Beauty of Asti

Health and Food

2013-02-25T03:40:00.000-08:00

Was reading an article in Huffington Post regarding how Indian food scores so low on health while as general perception being that Indian food is healthy! In my view Article's heading should have been " is Indian food that is served in hotels and eateries a healthy Option "? It doesn't mean that Indians always cook healthy food back home but this helps readers to understand that Indian food has many dimensions like any other cuisine. There are varied tastes that change from northern Himalayas to southern oceans. They change from north-eastern seven sisters to western ghats. However cooking methods are few and most common ones are either tandoor based(a well type structure where heat from firewood is used or from electricity) or pan based cooking method where pan gets heat from wood, kerosine stove, LPG or electric heater.

It is also very essential that we understand what Ayurveda says about cooking method. Ayurveda says that cooking should be done in low heat and less oil/ ghee. So in this type of cooking, cook or chef needs to move ladle frequently to avoid food from sticking to pan or getting burnt. Spices and vegetables should be cooked as per the Ayurvedic nature for whom food is being cooked ( pitta, Vatta, Kapha). This will lead to tastier food that is easily digested and has less toxins once absorbed.

Check this link for more Information: http://www.jiva.com/ayurveda/about-ayurveda/463.html

So when we cook Maincourse meal we need to remember to use word "little less"! Of course it is a comparative term.

Use less oil/ ghee( oil is very important bt majority of Indians today have sedentary lifestyle so we need it less) combination.

Cook on low flame

Adding adding spices in excess.

Cooking vegetable and dals after knowing whether they are suitable for body type. ( body type changes with seasons as well as stress or illness)

Refraining from adding creams or cashew nuts for make thicker gravies. Start using fennel powder to get little thickness and relish thin water or veg broth based gravies rather than thick cream based.

Now whether u live in India or outside India and depend on Restra s for food then ask. Ask through blogs, direct feedback.. Ask for adding healthy food list in the menu. Rather than ordering Shahi Paneer order Matar paneer without cream or Milk. ( cream or Milk are not bad they have calcium but then it is better to have glass of milk at bedtime rather than feel bloated and heavy after dinner or Lunch). For soups try without creams or butter, without tempering. Just a pinch of salt and pepper. They still taste yum. I think feedback is most important and that only can get lots of healthier, lighter options in market.

In my next post I will talk about Indian Snacks and Starters. Where they rate on Health Chart.

घर एक आिशयाना Weekend drives to Powai and Thane

2012-08-09T03:36:00.002-07:00

Having spent couple of years in Mumbai and tired of paying hefty rent for 700sq feet carpet area we decided to check the market for a buy option. Who knows we may be eligible for Little sweet home. So here it goes. I and my hubby fix appointments covering 2weekends for meeting various brokers, builders, their sales team etc etc.

With ever expanding Bombay and offices sprung in all corners it is very difficult to point out one location where u would like to settle. Specially when we have jobs in private firms and are not sure about next job or switch. So we did some Internet search and felt Powai as best locality. It offers u some space. Also adjoining area like Greener side of Andheri east and green side of Chandivalli. Another area that we selected was Thane as I had heard quite a lot about it and wanted to explore it.

Since I have spent most part of my life either in C class or A class city so Mumbai which is A1 class city has always been way too concrete and congested for my physcological space. But it offers you employment options far greater than other cities and so tops the migration

statistics. Anyway both of us went to see some hot property( as per broker) in Chandivalli and one in between Chandivalli and Powai.

Buildings looked good from Outside. I was happy to see kids play area, podium ( not sure if that is sufficient for so many families), and other jhankis! sales guy/ broker was busy in dishing out praises. After showing the surrounding the guy took us to our so called dream house. So what do I see there.

Mumbai offers u very small spaces whether that is done knowingly by developers or actually there is so much demand for houses no one knows. The spaces are so small and distance between two buildings( so called towers) is so so small that we can't even play peek a boo with neighbours.

Property supplements of the great dailies will tell you how market slump has not affected real estate market, how flats/apartments are being sold as usual. But then you get news from few TV channels, internet or on Main page of same newspaper that there is slump. Confusing the already confused customer.

Well the apartments we saw had few flaws which were so apparent. Like having beams, pillars, columns crossing in rooms. Anyone who believes in Vaastu Shastra or Feng Shui will know that this design is against flow of energy in house. But then great architects don't know that.Well I was not at all impressed by the guy!

The quality of granite used in Kitchen, the quality of marble used in and around bathroom doors and bedroom entrance ( I was expecting granite instead of marble), the quality of electric switches, sanitary fitting and most important the marbo granite tiles which didn't look as if taken from Kajaria.

In brochures they tell us about brand names like Anchor, Jaguar, Roca, Kajaria, Parryware but in reality what does a builder use?

The window size was so big that it captured 60% of wall, well a balcony outside same would have made it okay but then there is no balcony, there are no grills and there is no mesh. 3 years back I had opportunity to survey Pune' s real estate and when I compare same to Mumbai I feel big developers from Mumbai should learn from small developers of Pune. The grills, meshes, balconies are part of your house there. Most of the flats I checked in Pune had branded fittings.

Now after my sales guy heard me cribbing he says " well Mam who enters house like that, u spend some money ( read 5-10 lakhs) and get things changed as per your style. Infact we have Occupany Certificate so Mam u can even make this flower bed a balcony !!!!

Ahi: " ok bhaya tell me what is the rate" ?

Sales guy: " we'll mam 1.40 crore" for first one and 1.30 for other , it is primes property dena toh padegha.

Ahi: Haan bai par humane suna ki 1 cr Mein jata hain 750 sq foot yaha"

Sales guy: mushkil hain, depend karta hain table pe kit a hoga( read in cash/ cheque but devalued while doing registration with state authorities). par 1:20 crore se kam nahi :)

Ahi: hmmm!! Accha per square foot rate Kya hoga?

Sales guy: yehi kuch 13000 -14000

Ahi: what is this range? Tell me exact per sq foot cost as per floor rise. Also agreement will show only carpet area, how will builder charge for builtup and super- built up area. Will only 25% of built up and super built up be considered ?

Sales Guy: mam u see flat na. U liked it? Then we can see package price.

Ahi: so house is being sold like package :(

hubby: Accha pura bolo na ? Matlab Clubhouse membership, brokerage, parking , stamp duty like kit a hoyegha?

Sales guy: yehi kuch Rs 1.40 crore.

Ahi: hmmm! Lagta hain daka Dalna padhegha!!! Accha we need break up of this whole price. Can u get us the excel print out.

Sales guy: mushkil hain jab final hoga na Kursi pe tab excel dekhna.

So I go wow there is no transparency. In all the properties we checked in Powai, adjoining areas and Thane one thing that is so disturbing is no transparency. Builder's team is not ready to provide break up. While in Pune 3 years back I was happily handed the break up of cost chart. Whether they are doing it now I dont know but it is customer' s right to get that and not giving same is first link towards corruption. As we didn't reach close to final deal so it is difficult for me know at what point builders sales office provides that break up.

Well this area is too pricy let us check Thane! There are many projects and we may find one in our budget. We can rent it out if we can't stay u know investing!( my grapes are sour statement)

Zoom we went to Thane

Thane didn't offer anything better. The Godbunder road which connects to Ahmedabad highway and Western expressway has 100's of projects. Options available are way too many, resale, ready for possession and new construction. We could check only 3-4 flats 700 to 800 sq foot prized between 70 lakhs to 1.10 crore. But apartment quality isn't good there either. Not just quality but also design.

It really wonders me that great architects and designers work on these projects but then they don't care about enough light and air, less noise and privacy from neighbours. They try to attract u by word "Amenity" like identification security systems, spas and swimming pools but then actual flat lacks a lot.

If the news of slump is true, then this is also true as per my experience that prices quoted by builders don't match slump. Builders have backing of either Investors( are they politicians or allied families? or top 10% of rich citizens from Mumbai) or builders have looted and fooled current house owners from last so many years that they have strong kitty for sustaining the slump.

I did a quick calculation and tried to find out how can we actually buy these 1crore plus property. Assuming an apartment only for 1crore and not adding another half a crore to it. It turns out that atleast buyer should have 10 lakhs kitty for applying for a house loan. Also as checked on HDFC Bank's EMI Calculator for availing loan of 90 lakhs for 20 years buyer should have income of 2 lakhs. So as a couple I and my husband should earn 1 lakh each which is far from reality. And every month we will pay 1 lakh in EMI compared to current 30k as rent. When 30k itself pinches us every month how can we pay both of our salaries as EMI!!!

So Gennie feels helpless, not because I cant buy but because nexsus of bad apples in society is so huge that gennie herself feels sad and weak. So gennie says be positive life will provide u better options :) as of now I am going for breath of fresh air.

And I smilingly embrace my leased apartment and fix appointment with vaccum cleaner for next weekend!!!

क: असती आशय आनन्दा !! My Existence My Bliss

2012-05-09T06:21:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I was having discussion with my friend about Life is general and the way our perspective changes as we grow old. She then asked me to write a post on same and pour my thoughts on this big energy web that connects modern world.
Perspectives, Perception and Personalities as very important factors influencing our life every moment every second. Interlinked and part of our evolution process they help us take decisions, formulate opinions and at same time help outside world to make opinions or decisions about us.

But many a times in the journey of life we forget that these are malleable in nature and not actually rigid. They are as malleable as our thoughts. basically if our thoughts change so does our beliefs, the habits, the perspective, perception and personalities. So how malleable are our thoughts? Are they hard as diamond or soft as clay?

Applying these concepts to my own self I feel thoughts range from clay to diamond and they don't remain at same level in our journey. most of the time thoughts which have been repetitive, ingrained in childhood are more like diamonds and others are lying somewhere in between on the scale.

E.g.
Current Thought:SUV's are best for travel.
New Thought: SUV's are fuel guzzlers.. Avoid them.

What happens if I try to break these diamonds? I may hurt myself mildly or harshly depending on thought per se and my attachment with that thought or I may hurt other person or hate the circumstance which acts as trigger for this thus attaching negative energy with the thought. Slowly the new thought will be seeded in my brain which may replace this thought. But this new thought though believed as good may keep on hurting me whenever life gives me an option to select between new or old. So how do I try to rationalise my behaviour and keep converting old thought slowly to new one?

Personally I feel we try to think diplomatically and use both these thoughts in different situations so making both of them clay or we make the new thought another diamond for us!! Whatever we do we attach a subtle self call it ego or part of my beliefs to this thought and that creates a subtle change in my personality.

So what happens when we grow old? This process keeps on happening always in our lives but how getting old makes us better? Perhaps for some never. But for many of us as we grow old we try to see ourselves through our own skeptical glasses. We try to see me, my ego, my beliefs as different entities and try to create solutions to improve rise them via better thoughts. We are more open at laughing at our attitudes or more at peace with our continuous churning and changes in thoughts.

There is nothing constant in MY ASTI. My ASTI (a Sanskrit word which translates to Existence in English)is continously evolving and all I can try is to accept it and associate a thought of Ananda (Sanskrit word meaning Bliss) to it. Association of joy, happiness and bliss to this changing personality will only create more happiness in my and your life.

Meditation is a beautiful tool which helps us to associate this feeling of bliss with our lives. Most of the meditation techniques I am aware of cater to part 1 where we try to see everything as detached. I was lately introduced to second part of Meditation where we try to associate love and happiness with our self. I found it on website:

http://www.jiva.com/ayurveda/treatment/phone-consultation.html

It is called as Jivananada.

If you happen to read my blog and try Jivananda for a Month or so then do share your experiences.

till then may Ananda fill your hearts and lives and bless this world.

Ahi is born :)

2012-05-06T06:20:00.000-07:00

Today I find an apt moment to describe the central character of my blog Ahi. Ahi is feminine energy and identifies with my thoughts and pain. She is like my identical twin who is just a clone of my thoughts.

Many of us may have watched Amir Khan starring show " Stayameva Jayte" today. What a show! Wonderful team efforts and presentation. I felt some nostalgia reminding me of times where My whole family used to watch Ramayana and Mahabharata at sharp 9am!

But one thing that was not touched in today's show was " why Indians are so desperate for boys"? Why so many people make a living by killing foetuses? Where do society moralists go when they see such things?

Why women join men in the efforts to wipe unborn or small baby girls?

It is a religious, social, financial pride and safety that boys provide to their parents and as per society mindset girls won't!I will delve into all these spheres of our ecosystem and how unknowingly or knowingly they affect everywhere no matter whether u are educated, literates or illiterate. The blog will cover analysis mostly from the Hindu families as I myself belong to one. It is not that people from other religions don't do it, yes many examples are there from other religions but I have never been so close to them and so can't generalise for them.

Religious:

In Hindu families most of the rituals require men for initiation. For Fire ceremonies ( Yagya) head of the family(male) is required. Woman is not the one who will initiate this. They sit next to male members.
A woman in periods in considered impure. With so much development in sanitary wear for women there is still not much change on religious side. Depending upon family and case to case basis some women don't pray or attend rituals during these days, some pray but don't attend rituals and some do all. But majority falls in 1st or second category.
It is a unwritten rule that women should not accompany dead relatives or friends for cremation.
A myth or may be widespread belief says that a son only can take his parents to heaven. He is essential for cremation of dead. Most of the ceremonies of dead can be completed only by sons.

Social

Many Hindu families consider taking food from their married girl's house as sin.
A girl once married goes to her in-laws house and most of them change their surname. Girls parents find this as end of their family line.
Many Hindu families don't allow their female folks to work and earn a living. They consider that as decrease in prestige and pride.
The child born from wedlock is considered belonging to father's family and has his surname.
Due to large incidents of eve teasing, gang rape, female prostitution many people feel safe having a baby boy.
Many families consider modelling and acting as bad career choices specially for women. due to increased consumerist and western influences they fear that their girls may end of in such careers. They kill bud itself rather than tackling at later stage.
Social stigma for parents and families of a raped girl is high in comparison to the social stigma faced by rapist's family :( Many who live in violence hit zones consider killing foetus better than spoiling her life.

Financial

Dowry is biggest reason for female foeticide.
Many people think girl as a burden, these days they spend almost equally on education of boy and girl. But they think once girl is married her decisions won't be her own but of her husband and extended family. Even if she is working many a times she is not decision making authority regarding her salary. Girls parents feel that they have no financial support for old age. On other hand even if their boy is not living with them they feel he is head of his own family and so can send money or assist them in their old age.

Religious, social and financial factors force an inflation hit and already over populated country to go for female foeticide.There may be many more factors which make common people do such heinous acts. It would be wonderful if Satyameva Jayate deals with core problem in their next season. As of now big salute to the whole team!

I close my eyes and see a world.
Where Ahi is love and compassion.
Where Ahi is twinkle in eyes
Where Ahi is financial freedom and not a burden
Where Ahi is happiness abound and not misery.
Where Ahi is peace and no tension
Where Ahi is not a bad omen but she is a blessing.
A blessing for all, A blessing for Mankind!!

Ahi is born:) born in my dream!

ख़ुशी हैं आसान!! Come Ignore Greed

2011-10-09T00:43:00.000-07:00

Good Morning Sunday,

How do you guys spend your Sunday Mornings? My Sundays start late around 10am with a bottle of water and a newspapaer! there were many Sundays in between I didn't even browse the Newspaper I found them a source of negativity affecting me as first thing in morning. But then reading newspaper has been part of me from long time and so discontinuing it seems difficult.

The today's newspaper was full of news related to: Corruption, Murder of RTI activists, eveteasing, rapes and poverty in India. What to do when day after day news on front page doesn't change? In a country like India where Billions are living and millions born every day does the negativity seem a part of you and you try to mould your ethos to suit the greater ecosystem.

My travel to office is just 15kms but in Mumbai due to traffic snarls it take easily 1 hour. On my way I see slums, people using footpaths as toilets, people spitting everywhere and eating "Gutka"(tobacco). When Media highlights spirit of Mumbai I think economics is all that matters. While I travel I see mothers taking their children from schools wearing those maxi dresses but I fail to see happy Mothers, just pre-occupied and lost somewhere but with no smile. Like a clock people do their jobs and duties and if they stop the balance stops.

I wonder what childhood these slum children bring with them when God sends them here, living literally on foothpath where footpath toilets and foothpath play grounds fill the childhood dreams. But then God has shown some mercy and given them parents and families. Many of them may grow as fine men/women conscious of good and bad.
Then there are traffic signal posts where small children come and beg, begging, getting abused has become a part of their life. What happens to them when they grow old? Do they end up as labour in services or they end up as part of gangmen and prostitutes? With these thoughts week on week I travel to to my Office.

Front pages of newspapers depict nothing but issues in society due to greed of a human being. Greed for Money, greed for fame, greed for control, greed in men to control women i.e. greed for ego boosters, greed for multiple children.
http://veda.wikidot.com/dharma has a quote from Bhagwat Geeta:

"Worship, study, charity, austerity, truth, forgiveness, compassion and freedom from greed, this is the eightfold path to Dharma.
The first four can also be performed by a hypocrite, but the last four can only exist in a great soul."

This quote states all, do a good job in society, make it progress but don't let greed to control your consciousness.

Other day I was having discussion with my friend and she said why can't poor people restrain to 1 kid policy. they very well know how bad their condition is, why cant they use family planning methods. I thought about all the slum children I come across how their parents can provide them better if only there is only 1 kid rather 3-4 that we normally see.

How Mumbai could be better place if Government didn't bend to builders, how all children can have gardens and playgrounds to play. Infact looking at Mumbai today there is so much scarcity of Pubilc infrastructure for Playgrounds, rich get to live in vast gated green spaces but middle class and poor have to suffer. This is nothing but greed for money that builders as well as politicians have.
There also is greed for children mainly in poor sections which has forced many to adopt small dwellings than a bedroom kitchens set in a municipal society.
Greed for son is also a peculiar greed that cuts across class and religion in India, many Hindus kill the baby girls for same. Though in other religions the killing of an infant baby girl or foetus is not much heard of but then they are not far behind in this greed. Many keep on having children till son is not born.

I wonder if Greed is a emotion in itself or a means to fulfill emotion. Whatever it may be, it is core component of Human's psychology. All humans have desires and wishes, similarly all of us can become greedy also. Where to draw a line between desire and greed is important. As a human we need to understand desires, their root causes and then try for them at same time we need to understand when this desire becomes greed.

If as a society we can differentiate between desire and greed and not term greed as desire then we can see better Newspapers. Front pages which will make mornings a pleasant experience. But how to do this is very difficult. Desire and greed are not weighed on mathematical scale, they can't be measured. But they can be intuitively felt if human is open to conscience. For invoking conscience I think Yoga may help us.

Meditation on a person's thought if made a subject in schools then there may be possibility of better society. As I read somewhere in past that all we need to do is to feed good thoughts in us.We all have good human-bad human characteristics. All we need is to hone the good human and ignore the bad human. Bad Human will slowly go in background and by practice may never return.

I love listening to this Shiva song which makes you understand the depth of our soul, our existence, our ASTI.

Hope we all have better and happy Newspapers across the World :)

Mausam hain Movie Time ka

2011-10-01T12:18:00.000-07:00

Since last one month I was waiting for Mausam's release thinking that it would be great love story, so we decided to go for it. But then there were many apprehensions as my friends and public review response was coming negative :(

But surprisingly I liked it, I was sitting there till the last song and glued to screen.

I would say it is one time watch. First half is very good and the way Punjab in 1992 has been shown it really is so true. Scenes like taking quilts from neighbors for marriage, that late teenage love it all seemed nice.

However I felt movie could have been better if it was shorter, around 2 hrs. If communication lapses didn't repeat so many times. from 1992 to 2001 Shahid and Sonam are separated because of communication issues.

If so many characters didnt die and leaving country or closing business was not an easy decision. Like Sonam's family shifting to UK, the justification didn't make sense. Macho leaving everything... there seemed many gaps in plot.. alongwith a combination effort to show everything from Sikh riots to Kashmir to kargil.. blasts and Gujrat. That was building so much in one movie.. that is where my friends came from when they said.. oh it is so boring.. so stretched.

What kept me glued was acting.. all characters acted very good.. specially Shahid was way too good. Just loved him. his eyes were full of romance and naughtiness. and as Airforce officer he looked class. Sonam was also good but then Shahid stole the show. Their chemistry and everlasting love for each other was visible and I could feel that in their eyes. Being a big fan of Romantic english movies, I could feel something similar here with Shahid and Sonam. And that clicked with me and I unlike many others came out happy out of theatre.

enjoy Sajh Dajh ke

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ2yXpl1Krw

good night guys!!

Khanakhazana

2011-08-06T05:37:00.000-07:00

I live with my dear darling husband with both in-laws visiting us on and off. Cooking food is quite an easy job for us as I and my Husband both are not fussy about any particular taste.

But then we have taxing jobs and so cooking all meals everyday is difficult, this made way for my loving maid who behaves as if she is my Mom-in-law!! But many a times she doesn't turn up and my dear Husband who reaches earlier than me has to start cooking :) Other day he was asking me about how to cook rice, how many spices to add.. etc etc!!

It made me think that Indian traditional home cooking is quite similar in most parts and so a general tip and guideline would help all of us. Tried to come-up with a general guideline for working couples so that food is tasty and holds taste of main veggie and not just spices!!

Spices that suit most Veggies
Zeera
Turmeric
Mirchi--> green or Red powder
Corrainder Powder or Sauf ka Powder

Other Common Ingredients
Onion
Tomato
Ginger
Garlic

Recipe for simple Bhindi, beans and other dry sabji.
Take oil in Pan(kadhai), add Zeera, add green chilli/red powder, add turmeric if required, add veggies.
Keep Stirring throughout. Depending on vegetable either shallow fry and add water or cook in Kadhai without water.

Spices/ingredients that bring extra taste but needs some cooking knowledge!!

Rai(Mustard seeds)
Fenugreek seed
corrainder seeds
nutmeg
दालचीनी
लॉन्ग
green and black cardamon (elaichi)
Garlic-ginger paste
Garlic powder(saunth)
Hing(Asofoetida)
Red chillies साबूत

पेप्पर black/white pepper

Parsley/fresh कोर्रैंदर

Curd

कड़ी पत्ता

Ingredients for thickening the gravy

Cashews

Coriander powder/fennel पावडर सौंफ

Opium Poppy(खस खस)

Groundnuts

Onions and tomatoes

Milk Cream/Coconut Milk

Dry Coconut

Recipe for simple मटर आलू, मटर पनीर, beans एंड aloo and other gravy sabji.

Cut Onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic. quantity as required. you may skip onions and garlic if you don't like their smell.

Make paste of onions, tomatoes etc in Mixer, and then put that in pan( without oil), cook them for some time on low flame.

In another pan add zeera, green chilli/red chilli, add the paste prepared earlier or add cut garlic,wait till it is light brown, then add cut ginger and onions, again keep stirring and wait till onions turns brown, add tomatoes, other spices you wish. keep stirring and when tomatoes have mixed well with other ingredients add your veggies.

In case of Cottage cheese(Paneer) you can deep fry it or just shallow fry and add to main pan or shallow fry in main pan itself. peas should be boiled in cooker and then shallow fried.

And yup don't forget salt!!

Easy recipe for rice

1) It is easiest to cook in Electric Rice cooker

2) Pressure cooker: I mostly use Pressure cooker as it is quick and have no fear of maid doing any harm to my electric cooker, procedure for simple plain rice.
a) Clean Rice, wash with water once.
b) add double the quantity of water, put lid wait for 4 whistles and you are done!!

Sometimes depending on rice quality it may need less water than double so, do check when trying your rice stock first time.

3) Any open lid vessel: I don't cook in it but many people feel that for Basmati this is best as grains don't stick. Open lid vessel need more water, 30-40% more than Pressure cooker.

There are two ways to cook in them:

1) boil rice for some time and when little soft, drain the water and then sprinkle some water on top and cook on low flame.
2) boil rice and when water has been absorbed, put gas on low flame.

It is up to you guys which one u choose, some of friends also add salt in rice.

Happy Cooking.. btw it is weekend and let's try something not so common :)

Warm Welcome and Namaskar

2011-08-06T04:12:00.000-07:00

Hello Ahi and Everyone who reads my blog,

Writing blog has been there in one my To-do lists since 4-5 years but like other items on To-do list it is different. It needs proper time for initiation :) and a deep connect with my online self Ahi for getting a writer out of me.

I am still learning how to organise my blog, to have various folders so that Apples and Oranges remain in separate baskets!

Today is a beautiful day as I start my online life, was listening to this beautiful Krishna song, Krishna perhaps understood me and motivated me to write.

Thanku Krishna :)