2012 - an amazing movie

This is a must watch movie. It does get melodramatic at some places, but the effects are amazing and involvement of all nationalities is ensured to make it a global hit. It is a Hollywood masala movie. It is to be watched in the theatre and not on the television or computer. One feels one has seen it all - the superhero movies and action movies, but this movie goes beyond that in terms of special effects. While watching the movie, the theatre response was tremendous, the crowds were cheering the caste of the movie and were held totally spellbound. If it had been three dimensional !! It would have beaten Soaring! Its a movie not to be missed!
Rating *****

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Sweep - Rules of a favourite card game

Lately I got the idea of teaching my children, some of my favourite card games. I had spent hours playing some of these games in childhood. We started with teen do paanch, rummy and then sweep. Try as hard as possible, but I could not remember the rules of the game of Sweep at all. I asked mom but still nothing came back. Sweep used to be a favourite game which I used to play with my grandparents. I found the rules on the net and then everything came back. I have vivid memories attached with this game of my late grandfather. It is a great game which involves mental  maths and logic. I felt my children were the right age for this game. I have copied the rules of the game from ehow.com but a more detailed description is given on pagat.com.

 
Sweep (or seep) is a popular Indian card game played with four people divided into two-player partnerships. The partners sit across the table from each other. The game uses a standard 52-card deck (the jokers removed).

Points and Values

1. All cards are played at face value for each hand, regardless of suit. For instance, each ace is a 1, each four is 4, each jack is 11, each king is 13.
   However, only the following are actually worth points when scoring at the end of a hand:
   All spades are worth their face value. For example, a king of spades is 13, a queen is 12, and so on down to the 1-point ace.
   The 10 of diamonds is worth 2 points.
   The other three aces also are worth 1 point each.

Beginning Play

2. Choose a dealer at random (or draw and let the player with the high card deal). Deal four cards face-down to each player in counterclockwise fashion (the player to the dealer's right--whom we'll call Player A from here on--gets the first card, and so on).
   
   Everyone can look at his cards. Player A goes first by announcing a number between 9 and 13 that corresponds to the point value of one of his cards. For instance, if he has a jack, he can announce "11." If he has more than one card worth nine points or more, he can choose from them. However, if he has no cards worth nine or more, the dealer must re-deal.
   
   Once Player A is able to announce a number, the dealer lays four cards face-up on the table. Player A then has the opportunity to lay a card from his hand onto one of the four on the table. To do this, he must lay a card down that, when added to the card on the table, totals his announced number. For instance, if he has a nine in his hand and there is a two on the table, he can lay the nine on it to total the 11 that he announced. If he cannot put a card from his hand onto a card on the table to equal his announced number, he must lay down one of his cards onto the table, face-up. Play passes to the right.

Houses and Tricks

3. From the first play on, each player attempts to build "houses" of cards or take a trick (picking up a house already built).
   
   To build a house, a player places a card from his hand onto a card on the table. A "house" must always add up to between nine and 13, and must total the value of a card in the player's hand. For instance, if there is a three on the table and a player has both a nine and queen in his hand, he can lay the nine on the three and announce "twelves." He has to wait until his next turn to take the trick (pick up the house), if it's still there.
   
   
   
   Houses can be picked up by any player once they are built, unless they are cemented (explained below). For instance, if Player A builds twelves and Player B has a queen in his hand, he can take the house built by Player A.

Raising and Cementing

4. Houses can also be raised higher by adding smaller cards onto them. For instance, if a twelves house is built, a player can add an ace onto it to build thirteens. Again, the player adding the ace must have a king in his hand (to equal 13).
   
   
   
   Houses can be cemented by a player putting a face card equal to the house value on top of it. For instance, if a "twelves" has been built, a player can lay a queen on top of it to cement it, so that only a queen can take it--it can no longer be raised by a smaller card. The player doing this cementing must have a second queen in his hand before he can do it (in other words, he must be able to pick up the trick).
   
   On his turn, if a player cannot pick up a trick or add to or build a house, he must lay down one of his cards face-up on the table.

Scoring and Winning

5. If at any point no player can add to or build a house, the hand is over and all remaining cards go to the player who took the last trick.
   
   Partners then add together their point cards (see the Section 1) for a team score. The team that took the most cards in the hand gets an extra four points. There will be a total of 100 points divided between the two teams (though it is possible for one team to collect all the points).
   
   Most sweep games are played until one team scores 500 points or more, but this is arbitrary and can be determined by the players.

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Latest Hindi Movie songs for free - musicindiaonline

I love Hindi movies, well I guess that's not a unique characteristic of mine, I'm just one of millions. Every week I like to hear the latest hindi songs, like top ten songs or top twenty or top fifty according to the time available. I like a ready-made list of songs, kind of "ready to listen". I usually listen to songs while I work on my laptop and luckily I am blessed with a laptop which has an excellent pair of speakers - Toshiba A205-S4577

My favourite site is Musicindia online.
Its a fave site also because their list of most user requested songs matches my taste. In my Bookmarks toolbar I have the following Bookmarks.
1. Most user requested 50 bollywood songs
2. Most user requested 10 bollywood songs
This site works great with Internet Explorer.
I use Firefox, because due to its hundreds of add-ons Surfing and blogging are very easy and enjoyable. On clicking these bookmarks another window opens and if you are using Firefox open the bookmarks in an Internet explorer window inside firefox and when the player tab/window opens that too opens in Internet explorer inside firefox (This can be done by adding on the IE tab addon). You can choose your player (Real or Windows) in the trident player and then select the songs you want to listen. The sound quality is good.

Another popular site for hindi songs is Dhingana.com. The advantage with this site is that you can embed the song list in your website or facebook or orkut. On the home page, just click on the top songs. Another window opens and you can play the songs. One can make their own songs list.

I have embedded the top songs from Dhingana on this post.

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Rangoli '09

This year's rangoli at the hospital was amazing. Lot of work put in by children and staff.


The origin of rangoli painting is traced to a legend recorded in the Chitralakshana, the earliest Indian treatise on painting. When the son of a King's high priest died, Brahma, Lord of the universe, asked the king to paint the likeness of the boy so that Brahma could breathe life into him again. This is how, it is believed, the first painting was made. Also, the son of the king painted a portrait of a girl whom the son liked very much, although the king would not let his son see her. Rangoli also became a form of self-portraiture for women.
Coloured powder can be directly used for fancy decorations, but for detailed work, generally the material is a coarse-grained powder base into which colours are mixed. The base is chosen to be coarse so that it can be gripped well and sprinkled with good control. The base can be sand, marble dust, sawdust, brick dust or other materials. The colours generally are very fine pigment podwers like gulal/aabir available for Holi or colours (mentioned above) specially sold for rangoli in South India. Various day-to-day colored powders are also variously used: indigo for cloth staining, and spices like turmeric, chili, rawa, rice flour, and wheat flour. Powder colours can be simply mixed into the base. If the base is light like sawdust, it can be used to make floating rangoli on the surface of stagnant water. Sometimes sawdust or sand is soaked in water-based colour and dried to give various tints (though the result of this process may not itself float on water). If a rangoli is to be made on water, the colour should preferably be insoluble in water.
The rangoli in the photograph was made with sooji/rava mixed with colour and thermocol was used to give it a layered effect.

Diwali '09

This year we celebrated an environment friendly deepawali with only diyas and candles no fireworks at all. There were mild protests from the children at the nth moment, but nothing could be done about it at that time.

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How important is commenting for bloggers?

How important is commenting for a blogger? Ask any blogger, amateur or professional and you'll find that its the life's blood of blogging. As important as the post are the comments. Following this thought I was surfing the net when I came across Harsh Agarwal's blog Shout me loud. It has a host of posts on "commenting on blogs."
The worst part of commenting is that only a blogger can appreciate the importance of it. Several of my friends whom I give the address of my blog never comment. I came to know that they visited my blog, when inadvertently during conversation they mention something that I have written there.
So this one is for my blogger friends. I came across two sites which may prove useful for bloggers. One is actually an Add on to firefox Easy comment, which helps in commenting easily on Wordpress blogs and the other is Backlink watch from where you can see all the sites linking your website and evaluate how many times people landed on your website through them.

Thanks to Shout me loud

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Party game - A simple game of luck with cards

This is a very simple game can be played in all age groups just spread out a pack of cards on the table and one by one all participants can play they just keep drawing out a card till they get an ace. The one who draws out maximum cards before drawing an ace wins. After each player the cards are shuffled and laid out again.

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Party game - शहरों के नाम

This is a cute party game for birthday parties, ladies kitty party etc. Distribute the photostat sheets to all the participants. Use a stop watch and give one/two minutes to fill up the names

City Names

१शोलापुर
२ नागपुर
३ मणिपुर
४ कानपूर
५ जामनगर
६ पानीपत
७ आगरा
८ वृन्दावन
९ कारगिल
१० हरिद्वार
११ हाथरस
१२ कन्याकुमारी
१३ छत्तीसगढ़
१४ दिल्ली
१५ ऋषिकेश
१६ रानीखेत
१७ उन्नाव
१८ नैनीताल

१९ बॉम्बे

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Wake up Sid - bollywood movie review

Ayan Mukherji's directorial debut, produced by Karan Johar. It is a story about Siddhartha Mehra (Ranbir Kapoor) - Sid. This is a great movie without any melodrama. Understated acting by the whole cast which is so true to life. Konkona Sen is as usual an excellent actor. Ably supported by Anupam Kher and Supriya Pathak. The friends of Ranbir Kapoor are played by all fresh faces. Rahul Khanna And Kashmira Shah in apt roles. I enjoyed this movie immensely. Identifying with almost all the characters of the movie.
My Rating *****

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Falafel with Pita bread and Hummus

Around two weeks back I had a Ladies party at home. The menu was inspired by a blog called Mirch masala
Mocktails: 2 cups Cranberry nectar, 1 cup orange juice and 2 cups Sprite
Appetizer: Hariyali marbles and Paneertikka stuffed bread.
Main Course: Stuffed peppers, Falafel, Hummus, Pita Bread, Tabbouleh salad.
Dessert: Waffles with nutella chocolate and chip chocolate icecream.
Stuffed Peppers:

(As i had not taken photographs I have taken these photos from the blog Mirch masala)
8 Bell peppers, two of each color, halved
2 onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 cup cooked long grain rice
12-14 leaves of mint, chopped
a handful of parsley, chopped
1/2 cup raisins
6-8 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup cheese
salt and fresh ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 375F. Scoop out the seeds from the peppers and brush them with olive oil and bake for 15-20 mins. Heat some olive oil in a sauté pan and sauté the onions and garlic for a few minutes. Add the rice, mint, parsley, raisins, salt and pepper and remove from heat. Mix well and keep aside. Take the peppers out of the oven and fill them with this mixture. Top with pieces of cheese. Drizzle with some olive oil and return to the oven and bake for 20 mins or so.

Hummus

1 cup chickpeas, washed and soaked overnight and drained
juice of one lemon
3 garlic coves, crushed
3 tbsp olive oil + more for drizzling
6-8 oz tahini paste (one cup sesame seeds roasted and ground with olive oil)
1/2 tsp pepper + more for sprinkling
salt and pepper

Process all ingredients in a food processor, scraping down the sides. Season with the pepper and olive oil and serve as a dip or with falafel in pita pockets.

Falafel Pockets (from Nita Mehta)

8 Pita breads or 8 pizza bases
21/2 cups kabuli channa
2 onions - finely chopped
1-2 tsp garlic- finely chopped
2 tsp green coriander - finely chopped
1/2 tsp dhania powder
1/2 tsp jeera powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp soda bicarb (mitha soda)
oil for frying
1/2 cup bread crumbs
some onion rings sprinkled with chat masala
hummus

1. Soak channas for 6-8 hrs. Drain and grind in a grinder to a paste.
2. Add finely chopped onions, garlic, coriander leaves, dhania powder, jeera powder, salt, and soda-bi-carb. Mix very well.
3. Keep the mixture for 4-5 hours or overnight in the fridge.
4. Make round patties about 11/2" in diameter, roll in bread crumbs.
5. Heat oil and fry (kebabs), 1 to 2 at a time, on medium heat till golden brown. Keep aside.
6. Cut the pita bread or pizza base into 2 pieces.
7. Open a piece with a knife from the cut side, going almost to the curved edge, keeping the base joint from the edges, such that you get a pocket.
8. Heat a pan on fire. Saute these pieces till light golden on both sides.
9. With the help of a knife, open to form a pocket, spread some hummus inside the pocket. Throw some onions sprinkled with chat masala inside the pockets. Push 2-3 hot falafel tikkis in it. Warm on a hot tawa for 1-2 minutes. Serve hot with hummus.

Tabbouleh Salad

1 cup bulgur wheat
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups water
1 cucumber, diced
4 oz can, black olives
1 cup heirloom grape tomatoes
a bunch of green onions, chopped (substituted by onions and capsicum)
1/2 lemon, squeezed
a bunch of fresh parsley, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Place the water, salt and bulgur in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Reduce, cover and cook till tender. Mix the rest of the ingredients with the cooked bulgur and chill for a few hours, if required or serve warm.

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My favourite recipe for homemade Waffles

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon white sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
DIRECTIONS
Preheat waffle iron. Beat eggs in large
bowl with hand beater until fluffy. Beat in flour, milk, vegetable oil, sugar,
baking powder, salt and vanilla, just until smooth.

Spray preheated waffle iron with non-stick
cooking spray. Pour mix onto hot waffle iron. Cook until golden brown. Serve hot

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