Nominate me!

‘Martti Ahtisaari’, ‘Wangari Maathai’ !!! Wondering who these people are, I would have recognized these as names of cocktails or Japanese food, before looking for them on the internet. Now! ‘Barack Obama’ what about this name!!! I knew, it’s really an outdated topic, but the topic came up a few days earlier during a conversation and I thought of writing this. There was a huge hue and cry when the American president was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize few months back. On the onset of this write-up I would like to make a point that I am not judgemental on if the prize is right or wrong.

People all over the world debated and rationalised the decision of the Nobel Committee. Good for people like me, who understood what the prize is for. But unfortunately it didn’t happen when Mr. Ahtisaari or Ms. Maathai did win the prize. May be President Obama fell prey to his own popularity due his Presidency of a super power. A commoner like me and my friends, we knew who is man Obama is and to some extent what he did, so we are in a position to debate on it. Apparently he is the most powerful man on this planet who could be a saviour of many human lives or could be one who could cause damage to human lives. He showed substantial intent towards saving lives and the 5 wise men/women found he had done a good job so far.

Some call the prize is premature and I would call it pre-emptive. There is no harm is awarding a prize prematurely to someone if it’s going to produce good results in the future. Internet says in 1939 Adolf Hitler was nominated for the peace prize by a Swedish Parliamentarian, who knows had he been awarded the prize that year, he might not have gone to invade Poland, which triggered WW II. It would be unfair on Usain Bolt to expect him to run 100M races in 9.58 seconds through out his life and call him world champion at an age of 60. Probably 10 months in presidency was convincing enough for the committee to arrive at a decision. Even if they are to be proved wrong in the years to come, we can say Nobel Prize is after all a worthless prize and it could be awarded to someone worthless by a worthless people who had a 10 million Swedish Kroners to give away to someone and lots of people like me wasted time writing on it.

Off late, I am working for filthy rich Norway, which brings money to a company in rich Sweden, which pay me where the money goes to not so rich India. I am working for bringing in equality in the planet, eventually World Peace. Is this called Welfare-Economics by any chance! If yes! I am already a candidate for Nobel Prize for Economics!!! Who is going to nominate me? :)

Nominate me!

Kjerag

After a failed attempt during the mid of August due to bad weather, Kjerag seemed to be a distant dream with the autumn setting in and buses services stopped to Øygardsstøl. But there was something in the store, On a Friday evening me and Kristoffer had a chat and then decided to do it on Sunday if the weather is good and if Jennifer could adjust her weekend plans.

Everything fell in place at the right time and on the Sunday morning at 9:00 AM we 4 for us decided to start, me, Kristoffer, Jennifer, and 7 month old Rocky. After driving through some winding roads for about 2 hours we reached Øygardsstøl, the base from where the hike starts. This place is also called as ‘Eagle’s Nest’ may have got the name because of the restaurant there. Last few kilometres before Øygardsstøl is full of cairns on either side of the road of different sizes.

At around 11:30 AM we started the walk and followed the trail marked in ‘T’ symbol in red color. The first hill was the toughest I believe, may be because it was steep and Rocky was all excited and he improved the overall speed of the group. He was able to do almost most of the steep parts with ease, thanks to his ability to use his four limbs and low centre of gravity. After climbing up and down twice, we climbed the third hill to reach a plateau. It was amazing terrain with hardly any vegetation and the whole area looks like surface of the moon across the fjord. I could imagine the place could be looking evening more beautiful with snow cover during the winter. The walk on the plateau was long and a bit boring before you reach Kjerag. No doubt this place is impressive, the view of the fjord was amazing. And the vertical drop of 1000m really breathtaking. After a photo session there, headed to the Kjeragbolten which is the landmark location. Kjeragbolten is a rock struck between two cliffs. Without any doubt in mind it is most photographed rock in the whole world. J

Kristoffier and Jennifer had the courage to stand on the rock for a few snaps. I was not able to go anywhere near the rock. Probably next time I should wear a horse blinker to focus just on the rock. J We had the sandwiches that we carried and sat there for a while, before heading back. Way back much easier and not all that tiring. By now Rocky had gained a lot of confidence and it was able to find his own way in lot of places. We reached the parking in just over 2 hours. After relaxing at Øygardsstøl for a few minutes, we headed back to Stavanger and reached between 8-8:30 PM.

Thanks to the weather which remained wonderful through out the day, that made the trip fantastic.

Kjerag

The Great Austerity Drama

’Austerity’, I believe could be the most searched word in the English dictionaries online by many Indians, recently. I myself did a search before starting this blog. Its not a very common word in political parlance, considering no Elections in near future, So I thought understanding the meaning of it important. J

Indian government has requested or ordered its ministers to lead a simple life. Yes, Ministers were asked to vacate their plush five star hotel suites and travel economy class, all in order to cut cost and save tax payers money. In the whole drive some tried to prove their point by travelling economy class in an airline with a few seats around them vacant and travel chair car train inviting troubles and another made a statement not in the interest of the party’s policy on austerity and had to apologize later. All created a few interesting article for the news hungry media and people like me who browse the news portals online.

Will this drive make a common man happy? Yes, of course it will make you feel happy at the expense of your comfort. I don’t think one will have a comfortable journey with Rahul Gandhi besides him and be worried about the missed stone thrown at him. When a politician travels it’s not possible to avoid his side-kicks, guards, fans who come to see-off him, and most intimidating thing, the armed guards all over the place. To add to this, we could see a dozen journalists and cameramen to cover the rarest phenomenon on the earth.

Don’t they have the privilege to travel Business class? Yes. Of course they do have. After all they are people who run the country and most responsible people in position; if a CEO/SVP in the corporate world could travel why cant they? I don’t think a common man will whine about his tax money spent on their travel. As a tax payer I have no problem if a politician in Office uses a chartered jet or business class or 5 star accommodation, because they spend on all these to work for the Common Man. So the point is as long as they work for the people, they can spend and avoid discomfort to the people. And for god sake hope they don't make our wonderful train journey and flight journey hell by being one of us. It practically doesn't work. If they are still serious about the austerity drive, how about travelling in disguise by wearing a Halloween mask. :).

Hope this Auterity Naatak ends soon……

The Great Austerity Drama

Pressurized Capsule...

Beautiful young gals at your service, variety of drinks, magazines, movies, music and documentaries, toys and drawing books (Only if you are kid), you get what you want, of all the possible things, just by pressing a button, sitting at your place… All these comforts at the expense of ones personal space and you are restricted to 4 sq feet area. Spending a day of your life in an airplane is significant part, considering the unique lifestyle in a pressurized capsule, with the scarce resources available and makes a living out of it.

I was not lucky enough to get an aisle seat, instead got sandwiched between a male IT engineer and a female student (I believe). Never, will I explain the person in the check-in desk to give an aisle, in the seats in the center column in the flight, because there will be only one person disturbing me, while going to the loo, as against two people in the seats by the side of the window. The airline official understood something gave the sandwich seat.

The girl to my right was not in a mood to socialize, after some breaking the ice, [Smiles…] ‘do you go further from Bangalore?’… ‘Yes, to Shimoga’… ‘Are you working?’… ‘I am going to meet someone’…. That’s the conversation we had, before she went stuffing her head phones in to her ears. Conversation with the IT guy was typical, [Smiles…] where do you work? What do you work on?.... He went off to sleep, Woke up only twice for the food and drinks. I had to do a few high jumps to go out every time, thanks to his sound sleep, he was not bothered when I kicked him once, miscalculating the height.

Having nothing to do after the lunch/dinner… you really don’t know which meal of the day you have… Is it according to the time zone of the destination or the source?? Anyways, I started watching the moving ‘17 Again’ (a comedy movie) not a bad movie specially when you are bored, I heard occasional laughs from my right hand side….Movie ended and I went and stood near the space close to the toilets, just counting the number of people going in to them. J

After sometime pulled out my laptop with great difficulty and started writing this blog, but stopped writing to watch ‘Shawshank Redemption’, and completed this at my home in Chennai…..

Pressurized Capsule...

Heading back….

Irony is 27 C in Bangalore and 30 C in Stockholm.

I will be there in India in a few days and longing for the perfect weather at home. Cloudy day, drizzle, hot tea, egg puffs would be a best way to start after being away from home for so long.

Next few days will be to eat and get bored of idly, dosa, hyderbadi biryani, vada, sambar, chutny. Andhra meals at Bharathi, pani poori by the road side. Shopping!!! Hair cut and oil massage at my favourite barber shop. Next few days will be to make calls, update telephone numbers of friends. Next will be to fix my bicycle, I am sure it will be in a very bad state, get my pulsar, the motorbike which had displaced me over 60k km within the city limits for over 7 years. left hand side drive, had to keep telling myself to look in the right direction while driving and crossing the road.

Next would be to go home, meet parents and brother, photo seeing (they are really curious to know what I have been doing here). Next would be to meet the friends from the Nagar and usual gossips. 16 months a long time, enough, for a fast changing city like Chennai to look entirely different, a few Pizza huts/corners, few Cafe Coffee Day, few Malls, few more Mcdonalds would have sprung up in every nuke and corner of the city.

Watch my favorite series in the television live, not the recorded ones in the youtube.

May be much more……

Heading back….

'Gajar ka Halwa' for Dummies....

A quick guide to Gajar ka Halwa… (Search for this term in google, if you want more authentic processes/recipe on the net. However, the below process can produce a halwa close to 90%, as that of the original one and its easy :))

Things needed:
1. 1 kg Carrot
2. One can Condensed Milk (Sugared), You get it in ICA
3. Butter (osalted/non salted) 50gms
4. Almonds
5. Cashews
6. Dried Grapes (green ones), not the black ones
7. Milk 300-400 ml
8. Most important thing… PATIENCE
.
Step 1.
Grate the carrots thin using a grater, the size similar to carrot in the salad section in the restaurants should be good enough.

Step 2.
You will need a shallow pan with a thick bottom. If its thin then halwa will get struck in the pan, I am sure no dishwasher in the world can help :) . Heat the pan.

Step 3.
Melt the butter, and fry the almonds, cashews and dried grapes.

Step 4.
Just when nuts turn a bit brownish add the grated carrots to the pan.

Step 5.
Immediately add the milk to the pan, and reduce the heat of the stove. If your stove has a scale from 0-10, put it at 5. (Use this to calibrate to the stoves at your kitchen :)). Remember to add milk immediately as the carrots should not get fried in the butter.

Step 6.
Mix the carrot and milk well, and add the condensed milk to the mix. Stir well.

Step 7.
Keep stirring the mixture every 5 minutes, till all the water evaporates and the milk solidify. The carrot should get cooked well. (May take 90 minutes or so... but not much effort).

Serve it lukewarm with vanilla ice cream. Good Luck!!!

Disclaimer: The author of the blog is not responsible for any damages/dissatisfaction or what so ever caused due to the above mentioned process. You have decided to use the recipe at your own discretion. hahaha :))))

'Gajar ka Halwa' for Dummies....

Surströmming

Just came back to the apartment, after a failed mission with Surstromming.

I have been planning this for over a week, but owing to bad weather conditions last week, the operation was delayed by a week. After hearing from my colleagues about the dangerous gases that the can emits on opening, it was decided that it will be opened in an open area far from the habitation. J (Sounds as if like a nuclear test, it was not all that bad).

While opening the pressurized can spewed, a few drops of liquid on my clothes, (Oops I don’t have a laundry slot bookedJ). The first hole in the can left a horrible stench all around. By now, my mind of almost conditioned that I wont be able to eat it. The liquid in the can was drained, which is the main source of stench. I gathered some courage to took a small bite, it was salty and while chewing it I realized that instead of fish going in, the breakfast ate in the morning was coming out J. I thought it is time and give up and spit the fish. Only way one could eat this to think that stinking smell is due to the dog poo (Anna rightly describes the odor) which is few yards awayJ. I thought the taste is not all that bad though.

After coming back home I realized that, my camera cover, bag, jacket, can opener, all needs a wash. J

Surströmming