Life and Spirituality

I t was mentioned in in the last post that food is inexpensive if bread or pasta is central to a meal and if the bread or pasta is prepared at home from flour. It is only when wheat is processed further into bread or pasta and bought from a store that the price goes up. Admittedly bread or pasta from a store is convenient but the one made fresh at home not only costs less, it is also healthier by far. Eventually the choice depends upon the circumstances of each individual. One way fresh pasta or pasta fresco is made in our home is by kneading a half and half mix of semolina and flour, rolling out into pancakes and then cutting strips of it with the help of a ruler and sharp knife. If you wish you could add an egg or two to the original mix but it is not necessary. The egg would be nicer if hard boiled, cut into slices with an egg wire cutter and used as a garnish. The cut strips are then dunked into salted boiling water and boiled for a few minutes until just right to ea...

What a lovely road! T here are many articles on how to increase happiness therefore it might be worth writing one on how to become unhappy. It is believed that harboring a strong desire for something that we do not appear to be fated to receive in life leads to unhappiness. While self evident,  that this is a source of unhappiness, it is not a sustainable one. This type of unhappiness can be lost in an instant. The moment the desire is given up this unhappiness disappears. Following is a list of seven convenient and frequently used methods of becoming unhappy on a sustainable basis: These steps are more or less guaranteed to work. 1. Get a job that you do not enjoy. This way you would be spending several hours of your life in an unhappy manner. It is likely to become a habit even when not in the workplace. To add to the woes, ensure that about an hour or so is required to commute to work each way. All you have to do is locate your home far away from your place of...

A lot of my friends on facebook and other places liked a picture of my garden that is greener than other times because it is still the monsoons here in Jaipur. This time I snapped a picture from the north side to get a different view. There is a small pond towards the north with a small concrete bridge over it. At one time I use to stock it with gold fish but then the fish eating birds found out and that had to be stopped. Now it is a part of the rain harvesting apparatus of the home. Shyamu the boy who has looked after the home and garden for the last twelve years is shown standing in second photo and I am seen sitting in the first identical one. Just click on the picture for a bigger and better view of the photo. Our photos are tiny because the idea was to get in as much of the garden as possible rather than us. As you can well make out I have planted as many trees as possible all around my home and many on the street sides too. If I had more space I would have planted more...