கவுனி அரிசி பொங்கல் | bubur hitam

Pandian Ramaiah Leave a comment

This is a sweet blog post, which explains the cooking process of a popular Chettinad sweet dish – ‘kavuni arisi pongal’ (black rice pongal). Similar kind of sweet is called as Bubur Hitam in Indonesia/Malaysia/Singapore.

Things you need:

  1. Black rice (கவுனி அரிசி/kavuni rice) – 1 tumbler
  2. Jaggery powder (சர்க்கரை) – 3/4 of a tumbler
  3. Coconut scamble (தேங்காய் கால் மூடி துருவியது) – 1/4 tumbler
  4. Ghee – 2 spoons
  5. Salt – a pinch (Only to add taste. Do not add more)
  • Soak black rice for 4 hours. Because black rice is so hard. So do not cook like normal rice.
  • After soaking the rice, clean it. add 3 tumblers of water. Cook it in Indian rice cooker. Wait for 5 whistles. Wait until steam is released.
  • Reduce the flame.
  • Open the cooker. Release unnecessary water. Add jaggery powder and stir it well. Make sure the cooker content has sufficient water.
  • After jaggery is mixed with rice, add ghee, coconut scramble and pinch of salt and stir it well until it comes to colloidal state.
  • Switch off the stove. Serve the dish to your kids.

It would be a perfect evening time snacks or a perfect dessert for lunch.

Jurassic World: Fallen kingdom

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Pictures: Universal Studio

After having a ‘blunch’ at a Kannada (Indian) restaurant in Farrer park, I wanted to go for a movie. Yes, it happens like that always when I stay alone. I washed my cloths, ironed twice. So, It is not good to waste this brisky weekend.

I wanted to for Kaala, recently released Tamil movie starring Rajini Kanth. The theater for not even half full. But ticket costs me 20 SGD. I had paid 18 SGD for Linga in the past. That was one of the mistakes I did. It was a disaster. My next choice was ‘Veere Di Wedding’. Not fully convinced with it, I got tickets Jurassic World, which was started 5 minutes. Ago.

jurassicworldgv

The story line goes like this – After a fall of Jurassic world, Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) wish to save the remaining dinosaurs to a safer sanctuary from a volcanoic island near Costa Rica. A group of people, want to save the species. Another group of people wanted to use them commercially. Meanwhile, these group of people met with deadly dinosaurs, which makes their job much difficult. So this movie is a war between ethics and business.

Pictures: Universal Studio

Pictures: Universal Studio

The visuals were fantastic. I didn’t regret for missing Kaala. The way the volcanic eruptions are visualized is something I have never seen. The ashes and fire being effused like shells, is something very good.

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Pictures: Universal Studio

Similar to previous Jurassic movies we can see the mass dinosaurs running, howling inside the forests! Can watch!

The Last Flower | James Thurber

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Boys and girls were no more attracted to each other. Love disappeared from the face of earth. One day a girl saw the last surviving flower. She had seen a flower for the first time.

She told others that the last flower was also about to die.

the last flower 2

James_Thurber_NYWTS

The Last Flower
Author – James Thurber
Translation – Ko. Ma. Ko. Elango
Publisher – Books for Children, Jan 2016

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Lot of people were dead in word war – I. Men, women and children became worse than animals. Because of lack of food and love.

the last flower 3

when the world was destroyed, only one flower left out. who helped the flower to survive? Read the story to know this.

the last flower 1

See you.

Kannan.

bdr

Harold and the Purple Crayon | Crockett Johnson

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It was a terribly frightening dragon. It even frightened Harold. He backed away. His hand holding the purple crayon shook.

Harold and the Purple Crayon 2

Crockett_Johnson_(mid-1960s)Harold and the Purple Crayon
Author : Crockett Johnson
Translate: Ko. Ma. Ko. Elango
Edition: Books For Children, Chennai – First Edition January 2016

Library Reservation

Do you know what Harold did with a purple crayon?

It was not an ordinary crayon – it was a magic crayon. Because, he drew a town with that purple crayon but it was full of windows all over.

Harold is the only one character in this story.

Harold and the Purple Crayon 1

This is a kiddish and ‘not so good and not so bad’ story.

I like the climax because it is so good. You need to read this book at least once.

Surviving Parenthood

Magic Seeds | Mitsumasa Anno

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“These are magic,” he said. “Bake 1 seed in the oven until it is red and then eat it. You will not be hungry again for a whole year. Bury the other seed in the ground now and care for it well”

Magic Seed 2

Mitsumasa-Annoமந்திர விதைகள் (Magic Seeds)
Author: Mitsumasa Anno
Tamil translation: Ko. Maa. Ko. Elango
Publisher: Books for Children, Chennai, Sep 2015

Hi

How Jack got 2 golden seeds?

I read this story “How a rich man feel when he saw gold rain?”. This story is not so bad or not so good.

 

The old man and the Jack are the two characters in this.

Magic Seed 3

One boy called Jack, got two large golden seeds, from a wicked old man as a gift. The old man taught Jack how to get benefit out of them.

Magic Seed 1

Read this story book to enjoy this story completely.

Surviving Parenthood

BOMB! | Jim Eldridge

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Hi friends,

I just read this story book. I was so thrilled as if I saw the Bomb itself.

jimBOMB!
Author: Jim Eldridge
Illustrator: Dylan Gibson
Publishing: Edinburgh : Barrington Stoke, 2011.

This is a thriller novella. A man called Rob came to defuse the bomb. When another man Tom went to defuse it in the railway station, which is left by some criminals, he cut the wrong wire and he died on the spot.

Rob was from an Army. He had lot of experience to defuse the bomb. He hid himself in a ACE cleaner’s dress. The chapter ‘60 seconds left‘ was so thrilling.

Bomb

Final day events of Singapore Writers Festival

Pandian Ramaiah Leave a comment

swf 2017Today is the last day of SWF. We couldn’t attend any family sessions as we had other appointments. Later we had a panel discussion ‘Challenging conventions in Tamil Literature‘ with S. Ramakrishnan and two other Singaporean writers Shanawaz and Jeyanti Sankar. Shanawas is good in story telling. This is the first time I had a chance to listen to Jeyanti Sankar.

bdr

From my perspective, S.Ra participated and ran the show. I was so specific about one of the questions raised, which tried to portray as Thirukural has expired backward ane expired concepts. I thought when a Tamilian can come to this kind of conclusion. We have been discussed in the past, about the damages of explanations given to Thirukural, political agenda of Thirukural without knowing its background. This question justifies as it is asked from feminism context. I like the reply from Jeyanti (I think so), Thirukural has to be explained in latest context. Kannan raised his hand for mic. I stopped him as usual.

We had 2 hours of break. We had a late but tasty lunch with 4 chat items!

Later, we joined in our final session for Tamil ‘Literary Ethics: The Writer vs the Work‘, which is the exclusive speech by S. Ra moderated by Sidharthan Maunaguru. It was spontaneous delivery with a fine blend of wits and quotes.

SWF Aram - Literary Ethics

SWF Aram – Literary Ethics

One of the point made by him was, Tamil is the one & only language, which has provided two females who implemented Aram – Kannaki and Manimegalai. Whats so important  about females talking about Aram? He justifies that, Aram is always dictated (Is it the right word?) by males. But females are the ones on the ground who implement it, by introducing virtue to their kids. But they were never appreciated for this.

Moving males and females aside, why not government capture the implementing power of aram?

Can time’s sickle influence Aram?

Is there any Aram that can not be changed?

The speech touched upon these concepts before audience took part in the discussion.

During this debate, Kannan wanted to sit in the front (or, he wanted to sit away from me). he requested for the mic and started questioning about Aram. I was terribly worried, as he may embarrass the gathering, which was luckily tolerated and managed by the author. He gave the boy a use-case. When someone has two pencils, lending one to others is Aram. What will happen when you have only one pencil? That is how complexity of Aram (அறச் சிக்கல்) arises.

While SWF chooses Aram as its theme this year, it wraps up itself leaving the question to us.

The end

swf 2017 1

A fine evening with author S Ramakrishnan

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swf 2017I couldn’t attend any further SWF sessions after City of ghosts – screening , as I had other official commitments. Today is important, as the festival would be over by tomorrow. I went with my family as my wife was interested in ‘Surviving Parenthood‘ scheduled at 11:30.

Kannan and I went first to attend ‘Shape a Story with your Body‘ by R Chandran and Amy J Cheng. It included a bit of stretching and dancing. Later kids morphed themselves as seed, plant and trees. I took part in these activities as well – why not, I’m also a kid for my mom!

Shape a Story with your Body

Shape a Story with your Body

Later mother and son went to ‘Surviving Parenthood‘. Kannan came out with crabs and Pig. No No. They are craft items. Singapore encourages (in a way compel) its Citizens to marry and have kids. I could see these kind of family sessions in a nice environment as a way to support Government’s interest of family life. I couldn’t attend this session, not because of I’m very good parent already, I had to look after my 2 year old kid. We had a long walk (really long.. we walked for 60+ minutes), to get packed lunch.

bdr

Surviving Parenthood

Later in the afternoon Kannan and I went to ‘எழுதுவதா வேண்டாமா? இளம் தமிழ் எழுத்தாளரின் குழப்பம்’, a panel discussion by young Singapore Writers Elancharan Gunasekaran, Ashwinii Selvaraj, Gayathiri Ilango and Harini V moderated by S. Ramakrishnan. As usual Kannan was so furious at me for not allowing him to question the panel. It was a discussion between young Singaporean writers and a Senior Tamil writer. Whether there is content or not, controversy exist!

எழுதுவதா வேண்டாமா? இளம் தமிழ் எழுத்தாளரின் குழப்பம்

எழுதுவதா வேண்டாமா? இளம் தமிழ் எழுத்தாளரின் குழப்பம்

We attended ‘The Indomitable Irishry: Chronicling Ireland Through The Decades‘ by Rob Doyle, Gerald Dawe and Eilis Ni Dhuibhne (Éilís Ní Dhuibhne). Ireland was the country of focus in SWF, hence it is unfair not to attend any related sessions. I’m not aware of the Irish literature anyway. I could understand least part of the discussion only. Later I met Rob Doyle in the book shop during the Book signing.

The Indomitable Irishry: Chronicling Ireland Through The Decades

The Indomitable Irishry: Chronicling Ireland Through The Decades

We had a long, interactive discussion in offline later with S. Ramakrishnan at Esplanade. Barani coordinated this meeting and came up with this opportunity to Indian expats like me. It was an important session of my own private interest.

A fine evening

A fine evening

I’ve read the following couple of short stories collection by S. Ramakrishnan.

I purchased Desantri, which I forgot to bring when I moved from Chennai to Singapore. I haven’t read him in detail, especially the novels which is my interest. Jeyamohan occupies most of my table space with his Venmurasu. I’d added other works of S. Ra in this SWF. I’d be blogging my reading experiences one by one.

Tomorrow would be the last day of the event.

See you soon.

 

City of ghosts – screening

Pandian Ramaiah Leave a comment

swf 2017I rushed back to SWF in the evening. I thought I can get a ticket for City of ghosts. After bustling around the ticket corner, I was able to get one, finally. It was a full house show!

This documentary talks about Raqqa, a city in Syria located in the bank of a river. It starts with peoples’ agitation against the ruling government. An opportunistic extremists group takes advantage of the fall of the Government, which later transforms itself as the Islamic State.

This movie talks in the perspective of anti-ISIS citizens of Syria from Raqqa. How they launched an online campaign to expose the atrocities to the world. Their efforts, losses are portrayed as a pinch of salt.

When they exposed ISIS to the world in its early days, world did not pay attention. Later they realize the risk of this group. As I hear this dialog in this movie, I recalled about India’s global effort to expose Pakistan. Even now, I could see global media, including Straits times, mention them as militants not terrorists!

Still, ‘the nation wants to know’ how an extremism is nourished by global Muslims, though it is clear that ISIS is not fighting or Islam, but for their own benefit. Countries like India, Indonesia, Malaysia lost their citizens (men & women) to this group. What makes them to nod their head?

Preview:

cityofghosts