A pomegranate a day keeps the doctors away!

♪ Nar dana, anar dana

Asaa rumi topi waale naal jaana ♫

A song of my past. Whenever I see an anar (Pomegranate) the lyrics keep hovering through my head. It’s the season of pomegranate here in Dhaka.  No other fruit comes with sparkling red gems that as much as soothes the eyes coming about as edible soothes the tastebuds to two times the degree. And this fruit takes me to my happy place, my childhood, all the more reason to love it. Though most of us associate the 'forbidden fruit' from the garden of Eden to be an apple, Iranians believe that Eve was tempted with a pomegranate, and comparing the fleshiness of apple to my red gems, I sort of second that. Today I will be giving a pomegranate smoothie recipe I found on the internet along with my own rendition on it. Most of the smoothie recipes come with berries which is not available here so I have substituted the berries with bananas. Pomegranate is rich in vitamin C, B5, potassium, fiber and antioxidants and has numerous health benefits from inhibiting viral infections to slowing down the aging process, fighting breast cancer, preventing Alzheimer's disease, lowering cholesterol and blood pressure etc. A cupful of pomegranate smoothie leaves me refreshed and it takes care of my glucose level since I have a diet that runs too low on glucose (God didn’t give me a sweet tooth, He gave me an aversion to sweets on the contrary). So here goes the recipe,

Pomegranate smoothie recipe.  

Serves: 2

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

You will need:

1 pomegranate

1 banana

2 cups of water

5 tablespoons of non fat yogurt

Half cup sugar

First take out the pomegranate seeds from the pomegranate and blend on high until the juice is thoroughly extracted.

In the blender, combine the chilled nonfat yogurt with the pomegranate juice. Add the sliced banana, water and sugar. Blend. Pour the smoothie into tall, chilled glasses and serve at once with just ice or ice cream on top.

Happy drinking! :) and please let me know how you like it!

A question to you sir

Once upon a time there was an ancient Indian King who had been obsessed with the desire to find the meaning of peace. Three questions haunted his mind day in and day out, three questions- what is peace, how do we find it and once found what should we do with it? Intellectuals in his kingdom were invited to answer the King's questions for a handsome reward. Many tried, but none could truly explain the answers to the questions. At last someone said to the King that there’s only one person who could know the rightful answers to his questions, and the person was a sage who lived just outside the borders of his Kingdom.

"He is an old man and very wise," the King was told. "If anyone can answer your questions he can."

And hence, the King went to the sage and posed the eternal question. Without a word the sage went into the kitchen, and brought a grain of wheat to the King. "In this you will find the answer to your question," the Sage said as he placed the grain of wheat in the King's outstretched palm.

Puzzled but unwilling to admit his ignorance the King clutched the grain of wheat and returned to his palace. He locked the precious grain in a tiny gold box and placed the box in his safe. Each morning, upon waking, the King would open the box and look at the grain to seek an answer but could find nothing.

Weeks later, not being able to hold his angst any longer the King called upon the sage to his palace to resolve his dilemma. The sage came to the palace. The King said to the sage,

"Every morning when I wake up I would open my gold box and watch the grain of wheat, all the while looking for an answer. But to my surprise till date I have found nothing."

The Sage smiled.

"It is quite simple, your honour. Just as this grain represents nourishment for the body, peace represents nourishment for the soul. Now, if you keep this grain locked up in a gold box it will eventually perish, without providing nourishment or multiplying. However, if it is allowed to interact with the elements - light, water, air, soil - it will flourish, multiply, and soon you would have a whole field of wheat which will nourish not only you but so many others. This is the meaning of peace your honour. It must nourish your soul and the souls of others, and thus it must multiply by interacting with the elements."

Now my question is, do you know your elements? Alas I don’t have a sage to ask this.

Everything good and everything bad

You never liked my poker face, five years and it still bothers you. And this botheration is always followed by that same question, each time with the same tone of urgency to hear the answer.

“So, what are you thinking?”

And I always answer.

 “I am thinking          …”

And I have always been honest. Didn’t care if it had been the wrong thing to say at the wrong moment, didn’t care if it was bad enough to ruin a day. And trust me I have ruined a lot of days over my honesty. Because like your urgency to know every bit of my brain I too take in an urgency to spill my mentations out to you. It’s difficult to know everything about a person, if you know the how(s) you sometimes miss the why(s). There’s only this much you have of a person, at least that’s what I used to believe. Then I met you, saw you at your best, worst and then again best, saw you grow up just as you saw me growing up, experienced the changes together. Everything good and everything bad, and all that lies in the middle, I know all of it, I know all that is you. Every individual has their enigma, that special part of a person which belongs to themselves only. But over the years I have become a part of your enigma, and you’ve become a part of mine. And we are the ones who did it, not our time together, not our experiences, not those chances to see each other’s reactions. It was just us, because you and me, are two rare breed of discerning nosey arse who ended up together. This post is for you S. I miss you.

 

[Photo Credit: "The Kiss", at the end of World War II in Times Square - by Alfred Eisenstaedt, V-J Day, 1945]

Movie Review: Following ~ Brilliant 70 minutes

Despite being an impressively intriguing and edgy directorial debut by Nolan this 16mm black-and-white movie had been highly underrated. I have watched Memento too, and in all honesty this flick holds a stronger script. In a low budget venture with no famous casting the performance is utterly believable and Nolan’s conniving story telling is excellent. This movie has a clever buildup that runs in discontinuous time frames through its nonlinear plot. And before you know where the 70 minutes have gone by it hits you with a beaut ending that completes the noir thriller providing the viewers a total clarity of what was going on. The story revolves around an aspiring writer Bill (Jeremy Theobald) who follows people around the streets of London out of his curiosity to turn a faceless stranger into a face whose random details of life are known to him. He keeps on doing this till a day he follows a handsome and confident Cobb (Alex Haw) who later confronts him and reveals his habit of following people as well, but for more of a practical reason, which is burglary. Cobb smooth talks Bill into his life and takes him under his wings, they follow and housebreak into the life of a beautiful blonde (Lucy Russell) and the movie takes you to a twisted climax bringing out a more twisted ending. My rating for the movie is 8 on 10.

Tsk tsk

If you don't like me remember it's mind over matter, I don't mind and you don't matter.

ullu ka pattha

Christo's signature 'Bliss pose'

Weekending :)

Friday the 13th turned lucky for us. Totally unplanned, but there we are, together and relishing in starlit darkness. The weather and the place couldn't be any better.

Christo/Christi and a game of monopoly

Christo is proving to be a pishumaster. He pees on all the wrong places- my lap, bed, pillows and everything soft and comfy. So then I did some research on this and from what I have read the matter seems to be about marking his territory. Pishumaster should understand he is the sole ruler of this entire kingdom and all this territorial marking is absolutely unnecessary. We took the pishumaster to get his vaccine last week. Vet says he is doing fine, but we still need few more months to know whether Christo stays a Christo or has she always been a Christi. 

Christopher or a Christipher? What do'ya think?

Semester break is going really well so far. And to top things up my student got cancelled for an entire week (the kiddo took a self proclaimed vacation to enjoy Ben10), and despite my late nights and late days I have successfully watched some awesome movies (review coming later), caught up on reading some bestsellers, had few good meals, tried my hand at cooking some new stuffs, spent some quality time with Sasha which was long due, and taught my friends to play cluedo (but they were so clumsy at it we had to shift to something they’ve played since childhood- the good ol’ MONOPOLY). I have to say I haven’t met such lousy players in my life, but I was utterly clobbered by them in their known dominion of monopoly. Let’s just say there were lots of deals flying around and I made the worst one, and then jail was the only spot where I couldn’t go bankrupt.

Sasha, A.H. and Noah

Dunno if the kids today get this, but board games were one of the best things of my childhood. In the stormy days when we couldn’t play outside or in the nights when the world was a scary place to step out our definition of fun was board games. And I still can't help myself but go yaayy every time I take the boards out.

Here are some board games that never get old!

 

And lastly I have received some wonderful comments on my blog and thank you so much to you all, you guys made my day. Many of the comments were not from blogger IDs so I couldn’t thank back in the comment feed. But I do receive them through my mail and the picture below is for each one of you out there and to all my followers who have kept up with my random scribbling! :)

so I am the human owl

My nocturnal entertainment is taking me down again. Falling into the same vicious circle from which I can’t seem to get out. I don’t understand this impulse to stay awake the entire night, specially when I can get everything done in broad daylight, and that would keep me healthily happy too. That way instead of waking up at 4 I’ll have the entire day to myself. No that’s it, tonight is the night. This can’t go on or else I’ll drive myself crazy. I have to learn to enjoy, do my things, watch whatever movie I have to watch, read whatever that I am reading, and learn to drink my green tea and coffee, during the DAY, not when the roaches are out to enjoy themselves and every movement is tiptoed. This semester break is long awaited, and there’s no way I am ruining my long craved spare time like this. It’s already 8 and I am going out now to do some groceries to cook this kabab I have in mind. After that there will be ONE movie, yes just ONE! Then lights off! Irrespective of how vigorous I feel, even if I have to spend the entire night waiting for sleep to come to me. Time to discipline myself people, wish me luck!

Tag answered

I have a horrible headache, and the only thing I could post by the time my head explodes is this. I was tagged by my new friend in the blog world The Solitary Writer at The Solitary Writer. Feel free to go through his blog, you'll love his fictions.

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Ten how’s:
1. How did you get one of your scars? cousin stepped on my hand with pointed heals on
2. How did you celebrate your last birthday? long drive with S
3. How are you feeling at this moment? not good, migraine’s back
4. How did your night go last night? had a quick tête-à-tête with a friend over fuchka, came home and took a long bath, then dined and watched sitcoms with family. I’d rate it good.
5. How did you do in high school? good
6. How did you get the shirt you’re wearing? it’s T’s, not mine
7. How often do you see your best friend(s)? not too often, but we try to keep in touch   
8. How much money did you spend last month? around 10 thousand
9. How old do you want to be when you get married? whenever the time’s right, there’s no age barrier for me
10. How old will you be at your next birthday? 22

Nine what’s:
1. Your mother's name? Amber
2. What did you do last weekend? stuffed my brains with probability
3. What is the most important part of your life? living and loving
4. What would you rather be doing? dip my head in a vacuum, headache’s killing me
5. What did you last cry over?
6. What always makes you feel better when you’re upset? animals
7. What’s the most important thing you look for in a significant other? personality
8. What are you worried about? whether S reached home or not
9. What did you have for breakfast? I didn’t have breakfast today
 

Eight Have you-s:
1. Have you ever liked someone who had a girlfriend/boyfriend? nope
2. Have you ever had your heartbroken? nope
3. Have you ever been out of the country? yup
4. Have you ever done something outrageously dumb? innumerable times
5. Have you ever been back stabbed by a friend? a few times yes
6. Have you ever had sex on the beach? not yet
7. Have you ever dated someone younger than you? nope
8. Have you ever read an entire book in one day? yeah, Paulo’s by the river piedra i sat down and wept

Seven who’s:
1. Who was the last person you saw? W
2. Who was the last person you texted? S
3. Who was the last person you hung out with? RR
4. Who was the last person to call you? S’s mom
5. Who did you last hug? S
6. Who is the last person who texted you? airtel
7. Who was the last person you said “I love you” to? S

Six where’s:
1. Where does your best friend(s) live? all over dhaka
2. Where did you last go? Baton Rouge
3. Where did you last hang out? Banani Cozmo
4. Where do you go to school? Dhaka
5. Where is your favorite place to be? my room
6. Where did you sleep last night? In my bed with Bobdog watching over me

Five do’s:
1. Do you think anyone likes you?  no idea
2. Do you ever wish you were someone else? no
3. Do you know the muffin man? I don’t think I do sorry
4. Does the future scare you? naah!
5. Do your parents know about your blog? likeliest is they don’t but just coz it never came up

Four why’s:
1. Why are you best friends with your best friend? they are the nicest human beings
2. Why did you get into Blogging? I like writing
3. Why did your parents give you the name you have? it was raining for three continuous days
4. Why are you doing this survey? I was tagged

Three if’s:
1. If you could have one super power what would it be? invisibility
2. If you could go back in time and change one thing, would you? nope, I have my share of mistakes but that’s what made me me
3. If you were stranded on a deserted island and could bring 1 thing, what would you bring? S

Two would-you-evers:
1. Would you ever get back together with any of your ex’s if they asked you? I don’t have any exes
2. Would you ever shave your head to save someone you love? yeah I would

One last question:
1. Are you happy with your life right now? yes, very much so 
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I am tagging Linhy at Life Madness, UB at Desi Diaries, AcetylCholine at Critical Velocity and Purple Butterfly at Confessions of an idle mind!