Chp 396. Networking dinner II: Mediterranean

For the second time since becoming a member, I took part in the “Networking dinner” held at India’s leading Ad film maker Prahlad Kakkar’s bungalow at Bandra last Saturday, organized by Coral. The theme was “Mediterranean Cuisine”.

The eight participants of last Saturday’s exclusive networking dinner were –

Deepak Goel – Founder of Drizzlin Social Media Solutions
Sushil Cherian – Social Media junkie and Founder of Pet Pujaris
Snigdha Manchanda - Tea Sommelier and Chief Storyteller at Story Ninja
Joanna Irzabek – Journalist at Polityka, a renowned Polish newspaper
Neha Toteja - Corporate planning and BD at Times Television Network
Pawan Deokule – Managing Director at Digicat Digital Marketing Pvt Ltd
Megha Goyal – Founder of i2Cook and Head Chef at Coral Networks
Kima – Lover of Old Monk

:P

Most of the pics below were taken by Megha from i2Cook. In fact, photography was her initial passion and she started the company i2TakePhoto, but the name didn’t hit off well, so she switched to cooking… just kidding :D

[Click on the pic for higher res. The ones Meg took are extremely huge by the way, warning you…]







After the initial introduction and exchange of pleasantries (the usual “Oh you work there? Do you know so and so? Oooooh!”), I was welcomed with this exquisite “gazpacho” shot, which is a cold Spanish tomato-based raw vegetable drink. It’s apparently very popular in Spain, Portugal and parts of Latin America. All I say is, it was really good and refreshing and I could feel my stomach agreeing with the solution immediately. The taste still lingers in my mouth as I sit in office writing this blog post.



Now a little flashback: The last time I took part in “Coral: A Networking Dinner” was on June 3, 2011. That was during the time I was on my “One Month No Booze” pledge. I even live-blogged about that event at my Posterous blog (which was dedicated to the pledge). That night was a Coorgi cuisine theme, and the Coorgi Pandi Pork was awesome. But unfortunately for me, I did not have that much fun that night because since I was on my no alcohol pledge, all I could think about was the alcohol everybody’s having while I sat there like a shipwrecked sailor on a dry deserted island, mouth watering and hallucinating.

But this time, there was no such pledge, so alcohol really helped a lot in socializing with the others.



As we all sat around the table discussing about Mediterranean food options in Mumbai, which was the official topic of discussion, Meg served us with starters – Greek style zucchini fritters with tzatziki, and Spanish sausages along with Turkish yogurt hummus and lavash. They were très excellent!



Meg made the tzatziki from strained yoghurt mixed with cucumbers, garlic, salt, olive oil, pepper, lemon juice and parsley. She served it cold, just like how it’s supposed to be, and the zucchini fritters blended perfectly well with the paste. It was amazing eating the zucchini fritters that look so much like potato pancakes, except there was no potato used in this.



And if you think the zucchini and tzatziki have too much of veggies for a hardcore carnivore like me, then there was the other starter - Spanish sausages with Turkish yogurt hummus and lavash. For the Spanish sausage, Meg used Chorizo (available from Nature’s Basket, Hill Road, Bandra) which she sautéed with some red wine, oregano & pepper. Once I started eating it, it was extremely difficult to stop because it was so good that I could literally feel the Heavens opening up and a chariot of gold descending amidst the loud beating of drums and trumpets, to tell me that my time on Earth is over because I have tasted the food of the Gods.



I shamelessly kept gobbling up the Chorizo while the rest talked about their favorite Mediterranean recipes, the best way to make Polpette using extra virgin olive oil, cheaper places in Mumbai where one can buy Sombrassada sausage etc. And of course the discussion went from food to politics to sports to digital marketing and so on. All in all, I had an extremely good time with the discussion.

Soon it was time for the main course.



For the main course, Meg served Moroccan meatballs with herbed couscous garnished with feta cheese. Vegetarians were given an option of sautéed zuchinni served on a bed of couscous and there was also an option of basa fish served on a bed of couscous.



Couscous – oh how I love thee! First of all, I love the name! Pronounced “kus-kus”, it consists of many tiny granules made from steamed and dried durum wheat. It’s a North African staple diet and is used instead of rice and bread as the main course in countries like Algeria, Morocco, Libya and Tunisia. It went extremely well with the Moroccan lamb meatballs Meg served, especially since the couscous had been garnished with awesome feta cheese.

I’m not a food expert here, but if the “suzi” we eat in Mizoram or the “upma” in South India is prepared dry, then it would taste quite similar to couscous I think.





Here is me enjoying the food. In fact I loved it so much that I never tried the other main courses -  sautéed zuchinni and basa fish, a decision I regret now because an opportunity like that will not come again in the near future.

 

The dinner ended with desserts - Poached strawberry with cinnamon spiked ricotta cream cheese. I am not a big fan of strawberries, but poached strawberries were definitely something else. And the ricotta cream cheese blended so well that I had to go for seconds. The hint of cinnamon is what I liked the most. A simple yet exquisite dessert that was not too sweet for my taste buds.



As we bid farewell to Prahlad Kakkar’s cottage, I gave a high-ten to the scuba diver hanging from the ceiling.



I really love the way he had decorated the place, especially the lounge. Hell, I even took a pic inside his loo! :)



We ended the night with the usual complimentary gifts from Coral Networking Dinner. This time I got Pink Mustard and Pesto (crushed garlic, basil and European pine nuts blended with olive oil and Parmigiano Reggiano). They go extremely well with bread, for those lazy hung-over Sunday mornings, or even with pizza and scrambled eggs.



 

So it was really great meeting Deepak, Sushil, Snigdha, Joanna, Neha, Pawan and Megha, and getting to know them. Until the next Coral Networking dinner then. Cheers y’all. :)

Chp 395. Mixed Martial Arts - Full Contact

So last Saturday we went to see Mixed Martial Arts - Full Contact Championship 5 held at Famous Studios, Mahalaxmi. If you’re a fan of Mixed Martial Arts (Bellator, UFC, StrikeForce etc) then this is like the best India has to offer.

Like any big social event where alcohol was served, we went there after first having a few drinks :)

The place was awesome, the crowd was awesome, and the music was awesome. With 1000 bucks a ticket, one didn’t expect anything less than that. The whole place and ambience had this underground look and feel, like the ones you see only in Hollywood movies about “illegal” Blood Sports, if you know what I mean.

The fighters may not be as awesome as those you see on UFC, Bellator, etc., but to see them thrashing each other right from the freaking ringside (where I could literally touch them), it was BLOODY AWESOME!

I want to write more but unfortunately my freaking PC crashed on Monday, so I am still currently reinstalling all my software, plugins, drivers, keygens, etc... Most of my essential software like MS Word, Photoshop, PDF reader etc are still throwing up errors...  But I managed to recover the pics and vids I took that night.

Here is a short video I took and edited using Sony Vegas Pro 10 (the first software I managed to recover). I used Skrillex as the soundtrack because it is so apt!




And here are a few pics I took. Like I said, my PC is a mess right now so I’m just simply uploading everything I took that night. No time to edit or caption them…















































I am definitely going again next year for FCC 6.

Cheers :)

Chp 394. My First Three Crushes

Admit it. We’ve all had our TV crushes. I still remember how crazy my elder sisters were about Corey Haim (L), Corey Feldman, NKOTB (Jordan Knight, Joey McIntyre), Duran Duran etc. And then there was the “cool rider” Maxwell Caulfield who starred in Grease 2 (opposite Michelle Pfeiffer) and stole many ladies’ hearts.

Most guys of my generation in the 90’s had a crush on Winnie (Danica McKellar) from Wonder Years. They would go on and on about how crazy they were about her, and would even compare their girlfriends with Winnie, trying to find some resemblance between them (Oh she smiles just like Winnie, she talks just like Winnie, she farts just like Winnie and so on).

But not me. I found Winnie to be cute and sweet, but never went to the extent of having a crush on her.

 

My first television crush was actually Shannen Doherty, aka Brenda Walsh from Beverley Hills 90210. I was completely crazy about her all through 90210 and even when she moved on to “Charmed” and played the role of Prudence, the eldest of the Halliwell sisters.

I used to write short love stories based on my fantasy about her and the lead character was always named Shannen. I even used to write letters to her pouring out my feelings, and sent the letter with just her name and PO Box 90210 written on the envelope. I used to use some of my American stamps from my stamp collection album since it was going to USA, lolz!

This was the Shannen Doherty I had a crush on then.


[Pic Source]

If you do a “Google Image Search” of her now, you will see many photos of her in scantily clad bikinis and lingerie. Yeah she’s hot in those pics, but I still prefer Shannen Doherty in her old Brenda Walsh avatar.

 

My second crush was none other than VJ Nonie (Ruth Winona Tao). From MTV Asia to Channel V, she was the reason why I would stay glued to MTV Most Wanted. (That, and also Headbangers Ball and MTV The Grind.)


[Pic Source]

Apart from a few sentences about what she had done written on Wiki, nothing much is known about her. There are even Facebook groups like “MTV VJ Nonie Tao… where are you? and a Whatever happened to Nonie? article at msn. The pic above also says “The only image of Nonie available online” at the source, lolz (although I found another photo of her signing an autograph for some dude).

She is definitely an enigma, and one of the rare cases of TV celebs who managed to completely steer away from the media and paparazzi spotlight.

 

My Third crush was Stephanie Seymour. She’s Axl Rose’s ex-girlfriend, and even appeared on November Rain and Don’t Cry music videos.


[Pic Source]

The mid 90s was my Guns N’ Roses phase, and I used to have a special notebook where I had written down the lyrics of every single GnR song, some of them copied from “Year Books” and some by myself, using a walkman and Reynolds pen to rewind the cassette.

I even had this popular poster of Axl Rose and Stephanie Seymour on my bedroom wall.



So… was I crazy about Stephanie Seymour because she’s hot, or because I was crazy about GnR? Frankly speaking, I really don’t know, but yeah, I had an immense crush on her back then.

But just to bring the good old times back, I’ve painstakingly taken screen-grabs from November Rain and compiled them together, and yes, as you can see from the strip below, Axl and Stephanie were about to get married in Church, and suddenly they went to a pub and got drunk, and then they came back to the same Church and finally got married, and then as they were cutting the wedding cake, she licked the knife from Axl’s hand, cut her tongue by mistake and died from tetanus infection… :P



Cheers… :)

Chp 393. Remember the time…

An empty room, even a vacant floor of an under construction building will do, as long as there is a working plug point nearby. If it is a furnished room, the guys push the sofa, tables, vases etc to the side. If there is a carpet, the guys roll it up and move it to a corner too.  

After that, one requires an old tape recorder and a couple of audio cassettes. Most of the audio cassettes are “collections” that consists of all their favorite songs “recorded” by the owners. Sometimes a quick telephonic call needs to be made…

Hello. Oh hi Mrs. X. This is Y speaking. Can I please speak to Z?

(Z comes to the phone…)

Dude, you’re coming right? Great. And oh, don’t forget to bring the new La Bouche cassette you bought the other day ok? We’re depending on you. Ciao.

And after that, ladies and gentlemen, your “house party” is ready! :)

Man, those were indeed the wild times! That’s what it was like rocking the party scene in the mid 90’s. Unlike most people of my generation, I was exposed to the party scene pretty early in life because I have three elder sisters.

I still remember that big house party my eldest sister threw at our house. It was her 16th birthday party, so that would make me 7 years old then. After she got permission from dad and mom to throw the party at our sitting room (and a promise that dad and mom would not interfere and step inside the room), her friends started arriving one by one. Oh those bell bottom jeans and leather jacket days :)

So I was at the far corner of the room playing on my Atari... I think it was “Space Invaders”. Most of the guys my sister invited were sitting with me playing the game turn by turn! Lolz… I remember the chicks trying to pull their guys away from the videogame so that they could dance with them, and finally my mom had to come and pull me out of the room because my sister probably went and complained to her about me :)

On MY 16th birthday, I threw a party in that same room. Of course one big difference was that, that day was extremely cold and wet due to the winter monsoon. There was booze but since my folks were kinda strict, we could drink (secretly) only in the balcony. So we ended up battling the freezing climate outside just to take a quick sip. :)

The highlight of any house parties back then was THE CIRCLE.

Yeah, somehow we would always make this circle as we danced to the rhythm of whatever’s playing on the tape recorder, and one by one, somebody’s gotta go to the center and do his/her "special move", no matter how goofy or wacky it is.

That was so much fun then.

I’ve seen how house parties are in Hollywood movies. Well, the parties we used to have then were nothing like those, but still it was fun for us.

And then of course if it was getting late, the parents would start calling up the host’s house to say that it was time for their son/daughter to come home. My friends always used to make fun of me because among the guys, my parents were usually the first people to call up the parents of the place where the house party was happening to tell them to tell me to come home. That kinda sucked.

The Role of a DJ:

Sometimes, to listen to “continuous good music”, while one song was playing on the tape recorder, the “DJ” had to sit nearby, rewinding or forwarding a cassette with a Reynold’s pen. He had that special talent of looking at a cassette and based how much reel had been wounded on one side, knew exactly what song would be playing next! Sadly, such talent became extinct when digital music overtook the industry.

This was so much fun those days –



Yeah move that finger, you slick slick DJ. Spin your pen rewinding the cassette with one hand while playing La Bouche, Toybox, Whigfield, Dr. Alban, KrisKros, Snow, Mr. President, Outhere Brothers, E-Type with the other hand, one finger on the play button and another on the stop-rewind-forward buttons. Oh yeahhh DJ, you’re killing itttt! Awesomeeee! DJ Rox! DJ Rox! DJ Rox!

And as the party moves towards its end, the DJ changes the music from dance to slow.

Ah… this is the part where couples slow dance to songs like “Purple Rain” (Prince), “Room in your heart” (Living in a Box), “Something about you” (Bad Company), “Take my breath away” (Berlin), “Sukiyaki” (4PM), “So much in love” (All-4-one), “All out of love” (Air Supply), and so on…

Young kids who’re in love slow jam together, cheek to cheek… girls too ask their crushes if they like to dance with them… guys looking for an opportunity to make out with somebody, anybody, too look forward to this section of the night…

Also, that was the part where guys like me were always the “Forever Alone” guys, sitting in one corner of the room admiring the guys who got the ladies… :(

To me, it was always like…

Dammit gurl, why won’t you slow jam with me? What’s wrong with me? I thought you like to listen to me humming Super Mario Bros opening theme when we’re dancing together? And five years ago you told me you found my GI Joe and He-Man collection impressive, now you suddenly have a change of heart and find them childish? Arrghh woman, make up your mind!

Hehehe…

Anyhoo, today being Valentine’s Day, I kinda remember all those great songs of yesteryears, and here is me wishing you all a very happy (and successful) Valentine’s Day!

Cheers!

Ps. Here are a few “slow” music videos to end this “blog party” :)

Chp 392. The Captain’s Diary

In the year 1997, I was elected by the students and teachers community of our school to be one of the three House Vice-Captains. I was in 11th standard then. The voting results came as an utter shock to me because I didn’t even stand for elections.

Right from 7th standard till 10th, we’ve always had three house prefects from our batch – Kamalesh, Ashwini and Syed. They were the three most popular boys in our batch, had good leadership quality, excelled in sports and games, and everybody looked up to them.

However in 11th standard, Syed didn’t continue at our school, so that meant one slot was suddenly open. It was obvious that Ashwini and Kamalesh were going to get elected again, but who was going to occupy the void Syed left? Many other classmates announced their interest in becoming a house prefect.

Becoming a house prefect in 11th standard is serious business as it also means becoming the School House Vice-Captain, and if there are no damaging “black marks” on that person’s career during that entire year, then he will automatically become the School House Captain once he comes to 12th, putting him in charge of the welfare & being of 1/3 the School’s population, literally becoming an Elder brother or a father figure to many. Even till now, I still remember who my School House Captains were from 1994-99.

So on that voting day, I wrote Kamalesh and Ashwini’s names as my nominees, and for the third slot, I voted for my friend Ujjal, who was in the football team and the leading athlete from our batch.

We voted, the teachers voted, and the brothers voted. Oh by the way, our school, Montfort Anglo-Indian Hr. Sec. School is a strict Catholic Residential boarding school run by the French Montfort Brothers of St. Gabriel. So many of us assumed the guy who would fill Syed’s shoes would be a devout and studious Catholic classmate.

Imagine my surprise when our Principal announced the voting results and the new House Vice-Captains were Kamalesh, Ashwini and… *drumroll* Me!

Of course my immediate reaction was to resign right then. I was the basketball captain but I’ve never had any kind of responsibilities outside the basketball court. But Dharmendra who was our House Captain then, convinced me not to resign and give it a shot… I always had the option of resigning later… Plus the fact that I was voted meant that a lot of my classmates had faith in me and I would be letting them down. Also, the last time our school had a Mizo House Captain was in the year 1991-92 just before I joined the School (I think they said his name is Samuel or David). So this was a good opportunity for me to put our Mizo community in good limelight again.

I was even more shocked when Dharmendra told me I had more votes than Ashwini or Kamalesh! But of course later we found out that most of the Biology department boys voted for me since Ashwini and Kamalesh were both in the other department. I guess my Bio batchmates needed somebody with leverage and clout. :)

I eventually spent 11th standard learning the ropes about Captaincy from my House Captain Dharmendra, and also from my co-vice captains and good friends Kamalesh and Ashwini. Even though it meant these two would become my arch-enemies in terms of any House competitions (our three Houses compete with each other THROUGHOUT the year, from sports (athletics and aquatics) to games (football, basketball, volleyball etc) to even academics… at the end of the day our friendship took precedence over any of this.

In 1998, I was successfully inducted as the Patrick House Captain, ready to manage and look after around 1000+ students from 3rd standard to 12th standard.

Although being a Captain had many perks, like exemption of punishment and being included in the School’s Hall of Fame for all future Montfortians to see, there were a few things we had to sacrifice too. Like, during an Inter-House football match, we could no longer fight or get physical with opponents (after all, boys will be boys). In fact, we had to stop our teammates from fighting. Being a House Captain meant that we had to play that quasi-authoritarian role, even though our gut feelings told us to rebel like the rest of the boys. The rest of the School, especially the junior school boys, looked up to us as role models, so we had to live that role, whether we liked it or not.

And frankly speaking, I think I had it rougher than Kamalesh or Ashwini. First of all, I was the only Christian House Vice-Captain in 11th standard. For us Protestant students, Sunday was the only day when mass was compulsory. But for Catholic students, Sunday and Saturday morning masses were compulsory. Apart from those two days, Monday-Friday was compulsory mass for different batches (like Monday morning mass was compulsory for class 7 Catholic students, Tuesday morning mass was compulsory for class 8 Catholic students and so on).

Even though I’m not a Catholic, the brothers who ran our Institution felt a Christian student leader should be present on those daily morning masses so as to set a good example to the other Catholic students. So there I was attending the morning mass every freaking day. Trust me, I’m not complaining because it was a Catholic thing. Even if it was a Presbyterian daily service, I would still complain if I was made to attend daily.

Fortunately for me, when we were in 12th standard, Anthony Paul was selected by the School board to be the School Captain, so he took over that role of setting a good Catholic example :)

Man… the number of times I lead the students in a Hail Mary recital, the number of times I’ve participated in the Way of the Cross, the number of times I went for confessions (and shocked the hell out of our father), the number of times I stood in line for Holy Communion, the number of times I was the fourth guy to say the intercessory prayers, “Lord hear our prayer, your response…” followed by me doing the collections, I think I am more Catholic than many of you Catholics out there :) *joking*

The second challenge I faced as a House Captain was that, being a Mizo, I was called by the Principal to his Office a hell lot of times, just to hear another round of reprimand from him because “MY” Mizos were speaking in Mizo again!

As mentioned before, our school is a residential boarding school situated on the high altitude cold Shevaroy Hills, Tamilnadu. It’s like one of those strict Army boarding schools. English was the only language permitted, so any students caught speaking in Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi etc. were punished or fined. Now, there were around 7-8 Mizos in every 11th and 12th standard batch. Most of them came directly from St. Paul’s in Mizoram after completing their 10th in that school, which is run by the same group of Brothers running our School.

For most Mizos, especially those who joined our school at 11th standard from Mizoram, they found it quite awkward to speak with each other in English. And if two Mizo students happened to speak in Mizo, then apparently it was MY fault! “Control your Mizos!!!” our Princi would tell me over and over again. Damn… that was the part of my job I hated the most.

But all in all, I had a great time being a House Captain, and cried a lot when we graduated. Being a “role model” for the rest of the students didn’t necessarily mean we had to put on that mask with our own batchmates. The number of times Kamalesh, Ashwini and I led our rebel group of classmates into smoking in the 12th standard dormitory once the warden had slept, the way we secretly arranged for booze during our Social nights, how we manipulated some of the staff members into delivering love letters for us to the neighboring Girl’s Convent school, oh man, those stories I’ll forever treasure and cherish.

The reason why I’m suddenly nostalgic is that, last Saturday I was supposed to meet up with a few Montfort batchmates of mine. Unfortunately, we couldn’t meet up in the last minute, but eventually plan to do so again next week. Thinking about them brought back all these fond memories of yesteryears.

Hope you didn’t get bored.

Cheers :)

Chp 391. LOL and FTW - Correct usage.

What exactly is the correct meaning of an internet acronym? Two things I saw recently inspired me to write this post. One was this hilarious Mizo post I read at misual.com. The other was at a friend’s Facebook status message.

The funny Mizo article at misual.com written by blogger lr hlonchhing went on to narrate about his experience with new internet acronyms and what he initially thought they used to mean. Of course he purposely gave it a humorous twist.

But placing humor aside, there had indeed been many situations when the wrong usage or assumption of what an internet slang meant, lead to an online conflict.

As the internet made life easier for us in terms of connectivity and information, it had also made our vocabulary lighter with the insertion of many shorthand terms like LOL, ROFLMAO, BRB, STFU etc.

Although we all know what they mean, if you say they mean a different thing, then you stand a chance of looking like an idiot.

Take LOL for example. We use it to express laughter when we find something funny. (Sometimes we also use it when we don’t know what else to say during a chat conversation instead of abruptly and awkwardly ending it).

I’m sure we’ll all agree that LOL stands for Laughing Out Loud. In fact this word, along with other internet initialisms like OMG, BFF, IMHO etc are already added to the Oxford English dictionary.

Now take these two scenarios –





Yeah. Many people, especially Generation Z (those who are born in the ‘90s) laughed at the level of ignorance in the two images above for assuming LOL stands for Lots of Love. Seriously, are those two people thaaaat dumb?

Actually… errr… LOL indeed means Lots of Love.

I still remember those days when I used to carefully write those long letters in the ‘80s to a friend or a girlfriend, on a fancy letter pad, penning down whatever came to my mind right then, with no “control+Z” option, and then ending the long sweet letter with a LOL. Lots Of Love.

That’s what LOL meant then.

Another less common usage of the term LOL is Lots of Luck, which we used to wish somebody good luck before his exams or interview.

With the internet invasion, of course LOL now means “Laughing Out Loud”. So is it wrong to use LOL as Lots of Love/Luck in a public forum? Theoretically, it’s not wrong, but do prepare to get flamed by the online mob uttering various insults at you like “dumbass”, “retard”, “fucktard”, or worse – “n00b”.

That’s the interwebz, my friend. Sometimes, it’s best to move along with the herd.

Like I said, you’re not committing any crime if you use LOL to mean something else other than Laughing Out Loud. Just don’t be disappointed with the kind of reaction you’ll get. In fact you can say LOL means Lurking On Lisa, Laying Outdoors Lightheartedly, Lesbian On Lesbian, Laxative Omlette Lubricant etc. Your call.

Similarly, a few days ago when Liverpool knocked Manchester United out of the FA Cup, I laughed my ass out (LMAO). And then I saw one of my Facebook friends, a ManUtd fan, posting this on his status…



Trying to be GGG (that’s Good Guy Greg), I tried to tell him that FTW in today’s internet lingo means “For The Win”. But of course I was “corrected” that FTW stands for “Fuck The World”.

*Facepalm*

FTW indeed means Fuck The World, but only to Motorcycle gangs and anarchists. They drive their customized choppers and g-string clad hoes with leather jackets that proudly read “Fuck The World”. Probably during the same time their neighbor was writing a love letter and ending it with a LOL. That was then, you know…

In today’s online world, FTW means “For The Win”. People utter this to express joy and celebration, especially after winning something awesome, or when something happens in their favor. This term was popularized by the large online gaming community, namely, us geeks.

Again, like before, you’re not committing a crime if you use it to mean something else, like Fuck The World. But see how silly the particular Facebook status update sounds now to most people. Here’s a guy expressing his grief and disappointment because his team lost, and yet seems to be rejoicing about it at the same time by saying FTW! Mixed emotions indeed.

I just wonder what these people will think if they see me updating my status with: “Just had a threesome! FTW!” They’ll probably think, “Damn, this poor dude had the uncool kinda threesome”, while the rest of my friends will think, “Dayyymmm, this lucky bastard had the cool kinda threesome!”

:-)

Cheers!

Ps. If you don’t know what a cool and uncool threesome is… then I really don’t know what else to say… Cheers nevertheless!

Chp 390. Of Cooking and Facebooking: My First Smoked Pork!

Most of you don’t know me personally, so I must admit that I am a kickass cook :D I make awesome fried potatoes, egg-tomato curry, dal tadka and bhendi fry.  The only problem is, I have never cooked a non-veg dish even once. Until last night…

Last night, I cooked smoked pork (from Mizoram) for the first time in my life, and it was freaking awesome!



I called up my sis and she briefly told me how to cook it, but when you’re doing something for the first time, sometimes a telephonic instruction doesn’t help much.

But here’s the thing about cooking in this age of social networking and easy mobile internet connectivity - So I didn’t know how to cook the smoked pork… NO PROBLEM. All I did was update the fact that I was cooking smoked pork for the first time on my Facebook status and needed assistance, and within seconds I had my Facebook friends correcting me and advising me on how to cook it properly!



A really big thanks to…




Eventually, based on their comments, I managed to prevent myself from overcooking the pork and turning it into “pork soup”. (I was actually waiting for the cooker to “phisss” at LOW flame! lolz) I also added the cabbages as instructed…



After 15 more minutes of facebooking and cooking (without closing the pressure cooker lid), I got this…








It was AWESOME!

And of course no Mizo dish is complete without my special mix of…



Yeah that’s right! Bekang (fermented beans) + Red Mizo chilly powder (EXTREMELY spicy) + Nghapih (ok I don’t know what this is called in English… I don’t even think it has a name in English, lolz) + Old Monk rum (to ferment the already fermented beans) + a little water. I then boil this ultimate concoction for a brief minute, and once the aroma is just right, I switch off the gas and let the beans soak in for around 10 minutes. After that – HEAVEN! :-)

I even took the leftover pork to office today, and everybody in office loved it!!!





So cheers to you, Facebook. Thou hath helpeth me in timeth of hunger. Bon appétit.

Chp 389. The long-distance death knell

The further the death knell chimes, the louder it sounds. Loss of a loved one is a torturous ordeal when you’re thousands of miles away. Last Thursday, three very dear friends of mine here in Mumbai lost their father. One of them is the love of my life.

When you stay far away from home, losing a father or mother is more painful. At least when you’re at home, you’re with friends and family consoling you and helping you ease the grief. You’re right there with the lifeless body of someone you once loved so much, warming you with his/her presence no matter how cold the body had become.

And then there is the horrible task of journeying home in a wretched emotional condition. You’re in the flight and everything else seems normal all around you, except for the fact that you alone are going through an agony of pain and suffering.

I’ve been living in Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Yercaud, Lucknow and Kolkata all my life, and I have already seen too many Mizos going home after hearing the sad news that their mother or father or brother or sister had passed away.

Being a close knitted community, the Mizos of that particular city then inform each other and soon gather at the person’s rented apartment. The close friends of that person then take up the responsibility of arranging the refreshments, prayer service, flight tickets etc. The “Mizo Association” of that particular city also plays a very important and helpful role in this.

Last Thursday, at 4:26pm, my girlfriend called me up. I was in the middle of an important pitch discussion. Before I could tell her I was a bit tied up, she told me her father passed away. No further words needed to be spoken. I left office immediately. My bosses were understanding enough to rearrange all my schedules for Thursday and Friday.

On my way to her place, I kept thinking about death, and the pain of losing somebody. She stays with her two brothers here in Mumbai, older bro M who is an IIM-A grad and younger bro H who is studying in Pre-University here.

I reached their place even before the brothers. I did what I could cleaning up the place and consoling her. Soon, other Mizos started arriving. M and I went to the airport around 6pm to book their flight tickets home.

Throughout the way, M talked about how much it pained him and we even stopped by a wineshop and I bought him some beer to ease him up. When we reached the airport, further bad news awaited us as there were no tickets available for the next day. Although there were many morning flights available from Mumbai to Calcutta, the only flights that would reach Cal in time (before their Calcutta-Aizawl 11am flight) were Indian Airlines and Kingfisher, and they were both full.

V arrived from a direct Aizawl-Mumbai flight around 9pm, and he too immediately joined us straight from the arrival terminal in trying to get three tickets for the next day.

Finally, after pulling a lot of strings and many help from Mizo IAS/IPS officers all over India, around 1 in the morning we managed to get three confirmed IA and KF tickets for Mumbai-Kol.

We reached their home by around 2am, Friday morning.

When we reached, their apartment was filled with Mizos from all over Mumbai! They were all there, paying their condolences and comforting them. That’s what I love about our Mizo community. Everybody’s always there for each other, even if you don’t know each other that well.

We had a proper prayer service and Bible reading session, followed by the Lord’s Prayer.

Around 4am, a few left.

Many people did try to cheer up others and change the mood. It’s true how we sometimes tend to hide our sorrow behind a joke. We stayed up with them throughout the night (morning) and finally dropped them at the airport.

They took the connecting flight as planned: Mumbai – Kol – Aizawl. After that, they had to spend a few more hours on the road traveling to Lunglei. Finally, they reached Lunglei and laid their father to rest after dark. In our culture, we usually bury our dead around 2-3pm before dark, but there are few exceptions like this that require a late burial.


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I can’t help but think about the ordeal they must be going through. I look around in office today and I notice most of my colleagues are staying with their family here in Mumbai. They see their parents every day… When I was in the auto with M (on our way to get the three air tickets) we talked about Cinderella’s song “You don’t know what you got, till it’s gone”. How true indeed.

May the good Lord continue giving them strength and courage to ease their pain and move on…

Chp 388. SOPA BLACK-OUT

Today is January 18, 2011. Many popular sites like reddit, Wikipedia (English), boingboing and others have declared today a BLACK-OUT day, in protest against SOPA and PIPA. I for one, am a staunch supporter of this protest.

But eventually, there is a possibility that my blog may be blacklisted by the US Government for merely voicing my support for the protest. Which can eventually lead to my blog being blocked in the US and many other countries it has influence on, and my blog posts never showing up on any Google, Bing and Facebook search results ever! Which means loss of pagerank. And my Google Adsense account can be terminated, denying me of my part-time income, however measly it may be. All this is possible if SOPA has its ways.

Of course nobody’s going to do any such thing to this extremely insignificant blog of mine, but still, the very thought that it can happen to all the popular websites I frequent and find resourceful is not a very  comforting thought.

And as many experts ask: Will SOPA and PIPA really stop internet piracy, which is after all the main reason why these laws were created… Many conclude it will not stop Piracy and merely make life difficult for the rest of us free citizens of the online world.

We live in dark & difficult times, my friends.

Well, anyway, to end this very short post, here is a small comic strip inspired by my friend Goldmember. A little humor side of SOPA. :-)

Chp 387. King Henry the XIIth!

This blog post definitely deserves a picture post! What an awesome match this morning! And what a great return by the King, Thierry Henry. I cried. I actually cried when he scored that fabulous match-winning goal!

So, hope you enjoy this picture post :-)

Chp 386. First Random Post of 2012

What a hectic first week of 2012! I will surely update with what I was up to for the New Year, but right now I am just too damn tired. I had three huge pitches this week alone, guaranteeing that I had no time to blog at all.

And then we are currently renovating a very popular Mizo community site we run – misual.com, installing new plugins and testing it out with our users.

So, for the sake of just updating, I thought I’ll just post this photo of a New Year gift my CEO gave me today – a boxer of my FAVORITE character Homer Simpson. AWESOME!



Thanx Sid! :-)

And Happy New Year everyone!.