UURGH!!!!!

Came across this particular brand of drinking mineral water while I was staying in Ahmedabad. I've had no problems with the hygiene in that city. But its the brand name I've found interesting and couldnt resist posting about it.

Thirst?? Just pop a BLISTER!! :p

Comments

I have been receiving quite compliments from people who meet me regularly about my blog and I am registering a good amount of hits on this page too. And I would really like to know your opinions for my posts and what would you like me to include. So please drop your comments and reactions the next time you visit. Dont forget.....
Jai Gurudev to all
Love
Jay

Stop IDLING. Its like an OVEN out there!!!

'Rain rain go away, come again some other day', surely Bobby Vinton had never visited India and especially Mumbai after the monsoons decide to end so abruptly. For one day it was raining heavily where I live in the suburbs and a couple of days later the sun is scorching on my head. Now being on the suffering end I also started thinking about things like Global Warming. (Not that I am not aware, my entire house runs on energy efficient appliances.) Getting back to the topic, the heat was unbearable at the signal and I was unfortunately (unwittingly) was right near the exhaust line of a BEST bus. I felt the way a cube of cottage cheese would in an oven. The bus driver was waiting for the signal to turn green and was merrily honking away, why I dont know. To top it all he was also revving his bus in neutral which is worse than idling. (Idling is a term used to describe when a vehicle's engine is running and not being used to move the vehicle. Revving or a more brutal form of idling is flooring the accelerator in neutral for god knows what reasons.)Now if all these guys would stop running their engines for the 2 minutes, then we would achieve the following:
Fuel savings and emission

For Large SUVs (CRV, Terracan etc): Min. 22 Liters saved per car/year and 60 KG lesser CO2 per year.

Regular Cars (Esteem, Logan etc): Min 15 Liters saved per car/year and 50-60 KG lesser CO2 per year.

2 Wheelers and Rickshaws: Min 5 Liters saved per bike/year and 10 KG lesser CO2 per year in our already molested atmosphere!!!!


Now branded petrols in India like Speed, Xtra Premium cost Rs. 58-59. For a large SUV the savings would be approximately Rs. 1298.00 and Rs. 295.00 for a bike. Where am I getting with all this? Imagine how many vehicles are stranded for 2 minutes or less at a signal in Mumbai without any congestion. And now imagine the number of vehicles in the entire city of Mumbai. A research conducted in 2007 in Pune showed that the city wastes Rs. 34 CRORE that is Rs. 340 MILLION for people living outside India just by fuel wasted in idling. These figures pertain only to vehicles caught in minor traffic waiting at a signal for 2 minutes.

See it for yourself, here's the link:
http://pune360.com/Editorial/2007/10/31/an-idle-threat/

Cars idling in Delhi burn around 1000 CRORES of fuel a year. That is One followed by TEN freaking zeros!!!!!! And that's just ONE metro in India. The amount of idling caused in traffic jams is unimaginable in a city like Mumbai. Now calculate all the three zones, Western, Central and Harbour. And how many metros are there in our entire nation? You can calculate the harm that is being done to both, our environment
and our economy.

You have the answer for yourself whether to idle away literally or be responsible person towards the society and turn off the keys. I'm literally getting 25 extra kilometers on my bike because I have chosen not to idle at signals or in traffic. You too can make a positive difference to the environment without any extra effort or without giving up on anything and save money while doing that too. So next time you are caught in a jam remember to turn off the engine.

People who think likewise:
http://www.pca.state.mn.us/oea/ee/noidle.cfm
http://www.cleanwateraction.org/njef/campaigns-noidling.html
http://www.zerostart.com/power/no_idle_technology.asp
http://www.airwatchnorthwest.org/wa/NO_IDLE/index.asp

Delhi idling research article in the Times of India

The wonderful bliss of SURRENDER

After posting about everything from recipes and elephants, I am posting about THE MAN himself. His Holiness Sri Sri Ravishankar or Guruji as we all know him is the most easy to love person on earth. And he is the sole reason that I am steady and balanced in life. Its easy to get lost and tongue tied when talking about him. Because a lot of experiences are subtler than words and have o be felt. Here he talks about Surrender with a master's ease.



That people wish to surrender their desire and it becomes another desire in itself, driving one away from his centre. Even the thirst for liberation or surrender should not be feverish. You have to let go of that too. Because letting go is not a process it is simply a state of mind that one experiences when all inhibitions and bondages drop. Then what you desire shall be brought to you in some way or the other by nature. But to surrender to the Divine you must first be in love with the Divine and know that the Divine too loves you immensely :)

PS: Comment on how did you like this post and make sure to read the article 'The four wheels of Sadhana' in this month's edition of Rishimukh.

Fast Food Ganesha

Yesterday was tuesday and the Parsi New Year so a half day at office, so I returned home early and on my way I found this elephant strolling on the lane in front of my house. I thought of giving him something to eat, so I got some bananas from the fruit vendor. Now this big guy had some other ideas. He hardly ate a couple out of the dozen bananas. They had not at all gone bad and when I asked the mahaut whether Ganesha (Name of the elephant) was ill. He surprisingly said that he simply likes bread & sugar cane better than bananas. So I got 2 packs of whole wheat bread and amazingly finished them up and was hungry for more. When he ate the small chocolate fudge brownie kept in my bag. He gave out a loud trumpet in return as thanks. I headed back home turning back for a look at him only to find him facing our area sandwich wala.....

Bachelor Party

Yesterday after having a good round of fast table tennis I returned home to find that the house was devoid of any freshly made food. And my family was out to see a movie. Though my parents had asked me to come for the movie (Jaane Tu...) I refused as I had already seen it.

Now was the chance to see if I can cook a meal rather than just the single odd dish. I got the ingredients from the vegetable vendor who was selling fresh vegetables thankfully on a late sunday evening. The two dishes I had set out to make were Roasted Tomato Soup and Paneer Bhurji (Fresh Cottage Cheese cooked in vegetables and Indian spices.) Amazingly while I was cooking these mouth watering treats I was called up by two people, both of whom were on a onion less, oil free, spice free in short a satvik diet for the Shravan month. Now I can never really figure out why where they grumbling that I told them what I was cooking :D......

All in all it was really fun cooking on my own. It also helped that now I can cook well. Here are the images, I'll post the recipes later.

This is the entire spread consisting of Roasted tomatoes soup, paneer bhurji, brown bread toast and lemonade with honey.....mouth watering isn't it??

Fun facts

1) Male Sea horses (Not Female) give birth to offspring.

2) Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizzas EVERYDAY!!!!

3) The Spanish word 'Esposa' means wife, the plural form 'Esposas' means Wives but also translates to 'handcuffs.'

4) In the middle ages knights in armour would raise their visors to identify themselves when they ride past their kings. This practice attributed to the modern day salute.

5) One liter of used Motor Oil can ruin upto One Million Liters of fresh water.

6) Ants never sleep.

7) Buttermilk does not contain any butter.

8) Other than fruit, honey is the only natural food that can be made without destroying any form of life.

9) 40% of all indigestion remedies are consumed by americans.

10) If you add up the numbers 1-100 consecutively (1+2+3+4+5 etc) the answer would be 5050.

11) A Bus station is where a bus stops, a Train station is where trains stop then why are employee cubicles called 'WORK STATIONS'??

His and Her Jokes

Yesterday, scientists for Health Canada suggested that men should take a look at their beer consumption, considering the results of a recent analysis that revealed the presence of female hormones in beer.
The theory is that drinking beer makes men turn into women.To test the finding, 100 men were fed 6 pints of beer each. It was then observed that 100% of the men gained weight, talked excessively without making sense, became overly emotional, couldn't drive, failed to think rationally, argued over nothing and refused to apologize when wrong. No further testing is planned.

Smoked Paneer Tikka

Yesterday night it was a different gala at our house. My dad's out of station and my mom wanted a holiday from the kitchen. So instead of stuffing ourselves with junk food. Me and my younger sister Rutika made a treat of our own for her. Parathas with Palak (Spinach) gravy by Rutika. And Paneer Tikka Dry with Curd Sauted Tomatoes by Me. The preparation was a bit of chaos as me and my sister were together. She being the 2nd in Command Chief tried to boss me around and I ended up doing things exactly the way she told me not to. She made her own palak gravy to whose making I did not pay attention to as I was too engrossed myself. Now heres the recipe if you wish to take a print. You will need:

200 gms of fresh paneer.

250 gms of fresh dahi (strained yoghurt)

2 medium sized tomatoes.

Salt, Red chilli powder, turmeric powder, garam masala and crushed garlic to taste.

And some olive oil (Approx. 2-3 table spoons)

1) First in the bowl pour the yoghurt and then add the salt, red chilli powder, turmeric, garam masala and garlic (crush it to a paste before adding, however I dont prefer ready made garlic pastes.)

2) Whip the mixture to a consistent texture.

3) Cut the paneer to 1 1/2 inch cubes or smaller if you like and add them to the mixture in the bowl.

4) Let the ingredients sit for half an hour. In the meantime you can cut the tomatoes and capsicum in dices.

5) Now saute the mixture on a frying pan with some olive. This takes some practice as you dont have to burn this stuff. Also dip the veggies in the surplus yoghurt mixture before sauting them. Keep adding some of the surplus yoghurt mixture on the paneer if you want it extra crispy as the yoghurt will tend to sizzle and coat the paneer with a nicy spicy layer. There will be adequate left behind dont worry.

Paneer Tikka and Tomatoes

6) ENJOY!!!!

Breaking Coconuts

While writing my first post, I had mentioned the hindu ritual of breaking coconuts at the start of any hindu auspicious occassion. I asked dear bawa about it as I didnt know much. This is what bawa wrote back in his answer.

The act of breaking a coconut is supposed to stabilise the energy during the pooja. It also serves as an example of wholeness and how we should be. Every part of the coconut can be used and nothing is wasted. The way our every act must be fruitful and should bring joy to all the people around us. It is hard on the outside but its soft and nourishing on the inside. This also means that we need a bit of hardness on the outside in the form of discipline to keep the delicate joy on the inside cherished. And with that feeling we perform the ritual of pooja. Which literally means 'that which is born out of fulness of the heart.' WOW!!!!

Thanks bawa,

Jai Gurudev :)