Men vs Animal

Q : Whats the difference between a human being and an animal in India

A : If you shoot an animal, you go to jail even if you're a famous actor
If you shoot a human being and papa's in power in a North Indian state, you go scot free

Funny?

I didn't think so..

There are about 50 black bucks in the deer park in Punjab
There was only one Jessica Lall

Baker's Dozen

When I was in college, I used to cook quite often. Garlic mushroom tapas, Penne with tomato sauce, killer ommelettes and the king of conundrums - a vegetarian biryani..

But my favorite was dessert. I used to churn out light chocolate mousses, cakes and pastries. I learnt to make my mom's famous apple crumble, gooey brownies etc. My special creation was a chocolate sponge layered with chocolate mousse, covered with icing and studded with chocolate chips.

This weekend, after months away from the kitchen, I finally got to cook again.

Three chefs (My mom, sister and me)..


..started from scratch..



..to create..



.. the perfect cake!
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Update : The recipe

The recipe calls for equal amounts of egg, sugar, flour and butter - making it one of the simplest recipes. 200 grams of each would make a small cake that'll serve about six as dessert.

Combine 200g of slightly melted butter and sugar in a large bowl and whisk together with a wooden spoon. Keep whisking until mixture forms peaks when lifted with a spoon.

In a seperate bowl, whisk together 200 gm of eggs (this should be about 3 eggs if you're cooking in India). Whisk well until mixture has a lot of air in it. Once this is well whisked, add to the bowl containing sugar-butter mixture.

Mix well. Sieve the flour thrice with a tablespoon of baking powder. Add this flour to the egg-butter mix in small quantities. Mix with a metal spoon.

Preheat an oven to 180 degrees Centigrade. Grease a baking dish and pour this mixture into the dish. Bake for about 30-40 minutes. Check if it is done by inserting a fork into the center. If the fork comes out clean then the cake is done.

Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Icing can be made by mixing butter and icing sugar with a few drops of vanilla and chocolate powder. Ice cake. Add chocolate chips and vermicelli as desired.

Bon Appetit!

Be a Rebel..

When I walked out of the movie theatre last evening, I said I hated it. When I spent half the night replaying some of the beautiful scenes from the movie, I realized I only hated parts of it.

Rang De Basanti is not a movie you are going to skip anyway. Its got too much hype, too much political correctness going for it. And I enjoyed parts of it. The cinematogrpahy is mindblowing. The music is hauntingly good.


The script alone lets you down. The idea is great. But I felt the transition from delhi brats to patriots could have been handled much better. It was so mass marketingly crass - 'maar dalo'! I guess I just felt let down that these guys had such a great cast/crew, such a great audience, and they let it all go to waste in fantastic nonsense.

The juxtaposition of Bhagat Singh and modern life was interesting, but again, I felt, carried too far.

I also loved the pre-intermission part. Very DCH! The ending few minutes were also poignant. Yet, the whole transition was just not executed well. In a movie like Yuva - I can see the individual character and their change. Here, I guess due to the limitations of the canvas and the larger cast, this wasn't done to the same extent.



It is a painful exercise in stretching your imagination, but ignore the slightly wierd bits and its an interesting movie. And one of the most beautifully shot movies I have seen in ages. With amazing music! Totally amazing!

Would I see it again? Yep - But on DVD this time, so I can f/f the idiotic bits :)

Hand Tattoos and Head Scratching

I have this habit of writing down what I need to do on neat little lists. Somehow the act of making the list makes me feel I am in control, when more often than not - I am not. It also helps me feel that I'm doing something productive when more often than not, I am not.

So now I have a neat list of 200 odd Post its (with more soft copies on my desktop) and too much stuff to do. What I've learnt in two terms is that backlogs somehow never get cleared.

In a grand bid to save the earth, I've started writing these to do lists on the side of my hand. Combine this with my new resolve to conserve water, and my hand looks like a warzone. With QM assignments competing for skinspace with READ OM!! Do Laundry Today! and Submit MKT!

I know I haven't blogged in a while, but have been trying to read, writing a bit and pondering a lot on the meaning of life and why towels get dirty.

Saw Chapter Two last week in chennai. The play was great, with awesome performances. I especially loved Karuna's role. Perhaps it moved a tad slowly, but typical Neil Simon and hence forgiven.

Additionally I ran into a whole bunch of juniors from college, including one who slandered my good name post play. My sister pointed out last evening that this turned to libel when he posted about it too. Its a mighty small world after all.