It’s so common to meet people every day, some new acquaintance, some old friends and some family.

We meet, we talk, we spent little to lot of time trying to get familiar to them. Some are easy, some are hard, some are confusing and some outsmart us. It has been a wonderful life, many minds met, many moments shared, many stayed and some didn’t care……..

It has been my quest to conquer hearts, impress minds and to understand feelings. I always enjoyed the company of people who want to talk, a talkative myself, it’s hard to believe, I am a good listener too.

Some of my best times where spent along with my friends grandparents and my own ones too. All that I heard unknowingly had left some beautiful memories, which surprisingly come in use in my daily day to day emotions.

Some of the stories just ended with me, some unfinished because no one had time to hear completely and some untold because nobody was there to hear.

Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand. – Shel Silverstein-

One thing was for sure, whatever was shared was true experience, put forward for only better future. But we are all so immersed with our own stuff, all that seems old fashioned. I don’t say no, yes it could be, because times have changed and has been changing. Scenarios could be same but situations are different.

The gist of the conversation, or the moral, better said, should be understood, not the story. Story was all along just to have our attention, to keep it interesting. I feel good that I had understood this method of teaching and now it helps me with my family. I believe all the stories ever written, was just the means to grab attention and to convey the message.

Be ready to hear, never know what could be inherited.

One of my favorite dessert ever, I was addicted to it…. I finally came up with modifications to make it healthier but at the same time tried to maintain its originality.

Double Ka Meetha

Double ka meetha, one popular dessert in Hyderabadi cuisine, a dessert made with double roti, a kind of milk bread that swells  double the size when soaked. The sweet taste of the bread along with saffron, the best flavoring agent in the world for me, combined with the heavenly spice, cardamom……..I wouldn’t ask for anything more!!

Here in this recipe, I used a little healthier version of the bread, milk, and sugar.

Ingredients: Makes 6 to 8 single servings

• Whole wheat white/ Milk bread                   5 Slices
• 2% Milk/ just regular milk                            14 oz or 1 3/4 cup
• Cane sugar/ Sugar                                           3 1/2 tbsps.
• Saffron                                                               2 pinch
• Cardamom                                                        4 pieces (powder them)
• Cashew                                                               1/2 cup(cut pieces)
• Raisins                                                               1/2 cup
• Clarified butter/ ghee                                     for toasting

Directions: Pick a vessel to boil milk. Add saffron to the milk and let it boil in medium /medium high heat. Make sure you don’t burn it, if by chance you do, don’t use it.

Meanwhile take a pan warm it up, in low heat. Apply clarified butter on both sides of the bread and toast them, medium brown. Cut them in to bite size pieces and keep it aside. Wipe and use the same pan for toasting Cashews and Raisins with 2 tsp of clarified butter.

Add powdered cardamom and sugar to the boiling milk. Let it boil for another 10 mins.

Take a serving bowl, arrange the bread pieces in 2 layers with cashews and raisins in each layer, in the middle and on the top. Slowly pour the milk, soaking each piece. Let it stand for an 1 hour before you serve.

I can’t wait…………..