July 15, 2009
· Filed under General, International, Personal · Tagged Biryani, Goat meat, Kottu, lamb, mutton, South Asia
Early this week, we had a Biryani lunch at office. While everyone was enjoying the rare delicacy, one asked what type of meat was in it. The person who prepared the meal said it’s ‘goat meat’. For a moment I thought he might not aware of what ‘goat meat’ is called. But to my astonishment, everyone kept calling it by the same name.
Out of curiosity, I said ‘back home we call it mutton’. Then only I got the answer. Mutton is actually the meat from mature sheep; not from goat. Then where was the confusion? Apparently, the word ‘mutton’ is used to describe goat meat in our part of the world. So, our mutton Biryani and mutton Kottu are not quite what we mean for people outside the region.
July 14, 2009
· Filed under General, Holidays, Personal · Tagged drinks, family, friends, host, ice age 3, meals, visitorts
Last weekend, we hosted a few visitors. In fact, two families in four days. This is something we have never done before, even back home, so we were a bit exited, curious and worried leading up to it. We had to clean up the house and do some shopping before the weekend. We had to decide on the meals, the places we are going to visit with them. We had to plan for the girlie, not to let her feel neglected amidst all this rush.
Luckily, everything went pretty well. We caught up with a couple of friends and their families after a few years. We had a good time and great fun, talking mostly about good old times and visiting a few places. The little one, being pretty much like her father, didn’t show much of an interest on the strangers and kept to herself most of the time. My wife got good compliments on her cooking, something she rarely gets from me.
But after all, we were dead tired and literally exhausted. All four days, we stayed up past midnight and had only about 5 hours of sleep each day. My wife was the most tired, having shouldered bulk of household work, and picked up a back pain at the end. She opted to go for a movie, Ice Age 3 on 3D, to chill out and I opted for a quiet drink, in fact two of them. As I write this, I’m on the second and hopefully I’d feel better by tomorrow morning.
July 10, 2009
· Filed under General, International, Personal, Sports · Tagged Australia, bowling, Chucking, Cricket, Doosra, Spin
Doosra, is apparently a Hindi word which roughly means ‘the other one’. But do you know the actual English translation of it? Chucking! I found this interesting article in The Australian which urges Nathan Hauritz, the Aussie spinner, to chuck if he wants to be a dangerous bowler. The article has references to Murali, the other tightly coupled name with the Doosra and chucking; so you might like to have a go at it.
After all, one’s inability to spin the Cricket ball is not someone else’s problem.
July 9, 2009
· Filed under General, International, Personal, Sports · Tagged Ashes, Australia, Cricket, England, free tv, NRL, Rugby, SBS, urn
So, Test Cricket is back. I’m watching Test match Cricket for the first time after last summer. Since then, it’s been only Rugby, mostly NRL, to watch. I’m not rich enough to have a paid TV connection and matches played outside Australia are hardly telecast on free TV. Luckily, the Ashes is on SBS and the next couple of months, I’d be glued to it.
It was pretty nice to see the game start under bright sunshine yesterday and the lush green all around was a treat to the eye. The two teams are pretty much balanced on the scale and come in to the series with equal odds to win. That would guarantee us a breathtaking series and I prefer England to get hold of the Urn again. An English win would also mark the end of Aussie dominance in Test match Cricket, which is good for the rest of the countries who are climbing up the ladder, including Sri Lanka.
July 9, 2009
· Filed under International, Music, Personal · Tagged Al Sharpton, Children, memorial, Michael Jackson, speech
I don’t know who this guy is and what he has to do with Michael Jackson or his family. But Reverend Al Sharpton caught everyone’s attention when he made a fiery speech at Michael Jackson memorial service. One statement he made was a killer and absolutely spot on.
“I want his children to know there was nothing strange about your daddy; it was strange what your daddy had to deal with.”
