So my blog says this about me :)

Checked my blog characteristics here.

The analysis indicates that the author of http://tina2blog.blogspot.com/ is of the type:

ISFP - The Artists

The gentle and compassionate type. They are especially attuned their inner values and what other people need. They are not friends of many words and tend to take the worries of the world on their shoulders. They tend to follow the path of least resistance and have to look out not to be taken advantage of.

They often prefer working quietly, behind the scene as a part of a team. They tend to value their friends and family above what they do for a living.


Great to know somethingbased on what I write. :)

Should blog more often...

When I started blogging I thought of updating it regularly..
Initial tempo remained but then steadily the pace diminished...
Not that there wasn't anything more to say ..just that lack of connectivity to blog was one of the major reasons..
Then came too much of tasks on the work front and blogging got backseat...
Though random thoughts did flow in occasionally ..wrote them down but bundled them to friends as emails :)
These whenever possible did upload it to the blog as some resemblance of updating the blog.
Unfortunately they have been far between..
Not that I have not been reading blogs. Keep updating myself on the blogs I follow and also on the food blogs around. But chances of updating by blog just kind of fizzled out..
The day is spiced with some or the other happening but by the time you come to putting in paper you get engrossed in work. It just remains from being shared via blog..

But now have decided to update blog whenever possible. As rather than uploading from email or directly blogging is less time consuming. Lets see how far it goes..

Did came across another good blog BoHeMiAn RhApSoDy. Wow good work.. Going through some of the posts just reminded me of some of the thoughts I had ...Will keep checking and like Chandu will try to find time to update my blog..

So long lets see how far it goes :)

Onam Aashamsagal

From: Tina

Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2008 1:10 PM

Subject: Onam Aashamsagal
There are very few festivals which are celebrated by all…. As in it is not confined to a particular religion or area…
Generally any festival is marked by a particular religion and hence people of that religion practice or celebrate it with religious fervor and all other communities partake or join them in the celebrations.

But some very few festivals transcend religious boundaries…

Ganesh Chaturthi being one of them …Atleast that’s what Bal Gangadhar Tilak expected before commercialization kicked in.

In Kerala , among a couple of festivals, Onam has a prime spot in terms of celebrations.
For any person of any religion, Onam holds a key spot of celebration.

So you will find a cultural harmony in Onam celebration where Hindu’s Muslim’s and Christian’s partake in the joy and festivity of Onam.

ONAM AASHAMSAGAL ( literally translated : Onam best wishes…) …

Here’s wishing all of you a hearty Onam best wishes or phonetically O-nam Aa –sham- sa- gal.

For more details about the origin of Onam and additional details do refer to this piece in wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onam.

“
Onam ഓണം, the foremost festival among the cultural repertoire of Malayalees, falls in the harvest season of August- September. The festival is primarily celebrated in Kerala, a state in India, by people across all caste and religions. Chingam or Bhadrapada, the first month of the calendar ushers in Onam, the national festival of Kerala. After the rain drenched Karkidakam with its privations, Chingam is a welcome month of plenty. Additional Details here and here
”

Also check out how Kerala gears up for Onam at here and here. I especially found this statement pretty true

“
During the Onam season, domestic tourists outnumber foreign tourists simply because a large number of Malayalis settled outside the state
make it a point to come back to celebrate the festival,
”

Although Onam has its origins in mythology, as a festival it is really removed from religious leanings.

In Kerala, Onam marks a start of festivity period, or a period where the festivals just start to kick in…
Onam – Ramzan - Dusshera – Diwali – X’mas. And finally the new year.

In Kerala, most houses still celebrate Onam with the traditional Onapookkalam.


Onapookkalam (translated means Pictures from Flowers) is a flower decoration more like Rangoli with flowers.








Thiruvathira kali



This is an extremely popular folk dance performed by maidens of Kerala wearing traditional set sari..
It is a group dance and mainly performed on the occasion of Onam.
Then watching thiruvathira kali also formed another Onam specialty though now I guess it is just in gatherings, Malayalam Samajam get-together and movies .

Vallamkali (Vallam meaning Boat)

Another occurrence synonymous with Onam is Vallamkali (the snake boat race).
For Vallamkali, there are many tournaments and people gear up to see snake boats gliding over water.

But the main highlight of Onam being the Ona Sadya… Sadya meaning feast. More info or at least for visual treat check Sadya@wiki

Though if you are more enterprising then I would suggest this food blog link detailing the Ona Sadya and ways to get to eating it..
There is a saying that “ On Onam, no man should go hungry even if you are hungry or not in good financial position the rest of the year.

As tomorrow is Onam, here’s wishing all of you a wonderful and food laden Onam.. Happy Onam or rather Onam Aashamsagal.

Hungry Kya?

Phew !!! There was no way I could recover what I wrote earlier...
Did not save the draft so lost all that I had written.
So essentially the topic is the same, though the way the personal comments that have been written is different.....
---------------------------------------------------------------
It all began with a lunch time discussion on whether Maggi contains MSG(Monosodium Glumate) or not.

For a person for whom Maggi is the Quick fix meal... knowing more abt maggi is the big thing...
So it came as a surprise when someone mentioned that there is no MSG in maggi atleast not in the nutritional info given in the packet.(Here in US all foodstuff should have the calorie , fat,etc marking in the package cover.)

Maggi being the intial manna for most of the 'onsiters', this was something which did not gel well with what I had read somewhere... Also inspite of the fact that it contains MSG we all have it and can cook it in a variety of styles. All that differs is the water and veggie content...

So we have maggi in south indian style with tadka, or maggi in north indian style with garam masala or maggi in chinese style with soy sauce or just plain old maggi....

Coutesy google did find some more abt MSG and Maggi... which of course have pasted below for FYI.

http://thepaintedchef.blogspot.com/2007/01/fridgesaver-1-noodles-with-stir-fried.html

the MSG thing: look carefully at the packaging of the product you pick up. More often than not, it'll say :NO ADDED MSG. This doesn't mean that they haven't added any MSG. There IS the requisite amount of the vile thing needed to add shelf life and viscosity to the product. It's clever marketing meets semantics. If it were 100% MSG free, it would have said: NO MSG ADDED. It's that simple, it's that complicated.

http://www.nestle-family.com/maggi/eng/maggi_faqs.aspx

http://www.thetasteofasia.com/products.asp

Just wanted to share the info too.

As I was going through this thats when I started visiting the food blogs..
For a foodie that I am this seemed to be a real nice treat..
Especially since I am hungry... Have given below the links I visited in the order of visiting them.

http://thepaintedchef.blogspot.com

http://chachiskitchen.blogspot.com/

http://www.chubbyhubby.net/blog/

http://www.seriouseats.com/

Browsing through some of this I am really hungry u know....
So off I go for lunch and probably you can also njoiii some of these atleast.

Warm Regards,
Tina.

Old World Charm.........

As I was browsing rediff came across this article..... http://specials.rediff.com/movies/2006/oct/13sd1.htm

But instead of thinking abt the Diwali factor...(article was for How Bollywood celebrates the festival of lights) I went on a different track.....

This picture reminded me of how Waqt (one of my favourites movies) is so different from the movies that come up today .... Looking back at this picture reminded me of how chivalrous men were and how different were the get up of females then....

The bouiffed hair do and the stitched on to you clothes....Yet it was an era ...be it in regional cinema...bollywood or hollywood...

where actors charmed people by their graces.....and most of whom had an aura about them..irrespective of whatever the tabloids said.... there youthful Shashi Kapoor...a yahoo Shammi Kapoor... a charismatic Dharmendra and a wonderful Sunil Dutt......boyish Joy Mukherjee

Of course there were stalwarts like Balraj Sahni, Pran, Prithviraj and of course Dileep Kumar.

Who can forget the doll like Saira, the Sadhana in white, coiffed Asha Parekh,smiling Vyajayantimala, doe eyed Sharmila, the trendsetter Nargis or the effervescent Madhubala....

They had a grace which could be rivaled by very few.....

The different part about these movies were that most of them are not watchable with the current mindset...for these you have to go to the nostlagic mindset :)

All the movies had real good songs..hummable even now...and mostly with social messages which did not seem like a bitter pill to swallow....else it was the typical "Alls Right with the world" ending inspite of all the trials and tribulations the protagonist had to suffer through out the movie... And yes some fabulous scenaries prior to Yash Chopra discovering Switzerland ..........

So long those were the days of some real good different movies.......the magic of which can rarely be recreated now.....