The day I got the Urge. Or, What you can look forward to in your next visit to that nice hotel in Delhi.

Freshly Baked Cake(s) if the mood takes me.
Flat, sticky and sweet.
Felt I must share this note for posterity.
As Yogi Bear once said, “Son, this is what you must Not do”

It was a day when I felt like Eating cake, not Making it, but what the heck, it’s the thought that counts? (The day I felt like actually making it, I went as far as to organize all the elements that went into it – including
- an egg-beater which will run when I want it to (the human one I had is oft recalcitrant and prone to mood swings)
- a baking tin (2 eggs? 6 eggs? 8 eggs. Just in case I become a whiz at this) and
- Reams (for trial & error) of grease proof butter paper (Rs2 per sheet). More on the butter paper later.

So, this day when I felt like Eating cake, as opposed to felt like Making it (Mistake #1, since it is not in the skill but in the will), I fished every thing out of the respective recesses and referred to my three sources of recipes (mistake #2):
- a magazine article (which makes everything look easy and glamorous anyways) giving a 3 egg-with-butter recipe of a sponge cake,
- a highly skeptical Ma giving me a safe 1 egg-without-butter recipe for the self same sponge, and
- my Cookbook bible which outlines the principles and concepts of making sponge cake. Using any of three methods – whisking, creaming and melting.

Attempt 1: Ma’s method, followed it to the T. Only, forgot to grease the butter paper lining the tin.
On pouring the 1 egg batter in the 8 egg tin, I watched it spread itself to a miserably thin layer making it impossible to check for its springy sponginess if and when done.

I must add here, that my oven doesn’t mention whether it works in degrees centigrade or farenheit. By now I was past caring anyways. With my brain sufficiently addled, I was going by Gut Feel and the Years of Cake-Eating experience to guide me.

Monitored the cake till I saw it nicely brown along the edges – whoever said a watched pot never boils?
The chunk that came off with the fork that was poked in did not stick to the rest of the cake, hence I pronounced the batter not sticky, and figured it was done.
It was a stick jaw or a marangue depending on whether it was the center or sides that was de-papered. A bit eggy, but a good first attempt - given the learnings one could take away from it, I should be a pro at this now.

Determined Attempt #2 was a different piece of cake altogether :D designed to take the cake making experience to the next level. With self adjusted estimated proportions (mistake #3), I settled on a 2 egg-with-butter vanilla sponge cake, by the whisking method, where I decided half way down the mixing that I wanted a chocolate cake, added the chocolate powder and forgot to reduce the sugar.
I remembered to grease the grease proof paper this time round though.
Greaseproof butter paper: what a misnomer.
Of course, when I dutifully turned the 2-egg-cake-in-an-8-egg-cake-tin over a cooling rack type thing to cool, it stuck and had to be eventually peeled off it as well.

Yes, it is still in the fridge.

recently seen

(yes, feeling prolific today)
Am amazed at the selection of movies they are showing on TV these days. Quite decent I would say. Or may be I’ve just been out of touch so long. Of the stuff I saw lately:

The Brothers Grimm (Matt Damon, Heath Ledger): dark, funny, has references to almost all the fairytales I could remember. It was like the Memory Game we used to play at birthday parties of yore - how many items can you remember off this tray? Only, more interesting, ‘cause most of the references were made in passing, therefore less obvious, and more fun. Since I saw it from the middle, am sure I missed many, but among the ones I could identify were Red Riding Hood, Hansel & Gretel, Princess and the Pea, Gingerbread Man (? Didn’t know that was GB?), Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Cinderella, Snow White, Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks, Jack and the Beanstalk.. pls feel free to add on if you’ve seen it, and I’m sure there were many more I don’t know of too.
(Btw, read somewhere that Enid Blyton pipped JK Rowling to the Most Read/Preferred (forget which) Author post. Way to go!)

The Illusionist (Edward Norton – of Primal Fear. He’s another one who is I feel is underrated!): wish it could have been more decipherable, but I loved the unexpected twists. A la Thomas Crowne Affair and Usual Suspects I thought.

Since I had gone with no expectations, I quite liked Rock On – very predictable, but what Amazing on stage chemistry. And was very pleasantly surprised to see two good female actors, fresh faces to me. (Did not like the lyrics, passable music and very bad hamming by ‘Joe’ on the guitar – what was that all about?)

random reflections

WELL! Look who’s here and look who’s back ;p

A general feeling of bonhomie, at peace with the world around – with all its ambiguities. Positive wu li and all that. Have been contemplating getting back to my blog for some time now, after that abandoned post some, what 3 years back?!

Dedicating this one to P, whose musings continue to inspire, and who should hopefully get nudged into adding some more words to her ongoing tour de force..
May she be my one sole dedicated reader too :)

No ambitious claims this time round. Take it as it comes along.

Ever noticed how notes jotted down often becomes a list of Things to Do?
But today am feeling at my rambly best.
Done cleaning the house – a weekly therapy for me, just as messing it up is. A place for everything, and everything in its place. Lovely weather with just the right touch of a breeze. Awesome music - may god bless worldspace, it’s a godsend for lazies like me. And Lots of books to read (thanks again P, btw, Ba loved Euclids. Not done with it though – sent it so that I could discuss things I got stuck in). And lots of movie screenings this fortnight – Here's one particularly recommended by M – Leila Khaled Hijacker – which she happened to see a few days back, and which will now be shown at Open Frame. Talk about coincidences.. I now sure don’t believe in them. Yet to figure out the workings of the universe though!!

Oh I read a most amusing piece of news in HT today – was referred to a few days back too – an experiment with a particle accelerator on Wednesday at CERN, attempting to simulate the universe’s creation, or the energy surges of it. I admit I don’t know much of the technicalities, any in fact, but there is a clear insinuation of implications of the experiment not being clear. And that would it bring about the end of the world/universe? HA! The experiment is going to be conducted in a large Hadron Collider 150m below the French-Swiss border. If it would at all have such implications, how necessary is that?! Oh, and the article signs off advising - just in case, on Wednesday, keep your windows shut!

Reminds me of the graffiti that read:
In case of a nuclear attack:-
Put your hands over your ears and your head between your knees,
And kiss your ass goodbye.

some favourites

Here's one:
A police officer sees a man driving around with a pickup truck full of penguins. He pulls the guy over and says, "You can't drive around with penguins in this town! Take them to the zoo immediately."
The guy says, "okay", and drives away.
The next day, the officer sees the guy still driving around with the truck full of penguins -- and they're all wearing sunglasses. He pulls the guy over and demands, "I thought I told you to take these penguins to the zoo yesterday?"
The guy replies, "I did. Today I'm taking them to the beach!"

here's another:
“What am I supposed to do with this?” grumbled the motorist as the police clerk handed him a receipt for his traffic violation.
“Keep it,” the clerk advises. “When you get four of them, you get a bicycle.”

and another:
Four high school boys afflicted with spring fever skipped morning classes. After lunch they reported to the teacher that they had a flat tire.
Much to their relief she smiled and said: "Well, you missed a test today so take seats apart from one another and take out a piece of paper."
Still smiling, she waited for them to sit down. Then she said:
"First Question: Which tire was flat?"

so on..
The photographer for a national magazine was assigned to get photos of an enormous forest fire. Smoke at the scene was too thick to get any good shots, so he frantically called his home office to hire a plane.
"It will be waiting for you at the airport!" he was assured by his editor.
As soon as he got to the small, rural airport, sure enough, a plane was warming up near the runway. He jumped in with his equipment and yelled, "Let's go! Let's go!" The pilot swung the plane into the wind and soon they were in the air.
"Fly over the north side of the fire," said the photographer, "and make three or four low level passes."
"Why?" asked the pilot.
"Because I'm going to take pictures! I'm a photographer, and photographers take pictures!" said the photographer with great exasperation and impatience.
After a long pause the pilot said, "You mean you're not the instructor?"

A plane was taking off from Kennedy Airport. After it reached a comfortable cruising altitude, the captain made an announcement over the intercom, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Welcome to Flight Number 293, non-stop from New York to Los Angeles. The weather ahead is good and, therefore, we should have a smooth and uneventful flight. Now sit back and relax - OH, MY G-D!"
Silence followed, and after a few minutes the captain came back on the intercom and said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I am so sorry if I scared you earlier; but, while I was talking, the flight attendant brought me a cup of coffee and spilled the hot coffee in my lap. You should see the front of my pants!"
A passenger in Coach said, "That's nothing. He should see the back of mine!"

Q: How many politicians does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Two. One to assure the public that everything possible is being done while the other screws it into a water faucet.

Wife: Let’s go out and have some fun tonight.
Husband: Okay, but if you get home before I do, leave the hall light on.

A man and his girlfriend were out to dinner one night. The waiter tells them the night's special is chicken almondine and fresh fish.
"The chicken sounds good; I'll have that," the woman says.
The waiter nods. "And the vegetable?" he asks.
"Oh, he'll have the fish," she replies.

While sports fishing off the Florida coast, a tourist capsized his boat. He could swim, but his fear of alligators kept him clinging to the overturned craft. Spotting an old beachcomber standing on the shore, the tourist shouted, "Are there any gators around here?"
"Naw," the man hollered back, "they ain't been around for years!"
Feeling safe, the tourist started swimming leisurely toward the shore.
About halfway there he asked the guy, "How'd you get rid of the gators?"
"We didn't do nothing,'" the beachcomber said.
"Wow," said the tourist.
The beachcomber added, "The sharks got 'em."

D, the next two for you:
A dog thinks: Hey, these people I live with feed me, love me, provide me with a nice warm, dry house, pet me, and take good care of me... They must be Gods! A cat thinks: Hey, these people I live with feed me, love me, provide me with a nice warm, dry house, pet me, and take good care of me... I must be a God!

A kindergarten pupil told his teacher he’d found a cat, but it was dead. “How do you know that the cat was dead?” she asked her pupil.
“Because I pissed in its ear and it didn’t move,” answered the child innocently.
“You did WHAT?! ?” the teacher exclaimed in surprise.
“You know,” explained the boy, “I leaned over and went ‘Pssst!’ and it didn’t move.”

'twick, one for u too:
A new miracle doctor was in town. He could cure anything and anybody, and everyone was amazed. Everyone except for Mr. Smith, the town’s grouch So Mr. Smith went to this 'miracle doctor' to prove that he wasn't anybody special. So he goes and tells the doctor, "Hey, doc, I have lost my sense of taste. I can't taste nothing', so what are you going to do?"
The doctor scratches his head and mumbles to himself a little, then tells Mr. Smith, "What you need is jar number 43."
Jar number 43? Mr. Smith wonders. So the doctor brings the jar and tells Mr. Smith to taste it. He tastes it and immediately spits it out, "This is gross!" he yells.
"I just restored your sense of taste Mr. Smith," says the doctor.
So Mr. Smith goes home very mad. One month later, Mr. Smith goes back to the doctor along with a new problem, "Doc," he starts, "I can't remember!"
Thinking he got the doctor, the doctor scratches his head and mumbles to himself a little and tells Mr. Smith, "What you need is jar number 43..."

One night a police officer was staking out a particularly rowdy bar for possible DUI violations. At closing time, he saw a fellow tumble out of the bar, trip on the curb, and try his keys in five different cars before he found his. Then he sat in the front seat fumbling around with his keys for several minutes. Everyone else left the bar and drove off. Finally he started his engine and began to pull away. The police officer was waiting for him. He stopped the driver, read him his rights and administered the Breathalyzer test. The results showed a reading of 0.0. The puzzled officer demanded to know how that could be. The driver replied, "Tonight I'm the designated decoy.”

and so forth..