Easter Egg

Well this post did take a while to be written, not busy just ignorant !

Easter is over, my son did find all the Easter Eggs (made of chocolate) we hid for him and finished them as well. Although we celebrate Easter every year, most of us don't know the stories behind these traditions, like the purpose of the Easter egg etc.

Back in school we were told that the Easter Egg tradition began when the early Christians, colored the eggs red, symbolizing the blood of Christ. On doing a search on the Internet i found a few more interesting tales. Some believe that Mary Magdalene got cooked eggs for those who were waiting at the tomb of Jesus, and when Christ had risen the eggs turned red.

The egg hunt is popular with children, now mostly made of chocolate. During lent meat and eggs are avoided, so it is said that in the 40 days of lent there was an excess of eggs by the end of Easter. To avoid wastage they were boiled and on Easter day or later, most of the dishes were made with these eggs. Hence the significance of eggs on Easter.

After reading a lot of articles on this subject, it is fascinating to see how traditions are formed over the years based both on facts and myths.

What are your Hobbies?

I had been to an interview recently, and one of the points in the questionnaire was Mention your Hobbies. At that moment I really didn't have an answer. I am a voracious reader and love music but thats not a hobby. Although my 200 plus unique stamps collection is definitely something to brag about, I found it too childish to be mentioned. It was then that I realized, I never had a new hobby after school. Maybe I was too busy studying or learning a new technology, as my work demands. Maybe the tide of busy life took me too far to realize what actually makes me happy.

So I have made up my mind to go ahead and engage myself into something that is fulfilling. Life is not all about work is it?

p.s. What is that new hobby, you ask? Well I will mention about it in my upcoming posts.

Food & Wine

Another batch of my dad's finest wines, was out last evening and I got to taste it first. The taste and aroma of the wine only seems to get better. My dad, I believe, is one of the finest chefs (only for a privileged few) in the world and he only gets better day by day. His experiments with various dishes and the red wine are unbeatable. Lucky for me, my wife too is a good cook and is almost getting there. Surprisingly I'm not that fat for the food fanatic that I am. But I do know this, the ability to cook good food, is a god-given gift.
I cant cook. But I'm blessed with a lot of fine dining. Some might say it comes with practice, but then anyone could practice KFC and be a millionaire right? The taste of the food lies in the hands of the cook.
So here's to all who know their cooking well, and put a smile on the face of those who relish it. Cheers!

Butcher Island

My wife and I made a New Year resolution to visit all the famous places in Mumbai. Its strange that people live their entire life in a city and still know little about it. Although I have been to almost all the tourist / historic places in Mumbai, I was surprised to hear about Butcher Island. No it is not a fictitious island straight from a horror movie, it is off the coast of Mumbai, completely restricted to public, and only used as an oil terminal. The local fishermen will cruise you from a distance near the island and even tell you scary stories about the place, for a few hundreds. But what amuses me, is that I never thought there could ever be an island of this name around my favorite city. How many surprises do you have in store for me Mumbai?

Controversial Reading

I just started reading this new book by Ashwin Sanghi, called the Rozabal Line. The author desperately tries to mimick Dan Brown's success, by trying to prove that Jesus never died on the cross, but survived and eventually came to India. He stayed there for the rest of his life and died in a place in Kashmir, marked by a tomb, now worshiped by the Muslims. A little research on this book, and I found that this tomb suddenly became a tourist attraction and Lonely Planet even made a documentary on it. The Indian government later sealed this location and stopped further tourist activity. Although the book cannot keep up with any of Dan Brown's novels (Da Vinci Code being my favorite), it makes me wonder, do authors need a controversy to sell their books. Is this hype more important than the quality of the writing? Sadly this is how books are sold these days, either mention something that hurts religious sentiments, or blemish a famous public/historic figure, thereby creating a certain interest to read it. I mean thats why I got this novel, right?

R.I.P. Michael Jackson

Almost a week now since the end of the "King of Pop" and I cant get over the shock of his tragic demise. I still remember the first time I heard "Thriller", I rushed to the nearest music store and got myself the cassette. It was the only thing playing in my dad's stereo, after Boney M and ABBA. All through school I grew up listening to his albums and was fascinated by his ability to sing in different genres of music. His philanthropic contributions only made me respect him more and actually buy his music, contrary to the rising piracy of music with mp3s. I still remember saving money to pay 1000 rupees for the History CD pack, which had a booklet with all his pics over the years.

Although now my taste in music has shifted to rock/alternative, I do go back to listening to his CDs sometimes. I still reminisce to the good old days when I see his videos on VH1 Classic. Will we ever have another legend like him?

Oscars to India

With the movie Slumdog Millionaire winning oscars, and 3 of them coming to indians, it makes you wonder..........where have the previous indian nominees failed that this movie succeeded. Indians have definitely made better movies than this, the soundtrack isnt Rehmans finest, and slums have been a part of many movie scripts. What then makes this movie different?
Is it because the director was British? Remember the movie "Elizabeth" where it was the opposite, only the director was indian(Shekar Kapur) .......... or one of my personal favorites "Sixth Sense". I dont recall N. Shyamalam winning any Oscar for his movie.
The success of indians at the oscars might come as an I-dont-care-but-we-won applaud from many but the Oscars do need to consider better movies as nominees, to sustain its credibility !