The Noise

I looove reading!!! Its a kind of relaxation for me to be transported to another world witnessing the life of the protagonist of the novel. I have a good enough imagination which gets fired the moment i lose myself in the pages between my hands!! My personal preference are definitely the mystery and suspense novels which go through so many entertaining twists and turns!!! But be warned, too many of these type make you immune to the plots that the author cooks up to throw us off the track and i usually correctly guess the antagonist after 2/3rds of the book!!



I had my share of books while growing up with The Famous Five, the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Enid Blyton's.....in my early teens. These titles were then replaced by The Fear Street, The Fear Street Sagas......by the time i reached XII. My mom used to call me cynical coz of my interest in these not-so-ordinary novels which explored into the realm of the supernatural and the unnatural!!! Well, eventually i out-grew my Fear Street addiction, to the great relief of my mom, and started getting hooked to Sidney Sheldon!! After reading all the novels by Sidney Sheldon, i explored other authors like Robin Cook, John Grisham...et all. I have a good collection of reads like the sidney sheldon's fast paced suspense thrillers, the laid-back witty Chetan Bhagat's true-to-life experiences, Agatha Christie's Poirot and Miss Marple, Sir Arther Conan Doyle's ever green Sherlock Holmes, the magical Harry Potter series...and the list goes on!! Unfortunately, most of these books are now lost in the process of lending them to frenz and relatives. But, on the brighter side,that leaves room in my book shelf to fill with newer reads that i keep splurging on. After falling off the reading habit for a while, i am now back again and you can find me with a good read in the bus/auto on the way to work or at the end of the day comfortable in my bed with my lil one beside me.


Some of these books come with excerpts (towards the end of the book) of stories by the same author or reads of the same genre. One such excerpt caught my eye and imagination. This was some time in my teens and i somehow missed the author's name and the title of the novel from which the excerpt was printed. But the small story was so captivating and so nail-biting that even to this day i cannot forget it. Of course it belongs to the suspense/mystery/supernatural genre. When i was 16yrs i tried to reproduce the excerpt as a poem which i am sharing with you all today.


Read on......

The Noise

Right in the middle of the night

She woke up with a fright

She had just heard a noise

which didnt sound like a human voice

She put her hand under the bed

and let her dog lick it when she was afraid

There it was---the sound again

which was now eating her brain

She was all alone in the house

with only a pet dog and a stray mouse

She gave her hand to her dog once more

comforted by his lick, decided to go and explore

The Noise---it sounded so unnatural

becoming more and more unbearable

Picking up all her courage

She managed to reach the passage

Looking cautiously into the kitchen

she shivered with fear like a chicken!

The Noise-- it was coming from the bathroom

she proceeded towards with with a broom

Oh My God!!! What was that???

She felt she was loosing her gut

There in her bathroom sink

was her dog as dead as a mink!!!

On the mirror in front of her

was a message about her Welsh Terrier

It said-”Who's been licking your hand?”

She felt like sinking into quick sand

As for the terrible, eerie noise....

it was her dying dog's cries!!!

 

Eerie na...? It was too good to forget and this is how i saved it in my memory and my Poe(m)-Tree.

Signing off like Priyanka Chopra's style in Khatron ke Khiladi-3......next time you hear something from your bathroom.....be careful.....coz U Never Knooooooooow!!!

Image picked from http://www.hamsheregallery.co.uk

Basic Pound Cake--Love at First Bite!!!

Ever since the baking bug bit me, i have been going gaga about it, especially about cake moulds. Recently dropped by at Jamal's on MG Road to check out for any new Silicone cake moulds. A great collection awaited me at Jamal's!!!The entire wall was stacked up with different sizes and shapes and colours of silicone moulds!! A Silicone mould heaven....especially in Bangalore.Super excited is all that i got and infected the same to the hubby darling. Quickly depositing the baby princess into the baby sitters arms, me and the husband started filling our hands with the colourful moulds. And as a result i ended up with a beautiful creamy deep savarin cake mould...a type of bundt!! Getting home and admiring the days loot, i was getting impatient to put my brand new bundt to use. I had seen more than many pound cakes in a bundt and so that was exactly what i decided to adorn by new mould. Promptly started surfing the net for the perfect recipe of a Pound Cake and landed upon the Joy Of Baking link.



A Pound cake screams BUTTER!!! It got its name beacuse of the measurement of 'a pound each' of its main ingreduents. From 'Joy of Baking' site, "The name 'pound' was given to this cake because the original recipes contained one pound of butter, one pound of sugar, one pound of eggs, and one pound of flour. While the pound cakes we make today often have different proportions from the original, they are still wonderfully rich, moist, and buttery with a lovely golden brown crust. "


I was initially wary about using so much butter.....but the promise of a rich buttery flavour took me over and fascinated me and eventually i gave in to using a full 200gms of butter. The recipe demanded of having all ingredients at room temperature and so my cake baking session had to get pushed to the next day as my butter was freezing rock solid in my freezer box.


Come next day and after packing the husband's lunch and waving him a bye-bye (just like an obedient and ideal wifey) i found myself rushing to the oven and pre-heating it!! With the stage(oven) set and the actors(ingredients) ready, all that was left was for me to direct the play!!!


The end result was beeuuutiful. Absolutely divine....the aroma of butter and vanilla wafted around temptingly. The previous day's purchase, my deep savarin mould gave my pound cake the perfect shape and colour......a beautiful sunset golden hue.

The cake was fluffy and soft to the touch. And the taste....as promised was rich and moist and beautifully buttery.


The husband fell in love with this buttery joy in the first bite and has ever been insisting to bake it frequently!!


A definite recommendation for all beginners as the cake comes out perfect and gives a good shot of confidence.


Pure indulgence ...........is what a Pound cake offers!! And why not...its not everyday that we treat ourselves with a slab of rich Pound Cake over a cup of hot coffee!!


Bon Appetit!!

Basic Pound Cake Recipe

Ingredients:
1 and a ½ cup Maida (All Purpose Flour)
¾ cup granulated Sugar
3 eggs
200gms unsalted cooking butter
3 tbsp milk
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
¼ tsp salt


Important: All ingredients have to be at room temperature

Procedure:


Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees.
In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs one after the other. Add the milk and essence.
Have all the dry ingredients mixed well in an electric mixer. To this add the egg mixture in 3 additions. Beat well for at least 30-45 seconds after each addition. Beat for 1 full minute after the last addition to aerate the mixture. This will help trap air bubbles inside the batter which is essential for to get a fluffy cake. Grease the desired shape cake tin/mould. Pour the batter directly, with out disturbing, into the mould. Disturbing the batter while pouring will burst the air bubbles inside the batter and the cake may not turn out to be very fluffy.


Bake the cake for approx 45-50 mins at 200 degrees or until a cake tester comes out clean.


Remove the cake from the oven and let cool in the mould for 15-20 mins. Reverse the cake from the mould only after cooled so that the cake does'nt break when warm.


Serve the cake with a warm cup of coffee or hot chocolate.

Come out and Play

(This post was posted on Sept 16th 2010. Due to some change of settings, it is appearing as posted on Oct 5th.)


A lot of things have kept me busy and away from my Blog baby.


Please bear with me as i justify(for my own satisfaction) my long absence. Firstly my princess fell ill with the viral fever which is doing its rounds here in B'lore. Then work has started a bit at office- keeping me busy with not enough time to look this way. And over the weekends is another story....somebody once said..'We are living our lives over the weekends.....' How true!! Come weekend...start cleaning the week long accumulated dust...run errands, buy groceries to last the whole week, shop till we drop!!!.........phew....and so no time to connect to the net!!!


Anyways, a few days back Saina Nehwal was in the news....for her statement on the Delhi-Commom Wealth Games. She had stated that...."Looking at the stadiums and progress I don't really think we are capable of holding such big tournaments. I have seen many Games like Melbourne Commonwealth Games and Olympics in China. Compared to that, it is not up to the mark......" But being the brand ambassador of the Delhi- CWG, she was quick to apologize for her 'shocking statement' and went to say "I am sorry for whatever I said. I did not mean it. The Commonwealth Games will be a huge success. I want to do well in front of my home crowd. I am very proud that the Commonwealth Games are being held in India. I am a little disappointed after making these comments. It is not right on my part to say it as lots of people follow me....."


Well, Saina, being in the limelight didnt want to be at the center of a storm abt her comments and so quickly politically corrected herself !! But in retrospection I completely agree with Saina's original and true statement. Our arrangements for the Delhi CWG is no way near to previous/other international sporting events hosted by other countries and India is definitely not capable to conduct such international events--at least not until it rids itself of all corruption, which, sorry to say.......is near impossible!!


The Delhi-CWG has been tossing around on the wave of corruption. So many names had come out regarding the huge corruption scandal around these games!!! And few of these people have been sacked---and what use is it now??? After such a disgrace to the country on the international platform!!


Delhi CWG is the height of corruption (till date...who knows we Indians are very capable to setting higher standards in this field...if not in anything else). Just imagine; 10 lakhs for hiring a thread mill, 8000 for hiring a chair, 42,000 for hiring a refrigerator..and the list goes on!!! OMG!!! Even a middle class family nowadays is buying a decent thread mill for Rs. 20K.....!! And these people in the organizing panel of the Delhi-CWG have just HIRED these items!!


And whose money is it that they have hidden in their Swiss accounts et al??? The money comes from the taxpayers i.e. people like you and me. The money is a percentage of our hard-earned salary.....a percentage of our time which we spend in the office working......our blood and sweat which we pay to the country as taxes for its development and progress........!! And where does it go....into the pockets of the politicians---who dont give a crap about the development or progress about our country. All they care about is to replenish their loot. As they have spent a considerable amount during the elections to buy the vote bank to get them elected...they deem their ministerial berth/ assembly seat as their right to multiply their assets. If its Mr.X who got elected this term...then it will be Mr. Y's turn next term. And this Mr.Y who had to silently lick his money wounds (money spent for the election campaign which he unfortunately lost) when reelected will start his business of accumulating wealth with full josh...making up for the lost 5 years!!


Fine...we have been growing up with such politicians in our country (literally). But what beats me is- didn't the politicians responsible for the Delhi CWG even for one fleeting second think about the loss their actions would bring to their country? About the international disgrace for their country? About the CWG standards (set by other deserving countries) which they would be unable to meet? Couldn't they think about their country, their mother land at least once? How selfish!!!


Well, at the end, the Delhi Common Wealth Games has actually lived to its name. They will remain in our memories and in our countries history as the mega event where the democratically elected elite politicians of India played Games with the Common Wealth of the public!!!

---The news excerpts quoted above (Saina's comments) were taken from the Sept 4th web article of The Economics Times.