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Blissful
in Bandra My favourite getaway during the rains is the Mumbai-Pune Express highway; though it is quite far from my Yari Road residence and it takes me quite some time to reach there. Alternatively, I hang around in Bandra Reclamation. I go there with my friends for a long drive, and either we sit inside the car and listen to rain songs or move out and get drenched. I remember, it poured cats and dogs unexpectedly on June 1 this year though we had not expected the rains to come before June 8; I was with my friends in the car, driving towards Bandra. At Bandra, I couldn’t resist getting out of my car and getting completely drenched. During the rains, I love
to gorge (or rather devour) on food and one of my favourite dishes is sookha
bhel garnished with sweet tamarind chutney. I do not know how to
make it , it’s my mum who is the expert in the kitchen. All that I
can make on my own is dal khichdi, when mum is not around. Soaking
it with skewers
I make it a point to enjoy the rains in Mumbai by gorging on chicken tikkas and kebabs and sipping hot masala mint tea. After marriage I have become more health conscious and detest eating junk food, like I used to in the past. Among rain songs, I particularly love listening to Barso Re Megha, which was a visual treat in Mani Ratnam’s Guru, where Aishwarya Rai danced her way to everyone’s heart with her sizzling moves in the rains. My favourite recipe for
the monsoon is chicken tikka skewers. For the chicken skewers, take
400 gm boneless chicken, for the marinate take 1 cup of thick cream, 1
tsp red chilli powder and salt and for the spinach flavored kebabs,
take`A0half a teaspoon of spinach paste and pepper powder, and add 3
tbsp of hung curd. Mix all the ingredients for the marinate and rub
into the chicken pieces. Divide the marinate into two halves and mix
spinach paste in one of the halves and rub this marinate in one
portion of the chicken pieces. Leave the marinated chicken aside for 3
hours, put the pieces on the skewers and cook in a tandoor or
grill till they are tender. Dancing
in the rain Out of my films, my personal favourite I would say is Tip Tip Tip Baarish Shuru Ho Gayi, which was picturised on Neelam and me in Khandala during the monsoons, with me dancing using a tiny umbrella. The best way to spend a wet day, I feel, is either to dance with gay abandon in the showers or, if you are afraid of getting drenched, enjoying indoors with a game of chess or carrom board along with your loved ones. For the monsoons, my
favourite recipe is chatpati peas. Take 500 gm peas with the
pod. All you need is half teaspoon of cumin seeds, red chilli powder,
dry mango powder, chat masala, one teaspoon of oil, half teaspoon of
salt and one fourth teaspoon of turmeric powder. Wash the peas and put
them in a strainer. Heat ghee and add cumin seeds. Add turmeric,
chilli powder and salt and 1/4 cup of water. Stir the masala and fry
for a few seconds. Put pea pods and stir well or fold with the masala.
Cover with lid and cook till fairly done, stirring occasionally.
Sprinkle mango powder and chat masala. Fold well and serve hot.
Liking
it in Lonavala Among my favourite rain songs are the magical Mere Khwabon Main Jo Aaye, which was picturised on Kajol in her sexy white blouse and short skirt in a backyard in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, and Tip Tip Barsa Pani, the foot-tapping number picturised on Raveena Tandon and Akshay, which had people begging for more. My favourite dish for the rainy season is sweet potato and potato chat. Here’s how you make it at home. Roast three sweet potatoes and potatoes after peeling and cutting them into medium pieces. Cut a tomato into pieces, peel and cut two bananas. Mix the vegetables and the fruits and sprinkle half a pomegranate, salt and masalas, green chillies, coriander and lemon juice and serve.
My favourite getaway during the rains is Marine Line, where I love spending time with a few friends, getting completely drenched by the seaside, eating pakodas and vada paos, the staple diet of Mumbai, and drinking cutting chai from streetside vendors. If I am at home, I make it a point to make noodles by mixing tomatoes, onions and adding chatpata masala on my own. I am a non-vegetarian and miss the chicken bhuna, which my mother makes for me back home in Lucknow, where I hail from. What I like about the rains is that the weather becomes so romantic that you feel like going on a date. I like to play cricket during the rains even though I have skidded often and injured myself, too. My only advise to my fans is that they should not go near the sea because it is risky and there are high tides during the rains. City
beautiful to maximum city
Though I have been around in Bollywood for quite some years, strangely not even a single song has been picturised with me in the rains, either with a heroine or solo. However, down South, a romantic song has been picturised on me prancing around in the rains with Melanie in the Telugu film, Ammayilu Abbayilu. My favourite getaway during the monsoons has always been Lonavala, because it is extremely serene and is full of greenery and there is something very awe-inspiring about the place. I am 100 per cent vegetarian and like to stuff myself with pakodas and all sorts of junk food during the rains, though otherwise I am very particular about not touching oily or junk food. Being a Punjab da
puttar, my favourite hangout with friends during the rains used to
be in Sector 27 of Chandigarh.
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My
favourite rain song from Hindi films is the evergreen ditty, Pyar
Hua Ikrar Hua, immortalised by Raj Kapoor and Nargis under an
umbrella in the good old days of black and white cinema. Whenever I
play the song during the rainy season, I get a feeling of deja vu,
especially when I have bhajiya and a cup of chai while
enjoying the showers.
Chilling
out with chai
