Aamir Khan blessed with baby boy

Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao became the proud parents of a baby boy on December 1.


The baby was born through IVF to a surrogate mother at a private clinic in Mumbai.


Apparently, Aamir sent a letter to Mumbai-based tabloid Mid-Day, stating: 'It gives us the greatest joy to share with you the good news of the birth of our baby boy. This baby is especially dear to us because he was born to us after a long wait and some difficulty. Due to medical complications, we were advised to have a baby through IVF - Surrogacy and we feel very grateful to the Almighty that everything has gone well.

Kalkandu vada

Since it is made with sugar candy the name kalkandu vada. It is a Chettinadu recipe and is a kids favourite.

Moong dhal 1 cup
Rice 1/4 cup
Kalkandu (rock sugar) 1/4 cup
Salt a pinch
Oil
Soak moong dhal and rice for about 30 minutes. Powder the kalkandu. Grind the soaked dhal, rice and kalkandu. Heat oil in a kadai and make the dough into vada shaped and deep fry it in oil. Fry till it is golden brown in colour. Kalkandu vada is ready to taste.

Meen kappa cutlet

Meen Kappa cutlet, coming from the land of tapioca, is one of the new recipe which is spicy and delicious to taste.


K Sanitha Sasikumar


Fish 500gm
Tapioca (Kappa) 1 kg
Onion 100 gm
Ginger small piece
Green chillies 4
Dalda 2 spoons
Chilly powder, coriander powder 1 spoon each
Turmeric powder 1/2 spoon
Curry leaves 
Oil and salt 


Cook the fish and mash it by removing the bones. Cook tapioca with salt removing the strands and mix it with dalda. Then add onion, ginger, green chillies, curry leaves, turmeric powder, coriander powder and then the fish till the excess water goes off. Make big balls of tapioca and fill it inside with fish fillings. Then deep fry it in oil. Meen kappa cutlet is ready

Tri colour maida cake

Here is a cake decorated with the colours of your choice. Aesthetically appealing it is a sure hit among children.

Maida 1 1/2 cup
Ghee 1 cup
Sugar 2 cup
Water 1/2 cup
Cocoa powder 2 teaspoon
Vanilla essence 2 drops
Food colour (Green) 1 pinch
Pista essence 2 drops
Pour three fourth of ghee in a heavy vessel and keep it on stove. After it gets heated roast maida. In another vessel make sugar syrup and then add the maida into the syrup and mix it well. Divide it into 3 equal parts.

Add cocoa powder to the first part and mix it. Add vanilla essence to the second part and to the third add pista essence and food colour. 

Then in a kadai, put the first mixture and keep it on the stove. Add little ghee and stir it well. After the contents start leaving the bottom of the vessel switch off the stove and pour the mixture in a ghee coated vessel. Cook the second part too like the first and once the mixture starts leaving the vessel pour it on top of the first mixture. Lastly, cook the third part and after it is cooked add it as the top layer. After it is set cut into desired shapes and store it in a container (Cut the cake when it is hot itself).

daminte Makan Abu is India's entry for IFFI

 Malayalam film 'Abu, Son of Adam' is India's official entry into the competition section of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2011 that will begin in Goa from today.
The international competition section also has films from countries including Belgium, Philippines, Russia, Japan,
Iran, Ireland, Colombia, Israel, Germany, Poland, Denmark, Canada and Kazakhstan.
The film 'Adaminte Makan Abu' (Abu, Son of Adam), which has also been chosen as India's official entry in the
Best Foreign Film category for the 84th Academy Awards, will be competing with 14 other films for the coveted Golden
Peacock award at the IFFI.
Directed by Salim Ahamad, the film is the story of a poor perfume-seller, Abu, whose only remaining wish in life is
the sacred Haj Pilgrimage.
The jury, headed by India's one of the most-renowned filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan, will be judging these films.

Other members on the panel include Laurence Kardish, a senior curator of film at the Museum of Modern Art in New
York, Lee Yong Kwan, director of Busan International Film Festival in Korea, Tahmineh Milani, an Iranian filmmaker and
Dan Wolman, an Israeli award-winning filmmaker.

Apart from the Golden Peacock award for the Best Film, there will be other awards like the Silver Peacocks for
Best Director, Best Actor (Male), Best Actor (Female) and Special Jury Award.

IFFI, which will begin today, will go on till December 3, followed by the award function at Kala Academy
auditorium in Panaji, the state capital. PTI

GKSF INAGURATION

’The Dirty Picture’: Needlessly smutty

Film: "The Dirty Picture"; Cast: Vidya Balan, Naseeruddin Shah, Emraan Hashmi, Tusshar Kapoor; Director: Milan Luthria, Producer: Ekta Kapoor; Rating **
Is it a voyeuristic peep-eye or the projection of a woman who lives life on her own terms? Does it hold up a mirror to an exploitative society or actually become part of it? The lines keep blurring in "The Dirty Picture", leaving the movie about a southern sex star's rise to fame in the 1980s film industry and her tragic fall from it an inchoate, confused mess.
The film begins with the lofty quote from Friedrich Nietzsche: "You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star." And opens with a young Reshma (Vidya Balan in a bravura performance) falling off a ladder, confident her mother will be there to pick her up. The dark abyss after that is telling. There she is, now a young woman, laughing delightfully at the discomfiture of a couple making out in the room next door with her moans accompanying the creaking of the bed.
Alas, the promise of that beginning, the hoped for portrayal of a sassy woman who is unashamed of her sexuality, peters out soon enough. 
Reshma evolves into Silk, enters the movies and claws her way to the top using the aging superstar Surya (Naseeruddin Shah). There are others she meets along the way, Surya's awkward writer brother Ramakant (Tusshar Kapoor), the cerebral filmmaker Abraham (Emraan Hashmi) who has only contempt for her and the various directors who use her sensuality to bring in the front-benchers and the moolah.
There is a disclaimer at the beginning that this film is based on fiction. But, of course, that is a flimsy cover for a film on the life of Silk Smitha who committed suicide at the end of career that saw dazzling fame and also ignominy.
The problem with "The Dirty Picture" is that we never really get a grip on Silk's character. Here is a woman who revels in her body, looks on knowingly as the filmmaker offering her her first job watches her lustily and, given her first stab in front of the camera, wants to impress the choreographer and unasked sheds it all - clothes and inhibitions.

Google maps goes indoors

Google's free online mapping service began helping people navigate inside airports, transit centers, and major shops in the United States and Japan. 
The latest version of Google Maps for smartphones powered by Android software began providing detailed floorplans marked with blue dots showing where users are to within several meters.
"Google Maps for Android enables you to figure out where you are and see where you might want to go when you're indoors," Google Earth and Maps vice president of engineering Brian McClendon said in a blog post. 
The California-based Internet titan partnered with large retailers, airports and transit stations to launch the feature and said it planned to continually add new floorplans of public buildings around the world. 
"When you're inside an airport, shopping mall, or retail store, a common way to figure out where you are is to look for a freestanding map directory or ask an employee for help," McClendon said. 
"With the release of Google Maps 6.0 for Android, that directory is brought to the palm of your hands, helping you determine where you are, what floor you're on, and where to go indoors," he said. Businesses interested in adding floor plans to Google Maps were invited to upload the information at maps.google.com/floorplans.