And the Most Farcical Awards are…

Couple of days ago, I was browsing through the NDTV website when I came across something called the ‘GR8 Women’s Achievers  Awards’. These were new to me but apparently Kelvinator has given them for the last 2 years. I was browsing through the photos of the event to see who got the awards….some inspirational stories maybe?…stories of women who achieved something against all odds…who contributed positively to our society…?NO! But who do I end up seeing…Aishwarya Rai, Sushmita Sen, Bhagyashree (yup..the one from Maine Pyar Kiya), Diya Mirza (she’s every where these days), Yuktha Mookhey, Aarti Chabria, Zarine Khan etc in their beautiful sarees showing off their blouses and some in their skimpy clothes showing off their well-toned abs and yea..how can I forget….Shabana Azmi..she’s all things feminist isn’t she?

I was so disappointed…there was no one who I could admire, who actually contributed something to our society. Did Kelvinator conviniently ignore people like Dr. Sunitha Krishnan, the founder of Prajwala and many other women who are aplenty in our country? Do GR8 Women Achievers all have to be bollywood starlets? Dr Sunitha Krishnan, the founder of an NGO called Prajwala, who was gang raped at a young age fought back her horrors to become a psychiatrist and help children who are severely abused and sometimes sold and trafficked. Isn’t she inspirational to other women? Isn’t she deserving of this award?

What exactly have the bollywood startlets achieved may I ask? Most of them were models before they became actors or progeny of stars. They get paid crap load of money for their work…live in posh homes, drive extremely comfortable cars and dress in designer labels. For me, a GR8 Achiever is someone like Dr. Sunitha Krishnan…who is ACTUALLY doing something good for our society against all odds.

She is the only one I can think of now but this doesn’t mean there is no other woman in our country who is helping another. I am sure you will find one in every street corner. Such awards should carry some value…give it to people who really deserve them, to encourage them, to motivate them, to recognise their efforts and to show to the world what they do so that their organisations/NGO’s get the much-needed support. It doesn’t matter if you don’t give these awards to actors, they will still be fine…they won’t be missing out on anything. Who will it be next yr? Katrina, Kareena, Deepika etc?

Shame On You Kelvinator and the GR8 Women’s Achievers Awards panel!

How to Make Strawberry & Raspberry Jam

My very dear friend R made some Blackcurrant jam a while ago. We recently ran out so I decided to make some of my own. It is very easy and everyone can make some. I decided to make some Strawberry & Raspberry Jam. Strawberries were bought from a local super market and I had some frozen Raspberries.

Ingredients:

• Strawberries (coarsely chopped) – 1 Mug (A Coffee Mug)
• Raspberries (coarsely chopped) – 3/4 Mug
• Sugar – 1 Mug (add more if necessary)
• Lemon Juice – 2 Tbsps

Method:

• Add the finely chopped Strawberries and Raspberries to a non-stick pan and mix for few minutes.
• Now add the lemon juice and sugar and mix well.
• Keep mixing on medium flame until the berries become soft and bubbles start appearing.
• Now reduce the flame and keep mixing, making sure the mixture hasn’t hardened.
• Once the mixture reaches the consistency of Jam, turn off the flame and let it cool for a bit. Do not over cook the mixture. Try to keep it mildly liquidy as it will solidify when left out to cool.
• Transfer it to a clean air-tight bottle.

Tips:

• Do not let the berries boil until the mixture becomes hard. It has to be loose and you should be able to easily transfer it to a bottle. If it does turn out hard, just heat the jam a little bit before using.

(OK..before you think I took a picture of some ready-made jam…let me tell you that I did not have any fancy jam bottles so had to re-use with an old one 😦

Update 1

Broken Camera

Lost Memory Card and Camera Cover

Shed 3500 bucks for repair and no memory card yet….

A wonderful start to my new year!

A Post and a New Avtar

I know I know…I said I was back…and then I vanished 😀 But I just couldn’t get myself to write…there wasn’t much going on or anything except for me being lazy…but hey…I’ve seen some wonderful things happening during my break from blogging…and one of them being Barack Obama winning the US elections. How wonderful is that? I do not expect him to bring any drastic changes to the world (and neither do I live in the US) but just the fact that a black man (or a mixed race man) could make it to the White House sounds exciting. History turns full circle and makes us believe that if you have the will, anything’s possible. 

If I am not wrong…it’s been a year since I started this blog. It survived for 365 days which is shocking 😉 I’ve never dedicated myself to anything for so long. Even though I ditched my blog for some other stuff in life, it always managed to pull me back…and mostly because of the lovely comments people leave. Keep ’em coming!!

Life’s changed for the good after moving. Made some wonderful friends, social life’s fantastic, fantastic restraus nearby, great sights but weather as always has been crap!!!! Nevertheless, I am trying to see the positives in life…and I shall continue to do so 😀

I’ve updated my photoblog too…do take a look 🙂

Ciao 🙂

Housewives and Blogging

I blamed myself unnecessarily for not updating my blog regularly. Don’t think it’s my fault really. I was chopping vegetables today when I had one of those ‘Bodhi Tree’ moments. I realised that the reason for not being able to blog regularly was due to the amount of work at home. Not that I cook alot or do household chores daily…but the minimal work I do keeps me very much occupied…and now that spring is here…time seems to pass very quickly indeed.

I  go on walks with friends…so that keeps me occupied for the second half of the afternoon. I was telling my uni mate the other day that I founded this walking club called the Two Mile Ash South Indian Married Women’s Walking Club and I registered it with the Council and she believed me! ROFL!! 😀

This post is dedicated to all those married women…esp Asian…who do not think that the meaning of being married is just cooking, cleaning and bearing kids but also about spending time on the things we like…be it anything…blogging, photography, dancing, painting, driving etc (incidently, I happen to love the first three 😀

Some Sad NEWS: A Telugu girl was murdered last night by burglars at her University Accomodation. She was a student of Physiotherapy at Uni of Wolverhapton. If sources are to be believed, it was an attempted burglary gone wrong. She hails from Vijayawada. My heart goes out to the family. Jyothirmayi (the victim) came to the UK to study…just like I did some 7 yrs ago. Two other students who were with her at that time were seriously injured.

Okhay…gotta go! Walk time 😀