Dumpling soup for the soul

You perhaps know how it happens, in the grocery store you spot something which was not in the original shopping list and then suddenly all you can think of is how to incorporate this item in your next meal. A bag of frozen dumplings was the item that day.

Rather than the usual frantic search on the internet for recipes, this time it was a quick consultation with younger brother over skype. His acquired experience in east-asian food was put to good use in making of this dumpling soup.

Recipe:

Ingredients: 3 cups of water, 1 green chilli, 1 tsp ginger, 1-2 cloves of garlic, 1 small tomato, 4-5 tender green beans, half tsp pepper and salt as per taste.

• Boil 3 cups of water. 
• In boiling water add thinly sliced green chilli, ginger, salt and pepper.
• Next add the beans and diced tomatoes
• Finally add frozen dumplings and let it boil for 20 minutes

A study in rabbits

There is a thorny bush near my study where lives a family of rabbits. Every now and then they sneak out of the bush and show a glimpse of their rabbitness. Some of the moods that I could capture:

"Oh this sodding English weather!"

"Can't complain too much though.... gets me my grass."

"We are all ears.....did I see an Indian lady peeping through the glass door?"

"On your marks, get set...."

" .... and go!"

But my favourite is the next one, early in the morning I caught this rabbit facing the sun and letting his ears down, a picture of peace and contentment:

"Time for my Surya Namaskar."

Carnage- the movie

Absolutely love Emirates for their superb in-flight entertainment. Saw some lovely movies this time but 'Carnage' was just right for the mood. Sharp and funny, it is a very engaging movie about a meeting between two sets of parents whose children have had a fight in the neighborhood park. In relation to the incident, the mothers of course  take themselves very seriously and want it all to be discussed in the most civilised manner but what ensues is a series of conflicts between parents, between spouses, between men, between women, between the men and the women and so on. The women appeared to be torn between who they want to be: good citizens of the world who care, and who they actually are: cold, manipulative and judgmental. Men of course behaved the way men do, trivialising everything in a very manly way. The whole inter-personal dynamics is hugely entertaining.


This Roman Polanski film is a brilliant commentary on modern life, how different people have chosen their own ways of leading it and how each of them is most critical of the others interpretation of it.