One of the most irritating type of blog posts according to me, are the culinary corner types, where the writer goes on and on about the sooper dooper dish they have had for the day or they come up with a good for nothing reminiscence about the perfect meal of their lives.(inc. miniscule details of the recipies and pictures in various stage of the preparation) Well, to me it just sucks. you can flaunt your wealth, your relationship, even yourself in pubic but never your food. FOOD is a very very sensitive topic to many. It is indispensable to live and the task of preparation is highly complicated than solving iit problems. The flavour has to be right, the aroma has to be enticing and the sight- delicious.ok, the reason why i m sitting up at 2.30 am, dishing out this seemingly irrelevent adoration for the art of cooking is due to the lesson i learnt for the day :- This seemingly easy task where our pattis put out a meal fr 50 ppl without batting an eyelash is actually a most difficult challenge, sumtimes unbeatable even by the smartest geniuses with extrordinary IQ such as this author.
Well, this is one of the curious cases of those exceptional people fighting their constant battle against the formidable kitchen.Since rice is too less worthy of an opponent to them, many go after the mother of all troubles- vegetable. One of the most common choices of the gang is -Lady's finger. It seemed pretty ok to win over, with its gentle name and can be weakened further with soft tomatoes.but the game changes when you open the little green boxes to find dirty black seeds inside. That signifies the sound of the conk before this battle. In the next 1 hr, the heat rises rapidly when you unsuccessfully try to juggle between boiling the veggies and cooking the pulses , trying your best to prevent the stove/oven from betraying you with a burning smell. Right then, you start wondering if all the mess is worth the kick. wait, did i say kick? it would have deserted you after the first 10 min of the preps. SO,when you wait out the rest of the time, fighting to create a treasure out of a sticky tar, the memories of unsuccessful highschool chemistry experiments come back to plague you(Atleast there were enough partners present to copy the results from). The familiar sense of foreboding arising as the aroma becomes a smell is then quashed out by turning on the ipod to the highest volume. After singing endless songs in a v.bad voice amidst the piling mess, your grumbling stomach finally wins over the debate against the struggling stew. A compromise is then reached to draw the match.
Well, all is well that ends well. but this does not. The freshly prepared dish when set in the table is met with numerous accidents as the clock/coke tin/ even yourself fall into the plate, feedin most of it to the ground. Swear-curse-swear. clean up the mess. Finally, the table is set and feast is about to begin. the first taste is pretty good. you jump in ecstacy, bringing the roof down, call up your parents to share the amazing accomplishment, take pics. THe next spoon is surprisingly not that good..and the third goes down with a frown.." maybe its not boiled properly, maybe less salt.." all sorts of maybes spring up. somehow, the plate gets empty after a long difficult time, with the help of a few episodes from a good sitcom. Now kicks in the jury that decides who the winner is. THe result is mostly likely the same - quesy stomach, nausea , discomfort in the lower belly - you lose, the thrashed up kitchen has the last laugh.
Imagine after undergoing all this torture and while compromising with a humiliating defeat, the first blog you open is filled with junk like "my super sambar" or " my sweet special kichadi mix" , the best punishment possible is to fill their mouths with your recipies and keep them shut once for all.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Travel blabs 02
Its always harder to begin writing after a prolonged break plagued by procastination and simple laziness.In the rare times when we finaaly get the "mood" to break the ice, the occasional yet everpresent tab of youtube or facebook lures us in and within a few minutes, the precious mood gets lost again in a jumble of vetti videos and sitcoms. And SO, continues the cycle whenever you get the inspiration to blog again, thanks to our monkey minds. Well, I am determined to open the account today and the seemingly easiest shortcut that comes to me is to blog about my wonderful , amazing, New year 09. I know, its a pain in the neck for those suffering frm an extreme static ,mokai period of life to read through fluanting,romanticized,incredible experiences of the momentary fortunate souls and to this, I beg excuse.
My "big" trip of the year was basically a Christmas and NewYear with my family at SG with a short detour in KL. So, from a tourist point of view, SG seemed pretty good. This is actually the best time to visit , given the fact that the entire island city would be shimmering in bright lights and Christmas trees. The setting itself was out-of-a -story-book sort, esp after an interlude of dull indoor hours with muddy cyclones for Chennai folks. My mom and sis were literally stunned , and I should say the worldly yours truly, was also more than a little surprised.
Given the fact that SG can be covered in 3 days max, the decorations of X mas alone would pester you to take unimaginable Giga bytes of pics at every turn of the streets..making the 3 day visit into a week long one. Sentosa, Clark Quay are must see sights. The change of theme for the Musical Fountain show at the artificial island of Sentosa (created for the sole purpose of looting money in a "tourist-site starved" city) , and the sheer amt of people milling its so called beaches( which is actually backwaters) added with the infectious merry spirit of the season makes it a not-to-be missed spot for the first and second timers. The island's night life is a compulsary experience without which the sole purpose of your visit will be utterly lost. Eventhough, a mere walk along the Boat Quay and a ride in the Singapore river can only be counted as "Night life" for family tourists, it still provides a feeling of exclusive freedom and a lightness in the heart to stroll around the skyscrapers of marina bay in all its splendour under the glimmering moonlight.
The KL trip ,however,turned put to be a stick in the mud type, especially after travelling from Singapore. Blame it on the merciless heat, or the poorer economy or the absence of any festive spirit, the place was an eye sore. I personally think its due to the over stuffing of islamic tastes in all the buildings of the city. Its just vast storeys of concrete structures that are tall yet plain, indistinguishable frm each other.Coming to terms with my disappointment was tough, while standing on Sky Bridge connecting the 42nd storeys of the Petronas twin towers,where i had always dreamt of visiting; only that in my dreams, I 'd feel amazed, reckless and thoroughly captivated. THe food is another turn down for vegetarians. I appreciated SG food for the first time then and realised how lucky i was. There is simply nothing excepting the saravana bavan or the sangeetha hidden among the slum streets of Masjid India. The much hyped about Night Market was unberable with its (ranganathan street) ^2 crowds amidst the smells of burning beef and hanging chicken from the umpteen hawker stalls lining up the narrow walkways. Not to frame my opinions on any future visitors, but KL is worth 1 day - for visiting Batu Caves(you get to see monkeys there) and the rest of the day for shopping chocolates and sweets (its cheaper than Singapore).
Before my over-ethusiastic memories compel me to write another Lonely Planet guidebook, I'll just buzz off by declaring that the sights of the great city immersed in the glitters of some mind blowing new Year's eve fireworks above the water front cannot be described in words, so I'm put up the following sample. You get the drift..
My "big" trip of the year was basically a Christmas and NewYear with my family at SG with a short detour in KL. So, from a tourist point of view, SG seemed pretty good. This is actually the best time to visit , given the fact that the entire island city would be shimmering in bright lights and Christmas trees. The setting itself was out-of-a -story-book sort, esp after an interlude of dull indoor hours with muddy cyclones for Chennai folks. My mom and sis were literally stunned , and I should say the worldly yours truly, was also more than a little surprised.
Given the fact that SG can be covered in 3 days max, the decorations of X mas alone would pester you to take unimaginable Giga bytes of pics at every turn of the streets..making the 3 day visit into a week long one. Sentosa, Clark Quay are must see sights. The change of theme for the Musical Fountain show at the artificial island of Sentosa (created for the sole purpose of looting money in a "tourist-site starved" city) , and the sheer amt of people milling its so called beaches( which is actually backwaters) added with the infectious merry spirit of the season makes it a not-to-be missed spot for the first and second timers. The island's night life is a compulsary experience without which the sole purpose of your visit will be utterly lost. Eventhough, a mere walk along the Boat Quay and a ride in the Singapore river can only be counted as "Night life" for family tourists, it still provides a feeling of exclusive freedom and a lightness in the heart to stroll around the skyscrapers of marina bay in all its splendour under the glimmering moonlight.
The KL trip ,however,turned put to be a stick in the mud type, especially after travelling from Singapore. Blame it on the merciless heat, or the poorer economy or the absence of any festive spirit, the place was an eye sore. I personally think its due to the over stuffing of islamic tastes in all the buildings of the city. Its just vast storeys of concrete structures that are tall yet plain, indistinguishable frm each other.Coming to terms with my disappointment was tough, while standing on Sky Bridge connecting the 42nd storeys of the Petronas twin towers,where i had always dreamt of visiting; only that in my dreams, I 'd feel amazed, reckless and thoroughly captivated. THe food is another turn down for vegetarians. I appreciated SG food for the first time then and realised how lucky i was. There is simply nothing excepting the saravana bavan or the sangeetha hidden among the slum streets of Masjid India. The much hyped about Night Market was unberable with its (ranganathan street) ^2 crowds amidst the smells of burning beef and hanging chicken from the umpteen hawker stalls lining up the narrow walkways. Not to frame my opinions on any future visitors, but KL is worth 1 day - for visiting Batu Caves(you get to see monkeys there) and the rest of the day for shopping chocolates and sweets (its cheaper than Singapore).
Before my over-ethusiastic memories compel me to write another Lonely Planet guidebook, I'll just buzz off by declaring that the sights of the great city immersed in the glitters of some mind blowing new Year's eve fireworks above the water front cannot be described in words, so I'm put up the following sample. You get the drift..
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Ingrediants of an extracting sem
"Just 2 more years of hard work till you get a good seat, then life will be totally easy. Come on.." The encouraging words of my aunt 4 years ago, reminds me now of the best ironies in life.I pity every secondary schooler working his ass off due to blind faith in the above statement. Especially, when it so happens that with every year ahead, the going gets tougher. Thanks to my faculty, I cant expect a greater torture in my course after this sem. WHy? EE2001. THe terror of every electrical adn computer engin student of NUS. the subject that is designed with the whole purpose of killing the students by exhaustion, sheer mental and physical exhaustion.
A toolbox, 200$ , a topic( an intelligent health device), 4 months time - recipe for torture.
Its effects:
- being woken up every saturday and SUNDAY morning at 8 am sharp by an over enthusiastic project partner, who unfortunately happened to stay in my hostel.
- 12 hour tete a tete with my tool box every weekend, screwing up wires into dumb processors, writing endless pages of asm codes, grtting ur teeth to make the stupid machine follow a simple algorithm.
- scrounging on the same instant noodles and nescafe mud coffee till my tongue became dead and i lost my ability to taste any food.
- spending every instant of my free time in lab, staring at the dumb machine i am supposed to create, cursing myself for taking up engineering.
- Night outs at engin, com hall, turning myself into a sleep deprived machine, capable of working for 30 hrs straight, napping on chairs, benches on the faculty corridors,mid night talks abt unimaginable things with terrible aquaintances just to keep the eye open..
- Waking up every single day with the worry of the system failures, the problems in codes and circuit designs, desparation to find the solutions atleast on that day.
- Being holed with one of my team mates(whom I happened to like before), for weeks together, till we drove each other crazy.I came to know how dreadful the effects of clash of personalities could be when put in close quarters for a prolonged period.Anyone who claims "opposites attracts" must be deaf and dumb.
- Periodic upheavels of out-of - the -world happiness and ectasy the minute our integration finally worked only to be replaced by ground-hitting-gloom and devastation when it would automatically crash in the next minute.
- afraid to death on THE day, we were supposed to present our "working" machine. Praying till the God himself couldn't have borne it any longer. And the blessed relief., soaking my entire body in bliss, when our half impaired system decided to put up a decent show..
The prize of succes :
A PASS. and A "PHD" - Personal Health Detector,the solution to a perfect home health care.
But Above all, a feeling of winning a huge battle, surpassing a herculean challenge, great relief of never having to repeat this mess, a tolerence and endurance for all sorts of people and Of course, a happy confidence that even I can become a passable engineer.
A toolbox, 200$ , a topic( an intelligent health device), 4 months time - recipe for torture.
Its effects:
- being woken up every saturday and SUNDAY morning at 8 am sharp by an over enthusiastic project partner, who unfortunately happened to stay in my hostel.
- 12 hour tete a tete with my tool box every weekend, screwing up wires into dumb processors, writing endless pages of asm codes, grtting ur teeth to make the stupid machine follow a simple algorithm.
- scrounging on the same instant noodles and nescafe mud coffee till my tongue became dead and i lost my ability to taste any food.
- spending every instant of my free time in lab, staring at the dumb machine i am supposed to create, cursing myself for taking up engineering.
- Night outs at engin, com hall, turning myself into a sleep deprived machine, capable of working for 30 hrs straight, napping on chairs, benches on the faculty corridors,mid night talks abt unimaginable things with terrible aquaintances just to keep the eye open..
- Waking up every single day with the worry of the system failures, the problems in codes and circuit designs, desparation to find the solutions atleast on that day.
- Being holed with one of my team mates(whom I happened to like before), for weeks together, till we drove each other crazy.I came to know how dreadful the effects of clash of personalities could be when put in close quarters for a prolonged period.Anyone who claims "opposites attracts" must be deaf and dumb.
- Periodic upheavels of out-of - the -world happiness and ectasy the minute our integration finally worked only to be replaced by ground-hitting-gloom and devastation when it would automatically crash in the next minute.
- afraid to death on THE day, we were supposed to present our "working" machine. Praying till the God himself couldn't have borne it any longer. And the blessed relief., soaking my entire body in bliss, when our half impaired system decided to put up a decent show..
The prize of succes :
A PASS. and A "PHD" - Personal Health Detector,the solution to a perfect home health care.
But Above all, a feeling of winning a huge battle, surpassing a herculean challenge, great relief of never having to repeat this mess, a tolerence and endurance for all sorts of people and Of course, a happy confidence that even I can become a passable engineer.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Puppets in Strings.
Thursday evening, post gruelling exam bliss, McD burger + coke dinner, engaging the mind in an enjoyable vettiness, I enter the YIH TV room and meet my freinds after 1 week of intense cramming.Amidst the vetti talk, snide comments, xam cribbings,the topic suddenly turned to Mumbai. Caught unawares, my bewildered, ignorant, just out of a cave look was the instantaneous response. "Yea right", i laughed. Stunned looks, a chilling silence followed. THe thrashing began.
Somehow,when i managed to get hold of a comp, the astonishing, out of hollywood, action thriller headlines greeted me. It was like getting sucked into a dream. a ridiculous dream. my ususal type. Half hour later, the news flash still kept coming , more deaths, more tortures. THe dream got more ridiculous, fanatical, evil. A look of a gunman, in black clothes, resembling a hateful aqaintance . the witness statements screeching along..“My brother, Manish, died in the firing at Colaba’s Hamaal Galli.” ..THe shock, the idocy hooked me to the comp for the rest for the night. Worried chats with Anxious friends from Mumbai, unable to contact their families at home...Why, How, Who, What next??. Thousand questions pounding , yet the most terrifying of all, the sick feeling, the frustrating regret "What can I do!" As discussions turned to heated debates,as speculations and predictions were thrown in 'bout the involvement of Govt, as calm voices analysed the issue like a talk during tea time,the paralytic realisation struck - to be hung helpless as puppets on strings of some power, helpless to do nothing but yap about the misery, attacked by rage and guilt. Still in shock, I remembered I still got an exam the next day.
Somehow,when i managed to get hold of a comp, the astonishing, out of hollywood, action thriller headlines greeted me. It was like getting sucked into a dream. a ridiculous dream. my ususal type. Half hour later, the news flash still kept coming , more deaths, more tortures. THe dream got more ridiculous, fanatical, evil. A look of a gunman, in black clothes, resembling a hateful aqaintance . the witness statements screeching along..“My brother, Manish, died in the firing at Colaba’s Hamaal Galli.” ..THe shock, the idocy hooked me to the comp for the rest for the night. Worried chats with Anxious friends from Mumbai, unable to contact their families at home...Why, How, Who, What next??. Thousand questions pounding , yet the most terrifying of all, the sick feeling, the frustrating regret "What can I do!" As discussions turned to heated debates,as speculations and predictions were thrown in 'bout the involvement of Govt, as calm voices analysed the issue like a talk during tea time,the paralytic realisation struck - to be hung helpless as puppets on strings of some power, helpless to do nothing but yap about the misery, attacked by rage and guilt. Still in shock, I remembered I still got an exam the next day.
Monday, November 17, 2008
AAAAAAAAAAA
That felt great. If you are wondering about my crazy, hair- pulling state, I have been studying for the past5 hours about the rise of Malaya and the effects of South east Asian maritime events in Singapore's globalisation. Anyways, I wanted to say a personal good bye to all those who care to read my useless blog before I die. Bye friends, meet you in hell!
Thursday, November 6, 2008
best quotes
Men are haunted by the vastness of eternity. And so we ask ourselves...will our actions echo across the centuries? Will strangers hear our names long after we're gone...and wonder who we were. ...how bravely we fought...how fiercely we loved?
The gods envy us.They envy us because we're mortal.Because any moment might be our last.Everything's more beautiful because we're doomed.We will never be here again.
Men rise and fall like the winter wheat but some names will never die.
If they ever tell my story, let them say..I walked with giants.Let them say I lived
in the time of Hector..tamer of horses.
Let them say...
I lived in the time of Achilles.
The gods envy us.They envy us because we're mortal.Because any moment might be our last.Everything's more beautiful because we're doomed.We will never be here again.
Men rise and fall like the winter wheat but some names will never die.
If they ever tell my story, let them say..I walked with giants.Let them say I lived
in the time of Hector..tamer of horses.
Let them say...
I lived in the time of Achilles.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
The Irony of lifelines.
You never know what you love till you miss it.
Though the word "love" is a bit far fetched in this case, I certainly realised the sentiment well enough this semester. All that with the thing I thought i hated the most.Yea, I am talking about the gruelling torturing tiring university life, chipping away your confidence, happiness, youth, energy slowly and by the time you graduate, you will be ready to kiss the muddy ground after your first step outside the walls of the academic prison or become a hollowed out shell that ceases to have any sort of feelings.Maybe I am exagerrating a little bit here, but I guess one has the right after suffering from exhaustion, sleeplessness, starvation for the past 2 weeks .Thanks to the light schedule of tests and assignments..
Anyways, inspite of my passionate feelings towards my uni life, I have been proved wrong, yet again . A little trick Fate played on me - give an opportunity to spend 3 days in a small piece of heaven on earth, away from books, away from my uni, away from the the city that makes a mockery of time and relaxation. A quick trip to Bintan , an Indonesian island, few miles away from SG would be a God Send to anyone in my position. The pristine beauty of the little town, fresh air, clear skies( I could actually see starts at night!), the beach- such beautiful beaches..the first view of the place was a straight kick in the gut. Isolated, quiet, lovely. my dream. or so did it start with..
The very first day on paradise was enough to drive me crazy, senselessly crazy. When I settled down in our stilt house- bunglow, well fed, relaxed, novel in hand, staring at the similar expressions of contentment in my friends' faces, the question stikes me out of nowhere. WHat to do now?! An hour passed, a couple more trailed after.. It was a slow world- completely different and muddled up one with nothing to do other than watch the day pass by you..THe nightmare began. Hours and hours of isolated idlessness , time was killing us inch by inch. The stunning beauty of the land became a prison detached form the world- no phones,no people, no communication, no COMPUTER!
It was just too horrible to go through.
After managing to occupy ourselves for the next 3 days with everything from snorkeling to Spa massages, we were tired.. tired of conjuring up things to do. Somehow in the beaches of the Malaccan Straits, I faced the truth- I am an incurable city mongrel. The rush , the activity, the killing schedule of the city has somehow become the lifelines of such creatures. The name " entertainment" in my dictionary is unanimously associated with a movie in bed, a movie at the theatre, bowling, great dinner or a walk along Clark Quay. Just as we reached the shores of Singaporean waters, for the first time in my life, I was thoroughly , extremely, devastatingly happy to be back into the millieu of mindless work -a-holics. Maybe living in a concrete jungle of people,pollution and power of communication makes us appreciate the world of Tarzans only in the cine boxes. Considering our dependence on the EM signals of this wired world, a future of X men and Resident Evil alikes arent all that hard to believe in.
For all thats worth, with 2 submissions on the morrow, a CA on the day after, drained of energy, filled with headaches,wanting to curse God for this hell I am in, it just takes a 5 minute browsing through those pleasant Bintan snaps to force me back into my life with a renewed vigour.
Though the word "love" is a bit far fetched in this case, I certainly realised the sentiment well enough this semester. All that with the thing I thought i hated the most.Yea, I am talking about the gruelling torturing tiring university life, chipping away your confidence, happiness, youth, energy slowly and by the time you graduate, you will be ready to kiss the muddy ground after your first step outside the walls of the academic prison or become a hollowed out shell that ceases to have any sort of feelings.Maybe I am exagerrating a little bit here, but I guess one has the right after suffering from exhaustion, sleeplessness, starvation for the past 2 weeks .Thanks to the light schedule of tests and assignments..
Anyways, inspite of my passionate feelings towards my uni life, I have been proved wrong, yet again . A little trick Fate played on me - give an opportunity to spend 3 days in a small piece of heaven on earth, away from books, away from my uni, away from the the city that makes a mockery of time and relaxation. A quick trip to Bintan , an Indonesian island, few miles away from SG would be a God Send to anyone in my position. The pristine beauty of the little town, fresh air, clear skies( I could actually see starts at night!), the beach- such beautiful beaches..the first view of the place was a straight kick in the gut. Isolated, quiet, lovely. my dream. or so did it start with..
The very first day on paradise was enough to drive me crazy, senselessly crazy. When I settled down in our stilt house- bunglow, well fed, relaxed, novel in hand, staring at the similar expressions of contentment in my friends' faces, the question stikes me out of nowhere. WHat to do now?! An hour passed, a couple more trailed after.. It was a slow world- completely different and muddled up one with nothing to do other than watch the day pass by you..THe nightmare began. Hours and hours of isolated idlessness , time was killing us inch by inch. The stunning beauty of the land became a prison detached form the world- no phones,no people, no communication, no COMPUTER!
It was just too horrible to go through.
After managing to occupy ourselves for the next 3 days with everything from snorkeling to Spa massages, we were tired.. tired of conjuring up things to do. Somehow in the beaches of the Malaccan Straits, I faced the truth- I am an incurable city mongrel. The rush , the activity, the killing schedule of the city has somehow become the lifelines of such creatures. The name " entertainment" in my dictionary is unanimously associated with a movie in bed, a movie at the theatre, bowling, great dinner or a walk along Clark Quay. Just as we reached the shores of Singaporean waters, for the first time in my life, I was thoroughly , extremely, devastatingly happy to be back into the millieu of mindless work -a-holics. Maybe living in a concrete jungle of people,pollution and power of communication makes us appreciate the world of Tarzans only in the cine boxes. Considering our dependence on the EM signals of this wired world, a future of X men and Resident Evil alikes arent all that hard to believe in.
For all thats worth, with 2 submissions on the morrow, a CA on the day after, drained of energy, filled with headaches,wanting to curse God for this hell I am in, it just takes a 5 minute browsing through those pleasant Bintan snaps to force me back into my life with a renewed vigour.
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