Ci Defaid 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇮🇳

lights strung up outside the apartment building for diwali

rangoli that was made outside the poolside restaurant and The Club

There's signs of the season (Diwali) everywhere.

a wine key with a cork still on the screw

Sometimes you just have to break out a bottle of grand reserve Cab...

random photo from Bombay traffic showing a young woman riding pillion on a motor bike with a couple of auto rickshaws in the background

Had uttapam for breakfast at The Club that were too salty, then an Uber drive home where the driver couldn't even follow the map and had to U-turn to get back on track. Only plus was the building dog, Chickoo, gave me a warm greeting when I arrived.

Cover from Carmina Burana recording, featuring Gundala Janowitz, Gerhard Stolze and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. (Recording is from 1968!)

Now playing: Carmina Burana -- in the hope that playing it will purge my mind of all woes and miseries...

Happy Diwali display at The Club

'tis the season -- Diwali, to be more precise. Diwali greetings to everyone. #india #bharat #diwali

basic ingredients for pulao: grated fresh ginger, fresh turmeric and garlic. Dry spices are: cinnamon, cardamom (green), cardamom (black) star anise, mace, cloves, black cumin and bay leaves.

Just a simple pulao (this time tomato pulao) in the making (alt text enumerates the spices).

Our new kitchen is a mess of workers as they do the necessary preparation work before the new kitchen cabinets arrive

The kitchen in our new place is a hive of work as the necessary preparations get done before the cabinets arrive. Nothing fundamental -- just little adjustments and tweaks, but it's messy work. Hopefully it will all be done by EOD today.

Fridge touch panel on the fridge door controls temperatures in fridge and freezer

So we have a fridge in our new place. It has a control panel on the door to adjust temperatures. Now this is something that we need to do once in a blue moon, but now just brushing against the panel re-programs the temperature up or down as may be. A triumph of marketing over common sense UI.

Our new four burner gas cooking top

Well now we have the ability to cook in our new place. I would have preferred an induction top, but the place isn't wired for an electric cooking top.

freshly made methi pulao -- rice with fenugreek leaves and vegetables

Been down with a heavy cold last two days, so today I felt sufficiently back to normal that I decided to make methi (fenugreek) pulao.

While I appreciate your point, it pains me to see people use the word "proves" about Science. A scientist sets up a hypothesis (or theory) and then *verifies* it against Nature. The result, to a given degree of probability, allows us to claim that our theory is a true description of the real world.

pot with porridge beside a small jar of shiro miso

I have a sore throat and am coughing incessantly, so simple breakfast today: miso porridge

Mug of jasmine tea, where the mug bears the name of my old company, Intelligroup

Relaxing with a mug of Jasmine tea

Baloons spells out 12 for our grand daughter's birthday

Harry Potter themed birthday party for our grand daughter's birthday

... aubergine slices after baking

Done!

slices of aubergine, coated with spice mixture, then dipped in a mixture of almond meal and semolina, ready to go into the oven

Aubergine slices, spiced and "breaded" with a mixture of almond meal and semolina. They'll get baked for about 20mins @ 220C.

First usable shot of espresso

Done

Cleaning the espresso machine in progress

Ah the joys of having an espresso machine! Cleaning in progress.

Figure of Durga overcoming the shape-shifting asura, Mahishasura.

Durga puja is mostly celebrated in the eastern states, but Bombay (aka Mumbai) has a sizable Bengali population, so figures like this are not at all uncommon in the streets.

I can report that the evening was relaxing and enjoyable. Chef Synthia spoke personally to us and recommended certain dishes that turned out to be rather yummy.

The Club has a special Singaporean food event this weekend

This evening I'm taking my family to The Club for a Singaporean treat. Guest chef is Synthia from Makan Lah. The Club brings in a guest chef several times a year and it's always worth taking advantage of.

I had to correct this multiple times where a dev blindly collects the IP address without anyone (QA?) checking that it is correct. We needed IP address for forensic tests (read: looking for people who cheat), so the reverse proxy IP address doesn't help very much.

The Jane Goodall Institute has learned this morning, Wednesday, October 1, 2025, that Dr. Jane Goodall DBE, UN Messenger of Peace and Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute has passed away due to natural causes. She was in California as part of her speaking tour in the United States. Dr. Goodall's discoveries as an ethologist revolutionized science, and she was a tireless advocate for the protection and restoration of our natural world.

RIP to Jane Goodall :(

black cat staring intently on a grasshopper

This cat is fascinated by that grasshopper, batting it with a paw every time it moves.

I love visiting the Lotus Baha'i temple. It's beautiful from the outside and a profound experience to sit in silence inside.

Chikoo has been here as a building dog since she was a little puppy.

The other day Chikoo was all wound up and excited as I was leaving in the morning for my swim. Most days she's still sleeping at that time. She's looking at me rather expectantly -- despite having just received lots of fuss and love -- I don't know what triggered her that day.

We'll move into our new place long before they start, of course. I don't know yet if we will sell out to the builder or wait until the new building is complete to take possession of the new apartment. There's some tricky tax stuff that will be the decider.

Our current place has taken the first formal step [ Section 79(A) SGM ] towards redevelopment. That means that the building will be torn down and replaced with a new taller and bigger building -- something that is happening everywhere in Bombay right now.

Akuri -- Parsi style soft scrambled eggs, served with breakfast potatoes and a tomato

Wife had ordered a massage, which in our cramped space meant being in the way, so once again I treated myself to breakfast at The Club this morning. They do a nice Parsi style scrambled egg

Heavy rainfall on the swimming pool water

It's raining today. It rained all the time during my morning swim and after my 70 odd laps were done I enjoyed the sensuous pleasure of standing and letting the rain pour down on my body for a while. A beautiful feeling.