Punjabi-French toast

This is a recipe that I would like to dedicate to a school friend of mine, who would share the wonderful french toast his mom would prepare for his lunch, with his (rather ungrateful!) friends.

Following are the ingredients:

1 ripe tomato (riper the better)
1 cup milk (boiled and then cooled to room temperature)
1 egg
1 clove garlic
1/8 tb spoon salt
1/8 tb spoon turmeric
7 pepper corns (whole)
1/2 green chilli
Milk bread (small packet)

Preparation:
While preparing the batter, toast the bread lightly on a pan.
1. knead the ripe tomato gently until the pulp is loosened within. Then cut it open and pour out the pulp into a bowl. Remove the skin and other non-pulp portions.
2. chop the garlic and green chilli into fine pieces and add to the bowl
3. break the egg into the bowl
4. Add the turmeric, salt and milk into the bowl
5. Stir well
6. Dip the toasted bread into the batter and lay gently onto the pan (low-medium fire/150 deg C)
7. When one side is well-done turn over to toast the other side.

The sentinels of hampi

The ancient town and capital of the Vijayanagara empire is located at Hampi.
The grandeur, magnificence and extent of this kingdom is still visible despite the havoc of age, almost total destruction by invaders and, even, new age vandalism.

Walking through the ruined deserted streets one can almost feel the thriving activity of the market place, the temple complex, the bathing pools, houses... The mark and stamp is carved and frozen in stone.

Words are not much required when you can see, feel and be awe struck.

View from hill

Pushkarni or bathing place

Overhead view of the Pushkarni

Holi scene on pillar

Ruined structure en-route to Vitthala temple

Vitthala temple Gopuram relief

Vitthala temple Gopuram close-up

Vitthala temple Gopuram close-up with Durga and Krishna-gopi

Vitthala temple Gopuram - The chinese style terracotta clay images are visible

Vitthala temple courtyard

Vitthala temple - dancing hall pillar

Following the dissapearing hill

My yearning to see a hill, took me to Tumkur, around 2 hours journey from Bangalore.

Got down at the bus station and walked eastwards (as I remember seeing on google maps).
The hills around this region are rather small. So, as I picked out one and walked towards it's direction, it would suddenly disappear behind some structure or tree. I panicked first and then smiled to myself at the thought that I'm following a disappearing hill.

It took me a good 45 mins to 1 hour of walking to reach the base of the hill. The hills of this region are particularly enchanting as they tend to be strewn with boulders, quite different from those found around the Pune region.

This particular formation of boulders is a result of erosion, by wind, water and vegetation. Some very interesting formations can be witnessed. I named quite a few as 'Noah's ark', Heaven's gate, the twin towers, the sphinx, etc.