Paranthas ...(indian stuffed pitas)

..Last month we were invited for Parantha party...Invitation said..( Parantha's...All Kind)
I laughed at the invitation and theme of the party...
..Parantha is an integral part of the north Indian breakfast....Parantha which is basically a N.Indian fare are unleavened flat breads similar to tortillas .The art of cooking up a parantha is something that is mastered over time..practice,practice and more practice,to make tasty paranthas.
As we entered the party there was a special aroma ,I could smell the Paranthas..
All kind .. of Vegetables and plain paranthas were served in a basket..the table was laid with salad ..Mutton gravy , Potato with vegetable balls in Gravy and yogurt served with spring onions.
lots of pickles to compliment the food..followed by traditional Kheer( Rice pudding)
It looked very presentable..
talking of paranthas,Frozen parantha Industry has progressed very well in US and Canada..looking at the frozen section I was surprised to see chicken tikka parantha..I never heard that so to me it was new and funny but in Canada I was surprised to see ..A whole big section of paranthas only ..Name it and you will get it,Some of these indian parantha stores are open twenty four hours for service ..punjabi style Paranthas ,I always loved with mango pickle and yogurt ..to me anytime parantha time.. my favorite is Paneer parantha (cottage cheese ),I always relished but I can never forget Indian punjabi Dhaba paranthas ..they are simply awesome ,thou one can eat jus one at a time may be they are fried or stuffed heavily..But no match to those paranthas.
I usually prefer cereal now days for breakfast keeping the calories in mind but during weekends I prefer making fresh dough paranthas ,atleast once a week,and relish it with butter and Lassi(butter milk) sumptuous it sounds?
.."Reminds me of my Punjab"

Treasure!

Sitting in my family room ..as I tried to clean the mess on floor with DVDs and CDs weird names.. of movies.......A whole pile of movies in hundreds ,some of the names I have not even heard, forget about playing them on the DVD player..
...seriously ..I have no fancy to any movies now whether bollywood or hollywood ..
Hindi movies are all same ,with male and females running around trees and old blind mother very courteous but ,they are very poor ,even then mother will be shown wearing a nice clean Saree and nice decent makeup and sister ..she might be a teenager but everyone is worried about her marriage as if this is only the reason she is born for!
Songs will be out of the way..
Holly wood movies are good ..close to reality but then smooching never stops..!! they need an excuse .. to smooch.. which I find disgusting .. ..most of the scenes are vulgar..though the story is good..
...I found one CD in the pile.. It was written .."Dard Bhare Geet"..I took it out and rest sorted them....
In our town n country(VAN) ..I told my hubby to play this,as we were goin out for dinner..
.. A beautiful collection of songs from kishore kumar to mohammed rafi ..lata, mukesh..so meaningful lyrics..
..First song was .."Dil aisa kisene mera todha"..I smiled ..beautiful composition..
.. next was.." Zindagi pyaar ka geet hai"..lata's..beautiful voice..
next was.. Sajjan re jooth mat bolo..mukesh..
...and so on and so forth.....
..old is gold ..no doubt,we love to hear these songs again and again .. no matter even if there are melodious singers in the industry ..but very few lyrics are meaningful...
....Its a treasure!!
To me Old is Gold ..as far music of Indian cinema is concerned,what do u say???

For the Love of God , WE..are Indians!!

Reading all the blogs and news online ...I was thinking about the issue that has been raised by the so called "thakereys", that Maharashtra belongs to marathi's..... and Blah blah blah...
We ,who live in a different countries and stand tall and high ,referred to as Indians, irrespective of which state or region we come from India .. ,its shameful when we hear that now in our own country, people will be referred to based on the states they belong to or religion they practice, rather then being Hindustani or Indians, by our so called politicans or the Big "thakereys".
Its very easy to pass judgements sitting on a throne in your own country. Worth is seen on an International platform, how good you are in words and worth..
The primary needs of common man are sidelined and all other dirty politics are played even if its is to an extent of splitting up the country..
..... ..All Indians outside .. or NRIs meet each other with respect and love with the fact that we are from the same country ,and the world looks upon us as Indians with respect to our culture and hospitality ...
We have earned this respect with our noble deeds and culture, this stigma will put a permanent dent in our nationality if not taken care off..and we will be soon be laughing stock for international community .
We should rise higher instead and not fall for these political games which are nothing but devious attempt by the corrupt minded politicians to segregate our unified society.. Let us all stand for a unified India without any boundaries and be proud in the fact that we are Indians.

A perfect Ten!

...A perfect ten on the scale where one is worst and ten is the best... I was at doctors office for sore throat,to make sure its not H1N1..(swine flu)the assistant took my BP and temperature said perfect ten...Doctor checked my throat and compared my previous records.. said its perfect ten..weight and rest of the stats.. I complained I have headaches with sore throat ..he gave me prescription for sore throat..and said ..headache is coz of him.. looking at my two yr old son..who was exploring his office, I laughed ..at the punch..
Contemplating on my thought,its a number game..everybody wants to be perfect,professionally..by hook or by crook,but to sustain a good position and be a winner all the way it needs hard work and result cultivated growth.. Talking of US job scenario, all year around we have lay offs .. but the people who don't show results .. though nobody says , but a close observation is kept all the time and they are shunted out first , if its contract job then chances are higher even if its good worker..
My friend lost her job in General Motors,she was a DRE(design release engineer)..did her engineering from US with yrs of experience to back up ,but was on contract by GM..she was devastated when I met her,not sure about herself ...as if its end of the world... not only for money .. ($35 per hr)but position too.....loosing job doesn't mean its end of the world or you are not in perfect ten ...its a matter of number of contracts a company gets and sale of cars all over the world...(in her case)

..President Obama state address to union ,where every word ,be it education, industries ,health care , jobs,taxes was directed to growth and fix the economy ,once again be in surplus then deficit...its a number game again ,which is a positive approach to the country and rest of the world...

A perfect ten to be achieved by the end of this year is a major goal kept by the democrats....
..now this is all related to work or money or economy..muddled in my thoughts ..when it comes to human behavior we never try to be perfect on the scale ...people jump on conclusions and start using harsh or abusive language forgetting their own position , job or country...

I was at a grocery store ,standing in a fast lane to check out..(Fast last :where items should not be more then fourteen)usually I give preference to oldies or handicapped and try to be helpful,I looked back it was at least ninety year old women ,with a stick in hand and her body was shaking standing with her cart ,I told her to go ahead but she seemed to be in bad mood..

Old Women : you cannot stand in this line ,your cart has more then fourteen items..

Me :mam its just ten items.

women: I will inform the store manager and see that you don't stand in fast lane..

me ..I have jus ten items u can count ,and turned my cart to another lane..
the cashier was looking at all this ,she called ..

Cashier :hey listen,I will ring the items and come in the front ...

Me:Its OK,you can ring her items ,I can go to another cashier..
but the lady cashier was adamant, may be she wanted to make things straight,the old lady was furious when she saw the cashier ringing my items..she yelled and went to store manager...
"A Fuss For No Reason"
Such crap behavior in front of everyone at this age!!!
( I think all her life she would have striven to be the best in the number game)
Where is the perfect ten now???

..Road Rage...I was driving ,wanted to take a right turn,it was not yet a green arrow..I heard a honk behind( honking is considered abusive in US)..I looked in the rear view.. Shurrr up.. muttered under my breath.....how can I jump a red light? .. the guy seemed to be in hurry.. (wanted to be a perfect ten somewhere else)he took another lane once there was a green signal..but as I passed a mile ..I saw him being ticketed...a cop beside him..
Where is perfect ten now???
When it comes to behavior ..people loose their number game and violate the general human law,that is
to cultivate kindness..
Respect ...
Gratitude without malice ....
..try to reach a number game in human behavior close to number ten if not

...A PERFECT TEN..

My little India..

...Recently ..we had a wedding in India ..it was one of our cousins who got married...relatives all over the place from UK, Canada and US..were invited..we couldn't make it ,as it was at short notice and job scenario in US doesnt allow leaves at short notice...but mom and dad was there at the wedding ..they came back with goody bags ,videos and pictures of wedding ..and progressing India...
ALL the pictures of wedding was posted on facebook the very next day of wedding for those who could not make it to India.I got a call on weekend , in the morning from my aunt to check the face book ,omigwd two hundred pictures of wedding every detail and ritual shown ..Man it was fast ..everyone was tagged to keep clear from confusions..Thanks to face book.
Punjabi weddings are always colorful with lots of food ,drinks and music.It was a small gathering with a personalized touch followed by reception in Army mess with selected crowd..A small family affair with few friends,easy to handle and better hospitality was the main target..
To Me, Its amazing the pace India is moving at.. though law and order still needs to be taken care off.. but most of the places seen in the videos exhibit western culture and new age era...
Looking back ten yrs from now ,there is now major improvement in the industry with globalization,all major brands available ,some of them are not available even in US are there in India,not to for forget the mall Mania.. Huge malls with food court and hip crowd ,I was actually surprised how Delhi has progressed ..


The recent Auto expo ..where the crowd ,the people ,the models.. omigwd..it was amazing.. I have seen auto shows here in Detroit.. as my hubby is an auto engineer and dad also in Chrysler so it is mandatory to see these shows .. but Delhi Auto Expo was different..to all the videos I saw,people are focused on models..lol ..next to concept cars and fascinated by their beauty rather then new era car..
The last auto show I saw here in US,there were Acrobats from Russia,and they had a show..where Jeep (Chrysler) was launched .. it was major attraction to the crowd.
Talking of India,I have not been there since five years so to me it was cultural shock.. Dating concept ,at local places guys and gals moving around in n out of the restaurants ... soon I think it will be like US where teenagers and others get intimate in public places and no act of indecency is there ,freedom of expression is given to all,when I saw a videos I felt we are not far from this western culture even the language and slang ..is same.
..The same kinda eating joints and same fashion..was something good to see. Everything is available ..name it and its there.. Except few new innovations that has come up here in US.
The inflation before I forget to mention,when mom showed Indian currency a five hundred note she said there are only two cups of coffee with little tit bits available....I was surprised..
I pay here two bucks($2) or may be less for Tim Horton's premium coffee.... I am surprised at the purchasing power ,the amount of money people spend lavishly on stores when they take out bags of money to buy things ,seems like people make more money there ,then here..
Salaries have gone up in the private sector, what it was ten yrs back ..what stupendous change ,every other car on road is a luxury car..clippings from video ,but traffic congestion is same ..that needs to be taken care off...
The rented properties in Delhi ,at defence colony ,I was surprised to hear that it costs 1.5 lacs per month to afford a good three bedroom house.. Damn.. one has to make at 5 lacs to rent a property like that...
Rest of the places like chandigarh,ludhiana ,meerut ..all were suffering from power outage from seven am to five pm so no more hot water but fresh hot tea from servant s are available all the time or-black coffee to all the guests who were jammed to there beds.The youth from UK were busy boozing all kind of hard drinks ,a special bar created in the corner of the room.. Half of the NRIs were sick as nobody is accustomed to this kinda winter and wanted to come back ,but with indian junk food and on a major shopping spree it was hard to get off...


Some of the relatives went to jaipur to get some warmth and enjoy the Rajasthani culture, Dad brought some pictures of heritage hotels and resorts ..where Big B stays...Dad had spent some time with his friends in those hotels,we all laughed when we saw the pictures..its nice ,but place looks deserted ....
The driver with dad was driving very recklessly ,there were no seat belts at the back it seems it was removed for customers convenience so that three passengers can sit properly ..He banged a car ahead , those guys stopped and came out of the car.. Dad came out of the car and was shocked to see a fourteen year old kid on the driver seat, after argument both parties were settled and took their way.. it was good.. (no major issues)in US it would be a severe punishment followed by court procedure.. but mutual coexistence was seen..

Driver asked dad on the way to airport ,(the one who drove recklessly)
you are goin to "amrika"..(after a tip)
Dad said ..yes
Driver ... Saab can you show me a"dallar"I have never seen a dallar($) in my life or jus gimme a Dallar($)
Dad.. searched his pockets, and gave him.. he was happy...
and left him on the gate...
Dad was happy too..
God Bless my India!!!

True story..(chapter III)

Sheetal Anand ...was now in one of the best schools in town... she came out as a bright kid ..meanwhile mrs Anand took care of sheetal as her daughter and she addressed Mrs anand as her mom ...
Days and years passed by... sheetal grew up as a beautiful gurl ... Was now in college...
I met Sheetal when she was in Sophia college in mumbai... She was very fair ,long hair.. expectional long hair ... sharp features ..tall gurl ,may be 5'7 ... in height ..when I met her,she was older to me so I called her Sheetal Di..(elder sister),to me she was just mrs Anands daughter..(moms friend)I didn't know her background .. may be mom also didn't know she was an adopted kid.
.. Sheetal was just like us..polished ..well groomed and good looks to support everything.. very fluent in English ... spoke Punjabi and Hindi too... I met her couple of times ... during those days ..they were getting lot of proposals for sheetal's marriage ... ..
....I asked my mom how did Mrs anand tell her about sheetal's background??? mom said.. She once pointed out ..to Mrs Anand..that sheetal was an exceptional child in their family .. prettiest of all their kids.. and her features were different then her brothers and sisters...
Mrs anand ..smiled ..and said I will tell you ..but promise me not to tell anyone ... ...then she narrated the whole story...
And my mom told me the whole story when we left mumbai ...after few yrs... in ludhiana... ..
.After we left mumbai we had no contact with Mrs anand... then once in ..1995 we had some work in mumbai ..so we were there.. mom talked to Mrs Anand over the phone ... Sheetal was married to an Aeronautical engineer in California (USA) ... in a well off family ...the family she got married they told the boy about Sheetal ..and he accepted her... without any hesitation ..to him she was just Mr and Mrs anands daughter....
..She was happy after her marriage ..and came to India ...for wedding ..during those days ..talking of 1995....

when my mom told me this story I was in University and was at home in vacations.....I literally had goosebumps when I heard the story......

I have no clue about Mrs Anand or sheetal after that...as I came to USA ,but this story is very special to me and usually I get emotional when I think about it...I told my hubby this story before writing a blog... he was stunned ..kept his cup of tea on the table and wanted to hear the whole story... before taking a sip...
I did try to locate Mr anand on net from indian serials ..but list of old artists are not there.....Sheetal might be on face book ..but I dont know her last name as she is married now ..and last name tend to change for gurls after marriage..so no clue again...
....

bikraam... Sheetal ..might have helped slums..
but I have no clue again

Dharmjit.....sheetal ..is a winner all the way... kept up the name of anands.. studying and getting married in a dignified way...

Mr chowla..Sir.. Sheetal Anand is there in this world somewhere ,living her life happily ..just because of..Mrs Anand..(the great women)

Raj..one noble deed becomes a moral to others..it needs encouragement and support..


To Mrs. Anand I would say..."One life..But well spent"...
..moral support of her husband and family.."Hats off to that "

true story ..(chapter II)

...The next week.. there was a knock at the door..Mrs Anand opened the door...she saw ..taaro

Taaro...this is my maa and baba.(mom and dad)

Mrs anand... smiled and greeted them ...

taaro's(father).. my daughter said you can send her to school and give her a better living ,I wanted to know what kind of help you can give us???

Mrs Anand ... Well ,I can help her by keeping her with me and sending her to school, promise to give a better future like other kids and eventually getting her married to a good family.....

Taaro's (father)... ok.. but you can give us monthly allowance and we can do same for her...

(may be taaro's dad was looking for easy money)....to Mrs Anand he sounded a greedy...Man

Mrs Anand.. she will stay with me and I will look after her... you can look after the other kids at home and try to give them better future..

Taaro's( father)..What will I get in return??? and we don't trust you for our daughter..

Mrs Anand..are you selling your daughter!!! and my only interest is to help the kid looking at her she said..as for trust is concerned..you can come and meet her everyday and ask her well being ,but she will not go to slums again... if you agree on this,fine otherwise you can go back ..

Taaro's (father.)..everybody makes promises,but kids end up working at home for domestic help.. and get nothing else other then food or clothes..

Mrs Anand...I have a maid at home , and my kids are married ..my only interest is.. to help your daughter,like my own kid..as its pathetic .. to see her collecting trash and one day she might fall in wrong hands .. ..

Taaro's (mother)... said something in bengali.. to her father and taaro started telling her father she wanted to stay with Mrs Anand and cannot collect trash everyday...

Taaro's father ... ok, we will watch her for few days ,but if she is not happy and wants to come back, we will take her .... from here at once...

Mrs Anand....Sure, you can ,any time ,as she is your kid..you have the right to do that...

.... Taaro... I will stay here today and looking at her mother she said.. can you bring my belongings tomorrow ???

Mrs Anand.. we will provide you everything ... and you will stay here... from now...onwards

.....So... Taaro was excited and came inside the house.... Mrs Anand closed the door...

..Mrs Anand ... showed her the room, her closet ..her washroom... taaro who had never seen luxury of life was astonished to see how people live..and then Mrs Anand gave her some fresh clothes ... later followed by a dinner....probably ,first time in her life she ate properly...

(I would like to mention here that their was lot of opposition by Mrs Anand's kids for keeping this gurl... but later everyone agreed and accepted her....)

...Taaro was a very affectionate child,though she lived in slums but her family values were good.. she was initially little hesitant in her approach ,to every thing ...with lack of confidence.. but had an urge to learn ...

Mrs Anand for few months focused on her minutely at every single detail...from..her talking to walking...dressing up...took her to best of the places and restaurants...taaro who never took a ride in a car was always excited with her new living.....then Mrs Anand kept a private tutor at home before sending her to school...she wanted her to face the school atmosphere with confidence....in between taaro's mom visited her everyday to make sure she is in safe hands.....

Taaro was introduced to everyone as her own daughter ... within six months..... Mrs Anands family ,her sons and daughters ...liked Taaro as their kid sister....

My mom once asked Mrs Anand when she narrated the whole story .. what was the real motive..behind all this???

she said.. the emptiness in her life was filled by this child ... she was her sunshine ..

...Taaro was then enrolled in one of the best schools of mumbai...
as..SHEETAL ANAND.... daughter of MR and Mrs Anand...(yes she was legally adopted...)

.... what happened after that???
(will continue in nxt blog)