The Dove Play Date

The time was set for 3.30pm; the venue JW Marriott; the date 11th May and The Event - A play date with Dove for the bloggers. Organised by Dove and Indiblogger. Fun part - Its ONLY for girls!!

So there I was along with 100+ other beautiful women bloggers, all in whites; different shades of it!! Few of the bloggers were flown in to Mumbai by indiblogger team from other cities like Kolkata, Indore, Delhi too. That's so cool. I even got to tweet from the Dove official handle too.

The event started with registration and we were handed over the itinerary and a ribbon mentioning team numbers. I along with 2 of the lovely ladies whom I had just met there got the same Green coloured ribbon with Team 1 mentioned.At least we knew 3 of the members of Team 1. The activites began with the emcee on stage dividing the teams officially. We had to name our groups in hairstyles and we named our Team 1 as Waves. And the fun evening began.

The stage is set

2 Zoomba instructors took the stage and urged all of us to join when they swayed to perfection. What energy.... what moves. Most of us were doing Zoomba for the first time and we all managed Oppa Gangam Style. The mood was set; everybody was geared for some fun. The first game was Hoola Hoop; which I failed miserably but had absolute fun trying. We found and threw white Dove balls among pools of colourful balls;tried our hands at hair styling each other; race against time to complete the pieces of a puzzle. We laughed, giggled , behaved like little school girls out on picnic.

After all these, we got our hairs pampered by the Dove hair stylists. Sipping into a glass of White Wine I got my hair done. Bliss.

The Team 1 -- Waves



Then there was an announcement of another fun activity by the poolside. The poolside At JW Marriott is the place to be during evening. One member of each the teams had to make a drink and name it. The in house Bartender gave us tips on mixology. Full on Mixology gyaan, we all enjoyed the fun contest to the core.
Now again back in the main hall. Dinner was served. JW Marriott put a wonderful buffet with a live pasta counter. The Bar was open too. It was the time to enjoy food, drink and wait for the announcement of the winning team. The prize vouchers of Rs. 5000 for each of the 10 team members. Team 2 won as we all cheered on. Well deserved I must say.

As we all were sitting back just sipping our glasses of cocktail or with the dessert plates; there was a flash mob. Whoa..few girls went to the middle of the hall and started dancing to Pharrel Williams' "Happy"..Girls..Weren't we happy to clap along like a room without a roof.

Clap Along Happy

Kudos to team Dove and team Indiblogger for such a wonder event. They even took care of the transportation back home too. Thats not all; while leaving we were handed over a lovely goodie bag with Dove products, a hair straightener, Indiblogger Tee shirt and a cute Dove pin. Thank you so much for this lovely Play Date.

The Goodies :D

I reached home happily singing. Husband loved my hair style and I loved the look on his face.
I declared " Yes it is Dove !"





My Big Leap in Baking - A Stromboli

All this while I was taking those baby steps in baking; but this time I gathered up the courage to take a big leap and try out Stromboli. A stromboli is a turnover sandwhich / pizza which is filled with various cheeses - as described by Wikipedia. This for someone like me was a big experiment as that also happen to be husband's birthday. He was working since 7am till 11pm. I decided to make something different , something special for dinner and tried out stromboli.

I opted for whatever was available in the kitchen and hence the filling was vegetarian.

THE DOUGH:

Mix one tea spoon of sugar and one tea spoon of salt in warm water. The water must not be boiling hot.
Once sugar and salt are diluted, add one and half tea spoon of dry yeast and stir the water vigorously. Keep this aside for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, the water will be foamy and a smell will start coming out of it. This is the sign that the yeast is active now.

Mix either refined flour / Maida or Whole wheat flour or equal mixture of both in the Yeast - water mixture and kneed to a smooth and soft dough. I used one cup of whole wheat flour and one cup of refined flour each. If the dough is too sticky, put some more flour till it comes to a smooth consistency. Pour 2 tea spoons of Olive oil on the dough and kneed for 2 - 3 minutes. Now cover the dough by a clean muslin cloth and let it rest for 1 and 1/2 hours in a warm and dry place in the kitchen.

THE FILLING:

Boil 2 - 3 medium sized potatoes and mash them. Cut yellow and green bell peppers into small cubes. Saute one thinly sliced onion in some oil and add the cut peppers in it. Once the vegetable cool down add the mashed potatoes, some salt, some black pepper powder and mix well.If you have paneer, that can be used too. Similarly chicken or mutton can also be used as filling.

THE STROMBOLI:

After 1 and 1/2 hours, the dough will rise to twice the size. Put your fist into the dough to let the air out. Do this atleast 3 - 4 times. Now separate the dough into 3 medium sized balls. 2 if you like the crust thick and 3 if you prefer a thinner crust. Use a rolling pin to roll out one ball into an oval shaped roti. Maintain even thickness in this step. Spread tomato pasta sauce or mayonnaise in the middle of the oval base. Keep the sides dry. Pour the filling in the oval shape and grate a cheese cube on it. Use a butter knife or a table knife to cut the sides of the oval base. Cut diagonally about 1 inch each stripe. Now gently fold the stripes over the filling in a criss cross manner. I used a beaten egg to glue one stripe on the other. One can use milk too. 

Ready to go to oven

Now brush the beaten egg over the stromboli and sprinkle some white sesame. I forgot the sesames in the first one. 

Pre heat the oven in 200 C for 20 minutes. Place the stromboli in the baking tray over a parchment / butter paper or a silver foil. Bake it for 20 minutes at 200 C. Take it from the oven and let it cool for 5 - 7 minutes before serving. 






With my dough I managed 2 full sized strombolis and one small one. The whole house was smelling of freshly baked pizza and i was extremely excited with the result. When husband got home and on dinner table he saw these, he gaped at me with surprise and sheer disbelieve that I managed to bake strombolis at home.That was for him on his special day. That look on his face made all the effort worth. I feel more confident with the OTG now. Do try this out and share your feedback / suggestions. 

The Final 3.

The Bad Touch by Payal Shah Karwa

It could have been a Saturday like any weekend when  husband has work and I spent the weekend home alone, doing nothing much but still be super busy in doing nothing! But yesterday was a different saturday. Though I get to know about few bloggers meet in the city, I never had the chance to attend one. But this one caught my attention. The event was Preview of a book called "The Bad Touch". Written by Payal Shah Karwa, The Bad Touch talks about the sensitive issue of Child Sex Abuse ( CSA) and tells the stories of survivors like Harish Iyer, Amrita Purkayastha, Anurag Kashyap and few others Divya ( alias)Lata(Alias) Nidhi ( Alias) and Mrunalini ( Alias). The book also shares some practical information and technical guidelines for parents sourced from the NGO Arpan . So I was there on a Saturday afternoon at Cafe Infinito, Bandra Kurla Complex looking forward to an interactive session with the author and fellow bloggers.

Payal Shah Karwa
Photo courtesy : Dwitiy Revankar

The event was moderated by Kiran Manral and in the discussion were Payal, the author, Harish Iyer, noted social activist and Puja Taparia, Founder and CEO of Arpan; who offers a helping hand to victims of CSA and is trying to create awareness towards the same.In attendance was a large group of bloggers from across Mumbai. The session was highly interactive and insightful.

Kiran, Payal,Harish and Puja
Photo courtesy : Dwitiy Revankar

Child Sex Abuse - is a very touching and a highly sensitive issue.The author spent almost 5 years in researching and preparing the stories for this book. This meant treading  on a very slippery path, as she had to deal with individuals who went through such harrowing experiences that one may not ever imagine. To ask them about those could lead to the opening of a flood gate which may threaten the present. For obvious reasons, many people did not want to share their real identity. There are others like Harish Iyer , Anurag Basu and Amrita Purkayastha who suffered but not only survived but thrived from their experiences. They are no more victims but they emerged victorious from the agony. 

When asked why she decided to write a book on such a subject, Payal replied that she wanted to write about something which is socially relevant rather than fiction or romance. Harish Iyer was also her inspiration when she met him for the first time in 2006 in a Child Sex Abuse awareness programme and learnt about CSA and the man himself. In her own words  " I was looking to write a book about a real story which would add value to the society and millions around the world. Child Sex Abuse was an issue which was grossly being ignored by the Government,the Law and Society as a whole. I chose to write on CSA inspired by Harish Iyer and his story."

Harish Iyer
Photo courtesy : Dwitiy Revankar

The stories in the Bad Touch shock and at times numb the reader. The book also tries to equip the guardians or parents with sufficient and necessary information to fight against this menace. 
This is the time to talk,share and create awareness about CSA. Donot hesitate to point out if you think something is wrong in the relationship between a child and the care taker, be it a parent, grand parent, relatives and anyone around.Raise your voice. Educate your child or any child you know of about the good touch , the bad touch; the safe touch, the unsafe touch; the right touch, the wrong touch. Teach them to protest and thus protect themselves.

Eggless Ragi Cup cakes

My confidence in baking is increasing every time I bake something; be it cakes or vegetable or fish. Along with it , the number of experiments are also increasing. Today I tried baking Eggless Ragi flour Cup Cakes.
Ragi Flour,also known as Finger Millet or Nachni is much healthier than refined flour or maida.

Here goes my recipe

One small teacup of ragi flour
One small teacup of sugar or one can use sugar free as per taste.
One tea spoon of baking powder
One pinch of baking soda
One tea spoon of Cocoa powder.

Half a cup of oil ; I used Ricebran oil.
Half a cup of milk ( in room temperature) 

Mix all the dry ingredients together.Add the oil and mix the ingredients. Once oil is mixed well, pour in the cup of milk. Now beat the mixture thoroughly until it is smooth and runny. Keep aside.

Pre heat the oven at 180C for 10mins. 

Now grease the cup cake mould and place the paper cups. If you have a silicon mould, then the mixture can be poured directly into the mould. Mine is an aluminium cup cake mould. 
Please do keep in mind that the whole cup must not be filled up as the cakes will rise. Just fill up half of the cup cake moulds and put in the oven for 15 minutes at 180C.

Once done check with the toothpick test. If done, let it cool and serve.

Eggless Ragi Cup Cakes

PS : I put 1 or 2 pieces of dry fruits in the cup cakes. 

My High Five in Malaysia

       For everyone who has been bitten by the travel bug, certain places on the planet find a place with BOLD letters in their wish list and I am so sure that Malaysia features in each one of them. If you ask me, Malaysia features not in just BOLD letters but in BOLD RED letters and yet I haven’t had the chance to visit this magnificent country! Such is life. But does that stop me from dreaming about the things that I wish to do once I land up there; of course not. So here goes my wish list of what I look forward to in Malaysia.

1                    Cameron Highlands, Pahang : I come from that part of India which is known to the world for tea. Yes, Assam it is. Tea in THE drink at my household. Naturally Cameron Highlands is one place I wish to experience in Malaysia. Located in the Titiwangsa Mountains, Cameron Highland is almost the size of Singapore. The beautiful cool climate allows lot of plantations around this area; mainly Tea, Strawberries, flowers and vegetables. Roam around enjoying the vegetable gardens or the strawberry fields; watching colourful butterflies. One can also just enjoy his/her cuppa and sit looking at the picturesque tea plantations blanketing the undulating hills. Imagine a sunset beyond the lush green acres of tea plantation on the slopes of the hills.

        Melaka City, Melaka : To know about the country well, look back to her past and where else in Malaysia than this UNESCO World Heritage City of Melaka or Malacca. The is the city which was once the capital of Malacca Sultanate and the centre of the Malay world in the 15th and the 16th century. Centuries of colonization by the Portuguese, Dutch and the British culture have influenced the architecture of the town which is visible in landmark building around the town like the Portuguese “A Famosa” and the Dutch “Stadthuys”.  

Source :

http://www.tourism.gov.my

       Batu Caves:  This famous limestone cave temple with the 140 feet high statue of Lord Muruga is one temple I want to visit in my lifetime.  Not that I am a very devout Hindu with regular visits to temples, but this one with 272 steps to the main temple cave is one Hindu temple outside India which I would love to go. This is the centre of Thaipusam Festival in Malaysia where thousands of devotees carry milk as offering to their Lord Muruga in colourful kavadis.

     Sarawak Cultural Village, Sarawak :  This village known as the “ Living Museum”, showcases the rich cultural heritage of Sarawak. Located in the foothills of the legendary Mount Santubong, this award winning living museum is wholly owned by the Sarawak Economic Development Corporation (SEDC) depicts the heritage of the major racial groups in Sarawak and conveniently portrays their respective lifestyle amidst 14 acres of tropical vegetation. Here, it is possible to see Sarawak's ethnic diversity at a glance. 
The village residents provide information on their various traditional cultures and lifestyles. One can see replicas of buildings that represent every major ethnic group in Sarawak; longhouses of the Iban, Bidayuh and Orang Ulu, a Melanau tall-house and a Chinese farm house among others. 

Source :

http://www.tourism.gov.my/

       Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur : No visit to Malaysia can be complete without a visit to the most iconic monuments; the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur. At 451.9m from street level these two are World’s tallest twin towers  and the sky bridge that links the two towers is also the world's highest two-storey bridge, doubling up as a superb viewing platform. The 88-storey building features glass and steel on the outside, and a traditionally-inspired interior, reflecting Malaysia's aspirations in moving forward while maintaining its national identity. The towers were designed by Argentine American architect César Pelli. They chose a distinctive post modern style to create a 21st-century icon for Kuala Lumpur. Today these two towers is most prolific symbol of modern Kuala Lumpur and thus of Malaysia.

Ok, those are the top five experiences that I look forward to in Malaysia. But the list doesn’t end here. I want to go a gastronomy tour in the famous Jalan Alor in Kuala Lumpur which transforms in the evenings into a foodies delight; wander through the streets of China Town and Little India enjoying vibrant colours of the Malay Chinese and Malay Indian communities; A walk through the pre historic rain forests of Taman Negara and I can go on and on.

Here’s to the hope that I can soon set my foot in this fascinating Malaysia, Truly Asia.

Amen.

I am participating in the MalaysiaJao Blogathon Contest in association with BlogAdda.com.