Monday, April 30, 2018

Cooking - Needs and advantages

When I was with my parents in Bangalore(India), I used to take things like cooking and responsibilities for granted. Ever since i have been in the US, I begin to realize how easy my life with my parents was.
Here in the US, eating outside is easy but one cannot have have control over the calories and the ingredients. Fast food is so easy to get and is generally high on cheese, sugar, meat and fried items.

Being a fitness enthusiast as well, I wish to have more control over the fuel that will help me be at my athletic best. Hey, six pack abs are made in kitchen and not in gym. Thats added motivation right there.

I initially started off cooking as an alternative for going out for restaurant and began to instantly like the idea of cooking for myself. It is also a great stress buster. Now I have somehow squeeze in a 30 mins time to quickly cook a decent meal for myself over the weekday. Dinner and lunch for the next day is generally sorted because of this. 
Breakfast is a combination of coffee, bagel, bananas.
I manage a quick snack of bagel in the evening and a coconut water hydration at any time during the day.
Over the weekend however I get a chance to experiment on slow cooking of chicken or some DIY dish which I can see online or on Youtube.

This phase has taught me a few things in life:
  • Being self reliant atleast in cooking
  • Planning my diet for a day or a few days in advance
  • Nutrition control
  • It brings out the creative best in me.

I am in love with cooking currently and I wish to continue this for a long time to come.



Sunday, April 29, 2018

Some tips for a efficient and happy living

After having experimented on a few things, I believe these are things which keeps us in good stead.
Below are the things which I am following, endorse and recommend

  • How we do one thing is how we do everything - No explanations needed. Do everything we need to work on with the same passion and excitement
  • Take care of small things, big things will take care of themselves - A corelation with having the foundation or basics right which will add more value to the more complex things
  • Pursue goals with end in mind - The passion and commitment that we show at the start will also need to be at the end. So, only take up things which you are confident of seeing through till the end.
  • Make a checklist of the things you wanna achieve everyday. It is such a liberating feeling to achieve the tasks and also have a check mark saying that you completed the task.
  • Write a journal/diary of the tasks of things you did everyday - The advantages of this task being the knowledge of how you felt about your day stays with you documented. The growth and learning that you undergo are also known
  • Eat healthy and do light workout everyday - An investment in health is the best investment which one can make for themselves. Invest atleast 1 hour a day for cooking for yourself or a light workout at home or a gym. 
Comments and criticism welcome

Saturday, April 28, 2018

My take on Avengers Infinity War(2018) *Spoilers alert*

For a neutral movie watcher like me, I found the movie to be amazing. Grand, star-studded and ultimate entertainer. Got to see this movie in the first Friday of the release week and also in a IMAX 3D. So really happy there as well.

Coming to the movie, this movie is about the Avengers uniting in the movie to safeguard the three infinity stones from the super villian Thanos. The three infinity stones with Avengers to start off the movie are Time(with Dr.Strange), Space(with Loki), Mind(with Vision). If Thanos gets those infinity stones and with the remaining infinity stones he has, he would have the power to destroy the universe at the snap of his fingers.

The movie starts off on a high note for the villain Thanos who gets the space Infinity stone from Loki, Thor the king siblings of Asgard. Thanos sends his trusted aides to Earth to get the remaining Infinity stones from Dr Strange and Vision. Thor is thrown out of the planet but lands of the spaceship belonging to Guardians of the Galaxy - StarLord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket, Groot and Mantis

While Dr Strange, Ironman and Spiderman couldnt withstand the attack from Thanos` aides, they are on the way to Thanos` planet on a spaceship. The Avengers in exile like Captain America, Black widow come to help Vision.
To take out Vision`s infinity stone, the Avengers move to Wakanda the home of the Black Panther.

The movie spans many planets with fights in Titan(planet of Thanos`) and fights in Wakanda. The movie also gives Thanos` vision of the universe having finite resources and having many people

P.S:
I was not a avid Marvel comic characters fan boy but surprisingly I have seen many Marvel movies - Iron man, Spiderman, Blank panther, Dr Strange, Avengers Civil war and also the guardians of the galaxy

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Social network and its effect on focus

I generally used to work with passion and with the intent of finishing of most tasks of the day.

But after I came to the US, I wanted to be in touch with my friends using social networks. So started using lots of Facebook, Instagram, twitter, redditt and some such social media platforms


I even registered to networks like wattpad and what not. Boredom indeed makes you do mysterious things


I didn't know what I was getting into until I got really busy with work and also did not time even find time to speak with my family members.

There were a lot of notifications which I was getting constantly. It was like bombardment of notifications and the distractions those notifications took on me was really tough to handle.

I tried so hard and finally decided to control usage of social network.


I fortunately had 2 phones out of which all my social network were in the phone which I used it while at home and another phone for just work related notifications and minimal messages usage.


When I come home now. I see that there are atleast 100-200 social network related notifications. If I had given myself into each of the notifications, that even a minute per notification would have taken out 100 or 200 minutes of my productive day.

More of half of it is really not required.

Staying in control of your social network is really important.


Things I have better control of now: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TV

Things I follow now if I get bored: Youtube, Quora subscribed content, an occasional netflix and books to read.

Changes I have begun to notice in my life:

I can invest more time doing quality and productive work
Focus has improved
I have been doing more work can I imagined I would/could ever do 
Reading and writing skills have improved

By greater network comes even greater responsibility to control our urge for getting distracted and always stay focussed