Kitchen Mistakes We Often Do!

Some of the common mistakes I have seen we all women commit while cooking,baking or cutting resulting in half cooked veg or cake doesn't comes out soft.So compiled this list, which I often use it myself in kitchen

1. Cut all veggies of equal size, or else thin ones would get cooked quickly and the thicker ones may be left uncooked,
2. Don't sprinkle dry spices, in gravy or else they wont be mixed properly leaving lumps in the gravy.
3. Don't store green chilly with its head, remove the head and then store it. It would remain fresh for days
4. Don't boil tea leaves for more than three minutes, the taste could be ruined.
5. Always use boiled water to add to gravy, never add cold water as it reduces its taste
6. While baking, never use refrigerated butter or milk, always use them on room temperature.
7. While baking, never fill the mould more than three-fourth of its size, or else the cake wont have space to get puffed.
8. While baking never use baking powder instead or baking soda and vice-verse
9. Never overcook paneer, or else it  gets hardened
10. For any exotic paneer veggie, make sure to put spices just few minutes before putting it down from flame or else spice taste and texture gets ruined , as it is exposed to flame.

Keep Faith
Chakoli :)

A Letter To My Son

Dear V

It’s been few days, that mom started going to Office, and till now you might have realized that every day, mom is missing for some long time which earlier used to be just for few hours and over the weekend.

It was a very hard decision for me, I still remember the day I had to join back, and how I was going nuts. With each second, nearing to my joining date, I just used to take a deep breath. Relax, He would be fine is what I only could utter. When I used to hold you in my arms, I just had one wish, I could hold you forever and never ever had to leave you, be it for sleep, for food or for your cute tantrums to sit on my lap. I know these cute little acts of yours won't be repeated and I'm missing a chance for lifetime, but still I have to go on.

I miss you dear, and even though I'm in Office, I wish every second I could see you, hold you and play with you. And to confess, when I miss you badly, I go to wash room and see your videos, and then to the contrary the feeling to see you, amplifies in magnitude of infinity,taking a tan waveform.

As I start to drive back home, I only have one scene fitted in my brain, I'll knock and door opens and you come crawling to me with such a cute and big smile, that all the stress goes away. And you respond to me the same way, each day.

You are now seven months, indeed a BIG BOY and you would adjust to this change, for one of the reason that "nani" is always with you and that mama-papa will always love you.

Love you my little Gudda :)

Keep Faith
Chakoli :)

Understanding Customer Psychology to make Your Content Marketing a Success

 I understand if you have stumbled upon this article, either you are consumer or a marketing guy about to derive a new strategy. But in the upcoming lines, I would be talking about one group i.e. marketing guy and couple of case studies

Consumer Psychology?

About.com defines consumer psychology as a “specialty area that studies how our thoughts, beliefs, feelings and perceptions influence how people buy and relate to goods and services.” With that said, the concept lies heavily on influencing — or changing — a customer’s behavior.

Case Study:

I’m picking a case study done by National Geographic Channel and was aired on Brain Games
Just imagine some cows, a herd of cows grazing on the field

What do cows drink?





If you answered MILK, you are absolutely wrong! Cows drink water.


Did you realized, how I was able to manipulate you with the picture and highlighting MILK, and you believed me. So, we had an impression on our mind which forced us to make a decision. That’s the same thing which happens when we derive a strategy; imprint a thought on consumer’s mind which is indecisive.

What Content Market Guy Need to think before deciding a strategy:

1. Heart Connection 

 Knit a brand with a story which can easily be served with emotions .When we serve a story that fits easily with consumers, we are persuading them to buy stuff. For example if you need to publish content for fitness joint , try to weave a story who is obese. Describe his emotions and how hard he has been trying for the weight reduction programme. Weave a story which connects to their heart rather than head.

2. I’m Unique 

Present the content as its exclusive and one of its kinds. If people are publishing how can you crack CAT, try to provide a counterview and publish stuff which talks about what are other and better option than CAT

3. Be charismatic 

You know how many admirers an attractive girl/boy has? And the buzz spread with a simple statement – Did you saw that new girl in college. She is Hot!! So the same thing applies to the content, you need to make it desirable, that consumers should crave for it.

4. Be Mysterious 

 All of us love mystery, what next? The unboxing of mobile phones, is the classic example in this. People love mystery and hold their breath for the product to be revealed. You remember how Xiaomi sale on flipkart was a great success, and how many people published about the good and evil of the sale.

5. Value Them 

– When we expect the consumers to read our content, we need to value it. What they are getting in return? Some knowledgeable facts, service , a discount coupon or a good laugh
Its all about mind tricks, what I offer should be relevant to other. Baseline, to put holes in others pocket you need to be smart for sure but manipulative is considered to be a better seller.

Picture Courtesy - pixabay.com

Keep Faith
Chakoli :)

Are You "Actual Human" Or Robot – Ask Google!!

Google and its tales, they now and then come by with some jazzy stuff, which is an eye-catcher for sure and also breaks the old conventional model as well .The fresh matter which has been offered is – Removing of captcha, which basically identifies whether you are a human or some designed pre-loaded robot doing its job.

And , the best part is they have replaced it with a single statement saying – “I’m not a Robot” , I mean just replacing it with plain, simple English. Kudos to Them!!

The Need 

 AI[Artifical Intelligence] has reached to such an advance level and even the distorted text could be read by them so , depending upon bit of 'unreliable' tool had to change.

Can’t we program a Robot to just check that box?

Indeed yes, but here is what Google says - they have developed an Advanced Risk Analysis back end for reCAPTCHA that actively considers a user’s entire engagement with the CAPTCHA—before, during, and after—to determine whether that user is a human.

This helps Google to rely less on typing distorted text and, in turn, offer a better experience to end users.However, the distorted text and number method may not go off completely as of now. If their advanced risk analysis algorithm finds some suspect engagement parameters, the user will still be asked to type distorted text and numbers after the click. Something like this may be shown to the user

So it’s easy, if you get away with one click you are Human or else Google certifies you to be a ROBOT!!

Keep Faith
Chakoli :)

Sources : Trak.in

काश के पंख होते

काश के पंख होते
उड़ती फिरती इस नील गगन में

खुला आसमान , खुले पंख
हवा का झोंका और लम्बी उड़ान

पर्बतों की चोटी को छू लू
समनदर में पैरों को धो लू

हर फूल की खुश्बू को समेटू
जुगनुओ के साथ आँख मिचोली खेलू

चंदा की सवारी करती
तारो को खुद पे सजाती

न डर होता रास्तों को भूलने का
न गम होता अपनों से बिछड़ने का

न किसी से हराने का डर होता
न किसी को कुछ दिखाना होता

काश के पंख होते
उड़ती फिरती इस नील गगन में
दूर बहुत दूर.……


Keep Faith
Chakoli :)

The Truth About Deals Floating Online!!

Online Shopping is making so much noise these days. Economic Times is actually filled with most of the news from the leading online eCommerce websites - Amazon, Flipkart, Jabong just to name a few or at-least one editorial which describes pros or cons about the same.

Today I read that IT managers are actually disliking the online shopping as people tend to spend most of their time on booking something or if package is delivered , go to the wash room and try it out which impacts the so called "productivity" [ Now, I'm completely against it, earlier they were against social networking sites and now online shopping, trust me if you ban these sites or if they are already under restricted list on company policy ban cellphones to office, employees are much smarter and  would find an alternate way to kill it, I can write another post on that so lets first concentrate on my deals stuff] :P

My BIL aka Android Baba [ trust me he is saviour for us] shared couple of links to make online shopping easier, among that one is BuyHatke.

This tool is actually brilliant, it basically takes the price of each item and embeds the graphs on the website you are browsing, and also applies their analytics to predict if you should go ahead and buy this within 2-3 days, within a week or say another month , basically probability of the item getting cheaper in future.

Once you install the buyhatke tool, as soon as you open an item the graphs and other deals would be seen on same page at the bottom .

So Amazon sale started today, I picked up couple of items which were listed under Deals section

• Micromax Canvas A1 with Android One (Magnetic Black)  : They are claiming that we are getting 13 % off , but if we see the graph there is hardly any price change since 16 Sep 2014, if we talk about offers they are trying to sell with this mobile then the memory card they are quoting is already discounted to 250 /- and Screen Guard is 59 /-, so then just calculate how effective is the deal????
  

• Lavie Women's Satchel (Tan) : they are claiming that buyers would effectively be getting a discount of 45 % but if you see the graph, the price is actually increased :))) and no discount is offered. So where is the deal???????????
  

 The above items where just two examples taken that ideally there is no such thing as deal and consumer should know before buying anything .

And my personal experience has been that the analytic of buyhatke do work, we were looking for an item on amazon, and the tool suggested to wait for a week and we did and price were actually reduced [ May be we just got lucky ;)] but the price graph is a brilliant thing and one con of this tool is that they don't collect meta data, so if price is reduced /increased in an hour that wont be reflected in the graph.

Be wise in choosing :)))

Keep Faith
Chakoli :)

Ixcream.com

As motherhood stepped in, and so does the immobility [ I mean yes you are bit restricted], so moving out or the seldom treats of puffs, pani puris and ice cream was not as frequent as it was earlier.

I'm nowadays too much of deal finder online, for this and that so not sure how, but finally I stumbled upon foodpanda and there when I searched for food outlets in my area got to know about ixcream.com. I was delighted!!! I mean fresh ,frozen ,variety of flavors at your doorstep. Who wouldn't love it?

There pan panache is really out of the world and so is the addictive anjeer,still have to taste others flavor though.

They currently deliver only in Hyderabad and just few areas [ details are there on the website] but I would surely recommend IT people [ coz they are covering most of IT area] to try it out.

Its just awesome :))

Keep Faith
Chakoli :)

Door Bell

How many of us love door bells, I have no clue, but when I'm inside my house, I hate door-bells :P. Trust me, as now I'm in the "home maker " mode, door bell are the vamps/villain [ not sure which gender it would be , going with hindi...  घंटी बजी  ... its feminine , but घंटा बजा is masculine, so confused!!] of our lives.

When we bought this house, we chose the mildest of door bell, which at times is not audible to us as well, if we are in the corner most bathroom, or in deep sleep and fan is running at full speed. Ok so that was the secret, outside people don't know about it, hence they need to assume that our door bell is in working condition.

Now, again talking about my home maker mode , my inability to go out and purchase stuff [ or rather my laziness to get ready and along with it, dress up the kid as well, and go and purchase stuff, ] I buy all my stuff online, not online actually, near to our apartments there are those local shops , who also deliver to home once you order them on phone, so its basically home delivery. And when I say "All" its ALL... from grocery to medicines to ice creams to outside food... I mean everything :D

So with home deliveries, every now and then door bell rings, ok I ordered it so I should not complain about it, but the worst thing is as we have the mildest sound, once the outsider press the button he expects that even he would listen to the bell sound, but it doesn't happen and so he presses it again and again... and finally after third attempt when he is still unable to hear, he starts knocking... bang bang...phew!!!

I actually have forgotten the count , as how many times I scolded the delivery guy... -कितनी बार घंटी बाजोगे ..grrrrrrrrrrr...but it doesn't help, because every time the delivery guy changes :P. But I still keep my spirits alive and continue scolding ;-). That's determination !!!

I'll reiterate this again, being a home maker is not an easy job... door bell, phone bell, cooker ki seeti, baache ka rona, my favorite tv serial, padosan ki gossip, maid ka rona, doodh wale ki jhik jhik.... and the list could go on................

Whatever... just ENJOYING!!!

Keep Faith
Chakoli :)

My Beliefs

So now with a new life in my arms, I'm out of office these days, spending whole of my time with him. And trust me, I'm just loving it. I mean who says, being a home maker is not cool these days. Its just awesome !!

Just being home, is much more fun then those boring meetings and deliverable's. Not much has changed actually, I was managing a team there and now managing my maids and home, I used to slog to work in office , here also I do that, but I can be assured that I'll get some rest. I don't have to work for any performance incentives, I just work to make this a better, healthier and happier place. Ok, the only + point was I was getting paid[ and I  know that point basically weighs more than anything] but then I thought, nowadays people don't have like 3-4 children, usually they just plan for one and end the story, so if I don't spend time with my only child, wouldn't I be missing soooooo much and those moments are priceless.

As I see him growing day by day, my belief grows more stronger that ... life is really beautiful and you just need to KEEP FAITH.

Keep Faith
Chakoli :)

A New Phase

And yes it started... with a big big BANG. To all who are thinking what this is about... its my life stepping into motherhood.

A life in your womb.. and then in your arms.. the feeling is awesome.

Happy Days...and yes childhood and its memories are back

Keep Faith

Chakoli :)

The Art Of Burping!!

So, the other day when "he and me" were discussing on burping, he shared how his grandmother used to take loudest possible burp with sounds followed by hari om!!And, if I recollect even in my family I did heard those sounds after any meal!

And I said - I guess we are used to that kind of sound. Its now that we stepped out of our homes and know all these etiquette and manners that we try to reduce our sound and in a controlled manner , otherwise even we would have been one of those who makes the loudest possible sounds audible atleast 10 ft :).

I always appreciate "God" for his engineering and again with the burping art I got another chance to appreciate him once again. I mean what a science... the air you swallow while eating , is trying to escape and hence we burp!!

As a kid when I used to drink limca... which is still one of my fav soft drink , I remember my Einstein bro told me a strategy to let that gas escape... open your mouth and nose and let it go!! After every drink, when I was about to burp I used to open my mouth wide and nostrils much wider [atleast I tried] so that all gas can escape at one go but no luck :)

I googled about burping, and found that even this has a world record of longest burp being some one minute and x secs..Oh Boy!! How could you burp for so looong and that tooo in a planned manner , my imagination is not going that beyond so I'll leave the world record.

But as a matter of fact "the more you burp the less you fart" ;) now that's easy gas has to escape from somewhere... it all depends which system of your body is working hard for you :P

So how do you burp?The loudest possible ..or you let it go as light as feather ..

I feel , the "way" is not important... more than following the principle of letting it gooooooooooooooo.....


Keep Faith
Chakoli :)

Just to Post

Since the day I have changed the password of my work machine, I m not able to digest that thing and eager to puke out that I have set the funniest password in my life. But irony is that, I cant share that...Every time whenever I login I  feel happy about it and praise myself.

I know its not a big deal, but still at times sharing gets so important. Anyways... that was it on password!!

Just other day, while watching TV where they highlighted watch India v/s Pakistan on channel # xxx, I switched and when they showed India Team line up... I was surprised that Virat Kohli is the captain and apart from him, I don't know any other face!! Ahhhh... that's when I thought when was the last time I had watch a match, I mean it was really a saturation... every now and then some league/series and so much BUZZ, that I thought I'll take  a break but it seems it was a bit longer break!!

Yesterday night I had the weirdest of dream possible...dont know how... but I met Kareena Kapoor , and she then cut my nails [which were really in bad shape] then gave a hair cut as well..I mean all by herself and my mother after seeing me, appreciates me that every time you should get haircut from her only!! thats like the weirdest dream possible!!

Keep Faith
Chakoli :)

Jargon

A misty morning makes you feel like a new born ...full with energy and passion

Again a change in routine and again thought of blogging..!!!

Well this should be the umpteenth attempt and again with the same will power to succeed!!

Since last few days, I was really in dilemma as I was looking for a cook but not sure if I would be comfortable with it [Yes, I m bit fussy about food and its preparation] but finally gave it a try so I get full two hours [that too morning hours] at my disposal .. I mean I can waste it like I want... time is really a luxury!! ;-)

As I look back [just six months back] I was a typical common man... struggling with home...work and its arrangements[its not that I didnt had time but you know , being a lazy hippo I feel just to chillax]... but today I feel I m the QUEEN have so much to do coz I have time.... yayyyy!!

So lets see... whats next in terms of blogging and if life has any other surprise ...I m waiting for it :-D

Keep Faith
Chakoli :-)