The art of Extreme Sleeping

The art of extreme sleeping is not something that can develop overnight. Its hard. It takes months, no… possibly even years to perfect. The state of blissful unconsciousness is something that usually fills me with a sense of well being and content. If you follow the path of perfecting this art rigorously, you will have discovered one of the finest pleasures in life.

After all, what are dreams made of if not from sleep?




Give me a chair, and I will sleep soundly. I do not find a pillow necessary, but I would always appreciate one. That’s on my top 3 list of gifts I would like—pillows. (All my darling friends reading this, please note ).

I am happiest on the weekend snuggled in bed lost amidst my multitude of pillows. Edrea does NOT share her pillows. Given that I live away from home, my sleeping habits are not as actively discouraged when I go home , and of course in Pune I am the big boss.My friends know my priorities very clearly. Its sleep first, the rest comes after I open my eyes.

Being a firm believer in the power of afternoon siesta’s, I cannot help being disappointed that our current U.S.-driven culture has not stopped to think sufficiently and consider the wonders that a power nap can do. Each to his own after all. I prefer the wonders of an action packed 6-7 hours, rather than a rather than an in-between 8 hours any day.

Tips to sleep:

* Pretend that you have to wake up. It always works for me.
* Study something. Text books have always worked wonders.
* Watch a boring movie or sitcom. I have fallen asleep this way too.
* Eat a lot. Obvious.
* Look at the picture of the yawning baby at the start of this post.

These should work. If they don’t, I would think its because you have not stopped thinking. Remember what I said in the beginning “Its hard.”

Groan! Now I am feeling all wooozy. Gd’ nite … Gd’ morning … Gd’

To read -- Open by Andre Agassi

We usually write reviews for books that we have read. I haven’t read this one, but somehow I feel too excited by the undercurrents that surround it to ignore it. Open—By, Andre Agassi.



Andre Agassi is a man that I would love to meet. Not because of himself, but because he married my all-time favorite tennis star, Steffi Graf. I was in school those days and remember quite clearly the excitement I use to feel when I used to watch her matches on T.V. with my father. Those memories are part of my favorites. Why did I like her? Well... wasn’t she daddy’s girl, just as I was

Getting back to Agassi (that’s what he will be referred to from now). The wild child. Enfant Terrible. Quasi-cripple. And after reading an excerpt from his book, reproduced by NPR that I recommend you all read, I call him “human”. He gets as temperamental as all of us at times, may be more.

The news going around these days is about how he absolutely “hates” tennis. Can you take that from a former world number #1 tennis player? Love and Hate sure are strange bed fellows.

The book is his autobiography. I believe he spared no one. Not himself, not his game. And I definitely believe he loves them both. In his book though he has admitted to drug use that he had previously denied, I believe that his legacy will not be tarnished by it. His reputation has not only lasted through many years, but has also been put through the paces of his own personal trials and tribulations.
He had some rather interesting beliefs. One of them was that “image is everything”.

Now it has become know that his previously famous longish hair was actually a wig he wore to cover a bald spot. In fact, he even blames his loss in the 1990 French Open Final was because his mind was more on his wig than his match. He said something to the effect of “I prayed before the match … so that my wig would stay on!” He eventually went bald after his maturity started setting in.

His return to tennis in 1998 after most of his earlier contemporaries had retired, was based no longer based solely on his previously deadly combination of his skill and youth, but was now dependent on his new-found fitness that somehow compounded his skill. He was back with a bang.

I would not consider him as the poster boy for tennis. But I am definitely going to buy that book.

Movie Review: Julie and Julia

Well.. this is a habit I missed .. my blogging!! :)

Anyway getting back to the main topic under discussion–Julie and Julia.



Released a while back, it tells the story of two serventless lasses in their own separate times, and how the love of cooking unites them (in a way).

Julia Child is the wife of an American foreign service officer who has just come to Paree (Paris , but I just love saying it the way the French do ;) ) sometime after the 1st or 2nd world war. She is looking for ways to do something, as being a decorative ornament in her husbands life just does not suit her gregarious personality. After multiple try’s (and failures) she finally realizes, thanks to her adorably sweet husband that what she really likes to do is eat!! (Yeah right. And I thought I was one of the last eating lover around).

So she resolves to get a diploma from the advanced course of some culinary college, where with her never-say-die attitude and happy-go-lucky nature she wins over the master chef (you have to see it to believe it, cause when she started that course she didn’t know how to even chop an onion :P ). Then comes the major plot of how she writes her world-winning French cooking book (the book is real people)…

Getting to Julie now. She is our 21st century girl next door, who loves her cooking, and is stuck in a job that she can’t stand. She is drowning in the misery of being the least accomplished of all her friends who are busy chasing mullti-million dollar deals. Having a knack of leaving things unfinished, she is trying to turn things around with the help of her amazingly wonderful hubby (girls eat your eyes out with this guy), who with his wholesome charm and optimistic attitude, convinces Julie to finish Julia’s cookery book of some 500+ recipes in 365 days (that’s one year), and blog about her experiences.

She faces some questions all of us bloggers asked ourselves at one point of time like, does anyone eVeR read my blog :( ???!!! It makes her more real for me.

The challenges Julie faces as she embarks on this seemingly impossible journey is what makes this story endearing in its I’m-the-girl-nest-door-who-is-not-perfect plot. Oh yes… and how can I forget the amazing shots of the various yummy french food.

This movie reminds me of the amazing feeling of a warm baguette with butter (Oh yes.. did I mention, this movie supports what I have been saying all along… you can NEVER have enough of butter!! )….

Bon Appetite Mes Amies!!

Summary: Watch it!