It was my birthday and a long weekend. What better present could I had asked for then a surprise weekend vacation to long due Corbett National Park. It was a vacation with  a purpose. We went their with our

couple friends to participate in Marathon organised by http://runningandliving.com/ on completion of the 75th year of Corbett Park.  It was awesome day amongst the natural surrounding with birthday celebration to follow in the night.  We also managed to steal some time for boating in Nainital. Overall rocking time with family

One affirmation that I absolutely love is:
“In the infinity of life where I am,
all is perfect, whole, and complete.
My unique creative talent and abilities flow through
me and are expressed in deeply satisfying ways.
There are people out there who are always looking
for my services.
I am always in demand and can pick and choose what
I want to do .
I earn good money doing what satisfies me.
My work is joy and pleasure.
All is well in my world.”

Lots have happened while I was away. My daughter is super excited about the fact that she’s going to have her own sibling in december. Also work has become quite meaningful & fulfilling. Twitter & facebook has become my companion,when friends and families are not around. I think the curiosity of knowing whats happening in others life make these social networking(twitter/facebook) site quite popular. And for an introvert its perfect gateway to be abreast of whats happeing around them. So happy twittering and facebooking.

Kidzui - Browser for Kids

Expand your kids online experience with KidZui, the Internet for Kids. This is a free application that should keep your kids happy online but for extra features you will need to purchase a subscription. KidZui is cross platform and works with Windows Xp/ Vista, Firefox (Win/Mac/Linux), and Mac OS X.

Real parents and teachers review content for KidZui so your kids can surf independently. To express themselves online you will first need to create avatar for your child. After creating your kids account they will need to login anytime they want to use KidZui.

They can tag content and share it with parent-approved friends. When locked down, KidZui prevents kids from closing the browser, downloading files, or opening other applications. If the child tries to enter in a not so appropriate URL into the browser they will get a friendly message advising them of other content they can look at. This is a great way to let your kids independently explore without worrying about them using the adult Internet, or accidentally deleting important files.

The free version has a lot of cool features which should be adequate for most users. With a paid subscription you will get unlimited history of the kids Internet activity, unlock more user interface enhancement, and have access to a feature called Homework Helper. If you are looking for a fun way to help keep your children safe online KidZui may be the perfect option.

There are three disciplines that have been useful in my self-education: Reading, practicing, and collecting. There are many long lists of suggested reading for UI design, and there are a host of great blogs covering different aspects of designs.

I began by creating directory of bookmarks carefully categorised for easy access. Tools like delicious, Google notebook, & my own blogs became repository of all the precious links that I thought I’d require at some point of time.

But needless to say that most of the time I ended up googling rather then remembering to open my carefully stacked treasure. Although the habit of collecting never went waste as I got the opportunity to browse through them for some inspiration, whenever I got some time.

Collecting isn’t enough in itself. Paying close attention to what thinking goes into a product creation and applying those observations to my work is what makes this exercise pay off. I put this into practice with a my current job and this led me to exploring more growth oppportunities. Not limiting myself to one stream but participating in the entire cycle of product creation.

A nutritious pancake made with 3 kinds of flours.

Cooking Time : 7 minutes.
Preparation Time : 4 minutes.

Makes 4 thalipeeth.
Ingredients
3 tablespoons Bengal gram flour (besan)
3 tablespoons millet flour (jowar)
3 tablespoons wheat flour (gehun ka atta)
1 small onion, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped coriander
2 green chillies, finely chopped
salt to taste
Other ingredients
oil for cooking
home-made white butter to serve
Method
1. Mix together all the ingredients in a bowl and add enough water to make a thick batter.
2. Heat and grease a non-stick tava.
3. Spread a layer of the batter to form a pancake of 4 mm. thickness.
4. Cook on both sides till golden brown, using a little oil.
5. Repeat to make 3 more thalipeeth.
6. Serve hot with a dollop of home-made white butter.

Serves 2.
Ingredients
 1/2 cup baby corn, sliced
 1/2 cup onion, cubed
 1/4 cup yellow pepper, cubed
 1/4 cup red pepper, cubed
 1/4 cup capsicum, cubed
 1 tomato, diced
 1 teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera)
 2 tablespoons chopped coriander
 1 tablespoon butter
 black salt (sanchal) to taste
Method
1. Cut the tomato into half. Remove and discard the pulp. Cut the firm portion into cubes and keep aside.
2. Heat the butter in a pan and add the cumin seeds. When the cumin seeds crackle, add the baby corn, onions, yellow and red peppers, capsicum and tomato.
3. Stir fry for some time and then add the coriander and black salt.
4. Serve hot.
Tips
Do not overcook the vegetables as they will lose their crispness.

This is the book that I’m currently reading. The book is awesome, but what its telling us is something which we have already heard from our elders. The only thing why it hits me is that it tells us how to practice it & foolproof method to do it. It advocates the age -old saying that “THOUGHT” is very powerful & we create our life by thinking what we want to become & what all we want to experience in this life. Be it money, health, career…whatever. If you are stuck in a problem, not having great health or money & blah blah then its because of our thought. So its very important to think positively and enrich our life with whatever we desire. It also dispels all doubts of “I didn’t ask for this?” query & explains why its happening it to you. Must read! I adore this line in this book:

” Universe is the Genie & You the Alladin! You are the Master of the Universe, and the Genie is there to serve you! Your Wish Is Genie’s Command!”

Ingredients

1 medium sized
Onion  1 large
Ginger  1” piece
Poppy seed 1 tbsp
Cashewnuts  5
Chilli powder  ¼ tsp
Turmeric powder ¼ tsp
Salt  to taste
Mace  1 blade
Cinnamon 1 stick
Green cardamom 5
Cloves 5
Curd 150 gms / or Tomato 2 medium
Ghee 100 gms
Shelled green peas 250 gms
Cumin seeds ¼ tsp
Method:
Wash the whole cauliflower, cut off the main stalk and remove the leaves. Pressure cook the cauliflower completely with little water and salt(one whistle will be enough).
Preparing Masala:
Finely slice the onion, fry to a golden brown colour and grind to a paste using some of the curd / tomatoes along with ginger, mace, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves. Lightly roast the poppy seeds and cashewnuts on a griddle and grind to a paste. Heat oil and fry onion paste. Mix all the ground ingredients, chilli and turmeric powder and salt & fry for sometime till the oil separates.

Gobhi Preparation:
Now in a kadhai, heat the ghee in which the onions were fried and put the cauliflower upside down first so as to lightly brown it. Turn and cook the stem side for 5 minutes. Remove and place in the curd.
Place the cauliflower on a serving dish and stuff the masala. Cook in microwave for 2 minutes. Cook till the masala is dry but moist and the cauliflower is done. Meanwhile in the kadhai heat a tbsp of ghee and add the cumin seeds. When they begin to crackle, add the shelled peas, a pinch of salt and cook till tender. When the cauliflower is done, serve on a bed of peas.
Note: The cauliflower can be cooked in a moderately hot oven as well