An Excuse to Bake Brownies

I said I'd share this chocolate brownie recipe in an earlier post, and here I am, finally doing it after making yet another batch of these brownies on demand. Apparently, I needed another excuse to bake them. 😂

I love these little moments where science quietly becomes cooking. Chemistry, physics, temperature, timing, texture... all working together to create something that tastes nothing like a science experiment and everything like comfort. That is one of the things I love most about baking. There is so much art in it, but there is also so much science hiding underneath.

Anyway, here is the Ultimate Chocolate Brownie recipe I promised. I hope you try it and love it as much as my family and I do. And to everyone celebrating, Merry Christmas! 🎄

As for me, I just needed an excuse to bake brownies. 😄

Showing Up

 

 

I turned 40 this year, and something about this new decade has made me think more deeply about the causes I want to stand beside. Last weekend, I showed up at the Pride walk in Pune organised by Yutak.

There are causes far bigger than any one person. This one happened to sit at the intersection of my profession and something I care deeply about. Creating workplaces where people are seen for their competence and contribution, rather than judged by gender, caste, religion, or any other identity has always been a part of our family's hiring foundation.

I showed up with our company's banner, alone. But I wasn't really alone.

I was carrying an intention for the kind of workplace I want us to create. A workplace where diversity is not a statement on a wall, but something reflected in who gets opportunities, who gets heard, and who gets to grow.

While reading about the history of Pride Month, I came across this fascinating timeline of major moments in LGBTQA+ history. Looking through it reminded me that today's freedoms have a history behind them. They came through people who spoke up, organised, resisted, marched, created communities, and kept going.

I stand in solidarity with the LGBTQIA+ community. And, at 40, this is one of the ways I want to show up by making the workplace I am part of a little more inclusive than the one I inherited. 

 

For anyone interested in exploring the history behind Pride, this timeline is a fascinating place to begin: Major Moments in LGBT History — Infographic Timeline

Pride is history. Pride is people. Pride is also the work we choose to do today.

The Cookie Recipe I Keep Coming Back To

 

I’ve been baking and cooking for as long as I can remember. And I have a serious sweet tooth. It seems to run in the family too, so perhaps I never really stood a chance! Then I came across this recipe for the Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies, and somehow, I haven't felt the need to look for another one since.

They literally and figuratively nailed it.

There is something deeply satisfying about finding a recipe that gets everything right. The texture, the flavor, the little details that make you want to bake it again. And yes, I have tried another “ultimate” Brownie recipe since then by them. I loved that one too, and I might share it here sometime.

But this one remains a favourite.

Also, a little observation from an Indian kitchen. The recipe talks about brown butter as though it has discovered some magical ingredient and has the top 5 smells in the culinary world, (it's a joke but...) We call it ghee. 😄 It sits on Indian kitchen shelves, appears on our dining tables, and has been part of our cooking traditions for generations.

And I completely agree with the recipe on one thing: That smell of browned butter is one of the best smells in the world. 😍 Now excuse me while I go bake another batch.

The Goats of Poznań

 

I had the lovely opportunity to explore the town of Poznań during my visit to Poland last month. After the usual return-from-work routine, followed by a little extended travel and the inevitable task of downloading hundreds of photographs, I found myself looking through my pictures from Poznań and thought I would share one of my favourite little discoveries.

Two mechanical goats. Every day at noon, two metal billy goats emerge from the clock tower of Poznań's Renaissance Town Hall and butt heads twelve times, accompanied by a bugle call. The tradition dates back to the 16th century.

And, of course, there is a wonderfully entertaining story behind them.

According to the local legend, in 1551, a great feast was being prepared to celebrate the installation of a new clock at the Town Hall. The kitchen was preparing an important roast for the distinguished guests when the meat slipped from the spit and was ruined in the fire.

A young kitchen boy, desperate to find a replacement, supposedly brought two white billy goats into the kitchen. The goats, understandably unimpressed with this plan, escaped. They ran all the way up towards the Town Hall tower, where the guests eventually spotted them butting heads on the cornice.

Instead of being angry about the ruined feast, everyone apparently found the sight so hilarious that the boy was forgiven. The story goes that the mechanical goats were later created to commemorate the amusing incident.

Now, here is the part I find particularly fascinating.

The legend is folklore. We don't have historical evidence that two escaped goats actually caused this particular commotion. But the clockwork goats themselves are very real, and their connection to the 1551 clock is documented. A surviving contract with clock maker Bartłomiej Wolff describes a rather wonderfully named “foolish contraption” involving two goats that would butt heads.

And that distinction somehow makes me love the story even more. A city took a piece of folklore and turned it into something people could still experience centuries later. Today, visitors gather in the Old Market Square, wait for noon, look up at the Town Hall and watch two little goats appear and clash horns twelve times. I know this to be true because I was one of them! 😇

A tiny piece of history. A little bit of machinery. A centuries-old legend. And a moment that still makes people laugh.

I love discovering things like this while traveling. You can walk into a city looking at buildings and monuments, and suddenly find yourself learning about the stories people have carried with them for generations. 

Poznań's goats are a lovely reminder that history doesn't always survive in serious monuments and dusty archives. Sometimes it survives as two silly little goats, still butting heads at noon. And I am very glad I got to see them. 🐐🐐

The Poznań Billy Goats legend and history

Chaddi Pehen Ke Phool Khila Hai!

 

I love Gulzar and Vishal Bhardwaj for the masterpieces they have given us in Bollywood. But “Chaddi Pehen Ke Phool Khila Hai” will always rank among my top five songs created by them! I loved this song as a little kid, as a teenager, as an adult, and now as a mother whose child enjoys it too. That, to me, is the mark of a truly immortal song.

I barely remember the episodes of The Jungle Book, Hindi series, and knowing my inclination towards watching things, I doubt I was particularly invested in following the series either. But this song? Oh, I stayed for this song!

Even today, whenever I hum it, my heart skips a beat as I sing that little line, “Chaddi pehen ke phool khila hai, phool khila hai!” before launching straight into the chorus. “Jungle jungle pata chala hai, chaddi pehen ke phool khila hai!”

Language is such a beautiful thing. The imagery here is delightful. A little bud is blooming into a flower, and the jungle is abuzz with the news. And then comes the cheeky wordplay. Mowgli, after all, is always running around in his little loincloth, or chaddi, as we would call it. The innocent image of a flower blooming gets a wonderfully mischievous twist.

What a brilliant way to play with language, rhythm, and a tune that refuses to leave your head! Moments like these remind me why art matters. It slips into our childhood, stays with us through the years, and somehow finds its way into the lives of our children, too.

Some songs entertain us. Others become a part of us. This one surely does both! 😍

भगवानदास माहौर (स्मृतिदिन १२ मार्च १९७९)

में विद्रोही हूँ उत्पीड़क सत्ता को ललकार रहा हूँ 

खूब समझता हूँ में खुद ही अपनी मौत पुकार रहा हूँ 

मेरे शोणितकी लालीसे कुछ तो लाल धरा होगी ही | 

मेरे वर्त्तनसे परिवर्तित कुछ तो परंपरा होगी ही || 

में जो उल्टे सीधे स्वरसे गाता रहता करुण कथाएँ | 

सुनकर अकुलाती ही होंगी, व्यथितोंकी चिरमूक व्यथाएँ || 

मेरे स्वरसे कुछ तो मुखरित जगती दुःखभरा होगी ही | 

मेरे शोणितकी लालीसे कुछ तो लाल धरा होगी ही || 

--x--

Game of Thrones

I can't help but quote my favourite dialogues from GoT! As a fan who's fallen in love with the books and TV series I am listing below my top 10 dialogues from this series! 

1. "Never forget what you are. The rest of the world will not. Wear it like armour, and it can never be used to hurt you." - Tyrion Lannister
2. "A lion doesn't concern himself with the opinions of the sheep." - Tywin Lannister
3. "It's easy to confuse 'what is' with 'what ought to be', especially when 'what is' has worked out in your favour." - Tyrion Lannister
4. "I think mothers and fathers made up the Gods because they wanted their children to sleep through the night." - Davos Seaworth
5. "A very small man can cast a very large shadow" - Tyrion Lannister
6. Bran thought about it, "can a man be brave if he is afraid?" "That is the only time a man can be brave!" - Ned Stark
7. "The more people you love, the weaker you are." - Cersei Lannister
8. "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who doesn't read lives only one." Jojen Reed
9. "Remember what father used to say? Everything before 'but' is horse shit." Jon Snow
10. "If we die, we die. But first we live." - Ygritte

संसार से भागे फिरते हो

A person who's known life beyond beliefs and faith is capable of  penning down such a brilliant song. Sahir Ludhianvi is without a doubt one of my favorite lyricist. My admiration and love for his writings grows with reading every thing he's ever written. Music director and Singer's combination of Roshan and Lata Mangeshkar was a hit for obvious reasons. This song is no exception to that golden pair. And last but not the least, Meena Kumari shows her caliber as an actress in a way that proves there's no one like her and there won't be anyone like her, in every sense of the term!

संसार से भागे फिरते हो 

भगवान को तुम क्या पाओगे 

इस लोग को भी अपना न सके 

उस लोग में भी पछताओगे 

संसार से भागे फिरते हो। 

ये पाप है क्या ये पून्य है क्या 

रीतों पर धरम की मोहरें हे 

हर युग में बदलते धरमों को  

कैसे आदर्श बनाओगे ?

संसार से भागे फिरते हो। 

ये भोग भी एक तपस्या है 

तुम त्याग के मारे क्या जानो 

अपमान रचेता का होगा 

रचना को अगर ठुकराओगे 

संसार से भागे फिरते हो। 

हम कहते है ये जग अपना है 

तुम कहते हो झूठा सपना है 

हम जनम बिता कर जायेंगे 

तुम जनम गवां कर जाओगे 

संसार से भागे फिरते हो 

भगवान को तुम क्या पाओगे

संसार से भागे फिरते हो। 

Beautiful lines I have read

These are selected few sentences I have loved in the context of their books as well as out of it. 

1. "After all, tomorrow is another day." - Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
2. "Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody." - The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger 
3. "In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you." - Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 
4. "In spite of everything, I still believe people are really good at heart." - The diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank
5. "Beauty is truth, truth beauty" - Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats
6. "I wondered if that was how forgiving budded; not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night" - The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
7. "It does not do well to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that." - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling
8. "I have never met a strong person with an easy past." - To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
9. "The question isn't who is going to let me, it's who is going to stop me." - The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
10. "Great men are not born great, they grow great". - The Godfather by Mario Puzo 

गुलजार

ऐ उम्र !

कुछ कहा मैँने,

पर शायद तूने सुना नहीं .. 

तू छीन सकती है बचपन मेरा,

पर बचपना नहीं!!

हर बात का कोई जवाब नही होता 

हर इश्क का नाम खराब नही होता। 

यु तो झूम लेते है नशेमें पीनेवाले 

मगर हर नशे का नाम शराब नही होता।

खामोश चहरे पर हजारों पहरे होते है 

हंसती आखों में भी जख्म गहरे होते है 

जिनसे अक्सर रूठ जाते है हम,

असल में उनसे ही रिश्ते गहरे होते है। 

किसी ने खुदासे दुआ मांगी 

दुआ में अपनी मौत मांगी,

खुदा ने कहा, मौत तो तुझे दे दू मगर,

उसे क्या कहु जिसने तेरी जिंदगी की दुआ मांगी .. 

हर इन्सान का दिल बुरा नहीं होता 

हर एक इन्सान बुरा नहीं होता 

बुझ जाते है दिये कभी तेल की कमी से ..  

हर बार कुसूर हवा का नहीं होता!!!

What you see is what you get

Although an experiment meant for photographers to emphasize their importance in photography (see the write up of this experiment here), it speaks equally about how our prejudices influence the way we see people. How our judgments corrupt our vision. And how, with just a change in paradigm we can alter what we see!

The model in these photo sessions came in the same clothes, met the photographers at the same location and greeted them in the same way! The only difference was the background of the model informed to the photographers which they were supposed to capture. The experiment was to suggest that the quality of photos depends more on who's behind the camera than who's in front of it! But in behavioral context it holds more than true, how our prejudices define the way we see things!