Reading Roundup (June 2016)

Confessions of A Recovering Addict

The struggle is real. 

FMS Prompts: # 3...

Quick note: I won't be posting on weekends until I get my internet fixed. 

 Your favorite recipe, even if you are the worst cook in the world...

***

Okay, so there is this thing I do when I’m down or when I need a quick pick-up or mostly when I settle down with a book. It’s not so much a recipe, its not even solid food but to me its tradition, it’s one of those things that tell me that all WILL be right with the world. 

So, next time you go to the supermarket, pick up five-six 5-buck packets of a regular chocolate drink - I prefer Bournvita but you can get Boost as well, I suppose. Take a big white (because white brings out the richness chocolaty color of the chocolate) mug, empty three packets into it, add one mountainously heaped spoon of milk powder and mix up the powders until its speckled chocolaty-types.

The next part is tricky. If you like a smooth consistency, add a bit of hot water and mix it up. If you’re like me and like it lumpy, go with cold water. BUT add VERY little water because the idea is to get a pasty, thick consistency and it is very easy for it to get runny, if you don’t pay attention. So once you get the right consistency, stick a spoon in it and take it with you to your reading nook or under the comforter.

I wish I could give you my own pictures of it but I instinctively dive in every time I put it together that I forget photography till I’ve licked it clean, so sorry.

Possible additions/garnish: crumbled English Marie, raisins, almonds, a small dollop of marmalade, a pinch of coconut shavings… well, go crazy. 

Warnings: Don’t let your mother catch you at it; if yours is anything like mine, you’ll get a good solid yelling for stealing the chocolate powder. Also, don’t try this with cocoa powder, not even the sweetened kind. Unless you want to walk around with a ‘yegh’ face for an hour or two.

*** 

P.S: What is your food tradition/quick-fix for blues?

FMS Prompts: # 2...

...the worst movie you ever did see, and why.

***
Damn, I have to relive it again?

Okay so, three days ago this friend suggested that we watch a Malayalam movie on the laptop instead of our usual Die Hard and Fast and Furious types. Why? Because it would be a ‘refreshing’ change. *insert the hindi G word in full capitals here which I don’t want to type out because I have a strong feeling one of my uncles reads my posts secretly* I don’t usually agree but it has Fahadh Fazal in it, who I think is one of the best actors in Indian cinema (courtesy 22, Female, Kottayam which, incidentally, all of you should watch, get subtitles) AND its a Lal Jose movie (all non-Malayalees, he is one of those we-expect-good-cinema-from-you types).

Turns out, WORST. IDEA. EVER.

We finished the movie only and only because we really wanted to know how the director would manage to wrap up the mess that was Diamond Necklace. Ah, even saying the name out loud is painful. 

Characters just appeared and disappered at will and the story meandered around all over the place (if you could call it a story). NOTHING made sense. I won’t elaborate on the plot and waste both of our times. Should suffice to say I’m cinematically traumatized, even more so than when I watched the Golmaal series, which is saying something. Pointless, pointless, POINTLESS waste of resources the movie was.

 

 So. Anyone willing to give it a try? I'll send the BR copy across :P

***
P.S: What’s your worst movie mistake?

FMS Prompts: # 1...

...that thing that happened in high school that pretty much changed your life forever.

***

I lost a friend.

In Grade 10, she sat next to me. She was a nice person, always smiling, always ready to help. But you know how high school kids can get, I was snooty about how much she talked to boys (trust me, I want to go back and slap myself too). But we still were good friends, we got through our first hurdle in the academic world, board exams, together. And in Grade 11, she shifted to another section but we still had lunch together, all of us. I loved the alu sabzi that her mom used to send with her lunch and she always put a little extra in my dabba while it was being passed around.

I think she had always liked me more than I liked her.

I remember the day clearly,  classes had been cancelled and three of us were sitting there in the last bench and laughing our heads off without any reason. You know, one of those times when you start laughing at ANYTHING and you can’t stop even though your stomach hurts - two straight hours at the end of the day we laughed.

That’s when three other friends came and said that this girl had passed away, nobody knew what happened and why. I sobered up like someone doused me with cold water but I didn’t believe it. I thought someone was playing a big, fat, sick prank. Then her Class In-Charge confirmed the news.

I won’t go into any more detail but to this day none of us know what happened to her, all we know was that she had asthma. I just never saw her after that, like she never existed except in my mind and memories.

The absolute worst part is that I didn’t remember the last time I spoke to her, the last conversation, exchange we had. I still can’t remember.

Her mom came to see us when we passed out of school and it was all I could do not to run away because I kept thinking how she would feel seeing all of us decked up and happy when her daughter wasn’t around.

I remember feeling incredibly guilty for being alive when she wasn’t.

And it subtly changed a 16 year old forever. From then on I have always kept a certain distance from people. I have made but one friend who is super close, everyone else was and is dispensable. I know it doesn’t say much for me as a friend but when I love, I love wholly without restraint, without any kind of self-preservation and if I lose that person, I know I won’t be strong enough to handle the devastation.

It took me a long time to work out why I never made the first move to make friends (because otherwise I am not antisocial and I love to horse around with everyone), I never keep in touch completely, I never put my all into keeping my friends together like everyone my age does. It might not be the lesson I should have learnt but yeah.

Dharani, I will always remember you for that million-watt genuinely happy smile that you were so ready with.

***

P.S: Sorry about kicking off on a sad note.

P.P.S: Leave your prompt challenge post links in the comments, please.

I really, really...

...want to do this. I have long admired Fat Mum Slim and her innovative ideas, tried the #fmsphotoaday a couple of times (and crashed and burned big time before the week was up) and have been secretly stalking her virtually all over the place.

I am (in)famous for leaving things incomplete - a dozen drafts, short stories, unpenned abstracts, laundry, sentences, ideas, messages, conversations... all hanging in the air like a menacing cloud as proof. This will be my one last shot to get myself to complete something, anything on the blog. I can be a little proud of myself for having the discipline, this way.

So, I'm thinking I'll do one topic a day for however long I can (and hopefully complete all 50 by mid-October-ish). And any of y'all want to do the challenge with me, leave your links below each post and I'll link back up in each post. Starting tomorrow? (This is me giving my OCD for starting things on a Monday or on a 1st a shove in the face.) 

Blogger discipline, here I come.
I think.

Misty Memories - February & March

New awardee!!

***

This is a continuation if the Monthly Memories Challenge started here.

FEBRUARY

Even with a track record of two stable relationships right from when I was fifteen, surprisingly, February doesn’t remind me of Valentine’s Day.  I’m shocked at myself but then, I haven’t had a truly memorable Feb 14^th till date (*clearing throat* You hear, Mr. Nanda?:P)

February has always brought with it, a feeling of the end getting nearer. The end of the school year, I mean. When almost all the lessons have been completed, the brown covers of the note books are peeling off and the white tennis shoes are brown and scruffy.

February also reminds me of my Grade 10 Physics board practical. Till before that, I’d never been nervous for I always knew everything there was to know about the subject of exam (it was a combination of me being a nerd and my mother taking active interest in my studies :|), but I was shivering before this one.

I kept making mental exclamations.

“I have forgotten my hall ticket!”
“The examiner is going to play favorites!”
“What if I don’t get the result!”
“What if I do the calculation wrong!”
“What if my pencil point breaks and I can’t draw!”
“What if I get the prism experiment!”

Here, I’ll say, that the prism experiment was hated by one and all with a vengeance because it was the most complicated of all fifteen we had for study.

I prayed to all the God’s I’d ever heard of before I picked my lot and surprise, surprise! The examiner handed me the prism and paper and sent me off on my way to the last table. It was as if he thought that I was going to screw it all up, given my penchant for all things science.

But for once in my life, science didn’t fail me and I got the right result with full marks. Maybe I wasn’t as stupid as I thought after all :D

And every February, I look back and smile and marvel at how long I have come after that first practical.

MARCH

Exams. What else. Not my favorite month, not by a long shot.

The worst was again during my Grade 10 boards, because by 12^th, I’d decided that nothing I studied then was going to be of any use in life and I stopped caring)

I remember one cold, chilly morning (read: 2 a.m, because I wasted time at night doodling the name of my then crush in the margins of the book) sitting huddled in a not-so-comfortable couch, trying to finish the last two lessons in Zoology, cursing everyone including the cats and dogs for not having to wake up that early. I especially hated my siblings (whom I shared a room with then) for sleeping so soundly and cozily, while I had to try not to fall asleep while studying immunization techniques. 

And March in college/hostel is synonymous to sticky heat, sun burn, talking multiple baths a day and resultant piling up of clothes to wash. Did I mention sticky heat?

Only two things make my March’s slightly bearable, Grandpa’s birthday and the countdown to mine.

What are your memories of Valentine’s day? How crappy were your March’s?

Misty Memories - January

2011 gave me goodies and made me bite dust, all too often, that I can’t decide whether it has been good or bad. Yes, I have started saying my goodbyes to the year that closes in exactly fifteen days and this challenge gives me an opportunity to do it, memorably. Thank you, Nimue.

It’s quite simple actually, capturing the essence of what each month in a year has had to offer to date in my life. I had never really thought about it but it turns out I do have special memories associated with each month.

JANUARY

The year’s new and I’m always full of resolutions. Some that I pretended to keep and some that just collected dust in the nooks of my head. Prayers for the year to be better, to be kinder than the last and wishful yearnings for gifts that I failed to receive the year gone by… wishes, some good and some wicked like the time I wanted the shopkeeper to stub his toe.

Also a month (in 1999) that took away my mother for more than a week, the longest I have ever gone without her till date. I missed her sorely and spent time bunking school and seeking comfort in her nightie that smelt of her.  I didn’t understand why I couldn’t visit her in the hospital either.

But when she came back she had a fat bundle in her hand. I was delighted when two huge, coal-black eyes peeped out curiously out of the bundle and the rose-bud mouth pouted as though, even then, he knew that I would be his best frenemy.

I shrieked with joy, literally. I wasn’t a single child anymore.

January will always be special for 7 days into the month, it gave me a handsome devil of a brother, one whose hair I’ll gladly pull out for over-heating my laptop, for making me BEG him to take a bath every single day, for all the dirty nappies he made me dispose, for snitching me out to Amma, for discovering all my hidden stashes of chocolates, for being taller than me at age 12 and being annoyingly better than me at Math.

But it becomes worth it when I tie him a rakhi and he promises to take care of me, once a year.

I dread to think of a January without him and his birthdays, he adds spark friggin' fire to it.

What are your special January memories?

15 Day Challenge: Day 13

5 characters I love from T.V shows

1) HEROES

Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia) 

Sylar alias Gabriel Gray (Zachary Quinto) 

2) THE MENTALIST

Patrick Jane (Simon Baker)

3) F.R.I.E.N.D.S (Oh, how I love them!<3)

Rachel Karen Greene (Jennifer Aniston)

Monica Elizabeth Geller (Courtney Cox-Arquette)

4) CSI: MIAMI

Horatio Caine (David Caruso)

5) SMALL WONDER

V.I.C.I alias Vicky (Tiffany Brissette)

Ok, ok I cheat. But I can't just ignore some and be grossly unfair na?:P

13 down, 2 to go:)

15 Day Challenge: Day 12

"Would I Rather"

1) Live without music or live without T.V.?

Without T.V, gotten used to that in the hostel.

2) Eat a bar of soap or drink a bottle of dish washing liquid?

Drink the dish washing liquid. Ugh. Still, got to be easier than munching a whole bar down.

3) Be called a racist or a traitor to your country?

Definitely racist. I'd never live being called a traitor to India down. 

4) Be trapped in an elevator with three fat men with bad breath or with wet dogs?

     Why isn't "getting stuck with Milo Ventimiglia" an option, disappointing.

The dogs, I have 5 wet, dirty ones all over me all the time at home anyway.

5) Have a beautiful house and an ugly car or an ugly house and a beautiful car?

Beautiful house and ugly car. I don't like cars much in the first place unless it's a Ferrari.

6) Always say what’s on your mind or never speak again?

Never speak again. I would hurt too many people otherwise.

7) Have it all or know it all?

Know it all, then I'd know how to have it all too, right :P

8) Be forgotten or hatefully remembered?

Be forgotten, any day.

9) Be able to read everyone’s mind all the time or always know their future?

Mind reading is a superpower I have always prayed for:D

10) Eat a handful of hair or lick three public telephones?

      
YEWWWWWW, gross. handful of hair? No, the licking.  
Er, the hair. Ok, the licking.  
Oh God, how about neither :|

Ok FINE, the hair then *choking noises*

12 down, 3 to go:)




P.S: THANKYOU, BlogAdda for the Tangy Tuesday Pick!! <3

15 Day Challenge: Day 11

If I could only live off one food and one beverage for the rest of my days,
what would they be?

I'm too busy cooking up some more stories and thereby am not too keen on elaborating this out - you can breathe easy...for now :P

Unrelated note: Writing stories makes me happy = less stressing out on HOW to get rid of frequent writers' block => bolt of realization.

Getting to the challenge question:

1) Food:

:P You thought chocolate? You thought wrong *smug smile*

(Not chocolate because I am not sthupid: 

I have chocolate everyday => I get sick of it => I get over my obsession => blasphemous => sin => burning in Hell! I don't want THAT now, do I?)

It would HAVE to be the Gourmet Pizza (wahi, hamra Dominos-wala) with extra corn, tons of olives, a whole load of jalapenos, three sachets of oregano and great, big dollops of cheese on it. Apart from the cheese-burst crust, that is. And I can't stress on the 'great, big dollops' enough. 

Did I tell you I am a sucker for cheese? 

Well, I am. A BIG one.

2) Beverage: 

HAS to be coffee. For two reasons actually:

- It's the only fix which ensures a perfect day ahead (during normal days) and makes sure I remain awake (during exam times). 

(The fact that I STILL manage to fall asleep by midnight after 3 cups of coffee while I remain awake almost the whole night otherwise, says how awesome my exam-preparation skills are)

-  The sheer variety of the concoction you can whip up in less than ten minutes!! Cold, hot, frappe, mocha, cappucino, whatnotino... You get the point. 

So to sum up, I adore my coffee.

Pepsi/Coke come a close second though.

So, thank you Repubblica italiana for pizza and República Federativa do Brasil(?) for coffee.

I love you both theeeeeeeeeees much.

11 down, 4 to go:)

P.S: Have you heard King of Anything by Sara Barielles? I'm addicted.