Ninaivugal...Thoughts

It does get frustrating to cook the same things and have it time and again. So, that's when I decided that for a change, I will look into something different. I got the recipe for Poruchcha Kuzhambu from India and decided to experiment with it. It is always a 90-10 ratio of getting a dish right. Come on! We are staying in the United States for ten months now and that's already a good learning experience as far as cooking is concerned. Even if it goes the other way (I am referring to the ten per cent chance), we have no other choice than to eat it up. To be honest, it is not a bad proposition to eat it even if it is not as good as the way it comes at home. On a lighter vein, I tell my friends Nowadays, I can mix up rice even with sauce and eat it! I know that's a lot of exaggeration and we are not bad cooks either. Luckily, the dish turned out pretty well and the two vessels of kuzhambu that I made got over in no time. Don't hesitate to ask me for the recipe. I...

Last week, when India was playing with colours, Rolla was in a frenzy. It was the St. Pat's weekend and it is the biggest event here in Rolla. People look forward to this event three months in advance and the planning is done well ahead of time. I wouldn't mention about the history of the event. You can look up here! The St. Pat's parade was held on 19th March, Sunday. The Pine street was lined with people all along the way. We were there to watch the parade at 11 AM. I couldn't stick on for the entire duration of the parade, but here I am posting the snaps of what unfurled that day! It was a good weekend in Rolla with a green atmosphere all around. By and large, we could get four days' off to break our head for the next week! As always, it is a pain to include a specific set of photos when you have around 300 photos to chose from. I wish I had a project manager to help me select what I need. After all, what are Project Managers for!! Now, now I am not getting n...

Impinging the elements of natural catastrophe with the veil of darkness created by man cannot wreak more havoc for the sufferers. The early twentieth century was never a period of ease for the widows when the so called religious officianados imposed restrictions that was stretched to no scalable limits. The pall of gloom for a married woman on having lost her better half was compounded by the misery of having to live the remaining part of her life in treacherously outrageous conditions. All this in the name of religion hounded by the devils of yesteryears! Water captures the essence of life from a widow's perspective. The film, set on the banks of the Ganges in Varanasi portrays the stringent atmosphere prevailing in what could be hailed as the most conservative and orthodox period in Indian history. Talking about the old customs, the legacy carried on from the old generations stifled the masses into obscurity. The story starts off with the nine year old girl Chuiya, played b...

It was Holi, the festival of colours and everyone was in good spirits. We, at Rolla celebrated Holi this year too by the Schuman Lake. It was freezing but nobody was complaining. The Holi colours were purchased in Chicago. Everyone tore open the colour packets and started spraying it around on others in glee. It was supposed to be a dry Holi celebration. We weren't supposed to splash water simply because of the sub-zero temperature. But nobody was listening. People got cans to fill water from the lake to wet others. More than the colours, it was the water we had to escape from. I reached the venue about fifteen minutes late and by that time, all the colours were depleted. I had to bear the wrath of the cold water and I was literally freezing. Then I saw my friend standing. She was literally numb, thanks to the buckets of water poured. She was immediately whisked from the place by others. I realised I was lucky to be late. After the Schuman lake, the crowd headed to th...

Any international event here is never complete without the Indian community taking part. India is a part and parcel of the Rolla life. I guess that's what is happening even at the international level. We are going miles ahead! Last week we celebrated the ISC day. ISC by the way stands for International Students Council. This is one of the important events held every year showcasing the cultural aspect of many countries. The work leading to the event was hectic. We had to collect the traditional and Indian items from many people here in Rolla. The whole point is everyone had to be convinced that their items would be returned in exactly the same way as we have borrowed it. That's a tough promise and the problem is even the lenders know it! That doesn't mean we did not return the items back. It was given back to them on time. We also prepared a collage on India. This required a lot of efforts, collecting pictures on everything associated with India. It involved two nights of ...

Poems and quotes have always had a big impact in my life. Some of them have moved me so much that they have remained embedded in my mind for a long time. I am sure they are unforgettable. Robert Frost highlights the indecisiveness shared by so many of us at different points in life. Even today, there are so many interpretations one can guage from this poem. I have read it innumerable times and each time I have learnt something from it. A masterpiece from Frost reads thus: Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth. Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same. And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I ...

Nagesh Kukunoor has this uncanny ability to generate the best out of "The Common Man". His themes are effectively simple and reflects the day to day activities of an officegoer, householder, student or any other from a similar walk of life. Hyderabad blues, Bollywood Calling and others portray a story that is very much inherent within the masses and for the masses. Iqbal is a heart warming story of an individual who wants to make it big in the world of cricket. In today's competitive world, it is very difficult to stick to a goal. It is as easy to forget what you want in life when you realise what you want . Perplexing sentence but that's the truth. A vision encompassed within your mind should not just be confined there but forced into action. How many of us live for a cause? Nagesh Kukunoor depicts the life of a deaf and dumb individual who fights against all odds and pursues what he wants devoutedly. Hailing from a typical Indian middle class rural background, he ...

In the middle of the night, I woke up with a fright, There it was, a lion; Chasing down my spine, Thankfully, my friend was ahead in the line He was a thief of Bhagdad He snatched everything on his way Finally the officials had their prey He had nothing to say And now, all he could do was pray! A bus driver it is I wanted to be Carrying people with all their load But today, immersed in a sea of code, It is just not clear, my road! He was a romantic fool, Portraying himself to be cool, Spending all he could for her, Thinking all the time that she was his But soon, he had to find another Miss! An exam I had to write, A lot of questions filled the page, I knew none I could get right Fixed on others, my sight I just could not end my plight! After a long time, a movie, How I wish I didn't see All the time, the hero, Behind the lady, he zeroed, Oof! It blared, the stereo! I did it for the first time, The feeling was great, It was the moment of ectasy, I knew I had to do it again, A perfe...

I have always maintainted that watching a movie which has a lot of hype and hoopla will always end in disaster and Rang De Basanti is no different. A movie which backtracks to the heroics of Bhagat Singh and his group ends up in histrionics translated by the present day characters. A movie while all the time talks about conveying a message is in reality a farce. The sad part is people are influenced by the movie for all the wrong reasons. The movie is interwoven with a lot of amusing moments, but when a movie conveys a message that is not good with the current system in the society, one has to take it with a lot of indigestion. It is not an easy prospect to watch a latest Hindi movie in Rolla. We have to make plans days in advance starting from booking the tickets online, hiring a cab and looking for a guy who can drive around to the multiplex. The worst part is that you will be losing the entire day off for the movie. So, we do not go for the run of the mill movies. We wait ...

Don't get perturbed by the title. Simple maths to understand this is more than enough. I was in a daze in Dr. Kosbar's class listening to signal space representation of signals and other stuff. And then, there was a mention of Maths. He came up with a good one! A function is travelling in a dark alley with a lot of money. An operator comes up to the function and asks the function to give all the money. The function refuses to give the money. So the operator says that if the function doesn't give the money, it will differentiate it. The function is not perturbed. It says "Hahaha! I am e ^x(e to the power of x)". The operator is not perplexed. Guess why? The operator says: I am d/dy!!!! What do you say for that???