The glorification of being busy

The aliens are landing! LoL!

Recently, I came across a very useful article online about the increasing glorification of being busy by everyone around us. The opening lines are “If you live in America in the 21st century you’ve probably had to listen to a lot of people tell you how busy they are.” I can go a step further and generalize it by changing the lines slightly “If you live in any metro (or second tier) city in the world......”

I very strongly believe that all of us are not created equal. We have different families, cultural and educational backgrounds, career aspirations, interests and hobbies. Even after being so different from one another, the one and only thing we have in common is the amount of  time everyday. All of us have 24 hours in a day and it’s entirely up to us how to make the best use of this equally allocated time. People who know me well can confirm that this is something that I never use as an excuse for not reaching out or getting together with them. I have heard people complain about not having a single minute on hand during the day. People complain of being engaged in the daily chores and taking care of their families that it makes me wonder about my own future. On the other hand, I know a lot of people who have taken care of all of their daily tasks, including the kids, household chores and even taking vacation, within the same time frame as all of us have single handedly. This scenario confuses me a lot!

In my personal experience I have heard people complain about not having time, well all the time. 

I would encourage you to read the full length article here and decide for yourself.

Holi festival:
Our Hindu/Indian festival of colors, Holi, was celebrated this week. Living in NYC, I have become acquainted to celebrating all the festivals over the weekend irrespective of the date when they are celebrated in India. As I was not able to do much during the week, I did the necessary worship at home and made some mouth watering sweet to offer as prasad.

Laddoos: 100% home made

Juhi teased me by sharing her way of celebrating Holi at home yesterday. 

Masterpiece created by the master herself

These chhole bhature with masale wale aaloo must have been out of this world I can only imagine. Nevertheless, I am highly inspired to give these a try over this weekend with a few secrets from my Masterchef friend. 

Since I did not have the time (or the guts as of now) to prepare for the above shown treat, I settled for palak paneer. Rohith had been meaning to have it for a long time. It turned out just right.

Dinner was yum!

Just add the dhaniya launka (indian green chilies) and fresh lemon on the side and you have yourself a winner.

Cooking at home:

Ever heard of buying a shoe for the shoelace? That’s the way it is in our household. Rohith is so fond of trying new condiments that every time we visit the Indian grocery store he plays hide and seek with me while picking up new pickles and chutneys. As expected, I was geared up to make aaloo and ghobhi k paranthey (potato and cauliflower paranthas) for him to try out his latest finds at breakfast next morning. 

The latest finds

This is more like the condiment than the main dish for Rohith

I also tried to make idlis over the last weekend but the project failed miserably. Maybe, I did not know about the water content in the batter appropriately. The idlis came out dense and inedible. Not appetizing at all!

As they rightly say, you learn from your mistakes and something good might come out of them. That’s what happened exactly after the idli showdown. The batter turned out to be just right for making utthappams. I made some for the dinner and then continued to enjoy them for breakfast most of this week. 

Not so bad after all

It all fell into place

As my wise friend, Juhi, told me, the batter started to get better as the time passed and the utthappams came out even better the next morning. I went the whole nine yards this time and made sambhar from scratch, (including the sambhar powder at home). I also made the pyaaz tamatar (onions, tomatoes) ki chutney and coconut chutney, as condiments on the side. I used shallots for the pyaaz tamatar ki chutney this time and it catapulted the taste to a whole new level.

Picture and breakfast perfect!

I had the pyaaz tamatar ki chutney left and some baby eggplant (Indian baigan/brinjal) from last week. I stuffed the baigan with the leftover chutney and added some more masala with ground peanuts. They turned out just super!

Bharwaan baigan served for dinner

Today:

It was crazy. I was suppose to attend an event on water at the University of Columbia’s water center but I did not get a second of shuteye last night. Change of plans and I decided to attend it virtually through live webinar. I made dalia for myself for breakfast and had it with my personal favorite blueberry jewels while attending the webinar. It was not a bad day after all! 

Healthy yummy goodness

For lunch, I simply had the leftovers of palak paneer from last night. 

Weekend ahead:

There are no plans in particular however, I shall make a good faith effort to start our jogging regimen over this weekend. Maybe I will be able to find my feet, which I believe have become lazy from all the lack of the exercise this week. 

I will be rooting for you all. xxxx

Question of the day:

• Did you celebrate Holi outside your hometown this year? What did you do?
• Do you like to experiment and try making new dishes over the weekend? If yes, then do let me know one that you have in the recent past.

I would love to hear from you. Do write to me at pallavibhar at gmail dot com or comment below.