Keep your cool please!!

aha!! though it sounds like Robin Sharma's  leadership/management discourse, i assure you its not. This is  free -for-all gyan for who ever wants to use it.

i was supposed to take break or give you all a break, but somehow my travel plans got rescheduled. So you all have to suffer with me :-)

March heat is on!! i HATE heat!! so here are some ways to beat the heat. yeah the heat is making me write like this....

My favorite is the Cocum (also spelt as Kokum or Kokam) juice. One can get it from one of the'dime-a-dozen' Mangalore Stores in the city. Just pour one big table spoon of the syrup, add cold water, a pinch of salt and stir... quick and cool

option second. a tablespoon of cocum juice, add sprite and pinch of rocksalt.

or like this... at a stall on the Dona Paula beach...cocum extract, jal jeera powder, sugar syrup(tasted more like saccharine though) and plain soda...tasted good but we were thirsty again soon (thanks to saccharine)

The Watermelon: you can cut it into pieces, add salt, pepper powder, chat masala and eat it with a fork..

or else you can pass the watermelon pieces in a blender with sugar. add a pinch of pepper powder and rock salt..

Muskmelon juice: scoop the pulp, remove the seeds, put it in a blender along with sugar and u will have thick cool juice ready. Alternatively you can add milk and have a Muskmelon milk shake.

The great Cocum Kadi. For this you have to get Cocum agal..which is nothing but cocum concentrate with salt added to it. To a tablespoon of agal add finely chopped green chillies, coriander leaves (optional: two flakes of garlic) .add one glass of coconut milk. alternatively you can add this concentrate to buttermilk.

Coconut milk can be extracted either by passing the grated coconut and little water in a blender and then straining it.or else if u are hardpressed for time. add hot water, keep for two minutes, and strain. this kadi is  the best  bet when you have had a heavy lunch.

Recently i came across  coconut milk powder in a convenience store near my house. You just have to add water to it. A 100 gm packet costs rupees 40/-...and here i was thinking i can get three coconuts. (my middle class mentality at work here)

under the cocum tree..Niha, Nagbhushan, Prathamesh and Malavika.. terrace of K T Gatti mama's house along with my potted plants

Cocum revokes some wonderful memories. We were the tenants of K.T. Gatti, the famous writer (hah now you know his writings have rubbed off on me as well). We were on the top floor.There was this huge cocum tree with a huge trunk and a thick mass of glossy leaves. Though i have seen many Cocum trees, this one was really grand.My bedroom window was very near to the tree. On full moon nights watching the moonbeam play hide and seek on the leaves was truly enchanting transporting me to a fairy like world. i used sit gazing at this play of lights for hours together. We have had umpteen number of terrace parties here below the tree.

I have dried and stored the cocum fruits of this tree and they are still intact even after 11 years..i am amazed. I still have stock that will last me another year...

Cocum is said to prevent formation of Cholesterol in the body..

Last time Sathyajith , K.T. Gatti mama's son visited us he said that they had to cut the tree because  the 

roots had broken through one of the walls of the house and were threatening the foundation of the house too.

:-(. Srikanth has planted Cocum in our farm...hoping to recreate my magical world soon ..

different names for the Cocum...Punarpuli/murugana huli in Kannada, kokumba in marathi

just a small post for my ardent blog readers who say they check my blog once in two days for updates. 

Thank you guys for being so nice!! and keep your cool with the above mentioned easy methods..

 photo credit Niharika Shenoy (except, the one with cocum tree that was my handiwork...:-))

:-)