Happy B'day To Krishna

Amma always told me .. It is start of festival times with the birth of Krishna, as after vishu for about 3 months there is no activity in the department of Poojai and of course eatery :)... This year, I decided, to do something for the festival. So, after 3 days of long calls with amma in "how to make this", "what next", "Which time" and so on .. I armed myself for celeberating Lord Krishna's B'day ....

It started off on the evening of 15th , with the preperations of cheedai. Amma had warned me of the bursting uppu cheedai's , so when I put the cheedai into oil, I ran out of the kitchen - and came back in a few seconds later daring myself for a destruction scene... but :) I was lucky - no such thing happened and all the uppu cheedai were roasting merrily in the oil pan :). Want some sample ? Here you go.

Then began the ordeal of making the vellai cheedai - which is longer than the geetha upadesam that this little balan did when he grew up! Having made a dough as hard as the 'Grand Canyon' (as Rajesh lovingly called) - in the first attempt - I was determined to succeed the second time - but alas! success is indeed the most difficult step! The second time, all the vellam in the cheedai disintegrated into the oil ... Dissapointed and disgusted, I was about to throw away all the maavu, when the "edison" husband of mine suggested something and we ended up creating a new recipe (to be posted later).
In order to invite Kannan, I drew a small kolam in front of our apt(hope the apt guys don't find it out .. don't know if it is prohibited around here) and went to sleep zzzz.....

The Mr. was waiting impatiently on two of his toes till I did naivedhyam of the cheedai to Krishna on the morn of the "bday". After the hectic day at office, I juggled with the 4 gas burners making Vella Avil(rice flakes cooked in jaggery), smabhar and poduthuval for the dinner. The 4th gas burner, in case you are wondering, had the cooker on(as usual).

Fresh after a bath, we prayed to this lil Krishna poster at our house (I did not get a Krishna photo/idol from India :(...) before proceeding to the Bharatiya Temple. It was crowded, as always during a festival. We sat through the poojas for about an hour and hour. At the end of the puja, the poojari said we all could swing Krishna's cradle a bit - so form a nice line. But when in the world have Indians known the meaning of a "Line". All of them rushed to the front, as if their very lives depended on it. Some of us, were muttering and cursing others for not forming a decent line. Finally we got our chance - to see the tiny golden idol of Krishna, swamped in flowers and sitting/sleeping with eyes open - it was indeed a blessed sight. Pity, I could not capture a photo.

So, with our heart's content - we slept, having celeberated somebody else's b'day in a much grander and satisfying way than we celeberated ours.