Gimme the white hat!

Fooooood. Not so much a passion than a way of life. All my greatest memories seem to have food linked to them. Growing up, I was a nitpicky eater, I admit it. I used to hate ghee (still do), anything that looked gooey or  mushy or not made of chocolate. But I still loved eating. My mom will always tell stories of how I ate 20 jalebis once, or how I finished off all the besan ke laddoo before Diwali. I spent most of my money on eating out; there's hardly a place in Pune that serves food and I haven't tasted it.

However, till this September, it was only about the eating. But moving 3000 miles away (that's just a number, I have no idea how far Canada is from India) does put you in new situations. Here I was, September 7th, in an apartment with a kitchen, some cooking apparatus, masaale and scant knowledge of how to make dal-rice. It took me a total of three days of eating all my meals outside to realize that hell, I have to cook! Thereby followed grocery shopping, chopping, measurement and internet recipe searches. Suddenly, cooking was fun! I love it! And not in a I'm-too-bored-and-broke-to-eat-out way (that too, slightly) but genuinely. There is some magic in taking a bunch of things from your refrigerator and making something entirely tasty out of them! It took some time to get the proportions of water and salt right, and I'm still not great with the salt, but I can safely say that I can satisfactorily feed myself everyday, along with a couple of people if necessary. Not to brag, but I can make great chicken curry from scratch now :D It is possibly the biggest achievement of my semester here; a year ago, if anyone had told me I would be able to cook, the response would have been a lot of laughter and disbelief. I now look forward to my grocery visits, checking the deli section for the meat I'd want to cook with this week, and the cheeses I'd like to have at home. Till now, herbed goat cheese is my favourite to work with: not too fatty, yet great taste. Also, I don't have a microwave here. So heating things up is almost as much effort as cooking every time. Hence I cook. :P The fact that I'm here precludes me from owning a handmixer and the like, hence baking is a little far off, but I'll make anything else. I've even become a regular on epicurious.com! And thanks to my sister, I have a wonderful book about Italian cooking :) In principle, I'm against fast and/or frozen food, so I even make my own pasta sauce!

I've been fortunate that I've met fellow foodies here :) Everyone loves Indian food so during Diwali we hosted our own little Indian food night :) breaking all norms, we cooked Chicken of course :D The spices did give our foreign friends some heat, but I'm happy to say that they loved it :) And in Montreal, the amount of great food I've eaten shows in my weight :D

As you can see, I've become addicted to cooking. So much so that when I'm bored, I cook :P As a result, my refrigerator currently overflows. :D I don't know how long this obsession will last (I have been known to get bored of things pretty quickly) but I have a feeling this will stick. If I gave up the noble pursuit of engineering, I think that's what I'd do. Besides writing of course. Makes me sound like Eat Pray Love. And cooler than an engineer.

You can't be unhappy as long as there is good food on your table.

:)

Of friendship, bunkbeds and cheesecake!

"Prachi, we've eaten way too much. We can't have dessert."

"Anisha, we can't have individual dessert."

"You're right! So do you want to split one between everyone?"

"Let's split it between both of us."

"Yay!! I want this one!"

This sort of dialogue repeated itself several times over a weekend of food, friends and what currently seems like a million photos on facebook! Perhaps it's time to write about the weekend in a city I was told is a must on any visit to Canada- Montreal, QC! A city once known to me only as the home of the Canadian Grand Prix, I think now of it with fond memories. But then, I get ahead of myself.

The Montreal plan was atleast two months in the making; Anisha and I had been fixing dates since we left Toronto Orientation. So when the pseudo French weekend finally arrived, we were quite excited! (our bbm statuses bear witness to that) A momentous 8 hour journey of Greyhound, Megabus and STM (Montreal Metro) later, we were at Bonaventure, where Anisha, Rashida and Manoti met us. Hugging ensued :P Also, Shruti had succeeded in teaching Therese (origin:Sweden) a few chosen swearwords. Hence, Manoti was greeted as "Moti R****" by a white person. (no racism intended) :D

It was 11 pm by the time we got to our first meal in Montreal (trust me, the food was very important) and thankfully, downtown is awake till 4 am (unlike most of North America). We headed to a trattoria (of course) and ordered large amounts of excellent food. We were eating for about two hours, at the end of which the aforementioned dessert banter occurred.

Saturday, we headed to old Montreal, after a hearty brunch obviously. Not very old compared to Indian standards (just about 300 years), but you could see a marked boundary where glass and shiny were replaced by facades and cobblestones. The original BMO building, the Courts and the Notre Dame! I know, not the original, but magnificent nonetheless. I left most of the pretty building photography to the dhatting camera (Nikita) so most of my photos are food and funny people :D The sky was overcast and the air was chilly, but nothing stopped us from wonderful and immature walks along the waterfront. I say immature because there were performances of "There was a girl" and "Rin tin tin" along the way, as well as very sincere efforts to get jumping photos :P Across the water, we saw an extremely odd structure, something that looked like someone had stacked LEGO blocks with gaps in the middle. Later of course i found out that was Habitat 67. Talk about uninformed!

It was 8 pm by the time we got to the next meal: Pino! I haven't had too much canneloni in my life, but this was fabulous! I have a thing for European food. Or food in general.

And to top it all, for dessert, we had Bailey's Irish Cream Cheesecake. Yes, I kid you not. It was unbelievable. Absolutely.

I must say, it looked like everyone was going to drop dead by 10 pm. Everyone was tired, and with much effort we got the bracelets for this party at Altitude 737. The surprise arrival of Anisha's roommate though, spurred her (and as a result, us) up, and in full enthusiasm we dressed up for a party we knew not much about. When we finally got there, it was about midnight and the place was ALIVE! First of all, the club was on like the 37th or 50th or some floor like that. Then, it had a huge terrace which opened out into a view of Montreal. I called it "the very awesome place". The music was great and we danced for almost three hours straight. The atmosphere got everyone high! They played traditional party, salsa, hip hop and even Mundiyan :D And no grinding :D The very end was marred by the wallet incidents, but Ruchi and Nikita took it in good spirit :) <3

The night went on till almost 6 am, and finally we were out and ready by about 10 30 on Sunday morning. A steaming hot chocolate and some delicious blueberry cheesecake later (Anisha still owes me some of that) later, Olympic stadium! Very touristy that we were, we went up the tower, some people went to the Biodome while a few others went to the Bubble (Biosphere). The view from the top of the Tower was beautiful; we had seen Montreal by night, and now by day. We had great plans of reaching the Bubble after that, but we just went to a very cool Art Cafe and chilled instead. Chilling is awesome, as was the coffee, croissant and whatever Rashida had. Delectable.

The weekend was short, but great, to say the least. It was perfectly relaxed and much needed. Splendid company, a feast for the eyes, stomach and brain and the best Canadian weekend I've had. I love all you guys <3

Let the randomness and joy of travel continue! :)

Something must be done, he said,

Something I can be proud of in retrospect,

I do not need the admiration of others

Just need to do something worth respect.

I do not know what I cannot specify why,

My self esteem needs to go from small to tall;

In this age of awards, top 10s and prizes,

It is my own opinion that matters most of all.

In this search, this need to do something worthwhile,

I will find what I want and who I am;

I will never claim to be complete,

But in my eyes, I will be a better man.

There is no sleep here

Tis true. College = no sleep. Let me give you an example-

Pooja and I were done gymming (at 11 pm), and both of us knew there is a lot of work (studying/assignments) at home to do, yet both of us along with Kanu sat in Spoke and finished a plate of Nacho Fries. Nacho fries are the only way I like french fries- under lots of sour cream and salsa :D The night doesn't end here. We come back to Pooja's place and since it's raining outside, decide to have chai :D Now finally at 2 am, I am back home, and all set to begin studying for tomorrow morning's Staged Operations quiz. As I said, sleep has no place here :)

Footnote (or Header, considering it appears above)

The photos are up on my Facebook profile.

Also, I have new respect for Macs. I generally favoured other Apple products, but the Macbooks are quite intuitive and easy to use. Still very expensive, but now I can see some justification of the price. Thanks to Kanu and Pooja :)

It's been a long couple of weeks!

Yes. Finally!

It's pretty late on a Saturday night, and finally I have decided to update my blog! Forgive the delay, but it has been an unbelievable couple of weeks in so many ways! As I finished my Reaction Engineering lab on Thursday evening (Thursday is my worst day schedule-wise), I was dead tired, and realized that I just wanted to sleep at home. Except now home meant 611 Lambton Hall.

After New York, the only thing that happened of note was the Megabus ride from Philly to Toronto. Warning- MEgabuses can be more than an hour late. But they are really comfortable. It's like 9 hours of a Shivneri and no one sitting next to you. And wifi :) I can't think of more economical, comfy ways to travel. Immigration was at 6 am though :(

I entered London (the one in Ontario, not the cool one) on a dreary, wet day; not the best of welcomes. But the University of Western Ontario (henceforth referred to as Western or UWO) campus is just beautiful! Wonderfully green and quite big, it's a very nice "bubble" (as it's called) to live in. Lambton Hall is full of international students, and do we know how to party! Western is that kind of school: every minute we're not studying, we're partying. London's economy runs due to Western students; UWO may be located in London, but London exists for Western. Downtown is no bigger than Deccan area, but all throughout the week, Richmond Row is alive. Richmond Row is a line of clubs, pubs and the like, forever inhabited by Western students after dark. Partying is so big here, that lines to get in on Friday or Saturday nights stretch for miles! Okay, not miles, London isn't big enough, but trust me, they are very long :D

Lambton Hall is no less. All you have to do is knock on someone's door, saying you were looking for a party. If they don't know where it is, they'll start one for you. Trust me, this happened to us! If it's not a few frames of pool at the Spoke (the campus sports tavern) then it's the Sunday pot luck or the newest- the wine and cheese wednesday :D I love living here! Saying that I live in 611 would be a lie; I sleep there, but I'm just generally downstairs at my friend Pooja's place. We cook there, eat dinner there, read the newspapers there, even leech off Pooja's internet. (Fancy Mac people with their Airport modes! :P) As a result of this non-occupation, my room is unbelievably clean! My mother would be proud.

Speaking of pride, I get major ego boosts by cooking nowadays! It feels so good to fill your refrigerator with products of your own hard work, even if you're the only one eating it :D I can't deal with eating outside every day, it becomes dreadfully boring. Every week I think of what to get to make my cooking better. I'm a culinary work in progress! :P

After the first few days of non-classes, I was suddenly bombarded with a ton of classes and assignments! In the second week, we had four assignments due! That is preposterous! Classes here take the phrase "keeping you on your toes" too literally. I'm forever swamped with work. It's a good week if I'm done with my assignments for the week on Thursday :D But I'm not complaining! The idea of constantly using your brain appeals to me, and I love sitting in the library! I am particularly incapable of studying at home (I see the bed and I think of zzzzzz) so I'm generally in Weldon or Taylor Libraries. I love libraries!

On this extremely nerdy note, I shall end this post. I had the most frustrating day today though-spent 6 hours doing two assignments, of which we're not quite done with one! Argh. But then, I'm loving it :)

The City (Part Two)

We decided to take it easy on Sunday. Fewer commutes wouldn't make our legs ache as the day before. Right? No.

The first thing on our to-do on Sunday was the Met. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the most famous museums in the world! In retrospect, I wonder how I agreed to go to an art museum (I'm quite aesthetically challenged) but it was a good decision. It is impossible to cover the Met in a day, or even a week. There are so many exhibits that Tai and I spent ten minutes figuring out which we could and should cover in 3 hours. The Roman and Greek exhibit was out (Tai just went to Italy in June) and the Egyptian exhibit is sort of a blackhole, so we saw the Photography section, along with the Frans Hals exhibit. I have very little knowledge of artists and art in general, but you could make out that Frans Hals was exceptional. As was the entire Impressionism section. A little harder to understand was the modern art. I think I have come to accept the fact that I will never truly appreciate modern art, but there were a few pieces that appealed to me, in ways unknown. David Smith in particular. Also, the Andrew Caro exhibit on the roof. All his work was made from scrap metal and what seemed to be industrial parts, but it was striking to say the least.

After 3 hours of walking non-stop, we just wanted to plop, so we went to Central Park, found a shady spot, and took a power nap. Relax happened, now refuel was necessary. So just off Madison Avenue, we found a great tiny coffee shop called Via Quadronno. Authentic Italian, it served us great coffee, an outstanding panini and delicious tiramisu. The best meal of the trip for me, even with the Malaysian fare at gobo the previous day.

Refreshed, we went to Empire State Building. I've technically been to the Building before, but I was still very excited. It's 1250 feet high, and took only a year to build. Seriously! From the 86th floor, all of New York city was in front of us (actually, it was around us) and man, was it magnificent! Something about being so high in the air, atop a feat of engineering genius, in the midst of all the lights and the skyscrapers gets your adrenaline pumping. Something very Fountainhead-isque about it!

Technically we did take it easy. Just the Met, Central Park and Empire State. Still my Achilles tendons were making their painful presence felt. We went to a relative's place for the night, where Tai had two bowls of shrikhand and I had one along with three scoops of ice cream ( eh, I'm on vacation, and the relatives are very good at the aggrah part!). It was 12 30 by the time we reached our beds, and crash is what we did, again :D