tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238269402024-10-24T19:45:41.854-07:00Ramble on.Arjunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14790273117791035417noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23826940.post-54455654619942629552015-03-22T10:25:00.000-07:002015-03-22T10:25:02.322-07:00

Masala papad isn't necessarily someone would associate with invoking happy memories. I mean it's not like it's in the same category as my mum's cooking (and dad's special!), which never fails me to put in a happy place. But the reason masala papad brings a special smile to my face is that invokes a particular happy time in my life when I was dating my girlfriend in Mumbai. Some evenings,

Arjunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14790273117791035417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23826940.post-25513269054650230352012-01-12T03:03:00.001-08:002012-01-12T05:10:04.521-08:00

The other day I tried my hand at making (as opposed to merely eating) one of my favourite puddings, the deliciously named Bolo de Bolacha Maria. The recipe sounds easy enough. Take some egg yolk, butter, sugar, coffe and cocoa powder, whisk it together and layer the resulting chocolate cream on Marie biscuits stacked one top of each other to eventually end up with something like this: It's

Arjunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14790273117791035417noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23826940.post-75555744894824603852011-09-02T07:41:00.000-07:002011-09-02T07:41:06.701-07:00

People say I write well. I find that ironic, and at times confusing. You see, I actually find it very, very difficult to write anything meaningful or deep. It's not for lack of ideas, but like good ol' Snoopy who can't seem to get past the lines "It was a dark and stormy night...", I struggle to transfer my ideas to paper (or e-paper if you will) after the first couple of sentences. I'm good

Arjunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14790273117791035417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23826940.post-84402357399205672972011-08-20T03:14:00.000-07:002011-08-20T04:58:18.591-07:00

Over the last week India has witnessed gentle but telling protests on the streets over the Anti-Corruption Bill that's been introduced by the government. And it's been led by a frail septuagenarian by the name of Anna Hazare. A man who, until a few weeks ago, was a largely unknown entity (freedom fighter? what's that?) in the political consciousness of millions of ordinary Indians, but is

Arjunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14790273117791035417noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23826940.post-40201388073186420632011-06-29T06:27:00.000-07:002011-06-29T08:15:13.819-07:00

Korean cuisine is an acquired taste. Even if you are a strict non-vegetarian. I realised this within my first two days of stay here. I can eat almost any non-vegetarian food, so long as it doesn't have more than 4 legs, doesn't belong to the invertebrate family in general, and the arthropod family in particular and is, more importantly, well and truly dead before arrival on my plate. Even better

Arjunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14790273117791035417noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23826940.post-10923309486038553822011-04-02T03:41:00.000-07:002011-04-02T07:10:00.080-07:00

So here I am sat in front of my Macbook in Suwon, South Korea, wondering how to relate my experiences so far of the last one month that I have been here. There's always something to write about when you're a stranger in a strange land and S. Korea is as strange as they come, especially for someone who's never before stepped out of the chaos that is India and experienced the culture of another

Arjunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14790273117791035417noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23826940.post-22390139934460540672010-12-17T09:48:00.000-08:002010-12-17T10:04:20.176-08:00

My cousin Kiran cooks a mean lamb curry that goes brilliantly with rice. Back when some of us cousins used to live in Bangalore, Kiran used to cook this for lunch to go with a heapful of rice and to be washed down with some chilled beer. Heaven!So here then is his recipe in his own words:"Heat oil in pan/kadai... Throw in the cloves and cinnamon... Added chopped onions... Fry for some time.. Add

Arjunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14790273117791035417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23826940.post-31977619305792259562010-10-20T13:36:00.001-07:002010-10-20T14:29:59.186-07:00

Yes, I'm going to talk about alcohol and no I'm not going to apologise for the clichéd title. Moving on then swiftly to the point of this post.A question I'm invariably asked by non-drinkers is "Why do you drink?". I can see where they're coming from on this one. Let's see... there are no obvious health benefits, it costs quite a bit more than a soft drink, it causes intoxication and lose of

Arjunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14790273117791035417noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23826940.post-20783995800607283612009-07-08T12:43:00.001-07:002009-07-08T12:43:04.752-07:00

Ooh, shiney! The new visual theme of this blog I mean, not the disgraced actor. I had actually intended to write a long winded and deeply meaningful post but somehow, somewhere I got happily diverted to picking out a new look for this useless blog. Hey, at least it's something new in here eh? You can thank my short attention span (which is increasingly getting shorter) for that. You're welcome.

Arjunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14790273117791035417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23826940.post-24180669463557339762009-05-22T08:19:00.001-07:002009-05-22T08:19:55.950-07:00

This blog has been dormant for quite a while now. That's because, true to form, I have been too lazy to keep it updated! In fact, the only reason I'm writing this is because I'm trying out Windows Live Writer - a tool to keep track of and publish on multiple blogs (if you are the sad sorts who has more than one blog. I am. And I don't update them either.) via a single unified interface that's

Arjunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14790273117791035417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23826940.post-86059284706607991682008-08-31T00:51:00.000-07:002008-08-31T01:22:30.394-07:00

No really, I hate McDonalds. The infamous burgers at the Mac have to be the most tasteless, soulless, insipid burgers I've ever had in my life. The burgers I get at the shop next to the local train station are better than these – and they are cheaper too! Lets see, the buns in the burger are like any other – nothing special there; the one tiny sad lettuce they put in it is a joke; the cheese

Arjunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14790273117791035417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23826940.post-25601982269682866182007-07-16T11:47:00.000-07:002007-07-16T12:42:52.772-07:00

Indica is a small car. I realised just how small when on my way back from Pune, in a private taxi, I found myself wedged between two very healthy gentlemen in the backseat. With the trip time estimated to be around two and a half hour, I resigned myself wearily to being straight-jacketed for the better part of the trip what with my arms being pinned helplessly to my sides by the overflowing flab

Arjunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14790273117791035417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23826940.post-1153660923717723172006-07-23T05:59:00.000-07:002006-07-23T06:22:03.726-07:00

There is nothing like staying in, on a wet gloomy day, with a cup of hot coffee and chocolate biscuits and watching the rain pelt down through the windows. Trust me - I'm doing just that at the moment and it's heaven!Speaking of hot coffee, I must say that getting a hot cup of coffee isn't all that easy as its been made out to be. For a bachelor anyway. Or maybe it's just me. Anyway, a hot cuppa

Arjunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14790273117791035417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23826940.post-1149331804090115832006-06-03T02:55:00.000-07:002006-06-03T12:16:33.023-07:00

I've recently noticed that I'm slowly but surely become more cynical about some things I once believed in fervently when I was younger. I realised this when I was watching the much hyped "The Triangle" on Star Movies yesterday. It's a series on the Bermuda Triangle and cashes in on the mass hysteria and superstition that surrounds the legend (see? I'm being cynical already). The first episode was

Arjunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14790273117791035417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23826940.post-1147630516234245382006-05-14T10:57:00.000-07:002007-07-16T11:45:33.490-07:00

Got my cable connection yesterday and I've just spent 2 days of my life watching mostly utter crap and wondering why I bothered. There was a ray of hope amidst the despair when Steven Gerrard drilled in one of the most fantastic goals in football ever when he hit a 30 yarder to level scores for Liverpool against West Ham in the FA Cup 2006 final with just two minutes to go. Definitely one of the

Arjunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14790273117791035417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23826940.post-1147287944415709302006-05-10T12:04:00.000-07:002006-06-03T02:33:29.516-07:00

The power of the Internet never ceases to amaze me. In particular, the amount of trivia and knowledge to be found on it is stupendous. Recently I decided to look up people on the Net that I always wanted to know more about - Alfred Hitchcock, Steve McQueen, Rasputin, Bruce Lee et al. And from there I would go on to read about more people that these characters were associated with and so on and so

Arjunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14790273117791035417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23826940.post-1142792958079323842006-03-19T10:27:00.000-08:002006-06-03T02:00:03.523-07:00

Travelling from New Bombay (Navi Mumbai if you will) to South Bombay (or the “town” as we call it) is a real pain. You need to switch three local trains to get there and it takes a little more than an hour to reach Churchgate. Ever since I shifted to New Bombay, I haven’t felt the need or found the time to go there, but this Saturday I did just that. I needed to pick up a new graphics card for

Arjunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14790273117791035417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23826940.post-1142620632682280532006-03-17T10:15:00.000-08:002006-06-03T02:00:23.603-07:00

It's been one crazy week of deadlines and 12-14 hours of slog at work non-stop except for the one blissful Sunday in-between. If anyone thinks that making a video-game is a ultra-cool, relaxed and fun affair they are right, but only just. There is plenty of hard work and back-breaking stuff that goes on behind the scenes and there are days when you lose track of time, days and entire months! No

Arjunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14790273117791035417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23826940.post-1142159847111000942006-03-12T01:25:00.000-08:002006-06-03T02:35:38.600-07:00

Lazy sunday afternoon and a relative decides to drop in. Nothing wrong with that except that I don't know the relative very well and my Malayalam is passable at best.As it is I'm not very good at making conversations (as some women I know would gladly testify), so I knew uncomfortable silences were going to be the order of the day. To add to the piquant sitation, I didn't have a T.V that would

Arjunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14790273117791035417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23826940.post-1142017523804823752006-03-10T10:49:00.000-08:002006-06-03T02:33:55.073-07:00

Finally! It's mine! It's Mine! IT'S MINE!After 45 minutes of luckless search for a suitable name for this blog, I finally came across a name that no one has thought of before! It never ceases to amaze me that no matter how clever, unusual, or obscure a name that you can come up with for a blog/username/website, someone else has already thought of it before. For example, these are the name I tried

Arjunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14790273117791035417noreply@blogger.com0