Our encounter with an irritated and not so bright elephant in the Bandipur Forest....

Often, Vivek and I are out on weekends driving down to his place in Talassery, India. The drive takes us through Bandipur forest and the Western Ghats…truly breathtaking drive!!! At night, the drive is very frightening….dark DARK roads and just the sound of our car whizzing by….Shaiju, our trusted driver drives on while I will usually have my face plastered on the window…peering out to catch a glimpse of the occasional herds of elephants, lone tuskers and very rarely, leopards…

One night last year, we even spotted a leopard walking across the road…we slowed down to take a closer look and the spotted fella started walking towards us….Shaiju stepped on the gas and we got out of there in one piece!!!!

But yesterday night’s experience have left us numb…we escaped unscathed from an almost fatal incident. We were driving back from Talassery. It was around 11:30 PM. The forest was at its darkest mood…Vivek and I were dozing off…Shaiju woke us up to show us a small herd of elephants…one baby elephant and 2 big ones….And I thought we’ll take a picture this time…I never like taking pictures of wild animals…dunno why I thought I’ll take one this time…Vivek offered to help me take this picture…he downed the window and focused on the herd while Shaiju slowly rolled the car back to go near the herd...

Suddenly I saw one of them turn around and start trotting towards the car…Vivek & I screamed…"Shaiju…step on the gas…get out of here…the elephant is coming over…!"

The car was on reverse gear and it was still rolling back….we were all shocked and watching this big elephant standing right next to our car…and Vivek’s window is still open!!!!

The car has stalled now!

This elephant was really mad at us for intruding and raised its trunk, trying to grip the car…it caught our side mirror and broke it off…

The car is still stalled…I am screaming…"Shaiju, why is the car stalled?!!!!"

The side mirror snapped off with a sharp noise….the car is still stalled!!!! Vivek’s window is still open!!!! The elephant is right next to the front window now…! The noise of the mirror breaking off scared the elephant…it turned and ran off into the forest with an awfully loud trumpet…and we are still sitting ducks with the car stalled!!!

Suddenly the car started and we rushed away from there…we went on many kilometers before we could speak….I am so grateful we escaped and I am thankful for whoever or whatever saved us last night….elephants do not turn away easily...

I am sure there was a guardian angel protecting us there yesterday night…

Sister Agnes - an angel from my long gone convent school days....a tribute...

My sweetest memories of Holy Angels' Convent School include a patient angelic nun---Sister Agnes! She has known me since I was born...She has seen me join her Convent School...she has seen my transformation into the naughtiest in school....She has seen me run wild in the Library at All Saints' College (my fav place in the whole wide world! my fascination with books started there)...a lot of memories from my long gone convent school days is associated with her....

There was this time when I took "paachu and kovalan" to school. I had picked it up during my vacation journey to Mom's Tharavad. Who finds me reading it in class? Sister FLORIP! The horror of horrors! She was cross that I was reading a comic book in class...and she was horrified that it was a malayalam comic book....!

She took me by my ear to the Head Mistress - Sister Agnes. And there I was, almost wetting my skirt and Sister Agnes just burst out laughing! I was off the hook with a warning not to read stuff in class when there are lessons going on :) Oh my! Was Sr. Florip peeved or what !!!!!

I used to go back to meet her once in a while after school...during Christmas, with my mom, who was her friend. And out would come freshly baked cakes and wine. I would hang around and talk to her some time...all the while stuffing on the yummy cakes and wine...

Rest in Peace Sister Agnes...until will meet again...!

3 Angels :)

To reach Blue Elephant Cooking School by 8:45 AM, I had started off from Pattaya by 6:00 AM. I had decided to walk all the way to North Pattaya Bus Station from my Royal Cruise Hotel, but soon hopped on to a taxi. There were stray dogs all over the place and that early in the morning, I was becoming a very interesting object to all of them. I didn't fancy making friends with them; never know if they understand "good boy...I am harmless...".

I bought my ticket and was soon seated inside an A/C bus headed out to Bangkok. I met 3 angels on that journey; they took me to the sky train station in Bangkok, got me my first SkyTrain ticket, ushered me into a train and travelled with me till Surasak on their way to work.

Guess I'll never meet you again....but thanks a ton!!!

Cooking with Rungsan Mulija

Menu for the day was as follows:

Massaman Kai - Chicken curry
Pu Ja - Deep fried stuffed crab shell
Phad Kee Maow Talay - Stir fried Seafood with Thai chilli paste
Kluy Buad Chee - Boiled banana with coconut cream

We were 5 in today’s class -a business-leisure traveler, a professional chef, 2 amateur chefs (including myself) and a market vendor’s teenage son the business traveller had befriended on his trip to market in the morning.

At the start of the class, we were presented with a folder full of recipes, ingredients list, note papers, a pencil and an exclusive Blue Elephant embroidered apron.

Chef Rungsan Mulijan (Chang) started the class with a description of all ingredients for Massaman Kai. Apparently, this dish should be cooked a day earlier and braised in the gravy for the full flavor to develop. Since we were on a fast track mode, we settled for an hour of braising. After describing all ingredients one by one in detail, Chef proceeded to prepare the dish. Wonderful aromas started filling the class room.

The classroom had 3 rows of student's chairs, a chef's station and a huge mirror hung from the ceiling over the chef's station. the mirror was hung in a slanted manner and we all could literally see inside the cooking pan. I loved watching the chef deftly chop herbs and pound away at the Massaman paste.

Soon, Massaman Kai was done. Now the Chef invited all of us to taste the curry. This was truly wonderful. The flavors had mixed in so well, and nothing was standing out strongly. Chef Chang was an expert in Royal Thai Cuisine! No wonder he is the Corporate Chef at Blue Elephant!!!

After the tasting session, we were ushered into their kitchen. All of us donned our brand new aprons. There were individual cooking stations to each student. All ingredients were washed, cut and placed in a tray for us to start working on.

I started working on my very first Massaman Kai. I pounded all herbs together to make fine Massaman paste, and fried it in the wok for a minute. Since I had taken notes during the session, I remembered all the chef's moves and mimicked it excellently. My Massaman Kai was ready in a jiffy. I transferred it into a blue casserole and put a sticker with "5" printed on it.

I wondered aloud about this sticker. I was told that this is to identify the stuff i make in this class so that they can serve it to me later for lunch...I made a note to myself that today's lunch is as good as I cook. I decided to study well today :) . We proceeded likewise on all three items on the menu.

After the class, we were presented with our certificates and a gift hamper.We were looking forward to our lunch now!

Look at my Massaman Kai!!!

Blue Elephant and ME

I enrolled into the half day cooking course at the Blue Elephant Cooking School, Bangkok.

I started off early from Pattaya and reached the Cooking School by 9:00 AM. Half hour late; in this half hour the Chef would have described day's menu and the class would have gone off for their market trip.

To top this, to my dismay, I find the main door to my school locked! I walked around the wonderful heritage buidling which houses the school and could not find a soul! Just a plump cat on the porch. I checked my email confirming my class on 2nd September.

I walk around again and whenI got to the main door the third time, I found it open! Joy of joys!!!!

I sneaked into the front hall, and is immediately transported to another era. There was no one around, it was just like walking into an old abandoned home's living room.

I just stood there looking at all the beautiful arrangement of flowers and Blue Elephent line of merchandise, when 2 Stewards walk in carrying washed linen for the day. They just smiled, nodded at me and were gone. I decided to wait for someone to turn up, and settled down in one of the chairs in the parlour. No one turns up except for the stewards who were carrying in more linen. I asked them about the cooking school.


"Cooking School...Chef Up...go up" they prod me on.

I say thanks and climb the wooden staircase to the first floor. Not a soul again. This floor has a beautiful restaurant. I decided to explore further up. The next floor had a reception desk.

At the reception desk, I found "Fong" my only contact with the School. I quickly identified myself and she takes care of the rest. Soon, I am sitting in a parlour with a cup of hot coffee and a bottle of mineral water and the day's papers. I am told I have to wait till 10:00 AM for my class to return from their market trip.

A whole hour to explore this magnificent heritage property all by myself! That's quite a nice thought. I look around. Every where I look, I find huge pots filled with orchids of all colors. On my coffee table, I had a simple arrangement of two white lotus buds. Everything about the place feels magical.

There I was, running up and down the whole place, happy to be left alone to discover the beauty of a Thai Heritage property all by myself!

PINK Taxis not for me...

I was thrown out of two and decided that Pink taxis are not for me...

Bangkok has taxis in all colors.
I thought the pink ones had an attitude and decided to travel in one.

On the last day of my tour, I thumbed one down to go to MBK. "Sorry no, I do not go MBK" the polite taxi driver tells me. I sent him off along his way and stood my ground waiting for another pink taxi to come my way. Finally, after a procession of taxis in all colors except pink, I managed to find a pink one.

I threw my heavy backpack in and settled down. "MBK", I let the driver know my destination. "No MBK, please get down, No MBK, please get down" the driver chants. That was twice bitten and very bitter!

My leg was hurting from walking around for last 2 days and I quickly decided that I am going to get into the next available taxi, be it yellow, brown or blue! It turned out to be a Green & Yellow taxi.

Next time around, I am definitely trying my hand at Pink taxis again!!!

Mystery is inside the JAR!

Thais have a golden concoction called “Fish Sauce”.
They add Fish Sauce to all their dishes, instead of salt…yes, even non-fishy dishes.

It is essentially a whole lot of small fish left to rot in a huge jar buried under soil for a long time. The fermentation turns the whole mass into a wonderful condiment. Connoisseurs say that the best fish sauce never tastes or smells fishy.

I was always curious to see these huge jars, and I spied them on my journey from Bangkok to Pattaya. I had thought the whole business should look very mysterious, but there it is, a couple of them outside all huts along the route, not at all mysterious…I’d like to believe that mystery is inside the jar…