Book Review: State of Fear, Michael Crichton

It might have taken me a few renewals and a few return-hold-pickup cycles at my community library to get through this book, but I have finally managed to get through it.  My records tell me this quest to read State of Fear started sometime back in November last year!

But don't let my sloth in finishing this book talk about its goodness. If anything look at my penchant to finish it, somehow! Anyhow!

It has been a very-very-very long time that I have read a novel cover-to-cover under mounting work and less-than-optimal personal time management. That is if I were to skip my re-read of Herman Hesse's Siddartha on my flight to-and-fro to India (which still happens to be my #0 favorite) . I did manage to read a few of Harry Potter's volumes though.

Without jogging my memory too hard, these are the two latest failed trysts with literary work:
0. The Glass Bead Game : (aka, Magister Ludi) by Hermann Hesse
1. Steppenwolf, by Hermann Hesse

I guess these books were a bit too heavy on spirituality/philosophy for my mind to take on as casual bedtime reading. One needs to set aside considerable chunk of time to enjoy them.  So I thought of falling back on my regular thriller and sci-fi. 

This is the first novel of Crichton's I have read and I was quite thrilled.  Frankly, I picked up this work only because I liked Jurassic Park, which was adapted from his work by same title. To date that movie remains in my list of top 5 movies. 

As to the novel itself... But let me put you at ease first.

Dont' worry, there are no spoilers, so read on...

The book is a wonderfully thought provoking techno-thriller, revolving around the (what I now believe to be highly distorted and misunderstood!) phenomenon of Global Warming.  And if there is one thing that I adore a lot, it is a constructive-thought-provoking material. The journey from crowded concrete jungles of LA through the glaciers of Iceland to volcanoes of Antarctica to Arizonian deserts to the spine chilling jungles of Solomon Islands, for the lack of better work, the journey is just breathtaking.

Though mostly bordering around the realm of fiction, his work highlights quite a few interesting (lesser known and often ugly) facts that we don't get to hear.  The Appendix-I, in particular,  earned my greatest interest.

The author must have done quite a bit of research, as is evident from numerous footnotes, graphs cited from scientific papers & journals, two rich appendices and a whooping twenty page bibliography.

The broader point that the book tries to make  is quite remarkable.  75% of the book (quite literally!) goes on and on about whether global warming is really something we need to worry about and whether we can stop or is it just yet another meticulously orchestrated corporate charade. Nothing too out of the ordinary.  I kept going along only because it was entertaining and the suspense was quite enticing.
But I almost read the remaining 25% of the book (the last 200 pages) in almost 2-3 seating (yes, that did cost me quite a bit of my sleep, but I suppose it was totally worth it). The book takes on a very interesting and engaging turn when the some Professor Hoffman from USC enters the picture and the title of the book is quoted, verbatim, for the first time since the beginning: State of Fear.  That, my dear friends, is when the real book starts. Until that point, there is no connection to the title of the book and story. This is the point where all the dots seem to connect, and things seem to light up.

I don't quite know how to put it, but you will need to have a certain kind of inclination, or quality, of lack thereof, if you will, to like this work. No, I don't mean tendencies towards conspiracy theories, but my vocabulary just isn't rich enough yet to describe that quality.  Without divulging too much of the plot, the fans of Nineteen-Eighty-Four (by George Orwell) should definitely devour this work of Crichton's.

The book has played right into my pessimistic optimism. But besides that main theme, the book now also has me yearning for the composure, knowledge and the right balance of arrogance-and-humility that Kenner carries (and, not to forget, a girlfriend like Sarah too :-P).  (Yes, I recently have had an epiphany about the importance of the right amount of arrogance to earn respect in this effing world. More on that some other day).

Moral, though slightly indirect, that I took away is, man has never been able to and will never be able to fathom the way Mother Nature works to the fullest.  And so she is best left alone, with as much of little interference from effing pesky humans as is possible.  You can admire her, you can nourish her, you can bask in her glory, and even cry over her apathy towards you, you can even caress her, but you can NEVER freakin' try to change her so as to suit your needs.  Lest you face unforeseen and unimaginable repercussions and pay princely prices for your interference.  A price not measured in terms of money, beware, which is but just a man-made necessary evil, but price in terms of life itself.

And there a quite a few documented cases (really large scale cases) presented in appendix to support that observation. Worth a read, even if you skip the book and just read them. Of course, they will be a bit out of context, but will still drive the point home.  Also, it has bolstered my very strongly held belief: Never trust any corporation!

Anyway, the bottom line is (because that is what increasingly everybody cares about these days ~~sigh~~) this techno-thriller will not only whet your hunger for suspense, action and thrill, but also provide a little food for your post-dinner thoughts.

I should now be onto another book that I have been putting off for almost a decade now (yes, decade, that was not a typo!) Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (and its revised version Brave New World Revisited).  Already put a hold at library, can't wait to get my hands on them, am looking forward to enjoying these books.

More suggestions for a good read are most welcome.

P.S.: If you want to enjoy the novel as much as I did, then don't read any revealing reviews, esp. Wikipedia. Read'em after you are done with the novel.

Unmatched Parenthesis!

Until today morning I believed I was the only one whose stomach would give a lurch when I saw unmatched parenthesis. Now I know I'm not alone.  Today I read a comic strip that prompted me to express my concerns about unmatched parenthesis in colloquial communication (emails, chats) we have...

If you are a hardcore programmer (probably C / lisp), or if you have ever written a lexical analyzer... you must have faced this dilemma...
If you wanted to put a smiley at the end of your sentence that is inside a pair of parenthesis, do you leave the open parenthesis unclosed? Or do you close it? If so, then how?

I'm not making this up for the sake of a post, this is a very practical dilemma that I face very often...

Problem:
(This is a sample statement with a smiley at the end :)?
Now what do you substitute '?' with? Nothing? Or a ')' or a ']' ?

Solution 0: Textbook solution: Just don't freakin' do it!
Like most of the textbook solutions, the simplest of answers is to avoid the problem altogether!  Just don't do it. Never end your sentences inside a parenthesis with smilies!

 Sample Solution:
(There is no need to put a smiley at the end of a sentence inside parenthesis)

Solution 1: Leave the opening parenthesis unmatched!
But we all know how different the real world is from the ideal ones in the textbook.  So the fact is you often want to end sentences in parenthesis with a smiley.  This particular solution banks on extremely short attention span of humans and hopes that nobody will ever notice a missing parenthesis. They won't even realize that you opened a parenthesis. And that makes perfect sense, in a world where billions of dollars and hundreds of people vanish without a trace, who on earth would care for one measly missing parenthesis. Ain't it!

Sample Solution:
(There is no need to close the parenthesis when you end statement with :)

Solution 2: Always semantically correct,  every parenthesis should match.
If a programmer happens to read it, your unmatched parenthesis is going to bother him through rest of his day.  If you don't want to unnerve your programmer friend, I strongly urge you to always match all your parenthesis!  

Sample Solution:
(If your programmer friend is going to read it, you better match every single open parenthesis, no matter how ugly the end result looks to you :))

Solution 3: Semantically correct and indented!
If the reader is an expert C programmer who has wasted inhuman hours of his precious life debugging and maintaining someone's unforgiving poorly indented code, you DON'T want to piss him off with lousy indentation (don't even think about not closing an open parenthesis, ever! This particular bread of programmers loathe with their utmost intensity the code that doesn't compile), lest you will be the target of his unwelcome wrath that he has been carefully suppressing through years of frustration with sloppy code he has had to read for the life of his programming career!

Sample Solution:
(
    If your programmer friend is paranoid about indenting, then this is your best way out :)
)  

Bonus Solution: MBA's Lame Solution!
Add a square bracket ']'!
Lame! Yes, that is what MBA's of the world do! Impossible solution, often to problems that don't even exist! Not to mention that solution are wrong in every possible way, no matter how you interpret the problem!

Sample Solution:
(If you are an MBA, you want to complete the statement like this :)']'

Note: Never ever let your programmer friend see you close a bracket that does not match what you opened with! Do that and you will loose him forever!  Not to forget the look of contempt on his face every time he sees your name. 

Also, don't get me started on quotes. As an ardent fan of shell scripts, I have very strong and often fussy views about it.

Raah Bani Khud Manzil

Another Bollywood Gem: Raah Bani Khud Manzil.

Every once in a while a song will get stuck in my head and I can't stop listening to it in an infinite loop (literally!). Often for days!
But you guys would probably be bored to death if I posted every one of them :)  Well...
I have heard this song several times before on Vividh Bharati, but could never catch its precise words.  For some reason, this doesn't play very often.  Today when I heard it again, I resolved I won't rest until I get this song!  Lo-and-Behold! Jackpot! Less than one minute of work, after I caught on to a few key words I found it on Youtube (thanks Larry And Sergey ~~hugs-n-kisses~~ for building the infrastructure so that I could Google it out!)!
Before posting it, I had already listened to it a few tens-of-times in loop :)

As beautiful as the words are, "Raah Bani Khud Manzil, Peechhe Rah Gayee Mushkil, Saath Jo Aaye Tum", the voice and music (both by Hemant Kumar) make this a gem of a song.  I still can't pinpoint what is it that I love so much in this song, apart from the beautiful words that is. I suspect it is the Raga that has struck a cord within me, unfortunately can't be sure for I'm a total music-illiterate :(

It is lame to translate and even more lame trying to convey the meaning of the song  in English, but zat is not stopping me, izit! (Gusteau from Ratatouille):
The essence of lyrics is : the path itself has become my goal my destiny, making all the difficulties irrelevant and non-issues, just because you chose to come with me!
Lame, I know! But in the right language (Hindi) it is concoction of some powerful lyrics and beautiful tune you would want to drink again and again and again (and one more time!).

Song-Raah Bani Khud Manzil
Movie   : Kohraa
Year    : 1964
Singer  : Hemant Kumar
Lyrics  : Kaifi Azmi
Music Director: Hemant Kumar (until I dug details about this song, I didn't know Hemant Kumar has produced work in the capacity of a Music Director).
Lyrics:
Raah Banee Khud Manzil
Peechhe Rah Gayee Mushkil, Saath Jo Aaye Tum
Raah Banee Khud Manzil
Peechhe Rah Gayee Mushkil, Saath Jo Aaye Tum

Dekho Fool Ban Ke Saaree Dharatee Khil Padee - (2)
Guzare Aarajoo Ke Raaston Se Jis Ghadee, Jism Churaye Tum
Raah Banee Khud Manzil
Peechhe Rah Gayee Mushkil, Saath Jo Aaye Tum
Raah Banee Khud Manzil

Zaranaa Kah Rahaa Hain, Mere Dil Kee Daastaan - (2)
Meree Pyaas Lekar Chhaa Rahee Hain Mastiyaan, Jeen Mein Nahaye Tum
Raah Banee Khud Manzil
Peechhe Rah Gayee Mushkil, Saath Jo Aaye Tum
Raah Banee Khud Manzil

Panchhee Ud Gaye Sab Gaa Ke Nagmaa Pyaar Kaa - (2)
Lekin Dil Ne Ayesaa Jaal Fenkaa Pyaar Kaa, Udane Naa Paaye Tum
Raah Banee Khud Manzil
Peechhe Rah Gayee Mushkil, Saath Jo Aaye Tum
Raah Banee Khud Manzil

Love or Lust, Simple or Flashy, Subtle or Pompous...

Busy work schedules precluded clear thinking on pretty much everything other than the most  basic needs of food and sleep. From the length of the post, you can pretty much understand why it took me so long to post it.
But before we start, the classic disclaimer: Extreme criticism for current-age Bolly-noise, err... Bollywood Music follows, so if you would take offense at that, then don't bother reading any further.You have been warned!

One of the major turn offs of current era Bollywood songs is that they are too corporeal, too much focus on glamor, s_x & vulgarity. And are always lewd in nature.  If I were allowed to go on with the list (btw, for the fear of sounding slightly arrogant, who the heck is going to stop me!), then other problems include showoff, over(x bazillion times) acting, under(x 100 bazillion times) acting, close-to-nothing clothing, flashy (read: blinding) movie sets, apparently formless random (yet sometimes skillful) body movements (allegedly called dance), earth shattering noise (somebody told me it is called the music!), and last but not the least, utter nonsensical and meaningless amalgamation of words (again, the misinformed in me was told it is the lyrics of songs).  Well, at least this stands true for 97.251%* of the crap they churn out these days.
(*under standard test conditions approved by SDA, Some-Dumbass Association, sample data collected from 1930s through forever).

If I didn't know any better, most songs are composed this way, at least this is my firm stand: take all the words you want to be in the song, arrange them randomly, straighten them out to conform to some semantic and grammatical rules of the language (in fact, many choose to totally ignore this step, and earn lots of 'Vhoas' as praises in return!), and then shove them up as songs! If you are slightly more demented...err.. I mean talented, choose the initial word set from many different languages into the mix instead of using just one language. And, this, allegedly is also the same formula for music, except words are replaced with "utensils of different sizes and metals".

Of course, I mean no offense to my buddies who enjoy them (I will still love them for who they are!), admittedly I too indulge in noise myself, but only rarely (and often forcibly).  And, No No I'm not partial, I am totally objectively against such blasphemy of what once was otherwise a perfectly fine musical art.

Ok, enough trash-talk, now go back in time say half a decade from now, and what you discover is you didn't need all the above crap to get across the message of affection through musicals.
(I will refrain from using the word love in this context, because, today, it is *the* most abused, misused and misunderstood of words. Not to say unreasonably overloaded & overused!)

Song under consideration is this...

Tujhe Kya Sunaoo Mein Dilruba, (linky).

• Movie  : Aakhri Dao, 1958
• Music  : Madan Mohan
• Lyrics : Majhrooh Sultanpuri
• Singer : Mohammed Rafi

If the Youtube link ever gets taken down, don't worry, get it as an MPEG-4 video from here!

I strongly encourage you listen to the (not just hear the) song before reading rest of the nonsense err... post, I meant.
Just so that you can connect (now, wait, who the hell wants to do that!) to what I'm trying to blabber...

Let's start with easiest of the things first: Expressions!

0. Expressions: Simply priceless.

Nutan (the lead actress) without saying a single word is conveying so many messages back to her sweetheart. You want to look at her again and again and yet again for such beautiful expressions, even though she's not showing any valley-deep cleavages, mountainous endowments, surgically sculpted face, curvy figure not even digitally perfected makeups, or for that matter, not an inch of skin, other than her face and hands of course.
Often not sure if she should repent the fact she forced him to sing, or agree with his words, or just shrug in denial and or shyly accept the proposal.

So innocent, delicate and yet lovely and provoking in its own right.

Shekhar (the lead actor) on other hand is reciprocating all that with utterly confused looks wondering whether she is liking the words coming out of his mouth and at the same time totally oblivious to the presence of other friends of hers around them. Classic!  No flashy sets, or flashy (read: fleshy?) clothes, and no lecherous gestures. Yet message is clear: He madly wants Nutan to be his soul mate.  In fact, you could turn of the damn volume and still make out the essence of the whole affair.
Show me _one_ current-era song that can achieve this message with volume turned off!

In my view, this should easily be one of the few most precious gems of what is dubbed as the Bollywood's era of Golden Music.

The day I rediscovered this song (about 3 months back), I listened to it at least 20 times in continuous loop keeping aside everything I was doing. Yes, that is close to two hours without breaking a sweat! And I still couldn't get enough of it.  The only reason I had to take a break was  the fact that my phone went off shaking me out of my trance back into the reality.  Since then it has clocked at least a thousand play counts.  Such is the chord this song has struck in me, I almost go in trance when I listen to this song.

When you get past that the visuals, you get stuck with the music.
1. Music: Madan Mohan
Madan Mohan's masterful artistry with the tunes... oh God...  So soft, non-pompous and in-tune with rest of everything.  Unlike current age music that more often than not gives you a severe headache if you hear it more than twice in a row, best described as a well-organized (that's about the praise it can earn from me!) fall of a bazillion metal utensils of varying sizes! Well, at least, most are, if not all.

I doubt if this piece of artistic music used more than a handful variety of musical instruments, by far only a small fraction of the instruments used today and none of the today's musical electronic gadgetry for pre-post-and-on-the-fly processing.
Again simplicity at its best. I find this to be one of the best musical creations of Madan Mohan.
Yet again, my faith in my own long standing belief is reinstated: "Simple things are always the Best'est".  That doesn't mean simple in terms of effort, trust me, making things simple takes at least a hundred times more effort and not to mention an unfathomable streak of genius to achieve it!

When you have enjoyed the visuals and music, you come to the lyrics, ~~~bowing so low in respect, that my back's cracking~~~

2. Lyrics: Majhrooh Sultanpuri

So pure, without slightest hint of lust, or use of off-color language and yet the insatiable desire of togetherness is conveyed so effortlessly.

Not even explicit mention of love and it's associated madness (illness, to be more precise!).  And still you can feel how deeply the lover is in love with his lover (well that is too many loves in one statement, but you get the point, don't you!).  His mental state is so beautifully conveyed in poetic form. There is only one of the handful few who could have penned this simple yet magical craft of words: Majhrooh Sultanpuri.  (And you would have NEVER heard of him in your life, and never will, unless you listen to the only true radio station: Vividh Bharati).  I tried my best, really hard actually, but not even my best was good enough to describe the lyrics.
You ought to listen to it for yourself to let its magic work on you.

Last but not the least, comes the final stroke of master himself, The Singer!
3. Singer: Mohammed Rafi

Just as it on to the shoulders of a master polisher to bring out the real ferocity in strength and delicacy of artistry in the Katana (Samurai Sword), so is the onus of bringing out the best of a song on to the shoulders of the singer. It is almost as if a singer has the power to make or break the whole song.  His masterful and final finishing touch is what eventually reveals the real beauty of everything that music composers and lyricists have been working hard to conjure up (conjuring might be the right verb, because I see no other way of creating such things!).

The words when flowing out of Rafi Sahab himself mingle with not only great music but also effective cinematic direction of the situation, to create something which is nothing short of but a goblet full of Ambrosia, an ambrosia, you suspect, God Himself must have orchestrated and personally blessed!

This song impresses upon me, yet once again, Lucky Are Those Who Have Found Their True Loves.  Lyrical, cinematic and musical representation of what such a lucky person would feel when he finds that one thing which all of us so desire to attain one day, only deepens my desire to reach that Nirvana-like state.

But that is not all, what is not so obvious behind all this is the fact, which I now totally believe to be true, (fact, true, believe... in the same sentence, man you are nuts!). ~~~aaargghh~~~
But what is not so obvious behind all this is the fact, which I now totally believe to be true is, that each one of the artists (the singer, music director, lyricist, cine-director) who made this possible must have found their true loves. And not only in their respective arts, but potentially in human-forms too, a far more difficult feat to achieve.  For, it would otherwise have been simply impossible to achieve such a feat of connecting so deeply with the audience. Even if that audience was just the singular nuts-crazy author of this post!

Now you see, why it requires more than a hundred iterations to enjoy this song!  When I listen to this song, I can choose to enjoy it as a whole package, or just the song without the video, or focus just on music, or just the lyrics, or even just the vocals, and last but not the least, the subtle yet not totally amiss, the [in]direct philosophical implications! I can enjoy this song in so many ways, dare I say, it is a Swiss Army Knife of the Musicals!  Wish I knew a little about Indian Classical Music to dissect this song more scientifically (artistically, to be technically correct).

I had so much to share when I contemplated the post in my head the first time my half-century loop count on this song was over, but now that I actually want to pen it down I'm falling short of appropriate words and praises.
If you have listened to the song, then endured my blabbering all the way this far, you deserve to be treated once again with this song, what say, because I bet it is way too far up, and you don't want to gloss over all that again :)
Listen to the song, and discover the joy and magic from the era of Golden Music: Tujhe Kya Sunaoo Mein Dilruba, (linky).

• Movie  : Aakhri Dao, 1958
• Music  : Madan Mohan
• Lyrics : Majhrooh Sultanpuri
• Singer : Mohammed Rafi

If the Youtube link ever gets taken down, don't worry, get it as an MPEG-4 video from here!

Some useless facts about this post:

0. This song has easily clocked a thousand+ play counts, and still counting
1. I was listening to the song continuously for the few hours it took me to compose this post, which was not done in one single sitting. First words of the post were (digitally) inked in early Oct.
2. I'm so glad one of my most favorite songs is sung by my only favorite singer: Rafi
3. I had to use a thesaurus and a dictionary to dig through and find the most appropriate adjectives. If you feel I could have done a better job at some (or all?) places, feel free to email me or leave me a comment.
4. Something I often say, I'm serious about the fun I have! And this is but one example of it.

P.S. For all of you scratching your heads in vain, the answer is NO! Nada!  You know that I know what you are thinking, so the answer is negatory!  So stop scratching your heads and get back to enjoying this masterful composition with no strings attached :)

Human Race Sucks

And will keep doing so through eons...
If you have been following my blog closely for while, hmm... well no, actually let me be more precise, if you have been following my _thoughts_ closely for while, then you might know HOW much I detest the highly mis-considered pinnacle of all races, The Human Race...

Nothing I say can be summarized better than what Jonas Salk beautifully put, which regurgitated my latent thoughts about this most celebrated of races in history:

If all the insects on earth disappeared, within 50 years all life on earth would disappear!
If all humans disappeared, within 50 years all species would flourish as never before!

-Jonas Salk.

And the meaning of these two lines go way much beyond mere ecology and pure biology, that is if you are willing to step back and think about it for a while. If there were just one singular race of any living organism that I look down upon the MOST with my utmost disgust, it is this human race. If there ever were a living nemesis of everything and anything on this planet, then it would be the human race.

And yet there are a few in this sad race of ours that make living worth for! In this case, only (an infinitesimally) small percentage of people gives the whole race a good name, which is otherwise totally fcked up and rolled-in-bull-crap.

Don't get me wrong, I still love my family, friends and more, and will continue to do so, all of whom are humans :-) It is the race itself that has gone down the gutter and will forever disgust me ~~~utter disgusted grimace on my face~~~

Just a few references on my blog about why I say ours is the most @#$~'ed up race to ever crawl (not walk!) the face of this otherwise very beautiful planet:

0. Wanna wear Fur? Think again! Very Seriously!
1. Money Trumps Everything
2. Infuriation
3. You know why humans suck?
4. An interesting question...
5. I am Back!
6. Random Thought
7. Very disturbing animal abuse at slaughter houses (Warning: Very graphic video link!) If the link doesn't work, just google it and you'll get a few hits.

Double Chocolate Cheesecake

If you are overly restless, here's the recipe in a breeze...

• 24 Oreo Cookies, crushed
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 4 pkg. (225g) Philadelphia Cream Cheese
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 tbsp. flour
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• Melted & cooled Semi-Sweet Chocolate
• 2 mashed potatoes/4 tbsp ground flax-seed/4 eggs
• 1/2 cup blueberries

Make It!

• Heat oven to 325ºF. Mix crumbs and butter, press onto bottom of foil-lined pan. Bake 10 min.
• Beat cream cheese, sugar, flour, sour cream and vanilla with mixer until well blended. Add chocolate mix well. Add mashed-potatoes/ground flax-seed/eggs, 1 at a time until blended. Pour over crust.
• Bake 45 min. Cool completely. Refrigerate 5 hours. Use foil to lift cheesecake from pan. Top with berries.

Thanks to Sheetal for pointing out the recipe & giving baking tips and Amy for clearing some last-minute doubts :)
Now, before I proceed...

Though I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, I experiment in other aspects of life far more than in my kitchen-life. So let me assure you that I am not planning on converting my blog into a cooking blog, this is one of the few pleasant aberrations to my regular experimentation in life.
Cheesecake is one of the few (or maybe THE ONLY one) American dessert I like. And given I have a sweet tooth, I thought of baking one. I have never baked anything before and so after lot of contemplation and seeking advice from advanced cooks, I jumped off to bake one myself. It turned out pretty delicious and many people asked the recipe, so thought of sharing with the larger audience. Plus, it is not very difficult to make.

Detailed Recipe:

Prep Time: about 60 mins, Total Time: 2hrs (add 5-8hrs to freeze)
Expertise Required: Intermediate
Taste Achieved: Pro-level!
(Special Tip: All you guys out there, this recipe is your perfect chance to impress your girlfriends. Seize it!)

Ingredients:

1. 24 Oreo Cookies, crushed (about 2 cups)
Tip: You can use some other biscuit/cracker if you like, say digestive ones. The thickness of crust doesn't change after baking, so use judgment on how many to crush depending on the thickness of crust you want.
2. 1/4 cup butter, melted
3. 4 pkg. (8oz, approx 225gm) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened, i.e. room temp.
4. 1 cup sugar
5. 1/2 cup sour cream
Tip: This is my addition to this recipe. If you concentrate well on the taste while eating a cheesecake, you will notice slight sourness in it. Sour cream is what will give you this nuance of sourness. You can use a few drops of lemon juice instead of sour cream.
6. 2 tbsp. flour
7. 1 tsp. vanilla
8. Semi-Sweet Chocolate, melted, slightly cooled
Tip: Skip this step to get plain traditional Cheesecake. If you want chocolatey taste without brown color, you can use white chocolate (friend's tip). But personally I am NOT a big fan of white chocolate. Hard-core brown chocolate is the way to go.
9. 4 eggs equivalent of potatoes (or ground flax seeds) or if you eat eggs, then take 4 eggs
If you know some good substitutes to egg, please email me or leave a comment here. Please make a suggestion only if you have tried it personally.  I have had success with flax-seed, but limited success with potatoes, guess I didn't smash'em well.
10. 1/2 cup blueberries (sliced strawberries look sexy, or use your favorite fruit)

Action, Making the Crust: You can get one of those ready-made ones from the market: a pie-base, or even Oreos base. But given that it only takes a few minutes to make one yourself, I find making crust at home to be a more exciting option (and leaves some room for your creative juices to flow!) Plus you are not restricted by the sizes of ready-made ones.

1. Pre-heat oven to 325F
2. Crush 24 Oreos in a ziplock bag (guess you can even crush them in a mixer)
Add 1/4 cup melted butter, and mix well.
3. Line your baking pan with Foil and grease it well
4. Press the well-mixed crumbs on the base of the pan
5. Bake it for 10 miuntes
6. Remove from oven and let it cool
Your base is now ready! Set it aside while we make the batter.

Action, Making The Batter:

1. Beat Cream cheese (4pkt), sugar (1 cup), flour (2 tbsp) and vanilla (1 tbsp) until they are blended well
2. Melt your chocolate cubes/pieces, cool it and then slowly mix it with batter
3. Add eggs(ground flax seed + warm water): 1 at a time. Mix the egg well before adding another
4. Add sour cream, this gives a subtle sourness essential for yummy taste
5. Blend everything well, ensuring that there are no air bubbles in the batter.
Tip: If you leave any air bubbles, they will rise and either make your outer crust floppy or form craters on the surface after baking.
6. Pour it over the crust you baked and cooled a while ago
7. Bake for 45-50 mins at 350F
8. When done, cool it completely and then freeze it for 5-8 hours.
9. Remember the foil you put in the pan, now use it to remove the cake easily from the pan!
Tip: Without the foil you would have had to use fancy expensive springform baking pans.

I can't tell you precisely how to know when it is done, but I'm pretty sure if you followed everything, then at the end of 50min baking period, your cheesecake is baked well. Some say, if the center of your cheesecake jiggles when shaken, it is done. But personally, I find it to be a very difficult (and imprecise) test to conduct! Of course, I guess, unless you are already good at baking.

Serving Tip:
Since the cake is creamy, it has a tendency to stick to the knife while cutting. I warm my knife a bit (by dipping it in hot water, or holding over a gas/stove for few seconds) before I cut the cake. That's my personal tip :-) Then, top the slice off with your favorite berry or fruit and enjoy finger-licking tasty Chocolatey Cheesecake. For once, don't bother much about the calories and indulge yourself :) If you think that this isn't enough calories for you, consider adding some cream! Nice hot steaming cup of Jasmine Green Tea makes for a perfect companion to the slice of this choclatey cheesecake.


I followed recipe to the word and I can say that it would be very difficult to get it wrong if you follow it properly. Here's the detailed video demonstrating the recipe I took as a reference: Philly Double Chocolate Cheesecake. My only deviation to this recipe was adding sour cream. (Nit-Pick: I don't know why it is called Double Chocolate Cheesecake, probably because both the crust as well as batter are made of chocolate?)
If you are looking for a lot of hard-core cooking recipes-tips-tricks, then check out my friends' blogs:
0. My Cooking Experiments, by SK
1. Recipes For All Occasions, by Priya
2. I Googled I Saw I Cooked, by Sangeetha

Tribute to Mohammed Rafi the Maestro

On this fateful day, 31st of July in the year of 1980 God seemed to have had a selfish motive...
He wanted the silky-golden voice of Mohammed Rafi all to himself...
That day he might have taken away Rafi Sahab from us, but The Voice (as he was referred to) will always remain immortal within us.

Mohammed Rafi (Mohd. Rafi, Rafi Sahab) born on 24th of Dec 1924, was a man of utmost integrity: gifted with unarguably *the best* voice in mainstream Indian musical history and yet had the heart of a common bystander. Out of his singing career that spanned four decades, he ruled the arena of playback singing for well over two decades, which, incidentally, is also right in middle of what is considered to be the Golden Era of Hindi Film Music (1940s - 1980s). And yet his unprecedented success never got better of him. Through the peak of his career, he was NEVER late to studio for his recordings, he NEVER did a retake out his fault, he was NEVER arrogant of his momentous achievements and above all, he NEVER stopped his Riyaaz (practice, for Urdu). Indeed mark of a true Master.

He remains an inspiration to me for his simplicity, dedication and passion. And, to me, his humility is far more overarching achievement than all of his topmost accolades put together. A veritable king at heart with a golden voice, altruistic, utterly soft spoken, he was (and in my view will remain) *the* most versatile, BEST'est and DARLING'est of the singers. PERIOD. No one was, is and will ever be able to dislodge this position of his from my heart.

At the peak of his career, where movie directors and producers would kill just to have him sing for their movies, this altruistic singer would often sing for free or ridiculously minuscule token payment for people who couldn't afford his actual fees. I know of no singer of his caliber (actually, I am kind of lying here, there *is no* singer of his caliber in existence!) capable doing such a deed. I believe that it was this goodness in his heart that trickled into his songs which made it difficult to dislike them!

I'm greatly indebted to him for his songs, on some occasions, have made my life a little more bearable, few minutes at a time. I have grown up listening his songs and I will grow old listening his songs. While the credit of impeccably good songs is to be rightfully shared with Lyricists and Music Directors who made amazing numbers, it was Rafi, the instrument, the master, who can rightfully be credited with putting life into those compositions. He could command his voice to suit any situation, mood and actor on the screen. If composers could whip out something outta nowhere, Rafi had no difficulty enlivening it through the gift of his voice. He simply had the power to mesmerize millions the moment he opened his mouth.

In the process of giving his golden silky and versatile voice to many great music directors like Naushad, O.P. Nayyar, S.D. Burman, R.D. Burman, C. Ramachandra, Ravindra Jain, Shankar-Jaikishen, Madan Mohan, Kalyanji-Anadji, Rakesh Roshan (and many more) he literally put life into beautiful lyrics penned by the likes of Hasrat Jaipuri, Sahir Ludhianvi, Ravindra Jain, Shailendra, Majrooh Sultanpuri and bajilions more. As a byproduct of this, many actors of that era got catapulted into stardom overnight with a push as little as that of just one song sung by Rafi! Such was the magic of his voice. ~~~muah~~~

Vividh Bharati, in his honor, is playing only Rafi's songs today for 24hrs. Get an earful if you want a taste of his voice. As a homage to this humble maestro, I earnestly urge you guys to REFRAIN from listening any bull-crap royally-raped remakes of his songs, otherwise widely known as remixes, at least for today. Not even the ones re-sung by anyone else. No one can replace the voice of a True Master himself, please pay due respect to maestro: Mohammed Rafi.

He might be no more with us, but his voice will always be with us.
Some people might be thinking, "but it is just a song", "he was just a singer", "you didn't even know him" ...
I cannot argue with those people, but you might have realized by now that I am serious even about fun and entertainment I have! (in short, KMA!)

I would love to share one, no, two, no wait a few songs from each one of his masterful categories. Be it romantic, classical, sad, serious, patriotic, flirting, or any other genre you can think of, and Rafi could sing it with no difficulty in one take. Each one better than the other.
These songs are some of my favorites, but I believe every one of them was super-duper-tuper hit!

• Comedy/Carefree
• Sar Jo Tera Chakaraye
• Chahe Koi Mujhe Junglee
• Suku Suku-Junglee
• Ehsaan Mere Dil Pe Tumhara Hai Dosto
• Romantic
• Tu Hi Who Haseen Hai
• Likhe Jo Khat Tujhe
• Chaudhvin Ka Chand Ho
• Chale They Saath Milke
• Ye Vadiyan Ye Fizaein Bula Rahi (Aaj Aur Kal)
• Ek Thaa Gul Aur Ek Thi Bulabul
• Serious/Touching/Patriotic:
• Tu Hindu Banega Na Musalman Banega
This is such a beautiful song, every person fighting over the religion should listen to this song. The deepest meaning of this wonderful lyrics is brought to life by Rafi.
• Wadiyan Mera Daman
• O Duniya Ke Rakhwale
• Sad Romantic
• Yaad Na Jaye
Try to grasp the metaphor drawn between heart and caged birds, insane lyrics and even more insane voice.
• Choo Lene Do Nazuk Hothon Ko
• Tu Chhupi Hai Kahan
• Tu Kahan Ye Bata
• Dil Ke Jharoke Mein
• Sad Touching:
• Babul Ki Duaayein Leti Jaa
Video Audio The song is freaking bound to rip pain through your hearts. Pictureized as father singing for his daughter on the day of her wedding, when she's about to leave his house.
• Aaj Purani Raahon Se
• Akele Hain Chale Aao-Raaz
• Flirting/Teasing
• Aaja Panchhi Akela Hai
• Badan Pe Sitrae
Classic Shammi Kapoor naughty teasing song
• Ude Jab Jab Zulfen Teri (Naya Daur)
• Yeh Chaand Sa Roshan Chehra
• Dil Deke Dekho
• Maine Poocha Chand Se
• Aaja Aaja Main Hoon Pyar Tera
• Lal Chadi Maidan Khadi

Take your time as you listen through the list, but meanwhile... a minute's silence for greatest of singers of all time: darling Rafi Sahab.

We will always miss you Rafi. May God bless his soul.

Links:
0. Mohammed Rafi (wikipedia)
1. Mohammed Rafi (website dedicated to Rafi)
2. Vividh Bharati (wikipedia)

Pushing Too Hard?

... Really? I didn't think so, at least not until I was forced to rethink...
Given that summer is here and playing outdoors is not only possible but also too much fun, I want to play everything and every time I can: Volleyball, Football, Jogging, Climbing, Hiking, etc. etc. Who knew I would have pushed a bit too hard, for I thought I was pacing things right, clearly I miscalculated and could have done a better job.

When stepping out of the ground/court/gym, the feel of shirt clinging steadfastly to my skin because of being completely drenched in healthy sweat during workout always makes me euphoric.

So, one fateful evening, in hopes of getting my fix of the above euphoria, I trotted happily to gym for my regular workout. Lately I have developed an insatiable push to run more and more miles (probably out of desire to survive full-length soccer game). I hopped onto the treadmill and clocked slightly more than the 2 mile mark. I have had some knee problems in past, so I was very glad when I was able to hit the 2mi mark once again, without a break and any apparent knee pain. Hungry for more, I want to push myself a little harder. So after some pushups and abs, I headed over to the stair-climber and clocked a few more minutes of intense cardio on it.

Tired & muscles healthily fatigued, nothing hinted what was in the bag of (bad) surprises for me just a few hours from now. ~shudder~
After good amount of stretching (I am mentally conditioned to religiously stretch after every workout), I took nice warm shower, reached home, had my dinner, talked to HQ for a while and blissfully hit bed.

Excruciating pain in the knee jolted me in middle of the night. I thought it must be just a bad posture, so I shrugged WTF and went to sleep again. Only to wake up within seconds. The pain was too discomforting and intense to be just bad sleeping posture. I woke up in horrors of horror fearing that something was terribly wrong. I recapped through my activities of last week only to find normal amount of workout (football, volleyball, jogging). Nothing seemed too out of the place, only a bit much more intense than what I was used to doing a few weeks ago. But I have caught up to it ... I thought.

I swallowed one brufen and retried sleeping. No luck, I get up again and pop another tablet. Still no luck, frustrated in agony, I pop another pain killer. Still no luck, I ran out of options and gave up. I didn't even consider ER because all they would have done is make me wait for umpteen hours (since this wasn't a life threatening situation) and eventually would have given me a much-much stronger pain killer. At home, I had the option of sleeping, at least I could try sleeping. I now lay in bed holding my knee dreaming horrors through rest of the night. I don't know when I dozed off because I had lost track of time, which I strongly maintain had stood still.

I took an appointment with doc and after examining the X-ray he proclaimed I have an inflamed cartilage, he said I had just pushed too hard, that's about it. Happy but still highly disappointed in myself (for miscalculation and not-so-easy-to-spot carelessness), I walked away with one new problem to worry about: Runner's Knee!
This implies no physical activities for a few days, I don't know how am I going to survive it :( But I have no choice. I have to live without my regular fix for a while now.

For the curious and medically inclined souls, in medical terms, the problem is that there is an imbalance in the relative strengths of Quadriceps and Hamstring muscles. This causes undue pressure on and friction of bones in the knees during intense workouts. This results in inflammation of the cartilage between Femur and Tibia, causing shooting pain. I'm hoping to pick up some directed exercises once I recover, which I so desperately wish happens soon enough.

Refreshingly Tired!

Today (Sunday) morning I got up scratching my a.. head and reflected on the previous day: Saturday. Only to realize that it went pretty well for an unplanned weekend. And the first thing, of course, that struck me after that was: Aahh... a nice post material! Especially when I haven't blogged in a while and the post I'm working on for the last two months haven't taken a final form yet. Indy's interrogative chat further solidified the highlights of this post.

Woke up early morning to a nice 2 hour football (soccer) game. It had two amazing bits in it:

0. the game itself, of course and
1. the sun was burning bright! It was strenuous to play in intense sun, but the sun makes me feel good, specially when I don't see of him often.

Just when I thought I will take a nice warm shower and sleep like a baby, if not through rest of the Saturday, then at least for a hour or so, I said let me catch up with Arun (aka Anna). We haven't had a talk to heart's content recently. So the next 2-3 hrs I was on call with Anna (talked for a while with Su as well). We talked from technology to philosophy to entrepreneurship to many different things under the sun. While talking, I took the opportunity to cook myself some nice Pasta for lunch(thanks to Vabs for teaching me the recipe). I was hoping to have it for dinner as well (lazy a$$), but roomies liked it too. I say so because after a while the pot was empty :) Feels good when people eat what you cook without muttering under their breaths :)

With stomachful of pasta, I sat down for a nice 1-1 private time with my laptop :) I later connected with yet another friend whom I haven't met in a long while, Amy. A talk that culminated into Bhel-for-dinner program at her place. Just then, called Ani to sync up on some movie plans.

When all the calls were done with, I watched something for a while on laptop, until my eyelids were heavy with sleep and I had irresistible desire to hit bed really HARD. After a nice refreshing nap (followed by steaming cuppa that had Mom-made super-special chai-masala in it!), had a LONG talk with my Mom, brother and Pa. As soon as I got off from that call, Motya (another of my old time buddies) called! God, for a moment I was feeling like I was in a call center!

Another nice long chat with him and soon after some household chores, it was time for dinner, Bhel! So me, Vish & Aveek reached Amy's place for a nice dinner. Though easy to make, it takes some culinary skills to make a tasty Bhel. Thanks to Amy, she nails it every single time. Eating Bhel while watching Welcome (one of my favorite'st movies), was more than I could have asked from the night. As soon as we were done with dinner, Ani called to confirm he's got the tickets for the show. It was time for the much talked about movie in the town: Inception.

We reached a little late, so we had to sit in the front rows with 6-storey gigantic screen almost looming over us. Inception was nice, while I liked the concept of planting a thought by tapping into someone's psyche, I found the movie to be too complex to enjoy. More than 4 levels of dreams-in-dreams is not only complex to comprehend, but laughably ludicrous. It, thus, doesn't lodge Matrix-1(1999) and Jurassic Park(1993) from their top positions as best Sci-Fi movie from my list. That said, I would watch it a few more times to at least understand it completely. But I'm sure that even when I understand it completely, Matrix won't drop down in the list (which BTW, is leaps-and-bounds above Avatar as well).

I have a feeling I'm forgetting something, but... with that, the amazing day that started at 6am in the morning came to an abrupt end at 3am in the night! None of this was planned before hand, except the morning game. What a day! This is a lot of action I have had in one day in many many months!

When I finally hit the bed, I said to myself with a smile: I'm refreshingly tired today!