My son is a voracious reader. He devours tinkle digests in 1 hour. His last tough book was Raold Dahl's Witches. He has almost finished the entire secret 7 series by Enid Blyton and he has read and re-read the entire Asterix and Tintin collections. We also have our first serious difference in literary taste - I abhor Tintin, seems too much running around and absolutely not funny. I never took to it. Is it a male thing? But, he has internalized the two series so much that he has a skewed idea of history, economics and social set up all from the Gaul point of view (Tintin is not as influential). And he is only 7!
I am desperately looking for the other books from the same publications: Iznogoud and Leonardo is a Genius. If anyone can tell me where to buy these series without shelling out a fortune in India/America/England please let me know!
I also want to go back to the halcyon days when we used to read books together. I thought of Swiss Family Robinson - he would find it extremely funny. Wondering how to find a decent print - not the economy editions available at most bookshops here, I came across the Internet Archive. So much better than the basic bread and water provided by Project Guttenberg!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
I come to the end of my first semester as a PhD student. I am exhausted and humbled. My final exams were very hard! I guess studying towards exams is a habit not just something that occurs automatically when one does a lot of research in the area...
Now, how do I get off this ride?
To cheer me up, I have started another mania via my sister in Bangalore. There is a 10K run in Bangalore on 31st May. I am going to participate and hopefully complete.
So today I started my training. 4 km in 40 minutes at IIT Stadium followed by pranayama. I did this after I dropped my son off at his cricket camp at 6 AM. Now sitting at my desk at 12 am I am a tad sleepy and my calves are tired and my breakfast was inadequate (Oats and a 1/2 banana).
I have made Spinach paratha and cauliflower curry for lunch. I have also cooked a small bowl of soybeans towards a salad... Can't wait to get home to it.
Now, how do I get off this ride?
To cheer me up, I have started another mania via my sister in Bangalore. There is a 10K run in Bangalore on 31st May. I am going to participate and hopefully complete.
So today I started my training. 4 km in 40 minutes at IIT Stadium followed by pranayama. I did this after I dropped my son off at his cricket camp at 6 AM. Now sitting at my desk at 12 am I am a tad sleepy and my calves are tired and my breakfast was inadequate (Oats and a 1/2 banana).
I have made Spinach paratha and cauliflower curry for lunch. I have also cooked a small bowl of soybeans towards a salad... Can't wait to get home to it.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
further changes
After dilly-dallying as a research associate in IITM for more than 2 years, I finally took the plunge and signed up for the PhD program in the area of Bio-Medical Engineering. I feel totally out of control right now. I have 2 graduate level courses, research for my phd area, an audit course in circuit analysis and finally helping out with my old project in the biotech department. This in addition to taking care of my almost 7 year old, cooking, cleaning (only when I feel like ;), Guitar lessons and working out if possible!
I had to do a complete body check up before joining the PhD program. I discovered to my utter horror, I have marginally high cholesterol (201), low HDL (40) and high LDL (136 against a limit of 120)! My sisters HDL is low too. So we are on the bandwagon of healthy cooking and regular workout now. Neither has actually started, but the intentions are very much there.
As a first I will present a multi-bean salad inspired by Smitten Kitchen .
My version:
Soak overnight:
1/3 cup black eyed-peas (karamani)
1/3 cup chickpeas
1/3 cup peanuts (does this belong to bean/nut family? )
Pressure cook until just done, NOT mushy. Drain the cooked beans, rinse with cold water and pour into salad bowl.
finely chop
1/2 bunch cilantro
1/2 bunch spring onions (green and white parts)
1 red onion
Add to the salad bowl above and mix
Finely grate Zest of 1 lemon and add it to the bowl
Squeeze 1 lemon into the salad, add a couple of glugs of olive oil, salt and pepper and mix thoroughly.
Salad is ready.
Here is the ingredient list:
1/3 cup black eyed-peas (karamani)
1/3 cup chickpeas
1/3 cup peanuts (does this belong to bean/nut family? )
1/2 bunch cilantro
1/2 bunch spring onions (green and white parts)
1 onion ( the Indian varieties are small)
1/2 lemon juice
1 lemon zest
2 glugs olive oil (more or less as you please)
Salt and Pepper
This could be done with all chickpeas, but my son has chickpea mania and I use chickpeas at least twice a week. This is my attempt at varying the bean composition in his meal. Also, he hates mushy chickpeas, so I ignored the smashing instruction.
I also left out the olives in a bid to reduce my eco-footprint. (We love olives though. We use it sparingly. Pizzas mainly)
This would be awesome in a sandwich with a little mint chutney. But we had it with rotis and a side of Cauliflower and Greens. She had hers with picked garlicky red peppers and tahini. Sounds awesome too.
This will also be my entry to Jihva for Chickpeas hosted by Sometime Foodie. Checkout her awesome cakes too! I am baking something from her blog, probably orange mousse one
I had to do a complete body check up before joining the PhD program. I discovered to my utter horror, I have marginally high cholesterol (201), low HDL (40) and high LDL (136 against a limit of 120)! My sisters HDL is low too. So we are on the bandwagon of healthy cooking and regular workout now. Neither has actually started, but the intentions are very much there.
As a first I will present a multi-bean salad inspired by Smitten Kitchen .
My version:
Soak overnight:
1/3 cup black eyed-peas (karamani)
1/3 cup chickpeas
1/3 cup peanuts (does this belong to bean/nut family? )
Pressure cook until just done, NOT mushy. Drain the cooked beans, rinse with cold water and pour into salad bowl.
finely chop
1/2 bunch cilantro
1/2 bunch spring onions (green and white parts)
1 red onion
Add to the salad bowl above and mix
Finely grate Zest of 1 lemon and add it to the bowl
Squeeze 1 lemon into the salad, add a couple of glugs of olive oil, salt and pepper and mix thoroughly.
Salad is ready.
Here is the ingredient list:
1/3 cup black eyed-peas (karamani)
1/3 cup chickpeas
1/3 cup peanuts (does this belong to bean/nut family? )
1/2 bunch cilantro
1/2 bunch spring onions (green and white parts)
1 onion ( the Indian varieties are small)
1/2 lemon juice
1 lemon zest
2 glugs olive oil (more or less as you please)
Salt and Pepper
This could be done with all chickpeas, but my son has chickpea mania and I use chickpeas at least twice a week. This is my attempt at varying the bean composition in his meal. Also, he hates mushy chickpeas, so I ignored the smashing instruction.
I also left out the olives in a bid to reduce my eco-footprint. (We love olives though. We use it sparingly. Pizzas mainly)
This would be awesome in a sandwich with a little mint chutney. But we had it with rotis and a side of Cauliflower and Greens. She had hers with picked garlicky red peppers and tahini. Sounds awesome too.
This will also be my entry to Jihva for Chickpeas hosted by Sometime Foodie. Checkout her awesome cakes too! I am baking something from her blog, probably orange mousse one
Saturday, January 24, 2009
The end of an era
It is a year since my last post. Life has changed dramatically in the last year.
My mother gave up her battle with cancer and passed away in July 2008.
One of the last serious books she read was Robert Pausch's The Last Lecture. She died 4 days before him.
She may not have had as grand a life as Dr Pausch, but she was no less admirable. Her life revolved around my dad and the three of us sisters. She always held on to only our best behaviours. She did not hold on to the irritations, anger, resentments caused by our worst behaviour. We are not very sociable and tend to limit our interactions to just the 3 of us, our spouses and our parents. She was our gateway. She was also our buffer against the nuttiness of our extended families. We tended to treat her like another sister; Unlike most of her generation, we never gave her unconditional obedience or deference. I hope she didn't mind that.
I was the most difficult daughter. I would read regular internet reports on managing diabetes and would insist on trying it out on her. I never heeded any advice unless she could give my a scientific explanation for doing it. I now come to understand she was right on many things. She was magnificent about supporting me in may of my child rearing decisions. I have to admit, she was more open to my ideas than I was to hers.
I recently watched a discovery program and discovered that she was always right. You can throw away just the slice with fungus and use the rest of the loaf without any harm! Ditto for making cheese out of curdled milk.
She died on her terms. Spending the last month with my dad, cooking his favourite dishes and creating some awesome memories for him.
I cant decide which makes me more sad, my mother not being around or my father being all alone in the world now.
My mother gave up her battle with cancer and passed away in July 2008.
One of the last serious books she read was Robert Pausch's The Last Lecture. She died 4 days before him.
She may not have had as grand a life as Dr Pausch, but she was no less admirable. Her life revolved around my dad and the three of us sisters. She always held on to only our best behaviours. She did not hold on to the irritations, anger, resentments caused by our worst behaviour. We are not very sociable and tend to limit our interactions to just the 3 of us, our spouses and our parents. She was our gateway. She was also our buffer against the nuttiness of our extended families. We tended to treat her like another sister; Unlike most of her generation, we never gave her unconditional obedience or deference. I hope she didn't mind that.
But, in retrospect, that is what made her such a integral part of our lives long after we had all got married and moved away. That's what makes us miss her so much. I want her to come back for just 1 visit to let us know she is fine, she was happy here and she continues to be happy wherever she is.
I was the most difficult daughter. I would read regular internet reports on managing diabetes and would insist on trying it out on her. I never heeded any advice unless she could give my a scientific explanation for doing it. I now come to understand she was right on many things. She was magnificent about supporting me in may of my child rearing decisions. I have to admit, she was more open to my ideas than I was to hers.
I recently watched a discovery program and discovered that she was always right. You can throw away just the slice with fungus and use the rest of the loaf without any harm! Ditto for making cheese out of curdled milk.
She died on her terms. Spending the last month with my dad, cooking his favourite dishes and creating some awesome memories for him.
I cant decide which makes me more sad, my mother not being around or my father being all alone in the world now.
I am trying to make as positive an impact on my son's life now.
Friday, January 04, 2008
Critical Need
A forum to discuss our child's school/teachers!
It all started with going to the movies. We went to watch late night showing of "Taare Zameen Par" (wonderful movie by the way, review in my next post) I was horrified when the art teacher throws a chalk right at the day-dreaming utterly cute and vulnerable 9 year old protagonist of the story.
"I don't think teachers do such things any more... My own history teacher would target any yawning child and it sounded so painful to me I never dared to feel sleepy in class!" I reminisced.
My lil one quipped "My teacher does it to X".
I was shell shocked! I had hoped to leave my child in the arms of someone a lot more gentle than me for the better part of the day. I was debating whether to take it up with the teacher or the parent when my husband raised 2 valid points: Most Indian parents think nothing of it, in fact they may even expect/encourage corporal punishment as a means of enforcing discipline. The boy in question, is an utter brat, to put it mildly and his parents may not have the stamina to regulate his behaviour.
I thought I would prefer taking this to his mom and letting her decide how to deal with it.
Big Picture: There is bound to be a lot of fracas in school between the kids themselves and between the kids and their teachers. Not every kid is willing to pour out everything that happened in school into his parent(s) eager, attentive ear. Those who are in the know, need to share info with those who are not in a civic manner. i.e. No bragging, no showing off, no naming -shaming-blaming, just diligent sharing to ensure a happy schooling experience.
I guess what I would like is a moderated discussion board for every class in each school. I would also like to ensure some anonymity in the board - we dont want to end up with some child being targeted by the teacher/other parents.
Now the question is where and when?
It all started with going to the movies. We went to watch late night showing of "Taare Zameen Par" (wonderful movie by the way, review in my next post) I was horrified when the art teacher throws a chalk right at the day-dreaming utterly cute and vulnerable 9 year old protagonist of the story.
"I don't think teachers do such things any more... My own history teacher would target any yawning child and it sounded so painful to me I never dared to feel sleepy in class!" I reminisced.
My lil one quipped "My teacher does it to X".
I was shell shocked! I had hoped to leave my child in the arms of someone a lot more gentle than me for the better part of the day. I was debating whether to take it up with the teacher or the parent when my husband raised 2 valid points: Most Indian parents think nothing of it, in fact they may even expect/encourage corporal punishment as a means of enforcing discipline. The boy in question, is an utter brat, to put it mildly and his parents may not have the stamina to regulate his behaviour.
I thought I would prefer taking this to his mom and letting her decide how to deal with it.
Big Picture: There is bound to be a lot of fracas in school between the kids themselves and between the kids and their teachers. Not every kid is willing to pour out everything that happened in school into his parent(s) eager, attentive ear. Those who are in the know, need to share info with those who are not in a civic manner. i.e. No bragging, no showing off, no naming -shaming-blaming, just diligent sharing to ensure a happy schooling experience.
I guess what I would like is a moderated discussion board for every class in each school. I would also like to ensure some anonymity in the board - we dont want to end up with some child being targeted by the teacher/other parents.
Now the question is where and when?
As time goes by....
I am acutely aware of how much time I waste! It would start with my Salon/NYT daily email or with some confusion about a work related project. 1 hour later I would have surfed some 10 different websites and my To_Do list would have moved from Normal_pending to Critical_pending!
Granted my forays into the time-sucking web would have yielded at least 1 eye-opening gem , but what is it sufficient ROI for my time?
The Need of the hour is a SufersClock - it tracks how long I surf and beeps increaingly annoyingly as I spend longer and longer inside the Matrix. Um, I meant web.
I will stop now instead of checking whether such a clock exists ;)
Happy New Year everyone!
Granted my forays into the time-sucking web would have yielded at least 1 eye-opening gem , but what is it sufficient ROI for my time?
The Need of the hour is a SufersClock - it tracks how long I surf and beeps increaingly annoyingly as I spend longer and longer inside the Matrix. Um, I meant web.
I will stop now instead of checking whether such a clock exists ;)
Happy New Year everyone!
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Criminal Waste or Criminal stupidity
Oct 1st was a virtual bandh in TamilNadu.
Virtual? Yes,virtual. The supreme court had declared government sponsored bandh illegal. So,the ruling DMK part and its octogenarian leader pretended to observe a peaceful day of fasting while calling off most essential services. The net result? People stranded at railway stations.
Poor Patients coming into chennai, hapless.
Loss of a day's wage for those who eke their livelihood from day to day
A day of rest for the well-heeled and the over-payed with promises to compensate for the lost man hours on a weekend
Free publicity for the DMK and the chance to fire a few volleys at the Enemy a.k.a anyone who objects to the poorly thought out Sethusamudram project.
Now for the reason behind the bandh. The Tamil Nadu government, both present DMK and past AIADMK is keen on building a bridge in the Palk Strait, between India and Sri Lanka. The claim an economic bonanza
This would destroy the Adam's Bridge, a natural formation in the ocean, destroying fragile ecosystems claim the environmentalists.
This destroys Rama's bridge,the bridge built by his army from India to SriLanka claim the Hindu fundamentalists.
The economic bonanza is a pipe dream claim some economists.
Each faction makes so much noise, it is impossible to let those who are qualified to decide on the feasibility of this project or find the courage to announce their decision.
Case in point? The Archaeological Society of India first declared Adams's Bridge was NOT built by Lord Rama and then Hastily withdrew the statement!!!!
Personally if any govt promises untold riches especially around election time, I am suspicious. Besides,my natural inclination is to side with the environmentalists. I would also like to see Sri Lanka achieve a modicum of peace before we offer a direct path to potential Militants.
I also want someone to investigate just how much kickback the present and past governments get from the companies building the bridge.
The Communist leader comes on TV and declares anyone who opposes the bridge opposes progress!?
When I prepared for GRE, GMAT, CAT etc... one of our frequent logic exercises was determining the of kernel of truth in reams of flowery language seeking to confuse and confound. Such exercises should be taught to every student in every school in every town and every village all over the country.
We should NOT let our own stupidity enslave us. Let us learn to identify the kernel of truth in the bedlam created around us.
Virtual? Yes,virtual. The supreme court had declared government sponsored bandh illegal. So,the ruling DMK part and its octogenarian leader pretended to observe a peaceful day of fasting while calling off most essential services. The net result? People stranded at railway stations.
Poor Patients coming into chennai, hapless.
Loss of a day's wage for those who eke their livelihood from day to day
A day of rest for the well-heeled and the over-payed with promises to compensate for the lost man hours on a weekend
Free publicity for the DMK and the chance to fire a few volleys at the Enemy a.k.a anyone who objects to the poorly thought out Sethusamudram project.
Now for the reason behind the bandh. The Tamil Nadu government, both present DMK and past AIADMK is keen on building a bridge in the Palk Strait, between India and Sri Lanka. The claim an economic bonanza
This would destroy the Adam's Bridge, a natural formation in the ocean, destroying fragile ecosystems claim the environmentalists.
This destroys Rama's bridge,the bridge built by his army from India to SriLanka claim the Hindu fundamentalists.
The economic bonanza is a pipe dream claim some economists.
Each faction makes so much noise, it is impossible to let those who are qualified to decide on the feasibility of this project or find the courage to announce their decision.
Case in point? The Archaeological Society of India first declared Adams's Bridge was NOT built by Lord Rama and then Hastily withdrew the statement!!!!
Personally if any govt promises untold riches especially around election time, I am suspicious. Besides,my natural inclination is to side with the environmentalists. I would also like to see Sri Lanka achieve a modicum of peace before we offer a direct path to potential Militants.
I also want someone to investigate just how much kickback the present and past governments get from the companies building the bridge.
The Communist leader comes on TV and declares anyone who opposes the bridge opposes progress!?
When I prepared for GRE, GMAT, CAT etc... one of our frequent logic exercises was determining the of kernel of truth in reams of flowery language seeking to confuse and confound. Such exercises should be taught to every student in every school in every town and every village all over the country.
We should NOT let our own stupidity enslave us. Let us learn to identify the kernel of truth in the bedlam created around us.
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