Excerpts from my curious mind

The number 7; it's everywhere in mythology and astrology. Even in nature, we see this number everywhere (much like the number 23). We have 7 seas (Arctic, North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, Indian and Southern Oceans). We have 7 continents (Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Europe, Antarctica and Australia), though Oceania should be part of this list now. In Christianity, the number 7 is considered to be a Holy number, as the God rested on the 7th day and 777 is the antithesis of 666 (number of the devil). We have 7 sins and 7 virtues (those numbers differ in Dante's versions). Even in Ancient Egypt, 7 was considered as the God Number. The use of number 7 by common people was not encouraged. In music, we have 7 notes. There are 7 chakras in the basic model used in various eastern traditions and philosophies. In Islam, the number of layers of Earth, the number of heavens, the number of hells, they are all 7. The number of archa...

Been doing some stupid kitchen experiments, and well discovered a nice little recipe (may have been discovered before, and hence this may just be a re-discovery). A few days back, I was making dal (pulses), and while watching Blackadder series, lost track of time. The result, lentils were over-cooked and all soupy like, not good to look at. And, I believe in eating what looks pretty on the plate (which clearly wasn't the case here). So mixed some wheat flour in it (after cooling it ofc), some very finely chopped onions, and finely grated cauliflower (very low quantity). Prepared the dough from it, adding very little water, to keep it firm and not runny. Sauteed some vegetables, and prepared a simple dish out of it, with very light spices. Then using the dough, I rolled out thin sheets of it (chapati style, and for you foreigners out there flat bread/thin pancake style), then baked them lightly on the pan, and rolled it with the prepared veggies. Its healthy to eat and fe...

Every foodie loves to experiment in the kitchen, this is my little experiment. Hope you enjoy it. Ingredients: - Rice flour: 200gm approx. - Corn/Gram flour: 2 tablespoons - Boiled potatoes: 3 medium sized; mashed - Processed cheese: grated; As much as you wish (alternatively cheese slice can also be used) - Tomatoes: 2 should be more than enough; to be cut round - Capsicum: 2 medium sized (for both flavor and aroma); cut in strings or rings fashion. - Mushrooms: 4-5 (the white ones, that we get in market, don't really know their exact names :P); to be cut long and thin - Pizza topping: alternatively use pumpkin sauce, but tomato ketchup is also fine. - Cheese spread - Ghee/Butter: Canola oil also works fine (don't use mustard oil, as it has an over powering smell) Process: Saute the mushrooms and capsicum in steam, till they lose excess water (non stick pan works best). Make a dough of rice flour and potatoes adding the water sparingly. The thick dough will ma...

The resurrection plant Sounds awesome, doesn't it. Well, this is what something called Cryptobiosis (a state occurring naturally) can provide. " Cryptobiosis is an ametabolic state of life entered by an organism in response to adverse environmental conditions", this is what Wikipedia has to say. To explain it in simple lay man terms, the body stops responding to external stimuli, and therefore is virtually invulnerable to any adverse conditions that might affect its existence. This of course, is not found in humans (as far as we know), but there are several organisms able to reach such a state of extreme resistance. A few types of cryptobiosis:  Anhydrobiosis: Tolerance during desiccation (extreme dehydration). Anoxybiosis: Tolerance during anoxia (lack of oxygen). Chemobiosis: Tolerance to extreme toxins (environmental). Cryobiosis: Tolerance to extreme cold. An example of one such organism is a "lobster". Osmobiosis: Toleranc...

Note: This post might be a bit argument inducive. But since this is just a one man opinion, please hold your horses. Yesterday, I took my time to visit an orphanage website online. Now, this is considered to be a very popular organisation meant not only to help children maintain their lives, but also improving it by providing facilities like education (or so it said). Being a softy, I thought this is my time to do some good for one, and I made a decent donation (Rs 2k). This donation was targeted at improving life of a specific individual. Later in the day, I went there to meet the child I was supposedly helping out. Turns out there is no record for any such donation in their books, then I thought maybe its a delay. To verify that hypothesis, I asked a caretaker to show me the books. Turns out there were a few donations there but only for cash paying donors. I enquired him about the transaction, and turns out they already know about these corrupted people, filling their pockets wi...

It’s quite easy to observe that our society is male chauvinistic, though in recent times with quite a handful of protests and reforms, we are entering the age of female favouritism. In a sense it’s interesting to observe that finally the scales have moved. But, instead of moving to an equilibrium, the scales have again tipped into someone else’s favor. Being a guy myself, I find this hard to deal with. On one hand we want a society that wants to treats everyone as an equal, on the other hand we are always tipping the scales heavily into someone’s favor. Let’s just hope that in the end, we don’t fall prey to the same “justice” that befell the fairer sex in the medieval times.

The following is a searching utility for file based searching in linux environment. The code works perfectly for Ubuntu-12.04 version, but as it is untested on other versions (some basic tweeks might be required on other versions of linux). To start using this utility, all you need to do is copy the same code in a bash file (.sh file), and after setting the execute permissions, source the same in .profile or .bashrc file on home directory. The file can be named 'searchUtil.sh' and for sourcing, use the following command: source ${filePath}/searchUtil.sh //Code follows #!/usr/bin/env bash #====================================================================== # File: searchUtil.sh # Author: Lovish #---------------------------------------------------------------------- # Purpose: Searching utility using 'find' and 'grep' for ease of usage. #====================================================================== __seHelp () { cat << EOF ---------...