Let's Join hands to fight against plagiarism - Chain Post

I know I'm very late to write about this but it's better late than never! Kumudam Snegiti published my Beetroot Halwa recipe with picture in one of their July-2011 issues, under someone else's name (K.Revathi, Theni). Initially, I was angry with this particular person alone for copying my content without my permission but after seeing Sowje's post in September-2011, I understood that the magazine itself is responsible for all this. I mailed them many times and even left comment in every page of their online magazine. But they didn't care to respond. 

Few months back, Sowje and I talked about this but we didn't do much by then. Yesterday, when  Kurinchi  posted about the same issue, we decided to make blog posts. Friends, only if we all join hands together we can fight against plagiarism. So Friends, Please do write a post in your blog if you were affected by any magazine and please give link to this post. Let it go in chain, so that everyone will be aware of this.

Please check my original post here. See the below picture & recipe that was published in Kumudam Snegiti.

UPDATE :
Yesterday, I bought this month's issue (Jan, 16-31-2012). I could spot many of our blogger friends recipe pictures and recipes in that. I don't know how a reputed magazine is repeatedly involved in this type of act! 

I'm Tagged:-)

Gayathri, Shobha and Shanavi tagged me with two sets of questions yesterday. I enjoyed answering all the questions. Thank you so much for tagging me:-) The questions were really framed in an intelligent way..kudos to the people who made these two sets of questions.

Shobha and Shanavi's Questions :

1. Are you a vegetarian, or have you thought about being one?

Yes, I'm a vegetarian..

2. Who inspired you to cook or bake?

My mom:-)

3. How do you celebrate Christmas?...or a favorite holiday of your choice?

We all would get-together either at our place or at any of our relatives place.

4. Do you prefer to celebrate New Year's Eve with friends and/or family, or prefer to ring in the New Year quietly, and privately, at home?

I always love to celebrate New year with my family alone. Normally, I make one or two sweet dishes, we do prayers on New year day.

5. If someone were to ask you to bring dessert to a party, what would you bring? Store bought, or homemade, and if you were to make homemade, what would you make?

I love preparing at home. But, it again depends on the number of people. If I were to prepare something, I will go with a dish that doesn't take much of my time but at the same time, I won't compromise in taste. I hate to attend any party with a tired look!!

6. How will you celebrate your next birthday?

:-) never celebrated any of my birthdays...but, it is an usual practice at home to go out for lunch or dinner on our birthdays.

7. Do you have a New Year's resolution-and will you be sticking to it?

Never take any..because I know, I'm a poor at sticking to resolution!!

Gayathri's Questions :

1. What is your take on organic food , is it a big deal for you ?

Have not much thought about it. But, used to buy organic milk and carrots atleast once in a while. The huge price difference matters here:-)

2. Do you time your breakfast,lunch & dinner or eat when you are hungry ?

Yes, always try to have food on time:-)

3. What inspired you to write a food blog ?

Starting a blog was unplanned one. I wanted a place to store up my recipes and that thought made me to start a blog.

4. You try a new recipe and it does not turn out good,what will you do ?

Most of the times, I try to give it an another form and try to make it edible. You can read the two funny stories related to this question here

5. Name three ingredients you consciously avoid or eliminate even when the recipe calls for it ?

Tofu, eggs and mushroom.

6. Name three things you have to use in most recipes ?

Oil, mustard and onion.

7. How important is eating meals together as a family to you?

We all enjoy eating together. I always feel, dining table is the only place where we can bring all the family members together.

8. You do not like a particular dish at your favorite restaurant, what will you do?

I would write in their guest book to check the quality of the dish!

Now, it is time to pass on these questions to few of my friends...Girls, you can answer any set of questions or you can pick any question from both the set and can form your own set of questions. The choice is up to you...but, don't forget to pass the chain to your friends..keep it going..

1. Mahi

2. Jyoti

3. Priya(Elachii)

4. Priya Mahadevan

5. Preethi Sriram

6. Latha

7. Gayu

Show Me Your Refrigerator

This goes to Divya's "Show Me Your Refrigerator" event.

Pictures from our Niagara trip and Update about Event Round Up

As this was a long weekend here, we took a trip to Niagara and Thousand Islands with our cousins. We enjoyed a lot and had a very great time. Enjoy the picture...

My event "Best Out of Waste" ended yesterday. I've acknowledged all the entries I have received so far. Thanks to you all for sending those lovely and innovative entries. I have not yet counted the number of entries. I'l come up with the round up and the winner announcement sometime next week. Thanks for your support:-)

Second Entry for Forgotten Indian Games - Nivedita's Event

This is my another entry for "Forgotten Indian Games" event. I'm happy that I could post this atleast at the last minute. Today, I'm going to share about the two games we played in our school days. One is "Action, Freeze and Ease" and another game is "Passing the Secret". But I don't have any pictures to share. Just giving the procedure alone.

"Action, Freeze, Ease" game is the one which we used to play during our lunch break.This game can be played by many people. You don't need any specialized things to play this game. The first thing you have to do is, someone should start the game by giving some theme to the group of people for acting. That can be anything right from the market theme to college theme. The participating people would discuss among themself and when the person who conducts the game says "Action", others should start to act. When the person conducting the game says "Freeze", all the people who are all acting should stop in whatever position they are. They should not move from their position until the person who conducts the game says "Ease" and if someone moves or relaxes himself before he says then he/she has to conduct the next round.This can be played any number of times.

"Passing the Secret" can be played by any number of players. Players are supposed to sit in a circle and the person who starts the game would whisper some sentences in to the ears of the person sitting next to him. That person has to pass on the same sentences to the next person. Finally, when the secret comes to person who started the game, he would say aloud whether the same sentences reached his ears or not. This is just a fun game and no winner or loser. This can be played any number of times.

This entry goes to Nivedita's Forgotten Indian Games event

You can read my another entry to this event here.

Ten Women I Like Most - Chain Post

Menaga of Sashiga invited me for this chain post a few weeks before. Guess, this was started on the International Women's Day. This is the very first time, I'm coming across this type of chain post and I really found this interesting. Thanks to Menaga for passing on this chain post. This comes with few rules,

1. You should talk about ten women, you like most.

2. They should not be your relative.

3. You don't have to prioritize them.

4. All the ten people you select should represent different walk of life.

5. You should also say, why you like them.

6. You should pass this chain to few of your friends.

1. Sundari - Teacher:

A best person, who I could never forget in my life is my kindergarten teacher Sundari. A wonderful teacher one could find. Now, I lost her contacts but I believe I would get to meet her sometime soon.

2. NithyaSree - Singer:

NithyaSree Mahadevan is a Carnatic and playback singer for film songs. Her Grandma was another famous carnatic vocalist D.K.Pattamal. She is very much known for her song"Kannodu Kanbethellam" song. I like her for the song "Annaiyin Athma", in which she refers to flowers and their nature.

3. Ramanichandran - Writer:

Ramani Chandran is a tamil novelist, whose books are the best selling one among girls. What I adore about her writing is, all her stories would have happy ending. I can't say her writing is the best but I love her writings. She has written more than 120 novels so far and I'v many of them with me.

4. Sudha Murthy - Social Worker:

Sudha Murthy is a great social worker. She is doing good services through the infosys foundation. Apart from this, she is a writer. 

5. Padmini - Actress :

Padmini, a beautiful woman, great actress and wonderful dancer. The one of her best movies is "Thillana Mohanambal", in which she proved her dancing talent too. 

6.Mallika Badrinath - An expert in cooking:

As my blog focuses on cookery, I thought I should definetly talk about a person who is expert in cookery. Mallika Badrinath is very famous in South India. She has written lot of cookery books. I've few books of her. You can get her books in Tamil, English, Telegu and Kannada. She is doing cookery shows in one of the Television Channels.

7. Jayanthi Natarajan - Politician:

She is the spokes person for congress party and veteran leader who played a pivotal role in securing reservation for women by preparing draft bill to be passed in Indian Parliment. 

8. Sania Mirza - Tennis Player :

She is such a wonderful player and I love her for her charming look too..

9. Bharathi Baskar - Tamil Speaker :

She is a popular Tamil orator. I love her for the pronunciation of each word and the way she delivers her speech.

10. Sudha Chandran - Dancer :

I like her for her courage to dance even after her leg was amputated. She overcame her disability with Jaipur leg. 

First Entry for Forgotten Indian Games - Nivedita's Event

Actually, I planned to post another dish with fruits today but my sister and one of my best friends got angry when I told them the dishes I have in my draft to be posted for my event Think Beyond the Usual with Fruits. Because they have planned to send those dishes. They said they would be sending them shortly. Hope both find sometime to send their recipes in their busy schedule.

So, I decided to post something well away from cooking today. I was very happy when I read Nivedita's Forgotten Indian Games event announcement. It took sometime to come out of my good old childhood memories. I know most of us here would have played almost all the games she mentioned in her post. I loved the way she tried to explain few games. If she didn't have done that I wouldn't have understood what "Chigali" is..

We lived in an University quarters where the houses are in rows with every two houses share a common left sided compound wall. I had lot of friends and whatever we do we used to be together. One of my friends taught me the preparation of the spiced tamarind (Guess, this is what Nivedita's Chigali is!!) Mom was very concerned about our health and so, she never encouraged us eating this spiced tamarind often. When the queen of the kitchen is totally against this lovely preparation, how could we prepare and relish? The way we found was,"stealing" ;-) The moment, my mom leaves the kitchen, in a fraction of second I would collect (steal!!) everything (tamarind, red chilly powder, salt and sugar) from the kitchen. My friend would be waiting for me near Ammi (Flat grinding stone/Metate) in our backyard. My job gets over with handing over the stolen things to her.Then, she would mix all the ingredients together and would press it using the round rolling stone(Kuzhavi). At times, my sister would also join us. We call this delicious preparation as "Puli kotti "(புளி கொட்டி). I don't know why we called it with that name! Few months back, I get to eat one Mexican Candy "Pulparindo". That tasted similar to our those days preparation with tamarind.

During summer holidays, my cousins would also join our gang. Our favourite games were Raja, Rani, Thirudan & Police; kola kola ya mundrika; oru kudam thanni oothi.. We used to play all these games in the open place in front of our house. The game Raja, Rani, Thirudan & Police is actually a guess game which needs four players. We have to write down Raja, Rani, Thirudan and Police in four bits of paper and then fold the papers in similar shape and size. Now, the folded bits are thrown to the floor and each player should pick up one. You should not reveal what you have in your folded paper to other players. Only, the person with police written on his bit would shout out saying that he is the police, who is supposed to find the thief. If he guess the thief correctly, he would get points otherwise his point would go to the thief. The points are calculated as Raja 10, Rani 5, Police 1 and Thief 0. This can be played any number of times and finally, when the game is over the points are added and who gets the highest point would be the winner.

We played Bus game when we go to my mom's native place. My mom's cousin's kids would also join us. In one of the houses, we had swing. We all used to stand in four corners. (Guess, most of you would remember that old model swing made out of wood.) We imagine that to be a bus. One of us would be a conductor and he would issue the ticket (Just waste paper bits!!!). Someone would push the swing and that person is supposed to be the driver. Others would be the passengers. We played same game with doors moving front and back. My dad too said, they played similar game.

Another one interesting game is "Pallankuzhi". For this, we need two players. This is yet another indoor game like Raja, Rani, Thirudan and Police. Almost all the houses would have this wooden board. For info on this game, go here. You can get ordinary looking board to minutely worked wooden boards. I think both my aunts have very minutely worked very very cute pallankuzhi with them.

This post is really getting too long and better, I stop here. I don't have any pictures to share with you all related to this post.Hope my fellow blogger friends would come up with lot of other interesting games.