This reminds me of my School days! And it may rekindle your School memories!!

It is forty-six years since I finished School. Yet some memories of my School days and the then functions spring back into mind from time to time, especially when I am at a School seeing so many students, listening to their chatter, listening to speeches of teachers and guests, the School prayers, the sound of School band and watching cultural programs…Until some years ago these emotional experiences were at the School of my two sons, Srikanth and Srinath – St. Patrick's High School, and today it was at my granddaughter, Sudhiksha’s School – Gitanjali Devashray. Today’s event was Investiture Ceremony, Foundation Day and Proficiency Awards Presentation Day at Gitanjali Devashray School where my granddaughter was awarded All-round Proficiency Memento Shield for her outstanding performance during last academic year in her IV Class. I made a short video of this occasion for all of us and Sudhiksha to remember this happy event. This video also reminds me of my School days and I am sure it would rekindle your pleasant School memories too! I hope you will enjoy watching it!

Missing the annual rendezvous with Arudra Purugu!

Since childhood and till recently, after the first few rains after summer I always got a chance of coming across Arudra Purugulu that is Red Velvet Mites. They pop up from the soil around this time, with the onset of monsoon. During childhood I used to play a lot with them. I used to pick them up and put them in boxes with some soil and grass, enjoy watching their movements for some time and then let them go. I loved holding them on my palm and tenderly stroking their soft velvety bodies and feeling their crawling on my palm and hand. They appear just for few days after the initial rains and then vanish. But now they seem to have permanently vanished from our small garden and the areas around our house in Secunderabad. I hope they still do come out in large numbers in open and unpolluted lands outside our city.  Many years ago I used to see countless of them in the large front and backyard gardens of our house at Kothagudem and also all around the house. It is a beautiful memory that will live with me forever.

For those of you, who do not know about this awesome creation, please see the attached pictures and video intently. They are called Arudra Purugulu because they surface around an auspicious day called Arudra Karthi in Aashada Masam of Telugu Calendar and Purugulu means insects. These Arudra Purugulu / Red Velvet Mites / Rain Bugs, are very tiny as you can see in the above pictures, bright red in color with a body covered with velvety coating of red color hair which sometimes act as feelers, two tiny eyes and four pairs of legs. They are harmless to humans and that is why children are allowed to hold, play and snuggle-wuggle with these cuddly-wuddly tiny teddy bears!

A LOVELY VIDEO:

Nephew’s sojourn calls for lots of partying.

My nephew is here from New Zealand on a month long vacation. This has called for lots of celebrations especially with special foods at home and at restaurants. As of now, at home we had many traditional, Hyderabadi and other special foods including Chinese and Japanese. And then he is also being entertained by other family members, relatives and friends; sometimes along with us, at their houses or restaurants with sumptuous food. With few more days of his stay left this trend of entertainment is continuing.

The attached photographs are of one such party, a new experience for me, that of a Wish Grill! This is not new to my son and nephews in the pictures; they have experienced this here, in Bangalore and other cities abroad. This party I am talking about was at Absolute Barbecues, the first and only restaurant with a regular Wish Grill in Hyderabad. And I thoroughly enjoyed the Wish Grill experience which is very obvious from the attached photographs which are showing our table with a large number of red bowls from the Wish Grill. 

The concept of Live Grills at tables with Veg. and Non Veg. starters is quite old to our city, certainly over 10 years old, starting with 36-Chhattees BBQ restaurant at Jubilee Hills. We have been visiting all these popular Live Grill restaurants like 36 Chhattees at Jubilee Hills and at Paradise, The Great Kabab Factory, Barbeque Nation and Sigree Restaurant because we like Kababs and other grilled foods. Coming back to Absolute Barbecues restaurant where I have gone for the first time, the Live Grill here is the same as in other Live Grill restaurants, serving five non-veg. and five veg. starters on skewers to be finally cooked on the grill at your table, to your liking. The difference with this restaurant is the Wish Grill. After having the starters or mid way you can walk to the Wish Grill counter without a plate in your hand. Here you will find a spread of around 16 varieties of exotic assorted Veg. and Non Veg. dishes. There is Rabbit, Duck, Emu, Chicken and Quail meat and Fish, Prawns and mixed Seafood consisting of Fish, Baby Octopus and Squid and for vegetarians there are Olives, Zucchini, Baby Corn and Mushrooms. Adjacent to this spread is a sample display of seven BBQ sauces in glasses indicating their names. You will have to choose any number of Veg. and Non Veg. items and the sauce you would like to go with each of them and inform the Chef. He would pick up each of the main item mentioned by you and put it into a bowl, add vegetables and herbs to it and attach a colored clip to the bowl which indicates the sauce to be added to it and another clip with a token number and you are handed over a token with the same number as on the token clip. You go back to the table with these tokens and continue with your starters. In the meantime your Wish Grill items are being barbecued. The bearer would then come to your table and note your token numbers and get your Barbecued Wish Grill items to you. 

Then as at other Live Grill restaurants AB’s has a large and sumptuous main course-buffet spread and over ten Indian and International desserts and a live stone ice cream counter.

As a final word on this experience, I liked the Wish Grill and would love to experience it more often and certainly once again when my nephew visits us, hopefully in the near future. 

Reminiscing few more barbecue celebrations!: