Sanjay Varanasi

A couple of weeks back, I made a visit to our local university doctor due to ear pain. The assistant checked my weight and noted it down. I was curious, since I knew I had put on lot of weight after coming to the US and because I had started jogging a few days earlier. When I asked her, she said in her typical american accent One Nah-eighty. It took me a ‘huh?’ and another round of the stupid accent to understand that she was saying “190″. I was sorta shocked. 190 pounds is 86kilos. Prior to coming to the US, I weighed 78kilos.

I was aware of the Warrior Diet, since I had read a few pages of the book  long ago. I thought it was time I put it into practice. Since that day, I’ve been on a strict diet of the warrior. This means, you eat skimpy, high fibre, low calorie meals during the daytime, and you get to eat as much as you like of average caloried meals in the night. Though this is contrary to popular belief of eating more during the day when food has highest chance to digest, I went ahead with this plan, since it is always my trait to try out different things, or doing things differently.

The doctor  had adviced me not to jog for a while due to the ear infection. So, I’ve been doing some basic exercises like push-ups, bending, and minor weight lifting for 1/2 hr daily. All this leaves me very hungry by just 7:30, and that is when I start cooking. It takes me less than half hour to cook, and I’m usually eating by 8:00.

Its said that the brain take 15 minutes to know its hungry/ or that its full, and the Warrior Diet asks the warrior(me) to eat slowly. It usually took me 10 minutes to eat, but now it takes me nearly half an hour.

Yesterday, I went to walmart to get a weigh scale for convenience sake. I checked my weight after coming back home, and was pleasantly surprised to see that it was 180. That means nearly 4.5kgs of weight loss in about 20 days. But, the pessimist that I am,  I wondered if the scale at the university was working properly. That is a job left for Monday.

My blog completes one year in the internet world today. Happy Birthday to it!! Wishing it many more years to come.

While in the US, there is little choice of fresh / frozen vegetables especially in small towns like Kingsville. I’m left with no choice but to use what I get in ways that would wake up my Indian taste buds.

Here is the recipe for Rajma (Red Kidney Beans as is called in the US) - Serves two.

What you need :

1. One large US size onion or atleast 2&1/2 Indian size onions. ( Onions in the US can be as large as small Indian cabbages)
2. One and half US size tomatoes or 4 Indian size.
3. One can of Red Kidney Beans.
4. Two green chillies.
5. Turmeric powder.
6. Red Chilli powder as per individual requirement
7. Garlic-Ginger paste. 1/2 tablespoon.
8. Whipped Cream ( Malai blended smooth). 1&1/2 tablespoons.
9. Garam masala- one teaspoon.

Procedure :

• Put the skillet / kadai on medium flame. Put one tablespoon vegetable/corn oil or even ghee.
• Cut the onion into 1 inch pieces, and grind to a fine paste.
• Put the paste into the kadai, and keep stirring.
• Meanwhile, put the tomatoes in the blender and grind to a paste.
• When the onion paste has turned to a slight brown, put the tomato paste into it.
• Keep stirring till oil starts to separate. Then put the turmeric powder, ginger-garlic paste, salt and mix.
• Put the kidney beans along with the water that comes with it. This adds some gravy to the curry, and stir.
• Cut the green chillies into whatever shape desired, and put them into the curry. Add the red chilli powder and garam masala.
• Mix well. Add the whipped cream now, and mix well again. Keep stirring once in a while, for 10 minutes on low-medium flame.
• Take the kadai off the flame, and pour the curry into a bowl. Garnish with coriander leaves if desired.
• Serve with either Roti/ Naan or just plain white rice.

Good news arrives, from India for all those against Microsoft’s Open-XML format. This format has been voted out for now by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) in favor of the Open Document Format (ODF) backed by IBM, Sun Microsystems and others.

From deccan chronicle website at www.deccan.com is this article : (20th march)

Microsoft has been checkmated, for once, in India. Its Open-XML format has been voted out for now by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) in favour of the Open Document Format (ODF) backed by IBM, Sun Microsystems and others. Both ODF and OXML are formats for creating, saving and viewing documents containing texts, charts, presentations and spreadsheets. They can be downloaded free from the Internet.

ODF is already regarded as a national standard by BIS. Microsoft was pushing for its Open-XML to be also regarded as such. BIS, however, on Thursday decided by vote to not accept Microsoft’s claim. India did not want two standards that did the same job or might have interface problems.

This means that Microsoft’s Open-XML won’t bear the BIS stamp and, therefore, at least the large government sector will not use it. Microsoft stands to lose out on the massive computerisation and e-governance drive that the Union and state governments have undertaken. The drive includes setting up almost 600,000 Internet kiosks in villages across the country. Industry observers say, however, that Microsoft will eventually make a comeback because the government is otherwise working very closely with the company on various projects. At the voting at BIS’ IT committee, of the 19 members present, Nasscom, TCS, Wipro and Infosys along with Microsoft voted in favour of Open-XML. Three members were absent and hardware association MAIT abstained. The rest voted against Open-XML.

The ODF camp won the day with the argument that adoption of Open-XML would create multiple national standards, leading to complications. Microsoft, on the other hand, argued that Open-XML gave choice, flexibility and interoperability to IT users. Naturally, the decision has made the ODF camp happy. “We are in complete support of the BIS decision. We believe this will help in strengthening existing standards and help create new technically sound and royalty-free standards,” said Jaijit Bhattacharya of Sun Microsystems.

There are exactly 60 days for my flight to India, for the entire three months of summer. I’ve never been as excited to return or rather be in India. As long as I was in India, I was all for complaining about every and anything concerning India. Its only after I came to the US, that I realized what an ass I was. I can’t wait to be with the familiar noises, the smells, and faces. And, oh, do I miss Indian food! To be really honest, I find India to be a much better place(for me), than I could have ever imagined. Frankly, I don’t find a f**king difference between the US and India, except for the roads and cars, and the really low population. This should have proved to be an advantage for the Americans, but that is what might turn to be their greatest disadvantage. India with its billion-plus population, as we all know, has more youth than any other country in the world. And Indian youth is all over the world, especially with Indian standards rising, people have been able to afford studies abroad. Better exposure has also landed them great jobs in multinationals.

Untill recently, Indians were quite happy with what they were earning, and gaining in the US, ignoring what they were missing- India, their family and culture. Now with India offering equal or yet better earning opportunities for business than the US( what with the US economy in recession), it turns out that many of us are going back home or are seriously considering doing so. I’ve been hearing wonderful stories of people who felt it was time they moved back. All the more strange was the fact that one of my relatives who’d settled well in the US, is all desperate to return. I really wonder why.

I, though, have strongly decided to return after a maximum of a couple of years of working for the US multinationals. Once I make a little money, and gain some experience, I’d be the one to take the first flight back home.