Recipe for Disaster

Here's my recipe for the most disastrous christmas cake ever, but I managed to turn it into a spectacular success at the end... read on :)

Honey Spice Cake

Flour 3 cups

Margarine <1>

Sugar 0.50 cup

Honey 0.75 cup

Eggs 2

Milk 4 tbsp, or as needed

Salt 1 pinch

Ground cinnamon 0.50 tsp

Baking soda 1 tsp

Grated lemon rind / Chopped apricots / whatever u want

Grease and line the cake tin. Sieve the flour, salt, cinnamon powder and soda together. Cream the fat, sugar, honey and beat in the eggs. Fold in flour, alternating with milk. Adjust milk quantity as required to make a batter. Bake at 170 C.

So... where's the disaster? Well, I forgot to put in the baking soda, because the original recipe calls for "self-raising flour" and I used ordinary flour, and of course, IT DIDNT RISE!! :( so after baking what i got was a dense, moist, rubbery mass... which by the way, tasted good :) just didnt look that great...

So what i did was... cut it into little square pieces, arrange it in an attractive pan, whip up some custard and pour it on top. It turned out LOVELY, and really made the cut for our christmas dessert :)

Merry Christmas to all!!

CHRISTMAS AGAIN!!

Happy holiday season to everyone! :)

DISCLAIMER

None of what I write is meant to hurt any particular person's feelings or attack their dignity or social standing. These are just my own personal thoughts and experiences, which I am putting forth. Feel free to agree or disagree. And leave me a comment, especially is you disagree :)

Recently...

FOLLOW ON --

24th rocked, and so did 29th!! We had the wildest parties :D

UPDATES --

1. IM MISS PERSONALITY!!! Its about time people realized how absolutely amazing I am ;)
2. School days of the year 2008 are officially over, we have pre-boards now.
3. Im losing my head with assignment submissions and journal work!! When are we supposed to study, after the boards?!?

THE ISSUE --

Yesterday, in my class of 20, the absentee list showed 13 names (I was on that list too :P) Just 7 people in class! So today our revered and respected (ha) Principal Sir (arent I the politest?) called the whole batch and we had a right dressing down for our "improper attitude and behaviour" and "lack of respect for teachers"... Now the thing is, I have two views on this issue.

One : Student's perspective

What do they mean by calling the whole batch, picking on the absentees and trying to humiliate them in front of others? Dont they realize that as a batch, we stick together, and they are doing nothing more than losing whatever respect we have for them in the first place! I know its hard to believe, but then, thats us... defensive teenagers :) Anyway, ya, we WOULD like some time please, not everyone is a genius in your class, with revision going ahead like a speeding train.. what do they mean by threatening to cancel the pre-boards? I know students whose absence yesterday was their first leave since mid-term. Just because others take the liberty to bunk, why are the regulars OBLIGATED to fill your classes???
I happen to have been taking attendance on behalf of our class teacher for the past 2 months.. so 13 is a little extreme, but havent you noticed the 7 or 9 students taking leave every alternate day? How come you suddenly sat up and took notice this time?

Two : Unbiased perspective

13 people absent?!?! Is that reasonable?!? The establishment is right on its part to bring this matter to notice, but hey, what about the regulars? Why should we participate in the spectacle created by the Principal and the teachers? You want to be fair, then do some homework -- take attendance of the last 2 months, find out those who have been playing truant, weed them out.
Seriously, I understand how the teachers must have felt... really, I do. With all due respect, Sir, sincere apologies. But the fact is, we dont take leave because we want to hurt your feelings. If I were a teacher, I would have felt terrible... it would be like a slap in my face, to see an empty class. The students owe the teachers an apology. Note -- only the teachers.

Now, let's clear up some important points :
First, the students have enormously more respect for the class teachers than for anyone else. Not kidding. But, we dont attend school purely because we respect you, nor do we bunk because we dont respect you. Taking leave is NOT a personal attack.
Second, what in the world was Principal sir doing today? Picking on the students, humiliating them, parents included! He seems to have made a habit of criticising parents.. blaming them for their assumed "carelessness". Again, is that reasonable and fair?
Third, another request. Last and final. Directed towards our class teachers. Sir, we respect you, and like you. We want to respect Principal sir. We're imploring you... please assist us in doing so.

24 NOVEMBER!!!!

Can you believe it??? 24th November is my dad's, Kruti's AND Nikolai's bday!! IM HAUNTED BY SAGITTARIANS!!! but then, we're so compatible =)

So Bunni nd me have this elaborate plan... to surprise them and celebrate. I mean, come on, its not easy to plan a triple surprise, also the complication that Niki doesnt want me to give up spending tym with my dad for my friends... so we came up with a really great idea!

First of all, we're cooking some things for them, since they refuse to believe that we can cook anything at all! So Bunni is plannin to make somethin with paneer, nd im gonna make cheese sticks, nd i got pringles with salsa... nd im making cakes for them... nd then sprite with lemon... and all =)
big plans, you know... and after all that fancy stuff, a surprise at ccd !

Anyway, I hope it goes well... will keep ya updated! ;)

Chemistry SUPW!

In the entire week, we have the worst timetable on thursdays. 9 continuous theory periods! Double Bio, double Math, double Chem... its mind-numbing. But last period we have SUPW... and three of my friends and I have opted for Chemical Use In Daily Life... sounds interesting, na? It really is... we make phenyl, handwash soap etc etc... i know i know, what the hell are WE doing here? but we have loads of fun! seriously!!
Nami got this method for preparin jam, so thats what we're gonna do next... Sir dictated the method to us today, and it was totally like science journal work! :) here it is :

EXPERIMENT : MIXED FRUIT JAM

REQUIREMENTS-
4 papayas
6 chikoos
12 apples
12 bananas
1 pineapple
1/2 kg black grapes
6 kg sugar
6 tsp citric acid
1.5 tsp sodium benzoate
potassium cyanide (just kidding!!! DO NOT ADD THIS) (unless ofcourse, the Princi is goin to be the first one to sample it... then i wouldnt mind adding just a bit of KCN) (but seriously, DONT)
raspberry red food colouring
strawberry and pineapple essences

PROCEDURE -
Take pulp from all the fruits and cook. Pass ity through a strainer. To the cooked pulp add equal quantity of sugar and keep it on fire till the required consistency. Add 6 tsp citric acid 10 minutes before removing from the fire and test for doneness. Then add food colouring, strawberry essence, pineapple essence, and sodium benzoate. Mix and bottle it immediately.

EXPECTED RESULT -
12 bottles of 200 gms each.

PRECAUTIONS -
The pulp should be passed through a strainer and not put in a mixer otherwise the jam will become pasty. Citric acid should not be added in the beginning otherwise inversion (of what?) will take place. No head space should be left in the bottles (whose head?). Bottles should be closed after the jam cools.

OBSERVATIONS AND FINAL RESULT -
coming soon... :)

Rumors

Saturday - steppin' into the club
The music makes me wanna tell the DJ
Turn It Up
I feel the energy all around
And my body can't stop moving to the sound

But I can tell that you're watching me
And you're probably gonna write what you didn't see
Well I just need a little space to breathe
Can you please respect my privacy?

Why can't you just let me do the things I wanna do
I just wanna be me, I don't understand
Why would you wanna bring me down
I'm only having fun, I'm gonna live my life
(But not the way you want me to)

I'm tired of rumors starting
I'm sick of being followed
I'm tired of people lying
Saying what they want about me
Why can't they back up off me?
Why can't they let me live?
I'm gonna do it my way
Take this for just what it is!

Here we are back up in the club
People taking pictures, don't you think they'd get enough?
I just wanna be all over the floor
And throw my hands up in the air to a beat like (What?)

I gotta say respectfully,
I would love it if you take the cameras off of me
'Cause I just want a little room to breathe
Can you please respect my privacy?

Why can't you just let me do the things I wanna do
I just wanna be me, I don't understand
Why would you wanna bring me down
I'm only having fun, I'm gonna live my life
(But not the way you want me to)

I'm tired of rumors starting
I'm sick of being followed
I'm tired of people lying
Saying what they want about me
Why can't they back up off me?
Why can't they let me live?
I'm gonna do it my way
Take this for just what it is!

Hello Sir, if you're reading this, welcome to my blog :)

Birthday Surprises

I dont necessary strive to always be the center of attention, but I dont mind it either ;) And on my birthday, the universe revolves around me!!

I had a great birthday!! I'll never forget the surprise party... thanks a lot, evry1!!!

lotsa luv
*moi*
<3

Mindless.

Someone says something. Someone whispers something. Someone gestures.
Sometimes people are so unknowingly instrumental in killing a soul, a spirit. A single word is enough. It feels like a part or me, something inside, dies. A little corner of my heart gets singed. Every single time. I wonder what I will finally be left with.

It happens with friends. It happens with family.

But most often, it happens with school teachers. Funny na. They are supposed to be the ones who "shape our spirit" and "wholly develop our outlook and personality". Ha.

Mindless murderers.

Show me the meaning...

" The heart does things for reasons that reason cannot understand"

This comes to me as a consolation, an excuse for certain behaviour that we display. Who claims to always have rational thoughts and actions? Never happens. After all, we're only human. Some happenings are extremely joyful. Others are extremely painful.
What defines the pain that someone feels? Everyone feels differently. Everyone is offended differently.
People shout, people sulk, people hate. Sometimes there is nothing that can be done to console them. But sometimes there is also nothing that can explain this behaviour, and thats when I think of the above line -- the heart does things for reasons that reason cannot understand.
Why do I shout? Why do I sulk? Knowing always, that there is no rational explanation? What do I say when people ask? I tell them... that the heart does things for reasons that reason cannot understand.

Ramblings of an Amateur

Sreesanth is an embarrassment to Indian cricket! I was just watching the IPL match between the Rajasthan Royals (Jaipur) and Punjab XI Kings (Mohali)... Sreesanth was bowling to Shane Watson and damn... something happened and the look he gave to Watson!! That sort of attitude ought to be restricted to gully cricket. So yeah, hez a great bowler... yeah, there's a lot of hype about him... yeah, he caught the last ball at the T20 World Cup... but does that excuse his insane behaviour on the pitch?!?

Im sure many experts have written pages and pages about this... am just a bystander who happened to watch one over of the match (I wish I cud watch the whole thing!! dammit I have a Chem test tomorrow!!) and I was just absolutely appalled at the kind of behaviour Sreesanth displays... a few balls after the aforementioned incident, Watson hit a beauty, a four... and the mood in our living room was like, "great, give it back to that rascal"... LOL! Unconciously, we had all been hoping for a few outstanding shots from Watson to put our great Sreesanth back in his place...

Just some random ramblings...
Getting back to Haloalkanes and Haloarenes...

Au revoir!

Gitanjali...

Im into poems, but I never was really interested in Gitanjali... somehow it never appealed to me... not that I had read it :P but it seemed like the only people who did read it were oldies and boring people... even most bengali patriots who swore by Tagore had not read it! :D
But I wondered what the hype was all about... I mean, the Nobel Prize, come on, must be something... so I bothered to go through it, and I liked some of the verses... here are three...

(the most obvious one, also my favourite) :

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up
into fragments by narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason
has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is let forward by three into ever-widening thought and action-
Into that heaven of freedon, my Father, let my country awake.

Song Unsung

The song that I came to sing remains unsung to this day
I have spent my days in stringing and unstringing my instrument
The time has not come true, the words have not been rightly set;
only there is the agony of wishing in my heart
The blossom has not opened; only the wind is sighing by
I have not yet seen his face, nor have I listened to his voice;
only I have heard his gentle footsteps from the road before my house
The livelong day has passed in spreading his seat on the floor;
but the lamp has not been lit and I cannot ask him into my house
I live in the hope of meeting with him; but this meeting is not yet.

Lotus

On the day when the lotus bloomed, alas, my mind was straying, and I knew it not
My basket was empty and the flower remained unheeded
Only now and again a sadness fell upon me, and I started up from my dream and felt a sweet trace of a strange fragrance in the south wind.
That vague sweetness made my heart ache with longing and it seemed to me that it was the eager breath of the summer seeking for its completion.
I knew it not then that it was so near, that it was mine, and that this perfect sweetness had blossomed in the depth of my own heart.

After a while...

Damn its been a long long time. I cant believe I got through 11th!!! I mean, it was a very realistic possibility that I might fail this year... I managed a 60+, im shocked as hell... pleasantly shocked :P not complaining!

Taking a whole new approach to 12th... wont repeat the same mistakes (will make new ones! hehe) I've dropped maths tuition - waking up at 6 in the morning is the most counter-productive thing I have ever done in my life... also dropped chemistry tuition - i anyway never used parab sir's notes, why the hell should i continue, i used to use those two hours to catch up on sleep... Since its board year, I'm planning on being completely dependent on the textbooks, and if I have any sort of problem I plan to get behind KK and Zim sirs for the solutions... they'r the teachers, and I have decided to totally exploit the school resources...

In theory it should work. Practically? Lets give it a month or two and see :)

You know what? Seems like 4 people have been detained in 11th. I mean, alright, they didnt get the required 33% pass percentage... but what sort of a school kicks out its students??! And one of them couldnt make the cut by just 3 marks. Come on, doesnt the school have some sort of a social responsibility?? Its not doing us a favour by giving us an education, it must realize that hey, Anandalaya is by far NOT the best school around... attending it is merely a locational necessity. Just as it is our responsibility to always be at our best, to be well-turned-out Anandalaya students, isnt it also the school's responsibility to make least bit of effort to ensure that it happens? That we become "well-turned-out Anandalaya students"??

I liked something my father said : private schools run on money. Every student is financially important to them, so they do their best to make sure every seat is filled and no student ever faces a detainments situation. On the other hand, government schools can be questioned by the judiciary. Theirs is the greatest social responsibility, and they are under pressure for being answerable for whatever happens to any student. So basically, in one, money talks, and in the other, power talks.
But my school? Anandalaya the great is neither here nor there. To put it simply in hindi, sirf management ki manmani chalti hai. One of my friends said, ya, neither money nor power talks, but hey, in Anandalaya, marks talk. The criteria are clear : if you dont make the cut, you're out.
I think that is such a farce. I mean, whats the point of failing a child in 11th? At the end of the year, is it right that the school is asking a student to leave??

There is an option for students to give board exams as private candidates. But, for this, it is required for the student to have class 12 education on certificate.
Every school anyway conducts prelims before the board exams. In fact, Anandalaya conducts two rounds of prelims, a system I strongly advocate for. So if a student does not manage to do well, or fetch even 40% marks in the prelims, the school could suggest that he/she write the boards as a private candidate. Wouldnt that be the best option, for both the student as well as the school? I know the school only worries about its result, I would be surprised if they cared about the student individually, its only the overall result of every successive batch that counts in the long run. So it would be a win-win situation, wouldnt it? The school wouldnt have to worry about its results, and the student faces no insult, family trauma or the stigma of failing, which, lets admit, is made worse than it actually is, by society.

But hell, who would think about it.

Another question is; why am I bothering at all? I've managed to pass quite acceptably, so why create such a ruckus about those who havent? Its not about who has been detained; its not because some of them happen to be very close friends. It is only because its upto me, its upto us, those who have managed to pass, to put the point across. The fairest king has always been the one whose courtiers have been varied in their opinions; the advantaged must speak for the disadvantaged. Its the same principle that applies when we take it as social responsibility to speak out against poverty, pollution, exploitaiton...

Aargh. Just my thoughts. Too complex?