Sunday, October 18, 2015

A little goodbye to my Thatha...!!



Its been almost 3 months already and I have been trying to write this blog for quiet sometime now. Today is my thatha's 77th birthday, but sadly, he is not around us anymore!!

Velu, as we fondly call him, was the most innocent human being I have ever come across in my life. He was a larger-than-life, vivacious, always energetic man with a loud voice and sparkling eyes. Though his voice was pretty loud, he is person, who goes out of the way to help people!

My thatha was an electrical engineer, who was retired from TNEB. He was a man of values, ethics and discipline. I have heard paati telling us stories about his work life when he was serving in Solayar. He was very straightforward, and was a person who always used to work on the ground! He is a person, who, on those old days, have climbed on the electric posts to analyze problems and have also brought the defaulters to notice by his incredible work. Till date, if there is no power supply anywhere in 5th Lane, Indira Nagar, one phone to the TNEB office from AE Ramaswamy would solve the matter!

I am his first grandchild. More than a grandpa, he was like a father to me. I am so filled with memories of him from when I was a small child. I still remember the days, when I was a baby, he used to take me to the Sai Baba temple to Mylapore just to see a cat there! Thatha always drove his bike around the city. For anything and everything, he just takes his scooty and goes out, doesn't matter which corner of the city. He is the most active thatha I have ever seen in my life!!

I remember a lot of things about thatha. Most memorable one is definitely, he dropping me and picking me up from school EVERY SINGLE DAY! This is something that he has done for me and my little sister always! Its not only that, when he picks us back from school, he will always take us to the Adyar Bakery and buy something for us to eat first, and then only he takes us home. Its one blessed life we had!

Thatha had this habit of honking his bike as soon as he enters 5th lane. The whole street will know that Ramaswamy has now entered the street :) He spent most of his mornings in the IOB bank, Indira Nagar, not only for his work but to do all the neighbor's work also! EVERYBODY in the IOB bank knows Mr.Ramaswamy very well :)

Another good memory of thatha is, when I was in my 10th grade, we started looking for admissions for my 11th grade. That was the time when I had to sign admission forms etc. At that age, I was trying all fancy things for my signature (You see, we do all crappy stuffs at that age!) and when I was going to sign on one of the forms with that crappy signature, he gave me a nice thud on my head telling "Your signature must have your name clearly, otherwise its not a good signature". Grumbling, I changed my signature to my regular name with a tilt, and till date, that is my signature, never changed it after that!

There have been many many incidents where thatha has come to my rescue. I had to go to school, which was in Mylapore, from Madipakkam, I used to take a bus, come to Adyar and thatha used to drop me to school from there! He never had any issues about traffic, or going all the way till Mylapore, never once! He was the best! There is absolutely no replacement!

Anyone who knew my thatha knows of his generosity, work ethic, humility and selflessness. He demonstrated these traits again and again through both his career with the TNEB, and his part time turned full time job after his retirement. Whatever thatha was involved in, he made sure that it was done the right way. He never cut corners, and always made sure others were happy. We used to call him the "Indian thatha" for his approach with the government officials! He continued this even as he lay in bed in the hospital, asking my maama, amma, chithi or paati about the bills, insurance, bank accounts etc!

The first thing Velu does after waking up from bed is switch on the TV for news or the music system with some spiritual songs (real loud ones). When thatha was at home, the News channel is always screaming but he is never in front of the TV. He switches the news channel on and goes away to some other room. Oh, how many times have we fought with him for the TV remote!! Sorry about that thatha, never had a chance to say sorry to you! :(

The support I have received from thatha throughout my 30 years has been truly amazing. I can’t recall a function, or any event of mine in which he wasn’t there. He was always there to support and cheer me on. In fact, from the day I was born, my sister was born, my son was born, I got married, my admissions happened, my first job etc, everything has been monitored and taken care by my thatha! Thank you thatha for being around! I know, I should have told you this when you were around! :(

Thatha was not a person who fell sick very often. But over past 2 years, he has gone through a lot. Although thatha leads the way to everything, he was always scared of doctors, medicines and hospitals! When he started to decline, he declined quickly. Within a matter of months he became frail, tired, weak. He became everything he wasn’t before. His booming voice quieted to a whisper.

When I arrived to see Velu in the last week when he was in the hospital, Me and my chithi were the ones to hold his hands , strong in our hands, like he had done with me since I was small enough to pee in his lap. I couldn’t hold him for long enough, though. We talked (in sign language) about what he wanted to talk about — and definitely NOT about the fact that I would likely never see him again. I brought up jovial memories for him to weakly smile at, and my eyes betrayed me to tears on more than one occasion. He was clearly physically uncomfortable the whole time, too skinny, too frail. But, even at that stage, he was very happy to see my son, his first great grandchild, waving at him and talking to him!

It was hard, and tearful, to say goodbye. Velu was uncomfortable and needed to rest. Also, what do you say to someone you won’t be seeing again? “See you later!” is out. “Talk to you soon!” is gone. I settled for a blubbery “I love you,” but it didn’t feel like enough. I find it hardly ever does, actually.

For almost 3 months, I have bottled my emotions up. I remained oblivious to the fact that he is gone, that there will never ever be another thatha. But today, as I sit here trying to deal with his loss by writing this I realize there is no way I can possibly deal with it right now. Maybe over the years, maybe never. But for now, I have his countless undying memories and I have him very close to my heart. And so I write this, and as tears fall again I realize how unresolved it all really is. But it doesn’t have to be resolved, I tell myself.

So goodbye, Velu, again. I love you, I miss you. Thanks for leaving your mark on my heart! I am sure you will be around, watching us over!

Your ever-loving grandchild!


Monday, December 24, 2012

Yeh Jo Desh hai tera..!!!

I haven't been blogging for almost a year now. But for the past 10 days, all I have been hearing/reading in the media is about the Delhi gang-rape followed by various news on the rapes, sexual harassment, eve-teasing, molestation. I became so very disturbed with all this news and I really wanted to vent it out somewhere, and thus this post!

I remember in 2002, I read an article in TimesOfIndia with the title "In India girl is raped every 54 minutes". Now, after 10 years, where we talk about development of our beloved motherland, it has officially become "In India girl is raped every 20 minutes"!!! Is this what is called "development"? Shame on us! What have we achieved in the past 10 years? Unfortunately in a rapidly growing country, rape too is growing rapidly!

I was stunned by this data and started doing some research around this statistics and the following is what I learnt. The table below gives the name of the state and the corresponding number of rape cases that are there in the same for 2011. This data is released by the Home Ministry of India.


State  No. of Rape Cases
Madhya Pradesh 3406
West Bengal 2363
Uttar pradesh 2042
Rajasthan 1800
Maharashtra 1701
Assam 1700
Andra Pradesh 1442
Kerala 1132
Odisha 1112
Bihar 934
Jharkhand 784
Gujarat 439

Among these, Delhi city is rape capital of India with 453 rapes which where reported last year . It is around 1.8 times more than rape cases reported in Mumbai last year.

The total number of rape case reported last year has been Twenty three thousand five hundred and eight two.(23582)

There are some more disturbing facts around this:
1.  A Rape is committed every 20 minutes;
2.  Molestation every 26 minutes;
3.  Kidnapping or abduction every 43 minutes;
4.  Eve-teasing every 51 minutes;
5.  Dowry death every 1 hour 42 minutes;
6.  Criminal offense against women every 7 minutes.

Proud are we? Mera Bharat mahan!!

Rape is a crime not only against the body of an individual but also against one’s mind, psyche and reputation. The trauma that the brain, mind, body goes through the incident is irreparable. What rights does one have on to take away other individuals dignity, their peace and harmony? How different are we, the humans, who are supposed to have six senses, from animals? Have we even tried to use those senses in a positive way? Actually, animals are much better, male animals don’t have sex without the permission of the female animals (as shown in National Geographic Channel). The even alarming fact is that 93% of women are raped by people known to them. Outrageous! I just am not able to digest this!

The offense of rape declares a punishment not less than 7 years which may extend up to life imprisonment too. (If there is enough evidence!) But a husband who rapes his wife who is below 12 years of age is only liable for an imprisonment which may extend up to 2 years or fine or both. The Indian law doesn’t recognize the crime of marital rape yet. Also there is no section in I.P.C which punishes boys under 16 years of age for committing rape. They can be prosecuted only under Section 377 (Unnatural Offences) of I.P.C.

OK. So, what next? Yeah, people are protesting. Yeah, the government has promised that they are going to take severe action against the criminals. Yeah, politicians have taken this topic as an weapon to point fingers at opposite parties. But, we the people, who are the sole reason behind this bullshit, what are WE going to do? Actually NOTHING. We will blog about it, we will share FB comments on it, we will go to Cafe Coffee Day and get into a heated discussion about it with a cup of chilled coffee, what else? NOTHING. Including me, NOTHING.

But no, we can't leave it there. Isn't this our society? Aren't we responsible enough to do something for it? Koi bhi desh perfect nahi hota, usse beheter banana padta hai! I am not suggesting the Ghajini way of "Find him, Kill him" but probably, in the next 10 years to come, we should do something that will bring this statistics down! There is just no point fighting with the government for everything and everything. All the politicians are worried about is money and power. The fight is just going to go on and is not going to have an end result!

So, what do we do? We should educate people. We need to make people understand that it is a shame to touch a woman without her permission. We should educate our future generation the crime against rape. We should educate our peers, our society to respect one-and-all mutually, immaterial of their gender, race, age, religion, etc etc. We must educate people stating the fact that, in a country where we pray to Sita, Kali, Durga, Parvati who is a woman by  herself, this kind of bullshit JUST-CANNOT-HAPPEN!

OK, I am not some saint talking here. I know the implementing the above paragraph in reality is next to impossible. But we should definitely try. At-least, try within our family, friends, neighbors etc.

But, the next question arises, what do we do to such criminals? Give them the capitol punishment? Nah..!! That is just making their lives easier.. They die and they don't feel any pain! They should live, but live a painful life. For the sake of an eleven minute pleasure, he screwed up a woman's life. He just can be left alone so easy. He should be castrated. Physical or Chemical! Even better than castration, he should get aroused but should not be able to have intercourse, not even with his own wife! That should be the level of his punishment! He should repent his sins all his life! I know am talking like a barbarian here, but for such barbaric behavior like rape, this kind of barbaric solution cannot be wrong!

Let's face it. It's hard to be a woman. It always has. It always will and trust me when I tell you it's never going to get any easier. But it is also the fact that if your son gets into this kind of crime, then it must be YOU who should be ashamed of yourselves on the first hand!

To all the fellow women out there,
Stop playing the weaker gender! Stop celebrating women's day! We are no way inferior to the men! Why are we even allowing this kind of diversity in our society?? That is the reason the men pounce on us!

Stop this shame!

- An outraged woman. An outraged mother. An outraged daughter!

Saturday, July 30, 2011

For the Not-So-Intelligents!!!!!!!!!

There was this article/blog published on ibnlive that was a supposed to be a user review of the movie Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part2, and from the day I read that blog, I wanted to give a "sound" reply back to the blog for the not-so-intelligent people who wrote the blog and who think the blog is right as well..!!!!

Well... before you proceed to read on to my blog for the "answers", please read this to understand what am talking about... 'Deathly Hallows-2: Worst Potter movie ever' !!!

So here I go Mr. Abhishek Mukherjee, please find my answers below... (Hope I could have told this to you face-to-face!!!)

1. The Hallows. Or rather, the absence of them
Only to make people understand the whole purpose of the Deathly Hallows, the book was broken into 2 parts in the movie. In Part-1, they gave a details explanation of the Deathly Hallows which definitely says how noble it is. Yes, the part where Dumbledore went behind the hallows was indeed missing, but if you were intelligent enough, you should be able to relate that in HP1, Dumbledore did say that the "sorcerer's stone" was indeed a secret between him and Nicolas Flamel. Also, He was the one who gifted Harry the Invisibility Cloak. And he didn't happen to have the Elder Wand..!!! Isn't this much information enough to say the Dumbledore was a master of death???
Now to answer your "specific" questions:
(i) Do you want the director to put an arrow mark near the stone and say "This is the resurrection stone"?? Please cant you even understand that?
(ii) Do you really mean this question? "we never got to know that the Elder Wand was one of the hallows".. Please... did you even watch the Part-1 of the movie?
(iii) Another bit of nonsense.. "we never got to know that that Harry's invisibility cloak was one of the hallows".. again.. please watch Part-1 in detail.
What do you expect.. ?? The director to pin point that this is the banana and this is its outer layer, you are supposed to peel of the outer layer before eating them and you need to bite the banana with your jaws in order to eat it???????????

2. Harry's wand
Another bit of not-so-intelligent stuff.. Hermoine did say in Part-1 that Harry's wand was beyond repair using normal wand... And in the end, Harry did not want anything to do with the elder wand, and that why he broke it!! What do you, all Wizards and Witches have the same wand throughout their life? Will Harry not get another wand for himself if his wand was broken? Is this really a valid question? Stop making fun!!

3. The destiny of the Elder Wand
Again, Harry didn't want anything to be done with the elder wand. The reason he snapped it into pieces and didn't return it to Dumbledore was to ensure that nobody tries to steal it again. Think before you even post something like this!! Harry is not a person who takes pride on owning the elder wand nor does he wanted anybody to misuse it.

4. How were the giants killed?
OK. Now there is a point here but there were lot more other things to be concentrated on than showing the giants fighting..!!!!!

5. McGonagall and her strange command
And why do you think Prof.McGonagall cannot???? The way she handles Snape when Harry showed up was AWESOME!!! Yes, she is a very good human being no doubt, but when a Slytherin student asks someone to hand-over Harry to Voldermort (Hope you saw that in the movie!!), anybody, I mean, anybody will want to do it. All that is important at the current state of affairs is to protect Harry so that he can finish of Voldermort!!

6. The Prince's Tale
This is something I totally agree with you. But looking back, it might not be practically possible to show every bit of the book in a 2hr. 10 min. movie.. Even if you want to extend the movie by another half hour, it might become a little boring for people who have not read the book and might have lost the pace in the movie... But yeah, a little more could have definitely done on this area!
But, this cannot make the movie "the worst of all the HP movies!!"!!!!

7. Nagini
Please understand the movies CANNOT give you the goosebumps the books gave when any book is re-made into a movie..!! Now, Please remember what Dumbledore said to Harry, "Help will be provided at Hogwads to the ones who deserved it!" and the Gryffindor's sword is one that presents to any worthy Gryffindor who is in its peak need. And Neville was a deserving Gryffindor the sword on time...!! If you are sleepy, you shouldn't be in the theater but should be on your bed!!

8. The Crabbe-Zabini mystery
Please try to understand the practical difficulties when a movie is made. The guy who played Crabbe was arrested because he was trying to sell Marijuana!!! What do you think the director can do??? Make an animated replacement for him?? What is your problem is having Goyle casting the Fiendfyre spell??
And it is all the more funny you say this was the worst movie because this was one of the reasons!! ROFLMAO!!!!

9. Three scenes
Agreed. But again, think practically..!! Kingsley did setup the base by instructing Fred and George to cover the passages and himself and Lupin covering the other area (You would have noticed it if you weren't yawning and sleeping!!)  
Yeah, I did miss the Trelawney's part!

Dumbledore saga
As you said, this needs to be done as a separate movie by itself..!!!

11. No moldification
Now, you are sitting and watching a movie.. you are supposed to FEEL what is happening around, which requires such action sequences.. will you be happy if Harry and Voldermort kept casting spells against each other?? Was there time in the movie for even a song? And the dialog given by Harry was more than apt I must say!!!

12. After the war
Voldermort is a bad ass.. If he is killed in front of the whole school, he wont mind killing the other innocent as well.. Now I am sure you will question why he doesn't try to kill the other and distract Harry if the movie was taken in that way!! And if you have watched clearly, Harry did have a long conversation with Dumbledore for filling the gaps! People are finally breathing free that Voldermort was killed.. It is like a big problem taken out of their head! All they want is to breathe free and not to start dancing!!!

13. The scene where I laughed out really loud
You laughed because you didn't quiet understand stuffs!! Didn't you see that the Order had stepped right in front when Harry confronted Snape? The entire Order was there.. Molly is also part of the Order, She is also a Wizard.. Why do you think Molly shouldn't be the one cast the spell to protect Hogwards??? If Molly dropped in for a casual visit, so is Lupin, Tonks and Kingsley himself!

It is very easy to criticize one's effort but none of us know how difficult it is to give a movie that can satisfy all types of audience... People who have read the book, who have not read the book, who have read only some of the books, who have seen all the HP movies, who have not seen all the movies, who have seen only some, and more importantly, who have not seen Part-1!!! 

Please try to see the positive side of things! And don't you dare say that this is the worst Potter movie.. EVER!!!!!

Monday, July 18, 2011

Harry Potter - Wish It All Doesn't End Here...!!!! :(


For 10 years, I have literally grown up with the Harry Potter series.. be it the book or the movies! But to think that the whole stuff is already over is something I am not able come into terms with! Ok.. Go on.. You can call me childish and say "Prithi.. You are 26 years old damn it..".. I really don't care..!!! :)

So.. It was for this movie "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2" I had been waiting for, from the day I saw the Part 1 of the movie... I knew its gonna be just awesome.. Obviously, its the last one of the series and its got to be awesome! I was keeping a close watch on the news articles that were released for the movie and booked for the movie before like 15 days it was gonna release and even bunked half day of works!!! Ok Ok.. I know.. Its a little too much :)

This movie was really special.. I could see some extraordinary actions on this movie when compared to the other Harry Potter movies. Yes, I must admit, one should have seen all the other Harry Potter movies to really feel the "punch" of the characters in this movie.. Characters like Prof. McGonagall, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood and ofcourse, our dear Prof. Snape!! There was some really awesome scenes where I laughed and Cheered and there were scenes which were really very emotional... Scenes where Prof. McGonagall confronts Snape in Hogwarts and childishly says "I've always wanted to use that spell." was really awesome..!! And Neville... What a young brave man his character has transformed into..!! Simply Superb..!!
And ah..!! Prof.Snape.. All credits goes to the author to bring up this character in the entire series.. All of us would have hated this character in all the 6 books but this character turns out to be GOD in the final book..!! The epitome of bravery one must say..!! Splendid.!! It was awesome to see Molly burst out yelling "Not my daughter, you bitch" and killing Bellatrix Lestrange into pieces..!! (Ok, Bellatrix Lestrange was the character I hated most, yeah.. hated even more than Lord Voldemort himself!!)... And finally, when Lord Voldemort thought Harry is dead, Harry jumps from Hagrid's hands (Yeah.. our own sweet Hagrid, crying thinking Harry's dead!!) was like seeing Super star Rajnikanth in the final scene of the mottai-boss Shivaji :)

Finally All Is Well, the Good beats the Evil and after 19 years, Harry's kid join Hogwards...!!

Ofcourse, the book was 100 times better than the movie but it is not practically possible to fill in every detail of the book in a 2hr. 10 min movie.. But I thought it would have been better if more details were was given on Snape's flashback, Fred Weasly's death and Remus Lupin and Tonks battle..!!!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 was definitly EPIC..!! It was not a children's movie anymore..!! It was equivalent to a good action movie..!! Should say, people have definitely grown up in this!!

Overall, it was an awesome watch..!! I have definitely decided to watch the movie again..!!! But will miss the Harry Potter saga in the future badly...!! Wish It all Doesn't End Here..!!!!! :(

The "so-called" brahmin acharam....!!!


First of all, this post is not a brahmin community bashing post... Its just a couple of things I personally think is highly stupid and useless in a day-to-day busy life...!!!!

I completely don't understand why there are SOOOO many rules and regulations for our brahmin community alone! Who had all the time in the world to sit and think about all these stupid rules and follow the same for years together. In the olden days, were the people so jobless that they could actually sit and think about these many useless stuffs in life..!!! God... Only if they had spent some quality time in thinking something useful, India would have probably reached to many higher levels at that time itself!!

The brahmins are always in a box. They can think only inside the box I guess. And, in addition to this, they think thay are the most superior in this world, just because they are wearing the "so-called" sacred thread - punal. Now, I am asking each and everyone of the brahmins here, does anyone of you know the reason as to why you are wearing this thread? Oh yeah, and you are supposed to do sandhyavandanam 3 times a day if you are wearing this thread - dunno whatever that means!! So "brahmin" guys, how many of you do it?? Or if at all you do it, how many of you really understand why you are doing it and not doing it just for the sake of your parents???? I guess it should be less than 5% who will know the significance of it!!

Can somebody please explain to me what "pathu", "theetu" and "madi" means? God... I am so confused with the whole damn idea of this! As far as I am told, cooked rice is "pathu" but cooked chapathi is not "pathu". So you should not keep "rice" and "chapathi" together.. if you keep it, "chapathi" will also become "pathu".. WOW... now this is SOME concept! Again, you keep food plate on your hand and touch the water bottle with the same hand, the water bottle also becomes "pathu"..!!! OMG..!!! How many things should I follow?? And how do I keep track of this whole damn thing???!!!!!!!

If a girl has her menstural cycle, she is supposed to be "theetu" - can be directly related to "untouchables"!!! So the girl has to be alone, eat alone, sleep alone, should not touch anybody and things like that.. in other words.. ISOLATED! If someone by mistake also touches that girl, they also become "theetu" and they should take head bath - snanam, immeadiatly...!!! Shabba... mudiala da samy..!!! Enda countrylayavadu iruka da idelam..!!?????? Idula peria comedy enna na, if somebody wears a new dress that is not washed till now, then it is OK if they touch the girl, then it is not "theetu"..!!!!! Now, that's another WOW!!!

And the funniest part is, when concerning small children. There are sooooo many rules that it just cannot be listed!! It seems the small children should not look at themselves in a mirror, they should not look at their shadow, they should not be lifted above our head while playing, they should not be photographed, they should not smell mangoes.... and the list goes on....!! Paavam... I can only pity the children and do nothing else!

And, Brahmins think too high of themselves. Probably not the current generation brahmins, because the current generation follows the brahmin acharam only because it is told by their parents! But if you see our parents or ancestors, most of them will not eat the food given to or cooked by non-brahmins. The servant maid will be asked not to enter the kitchen and to use the back door to commute. They might not eat or share their food with other religion people and things like that..!! Now, am seriously asking, what is the whole use of follwing all this "pathu", "theetu", "sandhyavandanam", lots of pooja etc when you cannot respect a fellow human being!!???? Does it make any sense? Just because you are wearing the punal does not mean you are GOD!!! Mind it!!!

Is it practically possible to follow all these stupid things in a day-to-day life?? We are all working professionals, we travel by bus and other mode of transport everyday, we eat food outside, can we actually see "pathu" and "theetu" there? In the olden days, people had all the time in the world to see all this nonsense rituals and follow the same. Does it still make sense here?

There is definitely a super power called GOD. He is the one who is showing us the directions in life. No denying that!! But, no God wants us follow all these nonsense in life! Its all man-made..!! Some useless jobless idiot has described it some long way back, and we are still blindly following it just because our ancestors have been following it!!

Finally one word to God....
Dear God,
Why did you make the life of women alone to tough? Why does she have to go through so many emotions in life? Is it because you want her to feel equal to you? No God, we don't want to be equal to you. We want to be as carefree as men and not to follow all these nonsense stuff in life. :(
And its high time You somehow start telling people that humanity is more than all these acharam in life..!! But I really doubt if the brahmin society will try to change even if You directly come and tell them this!!!

From
A frustrated brahmin girl!!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

The Vegetable Biriyani

I have been trying lots of combinations for making good biriyani from the day I got married, but it has finally worked out only now :) So I thought  I better "document" the same for future reference :p

There are 2 variations in this recipe:
Recipe 1: Less spicy, Ideal for "Iyer aathu Vegetable biriyani" I should say :)

Ingredients:
  • Vegetables (Potato, Beans, Carrot, Peas, Cauliflower. Cabbage doesnt blend with this!!)
  • Onions - 2, Chopped finely
  • Tomato - 1, Chopped finely
  • Basmathi Rice (Extra Long is YUMMMMMM) - 2 tumblers
  • Green Chillies - 5
  • Ginger and Garlic - make it into a paste.
  • Cardamom - 3
  • Cinnamon (Pattai) - a little (really dunno how to measure it!!)
  • Cloves (Lavangam) - 4
  • Bay leaf - 2 to 3
  • Kasa kasa - a little
  • Jeera and saunf (soombu) - a little (Without Saunf the taste doesnt come!!)
  • Salt -  to taste
  • Coconut milk - 1 tumbler minimum
  • Cashew nuts - optional though
  • Paneer - optional
  • Fresh corriander leaves
  • Ghee
  • Cooking Oil
Preparation:
  • Soak the basmati rice in water for atleast 20 mins.
  • In a kadai, add 3 tablespoons of ghee. Add the cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, bay leaf, kasa kasa, jeera, saunf, ginger and garlic. (Readymade ginger and garlic paste may also be added, but it might not taste as good as fresh ginger and garlic!!) Saute well.
  • Add the chopped onions and green chillies and fry nicely till it becomes golden brown. (Actually the smell tells whether it is cooked fully or not :) )
  • Add little bit of cooking oil to this and add all the vegetables. Saute/Stir for about 5 mins.
  • Add the chopped tomatoes and stir.
  • To this, add salt and fry the same. Remember the salt level should be for the vegetables and the rice that you are going to add.
  • Once the vegetables are half cooked, add the soaked rice (without the water, ofcourse) and fry. Add 2 more tablespoons of ghee.
  • Saute this well till all the water from the rice is dried and the rice is nicely fried in the ghee and the vegetables. (If there is water content to this mixture, then the vegetable biriyani rice will stick together and will not be good :( )
  • Add coconut milk and water to this. The quantity of the coconut milk and water should be 3 and half cups for 2 cups of basmati rice.
  • Pressure cook until 2 whistles or move the full content to the electric rice cooker to cook the same :) (I use the electric rice cooked to cook the same)
  • After the biriyani is cooked, add corriander leaves, fried cashew and fried panner for garnishing :) (Remember to add salt to the panner when you fry it)
Recipe 2: Spicy Biriyani :)

Ingredients: 
  • Vegetables
  • 2 medium to large Onions (thinly sliced)
  • 5 Green Chillies (more or less may be used depending on spice preferance) 
  • Fried Cashewnuts  (optional)   
  • Basmathi Rice - 2 tumblers
  • Fresh corriander leaves and Fresh Mint Leaves 
  • 5 Cloves 
  • 2 Cinnamon Sticks 
  • 4 Bay Leaves 
  • 5 Small Cardamoms 
  • 5 strands Saffron 
  • 2 tsp. Garlic Paste 
  • 2 tsp. Ginger Paste 
  • 1 tsp. Red Chilli Powder 
  • Salt 
  • 2 tsp. Tomato Ketchup 
  • 1 cup of Coconut Milk 
  • 1 cup of Thick Curd 
  • 4 tbsp. Butter (Ghee) or Cooking Oil          
Preparation:
  • Take the coriander/cilantro leaves, fresh mint and green chillies and grind in a grinder to a paste (add a little water if necessary).
  • Heat the clarified butter or oil in a kadai. Add in all of the whole spices and mix well.
  • Add in the sliced onions and fry until slightly golden brown.
  • Add in the ginger paste and garlic paste and saute well.
  • Add in the vegetables and stir for about 5 minutes.
  • Add in the paste of fresh coriander, fresh mint and green chilles. Saute for about 3 minutes .
  • Add the coconut milk and water (the quantity of the coconut milk and water should be 3 and half cups for 2 cups of basmati rice).
  • Add the tomato ketchup and curd and mix well. 
  • Add in the red chilli powder and salt and mix well.
  • Once the vegetables are half cooked, add the soaked rice and fry. Add 2 more tablespoons of ghee.
  • Saute this well till all the water from the rice is dried and the rice is nicely fried in the ghee and the vegetables.
  • Pressure cook until 2 whistles or move the full content to the electric rice cooker to cook the same :) 
  • Finally add the saffron strands and fried cashew nuts before serving.
Hot hot biriyani is ready :) Serve with raitha and it is yummmmmmmmmm :D