Yours Sincerely

Me and my husband had an awesome time cooking, eating and watching LOTR trilogy back to back over this weekend. Let's see what we cooked. Day I: Gajar halwa, egg fried rice and egg bhurji: Gajar Halwa: I wanted to cook this since long Egg fried rice with brown rice: Simple to make & healthy to eat Egg bhurji: This is husband's courtesy :) Day II Lunch: Veg-egg biryani, mirchi ka salan & raita: My special fav. The taste was as authentic as I could do :) Day II Dinner: Sandwiches (Honey-Nuts, Mustard-Veggie) Sandwich time and @home romantic dinner Happy cooking folks!! Related posts: Reflections from a Modern Indian Kitchen I: A few easy-to-make-must-haves: link

If you haven't already seen Jayaprakash Narayan's speech on Telangana in the assembly, I suggest you please do so now ( link ). I must say that I'm quite impressed. And not just because I agree with him on many counts or because for the first time, a politician is talking about this issue in a sincere and steadfast manner. I'm actually pleasantly surprised that such a civilized discussion could take place in our assembly which consists of MLAs hooligans who don't care for any code of conduct or taxpayers' money ( link ) and  MLAs  hooligans who speak only the language of muscle ( link ,  link ). I pity those citizens of Andhra Pradesh who hope for progress from hooligans of this kind -  MLAs  hooligans declaring that anyone who speaks against Telangana's their wishes deserves (?!!) to be attacked manhandled ( link ). If one MLA is openly instigating a violent attack on another in assembly premises, there is no point in wondering about the law and o...

I'm voicing out a very radical opinion about our PM candidate: Why Modi Vs. Rahul Vs. Kejriwal and why not Amma? :D She has the administrative experience and skills, there is no doubting her capability/intelligence/political acumen ( link ), then why not her? I know corruption and populist measures are two things we might have to cautious about. However, firstly, I think she's less corrupt than DMK & Congress (going by the lesser of the evil principle) plus she doesn't come with a 2002 baggage; secondly, I think her administrative abilities and political knowledge will tell her when exactly one must not go by populism in national politics. In case AAP fails to deliver on good governance and in declaring a good PM candidate before 2014 LS elections (AAP being my first choice), I would rather have her as PM than anyone else: especially going by the independent-woman, made-it-on-her-own-from-grass-roots, intelligent-able-experienced factors. What do you all think?

Lechindi.. nidra lechindi mahila lokam... These lines belong to one of the most popular songs of the old Telugu cinema, which are from the film 'Gundamma Katha' ( link ). The song is meant to be a spoof on the feminist movement which started in India before independence, basically about what the then generation perceived to be "role-reversal" ( which it is not - it is simply everyone having the freedom to define one's own 'role' ). I am currently watching the film and took a break to do this post. It would be utterly unfair for me to judge a movie of that time by current values/standards so I'm refraining myself. But I do want to write about how the people of that time (wrongly) understood what feminism and women empowerment were about. Admittedly, I'm not being very harsh as this song is a very beloved one in the Telugu heartland which comes from a very old time. It can be translated as something like this (I'm keeping only relevant parts...