Sudoku philosophy

Sudoku philosophy: Yesterday Srilu was trying to solve a 9X9 Sudoku for the first time. She was a little stuck, and was getting impatient. I said to her, not to get bogged down on a square or a line, asked her to move on and that the proble...m would get automatically solved if the another square/line is solved. Then I thought, may be in our lives too, we are stuck solving one problem, if we just take a deep breath, move on to the next problem or thing, the first problem is automatically solved. I don't know if I am right or not, but Srilu did solve her first Sudoku puzzle. :D

 

Aren't godmen (if they are bad) as guilty as any celebrities

Saw an interesting debate on NDTV: Has spirituality become a business. Through the discussion I was thinking why only corner spirituality, why not take for example a Sachin or a Dhoni or an AB or a Shahrukh for whom people in millions pay lots of money to watch them on screens and again watch them on TV..and adverts and follow them like crazy...and believe what they say..

Growing up as a kid in India..When a sachin and Kapil said Boost is the secret of my energy,...our energy....atleast I don't remember having questioned it...

Similarly, when a god man is being blamed of trying to make money out of the gullible by mesmerizing them......how are the celebrities different when they mesmerize people...or when the youth forgets themselves while dancing to the dance "item" numbers....they may not be paying them money into a hundi themselves..but they are paying when they buy a movie ticket or through some other means...

PS: This was just a question that arose in my mind. By no means am I saying that all god men are bad or nor the celebs I mentioned are bad....it was just a thought to draw a parallel...

The Maha irony about Mahatma's posessions!

Just a passing thought! I have been reading on TV and newspapers in the past couple of days on how India put up a claim on Mahatma Gandhi's items, that James Otis, a collector from USA, currently holds. The New Delhi, high court even has passed a stay against the auctioning of the items, but the auction still goes on!

I find it extremely ironical on two fronts
- That the politicians who have succesfully limited the Mahatma as a wall hanging in the corridors and as statues in chowks and before the assembly halls, are now demanding for the posessions.
- That Gandhiji all his life wanted detachment (non-attachment to wordly posessions). India which claims to be following Gandhi-ism, now wants those posessions.
- James Otis, claims to give up the posession of the items if India promises to uplift the GDP of the poorest of the poor by 5% (or to 5%, I fail to recollect the exact representation). What ever the representation, I find it very ironical, that a man who may be doing this for money (un-Gandhi way) wants to blackmail a nation, on an account which can't be measured!

I am sure Mahatmaji, whereever you are, you have smirk across your face, looking at all these (including my writing!)

Yeppudu Oppukovaddura Otami! Never Accept Defeat

Hi friends,
I recently came across a wonderful song recited and written by a famous Telugu (a language from Southern India, called Latin of the East!) literary genious, who pens lyrics in the Telugu film industry! (that is how I would put it with my meek vocabulary!)
Watch this video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1-_h2iNcOw
For those people who don't understand Telugu, I tried to translate this into English in hope that during these tough "economic times" you could draw some inspiration!

Never accept defeat, Never give up patience
Never never restDon't forget your aimOnly then is your success a certainty!
The sky may be pretty vast and high, but is less mightier than the wing of a flying birdThe ocean may be mighty, but smaller than the the fin of a swimming fish
The "demon" dusk of the west that swallows the sun everyday never winsThe sun goes down the throat of the dusk goes across the oceans and rises again in the east, every day!
How long is the escape from the light, who can stop the sun riseEven the agitated heart is like the burning sun!
Never accept defeat, Never give up patience
Is there a second in life when there is no pain, birth or death, every step of life
If you stop being tired, time will pass through your fingers! Life is a continuous struggle!
Your body, heart, blood, flesh and capability, is there a better army than this!
Hope will be your weapon, breath will be your weapon, and your desire will be your navigator
If you Keep trying, won't disappointment even be disappointed?
As long as you are breathing, even death can't win and death can claim victory only over your lifeless corpse
Never accept defeat, Never give up patience

Much Ado about "Slumdog"

Okay! I am fed up! As I promised myself at the top of this year, I am going to write!
Over the past few days, I have read so many articles, watched so many TV shows, and found it has become a sort of a fashion bandwagaon, to talk negatively about "slumdog millionaire". ITs like 'behti huee ganga mein haath dhone ka'. (To translate quickly into English, you do a certain act not because you want to do it, you do it because the bloke next to you is doing it!)

Neither have I lived in a slum, nor have I any friends who live in a slum, and my only right to write about this is the people talking negatively about this film aren't either!

I fell in the love with the movie "Slum Dog Millionaire" the first time I saw it, and I found it a plain love story between two kids, which is nurutured through the years, beautifully shot, lovely music and the best screenplay and a beautiful story that held it all together! How artistically done! Now instead of looking at the movie like just another Indian movie, our so called India-Image-Protectionists, are crying foul about the way India has been shown and Danny Boyle has shown what the "west wants to see India". What pains me is that even educated people (its not worth taking names, you can get them dime a dozen) including columnists, educationalists, artistes and the list goes on. I have a few questions to such opposers of the movie.

1. Can anybody deny what has been shown in the movie un-real. Aren't the kids of slums not vulnerable to such situations shown in the movie? (handicapped kids for begging, flesh-trade etc.) It has been proven times over that there are several such gangs involved in child trade. So what was Danny shown incorrectly?

2. An audience which is used to such mind numbing movies which show "politicians", "police" in bad light, and which rejoices in celebration of the same cinema on these lines, when such audience can find truth these movies, why did they fail to see such truth in this gem?

3. Something that I have noticed in the recent past, a new age India denying everything from the west. You are OK to wear good produced by the west starting to your undergarments to the perfumes on your outerwear but its not OK to get an Oscar. One question to those people who say we Indians should not go behind the Oscars. I think that is the call of faint hearted person, who is a coward at heart and incapable of making a good Cinema. Barring a few gems from the Indian film industry, there are very few good story tellers. My question is "how many indian movies are there which are even capable of captivating the audience completely, let alone get an Oscar".

Anyways putting an end to my questions I feel the reason the movie has done extremely well in the west, especially the US is: Americans love undedogs, the love underdogs going for the kill. That can be seen in their walk of life and that is the american spirit!
PS: My endevour here has not been to put India down or anything. I just wanted to protect the movie!

Chicken it out!

Hej all,

I spent like close to 6 months in Stockholm and I had so many Friday evening parties at my home and the common thing among all of these has been drinks and chicken.

So here is one of the simplest recipes for Indian chicken.

Type A - Chicken Curry with butter - For you all people 'like me' who don't care about calories
Type B - Tandoori Chicken - For those who care about what they eat

3 stages to the cooking part...part 1 is preparation, part 2 is the actual cooking and part 3 is the presentation

The part 1, for both the dishes is the same, like all of us, we start of similarly but end up differently...Yes cooking is full of metaphors..I am not sure if you all feel the same way..but i feel so...cooking actually teaches you so many things..ok..now coming back to cooking

Part 1 - Marinating
@1 Take the cleanly washed up pieces of chicken (for type A you are taking medium sized chicken pieces and type B you should have chicken legs) in a bowl
@2 Put some turmeric powder (1/2 tea spoon), black pepper (1 teaspoon) , red chilli powder (1 tea spoon), coriander powder (2 tea spoons) and a cup of yoghurt (no, not the sweet one please..preferably sour)...Now if you have some ginger garlic paste dump a couple of them in there as well.
@3 Now wash your hands, as you have to use them to finely mix up all you put in the bowl
@4 Now cover the bowl and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes..
@5 Now wash your hands again if you don't want them to look yellow because of the turmeric

Part 2- Cooking

Type A
Before we start, please have the following ready. Finely chopped 2 onions , finely chopped 2 tomatoes, Cumin seeds, Cinnamon sticks, Cloves, Cardamom (small pieces), some ginger garlic paste


@1 Put some oil (3 table spoons of any kind will do but I prefer sunflower oil) in a cooking vessel
@2 Once the oil is mildly warm, put in the cumin seeds, 3 cloves, a couple of cinnamon sticks and the cardomom
@3 Now put the onions in the oil and start frying them on low flame
@4 one they are slighly colored, put the giner garlic paste
@5 A couple of minutes later, put the tomatoes
@6 Cover it with a lid, leave it for a few minutes; and just remember always low flame from now on.
@7 When you feel that the onions and tomatoes are good friends, take the chicken out from refrigerator and put all of it in cooking vessel
@8 Mix all the contents well and again place the lid and leave the flame low. Put a 1/2 team spoon of black pepper and a little chilli powder
@9 From now on, its all about checking every 10 minutes and mixing the things up
@10 After about 30-40 minutes of step @9 put some salt to taste and a little coriander powder. If you have coriander leaves instead use them.

Wow! the type A chicken is ready for you!

Type B

@1 Take the tray out of your oven, spread an aluminium foil on it. While you are doing this, preheat your oven to a temperature. I really don't know how much, get it heated to a temperature as you would while any other meat

@2 Now that the oven is heated up, take the marinated chicken legs and place them on the foil. Place it in the oven for about 15 minutes

@3 Flip the legs after about 15 minutes. Remove once you "feel" that the chicken is cooked take it ou.

@4 Sprinkle some black peper, and salt on the top. Serve with some cut lemons.

Wow! the type B chicken is ready for you!

There you go guys! The chicken is ready for you! Now the secret to my cooking has been taking-it-easy-and-slow. Its not philosophical as it sounds, the reason for doing so is just to ensure that the food is not so burnt so that you can't fix it!

Anyways, guys thats it from me, happy cooking...

Hej då,
Keshav

My first blog

Hey all,

I decided to write, finally. Just put my thoughts out, just to keep my balance, just for the heck of it.

Whats happening out there in Mumbai, is really bad. Shows several things, from several aspects

Impact on Brand-India
+ India is on the lime light for the first time ever in the foreign media, for the wrong reason. I have lived more 50% of my adult life outside India and never seen so much of focus on India on TV atleast.
- May affect people wanting to visit India for a temporary while, cancellations especially during the Christmas break will affect the Tourism in India.

Impact on India's Fight against terrorism
+ The government may take strong words against Pakistan (point fingers outside)
- No action will be taken internally, the elections are too close to do anything stupid and short-term, atleast this will what will go through the politicos

The average Indian's attitude change (you and me)
+ Nothing will change
- Nothing will change

That is my perspective!

kesride