The Last Sunset of 2007.........................

New Year's eve is like every other night;
there is no pause in the march of the universe,
no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage
of
another twelve months may be noted
and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with
the
coming of darkness on other nights.

~ Anonymous

Lookin' Forward To The New Year.....

2007 Writers in Residence

A fantastic slideshow encasing notable writers in their preferred settings!

Writer's in Residence

Benazir Bhutto's Assassination

• Benazir Bhutto assassinated in Pakistan


• Analysis: Bhutto's death shakes Pakistan


• Benazir Bhutto: Lived in the eye of Pakistan Storm


• Making a Martyr of Bhutto


• Who is beyond the attack on Bhutto?


• World Reaction to Bhutto's Death


• Benazir Bhutto (1953-2007)

O Holy Night.....

A beautiful picture....overdue but still, a perfect moment nevertheless.....

The List that escaped Santa.....and saved him from keeling over with a sugar overload!!

I came across this kitschy l'il picture while having a browse....and thought that it would be perfect to top off my list of Christmas bakes...........

~Traditional Christmas Cake (loaded with rum & all things hic!!)

~Fudge Brownies

~Coconut Ice-Fudge (disaster of gigantic proportions!!)

~Two-Tone Coconut Brownies

~Rum Balls

~Butterscotch Bars (which fast disintegrated into butterscotch brittle!?!)

~Mini-Coconut and Rum Pies (fancy name for rum balls that refused to stay round!!)

Thank.God.It's.CHRISTMAS!!

Away in a Manger

Away in a manger,

No crib for a bed,

The Little Lord Jesus

Laid down his sweet head;

The stars in the sky

Looked down where he lay,

The little Lord Jesus,

Asleep on the hay

Nibbling away at my penultimate piece of Christmas Cake and listening to the smoky vocals of Bing Crosby as he "Dreams of a White Christmas"....I feel replete and even blessed.

It was a beautiful Christmas day, picture perfect and straight out of a snow globe!! Meeting up with friends and neighbours.....forcing my baked goodies down their throats and gulping down equal quantities in return.....driving around Bandra, taking in the sparkly lights and the beautifully decked churches followed by a pop-your-trouser-buttons heavy dinner with family .....and finally, finally I am done for the day!!

Here’s are the pictures of my Christmas Pudding and the goodies that I baked.....

Rudolph gets the pink slip!!

The Planet Mars is going to be unusually bright this Christmas Eve, and with the full moon providing it's additional wattage......it looks like Dear Santa can give Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer a well-deserved break!!



So the good people at Yahoo! have reworked a certain reindeer song, to make it more understandable to kids and dim-witted adults like me!

Mars is a red-tinged planet
With a very shiny glow
And if you look to see it
You will find the moon in
tow.

All of the other Yuletides
Santa would have at his
side
The shiny nose of Rudolph
Acting as his big sleigh's
guide

But this very Christmas Eve
Santa came to say:
"Rudolph, now with Mars so bright,
You can stay at home
tonight."

Then all the reindeer teased him.
And they shouted
out with glee:
"Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer
Outsourced to
astronomy."

Hot Cocoa....here I come!!

With all the mixing, stirring, tasting and baking I have done today........my brains have taken a vacation too. I can't think of anything noteworthy to write about, so am just going to post another picture I found on Deviant Art.

This is how I would like to be on Christmas.....nice and cosy....with my fingers curled around a steaming cup of hot cocoa. Everything's seems right with the world and am nicely wrapped in my very own security-blanket!!!

Christmas In The Woods

I am well and truly getting into the Holiday Mood....despite the fact that the Coconut Ice Fudge I made yesterday turned out to be a miserable, congealing mass of petrified coconut. Ah well, one of my bad days.....this is what I get for promising my buddies with Christmas Confections!! (note to self...***keep big yakking mouth shut till absolutely sure that the christmas goodies do ACTUALLY turn out as portrayed in the recipe book!!!***)

To drive out the cooking-fiasco blues.....I lugged out this heavy (and I mean fall-on-you-foot-and-fracture-it-heavy) book of poems, hoping to come up with a neat passage to add a nice touch to my Christmas Greetings. And I came across this simple and wholesome poem about Christmas in the wilderness. It has it's cutesy-pie charm and is straightforward...with no hidden nuances. Morover it reminded me of a picture of a beautiful red fox I had come across on deviant Art.
Here it is.....

Christmas In The Woods

Tonight when the hoarfrost falls
on the wood,
And the rabbit cowers, and the squirrel is
cold,
And the horned owl huddles against a star
And the drifts are deep, and the year is old,
All shy creatures will think of HIM.
The shivering mouse, the hare, the wild young fox,
The doe with the startled fawn
Will dream of
gentleness and a Child.

The buck
with budding horns will turn
His starry eyes to a silver
hill tonight,
The chipmunk will awake and stir
And leave his burrow for the chill, dark midnight,
And all timid things will pause and sigh,
and sighing, bless
That child who
loves the trembling hearts,
The shy hearts of the
wilderness

~ Frances Frost

Chocaholic-Alert!!

I am currently reading The Chocolate Lovers’ Club by Carole Matthews and finding it the perfect accompaniment to my baking escapades. I can’t give a detailed review on it, cos’ I am only half-way through.....

But what’s not to like??? Four friends, four different personalities, each with problems of their own but all joined together by a common cause.....the no-hold-barred love for Chocolate!!

I will write more when I am through, but as for now.....am just going to wallow in the gratuitous chocolate scenarios that pop up in almost every page!!!

The Motorcycle Diaries....

A movie am looking forward to see.....a road-trip in the life of the legendary Che Guevara which seemingly changed his destiny. To read more about the movie, click on: http://www.stfrancis.edu/historyinthemovies/motorcyclediaries.htm

Salon-Set to Rat-Tails......all in 15 minutes.

After months of postponing.....and coming up with a million excuses, I finally…FINALLY went and got my hair chopped off. Ok…that’s more drastic than what I actually did.

In reality it was just a snip-happy hairdresser and me cringing at regular intervals. Months of “grown-out" hair fell away like a line of pigeons enjoying a mornin’ poop! I was feeling lightheaded (literally) and that took getting used too! But all the length-related misgivings went up in smoke with the finishing touch…the oh-so lovely blow-dry!!

Suddenly my hair looked good.....no....GREAT.....even SENSATIONAL!!...It’s swished and shimmered and caught the light at all the right angles!!

I could almost here the angels sings. It was a divine moment. Under the benevolent smiles of the parlour-ladies and the happy woof of the parlour-dog (yes, it has a resident dog and he smells like a freshly-mowed lawn.....seriously!!!) …I headed back, in search of more compliments (yep... I had crossed over to the land of the delusional!!)

The ride home.....which had more than it’s fair share of dust ‘n’ wind worked blunders for my new cut. By the time I was ringing the doorbell…..I looked like the scatter-brain I always was……bye-bye salon sweetheart…..welcome back Raggedy Ann!!

Needless to say.....compliments were a bit late in coming, since my family’s tends to place a lot of stock by thick, long hair!! And with the well-styled look M.I.A, they failed to see what I had spent good money and valuable time on!!!

Ah well.....time to “curl up and dye”!!!.....(couldn’t resist using that….just couldn’t!)

Second.......third and many more helpings to come!!!

I did my second reading of “Second Helpings” by Megan McCafferty (please excuse the unintentional pun!).....and let me just that this could very well be the tome at which all YA Novel-Authors, wannabe writers and bursting-with-beans teens/adults with an overactive/hyperactive/mile-a-minute imagination should prostrate themselves……and pay homage to this magnificent book!!

I can’t write a review which would do justice, so am just going to leave you the link where people with more than mere mush for brains could give you their opinion!!

Editorial Reviews : Second Helpings

The Cookie-Monster has NOTHING on me!!!

Yep..it’s that time of the year again. A time for overindulgence and no-holds barred gluttony.....when all thoughts of calories.....trim tummies and non-existent love handles are put on the shelf.....(to be revisted at resolution-making time ofcourse!!)

And what screams out Christmas more than home-baked Holiday Cookies!! From the easy-peasy Sugar Cookies to the tangy Lemon Bars to the deliciously decadent Coconut Macaroons……there’s something to entice everyone.

It is extremely gratifying to whip up a tray of perfectly done.....golden-brown cookies. Thoughts of home, hearth and all things cozy and comforting immediately leap to the fore-front. Your first inroad into a crisp yet crumbly Gingersnap and everything seems right with the world. Something akin to the whole “butterbeer” phenomenon!!

And yes……I am going to be nauseatingly perky, bursting with holiday cheer and goodwill….atleast till the new-year. So please bear with me…it’s a temporary phase and I can sincerely swear that it happens only once a year. As 2008 rolls in…..I’ll be back to my charming impression of the “bear-with-a-sore-head”!!!

Getting back to the cookie-craze……please feast your collective orbs on these delectable concoctions and undesrtand the method behind the madness...

My Visual DNA

I am a big fan of Psychological tests…infact, anything that delves into the deepest darkest recesses of the mind and spews out the so-called “REAL ME”. I don’t know if it’s another one of my infamous ego-trips or just good, ol’ fashioned inquisitiveness!

Get me within writing/clicking distance of a personality test and I am instantly poring over it and answering feverishly.
So when I came across a new site: imagini and saw a Visual DNA Test, I had give in to the inevitable. The outcome of this trip down cranium-lane goes somewhat like this:

PERSONALITY : MOODS
GOGETTER (har-de har har!!)
You are a bit of a romantic with a taste for the exotic. You love feeling the sea-breeze in your hair, sun on your skin.....slip of those shoes...you like to kick back (yes...yes...yes and a resoundingYES!!!)
When it comes to art you are definately unconventional - seeing art in all corners of life. (that explains why I was poring over that cinkly potato chip yesterday with acute concentration!!)
As for music....it's the soundtrack of your world. You like to unwind and switch off: it gives you a break from reality (as Gloria Estefan very chessily put it....The music IS going to get you!!)
Your choice of treat shows you crave relaxation. Maybe you lead a pampered life (this is where I snort in an undignified manner and the cofees spurts out of my nostrils..) - or maybe you are so busy you don't seem to get any time for yourself (!!!)

PERSONALITY : FUN
ESCAPE ARTIST
You love to be far away from your everyday life. (well, not really. Except when I get hounded by the matrimonial brigade!)
You love the sun and like to live life at a slower pace than others. For kicks, you like to indulge in your grand passions. You are fiercely loyal and passionate. (I sound like a cross between a labrador and an aging-theater actress!!!)
You like to be part of something big. You love the chance of being in the wilderness and the freedom of being in charge of where you are heading (watch out Tarzan......there's a new 'Queen of the Apes' in the jungle!!)
What grosses you out? You favour the natural look and can't stand a pumped and plumped, plastic appearance (knowingly plunging needles in your body??? Good God, why!?!?)

PERSONALITY : HABITS
NEW-WAVE PURITAN
Even if you have a healthy approach to life, you still have your vices and a craving hunger drives your needs. (say hello to the bottomless pit!!)
Clean and pure....your choice of drink shows that you care about your health and make sure that your putting the right stuff in it (damn, this halo is BRIGHT!!!)
As for the home you are traditional: you invest in quality and history. You like your home to be as stylish as you are. (I love the way that "blink-and-you-miss-it" complement got squeezed in!)

PERSONALITY : LOVE
LOVE-BUG
For you love is about long-term commitment, it means devotion and tenderness. (yep, lobsters mate for life and am waiting for my crustacean comrade!)
When you think of freedom: you think of living for the here and now....

And this is a Visual representation of my personality.....Say hello to the benevolent beatnik from Bandra!!

Air-Tel Ad......Breaking Barriers.

A simple and beautiful ad with a fantastic message. I especially liked the passage accompanying the print ad, which goes.....

Barriers break
when people talk

The simple act of talking can bring the world together.
In the future,
countries will no longer be divided by languages but shall be united in
dialogue.
Familes will come together in lively conversations,
And people
will be set free by reason, understanding and speech.
Simply put, the world
will be a better place, if only
we talk to each other.

The POTTER Parade

A litte treat for all Potter fans......from a brilliant artist...*MAKANI*

Candy-Coated Literature

Continuing in the vein of yesterday's post........here are a list of "light & frivolous" reads, that I hope to lay my hands on in the near future....

Chick-Lit....a guilty pleasure

The much-maligned “Chick-Lit” genre of books is steadily creeping it’s way into my list of favourite categories.

Sassy heroines.....stylish urban settings.....loving/interfering parents (take your pick!!!).....weight-woes.....office politics.....snotty colleagues.....scummy boyfriends and if things finally decide to look upbeat.....a dashing knight in a Savile-Row suit!! That pretty much sums up your average chick-lit novel.

To all the fans of serious, heavy-duty tomes...chick lit seems shallow and pretentious. The heroines are either scatty blondes, over-worked brunettes or fiery red-heads. They crib about everything under the sun, go on shopping sprees, bag the coveted contract, pull one over their bosses, strike a blow for feminism and in the midst of all that chaos.....manage to end up with Mr.Right!!!

Maybe a little more common-sense and a tighter grip on the purse-strings would help. But at the end of the day it boils down to a blend between escapism and a sense of déjà vu.

Somewhere along the line, we associate with the madness.....the faux-pas.....the search for love or even a pair of killer Jimmy Choos!!! When you have made an absolute fool of yourself.....it soothes the bruised ego to know that there are others like you, treading in the same pile of dung as you have!!

Here are a list of my favourites, which I would recommend for anyone looking out for a breezy, laugh-a-minute read. Enjoy!!

Inspired by BARNES & NOBLE’s Holiday Gift catalog….I decided to make a list of my must-reads for the upcoming months. .....

Accidentally In Love....

I am suffering from "Blogger's Block"....and however ridiculous that sounds, am sticking to my resolution i.e. One post, every day throughout December. It's an exercise in futility, but am trying to break my penchant for procrastination......Once 'n' For All!!!

So here's one of my all-time favourite songs by Counting Crows....with my all-time favourite couple...."Shrek and Fiona"!! Talk about "fairy-tale" honeymoons!!!

The original "Happy Shopper"!!!

Holiday shopping coupled with my uncle's return from Hongkong......I am grinning like a delirious fool!!

Even though the "large" out there seems like an " xtra-small" to me......I am feeling mighty glad with my gorgeous new phone - The Nokia 5610 XPress Music!!

I sincerely, truly hope that I show an equal outpouring of love when my first newborn arrives!!!

Winter Woes!!!

I am dreaming of a white Christmas…..well, in my case…more like a chilly Christmas, with a definite nip in the air!! But as usual, the winter is playing hookey and the only cold wave I get is the icy-glare from my mum when I start cribbing about dinner!

I remember my college years…..getting up at an unearthly hour to reach the first lecture on time. Glazed eyes, chapped lips and still stuck between the land of the living and the undead, we would traipse from one house to another and finally reach our dear college.

Luckily, our makeshift canteen was situated right next to the entrance. And because the Gods watching over nerve-wracked teens were kind and loving, we used to get first dibs on the piping hot samosas and the steaming cups of coffee!

You would think that after the first shot of caffeine in our blood, we would be raring to go….in pursuit of knowledge and all things academic.

Yep, raring to go ofcourse….but in the opposite direction!! Chilly mornings were perfect for incessant chattering and non-stop guff sessions.

In an attempt to recapture the past glory (never a good idea!!!!)…..I got up with the birds, tugged on a buttery soft sweater and decided to go for a good long walk. I was all for communing with nature…taking in the morning sights and enjoying the welcome laziness of a winter morning.

But as all my half-baked plans go…..this one too ended up nowhere. Forget a nip, there wasn’t even a snap or crackle in the wind!! Five minutes into my walk and I was already sweating bullets. The sweater (which was a bad idea to begin with) felt like a dead weight. Pretty soon, I would be lying face down in a pool of my own sweat mixed with a generous helping of humiliation!!

So I lugged myself back to the relative coolness of home and hearth. As for my winter cravings…I indulged in a bunch of holiday movies on HBO….snuggled up under a quilt with the a/c on full blast!!

Passage from "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (The Chronicles of Narnia)"

A passage from "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (The Chronicles of Narnia ~~~ C.S.Lewis)" triggered a sense of déjà vu.

Sometimes, somewhere a certain element acts a catalyst.....triggering a long forgotten but fond memory. It infuses you with a warm and comforting feeling. The mention of the word alone can wash away the cobwebs of the mind and cloak you in a blanket of security and comfort.

Just out of grasp, but never too far away......

The children hear Aslan's name for the first time and the following paragraph explains the varied emotions experienced by the four:

And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan
was anymore than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words
everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a
dream that someone says something which you don't understand but in the dream it
feels as if it has some enormous meaning - either a terrifying one which turns
the whole dream into a nightmare or else a lovely meaning too lovely to put into
words, which makes the dream so beautiful that you remember it all your life and
are always wishing that you could get into that dream again. It was like that now. At
the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump in its inside.
Edmund felt a sense of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and
adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of
music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake
up in the morning and realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or the
beginning of summer.

My life......in four panels!!!

I am not laughing at me.......I am laughing with me!!!

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Yeah right!!!

J.K.ROWLING - Entertainer of The Year

J.K.Rowling has been declared the Entertainer of the Year by Entertainment Weekly.....and rightly so.

I belong to the formidable legion of J.K.Rowling-fans. I don’t need to launch into an endless litany on her immense talent or her astounding success-story. Reams of newsprint, gazillion sites and a million blogs have already been dedicated to jus’ the thing.

She has been praised and maligned in equal measure. You can love her.....or hate her…but you sure as hell can’t ignore her!!

The original skeptic, I scoffed good-naturedly when a colleague recommended “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”. It was a ‘children’s book’ for crying out loud……and there I was, a (debatable) adult.

But I overcame my pig-headedness and gave it a shot. Needless to say, I was hooked, booked and ready to be charted off to the world of magic and fantasy!!!

It was a good solid read and had it all…… the proverbial under-dog…..fantastic characters and astounding creatures…. ……a hidden magical world….and an immensely strong story line. The most bewitching form of escapism!

I fully intend giving my two-bit opinion on each of the Potter books….but not right now. I just felt that I had to start off my trip down Potter-lane by writing a bit ‘bout one of my front-running authors.

Snape's Worst Memory......

One more instalment of the Pottermania. Snape's worst moment when he sees the happy Potter family......beautifully captured.

I like the attention to small details like the fact that Prof.Snape is lurking around in dark and sinister Knockturn Alley...and don't miss Lupin's advert, offering private classes. A werewolf and unemployed to boot!! Brilliant!

Sir Jugalot - The Knight in Rusted Armour!!

One of dear old Juggie's alter-ego's : Sir Jugalot is an all time-favourite strip of mine!!

It belonged to the ol' - fashioned era of story-telling :- superbly drawn characters with fine attention to detail and a knock-your socks off funny story line. It was later adapted into a mini-series featuring the other "avatars" of Jughead Jones. To read more about this particular story click on the following link: "Jughead's Fantasy".

I couldn't lay my hands on the entire strip.....but did manage to come across one particular panel, featuring the endearing "villian" - MIGHTY MELVIN The Fire-Breathing Dragon.

The Good Life

I came across this song in a book. It is from the Greek Island of Crete, appropriately sung at a wedding. No great lyrics...no hidden meanings.....just a straight-forward, homely number.

Kaloperasi meaning "The Good Life"

Little by little the Lords sends the rain,
Then comes the quiet snow,
Cold in the mountains,
Snow on the hills.

But the man who has a well-roofed house,
Fruit in his storerooms,
Oil in his jars,
Wine in his barrels,
Wood in his yard,
A girl to kiss as he sits by the fire,
He doesn't care what the north wind brings,
Rain or Snow.

My situation......described to perfection!!

CULINARY CHRONICLES (Part 1) : No Rain on my Thanksgiving Parade!!

Come November, and I get bitten by the cooking bug! Suddenly I feel this insane need to slice and dice, sauté and simmer, grill and bake and (if things go horribly wrong) singe my eyebrows and turn the kitchen into a disaster-struck area!!

Thanksgiving.....the perfect time to get the ball rolling. I know it isn’t a part of the great Indian festive parade, but I like the concept of loud, noisy families coming together over a table creaking under the weight of a magnificent turkey, meltingly smooth mashed potatoes, ruby-red cranberry sauce and the wonderful assortment of pumpkin pies, cakes and other such finger-lickin’ goodies!!

Since I didn’t feel upto the task of tracking down the elusive turkey…I settled for the ubiquitous, ever faithful chicken.

My menu for the day:

~ Ham 'n' Cheese Stromboli

~ Apricot-Glazed Roast Chicken

~ Savory Bread Pudding with Mushrooms and Parmesan cheese

~ Green Leaf Lettuce, Pomegranate and Almond Salad

~ Warm Pumpkin Cake

After making an absolute nuisance of myself and speeding up my mum's aging process, I managed to whip up a pretty decent fare. I wish I could say the same for my photography skills!!

Browsing through the eye-catching and aesthically stunning visuals on Epicurious and Yahoo! Food left me with the grave misconception that I could achieve their lofty standards.

Needless to say.....I should be relegated to the big, black hole where all misguided wannabe photographers go after their pitiful attempts to "capture the moment"!!!

The entire clan is left twiddling their thumbs while I click a dozen odd snaps. The crisp lettuce is fast turning limp and the chicken looks up at me dolefully.....as if to say "Why god! Why me!?!!". My ex-photographer of an uncle shakes his head in supressed mirth and asks me whether I want the chicken to get into a hot-pink bikini and pout seductively for the camera. H-UH!!

That's family for you!!!

Photo-Session over, it’s time to dig in…no holds barred! And everyone does so……with gusto and scant regard for etiquette and patience. But as long as everyone is enjoying themselves……I feel GO-OD!!

This was the first session of the Culinary Chronicles. More...many more to come. Heralding in the New Year will be the new, improved....butter-ball version of yours truly!!!

Epicurious.com - Thanksgiving EYE-CANDY