The Art of Dosa and Idli making

This particular art seems to be eluding me for ages (Hope you don’t raise the question, “Have you mastered the other arts then?”).. The whole process seems like a hi-fi science project that my seemingly mundane brain refuses to understand. Everytime I have achieved something worthwhile (atleast for myself), this dosa making humbles me. It serves to remind me that I’ve a looong way to go.
I buy the batter from the market since I start perspiring even at the thought of the various permutation combinations with rice and urad dal to arrive at the right combo that satisfies one’s taste buds. Now, let me give a picture as to what happens when I embark upon the missions of making dosa or idli.

Mission dosa :

I start with a positive Can Do attitude. Batter is in a vessel with the right sized karandi.The pan is on the stove being heated to the optimum temperature .Some oil in a bowl, a small something to wipe out the bits of dosas that sticks to the pan and a cup water near the stove.I spray a little bit of water in a very professional manner on the dosa pan. It sizzles.. hmmm .. all set. With great reverence I take a karandi ful of batter, put it gently on the midst of the pan and with slow, circular movements, spread it well so that it attains the shape of the dosa.I put a little bit of oil on the sides.. after several seconds I think I should turn the dosa around.. no.. it is still tender. Let it be for a few more secs. I leave it.Ellam nalla than poikitu irukku.. . now I think this side is done.I must turn it to the other side. And when I try to do that, dosai karandi is sort of struck underneath the dosa. Some portions of dosa refuses to budge from the pan and so I find it difficult to turn it. But with great effort I give a mighty push to the karandi.The dosa tears and assumes the shape of some modern art in the black background of the pan. A few drops of uncooked batter spills onto some vessels nearby. A few drops land on my hair and on my dress too.Black burnt bits of dosas are scattered nearby.. Only thing that remains to complete this scene is a background score of a dozen violins playing a sad tune.. This way I end up making a variety of dosas. Burnt dosas, semi burnt dosas, Uncooked dosas and so on. For complete recipe you can contact me on toblogforu@gmail.com  (To use it on the fellow human beings who annoy you !)

Mission Idli :

This is really simple you see. I pour the batter in the rounded idli making vessel (ofcourse after anointing them with oil). Put those vessels inside the Idli cooker, mount the whole thing on the stove. Then leave it for 10 – 15 mins. I then open it and prod it gently with a spoon to check whether it is done.. Annnnd, the spoon goes right in ! batter is almost intact.. it gives a partially cooked smell. No prob. I say to myself. It will be done soon.I close the cooker and heat for another 10 mins. Open it.. same result. This time I am slightly annoyed. I close the cooker and heat for 15 mins. Open it. It seems to be done.. errr.. a little overdone perhaps. Coz those idlis now have hardened like stone, strong enough to choo away birds , dogs etc. I sigh.. resign and leave the kitchen.. really simple na..

The results for both the missions remain the same despite taking various suggestions from others and trying out things in different ways.. well... guess I just don’t have the knack for this thing.. chalo.. Happy ???

I was watching Sun Music for the past one hour.Most of the songs played were from the films that were released in the past 2 years.. somehow I didn’t find the songs too appealing .. Maybe listenable (God alone knows whether such a word exists.. it is ok if you understand what I’m trying to say).I feel that a few yrs back, I enjoyed Tamil movie music better than what I am doning now..There were movies like Alaipayuthey, Mugavari, Kandukonden Kandukonden,Khushi,Appu,Dum Dum Dum,Minnale,Rythm,Youth,Alli thanda Vanam, Poovellam Un Vasam, Snehidiye, Ghilli, Thirumalai,Gemini,Dhil,Dhool and many more where almost all the songs were good.. I mean convincingly..Oflate, it is more like one or two good songs in a movie and that too not convincingly good ones..Is it just something with my approach towards changing times or is the music really not up to the mark ??? who knows !

Ode to Dear DD

Statutory Warning : It is a looong post, since I could not resist pouring my heart out about my feelings for DD

I was just flicking through the numerous channels on the TV.So many programmes.. But I couldn’t watch any for more than a few mins.Comedy progs that did everything except generating laughter, extremely dramatic reality shows...age old saas bahu serials, an old T20 match in another..puffed up journalists asking the silliest of questions for the thousandth time for the day (while supplying dumb “Breaking News” in the bottom) the list was endless.. I couldn’t help but reminisce(seem to be doing that quite a lot nowadays.. am I getting old ??? ) about the olden golden days of the DD.

Still remember the day we bought our first TV set.Man wasn’t I thrilled? Of course, that it had only 2 channels and it didn’t come with a remote control did not seem to trouble me at all.Everyday when I got back from school, mom would say, “go to play, come back after a couple of hours, finish your homework and then I will let you watch TV”.(Good routine na.. it worked wonders!)

The entire household had great fun because we never watched serials that would drag over years but restricted ourselves to programmes that were short and sweet.Tu Tu Main Main, Shriman Shrimatiji, All the Best,Ek se Bhadkar ek,Superhit Muqabla,Surabhi ,Stone boy, Disney time,Shri Krishna,Rangoli, Chitrahaar, Bhaje Payal,Meri Awaz suno etc.The impact of these were so high that we still remember some of the episodes now and laugh it off. Keku, Premaji, Dilruba,koki,sasu ma,Radha etc were always the much loved and eagerly awaited guests. The comedy shows were penned brilliantly and the actors pulled it off so well that they genuinely elucidated laughter unlike the ones now.Perhaps the only viewer who finds today’s comedy shows very funny is the poor tape recorded thingy which is forced to erupt into mindless laughter frequently (giving us a cue that we are supposed to laugh now).We even loved the cranky Baba Sehgal hosting Superhit Muqabla and Anupam Kher in Ariel Mr Gold. The ever smiling Renuka Sahane and Siddharth Kak brought a wealth of info about our heritage and culture without much ado.Even when we didn’t watch serials like Junoon,Kismat,Shanthi,Saahil and all, we liked to listen to their title track.It used to be sooooo good.We spent around 7 hours in a week for TV.An hour each day.. decent bargain I would say. Before we bought TV, we, along with a few others who didn’t own a TV, got invited to watch Ramayana and Johnny Sokko and his Giant Robot at our neighbours’ place.We used to have such a great time then.

There was one serial that stretched over a couple of years and we did watch it without missing an episode.Mahabharat ! Fantabulous stuff.. Sometime back, I saw a retelecast of this serial in one of the channels. The line “Main samai hun” brought back a flood of memories.. feel like wringing the neck of Ekta Kapoor with my bare hands for the bull shit she is giving the viewers and having the guts to name it “Mahabharat”. She also deserves to get killed several times for the loads of trash she dumps into the drawing rooms of unsuspecting viewers(I mean all the K serials here ! ).

The host of efficient news readers like Sumit Tandon,Sukanya Balakrishnan etc were a great plus and the World this week presented by Prannoy Roy.Simply superb.How can I leave the set of movies movies that DD gave us (my personal favourite remains Mr India) and the regional movies on Sunday afternoon.We used to wait for months for that one Sunday when we can watch that one movie in our mother tongue..

Ofcourse I can’t leave out “Mile sur mera tumhara” (trying to sing along and getting it right only when the Tamil portion comes) , “ek anek” and many more such sweet meaningful songs.

Sometimes I try to relive those moments by occasionally catching up with Rangoli or watching clippings of some old DD shows in you tube..but well.. wish those times could be back..I seem to miss even the “rukawat ke liye khed hai”.

Well I am not someone who resists change and scoffs at things just because they are different.Was just wondering why there has to be a compromise on quality when something new takes over.. can’t change be for better.People watch today’s progs mostly because they are used to it.. But if given a choice many would choose good quality programmes over the cheap entertainment.We deserve Ekta kpoors and the likes as longs as we keep their TRPs high.If we become a little more choosy, things might change.... Neither the people nor the entertainment industry is in serious trouble because of the quality of the programmes but it will do a lot of good if some sense creeps into the industry and they give a more quality output.Don’t you agree ??