Making Puttu- things that can go wrong.

Puttu (Steamed Cake) is a Kerala delicacy made out of rice flour. This is made using a special cylindrical vessel which is kept over the pressure cooker. Few aspects which needs to be taken care:

• The rice powder you buy from stalls in Karnataka cannot be used for it. It is rice powder and for Puttu you have o buy Puttu powder itself.
  
• If water is more in the flour then it can explode (Never tried it myself!!)
• It just take <>
• Use prestige pressure cooker rather than Hawkins (The one with top lid being closed after putting the lid inside the bottom section), as latter does not allow steam to flow properly.

Now if you figure out that the puttu effort is a failure, you can do the following, make KozhiKatta:

• Add right amount of water and make a mix which looks somewhat similar to Chappatti Dough.
• Add grated coconut and mix properly. (Coconut is luckily there from the initial puttu effort failure :) )
  
• Add some oil while mixing the dough
• Make small balls and steam it over idilli thattu.

Please understand that it will NOT taste like original KozhiKatta as this is made of raw rice rather than boiled rice and we do not do any Kindal process. But it is good enough to douse the hunger!!

I got motivated to write this blog as this has happened with many of my friends and not just with me. Hope at least u do not go hungry even if you do not have the original Puttu in front of you.

Getting Marriage Certificate

Recently i went through the process of getting a marriage certificate. This require the following details to be provided at the corporation office (The corporation office/ Village Panchayat under whose jurisdiction the marriage happened), and for this bride and groom has to go in person and has to be done within 15 days of the marriage (In case 15 days are over, procedures are little more difficult)

• Form filled in duplicate (This can be obtained from the respective Corporation/Panchayat Office)
  
• Date of Birth (Preferably Class X certificate) - Attested true copy
• Original Wedding Invitation letter
  
• A letter written in local language addressed to secretary to please issue a married certificate. This letter should clearly mention your parent details, marriage hall details and date of marriage.
• A letter from the marriage hall or the temple at which the function was held.
  
• Rs 100/- (Additional amount in case copy of married certificate required)
• Two witnesses (Should not be a direct relative but should be one who have attended your marriage)

Give the filled form with other details as requested at the respective department in corporation/panchayat office. They will ask you to get a signature from the secretary (If he is not around you just have to wait) in a filled up form. After that you pay the money in the cash counter and get a receipt which you give back to the department where you gave the form initially. they will then inform you to come and collect the married certificate in less than a week.

The actual collection of the married certificate need not require the bride/groom to go in person and can be collected by any person who goes with the receipt.

visa credit card and firefox

Many e-commerce sites in India i have noticed does not work properly with firefox. So whenever you think you would have to do any credit card transaction use Internet Explorer. With Firefox it may take you all the way till confirmation and then you figure out that you did not get the service but your money is debited.

Though i am an ardent supporter of Firefox, better be safe as i think i had issues with bookmyshow because of this complication.

This is now solved within firefox browser by using the IE Tab add-on which allows you to change the rendering from firefox to IE7 and back by just clicking the icon in the status bar.

Online ticket booking to Kerala

There are two online mechanism to book tickets in bus. One is the karnataka transport corporation and another called redbus. The former starts 10 days in advance and the latter is provided by a private agency.

KSRTC

1. Login to the site
2. Register in case of new users
3. Use Internet explorer as the payment gateway using firefox seems to have some problem.
4. This allows you to select the seat and allow e-ticket for which you need either PAN card, Driver License, Voter's ID card.
5. The site is not the best and is far behing the irctc train booking. So prepare yourself for multiple attempts before you get your tickets!!

Redbus

1. Use the link to get onto the site
2. You can get bus tickets to anywhere in India.