Casablanca

I always wondered what the big hoo-ha was about this movie. I mean ok, its in black and white, has Humphrey Bogar and Ingrid Bergman playing star-crossed lovers, but what is the BIG DEAL?

I finally watched it, and am happy to say that it is quite quite awesome! I mean beyond the qualities mentioned above, it is about Rick Blaine's journey from depression to happiness. Bogart's potrayal of a caustic, cynical, brooding man, who never takes sides, is not passionate about anything, yet has fits of idealism is the most memorable part of the film. He is probably going to replace Clint Eastwood as my ideal man. Ingrid was good too as the woman torn between two men, who she loves , and one tries to imagine the choice she has to make, and its scary!

I shall stop here before I just reveal the entire story, in my blabber. Suffice to say, it is a must watch. And deserves to be on the top of every movie-fan's list!

The Omnivore's 100

A List, comprising 100 items, and about food. Yeah, baby, thats something I can sink my teeth into. Found it on an old blogpost at gastronomicalgspot.bogspot.com.

Instructions:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Read the first part of Reality in OPAR(author:Leonard Peikoff)

How very interesting :

The three basic axioms can be explained as follows:

There is: existence
something that: identity
I am aware of: consciousness

I thought this book was going to be difficult, it is fantastically easy!!!Here's to a more objectively integrated me in the near future!

Is it wrong to be sexy in India?

Everywhere I go, whether clad in a saree or a skirt, whether at a pooja, wedding or a party. I see men look at me, surreptitiously. I recently learned that this is supposedly because I give out a "sexy" vibe, which sadly intimidates most men!

What exactly qualifies me for this tag:
my deep throated laugh?
my unique way of animated conversation- listening and speaking at once?
my flirting? (well that's a no-brainer)
my intelligence?
my charm?
my innocence?

Well, it might be all of these,or none of these, or some of these qualities. I have realized that I dont care, I am sexy, and I am happy being that way. People who are intimidated can take a hike, for all I care :)

My current diet

After reading Rujuta Diwekar's book on eating right, I decided to give her version of a "diet"( if it can be callled that) a try. The results are to be seen, I have great hair, good energy, have developed excellent endurance, and most importantly have lost the kilos.

My daily routine includes:

Getting up at 7 -7.30 am
Eating an apple/drinking a glass of fruit juice
Breakfast at 8.45- 9 am- 1 plate Poha/1 chapati with bhaji
Snack at 11 am- a slice of cheese( regular amul)
Lunch at 1 pm- 2 chapathis with bhaji or 1 cup rice and curry/pulao
Snack at 4-4.30 pm - one handful of peanuts/ chana /vatana
dinner at 7-7.30 pm- one cup sprouted green gram with tomatoes, onions and masala.
sleep at 11.30 pm, max at 12 am

I intend to include curd/ soy milk as an additional snack in the evening from next month onwards.

Suryanamaskar

Starting tomorrow morning I am going to be practicing Suryanamaskar, I hope to reach a healthy level of physical fitness. I also hope to look HOT :)

An animation of the various postures involved, along with appropriate instructions Re: Inhaling and Exhaling of breath.

Also a video with great music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Lwi1zGqkdA

Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand

I am reading it while simultaneously re-reading Atlas Shrugged at work!! It's excellent- like eating mint and chocolate ice-cream at the same time :)

Love

How wonderful would it be to have a man who understood me, didn't care about what the world thought of me, and in general was TDH?!!

The qualities I am looking for:
1. Strong and tall
2. self made
3. ambitious
4. rational
5. sarcastic /witty
6. knowledgeable
7. romantic
8. sexy
9. visionary
10. creative

He can be an artist, a businessman, an engineer- basically anything, the profession doesnt matter, what matters is what he does with it. Does he love his job? Is he strongly dedicated to achievement? If the answer is yes, then that's my man!

I am sure such men exist on earth, and I hope to meet my very own man someday soon :)

my email to an obnoxious journalist

Hi, i have certain issues with your article http://www.tehelka.com/story_main43.asp?filename=Ne300110abominable_books.asp

1)What are your qualifications for a person to be a philosopher?a PhD- then i think every second unintelligent, herd mentality person is a philosopher or is on the way to becoming one.

2)whoever told you that the fountainhead is the philosophical el dorado( lost city of gold????) is deluding himself.Rand's philosophy is about living an ideal life on earth.

2)i would like to know wht you mean when you say people are not made of cardboard, that is obviously a fact and your reiterating it dosent make your writing cool.

3)also the argument for freedom is made with reason in all her books. Maybe you dont believe in reason. I suggest reading Aristotle.

4)"philosophy begins with an acknowledgment both of the complex world we live in and the paradoxes of the human condition."- that phrase is making an absolute statement while denying absolutism- wonderful contradiction of modern indian journalists.

5)"Rape is not the same as passion" - haven't you read a single Mills and Boon book- is fascist samrat going to ban them too?.you have absolutely no respect for people who indulge in rough sex.believe me every woman i know has had a fantasy of submitting sexually to the man she loves.

6)"ambition is not the measure of man"- then what exactly is the measure?His level of education in a foreign college, the amount of money he steals from the middle-class to give to the poor and the rich like most politicians of the world, banning fish pedicures, furs,cigarettes, industries and eating animals in the name of "saving our mother planet", or is it the number of Nobel peace prizes he wins on no objective basis?

7)an aggressive, no-holds-barred individualism as a personal philosophy is particularly attractive during years of heightened hormonal confusion.- so u are one of those people who beleives humans are a product of their hormones, genes, past life karma etc?nice.u probably support sodomites and the true kind of unthinking rapists then. Josef Fritzl is waiting for you to defend his hormones.

I would like an explanation for your words- is it caused u studied for free in some government run college in India or elsewhere?or is it your inability to realise that most humans other than you would rather live for their own long term rational self interest and Ayn rand's books are an inspiration to such individuals , especially those who live in Socialist- welfare state hellholes like India.

Regards
Puneeta

haunting lyrics

do pal ruka khwabon ka karavan aur phir chal diye tum kahan hum kahan!!do pal ki thi yeh dilon ki dastan aur phir chal diye tum kahan hum kahan.

Transalation:

For just two minutes did I stop this caravan of dreams, after which the both of us continued in seperate journeys.
The fate of these two hearts was that their story lasted for just two minutes, before we seperated them in continuing our journeys!

Awww :(

hmmm am so high on twitter dont have the inclination to actually blog!!

but still would like to talk abt my favorites who generally dont contradict each other!!

ayn rand- the person who though dead told me that what i think is right!!

murray rothbard- like some of his theories

albert einstein- admire him for his singular acheivements

madame curie- amazing woman!not in the feminist sense though

adam smith- born on my bday!!which dosent really matter cause i admired him even before i knew this!!(but its a cool fact)

clark gable- the only time a movie version of a character fleshed out the character in my imagination(referring to gone with the wind)

angelina jolie-beautiful,deadly- as a woman should be-recently voted by 58% as the woman most likely to launch a war a la helen of troy!!

howard roark and fransisco d'aconia-characters from atlas shrugged and fountainhead - who i wish were alive.

frank.l.wright- love his architecture.

cox and farkum -cartoonists i discovered through the internet!!

finally my dad-the almost perfect person in my life who inspires me all the time!!

Maa Tujhe Salaam

This song is most amazing .Still remember getting the cassette as a gift when i was 13 from my paternal uncle.really don't know how he knew of the perfect gift.an inspiration to all of us who love INDIA AND of course the incomparable AR Rahman.

Living In India

There is a flyover being built on the outer ring road near my place.My office is at domlur inner ring road and i live at banaswadi.The logstics involved in just travelling are mind boggling.When I have the time, i cross the road and take a bus to shivajinagar and another one from there to domlur layout after which its a walk of about 15 mins on a steep incline. Today,I did'nt have the time .So I hailed Bus going towards Kr puram got down,crossed the heavily jammed road near the hanging brdge,and then another bus,but the journey dosent end here.This bus takes me to the end of 80 feet road indranagar throgh the really small railway underpass(again jammed),and deposits me near the church where again, surprise,surprise, there is a traffic jam.cause of the metrp construction.I ask a lady about getting to the inner ring road and she says the bmtc buses are infrequent and if I am in a hurry i shoud take one the tempo travellers or cabs going that way.sounds good to me .a cab comes. i get in and we navigate this last leg if my journey very very slowl,owing to multiple factors,my driver talking on the phone,meeting some friend on the way and having a conversation with him,many stops,and of course,traffic.finally reach off 15 mins late and remember that i havent had breakfast.I prmise my stomach a large lunch and get o with work.