A Magical World

Leaving for Manipal tonight, back on Jan 2, 2002.

Maybe I'm off my rocker, but somehow I'm full of hope for the New Year. Perhaps its due to 2001 being so bad, things could only get better. A war looms ahead, but I feel the world will pull through. Good things are due in 2002, I feel it in my bones.

Like the lastCalvin & Hobbes strip, a magical world beckons...

Happy New Year, everyone !

Vodka for the holidays

An old joke:

With the holidays coming, here's a fruit cake recipe that will help take the
stress out of this normally stressful time.

Ingredients:
1 cup of water
1 cup of sugar
4 large eggs
2 cups dried fruit
1 tsp. salt
1 cup brown sugar
3 ounces lemon juice
1 cup of nuts
1 gallon of Absolute Vodka

First, sample the vodka to check for freshness.
Take a large bowl.
Check the vodka again to be sure it is of the highest quality.
Pour 1 level cup of the vodka and drink it.
Repeat.
Repeat again.
Turn on the electric mixer, beat 1 cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl.
Add water, eggs and 1 tsp. sugar and beat again.
Make surr the vodca is still OK. Cry another tup. Turn off mixers.
Chuck in the cup of dried fruitt or something.
Mix on the turner.
If the fried druit gets struck on the beaterers, pry it loose with a
drewscriver.
Sample the vodka to check for tonsistancity.
Next, sniff 2 cups of salt. Or something. Who cares? Check the vodka.
Now sniff the lemon juice and strain your nuts.
Add one Table. Spoon.
Of sugar or something. Whatever.
Grease the oven.
Turn the cake ttin 350 degrees.
Don't forget to beat off the turner.
Whip the bowl out the window.
Check the vidka again.
Go to bed.

Another alien sighting. Someone called sreejayan_...

Another alien sighting. Someone called sreejayan_in sent me a message on yahoo. He said he was happy to see me online and that he had Sreedevi with him. Obviously he thought I was Boney Kapoor, and wanted some money as ransom. Where do all these guys spring from ?

(actually he thought I was a Major Nandakumar, but same difference)

No, not now either

Still blah. Maybe its the end-of-year blues.

Oh well. Back home to bread and yesterday's dish.

Finished reading (again) Harry Potter and the Gob...

Finished reading (again) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Yum Yum. Cant wait for the next one. Started Luigi Pirandello's play, Six Characters in Search of an Author. Promising opening.

Lots of work keeps me busy and out of the devil's workshop. The office is filling up, with more people relocating from Dallas expected to arrive in Jan-Feb.

Sindha finally got a bus ticket to Kottayam. Her train ticket was wait listed at the time of going to press, so we decided to opt for the bus. Both of us will reach Tvm by noon on the 22nd.

I don't have any sharp comments, witticisms or sarcastic remarks to make. Maybe I need to wait till evening.

Cricket

South Africa vs Australia. Hyped up, yes, but I liked watching the match. At the time of writing S.A needs 358 to win, with 8 wickets in hand. I would have predicted a draw yesterday, but now an Australian win looks likely. To my mind, Shane Warne is the major difference between the two sides. Once Allan Donald comes back, the S.A attack will look much better and balanced.

Congrats to our great Indian team for not losing against England !

Saturday

Went to the Strand book fair with Nachiket, and later on to the SP Jain Alumni meeting at Central Park.

The book fair was no great shakes - they had a few interesting titles, but no big discounts. I picked up the fourth Harry Potter book (Goblet of Fire), The Mammaries of the Welfare State, Six Characters in Search of an Author, The Breast and The Information.

The alumni meet went of surprisingly well. Wasn't too bored. :-) There were five from my batch of 97. Talked, joked and ate. Burp.

Words

Money money money. Stock stock stock. Options options options. Car. House. Folks.

Dark side.

*sigh*

Guess I'd better go home now.

Prem P

Had a nice laugh reading Prem Panicker's match report on Day four of the Second Test. I like the way he writes, and not just about cricket. He had prepared a report on the Kumbh mela, which also made interesting reading.

Enough is enough

I can now understand how the Americans felt. Striking at our parliament ! The gall ! Makes you want to hit out and get some revenge.

Maybe I should count to ten. Or a hundred. Or a million.

Yecchhh

Two movies I haven't seen that make me want to puke:

1. Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gum, aka K3G
2. Dhadkan

Then again, I'm prejudiced as usual.

NV !

How I envy the guys in the US - they get to watch the first Harry Potter film and the first Lord of the Rings movie too ! The review says The Fellowship of the Ring is thrilling ! I cant wait....

On a Tuesday afternoon...

Had a good weekend at Manipal. Booked my stay for New Years also, from Dec 29 to Jan 1.

Finally managed to get a ticket to Nagercoil on the 21st. So my trip to Kerala is on schedule. Reaching Tvm on the 22nd. One day trip to Tiruvalla on the 23rd. Return to Blr on the 25th. Short and (hopefully) sweet.

The cassette player part of my Aiwa music system conked out on Friday. It makes a lot of clicking noises and flatly refuses to play. I'm relying on the CD player to tide me over. Need to find out a good service center and get it fixed soon.

Looking through my old posts, I realize that I prefer books to movies. Surprising. When I started this journal, I thought I would be writing a lot about films and film trivia. But its been over a month now and I've been talking mainly about books. Nice to know what I like. :-)

I'm re-reading Agatha Christie's 'And Then There Were None'. This is the politically correct title of 'Ten Little Niggers', which I had read in school. I now realize her flaws as a writer - weak characterization, wafer thin descriptions, etc. Still, a darn good read.

Redux

Off to Manipal again.

The week went by pretty fast, all things considered. Finished Philip Pullman's Northern Lights. Darn good at the end. Placed an order with Fabmartfor the second in the trilogy, The Subtle Knife.

Thought - If I had been in the US with i2, I would have been asked to return to India. On the whole, I think I'm better off where I am.

Query - Should I start jogging again ?

Problem - There are no tickets available to Kerala. No seats on buses, none on trains. And no, I don't want to fly down.

Opportunity - If anyone wants to drive me down to Trivandrum, here's your chance !

b2b

Back to Bangalore.

The trip to Hyd was ok - called five people down to Blr for the next round. Quite tiring though - we would have met close to 55 people over 2 days. Went to Deepak, met the uncles, aunts and cousins. All fine and well. Bought the kids a bunch of books - Artemis Fowl, a Roald Dahl, Treasure Island, a William and Lord of the Rings for Saumya. I picked up Roddy Doyle's trilogy (The Snapper, Commitments and The Van) and Philip Pullman's Northern Lights.

I had heard a lot about Pullman, mainly through David Davidar's column in the Hindu. Amazon had also talked about him in one of their mailers. I'm currently reading the book and am happy to report that its quite good. He has a style of his own, slightly dry, but effective. Good imagination, good setting, etc. He is no Tolkien, but I would recommend the book to anyone interested in a good read. Northern Lights is part one of a trilogy. I didn't buy the rest in Hyd (though they were available at a discount) as I wanted to read the first one and then decide. Now I cant wait to grab the rest.

i2's vice chairman, chief operating officer and a couple of executive VPs are in town today. Big heap meeting lined up. Followed by big heap dinner for all employees. Big heap anticipation.