Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Go Green!!!

How many of you like the color green ?? My hands are up already :) 

Green is the color of nature, the color of growth and has come to symbolize prosperity. The color has this magical power of soothing the perceiver mentally and physically. Medical research tell us that Green helps alleviate depression, nervousness and anxiety. And this is why most hospitals use green. It also offers a sense of renewal, self control and harmony. It is also the color of hope. So use as much green as possible in your daily life. You'll eventually see the difference in yourself. You'll be more confident and vibrant.

The color green immediately draws the picture of leaves and trees in our mind.

Here are some interesting flickr finds of GREEN :)




















Tuesday, February 23, 2010

I dont always tell You

I dont always tell You..
How happy I am to have met You in my life

I dont always tell You..
How much joy Your smile brings to me

I dont always tell You..
How Your love brightens every second of my life

I dont always tell You..
I know that You are always there for me

I dont always thank You..
for anything and everything You do for me

I dont always tell You..
How special You are to me

I dont always tell You..
How lucky I am to have You



Happy birthday Sweetheart !!! 
I Love You :)


Monday, February 22, 2010

Combine Studies.. Anybody game ???

Gosh... I miss my college days terribly. Especially the exam season. Haaa.... Gone were those days when we used to run around collecting study materials, taking photo copies of class notes, collecting the professor's notes from the class representative, discussing the test portions standing outside our dept, assembling in the study hall to discuss who will study what unit and after a couple of hours gather back in the same place to discuss and share whatever we learnt in those 2 hours. All this will happen the day before the exam.

Combine studies were fun. Total fun. In spite of all that exam tension, loads of study materials piled up in front of you and just few hours to click away before the exam, the motivation,support and confidence that you get from combine studies keeps you going. At least, it worked for me.

I still remember that day before the exam of one of the management subjects in my 7th semester. I'd been to Divya's place for the so-called "Combine studies". We did everything other than studying. We were listening to music for sometime ("You should relax your mind before you start studying" was our theory you see :) !!! ). By this time, Divya's mom had prepared hot hot chapathis with chicken curry for dinner. Both of us attacked the food the moment we laid sight on it. After the dinner we were having a casual talk and Divs said she had recently watched the movie 'VasoolRaja MBBS' and had like it so much and insisted i should watch it too. So we instantly downloaded the movie and watched it. Divs' mom had also prepared tea for us and had kept them in a thermos flask so that the studying kids could have a sip when they are sleepy. But we finished it while we were watching the movie :) Just when the movie was about to get over, Bee had called to inquire about our progress. She said she was about to finish two units already. Only then did we realize that we were gathered in her place for the sole reason of studying for the exam the next day. Then we quickly designed a study plan. Divs will do the first two units and I'll do the next two and the last one we'll rush up together. And we will teach each other with whatever we've learnt. So this was the plan. It was 1.30 AM by the time we actually started studying. I was in the drawing hall and Divs was studying in her bedroom. After an hour I went to Divs' room to check how she was doing. She was nicely wrapped in two layers of bedsheets and was happily sleeping. I tried waking her up, but in vain. So I left her sleeping and continued my part sincerely. It was a half-an-hour's drive from Divs' place to college. She was driving and i was sitting in her pillion. Before we reached college we successfully discussed the units that we've learnt the previous night. (I can hear you scream WHATTTT ???!!!)

Yes....6 hours of study and 30 mins discussion is all it takes for us to write an exam :) And both of us cleared the paper with decent grades :)

How cool is that !!! :)

Thursday, February 18, 2010

The Amateurish attempt !!!

Both myself and my husband are from families who do not eat non-veg. They are very particular about us being strict vegetarians. But my dad is an exception to it and he is okay with his kids having non-veg in spite of my mom discouraging it. I started having non-veg after joining college. I still remember that Wednesday night when I was sitting in my hostel Mess for dinner. It was Chapathi and dhall in the menu and chicken will be served additionally for Non-veg students. I was so bored of eating that same old bland dhall and was instantly attracted to that spicy-looking chicken gravy that was in my friend's plate. So I tasted it that night and yes, you guess it right. From then on I became a fanatic chicken lover. And so is my husband. He loves chicken too.

So one day he bought chicken tenders and asked me to cook it for him. But i have never ever tried cooking non-veg at all. So this would be my first time and so i thought of making Chicken Kurma in a way my mom taught me to make Mushroom Kurma. I just replaced mushrooms by the chicken. Fortunately it turned out to be pretty good for a first timer !! :)

Then the next week, when i totally had nothing to do, i was googling out for some chicken recipes. And I found this - http://solaiachiskitchen.blogspot.com/

This is a blog page where Mrs.Solai Chidambaram has put up some amazing recipes in a very simple and easy to follow manner. This page not only has chettinad style non-veg recipes, but also has lotsa recipes for the veggies. I had already tried two of her recipes (Chettinad chicken and Vegetable Pulav) in two days and they were a hit !! :) So i couldn't simply resist adding this link to the 'Pages I visit'.

So if you guys want to cook some authentic chettinad food, please do visit this page and you are sure to get the original recipes from Solai Aachi !! :)