Graduation....

PhD degree doesn't come easy. It demands a lot out of any one and I am sure people who have been through it will most likely agree with me. Hence,the completion of the degree on graduation day definitely asks for a grand celebration. A celebration of the courage shown by the graduates and the unconditional support shown by the family and friends through the course of the study. It's a very special occasion, however a bit overrated in comparison to what we have in India. Back in India, graduation is something which is very usual phenomenon and  is expected of a good student to achieve. Otherwise it is considered a shame. Anyways, people are different and they have different way of looking and perceiving things. As for me I am always looking for ways to have some fun. It was my first time attending a graduation ceremony. Very traditional and sophisticated ceremony which definitely makes you feel special about your achievement. Anyways it was fun seeing parents feeling proud of their kids and at the same time graduates rejoicing the achievement. Here's a video to walk you through the main "hooding".

Cheers!!!

HanS Landa and movie that started the space war....

Konichiwa,

So past couple of days has been nothing but interesting. We had graduation ceremony where I was finally conferred the doctoral degree. So officially I can be called doctor, something that took years of research and peril. However, I would still prefer to be called by my name without the prefix "Dr.". It was an interesting experience and overwhelming at the same time. It still has to sink in so will elaborate more on this in the next post.

I had a chance to see "Inglourious Basterds" by QT. Like any other QT movies, it was gripping and intense with fabulous piece of writing and splendid dialogues. In my opinion, not one of his best but definitely up there with some of the best. I really loved the sublime acting by Christopher Waltz, an unknown entity and a great discovery by QT. Each and every scenes with Hans Landa played by Christopher Waltz, were intense and striking. He can act and when I say that I mean every word of it. The only problem I had was with the ending. I mean throughout the movie the character of Hans Landa has been developed as a fierce, cunning and cruel general. It was highly difficult to digest the fact that he could be so naive to believe that all his demands will be made by americans. How could he be so stupid to trust them when throughout the movie he couldn't trust anybody. I know he believed that Hitler was eventually going to lose the war and that the situation provided him with an opportunity to build a safe heaven after the war. But I think the deal wasn't very convincing and like him. It would have made sense if QT could have spent some time showing that weak side of him. Other than this, I loved the end scene when the inevitable happens and that all die. A great movie but not one of QT's best.

Remember the cold war? Well Nazis are called the best propagandist, but in my opinion it is Americans. I have a theory of how Americans won the cold war.  There was a rat race between Russians and Americans for everything. like race to achieve the biggest stockpile of nuclear bombs.  It was like neck to neck and in order to defeat Russians, Americans needed to come up with a new strategy. And the strategy was to divert Russian's attention from more important civic and economic issues to trivial things which would eventually lead to their bankruptcy. So how could this be done? Obviously by throwing an idea (Propaganda) that air to air/land to land war is a strategy of past and now Americans are developing resources to have space war. And to make it sound more convincing George Lucas made the "star war" series and added a stamp of  virtual reality to this idea which was enough to make Russian think. As expected Russians forgot about everything and invested all their resources on exploring space and the idea of space war, which was obviously not real. As a result Russian economy crumbled and America won the cold war.

Anyways enough of stupidity. I have heard a lot  about the Star War movies from friends and incessant mention  in movies, books, tv series etc, and hence I decided to give it a try. What stopped me till now from watching this movie was my strong dislike to "Propaganda" movies. Any how, so far I have seen part IV and V and it has been really interesting. What really impressed me the most is the amount of creative effort it must have taken Lucas and his team to come up with so many characters, all together a new language, different costumes etc. Kudos to Lucas and his team. Especially knowing that the first two of the series came out in 1979 and 1983, its unbelievable to see the standard of special effects (exception-2000: Space Odyssey). The story is building up and I hope I like the rest of the series too. It definitely fulfills the hype, at least for me.

Drizzle and gloomy skyline!!!

Finally after a long hiatus, I was out in the city, crossing avenues and streets across Manhattan. It wasn't one of those sunny spring day, rather it was gloomy covered with clouds all around and slightly cold too. Not one of the best days to enjoy city, but I couldn't have waited any longer. I have been postponing the visit for a while due to the weather but not any more. Yesterday was the day. I was up at 8, packed my bag with bare minimum;"The gathering", a sweater, my camera with pair of lenses, and my "music (iphone)". I was out of the door by 8:30 and  by the train station on time to catch 8:51 train. I could have taken the later train but then I thought, now that I am spending the money and time, might as well reach earlier to have enough time in hand to enjoy to the maximum.

The train ride was quiet and lazy, but not for long. The bustling noise and commotion at Penn station sent a current of energy through my bones. So the first destination: Battery Park. I like lying down there next to the water with slight irking of music in the background and statue of liberty in the front. As any other day, there was some music festival going on. To tell you the truth, it was very annoying. A lady singing some gibberish in spanish which to any standard didn't sound pleasing to my ears "at all".

Anyways I found a chair farthest from the annoying music and enjoyed some time at peace. I had Bagel with cream cheese and "sunny-side up" omelet. The first meal of the day at 12:30 in the afternoon, a bit too early compared to any other day. In the meantime, I flipped through few pages of "the book" while I enjoyed the cold breeze. Other than the annoying piece of music, it was awfully quiet, considering the ferry to the statue of liberty (SOL) leaves from the battery park. Anyways after half an hour or so, I moved to Staten Island Ferry (SIF) station at Whitehall terminal.

Taking a step back, in fact my plan for the day was to visit the statue of liberty. To my surprise the tickets for the ferry were booked for the entire summer. While looking for alternate way to obtain tickets, I found that Staten Island ferry passes by SOL. Moreover the sight of Manhattan skyline from the ferry is considered to be worth a watch. So here I was at Whitehall ferry terminal, waiting for the ferry. By the look of the crowd, I wasn't the only one taking the ferry for so called "tourism" purpose. There were actually plenty of people with their spouse, kids, and fancy DSLRs. Oh and did I mention that the ride is for free. As suggested by the people, the view from the ferry was absolutely beautiful. You could see the entire downtown Manhattan half covered with clouds. It was gorgeous. Also on the left was SOL and with my 55-200mm lens, it was in touching distance. I think it was almost like visiting the SOL island. The ride lasted about ~30 min, not too long with chocolate croissant in hand.

 Once on SI, there were people passing on pamphlets about "Art by the Ferry". Its annual cultural event organised by the Staten Island creative community where local artists showcase their talent like, music performances, paintings,photography, sculptures etc by the streets. So I thought, now that I am here, might as well give it a try as I had plenty of time in my hand. SI is very quiet place, very few traffic with barely any people visible. Even the people who came out of the ferry disappeared in a matter of seconds. Anyways, the festival wasn't as big as I expected it to be, may be I reached there a bit early as in it was afternoon. Anyways,there were few art galleries and few group of hippies playing some great country music. It was for sure a big change and mush more soulful compared to earlier mentioned spanish "crap". There's a 9/11 Memorial right by the ferry terminal. Its more like two arcs converging to each other. It was beautiful to say the least.

 By that time it was 2:25 and hurried back to the terminal to catch the 2:30 ferry back to Manhattan. So the question: did I like the place? and to be honest..not that much. I like seeing people and not barren roads with ghost like houses staring back at you. Anyways I barely managed to catch the ferry. Another half an hour of ride and I was back in Manhattan where I could see "a lot" of faces with various expressions and definitely not staring back at me.

The next stop was "Other side" of Brooklyn bridge, that is "Brooklyn". I have been to Brooklyn bridge number of times, enough to count on my fingers. However, I never had a chance to walk to the Brooklyn. So this time it was the plan to see bridge from the other side, have lunch at Grimaldi and ice cream from the famous "Brooklyn" ice-cream place. It was a long walk to the other side but enjoyable. Finally, strolling nicely, I reached the Brooklyn Pier and I saw a long line of people standing and waiting for something. The first thought that came to my mind was, probably waiting for the bus. And then I saw Grimaldi right next to the   line. It was an endless line and I couldn't have waited in the line for the pizza. So I decided to go for take out. But I think it wasn't my day to eat pizza. First, they weren't selling slices of pizza. Next I didn't have enough cash to buy entire pizza and to top the two there wasn't any ATM machine around. So bit disheartened, I walked to the ice-cream place and had butter pecan. It was really creamy with enough sweetness. To be honest, the ice-cream made up for the pizza-heartbreak. Enjoying the dripping ice-cream from the waffle cone, I walked around the park looking at the bridge and Manhattan skyline. By that time my legs were sore and I needed to lay down on the bench. It wasn't too comfortable due to the cold breeze and hence the waiting was cut short. Walk back wasn't very nice.

By this time I was too tired and extremely hungry (Damn you Grimaldi..but don't worry I am gonna hunt you down next time). So the obvious place to visit was greenwich village, the "food center" of NYC and especially  "Mamoun's", a great Falafel place. So I took subway to 4th west and walked to 119 Mcdogoul street which is right by Washington square. Fortunately the line was short and also there was an ATM machine. So I had two orders of falafel ($ 2:50 each) and one order of chicken sheesh kebab, and walked to the Washington square park to satisfy my craving stomach and give my sore legs some rest. It was still cold so took out my sweater and enjoyed the falafel.

It was 6:50 by then and I didn't think my legs would have allowed me any further to walk around. SO I decided to take the subway back to Penn station where I met my friend "D" and took the 7:25 train back to home. It was a great trip and hopefully I will be visiting soon to have bit more of city coz just one trip wasn't enough.

See the Picasa Album on the left bar for more pictures.

Yet another day.....

It was just one of those days which passed by without much of a happening. Continued reading "The Gathering" and watched "Chinatown" by Roman Polanski. Also I have started the much talked about "Star Wars" series. Hopefully I will talk about these movies in next post.

By the way got a chance to cook some "mushroom pasta" with mint and lemon. It was absolutely delicious.

Tomorrow is "City Day"!!!

BBQ, Bowling and questions that I hate to answer....

First thing first, I have been revisiting/exploring music and have built a small playlist which is growing with the day. See the right side of the blog to listen to the playlist.

Couple of days back , friends from lab and I had  barbecue which we had planned for a long time. Even though the weather wasn't that great, with shades of cloud and drizzle, it worked out fine with lots of fun and smoky flavored food. Surely, the grilling was followed by rounds of card games. We generally like to play stupid card games which doesn't require too much brain and at the same time has that fun quotient. And hence we chose to play "stupid", an aptly named card game. Anyways, the walk back home was extremely tiring.
        Next day, I had a chance to accompany my friend's parents for bowling. It was my second time bowling and was equally embarrassing to throw the ball out of the alley halfway down the track. Anyways who cares about being good or embarrassing, as long as its fun and interesting. Again, walk back home was tiring.
        Since my defense, I have been asked two questions most frequently by everybody around me.
            1. How do you feel? Aren't you excited to finish PhD?
            2. What's the plan for future?
In the beginning it was OK to answer the question. but now it has started to get into my nerves. If you want to annoy me then there couldn't be any better way but to ask me one of these questions. I don't blame people for asking me this question. I mean it's a very concerning query and moreover it gives people to hold some conversation. However, what beats my logic is that some people asking me the same question within the interval of few days. As in, am I supposed to suddenly develop some kind of excitement or a plan, even though I have already conveyed my thought about taking some time off. To tell you the truth, I also used to think that after finishing defense, level of excitement will be skyrocketing. But in reality, there was a bit of excitement for those first few hours which sort of dissolved with time. A lot of people won't believe a word of it when I say this but I am sure when they will be in my situation they will have a better understanding.

Anyways enough of ranting. I am planning to visit city this sunday. It is expected to be sunny and warm. so hopefully it will be a good day to walk around in central park at the same time give my camera some air.

Friends, family and food.....!!!!!!

Rain is still around. Despite that, the later half of the day was a lot of fun. Whatever be the situation, its the people around you that make life entertaining. And I had some fantastic bunch around me.









 Dinner (Pasta Falafel Carbonara-chicken and crab meat with brandy-garlic sauce) at John Harvard's with Pale Ale beer and laughter followed by a long walk under the rain. Absolutely great day! Couldn't have asked for better.

Oh those sunny days.....

As I have mentioned before, I completely despise rain. It's the time of spring, a season of sunny days and warm breeze, and for god sake please don't make it gloomy and morose. I am not even working in lab and for somebody like me who has nothing better to do, the weather is making it worse. Don't get me wrong, I love gloomy weather but only during winter. The reason being, even with sun around, winter doesn't feel any warmer. So,  rather have a gloomy and cloudy weather, at least I won't be fooled by the sun. But, seriously, who would want such a morose weather during spring.

Anyways, I got a chance to cook roasted chicken with garlic, parsley and lemon. It came out real good. I could taste the inside of the chicken as well. Along with chicken I had toasted garlic bread and asparagus. Yummmyy!!!

Blunders and anxieties!!!

Blunder (noun): gross error or mistake resulting usually from stupidity, carelessness, or ignorance

Anxiety (noun): painful or apprehensive uneasiness of mind usually over an impending or anticipated ill

As the definition suggests, I have committed numerous blunders in life, however, every time due to some altogether new reason. So people might ask: did I learn from any of those mistakes? Probably "yes", as every other time the reasons where not the same. However, carelessness is one of the main factors that could lead to blunders. Considering that, I think it would be another blunder to admit that I have learnt anything from previous blunders. One of those silly carelessness led me to another blunder, yesterday, which could, in turn, cause certain delay in my employment authorization process. Anxiety is the after effect of the realization of the blunder, certainly in my case. Painful apprehension, often marked by the physiological signs like, sweating, increased pulse, loss of concentration, and self hatred, thinking how could I be careless again! 

Through past experiences, I have been able to minimize the occurrence of the blunders, in turn, preventing the extent of anxiety. And someone has said correctly: every mistakes/negativity comes with something good. And in this case, all these blunders have definitely made me much calmer person. I have started to believe that worrying or losing your sleep over certain thing (or in this blunder) which is already in past is utterly futile. Losing the composure isn't going to turn things around. If that was the case then people would have spent all their life being anxious over their mistakes. Moreover, people wouldn't be careful anymore and the extent of committing mistakes will rise exponentially. At the same time, the pharma companies, producing anti-anxiety pills, would overtake banks and become the "world turner". Coming back to serious note, I believe, and I am speaking from my personal experiences (knowing the count of blunders I carry around), thinking about solutions to rectify these blunders should be the course to follow. Even people, eventually follow this course too, but only after going through a rough phase of useless anxiety. So why not eliminate this phase! Some people might disagree with me on this concept. However, this has helped me a lot. 

Now the question that arises in mind is that what about the phase till we find the solution. Won't it be natural to be anxious till that point? And I absolutely agree with this. I am not denying the fact that anxiety is something thats human reaction to mistakes and very natural to say the least. However, what I am trying to point out is getting excessively worried about the problem and exhausting all the strength over it. We could focus some of this strength on looking for solutions. Moreover, this will certainly help in keeping mind off of the anxiety. 

Anyways, this is my personal opinion and is very well open for discussion and critiquing! 

The smiling faces.......

Life is a string of incessant struggles, struggles which originate with an instinctive ardor for achieving something unique. In my view it’s very natural to follow our instincts and go for unparalleled success and motivation with  passion. However the basic nature of the quest for success can be very personal and relative. As in for an athlete, the sheer acknowledgement of his sportsman spirit will be in true sense his real life accomplishment whereas for a mother, it is a striking and delightful smile on her daughter’s face. But what makes these dreams similar in nature is the universal perception of course which we all go through before we achieve it. The process which sometime seems unending and impossible can make us rethink about our attempts but what keeps us moving is the thought of joy and success which we hope to receive at the end. I firmly believe that it’s not an easy task to carry on with our dreams in this world where some people don’t hold the respect for others passion and they, instead of letting them move ahead, try to put obstacles in their way. But as somebody has said “Lehro ke sath to sabhi chal lete hai, par asli insane wahi hai jo viprit lehro ko cheer kar aage badhta hai.”(Anyone can swim along the waves but the real person is the one who can swim against waves with the same zeal). 

 Here I would like to share a small piece of dreams and struggle, an inspiring story of Ramkishen and his small family. Before taking up farming, Ramkishen was a small time weaver in a village called Charanpur. The advent of well furnished clothes from big textile industries hampered his income as a weaver, as a result he found himself unsuccessful to earn living for his family. In order to improve his condition, he asked the landlord to lend him money to buy a small piece of land. The landlord instead of giving him money agreed to lend him his land for farming. In return he asked Ramkishen to give him half of his income from farming. Ramkishen couldn’t have asked for more and he immediately agreed to it. Deep down his heart he was very excited and why shouldn’t he be. He had all the reasons to be happy because his days of adversity and pain were going to set behind the horizon of faith. Now he could give his wife a beautiful life and his kids a good education. From next day morning he started to work day and night in his land. But god had something else planned for him. As he had left weaving for farming, his community (weaver community) outcasted him and hence no one gave him water for irrigation. He tried his best to convince them that he had no choice left but his words couldn’t reach their heart. He felt betrayed. He was deeply hurt by the fact that his own people deserted him when he needed them most. But he didn’t want to lose his heart and the dream of good life for his family. So despite adverse conditions he managed to raise some crops however it went in vain as villagers denied to buy his crops. Even the landlord disagreed to his plead and instead of helping him asked him to pay half of his income in one months time. The dreams were shattered; everything looked awful and dull for Ramkishen, not even the smile of his kids made him happy. 

Next day, his kids discovered that the banana tree in his backyard was going to fruit in coming few days. It made his kids happy and excited. For us this may sound little odd and trivial, but for somebody like Ramkishen who was all down and sad, it symbolized the ray of hope. The smiling faces of his kids, which he always dreamt of, once again colored him with enthusiasm and passion to succeed. He decided to go to the city to sell his crops. Early morning he left for the city with whatever money he had. It was a big risk to take but he didn’t have any choice left. When he reached the city, it was very difficult for him to find the right person who could pay him the correct price for the crops. Eventually he got hold of a person, named Keshav Ram, who was later found to be his distant relative. Keshav Ram promised him to pay the right price. Ramkishen was not happy this time because he was too scared of another failure. By that time it was night and Keshav offered Ramkishen to spend the night at his place. As Ramkishen didn’t have enough money to rent dharmshala, he kindly accepted his hospitality. Next day morning when he got up, he was surprised to find that Keshav had already left with the crop. He immediately searched his money bag and to his utter disbelief he found that he was again betrayed by his own people. Once again he seemed like losing the battle, sitting at the end of barrel with no hope of light. Whose fault was it? Why was god so unfair to him? His heart was getting torn by innumerable questions about faith, betrayal, and commitment. 

He walked all over the city looking for some way to earn enough money to go back home. But he was scared to face his wife and kids. How would he console them? Finally after working as a coolie, he had enough money to buy the tickets for home. Later that evening he reached home. The kids were very excited to see him back and showed him the banana fruit. But Ramkishen couldn’t hide his pain from his wife. For the first time in his entire life, he was losing faith in himself and life in general. He was worn-out of trying without any result. His wife consoled him and told him that one day things would change, his efforts and hard work would pay off and their kids would have good education. Almost a month was over and he was expecting the landlord to come any day. Next morning he saw his kids watering the banana tree and telling him how they are eagerly waiting to split the fruit among themselves, naturally it meant a lot to the kids. He kept staring at them, enjoying and playing around the tree. At that moment he was the happiest man on the earth watching their smiling faces. As expected, he saw the landlord coming towards his home. Ramkishen was not sure what he was going to tell the landlord. He brought a chair for the landlord and asked his wife to get some water. Landlord was furious to know that Ramkishen didn’t have money to repay his debts. Ramkishen literally begged and asked him to give him some more time. But landlord didn’t listen to him. He came with the intention that he wouldn’t leave without getting his money. While talking to Ramkishen he was looking around and suddenly his eyes spotted the kids, playing around the banana tree. Suddenly, he had a mean idea flashing across his mind. He stopped Ramkishen and agreed to give him some more time but in return he asked him to give him something before he left. Ramkishen found some peace but he said that he didn’t have anything to offer him. On that the landlord pointed his fingers on the banana fruit. Ramkishen was dumbfound at landlord's request and conveyed his inability to give him the fruit as it would be like taking away the smiles from kid’s faces, and that the fruits meant a lot to his kids. This made the landlord very angry and he told Ramkishen that if he couldn’t do it then he would wreck his house and family. Under this sudden outburst, Ramkrishen had no choice but to allowe him to take away the fruit. While they were cutting the fruit, the sad faces of his kids shattered his heart. He was helpless and at that time his whole life seemed worthless. 

What is the point of living a life when he couldn’t even give his kids the happiness they deserve? This marked the end of his faith and trust. The night looked endless. His emotions and sentiments looked so vulnerable. It seemed as if his whole life is going to fade in the darkness of night. He had no strength left to continue with his aspirations. The next day, the chirping of the birds opened his eyes. Ramkishen heard the unhindered giggles of his kids. He followed the chortle and when he reached there, he saw the kids running around the banana tree with tremendous joy. And to his surprise, there was another fruit flourishing on the banana tree. He looked up in the sky and thanked god for bringing back the smile on their faces. He was once again full of fervor and enthusiasm to retain those smiles on the kid’s faces. 

Drizzle and "Angry Men"

 Zhao Shang Hao!

As usual the day started with jogging which I , particularly, enjoyed due to some drizzle. Having said that, rain isn't something that I appreciate a lot, mostly because of the wet shoes. Any how it was fun today. I started reading "The Gathering" by  Anne Enright, an Irish writer. The book is Man Booker Prize winner of 2007 and have attained considerable interest by literary figures around the world for its reckless intelligence, savage humor and entrancing account of a grieving family. I will come back to it later sometime when I have finished it. 

Last night, I watched another brilliant piece of work by Sidney Lumet called "12 Angry Men". A thrilling story about how one juror manages to convince others of that the boy on trial isn't guilty of committing murder of his dad and that the case isn't as simple as it looked in the courtroom. I am a sucker of courtroom drama, mainly because of shear thrill of it. However, I never thought that a drama among the jurors could be equally interesting and engrossing. It goes without saying that Sidney Lumet has directed some of the most spine chiller movies, keeping the viewers thoroughly absorbed with captivating script. And least to say 12 Angry Men is surely hits the top list of the movies. Henry Fonda and Lee Cobbs are at their generous best.

 If you watch carefully, the movie is like Henry Fonda and Lee Cobbs are defendants and prosecutors, respectively, trying to convince rest of the jurors their side of the case. They go through most of the evidences and arguments and throwing light on some of the things that were not covered during the trial. For me it was a double treat as it was surely a courtroom drama with additional dimension of thrill. However, am I to believe that jurors are allowed to base their judgement on piece of argument/evidence that haven't been considered or discussed during the trial? 

Another very important point, mentioned in the movie, is involvement of personal prejudices/bias against societal norms while coming up with certain kind of decision. Whether it be justice or any other scenario, keeping personal  prejudice out of things like this is highly difficult. And very deservingly this movie is truely a great reflection of this cultural prejudice prevalent worldwide. 

Anyways, in my opinion, it is a very simplistic movie which heavily relies on the talent of the actors and definitely requires a viewing by people who like courtroom dramas.

Honey and Herbs!!!

I have been trying my best to stay healthy and do little bit of jogging to stay fit. I have been jogging for past few days and now the body has slowly started to get used to it, as in I feel less pain now. Anyways today I had cereals (unsweetened) with milk, banana and honey. it was truely awesome. I read somewhere that eating honey instead of sugar is considerable healthier. The picture may not look too appetizing but don't get fooled by it. 

As I had nothing to do today apart from finishing F&Z by JD Salinger, I decided to take a ride to Trader Joe's to buy some herbs. I like going to Trader Joe's or for that matter any grocery stores and explore different kinds of spices, food etc. In my opinion herbs at TJ are relatively cheaper than any other place. Anyways came back home and decided to cook French Toast with honey and asparagus for dinner.It came out really good. Honey has always been my favorite and it surely gave a nice sweet tinge to it. The bread was a bit soggy but it would have been better to toast the bread before cooking with eggs. May be next time. 

Time to watch "Emperor's new groove", a very unknown and highly underrated Disney movie,suggested by one of my friends D.

Franny and Zooey and One flew over......

The day started pretty late than usual because of long night. I was engrossed reading Franny and Zooey. I finally got a chance to finish this book which I bought way back in Feb'10. The book is a story about Grass family, but more importantly siblings Franny and Zooey and their conversation regarding the basic nature of their behavior and conflicting conviction towards god. Franny, the sister, found two books titled " The way of a pilgrim" and its sequel " The pilgrim continues his way" from his deceased brother's, Seymore Grass, bookshelf. The book basically is a story of a russian peasant's journey to discover the meaning of incessant pray as mentioned in bible. Eventually, the peasant finds a mystical saint who teaches him to pray continuously. It starts with reciting "Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me" and eventually the prayer becomes self active, it becomes a part of heartbeat. Once the peasant learnt the way to pray, he traveled around to teach everyone. This book had a profound effect on Franny and she started following this method of praying and used as a refuge to get away from all the negativities of life like, her unreasonable anger against people, disinterest in things that she loved the most. Rather than helping her, the book took a toll on her. The later half of the book is basically an honest conversation between Zooey and Franny wherein Zooey tries to mention the fact that knowing god is the most important thing before praying for him. The conversation is surely open for interpretation and in short its an interesting read. I truely believe in higher power however at the same time I am against the idea of religion. I always believe that people should be given choice to practice whichever religion they want as long as it doesn't affect the mass in general.

Anyways, I also watched oscar winning "One flew over cuckoo's nest".  A very sad and heart wrenching story of  McMurphy and his aspiration to make mental institute patients realize the importance of outside world eventually perishing at the end. It's a crass reality to find that he couldn't succeed. This is a story which can be applied in any political scenario in the world history. An inspiring leader trying to rally people around against the tyrant. Jack Nicholson gave stellar performance as a carefree lunatic who injects his lively nature and zeal for life into the crowd of complacent unknowns who are trying to find solace and comfort behind the closed walls of institute. I wouldn't say the movie was better than the book however it was as close as it could be, retaining the feel at its entirety.

Here's a line from the movie-

McMurphy: What are you doin' here? You oughta be out in a convertible bird-doggin' chicks and bangin' beaver.

Adeos!!

Green cabbage and some wandering!!

Kotaimas!

Last night was great to say the least. However, today since morning I have been feeling sick because of gluttony. Once every week, group of friends and I have cooking night where we each one of us cook one dish using one chosen ingredients. So last night we had another of the cooking night with cabbage as the secret ingredients. Talk of cabbage and what I think of is green and healthy vegetable. So the question is- was it the gluttony or was it the richness of food that made me feel sick. To be frank, the reason was more of latter and a bit of former. Some of the dishes that my friends prepared were cabbage pie with layers of mushroom, cream cheese and boiled eggs, chicken and shrimp with cabbage and corn and finally cabbage stew with buffalo and egg-plant sauce. At first I was thinking of making cabbage and potato curry. But I have made that number of times previously and as a part of trying something new I decided to try my hand at "cabbage pizza".

Following the philosophy of Penny's dad which goes something like, every unhealthy ingredient in food can be balanced by something else. So rather than avoiding the unhealthy food, which is very hard for most of us as they are so tasty, it would be better to balance it with some healthy food. And cabbage pizza aptly fulfills the philosophy. Cheese balanced by green healthy nature of cabbage. Its a very simple recipe however the only tough part is rolling the dough to get appropriate shape and size. But if you are expert at making dough and rolling then this recipe is like cake walk.

Recipe:


Ingredients:

1. 2-3 cups regular flour

2. 2-3 tablespoon oil

3. 3-4 tablespoon of butter

4. 1/4 lb mushroom

5. 1 red bell pepper

6. 2 green chilies

7. 10-12 fresh basil leaves

8. Salt and black pepper to taste

9. 1 whole cabbage (~1/2 lb)

10. 1 teaspoon of baking powder

Chop all the vegetables (cabbage, mushroom, red pepper, green chilies, basil). Add 2 tablespoon oil and baking powder to flour and mix it well. Now add water to it and make a soft and bit sticky dough. Let it sit at room temperature for an hour. In the meantime, in a hot pan with 1-2 tablespoon of butter, add flour and cook till its brown. Add appropriate amount of milk to it and cook it well so that it forms a thick creamy paste. Set it aside. In a separate skillet, saute mushroom, cabbage, pepper and season them. Add the prepared creamy paste to it and mix well. Now roll the dough, spread it on a baking pan covered with buttered foil. Spread the vegetable mix on top of the dough. Add green chilies and basil followed by Parmesan cheese. Bake it in oven at 500 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Cabbage pizza done!

To tell you the truth, the pizza was gone in minutes, not only because it was tasty but more so because we all were starving. Anyways it was a lot of fun cooking together followed by some interesting talk about plans to scare people.  

I have been reading Franny and Zooey by JD Salinger (famous for Catcher in the Rye) and only been through first few pages.So far its been an interesting read and very different read compared to Catcher in the Rye. Project "Music Discovery" is still on. I have been compiling list of some of the songs on Grooveshark. I will discuss the playlist in the next post.

Till then 

Jan ne!!

Bits of gibberish and bits of Pulp!

Ni Hao!

This is some of the gibberish that I have been up to in last few days or so. From my past experience, learning gibberish wasn't something that came easily to me. However, now that there's plenty of time to kill, I thought it would be an interesting experience to give it another try. When people are learning new gibberish, its very important to practice it with people around you. It just makes it easier to learn/remember. Considering that I have plenty of chinese friends around, I thought of starting with tit-bits of Mandarin.  I have been picking up bits of greetings, counting and how to say hello in Mandarin and its been a lot of fun. Lately, I have watched number of Japanese animations, mostly Mayazaki's masterpiece (courtesy my friend Penn, visit his blog to know all about the Japanese animations). These movies have surely helped me a lot in picking tit bits of Japanese lingoes like, Kotaimas, Oyasumi etc. I have realized that learning gibberish is very scientific and least to say very methodical as well.

Yesterday got a chance to revisit QT's one of the best additions till date, "Pulp Fiction". As part of the project to watch/revisit some interesting movies, Pulp Fiction was the first name that came into my head. A guy who forayed into movies with "Reservoir Dogs", had a tough act to follow. An independent movie which later became cult classic after the successful premier at Cannes Film Festival. Its human psychology to expect beyond limits from the best and when the best doesn't deliver they get trashed like hell. QT came with a movie that outclassed the "Dogs". A sensational script with intriguing characters under some unbelievable circumstances with a cast like SM Jackson, Christopher Walken, Travolta, Uma Thurman and Travolta. Every bits and pieces of the movie keeps you on the edge and guessing "whats the next crazy thing gonna come on the screen". The dialogues of the movie, especially "The Watch" scene with CW, is an absolute treat for people who like cinema with words and intensity. SM and Travolta's opening sequence and the whole conversation regarding the "foot massage" was freaking hilarious and quirky at the same time. But the jem of the scene is saved for the end, when Tim and SM gets into the conversation about who is who in terms of being righteous man, shepherd and evil. Its highly profound and it surely made me think a lot. By the way did I mention that the soundtrack of the movie was equally bad ass, suiting aptly the style and quirkiness of the movie. I loved the dancing sequence between Vincent and Mia-"Surely the best twisters". QT has always been one of my favorite writer and I am glad with time he hasn't lost his touch, giving us some of the finest piece of writing.

Here's the excerpt of the conversation between Captain Koons and Buch:

Captain Koons: The way your dad looked at it, this watch was your birthright. He'd be damned if any slopes gonna put their greasy yellow hands on his boy's birthright, so he hid it, in the one place he knew he could hide something: his ass. Five long years, he wore this watch up his ass. Then when he died of dysentery, he gave me the watch. I hid this uncomfortable piece of metal up my ass for two years. Then, after seven years, I was sent home to my family. And now, little man, I give the watch to you. 

Tonight I am gonna try my hand at "Cabbage Pizza". lets see how it goes.

Wan an!!

Rebirth

So finally after five and half years of trial and tribulation, I have gone past the barrier. There was a lot of excitement before everything happened however now that all this is behind me, there's no different feeling and least to say that there's any excitement left. I wouldn't deny the fact that when I was walking upstairs after my defense, there was a silence of relief  but that lasted only for few moments or so. And now that moment is billion seconds behind I am bored to death.

"I have nothing to do. Hence it would be better if I go HOME and let people do whatever they are busy with."

So I have decided to learn new things and use this free time before I am sucked into the world of agony and pain. Now the question is where to start from. Some of the things that are floating in my mind are:

1. Exploring music and learning about new band

2. Trying my hands at cooking

3. Movies (to start with IMDB top 250)

4. Drinks (cocktails)

5. Biking around Stony Brook

6. Getting back to photography

7. Learn tit-bits of different gibberish (as in language)

8.  and of course "Blogging" about these experiences

So let it begin!