Bring a Plate

For the Professional Year course which Praveen has been attending since January this year, today all were asked to bring a plate for lunch. 'Bring a plate' means you need to get a dish along for a gathering to share with everyone (just like potluck in India!). Praveen prepared yummy and creamy Sevaiya Kheer as his plate!

While he cooked, I made an ingredient card which detailed on what the plate contained (just incase if anyone was allergic to nuts!).

The item was loved by one and all at lunch with the trainer commenting 'You have used one of the costliest ingredient in this preparation - saffron strands!'.  

It was equally fun for Praveen to enjoy the dishes prepared by his classmates on this occasion and moreover a great platform for each one to present the authentic taste of their cultural cuisine!

Dadda's Girl

We picked a cute dress and a baby carrier for Anvitha. We thought both these would be of great use to them for their current phase of parenting. The shirt was a way too sweet for me to resist buying! The lovable lettering: 'Apple of daddy's eye' was something which attracted me even more as she is her Dadda's girl!

Error 401

Today as I tried to open the Blogger app, the Error 401 hit the screen repeatedly. On investigating I found out that Google has removed the mobile app for blogger. This is surely going to be a major inconvenience to blog. Its soo very easy to tap the app, write a post and quickly upload pics from the phone.
I hope they restore the app soon!  

Nostalgia

Whenever I walk by the streets these days, the autumn breeze and the maple leaves floating around with the wind reminisce me of the bollywood movie Mohabbatein!

Not that I was a fan of the movie, but its theme, music, scenery everything notably revolved around the 'Fall season' which is something that we never got to see and feel living in India. Viewing the trailers, we felt its a dream come true to get to experience the golden maple trees in autumn.

'Dreams DO come true' is the only thing I feel now!

The Lucky One!

The Orange tree in our frontyard has bore oranges for this season(though they are yet to ripe) but there is still one orange from last year on the tree! Its peel has wilted to such an extent that each segment inside it can be clearly seen. I am surprised to see it in this condition for quite a few months!

Certainly its the lucky one to enjoy a long life amidst nature!

Anzac Day Outing

Australia celebrates 25th April as Anzac Day in the memory of all Australians and New Zealanders who served and died in wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations. On this occasion of the national holiday being coupled with beautiful weather, we thought of exploring the Yarra Bend Park.

This park has a circuit of trails and two huge play-areas. We walked through a trail which looked like a scenic heritage route formed by a tunnel of golden orange maple trees! It was fun to enjoy the fall season at the park.

The attraction of the park was the 'Dights Falls' which was simply refreshing in the bright sunshine! It reminded me of 'Baneshwar' a place on the outskirts of Pune which has similar natural beauty.

As we reached the elevated area of the park, we also saw the formations made by the army, navy and airforce planes to mark this day of patriotic importance.

It was great place for a half day excursion.

A Cute Viewer

At our Badminton Club today, we had a little sweet-viewer. Our DBC coach got his daughter who joined us at the court!

She was such a darling cutiepie ready to come to all players and everyone was equally keen on playing with her. She was observant all throughtout and enjoyed her Sunday special badminton outing with her dad!

Foggy Morning

As we opened the slats of our blinds today, we felt as if we were on a hill station enjoying a vacation! It was foggy everywhere (my camera couldnt capture the exact intensity how dense the fog was and what we actually experienced all over). The tree tops were completely invisible and houses looked blurred. The sight made our morning tea even more special than usual days.

The heat of the sun gradually burnt it off late morning making a perfect weather for the day!

दैव आणि कर्म

आमच्या गल्लीत एक पानवाला आहे.त्याच्याकडे 

पाहिले कि असे वाटते कि तो आपलीच वाट पहतो.त्याच्या कडे जो पण ग्राहक गेला कि तो त्याच्याशी गप्पा गोष्टी व चर्चा करत असतो. त्यात त्याला फार आनंद व समाधान वाटत असते.पान बनवतांना त्याचा बरा वेळ जायचा. मी फार वैतागायचो.

       एक दिवस मी ठरवले याला फार चर्चा करायची हौस आहे का? आज त्याला असा प्रश्न विचारतो कि त्याने परत चर्चा बंद केली पाहीजे.

        मी त्याच्या दुकानावर गेलो व त्याला विचारले कि बाबा रे! मला एक प्रश्न विचारायचा त्याचे उत्तर देवू शकतो का? तो म्हणाला तुम्ही खुशाल विचारा मी नक्की उत्तर देण्याचा प्रयत्न करीन.

         मी विचारले कि माणुुस मेहनत करतो मग त्याला यश मिळाले कि तो म्हणतो हे देवाने यश पदरात टाकले.मला सांग दैव श्रेष्ठ कि मेहनत?

         मला वाटले कि याची पुरती बोलती बंद होणार, पण त्याने जे उत्तर दिले ते एकुन मी अवाक झालो.बोलती बंद त्याची नाही तर माझीच बोलती बंद झाली.

           त्याने उत्तर दिले, तो म्हणाला मला सांगा तुमचे बँकेत सेफ डिपॉजीट चे लॉकर आहे? त्या लॉकरला दोन चाव्या असतात एक तुमच्याकडे आणि एक बँक मँनेजर कडे. लॉकर उघडतानां त्या दोन्ही चाव्या लॉकर ला लावाव्या लागतात तरच तो लॉकर उघडते अन्यथा नाही.बरोबर ना? मी म्हणालो बरोबर, पण याचा भी विचारलेल्या प्रश्नाचा काम संबंध?

            तो म्हणाला जसे बँक लॉकरला दोन चाव्या असतात तश्याच आपल्या मानवास नियतीने दोन चाव्या दिल्या. एक मेहनत चावी ती आपल्या पाशी असते तर दुसरी नशीब (दैव) चावी ही त्या परमेश्वरा पाशी असते. 

          आपण आपली चावी यशाच्या लॉकरला लावून द्यायची, जेव्हा परमेश्वर त्याकडची चावी यशाच्या लॉकरला लावेल तेव्हाच आपले यशाचे लॉकर उघडेल अन्यथा नाही.

          यशा साठी मेहनत व नसिब या दोन्ही चाव्या आवशक आहे त्या शिवाय यशाचे द्वार उघणार नाही.

मानवाने मेहनत करता करता त्या परमेश्वराचे सतत नामस्मरण करत राहावे. तरच त्याला यश मिळेल,अन्यथा नाही. नुसती मेहनत करूनही उपयोग व नुसती भक्ती करुन उपयोग नाही.

         यश मिळवण्यासाठी मेहनत व भक्ति दोन्ही आवश्यक आहे.

Puns of the desi kind!

These are written by an Indian:

1. "Mujhe ek ghante se auto nahi mili, shayad bhagwaan meri paRICKSHAW le raha hai"

2. "My body is in office, but my mind is SOMVAR else" #Monday Blues

3. "I am feeling too lazy to meet my friends. AALSI them later"

4. "Son: Rum Piyoge? 

Dad: Oye puttar 'Bacar'di gal na kar"

5. "If you eat fiery garlic pickle before class, you'll learn a valuable Lehsun"

6. Weight loss frustration... "Pran jaaye par wajan naa jaye"

7. Saw a line of Hyundai Sonatas parked on an empty road.

Asked someone there "itna sonata kyu hai bhai"

8. If Johny Depp does Devdas, there'll be Jack's Paro

9. A daughter is the perfect child.

A son is just a Beta version

10. When in Chennai, many North Indians wonder..

"Ye kaahan aa gaye hum, yoo hee south south chalte"

11. She is Libra I am Leo humari Jodi kuch gemini

12. Decided to go to a Italian restaurant kyunki woh ghar ke PASTA

🤓

Careful..You are being spied!!

In every movement of yours, every swipe of your rewards/loyalty card, every transaction of your credit card you are being tracked on the purchasing pattern from stores and online portals. We never get the slightest clue that our likes are being recorded and we are indirectly directed towards similar promotional ads for which we often land ourselves surprised and lost how the stores exactly know what we like. This video is the best example of how retail stores today know everything about us!

Patanjali Effect!

This is hilarious!! The fake promotional ads for all Patanjali products are ultimately marketing them against their competitors. The so-called "effects" are just perfect to sell the launched product!

DBC

We joined the Deakin Badminton Club about two weeks back and we are thrilled to be a part of it! The members play every Thursday and Sunday for about two-three hours. Most of them are professionals and its a honour to see them play as well as be a part of their game. I enjoy witnessing mens doubles the most. While watching their game they look to be flying around covering the entire court with swift moves! Each point is a challenge and leaves the spectators anxious as to who will win.

We got our T-shirts today and look forward to dress up alike the Badminton Deakinites for our next play!

Creative Artworks

Some nice art work that I recently came across!

Ramnavmi 2016

To celebrate the auspicious day of Shri Ramnavmi we went to the Vinayak temple which has been established in the 1960's and is the oldest Hindu temple in Australia! It felt just like attending a marriage ceremony with live traditional instruments playing in the background and everyone dressed up in beautiful silk saris and kurtas!

The idols were decorated in colorful flower garlands and their pretty sight submerged everyone in the aura of devotion. There were people present in huge numbers to offer their prayers and it was indeed a great feeling to be a part of them!

The positivity in the premises felt soothing and highly refreshing that kept me glued there for long.

Its a small world!

We have had instances where we meet our distant friends many years later or unexpectedly through some friend's friend! We often come across such incidences happening around us.

While shopping last week, the shampoo we picked up had been manufactured at Chakan,Pune. It was a surprise for me to discover that the product was made near Pune. It promptly resulted in a personal connection for an unexpected context!

Afterall, its a small world!

Dream House

One of the real estate agents posted a house for sale recently which keeps occuring as suggested posts on my social media platform. Inspite having visited the page, its elegant architecture attracts me to view it multiple times!

The plot size is huge with spaciously built rooms, backyard with a swimming pool and and a terrific interior design.

The only comment each and everyone has jotted down below this image on social media is "This is 'THE DREAM HOUSE' I could ever have!"

Desi Ghee

My attempt of making ghee was successful yesterday after giving few repeated efforts earlier. I could obtain exactly the same taste and texture of ghee that is prepared in our houses back in India.

Its flavourful aroma is tempting me to cook something where I can use my homemade ghee!

Tray of Truss

We got a tray of truss tomatoes yesterday. They look beautiful with their stalk and we actually dont feel like cooking them! These tomatoes are more sour than the usual ones and have a slightly different taste. 

Its fun to pick up trays/crates of veggies for us as we dont get to do that often with just two consumers in the house! 

Resemblance

We visited Anusha and Viswesh today and felt content to see the baby and mom doing well and all settled down in their new routine. As we played with Anvitha, I wondered whom she looked like especially with her tiny curls! Anusha's mom showed me Anusha's childhood pic and it was evident that baby is a photocopy of her!

Soo cute and chubby! It was an evening full of excitement for us to play with the baby whose constantly changing expressions warmed our hearts!

If we were in the car today?

As one of our weekend chores, we left to do laundry at the usual laundry depot. Generally after we set our wash cycle we wait in our car till the wash and dry is done. But today we thought of finishing some other works (as there were many pending) in the nearby suburbs.

After a span of 30 mins, as we were approaching the depot to change the clothes to the drier, we saw three police cars, one ambulance and a tram with its caution lights on. The road was no longer open for vehicles. Initially we thought it might be some issue with the tram but as we walked to the laundry station we saw a scary and horrible scene.

A car had run over another one soo badly that it tumbled upside down and pushed the parked car on the footpath. Looking at the condition of the car we thought there were no chances of survival but fortunately the driver came out safely even after such a major crash. It seemed that the driver drove at a very high speed and misjudged the road causing this accident. 

It is exactly the same spot where we park our car for laundry. Had we been there today, I dont know what would have happened! Inspite not seeing the accident we were in a state of shock just imagining 'if we were sitting in the car today???!' entire night!

Heights of Expectation!!

Scanning through job ads and the role requirements on job boards has become a daily grind for me. As I was busy doing this today, one of the ads posted said :

I read this and was thinking what has that requirement specification got to do with a IT job role. Out of the blue it appeared there and scared me away from the advertisement (I actually imagined the office dog!)

Behind the scenes (Anniversary Photoshoot)

The photoshoot that we did for capturing our first anniversary pic was epic and comic! As we currently don't own a stand to mount our camera it was more of a click-and-run business for either of us before the timer went off . The max time setting of 10 secs seemed highly insufficient to run and settle down in our place. We took uncountable shots and felt miserably tired because: sometimes one of us closed our eyes, forgot to smile or gave a brittle smile, captured too much of the background than focussing on us, stood exactly between the shadow of a tree, camera suddenly changed its angle (result of no proper base) , winds bothered our hair and so on... 

It was absolutely crazy! At each moment we felt we want a SLR with a stand 'RIGHT NOW'. But the next moment we also realised had we got all equipment and a good camera we wouldn't have created these funny moments & memories which would make us smile later when we look at these pics! Maybe in the coming years when we have a stand, the fun in clicking these photos would drastically reduce!

This pic came out perfect but we dint hold the photo frame in this one! Some photos come out great unintentionally!

Royal Botanic Gardens, Part-2

We covered the entire stretch of the Botanic Gardens on Sunday evening.

The layout of the garden with beautiful  lakes,plantation of various plant species available across different continents and the green lawn running all over was a pleasing sight one could ever wish for! We enjoyed the herb garden,bamboo forest,tropical glasshouse, australian forest walk, fern gully, palms and camellia collection. 

It took us almost three hours to see every corner of the garden which made our weekend evening well spent.

Fun Ride

We often go for an automated car wash and its experience is nothing less than a combination of an amusement and simulator ride! No sooner does the wash start, u get virtually soaked in water and soap. It takes you forward, backward with a light bumps and shakes from either sides! Once the car has been washed, it jets wax and then dries it all over. Its soo much fun to be in there for those seven minutes!

For the sake of this kitchen gadget

It was long back that got a Gits Jalebi Mix pack just because we wanted to get this disposer. And since we got it, I dint make jalebi's even once (its very rightly said that you lose the importance of a thing once you get it!)

Today I decided to try it out and it was more of an excitement pouring the batter in round spiral jalebis than eating them!

Tones and Tints

In our visit to Eureka Skydeck, we were trying to capture some cool pics from the seating area of the deck. The deck had a series of coloured flash lights that kept beaming through giving every photo a different look! The drastic changes in the background colour for every spilt second gave a weird composition to the image and kept us confused whether we have liked it or not!

This chunk of dissatisfaction led to flooding my camera roll with too many images at the same place but in varied tones and tints! 'Some silly moments make you smile sometime later' could be the best to describe this!

 

A visit to Williamstown

We drove off to a suburb which lies on the outskirts of Melbourne called Williamstown. Its located along the beach and gives a complete view of port Melbourne from the other shore. There were many luxury liners, vessels and ferries docked there. We also could see the mesmerising view of Melbourne city!

The West Gate bridge which connects the east of the city to the west offered a nice sunset view straight from our car. Nothing more we could wish for after experiencing the sight. 

A short fun drive to end friday evening!