It's official, Twinkies have ruined my life.

I live in Madras City, in south India. And here we do not get many of the great American snack foods, like popular American Candies, Oreos, Cheetos, popular American ice creams, the Hostess range of snack foods, etc. Of course there are other major brands available that make those kind of any time snacks, but there in no company here that makes the greatest snack food of all time, Twinkies.

You see, I love snacks, and I absolutely fell in love with Twinkies when my cousin was visiting Madras and brought a load of this Golden Cream filled sponge cake from New York. Needless to say, I was hooked for life and permanently indebted to the Continental Baking company and their Hostess line of snack foods. But what does one do when you do not have that snack cake available in your community/area or city? I wish the manufacturers of the Twinkie would start a manufacturing unit in India, but till then there is only one option, Make Your Own Twinkies.

This is where the trouble starts, and this is not what you think.
For the rest of the story, click here...

Today i thought i should make a long delayed effort to sort my room. You know, employ the "Kaizen" principles for improving the efficiency of my little abode. Jeez, there is a whole lot of junk in there, so much that........well i can't think of an example now.

Anyway, i was going through all the boxes and other stuff when i came across some old issues of Reader's Digest. Now, Reader's Digest is one of the magazines that i like most, mainly on account of it having some really good content and not just fillers and useless junk. I like to read the "True Story" section, the people featured are very inspiring. Well, as i went through them, i was remembered a this-is-a-real-story account of a rather well known scientist. A scientist who was born blind. I will not go into the details, it is not needed now. I don't seem to remember the name of that scientist, but i clearly remember one thing about him. The thing is, there was one statement made by that Scientist when he was a little boy, around 10 years old. It was his reply to a question asked of him by his parents.

He said, "Yes, God is great. But so am I."

Such a simple statement, but so much powerful. It shows the sheer gumption and the amount of confidence that the boy had in himself at that tender age, when he was born blind and had no guarantee that he will gain the ability to see one day. That boy is now a world renowned man of science who has made a great deal of contribution to his chosen field.


yours truly, The RA

I never thought it would end this way,
All said and done, I have nothing to say.
The one thing I fear is a part of me,
A part long forgotten, a part none should see.

You were taken away from me,
That is the truth, the one that is known.
But something hid inside, soon to unveil,
Now that I am here, at last, all alone.

yours truly, The RA

This a strange feeling,
One that I've never felt before.
I like it though, since
It fills mine heart with a warm glow.

All these days, all this time,
Just a friend, I thought you were.
But now I know, now I am sure,
I need your smile, I need your care.

Even when we meet, at any place,
You've known that, many a time,
But I did deny it then, that
Seeing you always made my heart chime.

I do not know where this will lead,
All the same, I don't give a damn.
When you get these lines over with, just know
In a storm of emotions, you are my calm.
________________________________

I wrote this short ode a while back, in college. I used to have an overpowering desire for a girl in my class. This poem was penned after a major hormonal load shedding.

yours truly, The RA

Movie Makers have always seen the potential of sequels, and sequels of sequels. And rightfully so, even a decade back, there have been a good number of movies (or should I say, movie franchises) which have made use of this.

Case in point :
The Friday the 13th series, the Godfather series and who can forget the Star Wars franchise.

But it is only in recent times that movie studios have come to make full use of the sequel mania. Every major Hollywood studio is into making sequels, trilogies and whatnot. Disney, Newline, Revolution, everybody is making them. Why, the Terminator franchise, supposedly the most successful movie franchise till date is gearing up to make a Fourth installment of the Human Vs Computer War.

Even the Indian film industry has woken up to the money machine that the making of movie series are. Granted, you can count on your one hand the number of sequels/trilogies/series ever attempted, but there is definitely an effort, feeble as it may be. One reason for this state of affairs may be the budget, or may be the lack of it. Making a movie series, or the very least, a sequel means serious money, and though budgets for Indian movies are getting higher and higher, they are nowhere near than the typical Hollywood product.

A prime example of this would be the recently hyped to sky high and released "Dhoom 2". The first installment "Dhoom" was itself neither original nor groundbreaking. But it had some things going for it, namely a somewhat taut storyline, good casting, great music and slick editing. While this was the case, one would expect the sequel to be even better, especially as it boasted of a much bigger budget, better music and a fantastic star lineup of A-list actors, bollywood's best. But unfortunately, the movie sucked big time, riddles with so many plot holes that you would think it is a sieve. And some of the characters had no place in the story, wafer thin as it was. The only thing that the movie had going for it was the rocking soundtrack, everything else was just eye-candy, nothing more. And to make matters worse, the makers are planning a third movie in the series.

What I am trying to say is that when everybody and their second cousin is making sequels and trilogies, not everyone is cut out for it. While Hollywood has gotten pretty good at this art, the Indian film industry has a long way to go. Doubly so as in the case of most mainstream Indian movies, they are simply a mish-mash of a pool of Hollywood films or in some cases, a straight copy-paste product. Making sequels/trilogies or a movie series is more than big budgets, big stars and bigger SFX sequences. It is a labor in art, where only a very minuscule percentage come out on top. It would be a favor to us all, and to the grand institution that is cinema, if movie makers realize this before they even think of embarking upon one.

For more, visit the PopCorn & Cola blog.

yours truly, Ar'Nath

After a week's worth of hard work, you finally gather yourself and a couple of friends and head out for a night on the town. You go to a pub, and order beer. As you guzzle that cold, delicious golden beer, you feel all that stress slipping away. You don't have any qualms about having that beer because you feel that you have earned it. Yeah, you have worked your ass off for the entire week, and you deserve to enjoy a night on the town with your buddies. And it feels so good after.

Well, this is what happens to your body as that beer passes through : *

1. You take a swig of beer.

2. Within seconds, the beverage passes through your oesophagus and into your stomach.

3. Twenty percent of the alcohol is absorbed from your stomach into you bloodstream; the rest is absorbed from your intestines.

4. The alcohol travels through your blood to your liver, where it's broken down. During this process, waste products called acetate and acetaldehyde are created.

5. Acetate and acetaldehyde signal you body to stop burning fat. At the same time, your body starts making fat from another waste product of alcohol, acetyl CoA.

6. Your body can effectively process only about 15ml to 30ml of alcohol per hour.

So the more you drink, the longer your body is inhibited from burning fat, and the more fat builds up from the excess acetyl CoA.
(A 340ml beer contains about 17ml of alcohol.)

Cheers to you !!!

yours truly,
Ar'Nath
*Original Article from Men's Health Magazine (Indian Edition) May 2007