Doing Dubai!

I am currently in Dubai on a short vacation! Thank goodness that Cyprus celebrates Easter yearly, so that i get an opportunity for a mini-vacation.

The vacation in Dubai got off to a good start. This is what i have been "experiencing" in Dubai: Saravana Bhavan's Idly, Vada, Sambhar; sangeetha's mini-tiffin; Woodlands' rava Dosai and Pongal and of course the must-have masala-milk.

No, i am not on an epicurean vacation, but a trip to dubai cannot escape the delicacies that these south-indian restaurants have to offer. I go to Chennai yearly, but i don't feel the same there. maybe it is because of the fact that there are only two restaurants (that i know of ) near my house: Saravana bhavan and Data Udipi and they are more than half a km away from my house and it would involve a short drive rather than a walk to get these. But, in Dubai, in the the place when my in-laws live, all of them (yes, all of them) are just at their doorstep. All i have to do is to use the lift to go down from the 1st floor (why waste energy) ans then walk right into any of the restaurants.

But, it is not so easy. One's brain easily gets clouded and confused when given so many options. Imagine trying to answer a multiple-choice question with more than 10 answers! So, i have decided to make it easy for my brain. I started 2 days back with the first one on the road and then moved on the next one yesterday and so on. But, there is another problem like today for example. I went into woodlands today and wasn't very satisfied with the sambhar given along with Pongal and regretted a lot that i had passed over saravana bhavan for this one. But, rules have to be followed and there is no way i am going back to saravana bahavan until i finish with the last restaurant down the road and start over with the loop again.

The new mumbai Indians cheerleader costume

An exclusive sneak peek at the new costume that the cheerleaders would wear at the Mumbai indians - deccan chargers match today in Mumbai. These costumes were designed by the famous gay (oops, guy) Karan Johar.

Technorati Tags: cheerleader costume ipl cricket

Are these games still played?

The post "Games we forgot" on hawkeye was one of those posts that you back to your childhood days and bring back fond memories. There are a lot of games mentioned in his post and i remembered having played many of those. If you can't recollect any of the games mentioned below, check out his post.
Kings: I remember having played this game event until the end of high school. It is a fast paced game and i was good at it, as it required the person inside the circle (or whatever field) to be pretty athletic in avoiding the ball. Of course, I have had embarrassing moments in school when, out of over-enthusiasm, i do too many acrobatic stunts and end up with my pants torn in all the wrong places!
Chains: This game was very popular in my apartment, but only when the girls were also present. Contrary to other games in the same category, there was a great demand to become the catcher, because the catcher would first "choose" the girl who he wants to hold hands with, make her out and enjoy the rest of the game holding her hands!
French Cricket: This was played when we didn't have the required strength to play a proper game of cricket. A good cricket player would have lot of fun in this kind of game, as it was almost impossible to get a good cricket player in this form of the game. The others, pity them, as they would be spending the entire time running to all parts of the "open" field, as there was rarely a n"end" to the field.
Hide n' seek (Kannam M/Poochi): This was a standard game, but we used to play it on our terrace. Thinking of the places i used to hide in gives me the jitters now, as our terrace was the fourth floor and i used to climb on top of the tanks and even down the water pipes by the side of the building to the sunshades on the windows of the third floor flats.
Hand Tennis: The usual rules of tennis, except that the racquet is replaced by the palm. Our moms used to be the water-moms. The water was not for drinking, but for cooling the reddened palms.
Chalk Cricket: We used to play this at school, where a ruler replaced a bat and a chalk replaced a ball. The chalk (usually 1/2 a chalk) was placed vertically on the table (serving as a pitch) and it had to be flicked towards the batsman (which constitutes a delivery). We even had different scores based on which girl you managed to hit, ranging from +6 (the highest) to -2(the lowest). Few of the girls also knew this scoring system and we have had many an argument for the validity of the rating.
Unfortunately, the games which people (from the South) usually recollect are Goli (marbles) and Gilli-Danda, both of my which i have never played! I am sure that there are many more that i have played and forgotten and i hope that some blog post comes along the way which refreshes my memory.

Man-Mosquito war: A true story

Why does a mosquito always hover close to me ear and disturb my sleep? Is it because

• It is checking whether I am in a deep sleep or not, so that it can plan its strategy of attack?
• It is trying to draw blood from the sensitive part of my ear?
• It is trying to communicate to me that I am doomed for the night?

I don't know the reason for this, but the fact remains that my sleep was ruined. Any number of attempts at chasing away the blood-sucker didn't work. All i managed was to slap myself on my ear many times and also almost fall off the bed in a desperate attempt to outwit the devil. At one point, i decided to act like an ostrich and pretend that the mosquito did not exist. So, rather than chasing away the devil, i tried to ignore it.
Well, it was obviously difficult to sleep with my back on the bed and also cover both the ears with my hands (imagine such a posture and you will understand why it is difficult). So, i tried sleeping on my side with one of my ears firmed lodged on the pillow and the other one covered with my hand. Still, he was hovering close to my ear. So, i smartly pulled my blanket over my head. Still, i heard his noise. Then fear struck me! Had he penetrated the impervious domain of my blanket or did he have accomplices inside as well as outside? But, Vidhya was sleeping peacefully seemingly unaware of the crisis i was in. Why was the mosquito discriminatory in his actions?
All this while, I was praying that the mosquito was a male (referring to him as "he"), as i didn't want to get into trouble with the fairer sex of the mosquitoes, the dangerous female anopheles type!
Now, i wasn't sure whether he was alone or with friends. I also started scientific doubts whether the sound of the mosquito flapping his wings can penetrate the cover of the blanket. This was an issue, as it was not the prospect of getting bitten which was bothering me, but the prospect of spending a sleepless night listening to his flapping wings which was troubling me.
Suddenly, as fast as he had come, he vanished. There was no more sound. I even sat up to look for him. When you are half-asleep, you think you can do things which you normally can't. So, i sat up on the bed and looked all over and concluded that i had won the battle. I was even looking forward to finding his dead body by the side of the bed the following morning. So, i went back to the usual posture of sleeping with my back flat on the bed. It was calm, peaceful and wonderful.
But, little did i know that this was just the calm before the storm. A few minutes later, when i had drifted into 3/4th sleep from being half-sleep, i was rudely awaken by a sound, a sound so deafening that it couldn't belonged to the original mosquito which was a whimper by comparison. Then, i realised that the worst had happened. The original guy (and probably his accomplices) had called for reinforcements. These reinforcements were not more of their kind, but they were the big guns of the mosquito world, akin to the F16s and the falcons. They were big, they were loud and almost impossible to intercept in air. War had been declared!
The noise produced by these big guns were like the sound of the army helicopters and they reached the depths of the inner ear. Neither the hand nor the blanket could block this sound. I was doomed! It was then that i realized the extent of the invasion. The big guns were attacking my body all over. The t-shirt was a very thin line of defense which didn't stand any chance against their all-penetrating blood-sucking missiles. I gave up. I didn't even have time to raise the white flag.
Few minutes later, it was all over. The raid had finished and it was very successful, for them! I started to evaluate the damages. When i tried to sit up on the bed, I heard a cracking noise. Had the mosquitoes drained my body of blood that the bones were hitting against each other? I was paralyzed with fear. Too afraid that i fell back on the bed and went to sleep!

Chennai Super Kings beat Punjab Kings XI at Mohali

Way to go Chennai Super Kings. Dhoni and his men couldn't expect a better start to the tournament. Though this defeat wasn't as convincing as the way King Khan's Knight riders smashed the Bangalore Royal Challengers, it was good enough to get the players into the groove for the rest of the tournament.
Mike Hussey showed the way for the Chennai Super Kings with a brilliant hundred. When the Punjab Kings were chasing and Kumar Snagakkara and James Hopes were having a partnership, things looked to be pretty even between the sides. But once hopes was dismissed, it was pretty easy for the Super Kings.
Great start Chennai Super Kings, keep it up. Vijay and Nayanthara will be proud of you! On the other hand, someone should teach Preity Zinta hot to cheer in cricket. The moves Preity Zinta were making would fit better in a boxing ring and not in a cricket stadium and it looked so artificial!

Technorati Tags: IPL cricket indian premier league cricket chennai super kings punjab kings XI mohali chandigarh cricket

Kolkata Knight riders beat Bangalore Royal Challenge in the first IPL t20 match

badly, very badly, in fact miserably! But, what can they do? Poor Vijay Mallya. When he purchased the Bangalore team in the Indian Premier league, I guess that he wouldn't have had an idea that his iconic player in the twenty 20 matches, the player for whom he would have to pay the highest money, would have been Rahul Dravid, of all the cricketers!
Yes, Rahul Dravid is a good cricketer, but this is 20-20, not the bend-forward-show-the-full-face-front-foot-defence game! Even i wouldn't have Rahul Dravid in my team for the Galli cricket 6 over matches! When the Bangalore team went in to bat today at the Chinnaswamy stadium, I almost fell off my sofa seeing Dravid and Wasim Jaffer walk out. What are the two test players doing in a wham-bham-thank-you-maam kind of game?
But Vijay Mallya, you have something to rejoice. There are lot of Bangloreans going to get drunk today with the sadness over this miserable loss and you can hope that they buy your liquor! You can also hope that Shah Rukh Khan and his Kolkata Knight riders will purchase your liquor in the party tonight.
I am obviously a supporter of Chennai Super Kings and i hope that the combined power of Dhoni, Muralidharan, Mathew Hayden and Fleming would be enough to crush the other teams.
Long live IPL, Long live Chennai Super Kings!

Technorati Tags: IPL indian premier league bangalore royal challenge Kolkata knight riders chennai super kings Vijay Mallya Shah Rukh khan

Water water everywhere, but not a drop to drink!

This is the situation in Cyprus. Even though Cyprus is a small island and you are less than a 100 kms from the sea in any direction, Cyprus is facing a water problem now. The Cyprus government has gone into crisis mode and is rationing water supplies much to the dislike of the citizens.
Now, people have started talking that Cyprus should have planned for desalination plants and should have foreseen such a crisis. I don't think there are even any plans for desalination plants. This water crisis will indirectly have an adverse effect on the tourism in Cyprus, though the government has promised not to ration the water in the tourist areas. But, most of the tourists don't just stay within the tourist areas. They rent apartments throughout the city limits and would definitely not be pleased to know that the hotel they are staying in would be rationing water! Why would i want to "store" water and do such regular-day chores on a vacation ?
There are also many other side effects to this problem. Read about them at the Cyprus Blog.

Technorati Tags: water shortage desalination plant cyprus water crisis

4 signs that you are addicted to EntreCard

Note: This post might not make any sense if you have not heard of EntreCard. But, if you are a blogger and you still haven't heard of EntreCard... God bless you!

4 Signs that you are an EntreCard Addict!

• You visit a blog. But, without reading any of the content first, you scroll all the way to the bottom and then all the back up, and then say "Damn this blogger. Is he from the stone-ages ? He doesn't have Entrecard on his blog!"
• You go late to work. Your boss asks why. You say that you didn't sleep well as you were busy making drops all night. Your boss then says "Oh, its alright. Hope your stomach trouble gets okay soon!".
  
• You keep a window always open with the "Recent Entrecards" page loaded. Every few minutes, you refresh it and immediately advertise for 2 ECs on the new ones.
• You visit a blog and your eye immediately notices the 125 ad with the stripe on the bottom as the Entrecard and your hand immediately moves the moves to the stripe. But, the mouse pointer doesn't change as the "DROP" has not yet appeared. You start swearing in all the languages you know, as you see all kinds of crap being loaded in other parts of the screen. Finally, the mysterious DROP appears and you still cry as to why it was the last thing to load.

No, I am not addicted to EntreCard. Oh no! My PC has become slow. I guess i have to close the 300 windows that i have opened for dropping!