Virus strikes again

This time it is not the computer variety, its the real deal. I have been out of service since Tuesday night. Fever hovers around 102 and just refuses to go away. Just beginning to slowly get better now.

It so happened that this was one of the rare occasions when my family was in Bangalore. So I had hot food to eat and plenty of time to spend with them. Bad health can have its own weird set of rewards :) Family went back today, so I back to pauper status.

I am extremely frustrated with the sub-standard quality of books that I have been reading of late.  I can’t wait to forget that I ever read miserable excuse of books like BPO-Sutras:The Stories From Inside India's Bpo's And Call Centres by Sudhindra Mokhasi and The Last Testament by Sam Bourne. I can excuse the former, because couple of the stories there were interesting. Mostly they were just boring, repetitive and predictable.

There can be no excuse for The Last Testament though. This was my first ever Sam Bourne book, and he has resoundingly proven that he is quite incapable of putting together a suspense thriller. 

It sounded like an interesting plot when I read the back cover. The book completely lacks in pace or suspense. And an extremely weak ending to boot. His attempt at using technology (like use of second life, the way e-mail IDs and passwords are hacked) are laughable, the thriller almost becomes a comedy novel in those sections. I wonder what would happen if a more capable author like Robert Ludlum had gotten hold of the same topic !!

Seems like I have to read 10 awful books to finally stumble upon a good one !!

The smell of success

Well finally wifey seems to have done it. She has done reasonably well in her practical exams, so in around a month she should be able to proudly display her well earned MD title !!

I’m very happy for her.  Past 3 years have been soul destroying for me [and no doubt for her as well] at times. But it sure feels nice to know that when it all settles down, it would have been well worth the effort

One of the few days in which I feel so deliriously happy that I feel like singing !! Which one should I sing ??? Aaj mein upar from Khamoshi ? Halka halka sa yeh nasha from Chocolate ? Dil Kya Kare from Salam-E-Ishq ?

You be the judge :-)

Happy Anniversary to me

6 years and still going strong :-)) Not a lot of those 6 years have bee spent together, but finally light is beginning to appear at the end of the long dark tunnel. Hopefully by next year this time, we will be a happily re-united family again !!

Even now, every time I see a dad and mom walking with their small daughter, I do feel a strong sense of pain. I guess this is a situation that I can never be totally in control of.

Decided not to go home and celebrate the anniversary as I thought it is better not to distract wifey during her final preparations for the practical exams

That leaves me with the ever challenging job of keeping myself occupied. Put on my master chef hat and baked a few chocolate chip cookies, samples below. Tasted very nice too

In fact looked so nice in the photo that several folks accused me of buying the cookies and taking photographs :-) 

I have finally decided to take the pains of writing up a recipe :-), you can find it below. Pretty similar to that of a cake

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup honey *
2- 2.5 cups of maida
2 eggs
1 tea spoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Lots of nuts and chocolate chips :-)) [ I just bought cooking chocolate bars and chopped them up ]

Mix the maida and baking powder and keep aside for 15 mins. Thoroughly mix butter and sugar. [I had used melted butter by microwaving it on low power for a minute or two]. Beat the eggs well with vanilla essence in a mixer and pour to the earlier butter-sugar batter and mix well. You can add honey also now. Fold in the maida and mix till the batter is thick. If it turns out to be a bit watery, add a touch more maida OR refrigerate it for 1/2 hour to get the water out. [ I employed both techniques , btw ;-) ]

Add a spoon or two of the final batter onto a baking pan [I formed a small ball with the dough and just pressed it on to the pan to get the shape]. It spreads as it bakes, so don’t put your clumps close together. Bake in a pre-heated oven ( 180 deg C) for 10-12 minutes, till outside begins to turn dark brown in color. As you take out the cookies, they may feel slightly spongy on top. Allow them to cool down and they become nice and crispy on the outside.

* Original recipe require 3/4 cup each of white and brown sugar, I had no brown sugar, nor do I know from where to get it in Bangalore. Hence used honey which was suggested as an alternative

Another cooking experiment

Let me start with :-(((, this is to represent how badly I am missing my family now. Maybe a familiar rant for some of you, even mildly amusing too perhaps. Ended up spending most of weekend with phone switched off, didn’t want to talk, didn’t want to see anyone.

Moving on to more pleasant things.

The master chef returns yet again with one of his magical mouth-watering creations. This time Paneer Tikka masala !! No idea of a recipe, so basically used the same one as for Chicken Tikka. I marinated Paneer in curd and masalas for couple of hours ( Tandori chicken masala, ginger garlic paste, chilli powder, salt) and grilled it in my microwave oven. Took quite a while to cook, close to 30 mins in my reckoning.

Turned out quite decent and eminently edible. See the photographs below.

I was just too hungry. So forgive the lack of decorations and garnishing :) The onions you see were actually part of the grilling process. I am not a big capsicum fan, else could have added that also to the grill

Hence [for this weekend at least] a resolution to the Pradeep-ian dilemna : To cook or not to cook, that is the question

Exams and school start

Came back from a brief vacation to Calicut. I had to go home to provide moral support to wifey for her MD theory exams. Also had to be there for my princess’s first week of school in UKG. Exams went well, so did the first week of school

Only thing that did not go well of course is the part in which I had to come back to Bangalore:-(

Well, I have been thinking. Normally I am supposed to be someone of fairly even temperament and strong mentally. See the following description from a Facebook test Which Periodic Table element are you ?

“Iron ( Fe)

You are strong in character, emotions, ethics and physically. People who know you believe you are reliable and steady. You say what you mean and you will follow through with it because you weighed the positives and negatives of the commitment before you even said yes. Life may though difficulties your way but you are able to cope with them because of your strength..”

So maybe the reason that I have been experiencing so many troughs is NOT because I am not strong enough, it is maybe because no person is strong enough to withstand these experiences !!

There, I made a sweeping and generalized comment covering billions of people about whom I know nothing at all ..

But somehow the statement makes me feel happy. It is the world’s fault, not mine. I am fine. Ha ha ha ha !!!!!!!!

Permanent membership in a mental asylum does not seem to far off now :-)

The random thoughts continue to flow unabated …..