Let's be the change that we want to see in the world

Mr. M.K. Gandhi once said "There are people in the world so hungry that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread."

MR. TOASTMASTER, FELLOW TOASTMASTERS AND GUESTS,

Yes, Today I would like to spend the next couple of minutes in bringing some awareness and speak about those countless children who are starving in the streets near us whose cries go unheard. Just over this weekend, while I was wating on a traffic signal, i met this very innocent child not more than 8 years of age selling flowers and asking me to buy some as he did not have his meal for ther day. I did purchase those flowers and On asking him about his aspirations, he told me he wishes to grow up to become a rich man, and if he were, he will give the street children food, medicine, shelter, love anf affection to the street children, so that no one is poor in the country. If a child in the streets who has nothing is willing to give away so much why are we not willing to share and have become so greedy ? In our country we have so much waste, we buy and throw away, buy and throw away and still we will not share with the needy even when we have more than enough we are afraid to share, we are afraid to let go some of our wealth. DUe to poverty in India, we have these countless young children who have been working as bounded labours, just to find bread for themselves and at times for their families.

Although the Constitution of India guarantees free and compulsory education to children between the age of 6 to 14 and prohibits employment of children younger than 14 in 18 hazardous occupations and 65 hazardous processes, child labour is prevalent in almost all informal sectors of the Indian economy. As a consequence you find children working in the following areas too:

1 Diamond industry
2 Fireworks manufacture
3 Silk manufacture
4 Domestic labour
5 Construction
6 Brick kilns

Although, Indian Government has been taking various pro-active measures to tackle this problem. Way back in 1979, Government formed the first committee called Gurupadswamy Committee to study the issue of child labour and to suggest measures to tackle it.Based on the reports from Gurupadaswamy Committee, the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act was enacted in 1986.  The Act prohibits employment of children in certain specified hazardous occupations and processes and regulates the working conditions in others. The list of hazardous occupations and processes is progressively being expanded on the recommendation of Child Labour Technical Advisory Committee constituted under the Act. In consonance with the above approach, a National Policy on Child Labour was formulated in 1987.

However, considering the magnitude and extent of the problem and that it is essentially a socio-economic problem inextricably linked to poverty and illiteracy it requires concerted efforts from all sections of the society to make a dent in the problem.


Children are our most valuable resources so lets come forward and pledge to help them learn, study and grow to become better human beings. Let us give hope to at least one child and be the change that we want to see in the world.  Let us fund just 1 child's entire education and help to lead India to become a 100% literate nation.

Navratri

One of my maths teacher during college once said that these 9 days of Navratri are the most auspicious and powerful days of the entire year. So i thought of sharing a beautiful shloka that I learned while I was doing my internship. This is a shloka that was sung before Saraswati Vandana in any organisation level events held there and I loved these lines.

Ya kundendu tushar har dhavala
ya shubhra vastravrita
Ya vina vardand mandita kara
ya shvetapadmasana
Ya brahma achyuta shankara prabhritibhir
devaih sada vandita
Sa mam patu sarasvati bhagavati
nihshesha jadyapaha.

This means

She shines like a full moon in a clear sky;
She is as pure as morning dew on a green leaf.
She wears a white sari (free from contamination),
She holds Veena in her two hands (a symbol of music),
and Veda (original Hindu scriptures) in other hand (A symbol of knowledge).
She sits on a white lotus and is worshiped by Brahma (her husband), Vishnu, Mahesh, and all other gods of the universe.
She is full of knowledge and we pray to her for all these things.

Jai Mata Di !!

Samosa-e-dilbahar

This is a favorite snack in my family and I prefer cooking it at home instead of getting it from the market. Here goes the recipe and the ingredients.

Ingredients
----------------
Time taken: 30 mins

All purpose flour: 1/2 kg
Ajwain: 1/4 teaspoon
pinch of salt
Oil for moein: 200 grms

For stuffing:
Potatoes: 6 medium sized, chopped finely with skin
Green Peas: Half bowl
Green Chillis: 5 finely chopped
Ginger: A small piece, finely chopped.
Corriander: A handfull
Cottage Cheese: 50 grms, finely chopped.
Cashewnuts: 7-8, finely chopped
Raisins - 10-12
Fennel Seeds: 1 teaspoon
Cumin Seeds: 1/2 teaspoon
Cumin Powder: 1 teaspoon
Chilli Powder: 1/2 teaspoon
Corriander powder: 1/2 teaspoon
Amchur: 1 teaspoon
Garam Masala: 1/2 teaspoon
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

Recipe
Take flour and add salt and ajwain. Now add half the oil in flour and mix, add more and keep mixing for a min. Now take the floor in your fist and try to make a ball and leave, the flour should be able to stick togather. Now add a bit of water to knead and make a dough. Keep aside covering with a muslin cloth.

Put on the gas and place a Kadai/pan. Add 2 tablespoon oil, once the oil is warm add the cheese and fry for a min till they have a light golden colour. Take them out. Now fry the cheshewnuts and keep them aside.

In the same oil now add cumin and fennel, as they start to crackle add finely chopped ginger and green chillies, stir for a min and then add corriander powder stir and add the potatoes and peas. Now add jeera powder, chilli poder and salt, cover with a lid and let it cook for 5 mins. Now uncover and check if the potatoes are cooked, if they are not, cover again, else add amchur and garam masala. Stir for a sec, bring down from the flame and add fried cheshewnuts, cottage cheese, raisins and corrider leaves. Keep aside.

Now take another pan, and heat oil for frying. Divide the dough into 8 equal portions. Now roll each portion into balls and keep aside. Take a roller pin and a rolling plate and roll these balls into long oval rotis. Cut the roti's into half, take 1 roti and make a cone out of it, using the straight edges and keeping the round edge on top. Seal the cone applying some water on the side. now fill in the stuffing and seal from the top as well, putting a pleate in between. Similarly make all the samosa's and keep in the plate.

In the mean time the oil should be hot. Make sure the oil is not sizzling hot, we need to cook them on low flame and medium hot oil. If the oil is too hot switch off the gas for a min and then restart on low flame and now fry the samosa's. Keep stiring so that you get a nice even colour.

Samosa's are now ready. Serve with green chutey and Tea.  

Hope all of you will try this at home and cherrish the recipe. Chao !!

Pisces - The Fishes

Some exerpts that I gathered about my sunsign from several places:


Imaginative and sensitive
Compassionate and kind
Selfless and unworldly
Intuitive and sympathetic

On the dark side....
Escapist and idealistic
Secretive and vague
Weak-willed and easily led


They will dwell in the holy places of religious divine and social importance.

They are very intuitive, selfless, spiritual and focused on their inner journey, but at times, they also have difficulty distinguishing fact from fantasy - they tend to get caught up in their dreams and illusions of how things should be.

They are always torn between choices whether to seek the light or sink into the darkness. They are compassionate unless pushed to the wall, when they can be very caustic. However the sarcasm is not always direct and so generally it passes unnoticed. They however are happiest keeping these qualities under wraps.

They are liked for their kind and sympathetic nature, their charm and carefree approach. They find the going tough once they have to follow rules or to cope with discipline. When it really means business, they will flee and hide and the more weak-willed are likely to indulge in alcohol and drugs to escape. Some pour out their emotions in creative arts, or in poetry or short verse, but seldom open up to those around them on a personal basis. Although brave and prefer a lot of independence, they are impractical and somewhat uneasy with the real world. They delve in spiritual matters and are fascinated by the occult. They are unselfish, empathic but can easily be confused and hardly get much done.

They will do well in performing arts, especially in theatre. In science, they tend to work in the fields of either physics or medicine and also do well in ocean-based occupations or working with animals. They normally have talents, which get them money and fame. Their obstinate independent streak rarely allows them to be dependent on others. They are ever ready to help the needy, without being much concerned for reciprocation. They hate to chase for the owed money as they expect that it will be returned voluntarily. They are often distracted when bored and need to be more focused and inspired to give their best.

They are spiritual, charitable, compassionate, empathetic and love to help others in the most imaginative of ways. They also tend to lapse into melancholy if not heard, or into a kind of pessimism that can lead to procrastination and lethargy.

They can be very romantic, dreaming up delicious treats for their lover in relationships. They are generally gentle and relaxed people and modest to the point of impracticality, In the game of love, they are caring and romantic and extremely creative. They crave for fairytale endings, being more in love with the idea of love than being in love itself. Though strongly attracted to good looks, their attention span waivers at unintelligent partners, or at times simply because they "secure" the object of their desire. Vrischika ( Scorpio ), Karka ( Cancer ), and Meen ( Pisces ) make ideal partners for them.

On the flip side, they can also be unnecessarily suspicious and jealous, and this might cause a lot of heartache. Although the unpredictable moods are the reason for some tension at times, the gentle, sensitive, and romantic nature establishes a loving relationship. They value fidelity in a marriage and will be kind and affectionate to the spouse and let the partner take on a dominant role in public, but at home, it's they, who rules the roost.

Memories on the CWG...

CWG is over now, but to be frank I could not follow the games well this time and I really regret that. Day to day hussles and then the shifting to a new apartment did not allow me too. Any how we are settled at this new apartment and have cathed up with the daily routines. Today relaxing on the couch, I am dreaming of the childhood days when any disturbances never touched us at all. You would know what I mean here. Parents are always so protective and caring that they will not allow any changes to affect us. I remember the days when the 1st floor construction was going on, with evryday loading and unloading of construction material and day in and day out of the workers at home. But i do not remember a single day, if our study time, sleeping time, eating time or even play time was changed or modified. We were enjoying our lovely routine as usual.

In that year too "CWG" was also being held in "Victoria, British Columbia, Canada". We were so excited then to follow the games that we would find reasons to skip school to see the games. Although Mummy didn't allow us ever :( We had created small flags of all the participating nations using crayons and had put them on small sticks. And we cheered the teams with those flags sitting in front of the TV. At that time, we did not have cable TV connection at home, so there was no one switching channels too and thus it was more fun. :) I would say, these were the games that motivated us to participate in the track and field events organized at our school every alternate year. My mother being an athlete herself in school also pushed us to participate, and we sisters came out with flying colors receiving medals every year the games were organized. I became the 'Long Jump' champ at school .. and my youngest sister a sprinter, and to top it all my third sister was a all rounder and the basketball champion of our college. She later on represented state level games and is now representing her company.. All the best to her !

Anyhow going back to the days when we were watching CWG always on TV and finding excuses from studies. One day while watching games in the evening we heard noises from outside the house

To be continued...