Tortilla Espanol

Sunday morning brunch and/or breakfast has always held a special place in my life. Growing up, this was one of the rare times, when the whole family would be at the table: talking, teasing and enjoying Mom's creations.

Then in my teenage years this was the time you spent with friends at different and new places around town, which offered a hearty Sunday brunch or breakfast. Bonds developed then; have withstood the test of time.

Now being an adult, this symbolized spending quality time with your girlfriend, significant others, friends and occasionally business partners. So, slowly it has become a ritual to be cherished.

For the past few years I have been working on Saturdays, leaving before the sun rose and returning early on Sunday morning. So this Sunday brunch became even more dear and near. Thus, started the tradition of trying new recipes and new culinary adventures.

We discovered the Tortilla espanol from our favorite book on Breakfast and Brunches. The first time it was cooked, I was expecting to have a tortilla dish and was very pleasantly surprised to see the tortilla was actually made from eggs. Being exceptionally fond of eggs this was icing on the proverbial cake. The ingredients were also a pleasant surprise: potatoes, green peppers, chili peppers, green onions, red onions, tomatoes and finally jalapeño cheese.

I always mixed my veggies with the eggs, prior to placing it on the pan. Not this time. Saute the veggies (except for the tomatoes and cheese), once they are slightly cooked, take them off the flame. Now mix them with the eggs and tomatoes, place them on the pan and gently cook them till the eggs are done. Serve them hot, on a plate and garnish with shredded cheese and some coriander leaves. They go very well with sourdough bread and coffee.

A healthy hearty brunch to keep you going through the day. Not to mention the perfect start of a relaxing romantic Sunday.....

The aftermath

It has been a terrible few days. The episode in Mumbai almost seems that an alternate army is working to bring the country down. Armed and well trained young men, some of whom were carrying food supplies, took control of the financial capital of India. It took about three days of fighting and uncertainty before the situation was brought under control. Speaks volumes for the fact that these people knew what is going to happen, they had anticipated the response and thus were prepared in advance for the same. More like a planned invasion. There was no randomness in this episode, everything was planned to the smallest detail. Pakistan has repeated spoken to the media, asserting that they had no role to play in this episode, but it is kind of convenient that the path chosen by the terrorists was via Pakistan and there were a few members identified as Pakistani citizens. More so, where does one get such a kind of precision training in modern day warfare: in a army training camp. And the camps across the border are known to be training grounds.

I am sure the citizens of Mumbai will come back to the main stream without much difficulty. As any great city, which has withstood the test time and time again, it will not be dislodged from following it path. People will try to create disruption, people will try to create obstacles in their paths, but in the end common sense will prevail and so will humanity. These inhuman fanatics, who do not realize that they malign their cause and their efforts by such acts of cowardice. I am glad that these people were killed in the encounter, there is no sense in taking them prisoners, they need to be gunned down in the streets like the animals they are. Jihad and holy war is not staged on the streets, only in the mind of people. If they people they are moving their goal, they are mistaken, nothing more is going to take them away from their goal and their destiny.

Yesterday, we were interviewed by channel 13, a local Des Moines new channel, featuring us and our reaction to the happenings in Mumbai. It was a very different experience, we were glad to bring the message to the masses. But at the same time we wished it was for something more positive. We hope the people of Mumbai will realize that all over the world, we are proud of their resilience and their determination to keep their sanity intact and keep their lives on track.

Coffee and Pregnancy

I have been looking in the literature to see if we have evidence to assess the role of coffee in pregnancy. So far my search has not revealed anything exciting.

There have been several groups which have looked into it but with no definitve conclusions or guidelines. Which is frustrating if one is looking for answers. And the fact that so many people have tried to answer the same question, makes me wonder why we have no answers yet? It should be a straight forward yes or no.

My 10 cents is that coffee drinking has a correlation with smoking and thus the reason why some studies have shown affect on the developing fetus. And if you take away the factor of smoking, the studies do not really show any difference. So it should be safe. But my quest for a definitive answer will continue.

Unable to make sense

It has been a very unproductive weekend. From the point of view that I know what I do not want to do as a research project is clear to me. But what exactly I want to do is lacking. I do have a vague idea, but it is too vague and too much of fluff in it. I need more details and definitely more concrete ideas. I am way behind in my own timeline. I thought that by implementing the philosophy of GTD will allow me make headway in my projects. It has given the right structure, but has not given the right direction and flow. I still feel burdened by the details and not to mention, the time that has gone into the plan. It almost appears I am planning all the time.

I even tried the strategy of not thinking about it or a while and see where I stand. Didnot work. Not so far.

I believe that there should be a way to combine the philosophy of Ayurved into the realms of modern medicine. The flow of diagnosis in the ancient form of medicine, might be the source to make the role of Genetics in clinical medicine more tangible. Currently we get involved in the details of the genes, we try to pinpoint every small little detail that goes into the genetic information. And as a result of which we loose the bigger picture and not to mention the broader perspective. That is where we need to combine the powers of the two sciences. There has to be a way to decipher the way one reacts or acts to different things: chemical, physical etc etc, and use that as flow of information to predict. The generic information to be used to refine the results and add to the big picture. also for that to happen, one would need genetic testing to be more commerically available, widely accepted and not to mention an essential source of reliable information.

Testing mobile posting

So in order to improve my accessibility to my blogs I needed some version to make me more mobile. But then since there is no paucity of softwares available for the same: I guess the best way would be is to test it out and see what else I would need. Not to mention, I might not need more since this may serve most of my basic needs, the rest can be done on the computer.

It is a cold weekend, but I am loving it. Another flavor to life. Was talking to a relative last night and found that she was really confused by the upcoming decisons to be made in her life. I can relate, there are some tough questions that need to addressed and answered. But does that mean we need to be so particular about how we go about life. Don't they say that a mistake only takes our life down a different path. And as long as we have the final goal in our sights we can always revert back to a path similar to the first one or in our eyes the right one. There is no right or wrong in life. It is one continuous process and each new problem, new devlopments, new successes, new failures: they are the harbinger for new opportunities. Opportunities which are there for the taking. And we need to have the self confidence that we are doing the right thing (pursuing your personal legend) and the humility to accept the things we cannot change along with the courage to change things we can.

Harding Science Fair

For the second year in a row, I judged this science fair at this school (which has been adopted by the hospital for annual school physicals, done for free by us, since most of the children in this school come from families who do not have the funding or insurance to pay for something as simple as an annual physical, which is required by law) by the name of Harding Middle School(Link). Last year, this school was also selected as the NASA explorer school(Link), and thus has been funded by NASA to develop their science program and to promote science, specifically the engineering and physical sciences in the school.

So they started this Science fair, last year. They have five judges last year: Myself, Ritu, one of my colleagues and two retired teachers. There were 100s of projects ranging from an experiment to be conducted in space (which was selected by NASA to be taken aboard the Space Shuttle), to generating electricity and designing efficient ways to dry fruits. We were there from 6pm to about 9:30-10pm. It was a lot of work, but fun. Some of the students had prepared presentations, some were goofing around and some genuinely were interested to use these projects as a stepping stone to obtain scholarship from NASA and other funding agencies. The turn out of students, their parents and friends was very encouraging.

This time, it was a bit smaller, but more well organized. Instead of one person doing a project, this year they tried to do it in groups of two & above. Plenty of genuine experiment designs from measuring the elasticity/tensile strength of rubber bands to melting point of chocolates to developing methods on lowering the house energy bill. Also they had many more judges: four from our hospital, 10 from a local college, 10 from drake university and 5 from Iowa State University. This time the judging required like one hour to complete, but there were many more aspects to the function: a Audio-Video link with the Stoddard Space Center and AV links to other NASA explorer schools around the country. Through this AV link they provided a very detailed view of the current NASA projects, including but not limited to the shuttle launch which took place today, the return to the moon mission, the MARS explorer missions. There were also experts available to answer questions and students asked questions ranging from: does one age less or more in space, does time slow down in space, where do the feces go on the International space station (ISS), why do they need more toilets and an exercise machine on the ISS (on board the latest space shuttle mission). All of this was not only by equipment donated by NASA, but NASA also set up the equipment.

Of course there was plenty of food, apple cider and not to mention prizes for the top 5 projects.

Unfortunately, this school is one of the poorer schools in the state (thus the adoption by the Hospital and NASA). Many of the students get their major meals and food from the school. So much so, that on Fridays and long weekends, if the school and other agencies do not fill their backpacks or lunch boxes with non-perishables; they will go hungry over the weekend. And thus for some of the families which came to the fair, it was a source of free food. A contrast to the amount of food wasted and just distributed in the hospital conferences and meetings.

Each year, they also select teachers, who get to fly in the NASA zero gravity flight (or the vomit comet), and then they share their experience with the students and motivate them to develop projects to test prevailing theories and to develop new technology. They are also in the midst of designing of moon explorer vehicles, which will participate in the annual moon explorer vehicle race.

All of the above reminded me of the project school of ISRO in the village of Vastrapur in Ahmedabad. I guess we were lucky to get the same kind of exposure. I still remember taking the ISRO bus to SAC to participate in the first satellite link with Trivandrum school children. Not to mention the science fair in the school, the science day celebration in PRL.

Life does revolve in circles.

Of course my pet projects in the science fair: does bacterial growth change in space (on board the space shuttle) and measuring the elasticity of rubber bands :-) Simple but very elegantly designed experiments, asking some very difficult questions!

Day 6

So this is getting better and better. I am not too sure whether I should this, but I am getting faster in the cold. Maybe it is just the first few days of running in the cold and the rain, but for some weird reason I have been clocking a better time. I have shaved almost 30 seconds of my time. On an average I am doing like 10 minute miles, which is something very remarkable for me since previously I had never done that. I could do it for a couple of miles, but my average pace towards the end of a longer run would be much much less. But now I have been doing it consistently for the past few days. It is not even funny anymore. The rain and cold gear is definitely helping though. And my motivation is still high and so is my training schedule in full gear.

I had this interesting incident today. I was walking back from the derm clinic. Since Ritu was busy at work and was not taking my calls, I had not much of a choice but hike it from there to home. I was about half way home, when this gentleman stops the car. He is relatively young and offers me a ride. I accept it since it was raining and I was not really in a mood to walk. So he drops me home and during our conversation I learn that he is a pastor with a relatively new church. He though introduces his wife as a real-estate agent, which was something very interesting, since it turns out she helps out at the church and is listed as some form of divinity or spiritual advisor. More so ever, in her profile posted on the church it does not mention that he is her spouse, but it is mentioned that she is his spouse in his profile. More so ever he introduces himself to be a dad and husband. And she introduces herself as the being the wife of him. A very interesting way to introduce oneself.

Despite of all this it was a very interesting meeting with him. I learnt that a church can be built from scratch, just like any corporation. And like any business venture requires a lot of planning and effort on part of the so-called 'administrative' staff, which in the Church is actually the spiritual advisors. It is a new concept to me. Till now I was under the impression that churches were always branches of a bugger structure. To might it was almost as if a larger church or a larger entity decided that there was a need in a certain area and that is where the church will come into existence. But according to what I learned today, that is not always the case. This current church in question does not even have a physical presence. It has a spiritual presence alright, but not a physical one. Every sunday it is assembled and then it is dismantled and taken away. And pretty soon it going to lease a space for a period of 10-15 years. I am surprised and very amazed at the way even the 'corporation' of God needs to be set up. I guess this is the one company where the CEO actually claims and is working for the better of the company and it's customers!