Pink !!

“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 ???

Master chef loses his golden touch

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.

One tight slap

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#

Happy b’day to me, Happy b’day to me ….

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

Extended service mode of PV cabs

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

What would you remember ?

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.

Trriiing Trriiiing

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 …… :-))

I am born again ……

No, I am not referring the Boney M song with same name

In a few hours I will complete my transition from a forced bachelor existence to being a family man . My family has already started their journey to join me in Bangalore for a week !!

One week in which I will be free of all the tensions in the world

One week in which I will no longer come back to an empty house

One week in which there will be laughter & conversation in my house

One week in which my house will become a home again

And what after a week ? I begin to go back into my shell, till the next time arrives :-)

“Happiness lies for those who cry, those who hurt, those who have searched, and those who have tried - For only they can appreciate the importance of people who have touched their lives”

Lessons learnt the tough way, lessons that never shall be forgotten

Good to be back

Got back today to Bangalore after a two week trip to US with a one day whirlwind trip to Switzerland on the way back. I’m tired of eating fried food and drinking colas, so I celebrated my return with some Spicy chicken tikka and nan :-)

Due to high student traffic to US, I got routed through Paris Airport this time. Paris airport did not disappoint me, very pleasing to the eye, and I don’t just mean architecturally ;-D Lots of places where you can actually stretch out on recliners/couches.

Flew from there to JFK, which was everything Paris was not. Crowded, dirty, annoying announcers screaming on the mike all the time and fairly poor set of directions. This coupled with an apparent lack of Information / help desks ensures that navigating from one terminal to other is not very easy. That is if you can figure out which terminal you landed at in the first place !!

US trip itself was uneventful except for constant struggle with Asthma throughout my trip. I could also chat freely with my friends on the phone without burning a hole in my pocket :)

The other highlight of the trip was a visit to the movie theater after a gap of nearly three years. We watched Final Destination 3D, lots of pretty graphic scenes : that too in crystal clear 3D !! I am done with theaters for another 6 years after this one, a real stinker :(

Switzerland trip was spent mostly in trains in hotels. Couple of glimpses of Switzerland from my train window are below

Interestingly the Swiss hotels are rather ‘economical’ in terms of bathroom space. You can just about fit into the shower stalls and toilets :) I stayed in Hotel Pestalozzi @ Locarno, which did not even have air conditioning the rooms !!

Had my usual share of struggles in all the flights, cramped leg room, fidgety co passengers, awful food and complete lack of sleep :(

But here I am , getting back to blogging after nearly a month !

ISFJ !

Last time I tried, I was an ISTJ. This time a Facebook test returns that I am an ISFJ

There does not seem to be much doubt that I am Introverted, Sensing and Judging. The question is really whether I am a Thinking type or a Feeling type.

Maybe I am a Feeling Thinker :-) The other way round makes it sound as if I am a molester …

Silence of the cell ….. And a baking experiment

• Prolonged periods of cell-phone silence leads to depression

• Prolonged depression in turn leads to cell phone being switched off

Where does it start ? Where does it end ? Whatever the answer maybe, a sure-shot test to figure out my condition is to check if my cell phone is switched off :)

Felt like baking today [ Had no dinner, of course. I have fat reserves to hibernate for rest of the year :) ]

When I started off with the ingredients, realization dawned that I was a bit short.

I had only a quarter cup butter as compared to half cup needed. A quick glance at the essence expiry date told me that the bottle and my daughter were almost comparable in age :-(( I am still struggling to shake off the mental picture of an essence bottle in uniform sitting next to my daughter in school ….

I was also out of stock of my standard savior, cashew nuts. A lesser cook might have balked at this hurdle, but the Master Chef ?? Never !!

And hence was born the “masala” cake. A Hodge-podge of butter, sugar, eggs, condensed milk, regular milk, pineapple pieces, cardamom [essence substitute], maida and baking powder.

The end product looks like more of a sponge cake. Which suits me fine, because I had been on the lookout for a sponge cake recipe !!

How does it taste ? Well, that is really for the guinea pigs in office to tell tomorrow. I sampled a piece and according to me it is my best effort ever !! :-)

But then I have not had dinner, I may be biased because I have used the greatest sauce ever known to mankind ---- hunger.

I have to add that my new hand held Philips cake mixer is of great help !! Saves me lot of manual labor in mixing.

So that I can continue to build up my reserves for the long hard famine ahead ;)

He who burps the last, burps the loudest …

Happy independence day

62 years and going strong !! So what where are we headed, what does future hold in store for us ?

Could not help but laugh when I saw the following quote on a blog

“Barbaad gulistaan karne ko ek hi ulluu kaafi thaa
Har shaak pe ulluu baithaa hai, anjaam-e-gulistaan kyaa hogaa?”

Definitely Dicor

If the earlier post was not proof enough, see this ad too.

I love these ads. Tremendous tagline and a very haunting, philosophical sort of theme ..

Midnight ramblings

Eat when your stomach tells you, work when your heart tells you, sleep when your eyes tell you – I am sure I have read something to this effect sometime back.

What if stomach, heart and eyes tell you nothing ?????????????? Systemic hartal has hit me now !! :-) Just in a dazed state, completely switched off ..

I have initiated daily video conference calls with my family since my last trip home. Nothing beats being there in person , of course, but this comes pretty close. What I really need is a Telepresence link with home :-)

Finally wifey has got posted in Calicut Medical College itself, has been a major relief !! The first order posted her in Trichur, thankfully the officials were sympathetic to our plight and put her back in Calicut. I had external influence of course -- prayer support from two of my friends :-)) I am sure that is what made the difference finally..

Hmmm. I would have thought that with less than a year to go before we unite again, I would have felt happier. But the mind does not seem to accept it as “just one more year to go”. It is stuck  in “STILL one more year to go” mode. I suppose if I have survived three, I can survive one more.

Alive and kicking still, Don’t ask what is it that I am kicking :-)

And nope, no plans to kick the bucket anytime soon. Sorry to disappoint you all, my random thoughts still have a long way to go ;)

Miles to go before I sleep ……… [ Not really, the bed is right behind me. But what the heck, it felt like a nice line to end the blog]

Parallel parking

From now on, I think I will just park like this …