Reminiscence.

I’ve heard,
The pinch of skin,
That forms an oval indent on her perfect face
Catches more attention than Monalisa’s grin.
I’ve heard that with a single look
She can penetrate someone’s heart
Like a sharp knife does to a blob of butter.
I’ve heard she sings the sweetest of songs,
Recites the darkest of poetry.
She dances like there is no tomorrow,
And she paints flawlessly.

I’ve also heard,
Rumors about her past,
Men she'd been with, men she'd lived part.
I’ve heard people pray, play and pay
Just to be with her for sometime.
But she was like a hurricane,
Binding her would be a crime.
I’ve heard stories made of her,
About her beauty and fame.
The most desirable woman. Or so they claim.

But so much can be heard from beyond the reach,
So one day I decided to meet.

She was something that all of us wanted to be,
She had everything that we wanted to have.
She was somebody the warriors could die for
She was someone all men wanted to grab.

My search began from the mountain
And moved to the plain.
Seasons changed but my search didn’t stop.
Someday it scorched, someday it rained.
And then, in a vacant warfield I found a stain.
Of a place I’ve never heard of, and a name.
After a few hiccups I found the den,
Of the most gorgeous woman.

‘Don’t spill the secret’ the guard said.
‘Let others find themselves,
Of this place and this cave’.
And in I went, to darkest corner,
And waited till the sun kissed the roof
And finally I could see her,
Loud and clear.
Just like the stories said,
Just like I pictured her.
There she was standing tall,
Smiling through the mirror.



Pic courtesy  : 5phoron( Supriyo Mondal) 

No Bake Mango Cheesecake (Sugar free).

No bake cakes are the new cool when it comes to delicious desserts. Today, we'll prepare a no bake mango cheesecake. It's sweet, fruity and healthy. Because we're using sugar free natura, instead of sugar. So without much adieu lets get to it.

Here's the list of ingredients we'll use. 

For The Crust :

•  1 cup of biscuit, crushed.
•  4 tbsp of  melted butter.
•  3 tbsp of sugar free natura powder.

For the Filling :

• 1 pack of cream cheese at room temperature. 
• 3/4 cup of sugar free natura powder. 
• 3/4 tsp of vanilla extract.
• 3 mangoes for the filling + 1 mango for the topping. 
• 1 tbsp of gelatin. 
• 2 tbsp of warm water. 
• 200 ml of heavy whipping cream.

Procedure :

1. Break the biscuits (any kind apart from salty ones) and crush them. Add the crushed biscuits in to a mixing bowl. Pour the butter and the sugar free natura powder in and mix until the mix feels like wet sand mixture.
2. Pour the mixture in the base of a springform pan, and press down with the back of a spoon.
3. Extract the pulp out of 3 mangoes, and blend them using a blender.
4. In a bowl mix the gelatin and warm water, stir until the gelatin fully disolves.
5. Add powdered sugar free natura to the mango mix and add the gelatin mixture to it too. Stir until everything incorporates well, and let it set aside.
6. Mix cream cheese, sugar free natura powder and vanila extract to a separate bowl. Mix until the mixture is thick.
7. Whip the whipping cream until it forms stiff peaks.
8. Add the cream cheese mixture to the whipped cream, and fold  them together. The mixture should be smooth and aerated.
9. Add this mixture on your biscuit mix and fill the springform pan upto 3/4th. 
10. Spoon the mango purée over the top.
11. Cut another mango, and make long strips with the flesh. Now decorate the cake with these strips.
12. Put the whole cake in a fridge for atleast 4 hours.
13. Take out the cake from the fridge, and with the help of a sharp knife cut the edges, so that it is easy to remove the sringform pan.
14. Enjoy your no bake mango cheesecake. 

(Source : here.)

Disclaimer : This recipe is inspired by a recipe by David Hood.  And this post is a part of Sugar Free Dessert Challenge (http://sugarfree-india.com/).

The truth of crash diets.

Do you have a party lined up just after a few days? Or do you want to look slimmer just for yourself? Well, most practiced and effective way of doing that, in a really short span of time, is to crash diet.
So what exactly is crash dieting and what doctors have to say about crash dieting?

According to experts, crash diet is a method to lose weight really fast in a short period of time, by reducing the daily calorie intake to as low as 700 calories a day. And if you don’t know how much that is, it can be said 700 calories per day for an adult is pretty low.

Some popular crash diet programs are - Juice Fast Crash Diet, Xtreme Fat Loss Diet, Cleansing, Cabbage Diet etc.

So does this crash diet thing really work? And if it does, does it have any negative impact over our body? You may ask. Well, there are two groups. One who claims it does, and the other one opposes.
Nutrition experts, however mostly are against Crash Dieting.

“When you limit calories so dramatically, your body goes into starvation mode and your metabolic rate plummets.” says Darcy Johannsen, Ph.D., R.D., assistant professor at Pennington Biomedical Research Centre. She also said, “: Crash diets might be a quick fix, but they can also be awful, dangerous, and come with lasting negative health effects.”

“Because they are nutritionally unbalanced, crash diets can lead to long-term poor health,” says dietitian Ursula Arens.

Says Anjanaa Damodharan, a health freak, "In my opinion, crash diets are generally not a good idea because they don't let you eat what you want. And that causes irritation and physical change as well,"

So what harm a crash diet can do to you?  Here’s a list:

1) Your Metabolism slows down to that point until your body starts to react. Your body tries to conserve energy. So that necessarily means you’ll just move less than normal because you have less energy.

2) So you are restricting your body not only to calories, but to food groups, and that means that your body will not just burn fat, but it can burn down some of the muscles too. And guess what? Well, they might not bounce right back after the crash. Because our body is programmed to rebuilt the fat storage first!

3) Having an empty stomach will have an effect on your mood too. You are bound to lose your charm, along with the weight.

4) Crash Dieting can affect your nervous system. This can make you feel colder all the time, slow down your heart rate, or produce a drop in blood pressure that could even cause you to pass out.

These were just 4 points, but Crash Diet can harm you in more ways possible.

So, losing weight in a gradual manner (hit the gym, swim, yoga etc.) is much more recommended than Crash Dieting.

So quit trying to lose weight by stressing your body and stick to more healthy food regime. Fruits, vegetables, and measured calories will make a healthy diet. Eating healthy will increase your longevity, it’ll boost your energy, help you fight off diseases, lift up your mood and last but not the least, and it’ll help you to lose weight, in a more healthy and prescribed way.

This summer Dabur Honey brings you the Honey Diet.  You can have honey instead of sugar, just to have your meals in a healthier way, without losing the taste, if not increasing it. Not only that, the most traditional way of keeping your immune system good, and to control your weight is to have a spoon of honey taken with warm water in the morning.  Connect to http://www.daburhonewy.com/ to find out more benefits of honey along with experts' advice.

So this summer, don't let the short timespan of crash diet lure you. Loose weight, but in a healthy way!

UC browser

All hurdled up as my mother called us for dinner. The essence of family gathering is in the fun of all having dinner together. My Delhi-wali aunty,Patha wale cousin, Tito, Bublu, and who not. Our 3-BHK flat was filled with people. Everyone I loved and admired was present. But I couldn’t concentrate on the food and conversations, because my mind was somewhere far from our home, our building, and even the town. All I could think about was the vast stadium of Adelaide Oval. It was the game 4 match between India and Pakistan. And I badly wanted to switch on the TV. But because of the lack of space, we merely could all sit on the floor, let alone watch television. And these people seemed so ignorant. How can they be so calm when an India – Pakistan match was on?
After a lot of brainstorming, I reached to my pocket and take out my smartphone. I fired up the UC Web Browser. And voila! There it was, the little blue button that would save my life.No one even noticed, and I felt like I was present in two places, at the same time! So thanks to UC Cricket, I could keep record of the whole game, as well as could enjoy my mother’s delicious food.
So what actually is UC Cricket? Well it is the permanent solution of googling continuously for scores. And to say the least, UC browser provides the best cricket service in India, which includes live scores and latest news.
The key features of UC cricket includes,
A live score card with auto update, so you do not need to refresh it after each ball.
The match fixture as well as the result after a cricket match.
Latest news of the teams that you follow and the series you might be interested in.
And videos, starting from the highlights, to each wickets, individual shots and everything you want to see in a cricket match.
Excited much? Well it’s not the end. Download UC browser for even more intriguing features. And if you are still asking why, then the answer is:
1) Because it is faster than any mobile browser, anytime. And no need to worry if you are on a low network coverage. Switch to the speed mode and UC browser will load any website faster for you.
2) Are you more interested in downloading? Well UC browser offers 40% faster downloading.
3) It now has a PC version. So switch to mobile and then PC, your data will be saved and never lost.
4) A smart file manager is the last thing you expect a browser to provide, but then again UC exceeds any expectation. It’s that good.




So download UC browser now, and find out why Yuvraj Singh, along with numerous other users prefers UC browser.

To find out more, you can visit http://www.ucweb.com/
And to find out about UC cricket, connect to http://www.ucweb.com/English/UCbrowser/cricket.html

Al dente : Part 4

She burst into a chuckle. “Shivani… Shivani Dey.” She said, extending her hand towards the chef.
“It is very nice to meet you Shivani”, chef held her hand and shook it firmly.
“My name is Joe, and as you can see, I’m the chef here.” He said, flashing his teeth out.
“So, what were you saying, about helping me?” Shivani asked, this time.
“No offense intended, Chef Joe, but I find it hard to believe that you know about writing so much, that you can inspire me!” Shivani said. Now she was in the game. And she was, not at all, intimidated by Joe.

“Yes, Yes. Signora. Though I know a little about that stuff but I can help you with your writing. I know food, and you, believe it or not, good food and good stories, have more in common than you and me.” He said, in the same old, ridiculously charming way.

Shivani couldn’t resist but smile all along. If she listened carefully, all he was saying were gibberish. But to her that tiny decorous room, his contagious positive vibe, everything made sense. She knew, even if whatever he was saying was completely meaningless, it was meaningful to him, and hence, worth listening.

He continued. “You know I wasn’t a chef all along.  I was a banker. I had a really well-paying job in USA. I was staying in Silicon Valley. My life was perfect, in a materialistic way. But I wanted something more out of my job, rather than money. I wanted satisfaction. I wanted to feel the pride of creating something and bringing happiness on people’s face. And numbers couldn’t satisfy my needs. So I had to leave the job. And I had this knack for cooking since I was young. So I joined a restaurant, as a line chef. Then I was promoted to sous chef, and then finally I joined this one as an executive chef. And now, I enjoy what I do. I see people smiling when they have a bite of my food, and then I know that I’m happy with what I’m doing right now.” Joe said looking at Shivani, who was lost in his food, with a smile on her face.

She looked up, mesmerized. “Everyone dreams to do what you did. But not many can actually do it: to quit a job, and pursue your passion.”
“Why not? That’s my point? Why can’t they? What are they afraid of? Acceptance in the society? First you need to accept yourself, then the society will. Else you’ll be just a lost stone in the desert of a rat race.”  His face turned pinkish red.
Shivani already finished her egg, and now she devoured herself into the hot chocolate. She looked up from her plate to ask- “So what were you saying? Something stories and food…?”

“Ohh yeah. I’m sorry. I have this bad habit of drifting away from the topic.” He chuckled.

“See, good food and a good story is somehow similar. Let me give you an example. Let’s take pasta for an example. You like pasta right?” Joe asked.
“Of course, who, in Italy doesn’t like pasta?” Shavani said.

“Great. So, you see, there are different types of pasta: Tortellini, Penne, Farfalle, Spaghetti and many more. Each and every pasta has different taste and different preparations. In the same way, there are different types of stories. Mystery, Romantic, Science-fiction, and whatnot.” He said. Excitement was oozing out of his eyes.

“And for each story, there should be distinctive types of characters. Likewise, for every pasta dish, there are different ingredients.” He smiled.

“You see, but what brings together the pasta is the sauce. And what brings together a story is the emotions that are attached with the words.” His eyes sparkled as he spoke.

Shivani finished her drink and was now submerged into thoughts. What he was explaining was making her think of her story from a very unusual and ‘delicious’ point of view.

“I’ve been working as a chef for a long time now. And you see, the secret of making a pasta is in the making of the actual pasta. You let it boil first, and when you see the pasta floating in the bubbling water, you take them out.
We have a phrase in our profession. ‘Al dente’. It denotes the cook on the pasta. When a pasta is perfectly cooked, to the point of perfection, it is said to be al dente. Now, I can’t relate this to storytelling, but maybe you can” He flashed the same old charming smile.

That morning was like any other mornings in Rome. As divine as any other. The people were as jolly as ever. The unstoppable cold-war, between modernity and heritage, was as evident as any other day. And Shivani, well it was like any other morning until she met the chef of a nameless restaurant in the streets of Rome. But that morning, finally she met someone, with whom, she could talk for hours. For the first time since she stepped onto the soil of Italy, she wasn’t missing her home. Instead she was glad, that she could step out and see the world, all by herself. She met someone who knew the true meaning of passion. And maybe she’ll miss another deadline, but she knew, whatever she writes, she will write with all her heart. And as far as her ‘own’ story is concerned; well, thanks to a proficient chef, it will be ‘Al dente’.

Source : here.

P.S.- You can read the previous parts of the story :

• "Al dente : Part 1" from here.
• "Al dente : Part 2" from here.
• "Al dente : Part 3" from here.

Author's Note :  I am overjoyed to see the responses to my posts. So here's something new and exciting for the readers. 'Al Dente' is a series. I'll be posting it part by part. Drop in your comments to encourage this new endeavor. Thanks in advance. Keep supporting. :)