Book Review – Filthy Rich Clients

Finally, I was able to finish reading this excellent book and post the review. This was a book which I decided to review since client side Java is not really my expertise. But, I am glad I reviewed the book, learnt a whole lot from this book.

If you are planning on purchasing this book, take a look at the review which is live at Javalobby.

1. Book Review – Filthy Rich Clients

Rangoli Designs for Diwali

In Bangalore, huge colorful rangoli designs are drawn in front of every household. The front yard is even more colorful during Diwali.

So what’s Rangoli?

A rangoli is a colourful design made on the floor near the entrance to a house to welcome guests. During Diwali, Hindus draw bright, colorful Rangoli designs. The patterns are traditionally drawn with the fingers using flour, rice grains or coloured chalk.

Join me and lets draw colorful rangoli’s this Diwali season and welcome Goddess Lakshmi into our homes and hearts.

Here is one such Rangoli drawn by my nephew GuruPrasad.

I have a few links below for colorful rangoli designs.

• OnlineBangalore.com
• Hinduism.about.com
• HoldiaySpot.com
• DiwaliFestival.org
• 4to40.com

Ekadashi

The day after Dasara is Ekadashi. After all the items and sweet dishes we have eaten over the past 10 days, isn’t it time to fast? I think it is. So, what’s Ekadashi?

We madwas observe Ekadashi by fasting on that day. The name Ekadashi means eleventh, ek being 1 and das being 10, and refers to the eleventh day of a fortnight belonging to a lunar month. Ekadashi comes twice a month. On the Ekadashi day strict fasting is observed from all grains, beans, cereals and certain vegetables and spices.

There are many people who just go to the Rayara Matt, take thirtha and fast for the entire day. On the other hand, there are many people for whom Ekadashi is just refraining from eating Rice. It’s a big no no to eat onion or garlic during Ekadashi. No store brought items or eating food from a restaurant either.

Some people just eat fruits, some eat just avalakki, some sabudani khicadi. It depends on your stamina as well. I also think by doing ekadashi, we are able to control our instincts as well. It takes a lot of determination to refrain from eating certain things.

Do you fast on Ekadashi? Share your thoughts and opinions here.

Diwali (Deepavali) Festival – 2009

The word Diwali originated from the Sanskrit word “Deepavali” which means “rows of light”. This 5 day long Hindu festival is celebrated throughout the world with great enthusiasm and happiness. Diwali or deepavali is the festival signifying the victory of good against evil.

It usually occurs in October/November, and is one of the most popular and eagerly awaited festivals in India and all over the world. Diwali comes 3 weeks after Dasara.

This year Diwali is celebrated from October 16th – October 20th.

The 3 rd day, October 18th is Lakshmi Pooje day, and  it falls on Sunday.

October 16th – Neeru Thumbuva Habba

October 17th – Naraka Chaturdasi

October 18th – Lakshmi Pooja

October 19th – Bali Padyami

Fireworks are always associated with Diwali. The day is celebrated with people lighting diyas all around their house. Colorful rangolis are also drawn in front of every house.

You can lsiten, learn and copy lyrics for all the most popular Slokas and Stotras for Lakshmi Pooja here:

• Lakshmi Pooja

You can find colorful rangoli designs with links to many web sites here:

• Rangoli Designs for Diwali

Vijaya Dashami – 28th September 2009

HAPPY DASARA

May joy and prosperity be on your way

……….forever

Vijaya Dashami is the last day of the dasara festival. “Vijaya” means victory, ‘Dashami‘ means 10th day, It is the day of celebration of victory. This is the day of victory of the Good over Evil. Vijaya Dashami is celebrated throughout India. It is also considered to be an auspicious day to begin new things in life.

In Southern India, the festival of Dasara which ends with Vijaya dashami commemorates the legend in which the Goddess Chamundeshwari or Mahishasura Mardini, vanquishes the demon Mahishasura, which took place in the city of Mysore in Karnataka.

In Northern India, the same 10-day festival commemorates the victory of Rama, prince of Ayodhya, over Ravana, the ruler of Lanka, who according to the Ramayana had abducted Sita Dev.

There isn’t any particular sweet dish which we make for Dasara. It is usually Gulab Jamun or Shavige Payasa. This year I decided to do something different. So I decided to try Badam Poori. I read many recipes on the internet, but didn’t have all the ingredients they had mentioned. So, I finally decided to try my own. Simple, easy and my 15 year old daughter who is a very picky eater, ate this for the first time, took the pictures for me and forced me to post the same. I have to mention, this is the first time I have ever tired something new and to my surprise was a super duper hit.

So, here comes the recipe for Badam Poori.

Ingredients for the dough:

1. 2 cups Maida (All purpose flour)
2. pinch of salt(adding salt brings the flavor)
3. 6 tsp oil( this is for mixing with the flour)
4. 1/2 tsp Badam food color

Ingredients for the Syrup:

1. 3 cups sugar
2. Water just so that the sugar dissolves
3. 1/2 tsp food color.
4. Cardamom powder

Method:

1. Heat the 6 tsp oil in a pan.
2. When its is hot, pour this on the flour.
3. Add salt, and the food color.
4. Mix the dough, just like chapathi dough
5. Make small round balls, roll this into a circle and fold into triangular shape.
6. In a pan, heat a large amount of oil and fry these.
7. In another vessel, bring the sugar to a boil, add food color to this as well. When the syrup becomes thick, turn off the gas, add cardamom.
8. Now, add the fried pooris in this syrup in batches, let them sit there for a minute or two until they absorb the syrup.
9. Put them in another tray, garnish with dessicated coconut, and any other chopped dried fruits you have.
10. I didn’t have Almonds, so used Cashews.

Serve when its hot or even cold.

Badnekayi(Eggplant) Instant Palya

When we were in Bijapur, one of our cooks used to make this vegetable along with Jolada rotti, of course when she was in a hurry. If not she used to make yennegayi. The eggplants we used to get in Bijapur are those small round ones. In my recipe here, I have used the purple huge eggplant which we get here.

Once all the chopping is done, the palya is ready in minutes. This is a good recipe to prepare when you’re in a hurry. Also, since this doesn’t have onion or garlic, its what I prepare on Thursday’s since we don’t eat onion or garlic on festival days as well as Thursday’s.

Ingredients:

1. 1 large eggplant
2. 2 green peppers
3. 2 potatoes
4. 2 tsp chilli powder
5. 2 tsp coriander powder
6. 2 tsp curry powder
7. 1 tsp Jeera
8. 1/2 tsp haldi
9. a pinch of hing

Method:

1. Chop all the 3 vegetables in equal sizes, so they cook evenly.
2. In a non stick vessel, add 4 tsp oil. When the oil is hot, add Jeera, haldi, and hing
3. Now add the Potatoes, fry them for a little while.
4. Next add the chilli powder, curry powder, and jeera powder.
5. Once they are mixed properly, add green pepper and eggplant.
6. Mix well, and cook for another few minutes until all the vegetables mix well.
7. Finally, I added 2 tsp of brown sugar. It has that spicy and a little sweet taste in the background. You can completely skip this.

Serve with either chapathi or poori.

Ayudha Pooja

On the 9th day of Dasara, we celebrate the Ayudha Pooja. It is celebrated in a very grand manner in B’Lore. This year it is on Saturday 20th October 2007. All commercial organizations, buses, Cars,shops, houses (and all instruments in the house) are cleaned, we put Banana leaves in front of the doors, flowers, apply Haldi and Kumkum on each and every tool.

There are 2 stories for why we perform the Ayudha pooja.

1. After the slaying of Mahishasura and other demons by Goddess Chamundeswari, there was no more use for her weapons. So the weapons were kept aside and worshipped.

My Mom’s native is Mysore, my grandmother and uncles still live in Mysore. So, I have visited the Chamundi Hills(betta) many many times. Here is a link of a web site which has tons of details on Chamundi hills in Mysore.

a. Details on Chamundi hills.

2. On the Vijayadasami day, Arjuna took back his weapons which he had hidden in a tree in order to lead a life in disguise during his exile.

When I was a kid, we in our family used to perform pooja to every tool, instrument in our house. The whole house had a festive look. We do the same here also, but the excitement we have when we are kids is so much different from the grown up life.

Saraswathi Pooja during dasara and Sweet Dosa

Based on our Hindu calendar, during the 7th day or the 8th day we perform Saraswathi Pooja. Goddess Saraswathi is the mother of all knowledge, wisdom and learning. She plays the veena instrument. She is a lover of music.

During dasara, on this day, books and instruments are placed before Saraswathi, and we perform pooja to her.

We say the following sloka or prayer to her, and I should mention that this is one of the first payers we learnt in our family, and I guess is being learnt in any Hindu family.

Saraswathi Namasthubyam,
Varadey Kaamarupinee!
Vidhyarambham Karishyami,
Sidhir bhavathu mey sada

It means:

Oh Goddess, Saraswathi, my humble salutations to you, who are the fulfiller of all my wishes. I start my studies with the request that thou will bestow Thy blessings on me.

Here is a link to a picture of Goddess Sarawathi and the sloka as well.

1. Picture and Sloka

2. Saraswathi Stotra

My mom used to make Sweet dosa when we were little. Here is a recipe for the same.

Interview with authors

I have been writing articles every week on upcoming books on Javalobby from the past 3 weeks.

Today, the article on the book “Beginning Java SE 6 Platform: From Novice to Professional” went live. Here is a link on Javalobby.

 

Coming Soon – Beginning Java SE 6 Platform: From Novice to Professional

On October 10th 2007, I did an article on an upcoming book on NetBeans 6.0. Here is the link:

Apress Publishes New NetBeans 6 Book by Adam Myatt

On October 3rd 2007, it was a book from Manning Publishers.

Manning releases a must have book: Test Driven

 

 

 

Beans Pudi Palya

Last friday, I had been to a friend’s house for Lakshmi pooja. One of the invitees, who’s name was also Meera had prepared this Palya. Palya in Kannada means Vegetable. Pudi means powder. So, here is the recipe I heard from her.

Finely chop 1 lb of French Beans, and cook them in a pressure cooker with very little water.

You can also use frozen beans, microwave the same and keep it.

In 1 tsp of oil, fry 4 tbsp of Channa dal, and 2 tbsp of Urad dal, 3-4 red chillies until the dals turn brown.

Next, to this fried dals, mix 1/2 fresh grated coconut and grind in a mixer.

In a vessel, heat 1 tbsp of oil. When it’s hot, add mustard seeds, 1/2 tbsp channa dal, 1/2 tbsp urad dal, hing, turmeric, curry leaves. You can add 2-3 red chillies if you wish.
Add 2-3 tbsp tamarind juice and the pudi. Once these are fried nicely, add the cooked beans. Add salt as per taste, and garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves(optional).

Serve with Rice or Chapathi.

I don’t have a picture of the Palya yet, I plan on making the same some time soon and post the picture here.

Mean while, enjoy the beans pudi palya.