Baked Nippattu

Today we tried making Nippattu at home.
We haven't used our oven for some time for baking and as a trial before Christmas we started off with Nippattu. Thanks to the below link from where we got the recipe.

http://www.manethindi.com/2012/08/baked-nippattuspicy-wafersbiscuits.html

Though the baking in our convection oven took 30 odd minutes at 250c.


My mom-in-law got us some nice silicon baking trays and moulds from Dubai that came in handy.
Next we will be trying some banana walnut muffins for Aadu and Garlic Naan !!
More as we bake !

Mumbai with Aadu

So finally a vacation !! Yes this time it was at Mumbai.

We stayed at the Trident right on Nariman Point. Their buffet breakfast at Frangipani was among the best I've had. I enjoyed my morning runs on Marine Drive, the Tonga rides, Taxis and the Marathi Food.

Aadu really enjoyed it there at the Hotel and the Christmas decorations were in full swing with Christmas Trees all around the Oberoi.

Went to IIT Mumbai to attend Ani's Brothers reception and happen to meet Andrew Zeisserman from Oxford.

Thanks to my dear friend Amit Patil who had previously taken me on Mumbai darshan during my Mumbai marathon and I exactly followed the same itinerary. Marine drive, Prakash (Near Sena Bhavan), Gateway of India etc etc. My mom-in-law went in for Siddhi Vinayak and Mahalakshmi when we were snoozing.


Overall this was a great trip with swimming, steam baths and foot massages and Aadu and Ani.

My good old days of running, diet and traveling are back !

We will come back !

Happy Diwali and the Little Calvin

Wishing you a happy deepavali.

Ani did a quick Rangoli and Diya arrangements. Here are some snaps in a collage.


Also Aadu has become our little Calvin. Thanks to his mother who used to read a lot of Calvin & Hobbes and always wanted a Calvin. It is very difficult to leave him alone and quiet for a while.

The only cartoon channel he watches is BBC's CeeBeeBees. Otherwise KolaveriDi is his favourite followed by Pungi Baja De.


My Running dates with weekends have become regular now. Until next time...

One year

Aadu completed hid first birthday last july and life has been hectic as usual.

Here are some snaps of him taken at a photo studio:

With Aadu having started to walk and recognize and recollect certain people and objects, we are gearing up !

Now we have nicknamed him "Curiosity" - like the one in Mars. He is out there checking out and monitoring everything and grabbing the smallest of the things.

Now he enjoys playing soccer, coached by his granny. Will upload a video of it soon.

He enjoys going out on drives and like the Orion mall.

I've started to run again and my diet is back on track. Hopefully by Jan 2013 I must be back on the running map :)

Until next time..... some more pics !

Quick Dash to Coorg

Last week we decided to do a quick dash to Coorg !
We took our own sweet time to go but made sure we stopped by Coffee Day near Maddur for breakfast, nappy change, Aadu's food, loo break .......

We used CCD for our return break as well.

We took the right after the third Srirangaptana bridge on the Bangalore-Mysore road towards Hunsur. Its a 20KM paddy field stretch that leads you to Hunsur on Mysore-Madkeri Highway.

From Madekeri we took the Madekeri-Mangalore highway to reach Ma'day homestay.
This was my second stay here. It was previously called Estate Stay. We visited Raja's seat and Omkareshwara temple. This temple was built in Moghul architecture style.

We visited Golden Temple at Byalakuppe on our return. It rained on the last night but it was pleasant.
The weather was fine all throughout and my first highway long distance car ride.

Signing off -- ABa

Commando Crawler

Theres Adu going Commando Crawling....

EmTech 2012

This week I was at EmTech India 2012. This is an Indian chapter of EmTech organized by Technology Review of MIT. It was great to be at the venue and catch with some old friends from the industry and of course to add some new ones.

You can capture my notes on Twitter, @baluConf

Conference Pics here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/102953540631838733366/EmTech2012?authkey=Gv1sRgCO6qrKjnrpSx3QE


You can also capture the sessions here:
http://www.istream.com/news/show/622/emtech-INDIA-2012

Until next new...

Dorai with Toys

Wishing you all a Happy Ugadi !





Adarsh with his Toys !

Aadu ....the thunta ...

We've moved....

Finally after almost six years in Koramangla we've moved to Bangalore South !

From the Hindi speaking Koramangla to hard core Kannadiga area, Basavangudi.

Still unpacking and settling.... hopefully by weekend !

Aadu is doing good and is already half year old :)

Vegas Trip - Photo Tour

Here are some pics from the Vegas trip

Food !



On the Strip !



Rest at Vegas !


Until Next Time... Keep reading !

Heading back home

The conference went pretty well and I had some cool following in Twitter....

The US trip is drawing close and I'm currently at SFO heading back to Bangalore en-route Hongkong...

So what did I eat .... first few days it was Pizzas.. then slowly the Veggie Subs... then pancake with maple syrup at Newyork Newyork.... then Donuts .... then hashbrowns... then Falafel sandwich (the accompanying sauce was the spiciest in recent times) .. then Spanakopita (Greek Spinach Pie) - basically Spinach+Feta ... lots of burgers, cakes, muffins, zero cokes, coffee, decaf, ....

Vegas was good, especially in the strip where I spent most of the time ..

Loads of shopping at the Walmart for the Kido...

Thats it.. back to India to in a couple of days !

Its been 30 ...

Yes guys its been 30 years now :-)

This birthday also happens to be my longest as I'm currently at Hongkong waiting to board my flight to LA. ... LA waiting to transfer to Vegas... Ny-NY in Vegas...

I'll be in Vegas for a week to present our team's paper in a conference. I'm sure all of you tried to reach me couldn't ..... This time exactly at 12 my son and my wife wished me and then I started :-)

More updates follows...

The Year Ahead - 2012

Wishing you all folks a very happy new year.....


So whats the plan for this year ? No plans, just one - Aadu !

Running for ...
After having taken a break from running events for two years, this year I'll plan to run two major events and will plan to do half-marathons (until something spruces me up for a full). As part of it, this year I'll be raising for Narayana Nethralaya ! More on that later.

Plan to do couple of drives nearby.

Yoga
I took to yoga last year, thanks to my wife's Surya Namaskar workouts. Yoga kept me in tune in the absence of running. Reading health magazines was another interest I took up.

Hope to keep posting once in a fortnight. Have a great year ahead !

ABa