A sugary thought

 

:)

Its fiesta time!!

Having a sunny weekend in this land of England is no less than 'Fiesta' but this time it literally was a festival time for birmingham. The city celebrated the ArtFest 2012 , the annual festival of Arts, on 7th-9th of september.

Just sharing the essence of the festival that I tried to capture through my lens ... Sorry for the pictures overload ;)

At Victoria Square

Oh so cute :) <3

Tried my hands at pottery and I was competing with kids of age 2-5 :P

Listened to some band stand music

A rare view .... a sunny afternoon :)

Visited an old church

Felt the last feel of para-olympics

Listened to some street music

Watched kids enjoying the day :)

Most important! Did some grocery shopping too !

Attended the parliament ;)

 

And ya ! We attended a fashion show :) I have one exclusive coverage of this one for you ;) Watch this space for more ...

Made the best of the only model I have got :D

 

Added some dramatic effects to the bull @ Bull Ring Center , Birmingham

Hope the festivity continues ..... :)

The Leftovers

I had a very simple motto for this weekend : Use the leftovers and give a new life to my refrigerator.

When I woke up today morning, I knew exactly what I wanted to cook ! Something I always fail to achieve..It was a beautiful sunny morning. I opened the balcony to let the fresh air in , played some music and started working on the motto for the day! I opened the refrigerator and found some Alloo sabji that we had prepared the previous day.

 I immediately recalled a dish that my Mom used to make for us mostly in the evenings. So I called my Mother and got the instructions jotted down and I started to follow them religiously

STEP 1 : Took some wheat flour...

 

STEP 2 : Kneaded the dough in the dough maker

STEP 3 : Added some masala to make the sabji a bit more zingy

STEP 4: Made a NOT-SO-ROUND chapati and spread the sabji on top

STEP 5 : Rolled it and cut it into pieces

 

STEP 6: Heated the oil and placed few of the pieces to fry

 

And then! I never took any pictures ...because I was clearing up the mess I just created for myself... The rolls just opened up and the potato got mixed up with the oil :( And the oil started to splutter all over the place.

 

& since I had cut so many sets of chapati roll, I couldn't revert back either. So I mixed the dough and the potato and made some unique parathas :D

 

 

I am sure the picture above must be making this whole disaster story much more clear in your head now!

Finally I tried these unique parathas on my guinea pig and he actually loved it:D And asked me to make some more :) According to Abhay - It tasted like thin pakodas :D And I can't stop laughing :P

Anyway , all is well that ends well. We had our brunch and the leftover was successfully reused :)

BTW!!! I finally found the culprit behind this. The term 'Atta'.
For me Atta is Wheat Flour , but my Mom meant 'All purpose' flour or MAIDA in hindi .... ARGH!!! Am going to try it again , just waiting for the next weekend when my refrigerator will be in the same state again.

Never gonna give in, Never gonna give up

I realize that inspiration is all around us and if one starts paying attention to little details in everyday life, its evident that we live in a very beautiful and optimistic world.

We live very close to the Canary Wharf tube station in London and whenever I make my way towards the exit , its not rare a sight to see some talented performer playin guitar or singing a song may be. It feels great and it just takes away all the exhaustion away ... Last week while heading home , I watched a physically challenged person playing 'You can't take me' by Bryan Adams. All I have to say is : I have tremedous amount of respect and a feeling of gratitude for inspiring me. This song is in my playlist 'REPEAT ON' since then :) And I can't stop thinking about the message behind it.

You ain't gonna take me down no way
Don't judge a thing until you know what's inside it
Dont' push me - I'll fight it
Never gonna give in - never gonna give it up no
If you can't catch a wave then your'e never gonna ride
You can't come uninvited
Never gonna give in - never gonna give up no
You can't take me I'm free

The words are truly inspirational and Bryam Adams voice and music just makes it so more emphatic. I truly believe that in this world where everyone has got to say something about you and is always ready to give you a free advice when things are not going right for you, its imperative to continue to believe in your beliefs and just do the right thing. Fight with all your might and fight for what you think is right. Never give in and Never give up!

The world that we are in is competitive and one is involved in different problems at different point of time. But if you see a bigger picture , these issues start appearing very diminutive. All one needs to do is : set the goals right and approach it in an apropos way. And the most important of them all is continue trying and never stop.

On a lighter note , the movie 'Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron' is on the top of my checklist. Its been eons since I have watched the movie and I would love to refresh my brain cells. Its astonishing how much can a good movie or a good novel , a good article in the newspaper or just a song can inpire me and force to think about things I had never thought before and It feels even more refreshing to realize how these moments make me re-evaluate my life and I walk away feeling a little more taller, a bit more wiser and a lot more inspired.