Politics???

A leader who is entirely non-corrupt cannot lead India. Corruption is extremely over-rated...There is a little bit of corruption in every human being...There is always a price every human is willing to pay...What will you do if I offer you a place in a premier institute?? What will you do if I paid you a 100 million dollars?? What will you be willing to do if I held you at gun-point?? What will you be willing to do if I held your loved one at gun-point?? What will you be willing to do to root out corruption?? What will you be willing to do for proving you are incorruptible?? If you answer, "Anything" for any of these questions, then you are very open to corruption.. And if you have not said "Anything" for anyone of above, then well...you stand for nothing, you would hardly stand for anti-corruption...You see the point??

I would even say something to NaMo supporters...Don't idolize him...Ruling one state successfully and ruling India successfully are two different ball-games..If he does become PM, he IS going to make some decisions which shatter your ideology of him. See what happened to Arwind Kejriwal's followers...

My dad always said that a good leader for India has to be someone like Shivaji Maharaj...He should know that when he is fighting Aurangzeb, he is fighting tyranny and not Muslims...He should not have religious/caste bias ... He should know whom to trust...He should be able to take any drastic steps to root out traitors...He should know when to attack...He should know when to hide himself in a basket of fruits/flowers...He should command and at times demand respect...He should know when to fight, but more importantly he needs to know when to listen and empathise and NOT fight...He needs to know how to make sneak attacks...He needs to know when to join a fight himself and when to delegate....He needs to be able to create a feeling of complete dedications in his followers and utter respect in the minds of his enemies...You feel someone is appropriate to lead India?? Read what his opposition says about him. You think that opposition will always say bad stuff?? Read what Shivaji Maharaj's enemies wrote about him...

It is easy to lead a large democracy where you actually have anti-racial laws...It is easy to lead an autocracy with huge population...But it will take another Shivaji Maharaj to rule a democracy with population of billions...to rule India!!

I have no idea why I am thinking of Shivaji Maharaj and politics today....I guess I will stay away from social media for the remainder of the day....

Dill deke dekho

      First time I made Dill vegetable was five years ago. I am not a big fan of the vegetable; but, I was newly married and yep!! he loves it!! My mom was not allowed to prepare the vegetable in the house - by me - before my marriage.  She now uses her son-in-law as an excuse to make it. 
      Anyway, coming back to the point. Five years ago, I called every adult who knew cooking to figure out the best way to prepare it. Piyush's grand-mom and my grand-mom had the same recipe. So, that was the one short-listed. 
      My mom (and MIL) told me to clean it very carefully. Each leaf should be separated, cleaned and cut for good taste. I separated primary stem, secondary stem, tertiary stem, quaternary stem, quin...well you get the story. For cleaning one bunch, I took around 10 days. The vegetable had started turning yellow. But, I was relentless. I ruined my eye-sight, hands and ego over it. Yes, ego!! Every other female I knew finished the job in twenty minutes, max. I know, you all know me as the most modest person ever. But, even the most modest person (like me!!) faces these tiny ego wars. Only if I had known that a day like yesterday was  lurking in five years.
    What was so special abt yesterday??? Yesterday I had external motivation which enabled me to clean an entire bunch of dill in five minutes flat. No exaggeration. My husband had started to steal the military helicopter and he had not bumped into the mountains even once and I was done with it. (Okay, in GTA V. In real life, my husband wont even pick an extra mint from a lunch.) 
     For those who are still with the story and have not ran off after GTA V, this is how I achieved that feat. My daughter was cleaning it with me. She started by picking on the tiny leaves. She thought it was a competition and she was losing. So, she started breaking the stems willy-nilly. That did not seem to work too well, either. Then she gave a serious thought. Tried to wear it in her hair, feed it to the soft toys, wave it on the TV, twirl with it, hit mommy with it. Nothing was working. Then after consistent efforts and perseverance she got it. It was most fun to tickle people with. Luckily, she had two human subjects for the experimentation. She tried on me first. Worked like a charm. Had to try the other human species. Worked even better. I think that was when my husband started losing control - of the military helicopter, that is - in GTA V. 
    Me and my husband are both very ticklish, by the way. No. Don't go on that path. I haven't, since she started walking; no, crawling. Sigh. Anyway, so, it worked for both of us. She was having fun and I finished cleaning my bunch of dill before my husband crashed. And yes, my husband did crash. 
     Conclusion of the story?? Nothing works as a better motivator. Not yelling. Not love. Not practice. The fastest way of cleaning a bunch of greens is having your 2.5, nearly 3-yr-old help you with it. I challenge anyone else to do better. THE END.

P.S: Dill (Anethum graveolens), also known as Lao coriander.In India, dill is known as shepu (शेपू) in Marathi and Konkani, savaa in Hindi or soa in Punjabi. (Courtesy: Wikipedia)
P.P.S. : I am not going to explain GTA V.