Something out of Nothing

After a hectic day at office last evening, i was driving my car back home furiously. My Fury - partly because of the senseless traffic of Hyderabad, partly because of the lunatics who keep honking in signals even when the signal is RED. I was damn hungry and was thinking of a hot and delicious dinner at home. I was driving recklessly and restlessly and couldn't wait to get home. After parking, slamming the door, beeping my autocop, rushed into my home to find my fridge empty. Not even a bottle of ice water. It always happens when we are desparate to find something isn't?:-) All i could find were some dried curry leaves in one corner of the fridge and some crated coconut ( God know when the coconut made to its earth). Frustrated, i slammed the fridge, threw my bag, my shoes and went to the changing room. While i was about to leave the changing room, i found a small torn book, hidden beneath my bean bag. The rest of the blog is a product of some innovative thinking by someone and some smart and quick cooking by MEEEEE!!:-) Yes it was a cook book and it had few recipes on how to prepare something real quick. And guess what, one of the first few recipes was on how to prepare "Curry Leaf rice". I had one of the best variery rice yesterday and I hope you'll enjoy too. So sit back, relax and enjoy this nice little recipe on Curry Leaf rice for all you bachelors, people who are travelling, people like me who come home and find nothing but curry leaves in the fridge.


So here it goes.....I'll try and make is as short and simple as possible.
Take a tawa and fry a cup full of curry leaves for 5 mins and keep it aside.
In the same tawa, pour a table spoon of cooking oil. Add some mustard, cumin seeds, urad dal, 6 dried red chilles, a cup of grated coconut, a spoon of black pepper and fry them for about 5 mins.
Cool it for sometime and then grind the mixture along with the fried curry leaves and prepare a spicy flavoured powder.

Boil rice separately and mix the powder. Voila!!! Tasty, delicious Curry leaf rice. Light and healthy:-). Add salt to your taste. Add little ghee, if you find it dry.
Try this out at home and let me know your comments.

I think this photo comes reasonably close to how curry leaf rice looked when I prepared :-)

High Fly >--> >-->

The airlines industry is in its all time peak in India with the recent boom in that sector. Indians rocked last year's air show in Paris with highest number of aircrafts booked by our countrymen. Pilots are in demand, so are air hostess, flight caterers, seats in Aviation academy, and all supporting sectors. The main reason for this is the privatisation of the industry and introduction of the concept of cheap airtickets which is borrowed from the west and Europe.

Air tickets are available as cheap as 500 ruppes (around $11 US). Some airlines even introduced free tickets as early birdies. Some have promised to pay the difference if the customer finds a cheaper rate. But these cheap tickets doesn't come at your luxury and disposal. For the first time, customers in india are made to plan well ahead of their vacation schedules to avail these cheap prices.

So my dear friends, here are some tips and links that may be handy.

Tip#1 - Visit the websites frequently - Each airline company hosts a website where you can get the latest information on the availability of tickets and the fares. People who are net connected 24 by 7 can keep polling these websites to get good benefits. Many companies, open up a 3 month booking period and sell the tickets at the cheapest rate possible at the start of the season. Eg. Air Deccan opened up booking of tickets for the month of March,April and May in the month of Feb. In the first week you are assured to get the cheapest rates. Same will be the case with other Airlines. So it is advised to block your calendar to spend some time browsing these sites to note down the next open date.

Tip#2 - Plan your travel - You better start cultivating the habit of thinking ahead of time, for upto 6 months to plan your vacation / travel. May it be celebrating your anniversary in Andamans, or attending friend's wedding in Mumbai or spending time with your family members during a festival - Think and plan ahead. Its going to save some bucks for you.

Tip#3 - Get Updates on your mobile phone - Register for SMS updates from these websites and you'll be one fo the first to know about offers and schemes.

Caution#1: It is not advised to travel with babies in some of the cheap airlines as there won't be any onboard catering / baby care facilities etc. Go with Indian Airlines / Jet airways which are still considered as the premiere flights in our territory.

Caution#2: High Probablity of flight delays come as a price that we pay for choosing cheap flights. So Senior citizens please avoid. Also if you are going for honeymoon, am sure you don't want to waste you precious time waiting to board in the airport. Reading magazines in airport is probably the last thing that you would want to do in the Honeymoon vacation :-). So Book your flights to Honeymoon destinations even before you print your wedding invitation cards.

Caution#3: Most of the tickets cannot be cancelled / rescheduled. So take extra care when you choose the dates.


Some of the links
www.airdeccan.net
www.goair.in
www.spicejet.com
www.flykingfisher.biz
www.paramountairways.com
www.airsahara.com

Happy flying !!!!!

Post your good and bad experiences with these flights for the benefit of the readers.