Thanks but no thanks

I applied for an internal position. Aced the interview but still got rejected even though I was the top candidate. I later learned the person hired was a friend of my boss. I got tired of the office politics and started applying to other companies, and within 3 months I got a much better job. My old boss asked me to come back for the same promotion. I told him "thanks but no thanks."

 Lessons learned: 

1.You can be the best candidate and still not get selected. 

2. If you didn't get the job, it was never meant for you.

3.You weren't rejected, you were redirected.

4. Your value does not decrease based upon someone's inability to see your worth.

5. Believe in yourself and keep trying, the right door will open for you.

Koorka Ularth

കൂര്‍ക്ക - 1/4കിലോ 
ചതച്ച ഉണക്കമുളക് - 1 ടേബിള്‍ സ്പൂണ്‍ 
മഞ്ഞള്‍പ്പൊടി -1/4 ടീസ്പൂണ്‍ 
സവാള - 1 വലുത് 
കറിവേപ്പില - 2 തണ്ട് 
കടുക് - 1/2 ടീസ്പൂണ്‍ 

ഉപ്പ് - ആവശ്യത്തിന് 
വെളിച്ചെണ്ണ - ആവശ്യത്തിന്......

വൃത്തിയാക്കിയ കൂര്‍ക്ക ചെറുതായി നുറുക്കി ഉപ്പും ചേര്‍ത്ത് വേവിച്ചു വെക്കുക. വെളിച്ചെണ്ണ ചൂടാക്കി കടുക് പൊട്ടിച്ചു കറിവേപ്പില, ചെറുതായി അരിഞ്ഞ സവാള എന്നിവ ചേര്‍ത്ത് വഴറ്റുക. ചുവന്നു മൂത്ത് വരുമ്പോള്‍ അതിലേക്ക് ചതച്ച ഉണക്കമുളക്, മഞ്ഞള്‍പൊടി എന്നിവ ചേര്‍ത്ത് മൂപ്പിച്ചു അതിലേക്ക് വേവിച്ച കൂര്‍ക്ക കൂടി ചേര്‍ത്ത് യോജിപ്പിച്ചു അല്പസമയം ചെറുതീയില്‍ വച്ച ശേഷം അടുപ്പില്‍ നിന്നും മാറ്റാം. 

Vegetable Garden Month Wise Kerala South India

11 things to focus on

Ultra processed foods linked to cancer

• Mass-produced packaged breads and buns
• Sweet or savoury packaged snacks including crisps
• Chocolate bars and sweets 
• Sodas and sweetened drinks
• Meatballs, poultry and fish nuggets 
• Instant noodles and soups 
• Frozen or shelf-life ready meals
• Foods made mostly or entirely from sugar, oils and fats

Bitter truth about life

1. The average person lives for about 80 years, i.e approximately just 4000 weeks! If you’re 40, you’ve got about 2000. Imagine how much of that you’ve used up in pursuing something futile!
2. More often than not, that person who’s always been there for everyone needs someone to be there for him.
3. People can change in an instant. They don’t come with a guarantee.
4. That person you might always be thinking of, probably doesn’t even spare you a thought.
5. We think we’re smart now. But your
   future self might be face palming at your stupidity.
6. Goodbyes are often painful. But it might be the best thing for you.
7. There’s a good chance people don’t love you for who you are. Some people love the idea of you being who they want you to be.
   
8. Some people just ‘love you’ depending on how much they can extract out of you.
9. Everyone’s busy. Wait, lemme rephrase that. You’re not their priority at the moment. That time when you put their convenience above yours doesn’t matter. You need to be your no.1 priority. It’s easy for them to forget what you sacrificed.
10. Sadly, majority of your relatives judge you on the basis of how you performed in a 3 hour test (for students), or on how much you earn (for adults).
11. Most people think only from their point of view. Your attempts to explain yourself are successful only if it falls in line with their thinking. If its not important, you’re better off not explaining.
12. Not everyone who advises you has got your best interest in mind.
13. It’s easy to get attached to someone. It’s never easy to let go.
14. You tend to judge yourself way too harsh.
15. Nobody can help you if you aren’t going to help yourself.

Life will never be perfect, but there’s beauty in that imperfection. :)

Leave office on time

If you are a employer you may need to  pretend you run a car rental agency. It’s the end of the day and you’re waiting for a customer to turn their car in. They show up at the last minute and say “I just realized I forgot to get groceries. I know I only paid through right now, but can you let me have the car for free for a couple more hours?”

You wouldn’t give them that car for free. You would charge them. If they want to keep using the car, they need to pay for that time.

As an employer, you have the same relationship with your employees. You are renting their time. If you want them to commit more hours, then you need to rent more of their hours.

Your employees will never have as much passion for your business as you do. They are there because you’re paying them to be there, and their obligation to the business ends when the meter stops running.

If you want these employees to stay later, compensate them. Ask them to start coming in later, or offer to pay them more to stay longer. You have no right to expect a commitment of more hours than you’re paying them for.

What is rare earth metals?

There are 17 'rare earth' minerals. They are actually fairly abundant, but difficult to extract - and when they are mined, they are valuable for their uses in some of the advances which the modern world depends on, including the making of fiber-optic cables, lasers, nuclear reactors, and X-ray machines.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Here are the minerals - and some of their uses

Scandium. Found in aerospace alloys and cars' xenon headlamps

Yttrium. Used in energy-efficient lightbulbs, spark plugs and cancer treatments

Lanthanum. Found in camera lenses, battery electrodes, and catalysts used in oil refineries

Cerium. Used in self-cleaning ovens and industrial polishers

Praseodymium. Used in lasers and cigarette lighters

Neodymium. Used in electric motors for electric cars, hi-tech capacitors

Promethium.  Found in luminous paint

Samarium. Used in the control rods of nuclear reactors, lasers and atomic clocks

Europium. Used in fluorescent lamps, MRI scanners

Gadolinium. Found in computer memory chips, steel, X-ray machines

Terbium. Used in sonar systems on navy vessels, fuel cells on hi-tech cars

Dysprosium. Used in hard disk drives and lasers

Holmium. Used in mass spectrometers by hospitals and forensic scientists

Erbium. Used in catalysts for the chemicals industry and in batteries designed to store power for the electrical grid

Thulium. Found in portable X-ray machines and lasers

Ytterbium. Used in stainless steel, thyroid cancer treatment and earthquake monitoring

Lutetium. Used in LED lightbulbs, oil refining and medical PET scans

Top 10 summer destinations in Europe

1. High Tatras, Slovakia
2. Madrid, Spain
3. The Arctic Coast Way, Iceland 
4. Hercegovina, Bosnia and Hercegovina
5. Bari, Italy
6. Shetland, Scotland
7. Lyon, France 
8. Liechtenstein
9. Vevey, Switzerland
10. Istria, Croatia

Happy Easter 2019

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals

Live your own dream...no-one else's

Many people drift through life without a plan. For some, things work out fine. For most, they end up far from their intended destination. Others, end up living someone else’s dream, the victim of another agenda. This almost happened to a Mexican fisherman in a story told by Tim Ferriss in The 4-Hour Work Week.

An American businessman took a vacation to a small coastal Mexican village on doctor’s orders. Unable to sleep after an urgent phone call from the office the first morning, he walked out to the pier to clear his head. A small boat with just one fisherman had docked, and inside the boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish.

“How long did it take you to catch them?” the American asked.

“Only a little while,” the Mexican replied in surprisingly good English.

“Why don’t you stay out longer and catch more fish?” the American then asked.

“I have enough to support my family and give a few to friends,” the Mexican said as he unloaded them into a basket.

“But … What do you do with the rest of your time?”

The Mexican looked up and smiled. “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, Julia, and stroll into the village each evening, where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life, señor.”

The American laughed and stood tall. “Sir, I’m a Harvard M.B.A. and can help you. You should spend more time fishing, and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. In no time, you could buy several boats with the increased haul. Eventually, you would have a fleet of fishing boats.”

He continued, “Instead of selling your catch to a middleman, you would sell directly to the consumers, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing, and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village, of course, and move to Mexico City, then to Los Angeles, and eventually New York City, where you could run your expanding enterprise with proper management.”

The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, señor, how long will all this take?”

To which the American replied, “15–20 years. 25 tops.”

“But what then, señor?”

The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right, you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions.”

“Millions, señor? Then what?”

“Then you would retire and move to a small coastal fishing village, where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, and stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos …”

Don’t spend your life fulfilling someone else’s agenda.

Accept responsibility for your own life. 

Pursue your goals and live your dream. 

Live an intentional life.

Thought for the day

Increase your immunity with a home made soup

1/2 cup red lentil
1/2 cup green moong dal
2-3 cloves
2-3 peppercorns
1/2 cup chopped spinach leaves
1/2 chopped carrot
5 cloves garlic
1-inch ginger
2 tomatoes chopped
1/2 beetroot chopped (Optional)
2 small amla chopped
A handful each of chopped coriander and mint
1 red onion chopped
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp pepper powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
2 tbsp desi ghee

Heat your pressure cooker and a tsp of ghee. Now, add the red lentils and moong dal and mix well. Add the water, salt and pressure cook it for 3-4 whistles and allow the pressure cooker to cool naturally. Open the pressure cooker and blend everything to a smooth puree.
In a pot, add all the veggies including the gooseberries in 4-5 cups of water, stir and cover. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Remove from fire, allow it to cool. Once the veggies cool, puree them.
Heat ghee in a large pan over medium-low heat. Once hot, add the peppercorns and cloves and allow to splutter. Now, add the chopped onion and ginger garlic paste. Once the raw aroma goes, add the vegetables puree and blended daal to it.
Add the seasonings, chopped mint and coriander. Add water to make it the consistency of a soup and allow it to simmer for 5 minutes. Serve hot with a sprinkle of black pepper and a dollop of homemade butter.

Healthy Meal Planning

The planetary health diet

Scientists have been trying to figure out how we are going to feed billions more people in the decades to come. You can still have a couple of portions of fish and the same of chicken a week, but plants are where the rest of your protein will need to come from. The researchers are recommending nuts and a good helping of legumes (that's beans, chickpeas and lentils) every day instead.If you served it all up this is what you would be allowed each day:

1.     Nuts - 50g a day

2.    Beans, chickpeas, lentils and other legumes - 75g a day

3.     Fish - 28g a day

4.     Eggs - 13g a day (so one and a bit a week)

5.     Meat - 14g a day of red meat and 29g a day of chicken

6.     Carbs - whole grains like bread and rice 232g a day and 50g a day of starchy vegetables

7.     Dairy - 250g - the equivalent of one glass of milk

8.     Vegetables -(300g) and fruit (200g)

The diet has room for 31g of sugar and about 50g worth of oils like olive oil.

Source https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-46865204