I am your friend.... or AM I? read to find out.

AM NOT YOUR FRIEND IF.....
you have to think before you speak to me!

I AM NOT YOUR FRIEND IF.....
my presence ever makes you feel uncomfortable!

I AM NOT YOUR FRIEND IF.....
you have to thank me for everything I do for you!

I AM NOT YOUR FRIEND IF.....
you have to say sorry for everything
that you don't do!

I AM NOT YOUR FRIEND IF.....
you have to ask me for favors!

I AM NOT YOUR FRIEND IF.....
you think I would not be curious to
know your new philosophy of life!

I AM NOT YOUR FRIEND IF.....
you go by what I say and do not understand
what I don't say!

I AM NOT YOUR FRIEND IF.....
you think that listening to your dreams
would put me to sleep!

I AM NOT YOUR FRIEND IF.....
you think that seeing you in pain, would
not bring a tear to me!

I AM NOT YOUR FRIEND IF.....
you think I do not remember the first time
we met!

I AM NOT YOUR FRIEND IF.....
you don't see the thousand ways I try to
make you happy!

Aloo Pyaaz ki sabzi

I decided to make aloo pyaaz ki sabzi for dinner last night. I had bought a couple potatoes and onions a couple days ago, and I figure I should finish them before they go bad. (Hate it when that happens and I have to throw away food!) I remembered from my last experience that potatoes will take a really long time to get tender on the pan, so I must boil them first. Or else the onion will end up getting burnt in the pan while the potatoes are still raw-ish.

I had still to figure out a perfect combination for boiling potatoes in the microwave. But last night, I just got perfect potatoes with the doneness set to about half way through. I was kind of over zealous I figure and so I put the oil in the frying pan and started heating it immediately, not realizing that the potatoes might take a while. I don't know how that affected things, but I've heard keeping on re-heating oil is not good. Or maybe that was re-boiling or letting it boil for too long. Regardless, I'm still alive and healthy, so I should just get over it. LOL. But when the potatoes were done boiling, I heated the oil up and put in the mustard seeds and cumin. 

I probably should have taken a wok or kadhai-like vessel, because the damn mustard seeds popped all over the stove top. Leaving a big mess for me to clean up! God! Then I put in the onions before my potatoes were ready to be thrown in, and by the time I peeled and diced and put in the boiled potatoes, they were kind of burnt. But still, the end result was decent. I think I might just start making that more often. Whoa! I had a really awesome dinner last night.

And when I have good dinner, I usually get very happy, over excited and do something foolish. Like giving away all the rest of it to sandeep! He absolutely loved it, despite there being no chilli powder in it. And that made me pretty happy for a while. But now I'm thinking I don't have any other good stuff to cook anymore! LOL. I guess I'll just get burger king or go hungry tonight. hehe. later days!

Remembering Old friends

As I was returning from the workshop, I realized the train was unusually crowded today. I remembered even Nick was talking about it the other day, he said he didn't even find a seat! And my mind wandered off ... FLASHBACK!

When I was in Mumbai, I was really sick on my birthday. But I went to my classes still. And there, in just about 6 days, I had befriended naveen a.k.a Alaric. We were returning back to andheri station from the workshop, and the bus, as always, was really crowded. Both of us couldn't find a place to sit, and that didn't seem like a problem, it was very commonplace. But a few minutes into the ride, I started feeling REALLY weak. I thought I'd try and squeeze onto a seat. But naveen noticed it, and asked a guy to let me sit because I'm sick. And I got a seat. It was a really nice thing to do. For both of them. And I decided I'd call up naveen when I get back home.

I hoped he still has the same number and dialed. It started ringing, I kept hoping its th right person. Immediately I realized that I had called him up at around 5:30 am in the morning! He would probably be sleeping and wouldn't talk much. Worse still, it could be a totally different person, and would get really pissed off! Just then, he picked up, and I got that familiar voice going 'hello'? First thing I said was

"sorry I didn't realize it's early in the morning there."

"Yash! kaisa hai man? How are you doing?"

I was shocked! I wasn't expecting him to realize it was me.. because the call routes through any random point, so he might be seeing a local number, or a random 4 digit number or 'private number' I mean, no possibility of his cellphone going "yash gupta calling". And him recognizing me by my voice was simply amazing! He did mention it had changed a little, but still...

Anyways, he said that he just dropped off a friend at the airport and was now heading back to his hostel, that's why he was up. But he was in the local train, so the connection wasn't stable. The call dropped a couple times, but I called him back. And we talked about almost everything. We could have easily gone for more, but I had to get back to dinner and he was walking back to his hostel by now.

I got down an email address that he's still using and I hope to keep in touch with him from now on. I also thought its been a while, I should call up rohin. But I had to finish the food vironica gave me, that was a weird mashed potato and eggplant thing, but it tasted yummy...except for the eggplant part. I hate brinjal. Those who don't know brinjal, go to wikipedia! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggplant

First Snowfall of the season

Oh! It finally snowed today! Winter is officially here. A typical canadian winter. Bring out your toques, mittens and snow boots! Its the smart thing to do! But I couldn't find my winter cap when I was supposed to leave for college! My dear adidas clima-warm cap that I bought last year. It served me a good 11 months, and now I think I've lost it. I might have left it in the college on monday or the workshop on saturday.  So I just went to college without a winter cap on. As soon as the wind started blowing in my face, and all the snowflakes started hitting me, I started thinking about the last winter and wondering how did I ever survive this weather!

I didn't stay for the whole of typography class. Its such a pain in the ass. I just waited till I got to ask him some questions I had in mind, and left. We also got briefed about the next assignment, which could be a typographic storyboard or a poster on the history of typography. Needless to say, I decided to do the storyboard. I got back home, fired up flash, and started making my animation based on the thumbnails that I had drawn in class. I will then print those frames out and trace over each of them on the bond paper. But for next week, I have to have the current assignment finished! Darn!

I went to shopping with vironica, And bought more okra. Vironica had been bugging me about winter boots and even I noticed that my toes were kind of wet and cold. So I said "what the heck" and decided to go to walmart and buy me a pair. I tried some really good ones on, and they were just 40 dollars! I was really amazed by how comfortable they felt. I would have bought them. But I figured I could check out some other places too before I actually let my money go. And when I went to look for a disc wallet, vironica went and grabbed a bunch of toques and gloves for me to try on. 

I figured I could buy another toque, ,even if I find my other one, what's the harm in having two. But I didn't want to buy gloves because I already have a few pairs. Plus, I'd rather buy mittens because they trap the body heat way better just because they have one thick compartment for the whole paw. In the end, I did end up buying nice mittens, I think they're called hot paws or something. Anyways, I am pretty satisfied with them, because I've already given them a test run, but will get to evaluate them better tomorrow morning. 

Pika Pika Comes to sheridan!

Oh, I would have felt so bad if I missed this. Seriously! I have been a big fan of light painting ever since I first got my camera. I had seen their animation with light painting when I was in india, and wanted to do something like that or myself! Finally, tonight, I did! A few days ago, alan cook posted information about this in his blog, cooked art. I immediately marked the day and time in ical. I was also going to put it in google calendar so that I could be reminded of it anytime, but I didn't get around to doing it. I also didn't sync my phone with my computer!

So at 7, I walk to the college for life drawing session. And I'm there, drawing away for a few minutes, when suddenly, out of nowhere, I remember about the lighting doodle project, and that it was supposed to start on "a monday" at 7 pm in A360. This is very unusual, because I don't usually remember things. So I decided to go out and check google calendar on my cellphone. But I couldn't confirm it. So I just decided to walk up to the room and check it out, if its not today, I'll just walk back and finish my drawing.

But I was lucky enough to get there in time. They had a really sweet setup! A video camera and a DSLR pointing to the people who are drawing. Both hooked up to the computer, the projector playing the live feed from the video camera on the screen. And the SLR being controlled by the software on the laptop. The people could see their place and where and how they are drawing on the screen, and right after the DSLR takes the shot, its shown on the screen so they can see it turned out. It was a really quick and excellent setup! The only glitch was that the DSLR lens was a wider angle than the video camera. 

There was also a live hookup with osaka japan using ichat on a ibook! They hooked up a camera which was showing them our side, and we saw what they were doing in japan. It was really sweet! Those guys were definitely more organized than us. Our side was just a room overfilled with people, and everyone was invading each other's space. Still, some cool animation came out of it. I wish they'd put it up on their blog or youtube soon so that I could show it to you. I was the spiral in one, and in the other one, I did a balloon flying up, and then it pops and falls down. I think that one was REALLY sweet. 

I really want to stop now, because the description without the images or video doesn't make much sense. But I was really excited about this. I even got an autographed dvd of theirs! Cool eh? later blog dogs!

OMG OMG OMG! its almost as if mom made it.

Yes, it tasted almost as if mom had made it, except for the fact that I made it. LOL. It's been about 11 months since I last had it. The day I was leaving for mumbai, my mom made it for me in pune. But arjun bhaiya and aniruddh bhaiya were hellbent on making me eat that filthy green shit. Boy was I pissed! But I had some okra nonetheless, and I guess I had been savoring that flavor ever since.

Now I guess I had had about enough of eating all the other crap that I get here, and wanted to make my favourite 'sabzi' again. So I bought some okra when we went to the Indian store a day before diwali. And tonight I was gonna cook it! Home-style! Oh! I was just so hungry, still very determined to cut the damn okra into the thin slices that's required for frying it and making it crisp. My hands were shaking, and the gooey-slippery fluid from okra wasn't helping anything. Mandeep came down, and saw me cutting it... I don't know what was going on in his head when he saw me like that. But inside mine, there were wonderful, delicious fried okra slices dancing around to 'tum bin jiya udaas sajna' (Okay, just for the hindi music challenged I'll translate...Without you I'm sad sweetheart(honey or something else, doesn't really matter))

The trick to this recipe is, like my favourite food blog author said, "to keep the flame high throughout and stir like your life depended on it." I poured out oil in a cast iron pan that was in the house, but turns out it was too wide and would require a lot of oil to kind of submerge the okra in it... So I transferred it to a less wide frying pan. Still, it was more like shallow frying it. I am not gonna give out the complete recipe, want to keep it like a family secret. LOL. Just kidding. I'm just too lazy to type it all out.

Once it was done, I tasted it, and was so excited, I had to tell the world! However, I wasn't ready to skip my meal and go blog about it. So I just called up sujata, talked to her about it, gave some to nick to taste, and went to have my dinner. There was paratha and aloo paratha to go with it. And with a wholesome amount of butter on it, it was as close as I could get to a home dinner. Mom would smother her chapattis with amul butter - My Fav! But I wasn't getting mom's chappatis here. That's something only she can make right.

But I am definitely looking forward to making okra again sometime soon. I might invite oliver and tanny for dinner too! lets see now. Till then...

Rain and Diwali don't mix!

I really had a lot to write about. basically good things about hmm... three teachers who I interacted with this week. But as of now, I just don't feel like it. I will get around to doing that tho, because these things that happened, that I realized, can never be forgotten.

So lets just tell you what I did today. I have been really working much harder as compared to the last few weeks. I actually finished a lot of assignments, I did the work that was required of me and I believe I improved some skills. (Or maybe I'm just being misled to believe that.) But on the other hand, I haven't been to life drawing, and I haven't been working on a portfolio drawing. That's pretty harsh. I should really be devoting my time to the portfolio more than to the class assignments, but I can't totally neglect from those either.

So after this wonderful festical is over, (note the sarcasm! diwali is no fun when its raining or snowing) I have to really get down to a good work cycle. I hope someone out there can help me out with this, because no matter how many times I decide to do this, I always end up failing. I need to be like, OK! when I say you will go and eat your dinner and come right back to the college, you WILL walk back to the college, no matter how cold it is outside, how hard its raining or snowing etc etc. (that's what happened today. it was raining, and i coaxed myself into not going. damn! what was I thinking?!

anyways, happy diwali to everyone out there, once again, I did go out and get some sparklers today, but the damn rain. hopefully, tomorrow night is better. I also got some spices and okra. I am gonna make chickpea or okra sometime soon. Like in the afternoon tomorrow.. or maybe tomorrow evening if we don't actually end up going out for dinner.

Happy diwali

Hi! I know diwali is still to come, tomorrow's dhanteras. But this post starts with the email naniji sent me wishing me "all the happiness and prosperous new year and diwali." She ALSO, asked me to not eat any meat in the next 5 days. I have had similar situations before too. In pune, taiji would tell us to not eat any chicken or eggs on particular days or particular times of the year. And even though arjun bhaiya kinda objected, we almost never ate any meat during those days. (note 'almost never'... I don't remember now, maybe we actually did go ahead and eat meat or eggs just because we had to be the 'rebels') 

So, no meat for 5 days here in canada... gonna be kinda difficult. Because whenever I get hungry in the college, I run to the caf and get a burger, or to the cage and get a slice of pizza. I am really gonna have to control my hunger now, or I could just prepare some food at home and take it along with me. I am even gonna have to give away the sliced deli meat I have for sandwiches... because I think it might go bad in the next 5 days. So I am totally welcoming suggestions for a vegetarian menu and recipes of the food I'd eat for the next 5 days. 

One thing's for sure tho, I want to make chole! I've had chickpeas for  while now, and I say I will get the recipe from my mom because I want to make it exactly like she made it, but its always so annoying talking to her when she goes blabbering on about the rest of the universe that has nothing to do with me! Topics that I have always hated hearing about. Like the 'Brindal' family. For those who don't know, that's what we called my dad's youngest brother's family. Anyways, I hope I can find a recipe somewhere online. Probably quickindiancooking.com has one. I will have to dig into the archives. 

Oh, and now I have more material! thanks to that annoying little kid nick. hehe. I offered him my chicken like I said I would, and he asks 

"since when do you celebrate indian festivals?" 

"Ever since I was born."

"So what about eating beef?"

"I thought we were talking about celebrating festivals. Eating beef is not a festival"

"No, but why can't you eat chicken?"

"Because of religion."

"I thought you weren't religious. So why do you celebrate festivals?"

"Because they're fun!"

"Not eating meat is fun?"

(Oh this guy is beginning to get to be a pain in the butt! Plus, I have to watch heroes!)

"No, eating meat is not part of the fun. We don't feast on dead turkeys or eggs. And someone asked me not to eat meat. so I won't. end of discussion."

And I got back to watching another awesome episode of heroes!

What's up with you P?

This morning was pretty unusual. First, I actually get out of the house early for my 8 o clock class and two, there was a sheet of white frost all over the grass! It didn't snow last night for sure! I guess it was just so cold and windy that the condensation on the grass blades and rooftops turned to snow. It looks pretty cool! 

I actually got to class early, and we ended up watching a long, boring, dumb video about the artist who wrote the book "I leonardo". We were supposed to be learning something about perspective from this!? We didn't have a model this week, instead, there were random objects. This part of drawing is just meant to compensate for the lack of a real technical drawing class. a.k.a. Imaging systems (or drawing systems as it is now called) The video mentions perspective for barely 2 minutes! As it wasn't already hard enough to stay awake! Damn! We weren't even drawing volumetrically, drawing in a structural manner.. we were just meant to shade and render the drawing. Useless!

Well, actually, that's not what I'm really pissed about. I was just ranting up to my main argument. Kerry kim is a little lazy. Even though he's one of the better teachers in my opinion, he's just kinda lazy when it comes to checking, marking grading stuff. The first drawings from him, we got back just before the reading week. That makes 6 weeks turnaround for the drawings we did in week 1. That's unacceptable. We deserve to know immediately where we stand, what kind of marks we are getting and what we need to work on. Like today, the assignment that he'd assigned to us a good couple weeks ago, was due at the beginning of class, but he was just like.. "aah, take another week. I'll collect them next friday." And when do you expect to mark them and give em back to us then? Next year?

Well, after my digital media lab class, there was only me and natalie and dan in the room, and as natalie came over to see my map, I showed her my halloween pictures. We had a nice conversation about halloween (this being my first year and everything, you know...) And she told me she knew a indian friend who got into animation. Whoa! Yeah, that's really big news. I would love to have more people from my side of the world in the program I'm studying in. It would be splendid. We could then room up together and... you know... do the regular stuff foreign students from india would do... celebrate the festivals from india, the national holidays and everything. Also, we talked about one other professor that I totally despise. He reminds me of vivek sir from creative i college. Although she doesn't share the same opinion of him as I, she did get one thing absolutely right- he's very blunt!

Now when I'm reminded of vivek sir, I'm bound to start missing pranav eh? LOL, bad bad thing to say, I know. But I was only joking. I was just walking back, and I felt like I REALLY should call him up. I had been feeling like talking to him on and off for a few days now, but I never got around to actually dialing because either I'd be busy or he'd be. Busy sleeping or working that is. But today, I was like, "fuck the time difference. Lets just talk." So I called him up and said

"I will kill you. I will seriously kill you for waking me up at this time! - is what you're saying right now"

"hehe."

I talked to him for a really long time today, and I was VERY VERY happy to have some real conversation with a friend. (oliver has gone and disappeared into a whole nother dimension) But then I asked how's his family, and the beans started spilling out.

"they're pretty worried about/because of me." 

"why?"

"I've not been doing so well... "

And he went on to explain about his problem with the synovial fluid in his wrists is depleting leaving a depression in the skin around his wrist joint. And he's gonna have to stop working for a while and do some special exercises and ofcourse, improve his diet and probably take some medications too. I was totally speechless. This was so beyond anything I had ever thought/imagined. I always believed in 'prevention is better than cure', better be safe than sorry' and such. I feel so bad about letting this happen to him. If only I had talked to him earlier, I could have found out about this at a time when I could have done something to make him stop 'screwing' himself up.

I google searched the symptoms and I found pages listing carpel tunnel syndrome and some other ones I'd never even heard of. Got to read some words I don't even know the meaning of - endoprosthesis...what?!!! I just hope he is not in danger of any of this, and his condition just heals as fast as he finishes his meals. All the best pranav, and hope you get well soon.