As the world slowly slips into the night .. my eyes are yet to take a break .. they feel restless .. but they don’t want to rest .. they have been like this for some years now .. they search for something .. something I haven’t figured out yet.

       Sometimes .. mind deceives them and puts them to rest. But, a small disturbance is enough to bring them back to where they were .. searching ..

       As the hour passes .. eyes take over the mind .. and the mind gives up .. it starts thinking, what am I doing here .. where did I dream to be .. where am I right now .. why am I going in ways that I know have dead ends .. why do I think about things that I should let go ..

      That is when I realize .. there is something else that controls mind and the eyes .. its the heart .. heart knows nothing .. but it is the one that takes decisions .. this heart has a peculiar behavior .. it loves everything .. it doesn’t understand hate .. its loves you, even if you try to fill it with venom .. it sees love in that venom too .. but .. but it yearns for closures .. it can never let things leave without a reason .. without an explanation .. then I realize .. nothing is completely good or completely bad .. its just the way we see things at that moment that forms an opinion .. 

     I notice it has been more than an hour since I woke up .. mind tries to put me back to sleep .. and when I slowly go back to sleep .. it starts speaking .. Idiot, heart cannot think .. it was me all the time .. I am rational and emotional part of me is heart .. I smile as I trolled my self ..

    and you facepalm because you read this post .. and there .. you smile too ..

This is how he would feel, if you wish Happy Good Friday !!

@source - unknown

The most important things right now!! (Taken with Instagram at Oracle Campus)

KFC :D (Taken with instagram)

 no, dont worry I am not going to write endless and tasteless posts about my cooking adventures .. they will end .. or atleast be a weekly updates, once I get satisfied with my cooking. Once I call myself a good cook.

       Btw did I say why I started this cooking thing? may be I said about food at office .. but there is one more reason .. Cooking is therapeutic, yes. my mind needed some rest, a distraction .. I think I found it in this. Atleast it seems so. Infact I was planning for a sabbatical but this has stopped dat for a while.

       So, the actual cooking part. Wat did I cook today. Tomato Rice. I was never fan of this when I was at home. But this is one of the easiest one to make, so though I would do it today. It took less than one hour to cook, omelettes included.

        It was good too. Lot better than yesterday. key learnings, use enough oil and fry onions until the color turns golden. Always cook with the flame on simmer, though it takes time, it is the best way. High flame complicates things. After all you have to enjoy the work you do. 

Btw still dint master ‘How much salt to use’ part. There was no/very less salt today. When your mom says add 1spoon salt, add 1spoon. Listen to your mom in this. Its fine.

         ohh yes .. I started cooking .. way too early to say if I would stick to it but for now everything is going good. This idea was on my mind for quite some time now .. this ‘quite some time’ is around one year or so. 

         I started thinking seriously about this after continuous bad lunches at office. I went around to all three phases to try different caterers. For a while Chaat and fruits were only things on my lunch menu. I live for food, so I couldn’t take it anymore and took this decision to cook.

         Mom was like .. what !! are you really going to cook?? .. I would have loved to see her face when she said that, but then that is a different story altogether. She finally accepted that this is really going to happen, when I read out bill from DMart.

         And today as per the plan I should have woken up at 6 and should have gone to market. That did happen, but the shopkeeper was looking at me as if I was a time traveller from past when I asked for 1/4 KG beans. To avoid any more such looks doubled all my requirements. Ended up buying 1/4KG mirchi too. Yes.

         Menu was tomato dal,Beans fry and Rice. Worked hard for 2 hours to complete everything. Dal was a bit hard even after cooking with mineral water. TIP: Never buy dal from DMart. After completing dal, I thought I would try it once. After all it was my first attempt and was all excited about how it would taste. Just when I took a spoonful in to my mouth, something hit my mind, there is something called salt and I missed adding it. Elementary Mr Watson. 

       Dint want to make any such mistakes with beans so added salt right into the pressure cooker before cooking and then added salt again when frying those baked beans. Once again, different dish, same spoon and same mouthful, this time ‘Yashoda Salt Monster’ was standing beside me, looking and smiling.

      Right after this charred rice happened. But nothing could stop me from packing this to office. Asked N and A for reviews. There were too nice to say anything -ve and ended up saying ‘Its good’ instead. After that, infact I did find it better too. Better than morning.

     That gave me confidence to share the fry in the evening with Anil. After having one spoon. He had that face which he usually has when he is forced to smile but he cant. I waited there to see if he would take one more spoon. But, he dint. All he could say was ‘Its OK’.

     So that ended Day 1. It was a mild Disaster. This blog post too I believe is a disaster. I dont thing anyone will read this sentence.  If yes did you notice the mistake??

     Finally what did I learn today?

              1) Remember salt,

              2) If your mom says add one glass dal, you should add half of it.

              3) Remember too much salt.

<haa End of a boring post> 

For few it’s a new beginning

For few more it’s about continuing

For some it’s about moving past old acquaintances 

For some more it’s time to make new friends

For many it’s just another day

For many more it’s start of a new year .

… Here’s to the next 366 days!! 

Christmas !! - at ofen :D (Taken with instagram)