My summer at Pune

Though summer doesn't exactly mean vacation for me, when I look back, for the last few years, I realise that I land at my parents place consistently during summers (May). This year (like the last), me and my son came down to visit my parents. This time my son was big enough to have started pre-school, and he had his holidays during May. So off we came. And fun we had! Just like all the visits, this also turned out to be a foodie one for me! Mom has a convection oven, and so I usually try my hand at baking and experimenting with the oven.

So there were two attempts at sponge cake, with little variations (added a bit of chocolate syrup and butterscotch essence the second time). The output both the times was pretty decent.

There were two attempts at granola bars too! The first one was super successful. We enjoyed some really yummy snack of granola bars for a few days. (You can find the recipe for the same here- http://savithrispot.blogspot.com/2010/01/homemade-granola-bars.html). Egged on by this success, I tried my hand at it another time. My second attempt at it was a disaster though :D. I mixed the ingredients and spread it on a rack for baking. And .. went off to attend a call (ofcourse after letting my mom know that she needs to turn it off in another 20 mins). But my timing proved wrong, and what we got was a half-blackened and hardened oat cracker :D

Well.. it still tasted good.. why wouldn't it, with a tin of milkmaid in it :P ;) .. But this was how it looked -

It was not just oven, this time. Another attempt was Ragada Patties, which I made on our usual gas range. Found the recipe here - http://www.marriedtoadesi.com/2007/05/radish-potato-and-paneer-tikkas.html Made it minus the radish. And .. drool! :) Has to be had fresh, as paneer is one of its ingredients.

The next attempt was veggie pasta with white sauce and a tangy veggie salad. I made the pasta with bellpeppers (how I love the colors!), corn and zucchini (this is the first time am using this vegetable in my cooking). The white sauce was the simple one with all purpose flour, butter and milk. Added a dash of the mixed italian herbs. Wheat farfalle was the pasta used. Pro - Yummy pasta - Con - The quantity was huge and it was the night's dinner, next morning's breakfast and lunch!!! :D ;) Am sure mom dad are going to stay away from pasta for a long long time ;)

Thanks to sis-in-law for the recipe for the veggie salad. She prepared this awesome dish once for dinner, and we enjoyed it to the core. I wanted to try it out myself. I used diced and slightly boiled beetroots and carrots, diced tofu and onions. I marinated the vegetables with some salt, chilli powder, turmeric, sugar, vinegar and cream for two hours. And voila :) Simple, healthy and refreshing.

And last but not the least, mom made this super capsicum rice the other day. Everything was perfect about it. After all, it was maa ke haath ka bana! And none of my dishes above came anywhere close to it. :) We had the rice with cluster beans made the maharashtrian way - using groundnut and white til powdered. Hmmm... heavenly.

So the foodie and fun Pune trip is almost coming to an end. But we did have a great time, and also managed some outings in between to discover Pali (Mango Huts) and Lavasa. Like the saying goes, all good things must come to an end...

The Dunmore House

Situated in a little lane at Nallurahalli (off Siddhapura, near the Shell petrol bunk towards Whitefield), the Dunmore House is a beautiful little place. It is a wonderful bungalow, with the best part of it being a lot of natural light coming in. The ceilings are high which makes the place cool at any time of the day. They have a small garden area and a pond within the house, surrounded by pillars and a platform that people can sit on. There is a wooden swing and a trampoline on the platform. The Trampoline is the kids' favorite. They just love to climb onto it and jump! This area surrounding the little garden is where the kids have their snack, on little tables and chairs. The garden has a narrow beam on which the kids learn to balance without hurting themselves, a little tunnel made of four animals with their mouths wide open, that the kids can crawl through. This is undoubtedly the most attractive of all the areas in the house.

There is another quaint little place in the house which allows a lot of sunshine to come in. It is like a small room, with a slanting glass roof. There are small beanbags placed here for kids to sit on and do any activity that they like. A small aquarium with around 9 colorful fishes swimming around is another attraction for the kids. There are two hall like areas which have a variety play things for children. They have little scooters, a roller coaster, a soft ball tub, a little house through which the child can crawl in and out. Some of the self-learning stuff include:

1. Wooden boards which have animals, modes of transport, sea-creatures etc. which fit back into the shapes of the board. 

2. Socks that are hung about with each sock holding an alphabet. 

3. Lots of building blocks, colorful rings which fit back into their pillar.

4. Varieties of trucks, and even a little washing machine!!

There is a huge garden (yes, apart from the little one within the house), which has a lot of play things designed especially for kids. And of course, the main attraction here is - a lot of white sand which has been thrown  in for kids to play. Trucks and trowels, spades, and buckets are provided for the kids to dig and play around with the mud.  

The concept that the teachers who run this play follow is - they let the child be his natural self. He / she is allowed to roam around and choose any area or toy that he likes or wants to do at a particular moment. He is not forced into doing anything, which is a major plus for the child. Till the child gets adjusted, one teacher is assigned to the child, who sits with the child through out his two hours everyday, and helps him get adjusted to the place. So the transition for the children becomes a cake-walk. The parents can spend a week or two with the child at the school to make sure he settles in. This gives the parent also an insight into the school and how they deal with children. 

There will of-course be a lot of challenges, what with more children joining in, and different batches being decided on, but The Dunmore House, and Vandana and Shahista, are doing a great job at present! I wish them success in this wonderful new venture. Way to go guys.

Potthi canteen

The family (about 10 of us) made this trip down South. One of the stops was Thenkasi, to visit the Kaashi Vishwanathar kovil. Right opposite to the temple, was this little idli kadai called the Pothi canteen. What a discovery it turned out to be! We landed at this modest little kadai almost every morning to devour their soft idlis and awsome vadais and of course not to be left out - strong filter coffee. And you can be rest assured that the stuff was soft on the tummy too.

One particular day, we were so involved in eating the idlis, that we lost count of how many idlis and vadais each one of us had, and found that we ended up paying a lot more that what we ate for. However, no complaints since it was all absolutely worth it! With the amount of crowd that the guys who run the place had to manage, it generally gets tough for them to count exactly what people eat, and hence they end up doing an approximation. So the next time on, we sincerely kept count of what all we ate, and compared numbers with the shopkeeper, before we paid him the amount.

Unbelievable how such simple dishes as these could pull an audience so large every single day. Hats off to the Pothi canteen and the people who ran it.

On the same lines, a note about Ananda Bhavan, in a lane next to this Pothi canteen. They were famous around that area for the varieties of dosais they served. My favourite here was the Podi roast. HOT to the core, and simply wonderful to taste, when finished up with a strong dose coffee, what more can one ask for. Those who can't take too much spice, please stay away from this particular speciality. :)

North Karnataka Food again

Keeping up with Bangalore's tradition of small eat-outs making it big, tucked away in one of the little lanes of Jayanagar 4th block is another little foodie place which seems to attract a lot of office-goers. It is called Sri Venkateshwara Uttara Karnataka Foods.

This joint, in-spite of its size, is neat and tidy, offering a limited but decent array of items. The main menu speaks of Full meals and Chapati Meals, both priced nominally. You can choose your chapati and roti from that day's options (Ragi Rotis, Jolada Rotis, Akki rotis, Plain chapatis etc). With any meal you choose, you get two or three sabjis to go along, and a cup of curd. If needed you can also buy a glass of buttermilk to wash the meal down. They also have some awesome pickles and chutneys to go along with the meal, and if you choose the special meals, you get a generous blob of butter on your plate :).

The whole serving process is pretty quick and is the best option if you are looking for a quick afternoon meal, without too many frills ... this is a good place to be in. The whole fare gives a very homely feel, and it is the current favorite with my colleagues, as the canteen at our office these days paints a very sad picture!

A truly inspiring novel

Though this blog is not primarily about books and their reviews, this was one book which touched my heart, and I couldn't resist writing about it.

To Sir With Love

When I saw this book lying on one of the racks in the library, the enthusiasm in my father's voice, whenever he spoke to me about the movie filmed on this book, rung in my ears. I decided I should have a go at this one. And, how I loved it! Nothing but a true experience on these lines could bring out such a wonderful book.

E R Braithwaite has recounted the events in his life in a truly captivating manner. His hold on the language and the way he has worded the book is pleasing to the mind, after reading more recent authors who no longer treat language with so much importance.

The story talks about how Ricky, after a wonderful childhood and some happy years of serving the nation by being a part of the Air Force, was completely oblivious to the color discrimination that is prevalent all through England. He is suddenly thrown into civilian life and rudely discovers various difficulties that the so-called "colored" individuals face in their day-to-day life in England. It comes as a shocking discovery to him that even after being so highly educated, serving in the air force, and excelling through his life so far, he has to fight it out to even earn his daily bread. He realizes, through every road block that he faces, the fact that the English so coolly cover-up and appear as if they are not prejudiced, but when they are faced with the actual task of having to decide between a colored person, and "one of their own", their true reaction to the situation surfaces. Through all these difficulties that Ricky had to face, he handles the task of being a teacher to kids who are from a poor economic background, with so much of conviction and courage, that the book ends up making one think hard and look at life with a new meaning.

A must read.

CPK!!

P and R got us some awesome pizzas from the California Pizza Kitchen at Georgia. Till then, I felt there was no variety in the vegetarian pizzas that were available in the States. It was always just cheese and tomato and basil and that was it. So when I mentioned this to P, he immediately decided that I must get a feel of the CPK varieties! The pizzas that they ordered were  - Greek, Mexican, Japanese Eggplant and American

And wow.. I got the variety I so missed during this trip! My favourite was the Greek pizza, which had avocados instead of chicken, to make it purely a veggie delight!! Next came the American pizza which was the only one which did not "Go easy" on cheese :) I simply loved it. The Japanese had toppings of eggplant and broccoli, and the Mexican variety had artichoke hearts in it (we finally found out how artichokes actually were supposed to be cooked, after the "popat" experience at Cafe Manna, where they gave us grilled artichokes, and we thought we didn't know how they were to be eaten!)

CPK it is for pizzas. :) - http://www.cpk.com/menu/pizzas/

The best Tomato Soup ever

Noodles and company... Another foodie joint in the States, with a nice concept. They have various kinds of soups and pastas catering to different palettes - Mediterranean, Asian, American to name a few. I have been to this place thrice now, but the one thing that swept me off my feet there, was the awesome (awesome) tomato bisque (soup) that they served. It was completely out of this world. Take my word for it!!! I have never ever tasted soup like that anywhere in my life!!! The thickest, creamiest, tangiest, yummiest soup ever! Would love to go once again to N&C just to have more of this soup.

Hats off to perims

It was wonderful to read the article about our dear Shyamala periamma. :) It is nice to see that her talent was recognized and written about so well. The Mambalam house has always been a constant hubbub of activity, with one or the other guest coming in from every part of the world, staying over, chatting away and relaxing on the famous "balcony" of the house. As a family, we used to keep teasing her that come what may, she will never fore-go her music classes, and even if hell broke loose, she would be teaching her students sincerely in the "vaasal-room" of their Mambalam house. And her patience and smile is a taken-for-granted fact!

Hats off to Shyam perims. We love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quick new trial.

Before leaving the hotel room for my next visit, I wanted to try out some new recipe. And the recipe had to be simple. I was too lazy to carry out a major process of buying stuff, grinding, marinating, mixing, waiting and what not. As I browsed for recipes, I found one that fit my requirements exactly in a blog that I follow - http://savithrispot.blogspot.com/2007/07/ravenous-for-rosti.html

I like potatoes in any form. And potatoes combined with cheese had to be good! :). So I tried this recipe, with a slight variation of adding pepper instead of red chilli powder (just because I had lots of pepper powder to be used up!). And wasn't it yummy! Here's a pic of how it looked while cooking!!!

Looooooooong weekend

Starting from the eve of the long weekend, we were in the holiday mood... Friday evening saw us entertain 3 bachelor friends for dinner, with (I surprised myself by the number of preparations, so am taking the liberty to brag about it!!!) onion pakodas and potato bajjis as starters, main course had sepankizhangu roast, red cabbage morkuzhambu (yes!!), lime rice and semiya upma!!! White rice and curd to go along, and the bachelor friends got the dal which they prepared too. Phew! The best part of the dinner was that the guys enjoyed every bit of it, proof being the empty vessels (though after a month of eating sandwiches and packed and re-heated food, anything edible and home cooked would have been a hit)...

Saturday morning, we had to be in the "rush" mode, and were on the roads by 9:15 am... four couples with kids, heading towards Olson Lake beach .. It was a bright and beautiful day and the drive was amazing with the scenery which never ceases to surprise me. Everything around here is just picture perfect. Pretty looking houses around a small lake, with flowering plants surrounding them, a narrow river, with sparkling clear water, flowing across the road while we pass on a bridge above it, a winding road with trees looming right over us (the entmoot kind of trees!), and the quaint little post boxes at the foot of every second tree, which make us peep through the dense trees to actually find houses sitting right in between this forest-like setup!!!! I could just go on!

The day at the beach was fun, with splashing around in the water, lazing on the sand, lunch packed from subway (my first bite of subway sandwiches turned out to be a good experience with some tangy Chipotle sauce added in it) football on the grass, boating with the life jackets for all of us including the kids, (they looked so cute in it) and then heading back to a friends place where we exchanged stories and laughs way into the late hours of night with some yummy dinner (ordered this time from a nearby Indian restaurant)

After all this, Sunday morning had to be a relaxing one.. so we were up only by 9. We decided that today would be "catering to our tummy's with home food" day! Masala dosas and chutney it was for breakfast. By the time we had it, it was more like brunch. So we  finished brunch by 12:30 pm... with a hot cup of ginger tea...(or should I be more specific and say chai, after the experiences here with using the misnomer "tea", but actually meaning tea with milk and sugar!!!). So sunday was pretty relaxing, with just a walk outside with the little one, and a stop at metro mart for some water. Evening was Palak rice and raita time. This was a new recipe that I tried out, and it turned out really well!

Monday was shopping day. Being the July 4th weekend, lots of stuff was on sale. So we visited quite a few shops and managed to get a good amount of gifts to take back for family in India. We decided to put an end to our gift shopping as on today!! :) Barnes and Noble was one wonderful bookstore that we visited. Recommended by friends and family alike, we had to look for ourselves what this shop offered. It was massive, and had a huge collection of books. The little one just loved the little train set that they had put up for kids to play. We would have liked to spend more time there, but for our growling tummies. So I just had time for the kids section, and picked a few books for kutti. Lunch was a quick snack at home and then after a nap, we headed out again for a nice long walk. We returned to try out an Indo Thai restaurant very near to our hotel room. Some good food later, got back to our room to get ready for our next day at home!!

Tuesday was mostly uneventful too. We spent most of the day at home and went for a long walk again in the evening. The long walks that we do takes us through such a beautiful localilty, that we just continue to walk for hours together, until we realize that out feet are tired and we need to get back! But yes, the four days were well spent, both fun and relaxing, just like every weekend here is turning out to be!

Bridging gaps

One of the engineering wonders that I was taken to in San Fransisco was the Golden Gate Bridge. Since the climate around this time of the year through out the US of A is warm or even hot in most places, I decided against carrying warm clothes. I did take a jacket, though, for my son (thankfully) cos I was soon to experience the strong winds at the view point around the bridge, which almost threw as off our feet!!

It was a beautiful bridge constructed right across the strait. It had a pathway for people who wanted to walk across the bridge and there was a path for bikers too. We however decided to drive through the bridge, as we wanted to cover a few more places. At the time we visited, a huge container vessel that passed by below the bridge made for a picture perfect scene.

Picture Courtesy: K chitappa!

Some interesting facts that I learnt about the bridge are -

**The color of the bridge was painted an International Orange. The name of the bridge, though, did not come from its color. It is the bridge across the Golden Gate Strait that is the entrance to the SFO Bay from the Pacific Ocean. Hence the name - Golden Gate Bridge.

**Eleven men were killed during the construction of the bridge, and that was actually a safety record of that time. The expected fatality was more than 30!

Tons of other facts about the bridge are available online and make for an interesting read. :)

Sweet Tomatoes.

One of the eatouts that we went to in SFO this weekend really impressed me with its concept. It is called Sweet tomatoes. Its a chain of restaurants within the US, though I just found out that the state I stay in does not have one :(.. Really did want to try out the lots of other stuff in their menu that I missed out...

As soon as you enter, you see the vast spread of the buffet before your eyes. (Vegetarians also have a huge choice). Starting with a variety of salads, cut vegetables, it goes on to have baked potatoes, pastas, soups (the variety was so huge that there were 3 kinds of soups for vegetarians, and around 5 or 6 kinds for non-veg lovers), macaroni and cheese, various types foccacia (which I learnt was a sort of pizza), baked beans .. this is just probably half of what they had to offer. To top it all, they had different kinds of desserts, what with muffins, brownies, cakes, icecreams, toppings for ice creams, seems like a never ending list. With all of the items available, you can mix and match them according to your taste.

You can check out the menu here - Sweet Tomatoes

Once you get in, you first pick up a tray and go along a line to pick stuff that you like. Try not to pick everything that catches your eye this trip itself, cos you will have tons of things on the other side to try out later after you pay and finish your first round. At the end of that line you have the counter where you pay for yourself and get a bill. Then find a place to sit and enjoy your meal, and go back how many ever times that you want, to the buffet, and pick what ever else that you need. Another tip is, try not to order any drinks, as that adds up quite a bit to the bill. This place have drinking water available for free in dispensers, which is another rare thing I guess here around the US, as we need to buy soda or coke at most of the places as they dont serve water.

Well, the size of the buffet does explain the width of the people here too! There is no stopping you, and you need to have a conscious watch on what you are eating and how much you are eating. But it is a place to definitely visit if you are touring the US. Also if you are in a hurry and want to grab some quick meal, this is the place to be in. No wait times, and the food is ready for you to start on it as soon as you get there.

Journey so far ....

It's been a week now that we are in the US of A. Quite a few experiences to speak for during the travel ... interesting learnings.

The Bangalore airport checkin, immigration, security and waiting was all the usual stuff. In Lufthansa, the staff on board were pleasant, and we got a bassinet for the little one almost immediately upon take off. A comfortable journey and the food was just about right, as I was able to even choose a few things in the menu to feed the little one (I wasn't carrying anything other than biscuits for him).

The mid-way stop was at Frankfurt, and the airport, with its various duty free shops, and a lot of "eccalators" for my kid to walk to and fro on, made it a happy experience. Exhausting though, as my son wanted to keep me busy by making me walk/run behind him, where ever he went for the four and a half hours of wait... He even woke up two ladies sleeping on the lunge chairs! He made amazing conversation with them with his limited (tanglish) vocabulary, and they understood and enjoyed every bit of it!

Then, we got on board UA, to cover the next journey which was going to be 9 hours long. No bassinet this time. Food - hmm - nothing much to speak of, especially for the kid. The staff on board, nothing much to speak of either... or probably, we could speak about how there was no trace of "being pleasant" in them, to the extent of being unpleasant. My husband still says he found nothing wrong in that, and that's the normal caustic humor(!!?) displayed by people around here. I haven't still been able to agree with him on that front, as other people that I spoke to around were always ready with a "hi how are you" and with a smile on their faces. Hmm.. so there, 9 hours of bad food, bad humor, bad back later, we landed at ORD, and waited with fingers crossed for the immi officer to call us. After a few tense moments, which made us a lot wiser, we cleared and got the  stamping (phew).

Out we came, only to be held back by the baggage clearance guys, who informed us that we have been held back for a "Special Survey" (oh please give me a break!!). But thank our stars, they did nothing much but scan the baggage, and we were let go (yippee ... scott free finally .. was the feeling!). We boarded our go air (airport cab) and headed to MKE.

Sonny gave an initial resistance to sitting in the car seat with an "amma madeela okkachikanum" plea... but well, what could we do? Coaxed him into "indha oorlai no amma madi". Thankfully for us he is a pretty coaxable kid :) .. and so finally reached room sweet room... all set to explore the new place!

Eating out at MKE

The first day of eating out at Milwaukee, or rather, the States, was at a Mexican restaurant. I had what was called a Veggie burrito. It turned out to be a huge maida chapati filled with some rice, vegetables, a green sauce, sour curd (they had a variety of options to pick and choose from, and this was what I chose) . After the meal, I decided that the Mexican I have had in Pune was a lot yummier than what these guys offered, though there is no arguing as to which is the authentic Mexican! :)

The fun part of the eating out was a visit to Kopps, an ice cream joint. They specialized only in custard and cream and not ice cream, though it all tasted the same to me!!! I had a chocolate sundae with nuts and a huge cherry as toppings. It was on the same lines as hot chocolate fudge at apna Corner house... (a small difference though ... at apna CH, you can ask for extra nut toppings for free, while here you had to pay extra for the first helping of nuts too !!!)

Grilled paneer with veggies

Here's another recipe that we tried out (from the LG cook book again!) and I think is worth a mention. This was more like a starter, but we ate it as an accompaniment to piping hot chapatis, and what a hit it turned out to be!

The grilled paneer with vegetables needed some 200 grams of cubed paneer, green (and if you want to add to the colors - red and yellow capsicum), onions, tomatoes. Cut all of the veggies into big pieces.

For marinating the vegetables and paneer, grind some mint leaves, coriander leaves, green chillies and garlic together into a paste. To this paste, squeeze in some lemon and one tablespoon of hung curd. Take a microwave safe glass bowl, put in the vegetables and paneer into it, and add the mint mixture into the vegetables. Sprinkle some turmeric, red chilli powder and garam masala powder and a teaspoon of butter. Make sure all of the vegetables are mixed well together with the mint paste.

Refrigerate this for about 30 minutes and grill it in a microwave till slightly golden brown on all sides. This might take around 20 minutes. Try it to believe the taste!! The mint and lemon flavour gives a wonderful flavour and you will absolutely love it!

Jeera fried rice with Tangy Potato fingers

So here goes... am back in Pune for sometime, and raring to go on the microwave cooking front. I have my niece with me for a few days, who is sure to appreciate my culinary attempts (irrespective of the final output!!).

So the countdown begins. We started the first day with an interesting recipe we found in the cook book which came along with our microwave. This turned out to be a decent accompaniment for Jeera rice.

As the name indicates, we peeled and cut the potatoes into french fry like fingers and microwaved them for 6 minutes. While the potatoes were kept aside to cool, we prepared the ingredients for the gravy. It required one chopped spring onion, chopped green chillies (as per your taste), 7 flakes of garlic (chopped again). Heat some butter in a microwave safe bowl for one minute, then add the above chopped stuff into it and heat it for 2 minutes. Toss the potatoes into this mixture, add a ladle of tomato sauce, one (or even two if you like it to be more soya saucy) ladle of soya sauce and one ladle of vinegar. Take a small cup, and put two heaped teaspoons of cornflour into it. Pour half a cup of water and mix the cornflour well. Pour this mixture into the potatoes. Add some pepper and salt to taste and toss them well together. Microwave the above mixture for 4 minutes and allow to stand in that heat until your jeera rice is ready!

The jeera rice was a simple one. We fried mustard, jeera and cashewnuts (till golden brown), added onions and sauted till transparent. In went some washed frozen peas and then the basmati rice (which was kept soaked in water for half an hour). Add some water (we used a proportion of 1:1 for rice and water), and allow to pressure cook until one whistle. Simmer for 5 minutes and then allow to stand.

Oh yes.. I forgot the salt! Before pressure cooking the rice, add salt to taste.

There you go - you now have a tangy flavoured potato fingers, to go along with the simple jeera rice.

Another petite outlet - UK Foods

It was lunch time at office. One of our team members suddenly decided to go out for lunch and asked if we would join him. He said he knew of this place which sold hot jolada rottis. So we thought of giving it a try.

Uttara karnataka food stores sits pretty in one of the cross roads of Bangalore's Jayanagar 9th Block. It is a small store (adding to the number of other famous small eat outs at Bangalore) selling many of Karnataka's famous eatables, which include snacks, various rice mixes, sweets etc. The store also caters to the hungry noon crowd by dishing out hot chapatis, jolada rottis, varieties of rice like puliyogare, etc.

Picture - Courtesy Sangameshwar

The food is easy on the palate and tastes absolutely home made. I also got some kodubale (a rice flour snack) and kaai obbat (pancake made of coconut and jaggery) for home, and they were really tasty.

On the downside, we need to stand and eat. However, that can be compromised for the nice food. Importantly the place is not very expensive either. So it's really worth a try.

Nostalgia

Was back at Pune for a week. Just relaxed and chilled out for a change. And the best part of the trip was, met a lot of my friends this time.

Most of us having settled either out of Pune, and / or married and having kids, meeting up seems a remote possibility every time I go to Pune. To top it all, I work from home during my visits there. So workload and the little one take priority and I can never make myself go out to meet people.

This time was different though. J's wedding, Adu's birthday, Uncle's 70th birthday - all the three events were fun. The little one also got to meet a whole gang of people.

Meeting up with the college and school gang brought back memories, and also insights into each one of our lives, which are totally different from what it was before!!! Surprising how we are all so totally different from what we were 4 or 5 years ago.

Also, Pune roads are now much better than what they were those days. After the completion of all the fly overs, the city looks nice and clean too (atleast the areas that I visited). The window shopping at Store One and dinner at Mainland china with L and kids was great too! Totally left me feeling "I wish I could have stayed longer"... Pune, mom dad, family and friends - miss you guys!

Ghaati Subramanya Swamy (Oct 2009)

The little one was turning one on October 17th. The plan was made to go to Lord Subramanya Swamy temple on or around his birthday. So the date we chose was the 16th. The place chosen was Ghaati Subramanya Swamy Temple, Doddabellapur. The distance from Whitefield to the temple was around 72 Km.



Packing along stuff for the little one, we started on the journey by car at around 10 a.m. As soon as we hit the roads, G dozed off. We took the budhigere road towards devanahalli airport. When we hit Devanahalli village, we then joined the road going towards doddabellapur. After crossing doddabellapur, there are signposts directing you towards the temple.

The diety in the temple was the highlight. It is a seven headed serpent, the front of which is depicted as Lord Muruga and on the back rests Lakshmi Narasimhar. There is a mirror kept in such a way that we can see the Lakshmi Narasimhar on the behind. The significance of each of the serpents is also explained in the walls around the temple. The various little snapshots of Lord Muruga and his conversations with Lord Shiva and Parvati are painted all around, giving an insight into their lives.

The temple has an anna daanam program which feeds 100s of people on a daily basis. One of the methods they do this is with the fixed or recurring deposit scheme, in which they put the donations that they get from people, and the interests obtained from that is used for the anna daana programs.

Overall, the visit to the temple was very satisfying. The journey to and fro was pretty comfortable, save for some bad roads. The villages that we passed through provided for some scenic beauty. :) And over and above, little G also enjoyed the journey, and the darshan, which happened on the eve of his first birthday.

Tiruvannamalai after a year (Jul 2009)

Tiruvannamalai is considered as one of the Pancha Bhoota Sthalams, associated with the element - Fire - the others being Kanchipuram, Tiruvaanaikkaval, Kalahasti and Chidambaram. The visit this time was with a lot more knowledge about the temple and its history, which made the trip and the darshan even more beautiful. Tiruvannamalai is the temple of Lord Shiva, where he is worshipped in the form of a lingam.

As soon as we enter the temple through the main entrance, we see the Murugan sannidhi to the left. The Patala Lingam sannidhi which is seen a little ahead to your right, is where Ramana Maharishi is supposed to have gone into a deep state of meditation. The main sanctum sanctorum has the Arunachaleswarar in the form of a lingam. When we sit inside the enclosure to see the Lord, we can actually feel the heat to such a great extent. The Agni Lingam is actually felt here, and you have to be there to experience it. When come out of the sanctorum, we are sweating from the heat, while it actually is not so hot just outside.

Unnamulaiyaal or Abithakuchambal is the Lord's consort. Before we either visit the Lord or his consort, we have to declare our presence to the attendance keeper of the Lord, who is Sri Chandikeshwarar. Since Sri Chandikeshwarar cannot see, we have to click our fingers twice in order for him to hear our presence.

This time, four of us, along with my 9 month old son made the trip. It took 4 and a half hours from Bangalore, even with some stops in between for food and also to pacify my restless little one at times. The relatives who travelled along with us walked the Girivalam stretch surrounding the Tiruvannamalai. This pathway is the home for many Sanyasis. This walk lasted around 3 and a half hours. Since they started pretty early in the morning, the walk was enjoyable with a strong breeze blowing, egging them on. Only a 2-3 km stretch which was within the little town turned out to be tough, what with all the pollution and noise.

Hotel Trishul again this time was our place of stay, and I must say once again that the stay was good at the hotel, though we skipped having food there. A lot of other vegetarian options were available in and around the place, so we opted for those.