Karthik Blogs

2016 is now a thing of the past. We are now into First January 2017. Happy New Year to everyone. May the world prosper, Let peace prevail, Let there be prosperity and all round growth. Let us not be envious of each others growth but find meaningful happiness in serving others. Let us find ways and means of contributing towards the welfare of all the living beings on this planet. Having said that I wish to take upon a new challenge in an area that I love to drown myself into, The world of Writing. its called the 365 day challenge of continuous blogging. Its going to be tough and mean because each day is never going to be like the previous one, bound to be challenges, There will be days when I do not feel like writing at all, those are the days when I have to pick myself up to get into that creative flow. There is a lot to be done. Personally 2016 was a gratifying one for me. Life yet again presented me the opportunity to travel places in the North East. As a part of the Sri Sat...

If ever there is an opportunity to go back to a city that I love it would definitely be Kolkata. It is a city that continues to occupy my mind and will do so for a lifetime. There are memories that are associated with the city that simply cannot be wiped away. I will try to bring out my own sweet lingering moments that remain etched with me. I would like to present these as moments as I grew up: Moment 1. Triangular Park This definitely has to be my Moment no. 1 because we used to stay very close to Triangular park. Hazy memories yet quite vivid. We used to have a domestic help and his name was Sudama. He would take me to Teenkona park daily and we would play cricket on the long expanses of grass. Winters were especially enjoyable as there was nip in the air and just the right amounts of sunshine. There were several such moments at this location. Come October and this place would be teeming with activity. Durga Puja-my favorite festival and Teenkona Park would be the place ...

Last week our Indian boys trampled all over the English team on a Cricket Field in Chennai. Obviously to be elated with a victory achieved on a dead pitch will lead to chest beating. The media went gaga and painted the two with headlines that would make any youngster proud of his achievements. But I would want my dear readers to mark my words. The real test for a Karun Nair and a K L Rahul will come on a seaming English pitch on a cold winter morning. That will differentiate the boys from the men. That will be the litmus test for our boys. Do not mistake me. I too was there at the Chepauk celebrating the teams achievements and plaudits at a convincing 4-0 win over England. Victory is never really short term. It has to be viewed with a long term perspective. My angst with the media is right here. They get it all wrong and begin to glorify a player as if he is the next biggest thing that has happened to Indian Sports. Let the boy grow up, Lets back him up when he is tested in al...

I just received a message in the morning, that a friend is visiting Ramanagara a town in Mysore district. Immediately there lit a bulb in the gray cells of mine. I had got inspiration to pen a blog for today. Today Ramnagara is a town with all the hustle bustle of a major town. Its a landmark city that one cannot miss while one drives from Bangalore to Mysore. There is a totally different take on how this town derived its name and fame. In the early seventies this used to be a small hamlet, quite peaceful and serene until one day a gentleman by name Mr. Ramesh Sippy decided to make this land a piece of history, one that would be recalled with fond memories by generations to come. Whenever I pass through this town the only thing that comes to memory is the Hindi blockbuster Sholay. One movie that myself and my sister Uma grew up on. We must have watched it, well hardly matters as now I have lost count but each time I watch it, I do so with the same amount of zeal and enthusiasm t...

After a long break we are back at doing what we do best, cooking up the very best of Indian Recipes Just for you, making it as simple as possible yet not compromising on the Taste Factor. We have had a lot of feedback in the past few months asking us to keep the recipe factory going and so we are back with you each day to try and get your taste buds going. Today we present before you Trimurthy Dal- a confluence of three pulses-Moong Dal, Toor Dal, Moosor Dal. The speciality of this Dal is that we have gone onionless. Step 1: Mustard seeds,Peas and Red Chilly Fried in Oil Step 2- Add Chopped Green Chilly Step 3- Again a confluence of three spices coming together, a grounded mixture of Dhaniya,Pepper and Jeera Step 4-Add Red Chilly Powder Step5- Add Chopped Tomatoes Step 6- Add all the ingredients well and allow to cook for a few minutes Step 7- Add Curry Leaves Step 8- Add Coriander Leaves Step 9- Add Salt to Taste and mix all ...

On a daily basis I keep seeing a number of blogs online and have been impressed by a vast majority of them while a few leave that sour feeling . If you search on Google with the keywords " How To Blog" you will come across a huge number of links that will give you access to a plenty of literature on how you could blog and how you can actually make a fortune by blogging. My take on blogging is that it is a very simple art from with no rocket science behind it. It is so simple that even a novice can take to it without any training . However there are a few prerequisites for blogging. You would need a good command over the language that you are blogging in. Here I am not talking about rich vocabulary but simple sentences without any grammatical/spelling errors. No Flowery language is required, rather easy to understand and comprehend language will do. You would need lots of patience to get to the top. Blogging is not a reach the summit types with your first blog. It i...

All of a sudden my mind meandered towards the state of the nation. Stalled Parliament, crowded ATM's, closed shutters, Death of a Political Leader, a cyclone that hits the city and leaves behind it a trail of devastation. Does not seem good . Somewhere i feel like being enticed to the mob mentality, shouting slogans or maybe involving myself in jingoism in a irrelevant whats-app discussion to give myself that satisfied feeling. But then all is momentary and then life is back to its churning routine. Could I as a individual made a difference instead of just about complaining and criticizing the government policies. Maybe writing this piece may help me feel much better than chest thumping. I am forced to think about my own domestic affairs. There is an ideal husband who goes for a job to earn the manna for the family while Eve decides that she will be the one to run the house. The children of course are free from all the pressures of the household and would need to focus on g...

Starting Tomorrow all roads in Chennai will lead towards Chepauk. I have very fond memories of the MAC as a child. I still remember how I remained glued to my seat till the last ball was bowled, during the famous India-Australia Tied Test Match. I still remember Greg Mathews the Aussie Off-Spinner trapping Maninder Singh right in front, even as Ravi Shastri watched helplessly from the other end. Till that point of time, the stadium was quite vociferous and cheering wildly for every run being scored. As Maninder stood in disbelief and Ravi Shastri shell shocked, the entire stadium was reduced to a pin drop silence even as the Australian team broke into celebrations. From a moment of a likely defeat, The Aussies were elated at the prospect of having Tied a Test Match. The Game of Cricket had emerged victorious. The Chennai Cricket Lovers have always been a sporting crowd. Of course the feeling of patriotism and the good cheer remains. The spectators here don't mind applauding...

I have never been witness to a cyclone all my life. I have always heard of cyclones battering the coastal areas of Orissa or the neighboring country of Bangladesh. We used to always have near misses at Chennai from destructive Cyclones. In the past they would come close and then take a right turn, showing its might to the nearby coastal areas. Thinking that this was one of those types, I carried on with my routine work. However the sky was overcast, very cloudy and a cool breeze that swept across my face as I stood at the entrance to my house. But as the day progressed I did notice the change in wind speed. The trees started swinging wildly. Tin roofs became flying saucers. Doors started banging despite being bolted tightly and window panes took flight. The search and prayers for rain continues as Vardah bought powerful winds and weak rainfall. One more rare sight that I witnessed was the sky. The Clouds were very low. I wondered that if I threw a ball skywards, it would surely p...

Tamil Nadu is going through a massive churn. In every street corner and household, there is just one question, What Next? I feel that it is a very premature question to answer. The ruling party has a mandate for the next 4 years plus. Unless OP and his team mess up things, nothing much is there to be debated. I think that the AIADMK will maintain course till the completion of the course. Meanwhile what we do need to understand is that Ms. Sasikala will definitely have a role to play in the scheme of things. Even in the heydays of Amma, Ms. Sasikala had a powerful voice and this has even been vetoed by the partymen. What remains to be seen is the amount of clout Ms. Sasikala's own family members wield in the affairs of the party. AIADMK will spell doom for itself the moment Ms. Sasikala's relatives start interfering in the party affairs. No one understands this better than Ms. Sasikala herself. The problem with the AIADMK is that Amma never groomed a successor and th...

I keep lamenting about the lost art of writing and publishing a newspaper. I give all credit to polishing my English only because I was and still am a voracious reader of the Editorial section of the Hindu. In the bygone days when there were no computers around, I guess news editors would go through each line, read each and every element, word by word and make corrections accordingly. As a direct consequence there would be no spelling errors or chance of any kind of mistake cropping up. But in the days of Technology and Computers where there are tools available to check all kinds of mistakes, irony is that errors have gone up. I have written directly to the newspapers with the fond hope that they would correct their mistakes and future editions would be error free. So This blog is appealing to the Editor of the Economic Times and the Times of India to directly to fall in line and give due importance to make corrections/Deletions/Additions before the edition goes for the final print....

There is much being written about Demonetization over the last one month. Now these are a few pointers that I have come across. I am a person belonging to the middle class strata and I can definitely talk about how demonetization has affected me or not. I will speak in simple layman language and I guess that it must be the same case with every Middle Class Indian across the country. As a part of this blog I will attempt to speak from my own experience. These are my own views and not imposed on me by someone else. I have a bank account, savings of whatever I earn get deposited into my bank account directly. I have a debit card, with an online affiliation I have a cheque book for issuing payments. Now lets examine critically each of these statements and see how I have been affected by demonetization or otherwise. To Point 1. I went to the bank just once to deposit my old Rs 1000 and Rs 500 notes. It was just a breeze. I stood at the counter for not more than ten min...

Much has been spoken about J. Jayalalithaa. There is that sense of gloom that has enveloped the state of Tamil Nadu. I was taken a little by surprise by the amount of goodwill that she has generated over the last few years. That she had done a lot for the welfare of the poor was beyond any doubt. She was perhaps the only political leader who could stand her ground against the likes of Karunanidhi and make him bite the dust in electoral battles. However that is not the reason for writing this blog. On the 5th of December I was in Madurai, having gone there as a part of an NGO initiative. 5th morning we got the news that Amma had suffered a massive cardiac arrest. Clearly all was not well at home in Chennai. Slowly news started tickling in how she was fighting a brave battle. By evening hopes for her revival had started dwindling with PM Modi also tweeting that he feared the worst for Tamil Nadu, while praying for peace and calm. We had no other option but to cancel the remaining...