Bhindi (okra) corn veggie

Hi! A lazy sunday afternoon with almost no stock of veggies at home, I thought of making 2 vegetables in small quantities. The first one was fairly routine- Potatoes and tindola. The second -Bhindi and Corn turned out to be nice. As always, I cud "smell" the final product even before I started making it. I have never tried this combination before.



You the Bhindi Corn Veg you will need:

Bhindi-nicely washed and dried, cut into medium long peices.
Fresh corn- 3-4 tables spoons or use frozen corn,like I did.
Curry leaves-3-4 nos.
Garlic-2-3 peices
mustard seeds
Asofoetida powder

Turmeric, Coariander power, Cumin-Coriander powder, Salt,Cilli Powder.

Method:-
Run the curry leaves, garlic and fresh/frozen corn in a mixer to get a coarse powder.
Add a little salt and keep it aside.

In a wok, add a teaspoon of oil. When hot, add the mustard seeds. When they splutter, add the asofoetida and the bhindi. Stir. Add the turmeric , coriander powder and a little cumin-coriander powder.Stir.Cover and cook on a low flame till half done.Add salt and cover again. When the bhindis are almost cooked and "done", add the coarse corn mix.Stir in well. Cover and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

Garnish with very fine chopped coriander and a few drops of lemon juice if you like.

Serve with warm rotis.

A moment in time...

Chennai , 07th March, 2008
At a busy pedestrian crossing on the busy Mount road.
Scores of people stood watching the cars and busses drive fast on the busy road...watching and waiting for the traffic to ease; each busy in their own life, each going to an individual destination. Traffic and especially reckless drivers on these perenially busy roads worry me. Out of habit I placed myself in the middle of the waiting crowd :-) .

So many people and no words exchanged, not even a glance of acknowledging of each others presence. What mattered was just to reach the destination each one headed to.

Suddenly I noticed a diminuitive man next to me, checking out the space in front of him with a stick. I looked at him and knew instantly that he was blind. My hand reached out for the stranger's arm and urged him to walk along. My mind reasoned, he knows his way, why shud I? I counter question -why not! and shut out the thoughts and revelled in my natural instinctive behavior. My hand pressed his arm when I wanted him to stop. And urged again to walk on, till we crossed the road. As spontaneously it happened, so spontaneously we separated and went onwards to our destination.

The honking of the autos, the sounds of human activity were faint in the background .I cannot fully express what it was. As I walked on, alone, rolled down. It was joy, a moment was lifted out of time.

Life is beautiful!

Life is beautiful!

The past few weeks have been a journey full of questions. I was walking up a path where I expected turning into a new road, looked forward to particular turn of events and was visualising life take a diffrent direction in general.

The turn did arrive. Only the scenery was different than expected.
The turn of events did happen-only they were different than what I expected.
The "vision" I had of my life changed in a matter of a few days.

What was also unexpected was disapointment and a HUGE sense of emptiness; a sense of being rudderless in the vast shoreless sea of my life.

The experience left me completely depleted of energy. I looked dull, dark and sans my usual sparkle. Sometimes sleep is the best remedy.In sleep the being repairs itself;the body regains its balance, the mind and emotions have no active working but just rest rest and ..some more rest.

A week with nothing less than daily 8 hours of nocturnal sleep and 2-3 hours of afternoon snoooze-time, I was almost back and together...back to being ME.

During this time an avalanche of questions came tumbling down into my mind...

What do I want to do with my life?
Why should any situation in life make me feel rudderless?
Where do i go from here?
Where do I seek to be in future? ...
Am I equipped for my future?
What do I need to do to be able to be happy in all situations?

To most questions I had no answers and the fuzziness of it all weighed on my heart.

It was then I thought- but why am I so bogged down with this? Havent I read umpteen number of times that one shud live in the present? (Plan for the future- sure! But live IN the present moment!). My mind went back to another moment in life- I was depressed way back then-it was a crisis of sorts and I had no hope in life.I chanced upon a sentence from my guru and those words became my turning point. I took charge of my happiness and worked my way back to smiles and sunshine. Those words were (not the exact words) .. . When you are depressed, you dont have Faith in the Divine.

I recalled these words and thought, what am I doing with myself- how can I let go of myself, when what I have to let go is doubts! And bingo, the clouds started to move away and the sun shone thru warm as always.

If we can really step back and trust the Divine, trust the flow of life; if we can not let our doubts and fears intervene and take charge of our hearts and minds; if we can just simply be, with Faith and with gratitude....Indeed Life is beautiful!