Indian-style French toast

Sooo... this is a recipe a friend suggested :) I was hungry, and wanted to try something new (and wanted to use up my eggs also)

Indian-style French toast

Ingredients
Eggs (2)
Garam Masala (as per taste)
Salt (as per taste)
Red Chilli Powder (as per taste)
Bread -- I prefer whole wheat :-)
Oil (spray)
Green chutney
Red sauce (ketchup, or anything sweet)

Pan




Procedure
1) Beat 2 eggs (or more if you're an egg-lover. I'm not so much)
2) Mix in slat, red chilli powder, and garam masala . Beat some more
3) Take two slices of bread and layer one with some sort of green chutney. Layer the other with ketchup or a sweet sauce. Put the two slices together.
4) Now, divide the "sandwich" in four squares.
5) Lightly spray the pan.
6) Dip in the egg-beaten-up batter.
7) Fry the pieces in the pan until golden brown (and don't leave any egg uncooked-you'll get sick. Or maybe even salmonella-poisoning.)
8) Serve with some ketchup!

READY! :-)

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Some updates:
Friday: Going to Champaign tonight and we're going to dance the night away at the UIUC GRB :-)
Saturday: Attending Asha's Sharad Saavan, and supporting for underprivileged children in India. If you're reading this, you should do the same.
Sunday: Back to Chitown and studying. boo :-(

Asha - a Great Non-Profit Organization

If you have been a part of Asha, volunteered, have been helped by, or even have just heard of Asha, please write a review for it :)

http://greatnonprofits.org/reviews/asha-for-education/

office hours - a success!

I could help a student today!! :-) She asked about some questions which had to do with basic physics, and I could actually help her out :-) iyayyy!!

I think I might just be able to do this. I'm thinking I'll take up that Algebra Tutoring job next semester.

First Day at Office Hrs!

12pm-1pm

12:15PM: I got here 15 minutes early (11:45am) out of nervousness... It's 12:15 and no one is here. I'm soooo relieved! Haha :D I just sent an email to one of the students answering her questions.

12:37PM: No one!!

1:15pm: NO ONE! YAYYYYYYYY.

saved.

SSMJ

[Dedicated to SSMJ]

On this new journey of ours, I wish for us all the success and all the results of our work to show. Just remember, from this point onwards, there's no looking back. We will move on and move ahead. No matter how far we are from home, or from each other, we are and will be forever united with very special bond, beyond sisterhood and beyond friendship, a bond of full trust and dependence, a bond overflowing with unlimited love and care. Most importantly, this will never be broken.

While we move on today with lessons learned and relationships understood, we will still have open minds and open hearts to the new and unfamiliar...we will face the challenges to come...and we will not fear.

Mansi, as the sun rises in the coming few hours, we all wish you a safe and happy journey...and we <3 U so very very much.

my new place

i'm here, in college, ready to begin grad school.
I'm all moved in today. My apartment is beautiful and cozy, but the feelings just aren't there. But of course, it's too early to judge.

This apartment building has two sections, A and B. Section A faces the road driving into campus, and section B faces the road driving into the expressway, out of campus, and back home. I live in section B.

I miss my family, I miss my friends. I hope tomorrow brings a new and positive outlook for me, where I can soon find my place, in an academic circle, in a social circle, and in my career :-)

ma

I'm in India.

I love it here. I love the rains (few, but soft and fragrant). I just got drenched in the rain yesterday! I could never do that there. :) I love the nature. The birds chirping, the doodhwala, sabjiwala, Madhu aunty, the fan constantly on, even the heat! I love sitting on my flat bed and not getting a neckache every morning. I love watching people on the streets. I love long drives on roads.I love the simple life, making do with what's there. I love my creaking almaris.



But I hate it here too. People say life in America is fast-paced. I think life in India is fast-paced. It just looks like it's slow.

It's so fast that people living next to each other, people in the same family, people right next to you don't know anything but themselves. I wonder if there really are any such great problems that people here have, that narrows down their point of view. Or do I just have no such problems in my life that I don't understand what people feel here? No one sees anyone...or anything for that matter...beyond themselves. It seems like everyone for themselves. 11 years ago this wasn't the case. Or was it always?

People say India is advancing. But nothing I've seen yet has advanced. Not the culture, not the principles, not the people, not in my own family at least. It's not the heat that's intolerable. It's the snifs I hear and the tears I see. I know there's more to it. I wish I could see it.

I used to love coming back to India every year. I still do. But over this beautiful motherland, there's a facade I'm not liking :( I used to come for the country, the culture, the people, my family, and my friends. On July 9th 2009, I came for the country and my friends. I don't want this list to get any shorter than this.

I hope I'm the narrow-minded one.

in search for the answer

the time to make a decision is approaching, and now i question...is this what fate has in store for me? is this what i want in my life? is this where my life is headed? can i take the step that's hardest to take, can i go for change, can i do what i think may be best for all of us?

lotus in the rain

As time flies by, I thought I learned all I had to learn. I thought I was done. The grueling, painful process of learning was over. But, I was wrong.

I question. Why? Why still? Why aren't we over with this yet? Why is there yet more wait? In a whole mesh of complications, why hasn't a solution come through, like a lotus appears in a muddy pond?

I'm not sure how to start this post, so I'll try my best to put down my feelings as they are right now. I see some dewdrops of rain, left behind by a huge thunderstorm, the coming of a new beginning... As afraid as I am for what might come, I'm eager. Anxious for the raging black hole to open up finally and suck in all the pain and leave behind the good.

The fight for the right and for justice continues. And it's climaxed to one of the most gruesome, unbearable points...but there's no turning back now. I keep telling myself, and I believe this to be true: It is the law of nature. What goes up, must come down. And...what goes down, must rise. The time is coming, OUR time is coming...when the right rises, and the wrong falls. I know that God is with us and will stay with us throughout. I believe that these testing times will be over soon. I believe that we will regain, health, wellness, confidence, and the victory that was always ours. I believe that my words are not merely words, but a premonition of what's to come.

I pray for everything to come together, all the forces of nature, all the goodness of the world, and sprout out that lotus that we so seek in this muddy and lonely thunderstorm.

aandhiyon se jhagad rahi hai lau meri...

Jessica: shocked
Jessica: wants Justice
Jessica: just realized that there is no justice, and good intentions fail, and wrong people win.
Jessica: questions Karma...

Song in my head: Khoon Chala (Rang De Basanti)

The last bit of our year, and the pain penetrates deeper than any emotion I've ever felt. It's true what people say, time doesn't wait for anyone. I wanted to go back to my post about heroes of justice. I wanted to also go back to my previous post about revelations. I come across yet another revelation.

We feel defeated. Tired of fighting, tired of fighting for what's right, tired of fighting for morals, tired of asking for justice... tired of living in a world where no authority has authority and the only ones who win are those who aren't just, who are wrong, and who are selfish. If winning is for selfish people, I don't ever want to be so ambitious in my life.

I thought justice alone is its own supporter, it's own reality, its own strength, and its own proof. I refuse to sit back and believe that justice loses. I refuse to believe that fighters of justice can lose.

What happened in the past few months, the realization that took place in the few hours of that Saturday afternoon, nothing can be replaced, forgotten. Nothing can be understood...I know time will make it all better. But will it really?
Was this all that was to be learned from this? Our trust in justice, in the good, is it to be lost?
Time is the only resolution?

I wish I could take away all this pain for us and drink it like the poison Shivji drank. I wish I could really be the change I want to see in this world.

Song in my head: Roobaroo (Rang De Basanti)