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

As a Consultant 23057826....

It's nearly 14 months in my professional career, that I have spent at Sony Ericsson as a consultant...and yes, it is nearing an end in a few days...I thought it’s time to reflect upon a few aspects of this assignment and my experience here....

More than a year ago, one fine morning I stepped into this office and got introduced to some 30 odd people, spread across 2 floors (hardly remembered any names)...I found a vacant desk for myself and started working... ‘Don’t they have any kind of induction session or orientation program here’, I thought to myself... Next moment I had to remind myself, ‘Hey! You are no more an Employee now !!’...and rest is history.

Certainly, it is the most diverse work environment in which I have ever worked...In an AM team meeting,one has to just look around to find people from different countries, spanning across the latitudes and longitudes of the globe. I don’t think it could have got any more diverse than that, unless I get to work with Martians or AI Robots in future. J My team is composed of Swede, English, Chinese and me. No doubt it is one of the most easy going teams and fun to work with. A stark difference is that, there is no line manager whom I have to report to, which means that there is no performance appraisal and development plans...hurray !! it was a real blessing in disguise. J

As an Application Support Consultant, what you do is very similar to fixing a multiple punctured bike tube using patches, you are neither allowed to replace the tube entirely, nor, replace the tire, however worn out it is. (Of late, I am riding a bicycle, hence this stupid metaphor J).

Most of the times, one is on the messenger chatting with a customer, who could be broadly classified under the following categories: *Frustrated with a bug in the system (or) *Frustrated with self for not getting in terms with the system (or) *Screwed up something in the system (or) *Waiting to screw up something in the system.

When you are not on the messenger, you will be seen writing an email typically starting like, ‘Dear Customer, This is with reference to ticket number xxxxx….!!’. J

Apart from these, you are either attending meetings and Release related handover meetings...with every new release we solve a few bugs and manage to introduce a few new bugs and the cycle continues J....after all anything to keep the customer happy….: J

Well that’s all about work and lets come to fun at work. Of course the above mentioned things are no less fun. J Every Monday, at lunch hour, it used to be the Innebandy day and it was good fun. The local people are good at it; me and few others (read it as English man in my team J ) are the so called nuisance players. However I did manage to score a few goals both for and against my team during my short career as a bandy player, nevertheless all by fluke. Weekly Friday fika was another regular meeting time to have a cup of coffee and some goodies brought/baked by colleagues on a round robin basis. Apart from regular fika, we had Lussebulle on Lucia day, Semla on a winter day and Glogg on a day during Christmas time (Few events to get an essence of Swedish Culture). Another occasion for people to come together is the breakfast that occurs every alternate Fridays. All these contributed to fun at work.

Overall, last one year has been filled with plethora of experiences, fortunately all of which would be cherished in the years to come. :)

As a Consultant 23057826....

A Free Hamburger...

Yet again from the streets…. 

I was walking on the streets when I got attracted to the aroma of the hamburger patty on the grill, and decided to have a bite. It was an unusual road side stall with a long bench with all the ingredients of the hamburger on top of it and half a dozen people on the other side which is not common in Europe, where one single person will be busy multitasking. A man was behind the BBQ was turning the patty at regular intervals that left the whole street filled with scent of lard. 

I ordered a hamburger and the assembly line started. Each one in the stall pointed at different colored sauces and made sure I wanted it on the burger; I said yes to all, it really doesn’t make any difference to me, customizing a burger. One of them wrapped the burger in a colorful napkin and other gave me a plastic cup filled with a pink liquid, which I had not asked for. I stood there for a moment and took a bite of the burger, waiting for someone to tell out a number. It looked like no one is ready to take money from me. Meanwhile I saw, an old lady simply said ‘Tack’ and walked away. 

I glanced around, a girl looked like boss of the whole group, and asked her, ‘Don’t I have to pay for this?’ she replied ‘No it’s free!’ She continued that they are from Vaasa, celebrating the start of ‘congregation of Uppsala ***** (I forgot what it is)’, and said few more things about the congregation, which I couldn’t understand. 

This was very similar to ‘Maari aatha ku koolu uthurathu’ (Language –Tamil, Maari aatha – Hindu God,  Koolu – is a thick liquid made from rice/millet), where the Koolu in huge container, carried on bullock carts and distributed to the public around the streets, in my home town during festivals. 

I thought to myself in Sweden they distribute Hamburger, I enjoyed the free, delicious Hamburger, However I couldnt  figure out what the pink liquid was, it did not have any taste, may be a Swedish version of ‘Koolu’ J.

A Free Hamburger...

Susan Boyle

I have no idea as what Opera singing is and I am no expert in judging good/bad music. All I knew is some Bollywood, Tollywood, Kollywood by a few Indian composers, occasionally some music from the West, and some random numbers here and there, clearly I haven’t found a pattern in my liking for music till now.

Of late, I saw a video from the talent hunt TV show, that featured a forty seven year old woman who desires to be a professional Opera singer, was booed by the audience looking at her appearance, demeanor and age. At the end of her performance she goes on to win the hearts of millions and stood as an example for the statement, ‘Appearance is Deceptive’.

I would say this video clip itself is a Moral Story and full credit to the editor of the video who interlaced the shots from audience’s cynical gestures, undermining statements, sarcastic smiles, standing ovation, roaring crowd, happy faces, anchors’ comments, jury feedback and the woman celebrating like a child.

As I mentioned earlier I have no clue about Opera, but no doubt I like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Susan Boyle

Neighbor

My curiosity was satisfied after visiting the famous Khan-el-Khalili Bazaar and I was walking back to the Attaba Station. Someone interrupted me on the way and asked, ‘Where is the nearest Metro station to go to Sadat?’ The man was in his early 40s was wearing a thick woolen sweater, carried a small backpack, and looked like a South Asian. I was not surprised, at someone asking me for directions, for obvious reason that I don’t look like a foreigner there.

I was glad that he asked a question, for which I knew the answer, as I walked down from Attaba to the Bazaar a while ago; I told him that I knew the way to Attaba Station, from where he can take a train to Sadat and he could follow me to the Station. While we walked I asked his whereabouts, he said ‘Pakistan’. The very next moment, I felt awkward and various thoughts started bombarding my mind. I had to consciously avoid showing my discomfort and stop acting indifferently. However, I was glad that he did not ask me where I came from, which would have put him in the same kind of situation. Or, may be he was smart enough to guess, by looking at my stupid body language, which I found difficult to conceal.

This was my first encounter with my neighbor, though an uneasy one, none of us could be blamed.

Neighbor