Sushi

A little family secret: my (far) better half urges me often to try out new restaurants and international cuisines. Since this hobby has quite conflicting consequences in an infamously recession hit economy of Dubai..or better put - as I’m frugal about spending on fancy restaurants, I usually pretend to be a loyal advocate of home cooked food...(blogs apart : Luckily for me, she is a pretty good homemaker and always ensure that we get to eat great food at home.)

Even so, as a part of maintaining a happy family in these trying times, I give in occasionally...and partner always wanted to try Sushi. The term sushi sounded quite repulsive to me...Both of us had no idea what to expect. I did some research to find out the truth about sushi... Apparently Sushi is famous Japanese cuisine, mostly consisting of raw fish and I tried to convince her that it was not at all recommended for sane people like us(?) ?? ...mmm

Once, while we were window shopping at Festival City we happened to stumble upon one queer eatery named "YO!Sushi" ...instantly I could feel a lateral gravitational push(?) towards the shop as in Punjabi house movie...And my partner was looking at me romantically...that was a Sushi restaurant...

And since it was a long time request, I decided to suppress rationalizing and procrastinating. Like the baggages on conveyor belts in airports, different Sushi dishes were making rounds on a steel belt, in porcelain dishes of bright colors. As if to improve your appetite, there were chefs chopping and cleaning up the guts of raw fish inside the circle.....

The smiling waitress explained that she was not from Japan and that they calculated the total bill from the colors of dishes. She also taught us newbies how to hold the legendary Sushi sticks. The hostess suggested some of the cooked varieties. There were some sauces and pickles on display and I gladly sampled one green paste on the counter top. Instantly I regretted the action, for the stuff was extremely spicy and pungent. I offered this delicacy that ruthlessly invaded my taste buds to my curious partner, who also had similar experience :D...

As a matter of fact, I had to eat most of the Sushi for their fishy, inviting smell and taste...and after 4 or 5 Sushi dishes with God-knows-what ingredients, the only dish my smart partner perhaps ate was some chocolate fudge...


A recurring feeling for puking prevailed for the rest of that evening and then night...

Snakes

Having seen photographs of couple of my college-mates playing with live snakes at some snake sanctuary, I used to wonder how they could play with such hideous creatures. proximity of snakes always gave me the chills..

On a recent trip to Global Village shopping carnival in Dubai, me and my (far)better half decided to visit their reptiles pavilion. Inspired by my above mentioned friends, on spotting a young guy holding a python and taking pictures, i had this unusual urge to take a similar photograph. Being very generous and remembering the marriage vows, i offered the chance to my relatively adventurous better half who was perhaps torn between 2 conflicting malayalam thoughts;

1. Snake on fence...wear on shoulder ????
2. it is not even 4 months since wedding.....!!!

The custodian solved the dilemma and it was decided that we both would hold the snake together and he agreed to take our picture.

The python was heavy and it had a silky texture. All the while i tried to be cool about it, but was cautious to keep the head of the thing far away....ഒരു ദുര്‍ബല നിമിഷത്തില്‍ അതിനു എന്തെങ്കിലും ആഗ്രഹം തോന്നി പോയാലോ???

I was some 12 year old or so when i had my first casual interaction with a live snake. It was during one of my adventure strolls to the compound of the radio transmitting tower in my neighborhood. The purpose was to spend a summer vacation afternoon time in the wilderness plucking edible wild berries, (having no computers, video games or TV channels to keep us entertained, venturing outdoors was the remaining best option those days. That particular day fortunately there were no usual buddies to accompany me.

The compound was densely forested and shady even in that mid afternoon. One could hear the dry leaves and twigs crackling under the feet and i was busy clearing the bushes and wines making my way through uncharted territory.  Having explored enough distance, the barbed wire fencing from where i had infiltrated now disappeared from my view. It was then that I heard a rustling sound. And at the base of a cashew tree i spotted this horrendous large shining snake slithering near my feet.

A fuse went off in my head...every hair on my body shot up in ecstacy, and thankfully at that tender age, the video replay of my relatively uneventful short 12 or so years saved me much time. Next thing i remember was bolting, breaking all my previous (perhaps future as well) athletic records and later sliding down the barbed wires at another end of the compound some 100 meters away, bruising myself in the process.

Upon reaching safe zone with pounding heart, i could not stop verifying if the sweet heart was still pursuing me...she fondly visited me often in my dreams thenceforth although i never liked her much... so after all these years, finally she had a chance to redeem her self esteem and unrequited infatuation.

Looks can be deceiving :)

Kids come in different shapes, sizes and attitudes but one thing is common - they are cute. Yesterday evening i had a funny experience. Few of us friends had planned to watch the new Jayaram movie "Rahasya police" (if u havent watched that yet, please dont watch) - So I went to Mahesh's flat to leave the car there and go together in one car. Rang the doorbell and after a pause the door opened - to my surprise it was a stranger 2 year old who stood at the door and the moment he saw me, all his enthusiasm of opening the door vanished and despite the laughter and repeated reassuarances from his mother and Mahesh's mother, the baby chose to walk out to the empty corridoor towards the lift, with an expression of shock (as if in a psycho movie) - paavam pedichu poyee.

After few minutes he was captured and brought back on his amma's shoulder - he was staring at me incessantly without regard for all the other audience present there. So i talked bit chinese and offered him to hold my little finger - he grasped it without hesitation...well, surprise - uncle is a human being - a big smile blossomed and as if an old buddy, he laughed and a gave a friendly hard slap on my shoulder...his expression then was too funny ....

hmph...neighbourhood of our Mahesh...:D - അവനും പിള്ളാരുടെ മനസ്സാണ്...ചില _______പിള്ളാരുടെ (Fill in the Blanks) :D

Lost and Found

Ever thought of having a search engine that would search in real life and help you to locate lost keys and stuff like that? I was desperate for one today morning.

I am supposed to present 3 cheques to my would-be landlord today evening. As usual I woke up from a nightmare and the fello in my head was reassuring me that the cheque book is lost. How could that be? I always keep all the important documents in my special suitcase - but convinced with my past intuitions, i sleepwalked to the suitcase and did a preliminary search - hehe its missing.

After about 6 or 7 meticulous attempts in searching through every bit of stuff in that suitcase i was even more glad - all my car loan and purchase documents too are gone. (lightning hit - simultaneously snake bit) - nice start for a Wednesday morning- i dint have to worry over which side of the bed i woke up, as i had slept on the floor the previous night.

Now the tension was building - i was already late and had to leave for office, and i needed the cheques if i had to leave. Since i stay at my sisters place, and my sister is on vacation back in India, i was not quite sure where to start.

i called up chechi in India to identify potential safe places the missing stuff could be found - and after half an hour on phone searching in different cupboards and bags the truth sank in - its missing...

Last week i had the sad opportunity to read an article about "how to order around your subconscious mind" and it claimed that, if you give your sub conscious mind a unique name, you can call it to aid you in such difficuilt situations, as it is the curator of our mental memory archives...but unfortunately I had not named my subconscious mind then...

Perhaps under the prompting of my anonymous subconscious mind, i had this silly feeling to check inside the empty carton of the PC stuffed under the computer table - magic - gladly the envelope with all the documents were inside that - i have no idea how it got there!!!


Moral of the story : "കുന്തം പോയാല്‍ കുടത്തിലും തപ്പെണം"

Dolls

It was long time since i met Jiju. We plan to meet up often, but he (responsible family man as he proclaims) will find some excuse by the due date :P. Anyway, yesterday we had a common interest - Checking out the new MIDI rig at the Apple stores in festival city ( A MIDI rig is a little piano that can be plugged to your computers USB port and if you enjoy fiddling with MIDI and mixing music, its a cool device - Jiju was our batches MIDI pro, and being a novice, i have amateur interests in this field).

Image Courtesy : http://www.m-audio.com

We had a good workout effect after walking in the mall for almost half an hour non stop, as we were misdirected by at least 6 customer desks to the I-style stores. After being disappointed by the compatibility of the device in PC, we decided to leave the place and have dinner. On our way back we found this amusing doll exhibition - There were couple of talented doll artists from around the world, hand crafting beautiful dolls out of Clay and these elegant works have its own different moods and themes. I thought to share some photographs taken, as a tribute to the skills of those doll artists.

and then we met the perfect bride for Jiju :D

Below are few cool realistic works displayed in a store in Wafi Mall - these were taken sometime ago,




These artists really concentrate on the details and make sure they deliver excellent pieces of art. Quite impressive.

that's the magic of a BMW

I was randomly flipping through our good old Engineering college adventure snaps today evening, and this picture brought back a funny memory. The event dates back to a January in the year 2000, when our college was celebrating its diamond Jubilee. As part of the celebrations there was a grand exhibition : CETEX 2000.

The exhibition involved the students plausibly explaining the working of the prestigious institutions labs, facilities and other exhibits to gullible visitors. For us Civil batch guys, it was another reason for coming to terms with our new found pastime activity, among other things, avoiding diabetes (Pun intended). We had to clean up sum spider infested fossilized geotech lab and had plenty of spare time which was creatively utilized for gossipping and playing cards etc...

The dedicated lot, especially the team of guys who called themselves "graduates" (Rajit, Amar, Dinu, Bibin, and few others under the guidance and concept of coordinator God Tenny) saved the name of our batch by constructing a floating bridge in the curing tank of our structural lab, which quite successfully managed to float till the end of the exhibition days, complete with its floating restaurant and tiny glowing red LED's and all.

Meanwhile there were few ancillary pavilions of Armed Forces, ISRO space research centre and automobiles, participating in the event at the indoor sports auditorium. So for the younger audience who were forced to admire Maruthi 800's and Ambassadors, the shiny blue BMW exhibit in the automobile pavilion was an eye candy experience and most of us listened to the young gentleman who owned this cool car with great reverence. And did he spare the opportunity? Not a bit...

This young guy, to our great pleasure, was explaining BMW-isms eloquently in heavy western accent. Most of the local audience tried their best to match his accent (but miserably failed to catch on). One curious fellow among the audience was quite amused with the low front bumper of this car, and let go of an innocent query - "sir how come this will manage the potholes on our roads?? - The US accented response was immediate - "that's the magic of a BMW" and he continued explaining the unique suspension mechanism which makes driving a BMW equivalent to gliding...

Later that night, few of us guys were busy with some important "political" discussion in the grand entrance gate of the college, and we heard a loud, heart wrenching scratching sound. The BMW, unaware of the pavement design of the sloping driveway from the main building, tried its best in gliding, but somehow failed to negotiate the royal hump near the gate towards the Ladies Hostel side. Poor guy might have had a heart ache, but nevertheless managed to rev the engine in compensation and screeched away in the direction of Chavadimukku.

Was it just the Bumper or .....?? the mystery continued....

Fond memories of Nachos

Nachos is a mexican snack popular at theatres in the UAE - it consists of fried tortilla chips garnished with slices of pickled jalapeno peppers - and is served with tomato sauce and melted cheese to dip. Yesterday, we had been to the Galleria theatre to watch the movie 'Passenger' & while ordering snacks, my "flexibly calorie conscious" friend Mahesh said NO to cheese, and the guy in the counter compensated by an extra large scoop of chillies...

The movie was gripping and we were bit hungry as well, so the spicy stuff was shovelled in involuntarily in no time...! Infact, if me and Mahesh share any spiritual connection, that is mostly over food...once food is served, we become exceptionally devotional & dedicated. Thus, by the time we had this nice feeling that the chillies were awfully hot, it was tooo late...

Today morning, Mahesh confessed on phone that he was heading home from office and dedicated the trip to yesterdays pepper fiesta ...Unfortunately, some cosmic force is prompting me also to do the same... :( :(