TULSI VIVAH

We celebrated Tulsi Vivah on 26th November. Tulsi Vivah is celebrated in between "Kartik Dwadashi" to "Kartik Poornima".  Tulsi Vrindavan was painted and decorated with Sugarcane, amla, tamarind stems and one called "dinda stick" in local language. Also beautiful rangoli is put around it.

On that day nevedya is offered to God and Tulsi Vrundavan in the afternoon. The Pooja is performed in the evening. We had decorated our house and surrounding with earthen lamps which looked very beautiful. The Priest arrived at our house around 8:30p.m. in the evening and the Pooja was performed by my husband. Most of our neighbours were present.

After the Pooja Tirth and Prasad was distributed to the invitees. Prasad included Sweet Poha and puffed rice (Kurmure). We then lighted the "Jodvi" meaning bunch of 365 wicks as a symbol of one wick for each day. The Vivah concluded by offering "Voti" to Tulsi vrindavan.





TRIP TO MALVAN

I along with my parents, husband and son went to Malvan on 17 th November. We started at around 8:00 am from Bicholim and reached Malvan via Swantwadi- Kudal road at around 12:00 pm. We had booked a room at '"Anjali Lodge" , Near Chivla Beach. After refreshing ourselves there, we went to see "Jai Ganesh Temple" which was very near to the Lodge.


Now it had already past 1:00 pm so it was time for lunch. We had lunch at Hotel Malvan Mejwani which was a total Malvani affair.

 There are boat rides  from Tarkarli which is a 1 and 1/2 hour ride through river karli to Devbag Sangam and in between you can visit Tsunami island where water sports are held. We enjoyed the boat ride and came to our hotel to have our evening tea.

I the evening it was time to go to the beach. My husband and son did lot of masti in the water. The beach is called Chivla Beach and the water' s were not very deep near the shore so one can enjoy swimming with little risk. We enjoyed staying in Malvan very much.

Next day we went to see Sindhudurg Fort which is situated in the middle of the sea. The way to the fort is through water and a boat is used to reach  there.

 

After coming from the fort we started our journey to Vengurla but not before visiting Rock Garden. As the name suggests the garden is developed on rocks by the seashore and is very scenic.

We reached Vengurla at around 11.30  where there is my husband's uncle's house. We also visited Rameshwar Temple there. On the way to Goa we visited " Shri Vetoba Temple" at Aravali. We reached Mapusa at around 2:00 pm and had our lunch at Spice Goa which is a very good restaurant. My parents went to Ponda and we came home to Bicholim. The Journey was a very memorable and joyful experience of my life

GENERAL LIFESTYLE
I am very thankful to God because I am born in Goa and living in Goa. 
Everything of Goa is very very good. The Climate, the people,  the food, the festivals, the eduction system  the natural beauty and the communal harmony. I live in Bicholim in a Joint family.

The Climate here is an equable climate so there is no much heat and no much cold . Mostly the climate is very nice. Coming to food, the most staple diet is fish, curry and rice. but some people also prefer vegetarian diet. The dishes prepared will have some unique feature of each household.

Time and again I will be writing  about my favourite recipes as they are prepared at my home.

Today I will write about Fish Curry

Based on the fish mainly there are two or three varieties of fish curries are prepared at my home.
I the fish is Sardines, Mackerel, King fish etc the spice called Sichuan pepper (Tirphal in Konkani) is used.

In short the  recipe of this type of fish curry is as below
Ingredients

1 cup fish pieces cleaned
1 cup grated coconut
1 and 1/2 teaspoon red chilly powder
1/2 teaspoon Turmeric powder
1 green chilly split into two half's
Lemon size tamarind ball soaked in water
Sichuan pepper 5- 6 numbers slightly grated
Salt to taste

Procedure
Mix grated coconut, red chilly powder, turmeric powder and  make a paste. Put the tamarind and mix it. Remove the paste in a pot , add Sichuan pepper, salt to taste and  green chillies . Put water to make it right consistency. Bring it to boil. On boiling add the fish pieces and boil it again for two three minutes. The fish curry is ready.
It can be served with rice and fried fish.

Second fish curry is using onion.
Prawns, Promprets, Lady fish, Silver belly fish etc are used for this type of curry.

Ingredients
1 cup fish pieces or 1 cup prawns cleaned
1 cup grated coconut
1 teaspoon red cilly powder
1/2 teaspoon haldi powder
3 teaspoon of chopped onion
lemon sized tamarind ball
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
2 teaspoon coconut oil
Salt to taste

Procedure
Mix grated coconut, red chilly powder, haldi powder, coriander seed and tamarind to make it a paste.
Take a deep botton pan and put coconut oil add onion and stir on medium flame till onion turns pinkish brown. Add the paste to it . Add wate to make it to right consistency then add salt and bring it to boil. on boiling add the prawns or the fish and boil it again for three to four minutes. After boiling the curry ready to  be served.

I hope all will like these curries.

Till next time bye
















 

Childhood

I was born and brought up at Valpoi . It is a  town in Sattari Taluka in the State of Goa. Lot of my childhood memories  are associated with that place. We used to stay by rent at Mr. Yasin Mirza's house. They were very very good people and neighbourhood was also very good. There were many children in and around my age group in the neighboourhood. We used to have lots of fun. That time we used to play different games, indoor as well as outdoor.  During summer vacations we used to go into to cashew plantations to pluck Cashew fruits. I enjoyed every bit of my childhood there. still today I remember it and miss those days.

During that time there was no much TV so only source of Entertainment was playing . I use to go to "Jatras" with my parents only source of enjoyment at that time. Those were very memorable days of my life.

First steps in the world of blogging

Hi
I am starting to write my blog from today. Today is Kartik Pratipada as auspicious ocassion to start anything new.

We celebrated Diwali on 13th November with gaiety and lots of fun. Our Celebrations started with lighting of lamps at 4:00 am in the morning followed by "Ahyang snan" (Bath).  There is a tradition to perform Arti of all males members in the household by the ladies of the household. After that there were refreshments. We went to temple and took the divine blessings. In the evening we performed "Laxmi Pooja".
So Diwali is a festival celebrated all over India with same enthusiasm and fun.