Never Give-up in Life

One day a young lady was driving along with her father. They came upon a storm, and the young lady asked her father, “What should I do?”

He said “keep driving”. Cars began to pull over to the side, the storm was getting worse.“What should I do.” The young lady asked?

“Keep driving,” her father replied. Few feet ahead, she noticed that eighteen wheelers were also pulling over.
She told her dad, “I must pull over, I can barely see ahead. It is Terrible, and everyone is pulling over!”
Her father told her, “Don’t give up, just keep driving!”. Now the storm was getting more dangerous and terrible, but she never stopped driving, and soon she could see a little more clearly.

After a couple of miles she was again on Dry land, and the sun came out. Her father said, “Now you can pull over and get out.”
She said “But why now?” He said “When you get out, look back at all the people that gave up and are still in the storm, because you never gave up, your storm is now over.”

Moral: This is a testimony for anyone who is going through “hard times”. Just because everyone else, even the strongest, gives up, You don’t have to. If you keep going, soon your storm will be over and the sun will shine upon your face again!

There is something about the Rains...

There is something about the rains.....This is a statement Vidisha must have heard countless times uttered from my mouth....Yes, there are some who are summer's children and there are some who like a good chill...but me...I am a rainman.....lolz...not the Dustin Hoffman kinda rainman kind of man....but rather a person who loves the rains.....

Rains make me happy....elation is wrote large on my face...it makes me forget the horrors of the hot scorching summer......Rains to me are the tears of God....which clean the earth....and clean our souls too.....Heavy words....you say....nah!! Am not in a philosophical mood....

The school bell about to ring at 3:30 PM....and the thunder claps ringing in synch with the school bell....the mad rush to the cycle stand to get the cycle....and then deliberately waiting for a few minutes more for the rains to crash on earth.....so that one can get wet....This for me is one of the best memories from my school days.....Living in Cuttack lying bang in the path of the South Eastern Monsoons.....rains seldom played truant when I was a kid.....I used to get wet daily when returning from school....during monsoons and the excuse I had each time....was that I was on a desolate piece of road and it started raining suddenly, so I could not hide anywhere...and got wet...Once I got wet, I thought it would be unwise to take out my raincoat from my school rucksack as I did not want my books to get wet....My mother never used to say anything more, because I used to pucker my face and repeat, I wanted to save my school books.....what mother would say anything more... The added advantage of the getting wet was a cup of piping hot tea....courtesy my mother.....

I was never a sportsperson but nevertheless still remember the neighborhood football matches which always became more interesting once it rained....the sludge..the mud....the dives in the mud...the pain and the ecstasy of scoring the goal....those were the rainy days of school.....

College brought with it...the first strokes of freedom.....of love...and love is always enjoyed best with a shower of rain....who will disagree with this statement.....I remember my girlfriend during those days loved the rains too ...bunking college and walking down the indoor stadium road hand in hand.......The first rain of the season, the first love of my life, the first innocent peck with the rains pattering on our faces....Oh!! so romantic......Life was so innocent then.....

Then I went to a God forsaken place called NOIDA...where it probably rained for 4 days in a whole year.....with a couple of those days in the winter...The temperatures used to go below 5 degrees each time it rained....I liked the freedom that NOIDA brought to me...but nevertheless missed my college friends and of course the rains a lot.....Then I met a girl over there...and we became good friends....we used to talk to each other for hours in office and sometimes after office too...but both of us had never ventured out together on anything remotely resembling a date.....it used to be always with the whole gang that we went out with...

Then one cold winter Sunday afternoon....all of a sudden the rain God decided to come visit NOIDA...Almost six -seven months had passed since this girl and me had struck upon a mutually benefiting friendship.....Don't get any idea's....by mutually benefiting I mean we were each other’s sounding boards....we just used to say everything that was troubling us in our separate lives....and the other just had to listen.....Okies...I am diverting from the story......It rained that afternoon in NOIDA and continued drizzling well into the evening and the temperatures dipped...The girl called me up and said she was very low and wanted to talk with me....but she said she could not talk with me over the phone as all her roommates were there and she wanted to meet with me....I asked her smilingly......whether this was our first date...and she said..."Shut Up, don't get any ideas and meet me Yaar...I need to talk with my friend" Hmm...what could I do....I trudged out into that cold winter night albeit reluctantly.....We met and decided to take a walk...We knew we liked each other...but did not want to ruin our friendship by confessing our feelings.....that meant...we were very formal with each other....no we used to abuse each other with the choicest expletives....by formal I meant...we kept a distance of more than 60 cms....when we were together....but today we were alone....for the very first time........We walked on and on and she talked what was troubling her minds...then it happened....Yes..it happened.....Our first touch

Our finger tips wet with rain on them touched each other.....it was just a caress......it was as if by mistake they had touched each other....and both of us were scared as we had crossed our self imposed limit....and almost immediately both of us blurted sorry.....The rain was drizzling and it was getting colder...Both of us were completely drenched by now and shivering like leaves..... Then all of a sudden a mad biker appeared out of nowhere and came speeding towards us.....I instinctively clutched her hands with mine and pulled her away from the path of the speeding bike....Our fingers had touched again...but this time...she did not say sorry neither did I offer one.....The papers declared the next day that the temperature the previous evening had dropped to 1 degrees Celsius because of the rains... That winter rain is probably the best memory of the rains for me from NOIDA.....

If you are wondering, why am I talking about the rains in the month of November....it’s because, down south in Chennai....the rains come only in November....and it’s been raining off and on for the last 1 week.....I make it a point to get wet every day....but something’s missing...I am not enjoying the rains...this year....I wonder Why??

The Beer Prayer

My Tryst with Weed

Reminiscing the old days…..Part fiction part true……….

Grass...Weed....Pot.....Ganja....by whatever name you know it......is a great hallucinogen.....

Q: What is Reality?
A: An illusion caused by a lack of good weed.

Since time immemorial...it’s been used by mankind and even the supermen.....By supermen...I am pointing my fingers to Lord Shiva...now he was a connoisseur of Ganja..... Probably it cooled him off...there by saving the world from further destruction from his wrath.....for he was the Destroyer of the trinity of God's in Hindu Mythology.

Anyways...Grass is considered to be a drug now and you find only drug addicts using it now.....Parents will forgive their children if they find a fag....but if you are caught with grass...then you are a goner....As a result of this belief....I never got a chance to try grass in college.....However ....I ultimately did get my chance when I was in NOIDA....working for BSL....This is my story of that fateful morning when I had grass for the first time.....

We used to be four guys living together in a huge four bedroom Penthouse apartment on the 7th floor in NOIDA. Our address was Flat - P5, Gourav Adhikari Appartments....and we were known as the P5 denizens.....Let me name the denizens for my readers benefit.....They were
~ Sab
~ Deb
~ Pan
~ Sri (yours truly)

We had an arrangement where in every Friday all four of us would get together in the night and drink....thereby ensuring an awesome start to an awesome weekend.... However suddenly our weekly routine came under danger as work pressure forced us to stay in office quiet late.....We decided to compensate for the loss of the booze binge sessions by having something more potent....and we zeroed in on Grass....

Grass was arranged by one of us after paying off a hefty amount to a middle man....It was winter Saturday morning with rain clouds threatening to burst forth at any point of time.....I woke up at 7 in the morning because of the loud thunderclaps....I walked into the drawing room to fin Deb and Pan watching the re-run of a movie for the umpteenth time.....Sab had woken up but was still under his quilt.....Deb as usual the good guy...had made tea for all of us......Nothing like a piping hot cup of tea on a winter morning.....As I was sipping on the tea, Deb said...winking at me .......that the weed had been delivered yesterday to him....and wondered aloud..if all of us were game.....Sab who was still under his quilt....stood up in tizzy...Without exchanging words...he went to the bathroom to brush his teeth...the rest of us laughed as Sab was the one who normally woke up at 12 in the noon on weekends...and here he was wide awake at 7:30 AM....Since by that time...it had started raining....we could not go out to buy cheap ciggs to fill the weed with....so I had to volunteer by Classic Regulars....the tobacco from the ciggs was slowly slid out of the ciggs...the weed along with all its leaves and pods was crushed by hand and mixed with a little of the cigg tobacco....All of us were new to this...so it took us a little time...but anyways...we managed to make ourselves...6 potent weed laced handmade fags......Wait..it could not start without some Bob Marley. So "Weed" the song by Bob Marley was downloaded specially to be played.

The excitement was palpable in the air....as the first of the corrupt fags was lit by Deb.....he took a long drag and passed it on to Pan....Pan being Pan....took 4-5 quick drags....blowing out rings of smoke....Passed to Sab....he took one long drag...longer than humanly possible....Sab was hooked to Wills Flake ciggs....the cheapest cigg with a filter....so I assumed that this weed fag was probably a slight notch higher than his regular poison.....Finally I got the weed fag in my hands....(I was a junior amongst my roommates....so I got it last as usual...damn seniors)....anyways...I took a drag....but did not feel much...then I tried out another drag..and another....by this time...the room which was actually a huge one....was reeking of the smell of grass.....No one was talking much....we were waiting for the first victim to do something funny....but it seemed two fags had not done it yet.....The third was lit.....
Deb said..he was feeling a slow blood rush...Pan said his ears were feeling hot.....I said...i had started feeling giddy....but Sab...he just stood up and said..."Nah...nothing...I can have 2 more...ALONE"...... The alone was stressed.....so then and there he was crowned the king of Weed among the P5 denizens....Boys have this habit of one up-manship....and one of them has to be crowned the king.....Little did we know...that our king was standing on shaky ground......lolz

King Sab....lit a weed fag and started drawing from it....alone..but after just two drags...he passed on the fag to me stating that he needs to go to the loo....By that time...Pan and Deb had given up and I was happily on the nearly pristine weed fag which Sab had given me.....King sent across a loud sigh and farted even more loudly.....Boys again have this habit...of farting as loudly as possible and then acting nonchalant....but today King was in a generous mood and said it was indeed him who had farted and since he was the king...we were better off listening to the kings fart......King went to the attached bathroom in his bedroom to sit in his Pot throne .....We could hear him humming a song as he went about doing whatever people do in the morning in their pots...

Since Deb and Pan had already lost the plot as far as weed was  considered.....we turned on FTV and started checking out anorexic models strutting their assets on the ramp....About 45 minutes had passed....and our King...had not yet returned...to be with his subjects....Deb called out aloud to see what he was up to....Maybe he was back in his bed....anyways...we forgot about it and started looking at the hotties on TV.....Finally after 15 minutes...we called out again...and again no response.....I coaxed Deb to go into his room to check on him....By this time...the weed had done its effect on me too...after all I had more than all of them now....Anyways...Deb went into the King's den and we heard a shout and then howls of laughter...he shouted at us to come over.....

Boy...were we in for a surprise sight....Deb was literally rolling on the ground clutching his stomach and laughing out....The King was sitting on his throne .....sans a single stitch of cloth...with a faraway look in his eyes.....and mumbling....."Band ho ja Sim Sim" to the door.....After the Hindi evocation.....the King....was saying now in pristine English....."Sesame Close"........ Our King is a person who never prefers English and prefers chaste Oriya........here he was talking in English...chanting out magical words...."Sesame Close"......Finally after we had finished laughing....we asked King...if he had used the throne...the king replied..."No he was waiting for the door to his cave to close so that he could count his gold coins"......Finally we coaxed the King...that he wasn't in Ali Baba's cave and he better come into his bedroom....Me and Pan finally carried him off the pot to his bed and plonked him there.....Deb was still laughing uncontrollably on the floor.....and the floor was freezing....

The exhaustion of carrying the King was too much for Pan....he snuggled into the bed along with King.....not bothering that King was still without a stitch of clothes.... I had not had enough of the weed or thats what I thought....until I found myself.... trying to light the lighter using the weed fag......By this time the weed had taken me to a high which I had not thought possible.....

I don't know...what happened next...and how I passed out.....I woke up finally at 6 PM in the evening....on the floor shivering like a leaf......The laptop was still playing...Bob Marley's eternal hit, 'Weed'. Deb was in a much worse position as he had rolled over into the bathroom from his earlier position outside the bathroom door....with still a smile pasted on his face......Pan and the King were found hugging each other on the bed.....the King still without a stitch of cloth.......After taking photographs of all of them for future blackmailing purpose....I woke all of them.....

That’s how my first experience with Weed was.....I can never forget those days....Long Live P5 and Three Cheers to the denizens of P5...... :) :)

Chenna Podo Recipe

I haven't been to my home in Orissa for a long long time and had been craving for this Chena Podo for quiet some time. No wife at home and another boring weekend staring at me, finally I decided to take up the cudgels and make myself some chena podo.... :)


A little history before the recipe. Chena Podo or Cheese Cake to my non-Oriya friends although an original traditional Oriya sweet was influenced by the Maratha rulers who ruled over Orissa for a short period of time. Traditionally it is fresh cheese which is cooked or rather baked after wrapping it in leaves and burying it underground. Hot coal or burning cowdung (in the olden days) used to be spread on top and the cheese used to bake as the sand around it got heated. Ingenious isn't it ???


Anyways the recipe is as follows:


Ingredients:


Milk - 2 Liters
Vinegar - 1/2 cup
Cashews - 50 gms
Raisins - 50 gms
Sugar - 1.5 cup
Semolina/Sooji - 25 gms
Ice cube- 5 cubes
Oil/Ghee - 2 teaspoons
Cardamon - 2
Baking Dish - 1


Now that the ingredient list is done, lets move on to the actual process of making this chena podo.


Cheese Making Processes:

• Bring your 2 liters of milk to a boil
• Add your vinegar into this still boiling milk. All the while stirring the milk. 
• As soon as you see that the cheese is getting separated from the milk, turn off the gas and immediately add the ice cubes. (The secret of ice cubes is that it stops the curdling process immediately, thereby leaving you soft cheese)
• Drain all the excess water from the cheese and then hang the cheese for about 30 minutes so that all the excess water drains. Leave the cheese to cool down.

That concludes the cheese making process. Whatever you do, please do not use packaged Paneer, it will never be the same. Always use fresh cheese for the authentic taste and texture.

• Fry the cashew nuts and raisins in the oil and set them aside
• Soak the semolina or sooji in a little water. Drain the water and then add it to the cheese.
• Add 1 cup of sugar to the cheese
• Start kneading the cheese, semolina and sugar mixture. You should knead it until you can feel no more sugar crystals. Remember the more you knead, the better it becomes.
• Crush the cardamons and add it to the cheese followed by the  cashews and raisins and knead a little more.
• Keep aside for 30 minutes for the flavors to all mingle around.

Take a rest as I am sure, all the kneading would have made you tired....lolz..... Everything's nearly done now and all that's left is to create a sugar syrup coating

• Take the remaining half cup of sugar and add it to 1/4 cup of water and bring it to a boil. The sugar syrup should be a thick syrup, we don't want a runny syrup for this.
• Grease the baking dish with as little oil/ghee as possible (Not necessary, but you can do it)
• Spread the still hot syrup in the baking dish. Be careful as the syrup will be hard to spread but you have to do it as quickly as possible
• Spread the kneaded cheese mixture on top of the thick sugar syrup in an even layer
• If you have any extra syrup, then add at the top too (not necessary)
• Cover the dish with a good quality aluminium foil and make 4 or 5 slits in the foil.

Phew!! All that is left now, is to bake this mixture.

• Preheat your microwave to 250 degrees centigrade
• Place the baking dish inside the microwave and bake it for at least 45 minutes
• You can check at regular intervals by poking a tooth pick into the cheese mixture, if the tooth pick comes out clean, then that's a good sign that your baking is nearly complete.

Voila!!! Your Chena Podo is done. I can guarantee you, it is one of the tastiest sweets you would have ever tasted and healthy too :)

Do post your comments once you have tried the recipe to let me know your feedback.... :)

MTV Unplugged

The term Unplugged has become a term used to describe music usually heard on amplified instruments such as electric guitar and synthesizer that is rendered instead on instruments that are not electronically amplified, for example acoustic guitar or traditional piano, although a microphone is still used. In otherwords songs that are not distorted and are unplugged from the amplifiers to make it acoustic. Many artists use unplugged songs in concerts and to show that they can do different versions of songs and showcase their tallents.

My first tryst with Unplugged music was a recording of the original Unplugged series on MTV showing Nirvana. Kurt Cobain with his mysterious eyes and the accoustic guitar in his hand...doled out magic......It was heavenly music.....I always have copy of that edition in my mobile or mp3 player even today.....

Recently MTV started an Unplugged edition in India. Initially I had been sceptical about it...I mean I could not think of what Indian songs would sound unplugged...because the difference was glaringly stark when rock music like that of Nirvana's was heard as unplugged. Anyways..me being me...I missed the first episode of MTV Micromax Unplugged...it had featured the Sufi/Punjabi music star Rabbi Shergill.....I remembered all about the show, when on the next day I read a friend praising about the songs on where else but Facebook.

Still sceptical, I decided to check out the songs on Youtube...Boy was I in for a surprise.....the music sounded so...so....I am not getting a word...hmm....let me put it that the music sounded pristine....and Rabbi's voice sounded mesmerizing....I was hooked onto it....instantly.....instant addiction.....

The second episode came on MTV last week and starred Mohit Chauhan...and I enjoyed it immensely again....notwithstanding the fact that I am a fan of Mohit.....but I would say that his performance compared quiet well with that of Rabbi...Rabbi is no doubt in a class of his own....a pedestal very few can reach...but Mohit did pretty well.....

I have decided to cancel all plans for any Saturday evenings and never again miss a episode..of MTV Unplugged.....Looking forward to the episode this Saturday....Guess who is coming on this weekend....None other than the Delhi based Indian Ocean.....one of India's finest rock bands...... They are considered to be the pioneers of fusion rock genre in India. I had been to a live performance of Indian Ocean during my college days....it had been an experience I can never forget....Grass was available for free.....there was no one in the audience who was not on a high.....those with an aversion for grass had alcohol.....No one can deny the fact....grass and rock music equals heaven.....lolz....(those were the days.....)

Thank you MTV for launching this series...the music is show refreshing...Unplugged gives the human voice the respect it deserves instead of undermining it with a music from amplifiers....what say???

Team Party at GRT Grand

Our team, had been slogging for the last couple of months, what with the new contract being signed and the project model changing to 24x5. All this meant, the seniors in the project were working towards perfecting the new work model and doing knowledge transitions while the juniors were being inundated with a slew of applications as well as with an ever increasing pile of documents to study.


Anyways, as things have a way of going, the new model began and work has been continuing without any show stoppers for the last 1 month. Everyone was feeling busted after the surge of effort put down by each and every member of the team over the past few months. A welcome announcement came in the form of a planned team outing for the whole team. There was a flurry of activity post this announcement as everyone wanted to have a relaxing time. Options and opinions were bounced around but finally it was decided that a fine dinning dinner suited our purpose.

The team zeroed in on a couple of options, but finally we chose, GRT Grand Days. A four star Hotel where cricket players used to stay when matches were scheduled in Chennai.


The team outing pact was signed with an invitation to the whole team from your truly :)
The day was a Friday and the date 7-Oct-2011. A truly good beginning to a weekend for everyone in the team.


As often happens, plans or no plans, leaving from office ON TIME....is an oxymoron, so although we had planned well in advance and intimated our onsite counterparts, we were late from leaving office. Time had been set at 7:30 PM but finally all of us trickled in by 8:30 PM only. What was this...we got to hear some bad news as soon as we had settled in....Nah!! it wasn't a Prod Severity issue nor was it someone from onsite hellbent on spoiling the party for not being invited.....it was that our manager, Bala, could not make it.


Bala is the kind of man, who shows up in our office once in a couple of months, but with his disarming smile and friendly banter makes everyone feel at ease. Of course, he is a great company too. But it seems he had been held back in office because of some meetings. Anyways, Cynthia suggested let bygones be bygones and nevertheless enjoy the partyyyyy.............:)


The party began officially, and below are the images from the party.....

A MedImmune offshore party cannot be complete without Mr. Lappy over here.....Everyone say Hello to Mr. Lappy above...... :) :)

Here are two lovely ladies from the team. One an old hand (girls are always young, she is just one of the senior most resources ;-)) in the project and the other being one of the newest entrants in the project. I give you Raji and Lakshmi.... :)


Oh!!! And the guy with the unnatural tints is a relative newcomer who has surely earned his stripes in a short span of time...giving you Sridhar...... :)

Here we have again....SuperMan Sridhar (no super powers...just eyes which change colors every Friday)... I have absolutely no idea how this superman can save the world with his eyes......


Again we have two newbies who I am sure will earn their stripes just like SuperMan here....but I do hope they keep their undies inside and not on top of their pants ;-).....Presenting you HariShankar and Bubu..... :)

One man army....ladies and gentlemen...I give you Amalraj..... :) He seems to be having a smile on his face but is currently thinking..where the hell is my food.....I am hungry!!!!

The guy with the hidden secret talents....Don't worry I am not going to spill his beans here....Lets  keep it at...that he has introduced quiet a few new things to the boys in the team....presenting you Sathish :)

Hats off to both the guys here....The award for Punctuality goes to them..They were here 5 minutes before time :) Presenting you Savio and Antony :)

Oh!!! No poking fun here ladies and gentlemen....Presenting you Cynthia.....our manager :)....Can't poke fun at her...after all she will be responsible for my appraisals ;-)...Just Kidding.....But she seems to be saying "Eat your food fast......and........"  :) :) Sathish seems to be too scared and staring hard into his plate..... :)

One is currently the oldest member of the team.....a mentor par excellence for everyone in the team....a true holder of the SuperMan tag in the project.....give him any technology and he will dive headlong into it.....like a fish into water...Presenting you Balaji.... :) I have absolutely no idea...what his expressions are over here.... :)


The other is a shadow of Balaji....a true shadow, who just like Balaji....is a great mentor and a good guy....Presenting you Pandia..... :)

And presenting you...your truly....yep...its me.....Sri...... :) (Wanted to write 10000 adjectives.....but just 10000....hmmm would be kinda very less....lolz)

The Parrrttttyyyyy has begun.......Chow Time...guyz n gals..... :) :)

Everyone seems to be enjoying their food..while Sridhar...seems more interested in the camera..... :)

Look at the face of Balaji...its lit up like a birthday candle......just kidding....but the food was really tasty..... :) :).....So tasty that everyone had a smile on their faces.... :) :)

I am full....please I can't have anything more..... that's what Pandia seems to be praying here..... :)

This last picture....just about sums it all up.....Look of utter bliss and contentment.....Well done Bubu for finishing it up all!!!!




A heartfelt thanks to everyone who made it to the party however it was unfortunate that some of the designated invitees couldn't make it to the party.....but hey no problems.....I pray that this project is a grand success and may there be many such more parties....and Ohh!!Yes....Mr. Lappy is however not welcome in the future parties...... ;-)

WARNING: All of the comments on the pictures above have been pre-approved by Rajnikanth. So if you have any problems get in touch with Rajni Sir at your own risk to get them changed.