Jeera Rice
Variety is the spice of life. I find this very true , particularly when it comes to food. I am a total foodie , and love trying out different kinds of food.However I never attempted cooking for several years. This is because , for the first few years , I comfortably came up with ‘studies’ as an excuse. I could hardly be spotted with anything other than a book in hand. A ladle in hand is something which people could not even imagine me in , leave alone see. My mom chose to overlook this despite continuous nagging from my relatives and friends. She used to tell them that the initial years of life should be religiously spent in education and nothing else. She would also add that I can choose to do nothing only until I get married..So she never felt the need to hone my cooking skills , and allowed me to have my way throughout. I do agree to having been a pampered child , and a spoil t brat..It took me a few years to get back to normal , and this happened while I was away from home for work reasons. 
Some years later I got married . My hubby turned out to be so considerate that he never allowed me to get into the kitchen. He felt I work too hard in the office and so should use the home time to talk to him and relax , instead of sweating it out in the kitchen. So we decided to hire a cook , and that is the way it has been working so far. However during the weekends I do feel the urge to make something for myself and hubby. So I indulge in cooking now and then. The outcome has been pretty encouraging thus far , thanks to my mom , and my granny who make themselves readily available on the phone to clear away all the silly doubts that I manage to come up with. Now amongst a few dishes that I regularly make there are some that turn out very well consistently. They are Jeera rice -Dal fry combi , Aloo Bath-Raitha , and Baingan Bharta. Today I am confident enough to the extent that I never go wrong with these dishes , and can make them with my eyes closed. Ok, now datz a bit of exaggeration , I agree!
Here is the recipe for Jeera rice , in case you wish to try :
Ingredients:
1. One glass rice (Equivalent to one and a half tumbler)
2. Four table spoons ghee
3. Half tea spoon jeera
4. Three tea spoons shajeera.
5. Three or four cloves
6. One tejpatta cut into 2-3 pieces.
7. One cinamon stick (size of a finger)
Preparation time : Half an Hour
Serves : 2 Adults.
Procedure :
1)In a kadai, heat the ghee and add Jeera . On spluttering , add cloves , cinnamon , and tejpatta , and Shajeera to it.
2)Fry it for some time. Then add the rice , and fry it along with the other ingredients. Do this for around 10 minutes , on a medium flame.
3) Transfer the contents of the kadai , to a pressure cooker and cook, like the way you normally cook rice. Thatz it! Jeera rice should be ready. (Do not try to substitute ghee with oil.)
Jeera rice can be eaten with Dal fry. It is very easy to get the recipe for dal fry on the net. (Cannot say the same for Jeera rice though..:)) . Happy cooking!
How is it to work in The Corporate World?
I stumbled upon the following in some blog. I immediately felt like posting the content here. Here it is :
Let me explain it in the form of a story. This story has an OLD version and a NEW version.
Old Version:-
There was once a washer man who had a donkey and a dog. One night when the whole world was sleeping, a thief broke into the house, the washer man was fast asleep but the donkey and the dog were awake. The dog decided not to bark since the master did not take good care of him and wanted to teach him a lesson. The donkey got worried and said to the dog that if he doesn’t bark, the donkey will have to do something himself. The dog did not change his mind and the donkey started braying loudly. Hearing the donkey bray, the thief ran away, the master woke up and started beating the donkey for braying in the middle of the night for no reason.
New Version:-
The washer man was a well educated man from a premier management institute. He had the ‘fundas’ of looking at the bigger picture and thinking out of the box. He was convinced that there must be some reason for the donkey to bray in the night. He walked outside a little and did some fact finding, applied a bottom up approach, figured out from the ground realities that there was a thief who broke in and the donkey only wanted to alert him about it. Looking at the donkey’s extra initiative and going beyond the call of the duty, he rewarded him with lot of hay and other perks and became his favorite pet. The dog’s life didn’t change much, except that now the donkey was more motivated in doing the dogs duties as well. In the annual appraisal the dog managed a “ meets requirement” Soon the dog realized that the donkey is taking care of his duties and he can enjoy his life sleeping and lazing around. The donkey was rated as “star performer”. The donkey had to live up to his already high performance standards. Soon he was over burdened with work and always under pressure and now is looking for a job rotation…
Moral of the story:- “One must not engage in duties other than his own”
If you have worked in a corporate environment, I am sure you have guessed the characters of the new story.
learnings and tips..
Been busy like hell since a month now , managing work and home.We have an annual corporate party in Oracle what we call ‘Rejoice’ , that kept me busy most of the time. I was one of the two Emcees for this event.I like keeping myself occupied with something or the other besides work. That way you have so much to look forward to. But the event that I signed up for this time sure took away all my time. Not that I am complaining. I had a good time preparing myself and preparing others for this. Had good exposure to quiet a few things.Made some good friends.
- Tips in case you are hosting an event of this kind :
a)Delegate as much as possible. But take ownership of some tasks at least. Do not appear like a brat when you talk to people whose help you are taking. Instead appear polite and gentle wherever you can .Make sure you thank the ones who have helped , profusely every now and then, and also at the end of the event.
b)Get to know the event schedule by heart. Do not entertain last minute requests for changing the event sequence.
c)Try not to please everyone.Find diplomatic ways of dealing with difficult people. Keep your cool always.Start preparing the script at least a week in advance. Do not come up with excuses like ‘I’ll do it later..I prefer being impromptu..I don’t have the time..I am a busy person ‘ etc.
d)Keep track of time. DO NOT be nervous. Even if you are nervous , at least do not appear nervous. Make sure someone is given the responsibility of playing the right music,as and when the teams come up on stage. Also make one /two people responsible for coming up with the names of the award winners’ well in advance. Validate the list to make sure you haven’t missed out anyone.
e)During the event , its ok if you go wrong here and there. The people in the audience are your friends.So therz no need to panic anywhere. Just smile or laugh at your own mistake(s). 
. That way the impact will be less.. . Keep the audience entertained. Do not allow silence in the hall for more than a few seconds. In case this happens , ask if anyone from the crowd would like to keep entertain the others.Give a chance to people.Do not try to impress the crowd yourself. But be prepared to entertain the crowd yourself if you fall short of fillers/entertainers. One important thing : Smile as much as you can , not at the wrong places though. I don’t know if I managed to do this. I’ll get to know after I see the videos.
Most importantly , have a good sleep on the night before the D-Day. That way you will have a fresh start and things will start falling in place. Should you need any more tips here , drop me a mail.I shall be more than glad to help you. Not that I am an expert here , but I will definitely be able to help you with some lessons that I learnt outta experience. . Hey I suddenly feel very free , despite the fact that I have been very busy catching up on all the pending stuff since morning! Is this normal?
PS : Please don’t mail me saying that the way I presented this post could have been better. Because it is very likely that I would reply back saying I never claimed to be good at presentations.:-)
Email in future. :-)
TimeMachiner is a new mini-app that lets you email people in the future. Use it to remind yourself to do something that you’ll more than likely forget.Here is the link.
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