KULFI

KULFI is an INDO-PAK dessert ice cream which is mostly made out of milk. It is flavored with spices like cardamom or saffron. it can also be flavored with fruits most famous one is mango. It is from the time of MUGHAL EMPIRE  or The Royal Age. To make Kulfi you need to  follow few steps.

Ingredients
1.Full Cream (non pasteurized) Milk 1 Ltr.
2.Condensed Milk 1 can.
3.Sugar 1.5 cups.
4.Any Dry Fruit of your choice in my case i will use Pistachio....Whatever you choose you will need 20 grams of it.
4.Nutmeg powder 1/2 a teaspoon.


Procedure:
1. First You have to boil milk and when you are boiling milk keep stirring  so it don't boil over. 
2. Slowly add condensed milk while the milk is boiling.
3. As the milk get thickening add some sugar
4. After the sugar addition milk  will become watery so boil some more.
5. Add your dry fruit and nut meg powder
6. Once it thick again  it should be little less thick than the condensed milk. 
7. take it off the heat and pour it into ice mold and refrigerated. after one hour take it out and stir so no icicle will form then freeze again.
8. take it out when it fully frozen and serve.

Personal Archive

CONTEMPORARY ARCHIVE

CARROM

CARROM  is a  name of family table top game mostly played in South Asia. It is kinda like pool or billliard as i might say. It is also called finger billiards. Some sources describe that the game is originally originated in India several  years ago but formal rules are published by 1988 by the ICF an International Carrom Federation. ICF was formed in 1988 in the city of Chennai India. Carrom can be played between 2-4 people. Each Player on one side it can also be played in teams or inddivually.The carrom is almost 30 inch board and have 1 hole in each corner. It is played with disks and Striker. The object of play is you have to  use striker with a flick of of your finger to hit the disk to go in the pocket. There are many rules and regulation for carrom like any other game since its an interantional game now but the basic is you just have to  put the disk in the pocket. After original carrom there are many carrom inventer like American carrom, Australian carrom, Chinese and few others. But original carrom is best.

TAJ MAHAL

My mother and grand mother always had told me  that this palace was built by king for which family we are part of. This palace was built by The Prince Khurram in the memory of his beloved wife after she died giving birth to his 14th child. Khurram became king After a bloody battle he won ant took the name SHAH JAHAN which basically means KING OF THE WORLD. In 1631 his wife died she was only 39 years old.  SHAH JAHAN was very upset and  the royal court rule the mourning of 2 years there was no music, no feasting, and no celebration of any kind. He was also a passionate builder  so he decided to build a  palace for her wife so the whole world will know about his love for his wife. The palace was build on Yumna River so it could be seen from SHAH JAHAN PALACE. Work on palace started in 1633 20,000 workers laboured for 17 years to build it. The most skilled architects, inlay craftsmen, calligraphers, stone-carvers and masons came from all across Indian and lands as distant as Persia and Turkey. Yemen sent agates, the corals came from Arabia, the garnets from Bundelkhand, onyx and amethyst from Persia. QUEEN'S final resting-place was ornamented like a queen’s jewel-box. The one interesting fact about this whole  palace thing is that all the worker who had work on this  palace have their hand cut off after it was build  because when king saw it and it was so beautiful he did not want any more palace build like this so he cuts every worker hand off. So this family legend is true about my family.

 

American Revolution "The Patriot"

"The Patriot" is a movie about American revolution starring Mel Gibson. Written by Robert Rodat and directed by Ronald Emmerich. It is based in 1776 South Carolina and Benjamin Martin (Gibson) is French-Indian war hero  who haunt his past and lives with his family of 4 boys and 2 daughters is a widower father. He wants nothing else than live peacefully and raise his children in a plantation. He do not want any part of war with England. But his two oldest sons are eager to join the Continental Army. When S.C. decide to join rebellion against England Gabriel his oldest son  signed up immediately with out Martins permission and left with the army.  Days after he return wounded and then there was a small battle in front of martins house. The next day Martin was helping wounded soldiers of both armies when Colonel William Tavington a British Colonel came and killed all the Continental soldiers and killed Martins second oldest son Thomas, and were going to hang his Gabriel and destroyed Martins plantation and burned his house down. After this tragedy Martin find himself Torn between Revenge on colonel and protecting his family. So martin took his other two sons to fight with 20 soldiers who were going to hang Gabriel. he killed all 20 soldiers and no body saw him. the word got around that ghost killed those 20 British Soldiers and rescue Gabriel. he then took all of his children to their aunt. Then he went and joined continental army and formed a militia who started doing guerrilla attack on British army.
Well the movie was very suspenseful and entertaining and emotional at most points because it relates to children and common man. The historic event are portrayed in this movie are good enough to overcome Gibson's bad performance. he never found right tone for his emotional scenes especially the one where he have to cry I say he looked bit foolish. I guess he was just trying to hide his Australian accent. Although it seems like movie was just based on ACTION it has romance going on the side. Gibson with his  dead wife sister and his son Gabriel with a local girl from their village. The movie has shown the power of family  and how it could be important to even to a soldier and how it effected their cause.
The other bad thing in this movie was over exaggerated slow motion scenes. It shown in numerous time in battle field and when the house was burning down. And its not only the slow motion but its super slow - mo. I mean it was  really slow motion to the point where u can see blood splattering and head getting chopped of by those  bomb kinda balls or what ever they are or leg Gerti chopped of I seriously understand that me and m several other people like me would  root for that kind of stuff but when i watched it with family all of them were grossed out. But on the other hand it was directed by the director who also made Godzilla so it didn't matter to him much. 
There were massive blasts in the movie. I think there were more blasts in the movie then there would have been in real. I get its an action movie and we love to see explosion in action movies but also keep in my mind that it was based on 18th Century war tactics. And  i am kind of guy who just love to see explosion in movies. Still, for all its adherence to formula, "The Patriot" is certainly handsome and effectively rousing in small but resounding ways, like the scenes in which Martin smelts his dead son's toy soldiers into musket balls, or when he rallies farmers and villagers to arms, resulting in a motley militia of "colorful" roughnecks from central casting.

The makers and crew did a great effort for recreating the look and feel of 1700's. It is a very good , Good versus Evil drama which will keep you on your toes most of the time. Its two and a half hour historical action movie is not just a time pass it a very good entertainment which is totally worth spending your time over. IT IS NOT JUST AN EXCUSE FOR FANCY COSTUMES at least it was not for me . :)

Migration to U.S.

 

My family came to U.S. for a better education and work opportunity. My family migrated to U.S. in 2004 when I was 14 years old. Urdu is the main language spoken  in all of Pakistan. there are also few different tribal languages spoken but Urdu is the main national language. knowing not very good English have affected my dad and mom in work field a lot. It has also have affected me and my sisters in the early years of school in U.S. eventually i became very fluent in English by watching american cartoons and listening to songs. and so does my sister by having a lot of friends and talking to them in English. but it didn't affect my parents social life much because most of their friends were same age and spoken the same language. after being in U.S. for 7 almost 8 years i am still very fluent in Urdu. I am also planning to teach my children my mother tongue and about my family roots. it is very important for them to know about our family roots so they will know what is our family and religion is about and how important it is. I will teach them the same way my sister is teaching her 3 year old son right before he goes to sleep she  say all prayers with them and stuff. have to start teaching them at the early age. We celebrate  Pakistan independence day which is at 14 august. other than that we celebrate all of religious holidays together.

my family history

both of my family side is originally from India. my father side of family is from south India from the place called Bangalore. some of his uncles and second cousins still lives there. my grand mother and grand dad move to Pakistan after 1947 when Pakistan and India were separated. i don't know exactly but my dad always told me that we belong to a warrior family that where our last name "KHAN" had came from. he often say when i asks him about our family legend that our great grand father was the leader of tribe in Afghanistan from where he migrated to India and had family there. Then after my grand father was moved to Pakistan he joined military in Pakistan. my grand father passed away when my father was very young and my grand mother passed away when i was in first grade so i don not know much more than any thing that my dad had told me. on the other side my mother family migrated to Pakistan at the same time of partition of India and Pakistan. my mother side of family were situated in northern part of India in city  called "Delhi" which is also the capital of India. my mother side of family belong to a royal family. there past generations were the ruler of India when there was monarchy in it  and that's why my mother side of family carries the name "TEMURI" or "SHAH" which were the family name of former Indian kings and rulers. i often asked my grand mother of my mother side how was the time like during the partition of India and Pakistan. and she always have told me that the time were very tough and there were massive killings were going on both sides. the train who will bring Pakistanis from India will have raped women and killed men and babies and then same reaction was from Pakistani side towards the train who left for India. Both of my family have left huge amount of property in Indian just to be in Pakistan and did not claimed it even after Pakistani government was offering it to them because they knew Pakistan needed that money. my mother father passed away when she was 4 and was raised by her mother along with 4 other sister and 1 brother my grand mother was a teacher at school and they went through very tough time. but in the end it all turns out good all of my aunt and my mother have college degree and respectable jobs.

both of my family side is originally from India. my father side of family is from south India from the place called Bangalore. some of his uncles and second cousins still lives there. my grand mother and grand dad move to Pakistan after 1947 when Pakistan and India were separated. i don't know exactly but my dad always told me that we belong to a warrior family that where our last name "KHAN" had came from. he often say when i asks him about our family legend that our great grand father was the leader of tribe in Afghanistan from where he migrated to India and had family there. Then after my grand father was moved to  and then my grand father move to Pakistan after partition. on the other side my mother family migrated to Pakistan at the same time of partition of India and Pakistan. my mother side of family were situated in northern part of India in city  called "Delhi" which is also the capital of India. my mother side of family belong to a royal family. there past generations were the ruler of India when there was monarchy in it  and that's why my mother side of family carries the name "TEMURI" or "SHAH" which were the family name of former Indian kings and rulers. i often asked my grand mother of my mother side how was the time like during the partition of India and Pakistan. and she always have told me that the time were very tough and there were massive killings were going on both sides. the train who will bring Pakistanis from India will have raped women and killed men and babies and then same reaction was from Pakistani side towards the train who left for India.