Luncheon with friends

Today, I was invited to a friend’s house for lunch. There were others too. Priysha was the one who was brave enough to invite all of us and better cook for all of us! The food on the menu included pepper chicken, keema, rajma, mixed vegetables, naan, rice, phulka, salad, and bread followed by plum cake and vanilla ice cream for dessert.

The food was yummy but I flipped for the dal! So, on special request, here’s featuring the recipe for the dhamakedar dal made by Priysha. Btw, we had a great time as well. But this sentiment seems like a footnote to the recipe!

Toor dal
Serves 4

Ingredients
Toor dal – 2 cups
Water – as needed
Salt - to taste

For the tadka:
Onion – 1 small chopped into small square pieces
Garlic – 5/6 flakes chopped into small pieces
Green chillies – 1 chopped or slit
Tomatoes - 1 medium sized chopped
Ghee – 2 teaspoons
Jeera – 1 teaspoon

Method:
First boil the dal with salt and tumeric. Heat the ghee and add jeera and garlic in a wok till it turns light brown. Then add the chopped onions and fry till it turns brown too. Finally, add the chopped tomatoes and chillies. Fry it for some time and add it to the dal as tadka. Your yummy dal is ready!

Reading tangent

Sometimes when reading a book, I tend to go off in a tangent. This is especially true when it comes to extraordinary people. Right now, I am in the middle of "A Song for Summer" by Eva Ibbotson, the second time. Situated in the 1930s, this book paints a dizzyingly idealistic and at the same time realistic picture of life in Austria. I will post a review soon. But for the last few days, I have been reading about Isadora Duncan, the revolutionary modern dancer and Max Reinhardt, the ground-breaking theatre director.

Why is it that it is during times of war that such talent surfaces? Does peace lead to complacency?

Where are the Indian superheroes?

The current comicscape does not offer any Indian superheroes and I am not talking about Krissh or Hanuman who seem to me to come second hand from the West. And now comes the news that Shekhar Kapur and has created new superheroes for today's generation: Devi and Sadhu. Gautam Chopra (THE Deepak Chopra's son) has penned another comic called Snake Woman. Samit Basu - author of the The Simoqin Prophecies and its sequels - is writing one (or more?) of the episodes of Devi. It seems like everyone wants to exploit India's mythology for the commercial market. On the other hand, we might get our own superhero. I don’t want to be the skeptic. Let’s wait and watch.