The disappearance of a friend..

It was 9 am... I am out of my bed; another lazy Sunday lay ahead of me...
I made myself some tea, and I stood at the window... the April morning Sun shone straight on my face, the rays finding their way through the dense foliage in front of me... I was lucky today that I felt the morning rays, as the trees that have grown taller than my building usually end up cutting off the Sun...

Oh.. and then comes my feathered buddy... he hops from one branch to another, as he cannot fly, and lands on my window sill... I can't tell how glad I am to see him everyday... but this time, I am really missing someone a lot... someone whom I eagerly await, through the whole of monsoon and the Winter seasons... Come March and he used to arrive, with a shrill call... and me as a child used to jump out of bed and run towards the window and try and search for him... to catch just one elusive glimpse of him...

He had never failed in showing up through all these years.. I tried hard, and over the years I managed to learn his language, not literally, but phonetically... And I loved to play with him, tease him, frustrate him with my replies... till he was fed up and he conveyed the same to me with the tone that I could never match... But this time its different... Like a fool, I let out a call out of my window... or when I am walking on the street... people look at me in amusement, sometimes they think its his call... But I think I have mad him angry... sometimes I go too far ahead in teasing someone, but I swear I will stop it, if only you show up this one last time before I fly away across the oceans...
And I hope you will miss me then, this human letting out the cuckoo call....

O blithe newcomer! I have heard,
I hear thee and rejoice:
O Cuckoo! shall I call thee bird,
Or but a wandering Voice?

While I am lying on the grass
Thy twofold shout I hear;
From hill to hill it seems to pass,
At once far off and near.

Though babbling only to the vale
Of sunshine and of flowers,
Thou bringest unto me a tale
Of visionary hours.

Thrice welcome, darling of the Spring!
Even yet thou art to me
No bird, but an invisible thing,
A voice, a mystery;

The same whom in my schoolboy days
I listened to; that Cry
Which made me look a thousand ways
In bush, and tree, and sky.

To seek thee did I often rove
Through woods and on the green;
And thou wert still a hope, a love;
Still longed for, never seen!

And I can listen to thee yet;
Can lie upon the plain
And listen, till I do beget
That golden time again.

O blessed birth! the earth we pace
Again appears to be
An unsubstantial, fairy place,
That is fit home for Thee!

-- William Wordsworth

The Skeleton Woman

"If I could start my life again, I would begin by changing my profession. I would rather live on a full stomach and an empty mind. Perhaps as a fisherman...."

This was the tag line of the new play that hit the theatres a few weeks back. I am a great fan of Anuraag Kashyap, and that he had produced this play, I thought I should give it a try. And of course, it had his girl friend Kalki (The "Chanda" from Dev-D) acting in it...

Being light on my pocket (Rs. 80/-), I was happy to go for this show without keeping any expectation... The story is an adaptation of an Inuit folktale of the fishermen from the north, and tells about a fisherman turned writer, who is trapped in his own imaginary world and his marriage crumbling all around him.

The play begins, with the writer sitting in a boat which consists of a wooden frame, lost in his own imaginary world, and jolted back to reality by his wife, who is tidying up the place after they have just shifted into the new apartment. Right from the beginning, the rift between the wife and the husband is quite evident, as she is really frustrated with him cause he is unable to complete a single story while she has to work and manage the house by her own...
Later she tries to become a part of his imaginary world.... the fishing trips....the talking goose who gets flushed down the toilet, swims all alone on the sea, and gets trapped in a dark cave in the night.... the paper swans... the beautiful sunset from the boat and the birds flying against the setting sun, who then suddenly turn into flying piranhas and attacking the duo... the shark who swims upto them and grabs her feet...and then the skeletal hand of a woman he found on the sea.... one hilarious scene after another and I am surely having a great time...

She tries to get him back to reality, wants him to complete his novel and tries to make their marriage work... In the end, there is a real twist in the tale which lets you leave the theatre with many questions in your head, questions for which each one of us may have a different answer based on our own interpretation of his imaginations...

Kalki Koechlin has written the play along with her co-actor Prashant Prakash, for which they have won the Metroplus playwright award 2009. Kalki surely has a better presence on stage rather than the big screen, which was quite evident in the way she has acted effortlessly.... and the emotional transitions that she has shown from being lost in his imaginary world, to being an exhasperated wife in the real world were really wonderful... The on stage chemistry between the two is too good and makes you feel that the acting was simply spontaneous...

I got to see Anuraag Kashyap at the theatre... too bad I didnt get a chance to get his autograph :(
But this is a play you should definitely not miss out if you are a theatre fan.

Performances and Playwright: Kalki Koechlin, Prashant Prakash
Director: Nayantara Kotian
Producer: Anuraag Kashyap

The Perfect Daal recipe...

Its been ages since I have written anything, and now after all this time, I thought about writing on something that is currently going on in my life -- Cooking lessons!! :D

It was way back during the monsoon of 2006 that she had cooked the daal for me... and that was the most amazing daal I had ever had... even better than Bhagat-Tarachand... and now I have mastered the art of cooking that perfect daal recipe after a zillion unsuccessful attempts..
I am just sharing it with you all...

Dal (Serves 6)

Ingredients:

Moong dal: 2 katoris

Ghee

Tomatoes: 2-3

Green chillies

Red chillies (optional)

Garlic: 4-5 cloves

Coriander: handful

Spices: Red chilly powder, turmeric, heeng, jeera, dhaniya powder (optional) [use a small plastic spoon to measure out the spices and salt]

Salt and sugar

Lemon: ½

Procedure:

1. Cook the dal in a cooker (take as much water as amount of dal, add extra water at bottom of cooker). When cooked, mash it up with a ladle.

2. Chop finely: tomatoes, green chillies and coriander. Leave separate from each other.

3. Lightly mash the garlic until it splits.

4. Keep all ingredients ready beside you to put in dal, because if things burn, it tastes awful.

5. Heat a kadhai or aluminium vessel (not steel). When all moisture has evaporated, put in 2 large spoons of ghee (add more or less according to preference; more the ghee, tastier the dal). Things will need to be added as soon as it heats up, and very quickly, so be careful things don’t burn.

6. When ghee is hot, sprinkle a pinch of heeng. If it splutters, ghee is hot enough; if not, wait till it splutters. Then add a pinch of jeera, chopped chillies, and garlic. Stand back, chilly seeds are dangerous in hot ghee; then add jeera and dhaniya powders (opt), half a spoon of turmeric, and 1 spoon of red chilly powder. Stir and quickly add chopped tomatoes and half the chopped coriander. Stir for a few seconds.

7. Add the mashed up dal to this mixture. By now, it should be reddish brown or brownish red. Hold the vessel with a sanshi (pakkad, whatever) and stir everything together. Add water until desired consistency.

8. Now add salt as per preference; usually 2 small spoons should be enough. Add 2 pinches of sugar and stir in.

9. When the dal begins to boil, squeeze in the lemon [take care to avoid seeds falling in] and add the remaining coriander. Serve hot.

For the tadka (optional):

In a ladle, heat 2 spoons of ghee. Add a pinch of jeera, red chillies, and very little red chilly powder. Quickly pour over the hot dal and serve.

The Dream Job...

After skipping from one job to another, and after fretting over months about what I like to do... Suddenly while watching a TV show, I wondered... why not???

Highway On My Plate... an amazing show on NDTV Goodtimes...

The two hosts, Rocky and Mayur... travel the nook and corner of India... every show.. a new town, new people, new experiences.. and yeah... more and more new varieties of food... and CHEAP FOOD!!

I like travel.. and I love food...I love experimenting with new types of cuisines...
I can eat anywhere, anytime, anyhow....
and what would be more amazing than getting paid for traveling and eating??!! ;)

You can find some more info about the hosts at this website:
http://goodtimes.ndtv.com/lifestyle/GoodTimesAnchorPopUp.aspx?ShowID=7

I hope some NDTV person goes through my blog and consider me as a potential host, if either Rocky or Mayur decide to move on...

(bu SH)OE Attack

One of the most hilarious thing happened earlier this week, when the outgoing president of the mighty United States of America, George Bush was attacked by an Iraqi journalist at a press conference in Baghdad...
This was his last visit to Iraq...

"This is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog," he shouted.

One of the shoes narrowly missed the president's head and slammed into the wall behind him.
Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, tried to block the second with his arm.
Apparently, throwing shoes at somebody is considered as the supreme insult in the Middle East.



After watching the news, I was laughing my heart out..
I remembered a similar incident when I was a school kid in 6th standard. That year, my sister was in 10th, in the same school. On 26th January, which was our Annual day, after the function was over, the chief guest had just finished giving a speech. He said something that was not taken well by the students. I don't quite remember what it was, but mostly he had given the news that there was going to be no holiday on 27th January (27th was given a Holiday as everyone used to attend school for the function on 26th..).
And suddenly it happened... Out of the blues, one chappal came flying from the crowd...
Our chief guest, just like our beloved Bush, had tremendous reflexes.. He ducked and the misile missed him... but it found a different target... our Maths teacher, Mr. Bunder Laj (Name changed to protect his identity :D), smack on his cheeks...

And what happened the next was even hilarious..
The Principal canceled the class picnic of the 10th grade, as it was one of them who had hurled the missile.. Instead, the picnic was held in the school itself, the girls all sat and cooked in our hall, and then everyone cleaned the entire school, swept and mopped the floors of each and every classroom...

I still enjoy teasing my sister with the same... :D

Anyways, coming back to The Bush incident..
A couple of days back I read in the Mumbai mirror that a man in Florida was charged under a new law for throwing a hamburger at her girlfriend, and was sent to prison for one month... It was the first case of the new "Food Attack" Law been enacted..
I guess the first law Mr. Obama might see through is the "Shoe Attack" law... :D

But whatever happens, happens for the good..
Finally Mr. Bush found the "Weapons of Mass Destruction" that he had been searching for !! ;)

Time to go..

The hair on my head have grown... it looks like a mushroom on my head...

Haven't shaved for 2 weeks... another couple of weeks and I will be a mulla-look-alike ...

I havent taken a bath since 2 days... Since my mom is not at home, there is no one to force me to take a bath... I hate taking a bath... maybe I was a cat in my past life...

And yeah, my body is stinking... badly... so no one dare come near me...

The Neanderthal in me has awoken... he does that all the time...
Its like my body is asking for some *primitive* pleasure, and no, its not sex !! ;)

Its time for me to back my sack soon... The winter trekking season for me has jut begun !!

Indian "Gandhigiri"...

India's response to terrorism has been a showcase of "Gandhigiri" in the truest sense...

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.... said the Great Mahatma...

In the recent Munnabhai movie, Sanjay dutt was taught - If someone slaps you, offer your other cheek...

Thats exactly what India's government is doing.. If they bomb our one city, we sit quit and offer them another..

But that is just the case of External affairs..

Our Internal affairs is a typical case of "Telgigiri"....

Pakistan - Really a victim of terrorism??

Pakistan President Mr. Asif Ali Zardari, after the terror attacks defended Pakistan's postion and stated that "Pakistan is itself a victim of terrorism", and that they were committed to fight against it...

I am still wondering...

Is Pakistan really a *Victim* ??

I think Pakistan can be said to be a comprehensive institute for the terrorists... they first learn the THEORY part in Muzzafarabad (Even a waif on the streets of any Indian city know where the terrorist camps are...), and areas of POK...

Then they undergo practical training in those camps...

Then they practice the *Art* that they have learnt, on the Pakistani people... (Its something like those clinical trials conducted for effectiveness before a drug is launched)

And finally, these terrorists perform what they have learnt in where else, but India ...

If Ambanis would had been owning Taj...

Mr. Tata showed his kindness and compassion towards his fellow citizens by announcing financial help to not only those who had been affected by the attack on Taj, but also to the others affected by the CST, Oberoi, Nariman house, Colaba, Metro, Mazgaon and Vile Parle attacks...

Picture this... If a certain Mr. Ambani would had been owning Taj, what would have happened??

A widow staying in Colaba who had lost her husband in the Taj receives a courier.
It is an outstanding bill for a couple of drinks he had ordered with his business colleague on the night of 26th November 2008 at the Taj....
It also says, "We are sorry for the loss of your husband, hence we are waving off the VAT"...


P.S. Its just a joke, and a thought that came to my mind... to be taken lightly ;)

A Smiley in the sky :)

I exited the Malad station that evening, frowning... cursing the overweight Gujju ladies blocking my way...
It was a long and tiring day, full of frustration... Had to run in the college from one department to another, to get my paper work done, and in the end it was a complete waste of time and energy, and as Municipal offices work, I had been called again the next day...

All I could think of is hot mom-made ginger tea that would revitalize my senses... Damn these women... Wish I could just shove them off my path and move ahead!!

And out of the corner of my eye, I glanced at the sky... The sun was setting in the distant horizon... beautiful shades of orange intermingled with the pretty azure sky.. And something just caught my eye... There was a typical formation of the celestial bodies up in the sky... The Venus shone brightly, as it always does at dusk... but there was another bright star besides it, and coupled with the crescent moon over the 2 stars, it formed a perfect frowning sad smiley [:(] turned upside down... Duh!! The Gods are teasing me... I blurted and moved on... Oh God!! These ladies... *Shove* followed by *Curses in Gujju language*.... Blahhhh !!!

There is really some magic in mom-made ginger tea... and coupled with TLC (Tender Loving Care), it was the perfect therapy for a certain sulking Mr. Parag Mahale... all freshened up, I decided to go to my fav space, the terrace... N had sms ed me about a peculiar pattern of the stars and moon.. and I thought, yeah I had seen the frowning face already...

And there it was... right in front of my eye, the perfect Celestial Smiley... :)
I stared at it, Smiling.. It felt like I was smiling with God... Good ol' Lord.. some tricks he plays with us Humans eh??


I ran back home, to get my tripod and cam... and captured a series of pictures...
Meanwhile, I got an sms from K asking me to take the pics of the same... and I had already taken 20 shots by then..

It was difficult times for Mumbai, India and the world... terror stricken city was in shock and despair.. While Hindi news channels were calling this to be a "Shani ka prakop" (The Wrath of Saturn) and were calling out priests to pacify the enraged planet, seems like Venus, Jupiter and the Moon had some other plans... they brought a smile back to the faces of the lowly Human species... God surely is crazy !! :)