Journey of Life through a Forest.

Life is a journey through a forest out of which no one ever comes out alive.

So what does that mean:
Have full fun while you are in the forest, enjoy the wildlife, the sunny , cloudy as well as the dull days. No use fearing the future or grumbling over the forlorn past. The journey will come to an end one day and near the end there wont be much time left to explore much. And who knows when is the end, so its better do what you always dreamed of, atleast give it a shot and if you fail, you will have the satisfaction of trying to achieve your dream. There are very few who actually achieve their dream, and even few who attempt to achieve it. So give your best shot, relish the juicy sweet fruits on the way, endure the rough waters while crossing the rivers, capture the beauty of the naive wildlife and the deep blue waters, snow capped mountains, lush green grasslands, deep canyons, gorges. There is no end to the list of things you can see, discover and do on your way through the forest. You can have both your hands full. When the journey comes to an end you are either a satisfied traveller who had all the fun possible in the forest and your spirit is beaming with knowledge, discoveries and beauty. On the other hand you could be a traveller who forgot to enjoy the journey and just realzied the journey is over. You are tired, bruised and dissatisfied that you never had the courage to do what you wanted to. So decide how you want to see yourself?
I am going to try and do this from now in my life, its easier said than done i know, but let me give it a shot to be the fun loving traveller of life. (BTW traveller is British english, while traveler is American english).

The most awesome trip ever- Yellowstone National Park

The skies shine deep blue with conical clouds hovering on beautiful hills. Smoke and water erupts unforeseen in any direction you see. The river accompanies you wherever you go, clear as a crystal, flowing with utmost grace. The vast plateau, colorful basin, serene valley, profound canyon, mystic waterfalls, green grasslands, calm lakes and dancing rivers, all provide a lovely habitat for the inhabitants of this ecosystem. The inhabitants make their appearance every now and then and include the huge Bisons with an innocent face, posing mooses, grazing dears, poghorns, rare coyotes and fox and the abundant elks. Yellowstone National Park is the perfect example of an ecosystem with all members of it in perfect harmony with each other.
We had our trip spread over 3 days. The first day we entered, the sudden apperance of the Bison along the Madison river got our heart jumping while we were busy capturing the elk family relaxing by the river. We got some videos of the Bison and went South towards the Old Faithful region. There we spent the rest of the day seeing different geysers erupting at different times including Old Faithful, riverside, castle and some mud pots. B was quite angry the way we were spending the time posing before every geyser as being the planner he was afraid that we wont be able to catch all geysers which were predicted to erupt in the next few minutes. We missed Grand, thats something for next time. S was trying different things during this walk like walking backwards, sidewards etc. R was as usual looking for food every now and then. L was trying to convince the 4 of us (me, B, S and R) on the correct pronunciation of geysers.
After a very pretty sunset in this geyser region, we headed towards our lodge. When we reached Grant village only the Lake restaurant was open. And the only veg option there was the Tuscan Bean soup. So me , B, S and R ordered that and L ordered a custom made dish which turned out to be quite challenging for the chef.
The next day i was the frist person to wake up as usual and woke everyone else. We left the hotel at 5 am to drive towards the Yellowstone Canyon and lower falls. We reached Artist point and the Canyon looked beautiful. We took pictures and enjoyed the early morning. We drove back along the widespread Yellowstone Lake and stopped to enjoy the cold and cloudy morning. The lake looked perfect at this time of the day. We saw wildlife on our way back. We all took a shower after coming back and went to the Grant Village Grill for our brunch. The Grill served burgers pretty much the same way as they were served in Union South with a Salad Bar. Also the Irish Cream coffee tasted quite similar. One thing i was obsessed about was gift shopping. Everytime i used to see a gift shop , i would end up buying some Yellowstone gift from there. We spent some time at the gift shop and spent the evening at the Upper Falls which was awesome. We then drove towards Tower Falls and by the time we came back, again the only place open for dinner was Lake Restaurant. We again had the Tuscan bean soup.That night we played Uno. The third day we drove towards Mammoth Hot Springs. What a pretty little town! Just looked like Europe. We went to Lamar Valley and saw huge herds of Bisons. It was pretty cold this day. We also crossed the 45 degree latitude this day where quite some unusual things happened. Like B hitting his eye on the car door, L almost falling into the river, S behaving normal and R not feeling hungry. We attributed this to the strange geological phenomenon present at this latitude :-). This evening we also saw a fox through the binoculars. While driving back it snowed this night. Overall days well spent at this beautiful location which I recommend a must go atleast once.

Ceremony of Mathematics

There was a time when i used to depend on my dad for so many things. The best was my Math. He was my Math Guru all till class 9. I remember i was in class 2 that time. I wouldn't move a page of my Math book without my dad not sitting next to me. Its not that i couldn't but Math was a ceremony for me which had to be performed only sitting next to my dad. It was one of the ways i could get full undisturbed attention from him :-). So before every math exam at school, i would wait for him to return home from work and start giving me a revision of the curriculam. Till the time he wont come, i wont even open the book. I would sleep, play with my toy scooty and peep from the balcony every half an hour to see if he was coming. And inspite of my chilling out like this, i would score excellent on the next day of the exam , all because of the solid preparation my dad would have given me before the exams on a regular basis. Once i remember he was extremely late, he called me saying he is stuck and will come home late night , so he asked me to start the revision on my own. But i blatantly refused, how could i start on my own :-). So my father came back late, gave me a revision for a couple of hours. Next day the exam was a cake walk :-)
Now its my turn to give back something, i feel very happy when my father emails me, chats with me, sends photos ,attachments. Not a big deal but gives me a great satisfaction that i have made him interested in all these things and he can use them well . Slowly i hope to teach him more of these internet thingies ..

Scientist of the Century- Albert Einstein

Came across some of the quotes by this great scientist. I am listing a few which are quite hat ke :-) -

1.Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
2.Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods.
3.If A is success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.
4.Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love. How on earth can you explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love? Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.
5.I never think of the future - it comes soon enough.

Enjoy!

India turns 61!

India turned 61 a few hours back. I am not a big follower on politics etc but i just hope that issues like communal riots which have broken out in the past 61 years many times, poverty which has afflicted millions, terrorism which has left us crippled many times should come down this year in India. Everything is defined by the people of the country. The least we can do is to not have biases against different religions or communities. India has been secular ever since its birth and we must maintain that feeling in our minds not just to print in the books. If all citizens do this minimum possible of living together as Indians and hold no distinctions between north or south or east or west or based on religion/caste etc , India would be a much more peaceful state. On controlling these internal issues we can stand much stronger against thousands of other issues which India faces.

Now coming to the celebrations , I am sure lots of colorful Kites must be decorating the skies. I do miss the unsuccessful Kite Flying attempts with my brother M. Although this time when i was in India we both did have one attempt successful. I bought a Toy Story huge plastic kite from here when i went to India. One fine windy morning, me and M went down to fly the kite. I was holding the manjha for him as usual. The wind was very high and our Kite went up flying! It was so much fun..

Busy Busier

Work is getting busier every day and personal time seems to be shrinking. I need to do something to strike a balance, manage time better so that i can do some relaxing things. My Kite Runner is lying near my bed waiting to be read, Planet Earth is waiting to be watched :-), Star Wars is waiting to thrill me with the sound effects. There are 10 other things like my audio book, movies. Ah! so many things to do, so little time. Hope this high pressure time goes by soon..

Shahi Paneer..Yummy!

Weekend means time to try one new recipe.This time it was the turn for Shahi Paneer, my all time favorite since i was a child. Any time i have gone for dinner to a restaurant in Delhi, there has been hardly any time when i didnt order this Punjabi delight. So i gave it a try.
Here is the recipe:

-Cut fresh Paneer into triangles ( i like traingles better than cubes and my favorite restaurant Supas used to serve it that way). Heat oil in a pan and add fresh ground cumin powder, salt and some red chillies powder. Fry the Paneer triangles in this till golden brown.
-Take 2 big tomatoes and puree them in a mixer along with some cashew nuts, coriander leaves, a couple of kish mish and curd.Also mask a small piece of fresh paneer in this puree to give some thickness.
-In a kadhai , fry onions with ginger till onions are dark brown. Now add salt, turmeric powder, chillie powder, amchur powder and black pepper to this. Add one cinnamon stick also and cook for a while till you can smell the cinnamon fragrance.
-Add the tomato puree mixture to this and cook for 10 minutes till the color becomes red and cinnamon smells strong.
-Add the Paneer triangles to this gravy and cook for 5 minutes.
-Serve hot with chapatis. Enjoy!