P.G. Wodehouse

Watched the first season of Jeeves and Wooster over the past three days. Reminds me of school days when I regularly watched TV shows like Bewitched, I dream of Jeannie and Small wonder.

No more yoga for the next few months :(

I have been learning Iyengar yoga (known for it's use of props) for the past two terms. Our instructor prepares us for amazing poses like this, this and this. Unfortunately she won't be here for the summer :( I can't remember waiting for Fall term at the beginning of summer ever before!

Update on frozen food

Back in October I had praised Deep Inc.'s frozen food. I take that back. Their products have been pretty bad for the past few months. I continue to like food by Mirch Masala and have stopped buying Tandoor Chef or Udupi products because they are pretty expensive considering the quantity of food.

Almost the end of term

Which means I don't want to study for my exam. So I spend making plans for the holidays - read P.G.Wodehouse books, learn coding (has to be done some day), swim, watch movies, etc. This happens towards the end of every term and then once the term is over my plans are all forgotten.

But this time there is a slight difference this time. I have already started executing my plans. For example I have seen three movies in the past five days: 'Zelig', 'Hannah and her sisters' and 'The Kid'. I wanted to watch 'The Kid' since I was in high school. We had a chapter in Balbharti based on the movie along with a sketch version of this picture. Jackie Coogan does a really good job playing the role of the kid; naughty, sweet and innocent :)

Sad

An excerpt from a Times of India article titled 'Sex education put on hold in Maharashtra govt schools':

The decision to introduce sex education in Class 9 and 11 in state educational board schools was announced by Education Minister Vasant Purke in the Legislative Council on Tuesday.

Kupekar issued the directive after the decision evoked strong sentiments from ruling and Opposition members in the House, with Leader of Opposition Ramdas Kadam terming Purke's decision as "irrational".

"If the government is going to take such controversial decisions, then parents will have to decide whether to send their children to schools," Kadam said, speaking on an adjournment motion on the issue."

The full news article here.

The science of sleep

Nice weird movie.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0354899/

Roger Federer

lost :(

I became interested in tennis after I watched the 2006 Wimbledon final between Roger Federer and Nadal. He played like a magician! Recently he has not been playing as elegantly as before but his mental strength has been amazing; unfortunately even that did not help last night.

Very informed sources :)

"Congress President Sonia Gandhi has been admitted to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital following an attack of asthma, where her condition is stated to be stable, very informed sources said."

Maybe the sources were really well-informed but isn't this is a funny way of putting it?

Why?

Really nice song with a terrible video :(

Dream come true!

Espresso + Dark Chocolate :D
Green and Black's - Espresso. Yummiest chocolate ever!

Diwali

What does Diwali remind me of? Diyas, rangoli, music, food, new clothes and decoration. These were always the main constituents of a "celebration" at home. With talented friends like Yashodhan and Arunanshu the music part of our Diwali celebration was easily taken care of. Diyas were bought from an Indian store and the house was decorated. As for food, we are all expert chefs! We also had sweets: gulab jamuns and kheer made by Dipti and Yashodhan.

Before Sunrise

I finally watched Before Sunrise (actually a couple of weeks ago). I think I like Before Sunset epsilon more than this one; but that only says that Before Sunrise is also pretty good and definitely worth watching.

All about Eve

Another movie from the Imdb top 250. The story does not offer anything new but I like the way it was structured. All the actors played their roles perfectly; especially the leads Bette Davis and Anne Baxter.

Noche Flamenca

A couple of weeks ago I attended a Flamenco performance by the company Noche Flamenca. I really liked the powerful body movements of the dancers - mostly hand-clapping and foot-stamping.

Honey lemonade

Yesterday Nyssa got me some honey from Hawaii. I have already finished half the bottle! Most of it was used to make honey lemonade which is easy to make: add a spoonful of honey, a pinch of salt (very important) and a teaspoon of lemon juice to a cup of hot water and stir. This afternoon I also added some peach flavored tea to my lemonade; I liked the result.

It seems that you can get that particular brand of honey only from Hawaii (Manoa honey company). Maybe good old Trader Joe's will have something similar :)

More food

If you are lazy to cook scrambled tofu plus you like Indian food then I highly recommend Deep Foods Inc.'s frozen food. Very tasty :) I have tried many products offered by their various brands and liked each and every one of them so far. Some are listed below:

Tandoor Chef: Their chicken samosa's are delicious.
Udupi : The idli didn't even once betray that it had been frozen for a long time. The chutney that came along with it was also good but I prefer mint chutney.
Deep: I have never had authentic Undhiu but I really like the one that Deep offers. Some Gujarathi friends claim that no frozen Undhiu can taste good ...

And last but also my favourite: Mirch Masala. I really enjoy their Sarson ka saag; again, I have never had authentic sarson ka saag. One thing I can surely claim is that I have had authentic Pav Bhaji many times and of all the Pav Bhaji I have tried in the US this one came closest to the real thing! They also have some Indian-Chinese noodles and stuff which are OK; I was never a big fan of Indian-Chinese food.

You can also find their recipes online :)

Scrambled Tofu

Mash tofu with an egg beater. Then heat some oil in a pan and add turmeric powerder, chillies and onions. Once the onions turn brown add tofu and salt to taste. Mix well and heat for 2 mins. Done! This is what I will cook tonight :)

Computer

I finally got my Dell Vostro 1400. It looks like someone's old laptop that Dell just packed nicely and sent to me. It works well though. The combination of Vista and my paranoid school led to a mess when I was trying to connect to the internet. For the first time in my life working with a computer was so frustrating. I gave up and slept. When I woke up this morning everything was working fine!

Scrabble

Yesterday Gireeja got me a scrabble board. I had bought one just two days ago :) With two scrabble boards in the room we had to play the game! This activity has the same effect on Gireeja as consuming alcohol does. Obviously this led to a lot of jokes ;)

But anyway, I think scrabble is a fun game. If you want to play it online Scrabulous is good.

Bharatanatyam

I started taking Bharatanatyam lessons yesterday. I like it :)

That reminds me to mention a Bharatanatyam artist that I really like. I have attended three Mythili Prakash performances in Pasadena and I really enjoyed all of them. She performs in India, Europe and US. Do attend her show if you get a chance. The only complaint that I have is about her DVD Natya. Having seen her in person the DVD was a big disappointment.