फुर्सत नही घरसे मंदिर तक इन्सान को आनेकी
और ख्वाहिश शमशान से सीधा स्वर्ग को जानेकी रखते है

(Forwarded)

If you are looking for gifts for friends and family, do check out this article - A Personal Touch

Beetroot Raita

Ingredients: beetroot, curd, salt, sugar, oil, asafoetida (hing), mustard seeds (rai), cumin seeds (jeera), turmeric powder, green chillies, coriander leaves

Recipe:

1. Peel the beetroot and boil in water.
2. Grate it after it cools.
3. Add salt and sugar (if needed)
4. Mix it with curd.
5. Heat oil. Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, green chillies (chopped finely), asafoetida and turmeric powder.
6. Pour this seasoning on the beetroot mixture prepared in step 4 above.
7. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Mix thoroughly.
8. Serve chilled.

I first heard about Capgras delusion in an episode of Criminal Minds. I thought they had made it up so I checked on the net and was surprised to find that the mental disorder is quite real. Here's an article about few more such disorders which sound too fantastic to be true but are.

आदते अलग है हमारी दुनियावालोंसे
कम दोस्त रखते है मगर लाजवाब रखते है
बेशक हमारी माला छोटी है मगर.....
फूल उनमे सारे गुलाब रखते है

(Forwarded)

Driven - Memoirs of a Civil Servant Turned Entrepreneur by Jagdish Khattar

Do you know the names of these plants?

I was in for a shock when I called my salon to book an appointment for a haircut. I was told that the guy who had been doing it since past 3-4 years has left. 'This is a disaster!' was my first thought. It is very difficult, if not downright impossible, to find a good hair stylist. Mine had helped me a lot in increasing the length of my hair. 'I used to have waist-length hair a few years back. I cut it short for easier maintenance. But I want to grow it back again.' I had said sadly. 'It will take some time madam' he had remarked matter-of-factly. I don't know how he did it but within a couple of years I was sporting shoulder-length hair. Of course, every time I went for a trimming session I never tired of giving him 2 instructions - don't cut it short and don't straighten it while drying. I rather suspect that these stylists look upon hair as their personal enemy and start attacking it the moment they get their hands on their client's head :-)

Okay, back to the present tense. 'Who else have you got?' I asked in my best 'the-show-must-go-on' voice. The lady in charge of taking appointments recited a list of names of strangers. 'I want someone who has got a good amount of experience' I was firm. 'Madam, all our stylists are experienced' the receptionist piped up. 'Yeah, right!' I muttered. Now it was simply a matter of "eeny meeny miny moe". But I had a better idea. 'I want the first appointment on Sunday. Who have you got?'. The list had got whittled down to just 2 names - one of which was a male. So I chose the female stylist. And left the rest in God's loving hands.

On Sunday, I made my way to the salon with some trepidation, wondering what my head was going to look like on my way out. But the stylist seemed to know what she was doing. When she was done, my hair, instead of its usual habit of turning every strand in a different direction, looked like it belonged to the head of only one human being. An impressive feat indeed!

So, it looks like I am going to be okay.

It's so lonely when you don't even know yourself.

-- The title 'Knock Me Down', Artists 'Red Hot Chili Peppers'

ये जीवनके रास्ते, जीवनसे लम्बे है बंधू

I came across a few lines of a song from the 1968 movie Aashirwad in an article. Intrigued, I looked for the lyrics online. Here they are:

जीवनसे लम्बे है बंधू, ये जीवनके रास्ते
एक पल थमके रोना होगा, एक पल चलना हसके
ये  जीवनके रास्ते, जीवनसे लम्बे है बंधू


राहोंसे राही का रिश्ता कितने जनम पुराना
एक को चलते रहना आगे, एक को पीछे आना
मोडपे मत रुक जाना बंधू, दो राहोमें फंसके
ये  जीवनके रास्ते, जीवनसे लम्बे है बंधू

 दिन और रातके हाथो नापी, नापी एक उमरिया
सांस कि डोरी छोटी पड़ गयी, लम्बी आस डगरीया
भोर के मांझीवाले उठकर भोरसे पहले चलते
ये  जीवनके रास्ते, जीवनसे लम्बे है बंधू

As per the information on the net, the song is penned by the late Harindranath Chattopadhyaya and Gulzar. Hats off to both of them!

Oh hell! Fox Mulder is back from the dead and his sauciness as well as arrogance seems to have increased manifold. His all-time 'know-it-all' expression makes me want to punch him across the face. That's surprising, considering the fact that when Agent Doggett joined the x-files as Scully's partner, I had groaned in protest.

I would have liked to see Doggett and Mulder reconciling their differences and getting back to solving the bizarre cases. But since the series is just one season short of its end, I suspect that the aliens will not be an exception anymore, but rather a rule.

I just hope that they don't bring back the 'Cancer Man'. :-( 

Stir Fried Vegetables In Peanut-Chilli Sauce

Recently, I was looking for a gravy dish as an accompaniment - other than vegetables in Schezwan, Manchurian or sweet-sour sauce - for Chinese Fried Rice. I have tried a few recipes from Sailu's Kitchen and liked them. So I checked it out and found 'Peanut Flavored Vegetable Fried Rice & Stir Fried Vegetables In Peanut-Chilli Sauce'.

I am not a big fan of peanuts. Since the gravy cannot be made without them, I decided to omit them from the fried rice. Actually, I did not make fried rice as per her recipe because I thought it would be too bland for my taste. But I followed her recipe for the Stir fried veggies to a tee. And the result was delicious. :-)

Who knew the Chinese and the Thai would get along so famously!

New Tata Docomo Ad

I am one of those who reach for remote's Mute button and try to complete a chore or two the moment the commercial break starts. But since past few days, I have been keeping an eye out for one ad in particular - The Tata Docomo one.

It shows a kid running out of what can only be a bathroom, screaming at the top of his lungs. His dad, on watching him sprint past, decides to go and investigate. Seconds later, he runs out screaming for his mommy.

If you want to know why, go check the ad. :-)

Buniyaad (80s series) on DD National

I was surfing the TV channels last Thursday when I noticed the words 'Buniyaad' in the TV schedule. The channel in question was DD National so I tuned in. Sure enough, it was the 80s show. This episode had Lajo (Anita Kanwar), Satbir (Kanwaljeet Singh), Roshan (Mazhar Khan), J.B. (Abhinav Chaturvedi), his fiancee Mangala (Krittika Desai) and J.B's parents (Anjana Mumtaz and Vijendra Ghatge).

Funnily enough, I seem to remember that Lajo is a widow when her husband, MasterJi (Alok Nath) marries her, that though she raises Satbir as her own son, he is actually a son born out of wedlock to her husband's sister Veerawali (Kiran Juneja) and J.B.'s dad and that Mangala later falls for Satbir. :-)

I checked the channel's schedule - the show is aired every Wed-Thurs at 10:30pm :-)