Happiness

Over a year back, I had a dream of buying a cruiser motorcycle by this time. That never happened.

Two years back, I thought I'd have a great physique by this time. That never happened.

Three years back, I wanted to have a small 1 BHK flat of my own by this time. That never happened.

Four years back, I wanted to roaming the world as a backpacker by this time. That never happened.

But I have realized, that at those times, I only wanted to whisper with dreams and feel the mythical caresses that they offer for those who have naught to hold on to. Maybe I was only ordinary. Maybe I was only an average human being with expectations of the moon from myself. But I wanted it. I wanted it all. And I felt as if nothing could stop me. But I got nothing. Nothing yet.

I wonder if they were all only pipe dreams. Just foolish wishes. If only wishes were horses, they say. They aren't horses. Not even 1000 cc motorcycles, apparently.

I want to say that now I don't want any of it without sounding as if I'm just trying to console myself over sour grapes. But really, I don't want any of it. I have a great family, I am in love with the most amazing woman in the world, and the best part is that she loves me too. I have a great job in a city that I love, friends who wake up in the wee hours of the morning when I need them, and enough money to pass my month by without having to go hungry like in the olden days.

I am happy. Truly. Nothing beats this. Maybe, this is what I always wanted without knowing that I really did want this. I hope that some wise part of me will counsel me sometime soon saying that happiness cannot be obtained, and that it can only be eternally optimistically pursued.

But till then, I know that I am happy. Absolutely.

- Vinaykrishnan.

Writing And Me

Someone asked me a question. What was it with me and writing? Surely there are other better things to do. Right?

That's like saying what's it with a painter and drawing? And more than anything else, do I need to be tested, to prove my love for something so enjoyable, as writing? Am I to paint a stone to prove my worth in art, more metaphorically speaking?

Crackers explode in my head on thinking about your audacity in asking me.

I can stand here all day, wearing my comfy flip-flops, staring at the cream wall, contrasting, yet combining beautifully with the blood red curtains. The painting of the yellow flower on the wall only enhances the soul stirring effect. I can smell the perfume you left behind after you led me here and then walked away. I can hear the voices of the trees outside your window. I can hear the water flowing gently in the creek outside, and the wind as the air rustles the tree leaves. I can hear the birds chirping gleefully basking in their freedom, as I stand here in bondage. Not a physical chain, but mental ones.

The keys on the table near the painting, that act as a weight holding that piece of thread that tore from your dress reminds me of how once I could take a pen and write down my ideas. My ideas, like the thread, I could hold down with my imagination, as the keys held the thread. I lift it up and let the thread soar in the breeze. Up and out the window.

The lamp now dies out, and the silence of your abstract ideas threatens to engulf me.

I can write no longer now. You asked me once what it was with me and writing.

Now there's nothing.

- Vinaykrishnan.

You (the Xth)

I wish You were here.

At times, I wish I could simply cry
And let out my tears
In hope that my thoughts of You go out of my mind through my eyes along with my tears.

But then I realize,
That tears are only water and salt.

You are not.

- Vinaykrishnan.

You

i was bound by chains earlier, 
Strangled wings,
But then You happened to me,
i think i can fly now.

Please save me completely,
You have done half the job already by simply telling me that You love me.
The rest i am not worried about anymore.

Because i know that You are my redeemer,
A name soon to be on my arm.

You, undoubtedly, unabashedly, unequivocally, are my world.

- Vinaykrishnan.

You.

i feel so good
When i think about You,
And while this does not sound or seem like a good line for a poem,
It does convey what i feel
When i think
About
You.

- Vinaykrishnan.

Five most popular cocktails and mixed drinks

Even if this article of mine never gets published, I believe it is almost necessary for me as an alcohol lover to post this.

Cheers!

Five most popular cocktails and mixed drinks

 

- Vinaykrishnan Menon, 2011-10-18

There are thousands of cocktails, each with a variation of its own to the recipe, around the world. But some of the most famous cocktails are those that you can find in any pub, bar or lounge in the whole world. These are not only universally liked, but also learned by enthusiasts so that they can make these heady alcoholic concoctions in the comfort of their homes for themselves and their family and friends.

We’ve picked out the 5 most popular cocktails in the world for you to know about, and we’ve given you the recipe for each:

1. The Martini
This drink has many many variations to it, but here we shall show the the basic Martini, on which you can improvise as required.
a. Ingredients
75 ml gin, 15 ml dry vermouth, Orange bitters and 1 green olive or lemon slice for garnish. 
b. Recipe
Fill a mixing glass with ice cubes and pour the ingredients into this. Stir (or shake, if you are James Bond) for 30 seconds. Pour this into a chilled cocktail glass, ensuring ice is strained out, and add orange bitters to this. Garnish with the olive or the lemon slice and serve.

2. The Margarita
The Margarita is one of the most refreshingly addictive summer drinks in the world. This drink too has many variations across the world. The Margarita can basically be served either neat, frozen, or on the rocks. We shall show you how to make neat Margarita.
a. Ingredients
45 ml tequila, 15 ml triple sec, 90 ml sour mix, a dash of lime juice, a lime wedge for garnish, salt or sugar to apply on the rim of the glass.
b. Recipe
Fill a cocktail mixer with ice cubes, pour in the ingredients and shake well for about 45 seconds. Take the Margarita glass, and place the rim on a plate filled with salt or sugar (depending on your taste). Make the glass upright and pour in the mixture into the glass along with the ice cubes. Fix the lime wedge on the rim of the glass as garnish and serve.

3. Long Island Iced Tea
The Long Island Iced Tea, also known as LIIT, is a classic cocktail.Having 5 different white spirits, this drink is particularly easy to keep on refilling owing to the sour mix and cola additions.
a. Ingredients
30 ml triple sec, 30 ml tequila, 30 ml light rum, 30 ml gin, 30 ml vodka, 15 ml sour mix, 75 ml cola, 8 mint leaves, lime wedge for garnish. 
b. Recipe
Fill a cocktail mixer with ice cubes, pour in the alcoholic ingredients and shake well for about one minute. Then pour in the cola on the top and add the mint leaves and gently stir for about 5 seconds. Pour this mixture into a tall glass (Collin’s glass) and add the lime wedge on the rim of the glass as garnish. You may even put the lime wedge garnish into the mixture itself.


4. Screwdriver
One of the easiest recipes in the book, the Screwdriver is the perfect source of vitamin C. It is one of the world’s most popular summer drinks, and some Russians even love it in the winters. 
a. Ingredients
60 ml vodka, 150 ml orange juice. 
b. Recipe
Pour both, the vodka and the fresh orange juice, into a tall Collin’s glass which is filled with ice cubes. Stir well for a minute. Presto! Your Screwdriver is ready to be served.

5. Bloody Mary
The Bloody Mary is the cocktail drink that the world turns to for getting over a hangover, because of its spicy tomato taste. It has a few variations, based on whether you want it to be more alcoholic (Bloody Maria) or non-alcoholic (Virgin Mary). We’re going to show you how to make the standard Bloody Mary. The catch to making a great Bloody Mary is to follow order in which the ingredients are added in the glass.
a. Ingredients
90 ml tomato juice, 45 ml vodka, 15 ml lemon juice, 10 ml Worcestershire sauce, some celery salt, hot pepper sauce, ground pepper, lime wedge for garnish. 
b. Recipe
Pour the tomato juice in a tall glass with ice cubes. Add the vodka and then the lemon juice in the glass, one after the other. Add a dash of Worcestershire sauce, a bit of celery salt and ground pepper, and a dash of hot pepper sauce. Mix well in the glass. Garnish with lime wedge and serve.

Hope you enjoy making and drinking these amazingly popular cocktails. We know we enjoyed both, the preparation, and the celebrations after drinking.

- Vinaykrishnan

Ever Slipping Sands

Every moment that I have,
It slips away like a wave,
Notice the sand around your feet when you stand in the wave that passes away.

Ever slipping, ever moving.
Nothing I can do to stop it.
Tell it to please stop for at least one moment so that I can see you.

Love. Is. Difficult.
Or so they said.
I realized it is not true as long as you don't want it to be true.

- Vinaykrishnan.

Dad's Photography

My Dad has always had a penchant for photography. Call it his ill luck, or my poor finance management, he could never, however, have a fantastic camera to work with. He always had to do with nominal, cheap cameras that were only ordinary at best.

Yet he never ceases to amaze me with his photography. Here are some "National Geographic" pictures that he shot at a recent vacation he took.

I'll post more and more as he keeps sending me his photographs.

Cheers, Dad!!! You are awesome!!!

- Vinaykrishnan.

The Turn Of Events.

It was quite a kiss,
A lip-lock, that started
Not from the fullness of the lips,
But from the twinkle in the eyes.

The notes that played in my head at that moment,
Mozart looked amateurish at that time,
The inviting appeal of the kiss,
Making me want more.

The way our bodies moved
To the rhythm of the night,
Unerringly intimate,
Surprising delight.

And then the closet opened,
Skeletons and hideous bones,
Baring it all open,
Jaws and maws of monsters.

All under the bed,
Over the table,
Slowly spreading rot and foulness,
Terrifying me as I hear the familiar ring.

The alarm of the cell phone,
Ushering in the morning,
A cold sweat I woke up in,
To realize the turn of events.

How a single kiss
Could be so fatal,
That it turned from intimacy
To horror in bed.

- Vinaykrishnan.

You

i used to dream in black and white and shades of grey in between.
but then You happened to my life.
now i dream in colours.

i have no place to go now except sit on the floor lit by scattered rays of light.
You are the source of light.
and now i can see.

i always prayed for the waves of this city to wash me away to anywhere but here.
but You rode on a wave and came to me.
now You are my rock.

i used to think that i had it all figured out and could put it all in words.
but You showed me how to unlearn words.
now i can put stories in empty spaces.

ever so often i would lose the point and purpose of my mundane existence here.
but You told me what i meant to this world.
now You are my world.

between all my quirks and oddities and vices, i wondered what my biggest failure was.
now You have taught me to look at the bright side.
and now You are my biggest attainment.

kept falling into a mental abyss of nebulous miasma, spiralling rapidly to being burnt away to ashes.

but You came along and saved me.

now i am drenched in Your love.

thank You. for everything.

- vinaykrishnan

The Natural Order

Armageddon.

Everything already destroyed, 

Relive death,

The point before the end,

Collapsing after that,

Knowing the end is near,

Loving while living,

Enjoying the full blooms of the gardens,

Procreating, marrying, falling in love,

That childhood fantasizing and day dreaming,

The warm bosom of the mother,

The umbilical cord,

Genesis.

From rockets and the internet

To swords and trebuchets,

Crusades and proselytization,

Africa,

Jesus.

The mighty Romans.

The Mahabharata and the Ramayana. 

Wheel and fire.

Primates.

To devolution and degeneration

And dinosaurs ruling the earth. 

And millions of years beyond.

Till it all ends with a Big Bang.

The chimerical void after that.

- Vinaykrishnan.

Of Promiscuous Recipients and Traveling Boners

I truly believe that no two People are identical.


However, there are two types of people that I really admire.


First, those who receive and absorb everything. They are ready to be taken to bed by anything and everything that comes their way. Learning the ways of the world is the easiest for these people as they readily assimilate all that comes their way. They prostitute their mind for everything that they come across, no matter how useless or trivial. They comprehend, consume, swallow and suck it all in.


I like to think of these people as the Promiscuous Recipients.


Secondly, those people roam the world and are up for anything. They are ready to do absolutely anything that they feel is worth it. Nothing lazy about these people, always up for a challenge. They learn by doing, not be receiving, unlike the Promiscuous Recipients. Always traveling in search of newer shores to explore, these are the go-getters of every age. Those who stood up to the opportunity of seeing the world and grabbed it with both hands. 


These people, I like to think of as the Traveling Boners. 


Everyone has a little of both in them. I know how much I have of each. What about you?


- Vinaykrishnan.

Growing Cold

I am stuck in-between.

Forever longing for the place that doesn't exist anymore, never satisfied with where I am now.

I think it happens with everyone my age. If not age, then definitely with everyone with my outlook to life. If not outlook, then definitely to everyone who is I.

That sense of belonging to a place that I was in, that I roamed in, breathed in, smoked in, drank in, made friends in, lived in. I am in the same place still. But not quite there. As if there was a giant, earth-size plunger that sucked the very essence of this place out. As if a cigarette that's lit out of the last match stick fell into water. Snuffing it out. The cigarette is still there. Oh yes it is. But what's the point now? It's as if it's just nothing. As if that cigarette does not exist, and as if it's existence were a mere illusion that we dreamed about in this nebulous miasma of a life that we pretend to exist in.

It's all fucked up sometimes. Imagine a seesaw having two boys on either side, and the seesaw then going up and down. The kids are laughing. They are having a ball. Then you see a car passing by the road and see an old lady the age, and face, of an dinosaur. She smiles, and it's okay, your heartbeats slow down back to normal pace again. You smile back too and turn back to seeing the kids on the seesaw.

Only that the seesaw is immovably still. And the kids are just statues. Still life. It's eerie. The seesaw is still there, the kids too. But the life is gone from the scene. The essence. The core, crux, fiber, constitution is gone. Only the formation remains.

Pretty weird. I'm speechless too. Now I'm blank too. I was full of life before now. Now I'm this statue too. Just can't say a word.

And so, life hardened into marble, and grew cold.

- Vinaykrishnan.

A writing exercise - Part II (A, B, M and S)

Here is part 2 of my writing exercise. Please bear with me.

A

Anti-pathetic against avarice,
Alternately altering all acts,
Altogether alone as an armor,
And allowing actions an act,
Awarding all actors,
Abnegating avarice and alleviating angst.

B

Big billion blazes blowing by Boston's breeze,
Billowing bulbous barns,
Blackened by blasted bombs,
Blue, bright barnacles,
Braving blundering bludgeons.

M

Mostly men meander meaninglessly,
Mashing moments miasmically,
Mending momentary madness,
Mentoring measly mentees,
Mainly moving minutely,
Metamorphosis made material.

S (Part I)

Sweet sorrow sings sadly,
Summing sorrow's sadness,
Smiling such sadly
Solving sorrow's solitude,
Simple sorrow's shambles shall seem,
Sombre sorrows shall sing,
"So sorry, Senorita Selena,
Something stupid said Sorrow."

That's 6 letters done now. 9 more to go.

- Vinaykrishnan.

P.S. Thanks Baby for the dictation. Love you.

Ramblings. As always.

I have noticed that many things make me happy. For no reason as such. But just because it's there. Or because it's happened. Some are things of real beauty. Some are weird. Some simply make me gaze at them for a few moments and smile inside before I turn my thoughts away to the more mundane things in life.

Rain. Seeing a sparrow hopping about. All the cables and wires entangled behind my PC. Leaves in the sunlight. Many tabs on my browser. My tattoos. I love my tattoos. I wish I could see the one my shoulder as well without having to look at the mirror. But I guess that's why I like this one the most.

Vinyl Record (LP) Players. The pics of my niece on Facebook. Cobwebs. Cobwebs are so beautiful especially when it has just rained and the sunlight filters through it. Every strand shines like multi-colored silk threads. And it gently vibrates with each movement of the spider on it. A trap, but a beautiful one.

A lot more things. But right now, I'd rather just not write about it. I've lost the mood to write.

I even like that I at least have the freedom of not writing if I don't want to. That I am not obliged to complete a post just because I have started it.

This, too, is beautiful.

- Vinaykrishnan.