maverick

Funeral Blues

2010-06-05T12:10:00.000-07:00

A lovely poem by W.H. Auden

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He is Dead.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

From the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral
on you tube

Cry Me A River lyrics

2010-05-11T13:50:00.000-07:00

One of the songs i liked very much ...

Now you say you're lonely
You cry the whole night through
Well, you can cry me a river, cry me a river
I cried a river over you

And now you say you're sorry
For being so untrue
Well, you can cry me a river, cry me a river
'Cause I cried a river over you

You drove me nearly out of my head
While you never shed a tear, babe
Remember, I remember all that you said
You told me love was too plebeian
Told me you were through with me

And now you say you love me
Well, just to prove that you do
Why don't you cry me a river, cry me a river?
'Cause I cried a river over you, over you

You say you love me, but you lie

Now you say you love me
Well, just to prove that you do
Come on and cry me a river, oh, cry me a river
I cried a river over you, I cried a river over you

I cried a river, now you can too
Cry me a river, cry me a river

[Manasamarthyadata] Important Announcement regarding 6th-May Ram Rajya Pravachan

2010-05-03T03:12:00.000-07:00

Hari om All,

On Thursday 29th April 2010, Our beloved Sadguru Param Poojya Shree
Aniruddha Bapu has declared that within 72hrs after his discourse on Ram
Rajya, the entire `Pravachan' will be available to all
Bapu-Bhaktas in three languages namely Marathi, Hindi, and English.

We have proposed to make this `Pravachan' available to all
members of Manasamarthyadata Newsletter Group, as well as it will be
posted to our AADM website also.

Memberships to Manasamarthyadata Newsletter are open to all who are
willing to know about P.P. Sadguru Bapu and his Bhakti and Seva
activities.

For memberships, send email on the any of the following two email IDs:

membership@manasamarthyadata. com
md_moderator2@ yahoo.com

Spread this word to as many Bapu-Bhaktas as possible.

Hari om
Manasamarthyadata Newsletter Team

મુબારક તુજ્હને

2010-04-07T07:14:00.000-07:00

મળ્યા આપડે કાલની વાત છે
છુટા પડી જસુ આજની વાત છે

મુબારક તુજ્હને યે ઘડી યે દિવસ
મળ્યા સજન જે ઘડી જે દિવસ

સખી રી તારા લગન થશે
શાહનાયી વાગશે , ધૂળ વાગશે
સાખી રી તારી વિદાઈ થશે
આમારી આખોં માં ગંગા જમના વેહ્શે

તારી દરયેક યાદને
તારી મુલાકાત ને
સાજાવી રાખશું હ્રિદય માં
પરોવી રાખશું મંડા માં

પણ સખીરી
આ આજનો પલ
મુબારક છે તુજ્હને

શું ભૂલ થઇ.....

2010-04-06T07:10:00.000-07:00

તમારી નારાઝગી ની શું છે વાજા
કેમ આપી રહયા છો મુજ્હને આ સજા

થઇ છે મુજ્હથી નાની ખાતા
પણ દિલ પર નહિ આ લેતા

કેમ છે આટલી બધી નારાઝગી
આ વાત નથી આટલી વ્યાજબી

તમરો પત્ર વાચવા તરસી રહયો ચુ
એક ગોસ્તી કરી શકું યાચના કરી રહ્યો ચુ

નાં થઇ જતા મુજ્હ થી દૂર
કઈ નથી મારું તમારા સિવાય મારા હઝૂર

માફી માંગી રહ્યો ચુ દિલથી
નહિ મળ્યા જો જલ્દી થી
રહી જશે આફ્સૂસ શું ભૂલ થઇ.....

One of the poems written now few years ago some 8-9 years ago.Now have lost touch with writing may be will get into rhythm soon..

जब सामने वो आ जाते है

2010-04-05T06:28:00.001-07:00

जब सामने वो आ जाते है
ना जाने क्या हो जाता है

साँसे मेरी थम जाती है
और धड़कन बस रुक जाती है

तूफ़ान सा दिल में उठा जाता है
और एक प्यास सी दिल में जगा जाता है

छीनकर चैन मेरा , दर्द दे जाता है
मात्वाले नैन जब भी मिला जाता है

कहनी होतो है बात कोई
कुछ और ही हम कह जाते है

की हमने सँभालने की नाकाम कोशिश कई
पर न जाने क्या हो जाता है
................जब सामने वोह आजाते है.....

Carrot & Onion Fritters

2010-04-04T04:33:00.000-07:00

Its been long time had been cooking something special. Well not really special it was a quickie and lovely at least i thought so.

Ingredients
1) Carrot
2) Spring Onions
3) Coriander
4) Two eggs
5) Chickpea Flour
6) Grater
7) Frying Pan
8) Large Mixing Bowl
9) Salt

Cooking time 15 min.

a) Grate the Carrots
b) Cut the spring onions into small pieces
c) Chop the coriander

d) Mix all the ingredients in large mixing bowl

e) Break the eggs into the mixture (could use just the egg whites, i fancy whole egg)
In case you are not eggeatrian you could use Oil.

f) Mix all the ingredients well.

g) Heat up the frying pan add some oil

h) Take small amount of mixture and pat it on the hot frying pan

i) Turn the fritter upside down after you think it has cooked at the bottom.Best way to know if the fritter has been cooked is to give slight push horizontally and if it moves it has cooked at the bottom
j) Cook on both sides well
h) Wallah, it done

દિલ પૂછે છે મારૂં....

2010-02-05T09:57:00.000-08:00

A nice forward from some one...

દિલ પૂછે છે મારૂં, અરે દોસ્ત તું ક્યાં જાય છે?
જરાક તો નજર નાંખ, સામે કબર દેખાય છે.

ના વ્યવહાર સચવાય છે, ના તહેવાર સચવાય છે,
દિવાળી હોય કે હોળી, બધું ઓફીસમાં જ ઉજવાય છે.
આ બધું તો ઠીક હતું, પણ હદ તો ત્યાં થાય છે,
લગ્નની મળે કંકોત્રી ત્યાં શ્રીમંતમાં માંડ જવાય છે.
દિલ પૂછે છે મારૂં, અરે દોસ્ત તું ક્યાં જાય છે?.....

પાંચ આંકડાનો પગાર છે, પણ પોતાના માટે પાંચ મીનીટ પણ ક્યાં વપરાય છે?
પત્નીનો ફોન બે મિનીટમાં કાપીએ પણ ક્લાયન્ટનો કોલ ક્યાં કપાય છે?
ફોનબુક ભરી છે મિત્રોથી પણ કોઇનાય ઘેર ક્યાં જવાય છે?
હવે તો ઘરના પ્રસંગો પણ હાફ-ડે માં ઉજવાય છે.
દિલ પૂછે છે મારૂં, અરે દોસ્ત તું ક્યાં જાય છે?....

કોઇને ખબર નથી આ રસ્તો ક્યાં જાય છે?
થાકેલા છે બધા છતાં, લોકો ચાલતા જ જાય છે.
કોઇક ને સામે રૂપિયા તો કોઇક ને ડોલર દેખાય છે.
તમે જ કહો મિત્રો શું આને જ જીંદગી કહેવાય છે?
દિલ પૂછે છે મારૂં, અરે દોસ્ત તું ક્યાં જાય છે?....

બદલાતા આ પ્રવાહમાં આપણા સંસ્કાર ધોવાય છે.
આવનારી પેઢી પુછશે, સંસ્કૃતિ કોને કહેવાય છે?
એક વાર તો દિલને સાંભળો, બાકી મન તો કાયમ મુંઝાય છે.
ચાલો જલદી નિર્ણય લઇએ, હજુ ય સમય બાકી દેખાય છે.
દિલ પૂછે છે મારૂં, અરે દોસ્ત તું ક્યાં જાય છે?
જરાક તો નજર નાંખ, સામે કબર દેખાય છે.

Festive Season around

2009-12-24T00:24:00.000-08:00

Yea, that time of the year, X'massy feeling all Xmas songs playing on the radio feels like Diwali to me :). Its nice to see all the things upbeat and nice.
Merry Christmas to all.

Pyaas!!!

2009-12-01T15:37:00.000-08:00

Lo chaa gaya phir kohra jaade ka
beet gaya aur ek sawaan tere intezaar ka

yeh zaalim rute aati hai
tere milne ki pyaas aur badha jaati hai

aab neer nahi bahati yeh aakhiya
aur nahi gaate koi geet aab mere hooth

har aahat par kadam jo aagan ka rukh karte they
muye teri tasveer tak bhi nahi phuchate

bus yeh kambaqkht dil hi toh hai
jo manta nahi

har dhadkan par tera naam
umeede karna bus iska kaam

laakho sajaye hai isne sapne
tum hi toh mere apne

is bar aavoge tum
hum tum jo bheeg jaye woh saavan phir laavoge tum

tere daras ki aas hai
bus tere milne ki pyaas hai

Interview with GOD

2009-04-28T13:15:00.000-07:00

Well no it wasnt me who interviewd HIM. Who could show light to the Almighty himself. It is just of the links which was forwarded to me by one of my friends. However it is still is intresting thing to watch. This may not be the real interview with GOD but is ceratinly wise words. Situations which almost all of us would face in our life. Atleast , i faced same situation.

Living life in fast lane we never stop by to think WHY? WHAT for? Just if we would give a thought to these things world would be better place to live.Having siad that it is what it is. These things are never going to change.

Hmmm.. thinking about that what if I get Chance to interview GOD what would be my questions.
umm.. i wonder what they would be I guess seeing him would be enough to get me out of all my anxieties.

If you are wondering what I am on about here is the Interview With GOD

Over to Baking

2009-04-13T09:14:00.001-07:00

Have been cooking for a while now, when i say a while it’s almost a year now. It’s been an year i have been in the UK now. So to commemorate this occasion i tried something new. I decided to bake a cake.. Yes , i have no previous experience in baking. Now when i say no experience have baked only once , had an unsuccessful try at making muffins. Right then, Cake it was.
Well to start with i had to go shopping for right ingredients. With my newest jacket which i purchased only last Friday i set out. And tell you what , someone was watching me at the super market well she was a kiddo so i did not pay much heed to her.Some day that someone will come fingers crossed ya..
Any ways baking cake was fun the preparation time was just 15 min. And baking time was 40 min.
So here is the recipe
SAND CAKE
Ingredient's

185 g unsalted butter
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
250 g caster sugar
185 g self raising flour
60 g rice flour
80 ml milk
1) Preheat the oven to 180 C
2)

Melt the butter in the sauce pan
3)

Mix all the ingredients and beat the mixture well so that it becomes thick and creamy.
4)
Pour the mixture into the greased cake tin and get baking....
5) We need to keep checking on the cake with a skewer till it comes out clean.
6)
After it does remove the cake and turn out on wire rack to cool.

I tasted it after a while it was ok. But i would say too sweet. Only thing i did extra was sprinkled almonds on the sides. I was expecting the almonds to stay at the sides but, but they were all clustered in the center. Lovely looking cake? Do think so..well it’s here at least for your view..
Next time i want to make something new but what that is still a secret. Why because i somehow jinx myself as i was going to make muffins this weekend but ended up making cake..Yes yes that’s better but i really want to make that thing which i have in mind so will put it up here and then you can see.

Pic's of me with SnowWoman

2009-02-20T11:04:00.000-08:00

Yes pretty unusual. Last to last week we had a heavy snowfall here and i had planned to make a snowman myself but.... Yes performing role of man and woman does not leave you with enough time; does it?
Any ways my tech lead's wife had come over to the office one day as she was not able to go to hers. The roads were full of ice and were quite treacherous. I had however managed to reach office all the days unlike others i don’t have to drive which is good and bad. But like Andrew says “It is what it is”.Andrew was working from home those days and had popped into the office for some discussion. While he was having his meeting,I had gone to cafeteria to get myself a cup of tea. I was thinking such a wonderful weather (unlike the English who think it was a horrible weather) and just tea that too not our Indian style just some boiled water with tea powder. It would have been so much fun if i could have just sat outside with hot bowl of Maggi and snow falling. Anyways...
When i reached the end of the cafeteria which has glass wall’s I saw a woman making snowman. Both I and Mike wondered who it was..Aah! Mike lovely old chap. Now , i was starting to think must be someone from other company who must be doing it but at second look...Lo, it was Lena. Andrew’s wife. She could not manage to reach to her office so she was accompanying Andrew to ours. Both of them make a lovely couple. Lena is a sunshine girl. The concentration with which she was making the snowman was incredible. She completed the snowman in what may be just 15-20 min. And not like the usual ones as you can see. I went back to desk and started work again.
After a while i remembered Lena, Andrew was in meeting and poor girl was waiting outside all alone (of course in the car) . I thought it will be nice idea to get her in so i popped out to get her in. And that is when she took these pics of mine.
Well you can see exactly why i am calling it snowwoman and not snowman. Lena was teasing me that i was posing with snowwoman as if she was my GF. But i think it appreciable how quick and beautiful she made the snow damsel!! Any ways when she was done taking the pic’s se gave me bowl of chocolates and some food to eat. Lovely sweets from Lovely Lena
And yes Lena is expecting well everyone in the team is excited and happy for her and Andrew.

Rab ne bana di jodi.

2009-02-17T13:17:00.000-08:00

Today one of my best mates Mr S is getting married
Very happy for him. Actually his wife Miss K or should i say Mrs K was also my friend. He was going out with her for many years now very happy to see the pair of them getting the final destiny. Congratulations to both of them. And in another two days time my sister is getting married and in another few days my brother..man its Shaadi season already. Never mind my heartiest congratulations to all the pairs and my prayers to GOD for their happy married life.

Thinking of that what would you require to get married?, really simple yet a complex equation. I would say trust,truthfulness and transparency would be the most important of all. Of course you see people would have different motivation and reasons to get married.
But it hurts the most when they marry for other but the reasons mentioned. Because when you don't trust your partner or you are not truthful about your present or past you end up in a mess. What I believe is when you keep hiding things from your partner i.e. to say you are not transparent about any or other thing you are bound to end in a mess.

Marriage according to me is very sacred thing but when one of the two things wrong it just goes for a toss.Getting old with some one would be a really nice thing.But in this world handful of people enjoy. Many people think it is a compromise they have to live on with. Well no if you think that then you are making a mistake. Well if you are making a compromise then you are spoiling your life and your partners life and your children s lives as well.

After marriage you get into the whole new dimension. All your actions needs to take into account your better half. Never can it be possible that you can drag one end other person would stay behind.

Although people say that marriages are made in heaven i would say well no they are made by us humans. GOD never decides this person marries that person. He has given you free will you are responsible for your actions completely.

All i would say is Look before you leap...

Hanuman Chalisa

2009-01-02T01:40:00.000-08:00

Hari Om all,

During regular Thursday discourse of 1-Jan-2009 P.P. Sadguru Bapu has
asked all of us to chant Hanuman Chalisa consecutively 3 times before
8.15 PM IST tomorrow (3-Jan-2009) . The detail discourse will follow
soon. Please forward this email to all your friends and relatives.

Hari Om

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fKKSurfd6Ys

Manasamarthyadata Newsletter Team

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T02:54:00.000-08:00

Wishing you a very happy new year. This is the first time I really celebrated the New Year. Most of the times it was just keeping awake to see the old man burn just below the window at our house in India. This time though it was a proper party (Courtsey, WeiWei and Manuel). We left early from office on 31st. The New year understandably is a big event here like Diwali for us in India.

With all our contributions to the party we reached home and eagerly waiting for WeiWei and Manuel to feed us with the treat. WeiWei really cooks good chicken. Apparently that was one reason I was insisting on her coming to the party. Actually I had expected she would be cooking at my place but she chose to do so at her place.

Finally the yummy meal arrived of course with our guests (quite ironic). It was a very good meal of Chips,Sushi,Cream soup and Chicken.I had reservations about sushi but the Sushi was nice as well. The newest addition to our work force to our team Ritesh stays with me, he was good company to Manuel who is a Airplane enthusiast. Both seem to get along very well on the topic. While they carried on with their topic; WeiWei and I just looked on to them. All went well except the heating at my place which is terrible. As all of us disclosed their New year resolution, more travels , more flights was the common voice. I have none as yet.

As the clocked chimed twelve we had 12 grapes with each chime and then glass of champagne for all except me . I just had a glass of orange juice. The tradition of twelve grapes comes from Spain. Manuel believes in it strongly. He says one year he did not do it and was not a good one. He says this tradition started from a year in Spain when they had huge harvest of grapes and government decided to get rid of the same through coordinated efforts.

Wishing and hoping that New Year 2009 goes very well and brings us peace, light and happiness we parted.

My Dear Daddy.

2008-12-15T13:38:00.000-08:00

Missing Oxford

2008-11-26T07:30:00.000-08:00

Well just a week gone past and am already missing oxford. While the date to visit
India was coming near i was just desperate to reach home and see my family. but as soon as I reached here and having met my family i was already longing to go back. I don't know what bug has bit me.Mostly seems boredom bug has done the trick. Although having come here to sort out certain matters here i carried on met my "Bade papa" and other family. Rest all did disappoint me Looks like the matter is tough nut to crack and there is no easy solution to it. But i am resolved to sort the same and go as i am going to extend the stay.

I miss Oxford every minute especially the beautiful view of the moon from my bedroom in the night. The foggy mountain tops in the morning. The shopping i use to go to Tesco's in Cowley. The cooking routine i use to have everyday. Believe me cooking is real fun. above all i miss my office and my work mates. We are really good team And also i miss another mate of mine somewhere in the world.

Everyday waking up in the morning and doing nothing all is getting on to my nerves. Not even the internet helps me to get rid of the boredom. Ahh I must be surely missing Crystal. Well, part of life you see. This time i have seen worse things happen to me by far not the worst.

One thing I realized once again in life , people are not what people paint the picture to be. This time I have confronted with yet a another worse lot. People don't honor their own words i mean what kind of person you are. All i can pray to GOD is that they realize their mistake and come clean. I would just like to make clear to
'em that at least be afraid of GOD whom you will have to answer.

Any ways may God bless. although they are doing such bad things i don't have any hard feelings for you.

Ferrari Constructors- McLaren World Champions

2008-11-02T11:22:00.000-08:00

Emotional journey for Felipe ends(for this year). That also means that F1 ends for this year, which also means that i will be hunting new source of entertainment until next year when fresh season starts. Lewis came into the race being favorite however Massa did have a home advantage. Which we saw in how Massa drew throughout the race. The race on whole had ups and downs with rains pouring in just before the start and just before the end. Leave alone emotions of Massa even i was going up and down on my bed. When I saw Vettel passing Lewis I thought he had nailed it. However, when Massa took the chequered flag i wasn't much ecastisc. Which was explained moments later when Glock was passed by Lewis, thus passing over the championship back to Lewis. My heart was with Ferrari was Championship and Constructors title but the best man did win at the end. Lewis had done his job to perfection the McLaren was more reliable than other cars through out the season. But, it was really sad to see Massa robbed of Championship.Also, it was heartening to see Father and son pair of Hamilton's spending the time together giving each other the hug really made me miss some one . No points for guessing who definitely my lovely father. Lewis has definitely made his father proud there. Speaking of that Lewis was robbed of victory last year.Next year with new rules and revived Alonso and Kimi with new pack of talent in Kubica,Vettel the stage is just set right.I expect Massa and Kimi to fight back lets see how the new season pans out then.Congratulations!!!! to Lewis on being the youngest Formula One Champion.

Vegetable Spring Roll

2008-11-01T13:58:00.000-07:00

Had been away from my blog for long time; reason was am very busy with my work at office. Any ways had to get back sometime or the other.Well the day itself started with a phone call from a dear friend. Today i finally managed to do what i had been planning to do from long time now. As you must have been seen from the picture am cooking again. Well I cook everyday I love cooking I can safely say that cooking is my hobby. Well today what I tried was Vegetable Spring roll. The recipe is as below. I am planning to start a new blog let see when it materializes. For that matter I wanted to change the skin of this one but don't know when i will get time. Well this recipe had eluded me for a long time now as i had to hunt for the Spring roll wrappers.Finally tracked it down to a Asian shop. Ready with the wish list bought them from the Tesco's.

Well the Recipe itself is simple only thing it demanded was attention especially in part 2 when you are frying the rolls. Turn your attention away for a minute and you end up burning the rolls.Also, the other part is creating the rolls.

The Ingredients are as below.
1) Spring Roll wrappers
2) 1/2 red peppers, thinly sliced
3) 1 carrot grated
4) Some bean sprouts
5) 1/4 white cabbage, shredded
6) Rice noodles,soaked in water
7) 1 tsp Oyster sauce
8) 1 tsp Soy sauce
9) 1 tsp sugar
10) 1 liter of Veg Oil
11) 1 Egg beaten

Earlier when i had not eaten the sprig roll before any time in my life. I use to think that the recipe was called spring roll as the rolls might be having some spring effect when you touch them. But, looking at the ingredients i realize that these are the ingredients which are available in China early in the Spring and hence the name.

1) Heat some oil in wok/pan

2) Add the shredded white cabbage to the heated oil and saute for some time

3) Now add the peppers,bean sprouts and carrots. Let them cook till the time they soften up a bit and juices from all the ingredients are mixed with each other.

4) Now add the rice noodles

5) To finish the filling add the soy sauce,oyster sauce and sugar.

6) Now comes the part where we use the fillings to make the roll. Place the wrapper with corner towards you. Brush the beaten egg on all for sides.

7) Now add some of the filling just near the end leaving some space below.

8)Now, tuck the end of wrapper under the filling and rollover

9) Fold the sides to make it a shape of tube. Common sense suggests that sooner you fold for the tube smaller the length you would get for the tube.

10) Rollover and finish the tube. Complete similarly the other spring rolls.

11) Pre-Heat oil in a frying pan

12) Fry till light brown

13) Yeah!! the crisp spring roll's are ready to eat

Vegetable Spring roll are great appetizers you can serve them with hot chilli suace or any dip of your choice.

Later in the evening was watching the F1 quali's , Massa is on pole hoping that he wins Championship on Sunday.Anyways after I finished the spring roll I had much of the raw material which remained back.Looks like I am starting to contemplate what I can make out of them. Anyways this recipe fixes the part 1 of big jig saw puzzle I am trying to solve.

Halwa hai kya?

2008-10-04T12:54:00.000-07:00

This Saturday i woke up planning to make Carrot halwa aka Gajjar ka halwa. My bus pass was coming to end so I had to top up that as well. I was waiting at the bus stop when Manuel and WeiWei also come there what a surprise. They both were going to city center for some shopping.

After topping up the bus pass i set about to search Golden syrup much needed ingredient for my halwa recipe and the only one which i was not missing. But this was only until i came back home and saw the list again. There was some essential ingredient that was missing too. The name was clarified butter aka ghee. Now i had almost decided to settle for butter instead of clarified butter. But i thought lets give it a try and search in some shop may be we can get hold of ghee. I dropped into a Tesco shop. This was not the regular Tesco shop i use to visit. But then it was nearer than other one. While i was shopping I heard a punjabi women talking to a Tesco assistant. After she was done with it I approached her and asked her if she knew where i could find ghee. First she told me there was some Pakistani shop down the road where i could get the same. Later she showed me the aisle in Tesco where i could pick up ghee. After picking up ghee I decided to pick up some useful kitchen tools as well. Having done the shopping i was retiring home but again i thought when i have come so far let me see the Pakistani shop as well. To my surprise it had all the ingredients for cooking wow! i said to myself what a discovery. I can get stuff from here and that too cheap. Well the ghee itself which i bought from Tesco was cheaper there what a shame.

Any ways after coming back home I set to make the halwa. I kept my expectations low as i never made the halwa myself before. So here's what i did
Step by step approach to making carrot halwa or Gajjar ka halwa . Hope you enjoy

Ingredients
1) 1tbs Ghee
2) 3tbs Sugar
3) 3 Cardamom
4) 1 tsp Golden Syrup
5) 350 ml Milk
6) 300gm Carrots

1) Grate the carrots

2) Heat the ghee in a large sauce pan

3) Add the grated carrots to ghee, mix them well in the ghee.

4) Now add milk. The mixture will look like orange mush. You will need to give constant stir to the mixture.

5)Add sugar and cardamom seeds to it

6) After the milk has evaporated sufficiently, add the golden syrup.

7) Allow the milk to evaporate further completely.

8) You can now transfer the halwa to bowl or any mould and either serve it directly or keep it in a fridge and serve with ice cream.

One point noteworthy here is the amount of carrot has reduced considerably than the amount we started with. Also you can keep tasting the halwa after the milk & sugar has been added. This will help you to adjust the sweetness of the halwa.

This puts the third jig saw piece in place. What the final picture will look like? In a few days when all comes to light will tell you all about it. Till then
Enjoy cooking!!

Foggy Morning

2008-09-29T14:09:00.000-07:00

This Sunday i woke up with a phone call. My sister had called up. Now, the fun part is i live on hill slope and my bedside is by a glass window. And what did i see this Sunday morning was the usual sight of roof tops of houses below and hill on opposite side was all covered in fog. Now i had seen such fog only once and that too in Mumbai. That day the trains were late not that case this day. It was a Sunday and i usually don't get up so early but whatever you say it was my lucky day. Uhh... nothing special, thing is i love my favorite season is winter. I am just waiting for snowfall here. But it is quite some time before i see the snow.So after the phone call, rather a video call with my family in Mumbai i decided to make most of the latest.

So I set out for walk and believe me could only see 5-6 meters in front of me. The feeling was so nice. Being able to work out the way through such a fog. Well the road was familiar to me so not much of a problem as such but walking through the neat row of houses i realized one similarity between life and foggy morning. Every day in life we walk through such fogs not knowing what lies ahead working our way through it. May God give me the power to unravel the fog in my life...

Cayenne Red pepper

2008-09-09T16:23:00.000-07:00

Was talking to Rose one weekend she asked me if I knew about Cayenne Red pepper.She knew I came from agricultural background and hence the question.It appeared apparently that she was finding out the same for her brother.Her complete family had history of heart disease to be more specific heart attack. This was some information which would be definitely useful. To my bewilderment the pepper was really of medicinal value. It was suppose to cure Gastric problems,Circulatory problems,Rheumatic & arthritic pains. The patients suffering from these and many other disease are said to be taking the capsules and eating these peppers. Usually the patients suffering from the heart disease are put on statins. I believe that these artificial drugs would have some side effects in long run.Also, from this week i have started new breakfast of porridge. And I should admit i really like it as it keeps me full up to lunch time.

Taking Crystal for a walk

2008-09-05T12:52:00.000-07:00

All of us know what wonders a morning walk can do. But because of the busy schedules we are never able to do so. When it is Sunday we want to spend time in our cosy bed's cuddling up with.... Now, it had been long time Crystal had not been out of the house. All the time she had been in the house waiting for me in the evening all weekdays. And most happy to spend time with me during weekends. I dont know what I could have done without her. She has been the love of my life since past 1.5 years now. Inseparable we have seen good and bad times together.

But this morning all of a sudden Crystal suddenly became ill. All wrong thoughts started crossing my minds.I started to worry what will i do without her on my weekends as they will become absolutely boring. Leave alone the weekends i cant go to sleep without being with her even in my evenings.How selfish I was i thought not taking care of her. My Crstal was ill and i thgought will take her to office and then from there to a doctor. So packed up and off we went i took utmost care so that she is not hurt and took her into the bus with me.All the while i was working i was thinking about her will she get alright. Will i have to go to some specialist? How much will it cost? will she need any surgery? Or may be a transplant? Oh! God i was worried like hell.

After lunch I tried to wake her up again, and lo there she was up and running. My joy knew no bounds. I was happy again. It was then that i came to conclusion that all Crystal needed was a walk in the morning, may be she wanted to see a bit of Oxford.Yes and did I tell you Crystal is name of my Laptop.

This morning suddenly the display went off leaving the PC on and working condtion. I could hear Jagjit Singh singing but no display. I took it to office so that i could get it checked by someone or may be ask suggestion's where i can get it repaired.But when I started the laptop at lunch time it started well. I really felt relived.

New kid on the block

2008-09-03T12:53:00.000-07:00

So we have a new kid on the block from Google, yes the much awaited browser "Chrome". Will the browser be received with same flair as its search engine or will it be another Internet Explorer. Well we will have to wait and see. However it has released its Beta. I hope they will release a final version of the product unlike other Google products G mail,Orkut.This new product is said to be an open source project which you can tinker around with help of Microsoft Visual studio. You can see they have used the same colors as of windows logo in the logo for Chrome..may be a tribute to Windows... just kidding.It is just two days old it has triggered so many discussions about it. I had a go on it at my office looks neat but i was not happy with the speed of the browser which Google claims would be the best. They have built a new JavaScript engine called V8 however they used old webkit version which Apple's safari uses. They have the tabbed version like most of the browser's today. well, no there is difference in the tab orientation the tab's are above the address bar. This just highlights that each of the tab is separate from other they are running on different engines you could compare it to four wheel drive car..although you could open many tabs and each will be independent of other. This is to make browser usable even if one of the tab page hangs. Aah..and yes it has something called “incognito” window. Whatever you browse in this window would not be recorded any where. Something similar to "InPrivate" mode of Microsoft's Internet Explorer version 8. (Beta for IE8 has also been launched).As this just a beta Google has released it only for Windows Xp/Vista. They have speed dial feature of the Opera. Well you must be wondering why Google has been copying the feature of the browsers.Apparently that's the aim of releasing "Chrome" get all the best features in one browser. The security experts have already found many loopholes in the browser. The browser is still in the nascent stage, Google will have to watch out for all these things very soon.None , of the competitors are worried about the Search giants steps. They have all welcomed the step from Google.I would not still wander into this unknown area before the tech guru's announce the result of regression testing of the browser.Besides it does not still have any addons like FireFox which will remain my favorite.Thanks to Google we have a new browser to which our web pages will have to be compatible.

Here is the Google's comic version of the story

Surf Secure

2008-08-20T12:46:00.000-07:00

With the growth of Internet has also grown the chances of virus spreading. Not only is there now the fear of your machine being brought down completely but your important details being robbed from you. We innocently surf some web sites and these notorious websites just unleash their weapons onto our machines. They send in trojans and what not. The question is how do know of such sites. Well if there are people who want destroy us then there are people who want to help us as well. I personally had a bad experience. When I had taken a new internet connection I was eagerly surfing some sites and one of them must have dropped a trojan onto my machine. Luckily for me I had Google Sidebar installed which had a gadget called speedometer. Now, the next morning I woke up I found around 1G data was downloaded between night and morning. I was surprised so for two nights I spent investigating what was wrong. I had a friend who worked for Symantec. I contacted him and told about the situation. He told me that there could be some modifications in my boot file. But that file was clear. My PC by now had grown incredibly slow. I then came across a site which listed all the process which are essential and the suspicious one. And there it was I found a process which was the one which could have been potential cause of trouble. I deleted the file which was mentioned on the website. But the guys were smart it was a trojan which would regenerate itself. After some hammering around the internet I found that MacAfee could scan my laptop online. Or it was my friend who told me that MacAfee gave such a service I don’t remember right now. Nevertheless, I ran the scan I took good amount of time but it was able to get rid of the virus. Also, after that point I had the avast antivirus installed on my machine. It is a free home edition software but it has not let me down till date. Another important thing which I have installed on my both browsers Internet Explorer and Mozilla is the MacAfee TrendProtect and SiteAdvisor respectively. The TrendProtect lets me know which sites are safe to visit when I do my Google search. It lets me know by the means of small Green tick or yellow or red cross. They also let you know what the site downloads on your machine and what all programs are installed. Recently I happened to visit a Chinese site which showed movie online. When I saw the statistics I was just amazed how many programs it downloaded which had nothing to do of your watching movie online. Also, the Google sidebar alerts me sometime when I happen to visit some site for free download of software. Pretty much neat and useful tools which I think would do us good.

Visit to Cotswold Animal Park

2008-08-17T15:08:00.000-07:00

Come weekend and I am used to getting up late around 11 or 12 o'clock. But some how i got into the habit of waking up early. Finshed my breakfast and was wondering what i would do the whole day. The phone rang and i thought to myself who could that be early morning. It was Andy my tech lead he called up to ask if I would join him to Cotswold Animal Park. Here was the answer to my question I agreed and he said he would pick me up at my house.

It is very essential to have driving license while you are in UK as most of the places are only accessible by car.In the car he told me we could either go to Zoo or visit the castle.I was up for anything as it would be more exciting then sitting at home.So we decided we would go to the castle.This castle was in Banbury, when we reached the castle it was closed and the timings were 2.00 PM to 6.00 PM. We decided not to wait and waste time as we had reached there at around 11 and half.We were then off to Cotswold Animal Park.We moved on discussing our countries. Andy and his wife were telling me about Russia and I was telling them about India.Before we moved towards the national park we took snaps at the city center.

There were many people already, car park was full. With 10 pounds entry fee per person we proceeded to our destination.As the car passed by green lush roads covered on both sides with fields in some places most of them in hilly areas.Now the Cotlswold Wildlife Park was something like the National park we have in Borvili in Mumbai. The exception being that the animals were restricted in a zone by fencing and not actually caged. Very few birds we and animals were caged. They had all sorts of animals right from Cows, goats to Rhinoceros.For the first time in my life I even saw wolves here. Amazingly it had a toy train which we could ride for a pound.It took you around the whole place giving you a idea what all you could see.Basically a joy ride for kids.It was a nice attraction for kids and grown up alike.

Also there was a live show of brids of prey where the demonstrator showed how an owl caught its prey. he had a big eagle as well. I was hoping to see the eagle in action but it did not happen so.From there we wandered in the whole park seeing the whole range of animals and birds.

By far this was the best Sat in all in times. Instead of sleeping and cooking i was doing some outing. I really regret not having learnt to drive.Lets hope when i visit Mumbai i get some hands on in driving.

Switched to Drinking tea

2008-08-10T02:05:00.000-07:00

Last week we were sitting after lunch talking about things. Suddenly a topic came up about drinks we have. All of them except me use to have coffee. Now i used to have 4-5 cups of coffee a day. So one good thing i did for myself was stopped having sugar in coffee. But however you have it seems instant coffee is not good for health it seems. I read on wikipedia instant coffee is made from the last grade of coffee. One of my colleagues suffered heavily at the hands of coffee. He use to have regular pain in the chest because of coffee. He came to know about it when he visited his doctor. The doctor advised him to stop drinking instant coffee. Few days back another colleague had told me that coffee is harmful and she had switched to tea instead. Its better to be safe than to be sorry so even i have switched over to tea.

Cooking Chicken for first time

2008-08-06T13:50:00.000-07:00

Looks like my cooking craze is taking me to newer level now. I tried something which none of you have ever imagined me doing it. Guess what I cooked? Well nothing hard the title already disclosed it. Yes it was the chicken. First of let me clear out the notion I am not a veggie. I am a conditional non-veggie. Well this a term is coined by myself for what I am. I eat non veg only when the condition demands for i.e. to say if I don’t have vegetarian food available then I will go in for the non veg. But cooking it was a different story after all. I made lots of preparation looking at the recipes over the internet and seeing the videos of meat been cooked.

What actually inspired me to start cooking was actually a small incident that happened in our kitchen when I was 14 or 15 I guess. My mum was cooking some green beans. She cooks extremely well but what I did was added some dough balls to it. Now with the cooking they become wonderful my dad liked it very much. He appreciated it. No it was not that I invented it just a clever imitation of some neighbor’s recipe. But my dad's appreciation went a long way for me. However, my first go at cooking was a big comedy. I still remember it quite clearly. My elder brother I mean my eldest cousin had come over to stay with us. I liked him very much I still like him call him "bhratashree" meaning elder brother and he calls me Anuj meaning your brother. Well, once he had come back from work and my Mum intended to prepare him Batata Poha. Well, I asked if my mum would allow me to do the honor. After a bit of reluctance she agreed however she wanted to overlook the matter. I assured her I would not blow it up. I made the Batata poha. My mum made the tea for my brother. He was having the poha while I eagerly waited for his comments. After a while he said something and his words were "Everything is well cooked but looks like Potatoes still have the skin on". Apparently I had forgotten to peel the skin off. I still laugh at the incident.

Now my experiment with Chicken was good and bad one. First the bad bit, since I had never made chicken myself I tried to experiment with some cheap stuff from Iceland so I got some Chicken thighs instead of Chicken breasts. Searched up some recipe from the internet and began acting on it. Initially I cooked only one chicken thigh. It went wrong as expected. I had marinated it in yogurt, lime and tikka masala. I did not bother to clean up the marinated materials on the thigh before frying it. This resulted in burning of the yogurt and vessel as well. Also, I had put excess of oil; the chicken had been over cooked and hence become hard. Then after a week I tried again to make the Chicken Tikka masala. This time it was on bigger scale. All reaming five chicken thighs were used this time. I remembered my previous mistakes this time and cooked accordingly. Take care to remove the excess marinated stuff from the chicken surface, putting limited oil I managed to pull through well. This time chicken was cooked well and it was soft. Also, I had used a readymade Chicken taste maker. Additionally to the recipe I had remembered by aunt's cooking the chicken in desi style some of the ideas were copied from them as well. Especially the potatoes I put in were inspired from their style.

When I told this to my mom she did not believe me. I had to turn on my webcam and show them for real-time I had cooked it and had come out well. It’s month of Shravan now, so I guess no more chicken or non-veg for a month and then may be one more trial is on cards

The recipe I used was this one http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/food/143268/Chicken-tikka-masala

Mein Nara E Mastana

2008-07-16T14:02:00.000-07:00

We all know how good singer Jagjit Singh is. He is quite well known to all of us , but last time around when i heard this person i was just enthralled by the way this person sings. The song which i heard was Wasif Ali Wasif's Mein Nara E Mastana sung by Abida Parveen. This lady is a huge hit in Pakistan and sufi world.

Artist: Abida Parveen
Title: Mein Nara E Mastana (I Am Drunk of Love)
Album: Ishq Mastana
Video on You Tube

mein nara e mastana mein shouqi e rindana
mein tashna kahan jaaon pee kar bhi kahan jana

mein souz e mohabbat hoon mein aik qayamat hoon
mein ashk e nadaamat hoon mein gouhar e yakdana

mein tahir e lahoti mein johar e malkooti
nasoot ne kab mujh ko is haal mein pehchana

mein shamm e farozan hoon mein aatish e larza hoon
mein sozish e hijraan hoon mein manzil e parwana

kiss yaad ka shera hoon kiss chashm ka darya hoon
khud toor ka jalwa hoon hai shakl qalbhana

mein husn e mujassim hoon mein gesu e barham hoon
mein phool hoon shabnam hoon mein jalwa e janana

mein wasif e bismil hoon mein ronaq e mehfil hoon
ik toota howa dil hoon mein shehar mein veerana

mein nara e mastana mein shouqi e rindana
mein tashna kahan jaaon pee kar bhi kahan jana

After i heard this song from my friend V's CD i could not stop listening to it agin and again.This was two years back some time back I located the song on You tube i was happy I could now listen to it whenever I wanted.
Now the only downside is that I am not able to get the meaning of it.

Menace of Windows Vista Service Pack

2008-07-02T12:36:00.001-07:00

A few months back I had read that a big company if I remember it well it was FORD who reportedly did not want to upgrade their Desktop OS to Windows Vista. They said they were ready to wait for the next OS from Microsoft. Today even I think they are very wise not to upgrade to Vista. All was fine till this morning at work when the OS downloaded the Service pack and asked me to reboot the system.
I did not realize but that was the last time I had seen the GUI of my laptop. After I clicked on yes on the screen, the OS rebooted and started in sort of command line mode. Looked as if it was checking the file system and the registries. After a while it stuck at a particular entry and would not go ahead. I rebooted the machine myself. It again did the same thing , this cycle repeated three times. But all in vain, i could never see the GUI mode of Vista again. It had to be sent back to the dealer to see what is wrong.

Then on a spare laptop in Office i set back to work losing around 3-4 hours of precious time. I Googled to see if I could find anything about the service pack. To my amazement I was not the only one suffering there were other people as well.
I am hoping I get back my system ASAP....

Weekend with Pranshu

2008-06-26T14:55:00.001-07:00

Name: Pranshu
Meaning of the name: Tall, Lord Vishnu

Yea you guessed it right, well not hard enough to guess from his snaps. Pranshu is a 6-7 month old kid. He is a kid of some one related to me. Pranshu is a lovely kid. After a delaying visit for long time now, finally I got to visit his family. Actually I had plans to visit another friend of mine on the same day who was around the same area and was visiting a common friend staying there. I sincerely apologize to you both I did not turn up. But, actually I was not in the best of my mood. I did not want to turn up and just hang around with you guys. Perhaps, I was happier with Pranshu around. Yea, I love kids. Looking at Pranshu and his relationship with his dad you can know why someone wants a kid in their life. The kids are their reflection like a part of them. What makes a man happier is when his kids have a kid and he plays with him. You can actually see yourself going through generations. I can see why my bade papa was so happy to see his son's son back few months ago. I can imagine what he must be feeling like. And this is just my imagination may be he would be able to tell better. But, what I guess would feel like playing with yourself in your lap, too vague to understand... I Know I am like that.

Pranshu is obviously the center of attraction in his family. He is but a very active kid and also very demanding...No not chocolates or something. All that sweetheart Pranshu needs is attention someone should constantly keep him in his arms. The fee you might not mind paying him for the sweet smile he gives you. It was not the first time I was visiting his family they are pretty cool guys. His elder sister Drashti I should say quite an intelligent girl she has received many stickers from her school. I guess this was the way for her teacher to say well done. Her father has bought her some educational software which she loves very much. When she was younger she use to play on BBC website for kids. And I guess Pranshu will be the same with all the loving attention from his parents and sister. You will not believe me but he loves to watch kids program on tele. I could not believe my eyes when I saw him totally engrossed in program when his mum turned it on. Not even a blink! But when his dad turned on the news he would not bother to pay attention to it.

I am not an avid talker so most of the time Pranshu's parents did the talking and I was just answering their questions. And yes, I got to talk to my cousin which I had not did in years yes it’s a big shame I don’t call up any one. Pranshu’s father gave me couple advises, also he reminded me of the advice my dietitian gave me a few years back. And bhabhiji cooked me some good Indian food. I loved it. After so many days I had Indian food. It was long back I had Indian food when I visited my friend PP (there too, I had good time playing with his daughter 10vi, I wanted a snap of her but unfortunately I had no cam with me then)

We had been shopping at IKEA and then visited the Neasden temple. Old memories were revisited when I had visited the temple with Vee. After the visit to temple we were waiting for Pranshu's dad to get the car, I was talking to bhabhiji. She suggested I should have a look inside the shop near the temple. And wow, I found many items I wanted I was just looking for gram flour and here I was back with things worth around 14 pounds. All shopping done under guidance of Pranshu's mum's guidance.

One and half day with his family passed off so quickly, loads of Indianess was celebrated by then Indian food, Indian talk, Indian Language spoken, Talked with people back in India, Indian TV program’s watched. I was ready to go the English way now. It was time to go back. I will tell you from the bottom of my heart I felt like I was going back to hostel from home. And just like a worried mom fills in lots of stuff for his kid like last time Pranshu's mother had cooked food for me and packed for me enough to feed me for two days. With a very heavy heart I bid a farewell to Pranshu's family. Wish I cud see the cutie again but he was asleep when I left for my destination.

Rihana, Please don’t stop the music

2008-06-19T19:20:00.000-07:00

Three months have flown past now they have literally zoomed, here I am in UK and things look quite similar to those in India. Only difference being the language all in all is English. And besides the place where I live there are very few Indians around. Well you have Big Brother same as Big Boss in India (actually reverse is true). You have the UK top 40 on radio which same as Mirchi top ganne.Like I said all but in English. Now I listen to Rihana instead of Shreya Ghoshal.

And even one song has become my favorite; I can’t believe I really started enjoying the English songs. Not that they are bad but I never ever paid so much attention to them except for Celine dion,Britney spears,Shania Twain or some Kylie songs. I have now started liking Rihana and Duffy the girls sing it well. The song which I like from Rihana is

Please don’t stop the music (3x)

It’s gettin late
I’m making my way over to my favorite place
I gotta get my body moving shake the stress away
I wasn’t looking for nobody when you looked my way
Possible candidate-Who knew
That you’d be up in here lookin like you do
You’re makin’ stayin’ over here impossible
Baby I must say your aura is incredible
If you dont have to go don’t

Do you know what you started
I just came here to party
But now we’re rockin on the dancefloor
Acting naughty
Your hands around my waist
Just let the music play
We’re hand in hand
Chest to chest
And now we’re face to face

I wanna take you away
Lets escape into the music
DJ let it play
I just can’t refuse it
Like the way you do this
Keep on rockin to it
Please don’t stop the
Please don’t stop the
Please don’t stop the music

Baby are you ready cause its getting close
Don’t you feel the passion ready to explode
What goes on between us no one has to know
This is a private show

Do you know what you started
I just came here to party
But now we’re rockin on the dancefloor
Acting naughty
Your hands around my waist

Just let the music play
We’re hand in hand
Chest to chest
And now we’re face to face

I wanna take you away
Lets escape into the music
DJ let it play
I just can’t refuse it
Like the way you do this
Keep on rockin to it
Please don’t stop the
Please don’t stop the
Please don’t stop the music

Please don’t stop the music (3x)

Ma ma se, ma ma sa
Ma ma coo sa
Ma ma se, ma ma sa
Ma ma coo sa (3x)

Please don’t stop the music (2x)

I wanna take you away
Lets escape into the music
DJ let it play
I just can’t refuse it
Like the way you do this
Keep on rockin to it
Please don’t stop the
Please don’t stop the
Please don’t stop the music
Please don’t stop the music

Ma ma se, ma ma sa
Ma ma coo sa
Ma ma se, ma ma sa
Ma ma coo sa (4x)

She is sung the song well.Unfortunately I don’t have mp3 of the song; I wait for weekends so that I can listen to the same on the UK top 40.

But tell you what I haven’t heard any new Indian song yet. Last latest song I enjoyed was Yeh Ishq hai

Haan hai Koi to wajah
Jo jeena ka maza yun aane laga
Yeh hawaon mein hai kya
Thoda sa jo naasha yun chane laga
Pucho na pucha mujhe kya
Hua hai teri raahon mein aakar (pucho na pucha na)
Pucho na pucha mujhe kya
Milega teri bahon mein aakar

Yeh Ishq haaye baithe bithaye
Jannat dikhaye haan
O raama
Yeh Ishq haaye baithe bithaye
Jannat dikhaye haan

Todi maine sare hi bandhan zamane tere
Todungi na mein vada
Aadha hissa mere to dil ki kahani ka tu
Piya mein baaki aadha
Dekho na dekho mujhe kya hua hai
Teri yaadhon mein kho kar
Pucho na pucha mujhe kya hua hai
Teri baton mein jeekar

Yeh Ishq haaye baithe bithaye
Jannat dikhaye haan
O raama
Yeh Ishq haaye baithe bithaye
Jannat dikhaye haan

Mere jaise lakho mile honge tujhko
Piya, mujhe to mila tuu hi
Tu hi mere hooton ki khilti hui si hasi
Gila bhi piya tu hi
Dekho na dekho mujhe kya hua hai
Tujhe sapno mein lakar (dekho na dekho)
Pucho na pucha mujhe kya hua hai
Teri baaton mein aakar

Yeh Ishq haaye baithe bithaye
Jannat dikhaye haan
O raama
Yeh Ishq haaye baithe bithaye
Jannat dikhaye haan

Haan hai koi to wajah
Jo jeena ka maza yun aane laga
Yeh hawaon mein hai kya
Thoda sa jo naasha yun chane laga
Pucho na pucha mujhe kya
Hua hai teri raahon mein aakar (pucho na pucha na)
Pucho na pucha mujhe kya
Milega teri bahon mein aakar

Yeh Ishq haaye baithe bithaye
Jannat dikhaye haan
O raama
Yeh Ishq haaye baithe bithaye
Jannat dikhaye haan —2

Shreya has sung is superb, the movie was also excellent for the first time I liked Kareena for her acting in the movie. Else she spoils every movie of hers with over acting.

My Experiment with Mushrooms

2008-06-15T14:53:00.000-07:00

I had always fancied the mushrooms. I love ‘em. But it was only after spotting them at the local store and seeing my house mates prepare the same I decided to go ahead with the experiment. My house mates are Polish and their version of preparation was non-veg. I wasn’t keen on the non-veg recipe so I set out to search on internet to find any recipe. And as you would expect you find abundance of them. So after going through few of them I zeroed on of them called “indobase”.

As you would expect the method of preparation was not really accurate, so a doubt started to loom in my mind. I was wondering should I pre cook the mushrooms before following the process or they would be cooked in the process itself. And none of my polish home mates were home so I could not ask for suggestion. So brave heatedly I started my journey in to the unknown.

I started by chopping an onion to long pieces. Similarly cut the two tomatoes and a pepper. Having cleaned the mushroom with water and wiped them off began the process of cutting them to cubes. I had all my spices ready salt, chilli powder, coriander powder, garam masala (famous badshah masala).

In a large pan with some oil I began heating the same at medium flame. In minute or two the oil was ready so in went the onions (By the way when you cut the onions wet your knife with water, this will prevent watering your eyes). Fry the onions till they are a little soft take care that they don’t turn pink. They will be cooked eventually with the mixture. Now after the onions was the turn of tomatoes, the tomatoes tend to lose water as they are cooked if that happens its good you will get natural sauce and the vegetables can be cooked in that sauce. If not than not a worry you can add water to the pan. Make sure you don’t add a large amount of water to the mixture else you will spoil the vegetable. Start adding little by little and stir the mixture. You will see that a sort of gravy gets prepared. After you see the signs of the gravy been prepared add the pepper to the mix, cook until the peppers are soft. Now comes the turn of mushrooms. By now we have sufficient amount of gravy in which the mushrooms can be cooked. Add the mushrooms and little bit of water again. Stir the mixture for a minute and cover the pan with lid. Keep a watch on the same; do not let the complete gravy evaporate.

The second time I made the same vegetable I used Bolognese sauce from Iceland’s in place of water. If you have a tin of tomatoes puree even that would do the trick. Also this time I had added boiled eggs but that was when it was being served. According to me I would like to soak the sliced boiled eggs in the gravy for some time so that they absorb the sauce.

War Of the Browsers

2008-06-10T15:45:00.000-07:00

*14 June 2008 Update- Opera has released 9.5, Mozilla is releasing FireFox 3 on 17 June 2008, they are aiming for world record of most software downloaded in 24 hours.

The web becoming the more powerful medium of information these day's. Breaking news, cricket score's filimi gupshup and may more things all out there. Just for you to dig through them and get the information. The websites are now craving for greater for more attention these days. They are optimising their pages so that you can get better experince. But this is at their end. How about you taking an intitative to get better experince. You may be wondering me? how?. Yes , by choosing a right browser ofcourse.

You may be aware in the previous days Microsoft had monoploy over lots of things, the scene is fast changing. You have competitors for Microsoft who have started giving it a run for the money. Yes, every one knows about the futile effort of the software giant to gulp down Yahoo!. And all this to give competion to Google (the new baap of internet). Of these monopolies one was the browser that it supplied with the Operation system. Even if you dont have plethora of choices in this product you surely have enough to choose from.

All of these have one aim in mind superior user exprince. What are the factors that these browser's will keep speaking to gain your attention.

a) HTML perfomance
b) Javascript perfomance
c) Stablity on the OS
d) Slick UI

Some of the most popular browsers in the web world are as below

1) Fire Fox (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/) coming up with version 3.0
2) Internet Explorer(http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/ie/getitnow.mspx) working on 8.0
3) Opera(http://www.opera.com/download/) working on 9.5
4) Safari (http://www.apple.com/safari/) 3.1.1 now available.

There are some which are build upon these as base and more enhancements going over them one of them is Maxathon which is based on IE.

if you ask me my experince goes to say that by far FireFox is the best browser.But, at the same time the fastest browser so far for me is the Safari for Windows. Having said that some sites do not render as smooth as in FireFox.This however boils down to the way the site is been designed and CSS the browser supports.Internet Explorer is at the bottom of the table for me.

Although Internet Explorer team has been trying to bring updates.Yes, IE8 is coming up. I might not be interested in trying the beta version as opposed to FireFox which I had the beta version(First relase candidate is already out for the same).

All the browsers are trying to make themselves as slick and light as possible.All of them having the tabbed look and feel.All of the browsers are trying to give some type of Add-ons. Like the widgets for FireFox and Opera, Plugin's in Internet Explorer and something called WebSlices is coming up in IE8.Ofcourse these browsers have their own language pack, Fire Fox has gone to the extent of creating Gujarati Lnaguage pack (the gujarati language pack is however not available for the Mac version of the browser)

This is not the end to it, browsers are going to the mobile OS as well. And one of the strogest player here is Opera with its free version of OperaMini and payed version of browsers for Windows platform and the Symbian platform as well.

Now the according to many review on broswers ,Opera is the fastest ,secure and best broswer available till date. Opera also has the smallest footprint in memory while you load the browser with webpages and diskspace. Actually IE has smallest footprint on disk however, this is attributed to its usage of the components from the Windows OS.

It, depends now on your need why you use the browser. Like me if you are a website developer you will want to use FireFox as it has many addons which support you in devlopment. Right from the DOM reader to laod speed to Test Automation.(As website developer you will need to ake care that your webpage displays equally well in all the browsers.) Now, even Opera has the widgets but i havent spotted any like the one available for the FireFox.In case you are a some one who just surfs the net casually any of them would suufice. Incase you need speed and security my friend you should go for Opera.

Now, you would wonder what do the companies making the browsers get out of rolling their respective versions. well hold on ,Mozilla made 50 million in 2005 from their Firefox search bar alone.Such is the sucess of the browser story.

P.S. the views expressed here are my own and not influenced by any company or person. The results whereever depicted in the post are good for me.I have been using Windows Vista OS. You will have to test the same for yourself to decide which browser suits you.

Travel CheckList....

2008-06-06T00:09:00.000-07:00

So finally your dreams realized you got the coveted UK visa. Next what, you need to pack up your stuff and get going. You can’t wait to board your flight and reach your destination. But wait, what will you take with yourself? What to pack what not to pack?

Well worry not here's your checklist. I have tried to compile the list of things which might be helpful to you. This list mainly aims to give you a general idea on which you may build on. The assumption which I have made here is that you are mainly visiting UK for work and your interest is making maximum money while you stay. Also, the point of view here is you are going to a foreign land and want minimum hassles when you land.

1) 5 trousers
2) 5 Shirt
3) 5 Ties
4) One suit (white shirt with classic stripped tie) preferably a dark colored, if you are to appear for interview this would surely make an impression.
3) Underwear’s
4) Vests
5) jacket- This jacket should be good one, not one from dharavi the classic leather jacket they will help you here. The weather prevalently here is cold.
6) Two pair of clothes you need for travelling about the country, you could include two jeans here. Jeans are better in this part of the world I need not explain that. One thing to bear in mind is you will need to have shirt and trousers of full length.
7) Pair of woolen gloves,
8) One head gear (woolen) should be able to cover your ears
9) One pair of thermal wear
10) A shade
11) 7 hand kerchiefs
12) Umbrella
13) Watch
14) Torch (small one would do)

15) Shaving kit (foam/gel, razor, blades)
16) Tooth paste, 3 tooth brushes, tongue cleaner, mouth wash
17) Shampoo, hair conditioner
18) Medicine box( stuff for could and cough, here the pharmacy will not give you anything without doctors prescription, better carry your regular stuff like Crocin, cough syrup, Band-Aid strips, pain relievers etc)
19) Needles, thread, buttons (obviously all matching the clothes you are carrying)
20) Cold cream
21) Hair gel / a bottle of hair oil (if you use)
22) A note pad
23) Few ball pens (optionally at least one of each color, blue, green, black, red with refills)
24) Deo, a bottle of scent, Bathing soap preferably DOVE (it contains cream, you don’t want skin to be left white after bath)

Now, you must be wondering the items 16 to 24 are trivial and you can get them easily in UK. I agree they are trivial and you will also get them easily except item 14. But they come at a price remember you will have just landed in UK and you will need to save maximum right now till you have got your first salary. Believe me I have analyzed prices of all these items. At the time I was writing this article what I could see cheapest was toilet tissues. You get 6 rolls of them just for 15 pence. Say you will buy dove hair conditioner in UK it costs around 2 pounds here and the same brand costs 69 INR in India. Are you willing to pay more than double, your choice? Same is true for all other item. I am referring to price from cheapest stores mind you. Ahh! There will be another blog on where to buy things from in UK.

25) A pressure cooker at least 1.5 liter
26) A plate or thali (you can carry plastic ones, remember you want keep light)
27) Two bowls, 2 spoons & 2 forks
28) A glass for drinking water
29) Cooking pan
30) A knife, potato peeler

Remember all the cooking items need to be flat bottom, why? Tell you in a minute. You will say why carry articles 23 to 28 well if you live as paying guest you might not need them. In case you land up in shared house or studio you might be expected to have them. Then at that time you will have to run for these basic items. Once you have these basic things you might think of adding up later. You might think how to find accommodation don’t worry I will give you some places where to start in another blog. Well to be frank you can get other items required for cooking cheap again details in another blog later.

31) Digital camera
32) Laptop
33) Rechargeable batteries
34) Laptop charger
35) Universal plug (DONT 4GET TIS 1, U can buy this from eBay if you don’t find in local stores in your area. I have faced lot of trouble not carrying one with me. I could not work on my laptop for 15-20 days till I located a charger on eBay.)
36) Some snaps of near and dear (it helps when you are alone)
37) Cell phone and charger (In case you don’t want to buy a cell phone on contract here, what is this? right guess on some other blog)

In case you are interested you can carry some food articles because the day you land you will need something to eat. At least some snacks.

38) Guajarati Thepla (they remain good till 2 full days)
39) Khakhra
40) Papad
41) A Kg Rice (the rice here is growing more costly as India and other Asian countries have stopped exporting rice)
42) Garam masala, saffron,
43) Some pulses
44) Pickles (it should be packed in air tight seal, in case they spill could spoil other articles)

The articles 37 to 43 are really optional but you should carry some snacks for immediate consumption.

Ouch...Quite a list yes it is. Now you are smart packer but just a suggestion pack items 1 to 14, 25 to 30 and 38 to 44 should go in check in luggage. The items 15 to 24 and 31 to 37 to go in hand baggage.

Along with these articles try to keep your air ticket, foreign exchange (cash and travelers cheque), passport handy and readily available. Also the documents like your visa, work permit should be kept handy so that you can get them without hassles in case any authority wants to see them. Also carry your previous 6 months bank statement you will need them to open bank account in UK.

I hope you have booked your tickets if not try to get direct flight as far as possible as this would reduce the risk of loss of luggage in transit. Also, early booking might help you to get cheaper flight. When I had come I spend days comparing prices from various airlines (Jet Airways, British Airlines, Virgin Airlines). My observation was that Jet Airways get costlier as it approaches the flight date so book early if you want cheap deal. British Airways and Virgin go neck in neck. I finally settled for British as it was cheaper in comparison to Jet. I would have loved to fly by Jet simply as it was INDIAN carrier. May be, better luck next time.

Yes let me take this opportunity to let you know some more info, this will be a broader topic on some other blog. But I think a brief will definitely be help full here. In case you need to travel after you landed from flight by bus try to get a flight which will land during the day time, it’s helpful to land in day light. In case you are travelling during summer there is good light till 8 in night. However in winter it starts getting dark here at around 4 pm.

Ok, in case you need to travel to some far location, have look at the time table of buses available at http://www.nationalexpress.com. The buses are available from Heathrow terminal just outside terminal 1 & 2. In case you can get an e-ticket booked by your friend or someone in UK nothing like it. In case you don’t get it worry not they are easily available at the ticket counters so don’t worry.

Here's wishing you happy and safe journey. And yes more blogs on whatever I have promised in the above one are on the way.

P.S. this blog is dedicated to all people who do not have where to start from in case they are travelling abroad. Someone close to me did face this situation.
And in case you are married, don’t forget to pack your wife with you, most important asset while you are here in UK. UK is very romantic place and I bet she will enjoy it.

have been blogging......

2008-05-28T14:35:00.000-07:00

If you have been writing to me and I have not been replying, I am really sorry. Actually, there are very few of the people to whom I have been replying. To be precise only two of them, now don't ask who. Then what had I had been doing. You can see for yourself what I have been doing. Yes, you have got it right. I have been trying to give a face lift to my blog with some tweaking here and there. If you are reading my blog and you need to Google something, it’s just here. Actually I wanted to do this from very long time but never got to it. Having ample of time here gives me the luxury to play around with my blog. You will not believe I spent the whole time yesterday till half twelve doing this thing I was just lost into it. Like you might be seeing already I have equaled the total number of blogs I have written till last year. My head is buzzing with at least 2 new topics one of them might be series. So get ready to read them and be bored no a...i am kidding...might be you might get some help of them. Or maybe you might be able to give your tips to me.

Hoping we can share lot of things from now on..

The Italian Adventure

2008-05-18T08:27:00.001-07:00

Well no I am not in Italy now, I am still in UK. It’s just something Italian which I tried out. Most of my friends know I am love cooking. Its best way which I can keep myself occupied plus it gives me way by which I can eat food I like any time of the day.
And any ways someone has said cooking is the best way to unwind you. And by the way I am a big fan of Jamie Oliver. Back in India I never use to miss his show "Oliver's Twist".

So what was the Italian thing that I tried...simple what is the simplest thing to cook for guys Pasta. Well to be more specific it was Spaghetti. This is very similar in look to the famous maggi noodles. It is as simple to cook. Only thing is unlike maggi we cannot have just Spaghetti alone. The reason being it is bland in taste. We need some sauce to make it tasty. It took me just 15 minutes to make it. Cool isn’t it. Well that evening when I was coming back from the superstore where I live, I saw a restaurant advertising the same recipe as take away, the cost was 6.75 pounds. And tell you what the total cost for the raw material of the recipe for me were 2.65 pounds. Even if you add the cost of labor and gas it would surely not be that high. I am happy I did not have to shell out that money for trying something new.

What else the recipe is just few lines. Oh you are laughing! Believe me; see for yourself then I will write down for you.

Take 1 liter water for 1/2 kg Spaghetti. Boil the water with pinch of salt and oil in sauce pan. After the water is boiling add the spaghetti. After sometime the spaghetti immersed in water will be a little softer, you can then bend it inside the sauce pan. Let the water and spaghetti boil for 10 minutes. Constantly stir the spaghetti. Taste the spaghetti after 10 min. If you feel it is still raw you can cook for more time. Now it’s the time for preparation of Sauce. Well actually I got ready made sauce called "Bolognese Pasta Sauce" courtesy Iceland. All that I had to do was take some of the sauce and heat it so that it was piping hot. After that strain the water from Spaghetti, and keep it under running cold water. After that heat some butter in the sauce pan and add the spaghetti to it. Stir the same for some time. To make it more exotic I used peppers (Simla mirch). Remove the seeds and strip it vertically. Serve the spaghetti with Sauce and peppers.

Well if you are non vegetarian you can use meat balls in the sauce, they will add good taste to the recipe. This time I had readymade sauce next time I hope to make the sauce myself.

When I sat to have the new recipe after saying my regular AAHNIK. I thought I would stay half hungry but guess what I was full and there was still extra on my plate. Both my stomach and appetite were completely satisfied.

Bhupendra in Dreamland

2008-05-17T16:05:00.000-07:00

We all have dreams in our life, not one but many. A big house, beautiful wife, lots of money, happy family and what not.
One of my dreams was to go the United Kingdom. It was fulfilled few years back in terms of onsite opportunity by my previous employer.
But had to return back again to India. Having visited once I was hungrier I wanted to stay there and work there. The environment over there was suitable for me. There are very few people so the government takes good care of them. There are so many facilities which we the taxpayers of India should enjoy but sadly been deprived of the same. Of course my big incentive was the kind of money I earned there. It helped me lift socially now people recognized me and my family members were proud of me.

Last summer then I began plotting my moves to reach UK once again stay for longer term there. I tried various websites which gave me information about the rules of migration. They had scoring system which said i did qulaify to work and live there. But then they were not convincing enough. I had some of my friends and relatives back in UK. I asked them what to do all say whatever you do plan properly. One of my friends PS gave me suggestion to go through the Home Office website. Another friend of mine P said why I don’t try some agent through which I can get the job done. I told him I had the same plan but finding a reliable agent wasn’t easy in the world where all people are after your hard earned money. And before that interestingly my previous employer had called me back for an interview for onsite opportunity in UK. Somehow that did not work out so I was left trying aging for myself. I searched through a social networking site to find if I can have some chance to catch hold of someone who could help. I knew it was more dangerous but had to start somewhere at least. I came through a post on one of the places. I asked for the address of the guy. Meanwhile my friend P said that he would get some agent information from his friends for me. Now, this friend of mine is one of the guys instrumental in getting me to UK. He had strong belief that I could easily land up with a job within 4 weeks of my arrival to UK. The other person who encouraged me to travel to UK was my cousin’s brother –in-law I use to be in touch with him discussing things about UK and all.

The response which I got from the place in the social networking site suddenly reminded me of the name which was given to e for getting job in the USA few years ago. I verified the same in my phonebook it was the same guy. And next day email of my friend P came which gave me the same name. There it was what more proof I wanted I had received confirmation that the agent was trustworthy. I approached him and fixed an appointment with him. He explained me how it would work I was happy with it. However, the amount he quoted as his fees was very high for me. I had saved some money all for my sis wedding. Now, I was going to gamble the same. I arrived home and discussed with my family about the same, all approved of the plan. I was only worried if it did not work out a big sum would be at stake. But a phone call to my agent and things were ok as he said only the money for courier services and visa application would be gone in that condition. But still would be sizeable for me looking at the event which was on the horizon.

My agent Mr. A was too cool. He did his job to perfection. Finally, I got the Visa he was of immense help. Gradually and slowly we become friends. If any of you need to migrate to UK on HSMP let me know I will give you his address and number.

Finally the time had come when I had to part with my office colleagues and friends. Well believe me this wasn’t easy and my office people did not make it easy either. Luckily for me I had an initial round of interview in India itself. I had cleared it. But they said I needed to land in UK and meet the employers for the letter. And there were quite a few other interviews lined up as well. So, without making any delay then I decided to go to UK (my dreamland).

All things were hurried. Tickets booked shopping done and vesting few relatives. My relatives did not have slightest idea what was happening. I feared not to tell them because they would get worried about my very bold step. As the recession was looming around and without much security about job I was travelling to the UK. Most worried of them all was my father –in-law he had to be informed that I was leaving. Well to be frank enough even I was little worried as this was a very bold step which I was taking . So with a rationing of a month I landed in UK.

I was lucky enough to have fixed a shared accommodation from India. I had landed on a Friday because ticket on Sat or Sun was more costly. I had the interview on Monday I was studying for the interview like I was to give some exam. In the evening I got out to purchase something to eat. I set out and suddenly felt too cold I realized I forgot my jacket inside the house. I was laughing at myself.
You see did not have the habit of wearing a jacket in India. I had bought some rice, bread and chide. The house mates were nice and helpful. Both Sat and Sun I survived on Chide only on Sun afternoon did I cook. I was worried too much about the job. I was missing my Mommy better half and my sis. Life is nothing without these three. Love them a lot. But then had to go through some pain of course to make my life ahead a little better.

Finally the day arrived donned in the suit I went for my interview. I had updated my telephone number in various job sites. By the time I reached the city of interview I had around 25-30 calls asking my availability. I said to myself wow, I need not worry there are many opportunities. And yes my dear friend P had fixed an interview in his company as well for me. I reached the company where my first interview was the people there were friendly. I had a technical round and then I was asked to wait to speak to the boss of the company. I knew it then I had the job. From my past experience in taking interviews myself I had the knowledge in case a person is not been selected we use to tell them our HR will get back to them. They knew we had told them subtly that you are not been selected. The boss of the company was good he questioned few things which I answered well I suppose. He then himself came to drop me at the bus station. After which I got a call from the recruitment agent that I secured the job. I was very happy I conveyed the message back home in India they were happy too. I hope when my friends and family read this or come to know about the same they will not feel bad as to I did not inform them about the same.

Finally I had got job in UK on my own. I hope I can continue here for long time. Rest is Lord Aniruddha’s wish finally it is he who is the one who is doing it.

2007-12-25T11:27:00.000-08:00

Taare Zameen par..

I seldom watch movies, am not really a movie buff. I have watched selected movies in theatre.Not that i abstain from watching them, i do watch them when they come on televsion set. Yes, i have watched Harry Potter series back to back on the DVD set agian the same goes for Lord of the ring.
This night i watched Tare Zameen Par at a very new theatre in our place. This movie actually is Aamir's directoral debut. Perfectionist that he is he done the movie all the justice that it required.The way he treated the subject, and the subject itself are diffrent.Had it been another director he would have tried to inject some scenes by force. But the way the story unfolds itself keeps the audience tied. None of the scenes were actually that predictable.

Also, it was fresh topic Ishaan's role was really suberb. Yes, in today competive world we tend to forget simple things in life like every one is diffrent they need diffrent treatment. Not that the movie would be another "Jai Santoshi Maa" but yes it would definetly provoke you to look at things from diffrent angle.

Well Done Aamir and team...

http://www.taarezameenpar.com/

Surfing through LINQ

2006-10-16T01:17:00.000-07:00

Using Implicitly Typed Local Variables (var keyword): Instead of explicitly declaring the type of variable as into, string or decimal the keyword var signals the compiler that the type of variable needs to be determined from the type of the initial value supplied to it. This sounds like the Variant keyword in VB6, however we need to take a note that once the type of a variable is declared you cannot assign it to another type. Thus, .net maintains it type safety.

Using implicitly typed local variable declaration with long and complicated type simplifies the variable declarations, reducing the amount of code required and associated coding error

You cannot use the key word var without providing the intializer i.e. you cannot say var x; or var x= {1, 2, 3} it needs to be
var x=new int[] {1, 2, 3}

Extending Types with Extension Methods (this keyword):
You can actually add your own methods which can be invoked from the instance of the type. This can be done by adding the keyword this to the first argument of the method. These methods however need to be static and public. The dot net documentation says that the new method would appear as in the list of the method, however it does not appear. But I managed to compile the application by typing the name of method directly. It also returned the right result indeed. I guess the method name not appearing in the list can be attributed to the preview version, Microsoft would sort it out with their new realase.We can also apply the same to generic types as well.

Working with Lambda Expressions (=> operator):
With .net 2.0 Microsoft had introduced anonymous functions taking this forward in .net 3.0 Microsoft introduced LAMBDA expression (=> operator) this forms the shortcut. Lambda expression can be applied to simple expression like finding if a number is even or odd for ex i => (i % 2) == 0; or it could have multiple parameters when it has multiple parameters we need to enclose the parameters in parenthesis for ex (x,y) => return x * y;
When you import the namespace System.Expressions a new type is exposed by LINQ, Expression which represents an expression tree, an in-memory representation of a lambda expression. It enables you to represent the lambda expression as expression tree.

Easy Initialization with Object and Collection Initializers:
LINQ also brings along with itself the ease of object initialization you can initialize the object by just providing the value of members in {} bracket. Dot net here uses the parameter less constructor to initialize the values. It is not compulsory to pass values of all the members. Wherever the values are not supplied the members are initialized with default values.
However, you cannot skip a member in between for ex if you have a class Triangle{Point a,b,c} you can initialize the triangle by saying var r1 = new Triangle { p1 = a, p2 = b }; , but you cannot say var r1 = new Rectangle { p1 = a, , p3 = c }; for such case you would require to say var r1 = new Rectangle { p1 = a, p3 = c};and in this case point p2 would be initialized with default values. The same funda applies to the collections as well which implement System.Collections.Generic.ICollection

Using Anonymous Types:
In c#3.0 when we would be able to declare an anonymous type and return the instance of the same, the same can be accomplished by using the new operator.

Understanding Queries and Query Expressions
When using the sql query in the code we cannot ensure the type safety of the parameters passed or the sql query itself would be complied or not is also a question. How ever by using the LINQ query expression. This is enabled by importing the System.Query namespace. Like the sql queries you could also query the classes and go ahead and also perform a join on them.