Suddenly Something: Short Film(jus needs 1 Min of ur Time)!

Treat UR taste buds: Onasadhya!

Onasadhya is the most delicious part of Kerala's very own Onam. It is considered to be the most elaborate and grand meal prepared by any civilisation or cultures in the world. It's a feast which if enjoyed once is relished for years.


Memories of treating my friends to a grand Onasadhya at my home...three years ago are still afresh! Thanks to my mother, who prepared the authentic dishes! Onam for the last two years have been at college, with fun, frolic and food!

However this time I am stranded in chennai, still looking for that eluding OnaSadhya! So, wats so special in it?

Onasadhya is prepared on the last day of Onam, called Thiruonam. People of Kerala wish to depict that they are happy and prosperous to their dear King Mahabali whose spirit is said to visit Kerala at the time of Onam.

FlashBack!
Legend goes that Mahabali who was so attached to his people that he requested Gods to allow him to visit Kerala every year. People of Kerala wish to convey that they are enjoying the same age of prosperity as was witnessed during the reign of King Mahabali by preparing a grand Onasadhya.

Rich and the poor, everybody prepares Onasadya in a grand fashion as people of Kerala are extremely devotional and passionate when it comes to Onasadya. So much so that, it has lead to saying, 'Kaanam Vittum Onam Unnanam'. Meaning - men go to the extend of selling all their possessions for one Onam Sathya.

The Meals
Rice is the essential ingredient of this Nine Course Strictly Vegetarian Meals. All together there are 11 essential dishes which have to prepared for Onasadya. Number of dishes may at times also go upto 13.

Hold on...Be a little patient....you need to wait a little before you start gorging the lip smacking meal. There are some rituals which need to be followed. First full course meal is served for Lord Ganapathi in front of a lighted oil lamp (Nila Vilakku). This is in accordance with the Malayalese trend of starting everything in the name and presence of God.

More About the Meal: The Exhaustive List of Dishes:
For a better understanding of the Onasadhya meal let us now go through all the dishes in a little more detail.


Erissery:Prepared from pumpkins/red beans or from yam and raw bananas cubes.
Kalan or Pulisseri: Prepared from buttermilk, ingredients consist of sliced plantains called nenthra-kaya and yams or chena. These are boiled in water with salt and chillies.
Olan: Olan is prepared from sliced cucumber and brinjal. Sometimes pulse is also added. They are boiled in water with salt and no chillies.
Aviyal
This is kind of a mixed vegetable as all sorts of available vegetables are added to it. All vegetables are first boiled in water with salt and chillies. Tamarind and well ground pulp are added at proper time. Aviyal is flavoured with coconut oil and Kariveppila.
Thoran Prepared by slicing beetroot and several other vegetables into very small pieces. These are then boiled in water with some salt and chillies till all the water dries up. Water can also be strained away. For seasoning, ground coconut pulp and mustard fried in coconut oil is used.
Mulakoshyam:Resembles olan. It is a special Onam delicacy from the state of Kerala and has been recently added to Onam Sadhya.
Koottukari: This is a curry consisting of a variety of vegetables and some Bengal gram. It differs from Aviyal as it does not contain tamarind.
Pachchati, Kichchati These are types of curry consisting chiefly of cucumber, mustard and sour butter milk or curds. In Kichchatim, young and tender cucumber is added
Prathaman
There is a whole variety of Prathamans such as ada, pazham, parippu and palata prathamans.
Beverages
A special drink is prepared for Onam in which water is boiled with a combination of cumin and dried ginger (chukku). This is beneficial from health point of view.
Upperi or Chips: Upperi is prepared from various things like raw bananas (kaaya), yam (chena), jack fruit (chakka), bitter gourd (pavayka) and egg plant fruit (vazhuthanga). Slices of the ingredient are fried in coconut oil to a crisp condition.
Pickles (Achaar), Pappads (Pappadam), Fruits
Chiefly plantain fruits of various kinds are served along with other articles of food at meals.

Searching for Onam dishes...I hit upon something...wierd!! called Non-veg SADHYA!! Take a look....


Hope Mahabali is fine with the mutations the festival and its dishes have undergone!
I would advise him to Google for the latest dishes before he finalises his travel plans(wud suggest him www.MAKEMYTRIP.com)and embarks on that annual trip to his very own KERALA!

Happy Onam!!!
-RP

INSTANT CLICK -- Tuitions

Clicked @ West Mambalam, Chennai

Hope English isn't one of the subjects taught hear... oops... here!

SUDDENLY SOMETHING - Comparison of OFFSHORE Vs ONSITE LIFESTYLE!

Source : Sukumar @ User comments in rediff.com!

This was a user comment posted under an IT related topic in Rediff.com. I felt the comparison sooo amusing that I decided to post it here!!

TCS Offshore and Onsite Life style

Offshore Lifestyle:

Role : Project Lead
Project Type : Support Mission Critical

Life Style :
*Call at 7 AM Status meeting conducted by US client. Silent spectator and most of the times scapegoat.
*Reaches Office at 9 AM. Jump into TCS internal politics and coordinating with all freshers, personal work, project work.
*Leave office by 6.30 PM. Late night call for a critical support issue
*The routine goes on..

Saturday, national holiday support coverage
Pay : Based on the experience 6 - 10 lakhs

Onsite Lifestyle:

Role : Project Lead
Project Type : Support Mission Critical
Life style:

*Living in a small 1 bed room apartment near Indian Street in USA
*Afraid of black americans all the time. No car
*Call at 7 AM EST status meeting , cover all the offshore folks, take the blame and again scapegoat.
*Reaches office by 7 AM. Client politics, TCS politics, Project,Personal work.
*Leave office by 6 PM. coordinate with offshore and delegate work from 9 PM - 11 PM EST.
*The routine goes on

Saturday and sunday - Releases, Maintenance etc.national holiday support coverage.

Further he goes on to say.....
In the both scenarios you will be given 3 or 4 rating(appraisal). Sometimes 2 as per the curve fitting. Pay : 65k after tax 48 K. visit to India 10k gone. No savings, no luxory etc.
The person who sits next to you having H1 B will work for 7.5 hrs and earn 140k / annum. our TCS guy will work for 10-12 hrs and earn 48k after tax!

Well that was straight from the heart of a not-so-happy Indian software guy!
Wat's ur take now??? Offshore or Onsite??


Tail piece: Assessing the economic situation, be happy if you are ashore regardless of workin offshore/onsite!

Cheerzz!

MEDIA MATTERZ!

I often visit rediff.com. May be you can call that the most frequented site nxt only to the ubiquotous Google by yours truly! I love it just for its content and the good coverage that is often pan-indian! yeah... PAN-INDIAN! I mean every bit of the word!

Often, I feel that southern content dont get much of space in other general content websites. Why is it so???

*Politics is by default New Delhi and other northern states (The content might get as dumb as chasing the Gandhi family wherever they are or as hilarious as the activities of Lalu or Mayawati... hey.. we do have some comedians down here!)

*Movies by default mean Bollywood!

*Songs(Most of such sites allow you to hear songs online!) are often is some Himesh reshmaiyya Crap (with due respect for his nasal talent!!)

*Sports fortunately for some reason is covered across the length and breadth of the country... and so seems pretty O.K!

I even felt the same with News channels on TV! NDTV went to the extent of lauching a half-hour show called 'Southern Edition' thus validating the fact that southern states werent given their due! TV 18 went a step ahead - they introduced a show called "UP SOUTH"(felt lik it was a dig at the often used phrase - DOWN SOUTH!)

Recently though that's changing! The reason behind that is the stark fact that more than 50-60% of the viewers of such news channels are from the 4 southern states(TN, KER, AP & KAR)! So these media houses are forced to provide southern content!

The fact remains that India is a pluralist nation and so you need to give a wide range of content that can please everyone (may sound utopian....but strive for it!)

Tail Piece :
Because of its pan-indian content rediff user comments section often has heated argument over issues discussed often with a regional bias! Though it sometimes is thought provoking.. it ends up nasty most of the time!

Vodafone ZOO-ZOO'S: FACTS N FIGURES!

Tail Piece : ZOO-ZOO Factzz

They aren't Animations! They are human beings wearing body suits!

Body Part : stuffed with foam in some places
Head : To make it look bigger than a human head, a harder material called Perspex was used, which in turn was stuffed with foam (with scope for ventilation)
*Cast: includes children, women(leaner hands & legs required it that way)!
*Fan page at Facebook: 5600 members already!

VIDEO OF THE VEEK! - WHISTLE PODU- CSK FAN VIDEO!

IPL2009 is hotting up!

Deccan has booked their berth in the finals while Bangalore is to take on Chennai in the second semi-final today!

Look the beauty of the tournament... and how things have panned out..!!
If Banglore is thro to the finals,, then we have the two bottom most teams of the first edition of the tournament facing each other in the finals of the second edition!!! I would love that as a sport enthusiast! I am always behind dark horses you see...

But the ardent Chennai fan in me... refuses to budge down!!! It's the turn of Super Kings to lay their fingerprints on the not-so-good looking (Studded with diamond and gold thou!) IPL Trophy this time!

TAKE A LOOK AT THE PROMO FAN VIDEO OF CSK : WHISTLE PODU!!!



Cheers!

Tailpeace: Whatever happens... its gonna be an All-south Indian IPL Final!!!lol!
Could turn out to be Hyd Biryani Vs Chennai Saambaar Idlis!!!