Perfect biryani ??

Is it a myth or is there such a thing as a perfect biryani?

Being a hyderabadi amongst other traits of mine, i'm expected to know er well just know how to make decent biryani....after innumerous attempts by my mom to show and go over the recipe zillion times, she now resorts to "remember i told you the last time" ... kinda answer each time i ask her now for that step by step.

Few weekends ago, Vamsi was just going gala over Indu's biryani, ohh...this...oohh...that, i was green with envy, if indu could make it, surely i could whip some good old ass biryani...aieh...no offence to indu...he's just not that much into cooking....he defenitely know his food...he brings the best take out food ever....followed by desserts...ammm...i still remember the chocolate cookie he once got for priya and me, late night....we devoured it and like little sneaky greedy kids we ate that to the last lick.

hold on i was on biryani right, i digressed ; ) so in other words though i was jealous, i was totally inspired, no, really i had to learn and show. So even though in the past i whined about how many dishes it takes to make, how long the process is, how many calories it is, and yet never missed an opportunity to eat biryani.

so one evening i tied my apron like a shield and followed indu's recipe, it kinda is like my mom's except without yogurt. I used "Parampara" biryani mix instead of Shaan. My pantry only had parampara! Anyway after using 13 dishes...this includes the lids of the pots and pans, the cutting board, the knife, the ladles, and one and 1/2 hours later, my biryani turned out pretty good. Vamsi was very satisfied, i thought it could have been better, but i'm always so modest, no !

So my next attempt would be with another brand of biryani mix. So salaams to the biryani....

(next time you make your biryani at home, lemme know how it turned out and what was ur recipe...make a special day out of it..aieh)

Smile Pinki

When i was blissfully exhausting my adolescence in college, a friend of mine once said, you have a nice smile so what else can you ask for? I was floored... with the compliment, but that thought tucked away peacefully thinking a smile is enough even if you dont have other physical attributes that we give too much importance to.

Once came an opportunity at eid time for me to donate, so i didnt hesitate to google a good organisation, Smile Train came up, my dad writes with the pen name 'Smile' and also with that compliment that i got many years ago, sealed my decision to go ahead with them. When i got a sweet card from them thanking me, i called and asked would i possilbly know whom i helped, she said look at the picture i sent you, pick a child and think that you helped that child. It was very.... i dont know what to say....but it felt like it doesnt matter which one i helped, it just matters that i did.

Last night, when Smile Pinki won the oscar for the best short documentary film, i had tears rolling as Taran was sleeping in my arms, i cried because it's been 4 months to this day that we took our dad to the hospital, because he's alwasys around me and i just want to talk to him.

But mostly because i was happy that a girl got her smile back.