Mission to Clean Sardines S

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Sardines on Chopping Board

Fresh, fresh Sardines

Blogathon 4/40

I’m a typical Keralite when it comes to sea food. I like my fellow comrades, have an undying love towards fish curry and fry, esp sea fish.

As a low cost, and high taste, and high vitamin value fish, Sardine is one of my favorite sea fish. After getting married, I continued the same trait of buying these smelly fish. At that time we used to live in a one bed room house where the kitchen ventilation was not great. At first my spouse who was not accustomed to its peculiar odor, showed strong resentment towards my habit. Luckily with time, she too became a big time fish fan.

In Bangalore, I remember buying Sardines for Rs 40 bucks a kilo, but now the price has even touched Rs 150. I don’t mind paying so much, but I like it to be as fresh as seen in the above picture. The fresh ones are easy to notice. Whereas the stale ones have their guts falling out, and they look weary.

If you’re looking for some help or know-how on how to clean sardines, you can visit this blog. Here’s the link ( http://mennas-cooking.blogspot.in/2011/03/fish-cleaning-process.html)

Cheers!

Charles

Trivandrum Diaries

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Fish Stalls 

Sleeper Class Gaze
Secretariat View 

Another View 
Fish Molee – Tasty!

Hot and Fluffy Appam – You’re Invited!

Blogathon 2/45

Another easy post where I got lazy to think of anything weird or crazy to write on this blog. However, these images from Kerala will speak for itself.

Foremost, when I see Trivandrum Secretariat, only one thing comes to my mind. Dusty files, unorganized process, waiting in front of clerks, their crazy attitude, and a fine example of how work process don’t change in a decade.

While, one side of the world is changing fast, these folks are protected by laws, high pays and lifelong social security. But, the wind of change will hit them too. Sooner or later, you’ll find fewer people seeking jobs in such over secured and protected government department. The adventurous and capable men and women will go to create start-ups, try projects which might fail, etc.

The cover or the kind of protection these folks get will soon wear off and I wonder how long it will take for them to get the heat of change.

Earlier, the better for this tribe.

BTW, when you get time, read this book by Seth Godin – The Tribe. In this, his specially mentions the sarkari babus in government offices in India. I wonder who or how he got the whiff of their work and the attitude of people toward government jobs. 

Blogathon Diaries Bangalore

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Today while brisk walking in the park, I had this thought – Why not start a chain blogging for 45 days on anything and everything. I’ve read somewhere that it takes 21 days of regular practice to cement a new hobby. Based on this thought, I shall commit and promise myself to blog regularly. So, here goes my blog # 1/45.

Smartphone Drones

For sometime, I’ve been thinking of creating a drone ( not the expensive ones). I thought of few plans. One plan was to buy couple of hydrogen filled balloons to lift my smartphone. One end of the line will be in my hand. So, it would be fun to capture an aerial view when the balloon lifts the phone and view high above.

Pros: The project is cheap.

Cons: It’s hard to find hydrogen balloons. Also, not sure how many balloons is required for the liftoff. Another problem is that the view wouldn’t be that great. Just straight up and down. No, big hovering stuff or horizontal flight path.

Next is creating a model plane 

I remember building small wooden model planes which fly for a short distance. These used to the summer time craft where I picked the lessons from Jawahar Bal Bavan in Trivandrum. Probably, a bigger model plane can hold the weight of phone and it can fly a short distance with the phone.

So, who will make it. I hope I will tell my nephews to build one. Will they be motivated to make one? Need to find it out.

Labels: How to make smartphones fly, Summer project for kids, 

Growing Garbage Problem in Bangalore

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Garbage problem grew exponentially in Bangalore in the recent years. The root of the problem can be linked to the rising population of Bangalore and the lack of planning by civic authorities. Till few months, our neighborhood never had the problem of waste dumping. Now, there are four active dump zones in Domlur locality, which is forever stinking and causing it to smear the locality.

Sometimes, I wonder how people can ignore such bad and foul smelling dump yards. The irony is that there are expensive apartments which boasts of price above 70 lakhs or so, are so near to these dump sites. I wonder who on earth will buy apartments and live seeing such dump yards.

Question here is, what can do to clear or reduce this mess?

Should I plant a garden to make my locality look good?
Hire someone to clean the mess? At least for few days it will look good?
Make a plan to maintain the dump yards?
Talk to the Corporator of the locality and present a plan, and give financial a
Pay extra money to waste collectors to clean the mess
Talk and form a group in the locality to sort this grabage problem

With our growing consumption, there’s no immediate remedy which I can think of. As of now, I feel I should do something about this to keep my locality a neat and welcoming one.

. 

Public Toilet Needs Urgent Care – Bangalore Central

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Have you noticed the public toilet situated opposite to Bangalore Central? One time, it used to be a neat and clean one which were used by many men and women. Now, it’s in shambles. Recently while waiting for a bus, I noticed one person preparing his bed on top of this loo. He otected his living quarters with shreds of plastic sheets, flex banners, etc. It was a rainy day, and I saw him working his way to plug the water leaks.

Question is about the loo – How can we built and maintain clean, hygenic public toilets in Bangalore? Why are the public toilets in a very unkept state? Is it the lack of funds?

Probably, corp orates or businesses who are earning profits should take tender to maintain these loos. In return, they should get space to publicize their product or service.

For instance, company which makes toilet cleaners or real estate companies or ceramic tile companies, or bathroom accessory firms can pitch for such a project. These companies can start one as a model project. If it’s a success then, they can slowly spread the CSR activity to more public lavatories.

To make this happen, Bangalore BBMP, should publcize or reach out to potential prospects ( companies) and ask them to sponsor a toilet.

Meetup in Bangalore – Let’s Connect

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Connect – Share – Thrive

Despite all the hoopla over social networking , most individuals esp those mortals living in cities like Bangalore are like isolated islands. Only a few lucky sociable ones lead a balanced social life. Those lucky ones could be ones with a born habit of socializing, or that they are in the right group which gives them access to bigger network.

The lonely lot are cringing in isolated pools lacking in  friends, and many of them face severe shortage of time to build new relationship or maintain old ties, or no time to pursue a hobby or pastime.

Is it ironic? At a age, we have all the connectivity, from phone, Whatsapp, Facebook, or apps like Tinder. But, there is a big chunk who are living outside the social connectivity circles. What is this becoming a common sight?

So, can you make a dent to this reality? Will you take the first step to smile at a stranger, or speak to a person to break the ice?

Well, after quitting my day job, it’s my intend to meet more people, share my thoughts and become more human. I hope my blog post will do the job to kindle that human connection.

Thanks,

Charles 

Whiteboard Quote

Working Malayalee in Bangalore

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From the time I stepped in Bangalore, I had encountered many mallus in public spaces. In pubs, jostling down Brigade Road, in bars, in shops, at interviews, in trains, etc.

When we look at the Malayalee working in Bangalore, we wonder the jobs they do here. In my little experience I have found them in these professions.

1) Nurses and budding up nurses ( We can instantly find them as they talk in Malayalam. And in between they will have some talk related to their practice, etc) In hospitals, our mallu sisters are easily identifiable. they mostly talk in malayalam. I don’t see this as a professional behavior.
2) Supermarkets ( There are many supermarkets owned by mallus Eg, Top In Town, at Cambridge Layout) These places also employ many Keralites, especially in delivery services. Most of these shops are owned by people from Malapuram side
3) Bakeries ( These fellows have taken over most of the bakeries, except for few Iyengar bakeries
4) Mobile shops ( This is the latest trend. Many small both sized shops are owned by these fellas).
5) Hotels ( How can we forget the wide spread hotel chains, such as Empire, Imperial, Paramount, etc)
6) Ayurvedic Centers ( Around Indira Nagar locality there are more than a dozen of Ayurvedic treatment and massage centers.
7) IT and ITES factories: Take any office or IT or content development office, and you’ll see mallus in all  hierarchy.
8) Garment Factories:- I’m not sure of how many Malayalee ladies are working in these factories. An acquitance of mine once said there are many working in these garment production houses. I know one thing for sure, the working time is tone, tedious and pay is minimal. 

Down the memory lane

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Walking Towards My Home

How often do you chance upon a thing, sight, smell which takes you back in time? If happens quite frequently for me. This time it was this mosanda plant. At one time, this was a popular plan in every house and I badly wanted one

Now, the mere sight of this plant transported me to that era of my life, which now appears so distant.

Felling Lost & Nostalgic! 

Weekend Options in Bangalore

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I, Me and My Beer – Soul Searching at Jimi’s 

What all can you do on a weekend?
What if you’re in this part of the world – Indira Nagar?
What if you’re a teetotaler?
How can you make your weekend more interesting, engaging and different?

I had these questions running in my head, when I sat alone nursing the glass beer at Jimi’s pub. Despite exploring all possible options, I still didn’t get any solid idea to make my weekend interesting. I hope you’ll have better answers as to how people can connect, especially those who are new to this city, or those who are living like islands in Bangalore.

Waiting for your suggestions!

Weekend Blues

Sunday Visits

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Chai Time at Koshy’s 

Koshy’s insignia 

After the mass at St Patricks Church

My typical Sunday evening is like this – First stop is at St Patrick’s Church and after the mass the stop over is at Koshy’s for a tea and some snacks.