My cooking escapades

This time when my holidays started, my mother was very sure about one thing she wanted to accomplish over the hols - get me to learn some cooking!So it was decided (by mutual convenience) that I should take the "responsibility" for dinner, every night. (Breakfast, which she suggested before dinner, was out of question - I can't wake up that early, everyday in the hols!)

There is always that novelty factor in everything we do - and so it was, for me, before i embarked on this journey! The first day, I was super-enthusiastic, envisioning how I would prepare something novel everyday, make all the preparations, right from the shopping stage, all by myself, etc. etc. :P

That first day, I did act on the above - I prepared anda bhurji, and it turned out awesome. (That's one of those few things I've been preparing for a few years now, so it seemed like a reliable thing to begin with!) Here, I should mention that while I'm not exactly about to starve when it comes to surviving on my self-prepared food, I'm not a cooking enthusiast either. I can just about prepare basic stuff - batatyachi bhaji, pohe, chapatya, dal, bhat, and of course , if you count it in this list, omelette and maggi!

So it started well enough on day one, but here is how i have progressed, over the past 8 days or so -

Day 2: There was leftover flower-batata bhaji from the morning, so I converted it into prepared pavbhaji, making use of it! To my credit, I had to add potatoes, tomatoes, onion, etc (which basically means I did do some work :P ), not to mention, preparing chapatis.

Day 3: I got bored, so we ate out!

Day 4: There was matki usal, again leftover from lunch. So I followed the easiest way out - bought farsan, shev, etc, cut some onions and tomatoes, and we had misal ready!

Day 5: I was busy cutting watermelon for a long time(read- watching tv), so we had some food delivered, and watermelon, for dessert!

Day 6: Prepared sandwhiches from lunch ki remaining bhaji - cant really let that go waste, can I? (Think my mum had started preparing extra bhaji everyday, with the hope that I would atleast prepare chapatis, if nothing else!)

Day 7: I had amazing plans for dinner (mhanayla kay jatay :P ) but we'd all gone out, and we decided to eat out n come home!

Day 8: I decided enough of slacking, and with great foresight, bought paneer, masala, the mixed cut sabji packets that we get nowadays, etc. Prepared awesome paneer bhurji, something I love preparing! Also prepared chapatis, as usual (Thats one thing I'm getting lots of practice for - so this whole charade will help in some way, atleast!) .

That day 8, was today. Lets see how this thing comes along, later this month, when I start getting really bored of it!

Another thing I learned was how mom must be feeling, when we eat half-heartedly, after her calling us n number of times, when we are busy doing something else - like talking on the phone, reading books, etc. - It's so irritating! I ended up shouting at my sis twice when she did that :P

It's also amazing how mom can stand being the last one to eat, all the time, while she prepares hot chapatis for us. I had to exercise all my will power today to not let mom take over the chapatis, and start eating myself, when I was very hungry and I could smell the paneer bhurji! Maybe it gets easier (and a routine thing :| ) with time!

Just realised - I have just "one" post in the entire new year.
And even this doesn't really count, so the count stays at 1 :(
Wonder whats my problem, for all the excuses i can give :|
All I have done throughout this year, is, updating the blogroll!

Had been wanting to post about this for ages - never got around to doing it...
We had been to Kolkata recently, for some rowing competitions. I used to think, earlier, that traffic in Pune is among the worst in the country, and people drive as they please. The first journey I made in Kolkata. going from the station to our hotel, opened my eyes to how 4 wheelers could also be driven the way we drive 2-wheelers here in Pune! There was no concept of slowing down for an oncoming vehicle, atleast 3 times during the 20 min drive, I had closed my eyes shut fearing a crash! We did everything from getting into a bus in the middle of the road - on a turn, to catching a running taxi (yeah - a running taxi - the way someone might might catch a train that has already started moving!) to running across the roads while crossing them, and realizing, in the process, that drivers in Kolkata do not believe in stopping for pedestrians when they are driving! Every time we sat in a taxi, we'd pray to reach our destination in one peice! However a few days there, and we realized a big contradiction in the entire traffic discipline fundae of people out there. Check out this pic, for instance.
They actually wait at the signal before the white "stop" line! And this was not a one off thing, but something we observed at every crossing, every signal. I have never ever, in 20 years of my life in Pune, observed anyone waiting this far back at a signal, in fact, its not altogether common to see people follow signals in the first place!

Jab We Met

Great movie. A light hearted romantic movie, 2 really good performances. And apart from that, just one other thing - Shahid is looking very sexy, very smart, and simply irresistible!

Insanity

Is it necessary, (and okay?) to sometimes act totally insane in order to preserve your sanity? To make unrealistic demands, give in to illogical reasoning, and insist on the irrational? To give vent to all depressing feelings, albeit in the confines of your room?
I guess it is.. Makes you feel like you are 5 again, and even if its just momentary, gives you a feeling of freedom and relief afterwards!

Finished Silence of the Lambs - in one go (though that didn't help me in any way in staying awake in college yesterday :| ), and I must say it was totally worth staying up till 5, and being at the receiving end of Mayur's tirade for coming late to college.
Anyways, the book deals with psychiatry, more specifically, a psychotic serial killer and a homicidal genius. The entire plot , character development, and mind play demonstrated throughout the books is marvelous, even if bizarre in a way, and I'm totally looking forward to seeing the movie now.

My current obsession is psychiatry, and I'm also reading a couple of books related to it right now. (Again - got myself into trouble over reading one in class :| ) But that made Silence of the Lambs even more itneresting, though I guess this is another of my obsessions which will fade away in a couple of weeks!!

Next on my list to read - The Hobbit. Though I doubt I'll be so enthu as to put in even a partial nightout to read it at a stretch. But felt great to be back to reading books, full-fledged, in the middle of a hectic sem!!

It was yesterday, after ages and ages, that I read a book of 500 pages at almost a stretch. I have always been a bookworm and earlier, used to read on an average a book every week. And for me, there was no concept of reading a book over a period of time. Any barely-readable book in my hand, and my mom would have considerable difficulty in getting me to eat on time.

But in the past year or so, these instances of being transported to another world totally, dwindled to almost nothing. And so, yesterday, I felt amazing for having wasted so much time, sleep, and getting my mom mad at me - even though it wasn't too good a novel. Anyways, having finished "The Class" now, I have an incredible book in my hands - The Silence of The Lambs. And it comes in the category of those "un-putdownable" books.

Starting with the book now...