My World

How do you like your pasta? Do you like it hot with sauce? Or do you like it tossed salad style? You know what: why choose when you can have both? It’s perfect for barbeque, or picnics, or just as a side dish. Here is what you’re going to need 1 bag of pasta (The shape is totally to your preference) 1 jar of mayonnaise 1 pack of cheese spread or cream cheese (whichever you can find) Salt to your liking Pepper to your liking 1 onion 1 green bell pepper 1 carrot ½ cabbage 3 eggs This will not take long, trust me. The preparation time will take anywhere from 20 to 25 minutes. Instructions Chop up your onion and your cabbage Grate that carrot Cut up your bell pepper and lightly sautée those on a pan Get a pot of water ready and put in your eggs. We want them hard boiled so keep a close eye on the pot for about 10 to 12 minutes While you’ve got your eggs going, take another pot and pour in some water for your pasta. When the water starts to boil, add a pinc...

  I might just be a little late in watching the show; okay late by a few years perhaps. I always thought Game of Thrones was overrated. Can you blame me? It was everywhere; it was all people would talk about, back then. For a moment, I thought I was among the only few people who do not watch the show. And it is somewhat true. And I tried to watch it, back then, believe me. I watched a few episodes of the first season. But I just couldn’t go on. The incest, the nudity: it was a little too much for me. I still remember Jubi’s voice defending the show: but the show is so much more, it is so political! At the time, I could not see past the show’s incest and nudity, but little did I know how wrong I was. I do not know what convinced me to watch Game of Thrones this time after years: perhaps it was the way he described it, perhaps it was my brother giving me my own TV screen and full seasons of GOT being casually available on his hard drive. Yeah, it is definitely the latter. This ...

I was inspired to write this one by a little girl. A little girl who is no more than 9 years old. Funny how children inspire us to think about the biggest things in life. I was scrolling through my Facebook the other day when I came across a post by Priya didi, my colleague and it really made me stop and think. Her daughter Aarya, is a 5 th grader at RBS and is one of the smartest and most talented kids that I know of her age. She asked her mother about adapting one day as she was reading “Nehru’s Letter” where it is mentioned that only animals who have capabilities to adapt to surroundings are able to survive, else they go extinct eventually. Her little big mind came up with the question: “Are we going to be extinct soon?” “Why?” counter asked Priya didi. “So many people are dying every day. There are yet no vaccines invented. We are not going anywhere staying home with the fear of that tiny virus. What are we doing for our adaptation?” Priya didi was speechless, as would...

Shrawan has come and so begins the color on the hands of a girl. It is said that Shrawan is the month to color your hands in the name of your beloved; the darker the color, the deeper your love. Of course, that was not my motive when I first put mehendi in my hands. I just wanted to see how mehendi would actually look on my hands as I’ve never had it on. It was my cousin Arija who agreed to do this wonderful act for me. We chose this simple arched design for one hand. She even made a butterfly and my initials. I watched intrigued as she worked on my hand, weaving and swirling. It was like a Disney princess moment for me, watching the colors come to life. As the mehendi got dried and shriveled up and washed away, the color was very light. I could barely believe that this would last. Arija assured me it would get darker. And the next morning, I was greeted with a pleasant surprise. I could not stop staring at my hand. It was like a work of art. The mehendi had kept Arija’s word (at...

This might just be the easiest dessert you could make. 3 ingredients and that is it. It takes only minutes to make. Here is what you will need 1 packet of shredded coconut (it is easily available in supermarkets) 1 jar of honey 1 bar of chocolate (dark or milk, whatever suits your taste) You can substitute chasni or sugar water for honey if you do not have honey, it works just the same. The preparation time takes only about 15 minutes to 20 minutes max. Instructions I bet you don’t even need instructions on this one but let’s do it anyway Open your packet of coconut shreddings Spread some honey or the chasni you prepared on your hands, a good amount and take some shredded coconut and start rolling little balls Put them in the freezer for about 10 -15 minutes Open that packet of chocolate and cut into smaller chunks to melt them. You could do this in the microwave or over a double boiler. Dunk your coconut balls into the melted chocolate Sprinkle extra shredded coconut...

It could be spontaneous: you’d be laughing at the most random of things or having this conversation with someone or just look at something, and right and there you’ll have this sudden realization. It feels like an “oh my god moment” but you’ll have this sudden realization that this exact moment, this exact thing has already happened before. It’s like you’ve just walked into the future. It’s uncanny; it’s unexplainable, but it’s there and it’s real. It’s called “Deja vu”. The phrase translates to ‘already seen’. I don’t remember my first encounter of déjà vu moment and I don’t keep count either. I cannot tell you how my times I’ve felt it. There have been many theories for it. Some say that déjà vu is evidence of existence of a parallel universe and because that exact moment has already incurred in the parallel universe, such is the reason we have the feeling that we’ve been here before or already done this before even though we know it’s the first time this has happened so. Confusi...

Death is inevitable. Sad as it is, as painful as it, it is the biggest reality of life. It cannot be denied; it cannot be avoided, it has to be faced. In a way, it is funny that the biggest reality of life is death. And what’s even more fearful than death of own is the death of a close one. It leaves just about the biggest void in your heart; a void you cannot fill with anyone or anything else. It is irreplaceable. The first time I had to deal with death in family was when I was quite young. It was our maternal grandmother. I don’t think I quite grasped the concept of death during the time, or the emotion of it and it still haunts me somehow. I remember my cousin saying that now; we will never be able to see her or never be able to touch her ever again. Death in the family, of a close person you know is traumatizing. But what about the death of someone you did not know personally? Can you really miss someone you’ve never even met? There have been a lot of deaths in 2020, some d...