I m fortunate that I am part of it...

Today I joined the Rosetog(i.e flower march) is Oslo along with thousands others in support of peace , harmony ,unity and compassion for each other.This was the time when Norway showed its character to the world. Norway has shown to the world that :
1. Norway not only promote the peace in other parts of the word by sending its peace keeping people and money
2. Norway not only encourage and support the efforts of peace in world by its Noble peace prize.
BUT
It also follows the same standards when it comes to handling the challenges like war,terrorism and hatred.

Thousands of  young kids,adult and pensioners all were part of this flower march. Every religion was present. And as usual there there was nobody(like security or police) to manage this crowd because in Norway people believe in self disciplined and  so it was not the crowed it was a giant grief stricken but united family marching for the cause of humanity.
- People were not shouting but instead raising their flowers as a sign of solidarity to world peace.

- Many people were having tears in their eyes but they were not angry.
- Everybody was sad but nobody was shouting slogans against anyone.
- Many foreigners who were not knowing Norwegian but still marching together because they believed what any Norwegian was thinking.
- People were carrying their kids on their shoulder, so that ultra young generation understand the feeling of compassion and unity. 
- Foreign media journalists were surprised by the behaviour of the Norwegian people.
- There was no VIP is the crowed ; all were equal.
- Though somehow police(politi) was late in reaching the Utøya but their sincere efforts were praised by the people...because everybody believe that they did their job with honesty and so deserve respect and applause.

Another Example of great country :
Mamma Behring( Mother of the guy who tried to kill the spirit of Norway) was not alone in this difficult situation of life Norwegian people have wrote to her following :

"Dear Mom Behring! In these bad times for you and the rest of the nation, we in this group that you should know that we think of you, you are also one of the relatives.....You are also hard hit, you are also one of the victims, you also are one of those that must be met with more care, more love and more kindness." 

"No one should judge you for what he has done. A mom will always love their children, and there is nothing wrong with that. Do not lock yourself inside came out and accept all the love we have to give you, "

It is very difficult to find such a country where the mother of mass-murderer is so protected and cared. I don't know but somewhere I think that noble peace prize for next year should go to people of Norway.

Some snaps to feel what I felt ...

Norwegian way of handling terror attacks

US President     - Bush,           9/11: "We're gonna hunt you down." 
Norwegian PM - Jens Stoltenberg, 22/7: "We will retaliate with more democracy".

Above lines are not just political statements but ideological statements.As resident Indian in Norway , I have been closely following the post attack development in Oslo and Utøya. What is needed from the citizens and residents of this peaceful country is that they unite against this horrendous act of violence and express solidarity in this state of mourning.
For the past 24 hours or so I appreciated( and as Indian bit surprised )  that every pillar of this strong nation whatever it may be police,politicians,media have shown positive and responsible response and did not indulge in any act of speculation,blame-game or rumor mongering. No opposition party is blaming the govt. for this terror attack and every time Norwegian PM is coming to press conference , he is just avoiding speculation( and no one is saying that he is in incompetent ).I know that it is difficult to control our emotions, thoughts and expressions in such situations but still in the national interest one must follow some unwritten rules and that is what everybody here is doing.

Another things is that PM's press conference is exclusively broadcast by the NRK.no , a norwegian state owned and controlled channel and this way they are justifying the presence of nrk as official government channel.I was thinking that how many people came to DD News during the past Mumbai attacks for authentic,reliable and exclusive news.

My deepest condolences for the bereaved families and wish that God give peace and strength to the grieving families.

Thanks Chrostopher - For great dish

Today Chrostopher demonstrated how to cook a great dish ( He did not tell the name because of copyright !!!!)  in such a different way....obviously it was very different for an Indian guy like me....:)

Ingrediants are explained in picture but for more details contact me personally.....

It was equally healthy ......just some use of oven for few minutes ...otherwise no cooking.......(isn't sad for Indian like me :) )

Which kind of corrupt are you/we ?

I was trying to understand the variety of corruption we see in people's  personality and somehow comes up with following categories :  

• Personally corrupt : You are corrupt by nature and do things for yourself and your family.Eg.Lalu Yadav,
• Socially corrupt : You do corrupt practices to benefit  specific sector/group of society. Eg. Baba Ramdev.
• Professionaly corrupt : You do things for benefit of your professional linkage or employer.Eg. Ramalinga Raju of Satyam 
• Legally corrupt : You are may not do anything above explicitly but by law it has been proved that you are corrupt.Eg. Lalit Modi
  

These categorise are not mutually exclusive.

Farms n Farmers - Incredible Bihar

"Some people refuse to accept things as they are, rather see how they should be - and leave no stone unturned to make it happen" - These are the lines from the heart of 2 young,hard-working and humble IITans.Treading a path less travelled, 2 have taken to agriculture after turning down lucrative MNC job offers and made a mark for themselves within a few months. They started their mission with an offbeat initiative in October 2010 in Vaishali district and now it has spread over 6 adjacent districts in Bihar.

Mission : Social service+Entrepreneurship (maximizing returns from land through natural farming)
Location : Started from Vaishali district,Bihar
Starting date : October,2010
Starting strength : 18 farmers to experiment on six acres of land
Method :
- Farmers are suggested to cultivate Cash crops eg. 'rajma' and flowers instead of the conventional crop of wheat/rice.
- Farmers learn and implement new techniques such as water harvesting and organic farming.
- Each technique is tailored to the soil content and land size.
- Farmers sell directly to food processing companies. It helps farmers earn more.

Organization :
- In February 2011, they founded an NGO, 'Farms n Farmers (FnF)', which does everything from soil testing to providing a market to farmers. Its activities have now expanded to adjoining districts including Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi, Banka and Purnia.
- FnF charges a nominal 10% of total sale value from farmers. It is planned to lower this figure in future as more farmers join initiative.
- FnF, which has more than 150 farmers associated with it, has an 8 member advisory team which includes Prof P K Sinha from IIM-Ahmedabad, Prof R Singh and P B S Bhadoria from IITKharagpur, and Dr Bimla Rai from RAU, Pusa. Manish and Shashank hold regular training programmes in different parts of Bihar.

Result :
- The farmers earned Rs 1000 per kattha with an investment of Rs 400. For wheat, they used to invest Rs 350 and reap 50kg produce per kattha, earning Rs 400 to 500.
- In Purnia district, where corn and potato are predominantly grown, farmers usually leave their land unused from June to September. They are advised to sow baby corn. As baby corn is reaped within 50 to 60 days, farmers had a bumper harvest just before raising another crop.Several Purnia farmers harvested 25kg baby corn per kattha of land and sold it for an average amount of Rs 750, earning more than Rs 300.
- In Buxar, the farmers, facing water shortage, were advised to grow medicinal herbs, which need negligible irrigation.

Future Plan :
- Though they are currently not using organic methods of farming, they said "organic is best." "Now that we have gained farmers' faith, we have started to work on organic farming. We are advising farmers to avoid using chemical fertilizer," they said.

Last but not the least the Guys..................
1.Shashank Kumar: IIT-Delhi graduate (2004-2008 batch):
- "If I had to go for an entrepreneurship, then why not this sector because no one is ready to work for this sector. This is ignored yet one of the most important sectors, so I have decided to work in this sector,"
2.Manish Kumar, an IIT Kharagpur postgraduate (2005-10 batch):
- Son of a retired clerk.
- Belong to Chakdariya village in Vaishali district.
- "A job in multinational companies wouldn't have given this satisfaction as this job is giving. Here we are changing lives of so many people attached with us."
Link to Video...

Oiling our Health !!!

Whenever I go to departmental store to buy the cooking oil , I get confused as there are so many oils exist in store like corn oil,peanut oil,vegetable oil, sunflower oil ,olive oil,canola oil. I tried to understand nutritive content( like zero cholesterol and less fat) and then buy the one that suits my mind( and pocket as well) there.
This kind of confusion always gave me less satisfaction considering the fact that Indians are highly prone to heart diseases and one of the major reason is the food we eat.Since 95% of Indian food is cooked in oil so oil becomes inevitably the main factor to concentrate on.
This led me to do some research on internet before I come up with following conclusion :
1. Olive oils is the best for cooking in all the respect.Second best could be Canola oil.
2. As we Indian use oil for sauteing, stir-frying, panfrying, or deep-frying so lower-quality olive-oil of normal grade olive oil is good enough as it hold its heat well( it has higher smoke point). So how to do it...
When the skillet is hot, add olive oil and let it heat up 30-90 secs. to just below the smoke point before adding food.










3. Drizzle olive oil over salad,pasta or mix it into salad dressing or sprinkle over rice.
4. Use olive oil in marinades or sauces for meat, fish and vegetables. Oil penetrates nicely into the first few layers of the food being marinated and give better flavour as well.
5. Since olive oil is a fruit juice so air,heat and light will cause olive oil to turn ranacid( which taste buttery) so it should be stored in dark cabinet away from stove and sunlight(ideal temp. 14 degree) and tight capped as well.
2. Avoid using butter and coconut oil for cooking.

Usage : 1 tablespoon of butter = 3/4 tablespoon of olive oil.