Traditional Odia Food Item : Aloo Dum Dahi Bara!

Cuttack, the silver city is famous for various things. One of them is the delectable “Aloo dum Dahi bara”, said to be the staple food of Cutkis. People love to have it for breakfast, lunch and it is considered an all- day snacks item. It provides timely carb in the form of potatoes, which replenish energy and the butter-milk given at the end of the snacks is a relishing drink to beat the scorching summer. While the tangy flavor of the dahi bara revives the taste buds! Typically, it is served with ghoogni (A spicey Curry made of chick peas) and garnished with sev, onion and coriander and pudina chutney. A wholesome meal in itself. You will see vendors selling the snacks in cycle, carrying the huge aluminum pots. The other kind of vendors (A bit more prosperous) have fixed stalls for selling the same. At Cuttack, I have tried it at almost all the places, and as per me, the ranking would be as follows… 1. Barabati field 2. Satichaura 3. Near Reliance Fresh (CDA) 4. Gauri Shankar Park 5. All the rest… Is it possible to prepare this dish at home? The answer to this question is, of course Yes! While the taste may not be exactly the same, because, sometimes the road dust and unhygienic conditions render their own flavor! (Which though tasty, is difficult to replicate :P) So here goes the dummy’s guide to prepare Cuttack’s Famous Aloo dum dahi bara. Prepare the mixture for Dahibara. (Rice paste + Black Gram paste in the ratio of 1:3). Add a pinch of Soda and salt to taste. Make small balls of the mixture in the palm of your hand and drop it in hot oil. Fry it till its golden brown, and remove and put it in a bowl of water for 5 seconds, and then into curd which has been lightly tempered earlier with curry leaves, chillies and mustard. Garnish with Jeera powder and Chilly powder. Add a big teaspoon of Ghoogni and aloo dum to about 4 dahi baras! And here you have half plate of Dahibara ready! Worth 20 bucks! 

Happy Women's Day!

First of all, Wishing all of you a very happy Women’s Day! On this special day, I would like to express some of my thoughts on Empowering women at Workplace. Why do women fail to express themselves, in forums where it actually matters? Why do women opt out of their careers, for the sake of spouse relocation/kids/marriage? Why do we have so few women leaders at the top? These were just a few questions, brewing in my mind. Recently, I happened to read a very good book by FB COO, Sheryl Sandberg. And this awesome book acted like my talisman, an answer to all my queries. In this book, she has mentioned that a mentor/sponsor is what every woman needs today at workplace, to guide her through all the turmoil associated with juggling work with home. And a supporting eco-system at home, be it a spouse who is open minded enough, to share the home work load with a smiling face and proactively or parents who encourage their daughter to fly high and move out from the comfort zone and give wings to her dreams. Without these two essential ingredients, it would be a difficult task for women to succeed at workplace. Another important point that Sheryl stressed upon is “The need to please people”. Women often, find themselves at the backseat of important meetings or programs because they have this inherent desire to please people, and hence refrain from making difficult decisions, that is crucial for the well being of the organization but might end up annoying some segment of folks. So women choose to “please” people at the cost of having a successful career. This constant war in her head, between popularity versus success, makes her hesitent and retrogressive. They would rather be popular and liked by everyone, than make tough decisions. We as women, should come out of this mental block and be fearless and assertive enough to make our presence felt and never be afraid to make our voices heard. Those were some of my thoughts, on Women’s day! Have a superb weekend!

Gangtok : Final chapter

The city of Gangtok is built on a sloping valley. So the roads, houses, etc are at different levels, and walking about even for half a kilometer is quite a herculean task, especially for those who have not exercised in years. (I don’t come in that category :P ). Its said, that if truly want to experience the magic and charm of a place, go on walking tours. And Gangtok perhaps is one of the best places for that. The lush greenery around, billowing clouds, picturesque little houses with tiled roofs and porcelain doll like skin of girls there….the entire scene reminds oneself of those exotic picture post cards of Switzerland. We got the opportunity to visit a monastery for Lamas. It’s a residential school for kids, who take up the life a monk/lama. We saw cute little kids in maroon gowns prancing about happily, expressing their eagerness and curiosity to mingle with the tourists. One of the kids came up to us, with a bag of chocolates and said is a sing-song voice, “Happy birthday!” We were pleasantly surprised, not knowing why is he wishing us!? To our puzzled looks, he responded again, “Me happy birthday!” Then we realized, it was HIS birthday, and he was offering chocolates to us! Such a little boy, with such a big heart! Gangtok is perhaps one of the cleanest cities around. With hardly a scrap of garbage to be seen around, it’s a pleasure to go on hiking trips on hills. Waterfalls are in abundance and the water is sparkling clean, you can drink straight out of it. We also got the chance to visit the Indo-Chinese border and shook hands with a Chinese soldier too! It was nice to see the Indian and Chinese soldiers talking animatedly with each other, cracking jokes and readily agreeing for photos. They were not in any kind of hurry and engaged the motley group of tourists in long winding conversations, narrating about their family back home, next vacation there and in general their lifestyle out there at 10,000 ft from sea level. It gave us a fresh new perspective about life and made us ponder over our own life and its meaning. And how insignificant is the daily humdrum of our existence. Office-home-office-mall-home-office again. What is the value-add that we as individuals are bringing in to the nation? Other than voting, ofcourse. (Which I don’t think, anybody from my generation, does!) Ok, enough of these Sunday afternoon musings.. Take care.

Gangtok Part 2

One of my favorite travel websites is cleartrip.com. That is ‘coz, they give the rankings of all the hotels in a place, along with the pros and cons. One added advantage is that they publish the unedited comments of the travelers as well, who have actually stayed there. Sometimes, you also see, the hotel owners responding back to some of the adverse comments posted by unhappy tr

avelers. One such comment posted by the owner caught my eye. One of the travelers had posted a comment about a chipped mirror in the hotel room. And surprisingly, the hotel manager, Krish had responded back saying, “Chipped mirror has been replaced and the inconvenience caused is deeply regretted.” I was bemused. This was truly exemplary. Then I started reading all the comments, posted for that particular hotel. Came to know that, it had the best view of Kanchenjunga in the town. The USP of the hotel being, the terrace rooms. In the 2nd floor, all the rooms opened to a huge terrace, with had the uninterrupted view of the valley below, dotted by the settlements and the magnificent Kanchenjunga mountains. One had the option to have breakfast/lunch out in the terrace as well. One of the travelers was even kind enough to mention the room nos. to go for. There and then, I decided this is going to be my abode, for the stay in Gangtok. And true enough, I was not disappointed. In fact, I was delighted with the beautiful rooms and artistic décor and the night view of the hills, so much so that we decided to have dinner in the terrace, the evening we arrived at Gangtok. It was surreal experience, truly memorable. The clouds had descended below on the valley and had borrowed the bluish, pinkish hues of the night. And above them stood the majestic peak of KJ, glistening in the moonlight. As if saying, “I am there to protect you.” No wonder most of the pahaadis (Mountain-dwellers) worship the mountain. I was transported to another world, far far away from the maddening crowd. The cab ride from Siliguri to Gangtok was the most beautiful drive ever. For the entire stretch of the route, the mighty Tapti river was cruising along with us, though hundreds of feet below. And the roads on the mountain were so narrow, when another vehicle came from the front, we were almost hanging from the edge! Had I thrown a stone, it would have vanished in the crushing waves of the river. The din created by the river and the mountains made us feel so small…in the overall equation of things created by the almighty. …to be continued

Wanderlust

Wanderlust… I have an OCD for meticulous planning and organizing of things. Every little activity has to be minutely planned in advance so that things move with clock-work precision. My friends point out that I am missing out the fun in life, the fun in letting myself go, the fun in enjoying the disorganized chaos of life. Maybe they are right…may be they are just tired of hearing me say, “I told you so!” every time…maybe they just want me to be humane...make some errors and enjoy the roller-coaster ride of life. That was the premise or the background, with which I planned my trip to Gangtok. Hence, only the first day and final day were planned. With the aim of “Letting go”/go with the flow, for the intermediate days. The first thought that struck me, as soon as I landed in Bagdogara, was “OMG, how clean is this place!” Absolutely no litter, anywhere in sight! The hills and valleys were just like picture postcards, and the air….so fresh! No smoke and no pollution of any kind. The cab-ride from Bagdogara airport to the sleepy Siliguri town was filled with picturesque views of tea-gardens and hills. As my cab was zipping past the views, my eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, when I caught a signage. “City centre”-KFC. I couldn’t believe my eyes! Such a small town on top of a hill, where accessibility itself is a major hurdle, boasts of a KFC!!! And my city, the so-called aspiring IT hub, BBSR has been yearning for a KFC ever since I passed out of college! And still continues to be an elusive dream. Anyways, I thought to myself, now that I am in Siliguri, let me not miss this golden opportunity to dig my fingers into a creamy bucket of fried chicken….yummmm. But I had to save the KFC trip for the later part of the trip, as we were in a hurry to reach Gangtok before sunset. Because the hillside roads were too risky for night drive. …To be continued