Dabblings in Food

So, you think you can cook ?

Well, err, I guess I can manage to – a little bit. I can cook soup, maggi (noodles) , pasta, vermicelli. I can even make tea, coffee. Among the more difficult things on my “I think I can cook” menu there is Dal, Rice, Pulav, Many different types of Sabji’s (all with the same chat masala, ginger garlic paste and salt)

Now, having eaten the same thing over and over again, often pulav and noodles, I wanted to experiment a bit. In the past, all my experiments have ultimately ended up in the trash can in one form or another. (You get the picture ) But then, with the way in which I was getting tired of eating the samething over and over again, I decided it would be worth the chance.

Enter Chole Masala:

While shopping for biscuits and ready to eat  snacks, I happened to chance upon chole masala powder. Everything mentioned in the pack lead me to believe that it was within my capability to make the dish. I could also re-experiment with my chappathi making skills. Well, considering the first time I made chappathis, I made like 12 chappathis out of a kilo atta, (with the effect of losing appetite for like two whole days) the long gap of about 6-7 months was a welcome one.

I managed to cook decent chappathis and chole masala which I could manage to eat. But then I did screw up. I put 3 green chillies as indicated in the masala pack, but turns out that was for a whole pack of Channa’s. I had used about half of that. Spicy!! Thank God, I also had lassi to go with the food.

P.S: I am not going to delve into details of how I cooked for two reasons -

(i) I don’t want to bore people.

(ii) I don’t want to post (mis)-information on the internet

Three Hideous-My take on 3 Idiots

Two is company, three is …. Well, never mind.

So, I happened to catch 3 Idiots a couple of days back. That by itself says that I was not overtly influenced by the hype surrounding the movie. I mean, it’s an Indian movie afterall. I take that back. Let me rephrase it as it’s an Indian commercial movie afterall.

First impressions – Loosely, my ass. This is a proper rip adaptation of 5 point someone. Of course, to make it more appealing to the masses, and to take credit away from Chetan Bhagat (who I don’t think is all that great a writer anyway), it has been tweaked quite a bit. Let’s see, IIT is now ICE. Ah ha. How imaginative. Boman Irani has to talk funny, has to act funny. Hey, it’s a funny movie after all.

I heard about this publicity stunt wherein Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Chetan Bhagat had a spat. You know what, if either of you think that people will not notice that the film and book are almost identical, both of you are nincompoops. So while one of you needs to take it easy, and stop drawing so much attention to yourself, the other has to acknowledge that a rip is a rip. Call it adaptation, call it inspiration. Call it what you want.

I would rate the movie pretty ok. Sharman Joshi as always can’t act. Aamir Khan, goes overboard (I won’t go so far as saying as always), and Madhavan, can simply not be accepted as a college student. Not now, not even 5 years in the past. As for Kareena, the less said the better. She definitely doesn’t have the same charisma of the character in the book. (I forget the name)

As for the message of the movie, various scenes,  they are as cliched as they could be. This opening speech where Boman Irani talks about the astronaut pen, brought back some memories. I remember narrating the same thing, in my school assembly. (I don’t know what exactly we were expected to talk. All I remember is that I finished with the Russians had used pencil.)

The songs are pretty ok, once you listen to them a few times. At first hearing though, they don’t sound all too impressive.

Overall, I would say, it wasn’t all that bad a movie. (which coming from me, means a lot ) It’s crazy how “All Izz Well” forwards are doing rounds in office. If you let yourself be influenced (well, if positively, then good for you) by movies like this, it is a sad sad thing. If you couldn’t think of the messages conveyed in the movie, by yourself, it’s pretty sad really.

I’d like to close with couple of comments

1) I anyday preferred the book to the movie

2) I could not guess till the fag end of the movie that Aamir Khan was Phunsukh Wangdu. That was a good twist Something that needs to be given credit to.

Don’t Try This at Home

if (post_title = Slurp Suck){

Whoa, whoa, whoa!! Ok, before you start imagining things, aw, what the hell, go ahead and imagine things. When you are done, open your eyes (yes, I thought you would feel the compelling need to close your eyes.) and read further, for you are going to be truly ..what’s the word I am looking for here ? Well, let’s read on.

Ok, moment of revelation. As sucky as what I think here to be sucky. MTR soup!!

}

// The post was initially titled Slurp, Suck. But renamed to the current title in better taste.

Although no authority on subjects of taste or that of cooking, I have to cook from time to time. And it is in such times that I fall back on instant food like Pasta, (more about them later) noodles, and since it is advertised to be healthy, SOUP!!

Having earlier  tried almost every available flavor from Knor and Maggi, I saw that soup from MTR was available in the super market. Now, being a consumer of their rasam powder and sambar powder, I had no apprehension in checking out their soup. So, I bought “Babycorn and Spring onion” – something thats not available from other brands. But I must say, I had to rue my decision.

Well one of the other reasons I picked up MTR was that the pack was bigger and weighed more. Well, if for the same price you get more, then I atleast go for ‘the’ more

The first shock was when I cut open the pack. Instead of seeing powder (as I am used to with other brands), I see a gooey paste. I do a double take and check out the pack, to make sure that it is indeed soup and not one of those ready-to-cook puches that you are supposed to put in hot water without opening. Well, it did turn out to be soup, but not quite.

Although not an expert on making soup, I think I did everything right (except empty the packet in one go, since it needed to serve only one as against the five that was mentioned on the pack.), but when I had the soup later, though it was pipping hot, it tasted more like …rasam.

Here’s presenting to you the site on MTR soup,

Well, except for the obvious editing, did you even see the work “TASTY” mentioned anywhere ? I see flavor, aroma and goodness. Well, guess what, I would also like it to taste good!! Ok, maybe they didn’t claim it and I should have paid more attention to what was written on the pack. Yes, it’s just random words that look like they mean something, but are just there so that your brain can’t make enough sense of it on time.

As one of my colleagues repeatedly likes to say (in spite of being terribly cliched), “Bottom line is, don’t buy this soup.” or, do so at your own risk.

Demonoid is Back!! Yippe Kay Yay

Demonoid

What better news for a post, when you haven’t posted in a while ?

Demonoid is back!! Yeah baby.

Well, the first signs that the sight was going to be up, (IMHO), was when the torrents which were stuck for quite some time now, started showing some progress. That these torrents had stopped for sometime was a heartbreak, considering I was stuck on 90-odd % on some of them. But the wait I am sure will definitely be worth it!!

Here are some links about demonoid being back in business

Demonoid is Back

Demonoid Returns

If you ask me, this is even bigger news than Google coming up with Wave

Don’t be surprised if you aren’t able to login immediately. After all, you do expect a mad rush!! And there might still be soem chinks in the new  code.

Here’s an interesting comment I read on Demonoid being back: “Damn it!!, They didn’t lose enough data. I am still banned.”

5,00,000 Hits and Counting

Ok, I am a little caught up right now, to write much.

Thanks to the people who have put up with whatever I write for so long.

As a bonus, there are more posts coming…. Sit tight.

Movies Movies, and more movies

I think my life has changes a lot since I left college. For instance, when I was in college, I used to watch loads of movies. Loads. Really. Sometimes as many as 3 a day.

Then it all dried up. Work, work and more work. Nothing else.

Thankfully, I have a laptop now, and that has helped me reclaim my life. If nothing else, I can use it for blogging, listening to music (when at home) and watching movies.

Problem now is, I am having to catch up on movies that I had with me more than a year back. (Well, with movies you are always playing catchup, but I am talking about recent movies here.)

Me and another colleague of mine managed to come second in a movie quiz at work, and that has renewed my interest in movies.

So finally I ended up watching the following movies, (ages after I actually had them on disk with me)

-Superman Returns (pretty decent movie for a Supeman fan. Not super though. Not the best casting I have seen.)

-I am Legend (Good movie. Scary though. Watching at night is a little scary.)

-28 days later. (Good movie again. A little funny if you think of the concept of “rage virus”, but scary nevertheless.)

-28 weeks later. (Sequel to 28 days later. Pretty good, again.)

Some other movies I managed to watch a couple of weeks earlier,

Confessions of a shopaholic, Frost Nixon, Johnny English, The Astronaut Farmer, The Day the Earth stood still

I have more movies lined up.

A Drained Cell Phone battery and a Life Saved

This is in a way a continuation to my previous post. But I figured, this deserved a separate post. Well, coming close to missing a train is something, coming close to dying is another.

I am a freak when it comes to being organized. I make a checklist of things to take and things to do before I leave home on a trip. So, before I left home on 18th, I made sure that my cell phone had full charge. 100 percent. And knowing my phone and the awesome battery it has, if I don’t listen to too many songs and if I don’t talk all that much over phone. (Neither of which I planned on doing), the charge even lasts 2 days.

But hey, like a true Indian engineer, I did not take something else into account. The cell phone reception in this side of the country is not so great. Before I know, the charge is fast depleting. By 10 PM, my cell phone battery is squeezing out every little drop of energy it has, just to search for a damn network!! And soon, the battery is almost done.

Indian railways has come of age. Now, even the sleeper class compartments have a couple of cell phone chargers. It’s another thing that the plug points are the safety type, where if you have a two pin charger, God alone (or, if you have a pen and know how to use it) can save you.

I am in a dilemma. The charger is to the other end of the compartment and I am not sure if I should leave my bag unguarded. I finally decide to take the chance, because, without the battery, reaching my bro’s college was going to be tough. Plus I didn’t know anyone’s phone number by heart and I’d be lost without that.

So, I go to the other end of the compartment to get my phone charged.

Now, I can’t really say if I have had any near death encounters before, but this sure as hell wasn’t one. Not for me atleast. Well, but it could have been for someone else.

I am standing there, charging my phone, when this guy is trying to get up from the side lower berth, but is unable to get up. I look more closely, and find that he is fully drunk. By fully, I mean fully!! By now, my brain registers the sensation in my nose. This bugger is reeking of alcohol. He somehow falls down, manages to get up and all. I just stand clear. Who wants to get into an altercation with a drunk fellow ? What’s more, I am pretty sure, this guy had pissed all over himself. Disgusting, filthy animal. He was trying to head to the loo. I stay as far away from him as possible and he doesn’t pay me any heed either. Phew!!

Then in two quick strides, he heads to the train door and is trying to pull it open. Shit!! I tap him on his shoulder and show him the bathroom door. Thankfully, the train compartments door was tightly shut. This guy then falls to the floor in between the loos. You know, how they are facing each other. Now, I am not sure what to do. I sure as hell don’t want to witness someone jumping off a train. At the same time, I don’t want to try talking sense into a drunk man who has pissed all over himself.

I stand there for a while, just to make sure he doesn’t try jumping off the train again. And this guy is sleeping peacefully lying on the floor of the train. Finally, my phone charge reached 75% and I am also extremely sleepy. I check the bolt on the train door, and go to sleep.

Next day morning I headed to the same place. My phone battery was drained again. I see this guy sitting and talking with people, like nothing happened.

Well, if it hadn’t been for my cell phone battery, I am sure this guy would have been history. I simply don’t get why people have to drink so much that they have absolutely no control over what they are doing, going as far as to risk their life.

I think that’s more reason than enough for someone senile never to get drunk. Well, at least  not on a train.

Bombay Beckoning – Part 01

18-Sep-2009

A lil background:

I have never been to Bombay (yes, yes, Mumbai) in 22 years of my existence.  Now, I am not really an outdoor person who travels a lot, but even so, I would like to see at least the 4 big metros in India. Since my brother is currently in Mumbai (SPJIMR) and couple of my friends (one of them from college, the other from work) stay in Pune and we had a 3 day weekend coming up, I finally decided to make a trip both to Pune and Mumbai. Also, since I currently stay in Mangalore, it takes 16-18 hours by train to Bombay, which I can manage (Although travelling alone, can be both boring and difficult. Esp when you have to take a leak and can’t ask anyone to take care of your bag for you. For all you know, when you come back, both the person and the bag will not be found. It is better to be paranoid about such things, than to trust people and end up on a train alone, with your belongings long gone. Trust me, trust no one )

Well, now, 18th also happened to be my birthday. Unfortunately, tickets were not available on 17th or 19th and I had to take this. I did have to go to office for the morning half. Now, I few things to do before leaving and this is where things get interesting.

The open bag and almost making it to the train

I made it early to office and finished up on some work I had. My train was at 12:50 and I live 20 minutes away from my office and  another 15 minutes from the railway station.

I was trying to wind up and leave by 12:00, when all of a sudden all the people in my level ( floor, if you like it) decide to sing me a birthday song. Well, now I am really flattered (and I think it was evident with the ear to ear smile I was giving.), but I was also in a hurry. Somehow, managed to leave by 12:15. Not good. Not good at all.

I reach the bus stand at 12:25. I need to go home from here, pick my bag and reach the railway station. Now, this is when my brain deserts me. Instead of taking an auto, I decide to walk. Can you believe it ? I reach home at 12:30 and leave home by 12:35. This is going to be cutting it real close. In 15 minutes my train will be on its way to Bombay and I might not be on it.

I realize that walking is going to get me nowhere and start running. I am 5 minutes away from the station (by rough estimate of course), with some 3 minutes remaining to 12:50, when an auto guy whistles and slows the auto near me. Man, is this guy rubbing it in ? I know I should have taken an auto, but I don’t need one now. I shake my head violently in his direction without really looking at him, but this guy won’t let go.

Finally I give him an annoyed look and he points at my backpack and he is gone. I remove my backpack and see that it is wide open. Holy shit!! This is all I need right now. Thankfully, my backpack is really packed to caapacity. So, I don’t think anything fell out. I don’t have time to check anyway. I just look in the direction I came from, and decide that’s enough. What more can I do ? Retrace my path back home and miss the train for sure, when there was only a 70% chance I’ll miss it ?

So I fasten the zipper of the bag and continue running. I reach the station at 12:51. Great, now, I just have to find out which platform the train is on, get to that platform and hope that the train is travelling slow enough for me to board a running train. Awesome!!

Well, this is when my luck turns. The train is just starting on the first platform, and without missing a beat, I go right into whichever coach is in front of me. I can walk to my coach from within the train later. After boarding the train, I did check with a couple of people, if it was the right train and they gave me the thumbs up. Phew!! That was close. Now to 16 hours of boring train travel.

The remainder of the journey

Matthew Reilly’s Ice Station was a pretty good read on the train. ( I had earlier read Contest and liked it quite a bit). The journey was pretty scenic. This train travels really close to the west coast and you can see ocean in quite a few places, along the way. Also, the dal vada on the train was pretty ok. It’s a pity that I didn’t get any decent lunch though. All I had was a bread omelette and a samosa

A few snaps

Mangalore-Mumbai

Mumbai-Mangalore

Mumbai-Mangalore

Misadventures with Food-Part 01/infinity

You know how as bachelors, you have to cook from time to time. (Well not everyone has to)

Well, I somehow don’t understand it. I mean, its tougher than Chemistry lab. The other day, I bought this pack of dried peas, and so I decide to use it. I open the pack, put it in a cooker and cook it with some rice. Voila!! You have pulav ready. Except, the peas aren’t cooked. What the ? Why the ? So I remove the peas from the rice and painstakingly at that, and have just the rice.

I decide to call my mom the next day and she tells me that dried peas need to be soaked in water for some time before being cooked. So yesterday morning, I soak some peas in a bowl, cover it up, and go to work. Somehow things get delayed at work, and I come home really late. (like today ) And I forget all about it today as well. Can you blame me for my memory ? So when I come home today at night and go to the kitchen for some water, the whole place smells like peas.!! Man!! What a mess. Believe (you) me, never ever leave food items soaked for more than a few hours. Ill have to call my mom tomorrow and ask her “exactly” for how long I need to soak these peas.

(Oh, yes I threw out the stinky peas. Sometimes I wonder why I even venture out to cook.)

Jennifer Connelly vs Scarlett Johansson

Jennifer Connelly

Scarlett Johansson

Now, before you go imagining what made me write this post, let me make it pretty clear myself. I was watching this movie He’s Just Not That into You. The movie itself is not pretty great, but then I am back to movie watching after a long long long long time. (More than an year now since I watched movies.) Also the movie has got a pretty decent star cast:

Ben Affleck, Bradley Cooper.

Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly, Scarlett Johansson.

Well, my discussion here is primarily centred around Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Connelly and Scarlet Johansson in the movie. Now, let us for a second assume, I was playing the part of Bradley Cooper in the movie. (Wishful thinking, I know ) I would never ever ever ever have done anything to jeopordise my relationship with Jennifer Connelly. I mean, sure Scarlet Johansson is tempting, but I  would any day prefer JC to SJ (The reader of this blog post, may have his or her own opinion which might differ from the writer’s. That is perfectly acceptable. )

Let’s try and reason a little but ok. IMHO, Jennifer Connelly is any day better looking than Scarlet Johansson. (Sure, Scarlet is younger and ahem.. better endowed. But hey, that’s no reason to force yourself to become dumb and let go of a woman like Jennifer Connelly.) Actually, Bradley himself does very well, but apparently not well enough as he ends up with a request for a divorce from JC (whether or not they actually do, is well… not in the scope of the movie.)

Ok, thats about it. Now you know of my liking for Jennifer Connelly. It was nice having you here on my blog.

On second thoughts JC’s role in the movie (I don’t remember character names) is a little hysterical, bordering on psycho. Well, no matter how physically attractive she is or how beautiful you think she is, people who behave that way, are to be avoided at all costs. I mean, who breaks things in the house and throws things around just because your hubby smoked ? (That is if he did.)

Also, a little confusing was if Bradley Cooper even smoked. I mean he denies smoking and then owns up to having slept with another woman. Well, if he did smoke, clearly he liked the cigarette butt more than Scarlet Jonahnson (’s) But assuming he didn’t (which is what I think anyway, considering he even says no to Ben Affleck, when he offers him a smoke), what was the point that was being made in the movie ?

P.S: The  writer of this blog post may not have been entirely coherent while writing this. (due to reasons that cannot be disclosed here.)