Twinkle Twinkle

So, I was traveling back to Pune, last night. I'd gone home for a family get together, which was actually a Welcome Home Celebration for my brother, disguised as a "Birthday Party" for me! Yeah, that happened!!

Anyway, I was in a sleeper bus, and as I rarely sleep well on such journeys, I was listening to music on my phone. We were going up the ghats at this point in time, and I just happened to glance out the window and what a sight my eyes beheld!!!

Lying on my bunk I could see the night sky. Deep blue with stars sparkling like diamonds.
There was this one star in particular that was shining way brighter than the others, and I feel like I should know which it was, but I don't! I sometimes find my lack of general knowledge off-putting!!! 

Anyway, it was so beautiful! And the bus kept turning around and around while climbing the ghats, it felt like I was in some sort of a rotating planetarium! Yes, that was my first thought, which is kinda stupid, I know. But I've rarely seen all this in recent times. Suddenly trees and hills would sway into view, and block the sky, but it always came back..

It was all a little hypnotic, and a wonderful way to fall asleep!!    

***

Image: http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2010/sep/03/amateur-astronomy-telescope-night-sky

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight By Jennifer E. Smith

 

Overview:

Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything?

Today should be one of the worst days of seventeen-year-old Hadley Sullivan's life. Having missed her flight, she's stuck at JFK airport and late to her father's second wedding, which is taking place in London and involves a soon-to-be stepmother Hadley's never even met. Then she meets the perfect boy in the airport's cramped waiting area. His name is Oliver, he's British, and he's sitting in her row.

A long night on the plane passes in the blink of an eye, and Hadley and Oliver lose track of each other in the airport chaos upon arrival. Can fate intervene to bring them together once more?

Quirks of timing play out in this romantic and cinematic novel about family connections, second chances, and first loves. Set over a twenty-four-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver's story will make you believe that true love finds you when you're least expecting it.

***

Thoughts:

This book was ok, nothing special really. I finished it over two days, reading for about two hours per day, so a very quick read. I liked it, it was light and sweet and romantic, but it was very simple. A simple story, not even a story actually, it was more like a few important incidents that happened in the life of the protagonist.
Her father getting re-married, meeting the potential love of her life, loosing said potential love and finding it again. I guess that does make a story!

What I didnt like about this book was the style of writing. I've always found it annoying when the narration is in present tense in the third person, or even first person for that matter. I like to be told how stuff happened, not as they are happening. Anyway, overall it was ok, not a complete waste.

I really loved the title though!

***

Memorable Lines:

In the end, it’s not the changes that will break your heart; it’s that tug of familiarity.

Is it possible not to ever know your type—not to even know you have a type—until quite suddenly you do?

After all, it’s one thing to run away when someone’s chasing you. It’s entirely another to be running all alone.

Love is the strangest, most illogical thing in the world.

It’s easy when you find the right person.

Cheerfulness and contentment are great beautifiers.

It didn’t help that she was right; when had that ever made anything better?

Good Bye & Good Luck!

After nearly four years together, I'm left with all  kinds of memories, and this...

I wont say that you were always there for me, cause its not true, and vice versa, but you were there at some of those crucial times when I really needed someone to talk to. You might not have realized it, but I was and will always be grateful that you were there. 

From watching The Mentalist religiously every weekday at 10pm and bitching about the others during the commercial breaks, to going to church every Sunday! Eating sausages that you got from home, arguing with the numerous bais & gossiping about all the moronic FB statuses & pictures! I will miss all that. Believe it or not, I will miss you. We had a sort of disconnected or disjointed relationship (I don't know what else to call it, talking like long-lost friends one night, and just a nod to acknowledge the other the next night) but somehow we made it work for nearly four years. Somehow, through all the good times and the not-so-good times, we stuck together. We survived all the lovelies & the crazies!

You've been gone for quite some time, but it just struck me now when I saw the empty room, that you're never coming back again, not on weekends just to stop by and use the machine, nor on holidays when you're alone. This is it. The End.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) By Mindy Kaling

From the Back Cover:

Mindy Kaling has lived many lives: the obedient child of immigrant professionals, a timid chubster afraid of her own bike, a Ben Affleck–impersonating Off-Broadway performer and playwright, and, finally, a comedy writer and actress prone to starting fights with her friends and coworkers with the sentence “Can I just say one last thing about this, and then I swear I’ll shut up about it?”

Perhaps you want to know what Mindy thinks makes a great best friend (someone who will fill your prescription in the middle of the night), or what makes a great guy (one who is aware of all elderly people in any room at any time and acts accordingly), or what is the perfect amount of fame (so famous you can never get convicted of murder in a court of law), or how to maintain a trim figure (you will not find that information in these pages). If so, you’ve come to the right book, mostly!

In Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, Mindy invites readers on a tour of her life and her unscientific observations on romance, friendship, and Hollywood, with several conveniently placed stopping points for you to run errands and make phone calls. Mindy Kaling really is just a Girl Next Door—not so much literally anywhere in the continental United States, but definitely if you live in India or Sri Lanka.

***

My Thoughts:

I simply LOVED this book! Its a full on laugh riot! Mindy Kaling is smart, funny, pretty (yes!), and she writes really well, her writing style is very smooth and easy. While reading it, I actually felt like she was sitting right next to me, yapping away!

I first came across her in The Mindy Project, which I think is a hilarious show! Wikipedia then lead me to The Office, which has now topped my list of funniest TV shows of all time, tied off course with Scrubs!

After reading Bossypants, this was obviously the next book in my list, and I liked it better than the former, which was more sarcastic and mature. This book is simple and smart and young, and reads like a bound collection of a funny newspaper column. I wish she did write a daily column, but till that happens, I have twitter!

***

A few excerpts from the book, given below for everybody's convenience. Also read this.

Revenge is a dish best served cold. But it feels best served piping hot, straight out of the oven of outrage.

There is no sunrise so beautiful that it is worth waking me up to see it. (I totally agree!!)

The laws of bullying allow you to be cruel even when the victim had made strides for improvement? This is when I realized that bullies have no code of conduct.

I’m the kind of person who would rather get my hopes up really high and watch them get dashed to pieces than wisely keep my expectations at bay and hope they are exceeded. This quality has made me a needy and theatrical friend, but has given me a spectacularly dramatic emotional life.

Thank you, Teach for America! Luring away America’s finest minds so that the rest of us can snatch up their jobs.

Our cheapness was the recurring source of our creative decisions.

When people show a lack of excitement to see me, I compensate by complimenting the hell out of them. It always exacerbates the problem, but I cannot stop.

I’ve always found Steve gentlemanly and private, like a Jane Austen character. 

When smart people are nice, it’s always terrifying, because I know they’re taking in everything and thinking all kinds of smart and potentially judgmental things.

SOMETIMES I bring a script I’m working on to a restaurant and sit near people and eavesdrop on them. I could rationalize it—Oh, this is good anthropological research for characters I’m writing—but it’s basically just nosiness.

I’m pretty sure my parents have gazed into each other’s eyes maybe once, and that was so my mom could put eyedrops in my dad’s eyes.

When I was a kid, my parents smartly raised us to keep quiet, be respectful to older people, and generally not question adults all that much. I think that's because they were assuming that 99 percent of the time, we'd be interacting with worthy, smart adults... They didn't ever tell me 'Sometimes you will meet idiots who are technically adults and authority figures. You don't have to do what they say.

In psychology (okay, Twilight) they teach you about the notion of imprinting, and I think it applies here. I reverse-imprinted with athleticism. Ours is the great non-love story of my life.

On Hooking – Up:

Can’t we have a universal understanding of the term, once and for all? From now on, let’s all agree that hooking up = sex. Everything else is “made out.” And if you’re older than twenty-eight, then just kissing someone doesn’t count for crap and is not even worth mentioning. Unless you’re Mormon, in which case you’re going to hell. If Europe could figure out a way to do the euro, I feel confident we can do this.

On Irish Exits:

An “Irish exit” is when you leave a party without telling anyone (and presumably it is because you are too drunk to form words). A “French exit” is when you leave a party early without saying good-bye to anyone or paying your share of the bill and maybe you are also drunk.

The reason I pull Irish exits is not because I think I’m too busy and cool to be bothered with pleasantries.  I think it’s actually the more polite thing to do, because I’m not coercing party goers into some big farewell moment with me. Then other people feel like they have to stop what they’re doing and hug me, too. It’s time-wasting dominoes.

Irish exits are supposed to be subtle, a way to leave without creating a disruption, and yes, on occasion, a way to perhaps escape notice for epic drunkenness. (Also read this.)

On a More Serious Note:

As my mom has said, when one person is unhappy, it usually means two people are unhappy but that one has not come to terms with it yet.

One friend with whom you have a lot in common is better than three with whom you struggle to find things to talk about.

Writing, at its heart, is a solitary pursuit, designed to make people depressoids, drug addicts, misanthropes, and antisocial weirdos. 

FND: Gulab Jamun

So, I havent been cooking much for the past few months, cause I got bored of it, and also since I now have a bai coming in daily to cook for me!! So, I dont really spend any time in the kitchen.

However the last weekend, I was alone at home, and was asleep when the bai came, so I missed her, and had to fend for myself! While looking through all the shelves, I found this Gulab Jamun packet. I had bought it ages ago, when I was still in the cooking phase, but had not gotten to it since I thought it required a lot of work!

Anyway, with nothing better to do, I thought I'd give this a try.

Finally!

Kneading the flour took quite a long time, but I didn't really notice it since Devious Maids was going on and that is one interesting show! But the time the show got over, I realised I had been kneading the dough for about 45 minutes!! So after that I quickly rolled the dough into almost evenly sized balls, and heated up the oil to deep fry.

Deep frying

Whenever I used to make these Gulab Jamuns with Ma, I always thought frying them was the most complicated step, what with the hot oil and all. But on my own now, I realized that this was like the easiest step of all. You just carefully put them in boiling hot oil and let them fry. That's it!!

So, after frying till golden brown (the first batch came out a little yellow), I just soaked in the sugar syrup, and got tasty, hot, yummy gulab jamuns! First solo effort, and a success!!

Bon Apetit!

 Also, a Happy Diwali to all! 

 

Trek to Karnala Fort & Bird Sanctuary

Ok, so we went for a trek last Saturday, and I was supposed to write about it on Sunday, but Dexter has been keeping me busy! I cannot believe I'm rooting for the serial killer, as opposed to the honest cop!

Due to the RA and all I've restricted myself to one trek per year, which is all my dear left knee can take before giving way! Anyway, so this year's trek was to the Karnala Bird Sanctuary.

We went as part of a local adventure group that was initially affiliated with the Company, but later had to distance itself due to a serious incident that nobody is ready to tell me about!

Anyway, I've always had a good experience with them, from climbing like Spiderman at Tikona to flying fox at a waterfall in Mulshi(Yes, I did that!!!!). Some of the best and scariest moments of my life have been with them!

So, as usual, when I went to register the first thing I asked was how difficult this was gonna be. And the POC surveyed me from top to bottom and said, "You'll do it!". I really appreciated her confidence in me, something that I was doubtful about. But who was I to second guess her, she was the expert after all.

Without further ado, a few glimpses from the trek:

 

The climb, this was where I realized I didn't have to climb one step at a time, which is what I was doing at work and everywhere else with steps. Now that I didn't want to be left behind, I had to climb normally, and surprisingly (for me at least), my knee survived!

This was as high as I could get, by then I was too tired to go any further, so we stayed & rested.

In the middle of nowhere!

A Butterfly!

View from the top..

As we were climbing, none of the phones had range, but at the top, all five bars were active!!
So this was where I called Ma and told her I'd gone for a trek, they worry unnecessarily, so I've decided the best thing is to do first and tell later! :P

Some sort of flower/leaf?

Adi trying to bird watch.

Storm clouds gathering.

It was raining heavily as we descended, and it got slippery, but there were no casualties, so all went well.

A day well spent, even though we didn't get to see many birds, it was green and a good change from the monotony of every single day!

NB: This trek happened somewhere in July I think, it was lying in my drafts for a very long time, finally decided to complete it!

Long Time Coming By Sandra Brown

From the back cover:

He arrived out of the blue—a flesh-and-blood phantom from the past in a sports car as sleek and sexy as Law Kincaid himself. The world-famous astronaut was as devastatingly attractive as the first time Marnie Hibbs had laid eyes on him, seventeen years before. But she well knew the perils of falling for a ladies’ man like Law. And this time she had someone besides herself to protect. Law is determined to discover who is sending him anonymous letters claiming he’d fathered a son he knows nothing about. Showing up at the Hibbs’s return address from the letters seemed like a step in the right direction. Marnie swears she isn’t the guilty party, but when Law meets her son, it’s like a one-two punch to his solar plexus. The boy is nearly the spitting image of Law. Law can’t remember sleeping with Marnie—then again, he can’t remember much about his crazy past. But there’s more to it than that: Marnie claims the boy isn’t biologically hers.

As the tension between them becomes unbearable and the attraction undeniable, Marnie is forced to reveal a long-held secret...one that might cause her to lose both the boy she loves more than anyone—and the man she desires more than anything.

***

Ok, so I had a lot of expectations from this book, after reading Envy by the same author, which I loved! Its actually one of my favorites, and the first Sandra Brown I read, this is the second, and was a big disappointment. The story, the execution, everything actually.

This book was published in 1989, whereas Envy was published in 2001; and the differences are very obvious!

Long Time Coming was like just another typical M&B novel. Even the so-called "thrill", was anything but thrilling, it was actually kind of childish! Everything was falling into place too easily. Atleast it was short.

Anyway, I've learnt my lesson, and am gonna start with her latest books, and go back till all the good ones are done!

The Crossfire Series By Sylvia Day

“I’d stop the world from spinning for you.”

Yes, I know its a very silly line, very lame/corny call it whatever, but I loved it! Who says stuff like that anymore, or ever has, for that matter?? So ridiculous, yet so romantic! Sigh!

I think it was the only thing that made reading the books seem worthwhile, the only thing I take from the books, I'd really like to forget the rest, which was a complete waste of time, and I only completed them because on principle, I always finish whatever books I start.

This series seemed suspiciously similar to the another series I'd read!! I was reading about these books, and apparently they have a genre of their own! So, now I know what to keep away from.

Anyway, about the books, she didn't really have to drag out the story in five installments! I'm sure the entire story could have been released as a short story had the repetitive parts been omitted, but I guess they didn't really hurt sales! All in all, a waste of time and money.

Bossypants By Tina Fey

From the back cover:

Before Liz Lemon, before "Weekend Update," before "Sarah Palin," Tina Fey was just a young girl with a dream: a recurring stress dream that she was being chased through a local airport by her middle-school gym teacher. She also had a dream that one day she would be a comedian on TV.
She has seen both these dreams come true.

At last, Tina Fey's story can be told. From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon -- from the beginning of this paragraph to this final sentence.

Tina Fey reveals all, and proves what we've all suspected: you're no one until someone calls you bossy. (Includes Special, Never-Before-Solicited Opinions on Breastfeeding, Princesses, Photoshop, the Electoral Process, and Italian Rum Cake!)

***

My Take:

I'm not a big fan of non-fiction books, but this was one of the exceptions. I found the cover a little stupid, but still picked up the book in spite of my strict "judge a book by its cover" rule, and it did not disappoint. Its not really LOL-funny, but leaves you with a silly smile on your face which can be attributed to the wisecracks made throughout the book. I know, because I had one myself, until a co-worker pointed it out!
Its more like a collection of magazine/newspaper articles, and the chapters are not really related to each other in any way.
And there are a lot of funny tips & tricks help with the daily dilemmas of the working woman. 
I felt like she used the book to clarify all misunderstandings/misconceptions regarding her, which is fine by me. An easy, fun read.

***

Editorial Reviews:

From Barnes & Noble

In her acceptance speech for Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, Tina Fey announced that she was proud to make her home in "the 'not-real America'." It is perhaps that healthy sense of incongruity that makes the head writer, executive producer, and star of NBC's Emmy Award-winning 30 Rock such a cogent observer of the contemporary scene. Bossypants, her entertaining new memoir, shows that strangeness has been her constant companion. Fey's stories about her childhood in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania are only appetizers for LOL forays into her college disasters, honeymoon catastrophes, and Saturday Night Live shenanigans. Most funny read of the month; the best possible weekend update.

Janet Maslin

…[Fey's] dagger-sharp, extremely funny…Bossypants isn't a memoir. It's a spiky blend of humor, introspection, critical thinking and Nora Ephron-isms for a new generation.
—The New York Times

The Internet

"Tina Fey is an ugly, pear-shaped, overrated troll."

A Guy Turning into a Werewolf

"Hilarious and insightful. Laugh-out-loud funny — oh no, a full moon. No! Arrgh! Get away from me! Save yourself!"

College Boyfriend

"You'd be really pretty if you lost weight."

From the Publisher

Once in a generation a woman comes along who changes everything. Tina Fey is not that woman, but she met that woman once and acted weird around her.

Tracy Morgan

"Mommy, where are my pretzels?"

Don Fey

"I hope that's not really the cover. That's really going to hurt sales."

Mark Twain

"Do not print this glowing recommendation of Tina Fey's book until I've been dead a hundred years."

A Guy Who Eats Books

"Absolutely delicious!"

Trees

"Totally worth it."

*** 

Funny lines from the book:

Gay people were made that way by God, but not solely for my entertainment.

Every interaction between blacks and whites was somehow supposed to be a life-changing lesson, especially for the white people. My generation carries that with us, only to be constantly disappointed by Kanye West and Taylor Swift.

You can’t be that kid standing at the top of the waterslide, overthinking it. You have to go down the chute.

Some people say “Never let them see you cry.” I say, if you’re so mad you could just cry, then cry. It terrifies everyone.

On Photoshoots:

If a bout of “creepy face” sets in, the trick is to look away from the camera between shots and turn back only when necessary. This also limits how much of your soul the camera can steal.

Someone should do a study of the human brain and how quickly it can adjust to luxury. You could take a homeless person who has been living on the street for twenty years, and if you let them do three magazine photo shoots, by the fourth one they’d be saying, “Louboutins don’t really work on me. Can I try the Roger Vivier?”

I feel about Photoshop the way some people feel about abortion. It is appalling and a tragic reflection on the moral decay of our society… unless I need it, in which case, everybody be cool.

Tina Fey answers fan mail:

“Tina Fey is an ugly, pear-shaped, bitchy, overrated troll.”

To say I’m an overrated troll, when you have never even seen me guard a bridge, is patently unfair. I’ll leave it for others to say if I’m the best, but I am certainly one of the most dedicated trolls guarding bridges today. I always ask three questions, at least two of which are riddles.

As for “ugly, pear-shaped, and bitchy”? I prefer the terms “offbeat, business class–as*ed, and exhausted,” but I’ll take what I can get. There’s no such thing as bad press!

 

On 30Rock:

You know those scientists who were developing a blood-pressure medicine and they accidentally invented Viagra? We were trying to make Viagra and we ended up with blood-pressure medicine.

 

We decided not to decide. This is another technique I’d learned from Lorne. Sometimes if you have a difficult decision to make, just stall until the answer presents itself.

On Motherhood:

My parents raised me that you never ask people about their reproductive plans. “You don’t know their situation,” my mom would say. I considered it such an impolite question that for years I didn’t even ask myself.

When people say, “You really, really must ” do something, it means you don’t really have to. No one ever says, “You really, really must deliver the baby during labor.” When it’s true, it doesn’t need to be said.

“Sleep when your baby sleeps.” Everyone knows this classic tip, but I say why stop there? Scream when your baby screams. Take Benadryl when your baby takes Benadryl.

What’s so great about work anyway? Work won’t visit you when you’re old. Work won’t drive you to get a mammogram and take you out after for soup. It’s too much pressure on my one kid to expect her to shoulder all those duties alone. Also, what if she turns on me? I am pretty hard to like. I need a backup.

The Mother’s Prayer for Its Daughter:

First, Lord: No tattoos.

Lead her away from Acting but not all the way to Finance.

And when she one day turns on me and calls me a Bitch in front of Hollister,

Give me the strength, Lord, to yank her directly into a cab in front of her friends,

For I will not have that Shit. I will not have it.

And should she choose to be a Mother one day, be my eyes, Lord,

That I may see her, lying on a blanket on the floor at 4:50 A.M., all-at-once exhausted, bored,

and in love with the little creature whose poop is leaking up its back.

“My mother did this for me once,” she will realize as she cleans feces off her baby’s neck. “My

mother did this for me.” And the delayed gratitude will wash over her as it does each generation and

she will make a Mental Note to call me. And she will forget.

But I’ll know, because I peeped it with Your God eyes.

Amen

Past, Present, Future

Just something I found while looking around, and decided to fill up:

Ten years ago, I:

1. started class 11 in MES, where my mom still teaches!
2. was really shy.
3. had to deal with being the only child around.

Five years ago, I:

1. was very busy with the final year college project.
2. was getting ready to shift into our big beautiful new house.
3. was giving piano lessons to three kids.

One year ago, I:

1. turned 25!
2. was seriously considering switching companies.
3. had a flare up of RA in my knee.

So far this year, I:

1. have resumed blogging.
2. completed three years in Pune.
3. have gone on the best holiday ever!

Yesterday, I:

1. Made serious diet plans.
2. Went for Physiotherapy.
3. Ordered a pizza for dinner.

Today, I:

1. dressed in a traditional outfit for Dandiya night at work.
2. listened to Just Give Me a Reason for like 10 times straight!
3. spoke to my brother after about two weeks.



Dandiya Night!

Tomorrow, I:

1. will continue with watching episodes of The Office.
2. will try to sleep early.
3. will arrange my books by the order in which I'll be reading them.

 In one year, I:

1. will be a better/nicer person.
2. will have hopefully learned to salsa.
3. will be thinner, as a consequence of (2)!

In five years, I:

1. will be married!
2. will live someplace else, maybe.
3. will be earning much much more than I currently am.

In ten years, I:

1. will have a kid.
2. will have written a novel.
3. will celebrate this blog's 10th birthday.

***

One of my favorite desserts: Tiramisu at Little Italy!