That was it...

That was it…

Her forehead was dripping with sweat. Shirt was already wet with it. As she looked up the other side to see him wiping his face with his sleeve similarly sweat drenched, she picked up the shuttlecock that lay near her feet. Slowly… judging… his speed, strength and remaining stamina. She shifted to the right court and blew on the right palm, holding the racquet, then on the shuttle… right leg slightly bent at the knee and behind the left one. Swung her racqueted right arm while simultaneously releasing the shuttle from her left hand fingers, the racquet making contact with the shuttle with a clean sound, but misjudged.

Even as she was coming to terms with misjudged flight, He was ready for anything. As he leapt high his knees bent, body straightened and then arched backwards with his outstretched arm reaching out for the shuttle. Wrist finishing off the near perfect smash… She cringed at the sight of the shuttle shooting straight at her, but managed to get her left foot to move forward. Not wanting to lose her vantage position, she let her right leg stretched as far as possible behind her, with her head down yet looking at the shuttle… The racquet head in the outstretched right hand managed to make contact with the shuttle before it smashed to the ground. One touch was enough to get the shuttle very close to the net on the right. As she recovered, she saw him through the corner of her eye… deftly … lest she lost sight of the shuttle. Anticipation brought him closer to the service line and with a free movement of the wrist; he flicked the shuttle towards the baseline. Never letting his sight away from the shuttle, he stood his ground, legs apart, slightly bent, waiting for a weak return…

Her early recovery held her at a small advantage. She deftly took two long steps back… her back arched as she took a glance at his ready form… on the left court. She... from her left court and strong grip on the racquet made a firm contact with the shuttle and flicked… enough for the momentum to stop till it dropped just beyond the net before the service line… And she thought she had him in a spot… forgetting he held an advantage of being closer to the service line. His eyes gleamed as he stretched out to hit a flat swift return. But he misjudged her reflexes. She was off in a flash towards the right court with a full stretch and hit straight and flat towards his right court.

His eyes almost popped out as he smashed the shuttle back…

She felt the sweat on her neck, forehead, back and stomach and had a flashing glimpse of his face gleaming with triumph. But she had to go for it. As she took a great stride and bent her left leg forward, right leg stretched straight behind her, her body stretched forward, almost doubling up, stomach touching the thigh, arm stretched and head down. Her racquet managed to reach the shuttle. The power of the previous shot rebounding the shuttle back.

But she watched in despair as it hit the hem of the net... and fell back in her court... she held her sweat drenched hair and forehead...
He smiled... hopped towards the shuttle and picked it up and said... 'chal... Love all'

That was it...

she had just lost the toss...

Ode to a sunny day

Savannah morning
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

The best thing I have heard in many many months.
From his solo project - BackStratBlues, Warren Mendonsa has some super new compositions.
I went into a state of transcendent listening to 'An ode to a sunny day'. 10 minutes of sheer bliss.
http://www.myspace.com/blackstratblues

Hey, I put some new shoes on and suddenly everything's right

Hey, I put some new shoes on and suddenly everything's right
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

These fresh sparkling white shoes arrived today!
a month and half ago, we had to renew our subscription for 'India Today'. at this point I have to explain that I love reading... from books to magazines to interesting web articles to comics... anything...
So, I selected the best offer - a 5 year subscription, with a free pair of shoes! All i had to do was rush to the nearest adidas dealer, check my shoe size, fill up and send the form... and wait 8-10 weeks...
And viola! I have new shoes!!
I'll inaugurate these at badminton tomorrow... my old ones have almost worn themselves out! ;)

Vague conversations - one fine September evening with friends in Pune...

Disclaimer: Although I admit that this conversation is not entirely fictional, it is highly exaggerated. The characters mentioned in the conversation are all real, and in fact I know them well… In fact, I am one of them. And most importantly, the events and conversation described in the following are not to be taken seriously… until proved otherwise…

Happy reading…

Cast of Characters:

Ankur (protagonist)

Aditya (protagonist)

Vikarant (friend)

Sameer (super enthusiastic friend)

Sourabh (well… friend…)

Meghana (the customary dumb girl)

Location:

Kollage café, off law college road

Situation:

Café moderately crowded. Slowly the group gathers, general pleasantries in the form of abuses doing the rounds as usual…

Sameer (almost barking at Ankur) : where’s your partner?

Ankur simply nods.

Aditya arrives last, straight faced… sits next to Ankur. He is congratulated as he passed some of his CA exam

As usual, what Vikrant wants is not available that day, so he settles for French toast, Meghana orders toast and omelette and Ankur asks for egg curry and roti… Sourabh ate elsewhere some awesome Lebanese food, and doesn’t want anything. Sameer asks for coffee

Food arrives.

Start eating… Ankur and Aditya sharing the food … talking continues…

Topics shift from Sourabh’s site to Vikrant’s Solapur visit. We wonder if Gangu is going to join us, but none us seem sure.

For a brief second, everyone is silent… everyone is looking at the food… suddenly:

Sameer (Lifting his head and looking at Aditya): Did you tell at home?

Aditya (Looking bleak…): Yes… Dad told me to do whatever I want to do…

Sameer (with a gleam in his eye): really?

Aditya (extremely animated): Over the dinner table… everything was peaceful… suddenly my dad asked me about it… and I Looked at my mom who knew (Looking towards an imaginary mom with eyes wide open, towards where Sourabh was sitting…) and she said that she told dad about it… And I said that it was true. So he told me to do whatever I wanted to do, and go to hell if I wanted to… so he’s not at all happy… but at least he knows…

Sameer (turning towards Ankur): And what about you…? Did you tell at your place?

Ankur (with a little sly smile) : they have an idea… My brother accidentally discovered it while I was conversing with him… Later during dinner… my dad asked if it was true… and I told him it wasn’t and he told me that I am not admitting now and must remember that…

Sameer (with a semi shocked expression): so now what are you going to tell your family? And when?

Ankur (Nodding slightly): dad’s birthday is approaching… plus I plan hand over the finished office to him that day, so he might be pleased enough to listen to me…

Vikarant and Meghana continue eating and listening adeptly to the conversation…

Sameer (inquisitively, almost at the edge of his seat): the date? Have you decided?

Ankur: mid October probably…

Sameer (jerking his head): that’s great!

Vikrant: (Looking at Aditya almost as if waking up from slumber): Doesn’t Aabha support you at it?

Aditya (desperately): she does… a lot… but it’s not like her support matters… since she went away…

Sourabh (weird expression, looking at no body in particular): Ankur, you should introduce Aditya to your family on your dad’s birthday…

Meghana (bad timing as usual): Congrats you two…

Ankur: well at least it’s more or less out now… We should start our preparations…

Aditya (looking at Ankur): When should we go to Pali…?

Ankur (sly smile, nodding…): Lesee…

At this point, the café is no longer crowded… its almost time to go home. The last few cups of coffee and lemon juice arrive and the bill is paid… The conversation shifts from topic to topic… about Sourabh’s current site, to his experiments with recycling plastic bags to Vikarant’s fiancé who is as much a vegetarian as he is a Non vegetarian… and to cycles and which cycle to take for long trips: geared or un-geared, road bike, mountain bike or a hybrid…

At this point, let me explain that Ankur and Aditya are cycling comrades who are planning a bike trip from Pune to Kanyakumari, and their respective families are very much against it… I realised that for any one not knowing this, this conversation might sound poles apart from what we understand it as. Ankur and Aditya are NOT homosexuals and even though they both are struggling to find love from members of the opposite sex, they are gaily planning out the long cycling trip in the hopes of finding their true selves and true loves…

May they succeed in all their endeavours…

Let me show you a trick... I'll make everyone disappear

OOOOOH! BUNNY BUNNY!

Originally uploaded by Aline Jasper

This is a cute bunny indeed!
by Aline Jasper via Flickr!

Ay vocal pe dhellay daal… dhellay

“[Ladies and gentlemen… Khadki junction blues… ]”

[clap clap]

“Aye Gokul CLAP NA!“

“Haa…” [clap clap] “Woof!”

“Ay vocal pe dhellay daal… dhellay”

“EeEe… uuuhHhho… [Falsetto] Eenaaff eenaff eenaff” …

“Can you uh… raise my bass please on the monitor I can [murmur]”…

“shall we go…?”

“Chalo… I’m ready”

“Ok… I think we’re ready to go…”

“So lets play now”… “lets play”

[sachin tendulkar voice] “go get it… “

Funky Guitar riff…

An awesome start to a Khadki junction blues song aptly names as Headrush Pink Rojez soundcheck!

PS: I’m a fan!

One of the many gems from Pune, this Funk rock and fusion band... check out their album - Bopodi Love affair... and songs like Contemplate, Gentle rain, Sausy finger chips (jain) and Journey to funkeshwar!

completely trippy!

The spoils of the wall

More than a year ago, I ambitiously printed a 40"x30" photo of Menavali ghat, Wai, that I had clicked a few months before that.
Last month, got it mounted.
Yesterday, I fixed up the hooks to it.
Today, I was supposed to go out of town... so I left it for later.
Then... the phone rang...
my bus got canceled, so they put us in another bus which meant I was home for another 3 hours. So I marked the correct distance on the wall, drilled holes in it (with a manual driller, mind you.) Plugged it with screws and VOILA...
Now, its on the wall!
Today was the day where i was to finish the ill fated task that I had set out to do last year...
Now to finish packing...

flipped view of things

I play badminton but they say, it runs the knees. I cycle but they say, that too ruins the knees.
so, I have been going for yoga sessions for a month and a half now. Its pretty intensive. And every time, I come back home with my muscles nicely stretched and relaxed, and my bones in their correct place.
Today, i flipped when I was told to do the Shirshasan, and quite literally too.
As I rested on my neck and arms, and tried touching my back to the wall, I felt all my blood freeze. What the hell was I doing here? Wasn't I better off cycling and playing badminton? Would my neck bones crack while I tried to rest my body weight on my neck and head? would I fall off sideways and break a few bones once I lifted my legs towards to wall? Heck... would I even be able to completely lift my legs in the air on to the wall?
Jump one, halfway... jump two - right leg touched the wall behind...
Jump 3- I was up, legs and back straight against the wall, all my incredible burden resting on my frenzied little head losing all sense of orientation and direction. I thought that it was supposed to feel good with all the blood rushing to the brain... provided there’s enough of it… the brain I mean.

Since my legs were up and free, I was almost floating, save my neck muscles that were still feeling the stress.

I came down feeling my neck and shoulders and arms and fingers and my feet disappearing… I felt doped for a second… in a good way.

You may fly with your feet raised high above the ground… but always keep your head firmly planted on the ground.

Guaranteed to give you an phenomenal high… even if for just a second!

the 35mm Hexomniscope project - I

It all started last year, when I discovered Photojojo - a new online photography newsletter, and subscribed to it. Filled up with fun snippets about photography, DIY and photographers and etc, I discovered - more than a year later – An article about pinhole photography.

That led me to a website where they showcased all sorts of bizarre pinhole cameras, which in turn led me to the HEXOMNISCOPE!

From their website:

"The long awaited very rare limited quantity all metal Hexomnisope pinhole camera which has 6 pinholes and 6 individually operated shutters around its circumference to make 6 overlapping 60 degree images onto 120 film. Shutters can be turned on and off independently, but have a single release. 4 complete images of 6 pinholes each can be made on a roll of 120 film. Pinhole diameter is 0.0055 inch for an f stop of f180. All handmade. A very sophisticated design by Matt Abelson. Made to perfection! You will be amazed at the craftsmanship of this absolutely wonderful new camera. It is approximately 5 inches high and 5 inches in diameter. Weighs almost 3 pounds. 120 film winds around inside cylinder. The Hexomniscope is only available from the Pinhole Resource. Comes with an instruction CD giving clear instructions for use and exposure guide. Designed and made by Abelson Scope Works."

So I want one, but priced at a little over $1500, and as my story usually goes, I don’t have the necessary spare parts to buy it … So following my usual story and script, I think of making it to my own silly specifications.

The hexomniscope is developed for 120 format film. I've used that format only once, so decided to make a 35mm film paper version for the same.

The f stop of a pinhole is calculated by determining the size of the hole and the focal length (distance from the pinhole to the film). So a camera with a 0.5 mm diameter pinhole, and a 50 mm focal length would have an f-stop of 50/0.5, or f/100. Others are even higher, up to f/360. It all depends on the size of the hole.

From that and this - http://www.mrpinhole.com/calcpinh.php; I get :

IF and only IF:

focal length = 40 mm

pinhole dia = 0.25 mm,

THEN and only THEN:

f stop is f/160

if ISO = 100, 35 mm film

image dia = 76.8 mm

angle of view = 40

Similarly:

focal length = 25 mm

pinhole dia = 0.25 mm,

f stop is f/100

if ISO = 100, 35 mm film

image dia = 48 mm

angle of view = 70

Damn pinhole!

My hexomniscope will look a little different, since its for 35 mm film. It will be shorter. Around 5 cms in height.

The only other time I have tried pinhole is with my dSLR and a pinhole disc in place of the lens. Works wonders! Now hoping this works wonders too…

punk is not ded

punk is not ded
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

yet another new idea! to draw my own graphic novel... sounds fun, eh... maybe revive that whole Pop art stuff with the protagonist as a guitar scratching, sarcastic atheist architect who goes around vowing to destroy every single ugly, high energy consuming building in town... how cool?
Not much I suppose...

The very essence of 'Indianness...'

As one thing leads to another…
Yesterday afternoon at home, I felt like channel surfing. And as my fingers flickered over the now unfamiliar remote control… I stopped to watch the Music channels. The two most popular ones – M tv and Channel [V]… Its really been a while since I heard some nice new music on these music channels.
M tv hardly plays music these days, it seems… Their obsession with Roadies knows no bounds…
So I switched over to Channel [V]. And during the break, I saw an amazing advertisement. It was a public service message.

It showed Indian, and their stuff- sofas, TVs, fake flower bouquets, tables, chairs, computers, Car seats, credit cards and almost everything else … all covered in plastic…
Then this little Indian guy goes to a little Indian Mobile shop staring at stuff there, and the big Indian shopkeeper barks at him asking what he wanted… and he asks for a typically Indian mobile cover…
At the end of the advertisement, there’s a message – ‘Be Indian, use protection’
… How cool?!

The advertisement was in no way exaggerating. The other day, I spilled some water on my keyboard, so disconnected it and let it dry. Later, I reconnected it and googled for some more info on what could be done.
I was browsing through an American forum where everyone was discussing what they did when they dropped Coffee or beer on the keyboard. (Do they ever drink water?) They mentioned waterproof keyboards and new keyboards. As I read along… some guy wrote: ‘If you just keep the plastic that the keyboard comes in - on it, it’s the cheapest waterproofing you have!’ … And the first thing that came to my mind was – This guy must be Indian!’
And… he was!

the revival of the Brownie Hawkeye project

This time, photo scans with sprocket holes intact. The very reason why i revived this project was because I could finally get decently scanned images with the sprockets intact. And since the brownie is a medium format point and shoot, it exposes the part of 35mm film around the sprockets too. Unlike SLRs. This makes the picture most magical...

the results are never sharp in this project. And that is due to the following reasons.
1. The fixed shutter speed of the brownie (which is pretty slow)
2. the meniscus lens aberrations towards the edges, and I somehow never manage to load the 35mm film centrally through my homemade 35mm film adapter...

The results are as follows:









All this scanning was possible because of a unique tubular contraption that keeps negatives in place and enables me to take pictures of the same through my digital camera. Obtaining the digital positive is the final stage of the process.

This is another shuttlebox attachment for my 400D with one end holding the negative and the other end open to fix on the lens. Ideally, this tube is to be held with the negative exposed to a bright source of white light, and the open end on the lens. The length of the tube will depend upon the minimum focus length of the lens in use.

Big Fak-Ap

I read on the front page of the The Indian Express, that Obama admin called the Pakistan- Afghanistan situation the Af-Pak policy. Experts called it the Pak-Af strategy. Now, with Pak hurtling towards anarchy, critics are dubbing it a potential Fak-Ap...
I loved the fact, that this made the front page of many newspapers around the world!

The Election Commission has a sense of humour

I voted today, and had them mark my middle finger with indelible ink.
Not just me, it was for everyone ...

The Election Commission has officially allowed me to show my finger to the ones who deserve it.


PS: I read that the reason for this unique practice is that some places in Maharashtra had nagar panchayat and gram panchayat elections recently and voters there had their left forefingers marked...

Tauba yeh recession, tauba be-rozgaar...Tera political attyachaar

Jaspal Bhatti ji- the creator of memorable satirical shows on the plight of the common man like - ulta pulta and flip flop show- that were aired on Door Darshan during the early 1990s, has done it again…

He launched his ‘Recession party’ in Mumbai recently. Just to describe the financial situation of their recession hit party, they held their meet in a small dance rehearsal hall in Andheri offering only chai and vada- pav to the media present there.

Party manifesto

1. We will not divide people on the lines of cast, creed and religion. Of course we will divide the society but between wise and fools.
2. We will reserve 50% seats for fools in the parliament if voted to power.
3. We will provide a stable Government by negotiating our alliance with any party irrespective of their ideology because we ourselves have no ideology of our own except for money making.
4. We will create more slums in and around Mumbai to strengthen our vote bank and win more Oscars.
5. We will arrange more development funds for Mumbai so that boats could be provided in the rainy season. Every year Mumbai reels under water as a result of faulty sewerage system.
6. We don’t promise to maintain greenery in the ever increasing concrete jungle. We may not be able to save mangroves and other green trees but we definitely will provide every citizen green optical glasses free of cost so that everything looks green to them.
7. For increasing sense of security among public more funds would be provided on the personal security of MPs and ministers.
8. The improvement of personal financial health of our ministers will be given priority over everything.

Their party symbol is Chameleon (known for changing colours.)

Taking his Prime ministerial ambitions more seriously, Jaspal Bhatti in his letter to the Chief Electoral officer has already sought clarification whether the election commission would allow satire in their campaigning and don’t book them for violating the election code of conduct.

And making clear this very intention amidst the strong competition, he says: ‘I’ll be the PM and all of you can be Dipti PMs’.

And I say to Mr. Bhatti... Congratulations on yet another achievement... hum aapke saath hai...!!

Have you ever seen...

A white elephant?
A a bat standing upright on a branch?
A student awake in a history class?
A zebra crossing?
Steffie Graph playing tennis in high heels?
An Eskimo in shorts?
John Abraham riding a cycle?
The pink headed Duck?



...seen Baichung Bhutia dancing on a TV reality show?!?!
That... I did today...

refreshed playlist

Change is inevitable. Sure..!
I can feel the change ... And its all because of the Lumala.
My playlist has changed. My mp3 player is wearing itself off in my old jeans pocket playing more of punk, grunge, retro, popular rock. Fast, energetic songs. Afterall, 16 km of rides daily demand some music power too.
Some of my bike favourites:
Courtney Love - Sunset strip
Selected Nirvana- Tourrettes, Serve the servants
Jet- 3 fun favs - Are you gonna be my girl, Cold hard Bitch and Rollover DJ. Best bike songs!
Oye Lucky Lucky Oye- Title song - what awesome wacky lyrics! and the beat!!
Pearl Jam- MFC and Do the evolution
Smash Mouth - All star! ;) this one's a total bike song!
Smashing Pumpkins - 1979 album version (strictly while cruising around), and the acoustic version
TAAQ- Hot Day! (oh yea! summer is here... and TAAQ = brilliant!)
Khadki Junction blues- Chaturshrungi wavelength (total downhill cruise mode music!)
The Kinks - A well respected man (full on retro rock n roll!)
The Offspring- Original Prankster! Its a total wicked biking song! Punk!! builds up the tempo
Wild miss Zippy - 'Cage of gold' and 'Hard year's end' absolute funky songs!
WOLFMOTHER- Dimension, Joker and the thief... (ride fast and scream types!)

And so on... I might load some fast fatboy slim songs on it to...

I can't really forget the blues... so here are some selected blues-

Soulmate- I am, Blues is my soulmate
Warren Mendonsa - The cat and the fiddle! total charge up!
Chris Duarte- Letter to my girlfriend
Howlin' wolf - Built for comfort! (just like my bike seat! Soooooo comfy!), Howlin' for my darlin'(!)
Joe Bonamassa- your funeral and my trial! (Love this guy!), Bad Girls (sooo love this song!), Dixie peach (very much like one song from KK's Pal... or is it the other way around?!?)
The Eric Jerardi Band- Always something... one hell of a song, this one...

Now I'm gonna add some more to the list soon. Funky tracks... fast paced... songs full of attitude for biking (cycling) ... two years back when i got my funky sony 'vial' mp3 player... i thought 1 gig was enough memory... how wrong i was! :(

So... I'm doing 16 kms everyday. To work and back... Karve nagar to Bavdhan... with the chandni chowk climb... I can feel my stamina improve considerably... So i say thank you for the MUSIC... for giving it to me!!

wooohoooohooooo! my long ride on the Lumala!

wooohoooohooooo!
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

So I got the bike... I rode it from the shop in Kasba Peth to my house in Karve nagar across the river... that was 5 kms... and so much fun...
Then the next day morning, Ankur, Sourabh, Gangu, Sameer and I went on a ride towards Pirangut. These guys had planned to go towards Temghar, but it was the first time in many years for me... and I'm still getting used to a geared cycle. So I thought I'll go till Chandni Chowk (Pune's chandni Chowk) and return...
We started half an hour late, thanks to me... and off we were. I didn't have a problem till this climb, which was about a kilometer and half off chandani chowk on Paud road. I couldn't ride up CC because it was too steep for me... so i walked. Then the road was a cakewalk till a small patch of climb. Where i dragged along... Ankur was very kind and kept encouraging me to go further. The others went ahead.
So we finally reached Manas lake. It was almost 8 AM. and near about 10 kilometers from home... so I decided to ride back alone from there... reached CCD CC at 8.30, Had a coffee, chilled out and rode downhill to Bavdhan to my office (yes... its a working weekend... )
Now... another terrible climb pn the cycle till CC, then a smooth glide home. I loved my first ever longish ride on a cycle!
Approx 20 Km in a day... not bad for a first of many more longer rides to come... Wooohooohooohoo!

what do you mean 'bike'???

The road to Temghar Dam
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

Once upon a time, in a magical land full of smog and pollution, there was a little city surrounded by hills on all three sides, the highest point within the city being the Vetaal tekdi. On this vetal tekdi a group of youngsters met and started a little organisation to save the hills and environment of Pune from the rapacious mongrels in our society who thrive on mindless development and helplessness of ordinary citizens in extraordinary situations. The organisation gained momentum in the years that followed. They gained respect of the ordinary citizens- children, youth and the elders, the countless other NGOs and environmentalists who together were actively propagating a more environmentally friendly development and lifestyle for the residents of Pune. They encouraged walking, climbing hills, planting trees, cycling and standing up against unnecessary deforestation in the name of unnecessary development. It was these young activists who made everyone hear the plea of nature of the city and the surroundings.
As years grew by, they diversified into conducting nature trails, and treks, along with their regular activities. The group matured, and started running as a full fledged organisation… their treks were much sought after, and some of the popular ones had to be conducted more often that they initially thought they would. The word spread to certain Mumbaikars

And then one fine premature summer morning, the organisation circulated their events update with a unique concept. Many inboxes were opened and the mail read… and re read with disbelief…
They had come up with an entirely new programme that time!
It was a 3 day bike trek to the sea forts of the Konkan region. And many were thrilled! As many were eager to participate…
They would be covering six forts, two caves and several scenic beaches on the way, along with the best of the Konkani food…
Lodging at Dapoli, route map and information brochure, a leader with safety equipment and food were included in the package…
What was not included was extra food and soft drinks, break down costs and petrol costs…
That’s where it was re read… not including petrol (?!?!) costs.

It was a motorcycle trip not a bicycle trip…
And I stared in disbelief…

I stopped gloating on flickr... so i gloat here

1. a portrait of ray, 2. rhinos, 3. early morning fog, 4. and then these guys decided to jump around, 5. and then... the other night at Pondicherry beach..., 6. the pondicherry beach again, 7. the return of that stupid mad season..., 8. raindrops on a spiderweb,

9. guerrilla photography, 10. what an egg..., 11. Untitled, 12. monsoon, 13. the brownie!, 14. neighbour's cat, 15. Untitled, 16. star trails over southern Pune skies,

17. B O K E H, 18. lassie, 19. aye eye sir!, 20. Edge Detail and DoF, 21. Untitled, 22. Hand, 23. up, 24. Untitled,

25. reflection, 26. NODE, 27. Against the sun, 28. local call..., 29. PJ, 30. pretty little yellow flowers, 31. contused, 32. Twilight Swing!,

33. Hope you had a ..., 34. The Full moon through deodars, 35. Poornima and pine dreams, 36. F.R.I., 37. of RIVETS and LOCKS and METAL and the GREAT INDIAN RAILWAYS GOODS TRAIN, 38. Human race suffers from "narcissistic Personality disorder", 39. we, 40. Leftist,

41. I dream in Technicolour, 42. Push me, or pull me out., 43. Crimson, 44. Tell me whats in your mind..., 45. My most favourite beach!, 46. i LOST my PINK PLECTRUM, 47. when CRAZYME sings... i PLAY, 48. MARBLES,

49. THIS can HURT, if you CROSS over, 50. Vaidehi..., 51. STAY... And help me to END the day, 52. FAST, but NOT so FURIOUS, 53. Of Lunar DREAMS and ECLIPSES, 54. i LOST my LOVE today, 55. PERFECTO!

55 on explore!!!
(not that it matters much anyway... )

the subliminal consequence of yielding to disbelief and accepting the inevitable ...

Is like a mild feeling of euphoria amidst a mix of the damp forest aroma and salty sea breeze, sitting on a creaking windmill all night from dusk to dawn.

OR...

Bitersweet blues

Just exploring the simple sevenths progression on my acoustic
the part I did just today:

e|-------------------------------------------------------------|
B|--------------------------2-2-2-2-2--------------------------|
G|----1-1-1-1-1-1----------------------------------------------|
D|--------------------------2-2-2-2-2-2b3-2-0------------------|
A|----2-2-2-2-2-2-0h12-----------------------2-----------------|
E|0-3----------------------------------------------------------|

e|-------------------------------------------------------------|
B|--------------------------2-2-2-2-2--------------------------|
G|----1-1-1-1-1-1----------------------------------------------|
D|--------------------------2-2-2-2-2-2b3-2-0------------------|
A|----2-2-2-2-2-2-0h1-2-----------------------2----------------|
E|-------------------------------------------------------------|

e|----2-2-2-2-2----------------------0h3-3\5-3-0---------------|
B|----0-0-0-0-0------------2-2-2-2-2---------------------------|
G|----2-2-2-2-2---0h2h3----------------------------------------|
D|----1-1-1-1-1------------2-2-2-2-2---------------------------|
A|----2-2-2-2-2------------------------------------------------|
E|-------------------------------------------------------------|

I'm not a all good at solos, but will make a start some day...

my experiments with intuitive and improvised cooking - I

This blog is after all about experimentation. And improvisation… so this is a blog entry that deserves to be here: my trials and improvisations with food… cooked.

I have never really had to think about cooking this seriously. Neither am I really thrilled about it. But mothers on vacation are the absolute inventors of necessities. I don’t like to eat out all the time, so I decided to go against all odds, and decided to fend for myself for a full 10 days.

The condition suited me fine. There was no one else really to be experimenting on with food, other than an occasional customary lunch for the best friend… the best friend that incidentally, is one of the better and intuitive cooks I have known.

For these few days, my reading matter has a latest addition. Print outs of Sanjeev Kapoor’s recipies that my mum has been collecting, and the little book of Indian cooking presented to me by the best friend who, I believe I mentioned earlier is a wonderful cook.

Till date, whatever little I have done on my own has been a bit disastrous. Not the final result… that’s not all that bad. It’s just the massive trail of destruction and devastation that I leave all across the kitchen, and in the process I get many things wrong. And I totally cook by the book. Well, at least I used to…

Now, I can say that I’m getting better, my speed’s increasing. And I’m quite enjoying myself… Now I know why Philipp considered cooking the ultimate stress buster.

So here I go… my experiments (rather successful) with intuitive and improvised cooking. The last few days saw two wonderful improvisations:

Pepper chicken.

Ingredients:

Boneless chicken

Roughly ground pepper

Salt

A tomato – chopped

Turmeric powder

A few cloves

Some butter

Cumin seeds

Onion – chopped

Ginger paste

Garlic finely chopped or paste

Vegetables of your choice (mine being capsicum)

Maybe some saunf powder. I love it in anything.

Preparation:

Mix pepper powder, salt and turmeric powder and apply it over the boneless chicken pieces, just enough to cover them all, keep for half an hour.

Heat a wee bit butter in a pan, and add some cloves to it and the chopped onion and cook till they turn golden brown ( I wonder who coined that term? The onions never do that!) Add the chopped tomatoes, ginger and garlic and the marinated chicken that has been now turned yellow and waiting to get cooked. Add some water – maybe half a cup, and some nice helping of the saunf powder! Mmm … let the aroma spread…

Cook till the chicken is truly cooked, and add more water if wanted. Add salt.

Just a few minuted before the chicken is totally cooked, add the capsicum. I like it to be a little raw and crisp, hence add during the last few minutes over the fire, otherwise it gets all soggy and limp, and not as much fun…

Viola… you have a lovely aroma spreading all around the house… smelling of Cloves and saunf… its tastes awesome too. And I have a happy best friend…

Cooking for just one person – self- is a little perplexing. How much is too much? Is it worth all the effort? What exactly do I make for myself? That was the dilemma I was in when I started wondering what to make for dinner for myself tonight.

I wanted to have soup, then I decided I wanted to make Dal shorba… I had no idea how shorba was made. So I checked out the set of printouts… I needed moong dal for it, but I was out of moong dal, so decided to chuck it and make an improvised version of the dal shorba with Masoor ki dal!

Meghana’s Improvised Masoor ki dal ka tasty shorba

Ingredients:

Take some masoor dal 50 – 100 grams will serve two people with two mid sized helpings.

Chop a small onion. ‘Small’ being an onion of roughly the diameter of about 5 cms.

Some grated ginger

some chopped garlic

one chopped green chilly that’s about 10 cm in length.

A wee bit butter again

Cumin seeds

Turmeric

And salt.

Preparation:

Take the dal, ginger, garlic, chilly, onion, turmeric and salt and add a lot of water to it, and cook it till the dal is cooked. Make sure theres enough water so that some remains till the dal is cooked to verrrry soft! Strain this dal. And keep it aside till you heat the wee bit butter and ad some cumin seeds in it till they crackle. Add the cooked and strained mixture of dal, onion, ginger, garlic and turmeric to the butter and cumin, and some water, till you get the consistency you desire… it will not really be a colloidal liquid, and the water dal and the water will not homogenise properly… but hey… its shorba after all, not dal….

So bring to a boil, add some more salt, and hey presto! You have wonderful tasting Meghana’s improvised dal shorba made out of masoor dal…

I loved it, and had it with 2 slices of kadak toast… what a pity I didn't click pictures of these two recipes...

Wow… maybe I’m soon going to become the next best thing since sanjeev Kapoor after all … Hah! And I’ve only just begun…

fireball past midnight

I have a habit of taking a walk on my terrace at night before i go to bed. so at 12.15 AM 28th January 2009, I was walking on the terrace when I saw a bright fireball in the sky! It was HUGE! bigger than the 5 I had seen on 14th December 2007 as a part of the Geminid meteor showers!
It was greenish blue with a little bit of red, and lit up the terrace twice as much as a full moon would!
Today the day started off with not a very positive note, but as it went by, it was quite nice... and at the end of it, I was pretty okay. I clicked a pic of Vivek in office holding his 'A Portrait of Ray' LP cover in front of his face... I am hoping it will come out well... leseee ...
Thats the thing with film... I have to wait till I finish the roll. If I'm using digital, I can click 36 pictures in the space of 2 hrs, but if i'm using a roll, lord knows I take days to finish it!

my love thing

love thing
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

I was just browsing through my notebook today afternoon. And I found my 'Love thing.'
My 'Love thing' is a little piece of black paper with a heart shaped cutout for bokeh shapes through camera lenses. This term 'Love thing' - was coined by my flickr contact Sneha (beatnikbug) when she saw me making this shape for another flickr contact Vinod, during e P@P exphibition on the 27th of Dec '08. She said - 'Whats that...? oh... it's your "love thing"'

'Yes,' I said ...'Its my "Love thing... '