My childhood mate, my sister

वैसे तो याद हमेशा ही  आती है पर अक्सर  ये गीत दिल दिमाग में गूँज उठता है  "बचपन की मोहबत को तुम दिल से न जुदा करना जब याद मेरी आये मिलने की दुआ करना."

साल बीत जाते हैं पर मिलना नहीं हो पाता, मेरी दिल से इच्छा है की मेरी छोटी से बहिन  मुझे जल्द ही मिले. मीलों  दूर  है मुझसे पर दिल के करीब है.

Walking with my 4 year old

My 4 year old is a small chatterbox, chirping continuously like a bird. Sometimes as I walk with her to the shop nearby, she is asking a lot of questions. So what is this Mama? What is that Mama? So many questions are popping up in her mind. A small kid can be curious about what is a star, moon and other things that she sees. Why are the stars and moons up in the sky? Why the stars and moons are near to us and on ground? Why are fruits on the trees?
                          One day, as I reached the grocery shop near my home, she said you told that we should not eat chocolate, my teeth will decay. So if teeth will decay why do they sell chocolates at the shop and the mall? If chocolates and toffees are bad, then who makes them. Why are they selling that?

OMG, I am left speechless at times.

Walking with my 15 months old

My 15 months old has just started walking, holding my finger. There is a retail shop about 1/2 K.M from our residence, where we go walking regularly. I walk with him at his pace. It is not right to say that he walks with me as it is me who matches steps and pace with him. It is amazing to enjoy every moment with him, when he asks to go for a walk by symbolically bringing his shoes and giving them to me. He keeps his small feet on the ground and walks like a penguin with hands spread on both the sides for balance. When we go out he holds my hand and I walk baby steps with him. When he walks he is tumbling and falling down at times, then gets up again and starts walking. He wants to touch the dogs on the way. He follows the animals - cows/dogs coming on the way.

                He is fascinated by the plants and flowers and touches the plants and the leaves and flowers. He again steps forward and again stops for another plant on the way and also tries to pluck the leaves/flowers.

                He sees everybody around on the way, passes his sweet smile even to strangers who smile back. But if somebody tries to touch him he cries a lot with as if he is a touch me not and does not want to be physically contacted. These walks will be memories etched in my mind for posterity and will give me smile in the future when I think of our time spent together.

After nine years

Thanks to Social Networking site Facebook, I located my friend. My classmate who studied with me at the graduation level. Just by chance, we met via a social networking site. It was a pleasant surprise to me as well as her that we were in the same city and in the same area, just 2 KM away from each other's residence. It has been long time that went by, we were acquainted when we were students and now we were meeting when both were married with kids. We have been staying in the same place for last 2 years but never met and suddenly we were meeting after 2 years of being so near and still unaware of each others exact location.

          I went to her house and met her and her 2 lovely kids. She was tidy, clean, chic as always with a 24 carat smile. It was a pleasant surprise for both of us that we were in same city far away from our home towns/state. What a pleasant coincidence!!

Paradise Restaurant at Hitech City, Hyderabad

Paradise located at Hitech City in the prime location near Cyber Towers is one of the outlets of original Paradise which was founded in 1953. The Original Paradise started as a small cafe. At that time it served only tea and snacks. Now, it has transformed into a full fledged restaurant and it serves varities of mouth watering traditional Hyderabadi, Indian and Chinese delicacies, the real Moglai khana, as they say!!

                              The take away counter is quite spacious with a large board displaying the menu with their rates specified along with the menu item. People stand in queue to order food, arranged synchronous environment, very neat and clean. 3-4 attendants are present to attend to the customers. Within minutes, they take the order and deliver the required food.

                              There is sitting arrangement for those who cannot stand for 5-10 minutes and for kids who accompany their parents.

I being vegetarian, love the vegetarian family combo. It costs Rs 300 and includes Hyderabadi Vegetable Biryani with a mast taste, hot and spicy shahi long grains of rice, with each grain separable. The Biryani has lot of seasonal vegetables like carrots, capsicum, peas, beans and a sumptuous gravy with paneer pieces.

                       We have eaten it so many times but every time we go in the vicinity of Hitech City, we order and buy the same Veg Combo. This is not all, the packing is also very professional and does not have any plastic containers. All packing is in foils. In the dessert we liked Khubani ka meetha which tastes good after eating the hot and spicy food. More and more visits will follow as we never tire of the food served in Paradise.

Working young damsels

This is a column for those young ladies who studied hard in their teenage years and worked hard at that time to become Engineers, Doctors, etc. At that time their only priority was studying, working hard, burning mid-night oil to accomplish the goal of becoming something.

         Mothers also seeing their kids, specially girls working hard and very keen to get them to clear competitive enterance exams like CET, PMT and other all India tests, don't ask them to work in the kitchen. Once the girls achieve their goals, get well educated and become qualified Engineers and Doctors, get married to settle down in life. They don't know how to cook delicious food. So the maids or cooks are a great help in nuclear families. But still sometimes, if they want to prepare some dish or pickels, chutneys, they can refer to my blog for some articles written with recipes. This blog is helpful particulary for the scholarly girls who are now professionals but still need to minister their kitchens and their homes. Salute to them and I dedicate some articles of this BLOG with recipes to them!!

Story for Kids including all alphabets and colours

Once upon a time there was (A) Aeroplane in a forest. Many (A) animals/birds wanted to sit in it and enjoy flying. (B) Bear, (C) Camel, (D) Ducks, (E) Elephant, (F) Fox, (G) Giraffe, (H) Hippopotamus, (I) Iguana, (J) Jackal, (K) Kangaroo, (L) Lion, (M) Monkey, (N) Nightingale, (O) Octopus, (P) Parrots, (Q) Queen of forest, (R) Rats, (S) Swan, (T) Tortoise, (U) Unicorn, (V) Vulture, (W) Whales, (X) X-Ray Fish, (Y) Yak, (Z) Zebra.

So there were 26 animals/birds who wanted to fly in the aeroplane. They all sat and the Queen also sat in the plane. The Queen sat in the first row. Then a big Elephant said I am too big, I am not able to adjust and sit. Hippopotamus also had the same problem. So both of them joined 2 seats and sat on the combined seat. Giraffe and Camel have very long, so they were having difficulty in entering the plane. Some how they managed to enter the plane and sat on the seats with their heads bent down. Then (P) Pilot came with the crew. He flew the plane over the Green Forests and blue oceans. All animals saw that some of the plants had yellow leaves, green leaves, brown leaves and red leaves.

                   After some time the plane crew served all the passengers with Brown Chocolate and colorful GEMS of pink, grey, blue, green, orange, purple, and red shades.
                   After sometime the animals could see a nice orange-red sunset. All were mesmerized to see that. All animals were very happy for the trip. Soon Pilot said that it was time for landing. All animals fastened their seat belts and landed safely. All were very happy for this picnic.

Everybody loved this outing. They came out of the plane and danced.