26. walk for 30 minutes inside / outside. climb 10 floors up and down.

I walked the entire length of my 14-story apartment building (it was too cold outside). You know what I noticed? The ceilings are higher on the floors at the bottom. I wonder why ...

And I also cooked my pasta, the one thing I usually never get wrong. I changed it up this time by adding some cheese and giving it the bake treatment (which I will do tomorrow morning).

14. fruit for dinner

I would've just had fruit with a sprinkling of chaat masala. But I felt like doing something different so I tried making fruit chaat, which is a very popular snack at street vendors and homes in India. I used apples, mangoes (I picked out a disappointingly bland one), watermelon, grapes, pineapples and cucumbers (not sure if it's considered fruit). For seasoning, I added chaat masala, red chilli powder, black pepper, amchur (dry mango powder), a pinch of asafoetida (in hindsight, not a good idea) and some lemon juice. It was more than a satisfying and filling meal ...

12. cook a 15-minute recipe

I tried the masala rice (these ladies at ShowMeTheCurry rock!). Used some leftover rice, the peanuts take it to another level. I skipped the green chillies, still awesome. Probably ended up using more turmeric than the recipe asked for. But it's all good - with Indian spices, you can't go wrong with too much. It was prettttty dellllish for a 10-minute recipe. If 10-minute recipes are this good, I need to try them more often.

7. cook an Indian recipe you've never tried before

This dance worked out really well for me since I was supposed to cook something for a potluck. So I actually did two recipes today. One was kala chana (black chickpeas), and the other was dhokla. The first was quite the disappointment, mostly because I tried to make it fancier than it needed to be. Sometimes, you really should 'keep it simple stupid'. The latter was a mouth-watering success for the same reasons.

the disappointment ...

the success ...

And so, that wraps up 7 days. I'm quite proud of myself (really Pratik? Do you really want to jinx it so soon?). It hasn't been been easy. Day 1 was just plain uncooperative; in hindsight, it was probably inauspicious (and I don't even believe in auspicious days). Day 2 was a disaster. It wasn't mentioned but day 3 was half-hearted. It's been better since; I've been lucky with some of the easier dances.

I will admit to a certain excitement every morning. The excitement of picking a dance that has potential to make or break a day. Hell - it could even be an insignificant blip. It doesn't matter. For me, the idea of 'performing' these dances was to force myself to chip away at my bubble of hobbies and curiosities (my bubble just keeps growing and growing). So that I never have to whine about how there's "so many things I want to do, and so little time". Freedom of choice has a downside - you can choose to avoid something just because you "don't feel like it". For me, these dances were meant to eliminate that excuse. 

1. sandwich for dinner

Today is day 1. It should be a day to remember. And it has been, just for reasons undesired. I just cannot wait for this day to end - I had a car accident while trying to change lanes in bad traffic, I was held at fault for the above-said offense, my fender is probably going to break down if I don't do anything about it, I dropped a soda bottle on my kitchen, I ran out of paper towels while cleaning up the above-said mess, I went to Target to buy bread and cheese for my sandwich, and I forgot my wallet at home to buy the above-said items . I'm hoping this isn't an inauspicious omen for my 30-days-30-dances program. This is day 1 after all - every dream must be savored in REM sleep before it is shattered ...

I was really excited last night - I had my list ready. All that remained was putting those 'dances' on paper and finding a bowl for the daily lucky draw (I never found a worthy bowl).

But anyways, I think the dust has settled on this day.

[I hope the rest of the entries won't be as long as this one turned out to be. That's what killed my previous blog (RIP Previous Blog, may you live to survive another post)].

Here's the sandwich: everything bagel with veggie burger, cilantro chutney, chilli ketchup, Miracle Whip with a side of Ruffles chips. Probably not very healthy ...