La Vie

noreply@blogger.com (Rasini) — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 11:58:00 +0000

Books: The God of Small Things - Review

noreply@blogger.com (Rasini) — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 04:37:00 +0000

It's been a while, I have given up reading books by Indian authors bcos they were all about women falling in love with MCPs and Men betraying women, sex, child abuse, domestic violence.. blah. I swore to my self that I won’t be reading them again but I couldn't resist reading 'The God of Small Things' by Arundathi Roy, being a Booker Prize winner in 1997.

At first I had second thoughts whether to continue with this or find another Sydney Sheldon book bcos this book is the most depressing book I’ve ever read. It is a story about the childhood experiences of a pair of fraternal twins who become victims of circumstance.

Chapter 1 - I had no feeling (y the heck am I reading this anyway). Chapter 2 - what a crap. Chapter 3 & 4 - Nausea and struggling to put back my past. Chapter 5 - I'm gonna read this book.

It's about how the small things in life build up, translate into people's behavior and affect their lives. For the moment Ammu (the twins' mother and a divorcee) is my favorite character. She was strong enough to fly away from her alcoholic, chauvinist man who was her so called husband.

" This highly stylized novel tells the story of one very fractured family from the southernmost tip of

India

. Here is an unhappy family unhappy in its own way, and through flashbacks and flashforwards The God of Small Things unfolds the secrets of these characters' unhappiness. First-time novelist Arundhati Roy twists and reshapes language to create an arresting, startling sort of precision. The average reader of mainstream fiction may have a tough time working through Roy's prose, but those with a more literary bent to their usual fiction inclinations should find the initial struggle through the dense prose a worthy price for this lushly tragic tale.

Rahel and Estha are fraternal twins whose emotional connection to one another is stronger than that of most siblings:
Esthappen and Rahel thought of themselves together as Me, and separately, individually as We or Us. As though they were a rare breed of Siamese twins, physically separate, but with joint identities.

Now, these years later, Rahel has a memory of waking up one night giggling at Estha's funny dream.

She has other memories too that she has no right to have.

Their childhood household hums with hidden antagonisms and pains that only family members can give one another.
Blind Mammachi, the twins' grandmother and founder of Paradise Pickles & Preserves, is a violin-playing widow who suffered years of abuse at the hands of her highly respected husband, and who has a fierce one-sided Oedipal connection with her son, Chacko. Baby Kochamma, Rahel and Estha's grandaunt, nurses deep-seated bitterness for a lifetime of unrequited love, a bitterness that plays out slyly against everyone in the family; in her youth she fell in love with an Irish Roman-Catholic priest and converted to his faith to win him, while he eventually converted to Hinduism. Chacko, divorced from his English wife and separated from his daughter since her infancy, runs the pickle factory with a capitalist's hand, self-deluding himself all the while that he is a Communist at heart even as he flirts with and beds his female employees. Ammu, the twins' mother, is a divorcee who fled her husband's alcoholism and impossible demands, a woman with a streak of wildness that the children sense and dread and that will be her and her family's undoing.

The family's tragedy revolves around the visit of Chacko's ex-wife, widowed by her second husband, and his daughter, Sophie Mol. It is within the context of their visit that Estha will experience the one horrible thing that should never happen to a child, during their visit that Ammu will come to love by night the man the children love by day, and during their visit that Sophie Mol will die. Her death, and the fate of the twins' beloved Untouchable Velutha, will forever alter the course of the lives of all the members of the family, sending them each off on spinning trajectories of regret and pain. The story reveals itself not in traditional narrative order, but in jumps through time, wending its way through Rahel's memories and attempts at understanding the hand fate dealt her family.

The God of Small Things has been favorable reviewed all over the place, generating a lot of excitement in the current literary establishment. What you think of it will depend heavily on your opinion of Roy's prose style -- is it ostentatious, or is it brilliant? Whether or not you fall in love with her style, the truth of the heartbreaking story she tells and the lovable/hate-able characters who people it make this novel an experience not to be missed."

Above quoted, is a review of the book which I found in http://www.curledup.com/godsmall.htm

For those who are already having bad times, I recommend not to read this :D

Life: Queso Dip

noreply@blogger.com (Rasini) — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 06:15:00 +0000

This blog post will be a small tribute to terry clothed primate and to my fiance! (who swallowed everything with no complains)
Tx to monkey i was able to prove my BF that I'm some what good in cooking ;) Last Friday i got printouts of few recipes found in Hi Monkey and early Saturday morning started the battle. My plan was to make cutlets, queso dips (i'll tell u what it is later) and toasted bread for breakfast and tomato soup with latkes (most prob i'll giv a detailed description in my next blog entry). But i changed plans n decided to cook rice for lunch.

Preparing Queso dip was d easiest thing. I got d recipe from Hi Monkey but i modified it a bit cos i wanted to use home made tomato pure. This is how i made the Queso dip.

Ingredients (serves 2):
cheese (slices, wedges or bars) - I'm a cheese lover so i used 5 wedges
Tomato pure (peel off few boiled tomatoes and smash it and get the liquid - seeds removed)
Small amount of butter or margarine
red chili powder
pinch of salt
a clean pan
a good spoon

Method:
First cut the cheese into blocks
Keep d pan on medium heat
Add butter n let it melt
Add d cheese chunks
Continue stirring constantly
Add the tomato pure n continue stirring
Mean while add chili powder and salt n stir
Do not boil the mixture
U'll get a thick beautiful cream
Put it to a nice bowl n serve with Chips (in my case cutlets)

well that's that. We all enjoyed the sauce ;) Next time I'm gonna make tomato soup with latkes (yum yum). Till then chao..

Life: Hi ! Monkey !

noreply@blogger.com (Rasini) — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 05:55:00 +0000

Some body please giv me some work !!!! :D
I'm out of work these days and before i get fired thought of adding a new post ;-)
I jus cant remember how i came across this site but it's cool and dat cute web site was chosen as a yahoo's site of the week too.

As the site states "Himonkey.net is a wee peek at the life and adventures of the only terry cloth primate we know of who runs his own web site. "

It's full of small small things including lil recipes n I'm gonna try some of those this weekend (Yipes i better inform my PM that i mite put a leave on Monday ;))

dats enuf for today! Jus giv a lil visit to Terry cloth primate.
Zzzzzzzzzz

Life: Welcome back !

noreply@blogger.com (Rasini) — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 12:10:00 +0000

Wow after a long time gotta a chance to peep into my blog. I had to ask a friend to send d url of ma blog n couldnt even remember d password to login. Oh n a new blogger version too...still didnt get a chance to c d diff though. errrrrrrr smtimes i really hate bloggin. had lots to write but now memory blank.
OK i'm still workin in d same place, had work, did 'em, project holded, no work, browsing net, chat with friends, watched bleach, started watchin Lil Ninja, e-learning, Britney now bald headed, I'm abt 2 get busted fromPM blah blah..ahemm that's all in a nutshell :-D
Yesterday while reading Boing Boing found a cool website calle Hi Monkey.net.
Gotta finish for today. I have to obey company rules. Working hours are 8 to 5 ;)

Life: My First Job....

noreply@blogger.com (Rasini) — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 08:11:00 +0000

On September 4th I started my work at IFS (Industrial and Financial Systems) R & D Private Limited (Sri Lanka). There are 4 other batch mates and it's good to have Sumudinie (one of the CS_Girls) with me. The first one n half months will be a training period for us. We have already finished SQL, PL-SQL, Centura (IFS specific language for windows application development) and Rational Rose Modelling. The place is cool and the food is great :) Having a very busy schedule and it's hard to find a free time to update the blog.

No Net Connection

noreply@blogger.com (Rasini) — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 06:36:00 +0000

Couldnt update the blog for months for various reasons and now i've no net conection tx to Isuru (he had changed all the switches and connections). Since Gayan went home today I got a chance to add a new post from his machine. These days we r again back to projct work and hope to add some post in d near future. Till then Chao!

Books,Life:101 Cookbooks yummy Yum!

noreply@blogger.com (Rasini) — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 03:49:00 +0000

101 Cookbooks is a mouthwatering site... Yesterday, while I was surfing through different blogs, in a particular site I found a link to this site. The site has loads of recipes from all around the world (almost) and boy I was really hungry after spending more than 3 - 4 hours looking at those pics.

This site is designed and maintained by Heidi Swanson with help from a host of generous and talented contributors. You can also see Heidi's cookbook collection and directly order them or add to your cart (if u r in a position to possess them :( )

Anyway I found some cool recipes and willing to try soon (but bit difficult to find some of d ingredients)
One most easiest recipe is "Gold Coast French Toast" (French toasts and Bombay toasts r my all time favs)

Click on images to see their recipes

Gold Coast French Toasts

Just look at this chocolate mousse ( my girl-friends' fav dessert - and mine too)

Amaretto-spiked chocolate mousse

I was studying MIS while I was surfing but I could only finish 1 page of 6 slides and I finally promised my self that I won't look @ this site until I finish the note but I couldn't help myself staring @ these mouthwatering cookbook collections........I was starring @ this image for a loooong time!!!!

cherry ice cream

WARNING! - this site is So! Not good for the people who r on diet and willing 2 diet.

Life:Three Done One 2 GO!!! - Need A Break !

noreply@blogger.com (Rasini) — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 06:52:00 +0000

Finished three papers and one to go. The last paper (computer vision) was an utter chaos. The prob was not with d paper but with my eyes. Anyway one MIS paper to finish and then THE PROJECT TIME!!!. I'm sooooo lazy 2day and don't feel like doing anything. ( not even blogging!) Yesterday played more than 10 big fish games and I'll write some reviews later......At the moment I'm not at all in a mood 2 continue.

Life: Cool Comics

noreply@blogger.com (Rasini) — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 03:41:00 +0000

Married to the Sea is full of artistic comics and it's daily updated by a married couple; Drew & Natalie. I have depicted some of d comics...

House fire

Beer before bed

Harp center

Enjoy a daily comic @ Married To The Sea

Life: Why Studying is BAD !

noreply@blogger.com (Rasini) — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 09:13:00 +0000

Today's subject (in the final exam) was Theory of Computing! It used to be my favourite subject of this year although writing regular expressions is bit confusing to me. I understood the subject for a certain extent @ lectures and thought too much studying would spoil my memory( overconfident ). But when my boy friend asked me to write some regular expressions YIPES! I can't even write the most typical ones. So I started serious studying from Saturday eve. There were 12 lectnotes and last nite re-read all of 'em and thought to finish b4 10 p.m. Finally finished reading at 12 and missed Alias. It's d first time I missed an episode of Season 4... and the paper was a crap! So never miss ur fav cartoon, movie or whatever bcos of studying!

Games: Law and Order Justice is Served

noreply@blogger.com (Rasini) — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 08:27:00 +0000

After playing Mystry Case Files : Huntsville and Prime suspects I was craving for another mystry solving game. I found a small demo of LAW & ORDER Justice is Served from Big Fish. You can buy this legacy game from Just Adventure. It's a great mystry solving game and the demo will give you a taste of the first half of the game. Victim is Elena Kusarova, a highly ranked player from Ukraine and unfortunately you find her dead at the begining of the game. You are detective Lennie Briscoe's partner and these are the goals you have in demo:

Unfortunately it's only a demo (sigh!!)

Games: Braingle - Use Ur Brain

noreply@blogger.com (Rasini) — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 07:12:00 +0000

Yesterday I found a new way to waste time more effectively! (It doesnt mean that i'm fed up with puzzle games & yahoo games..) Last week I upgraded Yahoo mail (Beta version) and cool! now you can read any RSS feed while checking mails. There were some default RSS feeds provided and Braingle is one of them. Braingle has the largest collection of brain teasers, games,riddles...etc (they say so). I joined the Braingle community because they have loads of small games which you can play online and they arent that easy... Yesterday I played a puzzle game called Beanstalk where we have to plant and grow a beanstalk to go the next level. It seemed quite easy in the begining but you score according to the number of steps you take. You have to move the ingredients to the X mark in the given order and I still couldnt go beyond level 6 :( (have to try today).

I tried few other games like

Hang Glider - where you have to fill words and keep the hang glider aloft
Pirate's Booty - like minesweeper (dig treasure, keep up the moral of your crew)
Word search puzzels - you can create your own one too
Ofcourse you'll find Sudoku too

To improve your mind go the Mentalrobics section where u can find stuff like memory tests.
If you feel bored (and if all the downloaded games are expired ) don't just idle, go to : http://www.braingle.com/

Enjoy! ( @ ur own risk...)

Life: Adding Categories ...

noreply@blogger.com (Rasini) — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 11:58:00 +0000

Found a cool guide to add posts into different categories in the "Code 'n Play" Blog. According to his guide only 3 steps to follow and yes! u have categorized ur posts neetly.

Just visit http://mudali.blogspot.com/ and u'll find the post "Blogger Categories Using Javascript - The Complete Guide".

Books:Under the Duvet - Marian Keyes

noreply@blogger.com (Rasini) — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 08:08:00 +0000

Under the Duvet - Shoes, Reviews, Having the Blues, Builders, Babies, Families and Other Calamities by Marian Keyes

After a long, exhaustive academic period I gotta chance to visit my girl friend at Galle. She was also having an academic break but unfortunately it was her study leave :( So I had to find a way to kill my time; first day morning - no option, started re-reading John Grishams' Runaway Jury! and Dulangi (my friend) was studying Gyn & Obs (that was what i was thinking) but she was giggling then and there looking at her notes. I was thinking 'what's so funny about studying some 70 to 80 boring lecnotes' and had a glance over her notes. Voila! My dear old friend has never changed, she was reading a nicely printed, hard covered book with the title "Under the Duvet". The cover it self looked funny and it was a non fiction (i seldom get a chance to read 'em) At the very moment i asked for that book and she was like "NOooo Way.."
Now what! I gotta grab that book from her smhow & the best way was to blackmail her :)) I made her feel guilty, for reading novels during a study break. ( Low marks, No merit, Internship in rural area, No coming home for months blah blah) Yuppy! Finally grab hold of the book.

Under the Duvet is a collection of personal essays on office parties, shopping, driving lessons, family and many other mishaps faced being a public figure. The best thing is that u can start reading from any chapter u want and believe me u won't give up reading it. It's funny but real!
It's a common fact that women(not all) crave for jewelry, perfume, dresses and fancy little ornaments and for Marian she loves shoes and LTFs (Long Term Friends). Marian has her own way of observing life .

"Some people take to their beds to escape from their lives; Marian Keyes takes to her bed in order to reflect on her life. She really does spend her days "under the duvet," comfortably propped up on pillows and typing away on her Sony Vaio laptop. Meanwhile, her husband of nearly a decade, Tony Baines, keeps the home and business fires burning from a more traditionalworkplace downstairs, communicating with his wife via a dedicated telephone line"
-------------quoted from a reveiw by Bethanne Kelly Patrick

Anyway she was lucky to have a supportive husband like that with so much patience... (there r only handful in some countries)

Extracted from chap 1:
" When people ask me what I do for a crust and I tell them that I'm a novelist, they immediately assume that my life is a nonstop carousel of limos, television appearances, hairdos, devoted fans, stalkers and all the glitzy paraphernalia of being a public figure. It's time to set the record straight. I write alone, in a darkened bedroom, wearing my pj's, eating bananas, my laptop on a pillow in front of me. Occasionally -- it usually coincides with promoting a book -- I am led, blinking, into the daylight, and when I try to talk to people, discover that I'm not able to, that I've become completely desocialized. And as for being mobbed by adoring fans -- I'm never recognized. Once I thought I was, but I was mistaken. I was in a shoe shop (where else?), and when I asked one of the girls if she had any of these sixteen shoes in my size, she looked at me, put her hand on her chest and gave a little gasp. "It's you!" she declared. It is, I thought, thrilled to the marrow. It is me -- I'm famous! "Yes," the girl continued. "You were in the pub last night, you were the one singing, weren't you?" I was so disappointed I could hardly speak. I'd been nowhere near any pub the night before. "You've a great voice," she said. "Now what size do you want these shoes in?"

"Under the Duvet" is hilarious and yes i'm gonna read Marian Keyes' "Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married" soon.

Just pay a visit to Marian Keyes Book site: http://www.mariankeyesbooks.com/index.html

FactsOfLife:Men Always Have Excuses ;)

noreply@blogger.com (Rasini) — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 07:09:00 +0000

Men always have lot of logical explanations for everything they do (Good or BAD) and they are hard to defend.
This article is about an interesting research :

"Men do have trouble hearing women"

Ok for your ease I'll just quote the article which you can read from : http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1431915.htm

"Men who are accused of never listening by women now have an excuse - women's voices are more difficult for men to listen to than other men's.

Reports say researchers at Sheffield University in northern England have discovered startling differences in the way the brain responds to male and female sounds.

The research shows men decipher female voices using the auditory part of the brain that processes music, while male voices engage a simpler mechanism.

Michael Hunter as saying, "the female voice is actually more complex than the male voice, due to differences in the size and shape of the vocal cords and larynx between men and women, and also due to women having greater natural 'melody' in their voices".

"This causes a more complex range of sound frequencies than in a male voice," Mr Hunter said.

The report says the findings may help explain why people suffering hallucinations usually hear male voices - the brain may find it much harder to conjure up a false female voice accurately than a false male voice.

The research is published in the specialist magazine NeuroImage."

Life,Games:I Luv Exams!

noreply@blogger.com (Rasini) — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 04:10:00 +0000

It's exam time again...My favorite time of the year!
Oh NO! Not because I really love studying (Craving :D ) but because u get more time to enjoy! For me this period means Yahoo games,Yahoo games... entertainment, yeah and extra reading (lec notes). You have No assignments, No projects, No home work...!
Since the bandwidth usage is low during exam times (very few pay a visit to d lab) I can easily download plenty of little games and at the moment I'm really addicted to that stuff.
http://games.yahoo.com/games/front - there u go you have plenty of fun games to download but what's unfair is that they EXPIRE!!!! When you approach the most exciting level (Boom!) it expires.

One of the most addictive games are the mystery Case Files : Prime Suspects and MCF:Huntsville. If u like mystery solving and puzzles, believe me they are eye challenging and u gotta think differently.

Most of the puzzle games have similar kind of procedure to follow but some games get really hard to play when leveling up.

If you want to play loads of games online here's another place to visit.
http://www.bigfishgames.com/ - Big Fish Games.
Lot of downloadable games you find in Yahoo games are Big Fish Games.
Unfortunately I had a problem for some games i have downloaded recently from Big Fish. After installing the game, I was unable to see the content of the first page launched. This is typically caused by personal firewall software or by "Internet Zone" security settings that are set too high. A simple procedure is detailed in the Support Center.

Can't waste too much time cos have to try out the newly downloaded stuff. Chao!

Life:My first blog!

noreply@blogger.com (Rasini) — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 03:33:00 +0000

Everything has a begining and here goes nothing!

It's my first blog and bit confused about what to write.