Vijay Basrur

Diwali - A festival of lights (and sweets)

Diwali is surely a festival of lights. Crackers & fireworks are an integral part of Diwali too. But as the years have gone by the fireworks are getting more polluting and not to mention horribly expensive. Sweets are also integral to Diwali, like any festival.

This year we’ve had a bumper offering of sweets at home and we are constantly swaying from being guilty and being greedy. This year’s spread includes

1- Sutarpheni (This has been a Diwali tradition for as long as I can remember. And it has to be brought from D Damodar at Dadar TT, no other will do)
2- Mysorepak (Though the best is available at Shree Krishna Sweets, mysorepak from mani’s at Matunga also pretty good. The secret is in the dollops of ghee used)
3- Kaju Katli (The eternal favourite)
4- Puran Poli (This is the quintessential Marathi savoury which goes very well with ghee)
5- Gulab Jamun (My uncle got us a dozen from Sweet Bengal and they are heavenly)
6- Halvason (This is a sweet from Gujarat. Snehal’s aunt, who was visiting, got it from Anand)
7- Mande (Mom made this karwari sweet for the first time which tasted pretty good)
8- Rava Ladoo (Ladoos made from Rava & Sugar. Homemade and Mommade)
9- Boondi Ladoo (Ladoos made from fried boondi soaked in sugar syrup. Homemade and wifemade. Pretty good. Tastes best when heated a little bit)
10- Karanji (The GSB variant with dessicated coconut, poppy seeds & powdered sugar filling. Homemade, Wifemade, Yummy!)

Add to this some inflow of various chocolates and our stomachs are groaning with the decadence of sugar, ghee and all such.

An exercise routine has to soon start next week to loose all that has been gained.

Happy Diwali!

Airtel Mobile Recharges

You won’t believe this.

Service charge for a Rs. 225 top up on a pre-paid Airtel connection is “Rs.0″ (zilch)
Service charge for a Rs. 250 top up on a pre-paid Airtel connection is “Rs. 195″ (80%)

You can read that again.

Alok Mittal has the entire dope here

Rage Against The Machine

RATM is still a band. I haven’t heard their music, just the name was amusing enough to remember.

We are seeing a different kind of rage in Mumbai. The MNS folks are expressing their rage against non Maharastrians in Maharastra. So much so they created havoc at the Railway Board examination centers where folks from all over the country had come together to give their exams. Their rage was enough to even kill a young boy.

I think even a 2nd Std kid will tell you that the what’s going on is not right but the point is who is listening anyway? Atleast no one from the MNS. While no one is listening, a lot of folks are speaking.

Mahesh Vijapurkar has an interesting article on Rediff and points us to Raj Thackeray’s erstwhile effort, The Shiv Udyog Sena, whose mission is listed “As a Social Commitment Shiv Udyog Sena has been formed to create jobs and develop enterpreneurial opportunities for Sons of Soil.” Wonder what happened to that school of thought.

And while people speak, Raj’s wife says Shame Shame Shame to the fact that Maharastra Govt arrested her husband. The question is Shame on whom? I am sure for the logical brain, the answer is loud and clear

Markets are going downhill

I am just wondering how much more downhill will it go? My colleague is quite bullish on the bounce back. Only time will tell if the bounce back will happen sooner or later.

I bought a few Ranbaxy today and they bounced back pretty well today.