You are currently browsing the monthly archive for May, 2009.
I had built up quite a repertoire of posts in my earlier Yahoo 360 blog and I had to let go of them when I switched to Word Press. I had no idea that Yahoo 360 was shutting down for good and when I got an email from them asking me to shift all my stuff, I was feeling saddened. When I had made the switch to WordPress, there was no option to import posts from Yahoo. So, I had made a new beginning then.
But today I got to know that they were allowing us to import all our posts into WordPress from Yahoo. And I went right ahead and did it! So now, all my older posts are intact and safe. I was just reading a couple of old ones from the Yahoo blog and laughing like anything, reading about Saboor’s antics! I had started that blog sometime in 2005, and man, four years back, life was SO different! I’m glad I started the Yahoo 360 blog (Sowm, I have you to thank for that!) because all this part of my life would have gone undocumented.
Anyway, all my friends out there who had Yahoo 360 blogs, its time you did the same unless you haven’t already done it and I’m belatedly crowing about this!
One more thing, I had no idea you could do so many things with Gmail. See, what I mean is that I never check my Yahoo mails. They always take ages to load and I don’t have the time for them. But recently I learnt that I could download all my Yahoo mails into my Gmail account through POP and label it separately. So what I mean is that if I hadn’t done this, I wouldn’t have read the Yahoo mail about Yahoo 360 shutting down (although it’s still way off in July) and I might have lost all those posts forever! Yay to Gmail! And to Open Source software like WordPress which gives us so much freedom. (I’ve got Jun to thank for this interesting analysis of all things related to software on his blog which he has given the unlikely title of Ruminating Muse)
Ciao till then! It’s a lovely Saturday and <groan> I have to be at work! <sigh>
Yes, May is thankfully drawing to a close. It has never been one of my favourite months from quite a few years for the simple reason that having Saboor around at home, all day, every day is not an easy task. There are other memories also associated with May that are not entirely what I want to remember, memories from when I was a teenager etc.
So, June is just two days away and Saboor’s school starts on 4th June while Azhaan’s starts on 3rd. I am sure that Azhaan is going to kick up quite a ruckus about being away from me and I have no idea how to deal with it. Will bother about it when that happens I guess. I am also a bit worried about Saboor because he will be the new kid in class. I hope he can make friends easily there, and become one of the crowd.
Then, we got Saboor’s books and everything and we have to cover them as yet. I still have to buy his shoes, socks and other accessories and his uniform might apparently be delayed by a few days so I have no idea if its ok if he goes in his regular clothes.
Soon, these lazy mornings are going to give way to a mad rush in the morning when I have to make breakfast and lunch, pack it and get the kids ready before sending them off to school. But the peace and quiet that follows will be fantastic I hope! Will get much more of my work done in that way.
By the way, I was planning on writing this and kept putting it off and then I saw Anamika’s post on it and thought I’d better write what I was thinking too!
Why do we make something that we hadn’t even heard of until recently so important that all our lives begin to revolve around it? Especially things like WiFi.
Until sometime back I only knew what WiFi was. I could pretty well manage without it, because I had my trusty computer with me. And with Airtel’s near impeccable internet connection I never really faced any problems.
The last year I bought my laptop. And when I installed a wireless router in my house, I realised the power of WiFi. I could sit anywhere and still be connected to the internet. I soon got used to having the internet follow me wherever I went. And then it became something I took for granted.
Then earlier this year, I realised that my laptop was getting very hot. So I went and bought those laptop cooling stands with fans underneath. Fat lot of good that did to me! In barely two days my WiFi stopped working. I couldn’t understand it. I tried everything, reinstalling the entire OS and then Jun and I even took apart the back of the laptop and tried replacing the hard disk back and all sorts of stuff!
I took the laptop to the HP service center which was more like a hospital for injured laptops We(my laptop and me) were given a number and when our turn came the engineer asked us to step inside the consultation room. He looked at me incredulously when I explained my problem to him. Impossible! he said. There’s no connection between your WiFi and the laptop cooler. To prove it to me, he switched on the laptop and there it was working beautifully, the blue light winking away at him charmingly.
See, I told you so, he said and I took the recalcitrant laptop back home. And within two days, voila, my WiFi again disappears. And this time it’s forever. The HP laptop hospital, oops, I mean the service center this time did not take it lightly. Since my 1 year warranty had expired, I would have to pay for whatever repairs they would undertake and since they assumed it was probably trouble in the motherboard, I might have to be ready to shell out at least 14 to 15k.
Horrified, I took my laptop back and I went home. I was just going to get an external network adaptor…those USB thingies that we plug into the USB slot of the computer and it makes the laptop WiFi compliant.
I was not entirely happy with that. Which reminds me again, I am never going to buy any Belkin products again. The laptop cooler was a Belkin one and the network adaptor was also a Belkin. The latter sometimes stopped working and I would have to reconfigure the entire WiFi connection again. It was tiring and one day, Azhaan saw it hanging out from the laptop and decided to push it down instead of pulling it out. Snap! It didn’t break, but it was close to it. Now I had to hold something under the network adaptor for the points to connect and for it to catch the WiFi. Extremely tiring, let me tell you!
I gave up on my laptop then, and asked Mansoor if we could exchange laptops. He has a Sony Vaio and after a little time he agreed reluctantly. Now, that Vaio was like a virgin laptop.
The drive wasn’t partitioned, and there was hardly any useful software in it. I liked how it looked, it was lightweight and very sleek. But it didn’t have the feel of my laptop, specially the keys which refused to fly under my fingers.
I used that laptop for about 10 days and then one day, it refused to start up. It didn’t boot and no matter what I tried, it wasn’t working. And since the drive wasn’t partitioned, everything was in C Drive and when I had to reinstall the OS, all my data got wiped out. Lucikly I had taken backups when I transferred the data from my Compaq to the Vaio. But I lost everything that had come in between.
When the problem got resolved, I started using the laptop again, I was very irritated. Pissed off like anythign actually. All my work, my organisation, my folders…everything had to be done again.
Two days of working with the Vaio, getting the keys stuck and not being able to type as fast as I think made me decide that WiFi or not, I was going back to the Compaq. And just to show its tongue at me, the WiFi on the Compaq worked perfectly for a whole day!
Two days I worked, stuck near the modem. It wasn’t bad but I missed the mobility. Then on Friday, I went to EZone and bought a new network adaptor. It’s working fine so far. Touchwood.
See what I meant? We get ourselves used to all this unnecessary stuff and then we can’t live without it!!
Yes, I made it. All by myself! 
This morning, I was at moms place and I felt like making something so I got together all the ingredients and decided to make Black Forest Cake. I know, it’s become so typical these days, thanks to bakeries like Sweet Chariot and Cake Walk, but nevertheless, it’s exciting to make a layered cake. It’s quite an adventure that begins when you wonder whether the cake will come out from the pan in one piece to assembling the layers and slathering it with whipped cream.
It was well worth the wait and everyone at home got just one slice each, but they loved it. Although there are numerous recipes for this, the one I’ve explained below is what I did, and it was with dramatically good results.
In case you didn’t know, the basic cake for black forest tastes much better if it’s fatless. That’s because fatless cakes refrigerate well, and do not become hard. Also, they’re more porous and they can absorb all the liquid you drench on them to keep them moist.
So, here goes.
Ingredients for Cake (make 2 of these)
3 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup hot milk
3/4 cup maida + 1/4 cup cocoa sifted together with 1 tsp baking powder
vanilla essence
- Break the eggs into a clean bowl and beat them using an electric egg beater until they’re foamy and acquire a light lemony colour.
- Add the sugar and continue beating on high for about 5 minutes until the mixture is thick.
- Add essence and slowly fold in flour+cocoa mixture and beat on low for a little while.
- Add the hot milk and mix properly.
- Bake at 200 degrees centigrade for about thirty minutes
- When cake is done, cool and invert on a plate
Icing
Fresh Cream
Sugar
Ice cubes
Beat the fresh cream with sugar over ice cubes until thick. Keep aside.
Decoration
1 tin cherries
grated choclate
Assembling
Moisten each cake with the sweetened sugar syrup present in the cherry tin can. Spread haf the cream over one cake, arrange the cherries and sprinkle grated chocolate over it.
Place the other cake on top. Spread the whipped cream all over the cake, and sides, decorate with cherries and grated chocolate.
There was not a single piece left on the plate in just ten minutes!
Last Friday, I went and got my Scooty Streak home. Mansoor rode it back of course. Now, a week later, i’m much more comfortable riding it on my own, and soon i’ll be zipping around inshallah!
There were three things that occurred to me simultaneously last Friday. One, I wondered why I had waited so long to do this. Two, I was exhilarated at the sense of freedom and three, I was terrified of the traffic!
I’ve never really given much thought to being independent because I hardly moved out much. But now, I have to take the kids everywhere and it’s terrible, the amount of money I spend on autos. Worse is to face their insolence as they ask for outrageous sums of money for small distances. Well, in a few days I’m going to cock a snook at all those idiots.
Mine is black. Maybe with time i’ll be comfortable with the car too. But till then, its main aur meri Scooty!
A year back, I suddenly realised that I couldn’t let Saboor study in his present school. Not that they were treating him badly or anything, but I was not happy about the school on many fronts.
Firstly, they had terrible infrastructure. Just two buildings, a tiny playground, tinier classrooms with benches where two or three children were forced to sit. Then, on the academics front, they were taking things too easy and all of a sudden they charged up the pace and for kids like Saboor who were used to taking it easy suddenly found themselves on the other side of the fence.
But last year, we were in the middle of a mammoth shift, from BTM to Koramangala, and we couldn’t do much about changing his school then. So, the whole of last year, Mansoor and I ferried Saboor back and forth to school in JP Nagar, because his school didn’t have buses that plied to Koramangala. It was very tiring and frustrating and I had decided that this year, we HAD to change his school.
I had decided to enroll him St. Josephs European because it seemed to meet all my criteria: It was a mainstream school located in the centre of the city; it had been around for more than a century; the school had an impeccable record and lastly, they had a vast playground. On calling them, I found out we had to take the forms on a certain date, return them on another date and bring Saboor to school for an entrance test.
We managed all the above, but Saboor didn’t make it. Either he didn’t perform very well, or the fact that there were 300 children taking the entrance test hampered his chances badly. It could have been both of course.
When the letter came that he hadn’t made it, I was very disappointed. But I somehow made myself look at it this way: If Allah had wanted it to happen, it would have happened any how. This was just not meant to be.
I decided we would try next year, and when Saboor’s results came and he passed, we also paid up for the books and everything. Then, on a whim I called up Bishop Cottons who asked me to drop a letter along with his marks card at the school office requesting for admission. I did that, and then later on, a few days later when I called to enquire, they informed curtly that if there were vacancies, they would call and then Saboor would have to do the entrance test. But right now there were no vacancies.
Disappointed, I let that behind me and in each namaz, I prayed to Allah that my children get admission in a good school. And it really is strange, the ways in which Allah listens to our pleas.
I had enrolled Saboor in skating classes in NGV recently. It’s good for him because he gets exercise and he gets to meet other kids, and for me too, I get to meet other mothers.
Recently, I met the mother of a new child. This girl at first seemed very standoffish and hardly smiled in my direction, but the second day, she too couldn’t resist Azhaan’s charms as he cried out to Saboor, ‘Come on Bhaiya’ 
We got chatting and I casually asked her where her son was studying. She mentioned Cathedral High School, and almost as if, PING! a bell went in my head. Why hadn’t I tried there? It met all my criteria didn’t it? I asked her if they had any problems getting admission, and she said, not really. Then she also added that if I wanted she could ask her husband to put in a word for me because he knew some people in the office. That is, if I wanted to try out there. I told her I would think about it. That was last Friday.
On Saturday I called Cathedral and they said, yes, they’re taking in students for even 5th standard. But I would have to call on Monday. On Monday I called, and they said, please come and talk to the people in the office.
All four of us went, Mansoor, me, Saboor and Azhaan. The school campus was beautiful, with lots of trees and colonial style buildings. At the office they were polite and asked us to take the admission forms. We filled those, submitted them and came back home because we were asked to return the next day.
Before we even went to school, I had called up Ayesha to ask her opinion about this school and she said it was a good one. Then minutes later she called back, remembering some contacts she had there, an ex-principal who was the mother of a friend! She said she would speak to this lady and recommend us highly.
When we went in yesterday, there was no frustrating wait wondering what our fate would be. In about ten minutes we learnt that the principal had granted admission to Saboor. Without even meeting him or us or even taking an entrance test! In fact we were asked to pay the fee!
I was so exhilarated, I called up Ayesha, thanked her and she in turn thanked her friend’s mother. I got back home still couldn’t believing how well things had fallen in place. It was also a lesson that I will never forget and although it sounds cliched, we need to remember that if one door closes, another door somewhere opens. We only need to recognise the door as an opportunity and take it up.
I am thankful to Allah for giving me enough understanding not to fixate my mind on St. Josephs only but to open it to other possibilities also. I am thankful to Allah that this worked out so beautifully, without any hassles and the least bit of running around. I am thankful to Allah that were able to arrange the fees so quickly and most of all, I am thankful to Allah for giving this chance to Saboor.
