Attitude !!! -- TAKE 2

Author known. It's a fresh new take on this post.

There once was a man who woke up one morning, looked at his partner sleeping besides him, and noticed she had only three hairs on her head. “Well,” he said, “I think she’ll braid her hair today!”

So she did and he had a wonderful day.

The next day he woke up, looked at his bedside and saw that she had only two hairs on her head.

“H-M-M,” he said, “I think she’ll part her hair down the middle today!”

So she did and he had a grand day.

The next day he woke up, looked the other side and noticed that she had only one hair on her head.

“Well,” he said, “today she's going to wear her hair in a pony tail.”

So she did and he had a fun, fun day.

The next day he woke up, looked at her and noticed that there wasn’t a single hair on her head.

“YEA!” he exclaimed, “Finally, I have reached the end of the cycle! Tomorrow, I shall spend my night with the lady with long locks of hair!”

Attitude is everything.

Everything in life runs in cycles... Your day will come... again!

Attitude !!!

Author unknown

There once was a woman who woke up one morning, looked in the mirror, and noticed she had only three hairs on her head. “Well,” she said, “I think I’ll braid my hair today!”

So she did and she had a wonderful day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and saw that she had only two hairs on her head.

“H-M-M,” she said, “I think I’ll part my hair down the middle today!”

So she did and she had a grand day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that she had only one hair on her head.

“Well,” she said, “today I’m going to wear my hair in a pony tail.”

So she did and she had a fun, fun day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that there wasn’t a single hair on her head.

“YEA!” she exclaimed, “I don’t have to fix my hair today!”

Attitude is everything.

Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly…..

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.

Pedve Ghashi (sardines curry)

Pedvo(sardines) as it is known among Konkanis is a fish high in omega-3 fatty acids and iron content. It is considered to be extremely beneficial if consumed by women during pregnancy and tastes great even otherwise. Konkanis usually prepare ghashi or deep fry this fish.

Here's the recipe for Pedve ghashi:

Ingredients:

1. Fresh or frozen sardines (9-10)
2. 3/4 cup fresh/frozen grated coconut or coconut powder
3. 7-8 roasted red chillies(Bedgi)
4. 1/2 tsp tamarind concentrate
5. 1tsp coriander seeds
6. 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
7. 8-10 Szechuan pepper (Teppal) (optional)
8. 1 tsp coconut oil (optional)
9. Salt to taste

Method:

1. If using frozen fish, thaw it in cold/lukewarm water first.
2. Chop off the head and tail and clean the fish thoroughly.
3. Rub a little salt and turmeric over the fish and keep it aside.
4. Roast the coriander and fenugreek seeds together in 1/2 tsp oil till they turn slightly brown.
5. Grind the coconut powder or fresh/frozen grated cocunut, roasted red chillies, tamarind concentrate, roasted coriander and fenugreek seeds into a fine paste.
6. Empty this paste into a vessel and heat it until it starts boiling.
7. Now add the fish to this paste, add salt to taste and boil for another 5-10 minutes on a medium flame.
8. Since fish gets cooked very fast, keep checking the curry frequently taking care to see that it does not get overcooked.
9. Once the fish is fully cooked(the fish flesh should turn completely white on the inside), sprinkle some coconut oil over the curry and turn off the gas.
10. For added flavor, you can also add slightly ground Szechuan pepper (Teppal) to the curry while it boils.
11. Serve hot with rice, upkari and some plain yogurt!

The Elusive Second Rank

It seems my blog co-authors have taken to heart our motto "where the taste bud matters!" Almost all the recent blog posts had something to do with food. Just to bring some variety, I'm posting this piece... recycled from my personal blog :)

Have you ever tried to deliberately score a rank in a competition which is other than your usually attained rank? I tell you, I have, and this is my story.

[This piece has been written for a narrator of the caliber of Morgan Freeman or Amitabh Bachchan. Hear that voice?]

Disclaimer: Any resemblance to any real person -- living, hospitalised, or dead -- is purely by God's own will, and I couldn't write it any other way.

In my good old school days, academics came natural to me. I happened to top the class, and get that coveted 1st Rank. Soon I felt a monotony to it, and then the fun started -- to deliberately try coming in second.

There was this girl in my class who would always come in second, and I would always hopelessly be ranked one above her, how-much-so-ever I tried not to! Of course, she wasn't trying to come second deliberately, but had she known about my intentions, she would have loved to help me.

In those days, betting wasn't a commonplace. I, however, had the good fortune of getting acquainted with a classmate, who was born to be a bookie and in the future, make his presence felt in the best known arena of all -- the Shaharjah Cricket Tournament. Let me call him, Aamir Bahaauddin Tyaagi, Aamir for short, which mind you, is a name from my imagination not Google™-able, lest I reveal his true identity.

Aamir knew that it was easy for me to secure the first rank, and hence would make it all the more interesting by raising the bets for the second rank, while keeping the odds at 1/1 for the first. Whenever I was confident that I have done so well in my class exams, or should I say so badly that I deserved nothing more than the coveted second rank, I would bet heavily. The currency involved for betting were in marbles, and I had to part with a lot of those. But that didn't stop me in trying for one final time, and then once more, and so it went on.

You might think that for someone who can come first, how difficult it would be to come in second for once. Well, let me try to explain to you the problem with coming in second deliberately, as compared to coming in first. The first rank holder's score only has a lower limit, and no higher limit. On the other hand, to come in second, you have to determine the highest score amongst others in the class, and score just about enough to not exceed that score, while ensuring that you score more than the rest. A lot of number crunching is involved. You might even get a Doctrate just for making an attempt in finding a sound mathematical formula, containing weird Greek alphabets, for coming in second.

Now, I wouldn't say I always stood first in these attempts, while it's true that I didn't come in second either. After the initial monotony of firsts, I have scored a fifth once, and a tenth too! Well, it's not that I lost my ability for coming in first, but that the parameters involved used to change every four years or less with new students rolling in my class, which made my calculations go wrong all the time. In the 6th Grade, you had to opt for a third language, and I took Sanskrit, which resulted in a new class, and a different batch of pupils. In the 9th Grade, we had to go to a new school for, the old school only had classes upto 8th, and thus put up with another new batch of students. You can consider yourself lucky if you have mastered the art of coming in second after 10 years of analysis on a static population with only a few controlled parameters changing (refer: ANOVA / DOE statistical analysis techniques), and I had to either come up with a solution in less than four years or incorporate the rules behind dynamically changing population in my calculations!

Now I have grown up and am not involved with academics, professionally speaking. But mind never stops working, especially on an unsolved Mathematical mystery. The other day, I came across on the internet a puzzle about an Arab sheikh and how he thought of distributing his wealth. Here it goes:

There was once an Arab sheikh who had two sons who were not the sharpest scimitars in the palace armory, as it were. He loved playing jokes on them to watch their reaction.

One day he told his two sons to race their camels to a distant city to see who would inherit his fortune. The rules stated that the one whose camel was slowest would be the winner.

The brothers, after wandering aimlessly for days, going slower and slower, finally ran across a wise man in the desert whom they ask for advice. After hearing the advice they jumped on their beasts and raced as fast as they could to the city. What did the wise man say to them?

I had always thought that Shaharjah, the land of the Arabs and the camels, had answers to these types of mysteries. How rightly so! If you are still wondering what the wise man said to the boys, let me not keep it from you for long. He said, "Switch your camels and try to reach the city first, thus making the others' camel which you are riding on, faster than yours!" So neat. So beautiful. So clever. Is it not?

How do we apply this wise man's logic to my problem of coming in second? For that, I would need the help of the girl who always stood second in class, whenever I stood first. Even though this is not a camel race, if you note, writing exams is no different. Switching the camels would mean switching the answersheets! Got it? Let me explain further. If I write her student roll number on my answer paper while she writes mine, we have effectively switched the camels! Now both of us would answer the exam based on our abilities, without deliberately trying to make mistakes, and ensure that she makes me get the elusive second rank, while she boasts the first! Perfecto, isnt it? So clever, yet so profoundly simple. Had I known this earlier, I would have won a lot of marbles, by Jove!

These days, whenever I attend prize distribution functions, I clap, cheer, whistle, and what not, whenever they announce for the second prize winner, while booing the first comer. People might think that I am related to the second comer, but now you know the real reason behind my actions.

[ If someone does go ahead and makes this movie, of course, after buying the credits from me, following text would now roll on the screen... ]

The Second Rank girl is now a qualified Medical Doctor, and is some big shot with a corner office in WHO headquarters at Geneva.

Aamir is now not making as much money as he used to when there were India v/s Pakistan cricket fixtures all year round in his current home location. India's decision to not send their cricket team to Shaharjah after the betting scam broke out, has not only put some breaks to his burgeoning bank balance, but also made him borrow from others in order to meet with his spouses' shopping expenses. (Note the location of the apostrophe.)

As for me, I am at home, sitting in my lavish mansion on a private island in the Pacific, writing a new movie script to get another nomination for an Academy Award! Yup, I still aim for the 2nd place!

Recipe for Tila Undo (Tillgull)

Come Makar Sankranthi and I remember Tila Undo. I have always loved mom's homemade tila undo but hadnt tried preparing it. This time I tried it and it did come out well.
So here's the recipe. Hope it turns out well...I must say its the most easiest undo I've made till date :)

Ingredients:
Chikki Jaggery(Sticky Jaggery) - 1/4 kg
Sesame seeds - 1/4 kg
Groundnuts(polished) - 2 tbsps/taste
Dalia - 2 tbsps/taste

1. Roast the sesame seeds in a heated pan. No oil required. As soon as they start spluttering or popping up, remove in another dish.
2. Next roast the groundnuts and dalia separately and remove them from the gas and keep along with the sesame.
3. In another vessel/pan, take 2 tbsps of water and heat the jaggery in it. I didnt know which is the chikki jaggery here so I used the regular jaggery which I had(looked like a small mount). Heat this jaggery, till the time it melts. To test if its done, take a drop of the hot jaggery and put it in a glass of water. If it hardens immediately, that means the jaggery is done, else continue heating it. If you like harder tila undos, dont add water while melting the jaggery.
4. Once jaggery is ready, turn off the gas, and add the other roasted ingredients well.
5.Grease your hands with ghee and start making small round tila undo. After some time, if the mixture starts getting harder, heat the mixture again with little ghee for 2-3 minutes and prepare undos.
Yummy Tila Undos are ready to savour!!!

Recipe for authentic konkani Pathrado

We have prepared Pathrado numerous times before and everytime it tasted good, but this time it was excellent:) Probably the trick was changing one of the ingredients. Here's our recipe for authentic Konkani pathrado.

Ingredients:
1. A bunch of fresh Taro leaves (typically 10-12 for 2 rolls)
2. 3/4 cup whole moong
3. 1/4 cup sona masoori rice
4. 20-25 roasted red chillies (Bedgi)
5. 2.5 cups fresh/frozen grated coconut
6. 1 tsp tamarind concentrate
7. 1/2 tsp asafoetida powder (hing)
8. Salt to taste.

Method:
1. Soak the whole moong and rice together in water for around 4-5 hours.
2. Clean the taro leaves slowly and carefully in cold water, taking care to see that they do not get torn. Chop off the stalks.
3. Grind the whole moong, rice, roasted red chillies, fresh grated coconut, tamarind concentrate and asafoetida powder into a coarse paste. Add salt to taste.
4. Once the paste is ready, assemble the taro leaves in order of their size from biggest to smallest.
5. Take the biggest leaf first and apply the paste on the reverse side of the leaf.
6. Now take the second biggest leaf, keep it on top of the first leaf (top down bottom up) and apply paste on the reverse side.
7. Repeat steps 5 & 6 for around 6-7 leaves, each time keeping the smaller leaf on top of the existing pile and applying the paste on the reverse side.
8. Once you have finished applying the paste on all the leaves, fold the sides of the pile of leaves and start rolling it.
9. Once you've made a roll, repeat the same procedure for the remaining leaves and make another roll.
10. Now prepare a utensil for steaming the 2 rolls.Steam the rolls on medium setting for around 20-25 minutes.
11. After 20-25 minutes, turn off the gas and check if the pathrado is done, by inserting a knife through the rolls. If the knife comes out fairly clean, the pathrado is fully done.
12. Serve hot with rice and dalithoy!

The pathrado tastes even better next day if slightly roasted:)

General Motors Diet : lose 7+ pounds in a week without starving

An Aryans' teammate of mine just went through this diet program losing 7 pounds in a week which has inpired me to take it up (I do not know when) ..... read on .... if it does not involve spending money to lose weight, it certainly is worth a try for me ;)

General Motors: Weight Loss Diet Program

The following diet and health program was developed for employees and dependents of General Motors, Inc. and is intended for their exclusive use. This program was developed in conjunction with a grant from U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration. It was field tested at the Johns Hopkins Research Centre and was approved for distribution by the Board of Directors, General Motors Corp. at a general meeting on August 15, 1985. General Motors Corp. wholly endorses this program and is making it available to all employees and families. This program will be available at all General Motors Food Service Facilities. It is management's intention to facilitate a wellness and fitness program for everyone.

This program is designed for a target weight loss of 10-17 lbs per week. It will also improve your attitudes and emotions because of its cleansing systematic effects.

The effectiveness of this seven day plan is that the food eaten burn more calories than they give to the body in caloric value.

This plan can be used as often as you like without any fear of complications. It is designed to flush your system of impurities and give you a feeling of well being. After seven days you will begin to feel lighter because you will be lighter by at least 10 lbs. You will have an abundance of energy and an improved disposition.

During the first seven days you must abstain from all alcohol

You must drink 10 glasses of water each day

Day One : All fruits except bananas. Your first day will consist of all the fruits you want. It is strongly suggested that you consume lots of melons the first day. Especially watermelon and a loupe. If you limit your fruit consumption to melons, your chances of losing three lbs. on first day are very good.

Day Two : All vegetables. You are encouraged to eat until you are stuffed with all the raw or cooked vegetables of your choice. There is no limit on the amount or type. For your complex carbohydrate, you will start day two with a large baked potato for breakfast. You may top the potato with one pat of butter.

Day Three : A mixture of fruits and vegetables of your choice. Any amount, any quantity. No bananas yet. No potatoes today.

Day Four : Bananas and milk. Today you will eat as many as eight bananas and drink three glasses of milk. This will be combined with the special soup which may be eaten in limited quantities.

Day Five : Today is feast day. You will eat sprouts (for protein ... non vegetarians can substitute it with chicken/lamb - 2 x 10 oz portions) and tomatoes. Combine this with six whole tomatoes. On day five you must increase your water intake by one quart. This is to cleanse your system of the uric acid you will be producing.

Day Six : Sprouts/Chicken/Lamb and vegetables. Today you may eat an unlimited amount of Sprouts/Chicken/Lamb and vegetables. Eat to your hearts content.

Day Seven : Today your food intake will consist of brown rice, fruit juices and all the vegetables you care to consume.

Tomorrow morning you will be 10-17 lbs. lighter than one week ago. If you desire further weight loss, repeat the program again. You may repeat this program as often as you like, however, it is suggested that you are allowed two glasses of white wine in addition to the instructions on the program. You may substitute champagne for white wine. Under no circumstances are you to drink any other alcoholic beverages with the exception of beer which is allowed. Any liquor (bourbon,vodka, rum) is forbidden. Cream drinks are especially forbidden. You may have an occasional cordial such as creme de menthe or schnapps, but you must always limit yourself to two drinks. If you wine, drink only wine that day. If you have beer, drink only beer that day, etc. Alcohol adds empty calories to your diet. However, after the first week it will help your digestion and settle your stomach

G.M.'S Wonder Soup
The following soup is intended as a supplement to your diet. It can be eaten any time of the day in virtually unlimited quantities. You are encouraged to consume large quantities of this soup.

28 oz, Water, 6 Large Onions, 2 Green Peppers, Whole Tomatoes (fresh or canned), 1 Head Cabbage, 1 Bunch Celery, 4 Envelopes Lipton Onion Soup Mix, Herbs and Flavouring as desired.

Additional Comments

Vegetables as may be taken in the form of a salad if desired. No dressing except malt, white or wine vinegar, squeezed lemon, garlic, herbs. No more than one tea spoon of oil.

You have been given a recipe for the WONDER SOUP which can be eaten in unlimited quantities. This soup is a supplement while you are on the program and it should be a pleasure to eat. Not everyone likes cabbage, green peppers, calory etc. This recipe is not inflexible. You may substitute vegetables according to your taste. You may add any vegetables you like: asparagus, peas, corn, turnips, green beans, cauliflower, etc. Try to stay away from beans (lima, pinto, kidney, etc.), however, because they tend to be high in calories even though they are very good for you.

Beverages you may consume while on the program :

Water (flavoured with lemon/lime if desired).
Club Soda is OK.
Black Coffee. No cream or cream substitute. No sugar or sweetness.
Black Tea = Herb or Leaf.
Absolutely nothing else except the fruit juices which are part of day seven. No fruit juices before day seven.
How and Why It Works

Day One you are preparing your system for the upcoming programme. Your only source of nutrition is fresh or canned fruits. Fruits are nature's perfect food. They provide everything you could possibly want to sustain life except total balance and variety.

Day Two starts with a fix of complex carbo-hydrates coupled with an oil dose. This is taken in the morning for energy and balance. The rest of day two consists of vegetables which are virtually calorie free and provide essential nutrients and fibre.

Day Three eliminates the potato because you get your carbohydrates from the fruits. You system is now prepared to start burning excess pounds. You will still have cravings which should start to diminish by day four.

Day Four, bananas, milk and soup sound the strangest and least desirable. You're in for a surprise. You probably will not eat all the bananas allowed. But they are there for the potassium you have lost and the sodium you may have missed the past three days. You will notice a definite loss of desire for sweets. You will be surprised how easy this day will go.

Day Five, Beef and tomatoes. The beef is for iron and proteins, the tomatoes are for digestion and fibre. Lots and lots of water purifies your system. You should notice colourless urine today. Your allowance calls for the equivalent of five "quarter ponders". Do not feel you have to eat all this beef. You must eat the six tomatoes.

Day Six is similar to day five, Iron and proteins from beef, Vitamins and fibre from vegetables. By now your system is in a total weight loss inclination. There should be a noticeable difference in the way you look today, compared to day one.

Day Seven finished off the program like a good cigar used to finish off Victorian meals, except much healthier. You have your system under control and it should thank you for the flushing and cleaning you just gave it.

Time for spring cleaning!

Its that time of the year again...time to spring clean the house! Doesn't sound too enticing, does it? But it is definitely better to get it done before the first month of the new year ends, lest you end up with lots of unnecessary stuff piled up in the house pretty soon!

Here's some tips on how to go about it -

• Paperwork/Files -
  Sort all paperwork from last year - old letters, bills, store receipts et al. Decide which ones are to be filed away and which ones are to be shredded. Ideally, store only the bank/credit card statements, health/home/auto insurance papers and all major purchase receipts.
  
• Newspapers/Magazines et al -
  Throw away old newspapers, magazines, expired coupons, flyers and advertisements.
  
• Kitchen/Pantry -
  Dispose off expired and unused food stuff, condiments and seasonings. Get rid of worn out pots and pans(especially the non-stick ones if they are no longer 'non-stick' !) Trash the old plastic bottles and containers or better still recycle them at a recycling center.
  
• Closet -
  Scan your closets for old and unused stuff. Do away with worn out undergarments, donate old faded clothes and dispose old footwear which you no longer use either because its out of fashion or because you've stopped liking it for some reason:).
  
• Medicine Box -
  Sort your medicine/first-aid box by discarding the expired OTC and Rx medications.
  
• Bathroom -
  Throw away empty bottles of body washes, shampoos perfumes and lotions. Dispose off any expired cosmetics and toiletries. Replace hand/face/bath towels if you have to. Also, its time to change the worn out rugs on the bathroom floor!
  
• General household stuff -
  Look around for any useless stuff in the house. If something is simply taking up space without serving any purpose, get rid of it by either trashing it or putting it up for sale.
  
• Coins -
  If you have accumulated a lot of coins and don't particularly use them for public transport or someplace else, get the coins exchanged for cash(this will however take off a small percentage of the amount) or for gift cards of popular stores for the equivalent amount of money. This can be done at the CoinStar machines which are installed in most/all Lucky(formerly Albertson's) stores in the bay area.

Rule of the thumb : If there's anything that hasn't been used in a year or two, you are far from using it in the future as well. So you are better off without it! However, use your own discretion when disposing off something that came with a big price tag:)

Remember, living in a clean and uncluttered space helps draw positive energy into your home and into you life. So let's flag off the new year with a clean and fresh beginning!

Food Alert - Filthy, pesticide & Salmonella contaminated groceries from India.

You'll be surprised to find many food items that we regularly buy from Indian grocery in the FDA's list of Import Refusal Report and Detention Without Physical Examination List. Check out the list before you go shopping next time.

The contamination ranges from being filthy and unfit for consumption to banned ingredients, pesticides, salmonella etc.

What is in the list? .... everything you can think of from unbranded spices, rice, sweets, sauce many of which are from the likes of Britannia, Haldiram, Priya, Kohinoor etc.

Refusal Actions by FDA as Recorded in OASIS for India:
Introduction - www.fda.gov/ora/oasis/ora_oasis_ref_intro.html
Dec 2007 - www.fda.gov/ora/oasis/12/ora_oasis_c_in.html
Monthly updates by country - www.fda.gov/ora/oasis/ora_oasis_ref.html

Detention Without Physical Examination of Processed Products For Pesticides:
www.fda.gov/ora/fiars/ora_import_ia9908.html

What is DETENTION WITHOUT PHYSICAL EXAMINATION?
In some instances a product may be detained as soon as it is offered for entry into the United States. This procedure is the administrative act of detaining a product without physical examination and is based on past history and/or other information indicating the product may be violative. A product may be subject to a detention without physical examination (DWPE) recommendation until the shipper or importer proves that the product meets FDA guidelines or standards.
Occasionally, FDA identifies products from an entire country or geographic region for DWPE when the violative conditions appear to be geographically widespread. Detention recommendations of this breadth are rare and are initiated only after other avenues for resolving the problem have been exhausted. (See FDA Regulatory Procedures Manual (RPM), Chapter 9-25-00 for details on Detention Without Physical Examination - formerly known as Automatic Detention).

What is IMPORT REFUSAL REPORT (IRR)?
The IRR reports on those products for which the that determination was to refuse admission to the product. The IRR is generated from data collected by FDA's Operational and Administrative System for Import Support (OASIS) and is updated monthly. Each month, the IRR is available sorted by country and by product based on the industry code which is the first two characters of FDA's product code (e.g., all fishery/seafood products will be coded 16...).

Where to find good CD rates.

With numerous interest rate cuts by the fed in the last couple of months, its hard to find good returns on CDs (Certificate Of Deposits) offered by Banks. Finding 6% APY returns on CDs was easy until recently; but not anymore. These days its hard to find any CDs that offers anything close to 5% APY.

While CD rates offered by banks may be disappointing, the next best option would be to go with CD's offered by local Credit Unions. Credit Unions, often, offer much higher interest rates than Banks. While your money in most FDIC insured banks is safe upto $100,000 per individual, the money at Credit Union is also safe as long as the Credit Union is insured by NCUA. This is a US Government Agency which, just like FDIC, insures deposits upto $100,000 per individual. So as long as your Bank or Credit Union is insured by FDIC or NCUA your deposits are well protected.

Fortunately for us, in the bay area, we have tons of Credit Unions around here which are NCUA insured. Most recently Patelco moved from being privately insured over to NCUA. Patelco is historically known to offer very high interest rates. So watch out Patelco, if you are in the market for CDs. Their 5.45%, 9 month CD just closed last Saturday. I am glad that I made it to Patelco, just a couple of hours before the offer closed on Saturday. Also keep a watch on offers by San Mateo CU and Tech CU.

One other advantage of going with CUs is that they don't compel you to open or maintain a Checking or Savings a/c with them. Even if they do, they generally have a very low minimum balance requirement from 1$ to 50$. In some cases they would fund those accounts with their money.

One might ask, will it not hurt my credit score if I open CD accounts with many Credit Unions? Well, it seems for CDs, most CUs only do a soft enquiry against your credit history. This is done using, what is called, Chex System. So the enquiry never appears or impacts your credit report or score. (For that matter, some smaller Banks too have now stopped performing hard enquiries for new CD accounts).

ING Direct which was once well known for its high CD rates has sharply cut down its CD rates. Same is the case with CitiBank. World Savings bank, which was one other front runner in CD rates, has been bought by Wachovia and as expected those CD rates are now .... history. Countrywide and Indymac Bank still seem to offer CDs with 5+% APY. You probably know why. Certain brokerage houses like ETrade and Ameritrade also are known for decent CD rates. However beware that some brokered CDs may not be fully insured. Read any fine prints and enquire before you go for a brokered CD. Well, that's about CDs. Will be back with more financial write-ups soon.

More Amchigle Gyadi (Konkani Proverbs/Sayings)

1> Pittali bhair palli (One's true nature became evident)
2> Vaasru ghalle (Broke down)
3> Thappil budle (Things didn't go well)
4> Ghoodu ghallo (Broke down, died)
5> Nanka Kappusu dovornu vairi pallo (Barely made it)
6> Dhar pakdo kelle (Cheated)
7> Divali jalle (Went bankrupt)
8> Dhendo ghallo (Moved in, generally against the hosts wish)
9> Patlam ghevnu ailo (Came with a lot of unwanted guests)
10> Chano khavnu haathu dhulle vari (Did a neat job, no mess)
11> Sukkhale sungata she (Very thin, shriveled up)
12> Kaddi paihlvan (Thin but strong fellow)
13> Kuvvale katthorche (Boasting)
14> Kotwal khanu she karta (Behaves haughtily)
15> Rayyana appalali chedu rambhe jattha (A woman's status in life depends upon who notices her)
16> O mahleri tow gothna (Does'nt know a damn thing)
17> Thonda kodu kelle (Expressed disgust)
18> Jibbe ka lagamu na (Talks incessantly)
19> Thote marche (Looking at women hungrily)

Credits: Written by my uncle Bob Kamath.

Amchigle Gyadi (Konkani Proverbs/Sayings)

1. Khellelek asha chadi, nahllalek chiccol chadu - The more you have the more you want
2. Goo khatthalek meeshi dhartalo - An accomplice in an evil act
3. Goo nai, bhattu haaggilo - The same thing said in a different way
4. Muttha gala ghalche - Indulging in fruitless activity
5. Duddu deevnu nainthu pouncha vocche - Paying for something which should have been free anyway
6. Valleka phala jud way? - He is not heavy father, he is my brother
7. God thukkoche - Feeling sleepy
8. Raathri palaile banyenthu divasache podche she - Getting into trouble knowingly
9. Vatteri watthale vaga makka yevnu khaga - Inviting unnecessary trouble
10. Maattheri booth basla - Obsessed
11. Kimsa maasa khavnu jathi bhadche - Losing respect by indulging in some minor vice
12. Ghoder baisunu sooru pilleri matthe laggana - You can''t get drunk if you are riding a horse!
13. Thonda theelu thimbana - Can''t keep a secret
14. Haaggu jatthana gaddo sodduche - Waiting till the last minute
15. Kansena kurdeka vaata dakkoche she - Like a half witted person guiding an idiot
16. Katt katta visha - Poisonous character
17. Toppi dovorche - Deceiving.
18. Kappani kalle - Ripped off
    
    Credits: Written by my uncle Dr Bob Kamath

Mint Pulav

Ingredients:
2 to 2.5 cups Basmati rice - washed and kept aside
1 medium size onion - slit lengthwise into small pieces
1 medium size tomato - cut into small pieces
1 small bunch mint leaves - finely/coarsely chopped
1 small bunch cilantro - finely/coarsely chopped
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
2-3 small green chillies
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
4-5 bay leaves
1 inch cinnamon stick
4-5 cloves
3-4 cardamom
2 tsp cumin seeds
8-10 whole black pepper
2-3 badi elaichi
Salt to taste

Preparation Method:
1) Pour ghee/oil (preferably ghee) in a vessel.
2) Add the cumin seeds, bay leaves, cloves, black pepper, cinnamon, cardamom and badi elaichi.
3) Add chopped onion and saute for some time till the onion turns translucent brown.
4) Add the ginger-garlic paste and saute for some more time.
5) Add the chopped tomato and slit green chillies, turmeric powder and saute till the tomato blends with the onion.
6) Add the chopped mint leaves and cilantro and mix thoroughly. Saute for 5 mins.
7) Add the washed rice and salt to taste, mix thoroughly, saute for 5 mins.
8) Finally add water (1: 1.5 ratio) and cover the vessel with a tight lid. Cook until rice is done (around 15-20 mins on a low/medium setting)

Credits: Smita Kamath