Baby, I'm addicted...

Been tagged by the "Addictions" tag by Akshaya...
Well, the Oxford defines "addiction" being the "fact or condition of being dependant on something/someone" and it means the same in my dictionary too:D
So, without further nonsensical talk, here it is...

#1. Life...am addicted to life, I can't stop living...even at the downest of times, at the lowest ebb of the fortune's tide...I still harbor hopes. I may not proclaim to be still in hope but deep down within me there is that tiny flicker still burning bright. As they say na "Umeed pe hi duniya qayam hai" (Hope is what the world lives on)

"Khud hi manzil hun main, Aap hi musafir hun"

"When you do anything, do it well"
I was always taught that when you do something, do it with all your heart, put in your best effort...all my common sense and logic and intellect point to the same fact too...so obviously there is no debate about the veracity of that statement.
So why is there this feeling of nonchalance in me now? Why this half hearted attempt? Why this feeling of "I don't wanna be here, I don't wanna do this"? Why can't I put my heart into this? Why is there this sense of detachment? Why do I feel like a mechanical zombie?
Probably coz this is not my calling, deep within I really don't wanna do this, I've not been made to do this...I need a different sky to soar.
That will also happen Saim!!!
You will fulfill your calling soon, you will soar across the sky of your choice with unbridled joy in your heart as you overlook the wide expanse, the zeal will return...trust me.
But till then, you must do what you must do...just hang on,buddy!!!

Update

Received some very bad news right now...my grandfather is no more.
Have to rush off to my mom's native place...will be off from blogville for some days atleast.
C ya guys...pray for the departed!!!

Ramzan Delicacy---"Haleem"

The month of Ramadaan is on in full glory and while the month is all about performing your religious duties to the best of your abilities, demonstrating piety n humbleness, abstaining from any sinful act and leading a good life as prescribed by Allah...what it also is about is "iftaar"...i.e. the traditional breaking of the fast at sunset...and while there are a number of delicacies which give "iftaar" it's flavor, there is none more worthy than that special dish, available only during this month, called "haleem".

Ramadaan is incomplete without the lip smacking delight of haleem, a stew/porridge made by slow cooking a combination of lentils, wheat, tender meat and a variety of spices. It's very high on nutritional value and serves well to energise the body after a day long fast.

It is available across cities in India...one can find a stall/joint selling haleem from deghs (big copper utensil) in every Muslim neighbourhood during Ramadaan...however the dish's lovers cut across religious divides. The Hyderabadi haleem is famous all over though I can vouch for the fact that Kolkata has some very worthy chaperones of it's own.


INGREDIENTS :-

500 gm mutton/chicken/beef cut into small pieces
3/4 pieces of cardamom n cloves
1/2 tsp of cumin seeds or zeera
1 cup moong dal
2 Tbsp chana dal
1 cup of broken wheat
2 onions, fried n crushed
2 tsp ginger-garlic paste
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
2 bunches of coriander leaves, chopped
2 Tbsp curd
Salt
Oil

PREPARATION :-

Soak the wheat separately and the dals together for about 6 hrs
Pressure cook separately with water for upto 4 whistles each
Heat oil, pop the cumin seeds, cardamom and cloves
Add the crushed onions and ginger-garlic paste and fry
Add the meat, turmeric, chilli powder, coriander leaves and salt and cook for upto 4 whistles
Add the curd and mix well
Add the cooked dals and wheat to the meat
Mix well and serve hot with ghee n lemon



P.S. The recipe is not mine:)

Of Losing What U Once Had...

I stumbled across a couple of random blogs today which were incessantly funny (n I mean that as a compliment), reading them I could not help but admire the sense of humor of the bloggers in question...his quirky take on the world coupled with an amazing sense of wit combined to produce some really humorous pieces!!!

However, apart from being the provider of some very welcome humor, what that particular blog did was to make me realize how very unfunny my recent posts have been, I mean, yeah one blogs about what one feels like blogging and more often than not one's mental processes dictate his fingers on the keyboard and you just cannot write up a funny post as such without it coming from the heart.....but that just goes a long way to prove how seriously serious I seem to have become, where has that guy gone who everyone used to look to whenever a wise crack needed to be cracked, where has that guy gone who had no qualms about laughing at himself and making jokes of some of his most embarrassing moments, where has that guy gone for whom life was a laugh-a-thon???

And for those of you who may turn around and cheekily remark that maybe, just maybe, I am a bit self-patronizing when it comes to my sense of humor, that maybe I was always this non-funny guy who could not crack a joke to save his life, that maybe all my so-called wise cracks were plagiarized.....I would request them to have a look at these
http://cataclysmofreality.blogspot.com/2008/05/blackboards-tale.html
http://cataclysmofreality.blogspot.com/2008/05/love-is-4-letter-word-it-means-nothing.html
http://cataclysmofreality.blogspot.com/2008/06/celeb-talk.html

These, according to my humble opinion are some of my tending-towards-humor posts, so that answers one question comprehensively.

However, the answer depresses me more coz it alludes to the fact that I have lost something...it's not as if I never had it...how much more okay would it have been if I never had it, at least I would not be going through this sense of loss, it's so much more harder to lose something after experiencing it (analogical statement) but then the reverse take on this would be that at least one had the privilege of experiencing it first hand rather than being one of those who always base their opinions and experiences on hearsay....
So tell me guys, is it better to have it and lose it or rather not ever have it and be immuned from the sense of loss???
Fyodor Dostoevsky, through his character, asks "Isn't a moment of bliss enough for a lifetime?" A very pertinent question it is too, is it necessary to experience bliss throughout life, can one not live with the memory of having experienced that single moment of bliss, is that one single moment not enough to act as a life source for ever? And if it's not, then are we being greedy in demanding a lifetime of bliss???

Ok, enough of this rant.....to think of I started talking about the loss of humor in myself and ended up talking about what-I-don't-know-yet....just goes such a long way in proving the meandering nature of my thoughts these days, come to think of it...not only my mind, my whole life is one meandering mess right now.Period!!! But let's not talk about that now coz there's only a fixed amount of self-deprecating that I can take at one time.

Neways, this is Saim signing off from here, lots of love to all of you...dun 4get 2 answer my question...till next time, so long.....c ya!!!

Of Ramadaan, apologies n award...

This is a just a random post aimed to bring all my amazing friends in this blogville up to date with the happenings in my dear life.

Firstly, apologies from the core of my heart for being so erratic off late...I know I have missed some tremendous posts from some of u guyz and the loss is all mine...will try to catch up with all of them in due time.


The month of Ramadaan began yesterday...may Allah bless us all with the fortitude of performing our duties to the best of our abilities, may we all pray with a clean mind and from the soul, may all our prayers be answered, may Allah bless us with the ability to live life as it should be lived...Aameen!!!


State of my mind:- Pretty disgusted:( .....owing to

• the antics of Ms. Mamata Banerjee and her cohorts
• the lack of administrative qualities shown by Mr. Buddhadev Bhattacharya
• Cognizant Technological Services for taking their own sweet time
• the motherboard of my PC crashing almightily:(

A special plea to all of you...please pray for the unfortunate souls who have lost a lot owing to the Bihar floods...these have been the worst floods which the area has witnessed and the effect has been devastating to say the least...also remember in ur prayers all those who were affected by the violence in Orissa and Kashmir.




I was awarded "Brilliant Weblog" award by Keshi *mouth wide open*
Do I deserve the award.....dunno, maybe I don't but am damn excited and I'd like to thank everyone who is even remotely connected to me getting this recognition (1st ward u c, cant miss out ne1:D)




Also most importantly, I thank you Keshi...u r a sweetheart *bear hug* .....trust me when i say dis, u are an inspiration, ur writing is always an eye opener....straight from the heart, pure unadulterated stuff *cheers to you*




P.S. Blogger has introduced a new feature "Followers" to add to it's ever evolving avatar...have added it to my page...u can see it at the top of the left sidebar in this page...seems to be a cool feature, so all I can say is " Get following":)