1 large red or yellow bell pepper, seeded and cut into thin strips
2 large zucchini, sliced
1 1/2 pounds ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped or 2 cups canned crushed tomatoes.
1 tsp dried herbs, salt and freshly grounded black pepper
Making
Preheat the broiler. Cut the eggplant into 3/4 inch, then brush with olive oil on both sides and broil until lightly browned, turning once. Cut the slices into cubes.
Heat the 1 tbsp of the olive oil in a large pan and cook the onion over low heat for about 10 minutes until lightly golden, stirring frequently. Add the garlic, pepper and zucchini and cook for 10 minutes more, stirring occasionally.
Add the tomatoes and egg plant cubes, dried herbs, salt and pepper and simmer…
I was always intrigued by the processes involved in the origin of life. The morphogenesis of the embryo; how the chemicals that control and change the behavior of identical group of cells to develop them into complex human organs? I had read many articles about it and they all were very explanatory but none as beautifully presented as the “The Secret Life of Chaos” series on BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pv1c3
In this documentary, Professor Jim Al-Khalili sets out to uncover one of the great mysteries of science – how does a universe that starts off as dust end up with intelligent life? How does order emerge from disorder?
And the best thing is that one doesn’t need to be a scientist to understand it. The natural world is full of awe-inspiring examples of the way nature transforms simplicity into complexity. From trees to clouds to humans – after watching this film you’ll never be able to look at the world in the same way again.
I thought it would be a good idea, just after Saturn, to have them take one last glance homeward. From Saturn, the Earth would appear too small for Voyager to make out any detail. Our planet would be just a point of light, a lonely pixel hardly distinguishable from the other points of light Voyager would see: nearby planets, far off suns. But precisely because of the obscurity of our world thus revealed, such a picture might be worth having.
It had been well understood by the scientists and philosophers of classical antiquity that the Earth was a mere point in a vast, encompassing cosmos—but no one had ever seen it as such. Here was our first chance, and perhaps also our last for decades to come.
So, here they are: a mosaic of squares laid down on top of the planets in a background smattering of more distant stars. Because of the reflection of sunlight off the spacecraft, the Earth seems to be sitting in a beam of light, as if there were some special significance to this small world; but it’s just an accident of geometry and optics. There is no sign of humans in this picture: not our reworking of the Earth’s surface; not our machines; not ourselves. From this vantage point, our obsession with nationalisms is nowhere in evidence. We are too small. On the scale of worlds, humans are inconsequential: a thin film of life on an obscure and solitary lump of rock and metal.
Consider again that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you’ve ever heard of, every human being who ever was lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings; thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines; every hunter and forager; every hero and coward; every creator and destroyer of civilizations; every king and peasant, every young couple in love; every mother and father; hopeful child; inventor and explorer; every teacher of morals; every corrupt politician; every supreme leader; every superstar; every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there—on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena.
Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings; how eager they are to kill one another; how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity—in all this vastness—there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. Like it or not, for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. It underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the only home we’ve ever known.
1977- In a 3 month spree, armed with an imitation pistol, he netted $32,650 AUD from 24 armed robberies
He was known as the “Building Society Bandit” and the “Gentleman Bandit”, because he had chosen to rob only institutions with adequate insurance, he would wear a 3-piece suit, and he always said “please” and “thank you” to the people he robbed.
1978- He was sentenced to 19 years imprisonment for a series of armed robberies of building-society branches, credit unions and shops, committed with a toy pistol while addicted to heroin.
1980 – escaped from Victoria’s maximum security prison in broad daylight to become one of Australia’s most wanted men. Tortured while in solitary confinement.
After briefly going to New Zealand, he lived in Mumbai, where he became involved with the local mafia, and lived there for 10 years.
In Mumbai, was thrown into Arthur Road jail and tortured there as well, by being tied up, hung upside down and beaten with sticks.
He was released from the jail some time later due to bribes paid by a senior member of the Indian mafia. Roberts ended up working for the mafia, smuggling drugs and passports.
Some say he also went to war in Afghanistan to fight with the mujahedin.
1990 – captured in Frankfurt after being caught smuggling heroin into the country.
Extradited to Australia and served a further six years in prison, two of which were spent in solitary confinement. He escaped prison again during that time, but then he relented and smuggled himself back into jail. His intention was to serve the rest of his sentence to give himself the chance to be reunited with his family.
In prison he began writing a novel. The manuscript was destroyed by prison wardens, twice, while he was writing it.
After leaving prison, he was able to finally finish and publish his novel. The book’s name comes from the name his best friend’s mother gave him, which means “Man of Peace,” or “Man of God’s Peace.”
By far the strangest and the most yummiest recipe I have came across on the internet is the one for “The Bacon Cheese Pizza Burger”. However, couple of days back picture of something called “Bacon Cheeseburger Turtles” started floating on the internet. I don’t know its source but here is the image.
Bacon Cheeseburger Turtles
I am searching the internet for the recipe of Bacon Cheeseburger Turtles. If you have any information about method of its preparation please post a link or any tips in the comments.
Here is a video from IBN Live.com channel from YouTube. Where Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai (A True Maharashtrian) interviewing Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray.
I am a Maharashtrian and it is seriously upsetting that politicians like these clam to represent us.
No other Maharashtrian whom I know on a personal level promotes or supports such hate and violence.
You want to make things better for maharastrian? Then educate them, train them with special skills from operating a computer to carpentry or masonry something that will help them improve their slandered of living.
As of now these politicians who claim to represent Mumbai and Maharastrians are only feeding the minds of this illiterate mob with hate and violence against fellow countrymen and mankind.
It about time they change their strategy to empower the common man.
“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our Attitudes.”
I can relate to this. I believe it is our attitude towards all the failures, achievements and our life in general that keeps us going. Thing go wrong and many a times they go horribly wrong; all we have to do is keep standing and plan our move to get something good out of the failures or at least a lesson that can make us a little wiser. In the end all that is left from our worst experiences is something good that makes us stronger.
My Grand mom has the awesomest recipe for Maharashtrian style chicken curry.
Couple of week’s back I was at her place picking her brain to teach me how to prepare this “World’s Best Chicken Curry”. She agreed and asked me to help her out with all the ingredients. I got a kilo of whole chicken from the shop she suggested. Took out all the spices and grated the coconut for its cream, chopped up the chicken, washed and cleaned all the vessels that are required, etc. And got ready to document everything she did while preparing the world’s best chicken curry.
My Grand mom started with marinating the chicken in oil, green chili and coriander paste along with some salt and Indian masala. While the chicken was marinating she roasted some desiccated coconut along with some onions, ginger, garlic, cashew nuts, whole garam masala and poppy seeds (Khus khus); this mixture was ground to a paste and this forms the main content of the curry. Then came the tomatoes, she prepared some tomato puree after selecting the best three.
Now that all the raw material was ready to use the vessel was heated and some homemade desi ghee (non- processed butter) was heated and to it she added some finely chopped onion and ginger garlic paste. Once the onion was golden brown she added the tomato puree and reduced the mixture till some ghee oozed from the mixture. Then the marinated chicken went in and it was stirred till cooked properly and covered in all the awesome masala and onion-tomato mixture. Once the chicken was cooked she added the desiccated coconut mixture with onion, garam masala etc. prepared earlier. She added some water to it and gave it a good stir. Then covered the vessel with a serving plate and filled the plate with water, this helps the steam with the flavor from the food to condense and fall back into the curry.
After about 5-10 minutes she took off the lid and tasted the chicken, added some Indian masala and salt to get that perfect taste. Then as the finishing touch she added the coconut cream and tasted it again just to make sure every this is still perfect. And then it was done.
It was now, my turn to eat….!!! I genuinely enjoyed every morsel of it. This is the time in life when everything is right, every worry disappears and I enjoy the moment to its fullest.
Couple of day’s back I recreated this recipe and made sure everything was done the way my grand mom did it, down to the last detail. I even bought the chicken from the same shop she suggested; I borrowed all the spices from her and even the desi ghee.
After about 2 Hrs. it was time from me to taste my creation and as I had guessed it, the chicken curry was OK. Just OK, I exactly replicated everything my grand mom did, down to the last detail and yet I could only come up with a chicken curry that tasted OK.
I called up my grand mom and explained how I did everything the way she thought me and yet my chicken curry was just OK and not even close to her ‘Best Chicken Curry in the World’. She paused for a moment and then with a smile replied “You did not the best grand kids in the world to taste your chicken curry.” She suggested “You should give it a try when you have grand kids and then you’ll get it right.”
With this I realized what I had missed. I missed some loved one to share the chicken curry with. Not that I don’t love myself, but it would have been better if someone who appreciates good food would have accompanied me for my chicken curry. 🙂
Hrishikesh Sarvankar's Personal Blog 