miss_teerious

Papa & Daughters: Photo A Day - Us

2013-05-25T10:32:00.004+05:30

Day 25 of "May Photo A Day Challenge" : Us

We see a lot of business firms in India with names like 'XYZ & Sons' (representing family owned businesses usually, that are handed down from fathers to their sons). But today's picture here is dedicated to 'Papa & Daughters'.

That's Dad, my sister and me... or, all of "us", since 1997, when mom passed away. It's one of those rare family pictures in which Dad is in the photograph with us, and not behind the camera.

No story today, friends... just some personal memories. Have a good day... :)

This is my 25th post for 2013 May Photo A Day Challenge.
Link to the previous post: "Photo A Day - Go"

Grand Prix Junior: Photo A Day - Go

2013-05-24T19:15:00.002+05:30

Day 24 of "May Photo A Day Challenge" : Go

Whenever I hear the word 'Go', the only image that comes to my mind is that of a Monopoly board, and the big "GO" on the starting cell, instructing us to collect $200 as we pass. I used to have the Indian version of the game, which told us to collect Rs. 2000 as we passed. And it had the names of Indian airports and Indian cities, which we owned and then built houses and hotels upon.

As my sister and I grew up, we handed down all our games to our cousins, including our Monopoly set. I last played this game in 2010, with my cousin in Guwahati. And the one memory of this game, that stands out for me, is when I landed in jail three times in a row! "Go to Jail. Do not pass 'Go'. Do not collect Rs. 2000." Brutal. My cousin had a field day! I actually had to mortgage some of my property to continue in the game! :(

I was originally going to post a picture of the Monopoly board for today's prompt. Rather, a picture of my monitor with a Monopoly board image opened in full screen on it... as I don't have the actual game anymore. But then I noticed that quite a few participants, in this month's photo-a-day challenge, were posting on the same idea today. So I decided to go with plan B... i.e. my backup...

Yes, that's my backup... my little knight in shining armour... my nephew UV... rising to the occasion once again! LOL! :P

Since his Dad rides a motorcycle, he obviously had to get one too... complete with a helmet! The picture above was taken on 26th January, 2011. He was five at that time. And he didn't much like that Spiderman helmet. He wanted a black one with a full face cover... like a grown-up helmet, you know... the kind worn by grown-up riders! Unfortunately, we couldn't find one like that, to fit the little head of this 5-year-old Grand Prix Junior Champ! Hence, the Spiderman! :P

This is my 24th post for 2013 May Photo A Day Challenge.
Link to the previous post: "Photo A Day - PJs"

Expressions Galore!

2013-05-23T20:07:00.004+05:30

Wish I could change my submission for today's prompt in the May Photo A Day Challenge! :P

I clicked these new pictures less than 2 hours ago. They are of the same kid who was featured in the "Smile" prompt of the challenge... the one with the "Toothy smile". I went to see his mom for something, and he was sitting there on the bed, dressed in these super cool PJs, with his freshly-combed hair all spiked up!

Unfortunately, the dark back-rest of the bed doesn't give that good a view of his hair, but his expressions are just priceless! I took five pictures from my cell phone, in like less than a minute... and in no two pictures did he repeat the same expression!

Amazing, isn't it? Can us grown-ups manage to give five such spontaneous and such completely different expressions in five pictures?

Anyway, my official entry for today's prompt (PJs) is here... "All Girls' PJ Party!: Photo A Day - PJs". Cheers...

All Girls' PJ Party!: Photo A Day - PJs

2013-05-23T11:54:00.003+05:30

Day 23 of "May Photo A Day Challenge" : PJs

I had to do a lot of digging through the old picture folders in my PC, for today's prompt, to find what I was looking for. I knew it had to be there somewhere, but it kept eluding me for a long long time. Finally remembered where it could be just this morning!

That is my sister, in her pretty red floral PJs, in October 2006. She is a bit shy, so she prefers that I don't post pictures of her on my blog. For that reason, I've cropped the picture to hide her face from "public eyes", but, I have left her beautiful smile in, 'coz smiles are infectious, you see... and there are so many people out there who need one...

As for me... well, I'm not really a PJ person. My preferred nightwear is night-gowns. So, taking the "creative liberty" to bend the rules a bit here... I would also like to share some pics of one of my all-girls PJ party, back in the late 90s...

Those are my school friends (S, A, G) and me, at my best friend's (S') place. Yeah, the same best friend who used to call me over to arrange her cupboards! (Refer to the comments in the post - "Orderliness..."!) She's the one in pink. I'm the one in the white cardigan... the only one wearing any woolens. (Remember, I'm hypothermic?) A is the one in checks. And G is the 4th one.

Technically, this probably won't qualify as a PJ party, as none of us are wearing pajamas. S, G and me are in nighties, and A was apparently planning to crash in her day clothes. (Don't remember why though.) But, it sure as hell was one good sleepover! (As can be made out from the looks on our faces!)

By the way, these were all printed pictures (film-roll days) that I scanned and made a rough collage out of, in Photoshop. I decided to leave out some of the more... ummm... crazy pics. You can click on the collage to zoom in.

The day these pics were taken, my best friend's parents were out of town. It was just her and her younger sister (T) in the house. (These pics were all taken by her younger sister, by the way.) So the 5 of us... all girls... had the entire house to ourselves, which used to happen very rarely in those days. Like... very VERY rarely!

For one whole day and night, we were totally FREE! We cooked our own food... whatever junk we wanted to... and we stayed up as late as we wanted to... and made as much noise as 5 young carefree girls could possibly make... until finally, the neighbors started complaining! No kidding!

Alright then, I am kidding.

Or, not exactly kidding... just 'exaggerating' a little.

Those 'neighbors' were just my best friend's uncle and aunt, who lived in the ground floor portion of the building, while S and her family had the first floor! :P

Well... what can I say? We bloggers HAVE TO spice things up a bit, in order to make it an interesting read for you guys... it's part of our job! :D

This is my 23rd post for 2013 May Photo A Day Challenge.
Link to the previous post: "Photo A Day - Change"

Best of Waste: Photo A Day - Change

2013-05-22T09:00:00.000+05:30

Day 22 of "May Photo A Day Challenge" : Change

There were lots of ideas in my mind for today's prompt.

I could show a change of seasons with a collage of various pictures taken from my balcony... foggy, cloudy, clear sky, monsoon. Or I could show the change in me... from when my hair was really long to when it was practically in a boy cut.

I could show the change in my nephew Yuvraj... from the day he was born to the day I last saw him in Patna. Or I could show the change in a cooking process... from the ingredients to the finished dish.

I could photograph an old chip of soap placed next to a brand new bar of soap. Or I could simply take a picture of my wall clock, to show the changing time.

Buds and flowers from the gardens downstairs, or a nest full of pigeons and their eggs/baby pigeons. I could even photograph the recent alteration marks in some of my tops, to show my expanding waistline!

Eventually, I decided to photograph this...

A best-out-of-waste art-work that I did a couple of months ago. Some old wool and an empty chilli sauce bottle... recycled into a pretty vase with some handmade flowers.

Here's how I did it, in case anyone wants to know... Snowy Alpines: Recycled Jars with Wool Pom-Pom Flowers.

This is my 22nd post for 2013 May Photo A Day Challenge.
Link to the previous post: "Photo A Day - I Care About This..."

Orderliness: Photo A Day - I Care About This...

2013-05-21T12:02:00.001+05:30

Day 21 of "May Photo A Day Challenge" : I Care About This...

Unfortunately, I don't have any social cause I care much about currently. Neither do I have any pets or kids. :( But, there's one thing I've always cared so much about that it wouldn't be wrong to refer to it as an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. And that's my fanaticism for orderliness.

Be it books in my books almirah, or clothes in my wardrobe, or the crockery in my kitchen cabinet... everything must be in its proper place. I cannot stand disorder and chaos... where I have to hunt for things.

This OCD has subsided a bit in the last few years, but when I was in school, I was such an order-freak that everything even had a fixed linear order! For example, my clothes. Dress G had to be after dress F and before dress H, so that I would tell my sister from the other room that "please give me the 5th suit from the left in my cupboard", and she would bring me the correct suit. Same with books or audio cassettes or anything else, for that matter. You could blindfold me, and I would still be able to pick the right item from the stack, just by counting.

My old Farmville neighbors will probably remember... even my farm was subjected to this particular OCD of mine! For those of you who never got into virtual farming, or couldn't make it into my neighborhood, here's an old screenshot of my farm loooong ago... (even before I saved enough money for my mansion!)

Beautiful, wasn't it? And naah... don't worry... I have no plans of getting back to online farming! I care about my eyes too! LOL! :P

This is my 21st post for 2013 May Photo A Day Challenge.
Link to the previous post: "Photo A Day - Light"

Diwali Celebrations: Photo A Day - Light

2013-05-20T10:04:00.001+05:30

Day 20 of "May Photo A Day Challenge" : Light

What could be more fitting for today's prompt than our very own festival of lights... Diwali!

I took this picture in Patna, in the year 2010... another one of my candid "balcony shots". The two buildings, lit up with Diwali lights, were at the far end of my lane (to the right of my balcony). No fancy equipment was used. Just my 5MP Cannon Powershot on 'night mode' without flash. I have cropped and water-marked the photograph in Adobe Photoshop.

Also, here's some more recent night-time photography. I'd already blogged these pictures last month, so didn't use them again for today's prompt, but please DO take a look... I quite like how they've come out. :)

This is my 20th post for 2013 May Photo A Day Challenge.
Link to the previous post: "Photo A Day - My Favorite View"

Sunrise: Photo A Day - My Favorite View

2013-05-19T13:58:00.002+05:30

Day 19 of "May Photo A Day Challenge" : My Favorite View

This one was easy to figure out... not as easy to photograph though... for the simple reason that I don't wake up that early now! So posting an old picture to portray my take on today's prompt...

That's a view of the morning sun peeping out from behind the leaves of a tree in Guwahati, India. I took this photograph from my uncle's balcony in Guwahati, in April 2010. Here's another picture from the same collection - "Sunrise in Guwahati".

The day begins so early over there 'coz it's in the East. And the mornings were just so lovely and cool. Completely in contrast to the weather here in Jaipur... temperature being over 30 degrees Celsius at like 7:15 in the morning! LOL!

I suppose I'll have to start waking up at 4:45 am again, if I want to see the Sun playing peek-a-boo with the trees here! :P

This is my 19th post for 2013 May Photo A Day Challenge.
Link to the previous post: "Photo A Day - Want"

Plants: Photo A Day - Want

2013-05-18T09:34:00.001+05:30

Day 18 of "May Photo A Day Challenge" : Want

Oh there are loads of stuff I want...

a German shepherd called "Steele"
a fish bowl with two gold fish called "Gappu" and "Gappi"
a walk-in closet with clothes and accessories like Princess Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldo's
more books
some sacks full of mad money stashed away somewhere (like in the movie Mad Money)
a farm in real (like my old FarmVille farm on Facebook)
my work on KraftyFingers selling like M.F.Hussain's paintings

... but for today's prompt, I'll keep it a little more down-to-earth...

Plants... if I could only have lots of plants... or, better yet, a small garden of my own. But that's totally not possible in an apartment unit. So I will just have to make do with potted plants... the first item on my "shopping list" when we move to our own place! :D

P.S. - This was a "blind shot" taken from my cell phone camera, 'coz the screen was completely blacked out in the sunlight.

This is my 18th post for 2013 May Photo A Day Challenge.
Link to the previous post: "Photo A Day - Season"

Summer Sandstorms in Jaipur: Photo A Day - Season

2013-05-17T15:28:00.002+05:30

Day 17 of "May Photo A Day Challenge" : Season

What can I say about the summers of Jaipur? They are extremely hot and extremely dry (just the kind I like!)... with regular sandstorms (the kind I don't like!) that cover everything in your house with a thin layer of dust and make your neighborhood look like this...

Despite the fact that you have to spend so much more time in cleaning the house, and that you get severely sun-burnt if you step out of the house, during afternoon, wearing short sleeves, there's still a lot of fun to be had in Jaipur summers.

You can satisfy your mango mania, without worrying about pimples and acnes. You can skip cooked meals and just fill your tummy with watermelons and cucumbers and litchis (WOW!).

You can replace hot tea and coffee with so many different varieties of summer coolers and shakes!

Enjoy a glass of chilled homemade lassi (recipe here) with breakfast, or make a mint raita for lunch.

Have freshly made aam panna / mango mint cooler (recipe here) for a mid-day snack, and keep a jug of iced lemonade or lemon tea in your fridge, for when you return from your evening walk.

When my sister and I were kids, we used to love having Rasna and Roohafza in summers. Another of my personal favorites was the khus sharbat, while my sister was more crazy about cold coffee. (She used to have cold coffee in a huge beer mug! LOL!)

So what's your favorite drink for summers?

And do you see such summer sandstorms/duststorms where you live?

This is my 17th post for 2013 May Photo A Day Challenge.
Link to the previous post: "Photo A Day - Mailbox"

Homemade Aam Panna or Mango Mint Cooler

2013-05-17T14:51:00.004+05:30

Aam Panna, or mango mint cooler, is a very popular summer drink in those Northern parts of India that experience the strong, hot & dry loo winds. Exposure to these loo winds can cause fatal heat-strokes, and this refreshing combination of raw mango and mint helps in preventing those heat-strokes.

My mom used to make this aam panna regularly in Kanpur, because Dad used to come home for lunch from his factory. I didn't bother much about it in Patna, as Patna is not a loo-prone area, but, now in Jaipur, aam panna is once again a part of our regular summer diet. Here's how I make it (this is one of the few recipes that my mom was able to teach me before she passed away)...

INGREDIENTS:
2 large raw green mangoes, peeled
2 tbsp mint leaves' paste
4 glasses of water
4 tsp sugar
2 tsp black salt / rock salt (kaala namak)
2 tsp roasted & powdered cumin seeds (jeera)
crushed ice

METHOD:

Pressure cook the mangoes in 2 glasses of water, for about 7 minutes.
Allow to cool, and then squeeze the pulp through a strainer, adding the remaining water.
Mix in the mint paste, sugar, salt and roasted cumin powder.
Serve chilled with crushed ice.

My blender doesn't work with very little quantities, so I usually buy an entire bunch of fresh mint leaves, and run the whole lot through the blender, storing the paste in the freezer in an air-tight container. The mangoes, I prefer to boil fresh every time. The sharp tang of the raw mangoes, combined with the coolness of mint, makes this a very satisfying summer cooler drink in this extreme North-Indian heat.

Here's more in Recipes from miss_teerious!

Array of Mailboxes: Photo A Day - Mailbox

2013-05-16T16:42:00.000+05:30

Day 16 of "May Photo A Day Challenge" : Mailbox

Today's topic did not make an interesting prompt for us Indians at least. Very few (if any) of us have those fancy mailboxes that we see in Hollywood movies and Google images.

I remember when I used to live in a house in Kanpur, the local postman delivered all our mail personally. The envelopes were usually slid under the door, but on every festival, he would ring the bell, deliver the mail in our hand, and then demand his 'baksheesh' (unofficial festival bonus)!

Then we started living in apartment units. And since then, all our regular mail is delivered to the building's security (usually the guard room at the main gate), while registered posts and couriers are delivered in person, directly to the recipient.

So, while we have these arrays of mailboxes set up in our building here, they are hardly used by anyone. I suppose that's already obvious from the condition of the mailboxes. Most of them have their locks broken. Some don't even remain closed anymore!

This is my 16th post for 2013 May Photo A Day Challenge.
Link to the previous post: "Photo A Day - 7 O'Clock"

Ramp Ready... with TRESemmé!

2013-05-15T20:31:00.002+05:30

After two fortunate extensions in the deadline, Renie (of IndiBlogger) informed me that 15th May 2013 was indeed the final "last date" for submitting my entry in the TRESemmé Ramp Ready Hair contest.

Why "fortunate" extensions? Because my hair was not ready for the ramp then!

Why wasn't it ready? Because I'm a complete dumbo when it comes to makeup, fashion and anything related to styling!

Here's the story from the beginning...

There was this email announcement from IndiBlogger, about a TRESemmé Ramp Ready Hair contest. We had to apply for a free sample of the TRESemmé Shampoo + Conditioner, and once we received it, we could check out the interactive TRESemmé India Youtube channel, follow any of their awesome hairstyle tutorials on it (to style our hair), and then post pictures of our ramp ready hair for the contest.

I got my free sample kit, and then opened their youtube channel with much excitement and anticipation. (Till then, I had no idea that you could even learn to style your hair on youtube!) Their DIY hairstyle tutorials were categorized according to hair type -- wavy, curly and straight. And even though I have straight hair, still I went through ALL of those tutorials... wishing I had a magic wand, so I could change my hair type from straight to wavy or curly, anytime I wanted to! But, as they say, if wishes were horses, we'd all fly... right! (Sigghhhh)

So, after a lot of day-dreaming, I eventually decided to get down to work on my straight hair. Their video channel had 3 hairstyles for me...

The Twisted Hairband seemed too twisted to even try, for someone who has trouble using a hair clutcher properly!
The Balloon Ponytail wasn't going to work with my shoulder length hair.
That left the Butterfly Ponytail then, and it seemed quite simple too... at least in the video. Here... you also watch it...

See... it really is simple, isn't it? I figured I'd start with this, and once I got a hang of it, then I'd give the Twisted Hairband a shot too. But, gosh! I'm so embarrassed to even confess this... I couldn't even manage to work out this simple hairstyle! The ponytail refused to go inside the "parting" created above the rubberband!

I tried and tried and tried! First one "last date" was extended. (Not because of me though... it was just some fortunate goof up by the courier company!) Then the second "last date" was extended too. Finally, it was set to today. All this while, I kept thanking my stars for giving me more time to get the Butterfly Ponytail right. And all this while, I still kept failing miserably at it! In the meanwhile, I browsed through more DIY videos in their youtube channel, hoping to get something (gulpp!) simpler than the Butterfly Ponytail, but that was totally unrealistic, right?

Finally, today being the last "last date", I just decided to go with the usual "boring" styles. And let me clarify here... they might be "boring" for other girls, but for me, even these were quite an adventure!

Here's the first one... the "most daring" one...

As you can see, I lost control of the "braid" somewhere in the middle! Then I fumbled with a clutcher...

Usually, I have some hair sticking out from the top of the clutcher, giving my hair a very disheveled kinda look. Or the clutcher refuses to settle in the center of my head. Today, I got it in place in just one attempt! It was almost as if the usual friction in my hair was missing... like they'd become obedient all of a sudden! Miracle!

Encouraged by my success with the clutcher, I decided to try this hair comb that I'd purchased 3 years ago, but had never been able to use it 'coz... well, I don't know... it just looked so "messy"!

This is how it looked today though... not bad too, haan? :D So maybe I'll get some fancier hair combs now! :P (Psst... Some "danglers" in the ears would have looked lovely with this style, wouldn't they?)

And finally... the "raw material" available to me for all this styling...

My hair left open to shine on in their full glory! Hahahah!

While taking these pictures, Dad commented that my hair has become straighter and smoother than it used to be. Obviously, I had to verify this with my own eyes! So I hunted in my "photographs" folder and found this picture taken in January this year...

See the difference? See all those strands of hair sticking out in all directions? All that frizz? Well that's practically gone! Not only that, I noticed that my hairfall problem has reduced by at least half since I started using the TRESemmé Shampoo + Conditioner! But those are the "after-use" effects.

During the use, I noticed that the hair feels clean after just one wash with TRESemmé, while I had to wash it twice every "shampoo day" with my regular shampoo. And the conditioner spreads through the hair so easily that I needed only one third of the quantity I use of my regular conditioner.

Bottomline is... I'm quite pleased with the results of this testing kit of TRESemmé Shampoo + Conditioner. I might make it my "regular shampoo and conditioner" now. As for the hair styling... I've decided I'll leave the more artistic styles for a professional stylist... or my pillow!

For those of you who missed the post about my "hairstylist pillow", this hair style was done for me by my pillow... and it looks just perfect for the ramp, doesn't it? Oh alright then... at least it would be a "winner" on a ramp meant for "sleepy heads"! :D :D :D

Morning Alarm: Photo A Day - 7 o'clock

2013-05-15T11:52:00.005+05:30

Day 15 of "May Photo A Day Challenge" : 7 O'Clock

I've been trying to get the pic for today's prompt, for the last 5 days! But it just wasn't happening! You want to know why? Take a look at the picture first...

Yupp, that's my cell phone, with the morning alarm on. Do you see that red "X" icon? That's to turn the alarm off. All I need to do is drag that "X" with my thumb, from the left of the screen to the right. And then I can just roll over and go back to sleep!

That's exactly what I have been doing for the last 5 days (and all the days and weeks and months before that!)... with the result that I just couldn't manage to get this 7 o'clock picture at 7 o'clock!

Today was my last chance at this, as this post had to go live today. So I finally set TWO alarms today... one for 6:50, and one for my usual 7:00 am.

But you know how it is when you have an early morning train to catch? You're so worked up with the stress of missing your train that you barely get to sleep through the night. That's what happened with me today. I kept waking up all through the night, just to check the time on my phone and make sure I hadn't missed the alarm!

As you can see, I finally managed to get this picture! Will just have to call it an early night today, to catch up on my lost sleep! :p

This is my 15th post for 2013 May Photo A Day Challenge.
Link to the previous post: "Photo A Day - Need"

Ten On Tuesday: 10 Needs: Photo A Day - Need

2013-05-14T18:42:00.003+05:30

Day 14 of "May Photo A Day Challenge" : Need

While brainstorming with my Dad, for today's prompt, I came up with a long list of my needs...

1. Clean air (free of smoke, dust, damp)
2. Sunshine (living space that lets in plenty of sunlight)
3. My personal space (and my daily quota of "alone time")
4. Music (doesn't matter what era it's from)
5. Food cooked in very little/no oil
6. At least 7 hours of undisturbed sleep
7. My computer with internet
8. Blogging (yupp, it's a need now... a part of my life)
9. Losing weight (!!!)
...

I didn't really want to do another food or sun post today, and my desktop would have made for a very lousy picture! The other items in that list couldn't easily be represented as a photograph. Exhausted with the mental drain, I picked up the water bottle in my room to have a sip, and that's when it struck me! A "need" that I COULD represent as a photograph!

10. Yes... water! Clean drinking water!

I simply cannot do without it. I've seen people drink beer when they are thirsty. I've seen them drink soft drinks when they are thirsty, or tea, or coffee, or juice, or a hundred other things! Not me. Even though I love tea, I must have water when I need water... and that's a few sips every half an hour or so.

You'll always find a bottle of water in my room. And I always take one with me when I go out for shopping. I even used to take a small bottle of water to office, so I could keep it on my desk and didn't have to get up and go to the water dispenser every time I needed a few sips!

So there you go... that's my topic for today... "water". And with a little bit of help from Dad, I got a decent photograph too for the topic! :)

This is my 14th post for 2013 May Photo A Day Challenge.
Link to the previous post: "Photo A Day - Sunrise/Sunset"

Sunset - Fire & Smoke!: Photo A Day - Sunrise/Sunset

2013-05-13T09:30:00.000+05:30

Day 13 of "May Photo A Day Challenge" : Sunrise/Sunset

My bedroom balcony being in the West, I get to take a lot of pictures of sunsets. I've posted some before on my blog... even in last year's Photo-A-day challenge, for the prompt "5 PM". Here's another one for today (you can click on the picture to view a larger size)...

I call this one "Fire & Smoke", as the clouds seem to create the effect of smoke arising from the ball of fire - the sun!

Also, the air is relatively so much cleaner and unpolluted here... we never got to see that blue shade of sky in Patna!

This is my 13th post for 2013 May Photo A Day Challenge.
Link to the previous post: "Photo A Day - Mother"

Roles Of A Mother: Photo A Day - Mother

2013-05-12T21:36:00.001+05:30

Day 12 of "May Photo A Day Challenge" : Mother

From the day we are born, a mother plays so many different roles in our lives. For today's prompt, I've tried to portray some of these roles through this wooden mother-and-child elephant set that we've had for almost three decades...

A mother leads us when we are unsure...

Lets us explore when we are curious...

Nudges us forward when we are too scared...

And plays with us when we are joyful!

Besides these, she's also so many other things... a teacher, a nurse, a protector, a shoulder to cry on... and at times, she's our bestest cheerleader too!

I once wrote this poem here for my mom... linking to it from this post... hoping my new blog buddies will like it... "Mother... and No Mother!"

Wishing all you mothers out there a very Happy Mothers' Day! :)

This is my 12th post for 2013 May Photo A Day Challenge.
Link to the previous post: "Photo A Day - A Smile"

Toothy Smile!: Photo A Day - A Smile

2013-05-11T12:23:00.000+05:30

Day 11 of "May Photo A Day Challenge" : A Smile

I may not have Yuvraj here to model for today's prompt, but thankfully, there is no shortage in the world for other such reasons to smile!

Took the above picture from my cell phone camera, with a lot of help from this little's imp's mother, who happens to be a good friend of mine in the building!

Coincidentally, this "little imp", with all four of his tiny sparkling teeth, will be celebrating his first birthday on the 13th! Yupp, just 2 days from now! Although, obviously, he's completely unaware of this important milestone in his life!

This is my 11th post for 2013 May Photo A Day Challenge.
Link to the previous post: "Photo A Day - Stars"

Glow-In-The-Dark Stars: Photo A Day - Stars

2013-05-10T16:37:00.003+05:30

Day 10 of "May Photo A Day Challenge" : Stars

My set of glow-in-the-dark stars! I simply couldn't post anything else for today's prompt! So what if I had to spend more than 2 hours hunting for these stars! :P

I purchased this set of glow-in-the-dark stars, in Kanpur, in November 2001. They came with double-sided sticky dots, so you could stick them on the ceiling of your room and enjoy the experience of sleeping under the stars while remaining indoors. I bought a similar set of glow-in-the-dark hearts too.

Unfortunately, frequent relocations (due to job and other stuff) didn't give me an opportunity to use these stars (and hearts) in my room. Eventually, I decided I'd rather wait till I settle down in my own place. So, both the stars and the hearts were still in their original packets, somewhere in the house. The only trouble was... after our last relocation to Jaipur, I had no clue where that "somewhere" could be! Hence the 2-hour-long "treasure-hunt"!

Luckily, I found a lot of other "forgotten" stuff too in the hunt! So, in the end, it turned out to be a good use of the 2 hours! :D

By the way, this is the 700th post on my blog! :D

This is my tenth post for 2013 May Photo A Day Challenge.
Link to the previous post: "Photo A Day - A Snack"

Memorabilia-XIII: School Stationery

2013-05-10T16:16:00.001+05:30

Look what I found while digging for today's prompt in the May Photo-a-Day Challenge ...

That's a standard art file from my school stationery shop (Jaipuria School Book-Stop), and my old "Prefects' / Monitors' Reporting Book"!

(Yeah it's the same stationery shop where I used to take refuge during countless physics classes in 11th and 12th!)

I think that Prefects' diary was meant for doling out yellow and red cards to offenders in school. Mine is practically empty though. I guess I was a useless prefect! Well, it IS a bit hard to intimidate juniors when they keep calling you 'Kaddu-di'!

Anyway, here's more in Memorabilia!

Pakodi & Coriander Chutney: Photo A Day - A Snack

2013-05-09T21:00:00.005+05:30

Day 9 of "May Photo A Day Challenge" : A Snack

Pakodis are probably the second most favorite snack of North Indians, first being samosas, undoubtedly! Pakodis are also the most preferred snack when it's raining. I suppose I wouldn't be wrong in saying that rains in North India are synonymous with "chai-pakodi"! So, while it wasn't raining today in my part of the world, I still decided to make pakodis for today's prompt. (In fact, I would have made samosas, if I only knew how to!) So anyway here's the pic...

And here's the recipe...

For the Pakodi:

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup gram-flour (besan)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp red chillie powder
1/2 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
pinch of asafoetida (heeng)
1/2 tsp carom seeds (ajwain) if available
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
1/2 cup water
2 large onions - finely sliced
2 tbsp finely chopped green chillies and coriander leaves (optional)
oil for deep frying

METHOD:

Heat the oil in a heavy bottom fry pan.
Make a thick batter with the gram-flour, salt, red chillie powder, cumin, heeng, ajwain, ginger-garlic paste and water.
Mix the onion slices in the batter.
Pick small lumps of the mixture, and drop in hot oil.
Allow the batch to cook on medium flame, till golden brown.
Then remove from oil and drop in the next batch.

In the same way, you can make pakodis with cauliflower florets, eggplant/aubergine chips, potato chips, carrot chips, spinach leaves, green chillies, bread slices, cubes of cottage cheese, mushrooms... anything really. Just use your creativity. You can see a green chillie pakodi in the picture above, and a couple of bread pakodas too. I cut a bread slice into 9 cubes to make small bread pakodas.

For the Coriander Chutney:

INGREDIENTS:
100 gm fresh green coriander, large stems removed
2 green chillies
1/2 inch piece of ginger
a few stems of mint leaves (pudina)
a slice of raw mango or raw guava (optional)
1/2 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
pinch of asafoetida (heeng)
salt to taste
juice of a lemon
2 tbsp curd (optional)

METHOD:

Put everything into the blender and make a smooth paste. (Add a little water if required.)

Serve this fresh, low calorie dip with hot pakodas, or use it as a spread on bread slices, to make my favorite bhujia sandwich! :D

Here's more in Recipes from miss_teerious!

This is my ninth post for 2013 May Photo A Day Challenge.
Link to the previous post: "Photo A Day - Shape"

Wordless Wednesday: Benzene Ring: Photo A Day - Shape

2013-05-08T14:10:00.001+05:30

Day 8 of "May Photo A Day Challenge" : Shape

P.S. - I flunked Chemistry in school, but, thanks to my classmate, Anuraag Sharma, I will never forget the shape of the Benzene Ring!

Here's more in "Wordless Wednesday"!

This is my eighth post for 2013 May Photo A Day Challenge.
Link to the previous post: "Photo A Day - Something Beginning With F"

Flames: Photo A Day - Something Beginning With F

2013-05-07T17:29:00.001+05:30

Day 7 of "May Photo A Day Challenge" : Something Beginning with 'F'

For today's prompt, there were dozens of things I could choose from - more food or flowers, fish (my sister's glass painting) or fisherman (my mom's peepal-leaf painting), fight or flight (of the pigeons in my area?), fire or fan, fat (my tummy perhaps?) or fit, french fries or a feast (remember that 'Bhindi Bonanza' party?)...!

Unfortunately, I'd already posted about fruit, funny and feet in the previous "Photo A Day" challenge I attempted here! My 'fingers' was yet another idea, wearing all my rings perhaps (I love gold rings), but I realized I needed a manicure first! (Girls with long nails can perhaps do finger-nail-art for today's prompt.)

Eventually, I (once again!) decided to make the best out of what I had in the house. I settled for "flames"... these two over-sized spiral candles placed in a fancy candle-stand that has been in my family for ages! Yeah, I know what you're thinking... "just like that tea-set, this candle-stand is also probably older than her!" You know what... you could be right about that! :P

Anyway, watching the work of so many awesome photographers lately, inspired me to try something new in photography too.

The pictures above were taken in complete darkness, by my 5MP point-and-shoot Canon Powershot A610. I took Dad's help in creating the criss-cross shadow behind the candle-stand. He pointed his cell phone flash at the bamboo sofa in the room. The back of that sofa has this criss-cross weaving design. That's what created that shadow on the wall. I placed the table with the candle-stand directly in front of the shadow.

While taking the picture, I realized that the entire setup was being clearly reflected in the tiled floor in front of the table. So I took this portrait view to capture that reflection as well.

I did have to increase the brightness and contrast (by 10 each) in photoshop, 'coz both the photographs were slightly too dark. Other than that, the pictures are unedited (except for usual cropping and watermarking).

This is my seventh post for 2013 May Photo A Day Challenge.
Link to the previous post: "Photo A Day - Broken"

Broken Heart: Photo A Day - Broken

2013-05-06T14:25:00.003+05:30

Day 6 of "May Photo A Day Challenge" : Broken

Today's topic was even more difficult than yesterday's! It is so difficult to find broken stuff in the house if you don't have pets or toddlers living with you! Most of the stuff that's broken, either gets fixed or thrown away. Some, that suffers minor damage and is still usable, is given away to the domestic help.

I would have loved to go on a "photo drive" (like a "photo walk" you know) for today's post, but Dad wasn't free to chauffeur! (Yeah, I can't drive!) So I dug around in the house, looking for something broken I could use here.

I found a broken plant-pot in my balcony, but that didn't make for a good pic because of the background. I found a set of broken earphones (or earplugs rather... the kind that fit in smugly in your ears), but they made for a real drab pic (No "ooommph" factor)! Then I found pieces of some broken bracelets in my craft cupboard. They even made for a really bright and colorful photograph! Unfortunately, neither Dad, nor my sis, could make out that they were pieces of broken bracelets! They said it looked like I'd just bought all those little trinkets from the market! So that pic was out too!

I searched through all the wardrobes and drawers in my house, for anything that was broken. I searched through my crockery cabinet too, hoping to find a cup/mug with a broken handle or a chipped fragment, but then I remembered I'd given away 3 such mugs to my maid a few months ago! My sister then advised me to go ahead and break some crockery! Break good crockery for a blog post! Certainly not! But her advise gave me an idea. I decided I'd break some of my glass bangles instead!

I like to wear these bangles in matching combinations, when I dress up for weddings and anniversary parties etc., which is very rare! Most of the time, they just gather dust in my bangle-boxes! I have them in sets of 2 dozens mostly. So I figured 1 or 2 short wouldn't really make that big a difference! But Dad completely freaked out at the idea! Apparently, bangles breaking is considered a bad omen or something??? Whatever! While I don't care much about the superstitions, I sure did want my head in one piece! So, I decided to humour Dad and leave the bangles alone! :|

Finally, I settled for this... a brutally broken heart!

That's a chicken egg from the shop downstairs. I painted a heart on it with a red sketch-pen, and then broke it to make fried egg for breakfast today!

Why was I so brutal with it?

Well, you see... not all heart-breaks are cut clean. When some relationships end, the perpetrators of the break-ups are unable to decide whether they really want things to end or not. So they keep "patching up" and "breaking up", "patching up" and "breaking up", repeatedly. And this is what happens to the poor victims' hearts in the process!

I know... some people are weird and complicated that way!

Anyway, I was actually going to shatter that egg in even more pieces... to drive my point home, you know. But, then I decided I didn't have time to play "jigsaw puzzle" with the pieces first, to get my photograph! :P

This is my sixth post for 2013 May Photo A Day Challenge.
Link to the previous post: "Photo A Day - Paper"

Book Review: The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

2013-05-06T11:39:00.000+05:30

The Lost Symbol
Author: Dan Brown
ISBN: 978-0552161237

Buy from amazon: The Lost Symbol

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The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown, is the third in his Robert Langdon series. I read the first two (The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons) a long time ago, and absolutely loved them! This third one had been on my to-read list for quite a while now. So when I learnt that the fourth one (Inferno) was also releasing this year in May, I decided to finally strike it off my list, to make way for the fourth one!

Blurb from The Lost Symbol:

Robert Langdon, the famed symbolist from Harvard, is beckoned for a talk at the Capitol Building by his mentor and philanthropist, Peter Solomon. As soon as he arrives, he finds Solomon’s severed hand, left behind by a killer, Mal’akh - a hand that he identifies to be an archaic invitation.

Robert understands that the only way to emancipate his friend is to follow the hints and symbols to where they lead him. As soon as he makes his final decision, he is brushed off far behind the frontispiece. He finds himself amidst America’s hidden history - temples, alcoves, and adits. Everything around him seems to lead him to a single, fantastic, and incomprehensible gospel.

The Lost Symbol was another typically Robert Langdon standard-formula book. (I don't have any problems with that, by the way.) Langdon, receiving an urgent call from someone, takes off to Washington DC this time, only to find himself in the middle of yet another series of events involving psycho villains, secret societies (the Freemasons this time), crypts, symbols, ancient history, technology and confined spaces that force him to deal with his claustrophobia! Usual Dan Brown mix of suspense, thriller, science and history, but the end was a complete let down.

Characters in this book were not as crisp as Brown's previous two Langdon books. Peter Solomon, Langdon's mentor, a 33rd degree Freemason, the head of the Smithsonian Institution, is the person whose kidnapping sets the plot in motion. But we don't really see him in action till much later in the plot. Sato, the head of CIA's Office of Security, and Bellamy, Peter Solomon's friend, a Freemason brother and the Architect of the Capitol, are both seemingly trying to help Landon unravel the mystery. Their roles in the plot could have been longer. Dr. Katherine Solomon, Peter's younger sister, works in the field of Noetic Science, is initially introduced as a strong character, and I was expecting her to play a more vital role towards the end. Surprisingly, I quite liked the character of Mal'akh, the unrelenting villain of the plot! The emotional and mental disturbances that go on in making one of the cruelest antagonists created by Dan Brown, do come across.

The Lost Symbol was slow to pick up, and seemed to drag a bit at times. Some parts made for a brilliant hair-raising thriller. But, in a lot of places, the writing seemed to come across as too much pedantry. There was a lot of archaeological description about Washington DC, too much unwanted history, that wasn't even so relevant to the plot. It was as if the author was trying to show off his knowledge. I was forced to skip paragraphs. The presentation seemed a bit shabby. Unlike Brown's previous books, science and ancient history don't seem to blend naturally in this one. I liked reading about Katherine's field of work and her experiments in Noetic Science, but honestly, what's it got to do with freemasonry? Nor was it used in the climax like the antimatter in Angels & Demons.

I didn't enjoy The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown, as much as I enjoyed his previous two books in the Langdon series:

Angels & Demons (Buy it from Flipkart or Amazon)
The Da Vinci Code (Buy it from Flipkart or Amazon)

However, I certainly am looking forward to the fourth in the series - Inferno - that's releasing on the 14th of May, 2013, and can be pre-ordered from Flipkart (at a great discount, I might add!) or Amazon.

My rating: 3.5 out of 5. Even though The Lost Symbol tends to drag a lot, and there is a lot of "information overload", ardent Dan Brown lovers will probably enjoy it. It could have been so much better with a little more attention on the characters and the action (more secret passageways, more narrow escapes), and a little less "lecturing" on architectural relics.

Here's more in Books.