It happens only in India !!!

Do you see this??





Can you believe this is part of Trivandrum city – the capital of God’s own country!!
Yesterday morning I went to office and on the way I saw some workers aiming our roads. I was wondering, whatz up now! The water authority has just finished digging half the roads as part of the Japan water project.
But later I received a call from dad that I need to be very careful when I come back to home. He said that there is no more road left to ride a two wheeler. Also, he mentioned that the power is off for whole day. Honestly I couldn’t believe that they would have broken the roads which hundreds of people use daily.
But when I came home night what I see, err ddn’t exactly see… Thanks again to KSEB, not even a single street light works! Well.. they were working without any trouble. But a couple of months back , the authorities came and replaced them with so-called new lamps. Everything continued fine for a month. Then Whooosh.. one by one, all lights went off forever. So, where was I.. reaching home ne?
The shopkeeper on the way warns me to switch on some torch or any source of light and take each step carefully. I cdn’t see any roads and I almost fell down. Water was overflowing everywhere. They have broken the water pipes also as part of the digging. Finally somehow I managed to reach home. I was shocked to see that they haven’t even left a walking space for crossing the gate. As expected, there was no water supply.
Today morning, they have circulated a notice to every house that work has commenced (as if nobody noticed yet!) and it will continue for more than 2 weeks. They have no answers for questions like why couldn’t you inform us earlier ? Or why are so less people working on this project and why can’t they try to do it without causing so much inconvenience ? And what happens to people who have left their vehicles in office? As for the question on roads, the repairing is not the responsibility of the electricity board!
It’s just that government knows public will endure all the difficulties imposed on them. Yesterday people were scared to even walk through these roads and now they have found enough courage to drive their bikes through whatever portion of the road is left. Don’t know whom to blame .. the government or the people who go through everything without any formal complaints ?
Or can there be progress only in such an inconvenient way?

A few more snaps taken in front of my home ..




Heard that KSEB has announced special prize for people who identify the road and the gutter and the drain!

Cake Time !!!!

My cooking experiments continue ...
Wish to make a cake and dont have an oven ??

Here comes the simplest recipe ..

1) 4 cups all purpose flour (maida)
2) 4 cups sugar
3) 400 gm unsalted butter
4) 4 tsp vanilla essence
5) 4 tsp baking powder
6) 1 – 1 ½ cups of milk
7) 8 eggs
Note: If you need chocolate cake, then take 3 cups of maida and1 cup of coco powder instead of #1.

Dissolve the butter in milk
Make fine Powder of the sugar (a mixer ll be of help here).
Beat together 2, 3, 4, 6, 7
Sieve 1 and 5 atleast three times to evenly mix the baking powder with maida.
Beat this also with the previous mixture
Take the vessel that fits in your pressure cooker and spread butter on all sides to avoid sticking (if possible use butter paper…that is better…then it wont stick at all)
Place the ring at the bottom of the pressure cooker and put the vessel on top of the ring. This is to prevent the cake from getting burnt !
(NOTE: Not even a drop of water in the pressure cooker)

Put on highest flame for abt 7 mnts. Then low the flame to least and keep for arnd 25 – 30 mnts.
CAKE IS READY !!!!!!! N’JOY !!!!!

Dont you want a chocolate frosting on top of the cake ?

1) 2 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
2) 6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3) 6 tablespoons butter
4) 5 tablespoons evaporated milk
5) 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a medium bowl, sift together the confectioners' sugar and cocoa, and set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter until smooth, then gradually beat in sugar mixture
alternately with evaporated milk. Blend in vanilla.
Beat until light and fluffy. If necessary, adjust consistency with more milk or sugar

And the final result is ...

A Thousand Splendid Suns

This is the book, which shifted my level of reading to the next level.
And I have this feeling that it would always remain in my all time faves list.

In this novel, the autor Mr.Khaled Hosseini, focuses on mothers and daughters, and friendships between women. The story starts off programmatically and gains speed and emotional power as it slowly unfurls.

Let me take the description from the book itself to summarize it :

"A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan's last thirty years -- from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to post-Taliban rebuilding -- that puts the violence, fear, hope, and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives -- the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness -- are inextricable from the history playing out around them..."

Quoting a few notable words from the book ..

"Of all the hardships a person had to face, none was more punishing than the simple act of waiting."
"A man's heart is a wretched, wretched thing. It isn't like a mother's womb. It won't bleed. It won't stretch to make room for you."
"A society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated..."
"Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman. Always."
"Boys treated friendship the way they treated the sun: its existence undisputed; its radiance best enjoyed, not beheld directly."
"Behind every trial and sorrow that He makes us shoulder, God has a reason."
"And the past held only this wisdom: that love was a damaging mistake, and its accomplice, hope, a treacherous illusion. And whenever those twin poisonous flowers began to sprout in the parched land of that field, Mariam uprooted them."
"One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs,or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.”

Jamuns ....

I always loved Gulab jamuns .. and its so easy to make too :)
Nothing more to say.. here comes the result of my efforts !!