The book I like most – Peter Pan (3rd Grade )

For some time I have been thinking of posting the speeches and stories we have prepared for various programs at school over the years .  Here is a sample speech for ‘The book I like most ” . Ruby won second prize for this when he was in 3rd grade .

image courtesy- Google search

Respected Teachers and my dear friends,

I have been reading Peter Pan again and again. I love it so much that I thought today I will share it with you all .

This beautiful book take us to a magical world where nobody ever grow old. Neverland ! Peter pan and Tinker Bell live there . And not so far away , in London live three little children who loves to hear Peter Pan’s stories at bed time. Adventurous stories of Indians and pirates . Wow ! Like John , Wendy and Micheal Darling I too go to bed reading beautiful bed time stories.

My most favourite part in the book is Peter pan losing his shadow and Wendy sewing it back . Will anybody lose their shadow and can they just sew it back ? I always wonder !

I cannot wait to sprinkle some pixie powder on me and fly to Neverland along with them. Golden rainbows, blue waterfalls and springing mermaids. It is all magic and thrill.

Then there is the Evil Captain Hook who kidnaps the Indian Chief’s daughter Tiger Lilly . Peter Pan and Pixie save her adventurously. Peter Pan’s fierce duel with Captian Hook is thrilling . I always laugh reading Captain hook being chased by the crocodiles.

The magical journey on the Pirate ship through the night sky back to London. No child will ever forget Peter Pan.

It is surely the book I like most ! Thank You .

An album of your favourite personality – J K Rowling

Book of the week

This week we have been reading ‘ The world of Peter rabbit and friends ‘ by Beatrix Potter .

The book was sitting idle in our library for almost two years . The date written on the book shows we bought it on Pearl’s 5th birthday . As usual Ruby read it for once and discarded it . I had tried to read it to Pearl quite a few times before and then dropped. She was too restless to listen . She likes stories of princesses and fairies . A typical pinky girl Now that she has started reading on her own and can understand what is being read she is digging out all the old books from our library . And I am loving it

What attracts me to the book is the beautiful paintings . Peter is a naughty little rabbit and the stories in the series revolve around Peter rabbit and his friends and neighbours .

The stories of animals in Balarama and Poombatta were always my favorite . What a pity I did not come across Potter’s books when I was a child myself . I simply love her way of writing and her illustrations . Its a joy to read how animals spend their day . hehe you are correct More than the kids I am the one who enjoys all these children’s books.

Now we have a collection of her books . I cannot stop myself whenever I come across a Beatrix Potter  book . Lately kids have started to haul me away

Enjoy ! A good read with lots of plots to keep little minds engaged .

Back to blogging : Our kraft works

Some where  last year I lost touch with my subtitle ‘parenting and child driven learning ‘ . Kids were busy exploring themselves . I was busy trying to keep up with them and helping them that I did not get a chance to record or blog any of it . It took us some time to get accustomed with the new curriculum and fish out some ‘our time ‘ .

I plan to return to our simple projects and see where it takes us . I have always been a person who likes simplicity and most of all being myself . Striving to take my blog to the next level , whatever it is , sort of killed my blog . But in the past months I realised I do not blog for anyone . Now , you please do not take me badly . But the truth is I blog for myself . Selfish it may be . Or may be I don’t want to take the responsibility of trying to keep up with the expectations of my readers. I am a perfectionist by nature . Responsibility is a huge burden to me that I withdraw completely when things doesn’t go the way I want them to be .

I excel when I do some thing to please myself. In short all this means I am back to pester you all

So , here we are ! Setting out again for a blogging journey with Ruby and Pearl .

Time table chart with ” Wonders of the world “

Fish made from pistachio shells

Also , tagging my blog friends here : Pallavi ( Crocodile Tears ) , Urmila ( Urmi’s little space ) , Shail ( Shail’s nest ) , Swaram ( Song of life ) , Uma ( Uma’s reflections ) , Shirley ( enriching your kid ) , Bikram ( Man bikram ) , Shilpa Garg (A rose is a rose ) , Sweety (swees ) , Reshmi ( ente kavithakal )

Without you all this place wouldn’t have been the same . Thank you for reading my silly posts and commenting . Thank you for being my friend .

Ya , I know . No tag is complete without a set of questions . As it seems most of my blogging friends are in some stage of hibernation I pose only one question. The same one I was thinking today . As a student I have always liked choices in question papers . So I give you two options . Take any one of them

1.  Why do you blog ?

OR

2. How and when did you start blogging ?

1.  Why do you blog ?

As I said earlier in this post I figured out I blog for myself. Not to help the mankind or any of those excuses that I usually make whenever somebody talks about blog or blogging . I blog because I like it . I like the anonymity & accessibility  . I like to see my thoughts put down in words .

2. How and when did you start blogging ?

When I started pestering my family with posts on orkut community my sister came up with this idea . ” Why don’t you start writing all this rubbish in a separate BLOG ?  ” That was 2 years ago . Anyway , that is it . I did not even know what a blog means . But quickly found out I love this set up . There have been up and downs . Weeks together when I wouldn’t post anything but simply stare into my old posts . Arrange and rearrange the widgets and themes. Eventually I always come back to this beautiful place of mine .

Friends , take it from here . I am a hoarder when it comes to pictures ( or more precisely when it comes to anything other than storing important data in my brain )

Take whichever one you like the most or simply take all of them . Tag 5 of your friends or as many as you want

Pallavi ( Crocodile Tears ) , Urmila ( Urmi’s little space ) , Shail ( Shail’s nest ) , Swaram ( Song of life ) , Uma ( Uma’s reflections ) , Shirley ( enriching your kid ) , Bikram ( Man bikram ) , Shilpa Garg (A rose is a rose ) , Sweety (swees ) , Reshmi ( ente kavithakal )

Wagamon , You are Beautiful

Wagamon is a very beautiful place with rows of meadows and small hills arranged one after other in perfect shapes and sizes that we may think they have been painted into the nature .

As a child paintings on sceneries with small hills , meadows , flowing stream  and rising sun were my typical creations . What came to my mind first on seeing the meadows and hills of Wagamon were the book binds I used to collect as a student.  After all people did not make them out of the blue . Nature is beautiful beyond our wildest imaginations .

When my cousin hurried to Wagamon to take photo stills for their wedding album I thought they are just blowing it out of proportion . Never thought there would be such a serene and relaxing place with in the arm reach of bustling Kochi . That explains in itself how little we all know about Kerala even as Keralaites and how much we take this beautiful place for granted . Or may be that is just me

On our way back kids were counting the Kerala districts we have visited and those we haven’t. It seems we haven’t been to Wayanadu . Have drove down the legendary ‘Thamarasserry Chorum ‘ on our way back from Ooty . But kids were then too tired to notice anything.

The meadows of Wagamon are vast and only poetic words can bring out their true beauty . A velvety carpet of emerald green stretching as far as your eyes can see . I felt they resemble the meadows of Ooty.

The hills are exactly what we call ‘motta kunnu’ in Malayalam . They are so inviting that we cannot but climb every one of them .Safe for kids to play . No shops in eyesight to nag their parents

The pine forests . I was reminded of our college trip to Kodai .

In short Wagamon seemed to me a perfect combination of an unexploited Ooty and non- misty Kodaikkanal. I did miss shopping though

The travel bug – Trip to Colombo & Kuala Lumpur

Even though we have been on a traveling spree in and around Kerala , the international travel bug hit us a bit late . As they say , better late than never and every journey begins with a small step . Let this be ours.

Last Tuesday ( October 4 th ) we set out on a 5 day trip to Colombo / Kuala Lumpur . As this was my first trip over seas , frankly , I did not have a clue what I should carry and all. So the pre – trip preparations were a bit hectic . Especially with two over excited kids under your feet grilling you with every kind of questions . By the time I reached the airport on Tuesday morning , I was already exhausted .

At the airport we were delighted to see three other families with kids almost of the same age as that of Ruby and Pearl. Three ten yr old boys , three five year old girls , one toddler and one infant . With in no time they all became inseparable and set the right momentum for a rocking trip.

The tour was on behalf of  ICAI ( Institute of Chartered accountants of India ) Cochin Chapter and was arranged by Akbar Travels.

There was a city tour of Colombo on our way to Ramada  . Sri lanka is almost similar to India , especially Kerala and Tamil Nadu . But a lot cleaner . We were intrigued by the similarities in the way Sri Lankan ladies drape their sarees . It has a far resemblance to our ‘ chattayum mundum’ . Even when they drape it in Indian style the ‘pallu’ of their saree reaches their ankle . And I liked it .

image courtesy - google

The streets are similar to our Fort Kochi . I dozed off in between .  It has been some time since I got chance to listen to any lecture . The guide’s description acted as a good lullaby I managed to get some snaps though .

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One thing that I noticed is almost every other building has a statue in the front . So after taking one or two snaps we lost the thrill  . The beach side road is very beautiful and we passed through that spot at the right time of sunset .

Colombo by sunset

We came across a snake charmer on the premises of The National Monument . I was looking forward to see the snake dancing to the ‘pagdee’ . Even though India is known as the snake charmer’s land I haven’t seen any until now. But the snake charmer turned out to be a bit tactless and right away started asking for money making conditions and clauses and we lost the interest . Anyway I managed some snaps.

For shopping the Guide first took us to some cultural and ethnic shops which we found very expensive and not worth for the money . So later he gave in and took us to House of Fashions which was a good shopping experience .

We reached Ramada Hotel by 9.30 or so . And after food headed right away to sleep .

The Srilankan cuisine included ‘ idiyapom’ , ‘stew ‘ , ‘ chutney ‘ and a whole lot of dishes similar to ours . Just like Kerala the Portugal influence is more than that of the British .

Ramada is okay when your are in transit . Be sure that you have every thing you may need with you. The crew is not that keen on service .

We headed to Kuala Lumpur  very early the next morning .

An excellent recipe for Chicken Biriyani

I pray most earnestly when the family is huddled around with hungry – eager- hopeful faces and plates in their hand while I try my luck with some new dish .

‘Chicken Biriyani ‘ is one of those dishes which always leaves me depressed for all the effort taken. But today I came across this easy recipe in Paachakam and it came out very well .

I am posting the recipe here . All credit goes to the original recipe .

Ingredients for Chicken Biryani – Kozhikode Chicken Biriyani Recipe

For marinade of Chicken Biryani: Chicken – 1/2 kg Yogurt/Curd – 1/2 cup Coriander leaves – 25 gm Mint leaves(Pudhina) – 25 gm Curry leaves – 10 gm Cumin seeds(Jeerakam) – 1/2 tsp Coriander seed powder – 1 tsp Aniseed(Perinjeerakam) powder – 1/2 tsp Green chillies(chopped) – 25 gm Garlic – 20 gm Ginger(chopped) – 2 tsp Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp Lime juice – 1 tsp Poppy seeds(Khashakhasha) paste – 1 tspFor rice: Clarified butter – 1 tbsp Cinnamon(Karugapatta) – 5 – 6 pieces Bay leaf(Vazhana/karuga ela) – 1 no Cardamom(Elakka) seeds – 4 – 5 nos Curry leaves – 4 – 5 nos Cloves(Grambu) – 4 – 5 nos Onion(chopped) – 1 no Broken rice – 250 gm Water – 1/2 litreFor Biryani masala: Clarified butter – 2 tbsp Cinnamon(Karugapatta) – 5-6 pieces Bay leaf(Vazhana/Karuga ela) – 1 no Cloves(Grambu) – 4-5 nos Cardamom(Elakka)seeds – 4-5 nos Nutmeg(Jathikka) – 1 no Onions – 100 gm Tomato(medium) – 1 no (cut into 4 pieces)For garnishing: Boiled egg – 1 no Cashews & Raisins(Onakka munthiri) – roasted in ghee

Preparation Method of Chicken Biryani – Kozhikode Chicken Biriyani Recipe

1)Mix together yogurt, coriander leaves, mint leaves, curry leaves, cumin seeds, coriander seed powder, aniseed powder, green chillies, garlic, ginger, turmeric powder, lime juice and poppy seed paste and marinate the chicken in it. Keep aside for ½ an hour.

2)Heat clarified butter or ghee in a pan.

3)Add cinnamon, bay leaf, cardamom seeds, curry leaves and cloves.

4)Add onions and saute, till they turn translucent.

5)Add washed and cleaned rice.

6)Cook, till rice turns translucent.

7)Add water and allow it to boil.

8)When the water comes to a boil, lower the flame and cover the pan.

9)Cook on low flame for at least 15 minutes, after which the rice would be done.

10)Heat clarified butter or ghee in a pan.

11)Add cinnamon, bay leaf, cardamom seeds, nutmeg and cloves.

12)Add onions and sauté, till brown.

13)Add tomatoes and saute`.

14)Add marinated chicken.

15)Cover the pan and cook for at least 5 minutes on a medium flame.

16)Remove the cover and cook on low flame for another 10 minutes to allow gravy to thicken.

17)Layer the serving bowl with alternating layers of rice and the chicken masala.

18)Garnish the top with a boiled egg cut in four pieces, roasted cashews and raisins.

:- Malabar Chicken Biryani is ready.

:- Enjoy the chicken biryani.

:- Serve chicken biryani with raita and papad.

Simply follow the recipe . I did not have coriander , mint leaves and nut meg powder .

Also I added 1/2 tsp perinjeerakam (aniseed / saumph ) and 2 nos Thakkolam (star anise ) for the biriyani masala. (  About 3-4 small green chillies and 8-10 garlic cloves for marinating . Two onions for masala .

After layering it microwaved for 5 minutes. Then mixed it lightly .

Added fried onion rings also for garnishing .

Try it out .