Life in Bangalore

LEMON RASAM Ingredients: Water : 2 Glasses Rasam Powder : 1 Teaspoon Salt : ½ TeaSpoon Tomato – 1 piece Coriander – 3 leaves Mustard – ¼ teaspoon Toor Dhal – 3 Teaspoons Asafetida Powder(Perungayam)  - a pinch STEP 1: First boil the Toor dhal in water (1 Glass); (I prefer to steam it in Pressure cooker while cooking with rice) STEP 2: Place the vessel preferably of larger height on the stove and Add water STEP 3: Light the Stove STEP 4: Add Rasam powder, Salt, Asafetida & Tomato STEP 5: Allow to boil for 10 minutes on low heat STEP 6 : Add the boiled Toor dhal along with the water in it STEP 7: Continue heating for 3 minutes till froth(Nurai in Tamil) is formed STEP 8: Switch off the stove STEP 9: Squeeze the lemon juice on to the rasam STEP 10: Take a small Pan STEP 11: Add ghee STEP 12: Add Mustard STEP 13: Heat till Mustard gives “Pop” sound STEP 14: Add Mustard to the Rasam Mixture STEP 15: add Coriander leaves to the Rasam (

In the last post , I discussed about the importance of good grades for making the cut. So you may ask what If you are a “Five Point Someone”  with respect to the grades.  Lets deal with it. Remember that no matter what,  your resume should stand out among the applicants. For that you should be very good at least in two out of the following three skills a.         Technical Aptitude b.        General Aptitude c.         Extra-Curricular Skills Technical Aptitude: If your dream is to pursue higher studies in your current stream or to get a job in the core area (Arts, Engineering, Finance, Medicine, Information Technology ) you would be better off polishing your technical skills. What this means is, you cannot just study for the “sake of exams”. You would need to go the extra mile in getting to know more about the subject. A best way to approach this is to start preparing for the Entrance Exams (GATE,CAT, CA Entrance, Medicine Entrance Exams) as early as possible. This gives

Focus on the Courses: The easiest thing that a College graduate can do is to Focus on the subjects and get Good grades. The reason why I say Getting good grade is the easiest thing because its under the control of the Individual and there is a clear definition of what a good grade means. We can debate endlessly about if a Good Grade is the right barometer of knowledge of the Individual and so forth. I don’t think it is the best system. However ,as of today, there is no better system that is going to replace it as the Primary Filter for Employers to zero in on Potential recruits from a huge pool of applicants. So, the first & essential requirement for being “Organization Ready” is to have a good academic score. Even if you do not have a good grades as of today, Try to spruce it up at least in the forthcoming semesters/Years. You may ask “I am still hopeless on Grades….”….I would say “There is still a flicker of hope”…Continue Reading these posts

Ingredients: Cooked Rice Water – ¼ Glass Lemon -1 Oil-1 Tea-spoon Mustard -1/2 Tea-spoon Turmeric Powder – A pinch Channa Dal (kadalai paruppu) – 1 Teaspoon Urad Dal –Split (Ulutham paruppu) – 1/2 Teaspoon Salt -1/2 Teaspoon Red Chilli – 1 piece STEP 1: Cut the lemon into two halves STEP 2: Squeeze the lemon juice to Water STEP 3: Add ¼ Teaspoon of Salt to the above mixture STEP 4: Light the stove STEP 5: Add oil to the pan STEP 6: Add mustard,Urad Dhal,Channa Dal STEP 7: Add Chilli STEP 8: Wait till Mustard give a “Pop” sound STEP 9: Add the lemon-water mixture to the pan STEP 10: Wait for 1 minute STEP 11: Switch off the stove STEP 12: Add turmeric powder to the cooked rice STEP 13: Thoroughly Mix the lemon mixture with Cooked rice STEP 14: Add remaining salt if necessary

One of the major concerns of Industries ranging from Information Technology to Engineering is the gap in the skill of graduates passing out of the Colleges. According to a McKinsey group survey only 25% of the graduates are considered employable. Despite several efforts taken between Academia & Industry ,the employability percentage has not gone up. In my humble opinion, a greater deal of this challenge can be addressed if College graduates start working on their skills on their own, of course with guidance from Professors & Mentors. I have spent more than a decade working in the Industry till date and thought I can share my experience in the Corporate Sector. Following posts are targeted at College graduates on the steps that they need to take up to be “Organization Ready” at the end of their Course. FIRST STEP :“How would you like your Resume to look like at the end of your Academics?” Spend some time writing your ideal resume. So the Question would be  “At the e

Ingredients: Rice – 1 Cup Water – 3 Cups Salt – ½ teaspoon Black Pepper (round) – 1 Teaspoon Cumin (Jeera) – 1 Teaspoon Ghee – 1 Tea Spoon Green Gram (Moond Dal, Paasi Paruppu) – 1 Teaspoon STEP 1: Wash the rice well STEP 2: Put rice in a vessel . Add the Water STEP 3: Add Green gram, Salt, Pepper &  Jeera STEP 4: Place the vessel in a pressure cooker STEP 5: Light the Stove STEP 6: Allow 4 to 5 whistles  of the Pressure Cooker STEP 7: Switch off the stove STEP 8: Add Ghee to the Pongal and Mix Thoroughly PS: If water is still there after 5 whistles, Keep the pressure cooker in for additional 2 whistles

Vendaikkai Kari (Okra Fry) Ingredients: (for 2 people) Cut Okra (Vendaikkai) – 25 pieces Oil – 1 tea spoon Urad dhal (Split) – 1 tea spoon Mustard -  ¼ Tea spoon Chilli powder – ¼ tea spoon Salt – ¼ tea spoon STEP 1: Place the pan on the stove and light the stove. Keep it in low heat STEP  2: Pour the oil STEP 3: Add mustard & Urad Dhal STEP 4:Wait until the mustard gives a “POP” sound STEP 5: Add Okra to the frying pan STEP 6:  Add salt & Chilli Powder now STEP 7: Mix Okra with salt & chilli STEP 8: Allow the mixture  to fry for 10 minutes STEP 9: Switch off the stove

For everyone Mother's recipe is the best in the world (I am making this statement at a great risk of invoking my wife's ire). Here's the first of my mother's recipe that I have it in my Old Diary STEP 1 : Get Ingredients: Tamarind – size of a small lemon Sambar Powder – ¾ Tea Spoon Salt – ½ Tea Spoon FENUGREEK (English)VENDHAYAM(Tamil),METHI(Hindi)  - ½ Tea Spoon Vegetable (Okra/Brinjal) – Not a Must Red Chilli – 2 pieces Oil- 1 Spoon Mustard – ¼ Teaspoon STEP 2: Boil 3 Cups of Hot Water & add the Tamarind to it STEP 3: Wait for 5 minutes and squeeze  the Tamarind in water to get the Tamarind Puree STEP 4: Take a Container and pour the oil (Don’t forget to light the stove) STEP 5: Add Fenugreek , Mustard & Red Chilli. Wait till mustard gives a “Pop” sound STEP 6: Add the vegetable if you have and allow it to fry STEP 7: Now Pour the Tamarind Puree to the container  STEP 8: Add the Sambar Powder & Salt STEP

“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious” – Albert Einstein If we want to enjoy each and every moment of our life it is absolutely necessary to identify what we are passionate about. We need to identify at least one or two things that we are passionate about. For few people it is a very easy task to identify their passion like a painter or musician . For a lot of us though it is not so obvious.  So how to identify what we are passionate about. You are passionate about  an activity when it arouses a keen interest in you that keeps you awake to keep going. For ex., It could be reading, writing, speaking , painting, running,  or a Do It Yourself  activity. You could be passionate about anything (as long it is legal!) but we need to make a conscious effort to find it. For example,  My ex-boss recommended the Toastmasters club. I went as a reluctant guest to a meeting. While in the meeting, I was so impressed by the speakers that I instantly fell in

I follow a couple of blogs :  www.thesimpledollar.com   & Zebhabits.com Following are the my 10 articles from those blogs http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2011/02/13/my-story/ http://www.thesimpledollar.com/14-simple-money-rules/ http://www.thesimpledollar.com/category/your-money-or-your-life/ http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/11/29/everything-you-ever-really-needed-to-know-about-personal-finance-on-the-back-of-five-business-cards/ http://zenhabits.net/4/ http://zenhabits.net/profound/ http://zenhabits.net/100-days/ http://zenhabits.net/expert/ http://zenhabits.net/rut/ http://zenhabits.net/watch/

In our daily grind of life we are so busy in going through the motions that we don’t really think why we are doing certain things.  We miss asking our-self certain basic questions such as                 “Is this task the highest priority?”                 “Am I enjoying the task?”                 “Is there a better activity than this that I should focus on?” Due to this hustle & bustle, we end up spending our energy to do things the right way on the wrong effort .Soon we get exasperated at the end of the day just wanting to get a good sleep. Earlier my sample day used to be like this: 1)       Wake Up 2)       Catch the bus to office 3)       Sleep in the bus 4)       Work 5)       Return from Office 6)       Watch television 7)       Eat 8)       Go to sleep  (with energy sapped out!!!) To pep up my life, I began identifying the things that I always loved …Family, Health, Reading & Writing . I restarted my abandoned blog. I started

These days I commute a lot, rather should I say, travel a lot to reach my office from home. My experience with Bangalore Traffic has given me enough insight to publish a doctoral thesis titled “ A Treatise on the Bangalore Traffic & its relevance to Science,Spirituality”. Following are the axioms of my thesis: “ Mind Like Water” : Bangalore traffic attains the state of “flow’’  by behaving like Water. It permeates every available space. While the Traffic rule states that “You should Drive on the left”, people drive in whatever is left even the pedestrian path…That’s the state of flow “Butterfly Effect”: According to Chaos Theory, a  small change at one place in a system  results in large differences to a later state. This is very true of Bangalore Traffic. A small drizzle in Corporation Circle causes a traffic jam at the Raja Rajeshwari Nagar located 13 km west of it. If you try to connect the dots, you cannot which is the quintessential Chaos Theory “Law of Conser

“I don’t like Surprises...even the good ones. A  person who can throw a good surprise can also throw a bad one”…heard from a reputed Business Leader where I used to work. In your life, be it personal or professional, there is a large difference between Saying it before & Doing it after as compared to Doing it before & Say it after . People will appreciate the latter only if it is an anniversary gift. That is because when the your activities involve people beyond you  (spouse, coworkers) it is expected that you need to keep them aware of your work. So, I would recommend the habit of Saying It first and follow it up with doing because of the following benefits. World know about it : Let us take an example of a personal project : Reducing your weight by in 2 months. If you let the world know first by saying this (for ex.,by  posting this weight reduction goal in your facebook page) , you have taken the essential step. Positive Pressure : Since you have made your