Indian Blogger's Meet at UK

It was a huge hit. It was like being back in college, where a lot of friends gather with the main intention of having fun. The important thing was though we were strangers, our group didn't look like one full of people who have never before met in their lives.

I had not been blogging for sometime and didn't have a clue who were attending the meet. It was good in a way because its been so long since I met people with no pre-conceived notions in mind. That was part of the fun too. I was apprehensive that we might not last half an hour; and disperse even before we lunched. I was wrong and we had a great time.

What an inspiring article! Hats off to President A P J Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh!

Today I saw another documnentary on Egypt, this one's called 'Ancient Egypt and The Land of Pharaohs'. The documentary had two films, one on the ancient Egypt and the other on all the Pharaohs. This doc was more academic in nature and so it was very informative. It was also drab becos of the same reason. Anyway, it has its own advantages. For example, I learnt that the first pyramid that was built almost 5000 years ago was the first man-made structure and it was the tallest till the 19th century. Also during the construction of the pyramids, when accidents did happen, the workers were treated medically and if required they were operated on too. It was worth watching.

The documentary 'Unlocking Da Vinci' code basically talks about what has been written in the book 'Da Vinci Code'. It deals only with the religious aspect of the book and does not at all venture into the art or Da Vinci part. Well, that was a huge disappointment. After a point in time, the documentary became bland and absolutely uninteresting. Like Guru said the documentary was piggybacking on the popularity of the book. I don't think any layman would be interested in seeing the documentary through to the end unless he is a) a staunch believer of the Church, despite the Church's atrocities towards innocent people, or b) a person interested from an academic point of view. Since I am neither, it proved to be a waste of time for providing undeserved attention.

Instead of watching movies, we ordered two documentaries. One was on Egypt (Mysteries of Egypt) and the other was on the book, Da Vinci Code (Unlocking Da Vinci Code; by the way, this doc is on National Geographic Channel on 17th of this month).

As of now, we have seen the one on Egypt. Da Vinci code is waiting to be watched, as Guru wants to finish the book first. Mostly we'll see it today I guess.

I've read about Egypt in Wilbur smith's novels. I also read a book on 'The Tutankhamun Affair' (I've posted about this book in one of my previous posts). No matter of reading about Egypt and Nile didn't prepare me to the visuals on Nile in the documentary. The music was amazing, the visuals were excellent, the casting was great, lots of detail had gone into the period costumes. One thing that didn't sit well in my mind was why the director had to harp on how Tut's tomb was found when the documentary was named 'Mysteries of Egypt'. There are 'n' number of things that we want to know about Egypt, not just discovery of Tut's tomb. Even that didn't talk about Howard Carter's struggle to find the tomb, the bureaucracies and red tape he had to face to open the tomb once it was found. Though the documentary was lacking a focus, it can be seen once just for its photography nad music.

After major bidding, London has won the right to host Olympics in 2012. I feel bad for Paris because they had already bid three times and lost. The irony is they have all the infrastructure in place and London has to build sports facilities to accomodate Olympics.

The one Olympics that I remember very well is the one conducted in Seoul. I was studying at school then. Our school Chairman had been to the Olympics as a spectator. While he came back he got a baseball with him from there. He had lodged the ball in the main school for sometime and I don't know what he thought, he decided to keep the ball in our school for the rest of the time. Our school was a christian convent but since it was in the suburbs it was small, the school's population must have been 600 or 700 then. We practically knew everyone there and it was like a small community. Any news used to spread like fire. We heard that the baseball was in our school and in the next PT class we wanted to play with it. There was a huge fight to get hold of the ball as our Principal refused to give it. It was a precious souvenir from Olympics and how can we lowly mortal students handle it. It should be revered and worshipped, not manhandled, rather ball-handled, that was the speech we got from her. Anyway, with lots of persuasion we got to play with it for half an hour!

I read in 'Katradhum Petradhum' that Maniratnam had a script ready for filming Ponniyin Selvan and asked Sujatha to get the dialogues ready. But down the line they called the whole thing off. Though the reason is reasonable, its not fair that they dropped the project. Maniratnam's thoughts on dropping the project goes something like this - people from three decades have been reading the novel and each will have their own idea of how Nandhini, Ponniyin Selvan and Vandhiyadevan would look; so even with the best cast, he would not be able to satisfy the public; and public opinion would be 'novella irukka madhiri padam illa'. Fair enough. But we don't have even one movie made on the novel. We know Maniratnam will not give us crap to look at, he could have at least given us a chance to know what he thought about the novel and who he thought as the best cast for the characters. It would have been very interesting to see the movie from his point.

There was this program on Stonehenge on Monday and Tuesday coinciding with the summer soltice. It talked about all the facts that people know about Stonehenge, which are very less in number when compared to the stuffs that experts don't know about, and tried to recreate the rituals that would have taken place 4000 years ago during summer soltice. The programme's main focus was on creating a replica of the Stonehenge but questions from viewers were also answered. The second part of the two part programme was the fun part. Taking reference from the bodies that were preserved in Denmark as pointers, the team of experts designed clothes and with cross reference from other cultures a mock ritual was staged in the new Stonehenge. Before that happened, at sunrise Druids came to the new site and cleansed and did rituals to protect the stones. Nobody knew what, why, how, who performed the rituals. The whole exercise was a very good one. Saved me a trip to Salisbury.

I can't say I was busy, but I wasn't able to blog. You get full points for knowing the reason for my not blogging. Yes, its Sriram. Even now, while we are in the library blogging, he's making so much noise that it appears as if we are in a nursery.

Well, there are some things happening. We are looking for a new house. I'm looking at doing something worthwhile so that I am not plagued by the feeling of wasting my time every day. Well, I'm still thinking what's worthwhile.

Now Sriram is sitting on my lap. So, I don't think I'll be able to blog much, so catch you soon.q

This post is also on a TV program. This was on a guy, Daniel Tammet, who is autistic on the positive side of the spectrum and possess exceptional mathematical and remembering abilities. For example, he studied 22,500 decimal places of the mathematical value of Pi and recited it to an audience. It took him 5 hours and 10 minutes to complete. As a test, he was monitored learning the most difficult language in the world, Icelandic, and he succeeded in giving an interview at the end of the week in the language. Amazing and yet awful in a way.

Rain Man, the movie, was inspired by one of the savants like Tammet and features Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. I am planning to have a look at it.

I saw a couple of good programs on TV. There was a program on the FBI investigation on King Tutankhamun's death. It was very interesting. In case you are interested, the following web links might be informative and useful.

Tut's death investigation

Who killed Tutankhamun?

I have a read a book called "The Tutankhamun's affair" by Christian Jacq on how Tutankhamun's burial tomb was found by Howard Carter with Lord Carnarvon's help. It was a very good book. Though most of the reviews categorise the book into Historic fiction, I think there is some amount of truth involved. So I will not call it fiction entirely, I'd call it fact-based fiction.

Another program that caught my interest was on Iranian Cinema. Last week Channel 4 had shown movies from Iran. Pity, all movies were shown after 12 o'clock in the night and I couldn't watch even one movie. But I got to see an documentary and interview on Iranian film makers and actors. It was interesting, I mean the concept of Cinema at Iran is totally different. Film makers from Iran are very restricted by the Movie officials (like our censor board). They can't make movies showing sex (even between husband and wife), violence, prostitution, threats to people from other communities, scenes that insult ladies and more on those lines. I was just thinking if Hollywood had to go through such a strict censor, there won't be any movies to watch only!

I think it’s really bad. I’m averaging one blog a month. Really bad.

Last weekend we (Guru, Sriram and I) had been to B’mouth to meet Chakra. After a really long time we got to speak with someone in our wavelength, generally gossip about movies and relive our pasts. It was an altogether a very good break to us. And we found that Chakra could cook well. He had cooked vegetable sambhar and beans paruppu usili. That was really nice of him. And he did sandwiches for us on our way back. So guys who are visiting him can stop worrying about food.

Sriram next gets the credit of being the most accommodative kid. I’m surprised half the times how did I give birth to a kid like Sriram because he is a no fuss baby. The only time he cried in the whole two days trip was when we had to go cycling. He was scared that we were seating him somewhere else instead of with us, it was his sleeping time and the sun was shining right on his face without letting him to sleep! Poor thing. Anyway he enjoyed the return journey by cycle with gusto.

We couldn’t see much because it was a short trip and had to leave really early on Monday. We were able to cover only the beach and New Forest cycling. We reached his place in the afternoon on Saturday and visited the beach in the evening. We also walked upto P.B. Shelley’s house. Of course, it was locked and we took pictures outside his house. Next day we had planned to leave by 10 in the morning to Brokenhurst, but we could leave only by 12.30 (we were caught in catching up, hee hee). Like I said earlier, since Sriram was crying we couldn’t go cycling as we had planned. So Guru offered to take care of Sriram while Chakra and I left in our cycles. After covering 2.25 miles, Chakra went back to pick up Sriram and Guru as the latter didn’t know the way to the camp site where we had reached. I couldn’t wait at the campsite so I cycled back and met them midway and we reached the campsite again. We spent half an hour there, but we had to return the cycles by 5 o’clock and it was already quarter past five, so we cycled back. The trail was 9 miles, though we didn’t cover the nine miles, Chakra did it by going up and down the trail four times. I covered almost 5.5 miles including my short trip back to meet the guys. I was feeling proud of myself because that was the first time I did anything really strenuous after the caesarean and I wasn’t all that bad as I had thought.

After returning the cycles, we returned to B’mouth and visited the beach as some kind of Sunday fun activities were happening. We went on the Merry-Go-Round (?) and were generally having fun.

Next day, we had to leave by 6.30 as we had to take the bus back to London at 7. On our way back, we went to East Ham and had lunch there (hee hee, how could we miss it!) and got to know that Saravana Bhavan was to be opened on May 6, that was yesterday.

That’s about it on our trip to Bournemouth, and the ratings are…

Chakra – 5
Guru – 5
Sriram – 5
Nisha – 5 (hee hee)

I'll stop posting recipes for sometime, lest the blog should become a recipe site.

Since we moved here it looks like we have loads of time in our hands. Anyway, we've been eeing some good cinema. I got to see Black, Rashoman and The Merchant of Venice. Good movies.

Especially, Black was positive and moving. I didn't expect the movie to be a feel good one. In fact, I had expected the opposite, wherein the story would revolve around the trials and tribulations of a blind, deaf and dumb person. Of course, the movie dealt with the same theme, but then it was definitely positive. Well, we are looking forward to see other genres also, so readers please suggest us movies. Thanks.

We are planning to visit a friend at Bournemouth this weekend and I'm looking forward to it. I hope we get to do most of the sightseeing, provided that part of UK is not blessed with April showers.

I guess I'll blog once we are back from Bournemouth.

Unlike TV channels in India, BBC and the other free channels rarely telecast film-based programs. Of course there is one movie every night in every free channel but otherwise there are only talk shows, home improvement, garden shows, news and such. I’m finding watching TV refreshing. My favorite programs are the ‘Mind your own business’ and ‘Countdown’. MYOB is a business doctor type of program, wherein two self-made millionaires go about nursing sick businesses back to life. One business per day. Countdown is a puzzle game show loosely based on scrabble and number games. Besides these kind of programs, there are house doctors based programs wherein houses that refuse to be sold are refurbished and made beautiful and so attractive that at the end of the show I wouldn’t want to sell it if it had been my house. The thing you wanted to get rid of soon will become a thing of such beauty and style that you’ll want to keep it for yourself. During the weekend I saw a program on Impressionist painting and its history which ran over two hours. Amazing.

The death of the Pope and his subsequent funeral was telecast live last Friday. I didn’t know anything about the Pope but I learnt a few things about him. That he had a love for theatre and plays, that he used to play football in his child and adulthood, that he helped Poles get rid of Communism, that he was very outspoken and not very conservative, that he traveled to 104 times to 120 different countries which no Pope has ever done etc. There was also a feature in the newspaper on his childhood sweetheart who is in her 80’s now, she still considers him the love of her life. There were 4 Kings, 5 Queens and 70 Prime Ministers and Presidents attending his funeral. Some ardent fans of his wanted him to be declared ‘Saint’ on the spot. That was one hell of a request that a Pope can earn in his lifetime, I think.

Anyway, ‘Angels and Demons’ by Dan Brown describes how a new Pope is chosen when the existing one dies. Even if not for this piece of information, the book made a very interesting read. It was as racing as ‘The Da Vinci Code’. By the way, I got hold of the latter sometime last week and completed it in one day, which is a huge achievement for me these days with Sriram around. I mean, does a toddler never tires? He is full of energy all through the day having some funny or naughty thing to do and always keep me on my feet, which is pretty bad.

Speaking of books, I’ve been reading a whole variety of books – one on Kabbalah philosophy, one on multiple lives of a soul (I can hear you think ‘what!!??’), and of course with a healthy dosage of romance and crime stories. I find Sue Grafton interesting. She is one very good crime writer. Somehow there have never been many women crime writers and she will easily top the contemporary ones I guess.

I’m also getting some decent cooking done for important celebrations like Ugadhi when I cooked Bisibelabath and Morekuzhambu and Payasam, of course. They came out very well.

I did a couple of pencil sketching and charcoal sketching done a couple of days back when Sriram was having his afternoon nap. Though I didn’t touch pencils or colours for over two years, they were not bad. Let us see if I can pursue this further. I’m also planning to do a course. I haven’t decided on what right now. I’m not yet sure if I want to get back to work in the IT industry or switch careers. I think now is the right time to switch career, if at all I want to, that is. Now that I have taken a break of one year from working, I can think. I’m celebrating my 14th month out of work this month. Thanks to Sriram.

First my son was down with flu. Then I was down with fever. So I couldn't blog. For that reason I'm posting two recipes here...

Have fun cooking...

Corn and Potato Kebabs


Cooking Time : 15 mins.
Preparation Time : 10 mins.

Makes 4 kebabas.

Ingredients

1 cup sweet corn, boiled
1 cup potato, boiled and grated
2 tablespoons chopped coriander
2 green chillies, finely chopped
¼ teaspoon garam masala
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 to 3 tablespoons bread crumbs
salt to taste

Other ingredients
oil for grilling

For serving Green Chutney

Ingredients
2 cups chopped mint leaves
1 cup chopped coriander
1 large onion, sliced
juice of 1 to 2 lemons
1 tablespoon sugar
4 to 6 green chillies
salt to taste

Method
1. Combine all the ingredients and grind to a smooth paste in a blender using very little water.
2. Refrigerate and use as required.

How To Proceed with making Kebabs

1. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
2. Divide the mixture into 4 equal portions.
3. Using a thick seekh (metal skewer), press each portion of the corn mixture on it using your fingers to make a 100 mm. (4") long kebab.
4. Brush each kebab generously with a little oil.
5. Cook the kebabs over a charcoal or electric barbeque till the kebabs are evenly browned (approx. 3 to 4 minutes), on all sides.
6. Cut into pieces and serve hot with green chutney.

Handy tip(s) :
1. If you do not have metal skewers use thin breadsticks instead. The will make interesting edible skewers.

Masala Peanuts

Cooking Time : 1½ mins.
Preparation Time : 5 mins.

Makes 1 cup approx.

Ingredients

½ cup salted peanuts, unskinned
½ cup Bengal gram flour (besan)
2 teaspoons chilli powder
1 teaspoon fennel (saunf) powder
1½ teaspoons black salt (sanchal)
1 tablespoon oil
2 to 3 tablespoons water

How To Proceed
1. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl ensuring the batter coats the peanuts evenly.
2. On a greased microwave safe plate drop each of the coated peanuts separately and microwave on HIGH for 1½ minutes.
3. Remove and cool. Store in an air-tight container.

The first thing that I did coming over to UK was start reading ' Ponniyin Selvan'. I was first so sceptical about reading it because it looked so huge. But it was unputdownable. Awesome is a milder way of describing the book. I don't have words to express how engrossing and haunting the book was. I couldn't stop thinking about the characters and twists in the story even in my sleep. I used to wake up in the middle of the night to continue reading it. I've never been forcefully drawn by a book which nagged, pestered, bullied me into completing it. What an experience! Too good to be expressed in words, you have to read it to believe it.

Ok, I'm back from my break. Actually, we (My husband, baby and I) had moved to Uk and I was settling down for the past two months (what a long time to settle!?!). Anyway, now that I'm back at blogging, we'll as well get started on our 'recipe of the week'...

Lentil and Vegetable Broth

Cooking Time : 20 mins.
Preparation Time : 20 mins.

Serves 6.

Ingredients

For the stock

2 tablespoons yellow moong dal (split yellow gram), washed
2 onions
2 large tomatoes

For the topping

1 onion, chopped
1/3 cup cabbage, shredded
1/3 cup spinach (palak), chopped
2 tablespoons baked beans
1 tomato finely chopped or tomato ketchup
1½ teaspoons oil
salt and pepper to taste

How To Proceed

For the stock

1. Cut the onions and tomatoes into big pieces.
2. Add the moong dal and 4½ cups of water and cook in a pressure cooker.
3. When cool, blend in a liquidiser and keep aside.

How to proceed

1. Heat the oil and sauté the onion for 1 minute.
2. Add the cabbage and spinach and sauté again for 1 minute.
3. Add the stock and simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Add the beans, tomato, salt and pepper and bring to a boil.
5. Serve hot, with Celery Garlic Toasts.

Happy cooking.

Its pickle time...

Sweet and Sour Tomato Pickle

Cooking Time : 50 mins.
Preparation Time : 40 mins.
Storage upto 1 year : Refrigerated.
Makes 1 1/2 cups.

Ingredients

500 grams firm ripe tomatoes
1 3/4 cups (350 grams) sugar
1/4 cup carrots, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled
10 to 12 peppercorns
3 cloves
1 black cardamom (elaichi)
12 mm. (1/2") piece ginger, chopped
4 whole red chillies
1 teaspoon glacial acetic acid
1/2 teaspoon nigella seeds (kalonji)
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg (jaiphal) powder
1/8 teaspoon mace (javitri) powder
2 tablespoon almonds, peeled
1/2 teaspoon salt

How To Proceed

1. Blanch the tomatoes in boiling water. Peel the skin and cut each into 2 halves. Squeeze out the juice and seeds. Keep the tomato flesh and juice aside separately.
2. Strain the tomato juice discard the seeds. Add the sugar to the tomato juice and leave aside for ½ hour.
3. Chop the tomato flesh into large pieces.
4. In a pan, add the tomato juice-sugar mixture, tomato pieces, carrots, garlic, peppercorns, cloves, black cardamom, ginger and red chillies and cook over a very slow flame, stirring occasionally.
5. Cook for about 40 to 45 minutes until the mixture has reduced to less than half its original quantity and the syrup is of one string consistency.
6. Remove from the fire and cool completely. Add the acetic acid, nigella seeds, chilli powder, nutmeg, mace, almonds and salt and mix well.
7. Bottle in a sterilised glass jar and store refrigerated for upto 1 year.

Handy tip(s) :
1. Glacial acetic acid is a concentrate that is used in commercially prepared vinegar (95% water+5% acetic acid).
2. You will find it at all chemist shops.

Hopefully, I'll be flying over to UK this weekend along with Sriram. Guru's office is yet to confirm my travel.

Some disturbing stuffs I hear about the Tsunami relief activities are the blog for the day. Most of these are unofficial accounts. There was a training that my mom had to attend (she is an elementary school teacher in one of the Govt. aided schools) on Tsunami relief. They were discussing about the relief activities and the topic of distribution arose invariably. The huts near the beach were actually rented by the fishermen folk and they were the worst hit losing lives and property. But then the owners of the huts have gone ahead and claimed relief materials saying they were the ones affected by Tsunami. Similarly, there is another instance where relief materials and money are being distributed to people not affected by Tsunami. Our maid was mentioning this to me today. Her neighbour (an old lady) had gone to the local temple for her son's irumudi tying ceremony. They stayed there overnight as the son had to leave in the middle of the night. Next day morning, relief team arrived and distributed materials and this old lady was the first to stand in the line. This is how healthy, normal people act.

Too bad. My heart goes to those who are being cheated.

Amitav Ghosh has been writing about what is happening at Andaman and Nicobar Islands in The Hindu. The three part column is ending tomorrow.

Today's recipe... Cajun Spiced Potato Chaat (Crisp fried potato wedges, topped with Rasili chutney) Serves: Four to six Time required: 45 minutes 400 g potatoes oil for deep frying For the marinade: salt and pepper to taste 2 tbsp oil 1/2 tsp red chilli powder For the rasili chutney: 1/2 cup Manchurian sauce 2 tbsp tomato ketchup 1 tbsp chilli-garlic sauce For the garnish: 1/4 cup fried noodles 2 tbsp grated cheese 2 tbsp chopped assorted peppers To prepare the potatoes: 1. Wash the potatoes and cut into wedges, keeping the skin on and parboil, remove and set aside. 2. Mix together the marinade ingredients and marinate the potato wedges for a few minutes. 3. Heat the oil in a pan and deep fry, until crispy and golden brown. Remove and keep aside. To make the rasili chutney: 1. In a bowl, mix together the Manchurian sauce, tomato ketchup and chilli garlic sauce. Chill. To serve: 1. In a serving plate, arrange the potato wedges attractively, top with the rasili chutney and garnish with the fried noodles, grated cheese and sautéed brunoise of peppers. 2. Serve immediately.

This week's recip...

Thai Stir-Fried Noodles With Tofu

Cooking Time : 10 min.
Preparation Time : 10 to 15 min.
Serves 4.

Ingredients

2 cups rice noodles
1 teaspoon ginger, grated
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup tofu / paneer cut into cubes
8 small onions, peeled and halved
1 tablespoon soya sauce
1/2 cup bean sprouts
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons roasted peanuts
1 tablespoon oil
salt to taste

For the sauce

2 to3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons soya sauce
4 tablespoons castor sugar
4 tablespoons peanut butter
salt to taste

Method

1. For the noodles
2. Heat the oil in a wok, add the ginger, garlic, tofu, onions and soya sauce. Saute these till the onion browns.
3. Add the noodles, bean sprouts, lemon juice and salt. Mix well.
4. Place on a serving dish and sprinkle chopped peanuts on top.

For the sauce

1. In a saucepan, combine all the ingredients with 1/2 cup of water and bring to a boil. Keep aside.

How to proceed

1. Serve the stir fried noodles and sauce side by side, so guests can pour as much sauce as they like over the noodles.

Handy tip(s) :
1. The sauce might need a little more water, so adjust the consistency as you go along.

Here's a report on Tsunami Relief Work in TamilNadu by AID India

Contact Information at AID Chennai for Tsunami Relief:

AID Chennai Office - 044-28350403, 55615629 (Kalpana, Prabha, Bharati, Smitha)
AID's Relief Coordination Office in Chennai
Old No 20, New No 34, Rathinam Street (Near Besant Road)
Gopalapuram, Chennai - 600086

Information Team in Chennai
Kalpana/Bharati/ Smitha/ Prabha - 044 - 28350403, 55615629
Prabha - 98403-51132
Smitha - 98401-73800
Vibha - 98402-63275
Srivaths - 94443-19635
Lokesh - 044-28115058
Overall Coordination Team in Chennai
Ravishankar - ravia@alumni.cmu.edu 94440-84910, 28350403
Chandra - chanvish@yahoo.com 9382330752, 044-28350403
Smitha Kalyani - smithakalyani@yahoo.com 98401-73800
Vibha - vibha_ravindran@rediffmail.com 98402-63275
Kalpana - kalpa@vsnl.com 044-28361033

Pondicherry Coordination Team
Pondicherry Science Forum
46, Vinayakar Koil Street, PR Gardens, Reddiarpalayam, Pondichery - 605010
Phone: 0413-2290733, 2290908

PSF Contact People: Raghu - 94432-25288
Senthil Babu 94432-58998
S. Ramachandran - 94430-69075
R. Dakshinamoorthy 94432-34522

Field Contact Persons:
Nagai Charles/Devraj 098411-62323
Killai Damu/Malavika 094442-41918
Tirukadaiyur Jagadish 098655-61131
Parangipettai KPN/Shakila 098425-29056

Overall Coordination Team
(This is a moving team - call only if necessary for coordination)
Balaji Sampath 94440-61033
Senthil Babu 94432-58998
Ravishankar 94440-84910

Though late posting on the Tsunami front...

We all have read about the recent havoc hitting South Asia. For those who want to take part in the relief work or get updated on what's happening where on the relief front...

http://www.kiruba.com

http://www.sumankumar.com

http://www.google.com/tsunami_relief.html

www.aidindia.org

http://www.lazygeek.net/archives/cat_chennai_tsunami.html

India post-Tsunami

www.rediff.com/news/tsunami.htm

www.aidindia.org/CMS/

https://www.aidindia.org/aidadmin/DonateToRRF.jsp

www.homestead.com/iref/

www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/sos-children-charity/first-report-Tsunami-India.htm

http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=54645

http://www.indiadaily.com/breaking_news/19372.asp

http://www.smh.com.au/news/Asia-Tsunami/Indias-rich-and-poor-heed-the-call/2005/01/03/1104601300246.html?oneclick=true