Peek-a-boo !

The tricolor tends to rejuvenate the spirit of patriotism no matter where we are. I was mesmerized by the same feeling when I recently paid a visit to our Indian embassy on the occasion of Independence day. I had a great time there as I watched many Indians flock to the embassy as a small tribute to their passion for nationalism. I was much more surprised when a middle aged woman beside me was asking her 10 yr old son if he remembered the national anthem. Well, no comments about that :) People did make mistakes when they sang “Jana Gana Mana” but the sense of devotion towards India that persisted in the Hall was strong enough to overcome all such minor flaws. I was keenly attracted by a few Indo-Korean couples…it’s cute to watch the way they gelled amazingly. The Korean ladies were seen in Indian outfits which added to the cuteness!

The Indian Ambassador addressed the gathering and read out a few excerpts from President Mr. Abdul Kalam’s speech to the nation. Our president has framed a seven point Oath for the youth of India in a beautiful way. We took the Oath as the Ambassador read out to us. Here I am quoting the points again which are definitely worth a glance.

1. I realize, I have to set a goal in my life. To achieve the goal, I will acquire the knowledge, I will work hard, and when the problem occurs, I have to defeat the problem and succeed.

2. As a youth of my nation, I will work and work with courage to achieve success in all my tasks and enjoy the success of others.

3. I shall always keep myself, my home, my surroundings, neighborhood and environment clean and tidy.

4. I realize righteousness in the heart leads to beauty in the character, beauty in the character brings harmony in the home, harmony in the home leads to order in the nation and order in the nation leads to peace in the world.

5. I will lead an honest life free from all corruption and will set an example for others to adopt a righteous way of life.

6. I will light the lamp of knowledge in the nation and ensure that it remains lit for ever.

7. I realize, whatever work I do if I do the best, I am contributing towards realizing the vision of developed India 2020.

These points do sound simple but have much greater impact when put to use by each one of us. An excellent proposition from our President.

Ok…coming back to the my sweet little world, there haven’t been many adventures of late...I wonder why! Oh yeah…we are on an experimenting spree in the culinary section these days at our apartment. I should tell you about our Gulab Jamoon Saga (why a Saga…you will know now). It was the first time we were actually making it. And obviously the output…:P. Particularly, it was the sugar syrup that created the trouble. We started making the sugar syrup with some water and considerable amount of sugar. The sugar melted away easily, but we couldn’t figure the thickness in the liquid. So, we went on and on adding the sugar. It was too late before we realized that we had emptied about a KG of sugar in the process of preparing the syrup. Ahem….well, after that we fried the jamoons and put them in the semi-solid sugar paste which became hard (as hard as a rock) after cooling down. I must mention that the jamoons tasted real good except for the digging part to bring them out.
As part of fixing-the-bug procedure, we diluted the syrup again and shared the jamoons with our fellow Indians (yes….they are pretty much alive :D). The remaining syrup lasted till yesterday and was used to prepare coffee/tea/juice and yet jamoons again every weekend. Thanks to the microwave for helping us melt the rock down everytime!

To be precise, we elevated from the “how not to make jamoons” stage to “how to make mouth melting delicious jamoons” stage over a period of 2-3 weeks. Isn’t that a smart way of learning?