Priyanka's Blog

HAPPY GUDI PADWA

2010-03-16T14:58:00.001+05:30

Special Hot Chocolate

2010-03-05T16:41:00.000+05:30

It's special because it's very simple and quick to prepare. You would love making this hot chocolate throughout winter. Using the unsweetened chocolate gives the taste of bold cocoa which acts as a refresher.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups milk, scalded
2 oz unsweetened chocolate
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt

Preparation:

In a blender, combine chocolate, sugar, vanilla and salt, with 1/2 cup of the milk.

Blend until smooth, then add the rest of the milk.

Serve immediately.

Happy Makar Sankranti

2010-01-14T17:20:00.000+05:30

MAKAR SANKRANTI is one of the most auspicious occasion for the Indians, which is celebrated in almost all parts of the country. Makar Sankranti marks the transition of the Sun into Makar (Capricorn) on its celestial path.
Scientifically, the shortest day of the year is around December 21st-22nd after which the days begin to get longer, hence actual Winter Solstice begins on December 21st or December 22nd when the tropical sun enters Makara rashi. Hence actual Uttarayana is December 21st. This was the actual date of Makar Sakranti too. But because of the earth's tilt of 23.45 degrees and sliding of Equinoxes, Ayanamasha occurs. This has caused Makara Sankranti to slide further over the ages. A 1000 years ago, Makar Sankranti was on Dec 31st and is now on January 14th. 5000 years later, it shall be by the end of February, while in 9000 years it shall come in June. Traditionally, this has been one of many harvest days in India.
Millions of people take a dip in places like Ganga Sagar (point where the river Ganga meets the Bay of Bengal) and Prayag and pray to the Sun God . It is celebrated in southern parts of India as Pongal, and in Punjab as Lohri and Maghi.
In the western Indian state of Gujarat, the celebrations are even bigger. People offer thousands of their colorful oblations to the Sun in the form of beautiful kites. The act stands as a metaphor for reaching to their beloved God, the one who represents the best. Makar Sankranti also happens to be the day on which Bhishma, the grand sire of Pandavas and Kauravas from the epic Mahabharata voluntarily left his mortal coil. In the rural and coastal areas, cock fights are held and is a prominent event of the festival.
It is celebrated differently in different regions of India.

Christmas Greetings

2009-12-24T15:34:00.000+05:30

May this Christmas end the present year on a cheerful note and make way for a fresh and bright new year.

120 Ways to Boost Your Brain Power

2009-11-13T16:54:00.000+05:30

Here are 120 things you can do starting today to help you think faster, improve memory, comprehend information better and unleash your brain’s full potential (via Litemind).

Solve puzzles and brainteasers.
Cultivate ambidexterity. Use your non-dominant hand to brush your teeth, comb your hair or use the mouse. Write with both hands simultaneously. Switch hands for knife and fork.
Embrace ambiguity. Learn to enjoy things like paradoxes and optical illusions.
Learn mind mapping.
Block one or more senses. Eat blindfolded, wear earplugs, shower with your eyes closed.
Develop comparative tasting. Learn to properly taste wine, chocolate, beer, cheese or anything else.
Find intersections between seemingly unrelated topics.
Learn to use different keyboard layouts. Try Colemak or Dvorak for a full mind twist!
Find novel uses for common objects. How many different uses can you find for a nail? 10? 100?
Reverse your assumptions.
Learn creativity techniques.
Go beyond the first, ‘right’ answer.
Transpose reality. Ask “What if?” questions.
SCAMPER!
Turn pictures or the desktop wallpaper upside down.
Become a critical thinker. Learn to spot common fallacies.
Learn logic. Solve logic puzzles. (Read More)

10 tips for choosing an online collaboration tool

2009-10-10T13:09:00.000+05:30

Here's a very nice post by Sophie Le Brozec posted on the Women On Business Blog which will help you select the right online collaboration tool for your small business.

In order to make your business a success in this day and age it is vital to be up-to-date with the latest technology, but there just aren’t enough hours in the day to learn all the necessary IT skills and not enough money in the pocketbook to pay for dedicated IT help. So what do you do? You can’t afford to fall behind your competitors so you need to find the solutions that work for you, in the world of online collaboration – that is document sharing, project management tools, branded intranet, secure workspaces you can invite people to and some kind of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool to help you stay on top of your competitors.

So here are 10 things to look out for when choosing your online collaboration:
1. Security
This is a must. An absolutely critical aspect. Whether that’s https:// 128k bit encryption, your own personal subdomain or robust password choices, your contacts, documents, conversations (basically everything) must be secure from everyone.
2. Solid IT systems in the background
OK, you may not be a technical wizard, however do some research and make sure that the technology behind the scenes is going to keep your data backed up, secure and online 99.9999999999% of the time. 100% is nigh on impossible, even if you control the servers, so you need to be sure that if there is ever downtime, it is restored within seconds.
3. Simplicity
Nobody wants to use something which is complicated and not intuitive – whether that’s you, your team or other contributors. If you want to invite someone in, you need to know that they won’t need training or too much guidance (we all need a little nudge in the right direction). So make sure that everything is clear, usable and simple.
4. Full free trial with no obligation
It makes sense following on from simplicity that you can try before you buy. Whether this is signing up for a free account (make sure it has the full functionality of the other accounts) or a free trial of the account – it just allows you to try it out, taste it for yourself, and even invite people in for a second opinion. Similarly, nobody likes to be tied down to something they need to make a decision on, so being able to exit and close your account at any time is crucial.
5. Storage that suits you
There’s no point in paying for 200gb of storage if all you are looking to do is share some word documents (which, let’s be fair, hardly ever reach 3mb). Similarly you don’t want to be limited to 100mb if you’ve got videos and large images to share. It has to suit you, so just make sure that when you sign up there is a growth option to match your data requirements.
6. A combination of tools which help your business
Some collaboration tools offer more than others. Some offer different things in multiple packages, each of which you have to pay for (and sometimes pay using a different system). Make sure you’re not paying over the odds for features which you simply don’t need. Complex CRM systems come to mind when I think of this.
7. Are you punished for growth?
Most small organizations will grow the number of employees or the number of people they work with. To accommodate this, I would consider their pricing structure. After all, you don’t want to have to pay more because you’ve got more people to collaborate with – otherwise you will be forced to make a decision about whether you want them to collaborate in the tool or not, which is not how it should be.
8. Communication tools
Collaborating is impossible without communication… and that does include email. However, for me an online collaboration tool needs to facilitate easy communication using notifications, reminders, comments, announcements, etc… that way you can conduct your conversations where the action is, and nobody needs to miss out.
9. Facilitate large file sharing
It might be that you want to share documents with people but maybe not collaborate too much. Email is so restrictive in this sense. So make sure you have the facilities to send files as links rather than attachments. Also make sure that you can upload/download large files easily and without interrupting your use. Some collaboration tools have ridiculous 1-3mb limits for file uploads!
10. Version control is vital
You’ve got to make sure you are collaborating on the right version of the document, image, whatever – this will save you time and effort as everybody will be working on the most up to date copy, and know what each person is discussing.
I hope this helps you to make an educated choice about what works best for you. Glasscubes has been set up to make choosing an online collaboration tool that much easier, including a free package and free 28 day trial options for the paying packages. For more information on Glasscubes: www.glasscubes.com. If you would like to know more about Glasscubes and/or online collaboration in general please email me: sophie.l@glasscubes.com or tweet me: http://twitter.com/GlassCubes.

The amazing effects of Green Tea

2009-09-22T17:14:00.000+05:30

A cup of green tea has powerful healing properties and is a soothing accompaniment to any meal. Look at the magic it can do.
The buzz around this ancient beverage has been doing the rounds for quite a while now. At first sip, green tea definitely cleanses the palate, but it’s true power comes from the antioxidants it contains. In fact, you could call it the King Kong of antioxidants.
Green tea is chock-full of cathechin polyphenols, mainly epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), which is its main fighting ingredient. It’s believed that EGCG prevents cancer by targeting cancerous cells. It also lowers LDL (bad) cholesterol levels, prevents the formation of abnormal blood clots that cause heart attacks or strokes, prevents inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis, builds up the immune system and provides resistance to various infections. Whew! That’s one powerful ingredient.
Here’s a simple iced green tea preparation to get you started in your fight to stay healthy.
Green Gingerina
Prep time: 20 minutes
Serves: 6
Ingredients
2 cups of water
low-calorie sweetener to taste
1 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp grated lemon peel
6 green tea bags
4 tsp fresh lemon juice club soda
12 ice cubes
a handful of mint leaves for garnish
1. Put the water, sweetener, ground ginger and lemon peel in a medium saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat for about seven to eight minutes.
2. Remove from heat and add the green tea bags. Leave the bags undisturbed for 10 minutes.
3. Stir and add the lemon juice. Refrigerate for one to two hours.
4. To make a cup of iced tea, pour the concentrate into a glass till it is one-fourth full. Then top it up with club soda. Add ice cubes and garnish with mint leaves.

How to control mood disorders

2009-09-21T12:11:00.000+05:30

(Taken from an article published in Times of India dated 16/9/2009)
Mood disorders are a group of illnesses that have as their distinguishing characteristic an experience of mood that is unusual for the

Control disorderly moods! (Getty Images)

circumstances. It is a very common cause of behavioural pattern in human beings.
Mood variations in accordance with the environment proportionally are normal but when behavioural patterns are disproportionate, they are called abnormal mood disorder.
“When a mood is too low, it is known as depression and when it is too high it is called mania. The fluctuation between too high and too low is called bipolar disorder. Exposure to exogenous individual factors such as negative stress, hostility, arrogance, vindictiveness, bigotry, anger, etc, may lead to exhaustion or low levels of serotonin, which is associated with depression. While the high levels of mood behaviour may lead to mania, a significant fluctuation in the level of serotonin may fluctuate the mood, depending on the chemical imbalance,” says Dr H K Chopra, senior consultant, medicine and cardiology, Moolchand Heart Hospital, New Delhi.
Types
Mood disorders can be classified into unipolar and bipolar disorders. Where the fluctuation between too high and too low, it is called bipolar disorder. Unipolar mood disorder can be divided into:
Major disorder: This type of disorder results in acute depression, which leads to lack on enthusiasm, sadness, feeling of self worthlessness and guilt, insomnia, fatigue, etc. In extreme cases, a tendency of committing suicide is seen.
Dysthymia: It is characterised by a constant depressed mood for about two years. It is accompanied by some other symptoms such as an increase or decrease in eating, low self-esteem, fatigue or low energy, insomnia or increase in sleeping, feeling hopeless and difficulty in making decisions or concentrating. These symptoms are persistent, but less severe.
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD): It is a type of mood disorder that is characterised by the episodes of major depression, occurring at a particular time of the year (winter).
Postpartum depression: It is a major depressive episode, which occurs after having a baby. The depressive symptoms generally start within four weeks after giving birth to a baby. Some of the common symptoms are headache, exhaustion, a sense of inadequacy and crying. These symptoms may be accompanied by a constant fatigue, less interest in sex, a lack of joy in the life, severe mood swings, withdrawal from family and friends, insomnia and impaired concentration or thinking. The symptoms can vary in duration and intensity.
Treatment
The balance in the behavioural pattern is possible by optimising of lifestyle with self-discipline, regulated daily routine such as exercise, daily walks, sports, meditation and practising of all eight limbs of yoga — yama, niyama, asanas, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, samadhi — meticulously may help in balancing the mood. Eating the right food at the right time and in right dosage and consumption of satvik food enhance mood balance. Tamsik food may distort the mood. Excessive smoking, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, physical abuse and sexual abuse may also be responsible for mood disorders. Therefore, perfection in the mindset is the key to have perfection in the mood. Following a meticulous lifestyle may reduce the requirement for mood stabilisation medication.