words - that too in NY, huh???). The psychiatrist begins the usual probing questions and the story unfolds with Mama alias KH (Kamal Hassan) dancing to a katak song in tamil with his students and also is busy cooking for his wifey dear. PK is thinking of some excuse not to come home for dinner and here enters the "Mama" et al. (Shekar Kapur, Andrea Jeremiah and Miles Anderson) who are not her dear relatives / friends. PK manages to send a private investigator to find more about her "aathukar" and is aghast to find that he is muslim. A terror group kills the private investigator and the manages to find our "mama" and "mami". They are captured by the terror group and held hostage. KH has introduced lots of so-called "LOL" situation and dialogues which failed to impress me. I was like - what the hell is this??? why does anyone need such a situation when you're dealing with terror group and hostages??? What is Mama trying to? Show that he is having fun or that the movie is about to take a serious turn??

You can always imagine the "role reversal" or the "becoming of a Man" scene where our Mama is suddenly shaking off his "mama cloak" and showing his RAW powers. This scene was exactly like the way you can imagine and was shown twice so that the impact and the progress are registered by the viewers who are still left in doubt whether they need to react to LOL situations or appreciate the serious of the movie and all the research that has gone in making this movie.

Our mami is so so surprised at the super powers of this aged RAW agent that she is speechless. While she (viewers too..) manages to understand what is happening, the NYPD comes into action. Did I mention about Omar - Rahul Bose? Right from his introduction scene (with that scary looking eye ball.........) he outshines everyone else in this movie.

Flashback scenes with the story of our dear RAW mama agent, scenes rich with fight and terror and some Arabic language (I wonder why Actor Nassar is wasted??) and lots of emotions are part of this movie.

I wonder if

you're arrested by FBI - will you be sneaked away to a posh office where every other guy (public) can notice you??
the FBI / NYPD remain calm if you assault a officer and then saw sorry??
The Prime minister of India speaks????? and that too to a RAW agent (miracle!!?? )
wives of RAW agents are allowed to be with their husbands during the working hours of the agents?
you need PhD to tell the atomic number and atomic mass of Cesium??

I have no patience to review the rest of the movie that I left it for the readers to discover in case they are interested. The movie ends with a declaration from our RAW mama agent that you can expect Viswaroopam Part 2.

sigh!

Watch Viswaroopam for Rahul Bose.

PS: This is MY opinion about this movie.

Book Review "The Lost Hours"

2013-01-06T09:38:00.002+08:00

Karen White's book "The Lost Hours" is my first from the author.

This book is about a woman, out to discover her grandmother's secrets and in the process healing herself. It starts off with a crisp, first person narration. Within couple of pages, I could discover a little about "wounded" woman, Piper / Earleen and her inner voice (sometimes some humour too!). The author used cleverly italics to indicate that inner voice which made reading easy. Slowly I was drawn to the plot and made it quite difficult not to involve with Helen, Tucker and Lillian.

The alternating first and third person narration, italics for inner voice, beautiful passages, picking the left-out threads from previous chapter and interconnecting with current chapter made it worth to read.

There are so many beautiful quotes from the author and my favourite is

"It's not always the distance of a trip that determines its value. Sometimes the best trips are only as far as the circumference of your heart".

Did I mention there was sprinkled humour everywhere waiting to be discovered? My favourite one is:

Lucy looked up at her aunt with eyes dark enough to be called black, and always appearing darker still when contrasted against her pale hair. "That is not what mama said. She said bad things happened to good people all the time".

Helen blew out a puff of smoke and put her arm around Sara. "Well then. We'll just have to try very hard not to be too good, then."

Before I knew it, I was pushing Piper to discover the secrets and enjoying the world with Helen's eyes. Towards the end I was more keen than Piper to discover the secrets....

penang - the pearl of the orient

2012-11-18T16:36:00.000+08:00

Some pictures from streets of Penang, Malaysia.

A trip to Bangkok

2012-09-19T11:06:00.004+08:00

The month of June saw us visiting Bangkok. It was a short relaxing trip. We did not plan anything and went with the flow.

Early morning view of the skyline from my hotel room. The city has cool blue shade waiting to burst into colour during the day.

We managed to discover a vegetarian "Aryaa's Indian Restaurant" (http://www.aryaas.net/) near Nanas station exit. Not to be missed if you're a die-hard, non-experimental vegetarian foodie.

A closer shot showing the restaurant's board amidst the crisscross wires (seriously, this resembles any Indian city..)

On a Saturday, we visited the famous marble temple "Wat Benchamabophit". The hot sun was not a match to the cool peaceful interiors of the temple.

As we were staying near central chidlom, most the malls were at a walking distance. Yes! we did travel by the local trains to avoid the peak traffic flow.

Bangkok bursts with colours and cool aromas sprinkled with plenty of traffic and the famous 'Tuk tuks'...

DIY Popsicle sticks photo frame

2011-10-26T08:39:00.001+08:00

I had been thinking of creating something from popsicle sticks for months together - lacked inspiration and idea. Saw a photo frame at my friend's place and another friend's birthday gave me enough inspiration and ideas - yup! got my mojo back!

This is the final look of the popsicle stick photo frame

Used simple glue to stick the popsicle sticks and used a golden and purple metallic paint. Foam sheet, some quilled pieces was used as embellishment. Used some blue-tack to fix the photos on to the frame.

My DS's birthday celebrations

2011-09-16T10:57:00.001+08:00

My DS had been wanting to celebrate his birthday at his school. I had been searching for someone who could make angry birds cakes for sometime and then stumbled upon this http://debyprabawa.blogspot.com. One look of the blog tempted me to order cakes from Dear Deby.

Here are the pictures:

Awaiting to have one whole cake to themselves...

The heads are bent down and hands are busy.....

Thanks, Deby! The cakes looked yummy and tasted wonderful. You indeed made my son's birthday a very special one.

A photo album made from toilet paper rolls

2011-09-04T17:08:00.000+08:00

Numerous blogs and picture inspired me to make this photo album from toilet paper rolls.

I gathered about 7 toilet paper rolls and flattened them. I had to keep them away tucked under my mattress for them to super flat.

I covered them with these card stock.

You can see the tools that I had used and the card stock with punched holes.

I used a cereal box to create small tags for the photos. The brand tag or the price tag that comes with the clothes make a excellent choice for these things. You just have to retain the holes and cover them with paper and can use them.

It took me real long time to dress-up my album. I had chosen a plain card stock/paper and did not know how to dress it up. This is how it looked.

This photo album was made to record the first few days of my little one - it was a pleasure to re-visit and re-live those early days..

A 'Thank you' quilled card

2011-09-04T16:21:00.000+08:00

This is the card I made for G's teachers.

Its 'ANGRY BIRDS' time here in Singapore

2011-09-04T16:20:00.001+08:00

For this year's mid autumn lantern festival, the shops are flooded with different types of lanterns. The popular ones this year seem to be based on "Angry birds".

I found these cute pencils at a shop near Bedok MRT.

A quilled card

2011-09-01T10:13:00.000+08:00

This is the picture of a card that I made recently.

A close-up picture of the same card:

A new chick @ home

2011-08-26T10:59:00.000+08:00

My little one has so much of imagination that I little did know of. The other day I was kneading dough and he came up to me to ask for his share. This is what he made.

@ Hong Kong disneyland, Small world

2011-04-07T07:50:00.001+08:00

closer view
Originally uploaded by Anu.karthik

Does'nt this picture remind us about quilling?

Via Flickr:
Quilling @ Small world???

Channa masala

2011-03-21T16:24:00.003+08:00

Channa masala
Originally uploaded by Anu.karthik
I followed my friend's recipe http://superzfood.blogspot.com/2011/01/channa-masala.html and prepared this dish. It tasted yummy! Believe me, I have tried making this dish several times but never turned out this tasty...she has magic fingers!!! Aww...love the dish and her blog!

Pinnawala elephant orphanage

2011-01-05T16:45:00.002+08:00

Pinnawala is a beautiful village, 90km from Sri Lanka capital, Colombo. Thanks to our son, we got inspired to visit this place.

A bright sun welcomed us at Colombo airport which was seen missing, thanks to the clouds, in Bangalore. The immigration was pretty quick and we decided to make enquires as to how to reach this orphanage. We were told that we will be never left outside the airport unless we state our hotel name and purpose of visit. Since we did not have any reservation made in any hotel we were planning to use the name of some hotel nearby but the need did not arise.

We had a bit of US dollars and ample amount of Singapore dollars - we decided to carry Indian rupees also. We looked for a foreign exchange at the arrival lounge - spotted a few of them owned by different banks for Sri Lanka. To our horror we discovered that one would be buying INR and exchanging them or Sri Lankan Rupees. They would certainly buy USD, SGD and even Malaysian Ringgit but not Indian rupees! We did not know about this nor had any options at Bangalore Airport for exchange.

Luckily the agency of whose taxi service we hired was willing to buy INR at "BLACK" and gave us Sri Lankan Rupees. Nope! I'm not going to discuss why things are that way and whats the exchange rate. I would like warn traveller to this country that please do try to exchange INR into Sri Lankan rupees - be wise! carry UDS or SGD or any other currency except the neighbouring country India's INR.

The weather was good though not very hot and the roads were EXCELLENT - having spent about a month in Bangalore I Loved these roads - I could imagine myself rolling on these roads!! (yes, there are better roads in the world but for me - something like this in Sri Lanka, entire stretch of Colombo to Pinnawala was a dream...)

On our way we could find many shops selling crafts made out of bamboo, coconut shells. Do stop to buy them and ofcourse you can bargain - couple for Sri Lankan rupees here and there and not too much.

A statue of Buddha is very common on the streets here.

The famous Indian "auto" called here "tuk tuk" are seen in different colours!

After 2 hrs and 30 mins of drive we reached the orphanage. Every afternoon the herds of elephants go to the river for a bath. They exit the orphanage and cross the road and take a small lane lined with hotels/resorts/shops to reach the river.

A view from "Elephant bay" hotel situated on the banks of the river.

There is an entry ticket which can be bought and can be used to visit the orphanage as well the hotel or the resorts. If rates are according to the country whose citizen you are. As we were from SAARC country, the ticket was priced very minimal.

We could not wait to see the elephant. We checked to a hotel called "Elephant Bay". We had a late lunch which looked very appealing..but worth everything!

Another view from the Elephant bay hotel.

It was totally very relaxing to watch the elephants having a bath, lazing around and searching for food and sometimes even fighting!!

For more photos, check out my Flickr account:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29012034@N07

Dibo the gift dragon

2010-10-23T19:01:00.004+08:00

Dibo the gift dragon
Originally uploaded by Anu.karthik

After a lot of search we finally found Dibo. My son loved it the moment he saw. Dibo is really cute and I wish soft toys, key chains of various sizes would be available....

Dibo the gift dragon

2010-10-23T18:57:00.002+08:00

Dibo the gift dragon
Originally uploaded by Anu.karthik

Dibo the gift dragon is available in Isetan, Kuala lumpur. It also can be bought from http://www.pelican.com.my and http://www2.littlereadersclub.com.my/home2/

Orchid on a tree

2010-09-24T16:16:00.002+08:00

Orchid on a tree
Originally uploaded by Anu.karthik

This morning these beautiful flowers surprised me when I went to walk at east coast park, Singapore