And no, I don't want to cook. Thank you...

Hey there. How've you been?

I've been away a while. I've changed jobs and including the few days break between jobs I mustered, I've been trying to stay away from the laptop as much as possible. But alas, the beautiful days starting with bright sunlight streaming inside your window (What? So I get up late on vacations, sue me) and no itinerary or calendar entries to mar your bliss are over now.

Which brings us to this.

Now as regular readers may know, I don't watch too much TV. Even now that I'm staying alone I still don't spend too much time in front of the telly. And when I do there are only a few channels I watch (No, not Star Plus thank you).

But recently whenever I drop into by beanbag-chair, squirm a little till I get into that perfectly comfortable position for atleast an hour long repose, have a beverage and some light snacks at hand and finally raise the remote to switch on the TV, the only thing that seems to come on the channels I watch are these Cooking challenges.

Top Chef, Top Chef reruns, Top Chef Masters, Top Chef Masters reruns, Top Chef Australia...come on you can guess the next one. Yes, Top Chef Australia reruns! 100 points to you, my friend!

Now, don't get me wrong. I love food. All types of it, the more exotic the better. In fact my extremely extremely gradually expanding girth is a clear indication of this continued love affair that I have with everything fried, baked, grilled or skewered. And though I may not be a superb cook, I do appreciate the fine art of cooking. In fact I have been occasionally found staring in rapt attention as the TV cook does some fancy knife-and-oven-work and creates a masterpiece out of refrigerator refuse.
 
But the sheer deluge of of these cook-challenges is extremely irritating. Every channel you switch to, it's some poor creature being grilled by the judges.What? I meant the chefs.

"Ze textuere of ze dish is verryy important, see? You have mezzed it up. You don't belong infront of ze oven. Get out of my sight!"

"Even though the presentation was excellent, the flavour itself is horrible. And I don't like your face either. Get out!"

"I just don't like your face. Get out"


Seriously, what is wrong with these channels. Lets have some regular programming please. Sitcoms, comic acts, and funny talk shows please, NOW!


Ok, so now with that out of the way.

I've been reading a lot of Indian sub-continent authors recently. And they have blown my mind away. Such awesome, sensitive and varied writing.

We weren't lovers like that - Navtej Sarna
     Extremely sensitive. Blows you away. A tale of losing love through inaction and the resulting life long regret. Brilliant
Moth Smoke - Mohsin Hamid
     A great study of how life is the same across the Pakistan border as well.You read it, and you think we are all the same people, same reactions (reaction to our nuclear tests followed by Pakistani nuclear tests), same thoughts. Sigh, what a waste this enmity is. 
Bunker 13 - Aniruddha Bahal
    Super fast paced thriller set in recognizable locales. It got a bit confusing towards the end though. But maybe that was just my slowness.

I'm now reading another one, Back Seat by Aditya Kriplani. The jacket cover sounds very good, as does the first chapter. Looking forward to getting entranced by it! Maybe I should review books I read on this blog on a more regular basis. What do you say?


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