Check out Chennai Gourmand!

Hey guys, I'm now co-authoring a blog called Chennai Gourmand with The Researcher.
We all know how terrific I am in the kitchen(refer How to Set the Kitchen on Fire), so not only will this have great Indian recipes for the well-versed(The Researcher is good with that), but also recipes which even I can manage without bungling up. I'm hoping this will help out everyone like moi who really have no clue how to cook but would like to.
So we'd love it if you check it out and let us know what you think. Thanks!
(P.S: You can also find it on my blog list on the right panel.)

A Thousand Suns

I don't like the new Linkin Park album and I can't understand what they're trying to do. Change isn't bad. I loved Minutes to Midnight but the songs in A Thousand Suns don't sound like Linkin Park at all. A pity.

On the bright side, I discovered a few LPU(Linkin Park Underground) tracks today and they were awesome! Mind you, they were just demo tracks which aren't on the main albums. They were way better than anything on the new album. I really hope that they go back to the way they used to make music.

U.K.G project

You don't really hear anything good about schools these days. They're either demanding, expensive and inhumane or they're undisciplined, mismanaged and there's 'no proper teaching'.

Of course, what you hear also depends on the kind of parent you're listening to and some of them are pretty neurotic. My niece studies in S.B.O.A CBSE school and my sister has so far neither complained about inhumanity or declining intelligence in her daughter.

However, I have noticed a disturbing trend.
The homework is fine, the activities are good but the projects they send home are not for the kids, they're for the parents. In the past couple of months, my sister has made slides on etiquette, the food pyramid, kitchen utilities, charts on wildlife and she's currently working on a project about airports.
These kids can't even spell the word airport yet. And all this is on display for other parents to come and see, even though the kids themselves only have a vague idea about what the heck is going on.

Okay, my questions are:

1. Isn't the teacher supposed to prepare charts and other teaching aids?
Most teachers try and get all the work they can out of hapless parents.

2. Why don't they give kids projects which they can do themselves?
So you want a project on airports? Ask each kid to draw a picture of a plane and tell the class a few lines about what they know or feel about airports.
I don't think they should tell the kid's mother to prepare a power point presentation, take printouts,prepare charts or models just to display it to other parents.

My niece is pretty excited to go to school anyway, so it's not all bad. She comes home every evening and demands a status report of any project her teacher's told my sister to do. It's kind of funny, really.

And the curtains go up....

The end of college as I've known it is near.
Finally!
Most people still think it's weird that I'm not the least bit nostalgic about college life. Most people are not me. I am going to miss a couple of people, there are some good memories, but not much else.

Now, coming back to the important stuff, what's up next? I have a lot of studying to do, a lot of preparing for placements and the project and since I'll only have to go to college for a couple of days a week, a lot of time to myself. Learning to drive is on the list. So is sleeping in. For almost four years, my weekdays have usually started at 5 a.m. No more. Well, at least till I get a job. I'm even thinking about learning to cook. (We all know how that's going to go. I'm hoping nothing burns down.)

The future is uncertain. It's like being in a theater with no idea what you're going to experience before the curtains are up. And for a change you're behind the curtains.

A taste of Georgette Heyer

It's about time one of my favourite writers got her own post.
Georgette Heyer was one of the most prolific writers of her time. Her novels are mostly based in England's Regency era (generally between 1790 and 1820) and she's also written detective and historical fiction.

The first Georgette Heyer that I read was Sprig Muslin. I found it in an old wooden cupboard at home and it was almost falling apart.
I was hooked after two pages.
Luckily, the library I used to go to had almost all of her regency romance novels. I quickly devoured These Old Shades, laughed all through Frederica and decided Grand Sophy was my favourite. And she's written loads more. They don't call her prolific for nothing.


One of my friends (KD) and I were avid Georgettte Heyer fans through most of high school and through all of college and we still think that she's one of the best authors we've ever read. I was totally crushed when the library that I went to closed down and the owner sold all the books to a home delivery library service.

Georgette Heyer (1902-1974) wrote her first book, The Black Moth when she was in her teens, for her convalescing brother. Apparently, her father was very impressed and published it for her while she was still in her teens.

The depth of detail in her books will indicate the kind of knowledge she had about the Regency period. More than just that, it's her humour, wit and her wonderful gift of bringing characters to life. It's incredibly funny, very witty and extremely vivid. You can almost see it happening.

Another thing about Heyer is that her books are romantic but not too much. There's a strong vein of common sense running through all her plots, however flamboyant those plots may be. There are none of those passionate scenes, stereotypes and the provocative covers of your average romance novels. She has style and she didn't need to descend to that (considering that it wasn't exactly de rigeur back then) to sell her books.

I've gone to every second hand shop in Moore market, asking for something by Heyer and no one's heard of it. The original books at Landmark and Crossword cost quite a bit (around Rs.300 and it is expensive because I can't be satisfied with just one).
Thank God for my E-reader. I must have read most of her regency novels around fifty times already.

P.S: She shares something with another one of my favourite writers, J.D.Salinger. Neither of them have ever given an interview with the Press and they're both very private people despite being famous for their work. That's very classy when most people these days with a fraction of their talent and style hanker after fame and publicity.