Time for a forwarded Sher:

मेरे रोनेका जिसमे किस्सा है
उम्रका बेहतरीन हिस्सा है

Have a Good Evening, folks! And take care of yourselves!

For years, many of us have been dreaming of an existence in which consumption of vast quantities of chocolate, pastries, ice-creams will not add even an ounce to our weights. Now there is someone for whom this has become a reality. Meet Miss Velasquez!

Okay, before you shake your head, I agree that she is painfully thin. And none of us would like to have NPS and its assorted complications.

But leaving aside all this, just for a moment, think of the possibility of eating ice-cream all day long and stepping on to the weighing scale with a smiling face :-)

Have you ever seen an Indian village fair depicted in old Bollywood movies? There is one guy who can be normally seen at such fairs and he is the fortune-teller. He usually has a parrot with him who can pick up a person's fortune from the pages scattered nearby.

What reminded me of this fortune-teller is the German octopus Paul. No, no, "octopus" is not a nickname of any human being. Paul is actually an octopus who has been predicting the outcome of Germany's matches in the Soccer World Cup.

I knew you wouldn't believe me so here is the link: Famous German octopus predicts Argentina exit. Ain't the world a bizarre place?

This one goes out to all friends:

जहा दुनिया निगाहे फेर लेगी
वहा ऐ दोस्त तुझे हम मिलेंगे

For any lover of old Hindi movie songs, the weekend was a treat. The FM channels were playing Madan Mohan Songs on Saturday and R.D. Burman reigned supreme on Sunday. For once, I wished I could listen to more than one channel simultaneously. :-)

As I kept on flipping thro the channels in search of my favorite songs, I chanced upon one that was playing back an interview with Lata Mangeshkar. I was amazed to learn that her original first name was "Hridaya". It seems her dad started calling her "Lata" based on a character named "Latika" in the play "Bhav Bandhan" in which he was acting. Wow!

The financial newspapers are full to the brim with articles on the proposed DTC. I must confess that it all sounds Greek and Latin to me. If there is one thing that is crystal clear, it is that all of us will need to revise our portfolios once it is finalized. I don't know about you but that is not the sort of thing that makes me jump with joy :-(

I was more amused than enraged on reading that the Indian Tricolor was put upside down during the recent India-Pakistan meeting. I, for one, cannot believe that it was an oversight. Officials from Pakistan are not known to be above playing such monkey tricks. But I think Mr. Chidambaram did right by making sure that the mistake was promptly rectified and then continuing with the business as usual without making a big issue out of it.

Guess our neighbors would do well to take a page out of his book and concentrate on important things.

The Natwest England-Australia match was like the India-Pakistan Asia Cup match. Almost till the last ball was bowled, there was no telling which team would win. I am no fan of the Aussies - especially if Picky Ranting is playing. But I did feel a bit sorry for them yesterday. The last 2 matches of the series are a mere formality now.

Speaking of the Asia Cup, everyone seems to be happy with Dhoni and his boys. As far as I am concerned, I am saying "so far so good" :-)

I will sign off with this romantic one:

नीन्द उसकी, राते उसकी, ख्वाब उसका है
तेरी जुल्फे जिसके बाजूपर परेशा हो गयी

Have a nice week ahead, folks!

There is one culinary reason why I would one day want to visit the southern city of Madurai. And that reason is the "Bone Marrow Omlette" served at a place called "Amma Mess" there. I must confess I had never heard of this dish before. Wondering where I heard about this while seating in Mumbai? Looks like you don't watch "Highway on my Plate" on NDTV Good Times. :-)

A friend sent me this one:

Always keep hoping for Good...

As the Chinese say.....

Keep a green tree in your heart.
The singing birds will surely come :-)

I have become an ardent fan of Aditya Bal's "Chakh Le India" (NDTV Good Times). These days he has been traveling to the hinterlands of the country - learning how to cook local dishes. Today's episode was in Coorg, Karnataka. I had no idea coffee plants bear flowers too. I saw the flower for the first time in my life today. :-)

Further on in the episode, a lady served him a simple meal of a cooked leafy green vegetable, green chilli chutney and tapioca roots boiled in salt and turmeric. I was wondering about the absence of rice or rotis. But Bal was unfazed, he crushed the roots and started tucking them in with the vegetable and chutney. :-)

I guess one life will not be enough if I have to explore the culinary heritage of my country :-(

It's pure pleasure watching episodes of 'Jamie At Home' (weekends, Zee Cafe, 1:30pm). This is one chef who believes in sharing his secrets. It's a different matter that we in India cannot get all the veggies that he uses or cannot eat all the meat that he cooks. But watching him cook is so infectious that you want to run to the kitchen right at that moment and start cooking :-) Oh, and his vegetable garden is to die for, really!

There is no dearth of bizarre news these days. Did you just say 'huh'? Well, check this one out - US puts six-year-old Indian origin American girl on "no fly" list. A case of a mistaken identity, perhaps? Who is gonna tell the Homeland Security though.

Hats off to people of Sarwarpur!

Positive news rarely gets any publicity. That's what I thought again when I read a news item about how a Sikh community in a remote Punjab village restored a mosque that was torn down in 1947. They have handed it over to the Muslims in the area.

Hats off to these people! We need more of them around :-)

Sometimes I am amazed by the associations our brain seems to be retaining. About 2 weeks back I was reading an article about the blockade in the North-eastern state of Manipur. I was also listening to an FM channel and a song I had never heard before started playing. Its starting music didn't sound promising but lateron it somehow caught my full attention. To date I have no idea which movie it is from or what its picturisation looks like. But it evoked memories of a rain-washed landscape. I stopped reading the article and concentrated fully on the song. But as it played along my eyes remained fixed on the photo in the article. It showed a national highway which is the only link from Manipur to the rest of the country. An SUV was traveling across it. When the song finished, I again started reading that article.

The same song played on an FM channel today morning. And in my mind's eye I could see the highway and the SUV. I guess they are now irrevocably associated together as far as I am concerned. :-)

Oh, btw, that song is 'ऐसा समा ना होता, कुछ भी यहाँ ना होता, मेरे हमराही जो तुम ना होते".