I think

Joining the bandwagon

Looks like many people on my reader are answering the following questions.  Might as well join the party.

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WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?

The goddess of Friday. I was born on a Friday.

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?

When the kid was watching pocahontas and the song "Savages savages" came up - towards the end, Pocahontas would sing "how loud are the drums of war". against the chorus of "Destroy their evil race Until there's not a trace left".

DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?

Hell, NO

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE LUNCH MEAT?

I am vegetarian.

DO YOU HAVE KIDS?

One handful.

IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?

Yes. I am a loyal friend.

DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT?

NO. And I hate people using it with me.

DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?

You aren't allowed to have it?

WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?

I throw up sliding a kindergarten slide.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE CEREAL?

Honey nut cheerios. It has been 8 years since I had it last. They are expensive in India, and the milk here is not really nice.

DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?

I don't even wear shoes.

DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG?

No.  Neither physically, nor mentally.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE ICE CREAM?

Butterscotch and Rum'n'raisin.

WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?

Their voice. I like soft spokenness in people.  I haven't seen one in a loooong time.

RED OR PINK?

Red.  "Arakku" as it is called in Tamil.

WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVOURITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?

My lack of physical and mental strength.

WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?

None.  I am not sentimental.  At least not any more. I move on.

WHAT IS THE PAUL MCKENNA TECHNIQUE THAT YOU NEED TO WORK ON THE MOST?

Who? Oh ok. confidence, I guess.

WHAT COLOUR SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?

Bare footed.

WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE?

Marie biscuit dunked in tea.

WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?

Squirrels.

IF YOU WERE A CRAYON WHAT COLOUR WOULD YOU BE?

Blue

FAVOURITE SMELLS?

Jasmine, sambrani (benzoin), fresh coffee.

WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?

My daughter's music teacher

MOUNTAIN HIDEAWAY OR BEACH HOUSE?

BEACH  for sure.

FAVOURITE SPORT TO WATCH?

Don't like to watch other people playing. Too passive for me.

HAIR COLOUR?

Black

EYE COLOUR?

Black

DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?

20-20

FAVOURITE FOOD?

As if I can put them all in one blog post.  All types of Western dessert (cakes, souffles, puddings, pies etc.), many Indian sweets (rosogolla, pal payasam etc.), salads, soups, rasam, curd rice, mangoes, bananas..oh forget it...too many.

SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?

Happy

LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?

Santa Paws (No really !)

WHAT COLOUR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?

Blue kutha.

SUMMER OR WINTER?

Summer. Indian, Madrasi summer.

HUGS OR KISSES?

Both for my immediate family.

People outside my immediate family must at all times keep a 6 ft distance from me.

FAVOURITE DESSERT?

Too many to list.

STRENGTH TRAINING OR CARDIO?

Walking. Lots of walking.  Lots and lots of walking.  And yoga.

COMPUTER OR TELEVISION?

Ha !  Television viewing is fourth on my dislike list.

WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?

Cleo Coyle: French Pressed

WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?

No mouse pad.

FAVOURITE SOUND?

Silence

ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES?

Beatles.

WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME?

U.S.A

DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?

Nothing spectacular, but a few that satisfy me - a good singing voice, decent writing skills

WHERE WERE YOU BORN?

Chennai

WHERE ARE YOU LIVING NOW?

Chennai

WHAT COLOUR IS YOUR HOUSE?

White

WHAT COLOUR IS YOUR CAR?

"Healing green"

DO YOU LIKE ANSWERING 50 QUESTIONS?

Maybe, but this one, as leenadll pointed out, has only 49.

Dedicated..

...to my all my girl friends, especially SA and SI who have been with me through laughter and tears for the past thirty five years.

 

 

Books I read this year

At one point of time somewhere at the end of last year, it suddenly struck us.  We don't have any more place to keep books. A new room was built in dude's childhood home, to include a wall-to-wall storage space, filled with books.  My childhood home now has every free and built-in cupboard overflowing.  Another full wall-cupboard at our home is choking, not to mention another cupboard for the kid's books, in addition to all the books that lie scattered all over the house (careful, don't step on that book there..).  Although all three of us have a certain share in the crime, the major partners are dude and the kid, who would have been happy to have been born with extra eyes and hands. 

So there were the following options - stop reading, get rid of all books that have been read at least 27 times (which would clear out most of our cupboard)  or try out the ebook reader.

Obvious choice.

Dude got himself a Kindle and now it has become a third appendage - if it is not in his hand, it is in his pant pocket. 

Now, I am not as voracious a reader as dude, and so I settled for an imitation iPad (local make, assembled, we named it the Android), and use it only as an e-reader ("fb-reader"), in fact, I don't even know what other functionalities it has.  It was decided that the kid and I would share the iPad, since the only time I get to read anyway is when she sleeps (and hence NOT reading).  The sharing system worked excellently for about half-an-hour since we received the blessed instrument.   Now, when dude is not reading his kindle, he is arbitrating  ("appa, amma used the android all of yesterday, I want it now".."Dude, ask her to go and read a paper book, I only have now to read" etc.). 

Disgusted, the dude ordered another kindle, for the kid.  I will be glad to FINALLY have the android to myself.

It seems that I have been reading more (20 + since January) since I got the Android. Strangely, I have only been reading female authors since the start of the year.  It wasn't intentional, but just happened. 

I have a bad (?) habit.  When there is a series of books, I can't move on to another author unitl I finish the series.  And I am a linear reader, unlike dude, who reads up to 10 books at a time (not simultaneously, of course).   Here are some books I read

Rhys Bowen : Royal Spyness Mysteries

1. Her Royal Spyness

2. A Royal Pain

3. Royal flush

I am looking for Royal Blood, but haven't got the book yet.

What I like about the Royal Spyness Mysteries is the setting of the stories - early nineteen hundreds England, with all its snobbery, and laced with a stiff upper lip humour.  The problem though is that the story tends to drag in the middle and somewhere along the way you feel like screaming "Get on with it already..."

Rhys Brown - Molly Murphy Mystery

1. Murphy's law

2. Death of Riley

3. For the Love of Mike

4. In Like Flynn

5. Oh Danny Boy

6. In Dublin's Fair City

7. Tell me pretty Maiden

8. In a gilded cage

9. The last illusion

Have not yet been able to get Bless the bride.

The setting is New York at the turn of last century and the protagonist is an Irish refugee, accidentally turned detective. The setting is charming, the characterization, cute.  But like the Royal books, tends to sag in the middle.

Cleo Coyle: Coffeehouse mysteries

I have started reading the series in random which is a bother because, even though the plots of the main mysteries are independent, the lives of the characters are closely entwined with the main plot. This is true with the earlier Rhys Bowen series as well. This is very different from the Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle genre, where the detective (Ms. Maple, Poirot, Holmes) is not personally involved in the mystery other than im-passionately solving it, so each is a stand alone story not requiring you to read prior books before launching on this one.  So, I read a few random coffeehouse stories, and although it does not really affect the flow of the main plot, the supporting stuff is irritatingly disjoint.

1.Murder most frothy

2. Decaffeinated corpse

3. Espresso Shot

I am drinking more coffee than before since I started reading Cleo Coyle, her descriptions of various types of coffee are very very distracting.   Some books (e.g. Espresso shots) even have a few recipes at the end, that I skip for two reasons (a) I am mageirocophobic and (b) I don't want to read about the frosted, dusted, oozing cookies at the dead of night and end up not being able to sleep because I WANT THAT DARN THING NOW.

Both Rhys Bowen and Cleo Coyle throw in a a lot of romance - a Daniele Steel meets Agatha Christie mess.  Agatha Christie had romance in her books (think Harlequin stories), but in none of them would the protagonist (the detective) be involved.  In both RB and CC books, the detectives have a flaming love life and it becomes distracting to the central plot.  In an effort to be sexually liberated, the books end up being more banal and pretentious than if the romantic escapades had been absent.

Erma Bombeck: 

1. The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank

2. When You Look Like Your Passport Photo, It's Time to Go Home

3. A Marriage Made in Heaven ... or Too Tired For an Affair

4. At Wit's End

5. Motherhood: The Second Oldest Profession

I love Erma's sense of humor.  I love her fighting spirit. I love the way she can take an adversity and laugh it off - like the "Riddikulus" spell in Harry Potter. Her books make me laugh and tug at my heart in a nice way.

But for the first time in life, there was one book by Erma Bombeck that I did not like - Motherhood: The Second Oldest Profession.  It was not funny at all.  In fact, it was quite depressing, despite all the attempts to poke fun at many aspects of motherhood.  I don't think I will read this book again.

Apart from this, I re-read a few Agatha Christie - the word re-read is used loosely, because I can actually commit from memory many of the stories, verbatim - that's how many times I have read it in the past.

I want to read something else, but I suspect that I can't go onto the next author until I have finished all the coffeehouse mysteries in my android - it is a disease really.

I shall update in a month or two, if my read list grows enough to warrant a post.

 

 

Dude Talks To Asian Scientist

Prominent Indian Blogger, IIT Professor Arunn Narasimhan Talks To Asian Scientist

AsianScientist (Apr. 26 , 2011) – We sat down with one of India’s most energetic professors – both in person and in c  yberspace – Dr. Arunn Narasimhan, Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM),  located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

An avid and outspoken science blogger, Arunn writes not one, but two blogs – one in English, nOnoScience.info, and one in Tamil, அ(றி)வியல். He blogs freely on topics that interests him, which range from heat transfer and thermodynamics, to India’s cricket team, and Tamil music.

Today, Asian Scientist Magazine asks Arunn some tough questions on education and healthcare in India, and his thoughts on IIT and its future position in the world.

Read more of the interview with dude at the Asian Scientist site.

Contentment

I ran into a professor who taught me many years back. He had retired a couple of years after I graduated.

He said this at the end of our chit chat -"I may not have achieved anything spectacular in my profession, but I did my best.  I have a small but comfortable flat.  I get enough pension to support our living. My wife and I have old-age ailments, but we have a great family doctor and the strength to bear pain. I would have liked my daughter to be married, but she chose not to, and seems happy with her decision - I am happy that she is happy. "

I hope I can age as gracefully as that.

Like it, like it not

In the course of a conversation, dude asked the seven year old kid to list activities she likes, and those that she does not, in order of importance (see her blog post here).  Her likes were more than her dislikes, and she took longer to think up the dislikes than the likes.

As a digression, "boys" don't qualify as an activity in my eyes, but she had them in her dislike list and "monkeys" belong to the same list - go figure.

That set me thinking.  Off the top of my head, I could list activities I dislike far more easily than those that I like.  The first activities on my "like list" came out instantaneously and of course, I pursue them even now, so they probably qualify as "passion". I had to think a bit on the rest on the list, and realised that I don't pursue them regularly in the humdrum of daily existence. I need to find time to do the things I like but have not really not been doing.

Some of my dislikes are very strong - qualifiable by "hate" rather than dislike.   So, here is my list.

THINGS I LIKE TO DO (in the order in which I like them)

1. Writing

2. Reading

3. Drawing/painting

4. Playing volleyball

5. Handwashing clothes

6. Singing

7. Spending time in the beach by myself, sitting on the sand, watching waves come and go.

8. Doing artwork with my kid.

THINGS I DON’T LIKE TO DO

1. Cooking (that activity alone qualifies as "hating" "detesting" etc.)

2. Talking

3. Arguing

4. Watching television

5. Attending parties

6. Shopping

A few years back, when I started blogging, there was a practice of "tagging".  For newbies in the blog world, it was a process by which a blogger tagged a fellow blogger to write about something in particular in his/her own blog. The "taggee" will, at the end of her post on the tagged topic,  in turn tag other bloggers she knows and the tag would thus grow as a meme. I am not sure if the practice is still alive, and if it isn't let me attempt to resurrect it.

Those that visit here and have blogs of your own, consider yourselves tagged.  List the activities you like and dislike.  You cannot spend more than 2 minutes per list. If possible link back to the blog that tagged you.

 

 

Driving at dusk

Dusk upsets me.  Give me a bright day, I am happy. Give me a dark night, well, I am not exactly happy, but at least I don't palpitate.  Dawn is fine, in fact I love it, although it seems ages since I saw one.  Dusk however, makes me very uncomfortable.  When the sky is not totally dark, but the buildings silhoute against it, and the manmade lights are already on, I feel the urgent need to go into the house, switch on all the tube lights in the house and sit bathed in brightness.

Today on our way back from Landmark where the kiddo attended a quiz on Harry Potter (I'll write about it perhaps if I have more energy), it was dusk when we passed the erstwhile "downtown" of Chennai - Mount Road.  The pictures don't make dusk any less depressing than reality.

 

An ORANGE House !  I mean...excuse me?

Glass painting after a long time

I bought this design more than a year back and even did the stone paintings soon after. But then, life took over and I did not have the time, inclination or energy to sit and finish this painting. 

Yesterday, sudden inspiration struck and over a course of three hours, I finished the painting fully. It has to be framed next week.

I am thinking of gifting it to dude's grandmother when I meet her next month.

For the uninitated, the painting is of the presiding Deities of Tirupati - Srinivasar and Alarmelvalli thaayaar. 

Notice

Image stolen shamelessly from LeendaDLL. Loved it.

Cookalogue: Yogi or Rogi? The Choice is yours.

The ocean of milk that yielded the elixir of immortality also produced the halahala. While food can be medicine, it can also be a scourge to the human body. Bad eating practices can make the body and mind vulnerable to a wide range of diseases - as a tamil song goes - eating one meal makes you a yogi (saint), two makes you a bhogi (connoisseur), three meals make you a rogi (diseased) and four meals make you a drogi (wastrel).[...]

via cookalogue.blogspot.com