Steps to take to be more environment conscious

 All of us have a duty to safeguard the environment so that our future generations can benefit from it. What are the steps that as an individual we must take to reduce CO2 emissions 

1. Always conserve water: use waste water from the RO water purifier to wash veggies & utensils

2. Use bucket for bathing instead of showers

3. Walk or cycle instead of using transport for short distances. This benefits by keeping us healthy as well

4. Recycle old clothes into furniture like padded chairs, sofas, bags etc

5. Recycle garbage peels into compost for plants if possible

6. Use electricity judiciously, switching off fans and ac's

7. Educate maids, servants in these aspects 

8. Use public transport like metros, buses, wherever possible

All these if practiced by more and more people should help us & help the planet

The Art and Science of Making a Perfect Chapati

 

A  perfect chapati should have the following three specifications

1. It should be round in shape with a radius of pi  3.14 inches. 

2.  It should be fully air filled by the time it is done resembling our own planet earth.

3. Its colour is also required to be a light golden brown when it is made of wheat.

Then and only then will it qualify to be a perfect chapati and rest assured that when it meets the above specifications it is bound to meet the criterion of taste and smell perfectly.

Somehow such rotis can only be made over an open fire like that of a gas oven or chulha. It cannot be ensured on an electric oven or induction. This is the problem for Sona that she rues the fact that used to mostly round chappatis she tried her hand at making ragi chappati over the induction with miserable results and so is ever bemoaning the fact that rotis are not the same away from home.  

Why does a roti not become air inflated ever so often? 

Let's look at this step-by-step:

• Wheat flour consists of two major proteins—glutenin and gliadin
• When you add water to the flour and knead it, it leads to the formation of an a continuous network of the protein Gluten, which lends the dough elasticity and makes it stretchable.
• The strong gluten network is also capable of trapping gas bubbles within the bread (roti in our case)
• When we flatten and cook the roti on the girdle, the steam produced inside the roti causes it to puff up as the pressure from the steam pushes the gluten network outward.

In short, well-kneaded dough (so that a long protein network is formed), reasonable moisture and a reasonably high cooking temperature combine to make your rotis puff. If the dough isn't well kneaded or if the rotis are cooked on low heat, they'll most likely not puff well. It is also advised to let the dough rest for 5-10 mins just after kneading to let the gluten form properly. Also the rotis have to be heated properly on both sides say around 30secs on the tava before they are transferred to the fire over a griddle to protect the hands from getting scalded by a stream of escaping heated gas from the rotis.  

Uber Accident

 Recently around mid April I met with an accident when going by Uber to Ma's place. I had noted since the driver looked to be a novice and the car was stopping and starting at times. Suddenly when we were at the A S Connector, he didn't brake in time and the car slammed heavily into the car in front. My phone flew from my hand and I was slammed bodily into the front seat with my head and neck taking the brunt of the impact. This was the first time something of this sort had happened. The driver was luckily unhurt. He looked around and I screamed at him "Kya ho gaya?", "Accident madam, brake fail ho gaya". I was searching for my phone which I had dropped in the chaos, and on spying it near the driver's side reached down to retrieve it. The driver ducked, I saw fear in his eyes. I think now that he was probably thinking I would hit him with my mobile or something. I tried to call the uber company but could not find any helpline number on the app. Then I called the police number 100 but no one answered. Luckily immediately I had called police, I got a call from Uber asking about why I had called Police. They were not bothered about whether someone had sustained injuries or needed help, all they were concerned about was that this accident should not involve police. I narrated the accident , they asked me if I had any injuries and I said yes I did. In spite of reporting that I had injuries they advised me to get to my destination by taking some other transport. They did not offer me the option of sending another vehicle to take me, or inquire about my condition after the incident.  Some bystanders had gathered around the cars observing the drama. I noted that no one came to our car to find out if we were ok & needed some help.  Later on I did not get any other calls from uber. I was so shaken I sat in the car for half an hour. The driver meanwhile was arguing with the occupants of the car he had hit, trying to reach a monetary settlement. After the accident he had been asking me not to report the accident to uber, possibly he was scared they would deduct damages from his earnings, or penalize him. After some time I felt a little better, gingerly walked out of the cab, handed the driver Rs200 as token fare and reached Ma's house by a bus.

Summary of Sadda Haq Season 1 & 2 #SaddaHaq #HindiSerialonISRO

 

After a long time binge watched a totally engrossing TV Serial on Disney & Hotstar- Sadda Haq  Season1 & 2. The acting by the actors Harshita Gaur and Param Singh as the rivals turned college sweethearts Sanyukta and Randhir was very appealing and took me back to nostalgic engineering college days. This is the first hindi serial of its kind where an attempt has been made to show how engineering can be as a career choice for youngsters. On the flip side it is a very addictive serial, so aspiring engineering students might spend a lot of time watching this rather than devoting 10-12 hrs studying as is required to get into a good engineering college. The first meeting between the protagonists is memorably portrayed and this clip is one which is shown again and again throughout the seasons. Season 1 portrays the stress of exams, project deadlines and competition for grades being at the forefront of the student activities. FITE (The name of the engg college) seems to be modelled on IIT Roorkee where mechanical engineering is a most coveted branch for the students.

The serial shows the journey of an aspiring and ambitious woman Sanyukta Agarwal who dreams of becoming an engineer and join her father’s automobile business. In the face of opposition from her own father and brother she is determined to fight for her rights (sadda haq) and the message from the serial is that rights must be snatched if they are not given. She is supported by her mother in her aims to achieve her career goals. Her father is portrayed as a typical regressive man who is interested in getting Sanyukta married and resorts to all sorts of intimidating and underhand means throughout the season 1 to achieve his goal.

Sanyukta clears the tough engineering entrance exams and reaches college only to be faced by a fresh set of hurdles in the form of her arch rival Randhir who is determined to throw her out of college. The serial takes an interesting twist when there is a blast in the lab which prevents Mr Agarwal from dragging Sanyukta back home from her college as it becomes a police investigation.

Sanyukta somehow manages to ward off her family and pursue her dream of an engineering degree. She becomes a part of Vardhan Sir’s dream team a coveted club of students who complete challenging engineering tasks with admirable ease. As an aside I wonder at some of the tasks which the dream team completes which may be out of the league of 1^st and even 3^rd and 4^th year mechanical engineering  students.

The bonds of friendship between the protagonists progresses very naturally and the backstory of various characters is intertwined in the plots to justify their characters and choices they make.

Season 2 of Sadda Haq takes place in ISRC (Indian Space Research Center) which is again the first time a hindi serial has tried to portray what goes on inside India’s hallowed institutions as ISRC is modelled on India’s own ISRO. Here the story again takes on after a gap of two years where the former students of FITE have joined ISRC and are working on India’s Mars Mission.

The serial is very entertaining and I am now left wondering how it did not receive more popularity as compared to the regular run of the mill soaps on television.

Murphy's Laws

Murphy's laws which almost always are uncannily true!

 Murphy's First Law:  Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

 Murphy's Second Law:  Nothing is as easy as it looks.

 Murphy's Third Law:  Everything takes longer than you think it will.

 Murphy's Fourth Law:  If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.

Corollary: If there is a worse time for something to go wrong, it will happen then.

 Murphy's Fifth Law:  If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.

 Murphy's Sixth Law:  If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.

 Murphy's Seventh Law:  Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.

 Murphy's Eighth Law:  If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.

 Murphy's Ninth Law:  Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.

 Murphy's Tenth Law:  Mother nature is a bitch.

 Murphy's Eleventh Law:  It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.

 Murphy's Twelfth Law:  Whenever you set out to do something, something else must be done first.

 Murphy's Thirteenth Law:  Every solution breeds new problems.

 Murphy's Fourteenth Law:  If anything can't go wrong on its own, someone will make it go wrong.

 If Murphy's Law can go wrong, it will.

 Knowing Murphy's Law won't help either.

 Murphy's Law is recursive. Washing your car to make it rain doesn't work.

 Murphy's Time-Action Quandary: You never know how soon is too late.

 O'Toole's Commentary On Murphy's Law: Murphy was an optimist.

 Proof of Murphy's Law: Murphy's Law cannot be proven, yet is correct, as when you try to prove Murphy's Law, you will see that the proof is incorrect. This is obviously due to Murphy's Law, therefore Murphy's Law is correct and proven.

 Stewart's Corollary to Murphy's Law: Murphy's Law may be delayed or suspended for an indefinite period of time, provided that such delay or suspension will result in a greater catastrophe at a later date.

China's Economic Growth Story captured in a single graphic

 

Magic Medicine

 Ever since Covid struck the world in 2020, I noticed from around Sep 2020 a stiffness in the left side of my waist which progressively became more and more painful like a nagging sore which wouldn't heal. I realised that age must be setting in and started doing aerobics and stretching exercises regularly which seemed to alleviate the pain somewhat but not completely. I thought it might be deficiency in Vit D or calcium, so I started to take calcium supplements and sit in the sun for 20mins everyday. The pain seemed to be less but never went away completely on any day. In Jan 2021 I visited an orthopedic in a reputed hospital and narrated my problems- constant dull ache around waist area specially on the left side. He advised X-ray in which nothing came up. I insisted that it was a kind of joint pain but the doctor seemed quite puzzled as to what medicine to prescribe. When I told it seemed to get better when I sat in the sun, he prescribed a course of Vit D capsules to be taken weekly and physiotherapy. I continued with the vit D capsules for nearly a year but the pain never went away completely. It always came back like a nagging sore. Then recently since the last month I started taking a Vit B capsule which is very common and easily available and found that when I took it the pain seemed to go, but with any other medicine it would not go away. So I discarded all other medicines and continued only with this medicine and lo behold I am pain free after nearly two years when I was thinking that I must have rheumatoid arthritis & would have to go for hip replacement soon. Hope the medicine continues to work wonders!