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Now then, I just happened to come across The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. I haven’t completed it yet, but just halfway through. There was one concept that catches me of the protagonist Howard Rowark ; he does everything he feels right and gets on. Moreover, the question he asks the Stanton dean pointing to the Parthenon, is killing. I was musing over that question for a long time. I felt it was a very apt question and everybody should think over it. He asks the dean, commenting about some architecture - Gothic or Renaissance I don’t remember, but he questions him - why specialty or perfection has to arise of other’s work alone? Why not the work you and I do be considered special by us? And so goes Roark with cold confidence everywhere; cold enough to invite criticisms more than praise.

Practically Roarky characters are difficult to find. In fact I’ve never met anyone like that. There has been always a tinge of humility when a person talks. But then, I don’t even know it’s good to emulate him and what realization will humans achieve being like him. You can do with “Howard Roark Syndrome” for more of this. But the line of tale is splendid and gives a different feeling while reading. Enough of objectivism now; Coming back to my own life I’ve changed my Active Status message in instant messenger to “Howard Roark” and this stimulated my friend to learn more about Him and we had a good discussion about Him. By the way I have changed my “I am away” message to “With Dominique Francon”;-).

I don’t get much time to read now. For Chennaites, they might empathize with me about the traumas of traveling from West Mambalam to Old Mahabalipuram Road by bus. By the time I reach home, I don’t have any other feeling but to hit the bed and catch some sleep. So, it’s very difficult to make time for reading. I tried doing it in the bus, but somehow I didn�t like it. My favorite reading position is in a sofa with a pillow thrown in. And yes, with a good cuppa. By the way, for the uninitiated, Objectivism is the philosophy of Ayn Rand and has been vividly portrayed in her books like The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged etc. Someone enlighten me on what objectivism is all about .

It was raining yesterday and I decided to test my culinary skills. I took the challenge of making the kesari, a famous South Indian sweet dish. All that is required to make this delicious dish is a glass of Rava, some ghee for frying, some cashewnuts, sugar and water. The quantity of water should be twice that of Rava and sugar can be 2 - 2.5 times that of Rava. And of course you need some patience and some people to share the dish with. Ah..I forgot one more important ingredient... the kesari color powder. There's a lot of rumor going around that this causes cancer; You may neglect this though, if you want a white kesari.

The color of course, is an individual preference. Environmentalists can go for green, Aussie supporters yellow, sailors blue and communists red. But the South Indian household seems to have a penchant for orange color and hence, orange is the color with which kesari is identified with. Kesari finds it place often when the family of a boy visits a girl's place to fix the marriage. Perhaps kesari is a litmus test to see how the would-be bride cooks. So, the bride's family takes special care to prepare the dish to a perfection. They serve it along with the Bajji(you wouldn't have missed this one, if you have visited the Marina or the Besant Nagar Beach). So we can say kesari is the first dish the groom eats in a bride's house. You can see how important this dish is. Usually this is followed by a coffee which the girl serves the groom's family. This is the time when she is evaluated to be or not to be. Spilling the coffee on groom's mother can be considered as the height of embarrassment. And.. this is the time when exchanging glances is encouraged, for a change. And this is followed by an audition. Here the voice of the girl is tested.No rap/pop/filmi songs are allowed. Breaking down at high pitch is a strict no no. Finally if the girls passes all the tests, she is allowed to make kesari in the groom's kitchen.

And now coming back to our kesari preparation. All you need to do to get kesari is to fry the rava in a tava with some ghee till the rava becomes golden brown and keep it aside. Now in the same way fry the cashew nuts too. Be careful this time, the time in which cashew nuts change their color from golden brown to black is not very long.

Now add bring the water to a boil and add the fried rava in it, cook it till the rava comes to a thick consistency, now add the sugar and the rava will loosen up. Keep cooking for 10 minutes. Add the cashew nuts and mix it well. Turn the gas off and taste it. I assure you, you'll love the taste. You can go in for a slight variant of this - the pineapple kesari. The only additional work to do is to toss some diced pineapples to it. And don't forget to favor the Aussies this time. Some pineapple essence can also be added to get the flavor.

There is a complement to kesari by the name Uppuma, which can also be made using the rava. This is a common breakfast in South India. But more about this, later.

I am here, staring at the monitor savoring a machine vended Nescafe. I wouldn’t say I am too unhappy about it and all. After all, I am documenting these thoughts just after reading columns of Behram Contractor a.k.a Busy Bee in the site www.busybeeforever.com.
This is a really good site I should say. It contains lots of articles by Mr. Contractor whom I like very much. I also like John Grisham. But it is because of a different reason.
I like BC because of the satire he brings out in a very simple form that’s easy to understand. I admit, though I read a lot of books, I really don’t get the full grasp of some of the books I read. Often Behram Contractor(BC) is compared with P.G.Wodehouse(PG). But for me BC is better than PG. This might be because when I tried reading a P.G, but I wasn’t able to make out the humor twist in it. I wasn’t laughing because of the humor in the book but I was laughing at my own state of not understanding P.G. So I like B.C more than P.G. Further B.C views things from an Indian angle that makes his columns and ideas easy to identify with.

Of late, I have become addicted to coffee. I don’t know why. It may be because I was trying to emulate Patrick Lanigan of The Partner, who drinks lots of coffee. I am averaging 4 cups a day now. I don’t feel guilty about it. Maybe I’ll feel when I am 40. But that’s ok for me since I am enjoying the present moment. I can proudly say I am living life king size without any consciousness conflict (what a term!). And so goes my life with an extra indulgence thrown in always in whatever I like doing.

It’s not that I am really happy because I don’t have anything to do. In fact, I have a real problem now where I am stuck without any daylight near. But still I am happy because I have read somewhere ‘And this too shall pass’. And I have learnt to believe in Hope, and even in failures I attribute it to my suspicion in my belief in hope. Failure or Success, and this too shall pass sometime soon. And so, I will indulge in my happiness to an extra extent.

It’s rainy season here. I always dislike carrying anything unless it is of utmost importance. For instance, I hate to carry helmets to restaurants and theatres. So for this reason, I never like wearing a helmet when I go to these places. I am not an atheist, so I believe in God more than I believe in my helmet. This of course is not for all to follow, unless you want to meet God very badly. So even though I dislike wearing it, I wear it. God can wait. Similarly, I hate carrying raincoats even in rainy season, when it’s not raining. But yesterday my father pestered me so much to take the raincoat. When I wore it, it was too much stuffy. I felt bad. But when I started from office in the evening, I came to know how it is to feel grateful. Yes, there was a heavy downpour, peals of thunder, and flashes of lightning; and me under the safe cocoon of raincoat. I even experienced the sadistic joy of watching my friends completely wet. Even today I’ve brought the raincoat. It’s not raining. But I don’t feel the slightest remorse of bringing it. So, I have learnt, it’s always good to ensure things are safe and strive towards that aspect rather than praying to god while dying. So, I henceforth will not feel lethargic towards doing things that’ll make me safer, even though there is some level of discomfort involved in it.

So that’s it. It’s almost time to leave. I am now happily taking my raincoat and helmet.

Gestalt is the brain’s ability to see the big/whole picture. According to gestalt studies, it’s been found that most of the people can find shapes even if they are not complete, say a broken circle is identified as a circle. When 1,2,3,4 are mentioned, the brain immediately visualizes a 5. So in order to use gestalt in any field, try covering up the easier aspects first. Then by gestalt understanding the tougher aspects will be easy.

After a long deliberation, this blog is created; Primarily because my company decided to block my previous blog site which was with rediff. And yes, I'll be migrating all my blogs from my previous site to here soon.