Stir fried Potatoes

Yellow, green, brown...

I am posting this just for the sheer fun in enjoying the colours in this photo.
The bright yellow of the potatoes (turmeric is the secret),
The vivid green of the curry leaves,
The various shades of brown of the fenugreek seeds and fried onions, and the coconut coated with red chilly powder,
The occassional black dots of the mustard seeds...

I had added sambar powder to this potato stir fry and it gave a wonderful spicy taste. The onions and the fenugreek seeds were fried to a crisp which gave the occassional crunchy texture too. We loved it and gorged on it.

Three women at work

All in a day's work

I saw them on my way to the office; three women who also were on their way to work. They were selling these long brooms, as you can see, mounted on their petite shoulders. The lady in the sari (the middle one), also had a baby sleeping on her shoulder (not visible in the pic ) while she deftly balanced the brooms on her head.
These brooms are often around 6 feet long. If you are wondering what is the use of a broom 6 ft long, it has a unique purpose in India. It is used for removing cobwebs sitting pretty on unreacheably high corners of the roof in houses, offices etc. Trust me, they are more efficient and easy to use than you vacuum cleaner for roofs. I have tried using vacuum cleaners to gobble up the spider webs and suck the runaway spiders into the vacuum bag with a wicked glee. In the first place, the vacuum tube will not be long enough to reach high  roofs. Secondly I have to stare up with my head and hands pointing at the sky to aim the tube at the runaway spiders till my neck and arm muscles ache but to no avail.
With this broom, its so damn easy. First of all, they are so light weight and user friendly, esp. for lightly built people like me. Next, the bristles are arranged in a fan shape so that you can cover a lot of area in a single swipe unlike the vaccum tube opening of a few centimeters. The thickly arranged bristles also provide for more efficient squatting of the wannabe runaways.
Thus in ways more than one, these three women carry a very useful and totally indigenous device for keeping your homes clean.
Oh, and more pros are coming in now; this broom will cost you only a fraction of what a vaccum cleaner will cost (Rs 20 Vs Rs 2000); they are totally environment friendly; consumes no electricity/ fuel; they are totally plastic free; you can also use them to pluck mangoes (when its mango season) or guavas or some such fruits from trees. Thus its truly a multi-purpose , user friendly and environment friendly device.

PS: I almost sound like an online sales rep for these women, too bad they don't that I'm at it. :(