Tabla Recital

TABLA- musical instrument from Northern part of India

It is was a warm day in Bangalore on the day of the Tabla recital of my son and his class mates. The Banyan tree provided a grand backdrop to this enchanting evening. Boys dressed in traditional kurta pyjama and girls looking beautiful in lehenga-choli, they started singing the song first. Then, they started playing the Tabla just for the swaram, as an accompaniment to the song. Then, as the tempo raised, Tabla took over and became the major player! It was a wonderful way to end the evening.

ABC Wednesday
Thursday Challenge

Red Butterfly

This was captured at the Singapore airport of all places. They have a Butterfly park there along with pitcher plants and venus fly traps (carnivorous plants) which are prominent in tropical climates.
This was exceptionally catchy.

Ruby Tuesdays 2
Color Connection
Floral Friday

The beached blue boat on Seonyudo island

A stranded blue boat on the Yellow sea. Seen on Seonyudo island in South Korea. 17 people piled up in a mini bus, happily playing Mafia and singing our hearts away while inching our way through the traffic from Seoul on the long weekend. Reaching Gunsan in after 5 short time-flies-when-you-are-having-fun hours and then took the hour and a half ferry ride to Seonyudo island.

Passing through numerous uninhabited tiny islands against the blue of the sky and sea was a enchanting experience.

Sunset was a stunning with the gorgeous colors of the orange ball reflecting on the water...

 

 Fishing, understandably the major occupation of the area was evident to see and smell!

 

 With the tides receding, the sand had this wonderful pattern on.Very less crowds meant pristine and untouched areas of beauty.

 

Another interesting time pass is the catching of the Jangu mollusc by scraping of sand on the beach and then finding the hole where the mollusc is probably hiding and enticing it to pop out of its home by pouring a bit of salt. Seeing scores of people patiently waiting to catch their lunch was a one of a kind sight!

Blue Monday
Our World Tuesday

Yellow in the middle

Pink tinged, white hibiscus so proudly grown at home.

Mellow Yellow Monday

Shadows i miss

100 acres of land for a school. National forest bordering the edges. Gurgling streams during the rainy season. A small bund creating an artificial lake with a quaint bridge to cross over. A huge lake playing a serene habitat for numerous critters surrounded by tall grass and huge trees. Prowled by panthers, passed by elephants, home to pythons, cobras and owls and many more. An amphitheater with a enormous-more-than 100 year old banyan tree. So far away from the bustle of the city. A calm, quite place to hear, see, touch, feel and smell Mother Nature and the bounties she offers. A school built on a hill but named The Valley. I so miss this little piece of Heaven!

Shadow shot Sunday 2

Penta: A day past their expiration

Floral Friday
Wordless Wednesday

Texan Skyscrapered Sky

The maze that is Dallas: Thank God for GPS!

For Skywatch

S is for Sweets

Sweets, saree, fruits, flowers, garland for the wedding!
According to our custom, the bridegroom's side takes sweets, fruits, flowers and a saree for the bride. The sister of the bridegroom, adorns the flowers on the bride's hair, helps her with the saree and garlands her. This is an important function that formally engages the bride to the groom and is the first first part of the 3 day wedding ceremony. I did it for my brother's wedding!

Post for ABC Wednesday

The moon from my balcony

This is a post for the Monochrome maniac meme.

Dawn: From the skies

 Friday Skywatch Meme

A visual treat to watch the sun rise from the airplane

The Sun glowing its way through the sky

 Participate in the Skywatch meme here.

Mommy Dearest

The Thursday Challenge- Mothers

A stray cat and its baby kitty came home for a drink and posed around for a while. Though mommy cat has been returning and is turning out to be quite friendly, didnt get to see the orange fluff ball again.

Mommy Moments
Pets Forever 
Wordless Wednesday
Thursday Challenge 

Flowers and Raindrops

Flowers look absolutely magnificent right after a quick shower. Pearls of water droplets on the flower only makes it more beautiful than it already is.

Outdoor Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday

Tryst with Seoul food : Omurice

If you are a rice person, like me, and you cannot shake off the habit of wanting rice with a gravy or curds (yogurt) to anything else, Omurice comes to rescue in Korea. This one dish meal has rice and veggies and gravy with an omelet too :)

Korean rice is quite fat compared to the Indian varieties and is comparable to the Salem rice or the idli rice in India. Though it is tough to eat this rice with the Indian gravies and curries, it is quite nice in Bibimbaps or with toasted sesame seeds in Kimbaps. But, i think Omurice is the best way to have the Korean rice.

Bap, or cooked Korean rice with few veggies is wrapped by a thin omelet making a parcel. This makes the basic Omurice (Omelet + rice). Top with your favorite gravy, and it completes the one dish meal. 

This Mushroom Omurice has a soysauce based gravy with three different kinds of mushroom. Mushrooms are quite popular in Korea. And there are different varieties each of which have a unique taste for themselves.

Tomato based sauce on Omurice with Pine mushrooms (Pine mushrooms are huge and famous here, in Seoul and even has a festival for itself)

And of course, there are tons of options with  chicken, beef and seafood to go on top of the Omurice along with different types of sauces.

Almost any Korean restaurant serves Omurice though there are a few special ones. Omuto Tomato in the Co-ex mall in Gangnam area, Seoul is an excellent place to have Omurice.  There is also a nice place in the Ipark mall in Yongsan station which serves Omurice along with pastas. And there are a few vegetarian options at both the places.

ABC Wednesday- O for Omurice

Pictures from Ewha Women's University, Seoul.

Weekend at the Ewha Women's University, Seoul

Sculptures of the Joseon Dynasty

Pretty and pure!

Just a close-up of the white flowers that i couldnt seem to have enough of!

Layers of color!

Pretty rose-like flowers

Olders petals turning white. All the more beautiful!

Sure, it is not a rose? Sure.

Cricket on a weekend at Ewha Womens university

Indians play cricket at the Ewha Womens University on Sundays around 4PM. Now, they have started playing on Saturday also.

Hope he misses it!

Supermoon 2012

The moon is closest to the earth today. Hence the term Supermoon. Here are some shots of the moon taken from the window from Seoul, South Korea

 

Wordless Wednesday
Skywatch Friday

View from the aircraft: Land of the Morning Calm

As we flew towards the sunrise...
The view was so beautiful, that i decided to wake up and take this shot!

Thursday Challenge- Beautiful

We just moved to Seoul

Gyeogbok Palace, Seoul, South Korea

So, it is true, we have moved to Seoul, South Korea. After months of juggling over the options, weeks of waiting over the paperwork and hours of tedious clean-up of the mountains of paraphernalia acquired over the 8 years in California and the this-is-my-home-so-i-need-to fill-it-up-stuff from 7 years in Bangalore, we have in fact, reached Seoul.

Our kind realtor had sent a taxi driver to pick us up from the airport. Armed only with English and whole lot of optimism,

• we exchanged Rs into Won and 
• managed to pick up a cellphone at the airport and stepped into the Land of the Morning Calm at midnight. 

Adeptly working through the drawings of Korean code for opening the door to our home, we also pushed our prevailing luck in Korean by pushing the buttons to the floor heater and awoke the machine into a comforting hum.

Roasted food available roadside

Now, three weeks in this land, the climate has been warm and pleasant, people have been helpful and smiley, we have been able to start a routine without being able to understand the language. But, the fact is, knowledge of Korean is imperative- What good is it to live in a country and not be able to interact with the people of that country? or look through the enormous amounts of gadgets in the stores that are are so shiny and geeky and not be able to understand what it does? or walk through the streets where vendors are presenting you with all kinds of aromatic and colorful refreshments but you dont know whether you are going to try an octopus sautee or an ox intestine?

I prefer to eat the stuff after educating my taste buds and stomach to what they are about to encounter! Here I go on the Korean Adventure :)