2009.

The most brilliant New Year I have ever had!

Thanks to the special people in my life.

Parents. And..

Singapura!

The eve spent in Boat Quay. Fireworks, a glass of fruit punch by the riverside. Friends. What more can I ask for?

I declare that I have just spent the best twelve days of my life ever. In Singapura. Bicycle rides along the coast in the night, Random walking in the garden, Losing to HN in badminton thrice in a row, or was it five? I lost all games, for the record. , Movie-tracking, foozeball, evenings with friends, yummy food, arbit waffle-eating sprees, MRT, shifting my best bud’s room (Yes, Niru, I shall remember this one through!), Intro to UNO and Taboo!, Lunch at Harsh and Nikki’s, Abhishek’s Robin (Yes, I hope you get her soon! ), Saravanan’s “I-will-eat-good-food-only-on-the-floor”, music with HN and Niru, The concert! and the ice cream after it ( Saravanan shall be eternally grateful to us for that ), The quiet mornings and nights, MC D’s hot fudge ice cream, LN’s food, the visit to the temple, The “I-want-to-do-so-many-things-with-you-but-I-have-no-time” lines, shopping , the last day and many things which go unsaid.
Sigh.
Yes, I did a LOOOOTT of things in 12 days. And I mega-giga-jiga lowed it. Thank you, Reesh and Niru and everyone. You guys made my vacation!

Tarararantara!

Back after a month at last! Phew! Thanks to end-sems, paper publications and a busy life in general. Some of you might know what am referring to!!

Thanks to Reddy and Gags, I shall have hopes of passing those hideous tests. Touch Wood. And now comes the ritual of visiting the High Court and watching court proceedings every day of the week. (Ok, not the weekends) So little time and so many things to do… Anyway, Happy Holidays to the rest of the bunch there!

Oh and did I tell you this? I hate long train journey and terror attacks. Gaa! Loving it back in Madras. The beaches, the temples and the Margazhi Utsavam.

Bliss.

Sigh.

Utter joblessness. Vetti pechu, vetti vela, lots of sleep.

BTW – Happy Birthday, Harish!

Shit happens.

I do not know how I got myself into this mess. Rather, I do not remember when it hit me. No wonder I haven’t blogged in a while! Continuous tests, every DAY of the bloody WEEK. Two Moots. Somebody find me and shoot me.

Of thoughts and teachers.

A weekend well-spent for a change. Entire Sunday dedicated to a painting and Saturday for time to myself. It feels great! Past week has been quite good,for nothing substantial has happened at all. Back with Gems now, ‘Gems’. (Refer to previous post on the same)

Teaching is definitely one of the best professions one can opt for. But then one should be really good at the subject before trying to enlighten others. Here are a few handpicked lines emnating from teachers all over the country.

Economics class:

The GDP of a country is the value of the goods and services produced in the country divided by the number of goods and services.

India is a developed country on account of all the technology we have.

There is no difference between Factor Cost and Market Price in National Income Accounting.

History:

The first printing press was in Turkey in the 1500’s.

Constitution:

While explaning article 301, Bong-return says: Intercourse means commerce and not otherwise!

Arbit stuff:

While explaining a policy on sex education:

Golti Ma’am: Resort to sex as a last resort!

That’s about the  most happening thing right now. Which amounts to nothing. Absolutely.So, here we are.

Chocolate cake.

Here’s a damn easy way to bake a cake on your own. Kritika’s recipe

225 ml – Fresh Cream (1/2 cup)

1 Cup – Powdered Sugar

1 Cup – Maida

1 tbp – Baking powder

4 eggs

Drinking Chocolate or Cocoa powder, depending on how chocolatey you want the cake to be.

1 tbp – Coffee Powder (in case you are using Drinking Chocolate)

1-2 tbp – Butter/ Oil.

1 big slab of chocolate to be melted for the icing

And here’s how you piece them all together:

1. Take the fresh cream and add the sugar to it. Mix it very well so that the sugar blends evenly. If you do not have powdered sugar, you could use sugar cubes.

2. Now, in a separate bowl, mix maida and baking powder together and to this mixture add the Fresh Cream and sugar. Add the eggs to this mix and then the Chocolate powder/ cocoa. Mix, mix, mix.

3. Add coffee powder. Mix, mix,mix. Making the batter is the most important thing. This will take atleast 20 minutes. You could add choco chips to this if you want.

4. Now set this aside and take the tray you are going to bake in and spread oil/butter on it and sprinkle maida powder over it. Now pour the batter into the tray and leave it the microwave for 6 minutes. (Yes, ONLY SIX MINUTES).

5. Now to check if your cake is done, insert a knife into it. If it comes out without sticking, dry, then your cake is done.

Now for the icing:

Break the chocolate slab into small pieces, add a little milk to it and leave it in the microwave for 3 minutes. Spread it over the cake evenly. You can decorate the cake with gems/choco chips.

For those who do not like chocolate cake: ( WHO DOESN’T?)

Orange Cake – take one orange and use the juice without adding water.

Banana cake – Take 3 bananas, mash them and add them without water again.

That’s it for now. Eggless recipe coming up soon. After I find a guinea pig.

Phew!

A breath of fresh air at last. Mid-terms are OVER!! A beautiful day today. No classes. Shopping with Gargi and Sindhu, picking up random stuff. Made Dhokla on my own for the first time. It wasn’t great, a little hard. But then am happy I atleast tried! A cake was baked. Another one to be baked tomorrow.Lunch to be made by me too!

Music beckons and so do a bunch of other things.

Sigh.

Semiya Upma.

Now that I know to make perfect Upma, I thought I might as well flaunt it for the benefit of those still trying to get there

Alright, in the velaness that Law school offers sparsely, I have been experimenting with the minimal ingredients I have in my room and here comes the recipe:

Upma is possibly one of the easiest things to make in the whole wide world and is one of my all-time favourites. There are a dozen ways to make Upma, the spicy way, the bland way, the healthy way with lots of veggies (will pass off as Kitchadi too!) and I love it with Paati’s Manga/Lemon thokku!

The magic :

1 Cup Vermicilli (Semiya)

2 Red Chillies

2 Onions (small) , finely chopped. (I hate using the food processor)

1 Carrot (small), diced.

1 Cauliflower (small), cut into fine pieces.

Peas a handful, shelled

1 Green Chilli or 1 tsp. Red Chilli powder (if you want your Upma spicy!)

1 tsp Mustard seeds

1 tsp Urad Dal

1 tsp Channa Dal

a pinch of Asafotedia

1/2 tsp Jeera

Curry Leaves

1 tsp Cooking Oil

Salt – to taste. (This, your truly, believes to be the key ingredient! )

1. Roast the Semiya until it turn golden brown and you may use an additional tablespoon of oil if you aren’t picky about oily food. Set aside.

2. Heat the oil, add mustard seed and when you hear ‘pops’, thrown in the urad dal, Channa dal, red chilli, asafotedia, jeera and the green chilli/ red chilly powder.

3. Add the onion and wait for it to turn light brown and add the remaining vegetables.

4. Wait for 5-7 mins or until the veggies are atleast half-cooked.

5. Now add salt and corainder powder (if you want!). Note that it is imperative to add salt at this stage. Mix well and add curry leaves.

6. Now add the roasted semiya to this and mix well again.

7. Adding the exact amount of water to this mix is what determines if you are a good cook, in my humble opinion, and you are to add water which just about covers the mix. Nothing more, nothing less.

NOW – DO NOT TRY AND STIR IT. Just let it be until all the water is absorbed and in case you like the burnt bit at the bottom, leave it on for a couplea minutes and garnish with coriander leaves.

Like I said before – pickles/sugar with upma is the best thing that can happen to anyone.

A letter to her.

It’s hard to forget certain people in your life, no matter how hard you try. They leave this space which nobody else can ever fill. I don’t think anybody can fill the space she left in me, ever. I’m twenty years old and there are a billion things that I still don’t understand. Some say it’s because I haven’t seen much of life, well pardon me for that but I’ve lived 1/3 of my life already, and the others say I will remain this way, like a kid. And to that, I completely disagree. I still can’t narrow down on one person who knows me for what I am, who understands things I never say, who likes me for what I am and can see through what I say. But then again, how many of us find somebody like that? Living in a dream is much better than reality. Sigh.

I miss her like hell. I just want to tell her that I love her like crazy and that I would never ever forget all those bed-time tales she has told me, those days when she took me shopping (for books!), she took me to the store at the end of the street and let me buy anything I wanted, the food she cooks (which is by far the best South Indian food I’ve ever tasted), the days when she tried to drive sense into my head, the days I slept on her lap for the comfort it offered and the times I’ve wanted someone to listen to me.

I’ve fought with her, loved her, admired her for what she is and today, I can’t stop myself from thinking about all those good times inspite of other things that stop me from doing the very same. If you are reading this, I hope you understand what I am going through and will forgive me for the very same.

Hitting the ceiling.

Tempers flaring.

When all is fine, I HAVE to lose my cool, I HAVE to say things I don’t mean, I HAVE to ruin things.

But then again, I am not someone who looks too much into the future, I doubt I’ll live that long anyway.

I hate it when I can’t put it a point across.

What I hate more than that is wanting to put something forth but knowing it will make no difference.

Blah. It’s one of those days I don’t want to talk to anyone else or do anything at all but sleep.

Good Night.