Horrible way to spend weekend!

Every college life is unfulfilled without assignments. Some assignments can be interesting but some are awfully tiring. Recently my class was split into four groups to organize an event to learn about event management. We had been planning, visualizing, rehearsing and working on our event assignment for a while. Social media apps can be a headache especially the group created always fights in the chat instead of discussing. Especially, the super annoying voice message option. My group thought of meeting near my college to finish or have some progress in our event assignment. One of my group members told me she will pick me up at a specific place. 

So, I was waiting at the place my friend mentioned for her to pick me up. I got bored and I leaned on to a black wall of a closed shop and waiting for my friend's call to know that she has arrived at the spot. I took headphones and was listening to radio. Some random guy who looked a bit illiterate started accusing me of standing in the middle of the footpath and was having the facial expression as if he has seen some offender. Logic wise I was far away from footpath and literally standing at the premises of a closed shop. No one had a problem suddenly this random guy passed some lewd comments on me and went off before I could talk. Irony was a traffic police officer was right in front of me and was least bothered about what is happening to the people around him. 

I was glad that was not some sort of molestation, rape or any other such incident. But I felt mentally naked by allowing that random guy's accusations enter into my head and spoil the day. If I did nothing wrong why should I be worried and feel sad? Lots of questions buzzed in my head. A mere senseless comment made me to consider not stepping outside the house again. I wondered how many women around the world being affected by this? Suddenly my friend came and picked me up. We spoke about the event details and I forgot about that horrible incident. The event which we were doing was about post wedding reception. We were preparing props, decor, songs, dance moves, skit, and much more. We all became tired and thought of going home as important things are finished. The place was drizzling with raindrops. 

We were also assigned to bring sponsorship for my department's Intercollegiate and Conference for which deadline was Monday. I was worried I didn't get any sponsors yet so I went out with my friend to explore and grab at least one sponsor. We roamed throughout the offices of nungambakkam and came to the conclusion that on Saturday most people won't be present at offices and many are not interested in sponsoring to people who are not in their target segment. I was sad, tired, and sleepy and was in a hurry to return back to my friend who told me she will drop me near my home. While crossing the road, a bike Tyre went over my toes of my feet. The signal was red and that bike should have stopped but due to his negligence I may have been dead yesterday (27/08/2016). I was in statue mode, my friend who was beside me dragged me out of the place and we were walking again normally. We said our good bye and I reached home safely. 

I always tell whatever incidents happening in my life to my mom even though I clearly know she broadcasts about it and even exaggerates about it with others. I told how in the morning that guy emotionally and mentally screwed me and how I escaped a Hip replacement surgery in the evening. She started telling me idiots are there but I should have been more careful. And she told about this to my dad immediately and I regretted telling about it to my mom. My dad who did not listened to the whole story started accusing me that I should not obstruct footpaths and cross carefully. I cried. I cried till my eyes became dry and red. I was sad that no one was there for us to express our grief without being judged. 

Cooking with the unknown berry!

On Saturday i.e. 16 July 2016, I was having a pleasant carefree day. Until I saw a unknown small berries lying on a plate kept on the table. As you can see in the picture below, It was grape sized , wrinkled with perfect blend of red shades on it's skin. I asked my mom what it is? She said it was called vaakaya in Telugu and used to make pickles. 

That weird brown spots on my hand is mehendi.

It tasted like combination of amla/gooseberry and strawberry. My mom said she will be using the unripe ones for the pickle and throws off the ripen ones. But I did not want ripe ones to get thrown away so I decided to make a jam out of it. I once made mixed fruit jam. I guess I can experiment a little with this unknown berry sized fruit. I searched for recipes online but could not find much about it. Scientifically it is called as Carissa carandas and in English it is called cranberries. The fruit is rich in Iron and Vitamin C. Mature fruit harvested for pickles. It also contains pectin; So suitable to make jams, jelly, syrup and chutneys. (Info found from wikipedia ) 

I just took a recipe for karonda jam and began my work. When I cut it into halves, there was a green oval seed which I scraped off using the edge of the knife.

After, the mise en place of the berries, my palms were stained red. 

I guess it can also be used as best alternative for Artificial red food colouring!

So, I simmered the berries in water for 10 minutes until they became soft and permeated into the water.

Then, I filtered the mucilage, skin and pulp of the berries using a sieve to get it's extract. The extract was looking like vermilion or very bright red colour. 

I know it looks like a big magenta blob but the truth is that's how the extract colour looked.

Then, I added required amount of sugar to the extract in a saucepan. The sugar crystals mesmerizingly dissolved into the red extract.

 I heated this mixture and stirred continuously until the liquid gets a darker shade of red and more viscous. 

And I cooked till I got the right stage of consistency and wine red colour. I waited for a while until the bubbles were ceased and poured it into a clean glass jar. Later, kept this jar for refrigeration.

The jam turned out to be delicious because of the tartness of the fruit and sweetness of sugar  which harmoniously complimented each other. The Beautiful red colour remained the same. The spreadability was good. I guess sometimes doing the new things in life can be rewarding experience. In my case cooking with this unknown berry (Now known) rewarded me a delicious jam. Keep on exploring new things in life, you will either gain from it or learn from it.