In My Hands Today…

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Girls Burn Brighter – Shobha Rao

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A searing, electrifying debut novel set in India and America, about a once-in-a-lifetime friendship between two girls who are driven apart but never stop trying to find one another again.

When Poornima first meets Savitha, she feels something she thought she lost for good when her mother died: hope. Poornima’s father hires Savitha to work one of their sari looms, and the two girls are quickly drawn to one another. Savitha is even more impoverished than Poornima, but she is full of passion and energy. She shows Poornima how to find beauty in a bolt of indigo cloth, a bowl of yoghurt rice and bananas, the warmth of friendship. Suddenly their Indian village doesn’t feel quite so claustrophobic, and Poornima begins to imagine a life beyond the arranged marriage her father is desperate to lock down for her. But when a devastating act of cruelty drives Savitha away, Poornima leaves behind everything she has ever known to find her friend again. Her journey takes her into the darkest corners of India’s underworld, on a harrowing cross-continental journey, and eventually to an apartment complex in Seattle.

Alternating between the girls’ perspectives as they face relentless obstacles, Girls Burn Brighter introduces two heroines who never lose the hope that burns within them.

In My Hands Today…

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The Widows of Malabar Hill – Sujata Massey

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Bombay, 1921: Perveen Mistry, the daughter of a respected Zoroastrian family, has just joined her father’s law firm, becoming one of the first female lawyers in India. Armed with a legal education from Oxford, Perveen also has a tragic personal history that makes her especially devoted to championing and protecting women’s rights.

Mistry Law is handling the will of Mr Omar Farid, a wealthy Muslim mill owner who has left three widows behind. But as Perveen goes through the papers, she notices something strange: all three have signed over their inheritance to a charity. What will they live on if they forfeit what their husband left them? Perveen is suspicious.

The Farid widows live in purdah: strict seclusion, never leaving the women’s quarters or speaking to any men. Are they being taken advantage of by an unscrupulous guardian? Perveen tries to investigate and realizes her instincts about the will were correct when tensions escalate to murder. It’s her responsibility to figure out what really happened on Malabar Hill and to ensure that nobody is in further danger.

Recipes: Radish Chutney

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The other day I wanted to make some coconut chutney to go with our dinner of dosai, but realised at the last minute that I didn’t have enough coconut to make the chutney. I dug through my fridge and saw a couple of radishes which I used to make this yummy chutney. When the children ate the chutney, they could not believe that it had radishes in it. This is a very simple recipe which hardly takes 10 minutes to make from start to end.

Radish Chutney

Ingredients:

  • 2 medium sized radishes, peeled and chopped into bite sized pieces
  • 2 tbsp grated coconut
  • 1 tsp mustard seeds
  • 1 tsp broken urad dal
  • 2-3 dried red chillies
  • 1 tbsp white sesame seeds
  • 1 small lime sized piece of tamarind
  • 2 tsp chopped coriander
  • Salt to taste
  • 1 tsp oil

Method:

  • Heat the oil in a pan and when warm, add the mustard seeds. When the seeds pop, add the urad dal, red chillies and sesame seeds.
  • Once the urad dal becomes slightly brown and the red chillies start to darken, add the chopped radish, tamarind and some salt and cook until the radishes are cooked and slightly opaque.
  • Take off from the fire and cool completely.
  • In a mixer, blend together the fried ingredients, coconut and coriander leaves to a smooth paste. Add salt to taste and serve with idlis, dosai or even chapati. This goes very well as a spread for bread too.

2019 Week 52 Update

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Namaskara from the Silicon Valley of India, Bengaluru! We arrived here early yesterday after a hectic three days in Tamil Nadu visiting temples. It’s been a day of constant chatting, especially for my mum as she reunited with her mother and sister.

We have some family visiting planned for today and tomorrow before we fly back to Mumbai late evening!

Our India trip is slowly coming to an end and I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I am happy to go back home, to my bed and work and on the other hand, I want to stay longer with my parents. Ah well, that’s life!

Have a great Sunday and an awesome week.