Recipe: Amazing Green tea!

Here I am again! Now that I am nearing the end of my term at IIMA, I am growing more and more into a tea/coffee freak. Ahh......today I prepared this amazing cup of green tea! Well, I started drinking gren tea, 'coz prageet keeps telling me that too much of tea isn't good for health, esp. for females who need more iron; and caffeine apparently can retard iron absorption. Further, tannin may aggravate cases of constipation. whoa..... :o
So, I tried to make a gradual switch towards the green variety (which is considered a therapeutic wonder 'coz of its high flavonoid content and less tannin and caffeine, I guess)....well, frankly, I hated it at first. It was like having warm water that's slightly bitter and kind of weird :|
I tried to divide my day's consumption of tea into green and black :)
Well, I can't live without tea....may be Ma's to be blamed for this.....she deprived me and bhai of these delicious drops of amrit for so many years that my body just needs to make up for it (maybe bhai's share too) :p
So....the bottom-line...... I have to have tea ...... at least 4 cups....everyday :)

argghhhh...I get so carried away :p
I started writing this post to record this beautiful new recipe that I came up with about 1/2 hour back......I loved it :)

Here's what I did:

I took a little ginger (well, I am in a hostel...so I have this sun-dried spiced ginger stuff that I washed thoroughly to get rid of as much of the spice-coating as possible). I boiled a cup of water, soaked the ginger in a little boiling water and let the rest of the water rest till the temperature came down a bit. Then I added 1 tsp amla juice (I'm out of lemons; but this thing tasted great - a nice change). After that I put in the green-tea bag (used Tetley 'Green Tea'), added 3/4 tsp. honey (I don't like it too sweet) and there it was :)
A perky, yet subtle, cup of delicious tea :)

Tip: Don't brew green tea in boiling water .....strips it of its real flavor :)

Gloria in excelsis Deo!

A long long time ago, when time hath stood still;
When frowns stared back;
They demanded a war.

A lovely Sun hath risen;
A Sun that was destined to shine everyday.
Dark clouds hovered around for some days.
Testing and trying each sinew that writhed in its own salinity.

They didn't relent.
Clouds gave up and set way for the golden rays to seep in again.

Glory (be) to God who reigns atop every possible height!

*******************

.......sometimes I write stuffs like this. Don't know why....but some kinda urge to write happens....and I ramble :)

That's a pic of my Bhai (my little bro). I had clicked this one during our trip to Yosemite National park. That was an amazing trip. Put that pic on this.....'coz I love my bro....and he left for his work-station today. He was visiting Ma and Baba for about three weeks .... I got to be with him for just about a week :(
I love him so much! I'm the luckiest sis in the whole world....'coz he's the best bhai God hath ever designed :)

Good work up there!!
When I come up there.....I'm going to give you some great CV points ;)

A new flavour of coffee I discovered today ...... Yum!

I know it's bad manner to go "Yum" on your own recipe.....but God....can't help it. Wow!

I felt like some coffee...really late ....about 1:30 a.m. or so....
So I made myself a cup.....n did quite an experiment with it too
and it went well.....as you must've guessed by now
....just loved it

here's what I did
I took:
2 tsp ground coffee (I took Nescafe Classic)
a big pinch of crushed orange peel (sun-dried)
a pinch of cinnamon
one medium-sized clove (crushed)
a pinch of cocoa-powder (unsweetened)

I mixed up the spices and brewed a little beyond boil (took a large cup of water to boil). Added the coffee and let it stand off flame. Sprinkled the cocoa at last. Stirred and relished! Makes a full mug.

Amazing! Refreshed me to my guts :)

Run….run thy calves off

Today, I ran, actually jogged for about an hour. Well I've been feeling quite unfit for a while now....and everyday before retiring I promise to myself that I'll exercise on the next day and eat right. But promises are just to me made ..... that's how it works for me :p

But today, I exercised for an hour....and quite efficiently so. All the while I listened to 2 of the interviews that I had done with ad experts for my thesis. I actually have started this lunch pack deal with some guys who call themselves ‘nutrimeal’; and it was damn spicy. Well….for me! For the regular people it would be ok. I was feeling weird in my tummy the whole afternoon and evening, until I put my joggers on and started trotting. At 1^st I put on some music, then I realized…instead of wasting time…why don’t I put on stuffs that I need to hear. Nice huh?

I didn’t jog all the time…I broke the monotone with occasional shoulder rotations, arm flings and stretches (side-wise), lunges, tadasan (mountain-pose yoga), and trikonasan (triangle-pose yoga). I ended with surya-namaskar (yoga) and standing kapal-bhaati (300 puffs). Feel amazing now.

However, in retrospect…..since I’ve exercised after a long time today, I’ll feel the effect of it tomorrow mostly on:
1) the thighs: my quads will be sore,
2) dear God my calves will hurt
3) back of arms and shoulders… triceps (urgghhhh)
4) and upper abs.

Phew……n if I don’t exercise tomorrow….this effort will go waste. So I will exercise tomorrow. Will I? let’s see :p

....then there was light

Well.....4 years ain't enough to know someone.....even if that's your mentor(s)! I am working on my dissertation, and well.....the 1st and maybe (too hard) thing that he had told me on the 1st day was that " there'll be very little hand-holding from my side. You'll have to be self-sufficient...'coz I have too many things laid out on my table to be taken care of through the next couple of years". I was scared, but I'm happy that I didn't let go. Whatever little hand he extended or didn't extend I grabbed on and tried to stay afloat all this while. Some times I felt, why shouldn't I get a little more care .... like my mates in LAN....how they're so pampered and how they manage to party so much, play addictive games on the net (actually I envied how they could get into another addiction), and have fun! May be they were a tad smarter than me! But I so wanted to break free sometimes!

But I was so wrong.....I am so glad I was :)
I toiled hard.....they made me! When they just let me a tip of their finger, they did it on purpose, so that I could grow up one day, and manage the steering wheel myself. Once in a while they'd give the wheel a loud spin, in case I had taken a wrong turn. They knew what they were doing, and I had no idea. I was a puppet but they pulled the strings only to save me from a fall. I had to to stay afloat with a peck of resources to aid me. One let me meet him everyday as long as he was physically around, but I stood for hours in front of Wing 3. With another, I called up and got one meeting in 1 and sometimes 2 months. That's how 3rd year treated me. They made me do it all! & when I met them with an output file....they critiqued, and critiqued so hard, I had to work more!

Today, when things are looking up, when I get the credits, they sit by me and smile! They still give me the push when I need one, when I am reluctant to go up and talk to that big guy! & then when that guy tells me that I've done a good job, I realize what I was doing all these years. They made me toil, so that one day I could grow up!

I always fantasized that my PhD guide would be someone who'd be like a third parent. Well I got more than that.....I got a bunch of new mentors who just don't say it out loud that they care....but who walks into the LAN looking for me when he has a new idea to polish my problem, or who is fumbling around looking for the best place for me in my next step ahead!

Awwww.......I love you all :)
Thanks a lot for all that you've been to me! I feel so proud to just be a part of your BIG world. Thanks a lot!

My state (right now)

with all the lucrative placement deals buzzing around me....the patang-season, and so many partying FPMs......the possibility that my little bulb glows has dimmed :p

Happy Uttarayan!!

The FPM Journey

Writing a thesis is very boring! It was amazing when I was working on it...you know deciding on the exact research questions, method to be followed, designing the experiments, designing ads, running the experiments and analyzing the data, working on my model, running miles of rigorous algebra, interpreting the comparative statics....it was an awesome lot of excitement. It was amazing when one fine day I'd find a great result.

Then when I got the signal that the work was done, I started writing it all up. Fortunately, I practiced documenting my work simultaneously with the real exercises.....all that was to be done now was compile it all in one thesis. That almost killed me! Now I am into my n-th edit..... grrrrrrrrrrrrrr......and I am bored.

So I just made this little sketch in MS Paint and colored it there itself.
Well....I'm not a pro but I love the final look of it :)

It calls out to me.....says, "Ahhhhhh.....FPM......A Wonderful Journey!"
There's fun, there's excitement, there's frustration, deadlines, miles of literature to master, victory in finding awesome results, challenge of proving the worth of the work....the rigorous 4+ years put in.....an invisible hand that guides from above, a few visible hands to hold on to during the tough walk, thrill, monotone, variety - and the challenge of managing all of them together, inspiration, hopes, bashings and accolades, nostalgia on-and-off the regal burnt-brick walls, ........ a whole new world where I began.....a world that I had fallen in love with from day-1, a world that I can count on forever, a world that runs in my veins now.

I love you IIMA! :)