I wordle'd my blog..

These are the words that are most used in my blog.. Isnt that exciting???
Thanks to Wordle...

Anger..

I was riding to the office today morning, and happened to wait at the signal. There was strange and harsh sound of a person shouting at another person.

It was a father with his daughter (around 2 years old) in his shoulders, shouting at an auto-driver. The issue was that the auto driver rebuked the father for some random reason at the signal. This is an everyday issue with the auto drivers, who think they know the best driving and traffic rules ( I assume it to be so..)..

What I was more concerned is the kind of reaction I saw from the father, who appeared to be a decent professional. He used rude words and went down to the level of an illiterate in uttering words. All offensive statements like 'I will put you in jail for talking to me like this.. I am driving slowly with my daughter.. And dare you shout at me..' , 'You are playing with me without knowing my power; I ll hand over you to the police.. I will convict all your family members and put them to jail..'

I was dumbstruck at the way the new father reacted to just one or two words that the autowala uttered maybe purely because of some kind of bad mood. It happens with most of us in life. When we are angry, we tend to show our anger on others. But there is a limit to everything. The way the father shouted at the autowala was totally meaningless. Why will a man get so angry and utter totally unecessary words?! Is he not literate enough to understand that he is educated and the prime purpose of education is to make you a man with sense, and throw away anything that is nonsense.

And what is the moral he is teaching to his young daughter who is just beginning to see the world?! He must have sure instilled this in the fresh mind of his daughter. Is this what the new generation is going to be taught? Is this what we want our future generations to learn and be like?!

Lets think !

Women 2011

"A woman is the full circle. Within her is the power to create, nurture, and transform. A woman knows that nothing can come to fruition without light. Let us call upon woman's voice and woman's heart to guide us in this age of planetary transformation." ~ Diane Mariechild

Well, I just witnessed the celebration of the 100th year of International Women's day last week.! And this year, it was different from the norm. There was a small celebration arranged in office, with all the women being greeted with a rose, and a gift in the morning. As I was reflecting on the success of the event, after a big time failure of V-Day event in the office, I was also a little surprised, as to why this celebration happened at all. There is of course an International Men's day, but most of the men out there don't even know such a day exists. Why this hype for women?!

It is obvious. After a baffling struggle to obtain our space in a male-dominated society, we can only feel satisfied at having succeeding in making men understand that we are no way less competent than they are, in ANY field. We have just crossed a major barrier; we still have a long way to go.! There is nothing to feel happy about for celebrating Women's day in such a strong sense, where end of the day, all that a woman gets is a pack of chocolates and gifts and fluffy dolls. Should women remain happy just feeling happy about what great women of the past achieved?! Dont we have the responsibility to succeed and prove our capacity until there is no necessity to encourage women to participate, but women are always part and parcel of everything that can happen in the world!

To be frank, I felt that women have achieved what they wanted in their life, seeing the celebration yesterday. But quickly did I also realize that the struggle that women took to reach this day, was longer than anyone could possibly imagine. This millenium has witnessed a significant change and an attitudinal shift in the thoughts of every woman and the society in itself, about women's equality with men and their emancipation. My point here is we have just started and we still have a long way to go.

Consider the women reservation percentage in India. This is primarily given for the reasons like:

• Encouraging more women to participate in politics and society.
• An attempt to bring down the rate of female foeticide, infanticide, and issues related to women' health. Sex ratio in India is an alarming 1.06 men for every woman.
• Bringing those women who are still in the dark about emancipation to light and life..

I bet most of us have listened to Ms.Sunitha Krishnan's speech at TedXClassroom Project. She is one example of hundreds and thousands of women out there who are fighting to establish the rights of women. She herself being a victim of rape in her teenage, has dedicated herself to rescuing those numerous children who are suffering because of the sex industry and she is keen on spreading awareness about the issue, and changing the mindset of people who treat women as slaves. The speech she gave was more than a motivation for many people around us. But still, we are bound by our family to keep away from people who have become victims. Such is the society today. This is one example enough to prove that women still have a long way to go in establishing their rights.

We see women these days, working at their office, taking care of their household, taking care of the kids and family and still trying to maintain the same calm she always had. Isn't this proof enough to understand that women can make good resources in any field, in any walk of life!? There are regions in India, that ban women as witches and ill-treat them. It is disheartening to hear such news, when the world is educated enough to stop believing in something blindly.

Today though we see a lot of change with respect to women emancipation, numerous issues still exist in all spheres of life - cultural, economical and political. There is till date, problems that could be rectified if only people understood that they are lives.

There is still a long way to go, in order to establish the fact that women and men are equal in all walks of life.! That day, there will be no reservation for women, because, that will be day when women are ready and willing to participate in every activity across the world. That will be the day, when men understand that women are capable of doing everything.

Potato and Oyster Mushroom curry

Cooking doesn't appear interesting to me all the time.. So, once in a while, when I feel tempted to cook, I make sure it tastes good..
And somehow, mushrooms have been my favourite experiment at cooking.. Of the two three varieties I tried, I felt todays' is the best.. So, here is the recipe for you.

Ingredients:
1 Onion ( halved and sliced big)
2 Tomatoes ( big sized, sliced)
Oyster Mushrooms ( 8 - 10 )
Cilantro leaves (½ cup finely chopped)
Potatoes (Cut into small dice)
Salt to taste
Garam masala
Chill Powder
Turmeric Powder
Cooking Oil

Let's get started. 
1. Heat oil in a pan, add onions and cilantro leaves and fry them till they become soft and translucent.
2. Add mushrooms, spices and salt and saute for 5 to 6 minutes till the mushroom splash water.. 
3. Splash water if the spices seem to get dry.
4. Now add tomatoes, potatoes and ½ cup water to it and cook under medium flame for around 7 minutes.
5. Simmer the stove once bubbles are seen and allow it to cook under low flame for 20 minutes., so that the potatos and mushrooms get cooked.

Your potato and oyster mushroom curry is now ready to serve. 
It tastes great with rotis, and rice. Try it.. I am sure you will love it.. ;)

Recent episodes @ work

Life has been pretty cool for the past one month.. I was crowned with the title 'Ms. Logica' at the Back2School event @ Logica. This got me in touch with a lot of Syntillations members and I got enthusiastic to work with such dedicated group of people.. Besides being total fun, it taught me a lot about organizing events, playing dedicated roles behind-the-scenes. When an event turns success, all of them backstage are at heights of excitement, and I understand the reason why! This experience is something totally worth it, of all the effort that was put in by the team. 

The first event for which I volunteered to coordinate is 'Stars of Chennai'.. This is an event organized by Plus Dreammakers, an event management organization in association with Logica; Logica being the title sponsor. This is primarily a CSR event with the motive of entertaining the underprivileged children from various NGOs at Chennai. We were team of 4 nominated 'Core Team' members for 'Stars of Chennai'. What I learnt was managing activities to the minute detail..! 

It was heartwarming to see the event turn up a success live on stage. And the prime motive of the event was well experienced. Amidst celebrities who performed on stage, were the cute tots dancing to the tune of music, forgetting everything else in the world! What a pleasure and treat to the eyes and heart it was to see those little kids dance to joy! Needless to say, it was the most satisfying experience to be part of the team in making of the event. I have often wanted to be spending time with children who really need love and care. And this has been the first event which took me close to that wish of mine. :) I feel quite happy and excited about this, and I have pledged to myself to sponsor atleast one child for his/her education in future. 

And next in line is the 'Annual Sports Day' at Logica Chennai held on October 2, 2010 at YMCA Grounds. Nandanam. Here, though I was not so involved with the coordination activities off-event, the experience on-event was truly awesome. It has been ages since I witnessed a fully energetic Sports' meet anywhere. It gave me a new sort of enthusiasm and energy. 

And the amount of energy I saw in each of the participants, needs no description. It was simply fantastic. I should definitely learn a lot from the organizing members of the event, for their efforts were seen live on ground yesterday. We rocked the grounds yesterday, with fun and when required, seriousness in the game. I feel so glad to be part of Logica and Syntillations (the employee social club at Logica). 

I am waiting for more events in line.. Hope they make me more enlightened and enthusiastic to do more for entertaining the fellow community. 

Am I dreaming ?!

Yes, you got me right! This is exactly the idea that Nolan planted in our minds in those amazing 148 minutes of dream-to-wake-up..

Little did I realize that my dreams also do similar things that Nolan projected! We consider our dreams as stupid the moment we wake up; for what we see are seemingly unrealistic objects linked together. But today, Nolan has planted a new form of idea in my mind! 'While we dream, our mind creates and perceives the dream world simultaneously. Our mind does it so well that we do not even realize it'. 

Things that just didn't make any sense to me till sometime ago, make a real difference now. Human mind is an amazing tool whose creativity is used only to a meagre amount when awake! Thanks to Nolan for bringing to light this factor! Many aspects captured in the movie, are something that we naturally miss to comprehend in our dreams! The power of our subconscious!

Jotting down the factors from the movie which I could relate to in my dreams:

• In a dream, time passes slowly. Just minutes in our real world and hours in our dreams.
• Never realizing how we got to that spot in the dream.- Ahem! Are we really in the real world?! To think about it, do you exactly remember feeling when you came into the earth! Don't tell me, you know the day and time you were born, your parents told you that!
• Our mind can think beyond what we think it really can - I remember dreaming that my school auditorium is in the middle of a sea! :P
• Realizing pain when we get hurt in dreams - 'pain is in the mind'. - If you have dreamt ever that you were shot with a gun in ur palm, you would wake up to realize that your palm hurts. Yes, it did in my case!
• Something like music, a kick waking us up from our dreams! -

I've never had the habit of trying to remember dreams unless I think the dream has some signifance. Just remembering dreams can make you feel the creative power in you - I feel after watching 'Inception'. Though I feel like writing more about dreams and dreaming, I will stick to wondering and trying to dig the mystery with 'Inception'.

What started as a 80-page film treatment ten years ago, grew into what we know today as the mindblowing 'Inception' by Nolan. I am definitely not here to write a review about the movie, coz I have questions, increasing in number everytime I think about it.

And with such an impressive cast, who can all deliver perfectly, no wonder the movie is a big hit. Di Caprio has certainly done his best and the enigmatic Mal is no way less. Unlike other movies where the characters vanish quickly from the audience' thoughts, this movie reminds us of every character in it, whenever we think about the movie. Di Caprio has proven his skills in his movies, like Shutter Island and this, where he plays someone who is emotionally broken down.

He has made a perfect balance of characters and the right sequencing of the storyline, creating a whole fantastic screening for the audience. Had this script been made by other filmmakers, it is bound to be a disaster or atleast a mess. Nolan has definitely risked in trusting on the viewer's intelligence, which is partly the reason for some people not liking the plot. I would rather say they did not understand it enough to like it.

People have several interpretations of the movie. Maybe this is a-movie-with-no-definitive-interpretation. None but Nolan can actually say on what basis the movie was built. One of the reviews I read said, this is Nolan's own life that was filmed metaphorically and it was the first most acceptable reading in my view so far about inception. I have now watched it twice, and still more doubts arising, I feel like watching it more, and I still feel I will never comprehend!

Nolan is a genius to have left millions of audience thinking, even days after watching the movie. And it takes soo much imagination in real world to bring in something like dreams. The penrose stairs, a train right in the middle of the road coming from nowhere, a lift to reach the different parts of Cobb's memory, the gravity-defying fistfight, linking each level of dream via gravity shift (when the car moves and twists and turns, the Hotel where Fischer is in shifts in gravity), city folding on to itself, etc.

It took almost 60 of the 148 minutes to explain the magnificient dream-world that Nolan takes us to, still making it a point to leave the audience with several questions in their mind. What is more beautiful is how he made a blend of emotional and intellectual sorts, with so much complexity! And those fantastic time-sequencing, with a few seconds for the van to plunge into water, the lift to explode and the slow-motion explosions; a whole city built by Cobb and Mal being broken down, and with all the complexity sequencing the scenes right for the audience to understand everytime where a person comes from and where he is now - all soo stupefying!

There are quite a few plot holes, but I preferred ignoring them because of the other major areas in the movie I was trying to figure out! To mention a few of them - if gravity shift is felt in next level dreams, when the van falls, the effect should be experienced in the other levels as well. How does one wake up from limbo? If that is as simple as dying again to wake up from limbo, why was it projected as a complex deal where the person has to be trapped!? If Mal and Cobb entered Limbo for the first time where they were trapped for 50 years, did they die in a first level dream which took them to their world!? If the totem's very purpose goes null and void if a second person touches it, then Cobb's totem cannot work because it was originally Mal's!

Nolan was not just talking about subconscious, memory and altering thoughts, he has been trying to deal with the very nature of art itself. Screenwriting is an art and he has given a completely new form of life to it. Truly an artist with the power to make millions think and keep thinking.

Shall I say in conclusion - "True inspiration is impossible to fake!"

Picture courtesy: http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/rorschachsrants/news/?a=13101 

A hot and sweet start...

Ahem.. This blog is basically to scribble whatever comes to my mind now and then.. But just to give a hot and sweet start, I have a recipe here for you. :) Read on...

This is a favorite dish of mine from childhood. I remember eating two three cups of it everytime my mom cooked this at home.. And this time I was curious to try it myself.. And surprise! It came out well.  I felt delighted.. Here I come posting the recipe for you to relish!

I would call it the hot and sweet mango curry. 

Ingredients:

Raw mango (1 number)

Green chillies (4 numbers)

Turmeric powder (a pinch)

Salt to taste

Jaggery ( 4 spoonfuls)

Water (1 cup)

Mustard seeds (1 teaspoon)

Curry leaves ( 4 to 5 leaves)

Cooking oil (2 teaspoons)

Preparation method:

Slice the mangoes. Vertically slit the green chillies.

Take a frying pan. Transfer the water to it and bring it to boil. Add the sliced mangoes, green chillies, turmeric and salt. Leave it until the mangoes get cooked completely. Add the jaggery to it and mix them well till the jaggery melts and mixes well with the cooked mangoes. Your recipe is almost done. Remove the pan from the stove.

Heat the oil and add the mustard seeds. Let them splutter. Now add curry leaves. Add the prepared mix of jaggery and mango to it. And you are all ready to taste the dish.

This can be an awesome combination for any south Indian lunch. It can also be eaten as a snack in the evening...

P.S.: This is my first new post in this blog. All the other posts are imported from my old blog...