Posted on by Zarine Mohideen · 7 Comments

I Say Shoot That Damn Bird Down..

For the past two weeks this really abnormal crow keeps coming to my closed window and tries to fly in but duh, the window is closed and so it tries to peck through my window.

Yes. Peck.

My window is full of scratches. And that darn bird keeps coming only when I reach the REM stage of my beauty sleep. So I’m all comfy sleepy dreaming about lying in a hammock in a pristine sea shore and then I hear:

“TOK TOK TOK TOK TOK TOK TOK TOK TOK TOKT”

“KA KA KA KA KA KA KA KAAAAAA KA KA KA TOK TOK KAKAKAKAAAA”

and all I really wanna do is to buy a gun and shoot that psychotic crow down.

My brother came up with a wonderfull theory on why the crow does what it does. He says “oh maybe the crow comes to your window and see its reflection and thinks that there is another crow and it wants to fight with it. Yeah.. thats why its pecking down your window. Or maybe you made it as crazy as you? What did you do to the crow? What did you do????”

First of all the crow can see its reflection in many places, not just my window but on water and… other peoples window. And second of all that was totally the lamest theory I’ve ever heard.

My Theory:

The crow is just plain mental and it has no idea its doing. And I’m trying to overcome my writers block and have end up in describing my relationship with a crow.
This is as good as it gets.

Posted on by Zarine Mohideen · 4 Comments

Dig Harder You Morons You Might Just Find The Ancient Treasure You Were Searching For.

Oh My God, they’re at it again. Seriously what do they expect to be hidden beneath roads? Diamonds? Lost treasure?

The digging never stops. And I doubt if it ever will.

Chennai roads have been subjected to nothing but digging. Digging main roads, digging in the corner of big roads, digging in kurku sandus and basically digging anywhere the surface seems even remotely flat. I’m sick of the ‘take diversions’ and ‘men at work’ signs everywhere.

Maybe the Chennai corporation has gone bonkers and ordered the workers to dig the beautiful, wide Anna Nagar roads fringed with lovely old trees. zmy street used to be one of the most nicest, widest streets and now due to this stupid digging it has been transformed into a war zone like how the soldiers in war hide behind these mounds of sand. I have no idea what they’re called.

So just a month back they dug only one side of the street and promptly filled it again and layed the tar over it.

Umm hello?
It was the same even before the digging. The very reason for the digging is lost you dumb-heads.

Now the roads are going to be all bumpy bumpy. Ultimately some corporation head bum is going to pay for this.

Posted on by Zarine Mohideen · 4 Comments

Restaurant Review 1 – Cedars

Ok so I just got back from having dinner at Cedars. Now if you live in Chennai you might recall that the restaurant was previously situated in Gopalapuram but has now shifted to Nungambakkam. The last time I visited this one of a kind Lebanese cum Mediterranean restaurants was around 5 to 6 years back. And its weirdly comforting to see that although the location might have changed thay have maintained the exact same decor.

We started off with some tossed mushrooms. Oh FYI most of the names are unpronouncable and the odds are you wont remember the names once you’ve ordered it. Yeah, so the mushrooms excellently tossed with olive oil and some kind of herby thing were amazing. But were stupidly served with some toasted wheat bread. We then had some pesto chicken blah blah. Just like the name it tasted so blah. And it was green.
C’mon! Who serves green looking chicken?

I also had iced tea and it was the first time that iced tea tasted more of ice and did’nt have any trace of tea.

For the main course I had a really amazing Lebanese dish which consisted of saffron rice ( I doubt there was saffron in it. It just looked yellow ) and this super delicious gravy that had lamb, lentils and onions. We make a similar gravy in my native but we substitute the lentils for coconut milk and that makes the gravy extremely rich. But with the lentils it was the best lamb I had ever had. My brother had this weird beef meatball which I did’nt taste cause I don’t eat beef.

The dessert was the highlight of the entire meal. We had backlava and it was so rich that I could’nt eat more than one piece. But delicious nonetheless.

The superstar of the evening was this thick slab of bisuit or cake (I could’nt figure out what it was) layered and drizzled with thick chocolate. Oh Lord, the very thought of it makes my mouth water! Now if you ever go to Cedars it does’nt matter whether you eat anything else or not but please have this awesome chocolate thing!

PLEASE!

The price is a bit high but worth it for the different flavour that has’nt been experimented in Chennai. Cedars is one of the most expensive restaurants in the city. But the quantity is not proportional to the price. And that is very dissappointing. The service is also very poor. We had to keep asking the white shirt dude for the food so often that I felt like I was in my own house asking my mother for food.

The food is very different but might not suit all palates. But be prepared to burn a hole in your pocket.

Cedars is located at Wallace Garden road right off Nungambakkam high road, opposite to Wangs Kitchen and La Boulangerie.

Posted on by Zarine Mohideen · 4 Comments

Tagged!

So I’ve been tagged by Ldn Hijabi and here are the rules:

To do the Honest Scrap Tag all you gotta do is tell your readers 10 true things about yourself that they don’t know, tag other people and let them know that they have been tagged and leave a link back to your original ‘tagger’.
So here goes..

1. If I could I would love to drop out of Engineering to do something I really love like write for a newspaper or a good magazine but that is not gonna happen anytime soon. Or ever.

2. I LOVE to get into a good fight!! But not physical.

3. I HATE blood tests. Seeing them extract all my blood into a little syringe makes me freak out big time.

4. I hate being told what to do.

5. I have such a short temper but I’m working on it.

6. When I was a kid I used to paint really well (thanks to the artistic gene that runs in my family) but for some damn reason I just stopped and i would love to get back to painting.

7. I LOVE Disney movies! Especially The Little Mermaid and Beauty And The Beast.

8. My childhood ambition was to be Miss.Universe. And obviously that did’nt come true. But when I was in 3rd grade or so I went to a fancy dress competition dressed as Miss.U in an outrageous pink lacy dress complete with fake, studded tiara and white netted gloves.
Needless to say I didn’t win.

9. At times I’m very judgemental of people. I know thats so bad but again, I’m working on it.

10. I hate to talk while making wudu like some girls do in my college. I find it irritating and extremely disrespectfull.

And I tag:

1. Nadia
2. Aimie
3. Mina
4. Angie
5. Jasmin
6. Naseem

Posted on by Zarine Mohideen · 10 Comments

Eww. Eww. Eww. Eww.

Girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice.
And boys????

Ask any girl about her perfect guy or how she wants her future husband to be and she’ll say “Oh he has to be tall and cute/hot and sweet and good looking and charming and should buy me loads of gifts and should listen to everything I have to say yadda, yadda, yadda.

Clean and hygienic never pops up in the list.

And that is the TOP on mine.
The guy just HAS to be clean. And not obsessive-compulsive-cleaning=disorder clean but normal-decent-human level of cleanliness: cut nails, clean feet, no B.O, groomed hair and beard (note: beard, MUST.) and overall average cleanliness.

In my 19 years of walking this planet I have seen the most disgusting, repulsive, ugly, dirty male feet EVER. Overgrown, dirt-ridden toe nails are such a turn-off. I feel like personally giving those guys a pedicure just to save others from seeing such a disgusting sight. And icky, greasy, oily hair.. Don’t even get me started.

There are guys who think that if they dress like models, spray on some bloody so-called perfume that apparently attracts women to them but thankfully misfires and have a hot ride get their work done. Now if you look lower and lower till you reach the smelly feet you will find what you’re looking for.

Seriously guys, have you heard of something called ‘soap and water’? Or maybe ‘nail cutter’? Yeah, they could be your best friend if only you gave them a chance.

Seriously.

Seriously.

Posted on by Zarine Mohideen · 5 Comments

From the land Of ‘Aruval’ and ‘Halwa’..

So finally I’m back from my native, the land of my fore fathers, the wonderful town of Tirunelveli. Its so amazing to see how some places never change through the years. And Tirunelveli is one of those places.

Tirunelveli is this little town located in Tamil Nadu which is in South India and is home to many Brahmins, Chrisitians and Muslims. The town is split into many small villages like Palayamkottai, Tenkasi and Melapalayam to name a few and each have their respective history and mouth watering cuisine.

Now i spent the most of my stay in my paternal grand father’s place called Talaiyuth. This village just consists of a couple of streets, one which is called Muslim theru (lane) where the Muslims live. Although there is a varied influx of many religions they manage to live in peace without any major rioting even with the presence of aruval which is a long knife that is hooked at the end which does not even need an excuse to be brought up during fights. And ultimately people tend to say that people from Tirunelveli are rowdies and trust me, they’re not.

My grand father’s house is situated on a long and narrow ground that is not defined by a compound wall. The house is around 110 years old and the date is engraved on a wooden plank on the roof. The house is very narrow and there are 3 rooms (IF you can call them rooms that is) that follow in succession and a parallel area that is open to the sky that runs parallel to the rooms. This are is famously called as the kodii and I have no idea why.

The front portion has a courtyard open ti the sky again that is characteristic of houses built in that period. There is also a single room on the first storey that has never, in my 19 years of visiting the place, ever been used for reasons unknown. When we were kids I used to be so freaked out even to enter the room but my brother used to oh-so-daringly come with me, take me to the end of the room, leave me there and run back to shut the door and I would bring the roof down by screaming my lungs out. Sweet memories, yes.

It was such a creepy place and i still don’t have the guts to go up there alone. This first floor is called the machi and again, I have no idea why.

Now as for food, hens and goats keep roaming everywhere and all you gotta do is decide which meat you want and the respective animal is caught and skinned and made edible. While some people may be all “OH MY GOD! THAT IS SO CRUEL!!!” , this is the way of life here.

If you ever happen to visit Tirunelveli never leave without tasting halwa which is locally called alwa. This traditional, cholestrol enhancing, heart attack inducing sweet is made from wheat and ghee. Unlike what most people think halwa was actually introduced by a Marwari family that settled int he area years ago. They were the ones who started the first halwa shop that came to be known as irrutu kadai halwa (dark halwa shop with no lights) and this shop stands till this very day.

The happening place in Tirunelveli is the ‘junction’ so called because it was initially a bus junction and shops were built around it. And one of the most famous ice cream places that has stood the test of time is my all time favourite Arasan (King). The place does’nt sell anything much apart from ice creams, milkshakes, faloodas and some weird jelly thing but even this is awesome in Tirunelveli. Every single time I come to Tirunelveli I make it a point to visit this place.

Tirunelveli is a food lovers heaven. Traditional food and recipies that have been passed down through generations form the roots of the food tree. For the typical tourists there are waterfalls and other sight-seeing-y kind of places. Tirunelveli is also home to many Freedom Fighters and people of aristrocratic backgrounds.

But if you are an outsider or even if you go there almost every summer like me, prepare to be stared at.

Tirunelveli Skyline:

The date on the roof:

The kodii

The creepy machi:

The Courtyard:

Arasan!!

Lamb anyone??