'Twas a rainy day. Sis and me had spent the day lazing around and all we needed to top off a perfect day was a perfectly gooey chocolate cake. So, I put on my chef's hat and came up with what is my best cake recipe ever.

For those of you who have never baked a normal chocolate cake before, here's the ingredients. For those of you who know the drill skip to the last two magic ingredients.

* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 cup superfine sugar or just sugar.
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* About 100 gm butter- salted works just fine.
* 2 large eggs
* Vanilla extract for flavor.
* 1/2 cup of curd/ milk (for if you use one egg)
* Cocoa AND drinking chocolate
* Secret (Not so secret after this, but whatever) Ingredient No1. Marie gold biscuits or (any other biscuits- I use these because they have a very mild flavor and don't complement the chocolate).
* Secret (ditto) Ingredient No2. Jam. Preferably grape/strawberry. Natural. Not Kissan and all ok?

Now, first add the butter and sugar into a food processor and beat until smooth. Next add flour in half cups interspersed by an egg- or you could just put it all in together. You could use one egg and the half cup of curd/ milk. Else, two eggs should do it.

Add about a teaspoon of vanilla extract and the baking powder.

Next, you need to add only about one large spoon of cocoa and about three-four spoons of drinking chocolate- mix the entire thing. If you want more chocolate, add more drinking chocolate, NOT cocoa, unless you like your cake bitter.

The magic bit- to about two teaspoons of the jam add about a teaspoon of milk/hot water, and whisk it into a smooth paste. Add this to your cake batter and give it one last shake.

Grease your baking dish with butter, and dust with a little bit of flour. Put the biscuits (around ten-fifteen) into a plastic bag and crush them using a rolling pin. Crush the slightly larger pieces into finer dust/ smaller pieces using your hand. Layer the baking dish with an even layer of this.

Pour your batter into this. And bake. If you use a microwave oven, bake at 160 using the forced air option for about 10- 11 mins. Bake for an extra 1-2 mins depending on how "gooey" you want it to be.

When done, dust with a little icing sugar, and serve!! Alternatively, take a fork and dig in.

I dunno what it is, or maybe I do, but there's something about meeting up with old friends. Mine, thankfully, aren't THAT old, as yet anyway... We don't see each other everday anymore, spend 8 hours sitting in classes together and then another 2 hours at some doggone tuition and then another few hours on the phone, jabbering about something we managed to forget to talk about. Imagine that.

Actually, there's nothing to imagine about it, each of us has most definately at least one person, with whom you'd have felt this. Or did I just get lucky? I have at least 12 of them, on last count. Did I say lucky?!!!

Whether it's just the familiar faces or the security you find in something that's known to you... Or maybe it's both. I know it's not always going to be there, in fact I was pretty sure the time I had come to finally let go, but apparently not. Sure, it's different. But it's there. Sure, it'll be even more different, but at least the memories will be there.

There was and always is a lot of letting go involved... You don't share day-to-day secrets, it's probably not easy and at sometimes the easiest to make your confessions, it's a lot of giving in to the fact that maybe they've moved on and have found better friends, it's a lot of question marks in your mind about what and who your dearest friends have become even though deep down they are essentially the same... it's the same drumming on my head, it's the same making of the movie "pen" (in which I star), it's the same teachers and their stories... Which I don't think we are going to tire of anytime soon. You'd think their effect and "funnyness" wared off after 6 years!

If I relate some of that stuff to you, you'll probably give me a weird look; ok a weirder look, happy? But with them, it's still hilarious enough to create an uproar. I think we've seen each other at our worst, through some of the toughest times, and some of the calmest and simplest and happiest times. I guess that's where the bond lies.

It was an absolute pleasure seeing everyone after ages, and right when I needed it. Just plain ol' laughter and commotion and acceptance. I dunno how that happened... the acceptance.. I was the "late entry" in the "gang"... but somehow, they let me in. And I'm forever indebted. Will be.

Anyway, that's enough of that. I hope each of us finds that solace, peace, calmness and a sense of joy and... just being with at least one friend. I hope each of my friends, you guys, always find good "better friends", if you must. May you always know, that there'll always be this grandma to come back to. And loads of happy things.

Yours forever sthupitly.

P.S : Results, are FINALLY, finally out. I cleared everything. Not that good, but managed to fit into the cream of the class. Can do better. Passed with warning.