Shyam’s Rant-Page

On Top of the Hill

2022-04-18T00:00:00+00:00

The silence of the hills
beneath a thin veil of blue
criss-crossed by the careless streams
tonight, I dream of you

The long, winding roads
disappear near the bends
serpentine the trodden paths
the journey never ends

Somewhere in the woods
on top of the hill
festooned the crystal stars
over my window sill

Beneath the river gorges
in a fit of ravenous delight
for the veins of the forest have swelled
with the thunders of monsoon inside

Scarlet

2022-04-12T00:00:00+00:00

Scarlet,
wear the ivy upon your hair
too long I have waited
amongst the debris of despair

These gusts of breeze
stems out of the brook
for miles I have walked
and years, it took

Your streets talk to me
with the old familiar tongue
a quick slip into the past
and a thousand bells have rung

The child has grown to be
a man of thirty-three
still longing for your touch
still a longing to be free

Reconcile

2022-04-02T00:00:00+00:00

Yesterday was a tumultuous night
densely dark and a raging surge
a night like no night before
I couldn’t see myself in the mirror that night
Not a pretty sight to see a man
being possessed by what he’s not

As the darkest hour had passed
some momentary sighs in between
apart from that
quietness wrapped itself
around the carnage that had been left behind
The storm had finally passed away
…for now

An Arranged Date - A Short Story

2020-06-13T00:00:00+00:00

He was sitting awkwardly inside the cafe when I first met him. I could see from the counter itself that he was fidgeting with his phone and then with his hair again. Well, it wasn’t the most pleasant day to be outside anyway, especially since it had been raining cats and dogs since the early dawn. And you know how the monsoons in Kathmandu are, right? Puddles of mud, soggy clothes, umbrellas poking at each other’s heads when passing by, so yes, I hated monsoons. And there he was, a nervous wreck. He looked decent, I mean I didn’t expect him to have a chiseled jawline and dreamy eyes with a pinch of mischief, but hey, like I said, he looked decent. Oh and before I forget to tell you, this was a ‘date’ arranged by our parents and I had every plan of ruining it.

I’d like to share a little background as to why I’m here and meeting this totally random stranger. I come from a typical Nepali middle-class family and am the eldest child to my parents and most importantly, the only daughter. And like a typical Nepali daughter, I learnt cooking, washing the dishes, doing the laundry, cleaning the house and taking care of my little brother. And I could do all of these at once. Multitasking, you see. And while I’d do all these chores, it was my brother who’d be showered with pampering and care by my parents. The idiot literally never gets off the couch when he’s at home and the only time that I see him not on his phone is when he slept. These Nepali parents treat their sons like they’re some sort of a prince, and these poor souls start behaving like one. Oh well, but I digress. So yes, my mom is a housewife and my dad a simple banker. All was going well, life was flowing like it was supposed to. I’d already done my BBA and had been working as a Marketing Officer in a college. The job was good. I was learning new things, making new friends, chasing my dreams. But then one day, I turned 27.

A week ago, my mom was talking over the phone and her tone was quite cheerful. She was so much involved in the gossip, that she completely forgot that she’d put a kettle of milk over the gas. Soon, the milk spilled over and now the kitchen carried the sweet fragrance of burnt milk. I flashed to the kitchen and turned the gas off.

I looked at mom with my hands on my hips and said –

“Mommy! Half the milk just spilled over. Now, I’ve to clean it up. I’m already late for work.”

Putting the phone down, she said,

“Nanu, it was your aunt Sudha on the phone. And she was talking about this young boy. He has completed his Masters, he’s an engineer in a big U.S. based company. Here, she’s even forwarded me his FB link. Why don’t you…”

“No, no, no. Not again. Please not again. Why does aunt Sudha always bring up these marriage proposals to you? Is she running a matrimonial service? And how many times have I said that I don’t want to get married?” – I retorted.

“You are 27 already. I didn’t say a thing when you were 25. Not even when you were 26.” – Mom said.

“Oh really? And what’s so special about 27 then? I don’t want to get married now and that’s the end of discussion!” – I snapped.

I tossed her phone on the sofa and hurried towards my room. As I was going, I saw mom slump down on the couch covering her face with the edge of her saree. She was sobbing.

Oh moms, what can you say? They just know which buttons to push to have it their way. And she knew I just could not see her cry. It was her secret weapon which she highly abused.

I tried consoling her and said – “C’mon maa. Don’t do this now.”

“No, no. It’s our fault. You’ve grown up to be an independent and quite a modern girl now. You don’t need us anymore. It’s we, who are being selfish.” Her sobs were getting louder now.

“Ah! Mom, when did I ever say that? All I said was, why are you and baba so obsessed with my marriage?” – I sighed.

“I’m not asking you to marry the boy tomorrow. I’m just asking you to meet him. You know your aunt Sudha is a smart and a practical lady. She’d never give a wrong suggestion.” She was handing out her phone to me.

I knew there was no escape from this. Tears were my mom’s artillery and logic mine. And tears always win.

So, I said – “Fine. Do whatever you guys want to. Just don’t bother me with his FB link. I’m not checking it out. Tell me where and when I should go, and I’ll meet your fellow. Just don’t bring it up again.”

Mom’s eyes gleamed with joy on hearing this.

She said – “Really chhori ? Oh thank you so much. I knew my chhori would understand. Oh thank you so much Pashupatinath, Manakamana maai. You don’t need to stress over this subject. You just have to meet the boy. There’s no pressure. Relax.”

But I knew my dad and mom were hell-bent on getting me hitched. This is how naïve children are trapped into getting married. But like I said, I had already started to formulate my plans to botch this meeting/date.

I was intentionally late. I even thought of going out for a movie instead. That’d have settled it there and then. Unable to swallow down the agony and shame of being stood up by a girl, the guy would have ran to his parents and would have downright rejected me. But I’m not THAT evil.

As I neared the table where he was sitting, he cast his glance away from his phone and then to me. In a blink of an eye, he stood up, shaking up the table and the glasses too, and one fell to the floor and shattered with a sharp noise.

“Oh, is he that clumsy?” I thought.

As he was trying to pick up the broken glasses, another one toppled over and wet his shirt.

This was just too much. I was already trying to hold back my laughter at his initial clumsiness and now this. So naturally, I let out a faint giggle.

He looked around sheepishly and thanked the waiter for cleaning up the shards of the broken glass.

Looking up, he said – “Hi. I’m Suyog. Sorry for the mess.”

“It’s okay. I’m Preeti.”

We shook hands. And I must say, he had a sweaty palm.

“Ya. I checked your FB.” – He blurted out and looked embarrassed immediately.

“Clumsy AND a creep.” – I thought to myself.

He cleared up his throat and said – “Please have a seat”.

After 30 seconds of an intense and awkward silence, he said – “So, no office today?”

“It’s Saturday.” – I smiled.

“Oh. Oh… I’m sorry. I forgot the day today” – He lamented.

By this time, I had dropped all my plans to roast this guy. I mean I almost started to feel pity for him.

“It’s ok. Even I forget the days while I’m at work. Except for Fridays. Fridays are special. They only come once a week.” – I said, trying to lighten up the situation.

“Haha. Yes” – replied Suyog, rather hesitantly.

After yet another bout of silence, I decided to break the ice.

“So where do you work?” – I asked.

“I’m a lead developer at Redson Technologies. You know the tall blue building near Nagpokhari? I’ve been working there for about 6 years now. I did my B.E. from Kathmandu University, and my Masters from T.U. I did my SLC from Gyanodaya School…”

For a minute, I thought he was reciting his CV to me. Did he confuse this with a job interview? I pondered. Maybe he felt the same. He stopped half way through his biodata and said – “I must confess. This is the first time I’m sitting with a girl in a café. I’m a bit nervous to be honest. And I’m sorry if I’m making things awkward for you”.

“Believe me. It’s my first arranged date too. Don’t worry. Relax. I might look terrifying at first but I’m not that bad. At least that’s what my mom says.” – I said.

“Haha. Arranged date huh?” – he inquired.

“Well yes, isn’t it? I mean just look at us. We are two adults who have agreed to meet each other on our parent’s wishes. This definitely is an arranged date.” – I replied.

“I agree. And let me be honest with you. All this talk of arranged marriage, I really don’t believe in it either. How can someone commit to spending an entire life with someone who they met just an hour ago? I mean, I could be a stalker, you’d never know, right?” – He said all this in a breath.

“You wouldn’t believe me. I was thinking the same. I mean, not about you being a stalker.” – I paused briefly and we both smiled.

“But seriously, I don’t understand what happens to our parents when we reach our 30s. They start getting a panic attack.” – I said.

He replied –

“Tell me about it. I just hit 30 recently and my mom started asking me if I had a girlfriend. I’ve completely stopped going to my relatives. All they do is ask me when I’m getting married. They say – ‘Get married now babu. In this life, you are incomplete without marriage. Don’t waste your time. Get married and be settled’.

Firstly, these parents trick you into believing that everything that they say will settle you down. Get distinction in SLC and then you’ll be settled, get a Bachelor’s degree and then you’ll be settled, get a job and then you’ll definitely be settled. But now, now they say, get married and then you’ll be settled. All this talk of settling is quite unsettling.” He chuckled.

“That’s not the end. After you get married, have some kids and THEN you’ll be settled.” – I added.

To this, Suyog added – “My parents are still not settled after 35 years of marriage. Now they want to do a Chaar Dhaam Yatra and hopefully, then they’d be settled. That’s their aim, I guess.”

He slapped the table and started laughing. Clearly, he had completely left his shyness far behind. I joined his laughter with my chuckle.

“Sir, Ma’am, would you like to order something?” asked the waiter as he placed the menu on the table.

“This place serves some of the most amazing momos. Have you tried them here?” – I asked.

“Oho. I’m a momo-fanatic. So, a fried ‘C’ chicken momo for me. And what will you have?”

“One steamed Veg momo. I’m a vegetarian”. I don’t know why I had to tell him this, but I did anyway.

“Well, in that case, make it two Veg momos.” – He said.

“No, you don’t have to. I don’t mind it.”

“Preeti, I said I’m a momo-fanatic. I care more about the package than the content” – He said followed by his highly contagious laughter. But I knew he did that for me.

“I’m sorry. I never asked about your work.” – he asked.

“Oh I’m a Marketing Executive at New Vista College. It’s a fun job. My boss is super-chill. She’s really an inspiration at work. She is more like a teacher to me than a boss. I work with passionate colleagues I get to meet new people, promote the brand to them and pitch my ideas within my team. It’s really my dream job.” – I couldn’t hold back my excitement.

“That’s so cool. I really believe that life is a journey and is too short to be spent doing something that you don’t enjoy. Working with passion ensures success. That’s the lesson I’ve learnt. Our parents unfortunately didn’t have that privilege. They had to slog in 10 to 5 shifts no matter how boring the job was. And they did it just for us, for their family. They lived a hard life and struggled just so that we could have this privilege to be sitting here chatting up in a café.” – He looked thoughtful.

“You know every other day I argue with my mom. I mean she’s so good at emotionally blackmailing me. But it’s always her that I share my secrets with. I guess parents are like that. They are like the giants who want to carry us on their shoulders. Just so that we can see more of the world. Something that they couldn’t. For them, children and family are their life’s biggest achievements. Sometimes, we don’t give them the importance that they deserve.” – I said, thinking of mom.

We chatted for hours when I thought I’d be out of there in no time. Something held me back. He felt less of a stranger every time he laughed and shared his stories. By the time we finished up the momos, we had become good friends. We finished off with some cold coffee. It was still quite a downpour outside and dusk had already set in.

I said – “Listen, it’s getting late. Let’s go now?”

“It’s raining rather heavily. How will you go home?” – He asked.

“I’ll take a taxi. How about you?” – I said.

“Oh, I’ll take the bus”

We both were lost for words. The awkwardness was starting to set in again.

After a brief silence, he mustered up some courage and said – “Please text me once you reach home?”

“Sure”. I smiled.

As we stepped outside the café, the rain started drenching us. Hurriedly, I opened up my umbrella. I turned to look at him and saw him struggling to find a shelter beneath the roof. I pulled him under my umbrella. He looked at me, a chain of rain drops flowing down his forehead, his glasses misted by the rain. He carried his usual smile.

And for the first time ever, I fell in love with the monsoon.

Grafana for real time JMeter test monitoring

2019-10-13T00:00:00+00:00

Motivation

The JMeter tests run are run in a periodic basis as part of the scheduled performance tests. The test reports including various metrics and details are generated after the completion of the test run. It would be advantageous to the team if the test status could be monitored in real time so that any evidence of a correlation between the failing components could be established.

Architecture

Telegraf : Collects the server metrics via an installed agent and stores it in InfluxDB backend
JMeter : Sends the test stats to InfluxDB using BackendListener listener
InfluxDB : Stores the metrics collected
Grafana : Finally, these metrics are visible via Grafana dashboards

Introduction

Grafana is an open source, real time metrics visualization tool which supports a plethora of data sources including InfluxDB, Elasticsearch, MySQL, MSSQL, etc. The tool can either be ran locally or can be hosted in Grafana Cloud as well. For this documentation, we will be looking at the steps to install the tool locally and add other dependencies along the way. There is a nice collection of visualization options to show the metrics which are highly customizable.

Installation

Grafana

Latest version of Grafana can be installed from here which also provides the option to install it locally or use it in a hosted environment. After the download is complete, the service should up and Grafana should be available at http://localhost:3000.

InfluxDB

After Grafana is successfully installed, the next step is to install the backend service, which in this case is InfluxDB. InfluxDB is an open source time series database which is optimized for time-stamped series data and can be downloaded from here. After the installation is complete, the folder structure is created as follows:

Among these files, ‘influx.exe’ is a CLI used to execute Influx Query Language (InfluxQL) commands and navigate the database. The ‘influxd.exe’ application is used to launch the InfluxDB server. The ‘influxdb.conf’ file is the config file that can be edited to configure the features. It can also be installed and run as a Windows service. The server needs to be up in order to access the database. InfluxDB also provides an http endpoint to allow interaction with the database. In order to enable it, the ‘influxdb.conf’ file needs to be edited with the changes below :

Fig. Enabling the HTTP endpoint service and setting up the port address

This enables the endpoint service. This can be verified with the PowerShell command ‘curl http://localhost:8086/ping’. The result should be as below :

Fig.Verifying that the InfluxDB endpoint is active

First, a database needs to be created in InfluxDB to hold the sample data from JMeter. To do this, first the influx CLI needs to be opened.

Fig.Starting the InfluxDB CLI

Typing in ‘influx’ will run the InfluxDB CLI. ‘show databases’ can be used to view the existing databases. Currently, there should be just one database with the name ‘_internal’. This database holds information pertaining to InfluxDB itself and is auto-generated during the installation. The command to create a new database is ‘create database <database-name>’.

The database is created as follows, where the database name is set up as jmeterStress.

Fig.Creating a new database

Configurations

There are a couple of configurations which needs be done on JMeter as well as Grafana in order to generate the measurements and display the live results.

JMX Configuration

Since, the test data needs to be written to the InfluxDB in real-time, a ‘Backend Listener’ needs to be added to the existing test plan. A plugin ‘JMeter-InfluxDB-Writer’ needs to downloaded in order to write the data to InfluxDB so that the Grafana JMeter dashboard can integrate seamlessly without much configuration being needed.

Below are the steps to configure the backend listener in JMeter:

Add the Backend Listener to the test plan
Configure the Backend Listener as follows:

Fig.Configuring the BackendListener options in JMeter

‘testName’ is the name of the test.

‘influxDBHost’ and ‘influxDBPort’ are set as according to the InfluxDB host and port addresses.

‘influxDBUser’ and ‘influxDBPassword’ are the user credentials for the InfluxDB.

‘influxDBDatabase’ is the target DB to store the data.

Linking Grafana and InfluxDB

Now that InfluxDB and Grafana are set up, the connection between the two needs to be established as well. Below are the steps to achieve this :

Add datasource

Navigate to http://localhost:3000 or wherever Grafana is being hosted. At the start a login page is displayed where the default username and password values are ‘admin’ and the password can be changed after the login.

Fig.Grafana : Login page

After the login, the user is directed towards the default dashboard. Currently, it holds the options to add a new data source, create a new dashboard, add users, etc.

Click on ‘Add data source’ to configuration database connection.

Fig.Grafana : Default Dashboard

Then a time series database can be selected from the list of options presented. After selecting ‘InfluxDB’ there, a configuration page opens where the specific details can be configured.

Fig.Data source configuration in Grafana

After configuring the database details and clicking ‘Save & Test’ button, a message saying ‘Data Source is working’ should be displayed.

Create a Dashboard

The next step after configuring the data source is to create a dashboard. There are plenty of options to choose here as well since Grafana provides a great variety of dashboard template to choose from.

This option can be selected by clicking on the ‘+’ icon at the top-left corner of the menu and selecting ‘Import’ under the create sub-menu. For our implementation we have used this dashboard which has all the basic visualization options. The dashboard can be imported by either supplying it’s dashboard ID or it’s JSON file.

Fig.Importing the dashboard template

After the import is completed, a dashboard with empty visualizations is generated. By default, the time period filter for which the report is to be shown will be ‘Yesterday’ with a ‘Aggregation Interval’ of 1 minute. The ‘Aggregation Interval’ is the interval at which the data is fetched from the backend. Here, we change it to 1s to collect the data every second. Also, we change the time filter from ‘Yesterday’ to ‘Last 5 minutes’ to show the latest results.

Fig.Changing the ‘Aggregation Interval’ to 1s and time filter to ‘Last 5 minutes’

Running the JMeter Tests

To verify whether the set up is successful, the JMeter test plan can be run. As soon as the test are running, the commands below can be used to verify if the data are getting stored in InfluxDB.

Fig.The metrics are being collected and visualized in real time’

Also, the database is collecting the metrics live from JMeter which can be verified as below :

Fig.Verifying whether the measurements are being collected

In InfluxDB, ‘measurements’ can be thought of as tables. Each of these measurements has a timestamped value can be queried like below :

Fig.Querying the measurement ‘virtualUsers’

Telegraf

Telegraf is an open source plugin-driven agent used to collect server metrics. The types of metrics to be collected can be customized by adding new plugins or editing existing ones. The goal of using this server agent is to collect the server metrics from the server where the application is being hosted and have them delivered to the backend which in our case is InfluxDB which can then be viewed live from Grafana as earlier.

Installing Telegraf as a Windows Service

Download Telegraf from the url below which will download the packaged in a zipped format.

https://portal.influxdata.com/downloads/
Extract the contents on a destination folder. The folder should contain a ‘telegraf.conf’ file containing the Telegraf configurations.

Inside the config file, there are multiple options to collect the server metrics as well as other configuration options. For example, under the ‘[agent]’, there are options which can be configured to select how the metrics will be collected.

For example, the ‘interval’ config option is used to set the duration of the metric being collected.

We can leave these options as it is for now. The main focus is on the ‘outputs’ section of this config file. It is here where the output format and destinations are specified.

For example, if the InfluxDB is being hosted locally on port 8086 and the metrics are to be collected in a database named ‘jmeterStress’, then the following configurations should be specified under the [[outputs.influxdb]] section, which is an output plugin of Telegraf.

Now that the backend details are set up, we need to specify which metrics are to be collected. This can be set up under the ‘[[inputs.win_perf_counters]]’ plugin configuration. Some of the common metric options are CPU usage, Process metrics, Disk time and queues, Network metrics etc.

Details of other options are in the url below :

https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/tree/master/plugins/inputs/win_perf_counters

Once these configurations are done the telegraf agent starts sending out the metrics to the backend at the specified interval which can then be shown over Grafana in a live manner.

Fig. Measurements being collected at InfluxDB from Telegraf

These metrics can then be represented in Grafana by using any one of the available templates in the url below :

https://grafana.com/grafana/dashboards?dataSource=influxdb&search=telegraf

Fig. The server metrics being displayed in the Grafana dashboard

Revelations

2018-08-12T00:00:00+00:00

Break the chains
the very ones that bind you
the ones that were traded to you
by the merchants of lust and dreams

Break the line
the line that was set
by the sheep O’ so blind
who thinks you’re one of it’s kind

Think of the people
who live in the shadows
for the world has decided
to turn off the lights
The wretched, the lonely and the lost
ride the same train
never knowing
which station to get off

Be the seeker
for you were meant to be one
unlearn everything that you picked up
along the forlorn way
you were ordered to obey
and you did just that
Unquestioningly, unhesitatingly
for you were promised
a heaven for your blindness
blissful light for your ignorance
Holy water and the Ganges
to baptize you
and purge you from your sins
you were traded chains, my friend
by the merchants of lust and dreams

So, break the chains
for freedom is life
and what is life
if you cannot ask
why, what and where
without fearing a stare
the answer to your questions
you’ll find it somewhere
Just close your eyes
and look inside for a while
you’ll find what you seek
the quest will end with a smile

And that would be the day
when you’d have broken free
looking at the eyes of the merchant
only to see
he looks a bit like you
and a bit like me

ऐनाभित्रको मान्छे

2018-06-16T00:00:00+00:00

ऐनाभित्रको मान्छे
ऐना भित्रको मान्छे
ऐना बाहिरको मान्छे
के एक हुन् ?
ती एक हुन?

मनभित्रको आँधी
बिछोडिएको साथी
के एक हुन्?
के एक हुन्?

म सक्दिन उसलाई छुन
सक्दिन म उसलाई भन्न
विगतका पानाहरू
चाहँदैमा मेटिदैन
लुकाएको सिरानीमा
सपना भोलि भेटिदैन

कोर्न त सकिन्नन्
पानाहरू खाली नै उडिरहन्छन्
नदेखिए पनि ती
झन् झन् सलबलाईरहन्छन्

हावाहरूमा उडिरहेका
भावनाका शीतहरू
रुमल्लिदै हिँडिरहेका
चाहनाका गीतहरू

एकान्तको माया
न दाहिने छु न बायाँ
म जस्तो छु
म त्यस्तै छु

दुई पैसाको अक्कल
सक्कल बमोजिम नक्कल
आउँदैन
अहँ आउँदैन

कुर मलाई नकुर
खासै फरक परदैन
फिरन्तेको साथ दिन
कसैलाई नि कर छैन
झस्किन्छौ कि अँध्यारोमा
अब त मलाई डर छैन

के भनूँ तिमीलाई
घडी घरीघरी हेरिरहन्छौ
म त बनेको उड्नलाई
तिमी धर्ती मै अडीरहन्छौ

हावाहरूमा उडिरहेका
भावनाका शीतहरू
रुमल्लिदै हिँडिरहेका
चाहनाका गीतहरू……

Mutton Curry for Dummies

2018-04-17T00:00:00+00:00

Confession

Despite all the hullabaloo behind me cooking a rare mutton curry to delight the taste-buds, I would have to stop beating behind the bush and thank my Mom for teaching me all that I know, and I know very little, about cookery. Sure, I have no right to boast about my culinary skills, but I can make a decent mutton/chicken gravy to subdue the hunger-induced inferno for a while.

This is a rather simple and straightforward technique that I have honed after many unsuccessful attempts. So, let’s cut through all the chatter and cook some damn mutton! Here we go.

If you’re having a bad day, then a good mutton-curry will wash your pain away.

Khasi Dhamala

Ingredients

Try keeping the ingredients to a minimum.

To begin with, I have one more thing to confess. I never mix my ingredients in exact measurements. At the beginning, it was more of trial and error but now I’ve reached the state where I can roughly estimate how many onions would go in the dish without having to look it up in the Internet.

So, here are the stuffs that I used which was enough for 4 servings:

Let the fun beginnn!

1/2 kg of mutton
2 medium-sized onions
4 medium-sized tomatoes
A full garlic
A little bit of ginger [Refer to the figure above]
Tori ko Tel (Mustard Oil - But any cooking oil would do)
Finely cut Dhaniya (Coriander) [Again, refer to the figure for an estimation]
Jeera (Cumin Powder)
Garam Masala (Hot Spices)
Besaar powder (Turmeric Powder)
Dhaniya Powder (Coriander Powder)
Salt as per the taste

Procedure

The process that I’ve followed here is really basic and this can be applied to cooking almost any other meat item, specially chicken or fish.

Frying Those Onions Well

You can use a pressure cooker or a saucepan or any other suitable dish depending upon the availability.

Be patient and wait for the onions to turn golden

Pour a little oil in the dish and set the heat to medium. Be careful not to overheat the oil as it can quickly burn the ingredients or burn the base of the vessel.

After the oil has heated, pour in the chopped onions. Slowly stir the onions and 5 minutes and let it change it’s color to a beautiful golden brown. That’s your signal to pour in the meat.

Tip No. 1

While it’s always better to have all of the ingredients ready beforehand, if you’re in a hurry, you can quickly chop the tomatoes and grate the garlic and ginger to form a thick paste while the onions are getting fried. Remember to keep stirring the onions in the cooker though!

Pour in the Meat and Wait for the Moment

Next step is to put the meat in the dish. Now, it may be tempting to keep on stirring the meat but the magic is in the constant supply of low heat and allowing the meat to settle down and release it’s fatty oils. Allow the meat to get fried in it’s own oil. Grated garlic and ginger paste along with Jeera, Besaar and Dhaniya powders can be mixed during halfway through the cooking. You can even put in some dried chillies or chilly powder if you want your curry to be spicy. It might take upto 10-15 minutes for the meat to get fried depending upon the quantity of the meat. The color will change to give a richer golden-brownish color showing that the meat is now fried.

Notice the meat on the right picture has a visible tinge of brown after sufficient frying

Tip No. 2

The spices can be put as soon as the meat is poured in for frying but I would not suggest that. Experience shows that if these mixtures are added too early in the process, then they tend to get stuck at the base of the pan and eventually burn.

Also remember, Garam Masala should be added only towards the end of the cooking and not now.

To Gravy or Not to Gravy

So far so good, eh? We are approaching towards the end of this adventure. Too soon right, yeah, I know. We were just starting to have some fun. Well, hold on to your horses because the show isn’t over yet. But wait a minute, the meat is fried and you can really smell that delectable aroma of all sorts of spices. Surely, you can quickly pop a piece and savour the fruits of your labor right? Well, no again. The meat might look as if it’s ready to serve, but if you do, then be ready for some big-time embarrassment. Had it been chicken that we’re cooking, then you might be right. But its, mutton we’re dealing with here. It’s more firmer variant of meat and has a higher amount of fiber which demands further slow-cooking for it to be tender and softer. What I normally do is put the lid on the pressure cooker and let it cook for a good 7-8 minutes, which is roughly about 5-6 whistles.

Add those damn tomatoes. Close the lid and relax. Go read a book.
By the way, this is Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari. Good book indeed.

But the question remains. Do you want the mutton to have a thick gravy, or a lighter one? Or rather, no gravy at all. Well, depending on that, you put in the tomatoes. Put in the tomatoes in the vessel and wait for them to tenderize the meat a little with its moisture. You may add 1-2 cups of water or even more depending upon your palate. Put the lid on and set the flame to low. Wait for 5-6 whistles.

Once the meat has completely cooked, open the lid and add two teaspoon of Garam Masala and let it cook on medium flame for another 5 minutes.

Tip No. 3

If you’re using a pressure cooker, then be sure to fill a quarter of the vessel with water. Otherwise, there is a chance of the meat getting burnt. Also, after 5-6 whistles, check whether the meat has cooked completely or not. If not, add a little more water and close the lid again and let it whistle out for another 2 whistles. Check again. Repeat.

Serve and Enjoy

Voila! If everything went well, you now have yourself a mutton curry ready to be a part of your meal. Best enjoyed with Bhaat (Rice) or Roti.

Enjoy your Share

There are a number of different ways to cook mutton. This is just one of those ways. Like I confessed before, I am not a chef and there have been times when the food that I’d cooked had tasted worse than rubber. But, I’ve lived and learned.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this. Stay blessed!

Circus

2018-04-11T00:00:00+00:00

Photo Credit Becky Phan

When the world outside
Keeps burning like hell
close your curtains
and enjoy the show

You have something now
that you’d lost before
now make a promise
that you’ll never let it go

Life is a grand circus
the biggest of it’s kind
the one’s trying to convince you otherwise
must surely be dead blind
Here, in the circus you see
freaks of all kind
doing their juggling tricks
but who’s there to remind
that it’s just a show, in the end
even the most grand carnivals must end
No there isn’t much a difference
between a gymnast, or a clown
or a juggler, lions and hounds
even the ringmaster is now a timid soul
for they forgot the only single fact that
it’s just a joke after all

अकिञ्चित, अर्धमुदित ति नयन

2018-04-08T00:00:00+00:00

Kamalpokhari : Early Dawn

अकिञ्चित, अर्धमुदित ति नयन
बिहानीको किरण जस्तै
हृदयभित्र ब्यूँतिएका हजार सपनाहरु जस्तै
आकाशका ति उज्याला हीराका टुक्राहरु
कपालमा सिउरिएर उडिरहेकी तिमी
विपनाभन्दा पनि सपनाझैँ बढी लाग्ने तिमी
नाम पनि त भनिनौ बोलाउनलाई
कारण पनि त छाडिनौ सम्झिरहनलाई

अकिञ्चित, अर्धमुदित ति नयन
रातको कोमल सुवास जस्तै
तिमी कुनै नलेखिएको कविताको हरफजस्तै
कुनै नागाईएको गज़लको बान्की जस्तै
गाजल पनि त लगाईनौ रात भन्नलाई
लाली पनि त लगाईनौ साँझ भन्नलाई

सपना मेरा किञ्चित निम्छरा छन् शायद
शायद घामका किरणहरुले गल्लान् कि
तर आशा छ भरपुर अहिलेसम्म पनि
म पुग्छु आफ्नो शब्दको सेतु तरेर
तिमी केवल आफ्ना ओँठको स्पर्श देऊ
अनि देऊ एउटा कोमल सुसेली
त्यही सुसेलीमा मा उन्छु शब्दका फूल
अनि अर्पण गर्छु पाउमा
मेरा कविता हजार

अकिञ्चित, अर्धमुदित ति नयन …।