Culinary Disasters!!

Experiences of a first time cook in the kitchen.

Culinary disasters!!
‘The way to a man’s heart is through the stomach’ they say, true, but I would like to add the way to a woman , child or anybody’s heart will follow the same route… Indeed a satiating meal, followed by a scrumptious dessert will make anybody happy.

So, as a new bride, setting up a kitchen and whisking up a palatable meal, posed as huge challenge to the then 23 year old me. I was always my Mother’s helping hand in the kitchen, yet I was never truly interested in the goings on. Only when the responsibility of setting up home and hearth descended upon me, did I realize the missed opportunities. Many will identify with the beginning of my culinary journey that I will share with you now.

 (There are exceptions to the likes of me though-people like my mother and brother have an inherent talent for conjuring up delicious fare from
the simplest of ingredients.)
Neo-matrimony is, well….spicy and tasting (testing, pun intended)time for patience and taste buds alike.
 Married five months, we purchased our OTG and I was more than
eager to try out or rather repeat all the baking I had assisted my mother with. Hubby dear was gone for a month in another town with some official business. His colleague and  a dear friend of ours, was to join him for work there. What better opportunity than this, I thought, to send some homemade cake for hubby.

I set to work with the most basic, tried and tested cake I used to bake. Feeling rather proud about putting the food processor to use as against the manually operated egg-beater in my mother’s kitchen. 'It’ll all be done in a jiffy', I thought pleased as I was placing the cake dough in the OTG. When the set-alarm rang I was expecting a golden brown fluffy cake to be ready. But alas!it was but a spectacle of ruins in my OTG!!

Just then the  door bell rang  too! I opened the door to find hubby’s friend,who had come to pick up the goodies. Now, our residence being a 1BHK, the OTG was in the living room and to my horror the transparent door of the OTG, displayed an inflated grotesquely cracked pancake!!
Our friend walked up straight to this horror and remarked.” Not bad for a first try…this is the first time I’ve seen a moon-crust cake!!” So saying he proceeded to cut a slice from the piping hot disaster, like a cordon bleu proclaimed, ”hmm… ok, look, why don’t make something else for him, my departure has been postponed, I’ll be flying out tomorrow. I’ll come again in the evening”. Yet he polished off some more of the thing and left. His comments only added insult to injury… I was devastated, how could my tried and tested recipe not have worked out?!!
I gathered my wits and started afresh, chiding myself at having wasted so much of sugar and flour… this time I around I wasn't the complacent ‘I bake flawlessly’ proud. Paying attention to detail, I baked a heart shaped cake and it came out perfect… I felt relief. I had baked a perfect cake in my own Kitchen, without anybody else’s assistance WOW!

 But my joy was short lived… our friend-the courier, spread the news about the 'MOON crust' cake that I had baked to other colleagues, and Lo! all of them with their spouse in tow, started trickling into our flat to taste the disaster or ‘new-kinda moon cake’ as they were all calling it! I wanted to wring this courier-friend’s neck at that point of time!!!

Now, I couldn’t have laid out that disaster to be sampled by the crowd. Very hesitatingly and sadly I brought the heart shaped cake. It was welcomed with “OOhs-AAhs” accompanied by jibes about being in the ‘extended honeymoon period'. I felt like my heart was being sliced out as each person cut a piece out of that heart shaped cake! Stop being melodramatic I told myself… They all must have guessed my state of mind and did not eat any more than half of the cake. I packed the rest and handed it over to the friend. Thankfully the friend did not go around hunting for the original ‘moon-crust’ disaster,my secret was safe.He then quipped,"hey what incentive do I have ? I’m only a courier? I’ll eat a bit of it too en route".
I wasn't one to be bothered by this statement, given that the cake no longer retained its romantic shape. But I realized that my anger for the friend had dissipated too. 
Even Though I was busy at office myself, evenings were lonely and with hubby away for a month all these people brought in cheer laughter and gossip too Their teasing and ragging felt good, a sense of belonging to a fraternity.

 It has been 15 years since that episode and I now bake and ice colourful theme cakes on demand from my kids and others and when people praise them, I remember my first baking disaster and
feel blessed. Thank God for perseverance and patience and encouragement  from friends and family, I could achieve what I had only dreamt of.

SOLDIER- SAVIOUR

While writing a  review of ‘Man  of Steel’ it suddenly  struck me  that the title is appropriate for  our personnel in uniform who have steely dedication and warm hearts as they rescue thousands from  the fury of nature in Uttaranchal. They are working  round the clock, planning rescue strategies by night and  implementing them in the day, as the weather permits.
Ignoring their personal safety, braving adverse weather conditions, personnel of India's uniformed forces have been racing against time to save lives in devastation-hit Uttarakhand, driven by a sense of purpose and motivated by the hope in the eyes of the hapless survivors.

Rescue operations
Personnel of the Indian Army, the Indian Air Force (IAF), ITBP, Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and NDRF have been toiling in the Badrinath and Kedarnath regions and some other upper reaches of the mountainous state to rescue thousands of pilgrims stranded due to flash floods that have hit the area.

According to media releases a group of 101 persons, including 21 children, were safely evacuated by the special operations C-130J aircraft, on June 20, 2013. This aircraft is customized for covert special operations and is capable of landing at makeshift and short runways. The IAF has so far flown around 150 sorties and evacuated over 1,400 people from places, including the worst-affected Kedarnath-Gaurikund axis. IAF Mi-17 transport helicopters flying continuously rescued foreign tourists and Indian civilians from the Gangotri area at Dharasu in Uttarakhand state on June 22, 2013.

Relief & rehabilitation efforts

 The  efforts  by  the  Indian  personnel in  uniform  are manifold as is evident  as  more reports  of  rescue and relief efforts come in. The rescue over,  focus then shifts towards tending to the  injured and  helping the evacuees re-establish contact  with their  families and  sending them back home safely.

Military helicopters have been dropping emergency supplies  to thousands of people stranded by flash floods.

The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), has set up camps at various places to provide food, medicine and shelter to those affected. The Indian Army has launched what could be one of the biggest human rescue operations ever in the country, in Uttarakhand. It has been carrying out reconnaissance to examine the feasibility of making a larger helipad at Gagaria on Hemkund Sahib axis so that large number of people can be evacuated using MI-17 helicopter. Efforts are also underway to repair the bridge over Alaknanda between Govindghat and Ghagria on Hemkund Sahib road.

 The Army has opened road up to Uttarkashi after clearing 16 landslides. Communication nodes have been established at Gaucher, Harsil, Joshimath and Rudraprayag to enable people to contact their families. 30 Satellite phones have so far been inducted, 20 more are likely to be inducted for use by stranded pilgrims. Medical personnel of the Indian Defence Forces are tending to patients at a make-shift field hospital that tore through towns and temples in northern India and neighbouring Nepal.

We as  a nation are still coming  to terms  with the aftermath of  this  natural calamity. The role of  utmost importance  played by the  defence personnel has come to the fore yet  again. The same set of  people  whom we, the  general  public  remember only on national holidays. Many a times we debate  about the need of maintenance and upgradation of the forces. It would  be  unfair  to  remember them only now, in face of this adversity.  The routine tasks that they carry out as they guard our  borders, in extreme climatic conditions and  treacherous  terrain  on  a  daily  basis are  just as laudable. Kudos to these people in uniform!

 

 

Review- Man of Steel

The Warner Brothers come back vehicle “Superman Returns” (2006) failed to create  a sensation at the box office. In a  renewed effort  for the Kryptonian hero’s return they hired “Dark Knight” miracle-worker and producer Christopher Nolan and writer David Goyer hoping to create magic  at the  cash  registers. The  attempt has  been partly  successful in terms of terrific action sequences and the  conventional yet  convincing origin and journey of ‘Superman ’from Krypton to the Earth.

What is new this time is the  extent  to which the  troubled mind of the hero is delved into, his  inner turmoil in coming to terms with his  superpowers has been presented in a realistic manner. Events move back and forth through Clark Kent’s difficult childhood, his troubled adolescence, and his seemingly aimless young adulthood. Kevin Costner’s portrayal of the friendly non-interfering modern American  dad, guiding superman  through  his dilemma  is very natural and doesn’t seem like ‘acting’ at all. Also Costner’s protective streak as the father who wants to save his  son’s  prowess from the public eye, lest he come to harm is very understandable.

  Diane Lane as Clark’s adoptive mother is endearing and  natural in her performance. She comes across as how a tough and loyal farm wife would be in reality. She too, like her husband supports their strange, adoptive son helping him find his way.

Lois Lane played by Adams is again a realistic personification of  the nosy reporter, her inquisitive streak intact as in the comic books, albeit a little closer to reality than before.

 Coming  back to story, the change of mind  of earthlings have  towards  Superman, the debate in their minds , their doubts of  this ‘alien’  creature with  super powers & their gradual acceptance of him as a fellow galactic  being  have  been presented well.

What must have stolen many a  heart (apart fromCavill’s  looks) was a bit of humour  in places, like Superman  allowing himself to be handcuffed to see Lois Lane in prison. Personally for me, the ‘non-homo-sapien’- Supeman’s take on human  psychology  was very close to reality …while  he  admitted that Zod was untrustworthy, human beings were highly unreliable as  well. So true!

  The cinematography retains a  young watcher’s interest  initially, especially superman testing his prowess after revelation of Kal-el’s  journey and arrival to the Earth by Jor-El’s image.  Later during the heavy fight and action sequence however, the subtlety of the previous series is lost. It  gets buried beneath the film’s spectacular CGI special effects. Some of those scenes seemed horrifyingly similar to those of 9/11. The story loses grip because not only do the  special effects become  repetitive, but also these heavy dose devastation packed action sequences leave one drained. The mind-numbing destruction overstays its welcome. Ultimately, one  wonders that if the villain General Zod’s end was such an  easy accomplishment for Superman as wringing the neck of rag-doll, why were the human beings in the story & audience outside subjected  to the endless wait for good to emerge  over  evil!!

It is a film  with decent special effects but prolonged  and repetitive  scenes. Happy watching for the  die-hard ‘Superman’ fans, as for the others who have a choice, please go in for the  movie  running  at the  other screen. Patience is the password for parents of die-hard superman-fan kids to endure this imagery of  destruction!