“South Indian food, people and culture are inexorably linked to a ubiquitous dish as in idli and sambhar, sambhar and rice and so on. Each state in the South prepares it with a typical variation, adapted to its taste and environment.

The genesis of this dish has an interesting tale linked to it. The Marathas were ruling Tanjore. King Sambhaji was a great cook (the male clan members to note) and very fond of his amti with a handful of the tart kokum thrown in. In a particular season the kokum that was imported from the Maratha homeland did not reach the bare larder of the king's kitchen. Sambhaji was cooking and the minions were shivering in their dhothis to tell him that his favourite dish could not be made that day. A smart Vidushak, who had been elected sous chef for the day, decided to solve the problem. He whispered in the king's ears that the locals used very little tamarind pulp to gain a better sourness to the curry and that Sambhaji should experiment with this variation. Voila, the dish with the tuvar dal, vegetables, spices and the tamarind pulp was cooked and served by the king to his coterie. The court declared the dish an outstanding preparation (they had no choice with the king as Chef) and thus was born Sambhaji's amti that in time became sambhar.”

Govind: A person with a dream of becoming most successful businessman and a mathematics genius.

Ish: A cricket freak; school dropout and who could not stay longer at the military. He is disliked by his parents and considered to be fit for nothing by his father.

Omi: The son of a Hindu priest, always relies on his friends, Govind and Ish, for their opinions.

Mistake 1: Every person born dreams of being successful professional in his life. Even as a student, we dream of aiming high in education. The hero of the story, Govind, also wants to be a successful businessman and invests Rs One lakh for a shop in a newly built mall which is ruined by the Gujarat earthquake in 2001.

Mistake 2: He tutors Ish's younger sister Vidya reluctantly and falls in love with her.

Mistake 3: Ish is fond of young to-be-cricketer, Ali, who wrist was terribly wounded during the communal riots. Though, Govind saved the boy's life, his right hand wrist was hurt.

Why would anyone mail Chetan that he is going to end his life? Why wouldn't Govind instead maintain a personal diary and vent out his frustrations?

As an investor, who does not lose money, be it stock market or real estate. Profit or loss is the part of business. When Govind paid one lakh advance for the shop in the mall, didn't the owner of the mall have insurance???

During the year 2000-02, cell phones were hardly in use. Even incoming calls on mobiles were charged heavily. Pagers were widely in use. The exchange of sms between Vidya and Govind seems weird.

Ali is provided "free" maths tuitions and cricket couching as well. The trio sponsor Ali's visit to Goa and Australia to exhibit his skills with their expenses. Is that so easy to spend such huge amount on someone just because he is good at scoring sixes???

If a close friend stops talking, we may feel bad. But not that low that we decide to kill ourselves for such stupid reason.

With respect to vocabulary, you hardly find any good ones.

A complete cooked up story.

Chocoholics have a justified reason to savour their favourite sweet - a new study has
found that a synthetic chemical based on a compound found in cocoa beans slows growth and accelerates destruction of human tumors.

"We have all heard that eating chocolate is good for you; this study suggests one reason why that might be true," says the study's lead author Min Kim, Ph.D, a research scientist in the Department of Oncology at Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.

I have been a victim of frequent throat infection since my childhood. When I asked the doctor to suggest me a remedy for this, he adviced me to exercise regularly to stay fit and healthy.

Recently, I suffered severe ear and throat infection due to the weather change and I had to visit him for medicines. Before leaving the clinic, this is the conversation between the doctor and me.

Me: I have been skipping a lot, these days.

He: You should not skip.

Me: But its too good for health. It is one of the best methods to lose weight :) (I told with a smile)

He: Nope. It isn't. Many people think it is good to skip and lose weight. In turn, you tend to gain more fat if you skip frequently.

Me: (Puzzled :-|) Doctor, I do sweat a lot. I might have lost around two kilos, atleast.

He: That's good. But, I isn't good to skip.

Me: (Awestuck....????) I do drink a lot of water after skipping.

He: That is too bad. You shouldn't be doing that!

Me: I just do 200 skips daily for 20 minutes. I warm up for 10 mins before rope skipping. Later, I relax for 10 mins after I skip :)

He: I thought you were speaking of "meals skipping." (Now relaxed and smiled)

Me: Oh.. No. I was talking of "rope skipping."

He: It is good to rope skip. You should continue with it. (With a sigh of relief.)

1. Use of plastic bags/bottles and throwing them on the road. Few people litter wherever they find space which is too annoying. Why not use paper bags?
2. Instead of burning confidential papers which cannot be given to recycling shop, why not shred them? :)
3. People going in the same route can pool car/bike saving petrol too. OMG, petrol and LPG prices are reaching the sky.
4. Switch off the monitor when not in use and if u are not using them for a long time-shut down the computer/laptops. This applies to all the electric appliances, too.
   
5. Some people spit everywhere on the road, thus creating an eye sore. Many so called educated people litter in the buses or public area. Why don't they discard the garbage in the dust bins.
   
6. The flyovers and digging of roads is another cause too.
   
7. Plant a tree for each house if less space or no of trees=no of people in the house :)
8. Even refrigerators emit lot of CFC(chloro fluoro carbon) which break the O3 structure of the ozone layer. Instead, use earthern pots during summer :D
9. Few advertisements on the roadside also require a tubelight lit the whole night. Is it necessary?
10. I appreciate the Chinese adoption of cycling and thus it compulsory. This not only reduces the pollution and traffic but also reduces weight and helps us to stay fit and fine. In most western or European countries, people cycle in summer and use car during winter.
    

Last weekend, I stayed at home since it was pouring cats and dogs in the city and moreover, I was down with ear and throat infection :( My dad was occupied watching the IPL cricket match and he would not part from the television or cricket so easily! I sat down watching live cricket accompanying dad. In less than an hour, I was bored. I could not follow the sport and I was easily lost understanding the sport. Whenever I asked dad something while he was curiously watching, he would get annoyed. So I decided to walk out and I was back in my room and medddling with the computer keyboard.

Lemme listen to some songs... Browsing through the songs drive... Uuh, ho.. all these are pretty old... Lemme listen to the radio... Blah, blab, blah... Radio--also boring.. Playing same old songs... Lemme search for something new on the net... Oh, yeah, Jaane Tu..Yaa Janne Na is the latest movie, lemme check for these songs... Downloading all songs.. only one song left--Pappu can't dance! "eRRoR" downloading "Pappu can't dance".. goli maaro... Chalo, listen to the other songs...

The songs of Jaane Tu.. Ya Jaane Na are good and why not it be, if AR Rehman has played them. I liked esp Kabhi Kabhi Aditi Zindagi and the title song, Jaane Tu mera Kya Tha(Aditi)-female version the most, followed by Nazarein Milana.

Do you remember, cute and smiling Genelia of Bommarillu and Boyz? These are the two movies I have seen Genelia and liked both the movies :) Listening to the songs, I guess, the movie might be of that sort-college going teenagers in love. Lets wait and watch what this movie is upto :)

Book of the month,May   : Who moved my cheese?

Author                             : Dr. Spencer Johnson

Type of the book             : Inspiration/Motivation

Related books                  : The Alchemist

                                           The monk who sold his ferrari

A couple of months ago, I had read The Alchemist and The monk who sold his ferrari. This is the third motivational book, I have come across.

The storyline suggests that-Change is inevitable and one has to move along with new things as the time goes. Thus lies the secret of success. The author refers to the "Goal" as "Cheese" throughout the book. We should adopt ourselves to the new changes and move along as quickly as possible or else it is difficult to survive in the current competing world! Sometimes, we may fear that changing ourselves might land us far behind than we are. Once we lose fear in us, we tend to gain confidence and the route to success becomes easier.

My 2 cents-We are here to excel, not just survive. Charles Darwin's theory holds good: Survival of the Fittest!