Friendly dogs of Leh

 

...As photographed by my co-intern here in Ladakh.

Dogs of Leh

Bald monk, groovy monk, old monk, mini monk, monklet.

Mornings in Leh

The sun comes up at 5am. My bed (mattress, rather) is up against the wall with the window in it. Being 3500 meters closer to the sun than back in Bombay, the curtains are defenceless against the brightness. Tiredness tends to allow sleep for another hour or hour and a half. By 6:30, I can’t help but wake up. Once I’m up, it’s nearly impossible to go back to sleep. When asleep, my eyes are shut tighter than usual and my eyelids are weighed down with blocks of iron. Opening my eyes in the morning means fighting all that resistance. The fighting isn’t all that difficult to do since the light does most of it for me. How I wish it didn’t. But the blocks of iron leave for good once I open my eyes. 

Now I’m up. This is generally followed by sitting up in the now frigid mattress holding the blanket close to my body for about fifteen minutes. When I tire of staring into space, I get up to use the loo. Now this is a traditional compost toilet. So I must head downstairs armed with sufficient toilet paper and resolve. Still woozy and drowsy, I must crouch over the hole in the ground and do my business. Toilet paper never leaves me feeling clean enough. When God gave us the jet spray, why must we waste so much paper? 

Now I head to the kitchen. There I put two big vessels of water on the stove to heat up. This tends to take time. I go upstairs and bring down an empty bucket. I then sit down to read a chapter from ‘The Humorous World of Jerome K. Jerome’. By then the water is generally hot enough. I pour it into the bucket and lug up to the bathroom. I then pause and catch my breath. I take a mug of water to brush my teeth with. Before I begin, I dip my hands into the warm water. This is always my favourite part of the day. My fingers live for those few moments of warmth. 

Bathing is the next big ritual which is done with half a bucket of wonderfully warm water. Standing on the cold bathroom floor barefoot and naked is chilling even to think of. Having a bath is a combination of experiencing icy cold and welcoming warmth. Pouring the warm water over myself, I feel toastier than I do even inside a jacket and layers of blankets. But the moment I lay down the mug and begin to soap, it feels like I’m running a block of ice over my body while the cold air gushes around me and tickles me to the bone. This I try to do in as few seconds as possible before getting to pour that last bit of water over myself again. The three steps I take across the floor toward my towel makes me shiver- almost like a wet dog after its bath. 

Dry and clothed and groomed, I head down for breakfast. This is no ordeal. It’s generally toast (cheese optional) and tea or coffee. Maybe even Maggi noodles. So far, the yummiest breakfast I’ve put together was chopping up a banana onto a slice of toasted bread and covering it with another slice of toast covered with peanut butter. The sandwich was very filling and incredibly tasty. 

By now, it’s about 8:30 and that leaves me with two hours before work starts. Now I begin to feel sleepy and cold again. I try not to doze off. I do things like reading a book or writing in my diary. For example, here I am writing this blog post. 

None of the above paragraphs are complaints, mind you. They may be annoying, testing, mean and exasperatingly unavoidable things to do, but I’m not complaining- at all.

Cat

Wayward about Poetry, Randomly.

An idiotic conversation with my best friend lead to the serious topic of poetry and its moods. We realized that it's almost always the darker topics in poetry that trap our minds. You don't get goose bumps from jovial poems about the weather no matter how beautifully they're written. Perhaps because when you're happy, there is nothing that makes you think hard. You're just in the moment enjoying what you're reading and you don't want to waste time thinking about it. If you're in a bad mood, then a happy poem may cheer you up; but it wouldn't  make you say "Whoa!"

Now on the other hand, those serious and deep topics have a fish-hook-effect on you. A dark poem forces you to sit up and listen. You either appreciate the poem for its depth or it shakes you into thinking about what the poet's talking about.

Anyone with an affinity for poetry would have been affected at some point by a hard-hitting poem. When a poem hits you- BAM- like a truck, it's not going to be because the sky is so blue or because the birds are chirping in the trees. If the poet speaks of war or suffering or sadness or deceit or even love, the poet is forcing his opinion and emotions on the reader, pulling him into a web of questioning thoughts.

But these ideas or explanations for why hard hitting poetry or even literature tends to be dark are disturbing. Why are our brains wired to be 'entertained' by crime, sinister thoughts and sadness? Why do our brains feed off it? It cannot merely be a result of desensitization of our generation for literature of this kind has existed for centuries. Does thinking hard about a topic or situation always result in crookedness? It's unsettling to think that there's a dark person hiding within each of us, that if instigated enough, that darkness shows itself. Sometimes I feel it's best to stay away from depth. There is no need to analyze everything, to look for a hidden meaning, to read between the lines. Sometimes meeting things at face value is appreciation enough. Blissful ignorance and peace of mind, perhaps?

I shall now indulge in some shameless plugging. The aforementioned best friend is a brilliant artist and as is evident from our conversation, brilliant in the head as well. This best friend has a blog of her own which you really ought to visit. Check out Mallika Bhandari at  Random Outcomes of a Deranged Mind. 


(The title to this post is an inside joke. Heeheehee.)

Man and Cow

The YUMMY cake that was.

YUMMY CHOCOLATE CAKE

1.5 cups of flour
3 cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2tsp vanilla essence
2 whole eggs
2 cups milk
2 tsp baking powder
150 gm butter

Pre-heat oven. (~180degrees)

Mix up all these fellows in a nice big bowl. For this you will need a spatula and stamina for continuous, vigorous mixing. Ideally, try to get rid of all the lumps, even though it may seem impossible. Whisper to yourself, "You can do it." If no one's looking, give yourself an encouraging fist bump and carry on mixing.

Once mixed, transfer into a greased and floured container for baking purposes. Then bake for around 45 minutes at 180 degrees. The timing may not be accurate- so just stick a knife into your cake every five minutes or so once you cross half an hour and turn off your oven when it comes out clean.

Do not be over-excited. Do not forget oven mitts or a thick towel. Do not start touching or kissing your beautiful cake yet because it will be hot.

But woohoo! It's now ready. Upturn and keep it ready on a flat plate for icing.

YUMMY CHOCOLATE ICING

500 gm dark chocolate
400 ml fresh cream
Pinch of salt

Make while your cake bakes.

Melt the dark chocolate. It looks beautiful, believe me. Simultaneously heat up the cream in another pan. Add the melted chocolate to the warm cream and mix it up with a pinch of salt. This looks even more beautiful. Watching the white cream turn to dark brown will make your mouth water. Try not to drool into your mixture.

Try not to eat it up before your cake finishes cooking. To satiate your watering mouth, you can lick up the residual chocolate from the melting bowl.

Woohoo! It's ready.

 

YUMMY CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH ICING

1 Yummy chocolate cake

1 Bowl of Yummy chocolate icing

1 ladle 

1 flat spatula to spread

Dollop the icing GENEROUSLY over your cake and cover it completely. Spread it and make it look pretty.

Serve with extra icing to use as chocolate dip. This is MUCH tastier than chocolate sauce. 

TaadaaA! 

 

Remember, it's CHOCOLATE, so it will ALWAYS be yum (even if you mess up the recipe). Happy baking!

PS- this recipe was the result of messily following two separate recipes.