A Space to Pause

This post is an entry for a contest hosted by Shobs Kitchen . I have been following the Facebook page My Chennai for a while now. My Chennai is well-known for their prompt and interesting photographic updates about fun, food, places, beach, festivals, weather etc. in Chennai. I noticed the wonderful and appetizing Briyani at their cover page that led me to Shobs Kitchen. Shobs Kitchen is a blogging venture by Shobana Arunkumar , and I was excited to see the announcement for annual give away event commemorating the big event of reaching 500 likes on Facebook. Great going, Shobana!  Hearty congratulations! Here is the event logo and announcement page for the contest: http://shobskitchen.blogspot.com/2014/12/event-giveaway-announcement-2015.html As a contestant, I find this opportunity to get introduced to many more food bloggers and to promote my blog among avid readers and food lovers! When I decided to write this post, it was hard for me to find a name for this uncomm

The harvest festival celebrated in all four quarters of India is commonly called as  Makara   Shankranti.  Regionally, they are called by different names: Pongal in Tamilnadu , Sankranthi in Karnataka , Andhra Pradesh and Telangana , Khichdi in UP  and Bihar and Uttarayan in Gujarat . As always, the commonality lies in the purpose of celebration - Harvest! What else could be as big as this exciting event? The Tamil month of aadi (July 17th - August 16th) is a significant month for sowing and investing in land, followed by two months of calm weather that would help in germination and first-quartile growth of the crop. Then comes the voracious North-east monsoon that helps in the most expected growth spurt of the crops. It calms down by the end of November with gentle drizzles. The next month goes on without much excitement, and by the end of December, the busy preparations for harvest starts, and hence festivals, offerings and excitements begin!  The month of Maargazhi (De