Final Year Trip to Konkan

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Last Wednesday, 14th April, all final year Civil students had gone on a trip to Konkan. We left at 4 in the morning and reached Murud - a small coastal village at around 8.30. Almost no one had slept in the bus and the entire journey was spent singing and hooting and by the time we reached Murud everyone was hungry! Breakfast order had been given to a local family a day in advance and everyone was more than happy to have garam garam upeet, pohe ani chaha (typical hot Maharashtrian breakfast with hot tea)!

The beach was very inviting, so all of us went for a stroll and played a little on the shore and clicked a few photos. Although plans of getting wet were left for the evening. In a short while after freshening up we pushed ahead to see Janjira - a fort built in the sea just off the coast. Sail-boats operate on a regular basis from Murud to take visitors to the fort. After a short ride in the boat we were in the fort. The fort itself was a huge construction project in its time and a lot of it still exists with almost the entire outer wall intact and several important features within.

By half past noon we had returned from the fort. We had lunch at a khanawal (homely dine-in) in Murud. After lunch everyone had multiple barfache gole (ice-candies made on the spot from shredded ice and a wide range of flavours) and lazed around a bit in the afternoon. The heat in Konkan during this time of the year is almost unbearable.

After lunch and a little relaxing we left for Kashid Beach. By 4.30 we reached Kashid. Everyone had fun on the beach and in the water. A few guys played football while others were enjoying the waves. By the end of the evening almost everyone was completely drenched. We all had bath and changed into fresh clothes - some inside make-shift bathrooms on the beach while others in a farm house a little away.

While returning we stopped at a restaurant on the outskirts of Alibag for dinner. We reached Pune by 1:30 am. The return journey in the bus was more or less quiet - many were sleeping and others were simply tired and chatting in smaller groups.

On the whole the trip was fun, and I'm sure all of us are going to remember this one for a long, long time...

A Little Fun with Photoshop!

The original photo is one of my favourite portraits I've shot - thank you Pooja!

This photo (cropped out of the original one) was edited in PS using channel mixing, photo-filters and saturation control. To elaborate a little, the photo was sliced vertically in 8 equal strips and each one converted to a layer. Individual layers were then channel-mixed or applied photo-filters till the desired effect was achieved. After this, all layers were combined, so as to boost/reduce the saturation of RGB colours individually. Without saturation control, the image does not get the required 'blending' between the strips and attention is drawn to the edges of the strips rather than the subject. Hopefully that effect has almost been eliminated.

This was the author's first successful (??) attempt at such a technique - although that is his personal opinion! Comments / suggestions are always welcome!

Bachelor Cooking (2)

Being a hardcore non-veg lover at heart, I couldn't possibly not post a few non-veg recipes here! This one's an easier version of Chinese style Chilly Chicken; I'll call it Simplified Chilly Chicken, on the lines of the simplified version of their language!

This recipe isn't a quickie but it's not particularly time consuming either.

Simplified Chilly Chicken, Chinese style:

1. Take about 200-250 g boneless chicken (this quantity should serve about 2 people).
2. Wash the meat thoroughly, and cut into small squarish pieces.
3. Sprinkle liberal amount of salt, mix it and leave for a couple of minutes.
4. Put the pieces in a pressure cooker vessel, keep the vessel in the cooker, add some water around the vessel (inside the cooker), close the lid and place the cooker on low flame. After sometime increase the flame to medium.
5. Dice 2 big capsicums and onions (keep the pieces a little large) and cut 3 green chilies into 4 pieces each, exposing the seeds inside.
6. In about 10-15 mins, the cooker should have whistled 3-4 times; if not, increase the flame to maximum. After 4 whistles, switch off the flame and let the lid fall on its own.
7. Heat oil in a vessel (kadhai) and put in the onions and chillies, stir occasionally. After sometime put in the capsicums. Add salt to taste.
8. While the onions and capsicums are getting fried, take out the chicken and check if it's done properly - the meat should be tender and easily broken with two fingers.
9. Put the chicken into the frying vessel and stir occasionally. Add little water/oil from the vessel in which the chicken was steamed, to the frying vessel - this will add flavour to the dish since that water/oil has the juices of the meat.
10. After about 5-8 mins, add soy sauce and pepper as per taste.
11. Fry for 2-3 mins more, switch off the flame and we're done!

Note: This recipe does not have many spices; the only spiciness is from the chillies and pepper, so add lot of pepper or a couple of chilies more for a sharp spicy taste. In should take about 30-40 mins from start to end for this recipe.

Bachelor Cooking (1)

The tittle says it all - a series of posts in which I wish to share some basic recipes that'll be useful to any of you living alone or away from home. Some of these have been taught by my mom, a brilliant cook indeed! Also some of them are a result of my own experimentation at 2 am! I had talked about writing such a series of posts and after encouragement from a friend (yes Shravan you get a mention here like I had said!) I'm finally going to write these.

Here's a basic recipe of Lady's-finger vegetable:

1. Take about 200g Lady's-finger (for one - two persons) and wash and dry thoroughly with a cloth.
2. For each of the long vegetable, cut off the hard end portion; then cut circular slices of the rest of the length (don't cut too thin or thick).
3. Take one/two green chilies, wash and cut them each into 4 pieces (first cut perpendicular to length, then cut each of the halves longitudinally, exposing the seeds inside).
4. Now keep a vessel with little oil in it to heat - keep the flame medium high.
5. After a couple of minutes, put just one or two mustard seeds, and see if it crackles. If it does, then lower the flame and put in two good pinches of mustard seeds. If it doesn't crackle just wait for another minute and try again!
6. Now quickly add the chili pieces, and a small pinch of tamarind powder.
7. Stir a little and add the cut Lady's-fingers.
8. Stir properly making sure the spices spread everywhere. Add salt to taste.
9. Keep a lid over the vessel, and let the vegetable cook for about 5 minutes on low flame. Check in between to make sure it's not burnt, and stir once or twice.
10. Remove the lid, fry some more if needed. When the vegetable is properly cooked, it will turn soft and a few of the thin slices will have become golden brown. Turn the flame off.

Note: My mom warns me that this vegetable has to be properly dried before putting it in to cook, else it will become sticky and messy afterwards, which I totally dislike!

A very quick recipe, just learnt last night and it barely takes 10 minutes, from start to end! Tastes great with chapatis / rotis.

Comments, suggestions and alterations on this and future recipes are welcome! Also, if you do make any of them, I'd be happy to know! Hope I can write more of such.

The Anxiety Finally Ends!

This morning is different from all the others in the past few months..no more wishful opening of inbox to see if there's an admit decision or an update on that..no more checking mails hundred times a day..no more "will I get an accept or not, so and so got an accept, my profile is this, my profile is that" and no more wishing and praying every now and then! The anxiety is finally over.

Last night I got my last remaining decision, which was by far the most awaited one since it was a very high ranked univ. It was a reject. Looking at the brighter side, my destination is finally fixed. This whole process of applications, right from the tests, short listing univs, finalising them, writing sops, filling out all those lengthy app forms online, and ultimately the almost never-ending waiting for decisions...all this has been fun I must admit!

What is a little relieving is that there was a time when I had two options and could not choose the right one, yet after a few days of patience, things turned out in such a way that the choice was very obvious. It was like I had been given the new information as if to clear the cloud of confusion.

At the end of season, my 'score' stands at a decent 7-5 (admits-rejects); and I owe a big treat to my pal 'coz we'd had a deal that if I crossed 5 admits I would treat him and myself to an amazing lunch / dinner at our favourite restaurant!