Pongalo'13!

For the past 20+ years, it had been the same festival, the same native village similar celebration style, the same relatives & cousins gang........but it never got a little less joy nor a trace of boredom.... Yes being Tamilian its our practice to celebrate Thai Thirunaal, the Harvest festival or Pongal in a bigger way with the whole lot of the family :)!

Just an hour back, I am back to the city with a simple 7 hour travel, yet reliving and longing for the trip once more!!
Let me start the story with the sweet I made accidentally on the occasion! Its Corn Halwa :)....

Will update this same post with the preparation steps for the Halwa along with the sweeter memories :) ...aww!! I am hurrying to my office now!!

Starters!

 

 Wanted to start a Jesus like carving for the season and here it is!!

Pineapple Halwa!

Presenting you here, the prevalent sweet of our country - Halwa/Kesari!!

Here its bundled with an extra essence for the taste buds..yes! fresh pineapple slices that blend with hot ghee to brace the flavour.

Ingredients :

Rava/ Sooji  - 1 cup
Pineapple Pieces  - 1 cup
Milk/Water - 2 cups
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Ghee - 2 tbsp
Cardamom powder - 1 tsp
Nuts - Cashews/Almonds - your choice :) unlimited!

Preparatory method:

• In a non stick pan dry roast the rava until it turns golden brown and aromatic. Allow it to cool down in a plate.
•  Heat milk or water in the pan, add pineapple and sugar.
• Add 1tbsp  ghee to it along with Cardamom powder. Let it boil until the pineapple bits are cooked. It would take up to 10 minutes.
• Its time to add the roasted rava in the pineapple mix, pour it slowly and stir well so that no lumps are formed.
• Let it all get cooked together for a couple of minutes with continuous mixing and at last add the remaining ghee ..close your eyes! feel the aroma..yes that is the super sensor to check if our Kesari is ready to devour ;)

Lets now check the reason I had brought in a Buddha here (in the decoration & the context too!)

Pineapple had been a bizarre fruit for me right from childhood. The thorny skin & the toughness to peal it was really challenging every time as I start with a knife! Later the taste put me in crazy shoes that I never found the process irritating. It is for the yellow color & the juicy fruit that drove me.
Buddha says "Look within, thou art the Buddha - Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without."
The surprising factor is that only the crown/ top leaf of the fruit is enough for planting...So my buddies! Invest your weaknesses and cultivate your strength out of it!! - Oh at this point I feel like being Buddha !!
This is the lesson I got from this little fruit which is a fortune puller and  has served as a symbol of hospitality and warm welcome!! The pineapple is placed in homes to bring wealth luck, excellent fortune and gambling luck for the Chinese.

Thanks to my Samsung Galaxy smart phone which helped me photograph on the fly, as my family was happily awaiting to empty the bowl (with 20% patience ;)). I agree to the point - Food photography is really tricky for a foodie like me! Too much self control is needed you know ;)!!

Happy New Year!!

Chalk carved wish for 2013!!

 

Releasing today, on this new year- My brother's photography logo along with my blog's stamp!!

Peacock Hands!!

One of my favorite designs that I made recently! Here it goes!!

What it takes to finish a design is the celebration mood within you!! :)

The morning surprise- you await to see the result !! Had the color really come well??

Waking up with that shocking thought ;)

Looking at your own hands every time to boost up the colors within you!! Yes it works!! Magic within reach.. Isn't it?

These are conventional tattoo-methods I say!! :)

Pepsi can candle lantern

 Easy to trash..and enjoyable to hit it on the roads with a jump & bounce!! These cool drink tins are always loaded with fun!..

So here is my 'Giving' a second life to the tin can! Can be themed for halloween season too!

Kaju Katli !!

 

Landing right here with my lent camera.. thank you brother :) I am getting inspired by you & I guess you gonna rate my photographs, making it an easy learning curve!!

Made the kaju kathlis with tips and tricks that google gave me....Mom and me in the kitchen packed with lots of weapons arranged in front of us... Boof!! it started... Still cherishing the day!!

Started loving food photography!! Visually I am eating again & My stomach feels so good too!!

 

 Will post the Preparation procedure here very soon!!

The Cylindrical  and Diya shaped Katlis are around the corner.... Help yourselves ;)

Corn Spinach Au-Gratin!!

 Here comes the Foodie in me :)

My first trial being the cheesy Italian dish - Au gratin ...awww!!

And my dear-photographer-brother, who takes snaps for me & at times lending me his camera to make a naive kid shoot her petty stuff ..Oh man im starting to learn u know ;)!!

Special thanks to Nithi akka for her 4thsense cooking blog!! She is so sweet & so is her blog... One would not need food, while surfing her blog..Truly tongue tickling as her caption says :)

Travel with me as I have so much to post, pardon me for the "lazy me" part ;)

3D Rangoli

The picture says everything about the 3D view blah blah blah!!
In turn-I have got so much to say about the picture & the way we created it :)So much of colorful memories beneath.
All this is for our organization's cultural event IMela 2012, which plugs in the creativity & fun nerves to the maximum. Its time for the Left brains to work!! :)

"Burning the night oil" - It really worked well (started sketching at 3 am ...oof!!) and my junior Karthik who undoubtedly dedicated himself to bring such a 3D concept onto the floor- we previously had some measurements and view points calculations for sporting the idea... (Google is our teacher ;))

The awesome coloring part in which we brought up the life for the endangered animals.. I wish it happens in reality too...Dinosaurs be back :)

The theme for this year - Wild Life Conservation

Our Caption  "Change your Perspective" - We get that 3D perspective on changing our view in a different angle..Similarly, we as represented by the entire humanity, should change the thoughts we have.. We are threatening the wild life by deforestation and as a confession, we shelter them in sanctuaries and zoos....Let us not chase them for livelihood!!The cub gives a threatened look as feels insecure.. :( A gun points out from underground, which deals about poaching & hunting which are still in the cards and poses danger in the other way. Lets rethink & leave the animals peacefully in their home..

Couldn't afford to miss our colored hands at the end of the making!!

The 3D view here again :)

Left to right: Karthik, Vimal, Me, Keerthana with the Cat family :)

Marvel Marbles-Readymade Rangoli!

Rocks !! On hearing this word I get a hard brute feel, as though I am carrying one over my head. But these tiny little versions of the rock - Be it a gravel stone, a pebble and the shinier twinkling 'The Marble stone'....Hahhh!! Now I get that feel, Silky lovely and purer like a Just hardened egg!!  aww drool .. (though it got nothing to do with eating..still drool!!) ;)
Okay.. I am surely beating around the marble bush (lol!! :P)..at last I get there, its time to color up the marbles and to celebrate a Holi for Hands :)

Acrylics, water gives you the blend and transparent textured look.. Store after it fully gets dried. It serves as an instant rangoli maker and most importantly you wont feel sorry when someone unknowingly slips & you have to repair it ....The hardest part of any rangoli is that final stage when the creator has to act as the destroyer at the end of the day :'(.. But these marbles are the reusable Building blocks I say ..no sin at the point of taking off the rangoli :)!!

iMela'11 continued!!

Its been an year now.. and I just missed out the pics of last year...wanted to badly share those moments as this year's Imela 2012 pics knocked my door saying me "Gal U r too lazy in blogging.dont put us in the long queue" .... and thus the list bangs here!! starting from the BOLLYWOOD posters, the floor decoration with the Khans in flags(thoranam in Tamil) and the team with the Color blasting Rangoli...

Pastels = Magic sticks!!

I cherish the day when this potrait was made....... Mungyo pastels brought me the courage to attempt my first pastel picture!!!

Paper : 240 gsm acid free water color paper
Size: A4
Hard Pastel sticks and Pastel pencils 

It got framed and proves to be a lovely gift, as the colors and the blend it brings so much of 'life' to the picture. I'm planning to make a self potrait that would serve as my offficial passport sized one. :)

Wedding Painting!!

A linguistic concept painting based on the names of Bride and the groom......

Krishna & Archana (Written in Telugu as KRISHNAARCHANA )embellished  as the golden jewels of Lord Krishna & Radha...

Size: 3 X 2 feet
Medium : Acrylics on Canvas

Pongalo pongal :)

Calendar 2012....till now its filled with fun, but Im angry on it for keeping all the so-called holidays on weekends!..grrrrr!
Yet with a wider smile, I applied for leave at my office to land up at our native....The chit chat with our family in the Train journey
The happy happy pongal Rangoli here...with the sun god's glaze upon it!

Mother India-Thru the lens!

Bringing a country and its culture to the outer world had been an aspect of Cinema.
To stress upon this fact, we had put our Rangoli that represented Mother India (the adoption/view of M F Hussain's painting of Mother India as a developed nation)
Slight add-ons to the painting to drive up to our theme of Imela!

The color merge was a fun to do, quick quick mix up with the 'Tea' filter.. there you end up in the crazy coloring...Amazed about the filter tool..Previously I thought it was bound to the Kitchens only!!

IMela !!

Lemme post the memories one by one............
this thermocol cut name is to InTrOdUcE my TEAM !!!!!

Hurray.... the BINDAAS BOLLYWOOD>>>>>> !!!! V Jus Don Care!! :P



much more to be posted....ll tell u in d next post!!

The fun & the days when ur cultural events come closer are awesome!! They get you back to the college days... so cool & funny....
All set in teams who have to compete..sometimes tat makes us wild & childish...just for the sake of winning!!grrrrrrr..........its game in the nerves nw!! hurray!!

As to my excitement, there was this Rangoli event..which tunes me crazy.. the colors of the powder..a solo HOLI time inside me!! :) :) The theme should be related to CINEMA. or the worst case BOLLYWOOD atleast....This is what we choose to draw...which is about few inches below in the post.. yet that Rangoli made sure.. it went even deeper into the hearts that watched it...

It was Ishaan... the one whose charecter that made us cry wid such a touchy acting..must be low to say 'acting' though...he lived up to it!!
And our theme was... "HOPE"(as represented wid a challenged person trying to climb up the hill) ... "Its not the laugh & claps that a movie gets, But its all about the hope that it brings within". As for a dyslexic child, it would give a courageous feel that he will, on one fine day, be able to achieve like a normal kid..could even be more than him!!

Without a team that we got... it would be really impossible to finish up the Rangoli..Night out...that worked well, and was a dream come true that day!! We too had a HOPE tat the facial expressions of Ishaan will be possible to bring out..yet its a lil tough!!

Cut Paste!!

The title seems like some software mantra!!..ah!!
Chart paper decorations is what i mean here...
I had loads of waste chart paper landed under my drawing table..which me & my sister used for her teacher training assignments....for her class room flash card session we cut those color charts into various shapes to write the questions that students need to answer........ her work is done... and there..my waste management starts!!
Oh Im so tired.. let me get a nap!!

scissors, little pieces of charts and busy hands..that is all you need for this.......
These different shapes can be accomodated with waste thermocol balls too.....
Paste them on wrapped gifts..and can add a touchy line in the space......
I am yet to add a line for these cute couple...sshhh..they're busy..DND!!


the basket style......and few more...in d next post!!bfn!!

Wall-eeee !!!!

:) :)...back to skool!!

You can .. Make a difference!!

We involved in some community service activity organised by our company........
The opening ceremony had to have a welcome Rangoli on the floors to catch up the go!!

And this is my trial in painting the white fish tank marbles wid acrylics....... Loved the event and the process..... various activities to cheer up the orphan kids and to liven up their living cum studying places, painting the walls, accompanying them to theme parks, many stalls and garage sales, multi cuisine lunch for the whole 3 months that contributes the whole sum money for their studies..........

The thing on top of all those is... we felt we made some difference...as v dont jus spent d money for them...v wer wid them and felt their need alive!!......

An amazing team time.....wow...... and each moment and everything with my close mates.. shammi & bhoo !!! :) :) wooo..we made it!! cheeers!!