Its Christmas!!!

Brightly lighted stars and well decorated christmas trees greet us from every nook and corner of the city....Yes! Its christmas season on...Gifts, feasts, holidays,what not! Preparations for the celebrations are much grander in the west,now India is catching up with the trend fast(thanks to IT companies and clients abroad :P )...  So few facts(that are less known) about this much awaited christmas!

• The story of Santa Clause originated in Europe in the 4th century when a bishop named St.Nicholas of Myra spread goodwill and generosity throughout the land. He was known to go about on a white horse giving anonymous gifts by night.His travelling clothes were bishop red and he carried a staff.

• Santa Clause's raindeers are called Dasher, Dancer, Prance, Vixen, Comet, Cuppid, Donner, Blitzen and Rudolph.
• It was St. Francis of Assisi who introduced the Christmas carols to formal church services. The word comes from the ancient Greek word 'choros' which means "dancing in a circle", and from the old French word Carole, meaning "a song to accompany any dancing".
• Evergreen tree as Christmas tree - The ancient Egyptians and Hebrews considered the evergreen tree,because it is perpetually green, as a symbol of eternal life.
• Why do we decorate the x'mas tree?- Christmas tree decorations in Europe, were customarily made of food,principally cookies and candy.This symbolically expresses thanks for"Our Daily Bread".
• X'mas- It is used as because the Greek letter "X" is the first letter of the Greek word for Christ,Xristos. Xmas therefore means "Christ's mass".

Let this Christmas bring lots of happiness and prosperity to all!  Merry Christmas!!! :)
                                               Jingle bells Jingle bells Jingle All the way...

 

The 'Kolaveri' fever

There is a possibility that you may have a very high resistance power that keeps viral fever at bay but not the 'kolaveri' fever. This epidemic is fast spreading throughout the world. I realised it today when I was waiting for my bus at my stop. I heard this 'kolaveri song' in a completely different style and accent. I looked around and was stunned to see a foreigner humming this song. I don't think even the makers of the song would have expected such a big reach during the recording.

Many tried to keep themselves away from the attack of this deadly "kolaveri virus", but all attempts failed. If they opened their facebook, kolaveri video was put on the wall... had they missed it  and switched on their tv set... Our 'kolaveri virus' welcomed them... If they had escaped in both the attempts owing to the most frequently visited guest to the house,"power cut"... Not to worry, newspapers took over the job. Headlines flashed about this... The recent one was by Times of India, when Virender Sehwag created a record with his 200 plus runs..."Why this KOLA-VIRU ji?" covered the first page... Commentators used it during match-commentary... Radio stations made use of this opportunity and kept broadcasting the song every now and then...Celebrities tweeted about it...What not? :lol: Am no exception... I kept updating myself with the latest 'kolaveri' developments and in turn made it into a blog (my way of spreading the 'kolaveri' virus ;) )

I heard that the video has got more than a million hits in a day. So what's making this a national..I mean international phenomenon? What's so special about this? Frankly speaking I have no clue ;) But there is something in it that creates this magic...Some say its the tune and some say 'the broken english'... In fact I really didn't know the meaning of 'soup song' when I heard it first. I was taken aback when I got to know the meaning which was no way related to the phrase "am in a soup" ( I actually assumed there might be some similarity initially :P ). The catchy tune has paved way to many remakes..Now we have a series of kolaveri videos, divided into categories like for kids ( sung by Nevaan Nigam...Sonu Nigam's son), for girls(female version), for students(exam version) and so on...
As always this song too had many criticisms... About its lyrics, broken english etc. Whatever said and done this song has become a massive hit. So critics.."Why this kolaveri?" towards the song :) It has made heads turn and take notice of it!
                                   
                              So I write this blog-u, to keep up with the trend-u :P
                                                               As we are all fans-u ;)  

Yummy :)

Feels great to blog today!!! It has been a very very long time(almost a week) since I posted. I always open my blog to write a post,some work or the other crops up and I'll have to close it. You see I can't spare you all for long(from reading my blog), so finally decided to curb the growing defaulter in me :P Get ready friends..here I go :P

My friends and me were discussing something and suddenly one of my friend asked us about a vegetable and its availability here, only the hindi name was known. Soon all of us started asking her for more details about it as if it were a missing kid ;) Immediately each of us jumped up with Eureka...I found the vegetable...As it always happens all of us were wrong with our findings...Soon the discussion changed its course(girls are very good at jumping from one topic to another) and we started talking about the speciality dishes in every state( Wondering what happened to that vegetable right..?poor thing...we termed it as extinct as we are not aware about it :lol: )

We started exploring the diversity that exists in our country... It started with our our Paschim Banga...West Bengal...The very first thought was Rosogullas.... Bengali sweets are something that none of us would have missed! Mishti Doi (a typical Bengali dessert made from milk) tops my list! Man!The mere thought of it makes my mouth to water ;)
Next came Mumbai's very own vada pao...A very simple but a distinct snack from our west India! We travelled south to discover the kitchen wonders! Gonghura welcomed us to "the spicy state"...Yes! Andhra... I would always term the pickles from here as "The Pickles"... Its just Bindaas! Not to forgetHyderabadi Briyani which has got fans from everywhere!

Now its the turn of Our God's own Country...Kerala! Known for its lavish use of coconut...I actually had a tough time deciding the best ones as all the dishes are delicious... Ada pradhaman, chakka pradhaman are my favourite... Erissery, kootan, avial and how can I forget.. The nendram chips(banana chips) are authentic kerala dishes and a must try!

Last but not least...The state that boasts of Idly-vada-sambhar... Tamil Nadu! We have its dosa fans spread all over the world...Other than these show toppers we have several other dishes from various districts in TN... Like Chettinad special items...Kuzhipaniyaram(I had a tough time explaining this to my friends), aapam are sure to attract any foodie!
 
India is rich not only in its culture but also in its food varieties! No one can eat just once, is very apt for our dishes :)
Hope you are hungry now :lol: My job is done ;)