Tejaswi's Blog

Story of survival in Rwanda

Tejaswi Van der Walt — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 10:38:57

I am reading a book called Left to Tell by a very courageous and inspiring woman from Rwanda called Immaculee Ilibagiza. Immaculee survived the genocide that killed her parents and all but one of her siblings by hiding with 6 other girls in the tiny bathroom of a kind hearted Hutu for 91 days while the slaughter raged around her. Her Chrisitian faith and intense prayer carried her through the terrible ordeal and has allowed her to move forward and forgive those who killed her family in the most brutal fashion imaginable. I was fortunate to briefly meet Immaculee and I was struck by her tremedous poise and compassion. The book is written in a very straightforward and simple prose and her dveotion to God and her inner strength shine through.

Brunch at the Pink Pony

Tejaswi Van der Walt — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 13:05:17

This morning I went with some friends to the Pink Pony for brunch:

178 Ludlow St
New York City, NY
(212) 253-1922
Cross Street: Between Houston and Stanton

The cuisine is basically French bistro with a few eccentric exceptions. The attraction of the Pony on a Sunday is that it is relatively easy to get a seat while other eateries in the area (eg the Clinton Street Baking Company) are jammed with lines of people out the front. They do a very nice eggs florentine and the omelets are good too. I had the special which was a frittata with asparagus, tomato and parmesan which was delicious if not hearty. The coffee is good but not great. Still the atmosphere in the cafe is laid back and mellow. To get there take the F train to Delancey and walk up Ludlow.

The best falafel in Queens

Tejaswi Van der Walt — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 00:12:57

I live in Jamaica, Queens, very close to Flushing which is one of the bigger Jewish neighbourhoods in New York so there is no shortage of great falafel joints to choose from. My favourite place, however is a little bit of a secret even among long time locals and I suspect it has more than a little to do with the name: Hapisgah Steak House - I can only assume that the name has put all the vegetarians in the vicinity off because the food at this restaurant is outstanding. The clientele of the restaurant are almost unanimously Jewish and largely Israeli judging by the lack of English conversation. At lunch time you can get a falafel sandwich for around $5 with your choice of humus, tahina, fried mushrooms, turkish salad, baba ghanouj, israeli salad, french fries - whatever. The bread is made fresh on the premises as are the falafel and they are sensational. In the evening, the Special Combination Salad Platter is my pick and it is enough to serve two. Finish up with some turkish coffee - delicious.

Ajax photo gallery scripts

Tejaswi Van der Walt — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 17:52:49

I found a couple of nice Ajax photo gallery scripts with nice transitions and features.

Based on the beautiful work done by Scott Upton at Uptonic and featured at Couloir.
Download it here
MooShow - is a simple javascript/css slide show based on moo.fx the superlightweight javascript effects library, written with prototype.js. It is similar to the one above but is more customisable.
Download it here