Good old meat-chawal

Mutton curry served with steaming rice and accompanied by tangy salad conjures of images of lazy Sunday lunches spent as a child. Mutton shops having skinned bakras (goats) hanging (not the fancy stores like today) would have a line of waiting Sunday revellers ordering just the pieces they wanted - raan, putt, macchli, kalegi, keema, gurdae- kapurey, or my favorite - champ (chops)! Mutton thus bought is washed and then cooked over a slow flame, the aromas wafting across the kitchen and emanating into the other rooms.

Its a great, zestful and satisfying curry best served with garam garam rotis (tawa or tandoori) or jeera pulao or even steamed rice. Onion and cucumber rings tempered with lemon, salt and red chillies is a favorite accompaniment in most Punjabi homes. My recipe is a hand me down from my mother and her's. Its a simple recipe and there are also several simple and delicious variations to it. I'll talk about the different varieties of the same basic recipe too. You can make mutton saag wala, methi gosht, rogan josh, rahra mutton just by substituting or adding some ingredients. The basic and sure-shot hit curry needs :
Fresh mutton (preferably from the leg and including chops) 750 grams
Whole masala - cinnamon (2-3), bay leaf (1 ), black and green cardamoms (2-3 ), cloves(2) and jeera (cumin) (tea spoon full)
Vegetable oil - 2 table spoons
Sliced onions - 2 medium
Tomatoes chopped - 3
Ginger paste - 1 tea spoon
Garlic paste - 1 tea spoon
Curd - 1/2 cup
Pinch of turmeric and 2 tea spoons of coriander powder
Red chilly powder and salt - as per taste
Coriander leaves for garnish

Take a heavy bottomed pan and pour oil. Add whole masala and fry for a minute. add onions and fry them till golden brown. Put in the mutton fry till it changes colour and becomes light brown. Add the ginger and garlic pastes and continue the cooking for about 10 minutes more, adding little water whenever the mutton sticks to the bottom of the pan. The mutton will be totally integrated with the onions and the pastes by now. Add the tomatoes and keep on cooking. Remember all this has to be done on medium to slow flame. Add red chilly powder, turmeric and coriander powder. This is a great time to add salt too as the mutton is almost half cooked by now and has released its own juices. Keep the cooking process (Bhuno) on till the tomatoes are totally mushy and mixed with the rest of the ingredients. You should be getting a flavourful aroma by now! Beat the curd and mix well with the mutton. Add a cup of water and cook for 20 minutes more or till mutton is tender but firm. You could use the pressure cooker and give 1 whistle followed by 8-10 minutes on reduced flame.
Garnish with coriander and serve hot.

Saas- bahu syndrome

The one relation which in my opiion requires the maximum amount of compromising and heartburn in my opinion and probably more applicable in the Indian context is that between a wife and aher mother-in-law! I think this relationship assumes greater significance (based on how much of a mama's boy you've ended up with) in an arranged married set up,

What is it about this necessary relationship which makes it a difficult one to endure?

Its teacher's day tomorrow !

Charu and Meenakshi Ma'am with all children of Grade 1 A, Inventure Academy (10 Aug 2008)

I look forward to seeing you

when I come to school

you're an awesome teacher

I think you're very cool!

You're smart and nice and friendly

you're helping all of us

and if I got to grade you

I'd give you A+

Teachers and Parents

Partners
I dreamed I stood in a studio,

And watched two sculptors there.

The clay they used was a child's mind,

And they fashioned it with care.
One was a teacher;

the tools used,Were books and music and art.

One, a parent with guiding hands,A gentle and loving heart.
Day after day the teacher toiled,

With a touch both deft and skilled.

The parent labored side by side,

And all the values filled.
And when at last their task was done,

They looked at what they'd wrought.

The beautiful shape of the precious child,

Could neither be sold nor bought.
And each agreed it would have failed,

If one had worked alone.

For behind the parent stood the school,

And behind the teacher, home.
2 teach is
+ 2 touch lives
---------------
4 ever

Mummy you're yummy!

All my growing up years I've fattened myself on my mom's cooking ...from the regular rajma chawal which is a staple in any true blooded punjabi household to the Sunday mutton curry with garam tawa rotis, to the best cakes in the world, to what now seems so difficult - matthis, balushahis, gujias, gulab jamuns, besan burfi , namak pare, assortment of chutneys!! Mouth watering delicious!! Awesome and incomparable. And oh so taken for granted.

In those days there was no culture of take aways, ordering in or even eating out except on special occasions. So home food was what we had save the greasy school canteen grub or of course street food. Therefore my mother doled out all kinds of treats - fried, roasted, baked or plain simple stove cooked.
The kitchen was her kingdom (despite having a flourishing career in teaching and administering a school.), her domain and unquestionably her department.
So much so that I never entered the kitchen till the time I was married. Imagine my consternation when I looked blankly at the kitchen cabinets not being able to identify dals beyond yellow and black! Masalas were an enigma, cutting vegetables, kneading dough, mechanics of the erstwhile pressure cooker ...seemed daunting mysteries to me.
The first week after the honeymoon was traumatic in the kitchen - the milk would boil over or if I would put it on slow flame --would burn!! The Rajmas (my favourite!) would be under cooked, the masalas would be in excess - since I was clueless on quantity to be used. It was no solace to constantly hear from the husband and mother-in-law ''we just like home cooked food''.
By and by with mom's help and numerous frantic conversations (on phone and in person) spanning tips, detailed descriptions and practicalities I now am somewhere between a good and a great cook. My repertoire does not have time consuming, elaborate recipes like hers but recipes designed to succeed with my son and husband and selection of friends. My cooking is more contemporary and eclectic - more practical as in having fewer dishes to wash! I rustle up creamy pastas, tangy spaghetti, farfalle in pesto sauce, stir fries using assorted vegetables, sumptuous chicken dishes, fish and prawns sauteed or grilled,mutton rogan josh worth dying for, spicy chutneys, varied fried rice, pizzas, fluffy idlis and a fragrant and soothingly tasty halwa among lots more culinary gems!!

Sadly though nowhere in my list can I mention chappati - the simple phulka, the must have on any north Indian menu. Not to suggest that I haven't tried. I so have and so many times - using so many kinds of dough - fresh, refrigerated, hard, soft - but the perfect phulka still eludes me! Its not round - its doesn't blow up on the flame and its not light and soft! The pleasure of making naram naram garam garam rotis eludes me totally!

Grading for my star

After having talked to various mom's and reading on the net, and discussing it with a counsellor - I've designed a grading pattern for Rishab. I really don't want to structure and rate his day to day activities and behavioural pattern in this cold objective manner, but am hoping rather to involve him in evaluating himself. I hope to achieve an improvment in his overall behaviour and conduct in the class room. A sense of responsibility and adherence to a discipline is very important at this stage.

Not sure though, of the efficacy of this mechanism ...

Responsibility chart

Activity	Performance J«
School behaviour - completing class work, behaving with others, diary work
Special activity for the day (home or school)
Home work (Finishing well - speed and accuracy )
Washing up and snack
Reading at night
Practice work
Eating nicely, table manners

Excellent : 10 «

Very good : 7 «

Good : 5 «

Average : 3 «

Need improvement : Less than 3«

Special award : J J

Bad mom

Its so difficult being a mom...I could never have imagined it to be such a daunting task amd a unsatisfying one. We cannot seem to get through to each other ever! Am I expecting too much...is he finding it an enormous burden?? Am I destryoing his spirit, his yet to be formed personality? What is the right balance between being a guiding force and a forcing persona? How can we measure indulgence? Where can we draw the line...how to be gentle but firm??

Every now and then

Every now and then I feel low. Every now and then I feel on top of the world. Every now and then there's a vast amount of energy coursing down my veins but also every now and then there is a void that does'nt seem even half filled. Every now and then I do feel just about okay...tranquil, pleased and fulfilled. There is a mish mash of the emotions to such an extent that its almost impossible to classify them.
Is it normal to feel this way?