Weekend : The story so far

Went to a colleague's kids birthday party today. Again the reality hit home then on how much I am missing my wife and daughter. However that is the hand life and circumstances have dealt us, and there is no point really griping too much about it. Too much self pity is a dangerous thing, so I do my best to not let these thoughts into my mind too often.

I was again wearing my driver's hat today, driving across heavy traffic areas to pick up and drop couple of my colleagues. I love driving, so does not really matter to me whether it is slow moving or fast traffic. It could turn out into an interesting alternate career path for me :-). I'm also a bit paranoid about any of my female friends having to take a public bus/auto or cab to get home in the evening/night time. There have been so many bad incidents reported in the press that I am just too scared to let them take those options.

Finished with More Twisted. Not nearly as good as Twisted, the wickedness factor is considerably less in More Twisted. The next book that I just started is Devil Wears Prada. Never read anything from the author, Lauren Weisberger before. So should be interesting.

An interesting day

Yesterday was most definitely an interesting day. Stumbled into office around 10 a.m, I had very little sleep the night before, managing only 2 hours of rest. By 1.30 p.m , I was beginning to see the text floating on my LCD screen !! Though the air-conditioned office environment is definitely an appealing place to sleep, my professionalism got the better off me and I headed towards home.

The weather was dark and cloudy outside and it sort of matched my mood. No sooner than I had reached home did my friend call. We chatted for quite a while to clear up a difference of opinion.It felt so nice and relaxing to get that out of the way. The problem sort of had to do with the very different personality types that we have. Also my nature of being a bit of an ass at times did not really help. Rather than clarifying things up front, I tend to assume and needless to say that aggravates things quite a bit.I am sure you  know that assume is often split up as (making an) "ass" (of) "u" (and) "me" . I think I should also be a bit more up front about feelings rather than go on a slow-boil.

I am figuring out ways to improve on this in future, should not be that tough an adjustment to make, I hope.

That issue being out of the way, the weather did not suddenly look all that bad. Perfect weather for reading a book nibbling a few pakodas, I felt. Well reading of the book is something that I can do easily enough, pakodas is a different matter altogether.

See, the problem of being a Married But Bachelor ( MBB !! ) guy is that , you cannot really lean back on your recliner and order ( or plead , or beg , or cajole ) your wife to make something for you. If you feel like eating something, you have to actually get off your backside and make it yourselves. If you are thinking 'That ain't no big deal', I should add that my backside is rather big and difficult to get moving these days. :-)

The temptation of pakodas was too much and I did finally cave in. Folks well versed with Murphy's laws can probably already guess where this is headed. Pakodas came out a crisp golden brown, was unfortunately undercooked on the inside. My star consultant did advise me to fry them on a low flame again. However, that was way too much work for me. I chose to file them in my refrigerator for further analysis at a later date.

The day ended with a chat with one of my best friends. Sort of was a revenge call because I did manage to wake her up from slumber, this was something she has done quite often for me :-). The chat put me back on track and I slept like a log through the night !! No more sleep problems !!

A supportive family, good friends with whom you talk openly , 9 hours of sleep at night. Life is looking good, isn't it ? :-)

Getting back my sleep

Yesterday was a good day in that I was able to get around 8-9 hours of solid sleep. Lot of demons vanished from my mind after that !! It's interesting that sleep deprivation can have all sorts of bizarre effects on people. Was reading about some at this link , some of it does scare you a bit. Thankfully I never went to that extreme !

Rains have started yet again and the rapidly changing climate is a killer for Asthmatics like me. Managing to hold on without major problems so far. I am hoping my good luck continues !!

Did some experimentation with chicken today. Tried to make grilled chicken. Surprisingly, it turned out ok. The masala was perhaps a touch too strong, but then proportions are never my strong point in cooking :-)

Planning to read and drift off to sleep now. Yet to finish More Twisted, has been pretty good so far. A touch less gruesome than Twisted but equally intriguing.

Aloo paratha V4 : Master Chef strikes again

Finally I got it right. Yyyyeeeesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss !!!!!

The video demonstration from my consultant was the key. I was able to identify several strategic errors by observing the video, especially on the folding technique. :-)

Managed to get all my proportion of salt, chilly powder, green chilly and dry mango powder right this time. Partahas looked good to me , definitely tasted good !! See the snaps below, resolution won't be great as my w300i has only a VGA camera.

Still the talent should shine through these grainy snaps :-)

(a) About to fold & roll           (b) Just after rolling           (c) Getting cooked

 

   (d) Ready to eat !!

Managed to get in some sleep during afternoon, so feeling a lot better now. If I can nail tonight's sleep quota , I should be fine .

Loss of sleep

Sleep has long deserted me, I wonder where it has gone. It would be nice to have a Google search for life. Search for sleep and click on the link and presto, you are snoring away like there is no tomorrow.

What the heck am I writing ?? Surely I am getting incoherent with lack of sleep.

Couple of incidents have affected me, one to a larger extent and other to a much smaller extent. The major incident has definitely been closing down of EOTO, I am just unable to shake the sadness off. What will happen to all those students who desperately need some institution like EOTO to help kick start their life ? I keep wondering and wondering. In many ways I have lost the fight for them, haven't I ?

The second incident is something I thought I could brush aside in a couple of days. I don't even want to mention the incident here as that is something I promised to bury. I guess sometimes the hurt and disappointment you feel is a bit deeper than what you initially think. Still, I am pretty sure I will get over this soon.

The eccentric Bangalore weather has not helped me a great deal either. The evening rains followed by the baking afternoon sun has resulted in my chest producing lot of poly-phonic sounds :-) Need to be careful for a couple of days now ...

ManU wins !!

Was up till 3.30 am yesterday to watch the Champion's league final. It was worth every minute. Such a dramatic match !! 1-1 at end of extra time, fast paced , Drogba being shown a red card (for a remarkable piece of stupidity in slapping Vidic right under referee's nose , see the video below) and a see-saw penalty shootout.

Poor John Terry. Had the chance to win if for Chelsea ,had he converted his spot kick. As luck would have it he slipped as he was taking the shot and blasted wide. Imagine being stuck with the stigma of being the player who had the chance to win "The" cup for your team and blew it. Must be really awful.

I hate Chelsea, because I think their player behavior is out of control and they do not entertain enough for the talent they have at their disposal. But boy, didn't I feel for John Terry when he missed.

I stay in Bangalore , I've never been to UK, absolutely no link with the city of Manchester, so it is a bit silly to say I support a local English team like Man United. Maybe Viva Kerala is the team I should support :-)

On memory

I had a disagreement with a close friend recently over a treat which kept on being 'forgotten'. One of the points I was struggling to grasp was on whether memory can be selective or not.

Well, I guess it can be selective, though at that point I had difficulty accepting that.

For example, I have no idea on what day I saw my wife for the first time, what I was wearing at that time, what I spoke to her etc. My wife, of course, remembers. Though I have gifted her a few dresses, I cannot for my life pick them out from her dress collection.

Though I consider my first (1997) and second(2000) job interview successes to be major events in my life, I have no clue on what dates they were. Heck , I don't even remember the months now !!

I tend to remember the birthdays of a few close friends. I can usually remember any commitment that I make and I rarely forget to be somewhere on time. I usually remember names of people pretty well , which has helped me a great deal in my stint as a volunteer teacher !!

Is that an inherent difference in Male-Female memory ? I guess it could be . I guess it is also a natural reaction for you to be upset if you find that your friend cannot remember something that you can do so effortlessly !!

No wonder John Gray is minting money with his Mars Venus series of books :-)

Feedback on Dessert

Took my biscuit-coconut-dates roll to office the other day. Got very good feedback from all folks except my consultant. She crinkled her nose at my novel concept of introducing dates also along with coconut powder. Her claim is that the biscuit-coconut roll would taste better than my innovation.

Ha !! Foolish girl does not understand that the breakthroughs in cooking world are always achieved by innovators like me. Though recently, my temper is the one that has been breaking through the most ! :-)

Got a superb video also from the expert on how to make Aloo paratha. There is going to be a version-4 hitting the blog soon. If it turns out poorly, it will be hitting my kitchen wall instead :-)

I am also in the proposal state on how to introduce dates and fig into my cake recipe. Suggestions are welcome !!

Dessert time !!

Dessert was the one missing dish in my arsenal ( a very limited one , if I may add ) , it is about time I addressed that.

A slow Friday evening at work resulted in a long chat with my consultant on various dishes that I could try. Quickly settled on a Biscuit-Coconut roll as it seemed all the ingredients could be easily put together by me. She seemed to think that "Even you can make it" . An insult to an obviously talented cook, I ignored it just to get the recipe.

Some frantic shopping on Friday night for biscuits, coconut powder and aluminium foil resulted. Finally around 9.45 PM I was ready with all the ingredients.

Everything came together beautifully. The master chef at work again. I was bold enough to introduce my own variation by adding date pulp to the roll. Turned out perfect, a bit too sweet perhaps. I am never one to shy away from sweetness, so did not bother me too much.

The unscrupulous consultant is demanding royalties already . Huh !! My magnificent innovation with the date pulp is what really made the dish . Still I do grudgingly give her credit for the base recipe.

Will share the recipe sometime later, just too sleepy now. Now I have found an easy way to go off to sleep, I just think of the Bangalore Royal Challenger's batting line up, within 5 minutes I am nodding off already :-)

Did some weekend shopping , bought 3 books The Devil wears Prada , More Twisted and Forgive me , Amma . The last one being a biographical sketch of one of India's most mercurial hockey players, Dhanraj Pillay. Sadly the book did not offer as much of an insight into Dhanraj as I had hoped, it is just an average read. The sheer passion of the man for the game and country does shine through in bits and pieces.

I am looking forward to More Twisted. The first book Twisted was absolutely amazing.

Sign language

I have enrolled for learning sign language !! I have never worked with hearing impaired people, was curious to learn how to communicate with them if at all I get a chance.

Today was our first class. Our instructor is a hearing impaired person. It was fascinating to see him communicate so effortlessly with us without speaking a word.

We learnt the symbols for all the alphabets, along with some common greetings like "Good morning", "How are you", "Nice to meet you" , "Welcome", and some basic words like yes, no, understood, not understood etc.

 

Apparently there is British and American sign Language. Bangalore uses American Sign language, so that is what we are being taught.

You can have quick browse to see how some words can be expressed in American sign language. http://commtechlab.msu.edu/Sites/aslweb/browser.htm

So easy to take Speech and hearing for granted, is it not ?

Aloo paratha: versions-1,2 & 3

As mentioned in my earlier post , my next project was to make Aloo paratha. Had a detailed discussion with my Punjabi consultant couple of days back, got very clear step by step instructions. In fact she also got me a sample to taste in the morning, it was very very good.

Armed with the pearls of wisdom from my consultant, I started. A crisp summary of events that happened is as follows

Version -1 : To cut a long story short, my parathas started breaking up badly. They started breaking up as I was rolling it. They broke up even more when I started cooking it on the tawa. My violent temper flared up again when I saw my couple of hours of hard work disintegrating faster than the Bangalore Royal Challengers batting lineup. I scooped out some portions from the tawa and hurled it at the dust bin. But curiously, whatever broken portions I was able to cook tasted awesome. That was encouraging :)

Version-2 : Further consultations resulted in couple of adjustments in my rolling technique. Presto , no breaking now !! Perfect shape. Alas, the taste somehow went missing. After sampling , the expert cook commented on a lack of salt and chilly. Not too bad for a V2, I am improving fast , right ?

Incorrect conclusion arrived at after analyzing too few data points, as it turned out.

Version-3 : I had refrigerated the left over aloo mixture from version-2. Decided to use the same for V3, just with a bit of added salt and chilly. It should work now , right ? Unfortunately I neglected to account for the aging effect of the potato mix under refrigeration. People tell me that degradation factors of 0.5 per day is not uncommon and I had refrigerated for 3 days :(. Again shape was perfect, but a pungent sour taste resulted.

I still managed to eat two , amazing what you can accomplish when you are really hungry :-)

This is turning out to be a bit more tougher than I anticipated. I still suspect there are some crucial steps which have been conveniently forgotten by my consultant.

Hmmmm, somehow that does not surprise me :-)

My tussle with autorun.inf virus

One of my friend's PCs was infected with the Infostealer virus. Although the Antivirus identified the virus and cleaned it. Couple of weird things happened

(a) If you double click on C: or D: , it asks you to chose a program. However if you right click and say Explore, it opens up fine

(b) It was not possible to see hidden files and folders any longer. If you go to Explorer->Tools->Folder Options->View and check "Show hidden folders and files" and say ok, and then immediately go back and check , the option would reset to "Do not show hidden files and folders"

Very perplexing problem and our in-house technicians gave up on solving this problem. Time for the master technician to step in :-)

Problem (a) is easily solvable, provided your Antivirus had already caught and cleaned the virus. It is caused by the "autorun.inf" file in c: and d: drive. To complicate matters a bit, this is set as a hidden file. Best option that I found out is follows.

• Start->Run->cmd , Enter
• Type c: , followed by "dir /ah *.inf" . Now you should see a listing for autorun.inf.
• Switch the attribute of the file by doing "attrib -h -s autorun.inf" . -h is to unhide, -s is to remove system attribute
• Now go to c: ( by right click on My computer and explore ) and shift + delete the autorun.inf file
• Repeat the procedure for d:
• After re-start, your problem should be fixed.

Problem (b) is a bit more tricky and requires messing around with registry. So be sure to backup your registry. Type "regedit" from the command prompt , click on "My computer", go to File->Export and save the file is say c:\.

Next trick is to find an uninfected XP system and export the following two sets of registry entries

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Currentversion\Explorer\Advanced

Just click on the Advanced and go to File->Export to export this key. These will be two very small files, 20 kB or so.

Copy them on to the affected PC , invoke registry editor and import these two files. You can go the explorer and change the hidden file options and they should stick now !!

This solution is thanks to the suggestions found on http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic65215.html

Another feather in the cap of the unofficial tech support guy. Our internal tech support will have a fit if they find out that I have been steadily eating away at their business :-)

Who am I ?

Once I get hold of weird topics like the above, then pretty tough to get me out of that loop:-)

What defines who I am ? Why did I turn out the way that I did ?

What played a major role in forming my character ? Genetics ? Childhood ? Parents ? Friends ? Teachers ? Education ? Who contributed how much ? What exactly was my role ?

What if I were born in say Nigeria ;-), would I still turn out to be the same ?

Questions and questions . No clear answers . Ah, life is interesting, ain't it ?

Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum said Rene Descartes. I doubt, therefore I think , therefore I am. That at least establishes that I exist.

Getting better

Yesterday night went much better than I expected. I was able to sleep quite well, that in itself seemed to have a calming effect on my Asthma and throat infections. I need to think whether Bangalore is the right place for me to be in the long term. The dust , pollution and pollen levels here are not too great for folks with respiratory disorders like me.

Thinking of my further life of course awoke the philosopher in me :-) What would you consider to be most important in life ? Job ? Quality of life ? Family ? Peace of mind ? Money ? Good friends ? I don't know the answer. Depending on my mood, the answer could be any one of the above.

I know what the greatest disappointment in life is, for me there is no worse feeling than being let down by someone you consider to be a close friend. As mentioned in an old post, expectation is often the root cause of misery :-).

Asthma and me

Bangalore has gone through a series of abrupt climate changes and sure enough, my old foe Asthma has decided to renew its acquaintance with me. Started having a bit of trouble on Saturday, I thought I was shaking it off well on Sunday, but it came back with a vengeance on Monday.

I have been fighting it for maybe 25 years now. Asthma attack is not a pretty sight to watch, the feeling is even worse for the patient. During my childhood it used to be pretty severe, I do remember countless night spent in the crouched seating position, struggling for breath, wondering if the attack is ever going to subside. Must have been so incredibly tough for my parents to see me go through all that. Now that I am a father, I am beginning to understand the depth of concern they must have had over me.

Right now I am waiting for it to subside enough for me to sleep. Looks like a long night ahead ....

Does make you realize the true value of a healthy pair of lungs, doesn't it ?

Certification day

Today we held our final certification ceremony for the batch of students graduating from the Each One Teach One ( EOTO ) computer education and spoken English program. The event was very well organized, one of the best that I attended. We had around 60-70 students graduating from the program.

I met almost all of my students from the past 8-9 months. It was so nice to see and catch up with what they are doing. I was so touched when more than a couple of students told me that they considered me to be an ideal teacher for them. Feels nice that at least somebody thinks I can teach !! :-)

When I think of my students and all the memories, it is tough not to feel emotional. I just feel as if I have lost a big bunch of my friends.

I left the ceremony with a heavy heart. I still somehow feel I have let them down. Let them down by not fighting enough to keep the center open. Did I do everything I possibly could to keep EOTO open ? I think I will wonder about this question for a long long time.

When I think of my students, lyrics from an Aerosmith song drift to mind

Dream on, dream on
Dream until your dream come true
Dream on, dream on, dream on...

Convictions may change, centers might close, people could change, we all will grow older for sure.

But Dreams don't die, do they ?

Next cooking project

I am inviting request for proposals on how to make Aloo paratha :-). Thinking of migrating to a few North Indian dishes now. I got this following recipe by Googling http://www.khanakhazana.com/recipes/k_recipe.aspx?id=709
, need to get it approved by my North Indian consultant. She has promised me her recipe tomorrow.

One problem I am noticing is that it is impossible to get the full recipe out from a female in first attempt. Usually some key ingredient would be conveniently forgotten, or a crucial step in the cooking procedure ( usually the one on which the whole taste of the dish hinges ) will not be shared with you. I think professional jealousy is the reason :-)

Rained well here in Bangalore today, reminded me briefly of the rainy season in Kerala. Predictably traffic on almost all roads came to stand still. This city is getting more and more pathetic by the minute.

Orkut says my daily fortune is "You are going to have a very comfortable old age". Who is getting old ? I will be young even at 80 :-). Would I be blogging then ? Would blogging even exist ?

Hmmmmmm ......

Interesting sports rituals

If you are a sport lover like me, you just have to see the Haka performed by the New Zealand Rugby team before each of their matches . I am not a rugby fan, but it is so spectacular to watch this Maori war chant that they perform before every match.

I got the following original text and translation of the Haka from http://www.nzallblacks.net/haka.asp

Ringa pakia
Uma tiraha
Turi whatia
Hope whai ake
Waewae takahia kia kino

English Translation:
Slap the hands against the thighs
Puff out the chest
Bend the knees
Let the hip follow
Stamp the feet as hard as you can.

Ka Mate! Ka Mate!
Ka Ora! Ka Ora!
Tenei te ta ngata puhuru huru
Nana nei i tiki mai
Whakawhiti te ra
A upane ka upane!
A upane kaupane whiti te ra!

English Translation:
It is death! It is death!
It is life! It is life!
This is the hairy person
Who caused the sun to shine
Keep abreast! Keep abreast
The rank! Hold fast!
Into the sun that shines!

New Zealand is not the only team to have such a pre-match ritual. Samoa, Fiji and Tonga also have their own version of war chants.

Fascinating stuff. Wonder why we never have any such ritual for our teams.

Back to Bachelorhood

After a 6 day stay, my family has gone back to Calicut. The time just flew while they were here. Now I am back to my Bachelor ( or should I say beggar ) status !

I treated them to my masterpiece , The cake. Immediately my Mom noticed a problem with the taste. Apparently you have to use unsalted butter for the cake, mine had a slight salty taste. Interestingly my daughter picked this up real fast and just refused to eat the cake. Silly girl, does not know a master chef when she sees one :-)

Suddenly I have lots of time on my hand. Perhaps it is time to return to my reading. I am still stuck on the first few pages of Orhan Pamuk's My name is Red. Most definitely I need to move to a different book and come back.

At work , I am increasingly getting this feeling that I am going around in circles. This is however nothing new , part and parcel of being in research.