Biryani would never taste the same!

Death - Cruel (might or might not be), certain, a truth, has taken away the man who had introduced Biryani to me. Kushaal Singh, who had provided the lip smacking combination of Chicken Biryani and Egg Curry last night is no more. He had a cardiac arrest about 4 hours back, while he was having a hearty laughter session with a gang of colleagues on a busy market road. He could not survive.

I'm still coming to terms with the truth. His wife lifes in Pauri-Garhwal, I'm not sure if she has been made aware of the news. His working son is traveling from Mumbai after hearing the news. His another son studying in 7th standard cried uncontrolably. I'm thinking about the younger son right now, while he would be thinking of his departed father there is no other family member to console him. I'm thinking about the son, who's taking a maiden flight to his place in Delhi, the longest-fastest journey ever. The journey of the widow from the village in the Himalayas to the capital city. 36 hours long jouney during which she a thousand memories would come to life and die. The void, the hollow, the vaccuum which will never be filled again, ever. Is this the reason why death is called cruel? But, it's a truth as well.

      My means of introduction to him were minimal, in fact I don't remember seeing him ever. No one from the Annexy that I know of meets the description provided by my mother about the departed. But I do know him one way. The name flashing on my father's mobile 'Kushaal Singh'. Last I "heard" of him was yesterday to confirm the delivery of last night's dinner to our place. During the call between him and my father, I was insisting my father to ask dinner's menu to be delivered for lunch, which Kushaal Singh had declined with a smile and insisted items to be served for dinner. We got mutton instead, for the lunch.

I'm thinking the contact from which no further calls will be made. The person who always cared to ask if there is no "order" for tonight. He, who, prepared the cutlet with the choicest of the dry fruits. He, who, prepared every food with so much love and passion. He, who, has fed us sumptuous Biryani several times. He, who, introduced world of Hyderabadi cuisine to me. He, who, I would never see again.

May your soul rest in peace - The great Khansamah!
 

Long Time..No see!

It has been really long since I opened blogger to draft something.

The charm is gone for some reason. I hardly use Google Talk, GMail, Orkut! Ohh good Orkut! You're  the so good in those days.

A lot of thoughts are rushing and I unfortunately don't have time to write them all.


September 30th 2014 marked a closure of a couple of things which I intended to "see" for one last time, probably. One certainly is Orkut. When I visited the page yesterday, it had already locked down on the user profiles. Only public communities contents could be seen.

Another item was CAT'14. It occured to me today morning that CAT'14 should be taken this time having read one newspaper article about there is still time left for prep! No sooner than I visited the page, I found September 30,2014 laughing at my face.

Need to end this abrupt post here. I'm falling short of words, time and creativity.

Reason

I saw this reasoning question in one of the slides I was going through at random. It's quite intriguing:
Chris is 6’7”, 300 pounds, has 12 tattoos, was a champion pro wrestler, owns nine pit bulls and has been arrested for beating a man with a chain.
Is Chris more likely to be a man or a woman?
A motorcycle gang member or a priest?

Turning tables?!

In one of my previous post, I mentioned about the girl who made me feel all jittery for her prompt answers while I was still trying to get hold of the question. The same girl performed the same act, in the same class but after 4 months, again!With less than 2 months to go for the exam and this being my 'last' attempt for CAT the situation is far from ok, let aside good.
In Quant section, I can't say I'm confident but I'm confortable. My verbal sucks though and DI is all luck based for me. It's not actually luck per say, it's lack of practise. Things will click if I'm trained enough to appreciate/anticipate/comprehend the number presented in front of me.

To get motivation I often reminisce about the way I went about standard 1oth exam. Mathematics then, became my food, sleep, drink and everything. I could solve any given problem easily and time limit. It was sheer practice and eventually things turned around, given that fact that I hardly scored anywhere above 50 in Maths in class 9th.

Practice is the way to go, seriously. Preparation timetables is 'drafted' and posted on the desktop and implementation also remained on the desktop! With hardly anytime left, a good and informed usage of the available material is to be made. Go with a BRUTE FORCE! Try it. It WORKS!

The day of achievement

Yesterday, July 30, 2011 was the day of achievement because

• We(Biji, Kiran, Reshma, Priyanka, Sud, Hitendra, Akshat and I) went to Lohgarh despite I being not very well.


• I could successfully move songs to a folder in my phone that automatically make them available to be used as an alarm tone. Earlier I used to move them phone memory first and later move to a folder in it. This time it was just one move command in the memory card and the job was done!


• I found the answer to my using a surname of 'Rao' and yet not being a South India. I'm quite excited about it!


• I once again finished a medium size pizza, half of which was a cheese burst by myself. Yesterday's meal was all junk - 4-5 packets of Chips and wafers, 1 plate poha, 3 cups of tea, 1 Parle G biscuit, 2 McAloo (i call them makalu tikki) and a pizza McPuff and about a litre of Coke.

I'm happy of the 'feat'!

I'm Rao and I'm not a South Indian

I know the secret of being a 'Rao' and yet not a South Indian. Ohh!! My my. I had been giving 'made up' answer for umpteen times the question of my being a 'Rao' and yet being a 'Bhaiyya' ( a Bombay slang for people from UP and Bihar, states from Northern India), was asked.
I had gone to Lohgarh fort (Lonawala) today. Awesome trip it was! I could have enjoyed it more had I been better, healthwise. I must thank this trip and questions it left me with which led to google for the Lohgarh fort , then Shivaji and later Maharana Pratap (a legendary Kshatriya warrior from Rajasthan, a Northern state in India). Through this post on Wikipedia I found out that Maharana Pratap was referred to as a 'Rao' by a poet of his time. I'm copying the text from Wikipedia, just to save you the trouble of opening a different page:

The letter from Prithviraj Rathod sent to Pratap in poetic language, ran like this.

Patal sun Patshah, bole mukh hunta bayan
Mihir picham dis mahn, uge kasap rao ut
Patakun munchyan pan, ke patakun nij tan karad
' Dije likh Deewan,in do mahali bat ik


(The mouth of Pratap has begun to say "Badshah". O Rao! has the sun started rising in the West, as well? Should I keep my hand over my mustache or should my body fall with my own hands? Write, O Deewan! to give an answer choosing between the two.)

Pratap replied to this letter like this.

Turak kahasi turakado, in mukh sun Ikling
Uge jya hi ugasi, prachi bich Patang
Khushi hunt Peethal Kamadh, patako munchyan pan
Jete hai pachatan Pato, kilama sir kewan


(Lord Eklingji will always make my mouth call him "Turk". The sun will rise in the east always. O Prithviraj Rathod be happy and put your hand over your moustache. Till Pratap stands on his feet, his sword will keep hovering over the heads of the invaders.)


My great granfathers moved from Chanderi district in Rajasthan to UP very long back. I am sure that explains the us being using a title 'Rao', which was carried by them to the land of UP and since then the select clans use 'Rao' as their surnames. Many branches of Kshatriyas have emerged since the migration, a few prominent among them are - Singh, Shahi and Pal. Great thing is I found the conceptualy derived answer to the question. My answers will no longer be derived from 'titles in English times'.

This session of blogging was interrupted by a 'perfect within 30 minutes' of Pizza delivery, pizza can wait.