Masking reality

A compliment or a comment from a sweet friend yesterday prompted me to start thinking about this. On social media sites like Facebook it is so easy to wear a mask and hide the real you. I regularly use Facebook to share happy moments from my life with a network of friends and family. Some of these friends I know for many years, went to school with together but some are also friends whom I occasionaly meet when there is a social gathering for example. Some are also colleagues from work and of course relatives and family scattered in different parts of the globe.

I don't bother posting pics of myself when I am ill, tired from a hard long day at work, feel completely drained or when I reprimand the kids when they sometimes morph themselves into little devils. But then, why would I?  I don't think anybody wants to be bored about these real aspects of somebody's life right. After all social media sites give you a chance to go into a world where you can have some fun, look at vacation pics of your friends, find out who partied with whom and of course 'like' status updates like 'Just finished flossing my teeth and they feel squeaky clean'.

I personally think it provides a medium for comic relief from daily life and also helps me enjoy my daily morning cup of tea so much more, browsing through recent updates from friends. Also I think I need to be on top of all of this now cos soon I think my children will be using these channels as well to collaborate with their friends. I want them to accept my friend request and make sure that I am their best friend also in the virtual world :-) Ah, ha hidden agenda too..

So three cheers to virtual collaboration, lets embrace it, enjoy it and also thank God that we don't need to worry about bad hair days anymore :-))

Bangalore beckoning

Work took me to Bangalore some weeks back. I am always excited when I get the chance to go to Bangalore, the city I was born and brought up in. But more interesting was the flight to Bangalore. I happened to sit next to another colleague who also worked for the same company that I work for. He also had moved to Germany and made it his home for the last 13 years. Very similar in that sense to me as well, but he moved from a small county in South Africa. It was extremely interesting to understand how he had gotten used to life in Germany and how we could come to some of the same conclusions about different facets in the last decade or so. We also got to comparing the traffic conditions in India and Germany. One of his remarks was very interesting – He said that despite the fact that there are no real traffic rules followed by anyone in the Bangalore roads, somehow everything works out fine because the people take care of each other. It is not the rules of the law that guide them but it is the basic human feeling of taking care of another human being that makes it work. Whereas in Germany traffic is so well regulated mainly because everybody is following the rules diligently. I was thinking aloud if the reason they follow the rules is also because of the human care that people have for each other. Interesting observation and conversation.

It was lovely to hear the officer in the immigration counter at the Bangalore international airport smile and ask me in Kannada the local language, if I am back in town. But he was kinda disappointed to note that I would be leaving back in few days. Told him that kiddies and hubby was back home and I need to get back soon, he nodded knowingly. He told me that next time we should all come together for vacation and stay longer. I told him we were here in 2010 and we really had a nice time together. Could not possibly have this conversation with somebody sitting in an immigration counter back home in Germany  but I still imagined how that would play out.

The hotel was nice, the breakfast buffet was brilliant and the best part it was bang opposite the Bangalore office. It could not get better than this, no Bangalore traffic madness for the next days. The only small glitch was that most of the time was spent trying to cross that busy road in the morning. I realized that my dare devil run across the road skills had slightly diminished, but I was gonna work on that. On the last day I managed to crush the fear within my head and glide through the road, knowing very well that all the Gods were on my side.

The thing that always hits you when you walk into the offices in Bangalore is how energetic and young the crowd around you is. The negative though is that I can no longer be content thinking that given 99% chances I am the youngest one sitting in the meeting room. You can be damn sure that everyone in that room is probably half your age, what a bummer. But you also realise that everybody has so many options in Bangalore, and I wondered if they all share the same sense of commitment that I felt when I started off in my corporate journey 14 years back. Something to ponder about I guess.

The highlight of the trip was definitely the chance to meet with family and loved ones. On this front nothing had changed, thank God for that. Lots of yummy food, unconditional love, warm hugs and enquiries galore about hubby dear and kiddies back home in Germany.

Everybody sighing and awing about hubby dear and how he manages everything singlehandedly when I was away. Yeah, hubby dear is indeed my secret weapon that actually makes all this possible for me. My strength and solid foundation for everything in life, I could’nt wait to get back and see the delight in the kiddies eyes and the sense of relief in hubby’s eye.

No matter what

Saw this movie last Friday evening called 'Trust'. The movie was a good one, all about how kids in their teenage years can very easily get lost in the cyberworld. Lost in such a way, that they start trusting strangers whom they have never met in person more than anybody else including their own parents! Trusting them so deeply and also falling in love with these strangers completely.

The movie left hubby and me quite concerned. Well, anybody with two little girls would be. Especially with kids these days being exposed to a lot more technology in the form of ipads, iphones etc than we were when we were kids.

But the key question really is, is it only about the technology? That really is only one part of the whole puzzle, is'nt it? There are so many aspects out there that could influence your children and their decisions as they grow up. A strong loving nest @ home is very important and hopefully the effect of this surrounds them like a protective sheath when they are out there in the world on their own. But as a parent I think the most important aspect from my point of view is to be there for your children, no matter what and that's the key 'No matter what'.

I am excited thinking about the years ahead with the girls, there will be a lot of joy, there will be dissapointments, there will be anger sometimes, there will be a lot of successes, there will also be failures, maybe there are some heartbreaks :-), crushes etc etc...but no matter what we will be there for them...no matter what :-))

10 things to avoid in 2012!

When everybody else around me seems to be working hard on their new year resolutions and what they would like to focus on in 2012, I thought it would be good to be sure about the ten things that I don't want to be doing in 2012. And they would be:

1) Procrastinate

2) Survive on less than 4 hours of sleep

3) Yell @ my girls

4) Speeding

5) Avoid going to the dentist and doing Kegels

6) Too much PDA

7) Buying potted plants and murdering them

8) Complain

9) Forget names

10) Break any of the above

So what is on your 'avoid' list in 2012??

Breaking the rules with an Orange Almond cake

I keep telling little bunny never to follow any recipe point to point. I don't know if she completely understands what I mean, but everytime she is observing me cook she asks me 'Mama are you following the recipe?'. And almost always I have to tell her the truth which is 'Not exactly my dear'. I hate following recipes to be honest so it is strange that here I am posting another cake recipe! I believe in adding a personal touch to almost everything I do, I guess it gives me the pleasure of having broken the rules.And then I wonder from where little rabbit has that streak in her that calls for breaking every rule that I set for her :-)

Talking about cakes and recipes I met S last night for dinner who according to me is a master or mistress of baking. I think she makes some of the most amazing cakes in the world and is one of the best cooks I know. She slipped a small packet into my hands when I went to pick her up and told me to try it and let her know how it tasted. It was a kind of streusel kuchen and she had added cranberries and Czech apricots which was grown in her friend's garden back in the small town of Most and bottled for her to use :-)  Bottled apricots reminded me of the salted pickled whole mangoes back in India. S had her own personal touch as I am sure that the original recipe could not have called for Cranberries. As always it was delicious, I think she is to blame for having converted me into a true cake lover. More about S and her cakes in another post, an amazing woman, one who truly inspires me.

So guys here is a lovely recipe of an orange almond cake or rather tart I would say. I love the fact that you use the entire orange in the cake, peel and all. I also like this cake particularly because there is no flour used at all. Yeah, a very unique cake and also very healthy - well minus the sugar. But again I personally like to use dark brown densely packed sugar rather than the chemically bleached white variety that I sometimes happily consume with large pots of coffee during a working day :-( So here you go. Make sure you have the following ingredients ready, and this time it is only 5 things you need!!!

1) 2 large oranges

2) 1.5 cups of brown sugar

3) 5 eggs - yeah makes it really yumm!!!

4) 2.5 cups of almond meal

5) 1 tsp of baking powder

- cook the oranges in boiling water and then drain and cool. Put it into a blender and puree until smooth, the whole fruit including the peel

- beat the eggs with the sugar until nice and creamy, add the pureed oranges, almond meal and baking powder. Mix carefully, not too much. For those of you living in Germany you get ready to use almond meal at the Rewe supermaket, it is called Mandelpulver.

- pour into a greased baking pan and bake for almost an hour at 200 deg c in a preheated oven.

- once done keep it on a rack to cool

Your cake is technically ready but if you want to turn this into a kick a* orange almond cake then continue to read for a personal twist. Take half a cup of brown sugar, the rind of one orange and also the juice from the same orange. Boil and caremelize the mixture and pour this icing over the cooled cake. Now wait for the magic to happen, by letting it settle overnight. Next day you are ready to savor some deliciously moist orange almond cake. So go ahead break the rules my friends, add your own twist but try out this simple recipe and let me know what you think. Have fun!!!

A recipe for success anybody?

Don't get carried away with the title that was just to grab your attention and actually I don't have one, but don't leave yet, I do have a recipe to share with you. I think this post was more triggered by requests from friends to have the recipe that I used for the Banana Walnut cake that I baked recently for little bunny's kindergarten.

Well, it is that time of the year when working mothers like me in Germany really need to do the juggling act with ultimate precision and care. Your calendar at work is brimming to the limit and your calendar after work is also brimming to the limit. The only light I see at the end of the tunnel is the two weeks break from work where I plan to focus on some deep breathing skills.Yeah it is the month of December and the kindergartens pretend that the month should be dedicated by all mothers to baking cookies, cakes, helping out at all events like Adventscafe, Bastelabend (creative work which can then be sold), Adventsbasar etc etc. All these activities which I completely love to do given normal circumstances. But at work you also see that everybody is running amok making sure that everything is completed before vacation starts and you need to ensure that vertically up, vertically down, horizontally left and right all folks are appeased with their different requests.

Anyway, what has that got to do with a cake recipe you must be wondering. Yeah I need to learn to focus on one thing at a time - practice the breathing techniques I learnt during my preparation for labor classes and everything will just fall into place just like the muscles make way for the baby moving down the birth canal.

Coming back to the cake, so it was late evening Wednesday and the entry on my calendar read 'Bake cake for A's kindergarten for Adventsbazar'. Dinner was in progress and for the last spoons of pasta that needed to go down their throats I used the well known skills that we parents have - 'Kiddies finish your pasta and we can bake a cake together'. You can imagine the shriek of happiness and delight in their lovely eyes. Last bits of pasta disappeared before you even realised. Trust me this Banana walnut cake is one of the easiest you can make - you just need about 25 minutes at hand. Of course you need to have really super ripe bananas sitting in your fruit bowl which normally gets dunked into your bin. You need some brown sugar, buttermilk and some walnuts. The rest are the usual baking ingredients that go into any cake like eggs, flour, sugar, baking powder and butter. Especially when you bake with your children around I strongly advise you not to move away from the scene, it could turn into a long winded affair of cleaning your kitchen tops and floor. So make sure you have everything ready before you start, its easy like I said only the 10 ingredients below and you are ready to rock and roll.


1) 2.5 cups of flour

2) 1 tablespoon of baking powder

3) 0.5 cup of melted butter

4) a pinch of salt

5) 1 cup of white sugar

6) 3/4 cup of brown sugar

7) 2 eggs

8) 4 super ripe bananas mashed or you can mash it directly in your cake mixer

9) half a cup of buttermilk

10) half a cup of chopped walnuts

1. Make sure your oven is preheated (200 degrees C). Ask your little one to grease a round baking pan, this time I used a bundt form to make it look pretty. Kids love greasing the pan and getting their hands into the butter. Keeps them busy for sometime.

2. In a bowl mix the flour, baking soda and salt. You can ask your helpers at home to mix it for you with the additional instruction to do it very carefully else the kitchen top will be covered in flour :-)

3. In your cake mixer you can cream the butter, white sugar and brown sugar - nice and fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time - add the bananas - slowly mix in the flour mixture and the buttermilk and you get a creamy mixture. Stir in the chopped walnuts. (The trick is to have a extra walnuts placed in front of the kids and ask them to chop them and ask them explicitly not to consume them. A good trick to get them to consume some of the omega 3 rich nuts :-))

4. Ask the kids to taste the end result, you will see that they love it. Ask them to hold on - pour the batter carefully into the prepared form. Scrape out everything and the leftovers the kiddies can happily lick away.

5. Bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes - 40 minutes - until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely. Yummy banana- walnut cake is ready.

Lessons learnt - My German friends - parents of other kids at Kindergarten are born with extreme baking skills and I am sure many of you know that. So the next day in the kindergarten they could not comprehend why I had used a bundt form for a banana cake. Banana cakes according to the baking rules of the country demand it to be in a square form or a round form!! So make sure to keep this rule in mind especially if you are in this part of the world  :-) Enjoy baking my dear friends and like I said less than 2 weeks to go for that much needed Holiday break.

Tapas, Paella and Flamenco in Madrid

Was in Madrid for 2 nights and 3 days on work. The schedule @work was packed but I was determined to catch a little bit of the local scene when I was there. After all, it is not everyday you get to go to the Spanish capital. My company had booked me into a nice hotel but it was completely north of Madrid and I realized that the historic city center was in the South. So after a long day of work I took the metro from Plaza Castilla to Sol on metro number 1. The metro was packed with people and like metros around the world everybody on the metro seemed to have an own story of their own to tell.

Sol definitely seemed to be the center of Madrid. The place was swarming with activity, I walked to the Plaza Mayor which is one of the best known plazas in Madrid. This even seemed to be the place where a lot of bullfights had taken place. Obviously this time there was no time to find out where a bullfight could potentially be happening. With regards to food, Tapas seemed to be the way of life here, the lanes were lined with many of them. I jumped into one of the Tapas bar and tried out one of the tapas which was a soupy looking one which had thin slices of Spanish chorizo in it.

 Of course my expectations were quite high but it turned out to be just ok but the small platter of Arbequina olives in balsamico was really delicious. Also tried out the steamed mussels dressed with a flavorful vinaigrette and that was also yummy.

But the Paella that I had for dinner on the first evening at the restaurant Portobello was a true treat. Paella is a word that originates from the Latin word patella which means pan and especially because the dish is cooked in a large steel pan that explains the reason. The dish itself I found out is cooked with a special type of rice called Bomba rice which originates from the region of Valencia in Spain. This rice is cooked with saffron , different types of fish, broth and other Moorish spices – so as you can see a perfect blend of cultures and the influences from the past.

Looks like my journey turned into a complete foodie experience. The Iberian ham is something that I have to tell you about. I am not usually a ham person but all my colleagues told me that this is the best ham that I could possibly have. The book on Madrid in my hotel room had also pages of praise dedicated to the Iberian ham also known as Jamón ibérico in Spanish. It was really fascinating to see how they cut the meat into these super thin slices, and for those of you who love your meat out there you definitely need to try them. They were indeed a delicacy!

But the best part is yet to come. After a long day at work on the second day, I promised myself that I would have dinner at my hotel restaurant and get ready to catch my flight the next afternoon. But then I learnt that the Real Madrid stadium called Santiago_Bernabeu was right around the corner of my hotel. I had to walk up there and check it out, it was already past 19:30 pm and unfortunately it was past visiting hours. Anyway I walked around a bit and realised how exciting it must be to watch a football game in action and also see one of the best clubs in the world play.

My disappointed self decided not to sulk and decided to go into town and find a nice place to have some dinner. I found a nice little Tablao called Arco de Cuchilleros – Tablao is a theatre/restaurant where flamenco shows are performed daily on a wooden platform. I had to pay for the show and a drink was included and guess what to my surprise it cost me only 12 Euros!!! I chose a nice Sangria for the evening and was really excited to see an authentic Flamenco performance in Madrid. You can forget about having dinner but you can definitely go there for the show. The show lasts for one hour and the flamenco dancers with their special shoes used the wooden surface to produce unique sounds that resonate in my head even now.

The dancers had so much of energy and after every performance they cried out sounds of support like ‘Olé!’ Though I was quite tired when I walked into this place, l was brimming with energy when I left the place and thought about the last Flamenco performance I was lucky to see in Germany.

I was really happy that I made it to a real flamenco performance when I was there. At the same time I was really happy to note that the next day I would be on that flight back home all set to narrate my adventures from Madrid to my loved ones at home. Madrid again is a place chalked out, for a much more relaxed get away.