Eggless Pineapple Souffle - Jaya Ammayi style

Ingredients
One pineapple - medium size
Milk - 600 ml plus 1 cup
Gelatin - 3 level teaspoons
Condensed Milk - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 cup

For topping
Marie Biscuits - 6
Cashew nuts unsalted and caramalised - 10

Skin the pineapple and coarsely grate it. Stew with 2 tablespoons of sugar. Remove from heat after all the water has evaporated. Keep aside to cool.

Melt gelatin in a teaspoonful of milk first till completely dissolved. Now add rest of 1 cup of warm milk.


Boil 600 ml milk with 1 cup sugar. Boil for 5 mins till it is slightly thick. Now add the gelatin mixed milk and 1 cup of condensed milk and mix thoroughly on fire. Remove from fire and keep aside to cool. When cooled to room temperature add the stewed pineapple and refrigerate.

For the garnishing

Lightly fry cashews in ghee till golden brown and coarsely grind along with marie biscuits and use as garnish before serving

What makes a compelling character in a book or movie?

Hyperink.com Question of the Month
I like characters that are multidimensional and multifaceted in both books and movies. For instance, my son and I have read every book in the Harry Potter series many times and we still come up with new facets of the characters that we never noticed before.
Compelling characters are those that are neither black nor white but crafted in shades of grey. For instance, was Snape good or bad? In the first few books, we tended to hate Snape with a passion. Harry was more or less the victim and Snape seemed vicious and unreasonable. But as the entire story evolved, Snape seemed more a victim than a persecutor and my sympathies slowly were for Snape. Even then I don't think I switched completely from Harry to Snape. Harry remained my favourite but I did not dislike Snape quite so much. Rather I disliked him but could find it in me to forgive him for the vicious attacks on Harry. When he killed Dumbledore and walked out, I quite detested him but in the last book, it was obvious that he was actually saving Dumbledore from humiliation and pain.
The see-saw of emotions that this revelation of Snape's or any other character in a book or a movie is what makes the character interesting. After all, in real life too nobody's character is good or bad. They are a mixture of reactions to circumstances and intrinsic nature.

Coping with grief

My sister lost her only 22-year-old son just over a month ago. A child who was vivacious, full of life, witty, humerous, the apple of everybody's eye and the focal point of my sister's life.

And the family is left struggling with the grief. My sister does not want to live life any more without him and daily chores are an effort for her to go through. Her husband is trying to drown himself in work to escape the grief. My other sister, who was his foster mother and best friend of sorts, is grappling with her grief silently.

But I saw a remarkable phenomenon in the circle of friends that my nephew and my son were part of. They closed in on my son and provided whatever emotional strength he needed to cope with the loss of a cousin who is just two months older than him and who has been his buddy throughout life. The same group also threw a ring of comfort round my sister and her husband in their trauma. A visit now, a meal demand then. The integration was complete. The message clearly is, you have lost a son, but gained a bunch of kids as your companions.

The struggle to cope with the loss of a child is beyond anybody's comprehension. However, anyone else who has gone through such situations may have a word of succor. Sincerely look forward to how you came to terms with your loss.

Some more about special education

I have been writing about a child with special needs whom the formal education system in the form of public schools in Delhi have been giving a difficult time, for some time.

But there is hope yet, and it comes from an unlikely source. The child was finally removed to a government school which is usually looked down upon. The teacher now only pushed the child to perform better but actually restored his faith in himself and he has actually performed reasonably well in class and been sent up to the next class. So much for our public school/private school divide.

Technology to the rescue you said?

Travelling by rail, last week, I decided to check on my cellphone, the confirmation of the railway ticket for the return journey. And got this reply:

H1 http status 404/witness/witness size=1 no shade=no shade some more squiggles followed. Status report witness/witness more squiggles
requested source not available apache tomcat end.

Left me wondering whether I had mistakenly sent this message to a departmental store.

However, the last part of the message seemed to indicate that I had sent a message to the US airforce.

Certainly did not help me with my rail reservation status.

My old trustworthy telephone told me - sabhi line vyasth hain. kuch der baad dial kijiye. (All lines to this route are busy. Please dial after some time.)

Technology as a solution provider, you said?

My daily dose of nature's tweets

When we moved from crowded Delhi to suburban Gurgaon, we were looking forward to some peace and quiet. The new house was everything we longed for. But quiet, it certainly was not. Our balconies were host to a huge variety of birds of all shapes, sizes and colours. We have photographed at least 20 unique birds. The 12 parrots in the crack in the building next to us have been the subject of numerous videos and photographs. Our crowning glory was when a peacock flew into our balcony on the second floor and called loudly on my son's ninth birthday.

Today the city is being rapidly urbanised. But I am hoping to capture on film the joys of nature's bounty which has been ours to enjoy for the last six years.

Disabled towards disorders

In my first post I mentioned the child who has an attention deficit syndrome. I meet his mother everyday and share her pain at the insensitivity displayed by schools and indeed the entire system.

The child was thrown out of a school after he was diagnosed with a disorder. The second school, a progressive public school in Dwarka, confined him with mentally retarded children.

But nobody remembered that thsi child also has some exceptional qualities - he is exceedingly good at sport and art. He was to have represented his school in socer at Bangkok and has designed the posters for the Times Internet Ltd treasure hunt.

What can be done to make our system more sensitive?