What do you think about these templates?
Template1 (personal BO fav, even though it's a bit TOO flowery + S feels it's 'pretty'):
Template2 (S felt this was 'nice and interesting'):
You like?
Okay. So I haven’t really learnt any everyday-dishes so far because I always get tempted to make yummy snacks and that’s exactly what I did!
Yesterday, I made dosa for breakfast. Onion dosa, my personal favourite. It was the first time I was making the actual, thin and crisp dosa. I have made the normal thickness ones umpteen times before, but would think twice before making these. To my amazement, they came out to be perfectly golden and absolutely delectable! Thanks to the new non-stick pan, of course! Here’s a picture!
Last Sunday, I’d made onion pakodas (which are called ‘piyaji’ in Oriya. Onions are called ‘piyaja’(pronounced as piya-jaw)). They are my mom’s ALL TIME favourite snack. She totally loved them and also shot a few my-little-girl-is-growing-up-so-fast type dialogues which I’m not repeating over here! ;)
Here, take a look!
And another :) I can’t get enough of these!
I had also tried out Asha’s Kodubale but had substituted maida with atta. They tasted real good and everyone liked them but their shapes were all messed up! They looked like famished bangles *sheepish grin* So I’m not putting up a pic! Heehee. I hope next time I try them, I get the shapes right!
The topmost rack on the wall,
Blogowner’s house (hall, to be precise),
Top floor,
Building next to the tall Ashoka trees.
In case you’re wondering about the safety of this Maternity Home, rest assured as we have 90% success rate. Last December (a hard time, indeed, for most pigeons) Momma Pigy and Papa Pigy had wooed each other outside our Home (window sill of BO’s hall), must have mated successfully, had found long periods of much needed rest in one of the guest rooms in our Home (a different area of the topmost rack), had found all the necessary nest-building items from the trees nearby, built the nest over a period of 7 days and successfully laid 2 eggs. You see, Momma Pigy and Papa Pigy might’ve changed their mind after a while since neither the eggs nor the parents were to be found after a week (the week when the human inhabitants of the area around our Home were out). Hence, we say 90% success rate. How honest are we!
The Home provides excellent entertainment facilities in the form of a certain human who is said to be ‘S’. Said S finds our kind rather enchanting and we, of course, love such humans. There is, however another human who goes by ‘BO’- that creature, we do not much appreciate since she keeps the curtains closed most of the time. Only we know the extremely painful periods of longing that one parent spends one side of the curtain, and the other on the other side. It is much like the India-Pakistan saga that we have come to learn about from the 7 or 8 newspapers that these humans read (get, rather). So, be warned of BO. Rest of the humans can be safely ignored.
No human, however, has ever tried to break our Home. This is a huge plus for our kind since we always target peace-loving family-type human territories to set up our special Maternity Home facilities.
Do not worry about food. There is enough around. At times, the human inhabitants offer some to our kind. So be not worried.
From the above information, I’m sure you realise what a safe and comfortable location the abovementioned is.
We invite booking-applications from expecting parent pigeons after 20th April since we are currently tending to a couple- a beautiful white (with grey specks) pigy and his/her usual grey type counterpart. Remember, the early bird catches a room in our Home!
Happy spring-time mating!
This is a harrowing time for me. The navbar does not appear no matter WHAT I do. As a result, I don't have a search box. I tried inserting codes for a search box in my sidebar, but the sidebar is too tiny and has limited space, which is why none of those search boxes fit (my VDNA didn't fit either, which was why i had to put it up in a post *sniff*). I hate such inflexibility! I don't like the drab blogger templates on offer plus I want something unique for my pot (heehee). I have been pestering S to design a template for me- which she can, since she is excellent at that stuff, but she doesn't know the coding bit which is turning out to be a problem. So basically, I'm stuck with this template (no matter how pretty it may be, if it's as rigid and inconvenient as it is, I shall remove it sooner or later!) and beta blogger. Yes, beta blogger. There are hardly any templates on the web for beta blogger. This stinks!
P.S.: Yes, I'm even creating a new label for this- Template Blues!
You know, after a point, the whole deal about ‘vacations’ gets a tad boring. Heck. A lot boring if you don’t particularly engage yourself in worthy ‘activities’ (perhaps this would give me some ideas of what to include in the ‘activities’ section in my Orkut profile, which by the way, I must say is the stupidest question that one can ever be asked. Would breathing qualify as an ‘activity’? Say?) that keep you from wanting to sleep or only listen to your ipod or read endlessly or some such.
Talking about Orkut, there is new breed of fraandshippers that I have unfortunately come across. They try to ‘make fraandship’ with you by taunting you in some way, or asking you pathetically stupid questions on something that MAY interest you. For instance, this one particular fraandshipper (it should be in the dictionary by 2009, I say!) asks me:
“So, astro girl, what is it about astrology that interests you?” (in horrid grammar which I am incapable (thankfully) of reiterating over here)
I really felt like replying and going like ‘na na na na’ (you know, with the whole making of faces, pulling of tongue and wiggling about, like they do when a team is badly losing) ‘I didn’t fall for THAT haha’, but I resisted. Making their victim reply is the sole purpose of slothful frandshippers and EYE (to emphasise on I) am not going to let them have that pleasure. So, smart me did not reply. I couldn’t resist telling SOMEONE, so I blogged. Hee. *blush*
However, the most common breed of fraandshipper that I have come across is, quite obviously, the one who sends an ‘h’ followed by a string of ‘i’s whose purpose I still haven’t figured out. I mean, WHY would anyone scrap any random person ‘hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii’ ? Why? Do you know? I don’t know!
Maximum pity is, neverthless, felt for those who send their whole bio-data in one scrap. God save them. Please. This particular breed of fraandshippers, somehow, reminds me of Dr.Batawekar and his beloved cow with white teeths who is so attractiu that grasses comes flying to her teeths. How louly. I don’t know! They simply remind me of Batawekar (for the uninitiated, Dr. Batawekar is a character, a rather hilarious one, who features in a string of ads for Happydent White chewing gum).
Among other things, Abhu and I, who SO love BJB Chaat (this is the chaat this is available outside our college. Since college is called BJB blah blah, the name of the chaat wala’s chaat is BJB chaat) did NOT get to eat some on our last day of college. Sad, righ? We were shocked that the chaat wala wasn’t there. Instead, we settled for some alu-dum-dahi-vada (which is served in a leafy bowl along with a single toothpick) which was heavenly. We had never tried that out! Well, the most interesting and challenging yet fun part was to eat all that with a toothpick. It IS an art. Really. But when it comes to eating, Abhu and I are unstoppable. We have such congruity in what we want to eat (absolutely anything that looks and tastes good), when we want to eat (absolutely any time of the day) and how much of it we want to eat (as much as our stomach can fit without tearing at the sides) is delightful. I would say, we are meant to eat together. On the other hand, TC is the one who looks disapprovingly at us (and with a certain amount of disbelief that we can manage to gormandize the manner in which we do) and eats like half of what we do. Heehee *sigh* We shall all miss these food trips. The joys of eating. *sigh*
I cannot write anymore! I must go and eat something delicious now. This reminds me of my Enid Blyton days, when I could read ONLY with a plate of yummy chocolates and sandwiches next to me, for all those scenes when the famous five would ‘lunch’ on ginger beer, marshmallow, sandwiches that Aunt so-and-so had made for them, bacon and eggs, milk etc. It is torture to read Blyton’s books without some food near you for immediate consumption!
Yoo hoo!
I am SO back. It pains me to see that I’ve been missing out on so much fun in Blogosphere.
Hmm.
It’s strange. I can’t find anything to write about! God. Is this the dreaded ‘writer’s block’? I hope not. May be it’s just the ‘writers’(who-haven’t-written-since-a-mighty-long-time) block ?
Well, there IS one thing that I do want to talk about- The Beatles. My current ultimate-favourite band *sigh* I simply cannot find a Beatles song that I don’t adore. It’s weird!
*thinks*
*keeps thinking*
Okay. Nothing more to say. Well, there are tons of Abhu, S and TC related stories, extremely entertaining ones, mind you. The problem is that I’m still thinking which one of those to recount in these holy pages. So until I figure that out, I’ll do the tag that Isha has sent my way!
The Three Things Tag (hee, I named it myself!)
3 things that scare me: Fear, fear and fear
3 people who make me laugh: S (max!), Abhu & TC (BIG time), Suk & Raghu (erm.. I’ve mentioned 5 people, but you see, they must be mentioned in groups)
3 things I love: travelling & shopping(THAT, is the motivation behind travelling, you see), Belgian chocolates (the ones that look like seashells), cool, breezy evenings
3 things I hate: bad table manners (I CANNOT eat with people who make funny food-noises. Yuck!), sugar boiled candies getting passed as ‘chocolate’, bad breath
3 things I don’t understand: there are a hell of a lot of things I don’t understand
3 things on my desk: random papers, ipods, watches, calci, books, pens and their holders.. my desk is in a perpetual mess!
3 things I’m doing right now: listening to The Doors, typing, breathing..?
3 things I want to do before I die: 3 is too less a number!!
3 things I can do: forgive (I am the shockingly non-grudge-holding type) and forget, crack pjs at any given time, give long lectures!! P (remember, soul sister Sag?) calls me Grandma!
3 things you should listen to:
Songs apart, you must listen to your Mom!
Okay. Now these are only THREE. There are tons of other songs that I think you should listen to :D
3 things you should never listen to: anything that makes you feel unhappy or morbid
3 things I’d like to learn: I did a whole post on this one! Well, for starters, I’m learning Mandarin this summer :D Don’t laugh!
3 favourite foods: Does chocolate qualify as ‘food’? Well, absolutely anything my Mom makes, mint chocolate chip ice cream from Baskin Robbins, Samosas from Vineeth, BJB Chaat :)
3 beverages I drink regularly: since water doesn’t qualify as a beverage, I’d say Bournvita and Tropicana Mango Nectar (do these qualify as beverages?)
3 TV shows/Books I watched/read as a kid: Barbie Book, Newshouse, Famous Five and all those thick, hard cover Enid Blyton books
I tag…. Hmmm.. Raghu boy, Suk, TC and Abhu (4 people will do? Please?)
I also did this video DNA thing that I spotted at Isha’s. Here’s my VDNA!
P.S.: Any comments on the new template? Please say it’s nice! No pressure or anything though ;)
Er.. Yes, I have this thing of starting new posts with "It's been long...". So this one isn't starting that way. Well, I suppose it has already started in that inevitable way so I'll just let it be.
You (ie. those FEW sane, extremely intelligent and discerning blogger people who have paid me a visit today and who continue to come day after day, hoping and wishing that they would get a new post to live by till the next one arrives (which basically means no one) (my, am I good at talking to myself** or what! :)) might be wondering what had kept me, the former NA, away for so long. Well, a wave of self control (or whatever) had taken over me. Hee hee, okay, alright. That's not true (ok so you knew). I have my boards in March :) :) So this is the cram-NOW month.
Among other news, insightful S has earned my profound appreciation for herself by getting 'The Secret' which we have seen over and over again. I was already aware (all hail Linda Goodman and 'Linda Goodman's Star Signs') of the concept they have focused upon in the movie however the very fact that they had produced the movie so beatifully and explained every single thing with so much clarity and detail is truly a marvel. This movie marks the beginning (okay, well a little AFTER the beginning perhaps) of the Aquarian Age. Sigh.
Favoutite Quote (well, ONE of my favourite quotes would be more appropriate) that has been featured in the movie--
" Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions. " - Albert Einstein
You can watch this trailer and be awed......
(got the YouTube trailer from www.Stevepavlina.com)
..... and watch the whole movie after that :) Please watch it! Please! Please? *bats eye-lashes*
Thanks!
Now, it iz zime fure meh to leeeve. Until next time (which is going to be a long time), dear bloggy and friends, Tata!
P.S.: Now don't you go "Birla"! I am a little biased towards those who sell tea.
**- MSN friends shall testify.
Right. It’s been long. I have been weaned from internet and gotten myself addicted to tea. Twice a day is how much of it I need.
Amongst latest news, S has become quite a philosopher. She has proposed a very convincing Theory on Eventuality. She has grown all wise and sage-like and keeps thinking for long hours. After her thought binge, she comes to me and tries to make so-what-is-going-to-happen-after-all-this-crap type conversation which gives her an excellent opportunity to showcase her eye opening theories. It may sound funny over here but I have been convinced and have even started thinking in terms of The Theory*** of hers.
Driver-fellow gave a brilliant performance, so I heard *sigh* While I sit typing out this post as a faceless nobody, fellow must be getting compliments for balancing like a pro on that motor-bike. I shall now try to cheer myself up by thinking of those glorious days when my super shiny hair *runs to touch some wood* and I were featured on the SECOND page of the Times and when I was on TV, live performance that too straight from the awards ceremony and when I…. er..er.. there isn’t any thing left *sniff* *sobs*
I saw Lage Raho last night, which, I must say was awesome. I was also very happy to see that they were trying to do away with the whole manglik notion that people have. A manglik is someone who has his/her mars in the ascendant, the second, fourth, seventh, eighth or twelfth house of the natal chart (and there are 12 houses in all). So about 42% of us are mangliks. It’s no big deal. It is very saddening to see some people who call themselves professional ‘astrologers’ go about predicting someone else’s death. One cannot use astrology to predict death! It’s absolute crap. People often forget that the planets incline, they don’t compel. We must blame those who have given astrology such a bad reputation by simply removing the actual essence of this extremely helpful science and reducing it into a trash-worthy subject. Sheesh. So I say, do NOT believe any astrologer who predicts ‘death’ or who just tells you horrible things are going to happen or who asks you to perform a million pujas. That is SO not what astrology is about. *weeps*
SRK is doing a rather lousy job. He overdoes all his pjs and really pisses me and the guests off. I don’t see why someone should have to hug HIM before leaving the show. I mean, save the poor guy that last torture!
Tropicana Litchi Juice is my new favourite. I have been consuming copious amounts of it and have been feeling 0% guilty! Well, I must add that I had chole-batoore for dinner last night. Nah! I am not guilty! Not one bit! Er.. okay, may be I shouldn’t have gobbled down FOUR batoores (hey! They were tiny, okay?!) but I normally think in the lines of God-alone-knows-after-how-long-I-am-going-to-get-to-eat-this-again-so-I-better-
satiate-myself-NOW. Yea, it sounds as if my Mom is one cruel woman, but no. She isn’t. I must add (for her sake) that she is the most fabulous cook and feeds me a hell lot. It is yours truly who tries to regulate our eating habits. I have sort of transformed into the Grandma of the house. Age is indeed taking over.
Shilpa has won and she is RICH!
Songs that are stuck in my head- See Emily Play(Floyd), D'yer Mak'er(Led Zep), All of my love(Led Zep)See Emily Play-
1) I have been following the whole Big Brother thing. I have also been watching gazillion BB videos on YouTube. Dirk and Shilpa are SO cute! Awwww *sigh* The whole Dirk-Shilpa Love Fest thing is really funny!
2) I have been wrapping gifts in a rather absurd fashion. Today, S and I set out to accomplish the ambitious task of wrapping 2 gifts (actually it wasn’t very strange for S since she has always been The Wrapper in the house… wrapping gifts and covering books were always HER thing). Anyway, we set out to wrap a rather oddly shaped, cylindrical bag without making it look like a blob of crap. However, it ended up looking like this-----
Doesn't it look like an over sized toffee?
3) We have added Salad (which only includes kakdi, gajar, pyaaz, tamater) as a regular feature with our dinner.
I guess that’s pretty much it. I haven’t really been doing anything much. Yawn. Oh, in case anybody missed it, Shiney Ahuja’s actual name is supposed to be Suraj Ahuja (courtesy TC)(see previous post’s comments section for further details. Thank you very much). I didn’t know that! Poor boy! Having to live with SHINEY when he has such an adorable 5-lettered name, ‘Suraj’, which starts from S! *sigh*
Pssst… This is Post # 50!!! Half century! Woah!
UPDATE!!! 21.01.07
4) While S and I are living loser lives of anonymity (well, almost), our driver-fellow is going places and making news. Literally. Fellow has been practising with his Daddy for some stunts that they'll be performing in the Republic Day Parade that is going to take place here. He has also come on 2 local channels!! He has really been dressing up and behaving less stupid of late. Oh and you know what he said to my all-in-one maid about me??
"Badi didi (S) achi hai. Maa(Mom) bhi theek hai, zyada gussa nahi karte. Lekin, Choti didi (that would be me) thodi gussewaali hai *nods his head in horror* "
Can you believe that? Hahahahaha!! Now, if fellow is late for like 99.99% of the times when I need the car (Abhu and TC shall testify) and I need the car the most out of the three of us, then naturally I'd be a little pissed off! However, I don't say anything 'gussewaali' type. Rather I speak in a low volume when I am pissed off. How cunning! Heehee
- Hee hee.. Shoaib Akhtar. I know I know. Disgusting choice you would say. I agree! However, during the India-Pak test series back in 2004 I was a crazy 14 year old. I had collected like millions of snaps of his but was totally annoyed when I found out he used to like SONALI BENDRE. I DO NOT like her. He has bad choice. Just like me. Hehe.
- Mel gibson. I was totally crazy about Mel Gibson for like 3 days. But they were 3 crazy days. (This was after watching What Women Want) (I like Helen Hunt) (I loved the scene where they were dancing around in her new house)(Awwww)
- Michael Ballack!!!!!!!!! One of the few FPCs (Famous Person Crush) of whom I am not ashamed! He is totally adorable, plays football (and is HOT at it)(and the captain of the german team) AND a libran. How perfect is that? Longest FPC this was. Sigh. About 2 weeks. Sigh.
- Kunal Kapoor. Who wouldn’t have a crush on him? He is totally cute AND a libran AND a number 9!! Brilliant!
- Shiney Ahuja. Actually, it would be more appropriate to say I had a crush on his character Daya in Gangster. Totally adorable character.
- Erm.. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. I have no idea why I kind of had a crush on him and still sigh when I see him on TV. :S It was after I saw an interview of his on this channel and felt he was very genuine and very much like a Mr.Perfect.
- Okay. This is the strangest of them all. Salman Rushdie. I am reading ‘Midinght’s Children’ and for no apparent reason have taken a liking for the author. Oh, by the way I just found out he is a Gemini. Now I know why he gets bored so easily ;)!
Crazy or what?!
So yes. The new year has begun. Jupiter must be gleefully bouncing about in Sagittarius and I have finally acquired my Ganpati*~* Planner-cum-Diary after 3 days of 2007 have lapsed.
I am now making a *ahem* public declaration. I am getting my life back on track and I am shifting from the passenger seat to the driver's seat, right behind the steering wheel. Last year, I let things meander about their own way. That is not happening anymore. Tata ghost driver, I am taking charge.
Thank you very much.
*~*- I have this thing for Ganpati diaries. I don't know why. I just have it and I must have a Ganpati diary every year.
Ps.- 1) I am also promising myself to not allow myself to go blog hopping and blogging and such too often. I have contracted obsessive compulsive blogging form somewhere and I need therapy! So, well, I am my own therapist. (Woah, there are many 'myself's in there!)
2) S is fine. She is doing very well. Yes, she is still mesmerised by ants and has pigeons for friends (haveI written about Momma Pigy and Papa Pigy (pronounced as pidgy) hanging out at my window sill?) S is excellent at bonding with birds, insects and such normally ignored creatures. What a lovely being S is *sigh*. Of course, she IS a sag after all. All this animal(or whatever) bonding is pretty natural.
One more day to go. Urgh. Can’t wait for this year to end. One more day and I’ll be free! Yeay!
My plans for New Years? Well, nothing, really. Most probably I’ll be reading something, listening to music or simply be asleep at midnight. Well, what else do you expect? No, I don’t write down resolutions. I don’t need a new year to resolve to do something or refrain from doing something. I do that everyday. Lessons are taken everyday :)
How was 2006? Frustrating would be the best word. I did, however, learn a couple of things and unlearned some others. Well, I did have my good, bad and ugly this year as well. It wasn't really “bad” as such, but not even a good year to remember. Oh, I read all of Linda’s astro related books a gazillion times this year. Woo hoo!! I started listening to a different genre of music which I am so very in love with now. What else did I do this year? Hmm. I can’t seem to remember. Well, lets let this year just pass. Whew. It’s over and I am happy that I am done with it. Almost done. Whatever.
Hope the next year is good for all of you! Well, I guess it should be, since lucky Jupiter is returning to its own house of Sag after like 12 years. So, that’s good. Do whatever “you’ve always wanted to do” this year. It should be a good time to make changes too. :)
Happy New Year.
P.s.- Yes yes, I KNOW I am not some astrologer or anyone, but hey, any normal person who knows even a teeny-weeny bit about the star signs would know what Jup in Sag means in general!
NOTE: None of the beach pictures have been photoshopped or edited in any way (apart from being resized). The others have only been edited to adjust the contrast and lighting. That is it. They are REAL pictures. The beach pictures are straight from the cam! Enjoy!
I am back, folks! I am back! Okay, calm down, take a deep breath. Hmm. Yes. Better.
The trip was great and the reunion was pure fun. Whenever I was in the middle of something exciting, I would keep thinking- “I just HAVE to blog about this. This is crazy fun!”. Now, however, I am almost at a loss of words. I don’t quite know what all to say. There’s just so much that it would be unfair to say some and leave some. Saying it ALL isn’t feasible, considering the condition of my fingers after eating 75 billion hot-hot-fried-in-ghee-samosas and playing 11342 carrom matches and infinite rounds of Bluff and Rummy and eating cotton candy at the beach after eons and what not. So I’ll just post some pictures and say something about them. Fair enough or what?
Panchlingeshwar
Credit: Me and only me :)
This is 'Panchlingeshwar' which is about 1.5 hours from Balasore. This temple-type-thing is up on the rocks of a certain hill. We lost our way while driving to this spot and spent about 45 minutes going round and round in some tiny villages. That was.. erm... some experience. The walk up the hill was enjoyable though. It felt a lot like Manali. Dad and I were quite fit (hey! I do pilates, okay?) and could walk up without getting very worn out, but S and Mom were, *ahem* a little slow and resembled zombies by the time we reached the actual spot.
Credit: S, edited by me
This is a shot of the hillside taken by S while we were on our way down. Pretty, isn't it?
Khi Ching
Credit: S (or Dad.. don't remember!), edited by me
Credit: S, edited by me
This is the top most part of a buried temple. Why aren't they excavating and digging this place up?! Ridiculous! A temple is buried right there and no one bothers to unearth it. Shame on the Archaelogy Department.
There was a heavy metal (no, this isn't the 'heavy metal' effect. heh) rod out there. Folklore has it that it belonged to Bhima and has been there since ages and if you pick it up and take 3 rounds around the temple-top then your wishes are fulfilled. Dad and I did that together and gosh that was fun! It was back-breakingly heavy (if at all there is such an expression), but then again, I had my pilates techniques of pulling belly button to spine and activating the power-house working for me!
Credit: S, edited by me
There was this little museum at there where we saw this very fascinating statue. Prosthetic legs are nice :) Khi Ching was built in 940 A.D. out of pure granite rock (I suppose).
Why were our ancestors so fascinated by busty ladies? I saw them in every carving I saw on every temple! Our culture... sigh! (srcoll down and check the Updates for more!)
Credit: S, edited by me
Another one. All very pretty and intricate work, but even more intewesting poses.
Chandipur
Credit: S
Sunrise. Shot taken from our room. Absolutely NO photoshopping. It was really this wonderful.
Credit: Dad
The blue sky and the waters. This is a gem of a picture. One rarely finds such clean, blue water in India.
Puri Beach- My favourite beach in India.
Credit: S
Fishermen! We saw many interesting sights at 6 in the morning at our very own beach. The beach, the Jagannath temple and the swing in the second floor of my grandma's place are the regulars where all of us hung out when we were little.
Credit: S
Credit: Cousin
Isn't this place just awesome? (did you notice how clean the water is?)
My ipod(s)!!!
Credit: Me and me!!
Yes! I now have not one, not two, but THREE ipods (2 gifted by my aunt(mami))!! Isn't that just the ultimate? Well, i listened to a lot of music on my trip and even found a topic to talk about with my younger cousin (bro)- Floyd and psychedelic rock in general :) He plays the guitar, the sitar and what not. AND he's got this awesome hair which fascinated all the other cousins :) Yea, we cousins and uncles and aunts had truckloads of fun this time.
Credit: Me
I just could NOT leave out the lovely sarees that my aunt(masi) got for S and me. They have special Lucknowi work done and the colours are the most beautiful ones!
We even went to the Sun Temple, Konark. I thought everyone must already be knowing about it and would've seen pictures and blah blah, so didn't post anything on that.
Well, anyway, that was MY holiday. One helluva week. Loved every bit of it.
UPDATE!!!!
So yes, on being asked by S, I am doing this update.
1) The statue up there has 'prosthetic legs' because this legendary person called 'Kala Pahad' (which literally means black mountain) had gone all over Orissa destroying the famous heritage sites. So the 'legs' have been put to support the statue.
2) So, okay I WILL after all this fuss post some pictures from Konark since S believes her photography at it's best has been manifested perfectly in those pictures. Right-ho.
So here they are.
Credit: Dear old S
(FYI, none of them out there are family)
Credit: The Missy (S)
This is a shot of the marvellous carvings on the temple. These carvings depict the various poses in some Indian Dance. I am not sure if it was Odissi or Bharatnatyam... er.. but yea it's one of the two!
Credit: The Sag. S.
This is a shot of one of the wheels of the chariot which is also a sundial. It was very interesting to watch the guide tell us the exact time using this sundial. There are little beads which tell you the EXACT minute. How cool is that?
“He asked her whether she was North-Indian or South-Indian and she said she was East-Indian!! I mean, is there even such a thing in existence?!”
The ‘he’ was the class clown, AB (no, it wasn’t a Bachchan) and ‘she’ was good old me. Those were the glorious days when kids found AB spoofing on me and V vrooming off to some zumba-land and doing the zumba dance funny and derived entertainment from such things (yes, I(and everyone else) used to get teased with every random person and elaborate tales were concocted based on such ludicrous ideas which in turn provided great 12yearold-type joke-fodder). The above line was one which remained a much quoted line for about 3 days (which is a very long time for such things). I still don’t understand what is so absurd in my being an Easty and saying that I am indeed one. You can’t categorise all Indians as Northies or Southies. Where will the Bongs, Oriyas, Gujjus, Assamese people go?
And I can’t even begin to recount all my monikers. Everyone had them. Everyone’s surname was made fun of and it was distorted to something that sounded silly and generally was silly. I was called ---
>Mohan Aunty
V still calls me aunty!!
>Monica
God alone knows how this came into being.
>Mona darling
The cheesiest of them all. This, I assume (and I may be wrong), was a derivative of Monica.
>Monty, full-monty, half-monty and other crap related to ‘monty’
Well, a lot many people there couldn’t pronounce ‘Mohanty’ and ended up calling me ‘Monty’ which was damn irritating. Plus, I wasn’t the only Sneha around. There were 3 other Snehas and one(or may be more, of whom I am not aware) Snehal which made it ever the more confusing.
>Matinee
Since I am the ‘Mumbai Girl’ here and there was this movie called ‘Mumbai Matinee’ which had released some 3 years back, people in my new school decided to call me ‘Mumbai Matinee’, which in due course of time became only ‘Matinee’. So yes, I am Matinee.
There were many more names which I can’t remember (old age is taking its toll). However, there weren’t any that I don’t want to remember. I love all of them!
Sigh! Those were the days of innocence.
I have been spending the last 10 days sleeping, eating and not really doing much work. So, this is a Public Declaration that I shall get working and be more productive in the remaining days of 2006 which, by the way, wasn’t a great year for me. It was frustrating and a year wasted. I didn’t learn much, I didn’t read much, I didn’t do anything that would make this year special (apart from reading some valuable metaphysical stuff from Linda’s books, but hey, I have been doing that every year since the past 3 or 4 years). I am so glad this year is ending and 2007 is beginning. 2007 is my number 3 year! Yay!
I’ll be off for a 9-day long break to my Dad’s place (the place where he’s posted. It’s supposed to be a tourist-y place too) and then to Puri (where my granpa and granma live) where we’re having this family reunion after 17 years (ie. After 17 years everyone will be under one roof. This hadn’t happened in the past 2 decades minus 3 years since we couldn’t coordinate our time of home-visit). Then there are other family type plans happening so this Christmas should be fun (more people around->more gifts).
Happy holidays and I hope you have a magical year ahead!
P.s.- Yes, I have grown extremely fond of writing cocktail posts.
This inability to explain such behaviour is again, one of the many anomalies that seem to have taken over her life. However, thanks to the planets, TC and Abhu are still weird and normal (ie. being weird is normal for them). So, she’s most thankful for that.
Firstly, she no longer eats every 5 hours. She can now do with one breakfast, one lunch and one dinner (Yes, it’s important to mention the ‘one’s in there).
Secondly, she has been having tea (which is very mild of course. It’s only have half teaspoon leaves per cup) and has not been suffering from insomnia and anxiety due to that. So, that’s a positive.
Thirdly, she has forgotten to have lunch or has not felt hungry at the right time 3 times in a single week. This is rather peculiar. Hmm.
Fourthly, she has been sleeping for 4-5 hours a night and has been okay (rather great) with that. THIS is the biggest shocker of them all! ATB is a self proclaimed kumbhkaran and this particular point is disturbing her the most.
Fifthly, she has been getting late at whatever she’s doing. For instance, she was late by an hour for her physics class and this has NEVER happened (until now) to this punctual Libran.
Sixthly, she has been turning out trashier than the trashiest trashy posts (like this one).
Seventhly, she doesn’t even care about all the above ABS (Aberrant Behaviour Syndrome) symptoms!
Now, time for some news.
1) New group blog has been launched. Warning- it’s orange.
2) Poetry written by Raghu on the manual scavengers (rather it’s the voice of one).
3) I am starting to wonder if my blog needs a fresh look. Iam too indecisive a Libran to actually decide. So help, won’t you?
I had been reading some lines of a poem which was a part of our course in Alt. English. They went something like this… and they made me spiral into some rather strange questions...
“This is a man who talks of pain
As though it belonged to him alone.
Maybe he has invented it himself
And made a virtue of it.”
(Of a Questionable Conviction by Jayanta Mahapatra)
This led me to think whether I too hold any resentment and pain within me. Am I living in denial or is it that I have not seen anything ‘real’? Why is it that I find it difficult to be morbid about anything for more than a day or two? (Yes believe me, being upset is such a rage these days that I feel left out at times and start questioning myself!) Am I living in a bubble? Why are so many people depressed and go about proclaiming their depression as if it’s something to be proud of? Do I get everything so easily that I have (almost) nothing to feeling bad about? To be depressed about? Have I had it so easy that I haven’t really gone through the ‘polishing and cutting’ phase would would eventually ‘mould me into a stronger being’? Am I actually very weak within?
Then I came across these words while reading Shantaram(it's in my Currently Reading section), which by the way is a must-read for all of you. This definition of suffering, gave something to think about—
"Suffering , of every kind, is always a matter of what we've lost. Real suffering is measured by what's taken away from us."
I agree. I couldn’t change it or better it in any way (of course this is only one instance of the author’s way with words. The book is sprinkled with quote worthy lines, many of which are debatable which in turns adds to the fun.)
So, going by that definition, I should really be suffering. But suffering isn’t being miserable. It’s just there, somewhere inside. I wish I could have some things back, which I can’t.
Then, may be what I have lost never really topped my priority list. Yes, they may not have. That’s because I always took those for granted! And that doesn’t decrease the suffering in any way.
You may think, what you’ve lost isn’t probably that big, so you don’t feel it. Okay then, so I take you away from your home to some place you’ve never liked living in (because you haven’t really ever lived there), turn your life upside down, take you away when you think you’ve got friends for life and then ask you to start all over again. Then you’re asked to ‘make new friends’ and ‘fit in’ and ‘do the right things to be in the good books of people’. I make you feel horrible, suffocated and lost.
So, it isn’t really a small thing. Of course, many lessons were learnt and tests were passed. In those first 2 years when I felt I (at times) could just die, I had once called up this friend after a long long time. It was diwali. I didn’t think she’d recognize my voice. She knew it was me the minute I said hello. When I asked her whether my voice hadn’t changed at all, she said it had changed but it still had the ‘happy ring and enthusiasm’ in it which she was sure only one person she knew in the whole wide world could have despite all that she may be going through. (me). That did make me feel glad, to be honest. And since then, I have started noticing if people whom I’ve never spoken to before on phone recognize my voice the first time. They always do and they tell me the same thing that the old friend told.
This again led me to think that yes, I may be suffering (but I am not ‘depressed’ or ‘miserable’. You can suffer silently without being a pessimist) but I don’t let that be the major part of me. I haven’t got everything...anything... easily. I have been through my share of testing time for this phase of my life. I have gone through the ‘polishing and cutting’ phase which I am sure many people my age haven’t even gotten a clue about. A lot of time people do get annoyed with me for not getting annoyed with them. Strange!
Despite all this, I somehow manage to see the silver lining. I don’t need anybody’s pity. I don’t need to be morbid to be different. I am already different, just by being the happy me. So don’t ask me why I keep smiling so much because I’ll only tell you one thing- I find things to smile about even where there isn’t anything, because if I didn’t, I’d probably have become a coke-addict or a chain smoker or a total goner by now. And I am never going to be those things. The only thing that can help one out of their lonliness, ‘depression’ and addiction is addiction to something else- happiness. You’ll never feel the need to drug yourself to be happy. That’s the way we were made. When we were children we never needed a ‘fix’ to get a ‘high’. We were always ‘high’, if you ask me. You don’t need to feel 'low' which would lead you to do things to make you artificially and temporarily feel high. So why take so much trouble? Feeling low isn’t cool, at least not in my book, so why feel that way?
Please Note:
1)Yes, I have digressed a hundred times in this post and even I don’t know what the actual topic of the post should be.
2)These are my views and they work for me.
3)I am not an intolerant person who despises addicts (to anything ie). I just wish they’d see the light within instead of searching the whole world for it.
4)No, I am not preaching. In case you thought I was, then you should look ‘preach’ in the dictionary. I am just saying what I want to say since this is MY blog.
5)Yes, 'happy' is a very general and relative term. I have used it to only denote not being sad and upset and just being pleased in general.
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No, I didn’t turn into a werewolf and scare the hell out of S (sister).
No, I didn’t start sleepwalking and break half the things in my house while doing such a thing.
No, I didn’t go to a zombie-haunted house to give the zombies a fright (heh, that would be fun though).
So, what was it that I did at midnight? Okay… I just freaked out and did what I do best- act like a lunatic!
It was around 11.45 in the night, S was busy doing something online while I was getting bored in the background. So I decided to clean out my clothes shelf which was desperately screaming out to me--- “DO something about me you..you..you……!”
So, I decided to oblige and set down to removing all the clothes and arranging them and blah blah. Everytime I indulge in this activity, I find something that totally makes me happy and this time it was my old school skirt!! I couldn’t find the shirt neither could I find any other set of uniform. I then remembered, while packing (before moving) Mom had warned me to leave all my ‘unnecessary’ stuff back which could be given away to the bai but I had slipped in my beloved skirt and given away the rest. Oh how I ADORE this skirt. Once in school while I was hanging out in the corridor between classes, this really scary teacher whom I didn’t like was doing her ‘rounds’. When she saw me, she was like—
“Your skirt is like one foot long! You must get another one stiched!”
To which I replied—
“Sorry but it actually is about 1.3 feet long and I won’t be here much longer so I won’t be getting any more skirts stiched!” *smiles*
Her expression was somewhat puzzled and amused at the same time! :D
That was my favourite piece of uniform that I ever owned! I was so overcome with emotions that I even took a snap of it to put it up here. *sigh*
After the skirt-gazing and skirt-photo-clicking I continued with my pursuit of rearraging my clothes when I came across this absolutely warm, fuzzy black shirt with a little butterfly on it! I wore that and clicked like a thousand pictures of myself where one could easily pass me off for a sleep-deprived zombie (er, I think sleep-deprived is contained in the word zombie, but still). All this while S was blithely unaware of my adventures right behind her back and was doing her work peacefully.
Then I came across my wrap around skirts which I hardly wear. Anyway, they were there- all washed and ironed and neatly(?) kept. I started messing around with one of them. I tied the little stringies around my neck and started yelling “Woohoooo here comes Superwoman!” while performing an act of mock flying to which S nonchalantly replied with a practised yawn (she’s pretty used to me acting like a mental-asylum-patient-on-the-loose).
After the flying around ceased, a brilliant idea struck me. I wore the wrap around skirt in an absurd way which was held together by a banana clip on the back (heh) and the stringies at the neck. A pink shiny diva-like belt was worn on the waist to keep the frills and folds of the skirt-turned-dress together. 6-inch heels were worn. Holy mother of God! I asked S to turn around and told her this was my mock-red-carpet outfit. I quickly justified such behaviour of mine by saying I had been looking at fugly people too often these days! S gushed—
“OMG! It seriously looks like those things they wear!”
Then I started posing with one leg in front of the other, waving out, flashing fake smiles and catwalking around and still managing to look perfectly sane for the first time in the evening! S responded to all this diva-act with—
“OMG! You look like Malaika Arora!”
Thengew berry muds!! (I assume everybody has received and read that forward by now!)
No. That was a serious compliment, really! Hee. I do kind of do like Malaika. So, you know…
After all this I am giving fashion designing a serious thought. Erm. No, on second thoughts, I shouldn’t become a fashion designer. If I do, my models will all end up walking the ramp in wrap around skirts and PJs!! :D
All this activity has left me a little drained (did I mention that before all this cleaning started, I was busy dancing away to glory?). Old age is really getting to me! Okay, I take the last sentence back! It’s high time my PBT (Post Birthday Trauma) passed. Okay. Yes. No more PBT. Smiles :)
Of late, S has been thinking a lot (I suppose) and has been adorning our conversations with ‘witticisms’.
I have recollected and documented two such incidents in the following lines.
Scene 1:
S was sitting on the bed with books (and clothes, and bags and phones and every imaginable item that a 17 (newly turned*blush*#) year old Libran could possibly own) scattered all over it. I was rummaging around for some books or something and noticed a frown (very rare in case of S!) on her face. Of course, I acted as if I hadn’t seen it. She waited for me to acknowledge the frown and ask her what was up and when enough time had elapsed and she got no favourable response form me, she remarked wisely—
“Sneha ke books- na shelf ke, na bed ke”
(inspired by the doggie lokokti)
Wah wah!
Scene 2:
This is an unsaid, unwritten law in our house. When either of the two weird sisters is sitting on the comp (okay, not sitting ON the comp, but working on the comp. it’s just a way of saying this same thing, okay?!) the other feels an incredible urge to displace that sister and herself occupy the comp (okay… you got it!) even though she has much better work to do. In order to accomplish this feat, the second sister starts roaming around the comp-chair and peeking into the screen, all of which are clear indications of her desire to oust the incumbent comp-user.
One evening, I was merrily reading blogs, orkutting, checking mails blah blah when S started exhibiting all the properties of the second sister (as stated in the law above). Now, as I have already once mentioned, I HATE it when people look into my work and the comp is no exception. I always get irritated and cranky when this happens and minimize all the windows and drive her away before I regain my normal, calm and composed state.
However, this time, S said she DID NOT want the comp and only offered me one of her wisecracks—
“We are like honeybees and the comp is the honey” *eyes gleaming*
Wah wah!
Will anyone ever run out of sources of entertainment with sisters like THESE around?
I tell you, even brother-brother jodis aren’t as good as sisters! And I loathe Ms.De for writing a book on two ‘sisters’ at emotional war with each other. Hullo. They are proper ‘sisters’ neither by blood nor by any form of emotional bonding whatsoever. Then why call the books ‘Sisters’ and make ‘sisters’ look so bitchy? I don’t like that woman! No one has the right to tarnish the pure bond of sisterhood, as Elle rightly pointed out in Legally Blonde (LOVE that movie and ADORE Elle).
#- I have no clue why I blush when I say I am 17. I just feel a little old and weary now. Sigh!Someone who lived in the college hostel has committed suicide. Yet another case. Exam season, so it’s likely that more such cases will be reported now that December is close. It’s pretty upsetting to see (alright, hear) such things happening around this time of the year, every year. Why? Why can’t proper counsellors and Student Advisors be made available to students who need someone to talk to? Most of the time, it’s lack of communication of what’s troubling one that causes the sufferer to cause such things to happen. Miserable.
The technician guy who had been called by my Dad to come over to load a new OS has screwed my existing one and didn’t even load the other one. So basically all my data was at stake like 4 hours ago. The funniest part was when he produced a 64 MB pen drive to take back-up of my old data (we wanted to get the damn thing formatted). I even let out a little giggle in that very serious situation (I know it must’ve seemed a little rude, but hey, it was just toooooooooo funny to see that someone could even IMAGINE that we’d have like THAT MUCH data!!). We told him gently that we’ve got more than 60 GB data and blah blah (rest is irrelevant here). So well, the point is that I have to wait till Sunday when that guy gets his posterior here and loads the other OS and I can go use my comp without worrying about spyware and adware embedding themselves on my poor HD.
I didn’t even do 10% of all the work that I was supposed to do today. Bleh. I feel horribly guilty since exams are from Monday!!! Lord save me. Pleej!!!
As a cherry on the pie, maid made BAINGAN for dinner. Urgh!! Of course, it wasn’t the seedy, yucky variety but it was still baingan!
However, looking on the brighter side, I got a 250 GB external USB HD. It had to be bought in order to save all my data :).
Oh, by the way, Abhu just messaged me to tell that she got a puppy! So the day wasn’t that bad for all of us, eh?
PS. Today was a bad hair day too!! Everything goes wrong on like, ONE CHOSEN day, right? In a way, that’s a good thing. You don’t have to waste all the days of the week cribbing. Seven things going wrong on one day is better than one different thing going wrong every day of the week, right??!!
I couldn’t think of any dish that I would want to try neither did I feel like finding the dusty old Sanjeev Kapoor and Tarla Dalal recipe books. So, like everytime I’ve made something for the first time, I trudged along with with only my instincts (which actually must be enough for seasoned cooks since my mom (and everybody else’s of course!) keeps coming up with new innovative ideas every now and then).
The charu I made-
Yea well, it doesn't look great but it did taste so! Yes, i have no modesty left in me!
It took me about half an hour to prepare the charu. It took me 10 more minutes to toast some bread and cut it in shapes. My mom was home by then. I immediately served all I had made (hot hot!! Yay! it all tastes best when it’s hot :)) and she, being the understanding mom who has spent 20 odd years of her life trying to make a slow-eater S eat while the food is still warm, got down to the eating business. Of course, she told me it was wonderful and called up my dad to tell him about the Sneha-making-actual-dinner story! God! That feeling, watching mom have the food I’d made was most heart-warming. I was so happy to actually see her…. Okay well, istead of trying to put the feeling down in words I’ll just leave it on the hindi saying – Khaane se zyada khilane me mazaa aata hai!
UPDATE!!!
Okay, so originally I had not included the procedure that I had followed to make this charu (I don't use the word recipe here, because it's not the real recipe!). Anyway, here goes....
1) I heated some oil (about 3 teaspoons) in a kadai and added a little mustard seeds, saunf or fennel seeds and asafoetida or hing powder till the mustard seeds spluttered (which was very early!!). I then addded some curry leaves, crushed ginger and about 3 cloves of garlic which had also been crushed.
These are mustard seeds!
Saunf (or fennel seeds)
Asafoetida Powder.2) I then added some salt (to taste of course!), some curry powder, a little chilli powder and finally 3 (I didn't really know how many tomatoes I should be using, however since I was cooking for 3 people, i thought why not 3?!) tomatoes which had been cut in thin slices. The tomatoes were medium sized.
3) I cooked the contents of the kadai for a while (till the water from the tomato had almost evaporated). Then, I added about 3-4 cups of water (I was really generous with the water :)).
4) I added a lid and let the water come to a boil. After it came to a boil, I cooked it further for about4-5 minutes (till the salt-water balance came ie!) with stirring from time to time.
5) Then....... my charu was ready! :)
Enjoy!
PS. I added the pictures (which I found from the net) of those 3 components because I thought it would be easier for other novice cooks like me to figure out what all these ingredients actually mean. I didn't know those black chaunk seeds were mustard seeds till I googled it this morning!!
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