A lazy desi's guide to leaving home...

Dont be setimental!
definately no tears!
'cos whats beyond is better...
whats left behind is over
even if it is adorned ...
sometimes by a rainbow :)

the view from my window in bergstrasse .....
home in the fields (or should i say forest),
here i come ...

A lazy desi's guide to shifting...

How many lazy desi's does it take to shift ? None ... 'cos even a billion of them couldnt manage.

There is just way too much to do - cancel bills, change addresses, call up all the relevant people - telekom, GEZ, credit card, bank ... Add three rounds of cleaning to it - enough to satisfy german land ladies and real estate agents . I remember my mother's cleaning routines - she was armed with a whole entourage of people to help her and I am armed by a whole retinue of cleaning agents - no, not robots or sci-fi humanoids but not so plain and not so simple, not just cleaning fluids ... the queen of the lot if the "Scheuermilch" ... just a dab and it cleans! Then ofcourse there are the glassreinigers, sink-openers anti-kalks and carpet shampoos. But honestly, what is this is with germans (mainly middle aged and elderly) and their cleanliness fetish ...

Round three of cleaning starts on Wednesday .... Feel free to join in for a beginers course! Free admission to the course!

All this reminds me of house elves - do you think use magic or is scheuermilch powerful enough magic?


This is how heidelberg looks right now !!! Just enough snow and greyness to make shifting even more difficult. The static friction to get things done is way too high and the doing friction is pretty high too.

a lazy desi's guide to party cooking

Quiche---how much more french can it get!
made by an indian cook in a german kithen and add some greek feta - and its as international as it can get.
here is how i made it - the dough was kneaded (250g flour) with 1 spook oil, 1 spoon water, 1 spoon milk and 70 g butter. Ofcourse , the measures are just approximate. Fried the lardon(bauernsckinken) and added it to the creme fraiche, 2 eggs, 1 cup milk and onion rings and backe at level 5 (240 celcus) for 30 mins. The herb de provence sprinkled on top was the proverbial icing on the cake.
übrigens - the creme fraiche was substituted by quark and milk - and it works!
the spinach one was made by heating the spinach (gehackt) and added to 2 eggs, 1 cup milk, feta cubes and creme fraiche.
Apfelkuchen---i wonder why i can never cook from a reiepe.
the dough was made from a second hand very authentic A-Zreciepe book. Only haf the mixture was baked though(15 mins level 4/5). The apples were sliced and spread on the dough and the quark mixture poured on top to fill the spaces inbetween. Again only half the quark suggested by the reciepe was used. Baked at level 4 for 10 mins and poure the rest of the batter on top and continued baking at level 4 for 40 mins. Came out like a very nice layered cake.
Samosas---keema ones first.
Ground the cardamon, cinamon and cloves and fried them. Added the ground ginger,onins and garlic. Added the keema and peas. Stuffed in to blätterteig and baked. Were quite yummy!!!

More to follow ... when its less cold!

A lazy desi's attempt at europe travelling

Finally i had some real life experience at being a mother ... Serena, have you done your home work, Serena, have some salad, Serena dont say that, its impolite....More than all that, three hours of ice skating, baking and making chocoloate cakes, looking up the Kino schedule for Wallace and Gromit ... not to mention giving hugs .... its exhausting, challenging, fulfilling and definately out of the itinary for now!
Anyway ... what i decided to do (instead of eating keema and rice) is to post some pics on ....
so happy viewing ... while i do some "pet puja" .....


Starting from marseille, a drive along the coast got us to the city limits. From there
a walk along the calonques - follwing the black line .... and after just one wrong turn and a couple of slippery rocks, we reached this habour. It can be reached either by boat or by walking. A nice rocky beach where the sea gulls attached our slippers... and where i snorkelled for the first time in my life! After a few hours of swimming, some lazing in the sun rounded off by a drink of moresque, we started back for the city ... The day's delights were improved(?) increased(?) by the paanch mishali in the evening....


The same cove from another side...

Change of scene. change of city, change of country ....
Rowing along the canals in leiden ... actually the second time i have ever rowed in my life! the first ofcourse being in nanital - like all good delhites!!! We kidnapped some people from the banks, a fishing rod (returned it ofcourse) and landed on uncharted (?) territories (backyard of a friends house), and got chased (by the owner of the boat on a bike) and ...

A lazy desi's guide to Moresque

4 parts pastis
1 part sirop d'orgeat (almond syrup)
5 parts eau (ice cold water)




A perfect refreshing drink for a hot summer day!
The drink which brings back many memories - walks down the calonques, chatting, giggling, lots of swimming, some snorkelling and wonderful cold pastis ...

A lazy desi's first attempt at blogging!

Finally some tech-savy blogging!
I had been using my friends as blogs till recently - henceforth you will be the blog-victim ...

So a big thanks to every one reading this!

Some words of wisdom for my very first post - Sleep deep!