Today's Breakfast: Tomato Rasam and Baked Lijjat Papad

Since, I don't like cereals or eat eggs,  breakfast has always been a challenge for me. So, I am always looking for  healthy, filling and preferably spicy breakfast food. For a long time, I ate, like Punjabis, roti and vegetables for breakfast. Lately, I have started on tomato rasam and lijjat papad--the first one is a pure South Indian dish and the latter is a pure Punjabi delicacy. The combination is a 100 percent spicy dynamite! I am wondering why I did not think of it before.

Yoga Art Padmasana or the Lotus Pose

The lotus position (padmasana ) is a cross-legged sitting posture, most prominently used during meditation (dhyana). in which the feet are placed on the opposing thighs. According to B.K.S. Iyengar, "meditation does not make the mid dull. Rather, in meditation the mind is still but razor sharp, silent but vibrant with energy. But this state cannot be achieved without a firm, stable sitting posture, where the spine ascends and the mind descends and dissolves in the consciousness of the heart, where the true Self reveals itself". Lotus position keeps the body stable when sitting for a long period of time as in meditation. The stability of the body releases the mind to concentrate on breathing and brings about calmness of mind. 

The art above shows Lochanadevi in lotus position. More of my yoga art can be found in my Etsy and Artfire shops. 

Sweet

There was an excellent article in the NY Times, a couple of days ago,  titled Sweet Potatoes Are Not Just for Thanksgiving Anymore chronicling the growing popularity of sweet potatoes. The basic message is, sweet potatoes are good for you because it is a vegetable that has protein, which is fairly unusual, but it also has complex carbohydrates that don’t spike insulin. Apparently, "sweet potatoes have become the darling of the diabetic and weight-loss set, a lifeline for parents whose children demand fries for nearly every meal and a boon for Southern farmers who are looking to replace tobacco". I must admit, I am very partial to the fries myself. Though, what I cook at home is more healthy since I do not know exactly how to fry them to get that mouth-watering crunchy texture. Sweet potatoes is a common vegetable in India ( I was pleased to find the wikipedia article on that vegetable including its Tamil and Hindi names). 


The popular variety of preparation in most parts of India is roasted slow over kitchen coals peeling, cubing and seasoning for a vegetable dish as part of the meal.  

2011 Art Dairy

I had a lot of fun putting the covers on the diaries. I got the printing done at my campus print shop who did a very nice job. The covers are handmade papers from India, Nepal and of course, my favorite chiyogami. Looking forward to sharing these diaries with families and friends.

Spread out like that, I noticed that there are two covers with paisley designs. Both papers were made in India and Indians are partial to paisley!                        

This is the artwork I did for the diary.

 Another page from the diary

Here is the link to my previous post on the  diary project.

Without Borders

 Since the beginning of this year, I have been working on and off on creating artwork based on South Asian literature. Early in the year, I did this piece on Shakuntalam, Kalidasa's classical love story. This new piece, Without Borders, inspired by Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake, is very post-modern. I was trying to respond to Melange team's November challenge "Home" and the idea came when I spent one whole Saturday morning hunting for documents to apply for Indian visa. I felt much like Ashima, a borderless nomad, straddling a 10,000 miles wide Asian Indian boat. The power of Lahiri's book lies in the fact that global themes of dislocation, loss, and the longing for roots are explored inside the particulars of one Bengali woman's immigrant experience. This point was most poignantly brought to me when my Brazilian born aerobic instructor asked me if I had read the book. Ashima, derived from the sanskrit word asima, means "without boundaries". The book may have well been about Miguela, Ivana, Habiba or even one Indira.

Melange Team on Handmade Spark!

Vegetarian Thanksgiving

 From the New York Times: A delectable collection of vegetarian dishes for your Thanksgiving dinner