Hmmm.....

Well.. hello there..!! :) How u doin?? (Some say, that dialogue is Joey-customized, but I personally feel tat it becomes a Joey-dialogue only when you say it the way he does..which I don't.. So I'm clean here! :)).

Okay.. I'm in Cochin now. Done with college and subsequently plunged into an even greater abyss of joblessness than I was when I was in college. I am 'supposed' to be job hunting, but anyone who has been job hunting for any amount of time these days will know how that's been goin!!

My typical day consists of a lotta sleep, food, a lil internet and of course Radio Mango's always in the background. Could I BE more jobless??? (Okay.. I think I should stop watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S now!! :|).

Anyways, since I'm pretty much lazing around, I seriously think I should learn how to cook... you know like the traditional Kerala style food or whateva!! Cz I don't think I can survive on chocolate cakes for the rest of my life!! :| But that would require me to actually spend some energy which seems virtually impossible. :) The funny part is that, if I do manage to continue this routine for a while longer, I might actually succeed not fittin thru my door anymore!!!

hmmm..that'd be reeeely interestin!!!:)


Anyways..gtg... catch ya laterz!!! bubye!! :)

Eight glasses of water a day!!!

"You should drink eight glasses of water every day!"

Now where do you think you have seen that? Probably, only in like every health magazine, beauty care article or any diet you've ever come across. Its eight glasses of water for better skin, for a healthy body and like what not!! And chances are that, like me, when you actually read it, you were thinking, "What the hell? How hard can it be? Its just 8 glasses, rite!?!". If you were, then you are sadly mistaken, my friend. Its way harder than it looks, especially if your not a great fan of drinking pure water and normally stick to fizzy drinks and other things which have horribly huge calories!
I've been trying to achieve this feat for quite a while now. Everyday when I wake up in the morning, I decide "I'm gonna do it today!". But after like a pathetic 3 glasses, my hands automatically stretch toward that oh-so-tempting Pepsi/Fanta bottle, which then leads toward a mental struggle between my taste buds and my brain, for which unquestionably, my taste buds win nine times out of ten. :) So after trying for a month, the most I could do was five. I was, among other things, quite disgusted with myself. That lead to today. I woke up mid-morning and I, for some reason, was in a terrible mood. So I said to myself, "I'm gonna drink 8 glasses of water today, even if it kills me!". So now its like 10 in the night and I have had 7 glasses already. Wooohoo!! That's just the good part. The sad part is that, since I have been concentrating on getting so much water inside my body, I don't have the space in my stomach for anything else. So the only thing I've eaten the whole day is two slices of bread with jam. I actually feel like I am walking around with a water tank. I feel like I'm gonna puke and I don't feel good about it. So, moral of the story: I don't have a clue..!! Ok, why am I even writing this? Runn..I still have one more glass to go!!!

Ma FIRST driving class.

After more than four years of insistent pleading, Dad's finally given me permission to take a driver's license. Woooohooo! :) So after countless days of waiting, last week saw my first driving class. I was supposed to reach the institute by 8:00 am (that's too early to suit me..but still..!! ). There are two other juniors from college who are also studying in the same slot as me. I reached the institute to find one of them had already reached. We met our instructor, sort of introduced ourselves and decided to start off. But there in the usual manner that things happen around here, the car wouldn't start. Talk about rotten luck!! :) We both had to actually get out of the car and push the damn thing for a few meters to get it to start. It was embarrassing to say the least. Finally, we got the car up and running and started off. Well, I should say it wasn't as bad as I expected. Initially, we went through this certain part of town which was buzzing with tiny school kids waiting for their school buses and when I say waiting, I should mention that in the process of waiting, they'd managed to take up a part of the road too. So driving through there was a bit unsettling. Another thing would be the fact that I have a new-found respect to all those drivers I've jumped in front of during my reckless crossing-the-road sessions. Now I do know how it feels to have a pedestrian jump in front of your vehicle. Its a my-heart-is-in-my-throat feeling and after that feeling passes, you have an uncontrollable urge to stop the vehicle, get out and strangle that person with your bare hands. :) Anyways, so far so good, but my gear-changing skills need a lot of practice. But I should add that this was definitely worth the wait and I'm enjoying every minute of it! :)

Chocolate cake...!

A note for the NITCians of '08 batch. This is the cake we ( DP, Maddie n moi!!) made for Ragam 2008. This post is specially for those people who had asked me for the recipe. Its pretty simple, really!:) Here goes...

1oz. = 28g

For the cake
8 oz. flour
2 tsp baking powder
8 oz. butter
8 oz. sugar (powdered)
3 oz. cocoa powder
4 eggs
2 tablespoon milk

1. Grease a cake tin.
2. Put butter for melting in a pan
3. While the butter is being done, sieve together flour, baking powder and cocoa.
4. Take the melted butter and add the powdered sugar into it. Beat together until it becomes a fluffy light yellow mixture.
5. Add the eggs one at a time and beat them well after each addition.
6. Now put the sieved ingredients into the mixture with the milk and mix it just until the batter is even. Don't over-mix it,or the cake will become hard.
7. Pour the batter into the greased cake tin
8.Those of you who are using a microwave, put it at medium heat and bake for around 6 to 7 minutes and those who have the traditional oven have to preheat the oven at Gas mark 4 and the baking time would be 35-40 minutes.
9. Insert a toothpick to into the center of the cake and check if it comes out clean. If it does, your cake is ready. If not, put it back into the oven for 1 or 2 more minutes. Take care not to over-bake or the cake would lose its moisture.
10. Once you take it out of the oven, let it cool.

For the icing
3 oz. butter
2 oz. cocoa
4 oz. sugar powdered
6 tablespoon milk

1. Melt the butter.
2. Add cocoa powder.
3. Cook at very low heat for about a minute and a half.
4. Remove from the fire and add milk and sugar and mix well.
5. Spread it evenly over the now cooled cake and leave it for a few minutes.
6. Serve.

Well, That was simple, wasn't it? :) Hope that was properly explained. If you do have any doubts when you actually make it, feel free to ask!! :) Have fun n happy baking! :)

and I'm back!!! :)

Hey there!!! This is just to say that ONE of my new year resolutions was to start actively blogging, now that I spent so much time in front of the computer anyway!! What do you think? And now, that I've made such a decision, I don't seem to have random thoughts in my head anymore. How sad is that? Pretty sad, I'd say! Oh! that reminds me that I'd promised myself I would post the recipe of those chocolate brownies we made during Fete and Raagam in college. A few people had asked me for the recipe but I never got around to giving it to anyone. So this would be a nice place to post that along with a few other successful dishes I've tried(ahem!!!). There..I'm already brimming with ideas for new posts! :) Well, we'll see how much of it actually becomes practical. Did I tell you that I have taken a newfound interest in knitting? To be frank, I've been really crazy about knitting since 6th grade (when mom wouldn't allow me to take Home Science for Activities, instead she made me take Music which is another long story!) and I've started a few knitting projects. But me, being the restless soul that I am, never finished even a single one. So finally, I started and finished a magenta headband (I know! I know! Its a ridiculous color! But I didn't have much of a choice!) and I'm currently doing my second one, a pouch for my cellphone, and this time its black. :)Well, I guess that's about it for now. So ciao! Keep smiling!!!

Arrrrrggghh....help me get outta here...!

If you've been to Kerala lately, you'd definitely notice that the people out here are in the "Let’s see whose house is the brightest!" phase. The color of their houses range from bright yellow with maroon roofs to violet with brown roofs to pink with magenta roofs to God knows what else! Why, you'd never guess the color of the building opposite to where I live. It’s a huge building which has around 40 flats and the entire thing is painted such a bright shade of orange with a few shades of yellow near the windows. No, I'm not kidding! I have to see this huge ghastly thing every time I go into the balcony of my house. I'm not making this stuff up! For solid evidence to support my claims, check out the snaps. And I'd have been really glad, had it stopped with only buildings. I mean, buildings are fine, comforting also in a weird sorta way. When your traveling in one of those state transport 'fast passenger' buses (I dunno why they call them fast passenger, anyway. Its the bus which is supposed to be fast not the passenger!!) and everything moves so fast, you just end up seeing a huge blur of colors, that it looks almost like a horizontal rainbow of sorts. But the thing about this place is the colors people end up choosing for their clothes. Oh my God, I don't even want to get started on that one. I mean, I love salwar kurtas. I think its an elegant outfit. But can u even start to comprehend wearing a violet kurta with a bright yellow salwar and a dupatta which has huge yellow flowers with a violet background. It is so wrong!! And that just happens to be the beginning. Everything is so freakin bright around here that I feel as though I stepped onto the sets of some kinda weird anime movie or something... May the Lord help these color freaks!

Well..well...well...come to think of it! I haven't blogged in more than a year..wonder wateva happened to those creative juices of mine which used to come oozing out regularly during a bo-oring class! Well..guess I don't go woolgathering any longer...or rather I don't go 'creatively woolgathering' any longer!

~DaRkNeSS!~

Its chokin me,
With its cold dark, hands.
Around my throat.
Its engulfing me,
in its huge ugly arms.
Driving me to the brink of insanity.
I feel all alone and miserable,
travelling in this silent darkness
without a proper destination
Darkness all around me,
silent darkness...
which forces me to do things,
I would'nt have done otherwise.

I've been walkin for as long as
I can remember.
My legs hurt and my throat is parched.
Even my sandals are worn out.
and I have lost all hope in life.
But I go on and on
with that bit of life left in me

Ah! In the distance I see,
a spot of dim light,
which gives me a ray of hope,
to travel on and on.
To finally reach that spot,
happy that now atleast,
I've found my final destination.
But then alas! the pessimist
in me arises n questions me.
Will I reach in time?
Or will I fall halfway thru?
I really don't have a clue.
But still I continue.
My only hope being that the spot
now looks brighter than before.

I'm now drained of all energy.
But I still haven't reached that spot.
I consider giving up,
and then quickly against it.
B'cz now I shouldnt give up,
with only a couple of yards to go!

Atlast, when I'm almost there,
barely fifteen steps more.
I'm very sure I cannot go any forward.
My heart breakin,
I fall down on my knees
in the darkness
and look up into the skies.
Wanting to ask fate
Before all trace of life leaves me,
"What was it I did,
so very wrong in life,
to become so unlucky
that I was unable to fullfill
even that final wish of my life?"

when reality strikes hard..:-)

I reeely dunno who the author was, of an article in a magazine I'd read sometime back in which he/she says that we should not possibly burden others with our problems and frustrations when we have a lot easier and simpler way out of it. Nope..its not suicide, the gist of it goes somethin like this!

"When your feeling uncontrollably frustrated or angry with a particular person or object, the best way out of it would be to go to your room, lock your door, take out a pen and bundles of paper and start writing. Nothing specific. Just keep writing and writing and writing whatever comes to your mind at that particular point of time. Just keep penning down your thoughts and your frustrations. You can use whatever words and phrases that you thought would be inappropriate to be used in front of that particular person who caused you such misery. You can keep writing till you feel your frustration is gradually wearing off and stop writing when you feel you are totally through..."


When I did read this article, I did think that it indeed was amazing way to ward off uneasiness. But only when I was in this stage of extreme frustration and did I manage to try out this so called 'technique' of his/hers did I find out how futile it was. What did happen in reality was that I kept on writing and writing and writing for hours together, but my frustration showed no signs of leaving me. Not only did I become tired after a while, my pen stopped working all together and I was left sitting in the middle of my locked room like a freaking LOSER and feeling ten times more frustrated then I actually was in the beginning!


Now, to conclude, if I ever come across the name of the author who wrote that particular article in the therapist's column of some God-damned magazine, I'll personally make sure that he/she is robbed of every cent he/she made out of writing that article.

Peace always
Moi!

ya..wateva!

Have u noticed? I mean, whenever you were in a park and did manage to get on a roller-coaster, the mixture of feelings you experience? Initialy, you might feel that the thing is so fast that your head is starting to spin and you might ache to get in touch with that solid ground and occasionally cursing the prescence of mind (or lack of it!) you had when you felt like tryin out this ride!

Gradually, you get used to the speed and the way it moves, you actually begin to enjoy it. The feeling of nausea passes and you tend to loosen the death grip you unconciously had on the seat in front of you. You'd start to enjoy the sense of freedom that comes to you. The way you happen to see a hundred things all at once, the way the wind blows through your hair and the way the present slowly drifts away from you and you enter this time and this place where everything is so different, so peaceful and so unlike the cruel reality.

Minutes pass. And your still caught in that feeling of bliss. You never want it to end, despite the ups and the downs it provides. But the net result being so good, you slowly forget all those small discomforts that you had to suffer. Because you and you only know that it was worth a sacrifice. And now you slowly start to feel something different. A change in the way your starting to move. You know whats happening but you dont wanna admit it. It going to stop and your gonna have to get out, spoiling everything!

You begin to hate it. Like a newborn hating this entire world and crying its guts away because it had to leave the protective covering of its mother's womb. But like the baby, you don't seem to have much of a choice! So you do as your supposed to. You get ready to leave. And once it stops you get out and your feet touches solid ground. The place you so craved for, only a few minutes back starts to look like an enemy's territory. You hate every minute of getting back. But then, you dont have a choice. You have to get adjusted to the present, run along with the others and act exactly like you are expected to act! Only you know the discomfort, the revolting feelings that run through your head! But then you are grown up! And grown-ups are supposed to handle everything, aren't they?