My Annual Journey!
We pass the Himalayan ranges, Mount Everest the highest mountain of the world. We howl, we freeze, we carry storms and then we came to the plains of North India. We pass forests and mountains, we follow the route of Continue reading →
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Travel
Fee-fi-fo-fum!
(A take off from the childrens fairy tale “Jack and the bean stalk” ) Jack is a young lad living with his widowed mother and a milk cow who is their only source of income. ` Jack tried very hard Continue reading →
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Poems
Fire burns the old!
Fog embraces the Indian capital Delhi each winter night. Post sunset - moisture, smog and pollution settle down near the ground like a thick blanket .This is due to the inversion of temperature as the ground stays warmer than the Continue reading →
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Short Stories
Starry, Starry Night …..
Starry, Starry Night ….. Paint your palette blue and grey…… I look up into the sky and watch millions of stars twinkling in the dark black sky of the universe. It is a perfectly clear night with no clouds and Continue reading →
Through Time
[gallery] Belgundi village 1910 , a young boy Ganpat would race his classmates during the noon recess to the top of the nearby hill. He would try and reach the Jamun* tree before anyone else. The fastest and brightest boy Continue reading →
Out of the snakes belly!
On one of my frequent journeys from my hometown Belgaum, down the forested hills of western India, I remember seeing young boys kick down a 3 feet high anthill . In seconds they maliciously destroyed what thousands of ants must Continue reading →
We Are Told
Hindu’s believe in reincarnation. We are told, that the soul of the deceased are re-incarnated in another life. Maybe once, maybe several times, until it completes its karma, until its pays back its cosmic debt to the universe. Within a Continue reading →
Western Ghats
Driving down the mountains of western India to sea level during the monsoons is possibly what Dorothy must have encountered when she entered the Emerald city in search of the Wizard of Oz. Verdant green and picturesque. As you drive Continue reading →
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Uncategorized
BBC Asia Network, London: Nihal interviews Laxmi Tendulkar Dhaul
11 am, 8th July, 2013 Nihal: Stories about your parents and your grandparents - stories of pain and sacrifice and photos to piece together their lives….. (more…)
Souffle Eggs on Vegetable Base
Egg Dishes:Souffle Eggs on Vegetable Base Serves:2 People Time Required: 40 Minutes (more…)
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Cookbook
Souffle Eggs on Vegetable Base
Eggs Benedictine
Egg Dishes:Eggs Benedictine Serves: 8 People Time Required: 25 Minutes (more…)
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Cookbook
Eggs Benedictine
Dal Gosht (Spicy meat and lentil curry)
Nourishing meals:DAL GOSHT Serves: 6-8 People(Soaking time to soften lentils:2-3 hours) Time Required: 60 Minutes (more…)
Deviled Eggs
Egg Dishes:Deviled Eggs Serves: 6 People Time Required: 25 Minutes (more…)
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Cookbook
Deviled Eggs
Scotch Eggs
Egg Dishes:Scotch Eggs Serves: 4 People Time Required: 35 Minutes (more…)
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Cookbook
Scotch Eggs
Curried scrambled eggs (Bhurji)
Egg Dishes:Curried scrambled eggs Serves: 4 People Time Required: 25 Minutes (more…)
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Cookbook
Curried scrambled eggs
Prawn Cocktail
Seafood specialities:Prawn Cocktail Serves: 5-6 People Time Required: 20 Minutes (Chilling time:1 hour) (more…)
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Cookbook
Prawn Cocktail
Crab Au Gratin
Seafood specialities:Crab Au Gratin Serves: 5-6 People Time Required: 55 Minutes (more…)
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Cookbook
Crab Au Gratin
LAGANSALA (Vegetables Cooked in Spicy Gravy)
Nourishing meals:LAGANSALA Serves: 5-6 People Time Required: 30 Minutes (more…)
IRISH STEW
Nourishing meals:IRISH STEW Serves: 5-6 People Time Required: 60 Minutes INGREDIENTS 1. ½ kg mutton; 2. 3 large carrots (cut in rounds); 3. 100gms beans, threaded and cut in rounds; 4. 100gms cauliflower, in florets; 5. 2 medium sized onions, Continue reading →
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Cookbook
IRISH STEW
Chicken Dhansak (Chicken in Aromatic Parsi Spices and Lentils)
Nourishing meals:Chicken Dhansak Serves: 5-6 People Time Required: 60 Minutes INGREDIENTS 1. ½ kg chicken pieces breast ; 2. 4 pods crushed garlic; 3. I inch fresh ginger ; 4. 6 dry red chilies tbs cumin seeds ( jeera); 5. Continue reading →
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Cookbook
Chicken Dhansak
Beefy Joes
Steaks:Beefy Joes Serves: 5-6 People Time Required: 35 Minutes INGREDIENTS 1. ½ kg ground beef; 2. ½ cup chopped celery; 3. ¼ cup ketchup; 4. ¼ tsp. salt; 5. ½ cup chopped onion; 6. 1 1/4 cups Stock (or beef Continue reading →
Marchand De Vin Sauce
Steaks:Marchand De Vin Sauce Serves: 5-6 People Time Required: 15 Minutes INGREDIENTS 1. 4 tbs butter; 2. 6 scallions, minced (or onions); 3. ½ cup red wine; 4. 1 cup (or can) brown gravy; 5. 1 tbs lemon juice. METHOD Continue reading →
Steak Creole
Steaks:Steak Creole Serves: 4-5 People Time Required: 40 Minutes INGREDIENTS 1. ¾ kg. good quality steak; 2. 4 tbs butter; 3. several celery sticks; 4. 2 onions - skinned and sliced; 5. ½ kg. Skinned; 6. chopped tomatoes mixed with Continue reading →
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Cookbook
Steak Creole
Shahi Murgh Badami
Mughlai Cuisine: Shahi Murgh Badami Serves: 6-8 People Time Required: 60 Minutes INGREDIENTS 1. 5 tbs vegetable oil; 2. 1 kg. chicken, skin and cut into 8 3. ¼ kg finely chopped onion; 4. 100 gms blanched almonds in slivers; Continue reading →
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Cookbook
Shahi Murgh Badami
Nawabi Mutton Pulao – Mughlai Cuisine
Mughlai Cuisine: Nawabi Mutton Pulao Serves: 5-6 People Time Required: 35 Minutes (Marination Time of 1 Hour) INGREDIENTS 1. 500 gm Mutton, cut into small pieces; 2. 2 onions roughly chopped, 1 tsp. Salt 3. 1 ½ pints water 4. Continue reading →
Mughlai Cuisine: Mughlai Zaafrani Murgh
Mughlai Cuisine: Mughlai Zaafrani Murg (Mughlai Saffron Chicken) Serves: 5-6 People Time Required: 35 Minutes (Marination Time of 1 Hour) INGREDIENTS 1. 750 gms chickens, cleaned, washed and cut into pieces 2. 1 teaspoon salt, to taste;2-3 bay leaves 3. Continue reading →
Guide to a Gentlemans Chef : Note From the Author
My friend Gitanjali and I wrote the book ‘Guide to a Gentlemans Chef’ some time ago. It was published by my good friend Bikash Niyogi of Niyogi Books and is available in the book shops. We were very sorry to Continue reading →
How to Cook a Wife Recipe
A good many wives are utterly spoiled by mismanagement in cooking and so are not tender and good. Some men keep them constantly in hot water; others let them freeze by their carelessness and indifference. Some keep them in a Continue reading →
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Cookbook
Cook a Wife Recipe
Ode to the Gentlemen Chefs
Bachelors, epicureans, gourmets, and such – Savor this book which offers so much, It’s full of recipes; wondrous and light With ambrosial decoctions for that special night! We cater to one, we cater to all Be thee grumpy, frumpy or Continue reading →
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Cookbook
Gentlemen Chefs
Guide for the Gentlemen Chefs By Laxmi Dhaul & Gitanjali Khanna
Guide for the Gentlemen Chefs is a tongue-in-check book of wonderful authentic recipes sorted out in humorous categories By Laxmi Dhaul & Gitanjali Khanna A Guide for the Gentlemen Chefs is a humorous attempt to categorise recipes (Indian, Western and Continue reading →
Discovering Islamabad 2012
Discovering Islamabad! I was thrilled when my husband informed me that there had been a request from the Pakistani embassy for copies of the book ‘Sufi Saint of Ajmer’ for a delegation from Pakistan! I had written the book several Continue reading →
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Travel
Discovering Islamabad
Organising Chimi’s parade in the Panna forest- wonderful experience !
Chimi’s Parade in Panna 28/29 August 2011 WWF and Sarva Shiksha Abhyan Kendra ( Gov of Madhya Pradesh) have a 9 month residential facility for the children of poachers of the Behelia tribe living in the Panna Tiger reserve forests. Continue reading →
Made in Isreal
Made in Israel [gallery orderby="rand"] Travelling with me to Israel was Veda, my 24 year old daughter. Charming, lots of fun and inspite of our generation gap someone who would occasionally allow me to be on ‘her’ side of the Continue reading →
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Travel
Made in Isreal
Strangers in the night exchanging glances
[gallery orderby="rand"] Strangers in the night exchanging glances One of the most beautiful sunsets I have witnessed recently was in the city of Tbilisi . The breeze wafted across us as we watched the sun set on a warm balmy Continue reading →
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Travel
night exchanging glances
Marine Drive
Marine Drive in South Mumbai on the Arabian Sea. Ever since I can remember, evening walks there have served me as relaxation, exercise and recreation, and sometimes I find it hard to imagine that Mumbai, India’s Manhattan, was once a Continue reading →
Short story created from a random newsclip
Bold Headline ” Man steals to finance Carnal Desire” First para in the newspaper ” Gochan Bahadur Tapa’s dream of making it big in Mumbai came crashing down when he was arrested for allegedly stealing Rs 19,000 ( about $500) Continue reading →
Shri Krishna and Shri Vishnu : a celestial yet contemporary dialogue
The following is a mythological story based on a conversation between two Indian Gods, greatly venerated by the Hindu’s, who met each other in their celestial abode. They were both taking a sabbatical from their normal duties. Whilst they were Continue reading →
Becoming Me
They gave me a hard slap on my bottom, and I cried! I am told that I cried louder than any other baby that was born in the ward. My cries were not of pain or discomfort they were out Continue reading →
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Short Stories
Becoming Me
The captive deity
“She is coming , she is coming….. she will kill me”. “I can see the goddess Kali , with her black hair streaming from her face” . “Look, look she is riding her tiger , her lips red with the Continue reading →
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Short Stories
The captive deity
The enemy of an enemy is a friend
“This is Subhash Chandra Bose, who is still alive speaking to you over the Azad Hind Radio…” the date was March 1942 ,the middle of World War 2. Bose was in Berlin where he launched his ‘Azad Hind’( free India Continue reading →
The value of a life
“The dilemma occurs when the doctor gets a call in the middle of the night - there has been a road traffic accident and the family of the deceased vehicle driver is willing to donate the liver to a needy Continue reading →
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Short Stories
value of a life
Coming Home
The wind had picked up momentum, the trees swayed violently in the overcast skies. It was the start of the monsoon, all the elements of nature allowed themselves to submit to an entity larger than themselves. In this case to Continue reading →
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Short Stories
Coming Home
Earth meets Fire : The Dance of Shiva
The earth shakes, the ground trembles Lightning streaks across the sky Shiva with his flaming locks a drum in one hand and the vigilant cobra round his neck one thigh high balancing on the other is about to open his Continue reading →
GIZMO MOM
They call me a gizmo mum . I collect and use more cameras, cell phones and laptops then most people! And yet my teenage daughter laughs When I tell her …………. That though she is the ‘i-pod’ of my eye Continue reading →
Old Age
Those little drops of water collecting By the side must be tears from some yesteryears. Tears accumulated but withheld for another day. And now that day has come And the tears emerge slowly. I can see you shake your head Continue reading →
Todays Dracula
Todays Dracula does n’t suck Blood - haemoglobin or corpuscles he sucks energy from his victims Straight from the jugular the vein closest to the heart. Energy is in great demand Its what makes the world go around And separates Continue reading →
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Poems
Todays Dracula
The Price of Captivity
Sharekhan had been caught a few days ago. He loved being called ‘the king of the jungle’. There were not many large animals left in the forest although he had heard that when one of his ancestors had roared the Continue reading →
Ascent and Descent
The house was silent late in the night and she lay on her back, frail and tired in her room which had been made into a small hospital room for her. She looked up to see the fan rotating constantly Continue reading →
Brave Amrita Chipko movement and environment protection.
I am a jamun fruit tree and I live in a forest where the local tribals love nature! They used to call us trees their friends and they used to sing and dance around us. They were known as the Continue reading →