Ginger & Cardamom

I saw this tag on Monika’s Blog and then on Preeti’s Blog, as a lot of you would be knowing that I am writing a post a day for like almost a month (have to do it till its completely a month) I take all the tags where I have been tagged. So I do this one, and as it turns out it was fun too with the strange voices in my head giving weird comments, so read at youur own risk-

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?

Damn I look good, (Voice inside my head: Only if you lose 10 kgs)

2. How much cash do you have in your wallet right now?

Had to count Rs. 5227/- Only (including all the chiller)

3. What’s a word that rhymes with DOOR?

Adore, Sore, More, Core, Shore, Galore, Floor, Pour….

4. Who is the 4th person on your missed call list on your cell phone?

The HDFC Credit Card lady, missed her call as I was in a meeting. Later I agreed to take the credit card if she comes for a coffee with me. Damn she refused, she knew I am not going to get the CC and would not be able to pay for the coffee, so considerate no?

5. What is your favorite ring tone on your phone?

Rihaana – Umbrella,

Beatles- I wanna hold Your Hand

Phil Collins- You’ll be in my heart

Rembrandts – I’ll be there for you (Friends Title Song)

6. What are you wearing right now?

(Why the question sounds too corny to me??? What are you wearing baby types…..and we all know where this goes) Clothes, this is 2009 not 10000BC where I would be wearing a leaf okay two leaves front & back.

7. Do you label yourself?

Oh Yes, Prateek Gupta- Cracking bad ones since 1982.

8. Name the brand of the shoes you’re currently own?
Formal Shoes- Hush Puppies & woodland

Casual Shoes – Reebok

Non Marking Squash Shoes- Reebok

Floaters – Adidas

Chappals- Osho Chappals from Koregaon Park Pune :-D ( I have 3 of them )

9.Bright or Dark Room?

Alone – Bright Room, with someone hot – its better to turn of the lights :-)

10. What do you think about the person who took this survey before you?

Well two of the people took it-

Preeti – She is an unbelievable portrayal of a picture perfect life.

Monika- A very genuine & fun loving person

11. What does your watch look like?

Formal Watch- Chronograph from Swatch, Black Dial and golden brown leather strap.

Casual Watch- Time and Date From Tommy Hilfiger, Metallic Grey Dial with a very heavy look and feel.

There are couple of others most of them metallic and heavy round dials. And I am supposed to get one more Chronograph from a contest I won last month.

12. What were you doing at midnight last night?
Watching Rush Hour

13. What did your last text message you received on your cell say?
Save the settings & Rstart your IDEA phone to Njoy the world of internet. Get FREE Ringtones on http://wap.ideafresh.com/free Brwsing charges as per plan.

14. What's a word that you say a lot?
Loads of them – I, Hey, Excuse me, Thank you, Fuck, Hell, Crap, Damn, Okay, Exactly, For the sake of assumption/understanding.

15. Who told you he/she loved you last?(please exclude spouse , family, children)

Tanvi

16. Last furry thing you touched?
Will toothbrush count as furry (I guess no). Well a Yak on the shimla trip two years back.

17. Favourite age you have been so far?

Imperial Age in the Age of Empires

In Real life I haven’t seen anything other than the Iron Age, where men demarcate nations with boundaries; they learn the arts of navigation and mining; they are warlike, greedy and impious. Truth, modesty and loyalty are nowhere to be found

But the Golden Age sounds fun, defined by justice and peace.

18. What was the last thing you said to someone?

You should watch Paycheck & Thank you for Smoking, amazing movies both of them are.

19.The last song you listened to?

Aaj Purani Rahon Se Koi Mujhe Aawaz Na De Dard Mein Dubey Geet Na De Gham Ka Sisakta Saz Na De

20. Where did you live in 1987?
Kanpur: In my home

21. Are you jealous of anyone?

A lot of people.

22. Is anyone jealous of you?

I wish they were.

23. Name three things that you have on you at all times?

A locket from the temple my family believes in, an armband from the same temple (people see it as my arm has been bandadged, everytime I wear a T, people ask me about it), My hair.

24. What’s your favourite town/city?

Well Kanpur would top charts as I grew up there but otherwise, Hyderabad & Pune.

25. When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper and mailed it?

4 Years back on a greeting card.

26. Can you change the oil on a car?

Yes, I can change the oil, clean the oil & air filters too. My dad made me to go to the garage for couple of days so that I learn the basic parts of the engines.

27. Your first love/big crush: what is the last thing you heard about him/her?

Well, I don’t remember. Never bothered to find out, Kind of dead issue out of the system .

28. Does anything hurt on your body right now?

Yeah my right knee, twisted while playing yesterday

29.What is your current desktop picture?

Deccan Charger Wall Paper

30. Have you been burnt by love?

Yawn!!! Good Question, Next one please??

Srivats did this tag on his blog and it was supposedly on one of the most interesting subjects in my life, Books. So I decided it would be fun to do it. So here I share with you my take on one of my passions, books-

One book that changed my life:
Every book we read affects us in one way or the other. But the books which have had the most impact on me are-

Bhagwad Gita
Richard Bach- One

Select Essays by Bertrand Russel

The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

Autobiographies of Lee Iococa & Carly Fiorina

The book you have read more than once:

All the books mentioned in the point above and

Shantaram – Gregory David Roberts

Atlas Shrugged- Ayn Rand

Q&A- Vikas Swarup

Five Point Someone- Chetan Bhagat

Snapshots from Hell: The making of an MBA Peter Robinson

Jonathan Livingstone Seagull & Illusions - Richard Bach

Arthashastra by – Kautiliya

One book you would want on dessert island:
Harry Potter Series

Bhagwad Gita

PG Woodhouse

Ayn Rand Series

One book that made you laugh:

Calvin & Hobes

Haven’t read much in Humor though

One book that made me cry:

None though Oliver Twist & Tuesdays with Morry made me very emotional

One book you wish you had written:

None I wish I would write my own book

One book that you wish had never been written:

Coffee Table Books, I never am able to understand the purpose of Obnoxiously high priced books with fancy pictures. It actually spoils all the purpose of the books existence rather focuses on the kind of money people have.

One book you are currently reading:

The great Secret- Talks on Kabir by Osho

Words of Kabir- Sam Kerwal

Another book on Kabir which just has the title as Kabir

One book you have been meaning to read:

Shivaji: A Hindu Ruler in Mughal India (I can’t read it as it is not available in India, as it is banned)

In the Company of Women - I have read it now, but I actually waited for it so long. The book was in news and controversies and our school library had a copy. I asked to issue it (was in class XII then) and I was refused that it was not meant for us, I actually took it up with the principal that how can a school library has a book which is not fit for class XII students after all it was the senior most class. Anyways was not able to get my hands on it and when I actually got an opportunity to read it, it was 3.5 years later.

So this has been my journey with the books till now. So hows your journey to the wonderful world of books has been? If you are into reading and love your books and find this tag interesting, please feel free to do it.

The tag was started by Preeti and since it is called Fun Friday and needs to be done on a Friday, so I am doing it without delaying it. So here goes the tag-

These are the 5 questions I had to answer to complete this tag-

I have just discovered --- Jerry Maguire and I am in awe of the character (Yeah people I hadn't seen the movie before)

One thing that I will unabashedly admit— I am very opinionated and stubborn. I take quick decisions and am often rutheless in communicating my thoughts.

One thing that I would never ever do, even if you pay me a million pounds— I don't know but I think I would not compromise on my core set of values.

Right now I’d rather be ---Sleeping (Yawn!!)

If I had to choose between a date with an ex (with no potential to make up) and a new office hottie (who is a dimwit) I’d choose— Whosoever is hotter :-)

Well anyone who feels like taking this Tag, go ahead and do it.

Monika tagged me to write about the domestic horrors. Well I have been a very civilized kid throughout. My lazy self and averseness to do anything in the kitchen which includes lighting the gas stove, they are really complicated procedure and should be done only by the trained professionals (Read: Mom). Then upholding of family tradition in taking laziness to new levels, I never experimented with Ironing of clothes or anything of the sorts. Even all the electrical circuitry experiments which was the most I did along the house were carefully handled.

So I have not involved in major domestic disasters, except for a fact where I almost try to burned the house down by leaving a switch open for a fan which had its coils burning or the other time when I burnt down the Hostel room with the incense sticks (Agarbatti) which I left burning on my room after the prayers. But there is one disaster I managed which was not very deadly, but yeah it’s a paramount display of my care and concern for the family, health and hygiene, despite that I got thrashed badly by my mom Hitler V6.0 22^nd Reprint. So here is how the story goes-

I was a kid then you know something like 8-9 years old. The time around May used to be a happening time in the house, as my holidays would have been going on and my cousins Ekta & Shweta would come to live at our place and I used to get someone to play with me and boss around for some time. This was also the time when my Mom used to prepare a lot of delicacies, specially different kind of Achars (pickles). Now my mom is an amazing cook and she puts in lot of effort to ensure that whatever we eat is home made this generalizes from daily meals to sweets to ghee to pickles to papad. As a matter of fact I have hardly seen any of these being ever bought in my home.

Getting back to the story, so this may the mango produces were good and my mom decided that she would prepare aam ka achar (mango pickle) for everyone in the family. Undertaking this mammoth feat she actually put in pickles in a tub must have been around 10 kgs of kacha aam ka achar. I don’t know where and why, but during some part of her preparation this pickle needs to be left out in the air for drying or fermenting. I don’t really know why, so mom actually made place for the huge tub which had all 10 Kgs of Achar on the table and then she left for some work outside home. At this time me and Shweta were at home playing around the house and having fun, when my sharp eye for details noticed the biggest fallacy done by my mom. She left had left the tub with all the Achar open, and there were mosquitoes all over the achar.

Being a diligent student that I was, I remembered my teachers telling me that mosquito bites can cause malaria. Well and I didn’t wanted everyone eating the achar to be sick, so I we decided that we would set it right. So we got which was proclaimed to be the best solution for mosquitoes on national television aka doordarshan, the Odomos and with all due diligence we applied odomos on the achar where the mosquitoes were sitting.

Being the humble person I am, I forgot to report this incident to mom, No point making her feel guilty her responsible son had covered her tracks and the achar was good to go. When my mom saw the achar she tried to figure out what went wrong. She also thought if butter had fallen into the achar. Then finally she asked me, if I knew what happened. Well I surely did and I being a true gentleman, I obliged and narrated the story in full detail. Man what happened after that was real disaster, I got a well deserved thrashing and mom had to throw away a lot of her achar.

Everyone in the family including my sis & mom we still laugh like crazy, over this incident. But deep down I just thank god, the hit & baygon Sprays of the world were not invented, and bombarded from the TV at that time. God knows what would have happened then.

Saw this list on one of Farting pen’s blog, really liked it so thought would shamelessly put it up on my blog without being tagged. Yeah that’s my desperation level to post new posts. The gem had allowed every1 to copy it so here I go-

Kissed any of your friends on social networking groups? Yes

Been arrested? Yes

Kissed someone you didn’t like? Yes

Slept until 5 PM? No

Fallen asleep at work/school? No

Held a snake? Yes

Ran a red light? Yes

Been suspended from school? Yes

Totaled your car/motorbike in an accident? No

Totaled a friend’s car/motorbike in an accident? No

Been fired from a job? No

Sang karaoke? Yes

Done something you told yourself you wouldn’t? Yes

Laughed until something you were drinking came out of your nose? Yes

Caught a snowflake on your tongue? No

Kissed in the rain? No

Sang in the shower? Yes

Sat on a rooftop? Yes

Been pushed in a pool with all your clothes? No

Broken a bone? Yes

Shaved your head? No

Blacked out from drinking? No

Played a prank on someone? Yes

Felt like killing someone? Yes

Made your girlfriend/boyfriend cry? Yes, and a lot of friends too

Had Mexican Jumping Beans for pets? No

Been in a band? No

Shot a gun? Yes

Donated blood? No

Eaten alligator meat? No

Eaten cheesecake? Yes

Still love someone you shouldn’t? No

Believe in love? I don’t know

Sleep on a certain side of the bed? Yes.

Believe in fate? Yes, especially when I make my own luck!!

Believe that things “happen for a reason”? No, most lame excuse ever!

Held a grudge longer than a year? Yes, I never forgive, I never forget

Hid a secret for a long period of time? Yes

Miss someone on your facebook list of friends? No.

Changed the oil in your vehicle? Yes

Threw up after riding a rollar coaster? No

Bought a gift for someone and kept it for yourself? Yes, That’s how mean I am

Bought something and returned it worn? Yes

Tripped on LSD? No

Have any tattoos? No

Seen a ghost? Yes.

Done body shots? No

Peed in the pool? Yes

Passed gas and blamed it on someone else without their knowledge? Yes

Have body piercings below the neck? No

Think about the future? Yes.