Dew

Andhra mess..... Once quiet, but now a noisy little food joint close to my office caters to the IT folks who crowd in during Noon for lunch. We are a group of friends who frequent this place once or twice a month for sure. We all have different preferences in meal usually. One friend of mine loves peanut powder, another does not have curd, I don't usually take rice, instead ask for extra Rotis, another friend likes to have sugar soon after the usually spicy meal. Usually we place orders for "All Veg meals" and when the waiter comes over to serve, we give out our preferences. I never knew that he knew our tastes by heart... He ensured that sugar was kept on the table, extra rotis were brought in, and peanut powder took a place in our table. We are all still amazed about the memory power that this person who serves close to hundred people a day has and how much of an impact it has on us, his valuable customers. Later when we were talking about it, we realized that a lot of ...

Any meal gets interesting with this South Indian speciality 'Rasam'.. I am tempted to talk about it today as I had made Rasam this afternoon and all of us had a hearty meal with Rasam receiving applause:-) It is wonders of wonders coming to think of the simplest tactic of making water as tasty as it can get :) Rasam has water, tamarind, chilli, asafoetida/garlic, sugar, a special powder that has a lot of spices and grams, tomatoes and coriander... If you want to learn to make Rasam contact the nearest South Indian home... if there are no South Indians around, try Google. :-) Rasam in Today's Tamil language means "Juice", in Malayalam means "nice and entertaining", in theory means "taste".. Hey, wait I have not had a chance to Google this.. these are just my thoughts.. :) Karnataka, India takes the first place in making Rasam.. followed by Tamil Nadu... Northern India has a dish called Shorbha which seems to belong to the Rasam family... In som...

Yes, right... I am talking about Outlook... the role of Microsoft Outlook in work life.. Yesterday when someone asked me, if I would be available on Thursday morning for a discussion, it took me a while to realise that I had no idea whatsoever of my appointments on Thursday.... I had to rush to my desk to look at my Outlook calendar to say "I am free on Thursday morning"... I sat back thinking about this... Its never happened with me... I am known to remember my appointments, phone numbers, task lists, email ids and of course birthdays....I once used to argue with people that if you prioritize 'People', you cant really forget these things...what's happening now? Outlook is everything at work.... You have a task to finish, enter it in Outlook.. You have a birthday wish to send, mark it in Outlook... You need a contact number, look it up in Outlook... You want to see a message from a friend, check your Outlook... You want to write to a friend, compose it in Outlook....

This morning, when I was commuting to office in the company-provided deluxe bus ( High platform, Cushioned Chairs, Comfortable leg-space, Air conditioned, the local FM radio channel ) I was curious to see how much longer my bus has to wait in the heavy traffic. So I stood up and gave a quick glance to see that the road was completely packed with buses like the one I was travelling in. There were a few cars, quite a number of city cabs, a very few bikes and a few maxi cabs. No cycles or pedestrians in this part of the city at this particular time of the day, as you just cannot expect to wade your way by a bike or walk, through the very heavy, heavy-vehicle traffic. I was glad that I don't drive a car - as in this city's traffic, you would be one among the rare herd of people who love to drive to work in an office that is out of the city - and certainly am not the kind. I also noticed that people in most of the cabs, cars and buses dozed off... I wont blame them for it as they p...

I know you picked up this topic because you love Gulab jamoon or are curious to know what this post is all about.... Last Saturday, I was in a shopping mall in Bangalore. After a two-hour long roam, my friend and I decided to eat at the food court. We chose the juice and dessert corner and placed orders. While I was still waiting for the sugar cane juice that I ordered, I was scanning the display shelves. It is a nice past time if you are the kind who will appreciate decor. Wall papers with fruits and cake pictures, glass shelves with fruits made out of wax, a display shelf with lots of freshly baked cakes and some sweets....I stopped right there... it was not just another sweet.... it was my favorite Gulab Jamoon.... :-) For people who do not know about Gulab Jamoon, it is an Indian sweet which at its best, is brownish red in color, soaked in Sugar Syrup, very soft to bite into, and tastes very sweet usually. It takes about an hour to make 30 pieces of this sweet and costs INR 6:00 to...

Realising that you are confused takes you close to the solution. Five steps to solve confusion : Identify, Confirm, Prioritize, Think, and Act Confusion is more like a muddy puddle of water.. It takes some time to sediment. Confusion implies that clarity is round the corner. Re-check if it is really confusion or just an interesting problem that needs your time and attention.

I chanced to visit a village (About 100 km from the city) recently. When I was about to leave, I asked if there is any transport from the village to the nearest town from where I can take another bus to go to the city. The villager was very helpful in directing me to the bus station. There was no bus shelter as such, but from the crowd there, I guessed it should be the bus station. The villager went on to tell me about the "nice school" ( the only school there), the "main hospital" ( the only health clinic in the village where nurses were always available and doctors come in at a definite time), the regular buses, the future plans to have a doctor's office and house after the ongoing temple construction ( One Crore budget) gets over, and that the village will soon become a town. The sparkle in his eyes, when he said this, showed how much he loved the place and how satisfied he is in the current promise that the future holds, for the village and its residents. ...