Sanjeevakkas' Chicken Curry

Ingredients:

• Chicken : 1.5 pound
• Yogurt : 1 cup
• Methi (Fenugreek) : 1 pinch (about 10 pieces)
• Coriander Seeds : Half table spoon
• Jeera : 1 pinch (about 4 pieces)
• Cinnamon : 1 stick
• Clove : 4 nos
• Red Chillies : 10-12
• Grated Coconut : Half cup
• Onions : 1 + 1 nos
• Tomatoes : 2 nos
• Garlic : 5 pods + 2 Pods
• Khus Khus : 1 table spoon
• Ginger : 1 piece
• Black Pepper : 10-12 nos
• Haldi : 1 pinch
• Coriander Leaves
• Salt to taste

Procedure:

• Marinate chicken in yoghurt and salt for about 20 minutes.
• Make puree of the 2 tomatoes and keep aside.
• Fry pinch of methi (Fenugreek) , coriander seeds, jeera, cinnamon and cloves along with red chillies and keep aside.
• Fry the grated coconut along with ONE sliced onion, garlic pod and khus khus and keep aside
• Grind the ingredients fried above along with ginger and pepper into fine paste.
• Take a kadai fry 2 garlic chopped and ONE onion chopped till brown.
• Put pinch of haldi powder and then put the ground masala and fry them.
• Then put the tamatoe puree and fry for a minute.
• Put chicken and fry for a minute
• Pour 2 cups of water and get a boil.
• Garnish with coriander leaves.

Shenoy	Originally for the Shenvis in Goa. Since most of them took up Administrative jobs they were called Shanbhags (clerks) which later became Shenoy.
Pai	Pai in Konkani language means foot or leg.. The common person who had not amassed wealth or power was known as Pai.Their job was menial in maintaining ledgers and doing odd jobs. The Pai who was mainly ledger keepers.
Kamathi	Those in agriculture were called Kamathi. Mathi means soil and Kama is work, that is working in soil ( Kama + Mathi).. Later this became Kamath.
Kini	Those who cultivated herbs were Kinvis, presently called Kini or Keni.
Vaidya	Thos who prepared the concoction was prepared and dispensed it
Hegde	The animals required for tilling, transportation and other works were under Haya- Gade (actually Horse tenderer), modernized to Hegde.
Nayak, Rao	Those worked as Army commandants were called Nayaks. Some Nayaks who were honoured by the King with titles like Ravubahadur adopted Rao as their Surname
Baliga	The daily requirements of every family for survival, presentations, etc were the responsibility of the Ballo. There is another theory that the foot soldier with a spear was called Ballo. The soldier Ballo (Baliga) was under the command of Nayak.
Prabhu, Mallya	Feudal lords called themselves Prabhu. He lived in a palatial home called mahal, and the caretaker was known as Mahalyar, presently modernized to Mallya.
Acharya, Bhat and Vadhyar	The poojas in the big temple and its rituals were under Acharya, and in small temples conducted by Bhat. Every family had exclusive priest to perform the rites, and he was the family Purohit and was called Vadhyar.
Mahajan	The temples were administered by Mahajans
Bhandarkar	Stores and godown keepers were called Bhandari or Bhandarkar.
Nadkarni, Kulkarni	A person maintaining statistics was called Karni. Land was called Nadu, and the person maintaining land records was known as Nadkarni, and Kulkarni maintained census, and social register.
Bhakta	Doing odd jobs in temples and poojas

The Aura Around Aurum

On the occasion of independent India bagging it's first individual Olympic Gold, here's a countdown...

An Olympic gold medal in hand is worth (much more than):

10. Two boxes of champagne bottles

9. Two truck loads of gifts

8. Two duplex flats at Colaba

7. Two phone calls from the country's premier
(or Sonia Gandhi, whosoever is greater)

6. Two chapters in Class IV Hindi Text Book

5. Two hundred Indian delegates at the games

4. Two thousand and eight patriotic Bollywood films

3. Two billion TV debates on "Why only one medal for one billion Indians?"

2. Two Tera bytes of illegally downloaded mp3 songs

1. Two of us -- you the reader, and me the writer!


---

Meanwhile, if the Indian Olympic Committee is interested in bagging more Olympic Golds but without spending anything on infrastructure and training, then it should suggest to the International Olympic Committee to include "Spitting" as a sport, with following events in this new category (on the similar lines as Shooting):

• 1m Spit


• 5m Spit


• 1m Running Target


• 5m Running Target


• Trap


• Double Trap


• Skeet

The Indian betel leaf should be used as ammunition, thus leading to a betel revolution in our agriculture sector.

On further research, I came across this article on the web: "Hitching a Ride with the Chinese Olympic Spitting Team". Looks like the Chinese have a PhD in Spitting! So, for the time being, Suresh Kalmadi and team have to discard Spitting and invent a new Sporting event. Any suggestions?

What's In A Name?

'lA-jane-dlA'... That's how I used to pronounce my name, long, long time ago, when I had barely started communicating in my mother tongue. It was my dad's assignment, late in the evening, after dinner, to bring out the 'R' in me with a proper roll of the tongue, which, thankfully, he managed successfully.

I mention this so that you understand how sensitive I am regarding making fun of people who have pronunciation or stammering problems, even though I never had such a problem later in my life. But that shouldn't stop me from writing about this incident which happened in my office today.

A new guy has joined our team. This fellow stammers while saying his name. The name as such isn't long: only four letters. But when he pronounces it, the first syllable would take 5/6ths of the time. (That's a rough estimate as I don't have a stop watch to time it.)

What's more amazing is, each time he introduces himself, he would pronounce it similarly.

That made me ponder: May be the poor fellow is pronouncing his name as it should be! After all, who better can pronounce one's name than one own self! It reminds me of the African tribesmen who have clinks in their names which the stand-up comedian Russell Peters doesn't fail to admire.

Had I been able to keep a straight face each time he said it, I would have given him the benefit of doubt and remarked, "That sounds tough to pronounce. Would it be okay if we called you 'Ravi' instead?"

Shahi Paneer

Ingredients:
150 gms. paneer (cottge cheese)
2 tbsp ghee or butter
1 onion chopped
1/2" piece ginger chopped fine
2 green chillies chopped fine
2 tomatoes chopped fine
1 cardamoms crushed
1/4 cup beaten curd
1/2 tsp. red chilli powder
1/2 tsp. garam masala
salt to taste
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp. tomato sauce

To garnish:
2 tbsp. grated paneer
1 tbsp. chopped coriander

Method:
Chop the paneer into 2" fingers.Heat half the ghee.
Add onion,ginger, green chilli and cardamom. Fry for 3-4 minutes.
Add tomatoes and cook for 7-8 minutes, covered.



Add curd and cook for 5 minutes.Add 1/2 cup water and cool.Blend in a mixie till smooth.

Heat remaining ghee, add gravy and other ingredients except milk and paneer.

Boil to get a very thick gravy.

Just before serving, heat gravy, add milk and paneer fingers and boil for 3-4 minutes. Garnish with chopped coriander and grated paneer.

Konkani Humor

Humor is an integral part of Konkani culture and at BayKon, we are never short of it. We often have innumerable comic instances during our gatherings however, thus far they have not been recorded.

Be it the infamous R for Rabbit, A for Apple, V for Victory and I for 'I Don't know' or the interpretation "Do you keep your options open?" (from our dear friend Ravi who seems to have become Speechless In Seattle); it would be good to have them recorded and published.

Here is one very Impressive Konkani Blog (http://lokaabhiraam.blogspot.com/) by a fellow Konkani with alias Lokaabhiraam. Has dozens of audio clips; and each of them is not short of giving you a good doze of laughter.

Listen to Ashamai's Konkani stories ....

http://ashamai.zenusinfotech.com/Stories.htm

Who is Ashamai and what does she do?
AshaMai (Asha Shenoy), at 60, is a housewife living in Bangalore, with her husband Shantananda Shenoy. She has raised 3 children and 2 grand kids . There are countless number of kids who have listened to short and sweet stories from her. The story might have a moral, which can apply to grown up kids like us as well !!.

How do i send my feedback to Ashamai?
Since this is Ashamai's first attempt on mass story telling,we truely value your feedbacks.
Ashamai can be reached at ashasshenoy@gmail.com For updates to these stories and for providing your feedbacks, register in the Discussion board today !!

http://ashamai.zenusinfotech.com/index.htm