Happy Birthday !!!

Happy Birthday to me!!!!

London - Week 1 - Day 1

Now that I've somewhat settled down, I can get down to chronicling my time in the city I love. I arrived here last Saturday and the weather the past week has been amazing. Though your truly has been anything but amazing...though slowly but surely I'm getting there.

Well first things first, the early morning flight which I thought was a good idea at that time turned out to be a nightmare as the whole of India seemed to be queued up to take the flight out... the serpentine queues at the check-in and immigrations had me thinking I would be at the airport a long time. Finally the flight was announced and I guess I was so exhausted that I dozed off the minute they had finished the safety briefing. It was crick in my neck caused by my head hanging at an unnatural angle that woke me up and after that sleep eluded me. Economy class travel that is the lot of poor old me surely doesn't become of me and my Prince Charming ain't coming any time soon so I foresee cricks in the neck for a long time to come.Never mind that, so where were we, yes, sleep eluded me, it was sure a sign of things to come, but ever the optimist I let it pass,thinking of the greener pastures that were to come in the promised land. The plane landed at 7.15 am a good 45 minutes before schedule and by nine in the morning (I was at the apartment building that would be my home for the next 35 days), this inspite of the fact that I took the Heathrow Express into Paddington and then a taxi to my apartment complex at St. Paul's (yes my apartment is in the lane bang opposite St. Paul's Cathedral) .

Since I had arrived a lot earlier, they did not have the apartment ready for me to move in as the previous tenant had not yet checked out, so I was allowed to leave my luggage in the reception and asked to come back at 1ish in the afternoon as this time would allow the cleaning staff to have the rooms ready for me. I had effectively nothing to do while I waited for the room to be ready, so I decided to get some breakfast, I was starving as I don't partake of any food while travelling and my last meal has been at 8ish at night back home in India. Thankfully, London has a number of options Sandwich and Soupwise and I'm one happy girl when here. Though this time I'm sure life is going to be much more difficult as I've become a vegetarian on account of health grounds (the nature of my health problems I will pen down some other time). Having said that I found a superb vegetarian sandwich, and chips and washed it all down with some nice ginger beer.

Having replenished the calories, I still has time to kill so decided to get some sight-seeing done and decided to start with St. Pauls. I went right inside St. Paul's Cathedral and was taking in the beauty of the various murals that were adorning the walls, when I noticed that people were taking their places for the service and I decided to attend it too. The service was beautiful, accompanied by a choir who sang like angels. The singing truly moved you... I can now see why the service was jammed packed with tourists and locals alike. The service ended at 1 and I decided to go check whether my room was available, thankfully it was and I could deposit my belonging and soak in the atmosphere of the rooms that would be my home for the next few weeks. I has just about settled in when S called and was like "Get your a** out of the house, it is such a beautiful day, join me for lunch followed by some quality time lazing around at Hyde Park, Don't you dare go to bed now or you won't sleep at all at night". Little did she or your truly know that sleep from that minute on was indeed a very precious commodity. I'll let the suspense hang for a bit and let in on the reason why a little later in this post. Now if it had been the old me I would have finagled a way out of attending the appointment, but a new raring to go spirit seemed to have been instilled in me, I was like 'Carpe Diem, Baby' and agreed. We met for lunch at Marble Arch and walked to Maroush, a place that serves the best Lebanese food ( this is her husband's favorite Lebanese joint and after eating there, I agree too). Post lunch we walked about at Hyde Park and took in the atmosphere. S and I could only but wonder at the Brits, who just seemed to go gaga over the beautiful weather and could be found lying about in every patch of sunshine available, where as S and I could be found looking for shade to salvage what ever was left of our complexion, no thanks to the pollution in dear old Mumbai. After spending a couple of hours I was dead beat and decided to call it a day. Once was back at the apartment, I dived into bed only to woken up a few minutes later by the chiming of the clock at St. Paul's, the clock chimed every fifteen minutes; at quarter past, it chimed once, at half past twice, at three quarters of an hour it went three times and at the hour it rang four times followed by the Bell pealing the hour (so if it was seven, it pealed seven times), this continued through out the night, I should know, I was up all night... thanks to the incessant chiming, the traffic noise and some animal or bird that kept screaming through the night like it was being beaten to death. This was indeed not a very good start for my time here... but as always we live and hope for a better tomorrow....

Movie Review: Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani (YJHD)

If I were to sum this film in one line... it would be, 'The film had great potential if it was truly an Ayan Mukherjee Film'. It began as an Ayan Mukherjee film, lost it way and then got lost some more. So much so that in the end I'm sure it suffered from a huge identity crisis and Ayan Mukherjee was compelled to end it abruptly to put it out of its misery.

I for one loved Ayan Mukherjee's first film, Wake up Sid, there was a freshness, a sense of wonder in each scene that is unfolding on the screen. Here is a sensitive director who can take a everyday scene that could be from anyone's life and make it appear more meaningful on screen, the metamorphosis of Sid into a mature adult is beautifully captured on screen. He extracted every ounce performance-wise from Ranbir Kapoor in what I feel is a near flawless film. However, YJHD reduces talented actors like Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Farooq Sheikh and Kalki Koechlin to mere caricatures.  

Lets start from the beginning shall we,  the narrative is jumpy and the songs seem to have been added on later as an after thought to plug the holes in the narrative. In an attempt to make a stylish movie the director forgot the soul of the film. Sadly the the viewer is unable to connect with the soul less film.

Keep that aside for a minute shall we, can someone please explain to me why his friends don't feel happy for him when he gets a scholarship to attend a journalism course of his choice. As far as the viewer is concerned Bunny (Ranbir) is a guy of modest means  and he wants to travel and see every corner of the world, he even maintains a scrap book of the place he wants to see. If indeed his friends were as close to him as the director wants us to believe, they would know that and would be jumping for joy that he is indeed taking a step in the right direction. But what do they do, they send him on a guilt trip... with friends like these who needs enemies.

Deepika is absolutely spot on portraying Naina's discomfort when she initially tries to gel with the other group members. She continues with a strong performance as Naina continues to fall hopelessly in love with Bunny. Even though Naina does say that neither of them waited for the other, it does seem that while Bunny was painting the town red, Naina was actually waiting for him to realise that he loved her and that he would come and rescue her from herself, it does seems a little too far-fetched, but who knows, such things happen, so I will let it pass.

 Moving on to the script or the lack of it, I strongly suspect the while the trek sequence was in the original script the slap stick comedy goon fighting sequence was someone else's idea that the director was road rolled into adding. Also pray tell me why the need for an item song with Madhuri ?? Don't you believe in your product?? We could honestly have lived without having been subjected to it. The only song which has any sense or melody or any reason to be in the film is Kabira.

There are sequences that have the Ayan Mukherjee sensitivity, like the one where Aditi reveals to Bunny  that Taran was only trying to stop her from having a show down with Avi on his wasteful expenses. Or the one where Bunny makes Naina admit that she is dying to go to the party. Or take for instance the one where Naina's mom talks about Aditi at the dinner table. You do get glimpses of the talented director, but they are like flashes, you blink and they are gone.

I would really like to see what the original script was like before too many cooks spoilt it on the way to making the Great Indian Masala Movie.

Grilled Paneer

Ingredients:
200 gms Paneer (cut into cubes)
Salt to taste

For Marinade:
2 green Chillies
1 inch piece of Ginger
3 cloves of Garlic
Corriander leaves
a pinch of Garam Masala
Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Method:
1) Put all the ingredients of the marinade (except the lemon juice and Garam Masala)  in a grinder and make a fine paste (don't add too much water as it will make the paste runny, we want a thick paste).
2) Remove to a bowl and add the lemon juice, Garam Masala and salt.
3) Prick the paneer cubes on all sides with a fork.
4) Marinate the paneer cubes in this mixture (the longer you marinate the better).
5) Heat a tawa well, for the first batch just rub a little oil on the tawa, just enough to leave a trace of oil (one or two drops of oil).
6) Place a few pieces of the marinated paneer on the hot tawa cook on a slow flame, when one side is half done, turn over. Keep turning the pieces so that they don't burn.

Note: The excess marinade on the paneer cubes will stick to the tawa and burn, ensure that you scrape the burnt marinade off the tawa and keep turning the paneer pieces to ensure that they are evenly cooked.

French Beans Salad

This is an easy to make salad and even die hard haters of French Beans will not be able to resist it... I tend to forget things a lot these days (getting old, sob, sob) so intend to write all the recipes I learn here for later reference... i.e. till the time I remember I write a blog...hehehe

Ingredients:
French Beans (chopped)
Yoghurt

For seasoning:
Cumin seeds
A pinch of Asafoetida
A few curry leaves
Oil

Method:
1) Boil the chopped french beans and keep aside.
2) Heat oil, add cumin seeds (let it crackle) then add the curry leaves and the Asafoetida.
3) Add the seasoning to the boiled french beans.
4) Add the yoghurt and mix well.

How I made the perfect rotis...

And I have finally mastered the art of making perfectly soft rotis... rotis that are not only round and fluffy but are so soft that they actually break with three fingers... honestly I had tears in my eyes when the first roti came off the stove!!!

I have been making perfect round rotis for over twenty years now, but once the perfect rounds hit the  stove all I achieved until today were rotis that would either turn brittle like papads or they would become so hard we could give them to children during playtime to be used as Frisbees. I used to envy my friends when they produced soft rotis from their lunch boxes and in equal measure give into despair that I would never ever be able to make them. All these sad thoughts were firmly kicked out of my life the minute Bajia stepped in, she lead me from roti despair to roti nirvana with her easy to follow step by step YouTube video...

From today onwards Bajia takes over as my cooking guru from Sanjeev Kapoor who has held this spot for very many years now. I can already see that we will make a great pair...

Follow the link to learn how to make the best rotis ever, if I can make it so can you...

A message for Bajia,

Dear Bajia,

You rock!!!

Thank you, thank you,  thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Kind Regards

Deepa (yup, that's my real name)

Books...

I've had a long standing love affair with books, at last count I owned about 200 books, today I donated half of the collection to a library... here is a picture of  me with the books that I donated... I really feel like a part of me is gone...