My favorite aloo ki sabzi (indian potato curry)

Here is the recipe of my favorite potato (aloo - pronounced as aaloo) curry (sabzi - pronounced as - subzee). I dont know why when we write Hindi words in English, we write it differently from how these are pronounced. I wonder why, when it would be so easy to write aloo as aaloo and have an English speaking person pronounce it right. But then there are quirks in languages everywhere. We wonder why some letters go silent in English, vowels in some words get more emphasized, in some others less.

But that is not the point of this. I was going to write the recipe, which I will patent soon. A rough draft is on the oven. But given the spirit of open source, you are free to modify and make it better. Here it goes.

- Boil 1/2 pound potatoes. Should be soft in the end. Peel the potatoes. Mesh potatoes so you get pieces of 1/2 inch size.
- Get 1 tbl spoon clarified butter (Ghee), 1 tea spoon cumin seeds (jeera), 1/2 tea spoon turmeric powder (Haldi), 1/2 tea spoon garam masala (dont have English equivalent of this, but it is basically a mix of cardamom, cinnamon, clove, bay leaves and some other), and 1/2 tea spoon chilli powder (laal mirch ), 1 tea spoon coriander powder. And 3 tbl spoon yogurt (dahi). And a few fresh mint/coriander leaves.
- Get a sauce pan which can hold 1 litre/quarts. Put it on burner (heating range), medium heat.
- When the pan is hot, put butter on it and let it get hot too. Put cumin seeds, turmeric powder and red chilli powder. Dont let it burn. Put yogurt on it and cook for 3 minutes. Put the garam masala and coriander powder and let it cook for 3 more minutes.
- Add 1/4 litre (about 1/4 quarts) water to it and let it go to one boil. Add potatoes. Add salt to taste. Let it cook for 5 minutes. Turn off the burner. Add fresh mint or coriander leaves. Cover the pan. Let it cool for few minutes.

This stuff goes great as soup or with non-leavened indian breads (roti, not naan).

My daughter Gauri

My daughter Gauri was born June 22, 2005 at Brigham and Women's hospital in Boston. Her arrival was an emotional moment. One of the kind I (we) had never experienced before. We now know the meaning of word 'joy'. It is indescribable at least for me a poetically challenged person. Though I am not sure, if words could ever do justice to this emotion.

Here is one of her photophraphs taken by her dear chichi (aunt) Mayura.

January 23, 2005

There was a severe winter storm in New England today. Over 24 inches of snow over night, which meant mountains of snow, carved like sand dunes due to gusty winds blowing all morning long. I tried taking pictures of my favorite tree in the backyard of my neighbor but the wind drifting snow all over the place made it hard. I have always liked this tree and have captured pictures of it in all seasons. Then there is a purple bench in our back porch which looks beautiful with undisturbed white snow on it. It looks as if it is wearing a snow cap. Streets were fun too with kids playing in the snow. I think I am going to have a lot of fun with my upcoming baby in the snow. Television showed interview of a kid who glowed talking about school closure (yes that much snow), and getting more time to have fun in the snow.

Rest of the day was filled with football interspersed with a movie "September 11,2001" and a television serial "Desperate Housewives". Football was great as our local favorites Patriots won and are now on way to another Super Bowl championship. Bill Bellichick, the coach, continues to baffle the opposing quarterbacks (in this case Ben Rothelsberger, rookie QB with Steelers) with his superb defensive tactics. Hopefully we will have another championship this year. That will be wild as Red Sox won the baseball championship after breaking 86 years of curse (we traded Babe Ruth after winning it the last time to Yankees to become cursed). The movie is a must see for anyone interested in looking at how other cultures perceive America, its policies and the grave human tragedy on September 11. The movie is a compilation of 11 short films by renowned directors from 11 countries in 5 continents who had full freedom of expression (it continues to exist). A director from western Africa captures imagination of a few schoolgoing children who think they have seen the Osama in the neighborhood and want to capture him so the award America has announced on Osama's head will pay for Aids, malaria, education. The kids also dont want to give the prize to the elders who they think are all corrupt. Disturbingly, they are all fearful of American atom bombs if their country does something to annoy the Americans. Unlike Michael ...'s one sided, half truth documentary on the events preceding and following the tragedy, this one does justice to the tragedy and depicts the human side of it.

After a long while I explored eBay today for Camera's and Camcorders. One can find almost anything there. I watched a few auctions and participated in one unsuccessfully. The moment I would put my bid, it would be outbid instantaneously. I certainly found it fishy so I called a few friends who have had some experience with eBay. My experience turned out to be not so uncommon. Anyway I am still holding out my hopes for an auction due to close tomorrow.

A report from pew.org was out today on search engine usage by web users. It is interesting but makes very obvious observations. Appears as if web search has become synonymous with google. I hope this term does not make it to the dictionary.

Lastly, after procrastinating for the whole day, I gathered enough strength to write the employment verification letter for my green card processing. After a few years into this process, I understand a little bit why people would rather jump the fence, run into the desert or pack themselves up in a container to come into the country of the free. Legal process is too cumbersome and needs one to have thousands of dollars to pay in lawyer fees.

At the end of the day, I got the best news of the day. Offices are closed tomorrow due to inclement weather. Hurray! More eBaying and Googling tomorrow.

Our baby's heartbeat...........

One of the most amazing moments in pregnancy is the first time you hear your child's heart beat. I was at the doctor's office on Monday for my 12th week appointment. Somehow, the last few weeks I had even starting doubting my pregnancy, mostly because I don't even have the typical pregnancy symptoms, no nausea etc....., I have been doing very well, infact overeating and putting on weight while all my friends had lost weight in their first trimester.
Pramod asked me if he should accompany me, it was I who said "No" as the appointment was at 1.30 in the day and I did not want to mess up his work day. I also highly doubted that we would be able to hear anything that early in pregnancy (again going by my friends' experiences). So, I was not expecting anything when the doctor started. But it was truely amazing, out of the world when I got to hear it. It was a very fast 'lub-dub' coming from my tummy............ that was our baby!!!!!
And then it got better, my doctor did an ultrasound and I could see our baby move, his(I want to say his, I really don't know why) tiny limbs, his face and his spinal cord. It was out of the world. Now, I imagine him like that all the time, swimming in my tummy.
I was so excited I could not work the rest of the day. I was calling everybody ... Mayu, Pramod everybody........ Mayu kept saying "Congrats" and I could sense a feeling of relief in her voice and Meghu, she said the funniest thing "I had not imagined a baby growing inside!!" Well, she had known I was pregnant for weeks by now. I wonder what she thot I was pregnant with!?!
I felt really bad for Pramod. He deserved to be there, I had deprived him of pleasure I cannot describe or share with any justice. I did take back some pictures for him and he was delighted to see them but I really hope he will be there next time and hear the heartbeat of OUR BABY!
I am truely enjoying this amazing experience of growing a life inside of me, of creating something that is ours' to share. I feel this is a piece of Pramod inside of me ............ that makes him more mine as I am more his now.......... I cannot explain how this creation has made us a family. Before we were the best of friends and that felt GOOD enough, I could not have asked for more. Now, we are the best of friends and family and I had never imagined I would ever be so happy in my life.
-Myna

Getting to know that I was going to become a dad was a very strange feeling. I had expected it to be one filled with anxiety but in fact there was none. I am a reserved kind of person but this news may be because it was anticipated, did not scare me, in fact filled me with strength and excitement. This was rather inexplicable to me. It sure used to seem like that my friends were taking a lot of responsibility when they decided to become parents, but when it happened to us none of that came to mind. I sometimes attribute it to dumbness or inability to reason out this behaviour, but may be this is a feeling that overcomes all reason. Myna and I used to argue a lot about the lack of any rationale to become a parent (more so myself on the side of rationale). What changed me, I have no clue. I am still searching for the reason.