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Guest Blog : About Indonesia by Shailendra Halbe

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Thoughts and observations about Indonesia, by Shailendra Halbe People, sorry for the borrowed images. I would update the blog with my own images as soon as I find what I click acceptable! It may be interesting to know that by population, Indonesia has 88% muslims and 6% christians. Hindus account for 4% of the total population of 245 million. This is world's 4th largest country by population. The country has more than 13000 islands out of which about 5000 islands are inhabited. This country is spread horizontally and has 3 time zones ! On west, it is just 60 miles from Andaman and Nicobar while the southern point is just 100 miles from Australia. On North, it extends beyond Malaysia and on west, it reaches upto Philippines. To keep these 13000 islands united as a country and run efficient govt administration for such a widely spread, multi cultural, multi religious country is really a difficult task. Indonesia had visionary leaders during 60s and 70s, who have built excelle

Recipe : Tamarind sauce (चिंच गुळाची चटणी)

  मराठी The one thing i miss most when not in Pune, is all that chaat : Bhel , pani-puri , shev puri ..yumm! The main ingredient in all these recipes is the tamarind sauce. This is the one that gives the taste to all these items. So there you go with the recipe Ingredients Tamarind , the size of a medium lemon** Jaggery - thrice that of tamarind Dates - 5-6 Cloves 4-5 Black Peppercorns 10-12 Black salt   to taste (about a teaspoon may be required) Rock salt to taste   (about half a teaspoon may be required) Cumin powder  2 teaspoon Optionally - half a cup of mint leaves. ** In India, the tamarind is available in the form of pressed squares/rounds, we have to pull out a round the size of a medium lemon Procedure Soak the tamarind in water. you may have to remove the seeds in the tamarind. You may put the cloves and the peppercorns in the same vessel as the tamarind to soak. De-seed the dates, in case they have seeds and soak them in water too. Mix slight amount o

Recipe : My mother-in-law's Sambar - सासुबाईंचे सांबार

मराठीत This is the sambar I learnt from my mother-in-law. So far, all those whom I have served this, have loved it! Ingredients Tur Dal   1 cup Tomato 3 Grated coconut  2 tablespoon Sambar masala powder 3 tablespoons** Tamarind  size of one medium lemon vegetables of your choice ( usually, all sorts of gourds, drumstick, brinjal, small onions, normal onions, cauliflower may be used) 200 g. Please note that this proportion may vary, but I feel adding good amount of veggies makes sambar healthy. salt to taste Red chilli powder to taste Jaggery, one teaspoon only if you prefer a hint of the sweet taste For the tadka Oil  1 tablespoon Mustard Seeds 1/2 teaspoon Asafoetida a pinch Urad Dal 1 teaspoon Dry Red chillies 4 Curry Leaves 2-3 twigs Coriander leaves for garnish ** You may use sambar masala powder of any brand like everest or MTR , else I have included the sambar masala powder recipe at the end of the post Procedure Soak the tamarind in water for about

The Beautiful Kawah Putih and Bandung

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For those who are looking for relevant information to travel to Bandung, please scroll down to the end of the post. Feel free to email me, and I can share whatever limited knowledge I have. Last weekend, we went to Bandung , a city about 120 km. from Jakarta. This was our first outing since we came to Jakarta, and we were really excited about it. The plan was to start at about 6am and be back by 10pm. We had gathered a list of places to visit in Bandung, a pretty long one :). Then as friends suggested, we had to choose only 3 or 4 as that was all that we could have done justice to, in a span of 8-9 hours. The travel started along the crowded toll road, as we navigated through the traffic leading to Bekasi and  Chikampek (Industrial settlements outside of Jakrta). As we moved ahead, the traffic started reducing, the road getting more and more beautiful. This country seems to be blessed with each and every colour of green that is possible. Hill slope farming could be seen along the

Worldwide Photo walk : Jakarta 24th July 2010

I participated in the Worldwide Photo walk in Jakarta on 24th July 2010. Description, my experience and the captures coming soon

In search of the Kerak Telor or the Batavian omelet :)

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This post is slightly longish one. Though the title mentions about an omelet, i just write it in a flow, so it documents my perspective of looking at this country, people and events . If interested, do follow the links to know more about the jakarta fair. The omelet is called "Batavian" as Jakarta used t be called "Batavia" some time in the past. All images and text are copyright of the author. Use only with attribution. Would be better if a written permission from the author is sought before use of any content. On the day we came to Jakarta , on the twelve lane road to my apartment, along the side, we spotted a few vendors, seemingly selling eggs. Me and my husband discussed that this probably another way of selling eggs in this country. Coming from India, i was also surprised by the colourful eggs, they had the dull green ones and the golden brown ones. We would see them daily, but only after sunset. We thought maybe it would be too hot in the day to sit there

परिक्षण : कट्य़ार काळजात घुसली - सुबोध भावे आणि राहुल देशपांडे

नाटकाचे परिक्षण लिहिण्याइतके मला काही त्यातले कळते असे नव्हे, आपले मनात जे काही आले ते लिहिले एवढेच! कट्यार चा मी बघितलेला हा दुसरा आविष्कार. पहिला प्रयोग रविंद्र खरे, डॉ. राम साठ्ये, चारुदत्त आफळे इ. मंडळींनी केलेला पाहिला होता. मूळ नाटक बघण्याचे भाग्य आपल्या पिढीला नाही, पण २ वेगळे संच हे नाटक समर्थपणे उभे करू शकतात हे पण आपल्या पिढीचे नशिब म्हणायचे! तर राहुल च्या नाटकाची तुलना आफळेंच्या नाटकाशी नकळत होणारच हे नमूद करते राहुलच्या नाटकाची जमेची बाजू म्हणजे सर्व गायक अत्यंत ताकदीचे आहेत. राहुल (खाँसाहेब), महेश काळे (सदाशिव), दिप्ती माटे (झरीना), वेदश्री ओक (उमा) सगळेच उत्तम गाणारे! अभिनयाच्या बाबतीत मात्र सुबोध सोडल्यास सगळे थोडे uncomfortable वाटतात. राहुलने खाँसाहेब तसे चांगले उभे केले आहेत, पण एकूणच नाटक "फ़िरोदिया" mode मधून अजून बाहेर आल्यासारखे वाटत नाही. गाण्यांबद्दल बोलायचे झाले तर राहुल चे "लागी कलेजवा कटार" उत्तम, पण "घेइ छंद " खूप जमले असे वाटले नाही. अर्थात प्रयोगा-प्रयोगा मध्ये फरक असू शकतो. सर्व गाणी म्हणताना २ घराण्यातील फरक उत्तम highl