The Musing Mind

--- 1 --- This week had been just a "plain vanilla" week. Nothing much happened. Will be travelling out of station this Friday, so preparing and posting the quick takes a day earlier. Since many days my daughter has been asking me to plan a trip to Ahmedabad. This place is like my second home. My uncle, aunt and brother live there. Myself and my daughter are also fortunate to have good friends there. Somehow I have taken a liking to the place and my family also loves spending time there. Last summer my daughter took a certificate course in French language from the Ahmedabad branch of Alliance Francaise, which she completed successfully. So now to collect her certificate we have planned a weekend trip. Looking forward to a good time there! --- 2 --- Illusions and delusions Came across this interesting post " How your habits become productivity-draining distractions " on a group that I follow on Facebook. The post starts with an optical illusion cal

--- 1 --- The week appeared to have started well. But Tuesday brought with it some tension and nervousness. It turned out to be quite tiresome. For some time I guess I behaved like a crazy creature trying to fight my guts out against the unsolicited situations. Thanks to all my friends for praying for me and being with me. Mustered courage to fight back and resolve the issues. For the one which I never expected nor anticipated that it would happen in this way, I was reminded of " the fox and the grapes " fable. However, I concluded, it wasn't  meant for me, while I deserve the best. --- 2 --- The Star Excercise Looking at my depressing state of mind, one of my good friends offered me to try  The Star Exercise . It talks about a different perspective of energy and how we can use it to live our lives happily, written in the book, The Science of Being by Eugene Fersen. The book explains the life energy, “Universal Life Energy is everywhere. It is t

--- 1 --- The week started with the season's first rain. Bliss! Weather turned lovely and temps have come down. At last, the rain Gods are pleased with us!   I could manage to click it rain this morning. The trees look as if they are enjoying the shower. I feel I am breathing free looking at their freshness. --- 2 --- Looking at the weather, I felt like having some onion fritters. This is the time to snuggle with a good book, some fritters and hot coffee. I am also reminded of Minty's tryst with green gram pancakes and vegetable sandwiches. Green gram pancakes Veggie sandwiches Filling used for the sandwiches One on top extreme left are the green gram pancakes. She is now an expert and makes these pancakes often. I'll request her to post the recipe on her blog . The other ones are the sandwiches with the filling shown here in the frying pan. She used diced carrots, steamed peas and grated cottage cheese with some seasoning. The sand

--- 1 --- The week started quite busy and continued to be so. This week appears to be supportive of my artistic and creative pursuits. Did some service, sang and meditated; now doing some designer stuff, though official..... enjoying it. Promoting creativity to its best? As long as I am not instructed as the above, I hope to bring out good results ;) --- 2 --- Weather has not improved this week. It has been hot and humid. Though the monsoon has been said to hit Kerala and Karnataka, and Mumbai seems to rain, looks like there is still some more time before the rain Gods please to come to Rajasthan via Gujarat! --- 3 --- This week also gave me some insights into learning some different but not-so-new recipes. One that most interested me is the brown rice pulav. Whenever I cook brown rice, it turns out to be mushy. The cook I met during community service told me that the rice turns out well when cooked in an open pot instead of a pressure cooker or a microwave. S