Mazoid is in the Android Market...

My first Android Application, Mazoid, is in the Android market now.

• The aim of the game is to roll the Orange bead from its Green home all the way to its Red home
• Uses the orientation sensor to roll the bead; tilt the phone up, down, left, or right to roll the bead
• The more the phone is tilted, the faster the bead moves
• When a level completes, it tells the total time taken to solve the level, and gives an option to go to the Next Level or Quit the game
• Infinite number of possible mazes -- no two mazes are alike ever
• Has 16 levels -- higher the level, denser the maze

Get amazed with new mazes every time you play!

Berkely in Buckley

Last weekend Praji and Parjai invited us to their home for chat dinner. Our families had great time together. My son and their son enjoyed playing Star Wars game with toy Light Sabers. Later they played Mario Galaxy and Bowling on Wii. I played Tennis on Wii with Praji.

However, the real treats were the mouth watering chats, Parjai had prepared. I have heard of many famous chat places in Berkeley, but why go to Berkeley when Parjai's preparations are as good and you get them here at Buckley St. in Santa Clara? We had many rounds of gup chup, variously known as pani poori, pani ke batashe, gol gappa or puchka. The spicy water served with gup chups was a treat for the taste buds. It reminded me of chat places in New Delhi (Haldiram anyone?). My son and my wife who love gup chups savored plenty of them.

She followed this up with a special chat, a kind of aloo tikki. Her ingenuity was to use hash browns to make the tikkis. The hash browns were lightly heated on a pan with some cooking oil. Each plate had hash browns as the first layer. This was covered with another layer of yellow matar chole. Garnished with sprouted moong, green grams, spices, yogurt and a special chatni. Everyone relished the aloo tikkis. And there was no stopping overindulgence. The pait pooja ( पेट पूजा), as I love to call this, was incredible.

Thank you Parjai. Looking forward to the Dal Bati you have promised next...

Holi and the Indian desert Pua

In Eastern India, people prepare a special Indian desert called Pua on the occasion of Holi. My mom makes excellent Puas and I learned to make it from her a few years ago. My Puas are not as tasty as the ones she cooks, nevertheless they are still mouthwatering. My wife who learned to cook this from me has become an expert herself and an admirer of this desert. Here is the recipe for this irresistible dish from Eastern India.

Ingredients -- Sugar Syrup

1. 300 gm of sugar
2. 240 ml of water
3. Saffron strands
   

Ingredients -- Pua

1. One and a half cup of all purpose cooking flour (maida in Hindi)
2. Half cup of grated dry coconut (gola in Hindi)
   
3. Two tbsp raisins
4. One tbsp of fennel seeds (saunf in Hindi)
5. Two cardamom seeds crushed.
6. One and half cup of milk
7. One overly ripe banana
   
8. Oil for deep frying
   

Method -- Sugar Syrup

1. Boil water and sugar together in medium heat for 10 mins
2. Add saffron strands and turn off the heat

Method -- Pua

1. Peel the banana and mash it in a bowl
2. Mix all the contents (except the oil) with the mashed banana thoroughly, until it forms a uniform thickness batter
   
3. Heat the oil in a deep pan
4. Fill a serving spoon with the batter and gently pour it making a round shape in the heated oil
   
5. When the pua turns light brown, flip it with a spatula and cook both the sides till they are reddish brown
6. Now drop the cooked pua in the warm sugar syrup for about two mins
7. Repeat the steps 4 to 6 for the remaining batter

Puas are ready to eat. Garnish with shredded almonds and pistachio and serve with rabbri for added pleasure.

Shashwat's Veterans Day Composition

Here is what my 8 year old son wrote for Veterans Day Assembly at school.

Veterans are people in the United States Armed Forces, who risk their lives to protect their country's freedom. They give their best to protect what they love. Veterans Day is an annual American holiday, where we honour such individuals who serve our country. Veterans Day is also known as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day in other parts of the world.Veterans Day was originally set as a legal holiday to honour the end of World War I. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Armistice Day on November 11, 1919. This day is dedicated to the veterans who served in World War I. When President Dwight Eisenhower came to power in 1954, he decided that Armistice Day should be changed to honour all the veterans who fought and served their country and not just the people who served in World War I. The Congress later amended the rule that Armistice Day should instead be called as Veterans Day.

Veterans Day is important because it teaches us about the sacrifice and dedication of our veterans. It reminds us of those patriots who loved their country and fought for its freedom. They were ready to give up their lives to bring peace to the world. On this day we honour their contributions to our nation. We should honor the veterans to show our respect, love, and regards towards them. We can send the veterans thank-you postcards. We can ask them how it is like to serve the nation and learn from their experiences. We can make donation to U.S. Armed Forces to help them. We also celebrate Veterans Day with speeches and placing flowers on the military graves. The US President places a wreath on the tomb of the unknown soldiers. A moment of silence is observed. We are grateful that our veterans brought independence to our country and peace to the world. I am proud that I live in a country with freedom and safety due to our veterans. I thank the veterans from the bottom of my heart.

We also had assembly in our school on the Veterans Day. We started the assembly with the Pledge of Allegiance. We sang a song called the Caisson's Go Rolling Along. Our Principal, Mr. Mounteer asked a few questions about the Veterans Day to all the students, such as, who is a veteran, how do we celebrate this day, and what do we learn from them. After that a few students went up to tell their compositions, letters to veterans, and poems. I was selected to represent my class. I was feeling quite nervous because this was my first time speaking my composition in an assembly. I was the first one to speak my composition among all the selected students, in front of the whole of third and second graders and my teachers. The assembly was concluded with another song called Grand Old Flag. It was a wonderful experience hearing what others wrote in their compositions. At the end, our teachers let us out the door quietly.