The Movie week end

We were dead bored!

Raveen and me! Not sure what to do!
Stuti wasn't even born to make sure we were busy. We spent time all day some how!

7.30PM!!! Lets get some movies and watch Raveen said. Good idea...and some dinner too I said ;) (Who will cook on a boring day haha..)

Temptations, Our favourite CD shop near marathalli. They never have any new movies but we always go there. Don't ask why?

Arundhathi, Kick and Dhee......pani puri, cholle batura and butter naan.

And the show began! DHEE! DHEE! DHEE!
movie got over at 12.30am. Both of us were not sleepy and said lets watch Arundhathi.

Thhatadaaaaa.....there goes the bommali!
3.30AM. I was scared even to go to the bathroom at that time. One more movie to kick off the scare...KICK!

tic...toc...tic..toc...6AM
We went to airlines for break fast, came home and slept all day! ;)
But I must say it was a lot of fun! Its a must try!

We were so confused about the characters and the movies...we laughed and laughed the next evening. This happened on a saturday of September, 2009. I still cherish the memories of that night ;)

The Avakai Saga

It was 1 year after Stuti was born that I decided to make avakai for myself. Till then every year we have been getting enough avakai for the year from mom.

The idea suddenly struck in my mind that when ever I wanted avakai I just ask mom (this is only one of the many other things that I get from mom). When Stuti grows up she will look up to her mom for probably as many things as I looked up to my mom.

This is when I decided I will start learning things one by one and Step-1 is avakai. Hopefully by the time she asks me for avakai, I will have enough experience in making it!

When I started to ask for the recipe, it sounded very hard! It seemed like if you don't get it right, the whole thing is going to go waste! Every one I asked said for said - 15 mangoes you need 2 glasses of chilli powder 1 glass salt etc. as a beginner, the first question that raised in my mind - 15 mangoes is fine, but 15 mangoes of what size? There isn't a standard measurement for a glass either. Some have a glass that they use only for making avakai and its kept away after that. If its a glass of 200ml for some, then it's a glass of 300ml for the others.

A confused me spoke to my dad who has seen his mom and my mom making avakai. He said only one thing-all procedures lead to the same avakai but what is important is standardization. You do not have control on what kind of mangoes you get. But what's in your control is the measurements. For the first time use the approximations for your recipe and get measurements. This made a lot of sense to me! I proceeded the same way.

I took mom's recipe and got approximately same size mangoes. Got the same glass measurement. Got the mangoes cut. The mango pieces weighed about 2.5kgs. Here goes the procedure.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ingredients: Raw mangoes - 2.5g KGs
                    Rai powder - 500 gms
                    Chilli powder - 400 gms
                    Salt - 700 gms
                    Channa - 200 gms
                    Fenugreek Seeds - 200 gms
                    Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
                    Gingerly Oil - 1.5 lts


-- Take a big basin that would take all the ingredients.

-- Mix Rai powder, Chilli powder, Salt, channa, fenugreek and turmeric.

-- Add little quantity of raw mango pieces and enough oil for the mango pieces to mix with the powder mixture.

-- Once the mango pieces are properly mixed with the powder, then add more mango pieces and little more oil and mix again. Continue this process till all the mango pieces are mixed with the powder.
Mix well in such a way that the now wet powder should be stuck to all the mango pieces.

-- Do not pour any extra oil at this point. When the mixing is done, no extra oil should be seen.


-- Take a clean ceramic container (we call in Jaadi in telugu) and pour little oil to wet the base of the container

-- Fill 1/4 of the ceramic container with the avakai mixture. Once done, pour oil on top and mix well.
-- Now fill more into the ceramic container and add more oil and mix well. Continue this process till the container is full.

-- If more avakai mixture is there then repeat the same process for another ceramic container.
The oil added should be just to mix the contents well.

-- Close the lid of the container and cover it with a cloth on tome. This is to prevent from any liquids entering the container. (this process of covering the Jaadi with a cloth is called Vaasana kattadam.)


-- Leave the container alone for 3 days. (3 days because 3 days of soaking the pieces in the oil and salt mixture will bring out all the sour in the form of juice reacted with salt and mixes with oil. This mixture is called Oota in telugu.)

-- Transfer the containts to a big basin again and mix any of the ingredients if you think they are less. Add more oil if necessary.


How to know if more oil is necessary:
-- When the avakai is mixed an transferred to the ceramic container, then there should be a layer of oil floting on top of the avakai. Avakai should not be seen unless you use a spoon. This liquid is the Oota.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And the avakai came out really well. It got over before the year ended. Ofcourse a proud me did a lot of giving away for tastes etc.

I think I got too confident in the 2nd year. I told my parents and inlaws that I will only make the avakai for them. My mother-in-law and me decided to do it together but that didn't happen because of the non availability of the mangoes. So I did it on another day. My friend Deepa came to help me out. 

From the previous years recipe I calculated the rai powder, chilli powder and salt for one kg. multiplied by 6, I made avakai with 6kg mangoes.

For each Kilo of raw mango pieces you need:
           200 gms of Rai powder
           160 gms of chilli powder
           280gms of Salt
           80gms channa
           80gms Fenugreek
           Turmeric is approximate. (To remove the heat generated)

And here goes the results. The avakai really tastes good. Importantly, 'm satisfied with the avakai-taste, smell and texture. 

I will update this blog after the year 3 avakai too. :)

More knowledge below for Avakai lovers:

Why Three Mangoes Chilli Powder:

The above measurement is only for 3 mangoes chilli powder. The quantities will vary if you are using any other chilli powder.

Reason:
Making avakai is been experimented with three mangoes chilli powder for ages and hence it is branded as the chilli powder for pickles. This particular chilli powder is made from the chillies that are available in warrangal (bajji mirchi). The spice and the texture of these chillies suites making pickles.
If any one is using MTR chilli powder or any other chilli powder they will have to keep checking on the taste while mixing the full quantity. The quantity of salt also varies so please keep a watch.

Care:

See that there is no water around when making avakai.

Using wooded spoons for mixing can be a little risky as they can contain water inside.

Use ceramic containers to store avakai. Steel, Aluminum/plastic react with salt.

The amount of oil used should only soak the contents. Too much oil can spoil the taste.

Clean each mango piece and remove the thin layer on top of the seed. Do not use water to clean the mango pieces. Any water retention can spoil the avakai.

Misc:

The oil should always be floating on top of the avakai. This oil acts as a layer to protect the avakai reacting with air.

The sour nature of the mango reacts with salt and produces a liquid called 'oota' in Telugu. This liquid mixes with oil and floats on top. This mixture also helps the salt in the avakai not to react with air and get spoiled.

Every ingredient used in avakai has its own effects (both good and bad). The combination of the ingredients gives rise to a  new effect (both good and bad).

Any adverse effects from Avakai can be reduced with the intake of Ghee and buttermilk.

It is made of uncooked natural ingredients. Hence stays for a longer period. In olden days people depended on these pickles as a side dish during peak summer and rainy seasons when there was a vegetable scarcity.

Avakai also has different flavors -  pesara avakaya, nuvvu avakaya, bellam avakaya, methi avakaya, neeti avakaya etc.

Avakaya intake in limited quantity is good for digestion and controls Vata but it is bad for Kapha and cough. (click to know More about Vata and Kapha.)


Easy storage as it needs only normal room temperature.

DUBAX - The Dubai trip

"Trek tour to Sikkim will be a lot of fun Raveen.................No, Lets go to Dubai. I have my friends there, Seshu bava is there……..But we are planning for a 10 days holiday, what will we do in Dubai for 10 days. Ok, then lets do the Sikkim and then let’s go to Dubai from there! What say?"

Silence…Silence…

“ok Find out the details”

Hmm…Now the responsibility being on my head to make it look interesting, I did all the permutations and combinations after talking to different people. 4 days 3 nights trek tour at a camp in Himalayas and then fly to Dubai from there. Stay in Dubai for 5 days. Sounded perfect to me.

(After 2 days of research)

“Raveen, This is the best thing we can do…$#%^$%^%^&%&^%&%%%^$##@#$%^&*() ” and explained him about every think I have researched.

“Wow, sounds real fun! ” he said and then paused.

I was so excited to here this from him. I was praying to God to make him say ‘Ok..Go ahead and book it. What dates shall we go?’

We were planning to travel for our 3^rd wedding anniversary. I had already started calculating the dates etc. He was still silent and I was waiting for him so say his next sentence. I really wanted to go for a trek tour with him. I heard from a lot of people that it’s great fun.

And finally, Raveen did speak the next sentence. “Nam, why don’t we go to Dubai?”

“Dubai? For 10 days? What are we going to do in Dubai for 10 days?”

“Don’t worry, we will figure something. I’m sure there will be a lot to do there. We can go to the trek tour to Himalayas in May when its summer here. What do you think?”

Silence took over again…..It took a while for me to think about what are we going to do in Dubai for 10 days and I heard him snore aloud. Hmm… That was the end of the conversation for that night. This had happened for about 2 weeks.

Somehow finally after he promised that we will go on the trek tour in May this year, we have decided to go to Dubai. I have only drafted this post on the 5th of March 2010. Wanted to update on the trek tour before I published it. Its been 6 years of our marriage. We have a beautiful 2 year old girl. The trek tour didn't happen till now! Not sure if I should complain about that but the next international trip we did was a trip to Paris in 2012. :) Trip to Paris with a toddler.

I got the visa before hand and Raveen didn’t need any visa as he holds a Canadian passport. Again after some confusion, we booked the tickets for the 12^th of Feb 2010.

We landed in Dubai at 9 in the night on the 12th, Friday 2010…It was 11 Pm in India. Seshu bava came to the airport to pick us up. It was very sweet of him to come to the airport.

We all went back to the hotel we booked in Bur-Dubai. His house was very close to our hotel apartment - Royal Ascot Hotel Apartment. This was very clean and we liked it a lot. We had booked it only for 2 days. We later extended till the end as it was a nice and spacious.

Unlike in India, there are only 2 cellular networks in Dubai, Du and Etisalat. Seshu bava got a Du sim card for our local and international usage since it will be cheaper that roaming charges. As soon as we landed we had a local number for communication.

Dubai is mostly all about buildings and malls. This mall call ‘Burjuman’ was very close to our place of stay. We 3 went to a coffee shop outside this mall and had some coffee. The weather was quit chilling.

Day-1

The next morning, i.e on the 13th, we went to the closest bazar. Its called the Meena Bazar and is exactly like an other Indian bazar. People who stay in this place are all Indians. Mostly Gujaratis. We didn't feel this place any different from India starting from the look of the place to

the kind of stuff they sell. We felt like we were walking on commercial street. The only difference is that the streets were wide and traffic was regulated. More importantly there was no chaos. It was a week day to expect too much chaos anyway.

We carried our laptop along but internet was not included in the package for the 1st two days of our stay at the hotel apartment. So we had to find an internet place. As any other usual working day, Raveen had tones of emails to reply and we had to mail Rittu for his number. At the same time we have been calling Sach to get us Masood's number so that we can meet him in Dubai. Rittu Sms'ed his number that evening to Raveen's India phone. We immediately call him back. It was nice to talk to him after so many days. We gave him all our details.

After Meena bazar, we went to Deira, the Gold Souk place. 'Souk' in Arab means Bazar. All the gold shops are put up together at this place.

The amount of Gold there is, is amazing!

The place where we stayed and the Gold Souk place are very close by. They  are just separated by water. It was 50 Dhs (1 Dirhams = Rs. 12.5) for us to go to Deira from Bur Dubai and took 40 minutes to reach. While going back some one told us that there is an underpass that goes to Bur Dubai. The underpass is a 10 minute walk. Cycles also not allowed. After crossing the bridge, it costed us hardly any money to get back to the hotel.

After the Gold Souk, we visited a place called the 'heritage village'. Its just like a cultural exhibition. We were very hungry by the time we reached this place. Here they were making Dosa's. These Dosa's are one of its kind.

She spread the batter like in the picture and then opened the egg on top of this and spread it. Then she added butter and some masala which was green in colour and spread both of them. Looked interesting to watch her make it but not eating. It was very bland. We already started missing our food!

By the time we came home Sach figured out Masood's phone number and sent it to us. We immediately called him and scheduled a meeting for the next day's dinner.

Day - 2

We went for Raveen's haircut in the morning. We then headed to go to Wild Wadi. Every one said its a nice place. Its just like Wonder La in bangalore or Ocean park in Hyderabad. We went till wild wadi just to realize that it costs 200 DHS to get in to the place. 200 DHS is equal to Rs. 2000. We then decided not to go inside but go to the beach thats close by.

Next to wild wadi is a 7 star hotel called The Burj Arab. People were crazily standing infront of this building and taking pictures. Normal people are not allowed inside unless you have an appointment. Cars like Lamborghini, Hummer, Ferrari etc, make their way into this hotel. We casually looked in Expedia abt how much it costs to stay in this hotel. We were petrified to see that it costs around   Rs. 10,00,000 to stay for 1 week.

We walked to the Jumerah beach. This is the most expensive area in Dubai. Most of the foreigners who work in Dubai construction companies stay here. There are beautiful houses along the beach. After spending some time in the beach, we met Swathi and kaira at JBR, Jumerah Beach Residents. Rittu and Morie joined us little later. We all went out for dinner to La Meridian hotel where Masood joined us. It was a lot of fun.

Day - 3

We got up a little late and then decided to go to the Lamcy Mall. Every one suggested us to go to this mall as it will have some good deals on clothes and other shopping. Swathi joined us here. Not much we bought there in that mall. We had a limit of 500DHS to spend per day. (which we often over shoot and tried to adjust the next day. We never did that ofcourse..) We went to the Desert Safari after lunch. The car came to pick us up first. We stopped at 3 different places to pick up people. one couple was from Nigeria and the other couple were from England (Indians settled there since ages). We made friends quickly. We occupied the back seats so that no one would prefer to sit there. We were by ourselves.

We traveled almost an hour to reach the desert. Some one told me Dubai is desert!!!
The desert safari finally started. It was like a roller-coaster ride on the sand. It was a little scary for me atleast. An d our MR. Enjoyment was on the phone with someone from his office on the roller-coaster ride.  Grrrrr….

 After this, they took us to a place where there was place to rest. Drinks and dinner were served along with Belly dancing as the entertainment. Nothing much to say about this safari! If given a chance to go for the safari again, I would never go for that. One thing that is very important is that the driver should be very qualified and experienced to take you on the safari.

The belly dancing was just OK. Sitting in the middle of the desert and eating was the only fun part.  

 The sand was fun too. In the middle of the desert :).



Day - 4

This day was the day of Malls. We took the metro to go to the Mall of emirates. The metro station was at a walk able distance from our hotel apartment.  It was so much convenient to take the metro than the taxi. It hardly took us any time to the mall compared to taking the cab. Once we were done with this mall, Swathis picked us up and took us to the Ibn-battuta mall.

The Ibn-battuta mall was a concept mall. It has different buildings, each building like a country. Eg: china, India, Egypt, Tunisia, etc. 
Rittu met us at this mall directly from the office. All of us went to Rittu's house for dinner where Morie and Ammu(Morie's wife) joined us.
Swathi and me went for Grocery shopping to the same mall. We came back and made tomato rice for dinner. Morie dropped us home after the party.

We noticed a surprising thing here in their apartment. The apartment had different blocks - Blocks A to J. A to H were all done. They just look like any other apartment complax in India with greenery and all the other facilities. The construction of the other 2 blocks was just about start. We were amazed to see that the area was a desert. It had zero greenery. What technology they mush be using to convert this desert to such a city that we all go on a holiday!

Day-5- Wednesday


Dubai is off on Fridays and Saturdays. There the week starts on a Sunday.

We went to check the tallest building in the world, 'The Burj Khalifa'. It was really tall. the building and us did not fit into a picture. We went in to see what all went intot he construction of the place. When we went, the place was closed for visitors because the lift got stuck on the 24th floor! Everything in Dubai is auto matic and run by machines. Imagine if any of us were stuck in there!!!

We then checked out the aquarium the Dubai mall had. It was huge! It took about 45 minutes to go around.


We met Masood in the afternoon at the Dubai mall. We had a Lebanese lunch. It was so good that we stuff ourselves so much that we couldn't walk after eating the food. We tried hard to walk around. Masood then took us to a coffee place....guess what we had with coffee??? Hukka! Apple flavoured Hukka!

I if course didn't know how to take it. I would just suck the smoke into my mouth. Then its full of apple flavour. Then keep it in the mouth for some time and then leave out the smoke. HAHA...it was fun!  'm sure Mas and Rav enjoyed it. :)


Rittu then came and picked us up from the same mall. Rittu, Swathi, Kaira, Swathi's Mom, Swathi's sisters daughter Aryana and the two of us in the car. We then drove to this place called the global village.

Global Village:

The concept of global village is similar to the all India exhibitions..Of course the Indian exhibions exbit the art of different states and regions with in India. But this Global village has exhibits from all over the world..Lebonan, Thailand, India, Australia, Africa, Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, Libia, Srilanka, Iran, Iraq, Indonesia, Vietnam, Turkey, Europe, etc...

Below is the map of the Global Village:



We bought a few things from this village. We then headed to Morie's house for a party. We were all tired shopping and we needed some refreshments which Morie and wife have arranged for us. The party went on...and on...and on...all night.


We called a Cab to reach back to the place we are staying. It took us around 45 minutes as it was in the other part of the town.

We slept and slept..  

Day -6



We spent this day hanging around the hotel. We went to the local areas around. Any way by the time we got up only it was late afternoon. The previous night was pretty late, I must actually say it was morning. ;).

Day - 7

The day before we left. As usual we were very sad that the trip was coming to an end. We realized that we haven't been to the mall we were very next to. We passed by the mall every day but never went into it. Burjuman Mall. Was nice to walk around. It was a loooong mall. Raveen waned to do some shoe shopping and we went to shoe mart. I bought a bag too. :) Seshu bava met us near shoe mart and we then went to  Times square. Bought some gift coupon for Rittu's daughter.

We headed to-wards JBR again to spend the evening. The beach was calm and it felt good. We had dinner around there...Pizza's and cool drinks. Coconut water in India costs Rs. 15. There was a guy selling coconut water in this area and we were excited. He said each one costs 20 Dhs...'m sure the math can be done!

After dinner we headed home and did some packing and dozed off.

Leaving day!

Very sad! Trip is over. We have to be back to the same old routine again. But thats the reality. Rittu came to drop us to travel back to reality...

An other 2-3 days we would have done Para shooting, seen the Atlantis, did the helicoptor ride over the palm, and also did the hatta trek. Dubai! await us! We will be back soon to complete these.