Sunday, July 29, 2007

Half Baked Recipes

It was that time of the year and so I decided to bake some chocolate cake. I have tried my mom's recipe and then her version 2.0. But there are more to recipes than what just meets the eye. Her recipes don't mention the part where she is sometimes hounded by kids wanting to dip their finger into the batter or lick a little bit of icing; claiming that they are the master tasters...

Well here is version 3.0
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Ingredients:
- Same stuff from the previous version.
- Kids... Lots of them.

Method:
- Visit a lot of kids. It turns out that they are practicing some dance sequences for a performance in the evening. Amuse yourself by admiring their timing in spite of being pretty small. The other kids who are sitting down mimic the actions of the ones who are performing and giggle and laugh at their friends. Some of them who are pretty small decide to have a conversation with you; They shake their heads to the beat and you do the same, while looking at each other, exchanging smiles.
- Visit some more kids. 5 of them.
- One of them hides your keys. She is the smallest from the lot (about 2 years old) but takes pleasure in worrying a boy who is elder to her. She doesn't really want certain toys but takes it in her hand and waves it around and says its hers; cause she knows it belongs to the little boy.
- Take them for a walk to pick up the ingredients mentioned in the previous versions. They promise that they will help you carry stuff. However as soon as you start one of them says she can't walk and wants to be carried and she uses this sad innocent look on her face to get her point across. In the shop they run around and try not to drop things down but manage to drop a little bit here and there. Then one of them claims that he can't carry stuff and just wanted to come for a walk.
- Back at the base you start following the method from the previous versions.
- Then 5 of them want to know whats happening and when you are not looking put their fingers into the batter to taste, while my cousin (mother to 2 of them, aunt to the other 3) tries to yell at them and restore some discipline. They listen... well at least for a couple of minutes, and then they try their luck again.
- You make the icing too but decide to hide it someplace cause otherwise it might not last till the cake gets baked.
- Finally its done and you put it into the oven, and decide to take a nap while they run around, fight, make up, put a pillow on your back and decide to take a nap on you, put your hair and tell you to wake up and give them some cake.
- Chocolate icing is put and the master tasters give their expert opinions. Some of them want to taste a bit more before they can part with their thoughts.


Sunday, July 22, 2007

The Abstract

Often the abstract is done by the undisciplined, sold by the unprincipled and shown to the utterly bewildered --- Albert Camus


Saturday, July 21, 2007

Schrodinger's Happy Feet

A friend asked me why I like watching depressing movies. Depressing? He was referring to some of the foreign films that I watch. Well I watch them cause they are realistic (I watch comedies too). We had seen this movie called 'Central Station', which he felt had a lot of depressing things in it. On the other hand I felt it was overall a very warm movie. He then mentioned that he likes to make people happy and thats why he likes watching happy movies. Which I feel is fine and yes thats the way it should be. This friend is a nice chap and I like hanging out with him. But then again if you really want to make people happy then you need to understand their unhappiness, however depressing it may seem. You can't have one without the other..

Which leads me to my variant of 'Schrodinger's Cat'. Confused, here is an explanation for a sixth grader. A sixth grader ???? Ah well someone even wrote a poem about it :-)

So here it is, the "Schrodinger's Happy Feet" paradox:
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Take a pair of Happy Feet and put them into a glass shell (chamber), along with a device containing a vial of life-changing quantum events. In that chamber are also a few radioactive atoms. If even a single atom decays, a relay mechanism will be triggered which will in turn trip a hammer which will break the vial and the quantum events will be realized, resulting in the metamorphosis of the 'Happy Feet' to 'Sad Feet'. Before an observer looks into the glass chamber, no one knows the state of the feet, cause we cannot know whether the atom has decayed, the vial broken and the quantum events occured. From the outside the feet appear happy. So at that point the feet are in a kind of nether state; because of a superposition of possibilities; simultaneously happy and sad. According to the "many worlds" interpretation, Schrodinger's experiment splits the universe around those feet into two parallel worlds; one happy the other sad. Each subsequent quantum event resulting in those imaginary lands; darklands, never never lands, wonderlands and real lands. Its only when an observer opens the chamber and looks deeper into it would they realize if the feet are happy or sad.

The observer's paradox lies in the fact that the feet are happy or sad if and only if an observation is made in the first place. The observation affects an outcome. If the observation is not made, you will never know if the feet are happy or sad.



In between darkness and light, sadness and happiness.



White support






Overshadowed





Said the old feet to the young feet








Happy feet, sad feet... seen it all.


Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Alma mater... one of them

I studied in St Francis De Sales (SFS) in Nagpur. I've heard that our school has its first female principal starting this year. The principal before this, Fr Ivan Lobo, spent nearly 30+ years in SFS starting from his schooling. I was the principal's right hand boy and blue eyed boy :-) He is a good person. I still keep in touch with him and visit him even now. He has moved to mumbai. During my first interactions with him in my school days he once told me, "I am disappointed, I expect a lot more from you. These ranks and merit lists don't matter much and with time you will realize that too. There is a lot to learn and its not just studies."

Talking about female principals, we did have a female principal for the primary section. I was kinda her blue eyed boy too :-) Then there was teacher LaxmiNarayan, who smiled and made the world smile with her. She was the blue house (to which I belonged) head mistress. Our school motto is "Dare to be wise".

Got this forward from a school friend. Posted it as is.

The Fountain near the cycle stand...



This the area where we played Basketball


This is the entrance of the School.... Where the samosa wala used to sell those heavenly SAMOSAS



Grotto of Mother Mary



Classes near our School Park...


Corridors...


More of them...


The Chapel of our School...


This is the view of our Cycle stand where we use to keep our cycles Locked like it was our PORCHE... and yes it was much more precious at that time....


View from the main entrance, where its written "Dare to be Wise".



Our School Playground and the place where the assembly was held every Saturday... I used to be up in the shade cause I was in the school choir.



The school bell that we heard over the years.


The fourth playfield at an elevation from the other two


Just Check the 1978 Staff some of them we don't know but look at the Retro look of our School Teachers...



Our School Staff in the Year 1985....



School Staff members in the year 2001....




School Staff members in the year 2006....





"DARE TO BE WISE"