It's the day.... again!

• It’s the day that you look forward for the next 364 days
• It’s the day that truly is yours and yours only (until you get married... (and have a kid)).
• It’s the day that takes loooong time to start and you pray that it takes a loooooonger time to end.
• It’s the day that you just hope nothing goes wrong so that you won’t be jinxed for the rest of the year.
• It’s the day you act like a king even though you are not and you will not accept it.
• It’s the day that you want to be awake when it starts.
• It’s the day that empties your wallet and damages your credit cards.
• It’s the day you smirk like a celebrity tired of taking phone calls all day.
• It’s the day when Beeps, Likes, Comments, Rings and Knocks are simply not enough.
• It’s the day your friend turns into enemy temporarily for forgetting "it’s the day".
• It’s the day your school teacher excuses you from doing homework, scoring low marks or being "you".
• It’s the day you wait for the special someone to notice you.
• It’s the day that you don’t want anyone to claim that it is theirs day too.
• It’s the day to be embarrassed being sung the song in front of everyone, but still being bold enough to face it.
• It’s the day that you have no reason to be proud of, but still get congratulated... (unless you are old).
• It’s the day of surprises and acting to fake surprises.
• It’s the day when sweets are on the top of the list and sometimes top of your head.
• It’s the day that gives you cards, gifts, sweets and more.
• It’s the day that becomes the worst when left alone away from the loved ones.
• It’s the day that you makes you happy but scared when counting the age.
• It’s the day when Joey cried "Why God? Why? We had a deal!"
• It’s the day that you make wish blowing the candle(s).
• It’s the day that you want to be declared holiday just for you.
• It’s the day that you want to have the greatest fun in your life.
• It’s the day that your parents want you to be the most disciplined as every other day of your life.
• It’s the day that you go first on e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g.
• It’s the day to get beaten where the door might have hit you or the dog bit you.
• It’s the day when only one thing goes on your friends mind.
• It’s the day that called your birthday.
• It’s the day you write this and someone will reply to the post saying,

Happy Birthday!

What-if theory - Revisited

It is time to revisit one of my old posts from this blog titled "What-if theory". The post was about the theory made by one other than Satman during one of our crazy but good old crazy  (I said crazy before, didn't I?) discussions in Charlotte.

Basically, this is what the theory states.
“In a not-so-realisitic world, there exists beings of two kinds, one getting paid for not doing any work and the other paid the same money for doing work, provided one is given a choice to choose between the two eccentric kinds.”

And my choice at that time was as simple as "I want work". The question seemed so simple to me though the choice raised eye-brows of quite a few around me at that time. People kept questioning me "Why? Why when you are being paid for not doing any work??". I just shrugged.
But now, I think if I am asked the same question, I wonder if my answer would be different. Atleast the question is no longer simple to me anymore. And this is scaring me a lot. How can I imagine myself feeling fine getting paid without work. That is not the same person I was few years before when I wrote that post. What changed in me that made me doubt my answer now. I try to press myself think hard about it. Various reasons arise. Am I being money-minded (more than I should be)? Am I being unjust and unfair to the world? Has the evil part of my taken over my actions and thought? Have I just turned lazy? Or am I enlightened to know the non-necessity of work? Have I finally realized what all others around me had realized long back? Am I coming back to reality? Do I think the world has mis-used me because I took the road less travelled? Is it because I am married and have a kid? Or does it have to do anything with what I am doing right now for work?
I believe the last sentence makes more sense any other questionable reasons I can think of. The answer was simple to me because I loved the work I did before. I loved things around me when I am work. I just simply believed that I was doing what I wanted to do and what I thought I can do forever. And Because I loved what I did as work, I simply said "I want work". What is clearer more to me is my earlier answer was indeed incorrect. I should have said "I want work that I love". That makes more sense. People can be fine (strong possibility) if they are allowed to work on what they love and the factor of money may not matter much.
So my friends who answered against me may not have been wrong either. They felt they are fine with being paid without work because the work they did was not what they wanted but had to. We just need to find the one we love and make it as our "work". Then everyone's answers will align to mine. May be people will realize when they seek money they are just chasing happiness but with wrong directions.

This makes me rewrite Satman's what-if theory. Let us call it Satman-Injey What-if theory.

“In a not-so-realisitic world, there exists beings of two kinds, one getting paid for not doing any work and the other paid the same money for doing work they love, provided one is given a choice to choose between the two eccentric kinds.”

After all, if your heart is not in it, you are nothing but a Zombie calling "Brainzzzzzzzz".

Who are we?

We sat there starting at each other. Our eyes were fixated as if they were trying to pierce each others. The eyes were full of questions. Questions which needs to be answered. The questions that could not be asked. Questions that can not be questions as they do not make sense.  Questions we already know the answer, but could not be spoken aloud. Questions that were killing us to question "who are we?".

The smoke flew high slow and soft. The room was so silent that we could prove that smoke has a voice. May be a whisper to break the silence. "What do you think we are going to do now?", a question so irrelevant to the situation, nevertheless was finally stated. "Someone will have to pay the price. Someone needs to tell us what happened or we all are going to regret it". The burning end of the cigarette ended its life on the table. And so began the story.

It was less than 2 nights ago. The day was fresh, the wind was cold and inside the secret meeting room we all had sat down. If we are to win this, we need to work together. We cannot have any mistakes. Not anymore. We were losing more and more every day. They have been taking over our territory slowly. What was ours a month ago is now theirs. We know we can not allow that. We need a plan. A plan that will show that we shall not be challenged. The main part of the plan was to attack them at night with complete coordination. We have to give them the biggest surprise and finish them all. But before the plan, we need resources. We decided that we will call our headquarters for hi-tech supplies. Guns and glory. We need to have them all. While we wait for the ammunition to arrive, we will engage ourselves in surveillance. The surveillance will tell us all the day to day activities of them enabling us to find the best vantage point for the attack. Once we have received the information, we need to form the attack plan. We should attack not just fast, we need to attack them hard. We should not only be the best soldiers but also armed with the best machinery we have. It is our duty to make sure that we have everything ready for us to fight. We shall communicate only in codes. Of course, we had different code languages for difference situation. But this calls for the best code that we had developed long back. We know what we are talking about. While working together as a team is very important, we must also remember following orders is what keeps us focussed. Therefore when we give the orders, we must follow them. We cannot have questions on the orders for we are much experienced and we are what makes us stronger. When we are inside their base, never lose your sights. They may not be prepared for that night, but their fear of us have made them more vigilant than before. And after the last fight, they would not sleeping well. We may not know this but we showed them the face of terror in the last fight. Their survival was nothing but luck. We will take away that luck today. We will show them the terror in full. We will win this war. We will end this war. We will be victorious. 

And remember, we must wait at the bar outside their base partying all night long mingling with the nightly crowd without raising any suspicion until we have returned from the mission with glory.

The fire lit up the new cigarette into bright red. The smoke filled the emptiness of the room again. "So why are we here?". Another question as dumb as the previous one before. We were seated in silence in the dark far corner of the bar. No one is going to come back from the mission. We were all in the bar and it is all who were all in the secret meeting room.

When we say 'we', who are 'we'?

No more excuses

OK. I definitely have to write something today. All my excuses that I can use to not write blogs are not available now. As you may remember, it is one of my new year resolution too. With Chini and Junior so far by 8432 miles from me, and sitting alone in home on a long weekend with no interest to do any work and no good movies to watch in theatre, I realize that I have to do this. Redbox movies, Netflix and good lazy sleep can keep me occupied only for so much time. And my recent curiosity to learn the art of cooking has suprisingly turned simple and easy to accomplish that I actually made Channa masala while talking on phone with my mom in a record 15 minutes and Brinjal curry in unbelievable 10 minutes. Just read about my mushroom biryani adventure if you dont understand my excitement. And the food turned out to be edible and I am eating it. So with nothing else to do, I pushed myself to write something here.

Though, logically speaking (or writing), I can finish this post as I have already written something, I am pushing myself to write few meaningful words.

1. It is boring to be all alone in a 2 bed room apartment.

2. Chini and Junior had kept me occupied all the time. Now it seems so different not to have  both of them even to greet me when I return home from work.

3. We have put up furnitures and Junior's stuff for sale. It pains a little to sell something that Junior used a lot.

4. Zero Dark Thirty is way thrilling than Argo. It really deserved the best picture Oscar. Wondering why it was given to Argo.

5. In the age of Video games having great storyline, Resident Evil movie series keeps creeping out in storyline. Someone finish the movie series and better start with a reboot.

6. Where there is will, there is way. When there is no other way, you learn to cook.

7. Psych drama wanted to be Sherlock. But it turned out to be Tinkle's Shikkari Shambu and Siruvar malar's Inspector Vijay comic strips. Silly but addicted.

8.  I have lot of things in my mind to expand my photography craziness. That includes Nikon 24-70 f2.8 lens, Nikon SB910 flash and an indoor photo studio setup to shoot portraits. (I wonder whose)

9. It feels good to write this post. But I am thinking hard to complete with 10 points.

10. And there we go. 10 points.

The usual suspects for 2013

So it's New Year... once again. I think Time is only thing that seems to proceed as per the plan. Of course, I am ignoring Einstein's theory of relativity as we are talking about reality and not relativity. 366 days since the beginning of last year and many things have changed. Some positive on the personal side and many negative on the outside. But lets leave the ranting about the past for some other post. Coming to the point, New Year is always an auspicious day for making resolutions. Resolutions that are many times forgotten and sometimes made as a reference for the next New Year's list. That does not stop one from making it every year unless you are Calvin who has a strong feeling against resolutions.

Here are the usual suspects that i have decided to take up for this year 2013.

1. Reduce weight - I think this tops  the list of 90% of all people around the world and it deserves to be in the top of my list too.

2. Keep Blogging - I wish I could have shared more of my thoughts through my blog in 2012. A lot of interesting and memorable events to be captured. A lot of happenings to be analyzed and argued. But I did not do it with the usual words "I was busy with.. etc.. etc..". Lets try to rectify that this year. Shall we?

3. Dont Procrastinate - As someone said, "Procrastination is the bad habit of putting of until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday". If I keep up with this resolution, I probably can maintain all of my other resolutions. 

4. Stay Connected - This resolution is made not just to keep myself connected in Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+, Foursquare...... Its for staying connected in the real world too.

5. Write a Story - Ah! The special resolution that I forced myself into. This would be the achievement of the year... if I complete it.

The list might seem short. But I have a long way to go to achieve each and everyone of it. So cheers! Here is to a focussed and productive New Year!

The Sky falls

What makes Bond, James Bond? Is it the guns? Women? Perhaps Style? Or may be "Martini. Shaken not stirred!"? The truth is that it includes all that brings James Bond to life. You have it all in Skyfall including something off the menu - Family. As much as I hate to say it, it totally negates what Bond means to us. We are taken for a ride into the early life of The ruthless deadly charming Spy and the story goes more personal instead of the usual "Oh-God-Save-The-World-Bond".

With the reboots that are being done in every movie franchise we have loved including Batman, Superman, Star Trek, and spiderman though I keep asking why for the latter web-crawler, the producers seem to have conceived the idea that bringing emotions and personality to the legendary characters can turn the reboots to a Gold mine. It worked for Batman perfectly, thanks to Christopher Nolan and to a good level in Star Trek by JJ Abrams. But one must keep in mind about Superman Returns and The Amazing Spiderman. It was just not enough. Reboots need more than emotions to work. Now Skyfall too falls into this category of needing more. It appears the producers sacrificed everything that Bond was for history that is totally uncalled for.

This is very much apparent when they chose Sam Mendes to direct the film. To put bluntly, Director Bala has been asked to remake Kamal's Kurudhipunal. An excellent director but put in the wrong place. Sam Mendes, well known for his American Beauty and emotional mafia movie "Road to Perdition" did what he knows best. Made the actors feel. But you must not ask James Bond to do that. Especially making him cry with X lying dead in his hands. He definitely needs to watch the previous Bond movies.

Talking about the movie without prejudice on the 22 Bond films before this, you can call the movie as done well. Not a great one. But not bad indeed. You have the fast action sequences, proof of license to kill, a dangerous villain, explosions and ladies too. But like what a friend said in facebook, you tend to doubt if it is Jason Bourne or James Bond that you see. (Was it a coincidence that both the names have initials JB?)

A devoted fan of all bond films, even for ill-fated Moon Raker (Cant forget the line "Oh! he had to fly!") to the explosive Quantum of Solace (Friend of yours? I dont have any friends), this was not impressive. Lets face it. Casino Royale was a reboot. A perfect one. A newly promoted 007 learning to become the ruthless Spy. Then they added destructiveness and cold-heart in Quantum of Solace. We loved it and so we expected more in Skyfall. But then you feel cheated! We are finally told that James Bond is getting rebooted again. And this time back to its origins. Right to the movie that started it all. Dr.No from 1962. For Gun's sake, we did not ask for this.

By the way, whats the reason behind the smirk on the villain's face when he reads the gravestone of Bond's parents. Something to be implied there? If that is true, they better remove that scene from the movie, as it makes one wonder if Sam Mendes met with Bharathi Raja for the movie.

Skyfall - falls out of the sky. 6/10

Trivia: I just thought if Eva Mendes is related to Sam Mendes. Turns out, they are related as close as Lal Bahadhur Shastri and Ravindra Shastri. ;) Just a coincidence it seems.

What is cooking today?

So I waited as the cooker was letting out steam slowly. Very slowly. It has just started cooking. Atleast I think it is cooking. I verified the stove and it was on. Five minutes and I am still waiting. I heard someone saying that it might take a while, so let me say whats cooking. With Chini away in India enjoying mom made breakfast, lunch and dinner and fresh juices in between, I decided to take the bold step to cook; something I rarely do from the time Big bang happened. You know when the everything came out of nothing! Nothing related though.

Anyway, after making few attempts like chutneys and Chicken curries (see in Facebook ;) ), I decided on the ultimate dish of Mushroom biryani. As always, I thought it is going to an easy day.

The morning had started long before I woke up and I met it only around 11 AM. Chini has already called twice and it was time to begin the weekend now. So without much ado, i started to make preparations for biryani. Chini dictated the recipe in exact metric units. Similar to Parthiban questioning Vadivelu the value of “a punch”, I am always ridiculed by the measurement terms like “a pinch” or “little”. How much really is a pinch? is it 2 grams or 5 grams? Or does it depend upon the density of what we are measuring? And there is always a difference in the value of pinch based on who is taking it right. And what is the size of little? There is ‘little’ Stuart in the size of a mouse and he says he eats large Gold fish biscuit which if you ask me is “little”. Chini already annoyed with my questioning decided to make it simple. All measurements will always be in cups or teaspoons. (she confirmed i need to measure to the top flat level)

After getting the recipe from Chini, it is time to get all ingredients. She already informed me that Biryani masala powder is there in home and i just need to get Onions, tomato and mushrooms. I could use Sona Masoori rice instead of Basmati. But suddenly my stomach started to say something. I am Hungry and it is 12 PM already. So I decided to have lunch outside and then get the ingredients on the way. After much searching for a quick bite, I found the only food I have appetite for is Biryani. But that is not going to be ready for another 2 hours (if I start in the next 5 minutes). So I went to Rice ‘n’ Roti and got non vegetarian meals with Chicken biryani and “Mushroom” curry. Filled with heavy lunch, I then decided to take a rest.

Relaxed on the couch after watching Jim playing pranks on Dwight, I finally decided to get back to “Mushroom” biryani at around 3 PM. Cooker on the stove and ghee hot in it. I chopped the onions and started frying in the cooker. As soon as it turned Golden brown, I added the half tomato mixing it continuously to avoid sticking to the bottom. That is when I realized I need to search for masala powder. Going through the kitchen shelf, refrigerator and the oven, I found that I cannot find the powder which means that it isn’t there in home. You know what that means? It means it is NOT going to be an easy day.

Now is a hard choice to make. I either run to the grocery store and get the masala before the onion burns or I could throw away the onions and buy mushroom biryani from the restaurant near by. I could not take the second choice as I do not like that restaurant much. So switching off the stove, I drove fast to the grocery store and found biryani masala for 2 dollars. The problem now is the Indian grocery stores do not accept credit card for below 5 dollars purchase and unfortunately I did not have any cash. So I hunted for 3 dollars worth food and I found only the raw materials for making food. Another trouble. After searching all the aisles, I found Parampara, something much closer to finished food. Returning back to home, I continued the operation. After adding 4 teaspoons of Biryani masala powder and constant stirring, it started smelling good. It really is going to be good. Next ingredient on the line was 3 cups of water. My fear that if you think everything is going good, it means there is something wrong altogether just got real. I had used the small cooker of 3 liter size which will become full if I add 3 cups of water. Now I have to transfer all the contents from the small cooker to the larger cooker. Tired of making stupid mistakes, I did what I had to do.

Everything transferred, I then started washing rice. And that is when I realized that I could have bought basmati rice when I went to the grocery store. Biryani would be very tasty with basmati rice. And that is also when I realized I could have bought basmati rice for 3 dollars instead of Parampara mix. Thinking all that I could have done, I washed the available Sona Masoori rice and just when I was about it mix it, I found mushroom lying on the side - uncut, unwashed, uncooked and obviously un-mixed. Damn. And so the large cooker was put on low heat, and I started frying the mushrooms in the small cooker. After 15 minutes and 1 hour since I started cooking, I realized I am finally closer to finishing it. After multiple checks on the recipe and thinking many times on what more mistakes could be made in making of mushroom biryani, i finally added the rest of the ingredients including washed rice, fried mushrooms and 1 teaspoon of salt for taste. Everything added, I closed the lid and put on the whistle and I waited.

PS: By the time I finished writing this, the cooker has already made 5 whistles asking me to take it off the hot stove. Mushroom biryani is finally ready and is waiting for any volunteers to taste it.

PPS: After much contemplation and some encouragement from Chini, I took the task myself and tasted it.

PPPS: I did it. Mushroom biryani smells, feels and tastes like Mushroom biryani. seriously guys, It is real good and I am going to keep it all for myself.