Reviewing ‘Pather Panchali’ Legendary Indian Director Satyajit Ray’s Masterpiece

For twenty whole years of my life I lived in ignorance without having seen the sun or the moon but today I have finally seen the Ray and I feel holy and blessed now. Akira Kurusawa, the man behind Japanese classics like Rashomon and Ran rightly said years ago that living in a world without having seen a Satyajit Ray film is similar to living without having seen the sun or moon; almost every film I’ve watched feels effete after living in Ray’s world. It is a transcending experience watching the late Bengali director’s debut effort Pather Panchali, one that deeply impacts the very core of your soul in a way that makes you feel afterwards as though you’ve lived two lives – one before having watched Pather Panchali and one after. It achieves the remarkable feat of invoking your senses to a higher state of consciousness; the experience watching Pather Panchali is similar to reading Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace or James Joyce’s Portrait of An Artist as a Young Man or some of William Blake’s or Emily Dickinson’s finest achievements, or watching Meryl Streep’s iconic turn as Sophie Zawistowski in Sophie’s Choice. The feeling is so powerful that it took me more than an hour to get back to my original state; the hardest part for me was to return the DVD to the movie rental store because I knew the true worth of what I was holding. May god bless the guy who recognized Pather Panchali’s worth years ago and preserved the original prints so the world today can have a chance to be transported to the precious little magical world of Apu, the film’s protagonist. Continue reading “Reviewing ‘Pather Panchali’ Legendary Indian Director Satyajit Ray’s Masterpiece”

Indian Bloggers Income From Blogging Full Time

Bloggers like Amit Agrawal and Harsh Agrawal are earning more than Rs 40 lakhs per month. Not only them, several bloggers earning Rs 40 lakhs per month in India.

If you have patience and passion to write, start blogging. You need to spend minimum Rs 3000-5000 to book a domain and start web hosting. We will provide you tips to start blogging to earn money from home. Blogging is a secure passive income. Rest is a history.

Select a niche market. There are 100 of topics available to blog. We cannot be master of all. But, we can try to blog on different topics. After blogging for 20-30 articles, we will get an idea. Automatically, we will understand our expertise, passion and fun in writing. Continue reading “Indian Bloggers Income From Blogging Full Time”

Book Review – Flashback: My Life and Times in Bollywood And Beyond by Niilesh A Raje

Author
Bob Christo (Foreword by Tom Alter)

Publisher
Penguin Books India

Pages
280

Price
Rs 399/-

ISBN
9780143414629

I distinctly remember that fight sequence from the movie Kaalia where everybody is standing in line while food is being distributed and Michael (actor Bob Christo) decides to spoil the decorum and breaks the queue. While one of his crippled inmates gathers courage and decides to retaliate against this brawny white guy Michael shouts back, “Hum jahaan khade hote hain line waheen se shuroo hotee hai”(The line always start behind me). Immediately after that all the other prisoners in the queue go and stand behind Michael. Continue reading “Book Review – Flashback: My Life and Times in Bollywood And Beyond by Niilesh A Raje”

How to Make Thattai Chat – A Popular South Indian Snack

Hello Everyone,

Today I’m here to teach you one of my favourite snack. Have you ever heard of Thattai?? I guess people in most parts of the world would have never heard of it. Anyways don’t worry, to those who are hearing it for the first time let me say what it is, Thattai (tamil) is a popular South Indian snack and it is often prepared during festive occasions like janmashtami and diwali. It is available in sweet shops of India and it forms a nice combo with tea. Now I am going to teach how to make this cracker a little more tastier like an icing on the cake with a dish of my own. It is very easy to prepare and very delicious to eat during the evenings. Continue reading “How to Make Thattai Chat – A Popular South Indian Snack”

Richard Gere Gone with the Wind of Shilpa Shetty

Hollywood Cowlifornia is where American Film Idols are made. Richard Gere is the star of American Gigolo and “Pretty Woman, walking down the street, Pretty Woman, stop a while, Pretty Woman, talk a while, Pretty woman, give your smile to me, Pretty Woman, give your cheek to me.”

If you take the words Bombay and Hollywood and put them together you have the film capital of India Bollywood. Shilpa Shetty has been nominated for 4 Filmfare (Indian Oscar) Awards. The stunningly beautiful 31 year old Shilpa Shetty and her knockout actress younger sister Shamita Shetty are the Indian version of the Hilton sisters. Continue reading “Richard Gere Gone with the Wind of Shilpa Shetty”

Critical Review for the Book Titled "Zaika-Kashmiri Pandit Cuisine"

I was searching for some good books on Kashmir cuisine. At this time, I came across the book on Kashmiri Hindu Cuisine titled “Zaika-Kashmiri Pandit Cuisine”. I wanted to purchase the book online. However, it was a futile attempt for me. The name of the author for this book is Sonya Atal Sapru. Somehow I got her contact information and placed a call to her. I told her about my interests in Kashmiri Cuisine and my attempts to get a hold of her book. In a very polite manner, she added on to me that she has one copy of the book and she may like to gift it to me. Nothing could prevent me now other than reaching to her place, meeting her and get the copy of the book. Finally she gifted me the book with her blessings. It took me nearly five years to write the review of her book (I was lazy enough). I read it six times till date.

The book is not very thick one. The total number of pages is 70. It was published in the year of 1999. it was published by harper Collins, India. The ISBN is 81-7223-341-8. The cost of the book is Rs.195. The cover page is a photograph with two frames combined together-one with the photograph of Kashmiri Puloa and fennel seeds and second one is the photograph of a typical Kashmiri Pandit lady wearing a saree with full blouse, typical Kashmiri Jewellery with the characteristic long chained jhumkas and handmade fan in her hands. The back side of the book is the awesome photograph of the author with her child in her lap. The author claims the authenticity of the genuineness of the recipes shared in the book. She thanked her mother-in-law -Smt.Gita Sapru- for her help and guidance.

The book has been divided into six sections and they are the following:

a. How to plan a Kashmiri Meal (original contribution)? There are in total four ways in which the menu can be set for the day.

b. Kashmiri Garam masala (separately discussed in the entire book)

c. 16 Non-vegetarian recipes

d. 12 Vegetarian recipes

e. 5 Dals and 4 Rice dishes

f. 2 Chutneys,2 Raitas and 4 Desserts

The excellent points in the book are:

1. There is good number of rare and unique family photographs exhibited in the book. These are old and black-white in color showing the period during which they were clicked and shared with not only the future family members; however, with each and every reader of the book. They are rich in showcasing the culture of the Kashmiri Pandit families. The author states “portrait of an ancestor and found in an old chest of photographs”.

2. The author has taken time to mention total number of servings, preparation time and cooking time for each and every recipe in the book.

3. She has explained every recipe in simple English language.

4. The manner in which she acknowledges to her family members for their contribution towards the publishing of the book.

5. The best recipes are: mutton cooked in milk with green almonds, liver cooked in sour curd (khatti kaleji), meat cooked in plums (stuffed passande dum), mutton cooked in coriander powder (dhania ka shufta), jackfruit kababs (kathal kababs), fried pieces of lotus stem (nadru ki kurkuri), colacassia cooked in curds (khatti arvi), sour lentils (khatti arhar dal), mixed vegetable biryani (sarvari), baria, kishmish raita, and meethe chawal.

The weak points of the book are:

1. Very few recipes have been shared and presented in the book.

2. Festive recipes are missing in the book.

On the whole, the book is small and with few pages. It exhibits the recipes and their contributors. The book is a mixture of recipes and culture of Kashmiri Pandits shown via the rich and detailed photographs from the author’s family.

Source by Ramani Swarna

Healthy Cooking: The Connection Between Healthy Food and Cookware

Believe it or not there is a strong connection between cooking healthy food and the cookware you’re using. Depending on the pot the food cooked in it turns our either depleted– lacking in nutrients and toxic or nutritionally dense and 100% non-toxic.

Let’s see how the cooking pot makes the difference:

The Effect on Nutrients

The nutritional value of food is derived from the ingredients you are using, but if you make a mistake in choosing the wrong cookware, you can lose most of the essential proteins, vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates and other nutrients. They are delicate and when cooked with the harsh heat from metal and ceramic pots they are destroyed in this process. This loss of nutrients causes food to turn out less tasty and while additional seasoning can help improve the taste, what would you do to make up for the lost nutrients? Continue reading “Healthy Cooking: The Connection Between Healthy Food and Cookware”

Best 4 Scholarships for Indian Students to Study Abroad

In India, many students dream of studying in top international universities such as Harvard, Princeton, Caltech and MIT. Due to financial constraints, however, many young minds are denied the opportunity. This is the reason why many governments and international bodies have come together to introduce low-interest student loans and scholarships ensure that talented students are not denied the chance of quality education due to lack of funds. Here are 5 scholarships you can apply for, if you too are planning for higher studies in countries such as the United Kingdom, Europe, China, Canada and the United States.

1. Fulbright-Nehru Fellowships Continue reading “Best 4 Scholarships for Indian Students to Study Abroad”

Meeting Wayan From Elizabeth Gilbert’s "Eat, Pray, Love"

The book Eat, Pray, Love, topped the New York Times best seller list for a year. Author Elizabeth Gilbert writes about her quest to ‘find herself’ after a devastating divorce. She spends four months in Italy eating fabulous food, four months in India meditating in an ashram and four months in Bali finding love and contentment. I read Eat, Pray, Love just before my trip to Bali.

Wayan was my favorite character in the book. She’s the proprietor of a small healing shop and restaurant in the city of Ubud. Elizabeth Gilbert is riding her bicycle in Ubud and falls injuring her knee. She goes to the shop for some ointment to heal her wound and ends up making friends with Wayan and her cute, irrepressible daughter, Tutti. Wayan has left an abusive husband and is having difficulty surviving on her own, since in Balinese culture divorce carries such a strong stigma. Wayan is often forced to move her business from one rental site to another and so has trouble holding onto enough established clients to be financially successful. Elizabeth Gilbert puts out an appeal to American friends to donate money to buy Wayan her own shop. It doesn’t take Gilbert long to collect $18,000. Before she leaves Bali, Gilbert sees Wayan established in a mortgage free two-storey building. Continue reading “Meeting Wayan From Elizabeth Gilbert’s "Eat, Pray, Love"”

Hey Honey, Be Careful What You Eat

Over the years, I’ve always put honey in my diet – I consider it a super food in fact. I have a few special recipes I use that include honey. Word has it that if you have allergies and you eat the local honey at the beginning of the season, you will become immune from the local pollen which affects those allergies. This is well known and it works very well.

Not long ago, an acquaintance sent me some information from a viral email about the Honey we eat; “Does Honey Contain Botulism? Honey may contain botulism spores which can lead to botulism poisoning. There are some areas in the US where the possible contamination of honey with botulism spores is higher due to the soil. Soil contains botulism spores/bacteria and the flora that bees use to feed on grows in that soil. Honey is mostly consumed in raw form and is typically not pasteurized, sterilized or radiated. Even pasteurized honey can contain botulism spores and shouldn’t be given to children under the age of 12 months.” Continue reading “Hey Honey, Be Careful What You Eat”