MyMusingsSangSpeak - The Story of Lost Pictures/Photographs

The Story of Lost Pictures/Photographs

This topic of lost photographs has been in my mind for a long time now. It resurfaces time and again and was foremost in my mind when my daughter deleted some pictures of our Rajasthan trip mistakenly while transferring them from mobile to laptop. My husband had earlier connected a pen drive to the laptop without scanning and the infected pen drive had let in a virus which would not allow the lost pictures to be retrieved. My daughter lost her sleep for two days and she tried her level best to recover the lost pictures. It actually reminded me of my predicament about 6 years ago when I had lost pictures mistakenly by deleting without giving a second thought. These pictures were of our Andamans trip as well as my nature pictures.

The second recent most instance of losing photographs happened when I kept using my old laptop which had the outdated Windows XP and I kept using it despite warnings from my daughter. Luckily, we could recover some few of the snaps with the help of a computer expert who loaded the new operating system to recover data.

 Photographs document our lives and we all really love and enjoy seeing them over again to relive the memories. This activity transports us to a happy zone to recall all the fun and memorable times we had. Photographs are indeed precious treasures and we take great efforts to preserve them in forms of negatives, prints and albums and in today’s digital age, of course, in digital formats.

It is quite disastrous to lose this precious treasure. The loss of photographs can be attributed to many factors like poor upkeep, maintenance, weathering and so on. In today’s digital age, you lose data due to so many reasons and so the photographs and pictures get lost in the process. I lost mine due to a silly mistake like deleting without thinking twice as I have mentioned above. It literally put me into depression. I took quite some time to come out of it. I pacified myself by thinking that people lose near and dear ones, so what are photographs, memories are actually etched in our hearts. Pictures are just extensions of those memories.

The precautions that you can take to preserve your digital images is to always take a backup. If you have not taken a backup, then recovery software might help you to recover your lost pictures. Recovery software is freely available on trial basis and if you wish to extend the services, it comes with a charge. Be careful while transferring. Always give a second thought before deleting data. Backup is a must to preserve digital pictures. I have learnt my lesson after losing my precious pictures. Hope my experience helps you all folks too. Happy clicking and preserving.

MyMusingsSangSpeak - Password Life

PassWord Life

123XYZ#*&()<>

Life has become Password Set

Password for my Account

Password for Everything Online

Sharpens my Memory or…………...

Does that blunt it

Set a PassWord

Hope You Kept a Strong One, Ha ha ha

Forgot Your PassWord?

Make varied Combinations of Numbers and Alphabets

Ahhhh the AlphaNumerics combined with symbols too

To dodge the Hacker Gang

Coding and Decoding
"PassWord Protected" is the New Age Armour of Today's Digital Age

The Mind keeps a note of this Password and that Password

Password for Bank

Password for Email

Password for Social Media

Password for This and Password for That

In the meantime, the Password for Life gets Lost

While paying the Cost

Of leading a life in PassWord Exhaust

By
Sangita

MyMusingsSangSpeak- Pet Puja - Prawn Kadhi

Prawn Kadhi

Prawn Kadhi is an ultimate sea food recipe, so full of flavour and taste. I had tasted this at my friend’s place and it was a signature dish of her family. The friendship did not last but the taste and recipe remain with me along with the bittersweet memories. This recipe works well with any sea fish too as with the prawns, especially Surmai and Pomfret. This curry is known as kadhi because of the delicate flavouring of curry leaves and cumin seeds.

Ingredients

Prawns (cleaned and deveined) – ½ kg

Fresh grated coconut – 1½ cup

Dry coconut – ½ cup

Khuskhus (Poppy Seeds) – 2 tablespoons

Coriander sprigs – 5-6

Green Chillies – 2 nos

Garlic – 10-12 cloves

Cumin seeds – 1½ teaspoons

Curry leaves – 3 sprigs

Turmeric – 1 teaspoon

Red Chilly Powder – ½ teaspoon

Tamarind Pulp – 2 tablespoons

Oil – 3- 4 tablespoons

Salt – As per taste

Water – Approximately 1 litre

Method

Extract coconut milk from the fresh grated coconut and set aside for further use. Grind together dry coconut, poppy seeds, fresh coriander, garlic, green chillies, some few curry leaves and 1 teaspoon of cumin to a fine paste, add some water if required. Heat oil in a pan and temper with remaining cumin seeds and curry leaves. Add the ground paste and roast for about 5-6 minutes. Add turmeric and chilly powders along with salt and mix well. Add tamarind pulp and mix well. Add about half litre of water and bring to a boil while stirring. Add prawns and allow to cook for about 7-8 mins. Finally, add the extracted coconut milk and keep stirring continuously so that it does not curdle. Remove from fire and serve hot with rice.

Note – You may use a teaspoon of rice powder with coconut milk so as to not let it curdle after adding to the kadhi. Preparation time is about 1 and half hour and this curry quantity is sufficient for 4 persons.

MyMusingsSangSpeak- Pet Puja - Laal Tikhatche Paatal Pithale/Pithala

Laal Tikhatache Paatal Pithale

This is a lip-smacking Maharashtrian recipe, very basic and rustic. It forms a part of the staple diet of an average agrarian Maharashtrian household. My family just loves this dish and it is really a soul satisfying one. As it is easy to prepare and requires minimum ingredients and tastes so delicious, it is famous amongst all Non Maharshtrians too. Laal Tikhatache Paatal Pithale tastes good with almost anything and serves as a perfect accompaniment with Jowar (Sorghum) Roti and rice.

Ingredients

Besan (Gram Flour) – 2 cups

Onion – 1 large

Garlic – 14-16 cloves

Red Chilly Powder – 1 teaspoon

Oil – 3-4 tablespoons

Mustard seeds – 1 teaspoon

Asafoetida – 1 pinch

Salt – As per taste

Water – Approximately 1 litre

Chopped coriander leaves (optional) – 2 tablespoons

Method

Heat oil in a Kadahi and add asafoetida and mustard seeds, allow mustard seeds to splutter and then, add chopped onion. Fry for about 4-5 mins till it turns light brown, then add crushed garlic and give a good stir. Add red chilly powder and salt and stir for few moments and add water. Bring the water to boil and add gram flour, little quantity at a time and keep stirring continuously. Once all gram flour is added, stir well and cover and allow to cook for about ten minutes on medium flame. Stir occasionally, once you see oil separating, remove from fire. Add coriander leaves and serve hot topped with ghee accompanied by jowar roti and rice.

Note – Preparation and cooking time is about half hour to 40 minutes. This quantity is sufficient for 4 persons.

MyMusingsSangSpeak- Pet Puja - Paatal Pithale/Pithala

Paatal Pithale/Pithala

Pithala is the most famous Maharshtrian recipe, a lip-smacking delight and it comes in many avataars like paatal (liquid/semi liquid) or semi soft or firm consistencies and can be made in varied ways using various vegetables, constant ingredient being besan that is gram flour. Pithala is also known as Jhunka in Marathi. One can use either green chillies or red chilly powder as per one’s preference. It tastes best with jowar roti or rice. Here, I am giving you the recipe of paatal pithala using green chillies. Hope you all enjoy it.

There are many versions of this recipe in other Indian states too. It is a quick to make dish and generally all these ingredients used are readily available in the kitchen. When you are short of vegetables at home, this is a quick fix recipe. The average Maharashtrian farmer's daily diet used to be Pithala Bhakri.

Ingredients

Besan (Gram Flour) – 1 cup

Onion – 1 large

Garlic – 10-12 cloves

Green Chillies – 2-3 nos

Dry coconut grated – 1 tablespoon

Turmeric powder – ½ teaspoon

Cumin – ½ teaspoon

Mustard Seeds – 1 teaspoon

Oil – 2-3 tablespoons

Water – 750 ml approximately

Salt – As per taste

Chopped coriander leaves (optional) – 2 tablespoons

Method

Chop the onion, coarsely crush together chillies, garlic and dry grated coconut. Heat oil in a karahi and splutter cumin and mustard. Add chopped onion and fry for about 3-4 minutes. Add coarsely ground chiily, garlic and coconut. Add turmeric powder and water. Add salt and bring to a boil. Once the water has boiled, lower the fame and add besan, little by little and keep stirring so that it forms a smooth paste. Stir well and cook by covering with a lid for about 7-8 minutes. Remove from fire and add coriander leaves. Serve hot with a dollop of ghee along with jowar roti and hot steaming rice.

Note – Some people make a solution of besan and water and then add it to the fried mixture to get extra smooth consistency. You can follow that method too.

MyMusingsSangSpeak- Pet Puja - Kardaichi Bhaji (Safflower Vegetable)

Kardaichi Bhaji (Safflower Vegetable)

Kardai (Safflower) vegetable is a popular green leafy vegetable consumed in Maharashtra. It is a highly nutritious vegetable containing many minerals and vitamins. Kardai oil is also a healthy option of oil. The vegetable can be prepared in many ways, simply by tempering garlic and green chillies or by adding onion and various daals (pulses). It tastes good as accompaniment with almost anything like wheat or jowar roti.

Ingredients

Kardai (Safflower) – 1 bunch

Onion – 1 medium

Garlic – 10-12 cloves

Green chillies – 2

Chana Daal (Split Chickpeas) – 2 tablespoons

Oil – 2 tablespoons approximately

Salt – As per taste

Water – As per requirement

Method

Soak chana daal in water for about an hour. Clean the vegetable by separating the leaves and you may take the tender stems. Wash well and chop into approximately 1” long pieces. Chop onions and crush garlic and green chillies. Heat oil in a kadahi, add chopped onion and fry for 2-3 minutes, then add crushed ginger and green chillies and fry for further 2 minutes. Add the chopped vegetable, soaked chana daal, salt, water, stir well and cover with a lid and allow to cook for about 10 minutes on low flame. Afterwards, give a good stir, check if the daal has softened and cooked well. Remove from fire and serve.

Note - You may use daal of your choice, it could be moong, masoor or tur (arhar).

MyMusingsSangSpeak - Remember Always

 Remember Always

As this year ends, the year that marks the centenary of WW1, I feel indebted to so many people and wish to express my heartfelt gratitude for the same. This is true story account spanning across a century and some few more years, a story of the valiant and brave. The story that leaves me wondering what mettle were these people made of. It is a story of the glorious military traditions that run in the family.

The time was the last few years of the eighteenth century when our country was under the British rule. Times of foreign rule, suppression, political instability, the princely states crumbling and unrest. The world was also in chaos with ongoing conquests, fights and wars.

In our state of Maharashtra, the young Maratha boys with warrior, agrarian background were highly focused and committed individuals and if need be, would give up their lives for their homeland. They were completely motivated by the ideologies of Chhatrapati Shri Shivaji Maharaj. My great grandfathers (my mother’s both grandfathers, paternal as well as maternal) belonged to these times. They came from different villages of Maharashtra, Shri Bajirao More from Nimsakhar and Shri Narayan Barge from Chinchner.  

They were in their teens when the first world war broke out and they joined the British army. They crossed the shores of our motherland into unknown lands and territories and fought fearlessly. They faced so many adversities in terms of climate, widespread diseases and much more.  Both Bajirao and Narayan met during the war and became the greatest of friends as they shared and exchanged all the common things like same ideals, similar family backgrounds, families and parents left behind, friends lost in the battle, despair, dismay, heartbreaks, heartaches, grief, sorrow and happiness, all of it. As the war came to an end, they decided to strengthen their bond further by promising to get their children married once they returned to their motherland safe and sound.

War spells doom, destruction, despair but simultaneously gives hope for a better tomorrow of greater peace and understanding. As promised, both my great grandfathers kept their words and got their children married, Bajirao’s daughter Mathura got married to Shivram, Narayan’s son. Shivram was a youngster, all of 17 and Mathura was aged about 12 or so. Shivram joined the army just after marriage and was much motivated and enthusiastic about the family army tradition.

Shivram was inducted in the artillery and was posted to many border areas and began his marital life with his wife staying at his native place. My eldest aunt was born in 1938 and was followed by birth of a son who died. Hereafter, my grandfather came on leave and my grandmother conceived my mother, and after this vacation, my grandfather left the Indian shores for WW2, only to return after 4 years in 1945 to see his second daughter i.e. my mother who was about 3 and half years old.

He used to tell us hair raising tales of the war, how he lost so many of his dear friends, how death eluded him just by hair’s breadth, how the bullet shell got lodged in his shoulder (it was left in his shoulder forever since then till his death) and much more. How the Polish women fell at their feet to beg them to be taken away to India to escape the war atrocities.

He came to India in 1945 and was posted to Peshawar. He took his family along with and the partition in 1947 forced them to evacuate immediately to Delhi, India. My aunt was 9 and my mother was about 5 years of age and they starkly remember the overcrowded trains with people travelling on train tops too, all the looting and arson as seen through the child’s eyes. My grandfather sat with a loaded gun and had told my grandmother that in case the train was looted, he would be killing all three of them, i.e. my grandmother, my aunt and my mother, before he would go in for fight. Those were some trying times.

With Almighty’s blessings, the family reached safely to Delhi. My grandfather was promoted to officer cadre and did his course at Mhow. Later, my two younger uncles and aunt were born. As my grandfather was transferred to various faraway places, my uncle and aunt were admitted to school hostels for uninterrupted education. Both my uncles joined the army as per the family traditions. My grandfather was recalled in 1962 after retirement.

The army traditions continued in my mother’s family with my brother joining the army and me getting married to an army officer. We became the fourth generation. My daughter was lucky to have played in the laps of her great grandparents and the glorious tradition continues with my daughter being married to an army officer. The fifth generation as I know of and my mother was every bit proud of it.

We have seen all these family men in action and come home successfully to their families wherein the ladies have held the fort ably in their absence. In earlier times, the communication was so scarce, only via post, then came in telephones and now of course the mobile age at lightning speed. I still remember as a 5-year-old, when my Uncle was away in 1971, the way my grandmother waited for all news on the radio.

We are the lucky and fortunate ones to have experienced all these tough times and feel really grateful for our glorious family traditions.

Havaldar Narayanrao and Laxmibai Barge

Subhedar Bajiroa More

Major Shivram Narayan Barge