tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47210567976099069032024-03-14T03:42:35.665-04:00Frankly Speaking...pricoolesthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04832936096219553317noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4721056797609906903.post-85742514181527102172020-04-11T19:06:00.001-04:002020-04-11T19:15:26.528-04:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Lost Puppy</div>
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<a href="https://img.dog-learn.com/dog-breeds/beagle/beagle-i2-sz14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Beagle Dog Breed » Information, Pictures, & More" border="0" height="400" src="https://img.dog-learn.com/dog-breeds/beagle/beagle-i2-sz14.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> <span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px;">We spotted a little white and brown beagle on our street.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px;">Running about frantically possibly looking for its family.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px;"> It was spotted in the Deerfield area Morningside Ct, Laurel Ct, Great Hills Road area.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> T</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">he puppy ran off too fast before we could take a picture unfortunately.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> Please message me if you need more information(917-544-3991).</span></div>
pricoolesthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04832936096219553317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4721056797609906903.post-25758053350213149142014-03-10T14:40:00.000-04:002014-03-10T14:40:05.376-04:00Start the Talk About Child Marriage Prohibition Act<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Today is International Women's Day. Every year on this day we see everyone wishing women a happy women's day. And every year on this day I feel the same way - sulking at the pointlessness of a "women's day", consumed by thoughts about the many suffering women in the world, worried about the future that gen-next will grow into - basically I just end up feeling not so happy on women's day. I know I should look at the positive side of things, like I can vote, and drive a car etc. But I specifically end up thinking about suffering on this specific day for women. Doesn't make me feel very happy.</div>
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As a result I avoid looking at "happy women's day" posts. I don't open only-for-women deal ads that show up at this time of the year. I try not to click on links posted by media channels about international women's day on my fb and t feeds. So unless there is a strong personal reminder, I don't get to know that it is women's day. Today however I did get such a reminder. I posted a link on Facebook (after confirming from other news sources that it wasn't a hoax), and a close friend of mine wished me a Happy Women's Day in response to it. She was being satirical and I have a feeling she feels the same way about Women's day as I do.</div>
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This post was about a young Indian woman by the name of Linkan Subudhi who is an IT professional and social worker focusing on education of women and slum children in the suburbs of New Delhi. The post was about how she was beaten up, stabbed, severely injured and hospitalized while trying to stop an 11-year old girl from getting married. The post also urged to publicize Subudhi's bravery and pray for her recovery. How's that for Happy Women's Day... I did some more reading and found out that this incident actually took place in Sept 2013. Subudhi has since survived, contested in local municipal elections and lost</div>
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Dated or not, it was a terrible incident and it just barely touches the surface of the rampant social evil of child marriage in India. Studies and statistics have confirmed that India tops the world in the number of child marriages that take place in any country. 40% of all child marriages in the world happen in India, with 39,000 child marriages taking place EVERY DAY. Yes, 39 Thousand. 47% of Indian girls are married by age 18, and 18% by age 15. So more than half of India's women are child brides.</div>
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There are several complex social norms that go into making child marriage the widely followed practice that it is. There are some twisted reasons like securing a poor little helpless girls future, or strengthening family alliances, or ensuring that the girls don't go astray or marry out of their caste - reasons that only a lack of education can justify.</div>
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I don't even want to start mentioning how deeply emotionally, psychologically and physically damaging the consequences of child marriage can be. With so many women deprived of education, basic rights and wage earning skills, the social and economic impact cannot be undermined either. What's worse is that these women are forever caught in the centuries old vicious trap. They eventually start believing that the marriage is for their own good, and might force their own children into early marriages too. Take for example, the case that Linkan Subudhi was trying to stop - Subudhi was attacked not just by the groom, but also by the child bride's own mother! And thus goes on the cycle!</div>
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Another friend asked me if there were no laws against this. The fact is that child marriage is<strong> illega</strong>l in India. The legal ages for women and men to get married are 18 and 21 years respectively. All those who grew up in India have seen anti-child marriage ad campaigns driving home the message that girls below 18, and boys below 21 years of age should not get married. Have the campaigns been effective? With a whopping 39000 child marriages being performed every day, the answer is a loud and clear NO. Here is my attempt to try and understand why, and make some humble suggestions on how we can take some steps differently to eliminate this evil.</div>
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Social activism against child marriage has been around since the late 18th century, started by Raja Ram Mohan Roy. Various organized groups and iconic leaders from Mahatma Gandhi to prominent social work foundations of today have been imploring society to say no to child marriage. Many are trying to spread the message of saving the girl child, educating her and not marrying her till she is 18. Essentially most efforts, including the Doordarshan ad campaigns, have been focused around pleading to society at a <strong>moral</strong> level. Since Raja Ram Mohan's time we may have made progress, but it is beginning to look like the call to morality is not helping.</div>
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Perhaps it is time to supplement the rhetoric with a high-decibel awareness about the<strong> law</strong> of the land. And to demand an effective and absolute enforcement of the law. Again, case in point, the Linkan Subudhi girl-child: giving the groom or the mom a lecture on the ills of child marriage, or telling them that its a human rights violation as per the UN would be useless given how evil they have proven themselves to be. Now if there was strong enforcement of the local law and fear of being handcuffed, things would have been different.</div>
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Let us look back at the history of the laws. Laws against child marriage have been around since 1929. Yup, that long! The Child Marriage Restraint Act was passed in 1929 by the British government over colonial India. This act was a result of activism by various organized women's associations of that time (they must have been some strong willed women!). The basic demand from the law was to raise the age of marriage for girls and boys to 18 and 21. It was restricted to Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Christian and other minorities excluding Muslims (even though there were Muslim women on a committee who favored raising the permissible ages) There were amendments to the law in 1940 and 1978 but there were still several shortcomings in the law making it difficult for authorities to act effectively against reported cases of child marriage.</div>
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In 2006 the <strong>Child Marriage Prohibition Act</strong> was passed (name changed from "Restraint" of 1929 to "Prohibition" implying reduced tolerance for child marriage) and currently stands as the law against child marriage, which unlike its predecessor, applies to <strong>each and every citizen</strong> and <strong>overrides all personal laws</strong>. This is going to be a long read so for the benefit of those who want to take off already, I should state that my suggestion is to start with making <strong>awareness of this law</strong> as widespread as possible. To look beyond our moral responsibilities as a society, step up on a judicial level and start branding child marriage as a <strong>crime,</strong> not social evil. To cut down on the inaction, start reporting the cases and start preaching the law every time you see a child marriage happening around you. And to preach the law, wouldn't it be good to read some bullet points on it?</div>
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<li>Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 overrides all personal laws and governs each and every citizen of India</li>
<li>The ages are still the same - 18 and 21 for F and M</li>
<li>Any child marriage is <strong>voidable</strong> (though not void) upto 2 years after reaching adulthood</li>
<li> Under Section 3 of the Act, a girl has the right to approach a court to get the marriage declared void till she attains the age of 20 years.</li>
<li>children from a child marriage are treated as legitimate even if the marriage is nullified</li>
<li>Any male over 18 years of age who enters into a marriage with a minor or anyone who directs or conducts the marriage ceremony can be punished with up to two years of imprisonment or a fine</li>
<li>If the girl is under 16, it is an out and out crime. Consent does not matter to constitute offence under Section 376 of Indian Penal Code. (under 16 the girl is considered too young to give consent)</li>
<li>Consummation with a wife below the age of 15 years of age is an offence under Section 375. No exceptions!</li>
<li>Religion of the contracting party does not matter.</li>
<li>Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 being a “Special Act” will override the provisions of Hindu marriage Act or any personal law.</li>
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The above is a summary listing the highlights of the Act. It is not complete and there are caveats, but in general it looks like a pretty powerful law to have if enforced effectively.</div>
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We need steps taken to -</div>
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<span data-mce-style="line-height: 1.5em;" style="line-height: 1.5em;">a) spread awareness about the law, especially given that it covers every citizen and overrides other personal laws</span></div>
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b) demand effective enforcement of the law</div>
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<span data-mce-style="line-height: 1.5em;" style="line-height: 1.5em;">Since most child marriages take place in rural and uneducated sections of the society, there needs to be grassroots level work done to spread awareness about the law and its tenets. Today there is no fear of the law, but perhaps there is also very little awareness about the law. </span></div>
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Once they are aware that they have till the age of 20/23 to get their marriages nullified, some brave girls and boys might get the courage to approach a court. Once they know that the perpetrators and conductors of a marriage can get jailed for 2 years, more girls can start reporting to the authorities. I am not sure there is an immediate remedy for the ineffectiveness of law enforcement authorities. However if the awareness spreads, and media steps in, and number of reported cases start increasing then the cops might be pressured to start treating child marriage as a crime, not a social norm (ye to chalta hai ji. ab hamara byaah bhi to 15 saal ki umar me ho gaya tha).</div>
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Indian media has in recent years been very effective in highlighting social issues. They need to spread viral messages about 18 and 21 being not just suggested ages but the legal ages. Its the law, and there are no exceptions. Maybe Amitabh Bachchan should do a campaign with his long kanoon ke haath (hands of the law) wrapped around someone conducting a child marriage. That would be something!</div>
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My point again is to highlight child marriage as a crime. It is my plea to anyone working against child marriage to start promoting awareness of the law. Appeals to morality alone will not be able to change the deeply embedded, centuries old convoluted perverted traditions.</div>
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There are some great social work groups working towards the betterment of the girl child. They are all dealing with child marriage as the big bottleneck that truncates girls education. One notable group is the Study Hall Foundation which operates schools for underprivileged children from very poor backgrounds. They have started the "India's Daughters Campaign" against child marriage, very aptly calling child marriage as slavery. This post is largely an inspiration from their campaign, and a result of their asking readers to share their thoughts on child marriage. I hope they will find this post worthwhile and take steps to talk about the law through their grassroots level work. (You can also email them your views at info@digitalstudyhall.in )</div>
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Voidable under Section 3, Criminal under Sections 375 and 376 of the Child Marriage Prohibition Act for every citizen - it should be our responsibility to ensure that every girl child at risk has these phrases in her lexicon. It might sound harsh and drastic but on this women's day let us start trying drastic.</div>
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<span data-mce-style="line-height: 1.5em;" style="line-height: 1.5em;">And so it is women's day. The day that doesn't make me very happy, but today after putting down these thoughts, and hopefully useful suggestions, I don't feel so miserable after all. I feel hopeful that someone might find my advice useful. I feel hopeful that there might be something worthwhile that I can do through writing. When I first got to know about women's day (12 or 13 years ago) the computer-less</span><span data-mce-style="line-height: 1.5em;" style="line-height: 1.5em;"> me had taken to a little diary and poured her heart out with thoughts on justice and happiness for women, hoping and praying that some day we might overcome. Well now at least I have a blog to pour my thoughts on and share with the you. Other than that, nothing much has changed. We still haven't overcome...but I am still hopeful.</span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="line-height: 1.5em;" style="line-height: 1.5em;">Happy Women's Day!</span></div>
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pricoolesthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04832936096219553317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4721056797609906903.post-54504889323577263132013-12-10T14:09:00.001-05:002013-12-10T14:09:09.826-05:00The Hour of Code<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
On December 9th 2013 when the Amazing Grace Hopper would be 107 years young -<br />
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<li> Google replaced its logo to pay tribute to the computing pioneer</li>
<li> National Computer Science Education Week was launched</li>
<li>The Hour of Code, a coding education/awareness campaign by <a href="http://code.org/" target="_blank">code.org</a> gets a boost with <a href="http://codeorg.tumblr.com/post/69469632752/hourofcodeishere" target="_blank">support from big names like the President (thereby amplifying his coolness) and Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg to Ashton Kutcher, Shakira and will.i.am (also making them cooler)</a></li>
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As mixed opinions pour in about this campaign (nothing can never really placate those critics), it makes us wonder what the Hour of Code is trying to achieve. Is coding knowledge really that important, or should the societal norms of division of labor continue and coding be left to the geek Gods? Yes technology has come a long ways since, but do we need to learn coding? Do we need to understand how the apps that do magical things like automatically fold laundry actually make it happen? This post is a personal reflection on the topic. You can choose to agree, disagree, read through or entirely ignore it.<br />
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Let me start by saying that so far I am not aware of an app that folds laundry, and second, the “smartness” of smart phones, tablets and much of what computers can do today is NOT magic. However, to someone born in the 80s, 70s or before, a lot of present day technology would seem fascinating. We know its not magic, its all very scientific, its a result of several logical steps put together to achieve a certain functionality. But to think we grew up in a time we relied heavily on postal service to stay connected, or paid $5/minute for a trunk call, it is certainly awe-some be able to do a FaceTime or Google Hangout, all for no charge. We cannot help but marvel at the rapid technological advancement over the past 15 years.<br />
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For my 5y and 1.5yr olds however, issuing a print command from my phone to the printer over wifi, or streaming content from a tablet to the TV is quite the norm of day to day life. The marvels of technology as we may call them are things that they take for granted. Like them, most of the next generation - millennials and later - were born when the Internet was already mainstream or when the iPad was already invented. As such it is no surprise that they take these advancements for granted and end up being the natural consumers of technology that they are. Similar to how we took electricity for granted but most of our previous generation (at least in India) did not have electric connections till they were well into adulthood.<br />
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And so, for both those who marvel and those who take it for granted, it could be a good idea to create awareness about the inner workings of computers, the basis of almost all day-to-day technology, and set their notions right. When Grace Hopper was a child, she dismembered several alarm clocks in order to figure out how they work. It is quite fitting that the campaign that teaches us to break down computing similarly, is launched on Grace Hopper’s birthday. What could be a better tribute than creating widespread coding awareness in the honor of the “first lady of computing”.<br />
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While it is great that this initiative will demystify computer programming for many curious adults (like will.i.am or Ashton Kutcher), the larger point is that for young ones around the world, computer education needs to evolve as rapidly as the trends in computing. Education needs to be relevant as well as current. The US Department of Education coined the term STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) to keep up with Technology education. A great concept, except that Technology in itself is a very broad term. I am not sure if “Technology” education should encompass Computer Science or keep it separate but it is important that education about computers become more mainstream. The challenge may be that there may not be enough educators in the field just yet. And so it may be worthwhile for leaders and experts in the field to start a campaign like the Hour of Code and make the T in STEM more meaningful.<br />
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I recently attended an open house at renowned and reasonably expensive private school in my neighborhood. It was going very well until they started to boast about how they were so technology focused that every kid grade 6 and above needs to have a MacBook and in lower grades a ChromeBook, but when I asked if they are introduced to programming or basic systems the answer that I got was that “we’ve recently installed a 3D printer” (in other words my question went unanswered with more boastful shallow statements). For the staff and students at this school, having the latest cool gadget is the same as being a technology focused school. They seemed of good intent so maybe they just lack the guidance or resources to impart computer education. I have heard similar concerns from parents of older children across the country. The Hour of Code is exactly the kind of thing that this, and many other schools across the world can benefit from. It was started by <a href="http://code.org/" target="_blank">code.org</a> which not only is committed to bringing computer education in schools but comprises of people with solid experience in the industry. It is a perfect example of how the world is more connected than it ever was before and how hungry everyone is for knowledge. It is fun, its a great exercise, it certainly teaches coding and who can’t relate to Angry Birds? Which is a brilliant use case by the way. I tried the first few puzzles with my 5yr old. She thoroughly enjoyed the game and was happy to “tell the computer” what you want it to do in a few simple steps.<br />
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That is the beauty of the Hour of Code. It is simple, elegant and to the point. As the debate about whether computer science should be taught to little kids in schools continues, I find it extremely exciting to work on the Hour of Code with my little Angry Birds fan, thereby hoping that she will learn to break down problems into smaller chunks, appreciate that it takes many steps for those Angry Birds to define their trajectory from catapult to green pig, and hopefully eventually learn not to get mad when the my phone occasionally fails to find the printer on the home wifi network.<br />
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So if you haven’t done your <a href="http://learn.code.org/hoc/1" target="_blank">Hour of Coding</a> yet, go ahead, give it a try.<br />
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Here’s to Grace Hopper!</div>
pricoolesthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04832936096219553317noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4721056797609906903.post-73343227400172372692013-06-03T16:34:00.004-04:002013-06-10T12:02:22.646-04:00Words words and more words<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
At 15 months, the words and gestures she has mastered -<br />
- diddi, diddi ayi (for didi)<br />
- mamma mamma<br />
- papa papa<br />
- dadi<br />
- mamaji<br />
- aati (aunty)<br />
- naain (nani)<br />
- baby<br />
- khakha (food)<br />
- maain (maani, pani)<br />
- holds a camera or cellphone to her eye and says cheeee<br />
- shoe<br />
- wag a finger for no<br />
- pee pee<br />
- putty (potty)<br />
- aadu (ankush)<br />
- batte batte batte batte (rambling words)<br />
- baajate (bahar jate)<br />
- tata tata<br />
- mann (moon)<br />
- bookabookabookabooka (book)<br />
- bo (balloon)<br />
- kaa gayi (kahan gaye)<br />
- tata tata tata (also says this when asked - ghumne jana hai?)<br />
- nana (for nahana)<br />
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pricoolesthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04832936096219553317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4721056797609906903.post-23347130123397364172013-02-07T16:09:00.001-05:002015-04-20T07:05:39.308-04:00How to make the best of Orlando.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Many books have been written on how to plan a trip to Orlando and how to make the best of your visit.</span><br />
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We went there 2yrs ago when our now 5yr old was 3 and she had a blast.</div>
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I took a book with me (borrowed from a colleague) which was really helpful. Its excessive though to carry a book, so if you want to avoid that, you could just print this page with a summary of key learnings from Disney guide books and travel experience.</div>
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1 - The number one tip to keep in mind, get to the parks early. Hard to do but totally worth it if you can manage! There will be lines everywhere. From parking to entrance to the rides. So if you can get in early it will save you a lot of waiting later on in the day.</div>
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2 - take print outs of the park maps beforehand and decide which rides you want to do beforehand. Some rides are very popular and will get crowded if you delay. So attack those rides first. </div>
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3 - there are several smartphone apps that will tell you how much the current wait time at each ride in each park is. Download them and use them. Very helpful</div>
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4 - if you can, pack some food. Muffins, bagels etc so you dont have to worry about breakfast since you will be going early (I hope). Also, food inside the parks is pathetic and expensive. So its best to have some of your own supply, especially if you have picky eaters with you.</div>
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5 - Divide and conquer - you and your spouse can wait in lines for separate rides so that your little one has to wait in one lesser line. Some people will give you the eye roll when you are joined by the rest of the family but hey, its not your fault if you are smart enough to devise a time saving strategy and they are not. It may seem like a tacky thing to do but the parks are huge and so are the lines and its impossible to get a little kid wait in an hour long line.</div>
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6 - all Disney parks have the concept of Fast Pass. Meaning at certain times they will issue Fast Pass tickets for some of the shows/rides. Don't miss these. These are free and a must have. I don't remember the exact details of this so read up on this beforehand.</div>
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7 - Child swap - there are several rides which kids cannot go on. If you want to go on them you can do a child swap here. Meaning that you and your husband can stand in line with the kid and go till then end. One of you can go on the ride and one waits with the kid. They give you an express ticket to the person waiting and when your spouse is back give an express entry onto the ride, no waiting in the line again.</div>
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Now, on which parks to go to. I highly recommend Universal Studios. If you get there early you can do the Harry Potter rides within 15mts or at most half hour, and later in the day the wait for these is easily 1.5 hours. Universal also has the Dr Seuss section which kids will love. Universal does not have a free Fast Pass but you can pay and buy an Express Entry ticket, which I would recommend getting if you can.</div>
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Among the Disney parks, for kids of this age the Magic Kingdom is great. Animal Kingdom is good. You can try Disney MGM also inrs interesting. Epcot was a little boring for a 3yr old but a 5yr old might like it, I am not sure, check their reviews beforehand. </div>
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You can checkout Sea World if your kid is into dolphins and sea animals.</div>
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Also check out Disney Downtown, nice for an evening walk, and free.</div>
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Booking and cost wise, your best bet is to book directly from DisneyWorld.com. The more days you buy passes for the cheaper it gets and you get authentic tickets. There are several fraud sites and sellers out there.</div>
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Accomodation - if you stay at a Disney resort you get special privileges like extra park hours, discounted parking etc. We didnt stay at Disney but next time we might. We stayed across the street from Disney downtown.</div>
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Also check out MouseSavers.com. They have good deals and good tips on saving.</div>
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If you are going in May, watch out for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_Days_at_Walt_Disney_World">Gay Days</a>. There is one week in May where gays from all over the world get together in Orlando and visit each park on different days. Not an issue with gays but its just that the parks and hotels get crowded. Also the hotels may sometimes block access to amenities like pools because they would be having gay convention events. We didn't know and were there during gay days and could not use the pool or kids play area etc since that entire area was blocked for other events! Not to mention that the hotel was so crowded with skimpily clad hot men. (A little uncomfortable but no harm done.)</div>
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Here is another link that will help determine which are the most crowded seasons for Disney world, and you can plan accordingly -</div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://themeparks.lovetoknow.com/Disneyland_Statistics">http://themeparks.lovetoknow.com/Disneyland_Statistics</a></span></div>
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Food - If you are particular about eating at Indian restaurants, you will not be disappointed. There are several to choose from. I just used urbanspoon on my phone to find the restaurants in the area and most of them were decent. Here is the list from urbanspoon. I think we went to Passage to India and Clay Oven and both were decent.<br />
<a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com/f/26/2532/Orlando/Indian-Restaurants">http://www.urbanspoon.com/f/26/2532/Orlando/Indian-Restaurants</a><br />
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As I mentioned before, food options in Disney parks are quite hopeless. (Universal is better that way). However, when was the last time you heard someone say - oh my vacation was a disaster cos the food sucked? :)<br />
Exactly, you will get by and have fun. During the day when you are stuck in the park it might be an issue but you can always make up for it by having a nice dinner.<br />
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So get set, do some homework to figure out what suits you, and enjoy the warm weather, sunny skies and hassle free parks of Orlando. Meanwhile it continues to rain and snow in dreary grey New York!</div>
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pricoolesthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04832936096219553317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4721056797609906903.post-13053623488974310862012-12-05T11:43:00.003-05:002012-12-05T12:16:49.092-05:00Individual Liberty, vyaktigat svatantrata<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">पिछले कुछ वर्षों से भारत में अन्ना हजारे और लोकपाल बिल के कारण राजनैतिक परिवर्तन की एक लहर चल उठी है। सम्पूर्ण रूप से भ्रष्ट सरकार से अब सब तंग आ चुके हैं। अरविन्द केजरीवाल ने आम आदमी पार्टी स्थापित करी है और हम सभी आशा करते हैं की सच्चे इमानदार लोग हमारे नए नेता बनकर पतन और भ्रष्टाचार से हमे आजाद करेंगे। कहने के लिए हमारा देश "आजाद देश" है पर क्या हम सच में आज़ाद हैं? आख़िर आज़ादी का मतलब क्या है? अपने देश से विदेशी सत्ता को हटा कर अपने देशवासियों की बनी हुई संसद बैठा लेना, अपने आप को संवैधानिक तौर से मत का अधिकार देना, चुनाव बहुमत से सरकार बना लेना, क्या इतना काफ़ी है? अपने आप को लोक्तन्त्र, गणराज्या घोषित कर लेना, जैसा की हुँने ६५ साल पहले किया, क्या यही आज़ादी है? मेरा कहना ये नहीं की विदेशी सरकार को भारत से निकालना कोई आसन कार्य था। पर हम वहीँ क्यों रुक गए? उसके बाद जब स्वतन्त्र रूप से अपना निर्माण करने का समय आया तो हम चूक क्यों गए?</span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> हमारे स्वतन्त्र होने का प्रयास अंग्रेजों को निकाल कर क्यों समाप्त हो गया? सदियों से शायद हम यही भूल करते आ रहे हैं की हम अपनी देख-रख कुशल-मंगल की बागडोर किसी और के हाथ में दे देते हैं। </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">चाहे वो शेहेंशाह अकबर हो, या पंडित नेहरु, या फिर नरेन्द्र मोदी या अरविन्द केजरीवाल, हम अपने नेताओं पर अँधा विश्वास करते हैं। हम सोचते हैं की कोई नेता या कोई पार्टी हमारे हित के लिए कुछ करेगी। हमारा अच्छा बुरा अब इन्ही के हाथ में है। इस तरह की सोच ही पराधीनता की पहली निशानी है।</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> अवश्य आप यही सोच रहे होंगे कि किसी राजा महाराजा, विदेशी सत्ता, तानाशाही से, या फिर अपने पडोसी देशों जैसे मिलिटरी या कम्युनिस्ट राज्य से तो हम अच्छे ही है और उनकी तुलना मे हम आज़ाद भी हैं। परंतु यदि व्यक्तिगत स्तर पे, या जिसे हम इंग्लीश मे कहें कि "individual level" पे - परिवार, देश, समाज सबसे परे हट कर, केवल और केवल एक अकेले व्यक्ति के सन्दर्भ मे देखा जाए - तो इस राष्ट्रीय स्तर की आज़ादी की परिभाषा क्या मायने रखती है? </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: normal;">हम स्वतंत्र, स्वराज, स्वदेश की बातें करते हैं पर हम आज़ादी के मूलतम रूप को, व्यक्तिगत स्वाधीनता, व्यक्तिगत स्वत्व, individual liberty के बारे मे क्यों नही सोचते? क्या हम अपने आप को इतना महत्व भी नही देते की हम अपनी खुद कीआज़ादी के बारे मे सोचें? </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">इस सरल और साधारण विषय को समझना कठिन नही पर अक्सर ही हम विचारों को सरल रूप मे ना देख कर क्लिष्ठ उत्तरों की खोज मे लग जाते हैं और किसी छोटी सी बात को पेचीदा बना लेते हैं।व्यक्तिगत स्वतंत्रता भी ऐसा ही एक विषय है। </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">हम अपनी व्यक्तिगत स्वतंत्रता को त्याग कर समाज देश दुनिया की समस्यों मे लीन हो जाते हैं। हम सोचते हैं की अगर हमारा देश स्वतंत्र हो, अगर हमारे समाज मे बुराइयाँ ना हों, अगर हम सब मिलकर एक उत्तम समाज का निर्माण करें तो हम सुखी रहेंगे। लेकिन अगर हम इसका ठीक विपरीत करें - हम समाज और देश को कुछ देर त्याग कर अपनी स्वतंत्रता और अपने सुख समृधि के बारे मे सोचें, और अगर हम ऐसी स्वतंत्रता को प्राप्त कर लें तो बाकी की समस्याएँ स्वयं ही छोटी और सरल हो जाती हैं।</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">यह लेख और आने वाले कुछ और लेख individual liberty, व्यक्तिगत स्वतंत्रता के बारे में मेरी समझ व्यक्त करने का तुच्छ प्रयास है। आशा है इसे पढ़ कर आप, और इसे लिख कर मै इस विषय के बारे में चिंतन मनन करेंगे, और ये भी देखेंगे की किस प्रकार हम अपने शासन अनुशासन में इस सहज विचार को ध्यान में रख कर अपूर्व सुधर ला सकते हैं।</span></div>
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pricoolesthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04832936096219553317noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4721056797609906903.post-1217419081060224392012-10-02T23:47:00.001-04:002012-10-02T23:47:52.638-04:00Back to Food!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
"And so after more than a year long hiatus the master chef is back with a richer repertoire and new savories in her bag of delectable recipes". Or thus would have been the opening line of this post if I were a Martha Stewart or a Tarla Dalal. Master chef or not, its certainly been a 12 months + hiatus, and during this time there certainly is a new set of recipes that I am ready to share with the world - namely, baby food recipes!! Yup, the boiled, pureed, bland kind of food available in solid colors in little jars like in the picture.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQQjzDXwcv-gqLxdMk-eBZyd8iQgGRBGke6zyzM-uilTEOnH8z61uQ1xeukLwh6iB_wTDZ5rVb12bn8C12gH5QKfUbCuZ6XbhB6nyvXOvWzpkSnlUag6DOTLgJVaqPCNFyrrNpzJkWz2PP/s1600/baby+food.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQQjzDXwcv-gqLxdMk-eBZyd8iQgGRBGke6zyzM-uilTEOnH8z61uQ1xeukLwh6iB_wTDZ5rVb12bn8C12gH5QKfUbCuZ6XbhB6nyvXOvWzpkSnlUag6DOTLgJVaqPCNFyrrNpzJkWz2PP/s200/baby+food.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
Starting 6 months my little one (the younger little one) was ready to move to a diet comprising of light solid foods. Doctor's advice - start any new food in the morning or around noon in order to monitor any reaction or intolerance to it. Avoid introducing new foods at night.<br />
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We started with a gentle meal of 2tsp rice cereal mixed with roughly 60ml of water to make a very liquidy consistency. This routine went on for a few days, twice a day. This is standard stuff, there really isn't much to write home (or blog) about it. I do so just to keep a journal.<br />
After 3 days of only cereal, it was time to start vegetables. Started out with carrots and sweet potatoes from Gerber. I really wanted to get an organic brand but they didn't seem to have anything in Stage 1 foods. So Gerber it was. However, given how hard it is to trust what goes onto the shelves in the name of food these days, I decided to start preparing baby food at home, as I had also done with the older little one. Again, a lot of moms do this so no big deal here either.<br />
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What I do want to do is share are details of the tools and methods of preparing the perfect food that works (for my baby at least). So here goes.<br />
At the grocery store: if you are the chemical-herbicide-pesticide-GMO aware type of person, you probably want to browse the organic vegetables aisle. Pick small amounts of a variety of vegetables. My stage 1 favorites were carrots, squash and sweet potatoes. Beans and peas did not go very well with my baby. Neither the jars, nor the home-made ones.<br />
Ready to cook? Thumb rule for Stage 1 baby food cooking - food needs to be pureed smoothly to make it easy to swallow. Thumb rule for making good purees - food needs to be really well done to make it soft. Thumb rule for softening the hardest foods? Use a pressure cooker! Sing with me -<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNnpscrgFvmPKolW-wxEhGeenwgu8Eii4wdqCwlnr8NVa2RAKedNW9wU7joEClksY8J3eJSRmuJIidOJEKTKb7g08IkcSWKt-Wnq8ZoQR6wTw6C8KXqOk8J6MHbm7IOo7Bwucpl9iNwn7e/s1600/hawkins.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="140" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNnpscrgFvmPKolW-wxEhGeenwgu8Eii4wdqCwlnr8NVa2RAKedNW9wU7joEClksY8J3eJSRmuJIidOJEKTKb7g08IkcSWKt-Wnq8ZoQR6wTw6C8KXqOk8J6MHbm7IOo7Bwucpl9iNwn7e/s320/hawkins.jpg" width="320" /></a>हाव्किंस की सीटी बजी<br />
खुशबु ही खुशबु उडी<br />
मज़ेदार लज्ज़तदार<br />
खाना है तैयार<br />
हांजी खाना है तैयार<br />
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This 2 litre pressure cooker from Hawkins is the most useful tool in terms of size and ease of use and cleaning. Of course if you have a 1.5 l one it would be even more handy, but I've had the 2 l one forever as it works well for a family of 2-3 adults for day to day cooking. Now it doubles as the baby food cooker!<br />
So with this cooker at hand: Step 1: as with any food, wash well and peel. Chop the vegetable, doesn't have to be finely chopped as its going to get cooked and mashed anyhow. Add <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Nursery-Baby-Water-Gallon-Pack/dp/B0075LKXAO/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1349235530&sr=8-5&keywords=baby+water">baby wate</a>r or clean drinking water for boiling, I wouldn't use tap water. Let cook for 8-10 or maybe more whistles to ensure that the food is very well done. Let off the steam and open to proceed to next step.<br />
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Regarding quantity, for the 2 l cooker I started with 2 medium sized carrots at a time in Stage 1, moved on to 3 for Stage 2 (starts when the baby starts sitting). This works for 2 servings of carrots.<br />
For sweet potato, usually boil half a sweet potato at a time and use the remaining later.<br />
Peas and beans - not easy to prepare as the skin gets in the way of making a smooth puree.<br />
Squash - really depends on the size of the squash. 1 yellow squash at a time is good.<br />
Stage 2 onward the vegetables can be mixed and daal (lentils) can be included in the diet. So things become easier because now you can prepare khichdis (mish mash of grain, lentil and veggies for those who don't know). Throw in rice, daal (in a 1:2 ratio) and an assortment of vegetables from carrots, broccoli, pumpkin, gourd, squash, beans, potatoes and spinach into the cooker. Add some turmeric and a hint of garlic (supposed to have miraculous health benefits), more than 2x the amount of water and let cook.<br />
Stage 2 is also the time to start fruits. Apples and pears can be boiled and pureed. Bananas can be mashed raw and mixed with water and served. Citrus fruits only after 1 year.<br />
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Step 2: Puree. Important to note, Up until Stage 3 (crawling), make smooth purees. Stage 3 on blend coarsely and let the gums do some work.<br />
My favorite tool for Step 2? This 1.5 cup sized small and handy chopper.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Ds_uZiUi6doD3nnorufmPqNuf12sxyVVO-NNLeJTTS-60Qq_XHKw5XwXSsrt4Sk1mZQyP6g9mE1vIDaWVbAX2DcQJ953-dL-3enIFXzNyQ5YrIWUoG8i4GycwSNr0Kxs3wdK8nr8Gu7s/s1600/proctor+silex.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Ds_uZiUi6doD3nnorufmPqNuf12sxyVVO-NNLeJTTS-60Qq_XHKw5XwXSsrt4Sk1mZQyP6g9mE1vIDaWVbAX2DcQJ953-dL-3enIFXzNyQ5YrIWUoG8i4GycwSNr0Kxs3wdK8nr8Gu7s/s200/proctor+silex.jpg" width="160" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Proctor-Silex-72500RY-2-Cup-Chopper/dp/B00006IUX0/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1349230952&sr=1-1&keywords=proctor+silex+chopper">http://www.amazon.com/Proctor-Silex-72500RY-2-Cup-Chopper/dp/B00006IUX0/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1349230952&sr=1-1&keywords=proctor+silex+chopper</a><br />
With my older one, I always used a hand blender and it was ok but not great. This chopper on the other hand is really great for baby food pureeing and meets all the criteria of a useful tool for the busy mom - small, portable, easy to clean, and functional. Its supposed to be a chopper but for boiled soft foods it works as a blender and whipper.<br />
Once the food is boiled, pour the contents of the pressure cooker (along with the water as that is where the nutrients are) into the chopper/blender. Whip for 15-20 seconds. Add 2-3 tbsp water, stir and whip some more till you get a creamy consistency which is important for Stage 1. Once done, pour into glass jars or containers to store some, and let the lil one chomp away some!<br />
Storage: Anything prepared today can be stored in the refrigerator and safely used till day after tomorrow.<br />
<br />
Important: For Stage 1, use only single grain cereals. Start simple, with white rice cereal. There is no need to try brown rice or oatmeal on day 1. Let the light stuff go in first and then after a week or so you can try brown rice or oatmeal or barley. Rice and brown rice both caused constipation for my baby so I switched to organic oatmeal which is working out well. Mixed grains can be started in Stage 2<br />
Same rule for Stage 1 veggies - no mixing, only single ingredient vegetables.<br />
Proteins should be started in Stage 2 but so far I have been reluctant to give meats. I am hoping that daal will serve as the source of protein, although its not nearly as rich as meats. Still thinking about it.<br />
Stage 2 is really where the mixing starts - mix veggies and grains, fruit and grain, veggie and protein grain and protein. (fruit and protein would kinda suck but you could try)<br />
Repeat - Doctor's advice - start any new food in the morning or around noon in order to monitor any reaction or intolerance to it. Avoid introducing new foods at night<br />
<br />
Anyhow, that't that for now. If anyone has any advice or tips to offer, please do so. Happy to answer any questions while I am still at the task of preparing and serving baby food.<br />
And BTW, I did recently find time to make a dinner of kathi rolls amongst the baby food cooking. Recipe to follow in next post.<br />
Until then, happy meals!<br />
<br />
Pictures and links - courtesy amazon.</div>
pricoolesthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04832936096219553317noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4721056797609906903.post-30437535874659512622012-01-26T10:03:00.001-05:002012-01-26T10:03:22.978-05:00Stationery card<div class="sflyProductPreviewWidget" style="width:425px; height:494px;"><div class="sflyProductPreviewWidgetTop" style="height:6px; background-image:url(http://cdn.staticsfly.com/img_/share/preview/msc/widget/top.gif);"></div><div class="sflyProductPreviewWidgetCenter" style="height:482px; padding: 0 6px 0 6px; background-image:url(http://cdn.staticsfly.com/img_/share/preview/msc/widget/bg.gif); background-repeat:repeat-y;"><div class="sflyProductPreviewLogo" style="width: 105px; height: 34px; padding: 14px 0 0 14px;"><img src="http://cdn.staticsfly.com/img_/share/preview/msc/widget/logo.gif" style="padding: 0; background: #ffffff; border: none; box-shadow: none;"></div><div class="sflyProductPreviewContainer" style="height:350px; text-align:center; padding: 0;"><a href="http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNWrhu4btWLDNA&cid=SFLYOCWIDGET&eid=115"><img src="http://images-community.shutterfly.com/prs/v1/0AcNWrhu4btWKA/0AcNWrhu4btWKOwg/p/67b0de21b3127d902548/JPEG/1327590116000/0/" style="padding: 0; 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font-size: 13px; color: #333333;"><span>Send special <a href="http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/valentines-day-cards-and-stationery" style="color: #6666cc;">Valentine's Day cards</a> from Shutterfly this year.</span></div><div class="sflyProductPreviewViewCollection" style="font-family: arial, sans-seris; font-size: 13px; color: #333333;"><span>View the entire <a href="http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery" style="color: #6666cc;">collection</a> of cards.</span></div><img width="1" height="1" border="0" style="padding: 0; background: #ffffff; border: none; box-shadow: none;" src="https://os.shutterfly.com/b/ss/sflyshareprod/1/H.15/111?pageName=sharekey&c1=msc&c2=blogger" /></div></div><div class="sflyProductPreviewWidgetBottom" style="height:6px; background-image:url(http://cdn.staticsfly.com/img_/share/preview/msc/widget/bottom.gif);"></div></div>pricoolesthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04832936096219553317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4721056797609906903.post-31924964643302384102012-01-01T23:28:00.000-05:002012-01-01T23:28:01.307-05:00Why I didn't like ZNMD<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">I recently had the chance to watch the much hyped and universally loved flick called Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (that's the official name so I wonder why its been shortened as ZMND instead of ZNMD). I have to confess that unlike everyone and their mother, I did not love the movie. In fact I ended up wondering WHY on earth are people going gaga about this one? There is nothing <i>great</i> about the movie. Its not bad to watch but somewhere it starts feeling like a drag and gets so boringly predictable that one wonders what reasons people could have to be raving so madly about it. Maybe there is something more than what met my eye that I couldn't see. Oh well, maybe I am a non-intellectual dud after all who couldn't appreciate the "meaning" or the depth of the movie. So here I am, writing on why I didn't like the movie.<br />
After DCH, Rock On and ZNMD it is now an established fact that the Farhan-Zoya Akhtar house of films is exploiting the formula of "friendship" and "living your dream" the way "Love and Romance in Switzerland" was used and abused by Yash Chopra. They are doling out pop versions of "finding the inner truth" philosophy to Indian audiences which has hitherto been exposed only to masala, romance and good-wins-over-evil type of films. While DCH and Rock on were great, ZNMD just seems like a juvenile attempt at recreating the magic of DCH with its overdone concept of a topsy-turvy bittersweet bond between 3 male friends riding convertible cars on scenic road trips. One with a nagging fiance (Abhay/Saif and Natasha/Priya from DCH), one arty philosopher (Farhan/Akshay Khanna) and one too engrossed in his own life (Hrithik/Aamir) to understand life and love till true love comes along (Katrina/Preity Zinta). They are richer this time and don't hesitate to show it off with 12K Euro handbags. They are not in college any more but they act sillier than their DCH counterparts with the bways and "the plurals" jokes (which we used to crack up on in 12th grade). They are not in college any more but they can still drop everything to go holiday in Spain (good choice of location BTW), and this exotic locale becomes part of what is wrong with the movie.<br />
From the minute they enter Spain the entire movie seems like one long tourism advertisement or a spiced up documentary on Spain. It is undoubtedly beautifully shot but there needs to be more than just that to a good movie. A lot of people tell me that I should have watched this movie on a big screen to really appreciate it. I disagree. A good movie should transcend screen size. Consider this. There was a Sanjay Dutt, Akshay Kumar action thriller called "Blue" which had fantastic underwater camerawork. In fact it offered spectacular, never before seen footage of the world beneath the brilliant blue Bahamas seas. It wasn't blessed by Javed Akhtar's poetry though, and at the end of the day it was just another masala action movie. So it didn't really matter whether you saw it on a big screen or on your ipod. The movie sucked regardless. Of course ZMND isn't quite as bad as Blue but, I repeat, it didn't engage or impress me despite the great camerawork so no, I won't make the effort to watch it on a big screen.<br />
There is no real plot or story. The story, if you want to call it that, is so predictable, boring and lacks originality. Most of the story is woven to accommodate the Spain tourism agenda. Get Hrithik and Katrina close in a Tomatina festival, throw in an Indian artist living in Spain (really?) to show the interiors of a Spanish artist's villa (reminded me of Javier Bandem's pad in Vicky Christina Barcelona), the useless Senorita song to educate us on Spanish music and dance forms, and not to miss the finale - the confessions, promises and culmination of the movie at the must-see bull run in Pamplona. Then there is the slow song in the top-down convertible car where the actors try to act really cool by lying back in silence and absorbing the sights and sounds of their scenic road trip. How many times have we seen that since DCH? The wedding song with the credits in the end is a entirely copied from Hitch. This is another irritating Bollywood fad - replace colorful shaadis with classic white weddings. Oh whatever!<br />
More predictable scenes - Abhay Deol's idiotic "maine tumhare bare me kuch suna hai" prank and people getting freaked out by it. Abhay Deol's oops moment carrying Katrina (post Tomatina) to be predictably caught by surprise by smoldering fiance. Abhay Deol exchanging SUV for vintage car for Farhan Akhtar. Hrithik Roshan's idiotic video chat with a Japanese big shot, etc etc - all lackluster, irrelevant, even embarrassing and predictable. Let me clarify that there are two types of predictable - one where you fear what's going but find it hard to accept if what you thought actually happened, and one where you know what's going to happen and you hope that they come up with something better but they fail to meet your expectation and do the predictable. The former grasps you, engages your imagination and entertains. The latter leads to one place - boredom . In my (not so humble on this topic) opinion, this entire movie falls into the second category.<br />
The cast is strong and performances are just okay but Farhan Akhtar needs to accept that he cannot act, he is not great looking and he especially cannot do the funny boy role with his stoical expressions and bland dialogue delivery. I sincerely hope he stops acting and sticks only to filmmaking. I know I've made all you Farhan Akhtar fans' blood boil but not everything that FA does is cool. Let's accept that.<br />
Finally, the movie supposedly has a message - live your life, follow your heart etc - but the way the message is conveyed is likely to inspire dangerous acts of foolishness by those who blindly follow the way the characters execute their dream of finding their inner self. (and trust me there is no dearth of blind followers and believers of Bollywood stupidity in our populous country). An example is the ridiculous Tomatina festival that was planned and prepared for in Bangalore a few months ago. Good sense prevailed and the event was called off. Not sure if it was for the movie's publicity or if Bangaloreans were really going to take to Palace Grounds with tomatoes, gulaal and water pipes. There will be those who will try to find themselves and their dreams in handbags, accessories and luxury goods worth12 thousand Euros. Almost every dreamy eyed guy and his friends will set out on road trips to celebrate their bachelorhood before their weddings. The married ones will reunite with their long lost friends in Europe or Bali or somewhere exotic and boast about their careers and personal lives. Well there is nothing wrong with that. In that sense perhaps the Akhtars have done some good by allowing us to think beyond the mundaneness of our lives, by telling us to unwind, recharge, explore the world etc, because after all, you do only live once. So as long as people don't fail on important commitments of life to "live the moment" its all good. My worry is for those who are not so mature. But then why am I being the worrier for the rest of the world?<br />
This has been a long pending post written in bits and parts over the past several days. The intent is definitely not to start the new year on a negative note. I can sense a lot of hate mail coming my way from all those who worship the movie :)<br />
But what can I say, I have to find my inner self and speak my mind as the movie preaches. Happy New Year everyone!! :)<br />
<br />
</div>pricoolesthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04832936096219553317noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4721056797609906903.post-16777356189280257592011-07-13T23:20:00.001-04:002011-07-13T23:21:23.729-04:00Letter to the Fat Corrupt Politicians<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">Dear politicians, if you have an ounce of conscience and even a tiny bit of a soul in you, you should die of shame today! But of course, you've already sold your souls to the devil and you never had a conscience so the bomb blasts don't mean anything to you. You will just humiliate your people once again with a "compensation", tell them how courageous they are (of course, to be able to tolerate morons like you) and expect them to "bounce back" to life as if nothing happened while you conveniently move on to the next scam. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">Here are a few things you should know. In fact, these are things that we the people should also know but we are so overloaded with the task of surviving in this extreme jungle of chaos and corruption that you have created that we never get the opportunity to ponder over these basic facts. We don't even know what our fundamental rights are because if we have to struggle so hard to achieve it, then it cant really be a right now can it? So, here are the facts - </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">- We vote for YOU. meaning we appoint you, we employ you at our command, to perform some administrative tasks for us. That means that YOU work for US, and not the other way round.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">- We pay taxes so you can utilize the money and provide us some basic facilities. Nothing fancy here, just regular stuff like good roads, parks, schools, electricity, water, a transportation system, and above all a safe and secure environment where we can live fearlessly.. Whatever is left after this can go towards your salary. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">- We expect to receive these facilities at no extra cost on top of the taxes we pay.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">Now lets look at how you operate.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">- roads - pathetic, and its a well known fact that the PWD is an easy way to loot the government coffers paid for by our money</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">- government schools - sad story. Nobody wants to send their kids there because they are so low quality. Teachers are not motivated because they dont get paid well</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">- water - its a struggle for majority of the population to even get clean drinking water. If a poor man wants a hand pump or well installed he has to spend all his savings in bribing everyone from top to bottom</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">- security and intelligence - non-existent as is proved yet again by the blasts in Mumbai , the perpetrators of which run scott free and you haven't the courage to either arrest, try or execute (as Kasab)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So where is all the money that we pay you going? Let's look at some more facts.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jaya amma is getting fatter by the year and tales of her mythological wealth are well known</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mayawati donned a garland of 5cr rupees on her birthday</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mayawati also sets a target for all her MLAs etc to raise funds for her birthday celebrations each year. Meaning the MLAs have to go and collect bribes from wherever possible to meet their astronomical targets. Of course they can't say "balls to you" to Mayawati cos she is their behenji after all.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">YSR Reddy's son amassed hundreds of crores between 2004-2009</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Every day there is a new scam worth not hundreds but lakhs of crores of rupees. Its hard to keep up with the scame stories but each scam has a similar theme - funds intended for a particular section of the society ended up in one of your personal Swiss accounts.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kasab is partying in jail and you are spending 5lakhs on his "security" per day? What could be more insulting to us than to see our money being wasted on protecting a mass murderer who should be stripped naked and flogged to death in public!!! Can you not feel our intense ire?</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is just a small portion of the endless list. But we hope you get the point. The point is, you suck at what you do. Please. Stop. Step down. Surely you are incapable of feeling any embarrassment for having constantly failed at your job, but we cannot take this any more.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Take a look at history, the 1857 mutiny, the non-cooperation movement, Quit India movement - you are bringing it upon yourselves again. The last time it was for foreigners, this time its going to be true Indians against the corrupt, tyrant internal enemies of India. And this time we will skip the mutiny and non-cooperation and force you to Quit India. Gundon, Chor badmashon, Bharat chhoro. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Take this as a warning. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And yes, please stop insulting us with your paltry compensations and false condolences. Stop talking about the "spirit of bouncing back". We don't bounce back, we just carry on with the rigmarole of surviving in this crazy system you have created for us. Its hardly a "spirit". Its a "majboori". We have no choice. So stop saying that, and stop taking us for granted. Also, stop saying that we need to be "united" at this time. If we unite and resolve to have our revenge, we will make sure that you suffer!!!</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;"><br />
</span></span>pricoolesthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04832936096219553317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4721056797609906903.post-77702788733121264122011-05-05T11:24:00.000-04:002011-05-05T11:24:42.519-04:00No OBL pics please!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Osama Bin Laden is dead, that's great news. Its a relief. Victory of good over evil.<br />
Much as it is a reason to celebrate, it is also reason to be on high alert because the breed of terrorists that Osama created will continue to live on and seek revenge. They might be enraged, shaken and extremely full of hate at this point. The nation should unify and focus on its security at this time.<br />
But once again, Fox News, Republicans, Birthers etc fail to see what the priority of the country should be. They continue to question the credibility of their President. They doubt the purpose of the operation that brought the most Wanted terrorist down. They continue to humiliate the valor of the brave men who put everything at stake and went all out to finish what started on 9/11/2001. Why? Because they didn't get to see the pictures....oooooh poor cry babies..."I want to see the pictures mommy, he wont show me the pictures"..boohoo<br />
<br />
Republicans and others, this was your chance to show some dignity and solidarity. You could have gracefully accepted the fact the Obama administration brought home what the Bush administration pursued for 8 years. You could have congratulated yourselves for having started it and Obama for completing it. Instead you continue to maliciously politicize any and everything that Obama does. If you showed some dignity and stopped making a big deal about the dead OBL's pictures you would probably have gained some points in the popularity polls. WHY do you need to see those pictures? He was shot in the HEAD! Do you really want those pictures to be made public? The day Osama's new came out I too was curious to see the pictures, but that was just for curiosity's sake. As more details started to come in, I realized that not releasing the pictures is the sensible thing to do for many reasons -<br />
a) It was a headshot<br />
b) The pictures would be extremely graphic<br />
c) It will only aggravate the followers of Bin Laden's ideology, and jeopardize national security.<br />
(and I am just an ordinary immigrant. One would expect the citizens and politicos of a country to know better)<br />
<br />
More on the last point - they are saying that when Saddam's sons were killed we released the pictures. That was done to ensure the people of Iraq that the sons were really dead, to bring them a sense of relief. I don't think anyone in Iraq or elsewhere idolized Saddam's sons. Releasing those pictures would not have offended, aggravated or ired a large section of young radicalized Islamists across the world. Releasing OBL's pictures will.<br />
Also, this is not something to gloat about. Killing OBL is a milestone but not an end to the fight against terrorism. The villains that Osama created are still out there. Releasing those graphic pictures will only add fuel to their fire.<br />
<br />
And what if the pictures were released? Wouldn't you still question the credibility of those pictures? He was shot in the head. The face and body must be mutilated beyond recognition. You wouldn't be able to make out a thing. And you would still doubt the authenticity of those pictures. Nothing will stop your evil ways and malicious attacks on the President. In fact, in political terms killing Osama is such a big thing for Obama that no matter what he does now, you will only resort to cheap, below the belt attacks. Obama administration is doing the sensible thing by ignoring you.<br />
So dear skeptics, please shut up, sit down and let the President and the nation move on the other important things - like National Security, the economy, etc, and stop cluttering up the news with non-issues and controversies because these resources could be used for more constructive purposes!!!<br />
<br />
<br />
</div>pricoolesthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04832936096219553317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4721056797609906903.post-25500927944179638162011-04-01T00:10:00.001-04:002011-04-01T11:28:04.259-04:00Hor d'oevres, Desserts, Brunch and Cricket<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Following from the last blog on Holi, I wanted to write about discourse on the interpretation of the Satyanarayan Katha I attended. However, I am just going to mention one example here and leave out the remaining deep philosophy since I want to maintain the foodie nature of this blog.<br />
One of the stories in the katha is about a woodcutter, and the symbolism is that we drag our lives and its responsibilities like a pile of wood, akin to the poor woodcutter, whereas human life is a divine gift that one needs to be thankful for and live graciously. Oh well, that didn't come across as well as it did from the Panditji, but believe me Rashmi, there is a deeper meaning to the katha that is best heard from someone learned and qualified to talk on the subject! :)<br />
Now, coming back to food talk, yours truly and a few friends got together last Saturday for a "potluck" party with hor d'oeuvres and desserts being the theme. We had a few parties in the past where people got an appetizer and an entree, and invariably everyone would eat the appetizers and barely touch the main course dishes, resulting in waste of food and effort. Indian hor d'oeuvres (if you can call them that) like papdi chaat, tikkis, tikkas, kababs and kati rolls, and gulaab jamuns, rabdi-ras malai etc. desserts can be deliciously satisfying and filling. Honestly if you have a table full of unlimited quantities of fresh chaats, chutneys, kati rolls and kababs, and buttery creamy desserts, who needs anything else? They are easy to cook, hassle free to serve (self servable mostly) and hit the right food pleasure spot in the the mind (or wherever). On a day to day basis one wouldn't go through the trouble of preparing these appetizers, so a potluck like this is the perfect way to satisfy the chaat craving, as well as bring out the exotic experimental chef in you. In a potluck setup it also saves participants the hassle of painfully preparing roti/bread/rice items. And kids love 'em too!<br />
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Here are some pictures of the spread we had.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg0jnT_u-hdcej3-d4e3QNaX9f4UK6ngW41IEQUAAd9SDB5XIlo-pp_FOt0i4pWFKvB6kcwbHG6M4NDksmTVdbVhMzytPQCXnAUAE2psGuFuXWL-FcpMQ21Ii72qD97Pg8J_zvw50bjd6e/s1600/Food+NV.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg0jnT_u-hdcej3-d4e3QNaX9f4UK6ngW41IEQUAAd9SDB5XIlo-pp_FOt0i4pWFKvB6kcwbHG6M4NDksmTVdbVhMzytPQCXnAUAE2psGuFuXWL-FcpMQ21Ii72qD97Pg8J_zvw50bjd6e/s320/Food+NV.jpg" width="320" /></a>This is the non-veg and desserts section. In this picture: Seekh kababs, kati rolls (in the foil), chicken tikka, fish kababs, cup cakes, fruit salad with custard and a bowl of Lindt chocolates. And of course the chaat paapdi which was delicious enough to be honored with a place in the non-veg section!<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT5S_DL3Lb5Af0iD3C9QYwxNkjhiHOw_z1NTAJuNecrtQbnbNRKp9m6k48Usf9_ROhbsqy-LrJxQljCzEyGoW4GbltuuDyPMeq3edziv6xPZ70c31FVrrjTRA_6wW5aYbM_c_ULq4A0BRk/s1600/IMAG0113.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="111" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT5S_DL3Lb5Af0iD3C9QYwxNkjhiHOw_z1NTAJuNecrtQbnbNRKp9m6k48Usf9_ROhbsqy-LrJxQljCzEyGoW4GbltuuDyPMeq3edziv6xPZ70c31FVrrjTRA_6wW5aYbM_c_ULq4A0BRk/s200/IMAG0113.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
This on the right is a blowup of the beautifully presented fish kababs!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzs2t4B7Y5SGB-dOGobMB1RZnKUxS5oveQiDEO2LfQiq_bxqejbpqiKh7r7ED0_uFzAUJstENAZGymvEEq0HFEry7S5ZkHQrzVuOWICqHIgr79JLDboGmWkFzhuw6UHc8DnsTmUrkrRyaD/s1600/IMAG0117.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzs2t4B7Y5SGB-dOGobMB1RZnKUxS5oveQiDEO2LfQiq_bxqejbpqiKh7r7ED0_uFzAUJstENAZGymvEEq0HFEry7S5ZkHQrzVuOWICqHIgr79JLDboGmWkFzhuw6UHc8DnsTmUrkrRyaD/s320/IMAG0117.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzs2t4B7Y5SGB-dOGobMB1RZnKUxS5oveQiDEO2LfQiq_bxqejbpqiKh7r7ED0_uFzAUJstENAZGymvEEq0HFEry7S5ZkHQrzVuOWICqHIgr79JLDboGmWkFzhuw6UHc8DnsTmUrkrRyaD/s1600/IMAG0117.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br />
</a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzs2t4B7Y5SGB-dOGobMB1RZnKUxS5oveQiDEO2LfQiq_bxqejbpqiKh7r7ED0_uFzAUJstENAZGymvEEq0HFEry7S5ZkHQrzVuOWICqHIgr79JLDboGmWkFzhuw6UHc8DnsTmUrkrRyaD/s1600/IMAG0117.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br />
</a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzs2t4B7Y5SGB-dOGobMB1RZnKUxS5oveQiDEO2LfQiq_bxqejbpqiKh7r7ED0_uFzAUJstENAZGymvEEq0HFEry7S5ZkHQrzVuOWICqHIgr79JLDboGmWkFzhuw6UHc8DnsTmUrkrRyaD/s1600/IMAG0117.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br />
</a></div>The Veg section consisted of alu tikkis, idli, samosa and cheese rolls (I think. I didn't explore the veg section in detail :-)). Also tagged in this picture, diligently home made gulab jamuns.<br />
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Yes, all of the food here in these pictures is home made, except the seekh kababs (mea culpa, I ordered them but they were yummm and there was no way I could make them myself)<br />
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The evening was complete with an unlimited supply of drinks and good music, and concluded with 2 hours of poker. The group has decided to continue theme based potluck parties. So it could be Indo-Chinese theme one time, and Italian theme another time. In the nearest foreseeable future however there is going to be a brunch party for the World Cup Cricket Final on Saturday at my place. All nervous for the match but looking forward to some great brunch ideas.<br />
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In other food related news, the PM Mr MM Singh and the Pakistani premiere dined together at the semi-finals. According to reliable sources, the menu for the dinner included gosht barrah, tandoori pink salmon, tawe ki macchli, murg lazeez, gosht palak saag, chaamp biryani, bhindi naintara, subz biryani, gajar ka shorba and dal makhani. The desserts included apple cinnamon crumble, kesar phirni and fruit salad.<br />
Food for thought for the next party!!<br />
<div><br />
</div><div>Well, let's see how the finals go. The food will still be great though! May the best team win, and may India be that best team!!</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
</div>pricoolesthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04832936096219553317noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4721056797609906903.post-33554097500177228112011-03-24T17:31:00.004-04:002011-03-24T22:15:08.159-04:00Long time no Blog, Belated Holi Hai<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">The last two weeks have been very happening in both good and bad ways. There is the tragedy in Japan with a nuclear aftermath, the turmoil in Bahrain, Libya, Yemen and Syria, the icy onset of a much awaited spring, the colorful Holi (thankfully the weather was great), and finally today the fall of the Australian cricket team.<br />
For those of you who don't know, I had the most special Holi in a long time this year. I volunteered with two other parents for the Holi celebration in Sanjana's <a href="http://www.hudsonmontessori.net/">school</a>. We made a little presentation on Holi, told the kids a Holi story, danced to Rang Barse with the kids, snacked on Holi namkeens and jalebi, and finally played Holi with the kids and teachers, and some of the daring parents :)<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtENe4Ag3EpGSp3yVD3PYtcfprpl5YjaM3Fk6PDu17HoQHGmLb70WmsbUzjZBxxE5vGJx1aHo1lRJJQUB_LqaQG3tiv4drOFszZ5wc_OXZ0-zFVdHPh5Bz7Isjr4CXEEEDvqpA9XGyU7ur/s1600/Kurta.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtENe4Ag3EpGSp3yVD3PYtcfprpl5YjaM3Fk6PDu17HoQHGmLb70WmsbUzjZBxxE5vGJx1aHo1lRJJQUB_LqaQG3tiv4drOFszZ5wc_OXZ0-zFVdHPh5Bz7Isjr4CXEEEDvqpA9XGyU7ur/s320/Kurta.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The <a href="http://www.hudsonmontessori.net/">school </a>had requested parents to send spare white t-shirts which the kids changed into. Teachers poured out trays of red, yellow and blue hand paint. The weather was warm and sunny so we took the kids to the play area, gave them a little demo of gently smearing hand paint onto each others' clothes, and then it didn't take long for them to figure out how to play Holi and go crazy with the colors. Given that these are very young kids and that not all of them are Indian, I doubt that any of them had ever played Holi before, but they seemed to get it just like pros! The teachers did a great job of keeping the kids from pushing each other or putting color on the face and skin. Some of the parents who came to pick up their kids were fascinated with the colors and joined in the celebration. Such is the joy of colors that they didn't mind getting paint on their regular clothes. I hope they were able to wash it off with ease! Like the other kids, Sanjana was also thrilled, albeit initially confused, about Holi and the color play. The colored T-shirts were sent home as a souvenir of Holi and I hope they will be preserved as works of an art and social studies project! I will surely be preserving the hitherto white Kurta that I got from that day - picture above :)<br />
Its been 6 years since I celebrated Holi at home. It is my favorite festival of all and I feel sad and nostalgic each time that I am not home for Holi. So this year's was a truly special Holi for me in the longest time! Sanjana kept wishing us "Happy Holi" for the next 3 days. She also enjoyed playing with gulaal and roli at home. I hope that others had a wonderful and festive Holi too.<br />
As for food, I have lost track but I can tell you this. On the day of Purnamasi when the moon was the largest in 18 years, a friend of mine had organized Satyanarayan Katha at her house. She made the most delicious chhole, matar paneer, alu gobhi, bundi raita, mixed veg pulao and halwa for <i>30</i> people single handedly. Once the katha was over, lunch was served with fresh hot balloons of puri prepared with the help of yours truly taking turns at puri making with some of the other ladies present. We don't have a count of how many puris were made and served but everyone devoured the puris in large numbers! Such is the joy of hot puris (that they didn't mind putting a few extra inches on their bellies - in keeping with the last "such is the joy of colors" sentence!). Apart from the food, the katha and havan had a deep spiritual cleansing effect on me. The <a href="http://hindupriestom.com/default.aspx">Panditji</a> who performed the havan is extremely learned and went into the philosophical aspect of the Satyanarayan Vrat Katha, rather than going over the standard Leelavati, Kalavati and Sut ji Maharaj stories. It was a very interesting experience to understand the deeper meaning of the Katha. (I remember going to a katha at another friend's house where the panditji had got print outs of the katha chapters in English. He distributed the print outs and asked those present to read each chapter out aloud. Which was not bad because everyone felt like a participant in the katha, but seriously, in English?)<br />
As a result of the spiritual awakening I have taken to reading about the Vedas, the Sanatan Dharm (Hinduism) etc. Perhaps that will be the topic of the next post. And perhaps I will have to expand the scope of this blog to go beyond food.<br />
However, coming back to food, I am utterly bored of daal-roti-sabzi again and experimenting with kadhi-chawal today. Let's see how that goes.<br />
Till then next blog...</div>pricoolesthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04832936096219553317noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4721056797609906903.post-72436224905625967032011-03-16T01:34:00.004-04:002011-03-16T11:47:38.086-04:00Tsunami, Earthquake, State of Shock....<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">I digress from food talk this time when the mind is cluttered with horrific images of devastation in Japan. Cars, ships, houses and other massive structures being engulfed and consumed by the black monster like waters, belittling all things living and all things we consider "big". Making us realize how helpless and insignificant we are in the grand scheme of all that constitutes this universe. As if the tsunami and earthquake were not enough, the nuclear reactors are melting down posing a serious radiation threat to the survivors. There is shortage of food, water, shelter. There are logistical challenges in providing supplies because of the nuclear threat. The death toll is anybody's guess.<br />
The world is sympathizing with the victims and the economists are wondering how does a nation recover from a tragedy of such an epic proportion. And it makes me wonder - what (on earth) is going on? Did we bring this upon ourselves? Is 2012 really inevitable? Can someone tell me if this is the beginning of something bigger? Is this how the existence of civilizations is threatened? That ancient Egypt, South America etc were really once home to a civilization as advanced as ours? My mind is reeling with a ton of thoughts that I'd rather not put to print. Call it an abrupt ending but I think I want to stop writing here. There are no words to express the emotion that you and I are feeling and there is no point trying. Let us pray for the victims, and help in any way we can. Insignificant as we are, let still us pray for safety and peace.<br />
As my friend Purvi pointed out in her comments to this entry, let us learn from the Japanese to be graceful and dignified even in the face of disaster. It is worth mentioning and so I am adding this last paragraph after reading the comments.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border-collapse: separate; color: black; font: small 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/12/orderly-disaster-reaction-in-line-with-deep-cultural-roots/">http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/12/orderly-disaster-reaction-in-line-with-deep-cultural-roots/</a></span></span><br />
</div>pricoolesthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04832936096219553317noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4721056797609906903.post-68380096487987157852011-03-11T00:01:00.002-05:002011-03-11T00:15:47.700-05:00Tarantino inspired Apple Strudel<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmlYLKTElYDt1YfM2apbAZAw6Ub29A2gbEbHlIBpeFaAQNQ_0DYIB6Yzqz-9IObAKQjENhXtI7WDwVeck_rZDSqK-4DJRowKc7EzxKtDdLDje5fUXhhGYXDBBk090mIQNhKVv1N3NPrJ7m/s1600/Strudel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmlYLKTElYDt1YfM2apbAZAw6Ub29A2gbEbHlIBpeFaAQNQ_0DYIB6Yzqz-9IObAKQjENhXtI7WDwVeck_rZDSqK-4DJRowKc7EzxKtDdLDje5fUXhhGYXDBBk090mIQNhKVv1N3NPrJ7m/s320/Strudel.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Over the weekend we saw Inglorious Basterds for the nth time. One of my favorite scenes is the one that takes place in a fancy Paris restaurant. The superficially elegant Nazi Colonel Hans Landa interviews Shoshana about her background, the theater she owns etc in light of the Fuerher's plans to attend a movie premier in her theater. He is not aware that she is the same girl who had fled from him a four years ago when he ruthlessly assassinated the rest of her family in suburban France. During the scene, he orders an apple strudel, telling her its the best in town. Once the strudel arrives, he says - Ah, I forgot to order the cream. She begins to start eating. He stops her with a smile - wait for the cream. Cream arrives. Close up of crispy flaky strudel. Close up of deliciously swirled layers of fresh cream. Dollops of fresh cream served with a silver teaspoon. Close up of Shoshana cutting a piece of strudel with a knife, scooping some of that mmmmmmmmm cream on it, and finally savoring it. "Verdict?" he asks. She nods her head in approval.<br />
The scene is a work of art. And the strudel close ups are just tantalizing!!!<br />
Sigh....What I would do to sit in an upscale setting like that and devour a crispy strudel served with that yummmmmmm cream. That scene is the best scene in the great movie. Its the best food porn ever made.<br />
So inspired by the strudel scene, I picked up a pack of 6 Pillsbury Toaster strudels (frozen of course), which came with 6 tiny sachets of cream, on my weekend grocery trip.<br />
The strudels were toasted and served for breakfast on Tuesday with thawed cream from the sachets. Doesn't come anywhere close to the original of course but that's the closest I could get to fulfilling the desire to dine on a strudel.<br />
Meals for the rest of the week have been quite uneventful, but just to write them down -<br />
Tuesday lunch - Alu matar, roti and rice<br />
Tuesday dinner - Daal, rice and alu beans which got burnt and wasn't highly palatable.<br />
Wed lunch - Pret a Manger Chicken wrap, quite good.<br />
Wed dinner - I was too bored with daal so I made a soup, knorr sweet corn soup mixed with daal, and skipped rotis.<br />
Today lunch - Korean Ramen soup<br />
dinner - Alu-capsicum-matar, daal etc.<br />
Sanjana is recovering from her flu and is back to having full meals for the past two days too.<br />
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Before I sign out, if you haven't watched Inglorious Basterds you should watch it. Not as gory as the other QT movies, and quite entertaining too.<br />
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Also, the picture above is not something I took, I am not trying to violate any copyright laws here and would like to give credit to whoever it may be that shot it, and whoever posted it on the internet.</div>pricoolesthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04832936096219553317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4721056797609906903.post-57969516626042155062011-03-08T11:48:00.000-05:002011-03-08T11:48:16.408-05:00Monday - march 7<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">nothing fancy - stayed home as little one has flu. The only thing she consumed throughout the day was milk, juice, and at one point a bowl of cheerios :(<br />
For us, lunch was daal, alu methi, roti and rice. Dinner was same as lunch, with bhindi made in methi-mirch substituting the alu-methi. Had a minor tiff with hubby cos I didn't make rice for dinner cos there's always some left over and I can NOT keep storing katoris after katoris of bird meal sized rice leftovers! So I let him huff and puff - which didn't last long because he didn't stand a chance against my very rational and reasonable arguing. LOL.<br />
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</div>pricoolesthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04832936096219553317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4721056797609906903.post-13329067082416939412011-03-07T11:39:00.001-05:002011-03-07T11:41:37.718-05:00Weekend - Chinese, Steak, Leftovers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Saturday lunch was purely re-engineered leftover food - alu gobhi leftover spiced up with leftover paneer masala, and parathas made from leftover rotis from Friday.<br />
For dinner I threw in finely chopped onions, beans, carrots and peas in a wok, added some soy cause, vinegar, chilli sauce (from India street) and Ajinomoto (courtesy Susheela), and added some rice to it to prepare a desi style Chinese fried rice meal, served with anda bhurji.<br />
Sunday started with the Ireland-India cricket match served with peas-poha. Since it was a light breakfast, I made a full lunch with fresh daal, rice, rotis and a medley of subzees lying in the fridge - alu from dosa filling, paneer tikka, anda bhurji and cabbage-gobhi-alu sabzi.<br />
For dinner I decided to experiment a little and cooked a juicy piece of steak and baked croissants with a ready to bake Pilsbury dough. I wasn't confident I would be able to consume the steak so I also made mushroom-matar and daal as my Plan B, which is what I ended up having, though hubby did devour a large part of the steak.</div>pricoolesthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04832936096219553317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4721056797609906903.post-91538046390766702282011-03-05T12:49:00.000-05:002011-03-05T12:49:37.919-05:00Friday evening<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">As is inevitable in a technology job, a last minute "urgent and critical" task came up which I was involuntarily volunteered for, and didn't feel good about refusing as it was in the interest of the greater good. That was the end of my plans to go out for a free wine tasting event, followed by dinner, with friends in Hoboken.<br />
I was hoping that I would still be done by 9pm and the client that I was doing this for - a billion dollar hedge fund employee - would have a life and not bother to take a status check till the next morning. I was wrong. It turned out that the guy really didn't have a life and was sending emails back and forth till 12am about how disappointed he was with the state of progress and the speed of data retrieval even though he was promised that things would be rosier once the "patch" was applied.<br />
Anyhow, my plans of going out were more or less ruined but the friends we were supposed to go out with ended up coming home to make things better. And they brought a bottle of a 2006 Italian Chianti in tow. Even better!!<br />
At 9:30pm, after one round of wine, I managed to topple the second glass of wine from the side table and spill the liquid all over our precariously configured phone, internet routing Vonage device. Which means that our phone no longer works and wifi was temporarily disabled. However at that moment I was thrilled because now I had a very valid reason for not being able to login and requesting the very coworker who dropped the Friday evening task in my lap to come back, pick it up and nurse it to finish, and that too at a later hour! AH! The sweet buzz of delicious wine complete with the feeling of revenge!<br />
With that done, I could focus on the biggest purpose of life - FOOD! We ordered kolhapuri chicken, handi mutton curry and butter paneer masala from a low budget take-out place called Canteen in Journal Square. I hadn't eaten from there before and I was skeptical about it. The food however was the tastiest Indian food I have had in a long time. Every dish was carefully prepared and had its own distinct flavor, unlike the food from high end places like Raaz and Amiya which all ends up tasting bland and made in the same sauce. And it was very reasonably priced. The whole meal, for 4 people, was under $30!<br />
All in all, it ended up being a pleasant evening.<br />
Saturday morning now, with frozen idli-vada and home-made sambar and chutney was scrumptious as well. The downside to this weekend however is that the little one is down with fever - side effect of the flu shot she got yesterday. She is napping right now and we are hoping that she will recover in a day or two.<br />
Till the next meal! </div>pricoolesthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04832936096219553317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4721056797609906903.post-33376547263604946382011-03-03T21:31:00.000-05:002011-03-03T21:31:30.908-05:00Cooking chronicle for the past week<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Monday - I am blank.cannot remember...i guess it was omelette's for breakfast, lunch was some leftover gobhi alu, dinner was daal and alu spinach.<br />
Tuesday - oatmeal, roti n spinach leftovers for lunch, chinese fried rice and home made gobhi manchurian for dinner.<br />
Wednesday - Shivaratri, suji halwa, salad, puri paneer tikka<br />
Thursday - poha, salad, dosa-sambar<br />
Friday - omelettes again, TBD, dinner in Hoboken<br />
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The idea is to avoid plain daal roti types khana and i want to see how far I can go with it. Writing a journal will just help me come back to it for ideas instead of thinking afresh each time. This is solely for my reference but others are welcome to read it. Can't be helped! :)</div>pricoolesthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04832936096219553317noreply@blogger.com0