2007. Happy new year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! To the whole wide world. I was personally dreading this year as it happens to be a year of decisions for me. But now that it is here, i welcome it with the grace of a ballerina ;-) and a will of iron (yeah?), a mind like the free breeze (as free i hope), and a vision as clear as saint gobain glass (ha!) :D I wish....I wish... Its going to be some task, making things fall into place. But i hear challenges enrich the soul, make people grow, feed the mind... and i think i have to get ready to see if all that is indeed true!
Wow, some blabberation that para was. Anyway, i didn't do a 'looking back on 2006' post... when i think of 2006, the first thing that comes to my mind is.... obviously....the football worldcup. The Italian Glory. I don't think i ever cried watching any match before, but that match... n even the semi finals match where italy won...some feeling i'd never experienced before. And i'll never forget how it felt like to be screaming sitting on the floor of a dark room, only inches away from the television. I do think of alot of other things also, but this is what i'd like to mention, because it meant so much to me! I dont even know how... but it meant so much. Another big discovery made in 2006 - Nothing sticks to your braces worse than popcorn. Dont ever try to speak, or laugh, or smile if you've just had popcorn. For the love of your own maanam!
Craziest moment of 2006 - Footsie's naming. Some carnival that was!
Jumpiest moment - Maybe right before the new year dawned. The music realy got to me!
Most awe evoking moment - At kenya, in January, at the arc.
My Hero of 2006 - Big Surprise!! Johnny Depp :D
My Mr.awww of 2006 - Bill Pullman ;-)
Ok this is getting way too *rolling eyes* types with all my heroes and crap! Anyway, I'd like to wish you all a very happy new year. May the best of everything come to you in 2007, and always.
2007, here i come. Fight me all you can ;-)
Yours "We're not making any reslotions are we? Any comments Calvin?"Ly
Signing off.....
Nothing is ever so insignificant as to be unimportant. Everything in life matters and ultimately has a place, an impact and a meaning. --Laurens Van Der Post
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Chlorophyll in my nails
I love the colour green. Infact, it happens to be my favourite colour. I think that happened because i fancied wearing green while playing hide and seek as a kid, convenient as it was for camouflage, to hide in the bushes, behind the plant fences, on the trees. Half my wardrobe consists of green clothes, much to my mother's disapproval, as a result of which shopping with her would mean buying non-green clothes. Sad for me, for i hardly ever shop without her. The only time i went diwali shopping with one of my friends, my mother(who was in kenya at that time) was smart enough to tell her that greens, blacks and off-whites are not allowed! And very annoyingly, my friend stuck to the code, and didn't allow me even to look at clothes having those colours as the main! And i ended up getting something in rust. RUST. Ok, it wasn't so bad actually!
Green can be such a radiant colour. When you're cooking something, and say you have a mix of tomatoes and capsicums or beans on the stove, you'll realise it looks very nice, in way that appeals not only to your eyes, but to your mouth too :) And then one suddenly thinks about all the colours that are so richly present in the things we take for granted, in the things we dont bother to take a second look at... The rich red of apples, the subtle yellow of the babycorn, the happy orange of the carrot, the dark purple of the betroot, the pink-purple-white blend of the turnip, the lush green of cabbage, the dark green of okra, the pleasant green of capsicum, the pastel green of lime, the shiny green of chillies, the dull green of beans, the wet green of coriander, the fresh green of spinach. The fresh green of spinach. Spinach. One green i like looking at. But when that green takes advantage of my liking for it, and abuses my taste buds, and forces its way through my oesophagus, it crosses a line so delicate, that it spoils the relation between us. To be more direct, i hate spinach. Keerai.
Need i mention the varieties? Molai keerai, murungu keerai, paalak, methi..blah. If there's anything besides the green that i like about keerai, its chopping it. The process is quite complicated, considering the leaves need to be painfully seperated from their dear stems they've always been attached to, and thought they'll be attached to forever. Once the plucking has been satisfactorily carried out, chopping round 1 begins. There's this krrr krrr krrr sound that arises from the movement of the knife, backward and forward on the leaves awaiting execution, that could easily pass for music, depending on what one defines music to be. To me, the sound of the knife on keerai comes second only to the sound of a knife on capsicums! Crazy as that might sound, it is true. Removing the mid-portion of a capsicum, containing the seeds, the portion that is not usually eaten by normal humans, gives a sound that my brother and i find absolutely appealing. If one has not ever heard it before, i suggest one does it asap. Coming back to the keerai, round 1 of chopping usually results in uneven bits of leaf, strewn around the place, making it seem more like a mess than ever. And so one steps into round 2 of the chopping, making the bits more even in size, making them smaller, re-cutting the tender stems which are allowed entry with the other leaves. Aah then one stares at the vessel...with the mass of green staring back, and maybe even yelling out "how dare you hurt me so!" depending on one's state of mind. That done, one gives the mass of green the holy bath, under tap water, in an attempt to keep away from their intimidating stares. The cooking of the mass of green can be elaborated in
a whole different post by itself, but i shall refrain.
So lets just say one keeps the vessel aside... and one realises one's hands have a green tinge. One's nails are definitely green too. What do they call it? Aah, chlorophyll. When i had first come across that word, early in school, maybe in my 4th std, i remember pronouncing it again and again, using not only my tongue and voice, but my whole mouth and jaw, and telling people around me that the reason plants are so green is because of CHLO-RO-PHYLL. And so one turns to the next task at hand...forcing the green out of one's nails. *sigh* And as one does that... flashes of an experiment carried out in the biology laboratory encroach upon the brain's territory. There it was, a whatmann no.1 filter paper, protruding from a test tube, holding on it, adsorbed pigments from a leaf that was crushed with the help of a mortar and pestle, the pigments loosened out by acetone and petroleum ether. The pigments occupied parts of a bell shaped design...colours green, yellow and a light orange forming curves. It was easily the most interesting experiment that year, and the most beautiful thing the bio lab had seen, other than the royal colour of copper sulphate blue. Another colour that remains one of my favourites. I think i'll stop here. Though considering the number of topics i've touched, i could go on forever, as one thing always leads to another, and one thought triggers another.
comments section - tell us your favourite sounds, and colours :D
Lastly, i'd like to say a little prayer for my uncle who passed away recently. May his soul rest in peace, and may he find more happiness than he ever had. God Bless.
Yours "krr krr krr" ly
Signing off....
Green can be such a radiant colour. When you're cooking something, and say you have a mix of tomatoes and capsicums or beans on the stove, you'll realise it looks very nice, in way that appeals not only to your eyes, but to your mouth too :) And then one suddenly thinks about all the colours that are so richly present in the things we take for granted, in the things we dont bother to take a second look at... The rich red of apples, the subtle yellow of the babycorn, the happy orange of the carrot, the dark purple of the betroot, the pink-purple-white blend of the turnip, the lush green of cabbage, the dark green of okra, the pleasant green of capsicum, the pastel green of lime, the shiny green of chillies, the dull green of beans, the wet green of coriander, the fresh green of spinach. The fresh green of spinach. Spinach. One green i like looking at. But when that green takes advantage of my liking for it, and abuses my taste buds, and forces its way through my oesophagus, it crosses a line so delicate, that it spoils the relation between us. To be more direct, i hate spinach. Keerai.
Need i mention the varieties? Molai keerai, murungu keerai, paalak, methi..blah. If there's anything besides the green that i like about keerai, its chopping it. The process is quite complicated, considering the leaves need to be painfully seperated from their dear stems they've always been attached to, and thought they'll be attached to forever. Once the plucking has been satisfactorily carried out, chopping round 1 begins. There's this krrr krrr krrr sound that arises from the movement of the knife, backward and forward on the leaves awaiting execution, that could easily pass for music, depending on what one defines music to be. To me, the sound of the knife on keerai comes second only to the sound of a knife on capsicums! Crazy as that might sound, it is true. Removing the mid-portion of a capsicum, containing the seeds, the portion that is not usually eaten by normal humans, gives a sound that my brother and i find absolutely appealing. If one has not ever heard it before, i suggest one does it asap. Coming back to the keerai, round 1 of chopping usually results in uneven bits of leaf, strewn around the place, making it seem more like a mess than ever. And so one steps into round 2 of the chopping, making the bits more even in size, making them smaller, re-cutting the tender stems which are allowed entry with the other leaves. Aah then one stares at the vessel...with the mass of green staring back, and maybe even yelling out "how dare you hurt me so!" depending on one's state of mind. That done, one gives the mass of green the holy bath, under tap water, in an attempt to keep away from their intimidating stares. The cooking of the mass of green can be elaborated in
a whole different post by itself, but i shall refrain.
So lets just say one keeps the vessel aside... and one realises one's hands have a green tinge. One's nails are definitely green too. What do they call it? Aah, chlorophyll. When i had first come across that word, early in school, maybe in my 4th std, i remember pronouncing it again and again, using not only my tongue and voice, but my whole mouth and jaw, and telling people around me that the reason plants are so green is because of CHLO-RO-PHYLL. And so one turns to the next task at hand...forcing the green out of one's nails. *sigh* And as one does that... flashes of an experiment carried out in the biology laboratory encroach upon the brain's territory. There it was, a whatmann no.1 filter paper, protruding from a test tube, holding on it, adsorbed pigments from a leaf that was crushed with the help of a mortar and pestle, the pigments loosened out by acetone and petroleum ether. The pigments occupied parts of a bell shaped design...colours green, yellow and a light orange forming curves. It was easily the most interesting experiment that year, and the most beautiful thing the bio lab had seen, other than the royal colour of copper sulphate blue. Another colour that remains one of my favourites. I think i'll stop here. Though considering the number of topics i've touched, i could go on forever, as one thing always leads to another, and one thought triggers another.
comments section - tell us your favourite sounds, and colours :D
Lastly, i'd like to say a little prayer for my uncle who passed away recently. May his soul rest in peace, and may he find more happiness than he ever had. God Bless.
Yours "krr krr krr" ly
Signing off....
Friday, December 22, 2006
With love
For as far as my memory can stretch, the cards i've given/sent my parents, or relatives, have always been signed "Love, Dibs and Divs". Dibs, being my brother. And as i was sigining my father's birthday card a few days back, i started to wonder, for how much longer i'm going to sign cards that way... wonder if my bro still signed the cards he sent, that way. You know its a little strange when you realise some habits wont last forever... There will come a time when maybe i'd realise that i'm old enough now, and so is he, and I'm telling my parents something that i feel, and maybe he doesn't feel that way... and ultimately, my cards are going to have my kids names in them, and maybe there wouldn't be space for my brother's name... and ofcourse, he'll have his kids names to list down to, and i wont figure there....
Its all about growing up i guess, and growing older...to my parents, the both of us will always be the same... their kids...But i keep wondering when i'll stop thinking of my brother and me as one, atleast in matters such as these... though he really doesn't live in this house anymore, there's not a single day paati wont say something about him when she's making sambar, or i'll just listen to some song and remember how the balcony witnessed the worst sound ever, his strumming and my singing...
Well, i'm not giving you another senti post about my brother. nope. Today happens to be my father's birthday... So i'd like to say Happy birthday Dearest appa...you're the best! Its been years since i was with my dad for his birthday, or mine. So, gifts have invariably been in the form of words, and cards (to him). I've never really got him the perfect gift, or given him a surprise or anything... when i got old enough to realise its fun doing things like that, and that it'll really make him happy, and mean alot, the circumstances for such an event to happen just weren't right. But someday, i should make it happen...for the person he's always been, and the strength of his character, and his subtle ways...for being the perfect father i'll always look up to. anyway, for now, I wish he has a great day, and a great year cuz he deserves every bit of it.. :)
So pop, Many more happy returns of the day...
With lots of love,
Yours truly,
Dibs and Divs
Signing off....
Its all about growing up i guess, and growing older...to my parents, the both of us will always be the same... their kids...But i keep wondering when i'll stop thinking of my brother and me as one, atleast in matters such as these... though he really doesn't live in this house anymore, there's not a single day paati wont say something about him when she's making sambar, or i'll just listen to some song and remember how the balcony witnessed the worst sound ever, his strumming and my singing...
Well, i'm not giving you another senti post about my brother. nope. Today happens to be my father's birthday... So i'd like to say Happy birthday Dearest appa...you're the best! Its been years since i was with my dad for his birthday, or mine. So, gifts have invariably been in the form of words, and cards (to him). I've never really got him the perfect gift, or given him a surprise or anything... when i got old enough to realise its fun doing things like that, and that it'll really make him happy, and mean alot, the circumstances for such an event to happen just weren't right. But someday, i should make it happen...for the person he's always been, and the strength of his character, and his subtle ways...for being the perfect father i'll always look up to. anyway, for now, I wish he has a great day, and a great year cuz he deserves every bit of it.. :)
So pop, Many more happy returns of the day...
With lots of love,
Yours truly,
Dibs and Divs
Signing off....
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Sinful Something
Forget love, I'd rather fall in chocolate!
Hmm... i just came across that very recently, and it led to the triggering of such wonderful signals in my nerves, that i felt like i was eating chocolate, tasting it when my tongue had nothing but saliva, smelling it when there was nothing around but the smell of a rotting black banana (which i just chucked btw). Every occasion in my house has been graced by the presence of chocolate cake, God knows why the other flavours were never given a chance! (well am very sure that its because i invariably bought the cakes, and i always wanted to eat chocolate!). I don't know what it is about chocolate....but the taste of melting chocolate on my tongue always makes me say 'heaven' once i'm done swallowing it!
And then there's this other thing about chocolate. I love licking molten chocolate off my fingers! I know so many people who find that utterly disgusting and unhygenic, but to me, its just yum! And because i love doing this, i give dairy milk chocolate bars enough time to melt away to liquidity in my bag and then open them on the bus journey back home...and then lick the chocolate with alot to stare at out of window (including sunsets and cloud patterns, nice buildings and dirty water - colours green and brown). Thats what i call the perfect journey home.
Single pieces of cake, with single candles always make it into the house on birthdays. And there's this bliss one gets out of getting just one bit of that cake. Somehow seems more satisfying than having a whole, big, round cake saying happy birthday blah sitting infront of you! I started writing this post because there's a new bakery that's come up very close to my house... and its called "Sinful something". I loved the name, but i'm yet to check it out. The fat lady behind the counter looks like she does half the eating when she's baking, but she looks very pleasantly plump, like how a chocolate cake seller should be :D Ok, i don't know what that was supposed to mean.
Anyway, this is a tribute to Barista's chocolate excess (still cant thank nidhee and nanya enough for getting me those for my birthday!) And Java green's Death by chocolate, which i eat more often than any other chocolate cake! And well, i love brownies too! :D And maybe i should also say its a tribute to the movie Chocolat. The chocolate in that movie is so mouth watering, and so lovely looking, that it makes you yearn for chocolate to touch your tongue! I remember pausing the movie, getting a bar of mars, and then continuing it. *sigh* well, not to leave out the fact that Johnny Depp so rocked :D Now you know why i watched it in the first place! ;-)
Ok, quite a useless post. But well, what's blogging for?
Yours "Now i feel like eating chocolate cake, dont u?"ly
Signing off.....
Hmm... i just came across that very recently, and it led to the triggering of such wonderful signals in my nerves, that i felt like i was eating chocolate, tasting it when my tongue had nothing but saliva, smelling it when there was nothing around but the smell of a rotting black banana (which i just chucked btw). Every occasion in my house has been graced by the presence of chocolate cake, God knows why the other flavours were never given a chance! (well am very sure that its because i invariably bought the cakes, and i always wanted to eat chocolate!). I don't know what it is about chocolate....but the taste of melting chocolate on my tongue always makes me say 'heaven' once i'm done swallowing it!
And then there's this other thing about chocolate. I love licking molten chocolate off my fingers! I know so many people who find that utterly disgusting and unhygenic, but to me, its just yum! And because i love doing this, i give dairy milk chocolate bars enough time to melt away to liquidity in my bag and then open them on the bus journey back home...and then lick the chocolate with alot to stare at out of window (including sunsets and cloud patterns, nice buildings and dirty water - colours green and brown). Thats what i call the perfect journey home.
Single pieces of cake, with single candles always make it into the house on birthdays. And there's this bliss one gets out of getting just one bit of that cake. Somehow seems more satisfying than having a whole, big, round cake saying happy birthday blah sitting infront of you! I started writing this post because there's a new bakery that's come up very close to my house... and its called "Sinful something". I loved the name, but i'm yet to check it out. The fat lady behind the counter looks like she does half the eating when she's baking, but she looks very pleasantly plump, like how a chocolate cake seller should be :D Ok, i don't know what that was supposed to mean.
Anyway, this is a tribute to Barista's chocolate excess (still cant thank nidhee and nanya enough for getting me those for my birthday!) And Java green's Death by chocolate, which i eat more often than any other chocolate cake! And well, i love brownies too! :D And maybe i should also say its a tribute to the movie Chocolat. The chocolate in that movie is so mouth watering, and so lovely looking, that it makes you yearn for chocolate to touch your tongue! I remember pausing the movie, getting a bar of mars, and then continuing it. *sigh* well, not to leave out the fact that Johnny Depp so rocked :D Now you know why i watched it in the first place! ;-)
Ok, quite a useless post. But well, what's blogging for?
Yours "Now i feel like eating chocolate cake, dont u?"ly
Signing off.....
Friday, December 08, 2006
When they get to your head...
UPDATE - 12/12/06 - Happy birthday Bharat! If anyone's wondering who i'm talking abt - Happy birthday Tsb! (its happened, i'll just say 'bharat' in conversation flow, and the other person'll be like "who?" , and then i'll have to say umm, tsb!) Anyway, tsb, take some time off from your research articles, and chagas disease and have a blast! After all, its not a crime to get back to being the lord of randomness ;-) Hope you have a great day, and a wonderful year to come. We're hoping you'll give us more updates! If you were in chennai, your birthday cake would definitely have been idly/pongal with 20 candles planted on it! But since you dwell in the idly-less wilderness called toronto, you'll have to put up with normal, boring cake! ok, have a nice day. God bless.
I give you this.
And for your sake, Happy birthday Rajnikanth! ;-)
You know the exams are getting to your head when....
I give you this.
And for your sake, Happy birthday Rajnikanth! ;-)
You know the exams are getting to your head when....
- MBA becomes Molecular Beacon Aptamer.
- Ppt becomes 'precipitate' rather than 'power point' (This one's for sandhya! Who actually asked me 'did you send the precipitate to your cousin?')
- You have dreams, Tarzan fashion. Just that you're hanging on a rope from the pyrole ring structure of glucose rather than trees!
- You instruct your mother to add equimolar quantities of rice and rasam to your plate!
- You end up telling anyone who'll listen to you that trangenesis is very sinful as it involves super-ovulating female mice/cows, mating them, sacrificing them when they're still pregnant and then flushing out their oviducts to retreive the eggs for DNA microinjection! ARGH! Yes, i'm obsessed! Last sem i was obsessed with rennin production, which was previously got by sacrificing new born calves! (I do know biotech involves so much of sacrificing the animal world to save we mortals, but it still feels so bad! Murderers!)
- You stare at your fist, open it and close it, and realise how fast your contractile muscles are working, how fast the nerve signal is being transmitted, and how much work your body has to do just because you FELT LIKE moving your palm! And you make a genuine attempt not to move any muscle unnecessarily!
- You look at your hair, and think of how inserting some keratin gene into sheep induced over-production of their fleece! Will it work with me?
- You're addicted to some kind of eatable! Last sem it was mars chocolate. I had to eat one every afternoon at a particular time...this sem, its been peppy mini cheese balls! Or cheetos...*sigh*
- Finally, you have elaborate conversations with the pictures of football players stuck up on your pin-up board. (Ronaldo, do you know your head is as round as the football? What if someone kicks it mistaking it for the ball? Ronaldinho, do you know your teeth are so big and sharp, i could scrape a coconut? Beckham, i don't know why i'm so oscillating when it comes to liking you...One day you're all giving amazing free kicks for england, the next you're promoting some big beck perfume and hoping you're 4th kid's a girl! argh!)
Besides all that... there are my exam sms'... 3 more for this sem! Heights of ridiculousness!
Enzyme Engineering and Technology
How're the enzymes treating you? I bet they have no clue, that the sky is blue, and they deserve to live in the loo, till they get a flu, and a speech from laloo, on how to make the paper a hulabaloo!
Genetic Engineering
Chromosomes walking in my head, Chimera infesting my bed, Looking at AGTC my poor eyes bled, Leaving my body, my brain fled, To hell with your genes! - it mockingly said, and continued to savour molded bread, and so into a brainless head i fed, Facts and figures, white and red, Till my Doc declared me half dead!
Bioprocess Principles
Do you know the story of bioprocess? It was brought to the world by Moses, But ditched him and joined the circus, Where it got dumped into a heap of molasses, Sat on the graveyard crosses, Jumped onto the tuxedo of the scientist Contois, Made friends with the lab Funguses, And finally entered our brain closets!
Thats it :D For last sems crazy sms', you can have a look at this.
Have just one more paper to go. And then i'll come up with a more worthwhile post! Till then, please entertain yourself with this, and entertain others by putting up poems in the comments section if you please!
Yours "Till my doc declared me half dead"ly
Signing off......
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