Shutterbug's Blog

Living with Multiple Myeloma in Hyderabad , India . Random musings .

Category Archives: Summer


by Leave a comment

Lock-Down Dairies – 27 May 20 : Update on lockdown in India , my first taste of Himayat Mangoes

While the number of C19 Cases stand at 1.5 lakh and fatalities at almost 4300 , the economy has opened up to a large extent. Hardly any signs of a Lockdown. Almost all stores have opened shop. Tailors, dry cleaners, jewellery stores, stationery stores, plasticware selling stores etc all are now open.

Dining in Restaurants, schools and colleges , public transportation like buses and Metro , big malls are yet to be operational. Few autos and cabs are seen.

Trains for migrants and domestic flights are being operated between the states.

We may soon see a big spike in the cases soon with all the Migrants moving from cities to the villages.

Also, with the monsoons coming up ,don’t really know what is in store …another actual lockdown perhaps.

My first taste of Himayat Mango :

Ordered this box on Farmizen. Great packing and delivery.

One box is 3kgs and has 7 Himayat Mangoes.

I did not know anything about this variety of Mango untill after I tasted it.

While eating I was judging the shape, the smell, the amount of pulp,the sweetness, fibre content in the pulp, the thickness of the skin and the taste of the skin etc

Shape: bit longer compared to the width

Smell: did not have any sweet smell

Quantity of pulp: quite a lot

Size of seed: thin

Sweetness: though it was not 💯% ripe, it was very sweet and mildly tangy.

Fibre content: no fibre

Thickness of the skin: very thin

Taste of the skin: edible

Feel of the pulp: very soft and smooth consistency

Enjoyed the fruit. Will wait for a couple of days to taste the next one.

~ Sarve janaaha sukhino bhavanthu ~


by Leave a comment

Lock-Down Dairies – 10 May 20 : Mother’s Day , Video on how I make Ash gourd juice , Lockdown Party with extended family , Mangoes from neighbours Mango tree

Today is Mother’s day . I usually meet Mom every year on this day and wish her. This year my parents are in the village as they had decided to stay back during the lockdown period.

” Love you Amma for always encouraging me and being a very strong pillar of support in my worst times, for giving me a second life in this life “

I decided to make a video on how I prepare my Ash gourd juice each morning. Had been drinking this juice since 15 Jan 20 but somehow was unable to make a video. Finally did it today 🙂 .

Here is the link :

Here is my Breakfast for today:

I put carrots and coconut slices in the mixer grinder. I love the sweet taste and prefer this rather than eating them separately. Easier to chew too :).

My Sister and Brother live with their families very close by and we all haven’t met since the lockdown. We decided to have a Tea-party this evening. Each of us brought some snacks along with Tea and water melon juice.

I made ‘Pesara pongananu (Moong Dal fritters) using a Cast iron Paniyaram Pan, Chutney with Bengal gram and coconut, Watermelon juice and Tea.

Pesara ponganaalu in a cast iron Paniyaram pan

My Sister brought Bhelpuri and Mango Kesari and my SIL brought Samosas.

We had the get-together in our stilt floor which is totally open and used only for parking the cars and bikes. We started the party by sitting a little far from each other but very soon we all got closer to each other 🙂

It was wonderful and we plan to have potluck lunch next Sunday.

There’s a huge Mango tree in our neighbours yard and a lot of branches are spread over our plot. Each year during this season we pluck the Mangoes that grow in our plot 🙂 . Today we decided to pluck the mangoes and there were a lot of them. Shared them with my brother and Sister . These are the big juicy mangoes and we are going to ripen them naturally using a Jute bag. I also plan to slice a few mangoes, dry them in the sun and store them for future use in various curries. We call them ‘Mamidikaaya Orugulu’.

I also plan to make Mamidikaaya pulihora, Mamidikaaya pappu , Sambhar for my family.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful strong . God can be easily experienced in Mom’s Love.


by Leave a comment

Lockdown Dairies- 27 Apr 20 : recording YouTube videos for my channel , Broadband issue rectified , A/C ready to be used, distraught farmers during lockdown

There are times when I am in the mood of recording a video and sharing on my YouTube channel. I am just a novice and usually share these videos with Family and friends. I am yet to learn some basic video editing skills and also improve the video recording skills. Yet to decide on a video editing software too.In spite of these handicaps i continue to upload a video once in a while. Gives me some happiness in sharing a bit of my life.

So, today is one such day and I recorded two videos with the help of my Son. I am yet to edit them and upload. One of them is about ‘how to prepare Composite Roti’ and the second is ‘Scrambled Egg-Andhra East Godavari style’ 🙂

My Broadband connection issue is finally rectified after hubby personally went to the Exchange and followed up with the Lineman. What a relief !! . I was totally handicapped for 2 full days. My Mobile Data too got exhausted…Phew !! Almost felt lost …:)) . Had to request my hubby and son to switch on their mobile hotspot and they reluctantly did that after putting a limit of the data that i could use… Hmmm

We are almost at the fag end of April and we have not yet switched on the A/C ,though hubby cleaned the filters and ensured they are in working condition and kept them ready for use. Hope we will be able to manage all through summer without A/C .With May coming up ,I am not so sure. The weather is very humid but not very hot and I am sweating like a pig whenever I am cooking/cleaning :).

Saw a video where a distraught farmer was expressing the plight of farmers during the lockdown. His banana plantation was ready to be harvested and he is unable to get labour to cut and transport the fruits. He is pleading with people watching his video to keep forwarding his video instead of other unworthy videos.His final statement is very touching :’what are people going to eat in the future if this is the situation’ . Really bad situation . I hope the government increases the wages of agricultural labour just like the benefits given to the frontline medical staff. Also the farmers should reduce their profits and give more wages to the labourers. The farmers an should also take care of the labourers by ensuring that they are following social distancing and using PPEs.

~Let Go or Be Dragged – Zen proverb~


by Leave a comment

Lockdown Dairies – 20 Apr 20 : Summer showers / Mango showers / April showers

Lockdown in Telangana state has been extended upto 7 May 20.

Our CM is being praised for taking good care of migrant labour ,coming from various parts of the country, who are working in construction sites in Hyderabad. The Municipal corporation is hosting the labourers in Function Halls and empty buildings and providing food and Television for their entertainment.

It is peak of Summer here in India but for some reason the weather is much cooler and we don’t really feel the need for switching on the A/C. There are drizzles and sudden gusts of wind during the evenings . Today is  one such day. Whenever it is windy ,my neighbours Mango tree showers one or two mangoes in our plot :). The tree has branches over our plot and whatever grows on these branches belongs to us :p

Today’s showers gave me four mangoes.

They are a bit bruised but are good for making dal or instant chutney.

Had a busy WFH day today. Our Head office is collecting all WFH activities being done by all the branches of our company situated all over India. Though we are a manufacturing company the IT department is working full time though all manufacturing is stopped. For the first time some of us are working from home. All those working from home are highly enthusiastic and the productivity is much higher too 🙂

I don’t need to water my plants today. Went and had a look at how they were doing. They seem very happy in the cool weather :).

~Sarvesham Poornam Bhavathu~