Glass Painting

My husband travels a lot and hence I am left with a lot time at hand…So I decided to indulge my creative side by taking up painting…Since I am a huge fan of glass paintings…I joined a glass painting class…I must say the class turned out to be fun and I am immensely proud of my painting…

Here is the procedure...I am sure even an amateur painter will find it easy to follow.

Materials –

• Glass piece – can be thick/thin, transparent/opaque, square/round (all a personal preference)
• Design of your choice
• Tracing sheet
• Glass colours
• Glass liner – thick and thin
• Brush

Method –

• Place the tracing sheet on the design and trace it out.
• Now place the glass piece correctly on the tracing sheet. Make sure that the margins are of equal length on all four sides.
• Take the thick glass liner and trace out the margins and the design onto the glass piece. Thin glass liner can be used in case the design includes some fine detailing. Be careful not to smudge the paint. This has to be left to dry for a day or two.
• Fill in the painting with the glass colours. The glass colours have a transparent quality to them. They make the painting look luminous.
• Painting with glass colours tends to put air bubbles all over one’s painting; from my point of view these can add character to your painting but in case you don’t want the bubbles they can be easily removed by pricking with a safety pin.
• You can use the brush to give final touch up to the margins.
• Leave the paint to dry and voila the painting is ready to be framed.

Dhalia/Broken Wheat Upma

Don't like dhalia? Probably you can read the following entry and try out the recipe...Broken wheat is actually very nutritious and recommended as a regular diet and substitute for rice in case of diabetic patients...Anyway read on...

Here's putting something mildly...I hated the broken wheat upma that my mother used to prepare for my grandmother who by the way is a diabetic...And because of it's unappetizing appearance, I never found it palatable even when I was dying of hunger...

All that changed after marriage...When cooking became my part time job :)...I tell you, after 1 year of marriage I had completely run out of ideas on what to make for breakfast...Anyway the lack of breakfast ideas led my husband and me into exploring new avenues and my resolve (of not eating dhalia) gave way...And I hate to admit it...The upma I made actually turned out so nicely that I have started loving this particular dish...By the way this recipe has been adapted to satisfy a normal person's (non diabetic) taste buds...The recipe given below should be enough for 2 people

Ingredients-

• Broken wheat - 1 cup
• Carrots - 1 (finely chopped)
• Peas - 1/2 cup
• Onions - 1 (finely chopped)
• Tomato - 1 (finely chopped)
• Green chillie - 1 (sliced into 2)
• Ginger (finely chopped)
• Coriander leaves (finely chopped)
• Water - 2 cups
• Salt to taste

Tadka-

• Refined oil (a generous amount) - personal choice
• Asafoetida - a pinch
• Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
• Channa Dal - 1/2 teaspoon
• Curry leaves

Procedure-

• Wash the broken wheat properly and keep it aside.
• Heat some oil in a pressure cooker, add the asafoetida, mustard seeds and channa dal.
• When the mustard has crackled add the onion, ginger, green chillies and curry leaves.
• After the onion has turned pink add the tomatoes and fry till the tomatoes are cooked.
• Add the carrots and the peas and fry for a minute.
• Add water and bring to a boil.
• Add the washed broken wheat, salt and finely chopped coriander leaves.
• Close the cooker lid and allow the upma to cook for up to 2 whistles.
• You can serve the dish with coconut chutney.

The New Year has brought a major writer’s block at its helm....

Poi Solla Porom

The new flick Poi Solla Porom turned out to be one of the few Tamil movies I have enjoyed in a very long time and it seriously restored my faith in the quality of Tamil movies that are being churned out nowadays… This I say on the basis of my last sojourn into the Tamil movie realm… I am talking about my last viewing that’s Dasavatharam for you...Which by the way was immensely torturous to the visual and the auditory hubs of my poor brain….And it led to me getting a full blown headache…
Anyway to continue with Poi Solla Porom… I was really worried about booking tickets for this movie since it was not just my husband and I but my parents and a friend as well who we had invited out of the zeal for turning the whole outing into a big family get together...Ok! Now talking about my husband, he has a really high tolerance level when it comes to Tamil movies… No let me rephrase it saying he has a very high AFFINITY towards Tamil movies…that means he can watch any Tamil movie and his favourite channel is KTV (I am rolling my eyes as I type this)…Most Tamilians will agree with me when I say that KTV is the stupidest channel in India if not the world and the movies that are played on this channel would make you want to hang yourself…But my dad on the other hand has absolutely no interest in movies of any kind…and I on my part had done some emotional blackmailing and compelled him into coming with us…So you can imagine what would have happened to me if the movie had turned out for the worse :)… But all’s well that ends well so here’s where I will start with the movie review…
Poi Solla Porom is the Tamil remake of Khosla Ka Ghosla which I had heard was worth a watch and I assure you the remake is just as good if not better…Anyway the story revolves around a typical middle class family which consists of mom, dad, 2 sons and a daughter… Dad has big dreams for the house he is going to build on the land which he bought with his retirement money…The elder son that would be Karthik (he is so cute!!) is portrayed as a stand offish character with goals and ideals which includes going to the US but not his family…His girlfriend is a part of some drama troupe… the younger brother is a student I think…Dad gets royally swindled by a real estate agent who has the backing of a land shark played by Nassar… the rest of the story deals with how the family tries to get back the land with the help of Karthik’s friends…
The movie is really natural and evokes myriad emotions from the audience…All the artists fit their characters to the boot…Be it the dad played by Nedumudi Venu or Mouli and Balaji as the drama troupe artists who play very significant roles in the movie’s climax or Bosky as the passport agent and of course Nasser as the land shark who conveys all his dialogues through expressions rather than speech (he hardly has any dialogues in the movie, but with his expressions he has given a truly brilliant performance)…And the guy who plays the younger son Om is also really good as a character who doesn’t think before acting…The song and dance routines at all the wrong situations (typical of most Tamil movies) have been removed from the forefront and have been added to the movie as background scores…A relief I assure you…This movie has all the makings of a hit and I hope the Tamil audience accepts it… I definitely approve and would easily give it a rating of four and a half on five :)…As Tamilians say - Half mark cut for the music which was not very appealing… Other than that I have no complains about the movie and neither did my family… and we were smiling as we got out of the movie theatre…

Bangaluru

The transformation of Bangalore has been categorized under the label “improvement of infrastructure’….I for one question this - is that truly what these changes mean to the city or to the citizens…has there been an improvement of any kind…because either I am too myopic to notice the improvements or the authorities have not exactly lived up to their assurance of awarding the public with a better Bangalore…
I am not sure about the other sections in Bangalore, but I can clearly notice the appalling changes taking place in and around Indiranagar…I have lived here for the past 18 years and in the early years it was truly a joy walking on the tree lined roads in and around this area…especially 100 ft Road and CMH road… the peace and serenity of the place contributing to making Bangalore the garden city and the pensioner’s paradise…the exquisite bungalows adding their own charm to the whole setting…the parks in almost every layout were plain delightful…
But the trees have been cut, giving way to roads, metro lines, etc… the whole landscape looks dull and lifeless…the sight just brings tears to my eyes…the remaining trees sport a layer of dirt and grime due to the increasing pollution levels…the whole weather pattern has changed because of the absence of trees… Bangalore was never this hot or water starved before…and there weren’t these many power cuts…
The roads have been quarried time and again for laying of cables to satisfy the needs of the n number of software companies which keep sprouting every other day… there is not a decent piece of road or pavement left anywhere in Indiranagar anymore…
The bungalows have given way to commercial establishments… the noise pollution has driven people into selling their homes and moving to quieter areas (if there are any of those left anymore)….
There is a rule saying - for every tree being cut, two trees have to be planted… I seriously wonder where these trees are being planted... isn’t anyone worried about how these developments are going to affect us? Are the authorities doing something about the worrisome alterations that are taking place? At least I see the whole scenario as moving in reverse rather than forward where infrastructure improvement is concerned….
Why is the government focusing its energies on silly issues such as the non existent night life in Bangalore (a topic of hot discussion I assure you)? Seriously why so much concentration on closing of pubs before 11 p.m. and banning of dance bars?
The existing infrastructure is taking a beating…Why is no one paying attention to that? People are talking about it as in its just on paper but where’s the action being taken?
What about the hours of load shedding? What about connectivity? What about quality of the roads being constructed?
In general the changes even though they are coming about at snail’s pace are devoid of any quality… in harsher terms the work undertaken by the government is purely substandard…
I seriously don’t know where these changes are leading but if these issues are not addressed pretty soon, in a few years Bangalore is going to become unlivable…

Wishing the readers of this space (if anyone's still reading this space)... a happy Ganesh Chaturthi :)

Hali Mane

The restaurant called ‘Hali Mane’ in Malleswaram turned out to be a real treat to the senses (especially taste and smell)…The name literally translates to village house and you would expect it to serve authentic Karnataka cuisine…besides which you can find the usual North Indian dishes like paratha-kurma and naan/roti/kulcha with butter paneer masala on the menu…
I wanted to taste something different so I tried akki roti that’s roti made out of rice flour and ragi roti made of ragi flour…these are served with 2 types of chutney…they tasted really good…
They also serve ragi balls with I think sambar...not sure…its supposed to be really healthy but as with most people, I decide if a dish is palatable or not by the looks of it rather than its nutritive factor…so eating that was totally out of the question :P…
The second time round (this place is totally worth the second visit) we had meals it’s a mixture of North and South Indian dishes… I liked the way the meal was served…they give each person a bottle of mineral water and serve each dish separately rather than pile everything on the plate all at once …also you can order the separate meal for kids which serve smaller portions ...you are served a tambulam (that’s nothing but paan), banana and ice cream to round of the meal…on the whole it was satisfactory but I was not very impressed by the side dishes served with the naan…the subzi’s could have tasted better…
I feel they can completely do away with the North Indian section of the menu and come up with more dishes that can be billed under the category of ‘authentic’ Kannada food…but I can sympathize with most restaurateurs who open restaurant for the masses and are in the constant fear of going under if their hotel does not have the multi cuisine tag attached to them… But Hali Mane seems to be doing pretty well for itself judging by the never-ending crowd outside probably because it’s able to provide quality food at inexpensive rates…but to tell you the truth the major USP for me was the cleanliness aspect…

Kafka on the Shore

My latest read is a book called "Kafka on the Shore" by a Japanese author who calls himself Haruki Murakami...
My brother apparently picked it up from the 'classics' section of a leading book store...can I sue the book store?
Wasting perfectly good money... I agree both my brother and I make good money as software engineers... but why waste our hard earned cash on such an irrelevant book...or is it my problem that I am too close minded and hence couldn’t capture the "deeper meaning" such books often imply?????
Or is it like most modern arts which only TRUE ART ENTHUSIASTS seem to (or shall I put it as claim to) decipher...no!! it cannot be that...I am a self confessed book enthusiast :)...
Ok!! Getting back to the book...it is described as an international bestseller...are all bookstores in the world stocking the book in the 'classics' section?
It deals with two main characters-
A teenager who calls himself Kafka... he runs away from home…and finds a library...he sleeps with the head librarian (a 50 yr old woman) who might be his mother...and he works as an assistant to the other librarian who is actually a woman who considers herself trapped in a woman's body...
And an old man called Nakata...this guy is illiterate and has been living in seclusion from his family...he can talk to cats and stones and goes around making fishes and leeches rain from the sky and searches for an entrance stone (don’t look at me…I have no clue as to what the author was trying to pull here)...
I seriously don’t know how I finished the book...but by the end of it I wanted to shoot myself or much better... shoot the author: P
Oh! By the way did I mention it was in the "CLASSICS SECTION" in the bookstore???

Here's some readers' takes on the new movie Sawaariya :)... these are not my reviews, I haven't even seen the movie...I just received them over mail... and frankly I don't think I will see the movie in future as well

"Sawaariya is one long song with some breaks for dialog. And by dialog I mean girly giggling by the chic and some punch-me-in-the-face ex-pressions accompanied by pig-like grunting by the hero. One wonders if all the actors are the props and the set is the real star in this movie. I came really close to concluding that the bridge-over-the-fake-river is the central star of the movie, because everyone of the other actors looks like they were made of rock. And the rocks had moss growing over them. And the rocks were painted blue."

"To say Saawariya is a crappy movie would not be correct. Horrendously Ridiculous comes close, but it doesn't really capture the essence of the absurdity that this movie is. After watching this movie I felt like tying up Sanjay Leela Bansali alone in a room, forcing him to watch a cockroach chase a spider round-and-round a water fountain for 3 hours. That too in blue light. Because seriously, that's what this entire movie is. It's two grossly untalented kids, who probably got kicked out of college for lack of attendance and ended up on this set to spend the rest of the day. And for the love of God, I can't figure out why the whole movie is in blue! Maybe the director was trying to get every frame half-black half-blue so that the WinZip compression would work better to save some electrons, what with all the global warming and all. That's the best explanation I could come up with, because nothing else can explain the lack of daylight (or plain light, for that matter) in this movie."

Wishing all the readers of this space a very happy Diwali :)

Infinitea

I Visited this restaurant (or shall I term it as a bistro??) called “Infinitea” on Saturday…Its located dead opposite Sigma Mall on Cunningham Road…A real neat place to hang out with friends and family…The atmosphere was really chic and was unusually buzzing with an assorted crowd of youngish and middle aged people…The food was good and the smell would have been appetizing if not for a bunch of twenty something’s chain smoking at the next table…Its basically a tea bar with a small menu which is mix of continental and oriental food…I guess the tea would be their strong point but it was lunch time and the portions were big enough and left no space for tea after the meal…Good food though :)...They could use a change of scene where music is concerned…Some redundant music track from Titanic was being played the day I visited the restaurant…But nonetheless a great place and is absolutely worth a second visit…

Harry Potter, Runaway Jury, To kill a Mockingbird

To begin with I have read just three books in the past two months and that seems kind of distressing for an avid book reader like me…But I guess commitments on both the professional and the personal front seem to have pushed "hobbies" to the back seat... writing blogs being the other...


The latest and the last narrative from the Harry Potter series (Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows) was personally a big let down...I was not really impressed by the ending…And the story seemed to drag in some places...The end of the previous book promised a brilliant and dramatic ending to the series...To sum it up in few words "JKR fails to deliver"...I was very disappointed by Snape's story as well :(..

The second book was relatively alright…This one being "the Runaway Jury" by
John Grisham... I have watched this movie earlier and liked it so, decided to
take up the book...It’s the usual Grisham tale about lawyers, juries and trials...This one being about tobacco litigations and fixing of juries by the tobacco companies…And the strangely behaving jury that protests at every chance it gets, etc...Probably since I have watched the movie the ending sort of lost its surprise element…

And finally a book that seems to have held my interest for more than a day :)...This one being the all time classic "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee…I have heard a lot of positive reviews about this book and I must tell you that its well worth all the time you would spend reading it... This book told from the point of view of a small girl called Jean Louise Finch (better known as Scout) deals with racial prejudice in the American south and the impact that racial hatred can create in the simple and playful lives of two kids when their father is assigned the case of a black man raping a white woman…But what really stands out in this book is the brilliant characterization…

Harry Potter

• The Harry Potter season is here again with all its hype and hoopla....
  HARRY POTTER seems to be the topic of most conversations...kids to adults; everyone's jumping in the bandwagon...
  Be it television, radio or the newsprint everyone wants a piece of the action...bookstores are making a bumper, what with the books selling like hot cakes (with or without the discounts)...

Suddenly all everyone's talking about is either the Harry Potter movie being released or the latest Harry Potter book being unveiled...
People speculating as to how the series is going to end...

• Is Harry going to survive the ordeal of meeting Voldemort once again?
  
• Will Voldemort die? (Good always triumphs, doesn’t it?)
  
• Is Snape the good guy or the bad guy and why did Dumbledore trust him so much?
  
• Will Dumbledore come back from the dead to help Harry?
  
• Will Ron and Hermione get together? What about Harry and Ginny?
  

Have you observed how conventional this marketing strategy is?
First rumors about the contents of the latest book... then the statements made by the author as to how dear the characters have become and how deeply saddened she is, by the step she has to take and finish off the main characters since the script demands it...
Then the speculations...and for months together unto the date of the release the rumours spread until it becomes a frenzy...rumors about the leaking of the book's contents…the heightened security around the books...and the number of copies being booked in advance (setting record of sorts)...
But this form of marketing actually works like a charm since, who wouldn’t want to buy the book with such hype being created?

I agree the Harry potter series as such is really well written and makes for a very interesting read…
I would also like to say that to me, Tolkien is still the master, where the fantasy genre is concerned and Ms.Rowling has borrowed heavily from the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy...
But all said and done I am still a big Potter fan and I can’t wait to read the last book to see how Ms Rowling is planning to conclude this spectacular series…

I have been veering off short stories for a long time now...
I seriously don’t know where I developed this deep aversion to trying out short stories...and being a book lover who can digest just about any genre of writing, I feel I have missed out on some really great reads by keeping off this particular facet of English literature...
I guess it was mainly due to starting off with Agatha Christie...no offense but even though I am one of her biggest fans, I feel her short stories are less than awe inspiring...I have absolutely no complains against her mysteries though, they are marvelous, especially Hercule Poirot...
Then following a suggestion by a friend, I finally decided to settle on a book called "A Quiver Full of Arrows" by Jeffery Archer...
Its an absolute treat...its humorous and serious at the same time... the stories are well constructed with twists in between (that's probably Archer's signature)... and he conveys his feelings convincingly... I have read most of his books and I can say with certainty it ranks amongst his best...
There’s one story I liked in particular… its called "Old Love"...a really nice love story...really inspiring and well written...
I feel this book’s going to put me back into the "reading short stories" track...

Aren’t you amazed at how the simplest of things can give you more pleasure than all the material wealth that you think is all important to enjoy life to the fullest [at least they do for me :)]...
Sometimes I am surprised at the happiness I derive from a simple thing like an early morning walk...the air's crisp and you can hear the birds singing [?]..And see the sunrise :)... absolutely fantastic...it actually gives me the goose bumps to see all of god's creations…
Then there are some smells that are an absolute treat to the senses - eucalyptus oil, smell of mud that arises with the first showers of rain, henna, amma's vengaaya sambaar, jasmine flowers and that distinct smell that you get when you hold babies [clean ones, I mean]...
A really neat beach with the white sand and the surf…the sea being a mix of green and blue [turquoise]...nature in all its glory... usually makes me want to go all wild :D...
Flowers, waterfalls, snow and greenery...nature in general... NGC being a favourite channel :)…
Couples in love...they always make me want to smile…all their blushes and shyness and those special smiles meant exclusively for their loved one to decipher...
Naughty kids...so much fun to hang out with, even if they actually drive their parents totally nuts with all that energy :D
Dads putting babies to sleep...I feel it makes the cutest picture ever…
Watching the sunset especially at some hill station or the other...
Getting dripping wet in the rain…
Eating ice lollies during summer holidays…
Getting hold of the next issue of your favourite comic book, you have been dying to read…
I am getting kind of nostalgic with summer holidays and the rest...I seriously miss those carefree days...just holidays and no worries…no deadlines to meet and no meetings to attend…
Ok!! I must stop this piece at this point; otherwise I will just bore you to death…if I haven’t done so already

I read an article on how to be annoying...a really funny piece...Here are some of them :D -

1) Leave your indicator on, for the complete duration of the ride.
2) Repeat everything someone says as a question.
3) Holler random numbers while someone is counting.
4) Invite lots of guests to other's parties.
5) Drum on every available surface.
6) Change channels 5 minutes before the end of the show.
7) Forget the punch line to a long joke but assure the listener it was a "good one".
8) Follow a few paces behind someone spraying everything they touch with room freshener.
9) Never make eye contact or never break eye contact.
10) Signal a conversation is over by clamping your hands over your ears.

This is the chapter of my life where I am extremely happy and where everything seems to be going just right on the personal as well as the professional fronts...there are so many things that I can actually write about, in my blog...but there still seems to me to be a dearth of ideas...I am seriously concerned as to whether I am losing the battle to stick on to a hobby for more than a month :(...

I have always wondered what inspires people into asking certain questions and saying certain things.
Here are some questions that annoy me to the core of my being-

Wassup??
How are you supposed to answer such a question?
There might be a million things going on in my life at the point, at which, this question is directed at me...am I supposed to give a summary to that effect?
Or am I supposed to just say a plain "nothing much" even though I know that’s a lie?
Or I ease up the situation by asking a silly question like "do you want me to say the sky or the ceiling?"
People actually laugh when I say that...
Sometimes I ask this question ( I mean “wassup??”) just to bug others, but I am surprised as to how I am the only one who seems to get irritated by this question...others just say "nothing much" and move on with the conversation...

Howz u doing??
Come on!! When you can say it in proper English with a simple "how are you doing?" why use some stupid "howz u"... as far as I know there is no word called "howz" in the English language? and please don’t say," I use it because it’s cute." It’s definitely not that...

Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?
Or its variation like- what do you think your achievements would be, say 10 years from now?
I feel like bashing the person who asks me this question...
All I can do is grin and bear it and say," I am a person who takes life one day at a time. But, I want to be successful in whatever I do." how much more predictable can that get?
But what I really want to say is-" Why are you being so nosey? How on earth am I supposed to know where I will be in 10 years time? I can hardly predict what is going to happen tomorrow, and you expect data regarding the next 10 years of my life? I am sorry I am just too short sighted (literally and figuratively) to do justice to this question.
And why is it always 10 years? Why not 5 years or 15 years? Is it some kind of a lucky number or something?"
The person who directed this question would probably run away by the time I finish my tirade :)

Look at you; you are all grown up.
Do you want me to remain a dwarf throughout my life or something?
By the way I look at myself in the mirror everyday and you don’t have to particularly tell me to look at myself.

Wish your mom/dad/sister/brother/neighbour/dog/etc/etc/etc from my side.
Seriously how is it going to matter to the concerned person whether I wish them from your side or not?
They don’t even know you.

Sindhu Bhiravi

I have been listening to the songs from this really old Tamil movie called Sindhu Bhiravi...and all I can say about my reaction to it is, that I am floored...
The songs actually make my hair stand at end...
All the songs have a strong classical base and the lyrics hold a lot of meaning...no peppy numbers here..
Pure melody...not like the nonsense that is being churned out now a days in the name of music...
Seriously, you will start loving Carnatic music if you listen to these songs..
Illayaraja and Jesudas seem to be at their best...
Jesudas renders the songs so effortlessly that you think, its so easy, i can sing it just like that..but when it actually comes down to it, the songs are really complex and very difficult...
a true maestro...
And I have noticed that which ever old song I like in Tamil is composed by Illayaraja and sung by Jesudas.. a truly remarkable combination methinks...
if you can get hold of the songs from this movie listen to them, they are amazing

I wish anyone who is reading this page a very happy new year... in Tamil- Puthaand nal vazhthaakal (spel?)