Bachellors Cook..

There are times that I had to stay alone at home.. that's fine, i get a company of my TV and internet  and my phone.. but being hungry!! Imposible :(

Thanks to Namma Mane experiences that I managed to cook some simple indian dishes... the upittu.. Chithrana and omletu was all i could manage..  once i decided to treat my friends at ssk.. Micky.. Maxi and Rabi...  Prince joined later.. He took the first bite of chicken and thats it! uppu uppu aa irke!! and i had it :(
my first atempt was a utter failure!!

Later, now that I stay in RajaRajeshwari Nagar with my Amma... its all together a different story! :). Amma has to visit Mysore now and then!! and she has to attend marraiges at our distant native.. n i get the entire kitchen for myself :)
n if i ever right myself an auto-biography, I would entitle it.. My Experiments with Cutlery!! :)

So my first one...

Butter Basa Fish :)

Take a hot frying Pan..
add one whole Amul sweet Butter..
Add any Fish of your choice.. either chopped or whole!
with pepper and salt!!
cook for 10 minutes.. It turns yummy..

Pickled Lemon Chicken!! This i tried when the spices were out of my reach

5 spoons of oil on a hot pan!!
1/2 a bottle of Priya Lime Pickle
4-5 pieces of chicken..
5 chilleys and pepper!!

ginger garlic paste (optional)
salt..

cook for 20 min..

Egged Bread Toast 

take two eggs and put it in a bowl of cold milk
add sugar..
shallowly dip bread slices into the cold milk and place it onto the Thava..
heat until golden brown and serve..

Banana Salad

peeled  banana- 1 whole
1 cup of curd
graited coconut - 1/2 Cup
Sugar

Slice the Banana into round pieces.
add a cup of curds..
mix the graited coconut
with 2 spoons of Sugar goes well with Chapathi's

So when Sulochana leaves to native... i go continental :)

PS: There was a day when we couldn find cooking oil at Namma Mane.. We happily used Parachute hair Oil :P

No Limits!

Last time I remember of attending a dance concert was of Vani Ganapathy's Bharathanatyam!! I had actually followed every movement of her, resulting an everlasting impression and respect to our Indian Dance Culture!!

A couple of years back, I had been to another one, Odissi Dance performed by the gals of NrithyaGram!! I took an admiration to the Odissi culture of expressing emotions in pure simplicity!! yes Bibek ji.. i fell in love for Odissi.. and Bibek!! The gals who performed the dance were all again Telugu! :)..

Since then my only exposure to dancing was for the discos.. ppl were more drunk! than dancing!! and I sort of disliked... and the dances in the frequent bashes at office made me feel "ashte na?"

Getting over a instant depression, i just wanted that magic to happen yet again and for the last:). And their it was, Gautham Sharma -salsa master!! took me to a Salsa Party at the place "No Limits". So when last sunday when the whole of Namma Bengaluru were getting ready to take a nap, I headed for No Limits!! :) This place is where people across Bangalore get together on a sunday late evening only to practice and to perfect there Salsa skills.

Salsa is not a easy skill, but the couples who were performing made it look so saleesa.. that even i wanted!! :) Salsa is brisk, with one couple spinning and the other bending, with the lifts!  and the slides.. and the drifts..  and with so many steps to follow, i felt as in a mela of dancing souls..

And then the music changed, from Latin to Spanish and so the lights and eventually the dance... This time it was Bachata!! where in couples come much closer to each other and their hips start flaunting to the tunes..  I went numbb!!!


So with Salsa, Bachata, cha cha cha, mambo..  n all, and as my evening was filled with all the latin music..  Praveena my college pal.. came waving at me..  n guys if you havnt seen her dancing.. you haven’t seen nothing..

The men looked dignified, the women were treated with respect and grace.. and with a company of genuine friends that I missed over the last few months I thank Gautham for making it a memorable evening to remember!!

To the end, as we got down the stairs, Praveena's father was waiting to take home his daughter.. Now see, that's what I call, a perfect Achan!! :)

ಮನಸ್ಸಿನ ಮಾತು

ಮುಸ್ಸಂಜೆಯ ತಂಗಾಳಿಯು ಕನಸನ್ನು ಕರೆ ತಂದಿದೆ...
ನಿನ್ನ ಕಂಡ ಕನಸೀಗ ನನ್ನನ್ನೇ ಆವರಿಸಿದೆ...
ಕಣ್ಣಂಚಿನ ನಿನ್ನ ರೂಪವು ಮನದಾಳದಿ ಅಚ್ಚು ಉಳಿದಿದೆ ...
ಈ ಅಚ್ಚಿಗೆ ಜೀವ ತುಂಬಲು ನಿನ್ನ ಹಾಜರಿ ಬೇಕಾಗಿದೆ..

Bhavani's Happy Feet..

Yet Again :),

Guys I finally got hitched to writing!! , with whatever that comes first to my mind, I’m in a mood to carve it down the paper.. and this time I take on Bhavani !!!

Let me not try to make it a confession one!! for obvious reasons :). There was this time where I had wanted to see him beaten black and blue all over, for not sending a simple hand-over. looking back today, all I wonder is  was it really worth it? And again I should confess, that in spite of we both belonging to the same clan of the word “Disability” I had  never ever tried to  really understand Mr. Bhavani until recently!

Undergoing myself through a series of surgeries and therapy sessions, I eventually fell seduced to the comforts of pretty nurses around :), where in Bhavani suffering Multiple Organ Failures pulled up his spirits to get back to his feet again!!

When Bhavani enters the floor, feet taps to the beat of 1 2 3 cha cha chaa!!    and the entire floor knows who started working.. and again what a way it started, when Mr Reddigaru :) frequently visited the smoking zone, Bhavani would have closed issues at our infamous SVB. And when again Reddigaru  merrily rounding the tea stalls.. Bhavani would have completed the next outstanding requests. And yes he did goof up… he did missed out a alert, a url, here and there, and u see that is how we start to perfection. :)

Ubuntu being his passion and already made it to the Board of UDC.. Bhavani has contributed immensely to Open Source…  this is not until I attended a OpenStack Conference with him.. that I realized his true stature. With Canonicals and Dells sitting next to him and getting a piece of his mind.. I was meekly, sheekly over hearing the conversation :)… 

The sheer magnitude of source codes that he maintains at the Launchpad site, shows how important his work is for Ubuntu.. and Ubuntu being a competitor to itself..  I see Bhavani growing to the name of Richard Stallman’s..

  

Now that his foot steps will no more be heard amidst us, at our place. I openly invite the same footsteps to my GANG!! of whom I call Avengers! :)

I take a bow for the very inspiration he has been to me today!!

Rescued!!!

Story Time !

A woman with a sick child, had to catch a local bus to reach hospital. On the way to the bus stop she has to cross this rail track every time. With the bus visibly reaching the stop.. and the gates to be closed for the train to pass on.. The woman carrying the child dares to cross the rail gates to not to miss the bus. She tips and falls over the tracks!!  seeing the avenging train approaching at a distance and no one to rescue them, that woman with a bruised knee and elbows, manages to stand on her feet, pulls the crying fallen child up and falls back again to the sides... and missed the inevitable!

The woman in the scene is.. Sulochana, my Mother and the child is, yours truly Reddigaarulu, and the place – Jayanagar Rail gate, Mysore. I had just been given a second chance to Live!!

it was my 10th summer vacation, and my Mother going after a astrologer's advice, that her dear son would become a great kalakaar one day, hands me a drawing book and bundles of colors... and I.. u see.. who had been inspired by the scenes of the famous Titanic movie.. draws the anatomy of gals to near perfection!! :) my Amma who went through my drawing book once.. Instantly took a avatar of Badrakaali looks and ensured  my bumps are beaten to a swollen red using my Appa's leather beltu.. :(. I get punished from the same hands that saved  me, my life..

She gets to know everything about me instantly.. their was this day when i reached home feeling rejected and dejected.. Amma comes to me with a coffee and says “Should I speak to the Girl..?” I was in tears the very next moment and fell for her rescue..

when she is proud of Reddigaru being good. Goes to her son, preps up his shirt collar and tells him baagunra nana..

And with a new Bangaaru Gajulu for this Akshayathadige.. i'm sure to make an impression on her yet again :)

So if you people have not wished your loved one Yet!! :P

Happy Mothers Day!! :)

I Voted..

With my weekends getting consumed from the demons & devils of releases and deployments, I made a point that next time I had a gala time,  I would pen down and pracharify to the whole world :), so u see,  whom should I turn to!!   my closest and the dearest ones :P

Voting!! for many would mean changing the government, bringing in change!,  sending home the undeserved and all the usual blah, blah.. For me it’s another family masthi!! this is the 4^th time I was voting and before every time we went to the voting booth, we would have argued and screamed and fought over the entire subject of whom to Vote and not to.. But this time it had been 4 months that we brothers had met since last Christmas…  and with the releases stacked up onto the weekend, my chances of travelling to Mysore for the very purpose was bleak.. :(  so on a Friday morning, bidding a painful farewell  to my brothers and to the lovely Honda City cruiser :), I headed towards my office!

The message on Balaji’ s face said it clear, I need to slog the whole day and the slogging continued to the next day. Me had taken a nap threatening my team to get me a clean build early morning and Subir the Architect!! had to politely agree... Waking up from a semi hard Sofa at the office with all the cramps and aches and as I was just coming out!  he he he.. thank heavens for that one moment and my luck changed entirely.. :).

The early morning release went with crystal clear precision, and I was promised that I can leave by afternoon, and my luck continued even further, Ramesh Sahebru.. my all-time fav.. cab driver..  called me offering to drive me to Mysore with zero cost!!! on one condition that I had to attend an uninvited and unknown pre-nuptial wedding ceremony in Srirangapatna on the way.. now, u see, would  Manju.  ever say no to such an offer!! :) :).. We finally left home to Mysore in the evening!

With the sun setting on the horizon, with the cool breeze blowing into my ears, and with memories of the day fading out of my mind, I knew I was miles away from Bangalore. We reached the marriage hall by night fall, and guess what, The Wedding hall was named after me… :) Yes in this part of the world, every 3^rd person is called by my name…  and every corner of the street holds a hoarding with my name as in like Manjunatha Bakery, Manjunatha Saloon, Manjunatha Family Resto & Bar.. :).. Manjunatha This n Manjunatha That, I had even seen my name written on an ancient temple in Dharmasthala… :)

I got off and headed straight to the dining hall :) :) n blv me, not even a single spec of shame crossed my mind!. With the dining hall yet to get propped  up. i was offered a seat in the Kitchen! And that is where the action all started. With all the simmering Sambars and the Holiges and heaps of Pallavs and Appalams and Kosambri’s around waiting to get served.. my mind was in a Black n White movie era of  “Mayabazaar”  song scene “Vivaha Bojamanu”. The difference! Mr SV Rangaroa had the privilege to munch over and I, here had to simply stare and drool over.. :)

with the guest not willing to have a early dinner I had to starve further, that’s when Prakash – the Sambar specialist, started to hummm “Kanadhanthe Maya Vadhanu” I offered him to sing louder!! And it all started off…  with the kitchen turning to an instant orchestra.. Guru –Palavmaker, started of with “Kuladhali keelyaavudho Hutchappa “ and the plates and spoons were transformed to drums and sticks instantly!! And wait more to come.. Namma Ramesh Sahibru :) started off with the infamous “Babruvahana” dialogue of a dual role Rajkumar.. and then the mungaru male dialogue by Raju, The Upendra’s Kantha!! Kantha.. Here I have to specially mention Mr. Kalloli something Kuttan!! The only Mallu in the group started off with Mohan Lal Proposing to Kalyani… and what a fun.. though I dint understand the lingo.. the sheer expressions on his face tickled my nerves.. and guys next time you ppl propose to a gal, get equally drunked!! ;)

What I did all the time was to laugh, gigggle and riggglee… I learnt a new way of living at that very moment… :). The men I mentioned above whose income don’t cross 4 thousand a month, come smiling to the work, get their hands burnt and simmered, feed 100s of ppl at a time and get back with a sense of accomplishment! And We with a 6 figure salaries to our accounts, sitting under an air-conditioned ventilators, with all the comforts of life, still Cribb n Cribb n Cribb!!

And not to forget, I had that special treatment at the food. When the guy sitting next to me had one Holige.. I was served with 2, when he got 1 scoop of palav.. I had been twice :) :).

Sensing this, he asked me desperately, “Are you here on the Groom’s side?”.. And I gave him a unwilling Smile!! :)

So, treated to a Goudara Madhuve  OOOTA, and wishing the unseen couple A Happy Married Life, I continued to home Happily..

After all these incidents, the next day, mine was the 3^rd VOTE to get into the Voting Machine!! :)