Cooking!

Mustard-grilled Catfish

Pasta Alfredo

Devil-Eggs

Irish Chips

Punjabi-style Chhole

Fudge Brownies

Spicy Onion Pakodas

A few of my recipes: includes a wide range from Indian to Italian and Irish. Enjoy!

The Journey so far...

PhD is a very long journey; a journey in the course of which you gain ten things, but probably lose ten other things as well. Three years down the line, and sometimes I now look back and think about the implications of this not so short journey. And not so surprisingly I see it has helped me be somebody I have always wanted to be. :)

I don't know where this journey is going to take me to. Neither can I imagine where my life would stand ten or twenty years down the line. However, I have started to understand one thing, it has helped bring to me an astounding freedom - a freedom which I am sure I would not have encountered unless I took the courage to embark on this mesmerizing yet traumatic journey...

Freedom has always meant a lot to me; because I have always loved to live for myself and loved to make the world a "free"er and better place to live in! PhD deserves as much as it can take; it is certain it would be as pleasant as it has always been! :)

If they can do it, we also can do it!

I was a passive voter, but a very active spectator in the historic 2008 US Presidential elections; a point in time in the history of civilization of this country, and possibly the greater world, which saw a sea change in how politics has come down on people yet so far. I am referring to the historic win of Barack Obama for the highest position in this country, and possibly the most influential rank in the world as it exists today. After several years, the vista of emotions, elation, happiness, surprise, excitement and placation that has enamored the people (like me) now, I believe would be an interesting page of life to flip back and re-experience! The pages in history might get less consequential, however it's impact on current society would exist ever.

Mr Obama made it. He proved the trend set since 1776 wrong. He wrote history. Being a man of only 47 years, and with zero political backing from his predecessor family, it was sheer his hard work, committment and the promise he showed that has brought him this glory. Whatever from this point onwards I would write in praise of him, would be just repeating what has been said so many times already.

However, what intrigues me more is not Mr Obama being elected, but the people. The people who are broad-minded, liberal enough to think straight at a time when the country is in deep trouble - be it military expenses and resources, energy problem or to add salt to the wound, the recession. I absolutely appreciate the people to have had thought straight - to have had picked the right guy at the right moment, and being unbiased by the legacy that has reigned since the past 250 years.

I am amazed, even after all the criticisms over the commonplace people here for not being politically aware, not taking enough interest in the nation's problems, they have for the first time answered that they do care. And that, they do have the capability to bring in CHANGE when it is needed. It is a very unique quality that has characterized this country so many times in other realms, especially in science and technology. They have been the trendsetters; breaking free the shackles of pre-nurtured customs.

I still dream of our people back in India this way. I wish we would become politically and socially more aware at the least, even if we personally aren't able to make any substancial contributions. We should at least contribute to taking the decisions for India which cater for its own betterment - may be pick a more deserving person, be it politics, administration, sports or technology.

If they can do it, we also can do it!

When are we really Successful?

Each of us are engaged in some of endeavor in our lives which intrigues us. Our lives are crafted towards succeeding in those endeavors, and we set out own set of logic, explanations, excuses and goals to reach there. If we do, then we delve into thinking that life is a success. And for other contemporaries whom we watch not quite reach there, we are very good at teaching our children the so-called "do"s and "don't"s in life.

However is success in life so precisely defined? It is so easy to say that person X is successful because he is a great musician, or a great physicist or a great entrepreneur? I am struck here to think that defining success isn't so easy as it seems like.

It's not about earning enough money. It's not about being famous. It's all about the people around you. What difference can you make to the world tomorrow? What is a single sole reason that would make people use your piece of success-yielding element in their lives? Would you still continue to live for a better world when you die?

Ironically enough, as soothing and pleasing they might sound, most of us are away from that defining the success of our lives in this manner. However there is the bigger question, why not? Is it the challenges we are afraid of? Is it the throny road that scares us? Or it is just a fear to tread a difficult against an alternative path that seems so lucrative?

We have to address these questions when we look ahead in life. Living just for oneself somehow isn't enough ...