Envy

I envy those who can write what they are thinking, what they are feeling.

It took me more than an hour to write this second line.

Day Two

I was able to write a mere 700 words last night before crashing. This puts my total word count at a little over 5k. I had hoped to reach 5k the first day but i am still on track to finish 50k by end of the month.

I have a slight pain in my right hand, the result of working on a keyboard for most of the day and then typing furiously at night. It seems better this morning but I will still try to take it easy at work.

Nanowrimo

I am taking part in Nanowrimo this year. Nanowrimo stands for National Novel Writing Month. What it means is that I will have to write a 50,000 word novel before the end of November.

I first heard of Nanowrimo in 2008 when a friend decided to take part in it. I admit I was quite intrigued but I had just started a new job and did not have the time or patience to churn out 50,000 words in a month. In 2009 I joined the nano website and decided to take part. November 2009 ended without my having written a single word. In 2010, I had an actual plan for a novel, an actual outline. I was going to do it that year! I wrote maybe a hundred words before giving up.

This year I have a plan. I have an outline. I have characters. I have a plot. I don't know how the story ends but I know how to get there. I put off writing a blog post about it just to make sure I was going to keep my word on participating, really participating this year. I am taking part in the forum discussions, albeit very slowly and keeping in touch with some other wrimos through facebook and twitter. It also helped quite a bit that the first day of Nanowrimo coincided with Cup day. I got a day off work and I managed to write 1500 words starting from midnight before I went to sleep last night.

I was going to write 5000 words before I went to bed tonight but I am tired. I am stuck and my hands are really hurting. I am up to 4300 words and if I manage at least a thousand words for the next three nights (which are workdays) I reckon I will still be on track.

När mörkret faller

Sometimes just one scene in a movie is so powerful that it can grab you by the throat and squeeze tears from your eyes. Last night, while flicking through the tv channels, I came across such a scene.

The movie is called "När mörkret faller" (When darkness falls) and it is from Sweden. It was about halfway through when I started watching it.

A young girl (Nina) has apparently left her family and is staying at a hotel. She misses her family and her younger sister (Leyla) and calls, wanting to come back. Her mother offers an alternative; a trip to Germany with the rest of her family to marry someone of their choosing and she agrees.

In Germany, they stop at a hotel for the night, with the younger sisters in one room and Nina and her mother in another with the rest of the family in other rooms. Leyla wakes up in the middle of the night and sees the men of the family taking Nina out into the street. She runs out and witnesses the men making Nina run across the busy road to the other side. Even as she manages to dodge the heavy traffic and arrive safely on the other side, there are other men waiting there. They make her run back and forth until finally she is hit.

I was sitting up straight and had tears in my eyes as Leyla lets out gut wrenching screams. And I wish I had started watching this movie from the start so I knew why Nina's family decided to kill her in this brutal fashion. As I sat through the rest of the movie I learnt that they had arrived at that decision because they thought she wasn't a virgin. They decided to kill her to protect their family's honour.

This movie isn't just about Nina, Leyla and her family. there are two other story lines. One involving a club manager who witnesses a shooting and decides to testify after getting death threats to him and his family. The other about an award winning journalist who is violently abused by her husband of ten years and finally goes public with it.

The three stories doesn't interconnect yet the movie cuts back and forth between them and their similar themes. The violence that is inflicted upon the main characters and the moment they decide that enough is enough and takes a stand and the fallout of that decision.

The rest of the movie was very good but that Nina's death scene has stayed with me. I cannot imagine myself being that dishonoured to wish death upon a loved one, upon family. I don't understand honour killings.

Everyone has the right to chose their own path in this life. None of us can chose it for them.

Blue

Some days the sky is so blue that it makes you forget your blues...

The need to focus

The 15 day challenge was a bust. I should have looked over it more thoroughly before starting instead of jumping in feet first. If it hasn't already become apparent I have given up on the 15 day challenge and am going to concentrate on writing. Anything. And everything.

I do however believe that the blog needs to focus on something. The most successful blogs ie the most read blogs are those that concentrate on a particular subject or field and is updated often.

This is my problem. I cannot focus on just the one thing.

There are many things that interest me. And this blog was in fact going to be the mouthpiece for all of it, hence the "This is my 'I has a blog' blog" tagline. I think I may go back to those few challenges I set myself when I resurrected this blog.

please bear with me while I find my voice...

Day 5 of 15

Day Five: Share your favorite food picture or recipe.

My favorite recipe right now is Havaadhulee Bis (Curried Tuna Dumplings) from Dhumashi blog. During Ramadan of last year I discovered this blog and tried a few of the recipes. The one I liked the most was this one. This Ramadan I have made this three times. It is a lot of work but the payout is great.

I have made some slight changes to the recipe just because I couldn't get all the ingredients. The recipe is from Dhumashi blog but the picture is that of the ones I made.

Dough

2 cups flour

¼ cup boiling water (keep adding the water until it is the right consistency)

¼ cup grated coconut

1 tbsp oil

1 tsp salt

Filling

1 cup Maldivian smoked tuna Valhoamas (finely chopped) (I used a large can of tuna)

½ cup freshly grated coconut

1 onion (finely chopped)

8 curry leaves (finely chopped)

1 hot pepper chilli Githeyo mirus (chopped) (used dried chili flakes)

¼ tsp turmeric powder

2 tsp lemon juice

1 ½ tsp salt

Curry

1 tbsp oil

1 onion (finely chopped)

2 tbsp Maldivian roasted curry powder Hanaakuri havaadhu (Indian curry powder)

2 tbsp tomato paste

4 curry leaves

2 inches pandan / rampe leaves

¼ tsp chilli powder

½ cup thick coconut milk

1 litre water (to boil the bis or dumplings)

Preparation of the dough

1. Add salt, oil, grated coconut and water into the flour and mix well. Make into a soft dough. Divide the dough into 40 small balls and keep aside.

Preparation of the filing

1. Mix onion, lemon juice, curry leaves, chopped hot pepper chilli and salt. Mix until the juices flow from the onion.
2. Mix in the grated coconut.
3. Add turmeric powder and mix again.
4. Add Valhoamas and mix well.
5. Divide and make 40 small oval shapes.

Preparation of bis (Dumplings)

1. Press the dough into small cup shapes and place the tuna filling inside it.
2. Close the dough over the filling and make into oval shapes like eggs.
3. Repeat the same with the rest of the dough and tuna filling.
4. Boil the water and drop above prepared egg shaped dumplings into it.
5. Cook until the outer layer appears translucent.
6. Remove from water and strain.

Preparation of curry

1. Heat oil.
2. Fry onion, curry leaves and pandan leaves. Fry until onions appear golden brown.
3. Add in the chilli powder, turmeric powder, tomato paste and Hanaakuri havaadhu. Mix well.
4. Add salt and thick coconut milk. Cook for few minutes.
5. Fold the bis or dumplings into the prepared curry and apply curry all over.
6. Transfer to a plate and serve hot.

Note: Can use canned tuna if you do not have Maldivian smoked tuna.

If you cannot get freshly grated coconut for this recipe, you may use medium dessicated coconut instead (dessicated coconut is readily available in most Asian shops in UK and in many other countries).