Ritendra's Blog

Most of us walks into a cake shop and buys a cake, not only because it's fashionable but also convenient. But no cake shop product no matter how sophisticated or delicate it tastes or sounds can ever match the joy of putting in your mouth a hot home made cake made with love. Making cake is simple though quite laborious, but what matters is the ratio of the ingredients. It might be those Ramsay Gordon Great escapes videos I watched on youtube that activated my cake baking instincts. Cooking is at once child's play and adult joy. And cooking done with care is an act of love. Now what better thing to start than a chocolate cake. Now after experimenting with 8-10 different kind of cakes recipes in the last 2 months I have decided to share a foolproof recipe for beginners. And always start out with a larger pot than what you think you need. Now the ingredients needed are with their quantity - 1) Butter or olive oil - 2 cups 2) Flour - 2 cups 3) Cocoa powder - 1 cup 4) Che...

On June 2015 one evening I was watering the plants on my terrace. After watering the plants on the eastern side of the terrace then watered the northern side pots and then when I was facing and watering the plant pots on the western side of the terrace, on which side our house faces, I raised my head and looked on the left side (which is to south) and saw a small 10 watt dim bulb size light coming towards north sky. As the Barrackpur Indian Air Force Runway is just 5 km north-east of my house and the Kolkata International Airport just 15 km south-east of my house, initially I had thought that it might be a small aircraft or Mi 17 helicopter very far (IAF Mi17 helicopter flies all day over my house). But the light which was travelling very fast towards north suddenly decreased acceleration and was still in the sky, without any noise. A helicopter or plane cannot do that. Was it using a different technology? An anti gravity technology that allows it to hover? And how did it achieve so mu...

Cricket as we know it today has reached a stage in its evolution taking a trajectory particularly in the last two decade that most of the followers of the sport could not foresee. It must also be acknowledged as an universal truth that any activity controlled or executed by humans has to reflect the vagaries and social milieu of the human society as a whole. The sport of Cricket is no different to that universal truth. In the world order Socialism and communism has given way to Capitalism or consumerism. Manufacturing based Economy has given way to knowledge economy. Films and Television serials the world over bears ample testimony to that fact. Films like “Good Bye Lenin”, “Wall E” “Inside Job” are examples of it. In India the criminalisation of the post-Industrial economy and worshiping criminals as heroes is reflected in films like the Doom series, Don series etc. The laid back atmosphere of cricket has also given way to maddeningly dynamic t20. The smooth cover drives have given ...

It might seem abnormally strange for a person of Academics being an active motorbike enthusiast or rider. There would be long sadomasochistic gaze from students and other Professor colleagues when I entered the college on my Yamaha Fzs, while revving the tiny 150cc life out of it but with all the strength the 150cc heart could pump it failed to produce that roaring sound of a cruiser. But nonetheless the Yamaha FZS had sporting genes in its looks and that was appealing enough. It was also a paragon of ride and handling. I never hesitated to ride the bike and letting my car take a nap in my garage. Ever since the invention of fire and wheel changed the magnitude and scope of the human race and made humans settle in colonies which eventually turned into towns and cities, there was no invention that could reunite humans with the life of adventure he had long left behind. Layers and layers of domesticity woven around us by the unifying mechanical civilization was robbing us of our indiv...

My father being brought up in the socialistic upper middle class Bengali house of his maternal grandfather during 1960's had developed severe apathy to the idea of luxury, and he still maintains that apathy maybe owing to his hard working days as an officer at New India Assurance or maybe because of the subject accountancy which he studied at college. But this wasn't just him or that particular household. The working class of the Bengali society from clerks to Managing Directors were all followers of socialistic simple living. As my father's maternal grandfather was the Senior General manager of The Royal Insurance Company he unlike other Indians at that period was able to buy several cars. My fathers paternal grandfather Shri Rajendranath Bhattacharya had a GM Buick in 1940's. It is to be noted that during that era cars were an extreme luxury, only royal families could afford one. At that time in Burdwan only 2 families had cars, the Burdwan Maharaja and my grea...