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​​To: Chief Minister, Haryana

​Office Address

4th Floor, Haryana Civil Sectt., Chandigarh

Office Phone 0172-2749396 / 0172-2749409

cmharyana@nic.in CC: PMO , connect@mygov.nic.in

​​Dear Honorable Chief Minister:

Faridabad has been designated as a Smart City of the Future, by our honorable Prime Minister.

1. Regarding the huge Open Naala that is the shame of Faridabad N.I.T.​

​​​MCF has not addressed this issue for over 70 years. This naala was created during the refugee resettlement program in 1949 (post partition​​)​​. My great grandfather onwards, this Naala has been part of the Faridabad landscape.​ ​​

​It i​​s sad that not one of our thousands of elected Faridabad MCF officials (since 1949), has stepped up to cleaning this naala​. Since then, this open naala has been a breeding ground for disease, causing severe health and economic consequences.

2. Faridabad Air pollution – in which Faridabad ranks in the top 10 cities of the world, is also easily solvable. A crackdown on all diesel vehicles is all that is needed (it is common to see the police ignoring old diesel trucks, fumes). Along with a crackdown, a MANDATED transition towards electric vehicles – so that 50% of the city is EV by 2025, will solve this problem, once and for all.
3. Clean up of Yamuna River – which can no longer be called a healthy river. Including beautification of Yamuna’s banks along with the clean-up.
4. Roads are still underdeveloped, causing serious accidents and injury on a daily basis. A Faridabad citizen was forced to start filling potholes himself after his 3 year old son died in a crash.

Imagine what Faridabad’s productivity and economic output will become, once we address these basic issues. We, the citizens of Faridabad, are entirely willing to do our part. Please ensure the city (MCF) and the state governments provide the political and financial backing to make this a reality.

Sincerely

Anuj Varma, Concerned Citizen

Faridabad, Haryana

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What do you need?

• 1 LB spinach, 2 large onions, 1 large tomato, 1 green chili
• 1 spoon freshly chopped ginger, half spoon minced garlic, dried fenugreek ( kasuri methi). Kitchen King Masala (purely optional)

Step by Step

1. Step 1 – Boil spinach in a large utensil for 3-4 mins. Remove and Strain spinach.
2. Step 2 – Use a Blender – make Purée of the boiled spinach (add 1/2 cup water,  1/2 green chili, some salt). Mix until pureed. An option to frying your tomatoes (step 3), is to simply puree them along with the spinach. There’s no downside to this – and the paste is a little more consistent (instead of having pieces of tomatoes floating around).
3. Step 3 – In a separate cooking pot – Fry 2 chopped onions, 1 spoon freshly chopped Ginger, half spoon minced garlic, spoon of kasuri methi ( dried fenugreek) , half green chili. Add 1 spoon garam masala, 1/2 spoon of kitchen king masala ( both available at Indian grocery stores….this masala is optional).  To the fried mixture above, add 1 chopped tomato. Fry all this till onions are brown and tomatoes are more or less blended into the mixture.
4. Step 4 –  Add pureed spinach to the cooking pot containing onions and spices. Add salt.
5. Wait Step – Simmer mixture for 5 minutes.
6. Step 5 – Add paneer ( cottage cheese) and cook on medium to low heat for another 5 minutes.

It’s READY!

The post Palak paneer ( spinach and cottage cheese) – Quick Recipe appeared first on Anuj Varma, Hands-On Technology Architect, Clean Air Activist.

1. Start with browning finely chopped onion ( s)
2. Cook the chicken slightly prior to adding the rice – do not soak the rice even a little – just wash it and add it in. The problem with most rice screw ups in Biryani is that rice gets overcooked (rarely undercooked)
3. The entire mixture (rice + water + chicken) needs to be SEALED.  Soaked bread slices can achieve this – by adding these soaked slices to the sides of the cooking pot – and firmly pressing the lid over them.

Steps

Step 0 – Pre-Prep

• Brown some finely chopped onions – and keep them on the side for use later.
• Take On-Bone defrosted chicken pieces and make deep gashes in them (so the spices can seep in better).
• Wash the rice a few times – do not leave it soaked in water –  just wash and rinse the water out.

Step 1 – Prep the main cooking pot with oil and chicken

• Marinate the (defrosted and gasnhed) chicken in a separate container – using ginger/garlic paste, yogurt, garam masala, red chili powder (hot), elaichi powder, salt and some ghee. 
• Add some mustard oil and ghee  combination in a cooking pot. This should be large enough to contain the chicken and the rice+water (which will be added later).
• Add whole spices – cardamom (green and black), clove, bayleaf – to the ghee/mustard oil in the pot.
• Add the marinated chicken to the same cooking pot.
• Cook for just enough time to brown the outsides slightly – the inside will stay uncooked.

Step 2

Boil water in a  kettle separately.

Step 3 – Combine the Rice, Water and Chicken

• Add the boiling water first to the pot containing the chicken and the whole spices.
• Now, add the washed rice.
• Add the browned onions.
• Now add enough salt to cover the entire rice and water and onions.
• Add some elaichi (green cardamom powder).
• Add 2-3 sliced green chilies.
• Add a mint leaf if you desire (optional)
• Add some saffron if you happen to have some (also optional)

Step 4 – Seal it and set the flame on LOW

• Once you have finished step 3, take some wet bread slices and try and SEAL the outer rim of the cooking pan. Doesn’t have to be perfect, as long as it is snug once the cover is placed on it-  you should be fine.
• Let the mixture cook on a low, very low flame for about 20 minutes. The rice and the chicken will get done together. This is why it was crucial to NOT cook the rice (or even soak the rice) at the start – since that would have enabled the rice to finish first – and get overcooked.

The post Dum Biryani – Simple Indian Chicken Biryani appeared first on Anuj Varma, Hands-On Technology Architect, Clean Air Activist.

For a while now, I had been struggling to find the right adjective to describe my Art-of-Living friends and associates.  The word that I had been searching for – was provided to me by the Indian High Court’s judgement – Irresponsible.

Irresponsibility

Skipping work, spending work hours counseling each other (in their AOL community), co-ordinating the next satsang – all this happens on company time. The reason I am so painfully aware of this is that I have had to cover for these absentia folk while they are off pursuing their spiritual goals (again, on company dime)!.

This, however, is the tip of the irresponsibility iceberg.  Their irresponsibility spans beyond their work ethic (or lack thereof). When it starts affecting their family life, irresponsibility really seems too kind a word to describe these derelict, lost souls.

Consider this – The Guruji is about to visit a nearby location – you are told (by the Guruji himself) that attending his session is the best use of your time. That pursuing your spiritual calling takes precedence over all else. How can you ignore the call of your beloved guruji?

You end up leaving your family – not for a few hours –but a few days! Consider this – and let it sink in. To pursue YOUR spiritual goals, you ABANDON your family! If an AOL devotee doesn’t see the irony in that, there is absolutely no redeeming their souls.

Illiteracy

Irresponsibility is one of two traits that AOL followers share in common. The other is what I like to call  Literate Illiteracy. These are usually educated, college degree holders – who are, for all practical purposes,  illiterate.  Consider the following claims – all made by their revered Guruji – and swallowed whole by his gullible worshippers :

1. When you learn a special type of meditation, you will be able read a book without opening your eyes (He teaches a whole class around this).. He also talks about humans being able to live SOLELY on the sun’s rays – for years on end. No food , no water, just sunshine and air – and he provides references of people in-his-know, who survived years on end with this diet!
2. Everything written in the scriptures is true – and that India was the most technologically advanced civilization – including possession of rocket ships, missiles  and even more advanced technological weapons.  How does he know this? He astral travels to the past to see all this for himself ! 
3. The  followers believe that their Guruji is representing God on earth. There is no higher earthly power – and to disobey or disbelieve the guruji is tantamount to disbelieving God!
4. Astral travel, extra sensory perception (seeing with eyes closed), sunshine based survival – if any other person made these claims, they would be a candidate for a mental asylum. However, Sri Sri not only gets away with it, he provides his followers with all the evidence they need – HIS own spoken word!

His followers are least perturbed by the fact that there is nothing to back these claims.

Not a shred of evidence of this technological advanced civilization – not one scrap of metal from a rocket – not one remnant of a piece of electronic gadgetry – NOTHING! Not a single human that can be showcased/produced as having lived on just sun’s rays for even a few days – forget about years. No proof of anyone being able to see anything with closed eyes!  Yet – the believers believe!

Summary

I have yet to meet an AOL follower who believes in the scientific method of inquiry or discovery. They do not hesitate to utilize the latest medical advances to save their lives, but they believe that their lives are being saved through their beloved guruji, not through science.

I have also yet to meet an AOL follower that I could call ‘Responsible’. I have seen them drop everything – and I mean EVERYTHING  – to pursue their ‘spiritual calling’.  This is not to say that the foundation isn’t doing some good work. They teach yoga in prisons etc. in an effort to help improve lives. However, on the literacy and general awareness scale, these folks are about as advanced as pre-historic man, who was content to let ‘God’ be the only explanation behind everything.

Thoughts? Comments?

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The Buddha never asked anyone to renounce their day to day lives – he simply pointed a way that made each moment seem richer and free of ‘dukha’ (pain).

Yet, while some people got this message, and used Buddhist practices (mindful practices) to enrich their day to day lives, MOST people actually used Buddha’s teachings to ESCAPE from their day to day life!

Art of Living

The same can be said for Art of Living followers. The message of the foundation is even clearer than Buddha’s message – use mindfulness and yogic practices to ENRICH your existing life. Nowhere does Sri Sri Ravi Shankar advocate abandoning your family life, your work life or your social obligations in the pursuit of AOL activities.

Yet, that is EXACTLY what most AOL followers do! T

hey are looking for an ESCAPE from their everyday lives. I know several well-employed people who quit their jobs in the prime of their careers to ‘follow their heart’ fulltime. I know several people who routinely leave their kids at home (near abandoned) so they can attend a 3 day silence course!

  They claim that their guru ‘calls out’ to their inner being –and it is not a call that they could reject. Yet, they feel no remorse in rejecting the call of their family or their immediate work-family, in the pursuit of this ‘fake’ inner call. It is FAKE, because no real guru will ask you to abandon everything to follow him or her. It is only the devotee that has this interpretation of the guru’s teachings.

In my experience, I continue to see dozens of families suffer and lose their family-heads due to people misinterpreting the AOL foundation’s teachings.

Summary

I really don’t think there is any solution to these ‘abandoning types’. If the AOL foundation disappears tomorrow, they will find another replacement to divert their time and energy to. It is like a drug addict – if you deprive one of cocaine, they will find  a replacement drug. They still need their escape.

It is unfair to blame the foundation for the behavior of such people. However, at the same time, the foundation can do more to convince people that they are not being asked to leave everything behind, in the pursuit of AOL activities.

The post A critique of ‘Art of Living’ followers appeared first on Anuj Varma, Hands-On Technology Architect, Clean Air Activist.

These words are read, not through shining streetlights, but through a dull haze that pervades all of New Delhi. The haze is actually poison gas – euphemistically labeled ‘air pollution’. Delhi see-saws with Beijing for the coveted ‘most polluted city in the world’ standing.  Delhi is not alone – 13 of the top 20 polluted cities in the world are in India.

Is this what is meant by India Shining? Is this something they even plan to discuss at the forthcoming ‘leadership summit’ trying to label India as shining?

PM Modi’s banner – Can India be the world’s bright spot?	The haze through which one is meant to read such posters

The Urgency

Some extracts from recent articles on – Delhi’s air pollution

• No less than three thousand children and infants die every year in Delhi because of pollution.  Delhi’s children have the lungs of heavy smokers!
• Air pollution in India is responsible for nearly one lakh (100,000) premature deaths annually .
• Delhi’s concentration of particulate matters exceeds national standards as well as WHO guidelines.  Delhi’s school children breathe air (air INSIDE school buildings) that is 4 times more toxic than the safety limit.
• 30 million people in India suffer from Asthma and related respiratory illnesses. Most Delhi doctors feel quite helpless. “In the last decade, from about 10 cases a day the number has increased to over 25 per day”. Ultimately, this affects the care they can provide to other diseases as well.
• On November 27th, 2015 one of the US Embassy’s pollution-monitoring stations in New Delhi recorded a chart-breaking reading of 999 on its custom-developed Air Quality Index. To put that in perspective, any reading above 150 is considered unhealthy, with the range 351-500 classified as ‘hazardous’.

Avoidance of the problem

In a country facing mass unemployment, poverty, mass illiteracy along with a crumbling infrastructure, air pollution seems to be a ‘low priority’ issue.  Except that it affects EVERYONE. Including the unemployed, the poor, the rich, the illiterate and the highly educated . There is over a 50% incident rate of respiratory issues in Delhi kids and elderly !  Several thousands of people are being choked to death – and somehow this issue seems to take a backseat.

Public and Media Awareness

A decade ago, I started wearing a (breathing) mask whenever traveling anywhere within India. Even from my house to the grocery store.

Several people looked at me strange – wondering who this weirdo was – and why he needed a mask on a seemingly normal day. Today, 10 years later, no one questions me – or anyone else wearing a mask. It is a common sight – and everyone gets why I am wearing one. The awareness that their city is slowly choking them has dawned upon most urban dwellers in India. The media has started to stay on top of this crucial issue – which is a promising sign.

The Solution (s)

Vehicular Traffic Solutions

Eliminating or reducing vehicular traffic would have the largest effect on the air pollution index. To reduce the number of cars on the road, Delhi could introduce a ‘lottery system’ – only the winners would be allowed to drive on the roads (Singapore implements something similar with a very successful outcome).

Alternatively, only CNG (compressed natural gas) cars could be allowed to drive freely. Any petrol or diesel based car would need to be phased out – and replaced with a CNG vehicle.

Industrial and Farmland Pollution Solutions

Surrounding Delhi are several industrial towns – which freely expel tons and tons of harmful pollutants in the atmosphere – every single day.  Large farm lands surrounding Delhi practice a ‘razing to the ground’ (paddy stubble fires) practice – which also lifts various pollutants and sends them into neighboring cities. The solutions for these are obvious – simply outlaw these practices – and impose strong fines/disciplinary action against violators.

Giant (Large Scale) Air-Cleaning Machines 

Two decades ago, I remember researching ‘large scale air purification systems’….mammoth machines that would suck the pollutants out of an entire neighborhood – or a few blocks of city street. My search was not wholly unproductive – I came across several patents that accomplished something similar. I concluded (somewhat naively) that India would figure out a workaround.  Invention being the mother of necessity, there would be a slew of innovative, pollution fighting products. No such wave of innovation appeared. The problem remained buried – much as it does today.

The upcoming Leadership Summit

An upcoming leadership summit in Delhi (Can India be the world’s bright spot ? ) has invited over 40 world brand names – as part of a think tank.

The agenda ? No less than to solve the world’s economic crisis !

It would be great if these think tank leaders could solve the entire world’s financial problems – while also allowing citizens to breathe normally.  Unfortunately, breathing normally is not on the meeting agenda.

To me, such summits are only retreats that avoid actual issues.  They are a waste of everyone’s time and energy – the only positive outcome being that the corrupt leaders of this country are kept inside a conference room – under observation – where they can only do limited damage.  Far from finding any solutions, these summits are part of the problem.  They are, in effect, AVOIDANCE in Action ! This is exactly how this problem has been avoided for as long as it has.

Summary

It will take real leadership to solve this problem – and there are MANY, MANY solutions to the crisis (which are obvious without getting a think-tank together). In any other country, this pollution index would be considered a medical emergency – and people EVACUATED from the cities with these pollution levels.  Hopefully, India will see it as such and take action (already MUCH MUCH too late) before too many lives are lost.  

India’s new (not so new anymore) Prime Minister has displayed a shocking lack of awareness about global warming – stating that just because someone ‘feels’ colder in their old age doesn’t really mean it IS colder. He was implying that just because we feel temperatures rising everywhere, doesn’t mean that temperatures are necessarily rising (maybe the entire human race has just started feeling hotter, just like an old person feels colder…).

I wouldn’t place my faith in him to solve this critical problem (though, by providing the correct incentives, he can bring about the greatest transformation in the shortest possible time). And while the newfound public awareness is encouraging, there is still, however, some of that old complacency – that things aren’t really that bad.  That if we ignore it long enough, the problem will go away.    

Unfortunately, the only thing that goes away are the lives of thousands of children and elderly all across India.

The post India Shining appeared first on Anuj Varma, Hands-On Technology Architect, Clean Air Activist.

and The Three Types of Chai

A perfect (read STRONG) cup of chai can be a superfood if done right – and can kickstart your day like nothing else. Along with energy and a sense of well being, it provides mental clarity.

The good news is that it is EASY to get the hang of this art (yes – making chai is an ART form). The bad news is that most people get it wrong – because they either rush through some of the steps (everyone is an a rush to get their kick) – or do not have the correct equipment.

Most common mistakes/oversights

A popular and flavorful brand of Indian Chai Leaves

Here is a list of things that I used to often get wrong – and that make a difference in the final outcome.

1. The cooking pot should provide even heating – and be the perfect boiling pot. The tea leaves should ONLY be added to boiling water – seriously boiling (not just starting to boil).
2. The ginger should be fresh – and should be added to the boiling water FIRST – before even the tea leaves. It should be grated or chopped finely to release the juices.
3. The chai leaves (powder) needs to be high quality. I use Red Label Orange Pekoe Leaves (available at any Indian grocery).
4. The QUANTITY of chai powder needs to be MUCH more than what you would expect. Ideally, even if you are making ONE cup of chai, always add water for 2 cups and also the chai patti (powder) for 2 cups.
5. The milk should be whole milk – and pre-heated before being added to the chai pot (which has been boiling with the leaves and ginger for at least 2-3 minutes).
6. At the end of the process, COVER the chai pot – so that the fumes seep into the tea. These are the most flavorful part of the concoction – and it is a waste to let them escape.

Some Common Add-ins

Ginger (fresh) and Cardamom (fresh or powder) are the two most commonly added spices to Indian chai. Some people add both – some add just one or the other. Ginger is great for stimulating digestion as is ground Cardamom.   A less common add-in – but one that works extremely well on sore throats is cloves. Just a single stem of clove needs to be added to the concoction.

The MACA add-in (for energy)

Although not part of Indian chai, maca root powder (from South America) is a super-food in itself. If you can tolerate it (it gives some people headaches – and can cause other side effects….Use the Gelatinized version of maca powder to reduce side-effects), it adds an additional ENERGY boost unlike any other. Again, this is purely optional – and only recommended if you have tried maca root before and can tolerate it without any side effects.

A complete list of the Ingredients

Coming soon

The Process

Coming soon

The post Indian chai (superfood) – things that can go wrong appeared first on Anuj Varma, Hands-On Technology Architect, Clean Air Activist.

Grind it – pound it. Make sure the juices are released.

The importance of QUALITY Tea LEAVES

tbd

The type of Milk

tbd

The type of water

tbd

Variations on the same theme

1. Ginger and Elaichi (Cardamom) Chai
2. Black Pepper Chai
3. Clove (Laung) Chai

The post Making the perfect cup of chai, Indian Style appeared first on Anuj Varma, Hands-On Technology Architect, Clean Air Activist.

The 2015 Delhi legislative election was different. Real life, real truth – and a real, sustainable victory for one of the cleanest and hardest working political parties in India. If BJP and Congress are the 500 pound Goliaths, the Aam aadmi party is the persevering David who refused to get intimidated.  Such was the power of their ground level volunteers that they outperformed well funded, well marketed and well established powers to be. Not to mention their superstar leader, Arvind Kejriwaal, who had an answer to every attack from the BJP.

10th February, 2015 will go down in history. It is the day India officially launched its second freedom struggle – freedom from the corrupt politicians that have ruled it thus far.

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