My Timelapse video

Remember Oliver from my post about caterpillars and butterflies? Well, if not, go and read it, there's a lil mention of him there, I also revealed the fact that he loves Indian food. Yeah, so he's a really awesome fun guy and I'm really glad we're friends. And he had been up to organizing lil fun events ever since the orientation! He said that he would make waffles at his room in res, and invited everybody for kind of a get together, but that plan had to be canceled due to unforeseen circumstances (how's drunk guys on the floor sound?) His roommate was having a party and people were getting hammered big time! And since we hadn't gotten an affirmative answer from a lot of guests, it was canceled (thanks spell checker, stupid me keeps typing cancelled over and over again!) for good!

So the next day, on the 2nd September, I felt I could invite ppl over for an Indian meal. I hadn't really thought the whole thing through, but because oliver was SO excited by the idea, we decided to invite people for dinner and see how many were ready. In the mean time, I realized I had better not screw this up or else I'd be in a really funny situation tonight when everyone's puking on the horrible food! I asked oliver what I should make, but he didn't give me anything specific, so I decided to read through the recipes on Quick Indian cooking blog and see what was the easiest, to make and I had most of the ingredients for. I picked paneer butter masala, because I would only need to buy coriander powder and kasoori methi. Then I called my mom on skype and asked if she could give me something else that was a really easy recipe and some pointers and help on this particular one.

One of my specific questions was whether she knew what exactly is Greek yogurt and how can I not screw up my recipe while using regular yogurt from the store. I had googled Greek yogurt, and found a page that explained how greek yogurt is a thicker and creamier yogurt as compared to regular yogurt, and that recipes that call for greek yogurt will fail miserably if u use regular yogurt. I had also read the comments on Mallika's blog post about straining the regular yogurt in a cheese cloth, and suggestion of whipping it up nicely, but this particular page had really scared me. So my mom started explaining how I could make good yogurt from scratch, and I had to stop and tell her I don't have that kind of time! After we put that aside, I asked her what her recipe was, and she went on and on about how she makes it. And I now start to admire and appreciate, for the first time, the time and effort she puts into these preparations. I write down the most of it, but I decide I want to mix and match the recipes and do what's convenient for me.

We (or rather she) also talked about making jeera rice, umm... that's Rice with Cumin seeds for you guys who don't speak Hindi. Even though I wasn't really sure I also wanted to make rice for tonight, it would really depend on the number of people that show up. We had serious issues here, because her method was for cooking in a pressure cooker, and I didn't have one, and couldn't really see how this was going to apply to the 'steamer' I had. So she said, you can just make the rice first, then throw it in a frying pan with some oil and cumin seeds. That sounds like something I can do! And I also wanted to ask her about making wadas, because I have some wada mix and sambar mix. I want to have that for breakfast some day. And what she told me was really helpful but that's for another day!

Oliver told me only rob was the one who's gonna come tonight and that he'd go pick him up right now and be at my place soon, which meant I had to get ready! So, right when I was in the middle of getting directions to the grocery store and writing down the method I'd use to cook paneer butter masala, Oliver showed up, so I just grabbed the print-out from Google maps and ran. Unfortunately, pooja grocers was closed! I didn't even have the name or directions of the other Indian grocery store that was around that place. I asked the lady who worked at subway about it, but she didn't know. I remembered that there was Organic Garden next to the Indian store, so I asked her about that. She pointed us in a direction, but it wasn't really clear. But I remembered that I had read kerr street on the forum where I found out about it, and on Google maps. So I asked oliver to just drive back down, till we see kerr street again. And as soon as we saw the big O sign of organic garden, we knew we WERE gonna have Indian food tonight!

After I got back, I first heated up the oven to reheat the samosas that we got, and after we were done munching on the samosas, I started cooking which can be seen in this timelapse video that I made.


Did I mention I'd never done this before? Not the timelapse, I have made a bunch of them, but I had never cooked any Indian food from scratch, all by myself before. Well, technically, I didn't do it all by myself, I had oliver helping out, but this time, I was not the one BEING supervised. I was the head chef! Everything was under my command. And the pressure was intense.

But thankfully both of them liked the food. Infact, even I thought it was pretty good! Vironica came home and even she tasted it, she liked it a lot too! I felt like it was all worth it. I hope I can say the same about this blog post, I noticed its gotten really long, and I haven't even touched the part AFTER the dinner which was just as great! Maybe some other time!

Yeah, Big happy birthday to my sister Divya! She turned 18 today!

Be the butterfly! ;)

This morning, Sujata surprises me by saying that she read my blog, and actually liked it. She said she was really happy I was giving my life the fullest and she wished the best for my days to come. I rarely have such stuff happen to me, and let's be honest, who doesn't like to be congratulated and complimented? So I assured HER I was gonna do the follow up of the 'pre-orientation' post. And here it is!

I was having this conversation with abhinav yesterday when he was telling me about how he felt when he talked to pranav. I have been always telling him to go and approach him, don't be so shy and quiet, go to a movie together or something. But he only, if at all, approached Pranav for telling him something I wanted to convey to him and even then, kept it really short and simple! But this time, when he actually talked to him, he said it was really nice and he'd like to hang out with him. I do have a doubt whether this was just a backlash of another bad experience he'd had, and if so, he needs to think about it harder. I mean everyone is different. Just because I'm good friends with pranav and abhinav doesn't mean both of them should get along well. (Yeah, I've learnt that from experience) And he needs to think about whether HE really likes him as a friend.

But at the time, those words of his actually stirred a different thought process in my mind... I was encouraging Abhinav to keep doing that more. I was telling him about what I'd just been through... and I must warn you, it DOES sound extremely cheesy. I told him that after the college ended, I was really lonely at home. (Untill mickey came over, then I couldn't get any personal space and 'ME' time! ) But no, I really wanted to go back to college and meet the people from my class. Even though I might not necessarily speak much, I enjoyed listening to their conversation and they were a very funny bunch. Made me laugh a lot. But now, I was in a cocoon for so long, isolated from the rest of the people. Then, when I realized the orientation is upon us, I was really excited to go out and meet new people and make more friends! So after the motivation and encouragement from yash himself, I was like a butterfly (for lack of a more cheesier sounding word) on the 30th. I got to the orientation, greeted everyone I faced, I sat down boldly (yeah that was like the boldest move for me in a LONG TIME!) in front of two other girls, Taruna-from bangalore, India and sisiry(or something I can't spell) from singapore; Introduced myself, started talking to them, believe it or not, I actually had a CONVERSATION!

I was not subdued and reserved, I made my presense felt. Spoke up loudly, answered questions, made a funny comment or two. And since this was not a class, no one would see me as trying to be a "teacher's pet" by trying to get all the right answers. I was not looking like an attention hog either, as there were soon speakers who were simply addressing the kids and not quizzing. And after the address was done, we were walking away to a different room, and I still stuck around, rather they still stuck around me, and didn't go "Now's the chance let's give him the slip!" And then as we were walking out, along came oliver and said
"so, you're from India eh?" -

I was noticed!-I'm not invisible!-This day couldn't possibly get any better!

- "I love Indian food!"

Then its like a blur... but we got talking about where he's from, what program he's in and stuff.... oh yeah, I also introduced him to the girls too... or did I?

"Anyways, so the moral of the story is, Abhinav, that you need to be a 'butterfly'...."

Yeah, yeah, Laugh it up!

Sheridan college orientation

A new year of college is upon me. Tomorrow is the orientation for the international students at the Trafalgar campus residence at 8:30 am. I know I should get as much rest as possible because after the early morning orientation, I have to help out mickey with moving his stuff. I tried going to bed early but I couldn't sleep. And hence I'm here typing another blog entry, sitting on my bed in the dark, taking full benefit of my backlit keyboard.

I had dosas again for dinner today, and they were just as amazing as the last time. I think I could make this my staple diet here now. Its just that I haven't been grocery shopping in a while and I didn't want to eat the leftover bland pasta that I made yesterday. You should know how heavy dosas can be... and I would imagine going to bed on a full stomach must be easy, but right now, I don't know what's up. I guess I should have gone and taken a walk like the other night, but now I don't want to venture out.

I missed my orientation last year, and besides wanting to make up for that, I can't wait to go meet new people. I still remember how apprehensive and introvert I was on the first day of class in January. I definitely don't want to be the same kind of guy this time round. There is a chance that a lot of ppl I get to meet tomorrow are new, and they don't know the place or a lot of people here, so I feel it will be really nice to help them figure things out. Because in visual and creative arts, everybody will be a returning student from art fundies, and they'd already have their friend circle and will not be as open to making new friends I suppose. Dammit, I need to stop being so negative!

So just be confident yash, don't worry, drink more water to see if it helps u get some sleep, and have a awesome orientation.