Keep watching this space for different versions of my beard
Update on December 4th, Friday
“Zappa” Pradeep
Here is Pradeep “Van Dyke”
Followed by a Pradeep “Fu Manchu” [with a vertical moustache variation]
What is next now ? Stay tuned :-)
Let me describe the following situation to you. I am with my family and after a long day of work and shopping we are finally at the BigBazaar checkout counter. I wiggle into a queue with only one couple in front of me. He has a cart full of items, should take no more than 3-4 minutes to check out. The cashier tallies the amount, it comes to Rs.4000 odd . So far so good.
Out come couple of BigBazaar gift vouchers. After counting it is figured out that still around 3000 Rs is to be paid.
Then comes the dreaded Ticket Restaurant Meal vouchers. Slow and methodical counting in progress and I am tapping my feet impatiently. [ I can never for the world figure out why folks cannot start counting once the cashier is tallying up the items ]. Well guess what, even after like 5 minutes of counting, still around 1500 is owed in balance.
Here comes a credit card now. Phew, finally the end seems near !! But no, looks like there is no easy getaway today
Cashier : “Sir, since you have shopped for 4000, you can get a crockery set for 150. Would you be interested ?”
Of course he would be interested, his whole purpose on earth seems to be to torture people behind in the queue. Off goes his wife to check out the crockery.
Another 5 mins pass. And the cashier won’t bill , because the guy won’t swipe till his wife comes back and tell him if to buy the crockery or not. I am already fantasizing on what I would do with a set of crockery on this guy’s head !!
Finally the wife come back and happily informs him that there is no need to buy the crockery set. Happily he checks out and leaves. Not a word of apology or acknowledgement to the people behind.
I am not a violent man, but boy if I do turn to violence I know exactly the kind of people to go after !!
And I do have a pathological hatred for anyone who pays by Ticket Restaurant vouchers.
Getting bored of seeing the same old face in the mirror, I am considering sporting one of those cool beards.
[Source : http://nixbased.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/beardtypes1.jpg]
As per the above picture, I am realizing that my normal experiments with facial hair has either been a “Short Boxed beard” or a “Van Dyke”.
Now I am considering a “Fu Manchu” or “The Zappa” .
What do you think ? :-)
As I have mentioned before, sports can be a great mood elevator. Just listen to the Liverpool anthem and you will know why ..
When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark
At the end of the storm
Is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark
Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
Though your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on walk on with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone
Walk on walk on with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8361113.stm.
Though I am a keen football follower, I had not heard of Robert Enke till he tragically took his own life. Apparently was almost a certainty as the first choice goal keeper for German national football side for 2010 world cup.
And just 32 years old too, an year younger than me. A professional footballer, one trained to perform in front of thousands. A man who you would think to be well equipped to handle the highest order of pressure.
This should be a true eye opener on how dangerous an opponent depression can be. When all your sense of logical thinking disappears and only negative thoughts hover in your mind. When you just cannot see even a shred of hope, while in reality things are not quite as bad.
Really, how low must he have been feeling to perform this act ? I only hope that is a low I would never feel ………..
RIP Robert Enke.
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
And He bends you with His might, that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, he loves also the bow that is stable
Khalil Gibran from The Prophet
Just finished reading yet another of Dan Brown’s books, this time it is the latest one : The lost Symbol
I don’t know why I keep bothering to read his books, each one is progressively worse compared to the previous one. Last one I read was Angels and Demons and that was pretty average.
It is not the Symbol that is lost, it is Dan Brown’s brain that has got lost.
And I am lost for words to describe this book :-) Abysmal , is that the correct word to describe this ? Seems too mild.
Hard cover edition too, would definitely be good to squash a few cockroaches !!
Stay away at all costs !! If you simply have to read this , then don’t waste money. I will gladly gift you my copy.
The past few days have not been good. First my family went back to Calicut on Wednesday night . This time they had come here to secure my daughter’s school admission for June next year. We finally got her admitted to VIBGYOR high after considerable debate. Seems like a good school. Only time will tell if we are good enough parents to make sure our little one gets proper values and education.
After my family went back, I slipped into one of my customary moody state of minds. I am usually very silent and irritable when in this mood. My food habits become very irregular and I am usually a bit curt or even rude. I can feel the transformation signs, but sadly there are very few things I can do to control them. The only thing that has worked for me is to brood a couple of days then get back to normal. It works in a certain time cycle, I cannot accelerate or decelerate the process !!
Very frustrating, especially because I realize I am upsetting a lot of my friends when I go into this shell. But hopefully this is a part of life that will be gone forever once my family joins me in a few months. What if I lose a few battles, I will win the war for sure !!
Then I decided to foolishly volunteer for doing some wall scrubbing and painting, for a moment forgetting my old friend – Asthma. That friend does not take forgetfulness very lightly , and I was punished heavily for my indiscretion. The dust and turpentine smell was a bit too much for me to handle and I was out for close to 3 days before I could raise my head somewhat.
So rearing my head back up again slowly now. On the prowl for a few books to read.
“Pink it’s my new obsession
Pink it’s not even a question
Pink on the lips of your lover, ‘cause
Pink is the love you discover”
I am not too much of an Aerosmith fan, but unfortunately I am getting destroyed by a pink-wash !!
All happened when I put in my Maroon colored Kurta for washing along with a load of other clothes. I rarely use my Kurta, so this is probable the first time in like 2 years that I am putting it for a wash. As luck would have it , several of the items that I put in were light colored clothes. And several of them were my favorites ….
Heavy discoloration of the Maroon Kurta occurred, all of my light clothes have been dyed in a shade of bright revolting pink :-(( See below for some samples 
I have pink Handkerchiefs, pink socks, pink underwear, pink T-shirts, pink lungi (!!) and a pink shirt now. I guess I can spin it off as my bit towards cancer awareness. If White House can do it, so can I !!
But realistically, what do I do with these now ???
Well, the heading puts it rather mildly. I am having a pretty poor run of results in cooking. All started of with my birthday
Episode –1 : Killer Coconut
Dosa-Chutney is one of my favorites, so what better dish to have on birthday night ? Except for the small fact that I actually left the coconut that I grated the previous day outside the fridge by mistake. I had no spare coconut, so birthday night was spent as usual with a tall glass of cold water :-(
Episode-2: Old man and the porotta
Birthday was a washout but I was determined to eat something nice at least the next day. Went to MK retail, brought some chicken and gravy paste and made a Kolhapuri chicken curry. Kerala porotta(paratha) goes very well with spicy chicken curries. I eagerly opened my fridge to heat up some ready to eat porottas. To my dismay I realized that I had forgotten to stock those. Brain degeneration due to old age, I guess. So this time I had chicken gravy, but no porottas :-( Summary : No food
Episode-3: Revenge of the prawns
Resolve grew stronger when weekend arrived. Saturday saw yet another trip to MK retail, this time I returned with some frozen prawns, determined to make a dry type prawn masala. Marination of prawns went well, the masala came out looking nice and aromatic. All that was left was to mix the prawns in the masala and let it simmer for 20-25 minutes.
Happily I kept it in a closed vessel and went off to do some Facebook-ing on my computer. Returned back 20 mins later to find acrid smell and smoke spreading through the kitchen. I had forgotten to put the gas on low flame :-((( All that was left was a deep black charred mass .. Siggghhhhhhhh .
Summary : No food
Episode 4: Return of the hogger
Thankfully that was Diwali day and I was saved by invitations from Daya and Chatter Box !!. Massive hogging sessions in the evenings offset the losses of previous days :-). Had a really nice time, bursting crackers, lighting Diyas, attending prayer , eating good food and having nice company on weekends for a change. Felt so happy when I got back home that I celebrated it by sleeping most of Sunday :) Life was indeed looking great !!
Episode 5: The final nail in the coffin
The next weekend arrived and I had to do something to keep from starving. Decided to fall back upon a tried and tested item – Appam. Now you may say that I should have seen it coming, but frankly I did not. Appam’s came out disastrous. They were refusing to spread on my non stick pan, and even when I could get the batter to spread, it was forming lumps all over !! :-(( This time I was so hungry that I had to eat up all the pathetic creations.
For the next 3 days my family is going to be here, so maybe a short break would help restore my confidence.
The moment you think life is not going good or start grumbling about minor things, life has a way of delivering one tight slap that snaps you back to your senses.
Sometimes this is what I need …. http://www.mtv.com/videos/misc/106071/a-well-deserved-slap.jhtml#
Still on the right side of 30 , I will put it that way :)
Like 90% of my days in a year, a day spent alone at home at night. I had planned to make Dosa with coconut chutney ( one of my favs ), but the coconut got spoiled. So ended up with no dinner.
Friends at work gave me a nice surprise by organizing a cake. That was definitely the bright spot of my day !!
Would have been a whole lot better if people whom I expected to wish me first did not end up being the birth‘night’ wisher rather than birth’day’. But I can’t complain too much, porters and drivers cannot expect too much more …..
Being alone on a birthday is no fun at all :(( Hopefully this is the last time I have to this, next year my family should be here
Current and past users of PV cabs would be delighted to know that pickup from Railway station and drop to hotel is an additional service being offered at no cost.
Under special circumstances, PV cabs driver can also double up as porter. Service currently on offer only for below cubicle height population :-))
Stay tuned for further enhancements in services
CEO
PV Cabs
Yet another ad on Tata Safari Dicor that I love. Haunting music, simple yet thought provoking themes
When you look back on life, what would you remember ……….
Indeed, what would I remember ? Some questions are best left unanswered.
Welcome to Airtel Hello Tunes. Please SMS Stop to 543211 to stop this service, you will be charged Rs.3 for this message
Rs.3 is better than having to pay 30 per month for this. Let me send this message right away
Invalid IP Address
What do you mean invalid IP address ?? This is a cell phone, from where will it get an IP address ? Hey wait a sec, it say here on the website that I can dial *678# and access a service menu and do this. Silly me, why did I waste 3 Rs now. Dial *678#
Dial 6 to stop hello tunes.
Dial 6
Please enter the mobile number from which you want to copy the hello tunes
No you dumb system, that is not what I want to do, I want to cancel it. Maybe I made an error in entry. He he he , that has to be it, how can the menu be wrong ? Let me pull up the menu again
Dial 6 to stop hello tunes.
Dial 6 with careful deliberation
Please enter the mobile number from which you want to copy the hello tunes
What the …………………………….
How do I get rid of this moronic Caller tune now ? Aha, there is hope still, you need to call 543211808, again toll free to unsubscribe. Let me try this now, this better work
And thankfully it did, though I recall that the menu choices were not that straightforward. Persistence wins !!!
Now why had I subscribed to Hello Tunes in the first place ??? For once, my memory fails me …… :-))
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