Samiya Payasam – Recipe

To prepare samiya payasam aka vermicilli kheer is not difficult by any means. Initially I was skeptical but once I started preparing it seemed to be easy.

Ingredients:
1 Cup samiya
3 Cups water
1 Cup milk (not boiled)
1 cup sugar
Cashewnuts
Elachi
Raisins

Preparation:
1. Fry cashewnuts & elachi in ghee. Till they become brown (not dark brown & black)
2. Fry raisins separately in ghee till they become big and round.
3. Fry samiya in the same pan till it becomes brown.
4. To the fried samiya add 3 cups of water and boil. Keep stirring at regular times till samiya becomes soft.
5. Add sugar to this boiling mixture and allow to boil for some time. Keep stirring at regular intervals.
6. Now add milk and aloow to boil once.
7. Then add cahewnuts, elachi & raisins. Allow to boil once.

Samiya Payasam is now ready to be consumed either hot or cold.
Personal choice: Taste more better when cold not refrigrated cold.

BSA Kruze – Review

An Indian company made cycle may not have used the best parts, it might not be of good quality, it would not be worth the money, rethink on your decision. Overcoming all these obstacles not only from within but from elsewhere I went ahead and invested on BSA Kruze – Road Bike.


Search on their website you wont find anything about this cycle.Search elsewhere you can find some discussions, like this. You can find the specifications of the bike in the above post.
Bought it on October 7th 2010, an upgrade after more than a year with Thunder Racer. No complaints with thunder racer. Its the second cycle I bought and the first sensible choice that I made. I haven’t sold it yet.
On 8th October when I cycled to office and back I would have met with an accident since I was pedalling at same momentum as on thunder racer, only that this covered more distance and had greater speed. Luckily nothing major on both the occassions.

On 9th October I rode on Kruze for our camping. A two day cycle ride. A distance of more than 200kms. Some patches were bad was what I heard. I felt it should be fine. Click here to read about the adventure. What all did we ride on? Stretches of no roads, only gravel and mud. Roads with potholes and sharp stones. Climbing up the hills, going down the hills. Definitely faster than thunder racer. Brakes were good. Am still suspecting my front brakes, but none of the times did the brakes fail. I tried all kinds of braking. I tried speeding up and down. Cycle did not wobble even once in the journey neither did I have a fall.

A little bit of uncomfortable seating position. To hold the drop bar I need to bend a lot and that gives a sort of pain on neck. Its easy to shift position to hold the handle bar on top. Need to re-adjust the handle bar slightly.
Shifting gears is not difficult, it took some time for me to get the feel of shifting gears. Smoother and easier. 2×8 gear system. Am noticing some sound when at 1×1. Preferred 1×2 at very steep uphills. Need to do some adjustment here, thats it.
I like the colour combination. its very attractive and appealing. Even a small kid is attracted to the cycle.

Post 200kms, I did not have any pain on my neck. Though the seat looks awkward I did not find it uncomfy.
My heart skipped a beat when the pedal hit the speed-breaker. Then I adjusted the style of riding. And my heart skipped beat many times when I pushed the cycle into potholes and sharp stones. Many times I tried to avoid, sometimes I tested it. No punctures.
Chain slipped off once and I got confused completely. Later I figured out how to fix it and its damn easy.
Riding is smooth.
All in all its worth the buy and good investment.

Cycling and Camping

Two days into my new road bike BSA Kruze, I was into my first ride. A weekend ride which included camping and destination Billgundala, a forest area near Hogenekkal. Anita, Sandeep, Ann, Venkat, Amol, Vinay and myself. We all met @ Silk Board junction, Bangalore and set off on the trip, luggage loaded on to our cycles.

We took an alternative route to Kannakapura Road, thanks to my suggestion and it was one of the longer routes that we took. In what was supposed to be a max 2hrs ride to Harohalli for breakfast @ Jayarams, turned out to be a 3.5hrs ride.
On Bannerghatta road, we asked people for directions and went around the national park crossing the CRPF training center. Up and down bad roads finally we reached Kannakapura road. This route was very scenic and a good beginning but not when we had planned for long ride. And when we reached Jayarams there was no breakfast left. Finally we did manage to find an alternative place for breakfast which otherwise would have probably been my last minute in the world!!
Post breakfast it was only about 80 – 100kms of riding to reach our destination. Little did we know that we would not make it. We continued on same manner pedalling, stopping, pedalling, stopping. Lots of big climbs up and rolling downs. Am always afraid riding down the hill.
With a new bike, the fear was even more with bad roads. Whenever there was pothole and my cycle went into it, my heart would stop for a second. Whether my heart stopped or not, I had to stop my cycle since my bag fell down from the carrier. With many breaks, we finally reached Hunsunahalli by eveing 5:30pm. A distance of 40-50kms from Harohalli. And we decided to call it a day after few kms at a school surrounded by fields.

Few villagers came over to enquire, they offered accommodation for the ladies, we filled our bottles of water in the village, had a good chat with them. Our dinner was packaged food of cup noodles and ready-to-eat.

Next day morning was a lazy rise and slowly the sun was beginning to come up. this was not good signs unlike the previous day when the sun never came out of cloud cover and troubled us. One round of breakfast at the village and chat with them again when we finally left it was 8:00am. About 2kms from where we halted for night was the TamilNadu border. Though people speak Kannada more fluently, they are part of TN.
To Anchetti and then to Denkannikottai. The stretch to Denkannikottai was a real killer. We climb up and up and up, it never seemed to end. Finally when it ended we were almost on top of the hill. Like this I dont remember how many hills we went up and down.
And then lunch @ Shankar’s Cafe, Denkannikottai. Some time of rest under the trees and we started off again. When chatting with Anita & Sandeep, somehow got me thinking. And I decided to cycle from Attibele to home rather than take the bus with Ann. Later even Ann got convinced to ride all the way. The main attraction was we would have done about 200kms.
And yes, marking in Google Maps the entire distance from home – home shows 205kms.
The route that we went on finally:
Koramangala – Silk Board Junction – Bannerghatta Road (unexplored @least by me so far) – Kagalipura – Harohalli – Hunsunahalli – Anchetti – Denkannikottai – Attibele – Sarjapura – Koramangala.

Very very scenic route all along. Steep uphill climbs and steep rolling downhills. Maybe I should have calculated how many times we went up and down. Amazing, cordial villagers. People gave us water and salt when we asked for. They allowed us to sleep at the school for the night. They were willing to have a conversation to know more about us and share about themselves.
At some places, when you meet some people, you dont need to say anything. They will start from your bike to where you are going to and coming from. All you got to do is nod your head and move on.

From the past I know if we dont reach destination as per plan because of me, then its a blessing in disguise. Well the disguise itself was disguised, nothing to prove this time around. Such kind of trips are a load of fun.
For photos:
Anita’s camera
Ann’s camera
Venkat’s mobile camera

Endhiran – Movie Review

Fans expecting typical Rajni movie will be disappointed just like me.
Last 45mins Rajni rocks gives glimpses of Mundru Mugam Rajni. The best is bleating like a sheep, rather black sheep.
The special effects in the end is mind blowing. Looks like a typical Hollywood movie with all those graphics.
Finally its all on that graphics for the movie to succeed.
Since we have seen Rajni in this role we can’t imagine how it would be if Kamal had acted.

BGM, forget it. Am wondering if AR Rehman is losing his magic touch. Maybe he is over influenced by Hollywood. Maybe he has to go to Ilayaraja and take lessons. The songs does not stick to mind. The locations for songs are breath-taking.

1.5 for the special effects and 1 for Rajni’s acting in last 45-50 minutes. All in all I would rate it movie at 2.5 out of 5.

Shankar has tried to change the image of Rajni and also his introduction. Is this required? Fans always expect an introduction song from him where he breaks a pumpkin or coconut or leaps in from sky. Shankar in this attempt has also tried to downplay the role of Rajni as scientist and give more importance to chiti the robot.
“Arima Arima” song during climax is the only one that tries to stick to ones mind. Coupled with Shankar’s usual extravagance here with 100 Rajni robos.

The conversation between Chiti & mosquito, forget it. Nothing impressive about it.
Chiti tries to put a small kid to sleep, the computer kid graphic is pathetic.
The stand out parts are the special effects in the climax where the formation keeps on changing and keeps one glued to screen. The bleating like goat, the laughter like in the past as a villan.
Aishwarya Rai is just there in the movie. Though she fits in like no one else would she has nothing much to do.
The character of Danny Denzongpa is abruptly brought to an end.
Never understood why to cast Kalabhavan Mani. He appears for one scene and its over. It does not approve of his talent.
Luckily Vivek was not there as comedian. He could have screwed up asking for more screen presence.
Karunas and Santhanam as assistant to scientist Rajini do not tickle any funny bone. They could have tried to be serious only.