Pinku-Enchanted Life

Pratima at RK Puram Kalibari Pujo Durga Pujo - the annual vacation of Goddess Durga when she comes visiting her parental home alongwith her children is a time of joy, festivities and gluttony in Bengal and all those pockets of the world that Bengalis inhabit. Unlike the austerity, fasting and prayers followed through the rest of the country during the autumn Naratras - Bengal alongwith neighbouring Assam, Orissa and Jharkhand erupts in joy. The Pujo is all about new clothes, socializing, reunions, cultural activities and food. Its a carnival of sorts and it runs for five days!! While the rites and rituals are carried on by pandits the rest of us are kept busy with pandal hopping, participation in dance, music, recitation competitions, catching music and theater performances all of course accompanied by liberal doses of chops, cutlets, moghlai parathas, radhabolobis and many, many kinds of mishti. The beginning of this gastronomic 5 day extravaganza is rightfully marked by Anando mela.

Pizza – has been my weakness for a very long time. Those sinfully calorie laden gooey cheese filled slices of heaven. So when a pizza eating competition was announced on the FB page of Chef at Large I was tempted however hesitated as I wasn’t sure how many I would need to eat to be able to compete. Interest up I kept following the thread till a message from Sid showed that volunteers hadn’t lined up – I took my chance and said yes. Having agreed, nervousness set in – will I be able to eat fast and enough to not let the team down? How many people would be there, watching me eat? The doubts were many but having said yes I wasn’t about to back out. So on the first day of Navratras with a quick prayer to the Mother I set out to participate. On the way read about people exercising, taking digestives etc. in preparation and a lot of others wishing us good luck. It felt nice to be a part of a big family and having people root for you. Forgot to mention that the organizers had arranged for a

When the leaves turn and beckon, winter comes calling The kaash and the shiuli wave their heads in glee The breeze turns balmy hugs common between him and me Little children's laughter rise up to the skies The sun wakes up with a smile and fades with an orange sigh We know Mother its time for you to come with many a gift and surprise

Neil French is one of the most amazing advertising legends and his book 'Sorry About The Lobsters'  on advertising is what inspired the post title today. Leaving the tried and tested in order to set out and do something different and exciting needs courage and loads of inspiration, hence reminding myself of Neil French pretty often these days. There have been many advertising greats...but this is one - who is alive and kicking and on my FB friends list to boot (there I have said it...cant stop gloating you see). Neil's work life has been unpredictable and colorful and am sure Neil would agree these are understatements. You may wonder what exactly does Neil French have to do with this post on a food blog so here is how I see the connect: 1)  his booktitle has lobsters - so does this post 2) his life has been about seizing a situation and making the most of it - so is this post Now that I have explained the connect lets get back to the business of Heads...Lobster heads to be

Even when you work in advertising and are aware of the power great pictures and witty lines can exert on minds, every once in a while you succumb to the same. This Saturday afternoon the intention was to sit at a familiar Café Coffee Day and get some work done and with this aim in mind we landed up at the Green Park Market where there are two such outlets. As luck would have it the parking space we found was bang opposite a newly opened Dunkins Donut outlet. The façade beckoned and immediate changes to the plan were made and we trooped into Dunkins with the aim of biting into some amazing doughnuts. A nice warm, lively space greeted us and the staff too took out time to smile at us which was a good beginning.  We sat down and opened respective laptops and then looked around for something to munch on. May I say that having seen the Mad Over Donuts counter, the one at Dunkins didn’t impress one much. Most seemed replicas of the MOD ones I settled for a cinnamon donut and a hot chocolate

So, you have a late lunch on Saturday and assume that no one would be in the mood for a snack in the evening and are sure that tea and biscuits would suffice. However come 6 PM you yourself are craving a bit to munch on, after all whats a weekend without snacks? Of course conflicting thoughts of a full lunch, extra calories are also hovering around, making it a complicated decision making challenge. So here's what I did: Steamed some sprouted lentils I had in the fridge for about 10 minutes in the microwave.  Put the same in a bowl along with chopped onions, tomatoes and a few green chillies. Squeezed a bit of lemon, added rock salt and Chat masala along with a dash of Tabasco sauce and Imli chutney Added a couple of crushed papri's to the mix and gave the whole thing a good toss. Served it with a papri and a drop of imli chutney on top. Tasted yummy, was nutritious and helped the guilt pangs about healthy food as well. A win win for sure :)

I love planning...not the immaculate thought through to the last detail, well in advance kind of planning. Rather the last minute, 'let's do something' and it should be fun kind of planning which entails frantic wracking of one's brains for options and spur of the moment innovations. Yesterday was one such day...I had a long boring meeting from 9 AM sharp and it lasted till about 12:30 in the noon. As you can imagine my brains were fried by the time I walked out.Once out the first thing I saw was a message from a friend who said 'I am so bored, I feel like running away' initially I said 'lets do it together'. Later I thought, 'what the heck, its a Friday - we deserve a break.' So messages went scurrying back and forth and a plan was formed. The idea was to meet up at Hauz Khas village - 'pregame' as the youngsters call it, at a shots bar and then eventually go to Golconda Bowl for dinner. Hauz Khas Village - once used to be a sleepy littl