odzer's blog

Fried Rice

odzer — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 04:57:57 +0000

If you are ever hungry and you have some left over rice from the previous day try making fried rice, its incredibly simple and you do not need many ingredients. I used ham and eggs in this version, if you have some spring onions it is good but otherwise just use some normal onion and a few cloves of garlic. Nothing could really get simpler than that!

I suggest using an iron utensil for stir frying that does not have a very thick bottom otherwise you will not achieve good success on a domestic gas stove. High heat is the key to all good stir frying.

Lustrous hair only with Placenta

odzer — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:01:29 +0000

placenta |pləˈsentə|noun ( pl. -tae |-tē| or -tas ) a flattened circular organ in the uterus of pregnant eutherian mammals, nourishing and maintaining the fetus through the umbilical cord.

However I have found that there are other uses for the humble placenta, its the perfect thing to wash your hair with. Do not believe me just look at the image below :

Only Rs. 99+VAT, Its a real steal!

Made Proudly in the United States!

So you want to earn some quick cash?

odzer — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 07:47:45 +0000

We have these wonderful “E-Sampark” centres all over the city where you can among other things get a bus pass, pay your electric and water bill, file a right to information request, pay your mobile or landline bills, buy stamp papers or revenue stamps, get a birth or a death certificate and if you happen to be starving even buy subsidised and vitamin fortified wheat flour at a discount. Nothing to complain about them really, they are nice comfortable places which are air conditioned and they even have a TV to pass the time while you wait.

So yesterday I went to pay my electric bill and I observed they had this notice there. I guess the photo is a bit incomplete so I will repost what I saw on the notice …..

“Dear Customer

1 PM is cash tally time and the same has to be handover to bank collection team which comes around 1:15 PM as such case the cash counter’s will stop taking bills for atleast 5 to 10 minutes (approximately) at around 1 PM.

Kindly bear with us

Sampark Centre-18″

Apart from the terrible English, I am sure you can probably guess what it means but if you can not what they are basically saying is — that the bank people come around 1 PM to collect cash from their centre and they can not take bills for around 10 minutes around the time when it happens.

So here is my question now, why should not some person who has every intention to get rich by a couple of hundred thousand rupees come over at 1 pm, point a gun at their heads and take away their cash one fine day? Which brilliant mind had the idea to give away this information? I mean these guys are loaded with money, so any of you guys out there if you want to make a quick buck and if you own a high calibre handgun or two, head over to E-Sampark Centre, Sector 18 its adjacent to the road that heads to Madhya Marg and cuts between Sector 17 and Sector 18. Good Luck!

The Construction Game

odzer — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 08:06:03 +0000

I am recovering from a really bad nervous breakdown. I own these two floors of a house here and I do not know what I was thinking when I decided to renovate the top floor. So from the past one and half months I have been having people walking all over the place trying to do something or the other. Well I could be bitter about the fact most of people seem to be utterly incompetent and tardy when it comes to construction work but let me put this in a better perspective.

What I noticed when I started this home improvement is how untrained the labour is. It seems that there are no standards when it comes to the construction industry in India. No wonder we have bridges that fall, buildings that look shabby and most importantly — they all look the same. The majority of the labour and masonary seems to hail from East-Indian states like UP and Bihar. Not only did I face a problem trying to get work out of them but it seems we also had communication issues. Having said that I must say that they do try their best and work for a pittance. However the problem seems to be that their “Best” is not good enough!

So my small project now is finally moving towards its finalisation, its a different story that the carpenters that I have hired to do some woodwork have not showed up for 3 days and it took 3 days to chase after a glazier to have glass fitted in. No one keeps to commitments and its really frustrating that whatever I conceived at the beginning of the project has in some ways been modified by the workmen because of their inability to follow instructions precisely or rather their lack of precision. I must say that somewhere if this country needs to progress we need to have standards among blue collar workers rather than just some uneducated farm peasants doubling up as construction workers, carpenters etc.

Tibetan Cheese or Chura

odzer — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 19:51:06 +0000

I can imagine that many of you might think that I have disappeared for good and I am sure that you are right in thinking that but for me I simply had no energy to write a blog after a sudden change in my schedule due to a number of factors most of them being related to the amount of things I have to do in a day. Anyway I have enjoyed my time away from the blog, I will admit it. I am sure that now I will have a bit more to write about for the coming few days though the frequency may be a bit less at the beginning.

Some days ago I came across two big blocks of hard Tibetan Cheese called “Chura”. This type of cheese mostly eaten as a sort of a hard candy. I remember from my college days my deskmate was addicted to eatiing this cheese and he always had a couple of cubes of this in his pocket and one permanently in his mouth. This deskmate was always “high” and had a cricket kit bag full of hemp in his college hostel room. However he was fun to be around and had an extraordinary level of intelligence. So the cheese itself is pretty disgusting and there are many types of it. If I had to describe its taste I would say it tastes like rancid vomit but there is one particular variety that is shaped like flakes and if you throw those in a soup it gives a very nice flavour to it. I must admit my liking for Chura stops there. However this along with dried meat called Sha-Khambu has an extraordinary role to play in the Tibetan diet. This type of food hardly goes bad and it provides for a good source of protien in a climate where such type of nourishment is difficult to get especially while you travel for days. This is such a good travel food that they almost always string a couple of cubes of it together and you can carry it handily in your pocket without the fear of spoilage.

As for these particular pieces of chura, I plan to nibble on them even though its not really very tasty for me. Slowly but surely I am sure they will disappear.

Spirali Pasta

odzer — Wed, 27 May 2009 13:30:24 +0000

Some days ago i have made a pasta dish. I was looking forward to using Penne but when I looked in my supplies I discovered I had only some spirali pasta. Oh well its not as if you can not use one or the other. So the thing about Pasta is that it is my instant noodles. I am not particularly fond of eating “maggi” type things so I just make a pasta whenever I feel the need to escape from cooking.It requires fairly less amount of work and it contains tomatoes which i am quite partial to. Extra flavouring comes from bay leaves, garlic, white onions, an occassional green chilli, pepper, basil and oregano.

Its always good to use good quality tomatoes when you do a tomato based pasta sauce. If you like you can also use a bit of tomato paste for a darker colour.

Election Day

odzer — Tue, 19 May 2009 10:43:18 +0000

On the 13th we voted in Chandigarh, Usually for me its just a two minute walk to the polling station. On the way I stopped to have a chat with the father of a friend who was sitting at a political party’s tent. Inside the polling station I was surprised to see a line of people waiting to cast their vote because usually its just a walk in and walk out affair. After a wait of around ten minutes I could show my identity and proceed to vote.

As I had expected the congress candidate Pawan Kumar Bansal won by quite a margin. This election was special in Chandigarh because of two reasons. The first we had major parties trying to win the seat for the first time, in the past it was only a competition between the Congress and the BJP. Second voters turned out in huge numbers, in some parts of the city voting reached 85%, over all the city vote percentage was around 65%. On a sadder note the brother of the BJP candidate died after election results were declared due to a heart attack. When you are the richest city in the country you don’t usually expect such percentages. The people this time were determined to come and show their resolve to vote. It was very nice to see many first time voters and young people. The atmosphere in the polling center was polite and respectful. The guy who marked my finger even called me “Sir”. Something that I don’t really expect from an Indian public servant.

I would encourage everyone to vote in the next elections whenever they get a chance. Not because your vote will or not make a difference but because you can vote. Although I am opposed to compulsory voting I think when people get the encouragement they will come out. As for the mark on my finger now I am curious how many months it will take to vanish, however the one good thing about this is that I can now be amazed at how fast finger nails grow.

Cheese Cake

odzer — Sat, 09 May 2009 09:02:58 +0000

Some days ago I tried to make a cheese cake, this was result of the fact that I was given a free packet of Ricotta by a local store. Actually between me and a friend we had two packets but due to some curious incident we ended up with one. I was a bit wary of what would happen when I try making it with one pack but over all the result was not that bad. Originally I had wanted to do a strawberry cheese cake but because I could not find any strawberries I setteled on making a lemon cheese cake. This unbaked cheese cake had a layer of digestive biscuits and the filling was composed on lemon juice, zest, double cream and the cheese of course. I was a bit scared to take out the cake out of its shell because i was afraid the base might crumble but it held on steadily and strongly.

So the results were okay but I could have done much better with more cheese. I decided to add some shaved chocolate to the top of the cake for a bit of a twist. I liked the cake but I will do somethings differently next time I try it. A cheese cake is best if it is cheesy!

Book Tag

odzer — Sat, 02 May 2009 22:16:01 +0000

Vikram has asked me to do the Book Tag. I must say that I am not reading as much as i used to do once upon a time. However I have liked reading the books that I did and I am likely to go back to reading if my routine allows. So here it goes :-

1) What author do you own the most books by?
Agatha Christie most definitely. I am a die hard fan of hers.

2) What book do you own the most copies of?
The wind in the willows by Kenneth Grahme.

3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
Not at all!

4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Most likely Jeeves the butler, I would not mind having him around.

5) What book have you read the most times in your life?
The Bible, I managed to read that in patches.

6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
I read a lot of Enid Blyton. I guess I would have to say Noddy and the Famous Five Series.

7) What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?

I would not really read something that I won’t like.

8 ) What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?
The Lost Country– Mongolia Revealed by Jasper Becker.

9) If you could force everyone you know to read one book, what would it be?
Most likely it would be The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rimpoche.

10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?
I do.

11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
I can’t say but I guess I think I would like to see a modern version of “And then there were none by Agatha Christie”.

12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
Anything boring.

13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
I have never had any yet.

14) What is the most lowbrow book you’ve read as an adult?
I own and I have read quite a few but I would not say it here!

15) What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?
Oh my god anything by Salman Rushdie, I can never go beyond Chapter 1.

16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you’ve seen?
None, I acted in and I have seen only the most popular ones.

17) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
The French definitely, because the Russians are just wannabe French.

18) Roth or Updike?
No Idea!

19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Huh?

20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Shakespeare

21) Austen or Eliot?
Eliot

22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
I guess not having read enough modern books. When I find an author I like I stick to him or her.

23) What is your favorite novel?
The Dark of the Sun by Wilbur Smith, Tutan Walah Khooh (The Well with the Mulberries) by Ajit Cour.

24) Play?
Dooja Vyah or Second Marriage by Sant Singh Sekhon.

25) Poem?
Sarah Sylvia Cynthia Stout by Shel Silverstein

26) Essay?
Hmmmm I am not really an essay boy.

27) Short story?
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

28) Work of nonfiction?
The Search for Shangri-La: A Journey into Tibetan History by Charles Allen.

29) Who is your favorite writer?
Agatha Christie and PG Wodehouse.

30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Salman Rushdie!

31) What is your desert island book?
Desert Gardening – The Complete Guide by George Brookbank.

32) And… what are you reading right now?
Nothing because I am writing a chapter for a book that will soon be published.

I think I am going to definitely tag Priyank and Hedonist for this one. Although I must admit I now own most of Hedonists book collection. He he he he.

Focaccia

odzer — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 09:16:25 +0000

The idea of making one’s own bread is always appealing. One of the reasons I love baking is that it makes the house smell good. So I decided one evening that the next day I would want my own bread. So I let the dough rise the whole night after introducing a yeast culture. The bread I settled on baking was Focaccia, an Italian pizza like bread that can have a number of toppings.
After the dough had risen, I rolled it out in a baking tray and topped it with some green pimento olives, usually its done by using black olives but I decided I wanted a variation and the sad fact is I just had not eaten the olives and forgotten about them. So after I fetched the jar from the deepest darkest recesses of my fridge all I had to do was chop the olives up on the bread. As the recipe calls for inundating the dough with olive oil, I did the same. Finally I put some mixed herbs on top. You can basically just use whatever herb you fancy. Oregano is as good as Rosemary or whatever.

Although the bread is good by itself I wanted to eat it with something because I wanted to make a meal out of the whole thing so I chose to eat it with Ratatouille. I ate a cold meal because the temperatures here can put you off sometime. I think the bread baking experience has been nice and I might try some variants in the future.