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.

Weekend headaches!

My college conducts an annual intercollegiate event called "Jhankar". This year jhankar theme was comic-on. This is the only moment my college looks like co-ed. So, there will be lots of events, competitions, music, stalls, advertisements, gossips, etc. Unfortunately, I did not have the freedom to choose the event I want to attend. My department made my class people to sit for a classical music event yesterday and said it was "compulsory attendance" So, I reached college with disinterest, music was banging through the speakers, girls outside the college waiting or checking their phones furiously and I was searching for my classmates to ensure whether I am the only soul who ended up sincerely to the event. Then, I gave my attendance to my faculty and walked to fifth floor using stairs. The stairs are normal, simple, and easy to use. But when it comes to reach 5th floor using stairs it is like a task which I would trade for anything. 

I was tired as hell after reaching fifth floor. There is this tiny auditorium into which I entered. I sat in the last bench where my classmates were seated behind my faculty members. Even though my faculty sat on the last corner of the auditorium, they made us to shift to the front. And I ended up sitting in the front middle side where there will be constant eye contact from contestants on the stage. Then they took some roll call of the contestants who were present. To my surprise there were only 6 contestants who participated. I am neither a fan nor enemy of carnatic music. So, I don’t hate or have interest to listen to them singing.

All of them brought a shruthi dabba (Music box), adjusted the microphone, some did mike testing and then sang. One contestant sang a Telugu carnatic song in which a phrase had this word "Bro" in it. This word was so funny; I and my friend could not control our laughter. I tried to bite my tongue, close my mouth with hands, close my eyes, etc nothing worked we were smiling like idiots throughout her song. Then the judges came and announced the winners. Hearing Brahmin slang of Tamil after long time is divine. Later, I went down to ground floor by stairs. Going down the stairs is the easy part unless you get slipped and get hurt. Then, my friend gave me a ride back home. 

I was so happy that the session I wanted to miss ended soon and I reached home to take lots of rest. My Karma had another plans. My aunt from U.S. came to India after a long time to see her sister (My mom). Suddenly, I had to be adhering to etiquette and all. My mom and aunt decided to go somewhere outside. They discussed for a while and thought of going to Besant nagar beach. Guess who ended up going along with them? "Me!" My dad was busy with his shop, my brother had tuition and I had nothing to do. So, we all walked till the bus stop and took "5E" (Bus number). I had a distant memory that this bus goes to Besant nagar beach. I took three tickets to Besant nagar and waited for a free seat to sit. Then, we reached the church area of the Besant nagar. We walked towards the beach, ate panniyaram/puluntalu/ Fried fermented rice batter with coconut and tomato chutney. They both gossiped for a while. We walked in the sand and came across fish stalls. We ordered a plate of Nethili (Fried spicy fish). 

Again, we walked for a while saw the waves of the ocean. Then, we all returned to the bus stop. We waited for so long that we believed that we were on the wrong bus stop. My aunt and mom were so tired they even went to take an auto but the auto people charge too much amount. We waited and waited at last the bus arrived. People were cramming to get in and get out of the bus due to its delay. We got in and were wishing the bus moves soon. I was glad that my mom and aunt got seated. I wanted to get down of the bus as soon as possible. There was a drunken man seated in front of me, a guy shouting about his life blunders, etc. We got down thankfully without becoming retarded. 

Today, I had Interdepartmental event for Jhankar. I helped my friends who were participating in the Junk art. My department theme was superman. So, we were thinking ideas how to portray superman from junk. 

This was the one they presented in the "Junk art" competition

We saw the judges dancing for a song. The day went well. I took a bus and reached home to a view of intensely conversing sisters (my mom and aunt). Now, ended up with Headache due to lack of rest and change in my routine weekend life. Headaches can be normal or special or uninvited. But weekend headaches are the worst. Hope you guys had a nice weekend!