Magix 'n' Curses

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Responsibility

There comes a time in your life when you realise you have some kind of social responsibility. I found mine today.

As the old joke goes, I'm a responsible kid. I'm always held responsible for whatever goes wrong! :)

Sorry if the punchline sounds cheesy, or the Photoshop work looks pathetic.
Jus' a li'l something I figured I'd feel good about.

T h e
c h o i c e
i s
y o u r s.

PS.
To all the Bloggers who've tagged me, I'm really really sorry about breaking the chain. Appo ezhudhanam-nu aasai irundhudhu, but I've postponed it for so long now that I've completely lost interest. Didn't mean any disrespect. (Jus' a li'l something so that I won't feel bad about it! :D )

.. and so rambled Harish at 10:00 pm :: permalink :: :: ::

Sunday, June 26, 2005

The build up

The howling winds were beginning to get on his nerves. Walking under a dense foliage, he didn't feel the need for his pullover to shield him from the incessant rain. But the high pitched hum produced by the winds, going on a rollercoaster ride through the branches, reverberated in his eardrums, giving him visions of shrieking banshees. That was the last thing Ashutosh needed, walking alone that night through the misty rainkissed slopes of Ooty.

His hands automatically reached for the pullover, hoping to block out the wind's whistle. Much to his consternation, the pullover cap gave away at the seam with a faint rip that was hardly audible over the ruckus kicked up by the wind. And as if destiny was cocking a snook at him, the line of dense trees stopped abruptly, giving way to needle-leaved pines. A clap of thunder flagged off a heavier downpour. He mouthed a string of expletives in frustration that tried hard to compete with Nature's loud party.

Dumping the torn cap in a ditch, he walked on in the rain. His expensive windward jacket had chosen to betray him when he needed it the most. In a fit of rage, he removed his jacket and stomped on it. After a few more curses aimed at the manufacturer, he decided to sit down for a while. He was exhausted, both physically and mentally. He regretted all his hasty decisions. To settle down in Ooty with his wife. To have bought a mansion that everyone seemed to avoid. To have let his wife's constant complaints that the mansion was haunted get to him. To have decided to take a walk in the middle of the night to avoid her scared mumblings and nagging. To have ruined his only jacket.

A flash of lightning illuminated a seemingly neglected shack further down the pathway. An ominous low rumble of thunder followed, making his hair stand up at the nape of his neck. With the second flash of lightning, he was clearly able to read the signboard on top of the shack. "Shanthanu's Shack. Rainwear For All Seasons." His lips curled as he gave a suppressed smile at the owner's lousy sense of humour. His sense of humour might have sucked, but his sense of timing had been impeccable. It was just what he needed at the moment.

He was surprised to see faint light through the misted up windows. The shop was open in the middle of the night. He opened the door gingerly, half-expecting it to creak. To his surprise, the door swung in smoothly without so much as a squeak. "Strange. Don't all spooky situations have doors that squeak?", he wondered, walking upto the front desk and almost jumped in shock when he heard someone clear his throat behind him.

He held on to the desk, as he regained composure. A small mousy-haired man blinked back at him. Still feeling his heart do a li'l jig within his ribcage and clearly out of breath, he whispered, "Don't do that! I almost peed in my pants." The little man grinned showing a few chipped teeth and a prominent gold tooth. He spoke in a wheezy voice as he extended his hand in welcome, "Good evening Sir. Shanthanu at your service. How may I help you?", and as an afterthought, added, "I'm sorry I gave you a fright."

"Typical!!A spooky li'l man, wheezy voice, gold tooth. Damn! Why am I upset about cliched situations when I'm supposed to be feeling nervous?", he wondered as he extended his hand in reply and said, "I'm Ashutosh. I'd like a durable jacket to shield me from the rain. I have to walk back home before my wife gets worried, and the rain doesn't seem to show signs of letting up." Shanthanu nodded and went inside a room behind the counter. He came back in a minute, holding up a leather jacket. "This will be perfect, Sir", he said, eyes atwinkle, "And I assure you that its cap won't rip." Ashutosh eyed him suspiciously, but bought the jacket anyways. He needed to get home before his wife started to panic.

Walking back home, he felt extremely cold and put his hands firmly inside the jacket's pocket. He was shivering uncontrollably, but his jacket seemed to have a life of its own as it magnified his shivering tenfolds and shook like a bamboo-house caught in an earthquake. He dumped all his pretentious bravado and ran home. Something was not right. His sense of foreboding reached a crescendo as he arrived home.

A high pitched yell rent the eerie silence, making him jump for the second time that night. "Where the hell were you?", his wife glowered, "Do you have any idea how worried I was?". "Just went for a walk", he muttered and hung up his new jacket on the coat-stand. His wife had no ideas of giving him a break. "At this time of the night? Are you crazy? You're turning into a loony old creep! And how dare you leave me alone at this hour? I'm already scared. Everyone says this mansion is haunted! Why did you have to buy this?"

"Oh shut up, will you? There are no such things as ghosts! Where do you get these silly ideas from? Don't be such a kid! I... I... " , his pupils dilated in horror as he saw a strange sight behind his wife as she switched on the light.

"What's wrong with you? It's only a facepack!"
"No, not your face! Look behind you!"

His wife froze in horror at what she saw. The coat stand was twitching as if it had a bout of fit. "I knew this place was haunted! I knew it!", she whimpered as tears cut a channel through her mudpack-covered cheeks. She clung on to her husband's shirt and both stared at the strange sight, unable to tear their eyes away. One violent twitch caused the jacket to fall down. And almost immediately the coat stand stopped shaking.

"Ghosts?", she asked innocently, her voice squeaky with fear.
"Can't be. There has to be a better explanation for it.", said Ashutosh, sounding a lot braver than he felt. "Maybe it was an earthquake. Maybe a mouse... DAMN!!!"

His jacket was moving slowly, still twitching.

His face relaxed. "Don't be scared. See, I guess it really was a mouse." Taking long strides, he reached for his jacket and lifted it expecting a mouse to scurry away in fear. There was nothing underneath. "But it can't be! How did it twitch?" He searched the pockets too. But found nothing.

"Let's go somewhere else! This place is scaring the hell out of me.. Please Ashu!"
"Hmmmm, alright. But we can't go anywhere in this downpour. I'll return the jacket tomorrow morning and look for a new house. But be brave till then, okay?"

He gingerly put the still twitching jacket into a box and placed his heavy dictionary on top of the lid.

They woke up to the twittering of birds early next morning. Ashutosh carried the box as if it was a bomb.

"I'm going to have a word with the guy who sold me this jacket. I'll be back in an hour."
"Will he be open so early in the morning?"
"If that creep could have it open so late in the night, it's worth a shot!"

The shop looked equally spooky in daylight. He entered, and thundered, "MR. SHANTHANU.. Where the hell are you?" There was nobody at the desk. He turned around to look when he heard a loud "Ahem". He whipped around to see Shanthanu grinning at him from behind the desk.

"Where, in devil's name, did you come from?!?"
"Never mind that, Sir. Is there a problem?"
"You bloody well know there is!"

He picked up the jacket and held it up for him to see. The jacket started twitching as if on cue. "EXPLAIN THIS!", he yelled, his voice quavering in fear and rage.

The li'l man's grin grew broader. He beamed like a child, and pronounced the word slowly and carefully.

"Jerkin" :)

Footnote:
Now you understand the title, don't you? :P

.. and so rambled Harish at 10:30 pm :: permalink :: :: ::

Saturday, June 25, 2005

Dilemma, and a new beginning..

Curses: I love this template.

Magix: But some don't.

Curses: So what? The majority like it.

Magix: Oh yeah? Check it out in 800x600.

Curses: Uh oh! :(

Magix: So how does it look?

Curses: Pathetic. The template looks downright crappy.

Magix: So what do think we should do?

Curses: Why should we do anything? Almost all comments are in the new template's favour.

Magix : Wouldn't that be unfair to some of our readers?

Curses: But you can't please them all!

Magix: It's a toss up between our happiness, or making sure the person who's kind enough to drop by, finds it easy to read.

Curses: But no one's complained about it yet!

Magix: After all that gushing and "I'm soo happy about my new template!" squeals, do you think they'll have the heart to tell us it looks bad?

Curses: Hmmmm :(

Magix: Glad you're thinking. I know this is tough. But don't you think it's only fair that we revert to the old template thereby making sure everyone's comfortable?

Curses: Yeah :(

Magix: I know this is harder on you. Afterall, you did all the answering on the commentbox! :)

Curses: Why's life so cruel? :(

Magix: Ada thoo! Philosophy romba mukkiyam ippo!

Curses: Thittaadhe! Vera endha vazhiyum illaya? :(

Magix: If only Blogger had a way to let us have two templates and switch between them on the click of a button! :(

Curses: Hey!! Instead of two templates, why not two blogs?!!

Magix: Oru blog vechundu padara paadu poraatha? :)

Curses: Think about it. We can update it simultaneously with the same posts. We can redirect all the ppl who view with 800x600 to the other blog! We won't lose readers, and we still get to keep this template!

Magix: I like the idea! But don't you think it'll seem like scene potufying?

Curses: If Lazygeek can do it, if Dubukku can do it, why not us? :)

Magix: It takes a lotta cheek to make a statement like that! Avanga range-ku ellam nambala equate pannikaradhu romba thappu da dei!

Curses: Adha pathi aparam kavalai padalaam! Idea ok-va?

Magix: Pardon the pun, but Double Ok! :)

**********

All these thoughts cropped up in my conversation with Uma yesterday! :) Thanks Uma, for putting up w/ this tirade of contradictory thoughts, and suggesting the idea for a new blog! Here it is folks.

.. and so rambled Harish at 8:30 pm :: permalink :: :: ::

Friday, June 24, 2005

Magix 'n' Curses Ver 2.0

Yes, you're in the right place.
No, you didn't land up in some other blog.
Yes, you guys did ask me to stick with my old template.
No, I guess I didn't listen to you. :)

I admit I put that template to vote. And I agree almost everybody voted against it. Orae feelings-a pochu enakku. Edhavadhu panniye theeranam-nu solli pannina velai thaan idhu.

Rajni padam maathiri all this didn't happen over the course of a song. Took quite some work. :) If you still don't like it, sigh, maybe I'll take it off and revert to my old template. But I thought I should put it up for at least a couple of days or three. Chumma, beta testing maathiri.

Ippo podungappa vote-u! :)

PS.
It looked so beautiful in Firefox. IE-la semma sodhapals! Had to do a lot of damage control to bring it to what it is now.
And a million thanks to Krithika and her "inner eye"! :) Thanks Kiki, couldn't have done this without ur help.

Update [ later that morning, Jun 24 :) ] :
1. Lotsa 16x16 bommais all over the template. 70% of the time spent for this template, adhulaye pochu. Photoshop vaazhga!
2. Translator has been removed. Yaarume adha madhikala! :) But in case you still need it, I've added a link to it in "Linx".
3. Have used a Flooble collapsible listbox code for my blogroll. Avangalukku Credit kudukanam-nu manasu uruthings! :)
4. If u have suggestions, please do lemme know! Playing around with the template is so much fun! :D

.. and so rambled Harish at 1:30 am :: permalink :: :: ::

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

10 paise, 25 paise, 50 paise

Yup. It's time for change! :)

I can't believe I've been blogging for 8 months already. And I can't believe I've gone thru the 8 months w/ the same template.

A template change is long overdue. I'm completely smitten with this one. Prav thinks it's really dull. But my fascination for gray makes me think it's pretty cool. What do u think? This is another cushtomer feedback time!

It's also time for another change. I'm sick of being this sweet li'l kiddo. I'm 19, and it's time I act my age. So I've decided to be bold. I'm going the Kiruba way. I'm putting up a sneak peek of a celeb's bath scene. Not exactly a star, but a celeb in a queer kinda way. Have fun. (keep clicking "next" on the right of ur screen) And do comment! Criticisms welcome. :)

.. and so rambled Harish at 11:30 am :: permalink :: :: ::

Sunday, June 19, 2005

The longest 24 hours of my life.

The internet connection was down.

PS.
I'm going back home tomorrow. Me sad. :(

.. and so rambled Harish at 12:30 pm :: permalink :: :: ::

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Cheeky!

Yet another meet, yet another hotel. But don't worry.. this time, I didn't experiment with food I haven't tasted before. Stuck to my favourite PBM. :)

***************

When you are mad at shoddy work, irritated that things have gone wrong, frustrated that the guilty party doesn't even realise his mistake, and sad that your property was damaged, though your first instinct is to rip the offender apart limb for limb, you give him one last chance to redeem himself. One chance to explain his mistake and apologise for it. Your entire being hangs on that one last shred of patience, mentally willing the offender to say something that wouldn't make you blow your top in a way that Mt. Etna would be proud of. And during those tense moments, those milliseconds when you wait for his answer, time seems to slow down to a trickle. The effect is almost (and I've used this word before).. Matrixy!

There are two reactions you expect to give depending on his response. One: Act dignified and say everybody makes mistakes, if he sincerely apologises. Two: Go the Etna way and lose your head like the volcano, if he couldn't care less.

But what happened yesterday fell into a slot you just can't categorise!

Ferrari had ordered Butter Roti. The waiter (who I suspect was finding it hard to take his eyes off the girl sitting at the other end of the room) was at his shoddy worst, serving us with his mind evidently elsewhere, with butter dripping off the Roti like doggie drool (oooh, that must have spoilt your appetite!). And even as Ferrari tried to bring it to the guy's attention.. SPLAT! A drop of butter fell right on his knee, soiling his rather expensive pair of trousers.

Ferrari saw red. (pun unintended!)

He looked like he was going to lose his cool, when that part of his brain kicked in that tries to give the wrongdoer one last chance.

So he composed himself as much as he could, and without bothering to hide his irritation, turned to the waiter and hissed between clenched teeth, "Yeh kya hai?"

Time slowed down as expected. All heads turned to look at the waiter. We knew things were about to turn nasty going by the innocent and puzzled look the waiter seemed to wear on his face.

And then came the response we were waiting with bated breath for...

"Roti".

I think he still doesn't understand why we were laughing! :)

***************

And before I forget.. the ppl who turned up were...

Sorry, wrong number.. but here's who really turned up.

That's Maverick, and Ferrari..

That's the Chocolate Milkshake that Maverick is looking at...

And that's me, pretending to be a busy aapeesar! :) Naah.. was talking to Praveen.

PS 1. Ok, ok, don't break ur head. PBM stands for Paneer Butter Masala. :)

PS 2. I've exaggerated the event tenfolds. Don't mind! :P And also don't mind the message on my T-Shirt (if u can read it!)!

PS 3. Why do PS1 and PS2 sound familiar?

.. and so rambled Harish at 10:30 am :: permalink :: :: ::

Monday, June 13, 2005

It happens only in... - Part II

Never thought I'd be writing a sequel, but I guess I'm doing things here I'd never get to do in Chennai!

Waking up all of a sudden in the middle of the night wondering if you're really feeling hungry or it's all just a part of being disoriented happens to everyone, I guess. But when your cousin walks in saying "I'm hungry, let's eat!" as if she read your mind, that's when you know it IS disoriented hallucinations! :)

Fortunately for me, I really was hungry and my cousin was too! So we trooped into the dining room at 12, ransacking the table for scraps to eat. The only thing we found was an unopened packet of chips and popcorn. It was fun enough making popcorns at night, we even decided to experiment and popped it without the lid! I didn't mind cleaning the mess in the oven later. Scoop, eat, scoop, eat. I was undoubtedly the most disgusting creature at the moment. Even the rat trying to sneak into the kitchen would have vouched for that.

And we did all this when our nephew was sleeping, completely unaware of the fun we were having without him. But we were thoughtful elders. That is to say, we thought about him when we ate.

"Cha, paavam.. avana vittututu saapidarom-la?"
"I'm hungry, you're hungry.. shut up and eat."

What'll the poor kid do without loving concerned people like me to look after him? :P

***************

Inspite of taking gate-crashing to literal dimensions, my cousin was sweet (and brave!!) enough to hand me the bike keys when we were coming back from Koramangala after having got some job done. I loved the stretch along the inner ring road, the wind in my face, no heavy traffic, the mid-day sun so mercifully shielded by massive clouds. I loved it so much that I didn't realise that my cousin was tapping my shoulder.

"Umm.. Harish?"

I was humming some tune I'd heard on TV. I was carefully avoiding a pothole and feeling rather pleased with the complete command I had over the bike when I heard her call me again.

"Err.. Harish?"
"Oh, sorry! yeah?"
"Congratulations, you've successfully jumped your first traffic signal in Bangalore!"
"Signal? What Signal??!?!"
"He he he!!"

How was I to know I'd have to look for signals on straight roads? :( The bloody pothole distracted me into making my first traffic offense! But then, hehe, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't feeling kinda pleased about this. :P

***************

Nirenjan was in town. He called me up and asked if we could meet up for lunch at Shiok. He said Vikkki was coming too. [Pssst, Shiok is in Indiranagar! ;) ] I was more than happy to meet up. After everything was decided, I asked my cousin if I could take her bike. "Sure, no problem! I told you it's your bike.. Anyways, where are you guys meeting up?"

"Shiok", I replied, "its owner is a blogger too!"
Guess she must have been fed up of hearing the word blog.. "Oh cool, have fun"

Then all of a sudden she asked, "Hey, did you know it's Thai cuisine?"
"It is?" I had a strange feeling I knew where the conversation was heading.
"Yup. Will you be ok in there?"
I was right. The conversation went head-on dealing with my err.. lemme just say, "problem with fish".

After a lot of ummms and errrs, I explained my problem to Nirenjan. He was cool with changing the venue, though I did detect a tinge of disappointment in his voice. Was I feeling guilty! And when I read his blog on Saturday morning, my guilt multiplied some more. I didn't know the name of most of the restaurants there, so I suggested the first one to come to mind. Bombay House.

Nirenjan and I waited for a while as Vikkki was held up in traffic. When he finally arrived, I noticed that he had a viboothi on his forehead that all but screamed "Naan nallavan!". Aanalum ipadi ellam oora emaatha koodadhu, Vikkki! :P

When we eventually went inside, we realised it isn't exactly a lunchy place, if you know what I mean. Ulp, I'd suggested the wrong place. :( Vikkki groaning "I'm hungry" and a sudden flashback of Nirenjan's post did the trick. My guilt resurfaced and reached dizzying heights (harrowing depths more like). I decided to drown my guilt with a Gola. :D

For the uninformed, a gola is an ice katti on a stick, dipped in flavoured syrup and should be slurped with repugnant relish! Vikkki and Nirenjan had a li'l quiz, wondering if the ultimate goal was to eat all the ice katti, or finish all the syrup. I put an end to all doubts. I did both! :)

But I still regret taking that last sip of the syrup. My face contorted through a wide range of expressions and finally came to a halt at one which looked like an inji thinna kurangu. I shouldn't have drank the dregs and ended up with a mouth full of black salt. :(

PS.
Nirenjan, for one last time, sorry! :)
Vikkki, hope you saw the kadais behind the ponnus this time. :P

.. and so rambled Harish at 7:00 am :: permalink :: :: ::

Thursday, June 09, 2005

It happens only in...

Went out for our traditional dosa breakfast in Shanthi Sagar with my cousin. When we came out feeling quite happy after a super meal, she looked to be in a pretty generous mood. "Did you bring your wallet?", she asked. "Pfft..", I thought, "so much for 'generous'!". But she had other ideas, and none of them thankfully involved me paying the bill. "So you must be carrying your license, na? The bike's all yours. You ride home."

Yippeeee! The Honda Dio, fresh outta the Service station, literally begging me to test its raw power. But it took only one glance at the peak Indranagar traffic to burst my li'l bubble. Once I crawled outta the main road into a relatively freer lane, I was able to check out the brute power of this 4-stroke baby. It was smooth riding all the way, as I took the longest possible route home, manouevering through the Bangalore bottlenecks and traffic with a kind of flair I never knew I possessed!

Once home, I tried to squeeze the bike in through one gate, too lazy to open the second bigger one and at the same time kept my eye on Bozo bounding up and down before my front tire, trying my best not to run over him! My cousin said, "Not bad da. You handle the bike pretty well. You've got better road sense than I thought. You know what? I let you ride only to see how well you do. You may take the bike whenever you want from tomorrow. You ride pretty well!"

"Why, thank you!", I said, grinning ear to ear, and crashed into the gate.

**********

I had a frankie later in the day. In case you didn't know, a (veg) frankie is a maida maavu chappathy wrapped around an aloo tikki, smeared generously with ketchup, mustard, and some spicy tangy concoction I couldn't recognise.

But did it hit the spot! I loved it and was already planning to grab a frankie the next time I came to that place when I overheard the lady next to me mumble to her kids in Hindi. I took a big bite to hide my grin as I heard her say, "If I make chappathy at home, you both refuse to eat it. If they sell it on the road, wrap it in a tissue paper, and give it a fancy name, you pester me to buy it for you!"

Sorry lady, but that's the way the frankie crumbles. :)

.. and so rambled Harish at 11:00 pm :: permalink :: :: ::

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Habits

Two new gained. An old one kicked.

Habit #1:
Walk in an extremely ungainly manner. I didn't notice I was doing it until my cousin yelled, "Oy! enna da aachu unakku?". This li'l strut of mine might probably give Chappaani a run for his money. Or should I say, a walk for his money.
It's a bit like this.
a. Put the left foot forward.
b. Pause.
c. Take the right foot all the way over a semicircular path and place it just in front of the left foot.
d. Repeat steps (a) through (c) till destination is reached.

Cause:
Bozo, when bored, bites the sleeve of my pant and doesn't let go unless I scratch him behind his ears or play with him. The minute my attention wanders to something else, he snaps at my leg, and hangs on to the already frayed sleeve of my jeans again.. leaving me no other option than to literally drag him along wherever I go.

Cure:
Distract him with a biscuit when I hafta go somewhere. Make a consientious effort to walk without my right foot doing a mini ballet step. In simpler words, walk straight for Godsake!

Habit #2:
Check behind the door, like the cops do in Hollywood movies, before entering the bathroom.

Cause:
Tadaaaaa.. Bozo again! It was surprising enough that I wanted to have my bath, that too in Bangalore. I'd almost closed the door after entering the bathroom when I received a pretty nasty shock. Bozo, almost hidden behind the door, was giving me that very silly grin he reserves for me. The one displaying all his teeth, yet having his mouth open just enough to stick his tongue out in a funny angle and his tail thumping a li'l african beat on the bathroom tiles.

And it was such a nasty shock, that I yelled "WOAAAHH!!", and Bozo howled "Wooooooooooowww", and we ended up having an extremely uncivilised conversation entirely in high pitch, echoing off the bathroom and practically reverberating throughout the house. It's another matter that the only person who was shocked by the episode was me. My cousin was busy laughing her butt off, sniffing back tears of mirth.

Cure:
No cure. Continue habit till I get back to Chennai. The last thing I wanna do is to perform a strip-tease to my dog! I love dogs, but not THAT much!! :) (no further mention of this topic will be entertained. :P Gatham gatham. Matter close! No kinky stuff for me, thank you very much! :D )

Habit kicked:
Fiddling with my cellphone 24x7.

Cause:
Exorbitant roaming rates on Airtel!! :) With 3 and a half rupees per msg, and 5 bucks knocked off every time I attend a call, I'd rather put my cell in bubble-wrap and stow it away in deep freeze!

Cure:
What cure? I check my msgs hardly twice a day, as my cellphone lays forgotten in a dark corner of the room. In fact, the oldest msg in my Sent Folder shows:

Date and time:

31-May-2005
13:43:59

By my standards, that's a bloody miracle! Hallelujah, I'm temporarily cured!! :)

.. and so rambled Harish at 6:00 pm :: permalink :: :: ::

Sunday, June 05, 2005

We've hit the Jackpot!

Now that the other 3 have mentioned it too, naan pannalaina nalla irukaadhu! :)

Yup, it's about being featured in The Hindu. The magnitude of the situation hasn't sunk in for me yet. Mebbe it's coz I'm sitting in Bangalore and still haven't seen it in print yet! Hope my parents don't throw away the paper by the time I go back to Chennai.

Congrats to Prav, Vindy and Sandhya too! Yaayy to us! :P

But then, there seems to be more reason to celebrate. I was in the PVR watching Bunty and Babli when my sis called up to say she won a prize on Radio Mirchi! Hehe, ipadi kudumbame famous aaradha yoschu paartha comedy-a keedhu! :)

Congrats sissie!!

PS.
Radio Mirchi prize money enakku evalo nu theriyaathu! Treat vennum-na, ask my sis! :P

.. and so rambled Harish at 11:30 am :: permalink :: :: ::

Friday, June 03, 2005

Sin City

And no other place I've been to deserves this title. In fact, I'd give this title just to that ice cream shop tucked away in one corner of the city. But don't ask me where. Thanks to all the one-ways in Bangalore, all I've been doing is go around in circles. I was totally disoriented by the time I reached the place! :P It's somewhere close to M.G. Road, though!

Corner House. That's what it's called.

My cousin was waxing eloquent about the "fantabulous" icecreams they serve you. But I, being a strong believer in the saying "kannaal kaanbathum poi, kaathaal ketpadhum poi...".. Oh, what the hell.. unga kitta peela vittu enna panna poraen? I was desperate to have an icecream and literally made her double back and take me there!

She gave me a rather diabolical look when she asked me if I liked chocolate. "Like it? I love chocolate! Lemme at it!!", I said. I swear I saw a glimpse of the devil himself when she grinned, "Done! We've decided what you're gonna have."

She asked for a funnily named icecream for herself, winked at me and said, "and a DBC for him please". The guy behind the counter grinned at me. Heyyyyy, what was happening? Was this some kinda joke? And what did DBC mean?

"Death By Chocolate", she drawled in an ominous tone. I laughed. "Oh, come on! Chocolate won't kill anyone. Certainly not me!". She grinned again. "If you say so!"

When the icecreams arrived, my eyes almost popped out of their sockets. So this was DBC. All I could see was rich chocolate sauce in a huge tub! There were nuts sprinkled all over it, and one nut looking at them and shamelessly drooling away.

"Wogay!! So am I supposed to eat it all?"
"Yup! You better."
"No problemo! I could have two of these! Look at all the chocolate!"
"Nee saapidu da. I'll surely get you another one if you want."

It was only when I dug into it, that I realised that it was vanilla and chocolate icecream, with chocolate sauce, more chocolate, some more icecream, topped with the most divine hot chocolate sauce I've ever tasted. Piping hot chocolate on freezing cold icecream. My tastebuds went crazy when the combo melted in my mouth.

I ate...

and I ate..

and ate some more.

What is it? An ice cream tub or an akshaya paathiram??

By the time I was thru with that huge tub (and I still can't figure out how I did it!), my cousin was openly laughing, oblivious to all the eyes staring at us and asked, "One more?"

No thanks. I've had enough chocolate to last me a life time. I don't believe I'm saying this, but I'm off chocolate for a week! They really did kill me with chocolate. That's one myth shattered. I hope I don't get fed up of playin' with dogs next!

ps:
In case you're wondering why I haven't mentioned Bozo yet, I have a seperate post in mind for him!

pps:
This is my first post from a computer other than my own. So one round of applause for that, please. Thank you! :)

.. and so rambled Harish at 8:00 am :: permalink :: :: ::