Eat alfresco

Our little picnic in the greens... was an amazing day. 

Sunday Scribblings: Sensation

Five senses. Sense of sight, sense of smell, sense of touch, sense of taste and sense of hearing. Aristotle did this wonderful traditional classification of our sensory organs. That man was a true genius. But today we are not going to talk about him. Today we are going to talk about a thing we call ‘sensation’. One word, which could mean so many different things. But in different forms, sensation is all we seek in life. Some seek it through the taste of a sensational exotic drink, some may be through watching beautiful women, some through a sensational touch that reaches deep beneath your skin to the veins and flows to your heart, some through sensationalized words coming in the form of gossip to fill your inner hollowness, and for some like me, through a sensational smell that flirts with your mind and teases you in a way that no sight word taste or touch can. So in one way or other we all seek sensation, we seek all five, but some dig you more than the other. Like sense of smell is the one which I dig (take a look at my blog name for instance!), it’s my turn on, my turn off, my meditation and tranquility, it’s my way of defining beauty and the beast. But there are always exceptions, because human beings are weird creatures. And it is possible that there are people residing right among us whose biggest apprehension is about controlling their sensation and strangely enough there are also the kind who’d eye the ones that seek any sensation as though the seekers have committed the biggest crime of the century. But who listens to whom, life doesn’t stop. Within reason your attitude towards life is your own deal, seek all five or develop a sixth one. Human beings are weird creatures after all, anything can happen.

I scored 14 in the test below. What does that make me? I am not telling! Finish yours and find out.

Are You a Sensation Seeker?

A Self-Test

Answer each question according to the way you feel. Answer true if it is at least somewhat true for you. Answer false if it is not very true or not at all true for you.

T     F    If it were safe, I would like to take a drug that would cause me to have strange new experiences.


T     F    I can become almost painfully bored in some conversations.

T     F    I would rather go to a new place I may not like than go back again to a place I know I like.

T     F    I would like to try a sport that creates a physical thrill, like skiing, rock climbing, or surfing.

T     F    I get restless if I stay home for long.

T     F    I don't like waiting with nothing to do.

T     F    I rarely watch a movie more than once.

T     F    I enjoy the unfamiliar.

T     F    If I see something unusual, I will go out of my way to check it out.

T     F    I get bored spending time with the same people everyday.

T     F    My friends say it is hard to predict what I will want to do.

T     F    I like to explore a new area.

T     F    I avoid having a daily routine.

T     F    I am drawn to art that gives me an intense experience.

T     F    I like substances that make me feel "high."

T     F    I prefer friends who are unpredictable.

T     F    I look forward to being in a place that is new and strange to me.

T     F    To me, if I am spending the money to travel, the more foreign the country the better.

T     F    I would like to be an explorer.

T    F I enjoy it when someone makes an unexpected sexual joke or comment that starts everyone laughing a little nervously.

Scoring the Sensation Seeker Self Test

FOR WOMEN

        If you answered true to 11 or more of the questions, you're probably a sensation seeker. If you answered true to 7 or less of the questions, you are probably not a sensation seeker. If you answered true to 8, 9, or 10 of the questions, you are probably somewhere in between on sensation seeking.

FOR MEN

      If you answered true to 13 or more of the questions, you're probably a sensation seeker. If you answered true to 9 or less of the questions, you are probably not a sensation seeker. If you answered true to 10, 11, or 12 of the questions, you are probably somewhere in between on sensation seeking.

©  Copyright 2006 by Elaine Aron, Ph.D.

 This post is a response to prompt # 284 at Sunday Scribblings

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! :)