That did rhyme, tell me no?
(1) Carl Sagan
I am sitting in a cubicle with dimensions as small as 1/862180000000000 square light years in an obscure country in a tiny speckle of blue dust and metal on the shore of a cosmic ocean and hitting keystrokes madly, the purpose of which is so irrelevant that reading / writing this could be inconsequential.
Don’t curse me if I am freaking you out, that is probably one cosmic view of PHD. Thanks to Carl Sagan [wiki] and his superb work on Cosmos. I am reading the book and every page is a revelation into the history, science, struggle of the human evolution and what lies ahead. Read it if you like science books or have faintest of interest in what is, was and will be of us.
(2) Frying Pan
While human explorations in to cosmic ocean to understand us are going on, my experiments in kitchen couldn’t get any better. I have more or less mastered the art of making upma and filter coffee (2 separate items, mind you), one of my favorite breakfast items. Incase you are looking for no frills and bachelorish way of making upma read the next para. Otherwise, you might as well jump to the end and leave comments on how your upma always sucked.
Items needed: Upma Rava, water (I am in Chennai), Green Chilli, Ginger, Curry Leaves, Onions, Peanuts, Cashew, Masala items (I don’t know the English for them, but whatever) and some oil.
How to: You may want to light the stove, unless its really hot in Chennai (which incidentally can happen 400 out of 365 days; most of the time). Pour some oil and let it simmer. Add the curry leaves, masala items. Once they turn golden yellow or you start sneezing and your eyes are really burning, whichever is earlier, add the peanuts, cashew, ginger, finely chopped onions, curry leaves and chilli. Let them simmer for sometime. Taste an onion chip or two if you want to know the status.
Once they are done, add water. Remember, almost 2 measures of water for one measure of rava. Leave the mixture till its boiling. Then slowly add rava while vigorously stirring. Also, not so fast that you have boiling upma mixture spilled on your hands. Also it may not taste so good. So observe caution and patience. Once you are done adding rava keep stirring slowly and let the rava grasp all the water. Oh yeah, you should add salt to taste when you poured the water in the beginning. Otherwise it will taste hopelessly yucky. Once you feel that its sufficiently cooked, shutdown the stove (cant help it, I am a techie). Squeeze a lemon slice on the top if you want.
You have hot and yummy upma ready before you.
(3) Local Election
As if the number of holidays in October is not enough, labor commissioner of Chennai has ordered all the companies in the city to observe a holiday on 13th the Friday the tomorrow, the beginning of long weekend to let the citizens use their franchise to vote. I am voting for movies, books and shopping. You slog in the office / college and have a good weekend. Hopefully the TATA Indicom / VSNL folks do repair my broadband connection in the weekend and let me see a bit of the virtual world.
