Beep Beep Beep !

It’s turning out to be quite a week!

Yesterday, I was making BenDekaayi BaLaka . I was in the kitchen and hubby was in the hall. Suddenly, we heard loud beeps like that of an alarm clock, only louder.

I continued making my stuff thinking that hubby is tinkering with the clock. Suddenly, I saw hubby running at top speed towards our room. I got curious and went behind him. I saw that he was frantically pulling out something that was fixed on the ceiling and pulling at some wires.

I asked him what had got into him and why he was trying to bring the house down. Hubby told me that he was trying to disable the fire alarm! It had starting off because of the smoke from frying the BaLaka!!!

Till then, I used to think that stories of fire alarms going off due to cooking were only urban legends!

Atleast we now know that the fire alarm actually works in our apartment!

Recipe - BenDekaai BaaLaka (Ladies Finger / Okra Fry)

Description: Bendekaayi Fry is one of the easiest dishes to prepare and it tastes yummy! You can eat it with Chapattis, Rotis or Curd Rice. Most of the times, we end up eating it just like that!

Preparation Time : 10 minutes.

Cooking Time : 15 minutes.

Ingredients:
1.Bendekaayi (Ladies Finger): 1/2 Kg.
2.Jeerige Pudi (Cumin seeds Powder): 1 tablespoon
3.Dhaniya Pudi (Cilantro Powder): 1 tablespoon
4.Accha Menasina Pudi (Red Chilli Powder): 1 spoon or as per taste
5.Uppu (Salt): As per your taste.
6. Palya Pudi/ Garam Masala /Curry Powder: 1 spoon (This is optional)
7. Enne (Oil): 3 tablespoons.
8. Nimbe Rasa (Lemon Juice): A Little.

How to Prepare:
1. Cut the bendekaayis into 2 halves (This saves both cutting and cooking time).
2. Fry the Bendekaayi in oil till it loses its water and starts to turn a little brown.
3. Add the jeerige pudi, dhaniya pudi, menasina pudi, salt and garam masala/curry powder and mix it well.
4. Add lemon juice in the end.

Servings: 2 - 3 Servings.

PS1: The names of ingredients are how they are called in Kannada, my mother tongue. Their English equivalents are given in brackets.

PS2: The recipes that I am posting are those that I have tried personally and have turned out well. They are recipes that I am collecting from my mother, mother-in-law, aunts, uncles, friends, cousins and my husband.

PS3: I think I have covered whatever needs to be covered. Please let me know if you would like to see any changes in the way the recipes are presented.

PS4: Enjoy your cooking. I definitely am enjoying it immensely!

Its so easy to cheat !

Question : Can you be billed by anybody on your phone account without even you knowing about it?

If your answer is no,I must tell you that you are in for a big surprise!

All that any XYZ supposedly registered company needs, is an email ID and a phone number. They can simply say that they have provided some dumb service to your phone(It could be a personal voicemail service ,long distance call facility or something else). They can then send a bill to your parent phone company (i.e companies like AT&T or Verizon etc. with whom you have a contract) and include this extra cost along with their bill cost.So, when you get your next bill, you see some extra cost for something that you haven't even heard of !!

Those who are here might have understood what I'm trying to say . But others who are new or in a different part of the world might not understand what I'm trying to say!

Let me explain what happened to me.

I am looking online for colleges or universities which can provide online certification programs that are GOOD and REASONABLY PRICED.I used to give a random search and fill up forms where I had to give them my email ID and phone number so that they can follow up with my request.

My hubby had already warned me NOT to do anything that had to do with giving away credit card numbers or SSN or any private data.But phone numbers were apparently OK(atleast that's what I thought).

To be fair, I did get several calls from various universities about the various courses that they were offering.

However,we got our telephone bill yesterday and we saw an extra charge of nearly 50 dollars for some service we hadn't even subscribed for ! The description said that it was for something called as ILD services and had two 1-800 numbers.

I then called our Cingular customer service guys and asked them what this extra charge was for . They told me that some third party had billed this charge on the phone number and that I had to call them to find out why they had charged us this amount.

I called the 1-800 numbers . One person said that I had filled a form online to provide a personal voicemail box and that they were billing me for that service.
The second person said that they were charging us for long distance call facility!

Apparently, I had filled some online form with my email id and phone number and asked for this service.They also said that they had sent mails to the email ID provided about how much they would be charging for these services. Since the mail did not bounce nor did they get a reply asking for removal of the service, they simply went ahead and charged us for it.

Needless to say, that I was not even aware of this ! This was something really unthinkable for me.

I then asked them to reverse these charges since we did not really subscribe for them. Both the companies have promised me that they will reverse the bill in 1 or 2 billing cycles.

Cingular customer support guys have also been good enough to wait for the next 1 or 2 billing cycles for this third party charge to be reversed.

I sincerely hope that these two companies do what they have promised to do !

Later, I learnt that all a person needs is a valid email ID and a phone number to start charging that number for imaginary services!

Lessons from this spooky experience.

1. NEVER GIVE OUT YOUR CREDIT CARD NUMBERS.
2. NEVER GIVE OUT YOUR SSN NUMBER.
3. NEVER GIVE OUT YOUR PHONE NUMBER.
4. NEVER GIVE OUT ANY OTHER PERSONAL DETAILS.

If you absolutely need to give your personal details, make sure that they are to people who are authorised to see them. Even then, make sure that they donot write it down anywhere.

Even in restaurants, it is best to pay by cash or a prepaid hotel card instead of a credit card ! It seems that there have been several instances of identity theft that have happened in this way.

Its always better to be careful than sorry !

Latest and newest Family member !

I'm late by about 2 weeks for this announcement ! Better late than never right !
She is Jayashree Madhava(as her father calls her now). She entered this world on the 12th of September 2007.

Welcome into the family darling !!! I know that you will have a wonderful time with us !

What I like about here

The hands down winner is FOOOOOOOD !!!!!
I'm a foodie. There is no question about it ! I love to eat.The variety in food and tastes that we have back in India, is enormous . Every state(every district in fact) in India has such a variety in the food that they eat and the way that they prepare this food.

I didn't really explore the vast menu that we have out there. Didn't really think much about it too. Maybe a few of the so called North Indian dishes ,a bit of Andhra Food and other obvious favourites. But otherwise, I didn't really explore this aspect of our culture.

Here , I'm really getting a chance to correct that mistake . Here too there is a vast variety of foods that we can try. Probably more than what we have back in India.

People from different parts of the world have come in here and brought in different aspects of their culture along with them . Food is naturally the best part of it !!

There are restaurants which cater to all the different tastes of the world. Indian , Chinese, Mexican, Lebanese, Ethiopian , Italian , Japanese. You name the country and you get the food of that country :). The best part is that we get the vegetarian versions of them!!

We are having loads of fun trying out the different kinds of food and taste.
Guys, please make it a point to eat something new that you haven't eaten till now. It really is great fun !!

Trip to Cincinnati

An account of our trip to Cincinnati . This is my hubby's account of our trip. My hubby's cousin lives in Cincinnati. I'm still exploring how to add photos for these blogs. I will upload them soon.

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My maternal aunt and uncle have been visiting US. They joined my cousin in Cincinnati. This is their fourth visit to US. Every time they visit US, it is customary for me to visit them. More over Cincinnati is just 4 hours away from Detroit. R’Cho needed a family outing. It had been a month after our trip to Mackinaw Island. So we decided to go to Cincinnati in the last weekend of June.

We started on Friday. We left Farmington around 7 pm. It took us 4 and half hours to reach Cincinnati. We reached my cousin’s home by 11.30 pm. All of them were awake and waiting for us.

On Saturday morning, aunty suggested that we go around the town and look for garage sale. We woke up late. Aunty had prepared huli avalakki for breakfast. By the time we got ready it was 10.30 am. We set out on garage sale in the downtown area. My Cousin had printed out about 130 locations where garage sale was going on. The first few were unimpressive. Most of the stuff was sold out by the time we went to see.

In one of the sales, R’Cho picked up a couple of books. The garage sale bug had bitten her. I was looking for ceramic items. I found none during the course of the day. We visited more than 25 garage sales. Aunty picked up a doll and baby clothes. In one of the garage sale, R’Cho and I played with a pair of golden retriever. They liked us so much that they wouldn't let us go. We returned home for lunch.

The lunch was delicious. Aunty didn't disappoint us. There was vangi bath, huralikai saru and huli. We ate sumptuously. After lunch we went for a walk. I wanted to check out the old ceramic shop which I had visited on previous occasions. The shop was shut. In its place a yoga center had opened. We walked down the Market Street doing window shopping. There was no agenda in Cincinnati. There are not many places we could visit in Cinci. My cousin gave us the option of either going to a movie or to the river side. We opted for the latter.

We went to see River Ohio at two places - one was overlooking the river from a hilltop; second one was on the shores of Ohio River in Kentucky. The hilltop view was excellent. The weather was nice. It was cloudy and warm. We took a stroll in the park adjacent to the hilltop view. Uncle bought us ice cream. From hilltop we went to shores on the other side of the border. The walk way was uneven along the shores with few benches to sit. One could see downtown Cinci on the opposite banks. All of us relaxed on the bench before heading back home. For dinner we had masala dosa. My cousin prepared it. After dinner R’Cho , aunty and I played chouka bara. We were playing the game after a long time. It was interesting and had great fun.

I helped my cousin to set up with her computer. I set her up with scanner, web cam and speakers and the printer.After breakfast, we went to Office Depot to get the cable and cartridge. The cartridge and cable cost more than $80. Instead of buying these items, my cousin opted for going to a new printer. I explained to uncle the concept of capitalist society. Here it is easier to buy a new and better product than buy spare parts for old ones. Most electronic stuff wouldn't have a shelf life of more than 2 years. Here we dispose things off before the first sign of trouble. That is American way of life. Back at home, Uncle showed me his nail cutter which he has had for the last 70 years!!!. That nail cutter was made in US! He was saying that it is an antique since it is so old !

After a sumptuous lunch, R’Cho and I played kaimale kashi and chouka bara. Kaimale kashi was a cake walk. Aunty helped R’Cho win chouka bara game. It was almost 3 pm. We left Cinci by 4 pm. We asked aunty and uncle and my cousin to come over and stay with us. They didn't give any firm commitment.

It took us 4 hrs to drive back with 2 breaks in between. There were lots of mamas(cops) on the highway. Despite this, we reached home by 8 pm. This was the first family outing for R’Cho in the US. She enjoyed the company of Aunty and her stories.

Anger / Possessiveness

I can think of a few instances in my life, when I have been hit by intense feelings of anger and possessiveness. I'll try and recount a few that I remember even now.

Instance 1
Sometime during my school days, one of my school friends (I don't even remember his name now) called my dad appa (father). I was so angry with him, that I started fighting with him for that! My dad consoled me saying that that was how some people spoke. It did not necessarily mean that he would become his dad :). That calmed me down a bit*.

Even now, when some of my friends call my parents appa or amma or my sister as their sister, I think, NO WAY DUDE! THEY ARE MY PARENTS! OR SHE IS MY SISTER NOT YOURS!!

Instance 2
This happens whenever I come to know that one of my cousins’ or very close friends say that they are getting married. The first emotion is, I’m really happy for them !! and then when I see their future fiancés, I feel this bout of intense anger !!! I get really really angry with them for stealing away my cousin or friend and that I have to share them now** !.

I used to think that this was really small of me . But I have come to know that that’s the way a lot of my friends feel too :).

I'm not the only odd one out here! So guys , tell me about instances when you have been hit with these emotions . It’ll make me feel so much better !

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* I'm sure that my father doesn't even remember this incident. It’s still crystal clear in my mind!

**PS for my Bhavas(3 of you) and Attiges(2 of you) and married friends : Don't worry , I get over it in about 5 - 10 minutes after meeting you people :). You guys are too good to be angry with for a long time :-).

PS for all those close to me who are yet to get married : Now you know what I'll be feeling when I see your soul mates for the first time now :).