Diwali celebration

Lights, camera and Action!

No..No ..No..I am not talking about any trip to a Hollywood studio. I am talking about my favorite festival of  all times. It is the festival of lights! Well, lights feature in all festivals. What is a festival without light. Right? But a festival about lights?? That is my kind of festival. 

It is Deepawali. The festival of lights..lights and only lights. And action centered around lights. Firecrackers, indoor lightnings, out door lighting and what not. The skies light up, the roof tops brighten, the patio is flooded and the indoor is warm and glowy. The heart...well it only warms up and glows, with that much warmth going around, it radiates all that heat and light and warmth..making it the best best best festival in the whole wide world.

And it all started with a grandmother and her little granddaughter...in a village far far from here..

'....And a long  long time ago, in a small village lived a old woman. She lived alone on top of a small hill in a big mansion. The old woman would have been very lonely, if it wasn't for a little girl who came everyday to play with her in the garden. Her grand daughter. The little girls' parents lived somewhere away from the mansion, but she hung around the old place. The old lady and the little girl spent many a morning talking and playing little games but the old lady, much as she tried ,could not get the kid to come inside the mansion. The kid was fond of lights. But the mansion looked dark and gloomy. 

The old lady understood this. So one day, late autumn when the air was nippy and the Sun was going down and the little kid was about to leave, the old lady gave her some candies and asked her to wait while she made her favorite dinner. The little girl wanted to leave. But the candies and the promise of her favorite dinner was too much for her five year head to wrestle against. So she waited and waited and waited....

It seemed a long time that she was waiting. She wondered if her grandma was sick. Worried she walked to the door and with all the courage  she could summon, she opened the door. The aroma of dinner wafted out and the girl could not resist walking inside. And as soon as she walked inside, she saw her grandma with a candle. Starting to light little mud lamps on the sills of the large windows. She rushed to her grandma in excitement and together they slowly lit the whole house-- all three floors-- with the little candles. And when they reached the roof top...they lit the sky. And as the warmth in their hearts grew, it radiated so much heat that all the people of the land flocked around the mansion to see how the lights have lit up the sky and the rooftops and the windows and the ceiling and they all cracked up fires in all possible ways....and that's how the festival of lights was celebrated forever and ever.

But remember it all started with the dinner and candies. And here's the recipe for thae aroma that brought the little girl into that dark mansion in the first place :)

Chicken Chowmein!!

Ingredients:

1 chicken breast. Cut in small pieces
A handful of  small shrimp
Half a onion. Sliced
1 bell pepper. Sliced.
1 chiili pepper; Sliced
3-4 stalks of green onion. Chopped

1 pack of chowmein.
4-5 tsbf soy sauce
2 tbsf oyster sauce
1 tbsf garlic. Grated
1 tbsf ginger. Grated
3 tbsf of oil

Salt and pepper for seasoning

Saute and eat!
Boil the chowmein according to directions with 1 tbsf oil and salt. The oil keeps the strands separated. Drain and preserve.
In 1 tbsf oil, saute the chicken till done. Season with salt and pepper. About 3-4 mins. Dish up and set aside. Do the same thing with the shrimps.
Add a tbsf of oil and saute the ginger, chili pepper and garlic. For 1 min. Add the chowmein, with the soy sauce and oyster sauce for about 3 min. Add the veggies, fried chicken and shrimp and mix well together. Another 2 minutes. Add the green onion. Season with salt and pepper.

You have a dish that weakens even the boldest at heart :)

Happy Diwali. Don't let the lights go out!