What If The Beatles Were Irish ?

This was my favorite BoingBoing link of the day

And What If The Beatles Were Indian ?

Mike Tyson to appear in Bollywood video

Seen at Yahoo! News......

Former Heavyweight champ Iron Mike is up for rent !

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070413/ap_en_mo/people_mike_tyson

Biryani. Awesome. Period.

There is an Indian dish that has been lauded through the ages,
one that each Indian gourmet will swear is unattainable except
in a certain part of a certain city in India. The cities most often
mentioned in this context are varied - Bombay, Hyderabad and
Kashmir, etc. with an occasional mention of Poona/Pune by
those seasoned travelers who claim to be 'in the know'.
Just as there are those who swear by their New York, Neapolitan,
Sicilian or Chicago Pizza, so it is with Biryani. Opinions about
this dish and its worldwide incarnations are varied and frequently
passionate.

Wikipedia, if it is to be trusted, says the Hyderabadi version
is the most popular in Southern Asia but also mentions Iraqi, Thai,
Burmese and Pakistani variations. Naturally no one particular version
can claim to be the best since the whole experience is tied to the
individual palate; if there is one thing that all the gourmets seem to agree
on, it's that this is a dish to be served only on very special occasions.
So the headliner on the menu at South Asian weddings, Birthdays,
VIP receptions, etc., is almost always Biryani or a variation of it.
Nothing else seems to fit the bill (speaking in a non-veg context here).
The same dish respectfully offered to satisfy the palates of the Mughals
also thrived under the British Raj and beyond.

There are thousands of Food Blogs that will describe meals like this
in glowing terms while providing the recipe, so I will refrain from using
terms like 'succulent', 'slow-roasted' or 'intensely aromatic' and I will
only say one thing about the ingredients : there are the standard Asian
spices, with Saffron showing up more often than not, and either
Chicken, Mutton, Shrimp or Vegetables all layered with long-grain Rice
( preferably Basmati).

My favorite Biryani is the Irani version which includes Potatoes
and Yogurt, the kind I grew up on from Dorabjees in Pune.

I set out with this post to offer a review about Dorabjees' Biryani but
a little research led me to this excellent page by different authors about
Pune Restaurants at Virtual Tourist.com. Someone had written a rave
review as I might have written it years ago ! Just goes to show how the
traditional method of preparation remains virtually unchanged through
the ages. End of post, except I'd like to leave you with a few
Biryani Links :

The Cooks Cottage
My favorite Blogger from Pune who writes, photographs and cooks
all in her own unique style.

Once Upon a Feast
Features a Mughlai Lamb Biryani recipe by world-renowned Chef,
Author and Actress Madhur Jaffrey

Gits Vegetable Biryani Mix
Marketed by Mukhtar Tejani, a classmate from my old school and
college days, this is for those folks who are in a hurry or intrigued
enough to attempt this somewhat non-traditional approach. I like to
think of Gits as the leader in worldwide distribution of Pune in a packet.

Veggies

My Box Net additions for today are some
funny modifications of everyday vegetables.
Click on the link above to view full size or to
share or download.

Sorry for the gaps in posting, I have a few drafts
in the works.

Enjoy !

Happy Easter !

Dear Family, Friends and Readers
if you are celebrating Easter, I hope it brings new
meaning and Joy into your world !

Pune Cheers Up

Now Puneites can drink the way they were born to,
according to this Times of India article

Excerpt..
'PUNE: Better enforcement of law, growth in
automobile and allied industries and the software
boom have resulted in a sharp increase in consumption
of liquor and beer in Pune city and district, thus helping
the state excise department reap a rich harvest.'

My old friends are of course not too impressed by these
developments. They have been supporting the State Excise
Dept. by faithfully consuming liquor long before the baby boom,
the software boom and all the other booms......Bam !

Pune Goes WiFi

Pic by Pierre Rouss /Virtual Tourist

As of April 3rd 2007, my old hometown Pune is the first wireless
Indian city thanks to the PMC (Pune Municipal Corporation) hooking
up with Intel India and Microsense. Hope all my friends in Pune
are planning to avail themselves of this breakthrough technology !
Link to Financial Express article

IndiaNewsBox :: India is all the news you can use concerning India,
all under one roof. That includes pages bloated with endless pop-ups
for Matrimonials from Shaadi.com, Bollywood Gossip and the latest
cricket scores, not to mention Flash-driven animations at every turn.
Even with a good broadband connection this gives my eyes a case
of the jitters.

To overcome this case of the jitters I simply use the best browser on
the planet, Firefox. If you're still using the IE option to go online, do
yourself a favor and download Firefox free and keep it as an additional
browser on your PC. Soon you will be changing your settings to make it
the default browser at startup. The themes and add-on extensions are
always free and work great. I could go on and on about this and I have for
a few years now. Go get it !

Shatha Hassoun : The Real Idol

At first I was glad to see an Indian-American on a Reality TV show like
American Idol, then somewhat surprised at his landing in the Top 12.
Then things got really bizarre and now the future of the most-watched
show in the USA is in jeopardy thanks to Sanjaya Malakar ??
(See The Huffington Post article below)


As I see it, the winner of the LBC Star Academy contest held
in Baghdad last week ('Iraqi Idol' they call it unofficially) is the real
one who needs to go down in history, for uniting Shiites and Sunnis
albeit for a few brief moments in time. These are people of a country
that has had civilization and culture before Christianity came about
and that remains a vital part of who they are as this NBC clip shows.
Here's Shatha Hassoun in pics and in a TV commercial from where else,
YouTube. Cast your vote. You be the judge.........

Alex Blagg: American Idol, Sanjaya Malakar, and the Postmodern Condition

Link: http://tinyurl.com/3b8uhf

All kidding aside, I happen to believe that Sanjaya Malakar will go down in TV history as the single most important personality ever to emerge from the American Idol phenomenon. ... Read the rest at HuffingtonPost.com

© 2006 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.

Google ISP offer

Who can top this ? Free WiFi for all thanks to Google !

http://www.google.com/tisp/

---

Blog Camp Pune

Site venue: click to enlarge

Checking out a Punekar's Food Blog called The Cook's Cottage
I came across something equally interesting and noteworthy -
Pune's first Blog Camp is set for June 2007 at
Symbiosis Infotech Campus. The 'Un-organizers' are calling it an
'Un-conference' not unlike the worldwide Bar Camp events you
techies are familiar with. Will it be totally 'Un-organized' then ?
Not the way they describe it :

'This is going to be an intense event with discussions, demos and
interaction between attendees. Any blogger who wants to contribute
is welcome and invited to join.

In the spirit of BarCamp, if you attend, be prepared to present
something (even if it's just 10 minutes).'

I am not in sync with these gatherings but if I were back in my old
hometown of 'Poona' I would definitely attend. I mean, where there's a
Camp, there must be a Bar, and where there's a Bar there has to be
a drink, right ? Just Kidding ! Actually I don't drink like I used to so I
wouldn't care too much if there were NO drinks at this Bar Camp.
BYOB in this case should mean Bring Your Own Blog !

I suppose I'll really have to live up to my title of Virtual Poona Blogger
and be there virtually........maybe come up with a virtual 10-min. speech,
who knows ?

Visit the official blog:
http://www.blogcamppune.blogspot.com/

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