Easy Tea And Coffee Recipe

Being a tea and/or coffee addict, I have learnt to experiment a lot with these two beverages. While my south Indian friends have taught me the best way to make coffee (both filter and instant), i have also had ample opportunity to taste the strong masala north Indian tea, just right for a heavy winter morning. And then there's the Bengali Tea. The flavour just kisses your palate and you are left wishing it would linger all day with you..and for many cups more. I thought I will just share my way of making tea...which I have 12-15 times a day!

How to Make Indian Tea

A bit more than 3/4 cups water - Bring to Boil in a saucepan

A bit less than 1/4 cups milk - add and bring to further boil.

Add sugar to taste.

Add Tea Granules (1 to 1-1/2 tsp depending on the size of your cup) after water and milk has boiled properly.

Bring to boil twice (dont boil too much, just enough for the granules to mix in with the liquid). Switch off the stove. Add One spoon green leaf Darjeeling Tea. Cover and leave it till the tea leaves sink (yes, thats brewing).

Strain, Pour and Enjoy!

Coffee (Instant)

Add two tsps plain unflavoured instant coffee to your coffee mug. Add two spoons of milk and two spoons sugar. Stir it well till it foams. Bring water (1/4 mug) and milk (3/4 mug) to a boil. Let it simmer for 3-4 minutes. Pour it on the coffee in your mug. Stir and you have your hot steamy foamy mug of coffee ready.

This is not the connoisseurs cappuccino, but tastes divine. Add a spoon a cream on the top if you have a taste for it!

I Am An Online Games Addict

I am an online games addict. Free online games, Card Games, especially Spades, are my favorites.

Yahoo Games website is the most incredible online gaming site I have come across. My earliest introduction to the internet was of course through Hotmail. It was amazing to be able to send a message across the seven seas in a few seconds and get a reply too, esp. when phone calls were so damn expensive.

Then I happened to stumble upon Yahoo. And as there was not really much to do at college other than studying (in a residential b-school being the only married person in class, keeps you kind of lonely) I came across online games. Yahoo Games then was not the hyper cool version it is now. And there were not really many people online. I started with Literatti (as that was the least hedonistic way of wasting time!) and made some of my closest friends online at Yahoo Games.

After I left college I was busy for a couple of years. Then I had to leave my job. That was the time I really became a Yahoo Games junkie! I again started with Literatti, but that required too much of effort and thought. I played Chinese Checkers (do try it, its lovely) and then Hearts, before I finally settled with Spades. By then the gaming industry had evolved beyond recognition. No one played the Prince of Persia, GP (I have still not been able to find it online) or Mario or even Doom. Gaming scared me, joysticks fuddled me and those buttons and the remotes completely puzzled me. So I stuck to Yahoo Games. It was simple. We were a community. I played in the afternoon with old foggies whose girlfriends had left them or new mothers just taking a break.

I played on and off during jobs and almost full time when I was out of it! It was an addiction and there was always somebody playing when I wanted to, a community of strangers I could share any problem with.

Then something happened. Last September, I was introduced to blogs. I have played maybe 10 games of Spades since and my ratings have taken a dunking. My old friends are not there when I go back to the Yahoo Games. I have become a blog addict and more over making money via blogs has re-inforced that addiction!

So I have switched one addiction with another...and making money in the process so very much legalises my net addiction!

Easter Bunny

Easter Bunny and Other Easter Words

I never realized there would be so many Easter Words in our vocabulary. While one can go on an Easter Parade on Easter Sunday obviously wearing an Easter Bonnet (Irving Berlin's song "Easter Parade," written in 1933), its more common to wear an easter hat to church on Easter Sunday again.

Easter actually is associated with spring and rabbits are the symbol of spring, of abundance, gaiety and fertility too. So do you wonder where Easter Bunny comes from? But one has to wonder how this bunny, a mammal, can lay those multicoloured Easter Eggs! The easter egg has many significance, which maybe the little kids striving to make the best one, wouldn't be aware of. The biggest significance is that it's a sign of immortality and fertility. It signifies the beginning of life too, for its supposed to be a symbol of re-emergence of Jesus from his tomb.

The biggest significance of Easter is that it falls in spring. Its the time most spring festivals of other religions too occur...so called pagan festivals, ancient festivals, hindu spring festival of holi, eid and such. And wonder of wonders Easter too is named after an ancient spring goddess Eostre, goddess of Spring and fertility.

So the Resurrection of Christ like all other festivals is interwoven around ancient customs too, customs whose basic precinct is similar - celebrate the equinox, spring, beginning of life, harvesting - customs across race, religions, continents.

How can i forget Easter lilies. This spring flower in all its white symbolises purity and peace. Its blossom is the analogy of Jesus's resurrection while the buld is a symbol of the tomb...mush like the Easter egg!

How To Attract Women With Your Online Dating Profile!

What Women Look For In Online Dating Sites!


If you are a serious player in the online dating space you better watch out! Women are growing more discering with a proliferation of these sites and can smell a scam well from a distance (at least the net savvy ones can!)

Here's what you should do to attract the right kind of attention

Profile Picture

Women get turned off by the obvious fake photos. Put something of yours that is recent. You can put on a cap or maybe the glares, in case you feel you are ordinary looking. But never don both. And if you are balding, then shave it all off and pose! That will be just sooo cool.

Remember a good profile picture will be ninety percent of the job done. The comments and your views come much much later.

Education

Emphasis your education, always. If you are from a top college dont hesitate to mention it. Girls dont mind nerds irrespective of what you may have heard. maybe you can mention the freelance project you did while at college that got a patent.

Activities

Next comes this important aspect. Dont ever mention taking your previous/current girlfriend to the beach has been your favorite pasttime. You can mention movies, maybe taking your mom shopping (she knows you are caring). And dont forget to mention your interest in sports...basketball, soccer, even MMA will do. And F1 and snow sports will positively score on the cool quotient

Music

Make sure you spice up the latest hits/favourites with some healthy 80s and 90s music. At least you are grounded.

Other activities

You can mention the cartoons you like. They seem to score these days. Dont give your political views. And mention any instrument you can play (doesnt matter if you did it in 3rd grade)

You should ultimately come across as bright, funny, intelligent, smart, reasonably good looking, dependable, caring, strong...whew

Top these with a snap of a gang of guys having fun (preferably with you at the centre). At least she knows that if you dont work out, she has got leads on some best looking guys around (your friends!!!)

An Oasis In Sahara

The year was 1985. US had just carried out air strikes in Tripoli, the capital of Libya. Gaddafi had survived but there were rumours that one of his infant child had been killed. Gaddafi moved from one tent house to another in the desert in the dead of the night.

It was the time we had to go to Libya. My father was a surgeon in one of the provices there. The southern province, the capital of which is Sebha, is deep in the Libyan desert. Sebha is an Oasis. The first view of Sebha from the aeroplane is something that has remained etched in my memory till date. An oasis of green in the midst of miles and miles of desert. I remember getting the impression that if the desert so decided, it could engulf the small city in one massive gust of sandy swirl. The city was encircled by rings of date palms which kept out the desert.

But more surprises were in store for us when we landed. Nothing had prepared me for the sheer modern-ness of the city. Clean wide expressways, with scores of new cars of all modern makes, a squeaky clean modern hospital, beautiful stadium, etc. I never remotely expected to find it in the middle of the libyan desert! Not only were the roads a delight, the hotel where we stayed was most modern. And from the ninth floor (where we put up) one could see the palms that encricled the town and glimpses of the desert beyond!

But more surprises were in store! What would you expect to find in a city in the middle of a desert ruled by a dictator in the Arabic world? Definitely not modern Arabic women (yes many jean clad girls going to college too!) with burkha only if they so desired. I even saw some ladies driving! And there seemed to be complete harmony between the black and white Arabs too. I really dont know what I expected after reading our culturally blind magazines and books so full of stereotypes, but I somehow expected the Blacks to be clad in rags and universally poor (I am just stating what myopic knowledge I had at 14 years!)...instead they were always well dressed, polite and educated!

The town of Sebha was where Colonel Qadaffi was born. So we were shown the hovel where he spent his youth, well preserved and in sharp contrast to the surroundings (yes it was a small mud house in a true concrete jungle, as if shouting - look this is the progress i have made for my country!). The town was football crazy..and there were plenty of street teams. But we never faced any problem moving around on the beautiful sidewalks, which is more than what I can say for the streets of New Delhi! The only signs of desert were on the outskirts of the city, where there were some mud houses and herds of camel (I guess this is what I had expected to find originally!)

Gadaffi was everywhere, smiling from billboards, parks, squares, stadiums...There was only one TV channel and it doesnt need brains to know what it showed! The supreme commander! He was on tractors in a farmland, or sailing, or on a motorbike, or taking decisions...always smiling as if saying I am all yours!

I really dont know what is happening in Libya now. But old friends of my parents say it faced a lot of hard times because of almost a decade of embargo. Gaddafi is a much mellowed man (not that the world cares how he treats his subjects as long as there is no problem with the oil supply at low prices!) and the cities have somewhat lost their sheen. But whatever may have happened its difficult to forget the warmth showed by the locals in my short time couple of months stay there.

An Oasis In Sahara

The year was 1985. US had just carried out air strikes in Tripoli, the capital of Libya. Gaddafi had survived but there were rumours that one of his infant child had been killed. Gaddafi moved from one tent house to another in the desert in the dead of the night.

It was the time we had to go to Libya. My father was a surgeon in one of the provices there. The southern province, the capital of which is Sebha, is deep in the Libyan desert. Sebha is an Oasis. The first view of Sebha from the aeroplane is something that has remained etched in my memory till date. An oasis of green in the midst of miles and miles of desert. I remember getting the impression that if the desert so decided, it could engulf the small city in one massive gust of sandy swirl. The city was encircled by rings of date palms which kept out the desert.

But more surprises were in store for us when we landed. Nothing had prepared me for the sheer modern-ness of the city. Clean wide expressways, with scores of new cars of all modern makes, a squeaky clean modern hospital, beautiful stadium, etc. I never remotely expected to find it in the middle of the libyan desert! Not only were the roads a delight, the hotel where we stayed was most modern. And from the ninth floor (where we put up) one could see the palms that encricled the town and glimpses of the desert beyond!

But more surprises were in store! What would you expect to find in a city in the middle of a desert ruled by a dictator in the Arabic world? Definitely not modern Arabic women (yes many jean clad girls going to college too!) with burkha only if they so desired. I even saw some ladies driving! And there seemed to be complete harmony between the black and white Arabs too. I really dont know what I expected after reading our culturally blind magazines and books so full of stereotypes, but I somehow expected the Blacks to be clad in rags and universally poor (I am just stating what myopic knowledge I had at 14 years!)...instead they were always well dressed, polite and educated!

The town of Sebha was where Colonel Qadaffi was born. So we were shown the hovel where he spent his youth, well preserved and in sharp contrast to the surroundings (yes it was a small mud house in a true concrete jungle, as if shouting - look this is the progress i have made for my country!). The town was football crazy..and there were plenty of street teams. But we never faced any problem moving around on the beautiful sidewalks, which is more than what I can say for the streets of New Delhi! The only signs of desert were on the outskirts of the city, where there were some mud houses and herds of camel (I guess this is what I had expected to find originally!)

Gadaffi was everywhere, smiling from billboards, parks, squares, stadiums...There was only one TV channel and it doesnt need brains to know what it showed! The supreme commander! He was on tractors in a farmland, or sailing, or on a motorbike, or taking decisions...always smiling as if saying I am all yours!

I really dont know what is happening in Libya now. But old friends of my parents say it faced a lot of hard times because of almost a decade of embargo. Gaddafi is a much mellowed man (not that the world cares how he treats his subjects as long as there is no problem with the oil supply at low prices!) and the cities have somewhat lost their sheen. But whatever may have happened its difficult to forget the warmth showed by the locals in my short time couple of months stay there.