the worlds 'Hottest' woman

This lady is neither a top model or a holywood star. But she is claimed to be the 'Hottest' woman around. It is also claimed that her 'looks' can set things on fire.

The lady i am talking about is Anandita Dutta Tamuly

Thanks to the attempt to consume chillies. In a the record breaking attempt she ended up eating 51 red-hot-chillies in two minutes and smeared seeds of 25 chillies in her eyes without shedding a tear.
Can you believe it ?? I wonder how she manages.

Her attempt truly deserves an entry into the record books.

imo.im

imo.im is one of the most impressive less known web application. Its a free tool that allows one to use MSN, AIM, Yahoo, Gtalk, Facebook, myspace and 'Skype' to keep touch with their buddies no matter which OS or desktop is running the browser. Hence alleviating the issue of installing different desktop clients or having multiple windows/tabs for each chat client.

The Linux users who wanted to always use gtalk will surely be happy by this imo feature. The designers claim that one can voice and video chat no matter which OS you use.

Unlike Meebo, imo uses a very simple, intuitive and easy to use GUI. The friends list is neatly grouped and aesthetically displayed. Apart from this the designers have added value to the application by the 'Broadcasting', image sharing and 'white board' features.

All in all its a pretty good application that deserves 4 out of 5 stars and is worth a try.

recipe for a quick meal

It hardly take 15 to 20 minutes to make this dish and requires very little ingredients. The ingredients are listed below:

Rice:100gms (if consumed by one person)
Cooking oil: 2-3 table spoons.
Cumin seeds (Jeera): for seasoning
Salt: 3-4 table spoons
Onions: 1
Peas: as much as you want :)

To make this dish quickly you have to cook the rice and prepare the seasoning in parallel.

Rice has to be cooked in such a fashion that they don't stick to each other. This is can be controlled by the amount of water while cooking. There are many methods and i will the microwave version.

For the microwave method. Transfer the washed rice into a micro wave proof utensil (preferably a deep bowl, so that water does not spill out during the cooking process). The rice to water ratio should be 1:1.50. That is for every cup of rice, pour a little more that one of half cup of water. Once this is done microwave the rice for 10-12 minutes (please note that this time depends on the microwave).

As the rice is being cooked, heat 2-3 table spoons of oil in a frying pan(preferably deep one so that rice can be mixed easily). Once the oil is hot roast cumin seeds after which finely chopped onions should be fried.

Once the onion has turned golden brown add peas to it. This step may vary based on the type of peas you have. If you have frozen peas then you can just wash it add to the pan. If its dry and hard then it should be precooked.

Now as the contents of the pan is getting fried add 2-3 table spoons of salt. Turn the stove off once the peas is soft and wait until the rice is cooked.

Once the rice is cooked. Its time to mix it with the seasoning in the pan. So transfer the rice onto the pan and stir it till a uniform mix is obtained.

At this point you will have the dish ready to be served.

However, if you would like to 'experiment' then you can try different seasonings and spices during the frying stage or you can use a table spoon of vinegar to add a tangy effect to the dish.

Happy Experimenting !!

PS: please feel free to add add your valuable tips and comments so that it will be useful for 'experimenters' like me :)

irish music and step dance

There is some magic in the music. Unfortunately, its hard to define that magic, it can only be felt.
Here are some of them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-JAP7Kf1cI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w65438PCGM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfMrHknXxlk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B718RsboGEI&feature=related

If you have been tapping your feet or clapping then you have been influenced by magic in this music.

Have fun.
Cheers,
vb

awesome food with awesome people

How often does one get to have specialty food of different parts of the country, made by people from those parts, in a totally different country.
Well i would say one must be lucky ;)

Thanks to Angma, Ajal, Mike, Dil (names changed ;)) who made it possible. They brought in flavors from the south, western, northern parts of the country and literally created a potpourri that was sprinkled with tangy lemon juice.

Thanks guys :)
Cheers,
vb

grow up once again

its impossible to stop humming this beautiful song ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG_67QoSFo0

amazing lyrics ... amazing music ... kudos to the creators of the song

dissolved stories

The land of opportunities has many stories to say. Some of these stories are etched on the granite while some are written on the moist sand of the sea shore. There is this one guy Michael Moore who swims across stormy waters to pick up some from the sea shores before they are washed away.

'Capitalism: a love story' and 'SiCKo' are two of them. He unravels many hidden facts and holes in the systems built by a handful of unscrupulous bureaucrats, politicians and businessmen. The success of these documentaries clearly has hit a nail on their heads.

However, these documentaries leave me wondering how issues and problems like these are handled back at home. I guess most of the stories are dissolved and flushed down the drain. hmmm...Only an acidity test can tell. Its time to pull out the Litmus paper.

Capitalism-Trailer
Capitilism-Wiki
SiCKo-Trailer
SiCKo-Wiki

was a great day today

The 2nd semester just dropped its curtains and set the stage open for us. The stage is stocked with props of all kinds and shapes, leaving little room for us breathe. However, the stage fear has evaporated. Thanks to '3 idiots'.

'3 idiots' has been a boon to students like me. I used to always worry about the planning, which book to refer, how to do that how to do this and so on. Somehow, today i felt like a feather and flew into every lecture possible and seemed to like them all. There were no worries, no pressure or any anxiety whatsoever.

I just hope this streak lives for ever :)
wish me luck guys !!

Diwali in Edinburgh !!

I was pleasantly surprised on knowing that Diwali and other Indian festivals are celebrated in a grand scale in Edinburgh. So grand that the Council even sponsors some of the events.

This time Navrathri was celebrated on the Calton hills. Apart from serving some mouth watering food they also had effigies of Ram, Ravan and later burst crackers to give a good ending to the event.

Diwali this time is being celebrated at two venues and on two different dates. One of them is being hosted by the SASA (South Asian Student Association) today at Tiviot Place. While the other is being Hosted by the Edinburgh University Vedic Society on the 20th of October in Chaplaincy Center at Bristo Square. The former has some entry charges and the latter has none.

Lots of exiting things are happening at these two venues. You can experience some bangra, Indian classical music apart from having some great food.

So its time to end your week and begin you next week with a tradition style.
Enjoy!!

Edinburgh - Holyrood park: part 2

I was too busy converting currency to appritiate some of the stunning places in Edinburgh. One amoung them was the Holyrood Park.

Dear old sun, who tans people back home, had made a short trip to the city. The air was warm, the grass looked greener (It was basically a day to dry all moist clothes outside). We, Tarun the dentist, sradda the liguist, Rishi the sound engineer and me, set forth on a journey to view the apartment that we guys were going to rent.

We had to cut through the holyrood park to reach the other side where the apartment was situated. The only words that i remeber using repetedly were wow and woooow. Below are the pictures of the park/hillock where one side faces the sea and the other side faces the city and we were facing one of the most beautiful part of the city.











Basically the park is filled with hills, georges, pathces of grass land and has trails all over. Photographers generaly run out of memory and general public runs out of energy before the entire park is explored. Each of the path has a difficulty level associated with it to suit people with different age and interests. For hard core trekkers there are steep path covered with corrugated rocks and stones. For old people who want to take their dog on a walk there are grass covered trails.

As a whole this is a great place to visit if your in edinburgh and see to that your trekking bag is filled with water, food, camera and extra battries ofcourse and do hope that the sun is up and the wind is low.

//for more details on the park do visit this wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salisbury_Crags#Salisbury_Crags

Edinburgh - part 1

This is my first blog out of edinburgh. I hoped to write about the beauty of the city but i will end up describing one of my adventures in the kitchen.

Back at home in India. The only reason why i used to go to the kitchen was to take piping hot masala dosas that mom used to dish out or to take a second helping of dishes that she tries after watching her cooking programs on TV. However, these days the scenario has changed. I am primarily entering the kitchen for survival.

Today the picture was different. I expected to have a mouth watering dish but ended up with a running nose. Panic just kicked in, the pizza was getting burnt in the oven and was spewing carbon monooxide all over the kitchen. All the roomies jumped into fire fighting mode. Luckily for us the fire alarm was far away in the hall and there was a good exaust fan and ventilators.

I was later left wondering what i would have done if something like this happened back at home. Probably, i would have covered my nose and casually continued to do what i was doing with a hope that the smoke will subside and that it will taken care of. Its bascially 'chaltha hai' (its okay) attitude.

I guess that attitude will start to take beating from now on and the burnt pizza is just a start.

shopping is fun ... only for some!!

my friend says shopping is fun,
making people wonder where she all the energy to run.

in she goes and tries all goods put up for sale,
leaving behind a shopkeeper who wonders 'why did i build a shop of this big scale'.

she gets upset after buying something very nice,
if her friend buys the same at a very low price.

so she hops between shops,
in a hope to buy the best so that later she wont regret.

its nine in the morning!!

Its nine in the morning,
time to go to work while everyone is swarming,
but i am at home sitting and yawning.

now its half past noon,
its time to have a quick lunch soon,
but i am at home still yawning in my cocoon.

Its beyond nine in the night,
work at office should have drained all my might,
but here i am wondering what i will do tonight.

even after i am old

i came in as a fresher,
into a room full or treasure.

The room had no diamond or gold,
it was filled with friends good and old.

Now i am off to a land far and cold,
but will never forget u all even after i am old.

-vb

he is deb the babu !!

i am sure fish has something to do with IQ of ppl who consume it. At least for Kaushik the proteins from fish influenced some neurons to compute and think quickly.
Kaushik deb is his full name, Agratala is his home town, fish is his staple food and star gazing is his hobby.
Deb comes all the way from Agartala to make Bangalore his home. He learns the local language(Kannada) and is capable of using it better than ppl who spent their life time here(some one like me).
We met him 3 years back. i along with a team mate Caren, were responsible for giving deb kt on the project we were working. He was as eager as a fish that wants to get into water and now he is so proficient with the application that we have to ask him for clarifications.
Deb is patient, supportive, and can be looked upon when someone needs help. He carries a lot of responsibilities these days. I am sure ppl like me will get crushed under such pressure.
Go on deb babu...ur sure to rock in the days to come.

//if anyone wants to know more abt deb then this link is for u http://images.orkut.com/Main#Profile.aspx?origin=is&uid=6520944599840246381

he calls himself the don !!

190 is the bus route, in which i met Vinay for the first time way back in 2002. Vinay who is also calls himself CPdon/super hero/don, is an unselfish, caring person and its hard to find ppl like him.

He has a craze for games and is a hard core Hrithik Roshan fan. He was so crazy abt hrithik that he purchased all products that hrithik endorsed.

The ppl and the surrounding shape dons behavior. For example, he pulls leg big time when ppl like vishnu, ambu, me, aparna, kaushik are arnd. However, at home he behaves like an innocent kid who does not know anything :P

Some of dons cost cutting/saving ideas are legendary. They include loo capture ( just like booth capture during elections, only difference is that he plans to charge ppl who enter the loo).

On a serious note, don is meticulous in what he does may it be studies or at work. If some one can beat him in that then it must be don himself.

I just want to give ppl some advice, if someone wants to communicate with don over phone then i would advise them to put the phone on loudspeaker, cos its hard to listen to what don is speaking.

Last but not least, here is some message for don. Dude keep smiling da, as you always have been :).


//if anyone wants to be frnds with don or want to know more abt him follow the link http://images.orkut.com/Main#Profile.aspx?origin=is&uid=11437075601993281068

a kid with a pocket full of talent!!

This is a small story or rather an experience on coming in contact with a seemingly silent kid with a pocket full of talent.

17th April, 2009 was supposed to be a normal day like any other day. It involved scurrying to office, getting into crowded a bus that drives through dusty roads, falling asleep just to be awoken by sudden bumps. However, this day was different. The sound of the revving engines that resonated across the sultry indoors of the bus was superimposed by pleasant music emanating from an instrument that is hard to be classified as a musical instrument.

Before describing the instrument, let me introduce the owner of the instrument. He was just a boy. A boy who was covered with as much dust as the clothes he wore. It is possible that some might attribute this to be a result of a school kid enjoying his summer holidays by frolicking around in playgrounds. However his attire and the instrument he had told a completely different story. They said he probably does not know what it is to go to school and the playgrounds that he can imagine playing in are foot paths. Footpaths, which are home and stage to many unprivileged people like him. However, today the rickety bus that he boarded was privileged to be his host and i was privileged to be one of his audiences.

It goes without saying that the instrument was as austere as the owner. He held a stringed instrument. It had no resemblance, what so ever, with the ones that we see in musical instrument shops. My untrained ears however, attributed the music oozing out of his instrument to a violin. The resonating column of the instrument was a mere scraped out coconut shell whose open mouth was covered with something that looked like snake skin. The metal string scaled the distance between a bridge on the shell and the far end of a bamboo stick that passed through the diameter outer most circle of the shell. The instrument also had provision for tuning. And just like in violin he had bow to help the column resonate.

The stage was set, the audiences were present and the kid with his instrument enters the arena, an arena that is filled by people by chance rather than choice. The minute he slid his bow over the strings all the heads turned towards him and all the ears resonated in sync with his coconut shell. The bus was now filled with pleasant music that drowned the external noise.

The untidy attire and his dust covered visage were now claiming that there is an uncut diamond among us. The bus was honored to have a Mozart, whose talent we savored by chance and not by choice. His music triggered a torrent of thoughts in my mind. How did he learn to play all this? How does he imbibe magic of karnatic and Hindustani music in the sound that his instrument generates? How did he build this instrument in the first place? How does he know that an instrument built on coconut shell compete with violin that is made of expensive wood? How does he know to adjust the length of the string to generate a particular harmonic? In spite of being deluged by so many questions, my mind was floating in the prevailing waves.

The arrival to the Marathahalli bus stop signaled an end of the show and just before the curtains were about to fall in this auditorium, people were requested to contribute their mite. The kid made this day different, he pumped positive energy into the environment and all he gets in return is a thumbs up and a victory symbol on the one/two rupee coins that will hardly make a difference to his life.

I just wish the kid gets an opportunity to play in a real auditorium where the people are charged to listen to his music and where people arrive by choice rather than chance.

a fathers reaction

"
Your unassuming fairy like smile used to wake me up every morning from my deepest sleep.

The energy that your bright and shining eyes projected gave my heart a reason to beat.

The numbness and dullness of the day disappeared when my ear drums used to resonate with your cheerful voice.

And the hope of seeing you with the sun setting in the background gave me a purpose to live out the harsh day.

You kept me alive all these years and now its time for you to rest in peace and i hope your thoughts will help me survive the remaining dark days of my life.

-your loving father
"
These words were engraved on an ornate granite slab placed over a small childs' cementer.

/*
this purely fictional snippet has characters who not related to anyone living or dead:)
*/

reeboooo !!

/*
all the characters and incidents are not assured to be not real. Resemblance to any person or event, living or non living is considered the misfortune of the society :P
For any legal issues contact my in laws :P
*/

From the shores of the Peaceful Sea a crew set forth to explore its chances to make mullah in the land of Reeboo. An old legend that lingers says that Reeboo was discovered 10 years ago and its citizens are primitive and are yet to learn, which among shining glass crystals and dull uncut diamonds is valuable. On this epic journey the crew from Payrow discovered the truth behind the myth.

It all started a few days back when lady from the north, Reamah, who has a pretty hairstyle, took the counsel of the saint from Sabarimalay and the legendry warrior Yasee on how to market Payrow culture in Reeboo. After a long discussion they came up with a list of crew members that consisted distinguished members from the province of Weighfield in the state of Payrow.

The crew consisted of veterans like Sooneel, BajaGovinda, Soondar(a devotee of kalee). A troupe of actors, singers and dancers were also included in the crew to add an entertainment angle to the story. The presence of some children in the crew caused unexpected controversies, which was later ironed out. Finally, with a promising crew, that can demonstrate the strength of Payrow at the disposal of the lady, an itinerary was set forth for the upcoming journey.

The journey was scheduled to start early in the morning even before the sun could outshine the moon. The crew was ill prepared for situation in Reeboo because they seldom knew about the draught in the Reeboo, which caused inflation to sky rocket in this island.

Some veterans and experts who can read the thoughts of the person by looking at the actions were the first to demonstrate the talent to the discerning crowd. But it looks like their lucky star was smoked out by the menacing clouds over the Reeboo. The same can be told about the dancers and the actors. Only difference is that there were dark clouds in between the eye and brain of the judges. Not sure who conjured this spell on them; probably the Eye in front of the gate had some influence.

But the crew did not loose spirit and they found more at Inchara. And they were happy that they didn’t have to sell away their precious uncut diamonds for some cheap glass mementos.

A friend of Alice in wonderland - part 1

At 30.000 feet above the ground, I was trying to get a good day’s sleep. But circumstance sandwiched me between two huge people in the plane. However, the experience was worth remembering nonetheless. It was on a month long journey to a place far, far away from home. A place that is considered as the bull’s eye of Europe, it is Prague.

All the preparations were done on the day before the d-day. Thanks to Lata auntie and mom, because they saw to that I don’t have to go through any rigors of purchasing and packing. They saw to that neither bad weather nor availability of food could bother me in any way. However sometimes it’s risky to allow ladies to take the lead in shopping. The magnitude of risk was known only after I got the credit card bill. In one day i owed Rs.25000 to HDFC and SBI.

Though we can prepare for any unforeseen events there is one hard moment that is hard to handle, that is parting with the loved ones. Mom, bro and cousin sister had come over to see me fly off (bro came to see me buzz off :) ). It was hard to see moms face and even harder to get some words out my mouth. So I just gave her a warm hug and she gave me a kiss that I will remember for the rest of my life.

Through out the day I felt like a hero in a movie played at 2x speed. I came to senses only when the uncomfortable Lufthansa economy class seat and the two guys compelled me to cave in from all four sides. However, my mind never registered the signals from the strained muscles. It kept reassuring me that I am not in Alice’s wonderland.

Noisy crowd scurrying off in all directions brought the scenes of “The Terminal” into my mind. Just like Hanks made friends with Zeta Jones, I made friends with Lucie (she is a citizen of Prague settled is US). We met up near the gate that leads us to the plane to Prague. I have to mention her skill in inferring characteristics of people she meets. She found that I was vegetarian from the list of miscellaneous translations that I asked her to review. She was a Sherlock hidden behind a beautiful face. We spent the remaining time talking about our schooling, interests, work and so on. In the mean tine Hours looked like minutes and minutes looked like seconds. Probably this is what they call flirting.

Now was time to bid farewell to Lucie. I am not sure if we will ever meet again during our life times but one thing that will never be forgotten is the list that said her that I am a vegetarian.

to be continued ...