Utterly disgusted

I have just been pointed to a comments thread on an article on rediff. And frankly, I have never been so disgusted before by reading any sort of thread. Keeping in mind that the people who are posting replies are at least educated enough to be net-savvy, read articles on the web and post to message boards, then I have no hope for our illustrious country. A country where half the population strongly believes that the other half should not be "independent" is not a country which will go too far in the long run.

I have, in school, spoken a lot on women's education, women's empowerment and so on, in debates and essays. Most of the time, I used to feel that my classmates, both male and female feel the same way as me. And that was a decade ago. But now, a decade later, I am disgusted to see that the whole message thread related to an article that says career women are not good homemakers has 99% of men saying that they would not marry a working woman.

On this thread, you will read comments men who say that women who work outside the house want to be "independent", and so you should not marry them. There are people who claim career women "dominate" their husbands, that they cheat on their spouses, that they spend all their hard-earned money on fashion instead of contributing to the household expenses, and the worst of all, that when the come home, they expect their husbands to help them with the housework and child-rearing! Oh the horror of it! To even imagine that a man would enter the kitchen and demean himself with chopping some vegetables or maybe setting the table or something! Or that he would take a look at his kid's homework while his wife is making dinner!

If I had read this message thread before I got married, I should have never imagined that there is even one person in this country who would treat me as a human being rather than a baby-machine that also serves piping hot meals at the right times. I suppose I am lucky. But I dread to think of all the young impressionable women out there who are reading this thread of responses and giving up all hopes of ever finding a decent human being among the male populace of our land.

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Disappointing results

This is my very own Google search blog post. Which means, it is one of those posts which are so much in vogue these days where bloggers sift through their sitemeter stats and look up the referring URLs and the funny google searches in them. Now since I don't have that many hits on my site, the number of searches that refer me are also limited. But the trend in these searches is that while people find something related to their queries on my site, the post that the link comes to is not exactly what the people have been looking for. In other words, the search results lead to disappointments. Lets look at a few examples:

1) Searching for "1:3" airtel dsl takes you to this post where I express my happiness on the lifiting of the blog ban by my ISP, Airtel.

2) Searching for ataullah songs acha sila brings up my page second on the list!!! And what is inside is a post wondering why such songs are so popular.

3) A search for drunken beef takes you to my post raving about the drunken beef I had at a friend's restaurant.

4) Arthur Dent character analysis brings you to a post about Superman(!) where one of the commenters has mentioned Adams' protagonist.

5) But what takes the cake is that searching for scientific reason behind fasting brings up my post as number 1!!! And what is the post about? Eclipses and the unexplainable effect they have on the minds of perfectly reasonable people who start fasting and throwing away perfectly good food. Oh the irony!

Just wanted to say to all the people who come to my blog via misleading google searches... sorry to disappoint, but thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoyed reading the blog (and looking at the chocolates) even though it wasn't exactly what you were looking for.

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Panacea

So I walked into a glass shelf in the store and got a gash on my eyelid. Nothing very serious, didn't even bleed much. But it got me a lot of TLC from dear hubby, who rushed to get the special non-sticky dressing tape to be able to dress the wound without hurting the skin on my eyelids. And is now making dinner (grilled pork chops with corn and mushroom fried rice). Mmmm. And he bought me these:

So of course, I felt a whole lot better after eating a couple of them. It has re-inforced my belief that chocolate can cure most, if not all, problems.

ETA: As my chocolate quote says, "There is only one thign better than a good friend, and that is a good friend with chocolate." Well my good friend got me these:
Looks like I am chocolate dreamland...


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Culinary Heaven

It's the season for reviews. But unlike most, who have been posting reviews for movies, I shall post a review for, you guessed it, food.

This weekend, I made a trip to Bangalore for the first time in my life. Apart from the thrill of going to a new city, one of India's finest, at that, there was the anticipation of eating at Shiok. This restaurant is run by Madhu, whom I met online, and made friends with over our common interest in food in general and in Indonesian food in particular. So when my Bangalore trip was planned, of course, a trip to Shiok was on top of the agenda.

The website for the restaurant has details about how to get there, as well as pictures of the interiors, so I shall get straight to the food ;-) We began with the tiger prawn satay... which taste as heavenly as they look on the website. Flavors of fresh turmeric and galangal burst on your tongue and the prawns are grilled to succulent perfection. Next came the fish cakes redolent with zesty lime leaves which gave them a unique taste. Then we got to the chicken in golden baskets, which give you a mixture of the fragrance of coriander with the sweetness of corn and crispiness of the baskets and all around yumminess in general.

I desperately wanted to try the crab, and Madhu got one wonderful specimen out for us to see. It was huge!!! And alive. Which, sadly, put our friends off the whole thing. They did not want to eat something that was so alive. I would have gone for it on my own, if it wasn't so big. After all, if all the foxes felt dissuaded from eating the fluffy bunnies and the tigers got swayed by the big bambi eyes of the deer, then ecological balance would go for a toss? But, maybe next time.

Anyway, we were already quite full with the three rounds of starters. So we tried to keep the main course frugal. We had drunken beef, which is not really drunk itself, but is so appellated because it is a good thing to eat while getting drunk, and which is actually a "starter" according to the menu. Along with that, came the highlight of the evening, the nasi goreng. One spoonful of it, and I was transported to a warung in Java, and my happiness was clearly reflected on my face.

There was absolutely no room for dessert, so Madhu made a super secret dessert drink for me (which I suspect was some mix of ice-cream soda and vanilla vodka). And there ended our feast. Madhu, you are indeed a maestro, and I look forward to giving you many more opportunities to showcase your culinary prowess on my visits to your restaurants! Thank you for one of the most memorable and satisfying meals!!!

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Truths and lies meme - Now with answers

I seem to be on a meme roll. Anyway:

Here are six statements about me or my family. Three are true and three are false. Guess which are which. I'll post the answers next week (if I have enough guesses).

1. My first memory is of a crow stealing one of my toys off the window. - True. I guess it stuck in my mind because it is such a wierd memory.

2. I'd never been to a movie theatre before the age of 5. - False. My parents have always been great movie buffs, and used to take me along to the theatres from a very young age, because they had no one to leave me with. Needless to say, I hated it!

3. I can lick the tip of my own nose. - True! Absolutely.

4. My father once thought I was dead after I fell down the stair and fainted. - True. Gave the rest of the family quite a scare. I was 3 or so at the time.

5. The only body part I've ever broken was my ankle. - False. I haven't broken any bones that I know of.

6. I'm grossed-out by dead fish. - False! Fish was the second solid food I ever ate, the first being payesh.

ETA: OK, my dear little brother has put in a spoiler for #5. Well just wanted to say one of the commenters has got them all correct, and it is not my brother!

ETA (2): To add some motivation, winner(s) (those who get all correct without resorting to devious means) will get a small prize :D (pls note the "small")

So the prize goes to Sarita! For being the first to guess all of them correctly!

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I've caught it...

I've been tagged by Tarun!!! For the first time ever! So of course, this one will be done with all my heart...

I am thinking about...
vacations in exotic lands.

I said...
a lot today, and bored a bunch of people. I was training a class of 15 today, you see. And it continues tomorrow. *yawn*

I want to...
sleep for three or four days straight.

I wish...
I could find some fresh blueberries in Hyderabad.

I hear…
the wind outside my window and...

... I wonder...
if it is raining or if it's just the leaves.

I regret...
buying a 29in TV with a woofer. Now it is on at all hours of the day and night. *sigh*

I am...
a "Certified Chocolate Lover"!

I dance...
every weekend now, with some really great salseros!

I sing...
from the bottom of my heart (or lungs, more like).

I cry...
when I read a sad story (A Tale of Two Cities), when I watch a sentimental scene (last scene in Superman Returns (?!?!?!)), when I listen to a sad song (Lag jaa gale, ki phir yeh haseen raat ho na ho...). Yikes! Looks like I'm quite a cry-baby.

I am not always...
dressed to receive company *blushes*

I make with my hands...
lovingly rolled chocolate truffles.

I write...
better with a pencil than with a pen.

I confuse...
people who like to slot women into "married" and "single" categories.

I need...
a massage from a really strong "maalishwali", kneading my shoulder muscles and working out all the kinks in my back.


Oh-kay now... Aparna, KoPoS: you're it!

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