International World Water Day - How to Save Water?

The festival of Holi is coming up, so has International World Water Day arrived. How are these days related? We know well…

22 March of every year is celebrated as International World Water Day. This day focuses on the importance and management of freshwater resources.

Three fourth of the earth consists of water of which only 1% is available for use. It is this fresh water that is utilized to drink, wash, irrigate farms etc and hence it is very important for our survival. However, the fresh water level has begun to drop across various countries. While the global population increased by about four times between 1900 and 2000, the global water usage saw a six fold increase.  Thus water conservation is necessary to safeguard this fresh water from drying up completely. Less water will mean less food. This will lead not only to people dying of water-borne diseases, but also to people dying from starvation and malnutrition.

Source: http://energyprosandcons.org

So it is the responsibility of each one of us to start acting on water conservation. Below are some simple actions that you can take in your daily lives to save water :-

• Take necessary action to repair any water leakage in your facility.
• Close all water taps tightly
• Keep the water flow of taps to minimum
• Flush only as much as required and also avoid unnecessary flushing
• Take required amount of drinking water and avoid wasting the same
• At your workplace, don’t use Coffee/Tea vending machine to rinse your coffee/tea mugs. By rinsing the mugs you will waste precious drinking water and energy used to warm that water. Each rinse will consume 20 ml. of water and we are wasting about 30,000 liters of drinking water every month only for rinsing cups which is getting cleaned hygienically
• It's a good day to start spreading awareness about water conservation on International World Water Day.

Water is a shared resource and its management needs to take into account a wide variety of conflicting interests and all our support. How to save water has been well illustrated. Water is a basic requirement for all life forms and as a result water resources are facing an increase in demand and competition among users. The fulfillment of basic human and environmental needs along with socio-economic development are predominantly  dependent on water.

Effective management of water is challenging since it is unevenly distributed in time and space, the hydrological cycle is highly complex and perturbations have multiple effects. Rapid urbanization, pollution and climate change threaten the resource while simultaneously demand for water is increasing in order to satisfy the needs of a growing world population.


"Water, Water Everywhere, Only if We Save" !!!

Chinese Cheese Pizza Recipe

Pizza is something from which we can’t stay away for too long. Instead of waiting for 30 minutes and wishing for a free pizza, why not make one at home.Although that needs some hardwork, it’s really worth. Here’s the recipe for chinese cheese pizza. Below given image is not the one for Chinese Cheeze pizza. It's just an image to crave you for a pizza ;)

Source: Mainlinepizzaquest.blogspot.com

 
Ingredients for Chinese Cheese Pizza:

• 1 Pizza bread
• half teaspoon Butter

For Toppings:

• 1 small onion
• 1 small capsicum
• half tomato
• half cup Boneless Chicken pieces / Paneer cubes
• 1 tsp Vinegar
• 1 tsp Tomato Sauce
• 3/4th tsp Soya sauce
• 2 tsp Oil
• salt to taste
• half cup pizza cheese (mozarella)

How to make chinese cheese pizza:

For toppings:

• Heat oil in a pan
• Add onion and saute till half translucent
• Add tomato and capsicum and saute till half cooked
• Add chicken pieces (for non-veg pizza) / Paneer (for veg pizza)
• Saute till all ingredients are cooked
• Add vinegar, soya sauce, tomato sauce and salt and mix well
• And the topping for your chinese cheese pizza is ready.

Prepare the Chinese Cheese Pizza:

• Spread the butter on pizza bread and grill in microwave oven till it turns golden brown
• Remove the pizza bread from oven and spread the cooked topping on the pizza
• Grate the pizza cheese over the pizza
• Grill the pizza in oven till the paneer melts and turn golden

Tips while preparing chinese cheese pizza:

• Do not fully cook the vegetables in the toppings. Let it be 99% cooked :P
• Do not add too much oil to the topping, it might spoil the pizza taste
• Let the chicken pieces/paneer pieces be very small

Sabudana Vada Recipe

Be it a fast or just a way to celebrate the weekend, sabudana vada is one of the tempting snack for all. Here goes the Sabudana vada recipe for the tasty snack made at my kitchen .. Archana' s Kitchen :)

source:slurrpy.com

Ingrediants:

1. 1 cup sabudana
2. 1 cup water
3. 1 big potato
4. 2-3 green chillies
5. 1/2 cup coriander leaves
6. salt to taste
7. 2 cups oil

Recipe of sabudana vada:

1. Wash Sabudana with water thoroughly 2-3 times.
2. Soak Sabudana for 3-4 hours in water.
3. Boil and smash the potato
4. Finely chop green chillies and coriander leaves
5. Mix smashed potato, chopped green chillies, chopped coriander leaves and sabudana
6. Add salt to taste
7. Add water to make it slightly thin
8. Make small cutlets from the mixture and deep fry in oil until it turns golden brown in color.

Tips while making Sabudana vada recipe:

1. Do not add too much water and make the mixture very thin, as you'll not be able to give shape to the thin matter.
2. Heat the sabudana vada in medium flame. On high flame, the outer part of the vada gets brown, although the inner matter remains raw.
3. As the sabudana vada will be very oily use tissue paper to remove some oil. But put the vada on the tissue paper only after the sabudana vada cools down slightly.
4. Serve the vadas with tomato sauce or coriander leaves chutney.

Photo Cakes

Photo cakes are becoming increasingly popular nowadays. While many of us never knew about this technology, it's provided by many cake shops from Monginis, Brownie Point to The Chocolate Room.

Source: yummycakesindia.com

How is photo cake made?

1 would wonder how is the edible photograph actually put on the cake. Well, this is actually because of 2 food materials – edible icing paper and food coloring products. The scanned image is printed on the icing paper which is made from rice/potato/cornstarch and the food coloring is used as ink to print the picture on the cake.

How to order a photo cake?

A picture cake has to be ordered at most 3 days prior to the day you want the cake to be ready. Some of them allow 2 days and some even 1 day. But cake shops do not usually agree for 1 day time. So if you are planning for a photo cake, well, plan in much advance.

The photograph to be printed on the cake has to be given as a soft copy - by email/pen drive etc. Better the quality of the picture, better would be the print on the cake. Hence make sure the photograph you are giving to the cake shop is of the best quality.

Different cake shops offer different flavors for photocakes. It could be blackforest, dutch chocolate cake, pineapple cake etc. Also some of the shops provide choice for the shape of the cake – rectangular, round, heart shape etc.

Cost for photocakes usually range between Rs. 700 and Rs. 1500 for 1 Kg. Photo cakes weight starts from 1Kg.

Some personal experience:

I had to order 2 photo cakes in the last month for celebrating 2 wedding occasions in the family.

1^st one was from The Chocolate Room, Kandivali, Mumbai. We needed the cake on the next day of ordering, so we were quite worried about which cake shop would do that customization for us within 1 day. After contacting multiple cake shops, The Chocolate Room agreed to deliver the cake in 1 day. We emailed them the picture and visited the store to choose the cake flavor and shape. The Chocolate Room offered heart shape and rectangular shaped photocakes in flavors of Blackforest and Chocolate. After discussions and suggestions from the seller, we settled on a 1.5Kg heart shaped blackforest cake. It costed us Rs. 1800 - much more than what other cake shops charged. We were advised that the picture be framed with white icing for greater impact of the photograph. With big holes in our pockets we walked out of the store. On the next day, we got the cake at the time decided.

On the 2^nd occasion, we ordered a photo cake from Monginis, Mulund, Mumbai. This time we called the cake shop 3 days prior to the occasion day. As it was not possible for us to visit the store, the flavor, shape, weight selection etc was done on the phone. Monginis offers photo cakes in only rectangular shape and flavors of dutch chocolate and Swiss chocolate. And charged Rs. 800 for 1 Kg cake. So we ordered a 1 Kg rectangular shaped Swiss Chocolate cake. Payment was done through online bank transfer. And I collected the cake from the shop on the day of the occasion.

Buy Pepper Spray - Self Defence for Women

I walked into a pharmacist shop and asked if they have a pepper spray. In return I got a shocked look and 5 seconds of silence. In another store, the person at the counter made me repeat thrice "Do you have a pepper spray?.. pepper spray.. small can of pepper spray!". Answer I got was No.

Looking at the number of rapes in our country in the year 2012 i.e. almost 600 in delhi, more than 200 in mumbai, 50s to 100s in kolkata, chennai, bangalore, hyderabad, we know how important it is to carry a pepper spray can for self defence for women. It’s not just meant for females, but it’s for old aged people too. An attacker is always stronger when our mind is in a sub-conscious state i.e. we are thinking something or are disturbed with something.

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lype/6376366675/

  

Pepper sprays are meant to affect the attacker temporarily, hence doesn’t cause any permanent damage. If the spray is applied on a person with asthma or any other breathing problem, it can lead to death. It is illegal to posses the spray without a valid license in many countries across the world, although in India it’s legal. You can buy pepper spray easily nowadays. If you are an online shopper, healthkart.com is a good source with fast delivery.

Some basic features of pepper sprays regardless of their brands are:

• Small in size; generally 30-40g weight. This make it easily portable. 
• Can be sprayed from 5-10 feet of distance 
• Knocks off the attacker for 15-30 minutes and sometimes even for hours. 
• Sprays could be in the form of stream, fog, cone or foam

Induction Cooker or raised cap of subsidised LPG cylinder? Whats your choice?

With the cap of 6 subsidised LPG price cylinders, people started switching towards to electric induction cooker. Now the cap has raised to 9, and we think now induction cooker is of no use.

With a family of four, it was obvious that 6 cylinders is too less. And spending Rs. 900 for the 7th one is unaffordable for a middle class family. An induction cooker is a better option cost-wise. It costs between Rs. 2000 and 5000 depending on brands like Prestige, Philips, Morphy Richards etc.

Most importantly an induction cooker consumes less electricity. I have experienced it for myself. I had bought an induction cooker 3 months back and our electricity bill doesn't show much difference in the numbers. Also, being strictly against energy wastage, I would prefer that energy doesn't get wasted while cooking too. In a cooking gas, the flame is not totally used to heat the vessel. Whereas in an induction cooker, this is not the case. The heat gets transferred to the vessel totally, hence heating the vessel faster than our cooking gas, resulting in electricity saving.

The vessel which should be used for an induction cooker should have magnetic base. Before buying new induction based vessels, do not forget to test your available vessels for such base, by using a magnet and touching it to the base of the vessel.


Advantages of induction cooker:

• Energy efficient
• Good replacement for cooking gas
• uses lesser space
• Cooks food faster and hence saves time
• Light weight
• Safer as there are no open flames
• Increase/decrease temperature based on amount of heat required

Disadvantages of induction cooker:

• The base of the vessel/cookware should not be wet or dirty
• Being an electric device, the induction cooker should not get wet and keeping the cooker clean is essential
• Needs vessel with magnetic base only

So, Induction Cooker or raised cap of subsidised LPG cylinder? Whats your choice?

Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2013 - Are you coming?

20^thJanuary is the Mumbai Marathon 2013 date. With the fast approaching Marathon event, I am sure many of us are getting prepared for the event, although with our busy life, it's difficult to get prepared practically.

Reference:Sulekha.com

The medical director of the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon has suggested fitness schedule for the 2 weeks prior to the event:

Full Marathon preparation:

WEEKS TO GO	MON	TUE	WED	THURS	FRI	SAT	SUN
2	Rest	5	8-10	X-TRAIN(45 min)	Rest	6	10-14
1	Rest	5	5-7	Rest	5	Rest	RACE DAY

Half Marathon preparation:

WEEKS TO GO	MON	TUE	WED	THURS	FRI	SAT	SUN
2	R	7	5	X TRAIN (45 MIN)	R	5	16
1	R	7	5	REST	5	R	RACE DAY

Dream Run preparation:

WEEKS TO GO	MON	TUE	WED	THURS	FRI	SAT	SUN
2	R	2-3	4	X TRAIN (45 MIN)	R	5	60 min run/walk
1	R	2-3	4	REST	4	R	RACE DAY

Distance in Kilometers, R-Rest, X Train- Cross Training, e cycling, swimming

Some facts about Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon:

• Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon turns 10 this year.
• Distance to be covered for Full Marathon runners is approx. 42 Kms, for Half Marathon runners the distance is 21 Kms, Dream run it's 6 Kms and Senior Citizens run the distance is 4.3 Kms.
• Registrations for the event was on from July-November (varied for Full Marathon, Half Marathon, Dream Run and Wheelchair / Senior Citizens run).
• Running number Bibs and runners kit collection has been scheduled for 11^th - 13^th January 2013 (11am – 7pm), at it's usual location – BKC, Bandra.
• An email confirmation is required for collecting the kit and bib. It could be in the form of print out or the email on your phone. Hope you prefer the email on phone option :)
• If you are unable to collect the bib and kit personally, then your representative can collect it for you. How? Visit their FAQs.
• Marathon race start timings vary for different race i.e. Full marathon, half marathon, dream run etc with the earliest being full marathon 5.40 am.
• Varied prize money and medals are awarded to the winners and runner ups.

I will be there at the event for Dream Run.

Are you coming?