Chocolates off an ice tray

Got the cooking chocolate bars from Nilgiris. These were labeled as bitter but gosh the bars were unbelievably sweet. I think in the kind of weather conditions we have in chennai you need all that sugar to keep the chocolate maintain its shape. The bitter label is more to tell that it is not milk chocolate. After seeing a few youtube tutorials I ready to give it a go.

So the whole process is melt and set, that is it!

In absence of double boiler, the melting was done in a two-pot system. The bottom pot sat on a gentle fire and had some water to generate the steam. The top pot with the cooking bars broken into smaller pieces sat on the rim of the bottom pot maintaining a safe distance from the water. Throughout the melting process some patient stirring was required as the chocolate was ready to fuse into any surface available if allowed to. After mixing the almond powder and cocoa powder, the mixture was ready to be set. Didn't have any setting moulds at home so decided to use the ice trays instead. The mixture was put in, shaken (not stirred) to allow settling and then cooled for 10-15 minutes. A twist and out popped chocolate cubes!

Takkalino

Have been feeling most of the week as if I am wading in unfamiliar waters. First, it was the 6k run on saturday, the route was most familiar, the distance also not that unfamiliar but it was this being part of a huge gathering of people coming to run together that was totally unfamiliar. Peace and I ran together, but we didn't do our usual chit-chat, we were strangely very focussed. Kenny apart from providing inspiration also caused some distraction, oh those shoes or are the socks? I just can't get over them! At the end of the run my mouth was slightly bitter and I felt a little faint but in a minute I was normal and the feeling was absolutely fantastic. It felt so great, unfamiliar but great.

Second, it was a lecture to college teachers on "feedback" , in the context of how it can be used in making teaching more effective. It was part of a weekend program which I was hesitant to be a part of. I wasn't not sure if I am there yet, I mean reaching a stage where I can teach about how to teach. Anyhow, I did agree and realized it was a much harder lecture to prepare for than the usual technical things I lecture on. On the lecture day, what made it even more awkward was that this bunch of colleagues who were organizing the program were also attending it. To top it there was also the person who had given lectures about "effective teaching" to us. The power point slides suddenly seemed very inadequate and why had I bothered to put Tendulkar's picture in one the slides? Anyhow, I started and went along with what I had in plan. It wasn't so bad after all. In fact, at the end of it I was quite pleased with how it had all turned out. RRJ was sitting in the side listening to Amma's blabbering and his feedback: when I grow up I want to be a famous cricketer ….. not a teacher!

But perhaps while liquidizing the tomato chutney in the morning what was weighing on my mind was the impending event where I have to elaborate on the philosophy behind what I do as an academic. That is a tough one because so far the philosophy has been "try to survive". Doesn't look good as the heading of a slide, does it? Lost in these thoughts I switched the mixie on. Didn't do the usual pulsing first. In half a minute, it was tomato sprayed all over the wall, on the platform and on my dress. I screamed and yelled at nothing in particular, and tried to ignore RRJ and RRS who thought it was very amusing. Nothing unfamiliar about that though.

Active learning

I am a believer, the active learning strategies if used well do work wonders. The ones I have used in my classes and have found to be very effective are: "think-pair-share", "one-minute paper" and "active-co-operative learning". Fancy names but the ideas are very simple, may be I will elaborate another time...... Today we have first active-co-operative session for this semester's class. I am going to be the listener and students will to the chalk-talk. A little apprehensive how it will all go but looking forward to it nevertheless.

Guitar updates

How many months will it take till I know
how to play the damn chords
The answer my friend, is blowin in the wind,
the answer is blowin in the wind......

Around 6-7 months have passed since I bought the guitar. It was one of the new year resolutions based on suggestion from elder brother: "learn music". What I have learnt so far is equivalent of playing three notes together in a piano! Oh no!
What I have lost is sensation of finger tips and all contacts with the said sibling, ironically we had a discord over musical matters!


Yet to reach the stage when the fingers land on the notes together and move to the next chord cleanly. And of course we have stayed clear of chords B and F. And then there are strumming patterns. Maybe we need to have a 5-year plan here.

Amchi Kimchi

Just mixed the spices with the soaked veggies. I absolutely love the kimchi that turns out as per Madhur Jafferey's recipe. On day one it looks like:



And it is official that I am missing the guys, the missing-them started the same evening they left. To be precise just when I got to know that they are enjoying karimeen fry while I was having alu-capsicum with rice. Eagerly waiting their arrival this evening. Super mother-in-law is sending some for me too. Bhagvaan ki duniya mein der hai andher naheen.

Dr.... DK Bose

The memories of childhood are strange in that they are mostly so hazy that I can't recall much even if I think hard but then there are a few images and some details of incidents that are so clear as if they happened just yesterday. Got recently reminded of one such incident that happened long ago when I was in class 1.

Just like most other days during that time, I was the first one to reach the jhoola park right next to our home. I used be quite an expert in doing 'paing' which is essentially: you stand and swing and when you are satisfied with the amplitude of the oscillations you sit down and at the maximum point release yourself like a projectile out of the swing. For the thrill of being airborne for those few seconds, one never minded the landing onto hard ground and getting brushed against the typical flora of that region, blade grass.

I was surprised to see ma in the park that day as she told me to slow down. Then remembering something about the gas being on in the kitchen she left in a hurry. The next thing I remember I had lost my balance while scratching my nose during 'paing', I rotated and landed and the jhoola, the green one, banged against my head lightly a couple of times.

My mother was carrying me home and at that corner in front of Kauna Mashi's home I saw over her shoulder how my left hand was hanging loose and limp. I remember telling her not to cry as everyone could see her doing so. The next memory is of me lying in the bed in a dark room and some neighbors coming to see me, I could only see their silhouette against the verandah light.

The memories centered around that incident end with the final scene at the orthopedic ward of the hospital in the city where my compound elbow fracture was to be set. Based on the x-ray, the doctor started the setting which was to pull and try to relocate the bones to their right places. While I don't remember any of the associated pain but I do remember spewing out curse words at the doctor for the entire duration. The choicest hindi ones from UP, one after the other.

Thereafter there was deep silence in the room. I was unsettled by the brutality in the name of setting broken bones, the doctor was stunned at the breadth of my vocabulary considering my age and the fact that my father was an academic. And my father's colleague who had given us the ride to the hospital in his car must have felt what most parents feel when they hear the DK Bose song: stay away from my children! Whatever my father thought, he never said anything about it to me and now he says he doesn't remember so many details.

End of a test (?) and the beginning of a sem

What was turning out to be an interesting match till yesterday's morning session is pretty much a one-sided affair now, thanks to some insipid Indian bowling and some great batting by the English tail-enders. It would be a miracle if India manages to salvage this one, unless of course English weather decides to bail them out.

Thanks to the perfect time difference between India and England it is easy to catch the action live. And thanks to my dad, in the side we sip on this absolutely divine darjeeling tea and munch on the latest family fad: peanuts roasted in microwave. And I wonder:
- where is that commentator Harsha Bhogle, the man on whose shiny bald pate one could count the number of lights, gone?
- why do I find it so difficult to appreciate Rahul Dravid?
- why having double chins and paunches doesn't bother professional cricketers of a nation of one billion population? Shouldn't they be dispensable?
- why is it such a pleasure to see SRT bat?
- when will Ganguly as a commentator stop self-referencing?
- why is it all looking so hopeless at the moment?
Perhaps it is time I start wondering about things that are more in my control, like:
- when will the course-planning begin for the course that starts tomorrow?
- why do I feel anxious about the first class even after teaching for 6 years?
- why does it matter so much that what sari will I wear tomorrow?