The Charge of the Tube-Light Brigade

Theirs to make light,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to flicker and die:

PS: Lord Tennyson must be turning in his grave now

Below is the original “Charge of the Light Brigade”
1.
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
“Forward, the Light Brigade!
“Charge for the guns!” he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

2.
“Forward, the Light Brigade!”
Was there a man dismay’d?
Not tho’ the soldier knew
Someone had blunder’d:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

3.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley’d and thunder’d;
Storm’d at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.

4.
Flash’d all their sabres bare,
Flash’d as they turn’d in air,
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wonder’d:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro’ the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel’d from the sabre stroke
Shatter’d and sunder’d.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

5.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley’d and thunder’d;
Storm’d at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro’ the jaws of Death
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

6.
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honor the charge they made,
Honor the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred.

Restless Night

Dry Throat. Clammy Feet. Nervous Hands. Pacing. Trying to sleep but not getting any. Big Day tomorrow. Running through hundreds of scenarios. Thinking of what going to happen. What is going to be dished out. A nearly forgotten man remembered again. The last survivor of the almost lost generation.

Am I capable of handling it. Will I make tomorrow my day or will I just be another name with my fleeting 5 mins of fame. After all these years, knocking knocking knocking, finally a chance. Will I grab it. My entire dream, my passion, my goal. Just been waiting for this moment for my entire life time.

These are probably some of the thoughts running through Badrinath as he makes his debut in another 9 hours. We wish you the best Badrinath and go do it, not for anyone but just for yourselves.

Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya – Bold, Different & Sweeping

Vinaithaandi Varuvaaya marks the first Tamil ARR score to come out after his Oscar (and now Grammy) awards and also marks the first time, that he is composing for Gautham Menon (who was searching for a new composer after relationships soured with Harris Jeyraj). Gautham Menon is the modern day master of the intense yet soft yet no-nonsense romance and has had great music delivered to him by Harris previously and pressure is on ARR to deliver something virtually outstanding. The story for the movie is semi autobiographical, featuring an assistant film director falling in love with a Malayali Christian and stars Simbu and Trisha. Normally, with this combo, one can forget about acting but with Gautham at the helm, one is confident that he definitely can get the pair to act

Strong chords mark the start of the album with the song Aaromale. A strong western feel arises from the song and the overall feel is that of a slow rock song. With Mallu music director, Alphonse singing, and with Mallu lyrics throughout, the album has a definite different start to it. Suddenly in the song, you have a chant of Swasthi Swashti lending an almost religious marriage level feel to the song which jells well with the song and lends it a different quality. Alphonse singing Aaromale is simply awesome. The highlight of the song is easily the interaction between the various instruments. There are moments where you can hear just the chords playing, while in others, you have the violins leading the music along with the other instruments. It easily is one of the most polarizing piece ARR has composed. You either love it or hate it but you really cannot avoid it. All in all, an awesome start to the album

Shreya Ghoshal starts off in her distinct tones for the song Mannipaaya. The lyrics of this song are quite brilliant and as Kavity pointed ,its quite rare for a girl to ask forgiveness in a relation. ARR lends the male vocals to the song. There is an almost flowing quality to the song and one can hear the interplay of sitars in between. While the song is quite pleasant, there is a feel that the song is definitely not very special (Probably an opinion that will change on repeated hearings; I still have not found the song very appealing). There is a chorus bit in the between that is changes the tone of the song in between which is fairly endearing

Unusual instrument combos mark the start of the song Omana Penne, and is easily one of the distinctive ARR musical pieces owing to its dependence on computer generated music. Benny Dayal, who gets impressive after each and every song, hits stride. One simply loves the way Benny’s voice conveys softness and his voice is very flexible, hitting all the right feelings. There is a beautiful nadhaswaram piece in between that simply lends a contrast and yet contributing to the flow of the song. The nadhaswaram piece then continues to play for the rest of the song and is simply superb. Another very well executed song

Techno start to the next song, Anbil Avan, reminds one of the song Ho Elamai from Godfather. There are quite a few similarities to that song. However, we get to hear Devan after ages which is quite refreshing. Devan has a quite a distinctive voice and makes good use of it. The song deals with the marriage and makes for interesting listening as there are portions where there is the cello playing and then the nadaswaram playing to the Anandam Anandam Anandame, quite reminding one of the immortal Margo Margo song from Vetrivizha. Chinmayi is her usual self. However, this song is more of about the music than the singers

Karthik is the singer for the title track. As most reading this blog are aware, I have a huge bias towards Karthik. However, in this case, this was one song that was fairly lukewarm. He sings the song well no doubt and the music is also quite good. However, the combo is not good at all and is actually fairly disappointing considering that post collaborations of ARR and Karthik have given totally awesome songs. There almost seems to a jarring note of discontinuity in the song

A brilliant violin piece marks the start of Kannukkul Kannai, (that piece is also my now my ringtone). Another ARR regular, Naresh Iyer is the singer. This is a fairly ordinary song differentiated only by the brilliant violin playing in the background. It is also a typical Naresh song and he hardly has to exert himself. A good filler piece, may or may not feature in the movie. There are of course moments on brilliance in the song, when there is this whole techno wave going on in the background when Naresh sings “Un Nanban Illai…”

Hosanna, the last of the album is fittingly the best. Hosanna is used in the Christian context as a cry of praise and adoration. Vijay Prakash starts of the song in his usual impressive self and there is an awesome background score that is pretty much like the wind blowing softly and the female backing along with the concert of violins simply provide the right mood for the song, which changes tone when Blaaze enters with his unique brand of rap, which only adds to the mystique of the song. This is a multilayered song with very subtle strings overlapping with musical bits of the flute. One of those ARR songs where the female chorus voice is simply astounding. The lyrics are quite fitting describing a lover’s feelings when the girl walks into his life

Its been after ages that there has been an ARR album in which you like most of the songs on first listen and VV falls strongly into that category. His passion for experimentation and creating different music has only increased after the Oscar (even if the time he has for Indian filmdom has reduced) and this reflects strongly in the album. Gautham Menon is really blessed. Harris Jeyraj saved his best efforts for Gautham Menon and despite a change in music director, ARR has only pushed the bar higher.

Rating – 8.5/10

Ten Movies for 2010

5 days into the new year, every Raj, Rahul and Raja* website seems to be capitalizing on my inertia to blog and have started coming up with their lists on movies to watch out for in 2010 (Not that they would not have done it anyways but nothing beats grandeurs of self-delusion). So heres my grand list of movies to watch out for 2010, in no particular order

1. Iron Man 2 – Who am I kidding? This has to be the first among equals among the movies for its trailer alone. A charismatic Robert Downey Jr reprising his role of Tony Stark aka Iron Man and virtually stealing the show in the opening 30 seconds of the trailer. Iron Man was easily one of the big fun movies of 2008 and if it wasn’t for a certain Dark Knight, it would have easily been the superhero movie of 2008. Expectations are certainly running high for this Jon Favreau-directed movie. With a rogue’s gallery comprising of Mickey Rourke as Whiplash and the Scarlett Johansson as the sexy spy the Black Widow aka Natasha Romanov and a supporting cast of Gweneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle (as War Machine), the movie is indeed star heavy. What however has added on to the buzz of the movie is the possible direction of the Marvel Universe and the Avengers movie as Iron Man featured a cameo by Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury and Hulk featured a cameo by none other than Downey himself, ensuring that stories are interlinked for the upcoming Thor, Captain America and the Avenger movie.

Iron Man 2

2. Shutter Island – Martin Scorsese + Leonardo Di Caprio = No-brainer. Past successful association of the 2 have given to us the awesomely heavyweight movies of Departed and Gangs of New York along with the Aviator. While Departed and Gangs of New York have been fundamentally ultra violent, Shutter Island promises to amp up the psychological thrill as it deals with the story of 2 US Marshals who investigate the disappearance of a patient from a psychiatric hospital called Shutter Island and are trapped in the hospital due to a hurricane and a hospital riot

3. The Losers – Based of the comic series by Andy Diggle, The Losers are a set of covert operatives, betrayed by their handler and left for dead. Eager for revenge, the Losers conduct covert operations against the CIA. The buzz behind the movie arises from the success of the original series which featured the trademark Diggle-sharp, wicked and terse dialogues combined with fantastic plotting and devious twists. Jeffery Dean Morgan, who has a cult following after his role in Watchmen and Supernatural is another reason.

4. The Book of Eli – Denzel Washington playing a total bad-ass. Check one. Post Apocalyptic world. Check two. Gary Oldman playing the baddie. Check three. The Book of Eli ticks all the right boxes as it has Denzel Washington guarding the Book of Eli which hold redemption for all mankind, thirty years after Apocalypse.

5. Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief – A direct adaption of Rick Riordan book of the same name, Percy Jackson for those who have read the series offers the same enjoyment that the early Harry Potter books generated. Hopes are riding high on this franchise as the last highly anticipated book to movie adaptation, the Golden Compass, was a damp squib. Great expectations lie on the shoulders of Chris Columbus (coincidentally the same person who directed the first Harry Potter movie). To add to the buzz, Uma Thurman and Pierce Brosnan are associated with this movie (albeit in minor roles)

6. Alice in Wonderland – Exciting times lie ahead as another Tim Burton-Johnny Depp collaboration takes shape, as a direct sequel to the Alice in Wonderland book by Lewis Carroll. Depp as the Mad Hatter is an intriguing proposition as are Helene Bonham Carter as the Red Queen and Anne Hathaway as the White Queen (and boy o boy, she has an awesome way of describing her character “Cute but psycho”). The trailers are suitably colorful and it does seem that the movie is likely to be released in IMAX format. (Another excuse to fleece us)

7. Kick-Ass – Based on the comic series, created by superstar writer Mark Millar and superstar artist John Romita Jr, Kick-Ass tells the story of an average teenager, who inspired by the comic book he reads, takes up the mantle of a real life superhero vigilante, takes a new name -Kick-Ass, dons a costume (masks et al) and fights crime. The only hitch – he has no superpowers. Promising to be as ultra-violent and campy as the comic, Kick-Ass literally brought the house down when the trailer was screened at the San Diego Comic Con

8. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time – The reimagined game designed based on the immortal Prince of Persia, it is easily one of the best games of the decade and marked a new paradigm for action-adventure games. Wildly successful, the game also had a good storyline behind it and that is now translated into the movie, starring Jake Gyllenhall and Ben Kingsley.

9. Inception – The movie that should have ideally been the Dark Knight Returns (or insert another Batman movie title here), this is Christopher Nolan’s first movie after the Dark Knight and is based on a script written by Nolan himself. Starring Leonardo Di Caprio, the movie is shrouded in secrecy with the only known gossip about the movie being that it is a sci-fi action thriller set within the architecture of the mind. Oh and btw, it also stars Ken Watanabe

10. The Last Airbender – One cannot say the full title as they might be sued by James Cameron, but this upcoming action adventure movie could well be the make or break for M. Night Shyamalam. Based on the original animated tv series (wildly successful too), the movie is part of a trilogy. A fear here shared by many fans is that it is Shyamalam, a cerebral director tacking an essentially summer masala movie (After all, no fan would forget the Hulk movie by Ang Lee err rather remember that movie). But the trailer kind of assuages that fear.

So these are the ten most anticipated movies. 2009 too had its list of hot movies most of which flopped (I am looking at you Terminator: Salvation, Dragon Ball Z and Public Enemies) but one hopes 2010 will be a better year.

* – Raj, Rahul and Raja happen to be the most common names if one goes according to filmdom of recent and not-so-recent times. Shahrukh has single handedly made Raj and Rahul famous, while our great superstar Rajnikanth made Raja popular until his films started to bear his characters name and hence Raja was stopped

Flashback #1 – The Matrix

A few days ago while randomly channel hopping, I happened to catch “The Matrix” playing in one of the local cable channels. Despite the fact that I have seen the movie countless times, so much so that I can quote each and every dialogue of the movie, despite the fact that bullet-time mode and super slo-mo have been used indiscriminately in quite a few movies, despite the fact that the sequels were actually bad (but then when are sequels good, a Dark Knight excepted), one can still view the movie with fresh eyes and enjoy it like you are watching it for the first time (though I wager, viewing the movie for the first time, one would have struggled to fully get it)

Exactly, 10 years ago, The Matrix was released. This was among the days when Keanu Reeves still knew how to act and before his I-am-giving-competition-to-wood acting style morphed. It was a thrilling journey literally “into the rabbit hole” following Neo aka Mr. Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves) as he senses something is just not right with the world and attempts to discover what exactly is wrong. Neo encountering Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburne) and understanding the truth that the world he was living in is just a virtual world designed by machines easily increases the shock value for both Neo as well as the audience and we are as flabbergasted as Neo is. While the rest of the story is all about Neo realizing his destiny and what he is meant to be long after everyone (in the movie as well as the viewers) realize, the journey is  fascinating.

The first few scenes of the movie with Trinity (Carrie Ann Moss) hovering with her leg poised for her special kick grabbed our attention, while the immediate chase sequence and the ramming of the telephone booth hinted that this movie had lots to reveal.

With plenty of awesomely well written dialogues and one-liners, the movie hardly sags.

“Throughout human history, we have been dependent on machines to survive. Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony”

“I’m trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You’re the one that has to walk through it”

“Never send a human to do a machine’s job” – Agent Smith (more on him later)

“Do you believe that my being stronger or faster has anything to do with my muscles in this place? Do you think that’s air you’re breathing now?”

“What is the Matrix? Control. The Matrix is a computer-generated dream world built to keep us under control in order to change a human being into this. “[holds up a Duracell battery]

Action in the movie is over the top as befits the fundas introduced in the movie and is pretty much hyper kinetic. Some of the best action sequences are the fights in the building where they have Morpheus hostage, the subway fight and the unforgettable scene of Neo dodging the bullets (the butt of many a parody)

Of course, the biggest draw of movies 2 and 3, Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) is introduced here. Entirely contemptuous, haughty and  superciliously sneering, Smith is the other pillar that makes his movie insanely brilliant. With his own deviant and twisted logic, Smith seeks an escape and an empire of his own and the seeds of future conflict with Neo are already sown in this part. Its difficult to imagine anyone else as Smith apart from Hugo Weaving.

While one as sufficiently movie mad as myself manages to watch quite a lot of movies, some movies simply stay in the mind forever and Matrix, with its combo of literary, religious and scientific allegories simply remains unforgettable. or as Cipher says “Buckle up Dorothy, as Kansas is going bye-bye”

PS: Among the irritating moments of the movie include the scenes when Tank says “He is the One”. That is like a cue for all to say this line almost with the same frequency as the Indian team drops catches

The importance of being Dravid

Your team has an exciting new talent whom you have to play. You decide to jettison one of your openers to play him. Who will now open the innings? Simple send Dravid to open (irrespective of the fact, he is one of the best No.3 ever to occupy the spot)

Your team lacks balance. You need to play 7 batsmen & 4 bowlers. Your wicketkeeper can give McGrath competition with the bat. What do you do? Simply ask Dravid to don the gloves

Your team brimming with exuberant talent stumbles when ball fizzes past their throat and your next assignment is on bouncy tracks. What do you do? Dial D for Dravid (despite the fact, that the man was unceremoniously dropped from the test team)

Your next tournament is in India on tracks where if the ball bounces more than your chest, implies that it is a tennis ball being bowled. Drop Dravid (inspite of the fact that the man performed admirably well in the role designated for him)

If it had been anyone but Dravid, I am sure there would be lengthy press conferences and not-so-quiet rumblings but being the gentleman that he is, there was nary a sound from him. Instead he spoke louder through his actions, scoring a sublime unbeaten century proving a point again.

Proving a point. That has been Dravid’s story. Branded as an unidimensional player at the start of his career, he has reinvented himself and scored over 10,000 ODI runs at an average a shade under 40 to prove his detractors wrong. For people who wrote him off after the disastrous tour Down Under in 1999, he replied by amassing over 600 runs the next tour.

A quiet unassuming man, not for him the genius of Tendulkar or the magnificence of Lara or the power of Ponting. Instead, he has ground out attacks. Unflinching in the face of adversity and capable of absorbing anything thrown at him, he earned himself the sobriquet of “The Wall”. And that solid he has been for Team India.

Look back at some of Team India’s greatest overseas victories and it is replete with instances of Dravid being instrumental in achieving those victories. The phenomenal double century in the first innings and the gritty unbeaten 72 in the 2nd innings where he was just going on empty, at Adelaide. The master class of 148 in blustery, damp, dank, wickedly swinging and seaming Headingly track leading to a famous victory. The twin fifties on a devilish minefield at Sabina Park where one only player apart from him scored above 60 in a low scoring scrap.The massive 270 at Rawalpindi where despite not being in the best of touches, he hung in there and ensured that India won the match and series in Pakistan. Throw in over 180 catches, a captaincy stint that led to series victories in England and West Indies and a first ever win in S Africa, Dravid is veritably the finest No.3 that India has produced.

In a team replete with stroke makers, Dravid is the glue that holds it together and provides solidity. Over the last 2 years, when the man was not as solid as he normally is, the team had a shaky feel to it, capable of imploding spectacularly.

Dravid has spent most of his career under the shadow of Sachin. However, in the near future (when Dravid retires), Team India will realize that he cast an equal shadow and had an equal influence (if not greater) as Sachin.

PS: Last Word. Ponting – 136 Test matches – 11345 runs. Dravid – 134 Test matches – 10823 runs. Just 500 runs behind in 2 less games. Does that make him a lesser player?

2012 – “Disaster” Porn

Alfred (Michael Caine) in The Dark Knight remarks, some men just want to watch the world burn. He was in fact referring to guys like Roland Emmerich and Michael Bay, who after all love to do nothing but to blow up as big a thing as possible. Its almost like Emmerich and Bay have a competition among them on who can spend the maximum amount in making a spectacular blow-out. Emmerich’s last big disaster release was the mega spectacle Day After Tomorrow and he needed to find a way to better that and thus decided to make 2012.

 

2012

 

 

2012 is the year when Earth’s crust is supposed to melt and could potentially lead to the “extinction of the species” (Yes, the movie throws as many cliches as the number of misfields by the Indian team). Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) discovers this and along with the President of the US (Danny Glover) and other heads of states, come up with a plan to survive this. Meanwhile, we have John Cusack playing a failed author Jackson Curtis who now drives limo and has been separated from wife and 2 kids, taking the kids out to Yellowstone National Park where he encounters a heavy government presence and runs into Woody Harrelson, who runs a radio program supporting the 2012 apocalypse prediction and conveys to Cusack that the government has built ships to survive the impending doom. Rest of the movie is about how John Cusack and his family escape everything that Mother Nature has to throw at them right from earthquakes to volcanoes to tsunamis.

I wont talk of plausibility here as a disaster movie offers no scope for that. I mean this is a perfect leave-your-brain-at-home movie and yes, it has been spectacularly shot. Emmerich has certainly destroyed everything remotely possible on Earth in his movies. One feels he definitely cant better it unless he decides to blow up the moon in his next venture.  Tremendously rendered, there is an almost visceral feel watching California slide into the ocean or watching a battleship carried atop a tidal wave crashing into the White House (Really!)

Of course, there is only a limit to which one can watch John Cusack and co escape from everything including the kitchen sink that Earth has to throw at them. The movie could have been made much better with reduced flab. There are some interesting questions that the movie raises in terms of how to communicate that the world is ending, how to select people who should be given the chance to survive etc but then this is a disaster movie, all these questions are given only lip service.

The real star of the show is Ejiofor. He carries his role with admirable passion. He is uncomfortable with the fact that a great part of humanity is not given a chance and struggles to come to grips with it. He raises a lot of moral questions and displays great conviction in his role. John Cusack and the rest just have to be present in the movie and dont attract special attention despite being in the movie for large portions.

Full of cliches and predictable sequences, the movie is nonetheless a visual treat and should be experienced on a large screen. However, there is a limit to which one can watch things go boom and fatigue does set in.

Rating – 6/10

PS: Moral of the story, For a family in an Emmerich movie to come together, the whole world has to suffer

 

The making of Veg Sambar – The Anatomy of a Culinary (almost) Disaster

Step 1: Soak Tamarind in water and Boil Dhal in the pressure cooker. Vegetables to be cooked separately with minimum water. A little salt to be added while boiling the vegetables

Step 2: Extract Tamarind juice and add Sambar powder, turmeric and salt

Step 3: Heat a little oil and add mustard seeds. When they crackle, add fenugreek seeds and asafoetida.

Step 4: When they become red, add tamarind juice and boil for few minutes

Step 5: Add the dhal and the boiled vegetables and let it simmer. Add water as required and Voila! tasty sambar is ready

The Real Story -

Step 1: Woke up and after performing all other necessary activities, finally decided to make Onion Sambar

Step 2: Hunted for Tamarind in the kitchen, fridge and all possible places and finally found it. Dithered on the amount of tamarind to be added and guesstimated an amount (guessed from vaguely remembering mum doing it ages ago and estimated from POTA – pulled outta thin air – numbers) and soaked it in water.

Step 3: Went to nearby supermarket to buy onion and other provisions. Chanced upon a packet of readily cut mixed vegetables. Quick decision. Onion Sambar upgraded to Mixed Veg Sambar.

Step 4: Back in the kitchen, basic confusion on which Dhal is the Thur Dhal. Tried to guess but realized it was a high risk aspect. Called up Subject Matter Expert (SME) aka Mum, got an approximate description of how it looks, did not help and then mum ,in all exasperation, described the container in which it was kept,(Bless her) and located it.

Step 5: Added 2 spoons of T.Dhal and top up the container with water. Placed the contraption without dropping it into the cooker and (most important) added water to the sides of the container in the cooker and let it boil/cook/do its job.

Step 6: Took the pre-cut vegetable and mulled over whether to cut them further. Realized it was a task beyond me and let it boil in water with little salt added.

Step 7: Extracted Tamarind juice from Step 2. Guesstimated amount seemed to high. So used only half the tamarind extract.

Step 8: One spoon of Sambar powder and a pinch of turmeric powder to be added. Question is how to differentiate between the 2? Both to me looked similar. Compromised by adding quarter spoons of both, hoping that roomie could identify which was what. Salt also added in little quantity. (Salt can be added anytime later, so its better to not overadd it)

Step 9: Determined which oil had to be added. (The cookbooks just say oil!! How is one supposed to determine which oil) by vaguely remembering that Sundrop is meant for cooking and not for oil bath. Heated it and added mustard seeds to the same and added fenugreek once the mustard seeds started to boil.

Step 9.5: Note to self. Never try to cut vegetables on an uneven surface, as the resulting touch, dexterity and balance from my side with the knife is liable (in 100% of the cases), to ensure that the floor is given a fair share of vegetables

Step 10: Added the tamarind extract + added ingredients to the content of Step 9 and since the resulting mixture seemed too little, added a glass of water to the same and left it to boil. It also helped that I was really praying at this stage

Step 11: Allowed the mixture to boil, while removed the cooked T.Dhal from the cooker (without any incidents. Wow! I really must be getting a hang of things)

Step 12: To the boiling mixture from Step 10, added the T.Dhal in stages. We, after all don’t want to make it a paste do we?. Also added the cooked vegetables and allowed the mixture to boil.

Step 13: Got vaguely concerned when the resulting “sambar” looked very liquidy. In desperation, tasted a bit and determined, it tasted just like colored water. Desperate times calls for desperate measures. Added the other half of the tamarind paste

Step 14: Panic sets in. The “Sambar” now tastes like tamarind water. Roomie sauntered in and determined which is sambar powder. Feeling relieved, added a spoon of Sambar powder to the simmering brew. For good measure, added salt too. As a further back-up, started to dial Just-Dial to get nearby Dominoes’ number

Step 15: Faint glimmering of hope emerged after boiling, as the scent starts to be sambar-ish. Further tasting confirms the first impression and corriander leaves added for flavor and the sambar is ready.

Step 16: Thulped and Thulped. Tasted half decent too. (All this and modesty too, I simply rock)

Step 17: Woke up next day and determined that I was still alive (the power was out. In Utopia, I would not be suffering powercuts and be woken up at 9AM on a Sunday. In hell, I probably would not be even be allowed to go to sleep, So this was Earth)

Moral of the story: Dont be so ready to cook unless you are prepared to wash the utensils and clear the resulting battle-field like mess afterwards

PS: Oh btw, roommate also fine. Thanks for asking

PJ

Q: What do you call a Mallu who set up a tea shop in the 1930s-1940s?

A: Noir

 

 

Hint, Hint, Wink, Wink

There are typically 3 types of people in the world – Those who get the hint and react to it, those who get the hint but refuse to act on it and those who dont get the hint at all. But then has anyone wondered if the person who has not got the hint, has actually got the hint and is pretending to not get the hint, thereby dropping a re-hint back.

PS: Was there a hint there?