January 11, 2010
Filed under: Behind the screen..., Friends..., Funny!!!, uuphh yeh life!!! — chapters @ 11:51 AM
Meet my friend Shalu...
It is not always that you meet a “tall-dark-handsome” guy in your life. It happens once in a blue moon and on that holy day (Coincidently, it was a BLUEMOON on 31st December), we, Shalu and me, boarded the train from Howrah to Bhubaneswar. As usual, our coach was filled with irritatingly super-exited Bengalis.
As we sat there with our vehement moods, he appeared out of nowhere. He talked to one of the screeching Bengalis about where they are going with such a hullabaloo. That high-with-excitement-as if- boarding-the-train-for-the-first-time Bengali answered that they were going to Amaravati for some Indian Air Force training. Then he looked at us and we might have looked like a set of shrunken kittens, to which he smiled and asked whether we were also going for the same training. I said, ‘No’… But then Shalu, angry with the high-pitched Bengalis, replied rather rudely that we were going home. After that he did not talk to us. Later, Shalu and I, both realized that he was not a Bengali, but somewhere from South India and he did not belong to the screeching crowd… More over… he was sooooooooooooooo handsome. So we regretted Shalu’s rude behavior which might have been one of the reasons that he did not talk to us throughout the journey.
But Shalu and I were by then, high-spirited and tried in every way to convince him that we are not so rude girls and we were very cheerful (by laughing constantly). But obviously that did not help. He rather paid his full attention to another non-bengali , non-screeching guy and started explaining SAP to him. Shalu tried to distract him by her ‘yeh-reshmi-zulfon-ka andhera-na ghabarayiye’ style by untying her hair; and it did not help. We did not sleep till 1.30 AM, just thinking that he might get interested and start talking to us.
We sat in front of him and kept on trying our best to start a conversation. But he got on to his upper berth and went to sleep where we were still sitting with a hope that he would talk. Then we decided to sleep as our target seemed to be still hurt with Shalu’s rude behavior.
It seemed that, the hunk did not leave us alone in our dreams even. Both shalu and I had dreams about him. Shalu’s dream had a happy ending, that before leaving he left her a letter, written in hindi, with his name and address :). And as of my dream, even if he was there in my dream, I was committed to I~) only…”Sapne me bhi I~) ko dagaa nahi de paayi” hehehe… Shalu is still searching for him. So anybody knowing anyone from south india who is really handsome and travelled in Amaravati Express, coach no s7, berth no 43 on 31st December, 2009 then please let him know about Shalu… 
July 13, 2009
Filed under: Behind the screen..., Funny!!!, craps ..., uuphh yeh life!!! — chapters @ 12:40 AM
So last Saturday, I had nothing to do apart from waiting for I~) to be online. But as he did not, I was left with no other valuable plans. So I thought of writing a post in my blog. Then I thought of many topics which I could have written about. But the most appealing (read “time consuming” ) topic was a food blog kinda post , where some really great and cool cooks post their fabulous recipes. So I planned to try my hands at those blog posts.
I also tried to give some special effects to the post by adding some photos. I did not have any idea of what I was going to cook. So first I took everything on a plate and then clicked a pic with my mobile. And then the photo session + cooking started which lasted for almost 2 and 1/2 hours.
The vegetables I had...
So with these vegetables… I planned 2 items at first… little did I know that I would end up with 4 items 
What I planned…
- Palak (Spinach)+ other vegetables mixed sabzi
- Pumpkin Flower bhaji with potato, onion and Pumpkin
What I did not plan…
- Masoor dal with Ginger (I wanted to have dal so badly
)
- Brinjal bhaji (As the brinjals were too big and only half of one was enough for the Palak sabzi and the rest half, if I didn’t use then, it would be have been wasted)
So let us start from the Mixed Veg and Palak Sabzi
Ingredients :
- Palak –> 250 grms (washed, drained, and cut into small pieces.)
- Brinjal –> 1/2 of a big one… or else just one if it is of medium size (washed and cut into small 1 inch pieces)
- Potato –> 2 small ones (washed, peeled and cut into small 1 inch pieces)
- Pumpkin –> 150 grms (washed, peeled and cut into small 1 inch pieces)
- Onion –>1 small one (Cut into small pieces)
- Ginger –> 1/2 an inch long (either grated or cut into really small pieces… you can make a paste but I could not due to absence of a mixie )
- Garlic –> 5/6 cloves (same as Ginger)
- Tomato –> 1 medium one (Cut into small pieces)
- Green chilly –> 1/2 depending upon your taste (cut into small pieces)
- Pancha Phutana (5 spices added together… Saunf, Nigella, Fenugreek seeds and I don’t remember the other 2) –> 1/2 tea spoon
- Oil (refined oil for preparing the masala) –> 1 table spoon
- Turmeric powder –> 2 or 3 pinches
- Hing –> a pinch
- Everest Kitchen King Masala –> 1 tea spoon
- Salt –> as per taste
Method :
All the vegetables washed and cut for Mixed Veg and Palak Sabzi...
Used for the masala...
~ Heat the oil in a Kadai (ask your indian friend about this … asif anyone reading this blog… that too anybody from some other country … this is called the height of optimism )
~ Add hing, pancha phuatan… then add the green chillies, onions and cook it till the onions are little transparent.
~ Add the ginger and garlic , when these are cooked a little bit then add the tomatoes and keep stirring with a laddle.
Cooking the Masala...
~ Add a pinch of salt, and turmeric powder. Cook till the raw tomato smell is gone. Then add the Kitchen King masala and cook till the masala is done comeplely. You can know that when the oil starts to get separated from the masala and the raw smell is gone completely.
Masala is cooked well...
~ Once the masala is done, add the vegetables now, except the Palak. And mix them well with the masala. Add salt as per taste. And cover it… put the flame in sim.
Addingthe vegetables to the Masala...
~ Once the vegetables are half cooked, add the palak and mix it well.
Adding Palak to the half cooked vegetables...
~ Then put the lead cover and let it be cooked on low flames. Cook it till alll the vegetables and the palak are cooked enough. You don’t need to add any extra water as the vegetables themselves give out some water. Just stir it in between couple of minute so that it is not over done or burnt.
Mixed Veg with Palak
So guys, enough for today… The other recipes will come in the subsequent posts…
PS –> I found out that I am not good at writing serial blog posts. Well thats the difference between me and EKKta KKapoor you know. So I will just stop the post here, but before that I am going to add the final picture of my lunch that day.
A good full veg meal
June 1, 2009
Filed under: Behind the screen..., Funny!!!, Very strange!!, uuphh yeh life!!! — chapters @ 12:04 PM
You know, it feels wonderful and lovely when a complete stranger in a crowded train recognises you by just your name and praises you for something you had done 2 years back…
Yes, it happened with me.
Last Friday, after office, I was at the Howrah station to board a train to Bhubaneswar, my home-town. At about 10.30 PM, the train came to the platform. All the people boarded the train and so did I. After I located my bearth, I sat there waiting for the train to start the journey.
There was another girl sitting in front of me. Due to some reason, the conversation started. Lets call her, Girl I Met On The Train (GIMOTT).
GIMOTT : Which company are you in?
Me : XYZ.
GIMOTT : Ohh… I am also in the same company. [Smiles]
Me : Oh… That’s good! [Smiling back]
GIMOTT : What’s your name?
Me : Sxxxxxx…
GIMOTT : Sxxxxxx what?
Me : Sxxxxxx Sxxxx. [Successfully omitted my middle name which I really hate]
GIMOTT : Sxxxxxx Sxxxxxx Sxxxx ??? [Successfully re-added my middle name which I seriously hate]
Me : How do you know my full name??? [Totally Surprised... ]
GIMOTT : You contributed some story in our company’s creative writing competition?
Me : Yes… but that was long time ago… around 2 years back.
GIMOTT : You won’t believe… I was very eager to meet you. That story was awesome and after reading that I tried to find you out, but never could.
Me : [Now beaming and smiling from ear to ear] Oh really… Thank you
She was talking about my first story Forgiven, which got a runners up award in my company’s creative wrtiting competition. I was really pleased, that someone, a total stranger, could recognize me for some story I had written a long time back. At that moment I thought about updating my blog, continue writing. Who knows, some other day, in some other train, I would meet some other stranger who also would know my middle name!!!
March 31, 2009
Filed under: Behind the screen..., Funny!!!, craps ..., uuphh yeh life!!! — chapters @ 2:03 PM
Isn’t it the last and the best day of the month? After all, one more month got over. It always feels refreshing that from tomorrow onwards another new day, new month will start and I will get another chance to take a monthly resolution, ahem… obviously to be broken before the month ends . And another good (read as actual) part of the last day of the month is, it is the day when the salary is credited to my account. 
You know, somehow, I have become miser these days. Since last one year, I was planning to buy a laptop. Last year I shifted to a flat alone and it made a big vacant space in my pocket, with security deposits and all. Then came the insurance premiums, tax deductions. So I dropped the idea of the laptop for the time being. Throughout the year, meine paai paai joda hai yaar. Now I had decided that I would book the lappy last weekend and when the salary is credited, I will pay the full amount and bring home my brand new lappy. But then I thought, agar itna din wait kar hi lee then kuch aur din bhi kar leti hun…. So the “buying-a-laptop” plan has been postponed till next month. See… I say that I am becoming a miser day by day
I would give you one more example… Would you believe if I say you that I avoid auto rickshaw and come by bus to save 1 buck? Yes you heard it right… just 1 buck. Now you understand what actually “paai paai jodna” means.
I am afraid, soon my name will be enlisted in Wikipedia’s Famous misers in history. There are 6 names till now. The day the seventh name appears you know whom to call up and congratulate for such fame.
One more example you would automatically notice when you see me. I was God gifted, since my birth; with a pair of eyebrows much similar to kroor singh (I hope people watched “chandrakanta“, the Hindi lovestory which used to come on National television long time back). The left brow starts from left end of my forehead and much before it stops, the right one starts and goes on till the right end of my forehead (miles to go before I sleep…miles to go before I sleep; Robert Frost wrote this when he got inspired by my brows!!!). So, I need to visit the parlor regularly (atleast once in every month) to bring those bushy pair of brows into proper shape. I admit, it is a physical torture when someone uproots thick hairs from your forehead, just above your eyes with a piece of string. It hurts like anything. Tear start rolling down from my eyes the instance the first hair is pulled out. Sometimes, after just one brow gets into shape, I feel like jumping out of the chair and running away from the torture-chamber; no more strength to go through the same things again for the other one, which is still in full grown form; don’t worry, never did that actually . But from few months, I am avoiding going to parlor… I need to save “paai paai” you remember!! So my eye-brows are, once again, inspiring many poets of this era to write something new these days. And guess what, last Saturday, I met I~)’s Mom for the first time. I think, she is gonna reject me… I won’t complain; After all, who on this earth will accept a lady kroor singh as her daughter-in-law???
So it is almost proved, that I am a Kanjoosh… makhhi choooooosss. 
**********
By the way, I started “The Sky Is Falling” by Sidney Sheldon yesterday at about 9 PM. And by 3 AM today morning I was left with some 80/90 pages. But decided to sleep. The first thing in the morning (at about 7.30 AM) I did was finishing the book. Felt good after such a long time. No, the book was not that good… just Okay. I loved other books of SS like Tell Me Your Dreams & If Tomorrow Comes. But I re-discovered my reading habit once again. I was missing it seriously.
February 18, 2009
Filed under: Behind the screen..., Funny!!!, craps ..., uuphh yeh life!!! — chapters @ 6:27 PM
It was today that I saw her. I was just about to turn away, when among the crowd, I saw her … smiling at me. She was so short compared to the others present there. But her contrast color made her to be visible among the others. I could not miss her… She did not let me to miss her.
I was frightened at the sight of her. She made her first appearance so casually that I was terrified; terrified with the thought that soon there would be more.
She knows my secret and I fear that someday there will be more like her, sharing my secret and finally there won’t be any secret.
So I thought to take instant action… I needed to finish her off before others could see her. I needed a weapon. I looked around and I got my scissors… held it in my hands, proceeded towards her very slowly. She was still smiling… I smiled too; a crooked smile and then I just cut her neck, without any second thought, without a blink… Did I hear a scream??? May be, but I didn’t care. I needed to get rid of her and that was the only way to keep my secret intact. Yeah, I was a cold blooded murderer…
Her smile faded and her body just swayed in the air till it touched my hand…
There she lies, on my hand… Oh my lone secret-holder. I have no regret for killing you. And I also know, I will be killing many more like you when they appear.
I looked at her for the last time. I smiled, again, before I blew away that nasty white hair… and with that hair gone, the secret of my age, the secret that I-am-getting-old, is also gone… until and unless another hair turns grey
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