In the past, I have made a few variations of this gin based drink – Viking Corpse Reviver #2, Cutch Courage Corpse Reviver #2, and the storied Corpse Reviver #2 from London that was rumored to be an antidote to a hangover.
This one is a slight variation – this uses 1.5 ounces of brandy, 0.75 ounces of cognac and 0.75 ounces of sweet vermouth. (Some use apple brandy instead of cognac)
I do not know the name of this flower – or for that matter most of the flowers in Sharmila’s garden. Need to ask Sharmila about it. But I love the unique color. Look at the distinctive pattern in one one or two petals. Reminds me of the gulmohar tree we had in our elementary school in Durgapur and how one petal used to be a variegated one while the rest were plain red.
Sharmila could not remember the name of the flower immediately. But these are seasonal ones. The come right in the beginning of fall and withering away soon. The first thing that it reminds me of is the wood carvings that used to come out of the pencil sharpener in India (there was no mechanical pencil then).
The iPhone does a great job with macro photos. You can see the single pollen drops off the pistil.
Saw most of my classmates from IIT-Chennai Computer Science – 85-89 batch – together (albeit virtually) for the first time after 1989. I never had a chance to go for any of the college reunions. Of the twenty odd classmates that showed up today – we missed only a couple here and there and one who we unfortunately lost at too early an age – I have met less than one third of them in my travels. Need to fix that once travel starts back up again.
Thru the call, I learnt about how life has unfolded for all of them. Remarkably, everyone seems to have done so well. One thing I did not realize is how many of them have chosen to stay in the academics area. Unlike me, most of them came to this country after school to pursue higher degrees in Computer Science. Many have proceeded to become professors in renowned colleges like U.VA, Penn State, Carnegie Melon, Georgia Tech and so on.
Of the ones that went the corporate route, what struck me is how most of them went to the big names – I heard Google, Microsoft mentioned many times and then Facebook and Amazon. My guess is these large companies have very different scales of computational issues that attract top talent like my classmates.
And finally there were a couple of entrepreneurs too!
A distinct pattern I noticed is that folks who were into music have kept up with their passion. Did not quite catch if those who were into sports have kept up with the same.
One big difference from my MBA schoolmates (coincidentally, one of the above friends and I went to IIM-Ahmedabad to do MBA right after school) is the geographical dispersion. Most of my IIT friends are in the USA – with a few in India and a couple shuttling between USA and India. Only one is in the UK. Contrast that to my MBA friends – most are in India or South East Asia – especially Singapore and Hong Kong – and other financial hubs like London and Dubai. And only a very small proportion are in the USA.
Good news is that we did not discuss anything about Computer Science – I would have been out of my depths in about a nanosecond!! We talked about our families and personal and professional lives.
I say this with all honesty – it is fairly humbling to realize that I actually went to the same classes as these folks. I know – to a fair degree, what I am good at and I know – to a large degree what I am not good at. Which is why I am still in disbelief that I managed to spend four hours with these luminaries…
The last time we ran together was over four years back. Bill put in 10 miles, I put in 14 miles and Molly put in 30 miles that day! And my legs hurt.
Compare that to today. All three of us ran 4.5 miles. I bust my left calf muscle. Had to drag myself the rest of the day. And Molly is getting ready for her “Oh-thirty-plus”th marathon/ultamarathon in under a month and half.
It was great fun to catch up with Bill and Molly. They always have funny stories. Also, Molly still has the habit of wishing Good Morning to any runner/walker who passes by…
“Naye kapde badal kar jaun kahan
Aur bal banaun kis ke liye
Wo shakhs to shahar hi chhor gaya
Main bahaar jaaun kiske liye
Jis dhup ki dil ko thandak thi
Wo dhup usi ke saath gayee
In jalti bujhti galiyon mein
Ab khak udaoon kiske liye
Wo shahar mein tha to uske liye
Auron se milna parta tha
Ab aise-waise logon ke naaz
Main uthaun kiske liye
Muddat se koi aaya na gayaa
Sunsaan padi hai ghar ki faza
In khali kamron mein ‘Nasir’
Ab shamma jalaun kis k liye”
The rendition for this evening was by Ustad Gulshan Mir – dad of the Noorani sisters.
Picked this cocktail up from The Cocktail Project. Three parts bourbon, one part sweet vermouth, Angostura bitters with muddled lime, lemon and orange.
The muddling of lime, lemon and orange is done separately in the glass itself. The bourbon, vermouth and bitters is shaken with ice separately and then strained into the glass.
