I am moving over to blogspot.com. Please visit http://dakee.blogspot.com
for my latest posts.
I am trying to learn guitar now. Have this instrument sitting next to me for about 10 months now and have managed to learn 2 songs. My Guru (Balsu) taught me those songs. I came to know later that he knows only those songs. So I am technically a " Guru vee Minjina Shisyan" now althought I dont know much in guitar anyways. A graudate student came in this Fall 2004, who is a master in guitar. He has readily agreed to be my guru. I plan to learn a lot more this year.
World beware,
A new talent is coming ... soon.. hopefully.. someday...
If you are living in Midwest or anyother COLD region in the United States, there is one advice which you will hear from people around you. Dress in Layers. The funda is that, the air between layers of cloth is a better insulator and hence keeps you warm.
Assume that I want to go the next apartment building. In India, just wear a chappal and you are ready to go. In Minneapolis, man, its a different story altogether. The process is something like this.
1. Ull Banian
2. Shirt/TShirt
3. Sweater
4. Jacket
5. Muffler
6. A woolen cap
7. Underwear
8. Thermals
9. Jeans
10. Socks
11. Shoes
By this time, one gets tired and start thinking if its worth all this effort to meet the guy next door? Why not call him up?
Getting dressed in minneapolis, is not a task, its a ritual. I feel like an onion after sometime. To put Layer after Layer of clothing and peel away after the trip. After sometime you dont see people walking around, you see onions. Everyone in layers. There is a philosophy that people are like onions (Sherk 2). Everyone has layer and layer of personality and to know the actual person, one has to peel away these layers and get to know the actual person. In Minneapolis, well this is literally how people are seen around. Like onions. Layers and Layers of clothing. Even after all this, you feel cold and curse the winter. Long live the cold (sigh).
Yesterday we just had cooked rice at home for dinner. We ( me and my roomie) had no mood to cook anything and there wasnt much stuff in our house to cook anyways. So we thought, lets make some mixed rice. (lemon rice and tomato rice). As PhD students, we dont follow conventions ;). We thought, lets make our own recipe. I made the tomato rice and its called "Verum Thakkali Sadham" (Just tomato Rice). The key word is "Verum" (just). Its called like that, because apart from tomato, there is no other vegetable in it, not even onion (We were out of onion and I generally dont prefer to put any vegetable in my cooking which makes me cry unless ofcourse its absolutely necessary, like onion chutney ;)). So here goes the recipe.
Things which you absolutely need:
Tomato ( we used Hunt's crushed tomato)
Mustard seeds
Oil
Salt
Things which can increase the flavor
Ginger-Garlix Paste
"Karuveepilai" (dont know the english equivalent of this)
Jeera (Cummin Seeds)
Turmeric Powder
To Prepare:
Heat oil
Put everything (except tomato and salt) into it
Once the mini-explosions are over due to mustard seeds, put tomato and salt. Becareful here as more mini-explosions are possible due to heated oil mixing with water of tomato.
Keep cooking till you no longer want to wait or till the raw tomato smell is over
PUt the cooked rice into it and mix well.
The "Verum Thakkali Sadam" is ready :)
Some hints: Use a non-stick vessel for cooking.
I am simply hooked to Sienfield. I just cant help it. The characters are just too good. My favourite: Who else but Kramer. Man he is the gem of the show. Once he is in, you are sure to laugh, no doubt about it. Just days before my visit to the barber shop, my hair style was the "Kramer" hair style ;).
Yesterday, got a chance to watch the in the making of Sienfield. The man behind the scripts is Larry David and the character "George" is based on him (the real life Larry David). It seems that this was initially thought of as a standup comedy special and in the end became a serial. Can you imagine, the pilot serial was rated really bad by the test viewers. One guy in NBC backed up this project. Thank god he did back it up.
All thumbs up for Sienfield, Larry and Mike Richards (Kramer).
What a movie. One of the best movies I have seen till now. The story is very simple and the caracters play their part very well. Particularly scout and Mr Flinch acted very well. Clearly shows the social condition in the 1930's America. After seeing this movie, I have the urge to read the book. Great ending. A must see 1962 classic.