I was not planned for my daughter’s B’ day since her dad was away for some official work, my daughter ichu went and asked her friends and my neighbours whether they would come for her B’ day party. After seeing all the excitement i couldn’t tell her no since she is just 6 years to forget a B’ day party. I told her many times we will have a party when her dad is back home. But she was excited all over and dreaming about the cake, dress, gifts etc.. So i decided to go ahead with the idea of a dinner. Evening I invited her friends for the cake cutting and provided snacks and dinner was arranged for their parents.

Menu for the kids:

• Cake and potato chips
• Vegetable cutlet with tomato ketch up
• Vada with coconut chutney
• Paneer (cottage cheese) and Mushroom puffs
• Ice cone

Menu for the Dinner:

• Plain rice topped with fried raisins and cashews
• Plain Naan ( a kind of roti made by fermenting the dough for 8-10 hrs with yeast)
• Chicken prepared with peppercorn
• Fish curry (Kerala boatmen’s style)
• Rich Vegetable stew with cashew paste and coconut milk
• Chat prepared with Chana, cauliflower, potato, tomato, capsicum (green bell pepper)
• Dessert was Spanish saffron and Pista flavored Ice cream

The ring of fire was visible in the sky around 1.21 Indian time at Rameshwaram, Tamil Nadu. It is a spectacular vision of diamond ring in the Indian sky. We could see the moon inside the sun. In the rest of the country, it was partial. The celestial spectacular vision will last till 3.38 pm Indian time. The ring of fire spectacle is seen from the different parts of the country. After sometime, the ring of fire turns to a crescent and gradually sun takes its shape.

In Bangalore, the sky looks cloudy. Still we don’t know whether moon has come on the way of the Sun and Earth.

The longest Solar Eclipse of the Millennium will be witnessed by Indians tomorrow, 15th January, 2010.

What is Solar Eclipse?

A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partially obscuring Earth’s view of the Sun.

The annular solar eclipse starts at Uganda, passes through Nairobi, enters Indian ocean where the greatest eclipse is taking place in mid of Ocean for a maximum of 11 Mins and 7.7 seconds. After that enters Maldives, where it would be the longest on land with 10.8 Minutes  of viewing. This makes the tiny islands of Maldives the best spot for viewing this eclipse from land.

The eclipse is viewable for 10.4 minutes in India. The best place from India is Dhanushkodi in Pamban Island off Tamil Nadu coast. Dhanushkodi is about 18 km South east from Rameshwaram.

In Bangalore, the eclipse will be between 11 am and 3.15 pm. Specially made goggles are available to view the solar eclipse. It is available in Sapna Book house for Rs. 25/-

Burj Khalifa, World’s tallest super scraper is opened in Dubai on Monday. According to the official estimate the height of $ 1.5 billion tower is 828 meters (2,717 ft). It is named after  the United Arab Emirates (UAE) President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan. Until then the building was known as Burj Dubai.

Fireworks explode around Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest tower, during the opening ceremony in Dubai on Monday.

Wishing you all a happy and prosperous new year, 2010. 2009 was not at all a good year for the whole world and lets hope 2010 will turn to be a good year for every one.

When I was very small, in Trivandrum, one of the important events took place during any festival was circus. I still remember the names of those circuses, Gemini circus, National circus, Jumbo circus, etc…

My daughter is going to be six years old and never been to circus till now and whenever we talk about circus, i saw the desperation in her eyes and at last i got a chance to take her for circus. It was in Mandya, the sugar city in Bangalore.

Now in circus, the government has stopped the show of wild animals and it is restricted to horses and elephants. When I was small, we used to go to circus just to watch the animals like lion, tiger, etc…

Dogs are playing foot ball, but balloons were used as foot ball.

Now they have included African dance and Russian dance, which are performed by the foreign artists.

Tata Chemicals launched affordable water purifier named “Swach” which is priced less than Rupees 1000/- Swach is manufactured using nanotechnology. Tata Swach is a result of a collaboration between Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Chemicals and Titan Industries.

Tata Swach is developed to solve one of the crucial problems of rural India – access to clean drinking water. Tata Swach water purifier doesn’t require electricity or running water to operate. It can purify up to 3,000 liters of water. When this capacity is reached, the cartridge stops water flow, giving the user enough time to replace the cartridge.

Ratan Tata, chairman, Tata Sons spoke at the launch: “Safe drinking water is the most basic of human needs. The social cost of water contamination is already enormous and increases every year. Although today’s announcement is about giving millions more people affordable access to safe water, it is an important step in the long-term strategy to find a solution to provide affordable access to safe water for all.”

The Tata Swach technology combines low-cost ingredients such as rice husk ash with nanotechnology and has been rigorously tested to meet internationally accepted water purification standard.

Don’t just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give you a balanced,successful life. I use the word balanced before successful.Balanced means ensuring your health, relationships, mental peace are all in good order. There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your breakup. There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts. Shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions.

"Life is one of those races in nursery school where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point coming first. Same is with life where health and relationships are the marble. Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being excited and alive, will start to die. ……………….

One thing about nurturing the spark – don’t take life seriously. Life is not meant to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here. We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up? …………….

It’s ok, bunk a few classes, scoring low in couple of papers, goof up a few interviews, take leave from work, fall in love, little fights with your spouse. We are people, not programmed devices………"

"Don’t be serious, be sincere."!!!

N.B.: Chetan Bhagat is an Indian English language author and he is seen as the youth icon, and not merely an youth icon

Today is my husband’s birthday and he is turning  lovely 40. This  is chocolate cake and it is  from Sweet chariot, Bangalore.

Check out this Video to know more about Shilpa’s Wedding Card

Shilpa Shetty’s wedding invitation card cost Rupees 500/- which has been designed by the Delhi designer Ravish Kapoor. The wedding has a regal touch and it is Marked RS on the top. Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty is getting married to Raj Kundra on November 22.