The ceremony of papad making!!!!!

Its a family tradition that we have to make Papad every year with most of us helping around. Since my grandma has three daughters which of one is my mom, we have this thing happening in my house. My mom being the eldest and the more experienced one in making that liquid( I'm not getting the right words in English)..Okay this liquid is called as Maavu in Tamil. Its a thick liquid which consists of a) Water b) Flour c) Cumin seeds d) Sago( Jawarisi) and last but not the least e) chilli( it depends on your taste). Put all these ingredients together and make a thick paste out of it.

Let it cool down over the night. In the morning, you will find my house flooded with the other two sisters. All are assembled in the terrace in the morning around 6 am and sheets of  plastic are laid on the floor. Then all the ladies in the family put mooruku vadam or other types of vadam.. This process continues for a week with different ingredients like onion vadam or Appalam or others etc. They are dried till they become hard. Then they are separated between the sisters. Its fun fun and totally fun during the whole process. Its like an all- girls party with lots of maavu in your hands. We, the little ones, get to hear a lot of gossips from our moms and grandmother. Its too good and one of the best activity that happens over the summer. My chance of doing this year was missed due to the fact my stupid college has re-opened and the tradition has been broken after several years. This year, I miss it and they will miss me too.

My Typical Evening in the Beach

Be it Besant nagar beach or Marina Beach... This will defiinitely be the procedure which I follow with whomever I'm with...
Apparatus:
A nice dress preferably a salwar which is a synthetic material
Some people with whom you can have fun what so ever.
Little bit of money( konjam podhum)

Procedure:
1. Decide in the last minute to go the beach on that particular day.
2. Make sure you have the right apparatus.
3. Get in the car or bike(in case of my cousins) and zoom out to the location.
4. Get down on the sand and feel your bare feet in the sand.
5. Run with your slippers in your hand till the water place.
6. Get in the water and play all sort of pranks with the people you are with.
7. Try to get drowned atleast once. LOL
8. Get your dad go mad for doing that.
9. Get out of water and head to the shore to get dried up.
10. Sit on the shore and eat bhel puri or pani puri or masala puri or whateve puri available.
11. Then eat roasted corn.
12. Now you can feel that you are totally dried up.
13. Now head right to the bhajji valla and eat all the bhajji's available
       a. My favourite is Cauliflower bhajji although I eat onion, potatoes and yam(vazhakai hmm) Bhajji.
       b. Get to eat from your dad's plate also as you are the eldest and favourite child.
14. When that is over, get everybody around you to play : fire in the mountain run run run or running and catching or hoping and catching. This will take atleast 45 minutes of your time.
15. When you are all tired up playing, you realise that all that bhajji energy is lost.
OMG!!! What do we do???
Do Not Fear... DADDY is here..
The final step to finish your beach experiment
16. Get Ice Cream... You scream, we scream and we all scream for ICE CREAM.
My favourite  flavour is ButterScotch always.

The Result:
Best day you could ever have in the beach. Not get back home before they close the gates of the beach. LOL...
My work here is done. Happy to be conducting this experiment with you all... Glad to know whether you liked it...Your comments??!!

Anna Dhaanam

Annam means food... Dhaanam means giving... Together meaning- Giving food as charity. At home, We believe that giving food is the best charity. Today, being Akshaya Tritiya, we always give food to people who are needy.


Akshaya Tritiya is a festival which is celebrated to bring good health and prosperity for everyone. But for the past decade, it has become a money making festival for all the corporate gold houses.. I don't remember that when my grandmother was alive, it was celebrated this way. My grandmother like my mom now, used to give food to the beggars and needy.... She made sure that it was given to lots of people.. but at this time, Akshaya Tritiya was not celebrated by buying gold and staking it in your bank locker. Somewhere some astrologer must have said its good to get gold and every marketer must have caught up with this idea to attract the customer. Now you can see celebrities, commoners, fashion designer and most of all the gold merchants talking about buying gold, platinum, diamond, etc. This day has become a gold gamble day for everybody. I don't live up to such kind of marketing. I, as a rule, make sure that we follow what my grandmother did when she was still there with us and so does everybody at home.... 

Anna dhaanam are given in all the temple all over India. Its not that only people who are needy should have it. Its given to all the people who are willing to eat at that place. My mom once took me to this temple in Kumbakonam and I did have anna dhaanam there and another temple in chennai. My sister was too embrassed to eat there with all the beggars beside us but I dint care after all they are humans too..  Just one single difference. It doesn't matter.

My cousin brother has started this NGO about two years ago. They take up a village and help them educate and provide food almost daily. You can visit their website @ Good Hearts. They also have a yearly blood donation camp and other stuffs to help small scale enterprenuers to bring up their talents. These are just a gang of friends who started this organisation on behalf of their late friend Praveen whom I also happen to know because he was my school senoir. 

Summer internship

Sometimes lyf isn't all about staying at home even for me.

Why the hell am i talking about staying at home??? The world is waiting outside to grab me!!!LOL
The thing is, I have been given an assignment. Summer intern assignment. My topic for the day...MARKET RESEARCH. Do you think it cool?? Of course its cool and lot of hard work.
Welcome to my world. The Real MBA experience. First hand. Straight from the heart or brain whichever you want.

Given work:
Observe what is happening in the so -called family salon and give a report by Friday.

What am I doing now about the project?
Nothing. Why??? I'm never into salons. I've been to parlors once in 6 months and never do all that stuff  that are likely done by every-other-girl-my-age. I've never done threading, pedicure, manicure,facial, blah blah blah... I dint even know there were so many things. What will I do there?? What will I do there sitting all day watching what the staffs are doing? My reporting manager said, " Talk to customers.Talk to the manager. Get as much as information as possible." He was very sweet. Gave me this personal email address and said that I could mail him about anything. How can I tell him that I dono anything about parlors except hair cut.

I assume, he would say,Well Raji, now is your big chance. Learn it!!! It will definitely be a different experience for me. I'm off now to visit this salon and sit for a few hours of Salvation(observation).
Knowledge is fun. Lets get into some pampering stuff. After all ,  I also get to have some free make-overs. Now that the best part about this assignment. Gotta go... Will catch up with today's experience later.

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