Solid Smoke

Today I tasted the result of our first ever home-made wine experiment - and it was awesome. The wine turned out to be sweet and reasonably strong. I followed the popular instructions from Kosukadi . We used only common ingredients - regular dark grapes and yeast. Didn't look for any fancy grape varieties or special yeast. The only deviation from the recipe was that I didn't add any egg white. And perhaps I slightly overdosed on the wheat too. Don't know if that has any effect anyway. I followed the instructions thoroughly. The ingredients were mixed in a sterilized glass jar. As instructed, for the first 21 days, I opened it regularly and mixed the contents with a clean spoon. I might have missed a day or two, though. On the 21st day, the contents were filtered and the solid residue was removed. The filtered brew was stored back in the jar for about another 40 days (no daily stirring required). And today, I siphoned off the clear liquid from the top in ...

Philips and the Monkey Pen is a children's film that showcases the innocence of childhood. The central character is Ryan Philips (played by Sanoop, actress Sanusha's brother), a mischievous school boy who has a special dread for Mathematics. His parents (played by Jayasurya & Remya Nambisan) are good folks who love him and generally let him do whatever it is that he does. Ryan is exceptionally bad at mathematics. He is terrified of the subject and hates the teacher (played by Vijay Babu) who regularly mocks and canes him for not doing his homework. Ryan's quest for a solution to his maths homework chores first takes him to his love interest - Joan. After that route fails, he stumbles up on a magic pen - The Monkey Pen , from his grand father's (Joy Mathew) antique collection. The pen is believed to have magical powers and had even helped Robert Bristow to build Kochi's Willingdon island . The rest of the story is about how Ryan's days are transformed ...