Vishu Ashamsagal!

Shubo Nobho Borsho!

I love special occasions like these, that’s also the only time that my mom treats me to some goodies. Atleast, the menu is different from the normal course.

You start the feast by chewing on a little of the Bitter-Sweet Pachadi. It is symbolic of life’s ups and downs and emphasizes that we must enjoy everything, be it bitter, sour or sweet.

Main course: Mango Rice
This is one of my favourite’s in the rice section. Its flavour is enhanced by the fact that the dish makes it bi-annual appearance. Once on the 14th of April and another, whenever my mom feels upto it!

Accompaniment: Urad Dal Vadas or Parupu Vadas.
Crispy fried vadas. You can either have them as an accompaniment, or marinate the vadas in curd and have dahi vadas!

Dessert: Coconut Kheer (Coconut payasam)
You can have the kheer either warm or chilled. It’s simply mindblowing.

The recipes are available on my recipe blog.

I also made it a point to share some of this great stuff with AFJ today and her folks loved it as well. Call it the spirit of Christmas if you will, but nothing beats the joy of giving or sharing. It leaves you with a good feeling. I also headed for the temple and on my way out, saw a sad looking beggar girl. It broke my heart to see her crouching in her dirty clothes on New Year’s Day. Since I dint carry enough money with m, I could only get her a biscuit pack.

Life is constantly teaching you something or the other. Everything around you is momentary. The rich may one day become poor and vice-versa. Or you may be perfectly fine today and lose a limb tomorrow. So why waste precious moments indulging in unnecessary things? Remember the old familiar rhyme..

Row, row
Row your boat
Gently down the stream
Merrily Merrily Merrily
Life is but a dream!