Amulya Malladi > Quotes

“But sometimes when you wore a mask for a very long time, it became your face.”
― Amulya Malladi, Serving Crazy with Curry

“Time made apologies and absolution unnecessary. Time didn't really heal, it just made bad memories distant so that the brain couldn't recapture the lost pain”
― Amulya Malladi, A Breath of Fresh Air

“I had always thought that the relationships we make strangers are the hardest and the relationships we have with family the easiest. For me the opposite had been true. The family I was born into was not really my family anymore, while the family I made for myself out of strangers was mine.”
― Amulya Malladi, A Breath of Fresh Air

“If they were not Indian, Devi was sure they’d be divorced.”
― Amulya Malladi, Serving Crazy with Curry

“It’s like this,” Mayuri had once explained, citing the several thousand pounds and five years in therapy she had spent to find herself. “You keep going to a bookstore and asking for a dozen red roses. They obviously don’t have red roses and you come home disappointed. That’s what’s going on with your mother. You keep expecting roses and keep getting disappointed. I know not to ask for roses at a bookstore. That’s why I have no issues with my amma.” “You make it sound so easy,” Priya said. “I didn’t say it was easy,” Mayuri said. “It took me a long time and a lot of effort. There were a lot of tequila shots, irresponsible one-night stands, and shrinks involved.”
― Amulya Malladi, A House for Happy Mothers

“Day 8 after coming home from the hospital The classic recipes are goat, lamb, vegetable, and/or chicken biriyani. But when I was in New Orleans, at this restaurant, they served Louisiana barbecue shrimp, which was simply delicious. When I asked the waiter what was in the shrimp sauce, he rattled off a number of spices (rosemary, thyme, basil, oregano, et cetera) and so, I went with memory.  I marinated the raw prawns in mashed garlic, rosemary, basil, oregano, thyme, sage, paprika, black pepper, white pepper, cayenne, and onion powder, along with a dash of Worcestershire sauce. I decided to cook the rice in the pressure cooker, always quick and easy. I heated some ghee in the pressure cooker, added crushed cloves, cardamom, and cinnamon, and a bay leaf for a minute or so. Then I added some onions and fried until the onions became golden brown. Then went in the rice, and enough water, and I closed the pressure cooker. The rice was ready in ten minutes. In a separate pan, I sautéed the marinated prawns in butter, along with extra chopped garlic and the marinade, and added them to the cooked rice. I garnished it with chopped fresh coriander and voila, Cajun prawn biriyani. I served it with some regular cucumber raita. Mama had been so sure that Daddy would hate prawns but I saw him clean out each one on his plate and even get a second helping. Sometimes we forget why we don’t like some things and then when we try them again, we realize that we had been wrong. Giving Serious Though to Adultery Girish was a classical music buff and in the beginning of their marriage, Shobha joined him for a few musical events and lectures.”
― Amulya Malladi, Serving Crazy with Curry

“In the early 1990s, at the beginning of the Taliban regime, there had been a sort of relief that there was some law and order in the country, but that quickly turned bitter when the shariah was enforced.”
― Amulya Malladi, The Sound of Language

“I had lost the fragrance of my youth, the belief that tomorrow would be a wonderful day. Now I was contaminated with the truth, and the truth was simple—life was sometimes very predictable and tomorrow was going to be just as dull and uneventful as today.”
― Amulya Malladi, A Breath of Fresh Air

“almost always, refusing to leave. When Devi heard her father”
― Amulya Malladi, Serving Crazy with Curry

“But I don’t know these Muslim people. They seem ... what if she brings a bomb inside the house? What if she blows up my house like all those suicide bombers in Israel?” he demanded.”
― Amulya Malladi, The Sound of Language

“Devi made a ginger, apricot, and mint chutney, along with a good amount of chipotle chili peppers found in a bottle, hidden deep down in Saroj's everything-is-in-there pantry. The end result was a fiery, smoky, tangy concoction that beat the pants off of Saroj's mint chutney.”
― Amulya Malladi, Serving Crazy with Curry

“carry inside”
― Amulya Malladi, Serving Crazy with Curry

“Anxiety is depression’s good friend, and sometimes they party together”
― Amulya Malladi, The Copenhagen Affair

“There is a song from this old movie called Arth where a man asks a
woman, “You are smiling so much, there must be a deep pain that you're
hiding.” I wonder what your deep pains are and I wonder how I have
failed you.”
― Amulya Malladi, Serving Crazy with Curry

“So the man was sad! Of course, he was in mourning. He had just lost his wife, what — a few months ago? What a luxury, she thought enviously, that he could mourn his loss like this when her husband had disappeared. She would have liked to give up on life and cry until she was empty of tears; instead she had to brave a refugee camp, a new country, and now a whole new language.”
― Amulya Malladi, The Sound of Language

“The Golden Notebook,”
― Amulya Malladi, The Copenhagen Affair

“Kako može biti da samog sebe ne poznaješ?
Vjerujem da tačno znamo ko smo; da znamo svu istinu o sebi, i da je jedino glupo, kada ta istina nije prihvatljiva, pa onda želimo da kopamo dublje u našu savjest, u namjeri da nađemo nešto bolje, da nađemo nešto sa čim možemo živjeti.”
― Amulya Malladi, The Mango Season

“It is a shame that Mama doesn't use the hundreds of other fruits and vegetables and spices available from around the world. If it isn't Indian, according to her, it isn't good. I think she stared so long at the blueberries that they shriveled.
The butcher gave me three whole breasts of fresh free-range chicken. All of a sudden I have become very particular about ecological vegetables and free-range chickens. If they've petted the chicken and played with it before cutting it open for my eating pleasure, I'll be happy to purchase its body parts. Even if I have a tough time understanding this ecological nonsense, I feel better for buying carrots that were grown without chemicals, and I can't come up with a good reason to deny myself that happiness.
I marinated the chicken breasts in white wine and salt and pepper for a while and then grilled them on the barbecue outside. The blueberry sauce was ridiculously simple. Fry some onions in butter, add the regular green chili, ginger, garlic, and fry a while longer. Add just a touch of tomato paste along with white wine vinegar. In the end add the blueberries. Cook until everything becomes soft. Blend in a blender. Put it in a saucepan and heat it until it bubbles.
In the end because G'ma wouldn't shut up about going back right away, I added, in anger and therefore in too much quantity: cayenne pepper. I felt the sauce needed a little bite... but I think I bit off more than the others could swallow.
I took the grilled chicken, cut the breasts in long slices, and poured the sauce over them. I made some regularbasmatiwith fried cardamoms and some regular tomato and onion raita.I put too much green chili in the raitaas well.”
― Amulya Malladi, Serving Crazy with Curry

“Căsătoria cu cineva care nu îți înțelege cultura, rădăcinile, tradițiile nu va merge.”
― Amulya Malladi, The Mango Season

“the bile rising in her throat. Was it over? That easy?”
― Amulya Malladi, Serving Crazy with Curry

“She knew women who couldn’t keep their pregnancies and some who could never even get pregnant. They were treated poorly by their husbands, their own families, everyone around them. A woman had to get pregnant, had to give birth—it was part of being a woman, as natural as having breasts and a womb. A woman who never became a mother was incomplete. “Thank”
― Amulya Malladi, A House for Happy Mothers

“Glassdoor,”
― Amulya Malladi, The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You

“For refugees everywhere — may you find home”
― Amulya Malladi, The Sound of Language

“Saroj seemed to be enjoying the food, and that surprised as well as pleased Devi. Mama never ate anything but Indian food. Once in a while she'd try Thai, but her heart was with good old-fashioned south Indian food. Growing up, Saroj served only Indian food in the house. There were no two ways about it with her.
"You can eat all the nonsense you like outside this house, but here, I will only make good Indian food," Saroj told her family.
At least she didn't insist they become vegetarian like a lot of Indians abroad did. Devi couldn't imagine how her life would be if she couldn't eat salmon mousse or rogan josh.”
― Amulya Malladi, Serving Crazy with Curry

“Gangamma, like Asha, wondered if she was going against the wishes of God by giving a barren woman a baby. “If she can’t have a child, it’s because God doesn’t want her to have one,” Gangamma said. “Don’t you think we’re doing something wrong here?” “And if God gives us cancer, we still get treated, don’t we? We don’t sit around and think this is God’s will,” Keertana said. “This is the same thing.” Despite”
― Amulya Malladi, A House for Happy Mothers

“Copiii își respectă părinții... și asta e tot. Va trebui să înveți să te porți. Nu sunt vreo colegă de clasă de-a ta sau vreo prietenă ca să poți să vorbești așa cu mine.
Eterna problemă. Mama voia să fie un cod de reguli părintești, în timp ce eu mă simțeam destul de mare ca să merit să fiu tratată ca un egal.”
― Amulya Malladi, The Mango Season

“Gifted children tend to be very impatient and need constant stimulation, otherwise they become aggressive.”
― Amulya Malladi, A House for Happy Mothers

“The classic recipes are goat, lamb, vegetable, and/or chicken biriyani. But when I was in New Orleans, at this restaurant, they served Louisiana barbecue shrimp, which was simply delicious. When I asked the waiter what was in the shrimp sauce, he rattled off a number of spices (rosemary, thyme, basil, oregano, et cetera) and so, I went with memory.
I marinated the raw prawns in mashed garlic, rosemary, basil, oregano, thyme, sage, paprika, black pepper, white pepper, cayenne, and onion powder, along with a dash of Worcestershire sauce.
I decided to cook the rice in the pressure cooker, added crushed cloves, cardamom, and cinnamon, and a bay leaf for a minute or so. Then I added some onions and fried until the onions became golden brown. Then went in the rice, and enough water, and I closed the pressure cooker. The rice was ready in ten minutes. In a separate pan, I sautéed the marinated prawns in butter, along with extra chopped garlic and the marinade, and added them to the cooked rice. I garnished it with chopped fresh coriander and voilà, Cajun prawn biriyani. I served it with some regular cucumber raita.
Mama had been so sure that Daddy would hate prawns but I saw him clean out each one on his plate and even get a second helping. Sometimes we forget why we don't like some things and then when we try them again, we realize that we had been wrong.”
― Amulya Malladi, Serving Crazy with Curry

“The classic chutneys are coriander, mint, and chili. Everyone makes those chutneys, and oh yes, let's not forget the tamarind chutney that every Indian restaurant will serve in watery portions. But I don't want to make or eat classic chutneys.
I was lucky Mama had dried apricot in that pantry of hers. My God, but she has stuff in there. She even has a small bottle of red caviar. Mama would never eat caviar ("Raw fish eggs? Why would anyone want to eat that?"), but it's there nevertheless along with the now indispensable bottle of chipotle chili peppers.
Soaking the apricots in water seemed a good way to make them mushy but soaking them in sugar water seemed like an even better idea. It would make the chutney sweet. Surveying the fridge, my eye caught the ginger. Mama buys big chunks of ginger. Lots of garlic and ginger in her food. Maybe not garlic in the chutney, but definitely ginger. Lots of ginger for a sharp tangy taste.
What else? I saw the mint. Mama's prized little herb pot. Tearing away the mint, ah, now that was a special treat. Anything else? Of course, the chipotle chili peppers to give the chutney a smoky flavor.
Take the apricot, ginger, garlic, peppers, and salt (I added the apricot syrup in small quantities as well, depending upon how liquid I wanted the chutney to be, not too liquid) and blend it to a pulp.
The chutney is best savored when licked from a plate!”
― Amulya Malladi, Serving Crazy with Curry

“But sometimes when you wore a mask for a very long time, it became your face. And Shobha had worn the mask of a strong woman for so long, no one, including her, bothered to look beneath it to see the fragile mess she was. *”
― Amulya Malladi, Serving Crazy with Curry