all in a day's time

this is what i call a "clint" syndrome and occurs everytime you watch a clint eastwood movie. be it million dollar baby or the latest "gran torino". i cry during the movie at least once and think a lot after it, especially about running back and spending more time with family.

Chapter 1: IELTS

anyways, the day started with us waking up to giving IELTS exam. went to macquarie university and funnily, sitting for the exam in the very room I usually deliver undergraduate lectures. the immigration requires EVERYONE except citizens of US, UK, Canada and a few other countries they think can communicate in English. I don't want exemption because I know I can communicate satisfactorily in English. I don't want an exemption because my medium of education during my school, undergrad, postgrad and phd has been English. I don't want an exemption because I have finished PhD from an Australian university. Although, I DO want an exemption on the basis that I already scored 8/9 in IELTS four years back right before coming to Australia.

So does the immigration department really think that four years in Australia may have deteriorated by English-speaking/writing/listening/reading capabilities? There is no flaw or loophole in the legislation, mind you. It's an outright business with the geovernment, British Council, IDP and Cambridge Universities being the beneficiaries. Would it really be so unimaginable to expect the government to waive the English test requirements for anyone who has scored above a certain level?

For example, if the IELTS requirements for a particular kind of visa is 6/9, waive IELTS for anyone who scored 8 or more. Basically, your current score is the same as your previous score given that you have taken the IELTS within the last 3 years AND is one less than your previous score if the last test was taken more than three years back. Of course, the government can charge you for each time you request the scores. This will atleast save a lot of time of a lot of people throughout Australia and rest of the world. Of course, it would put a couple of people out of work, which is, probably, the universal reason for any business one can say (providing jobs to people).

I hope the government stops, what I think, is exploitation of people who want to make Australia home. Let's give everyone a fair go - isn't that what Australia claims to be for?!?

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Chapter 2: Gran Torino

There's just something about a Clint Eastwood-directed movie that makes me cry :( He is such an emotional-blackmailing, sentiment-exploiting son-of-a-bitch! Anyways, I will just say that the movie was good - watch it to know more about it.

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Chapter 3: The Gaza "war"

Of course, it's a damn war - 1188 people dead out of which 410 are children - and this is just the Australian media. Isn't that 410 children too many? Isn't that the lives of 410 innocent souls whose crime was to be born to Palestinian or Israeli parents? Israel wants to justify it's war by saying that it is trying to minimize civilians casualities and that Hamas is hiding amongst civilians. Well, if they are - too bad! You can't ethically strike civilian locations even if you know it has a few targets. It's a 50-50 split between real targets and innocent civilians; that's not discrete! that's not carefully selected strikes. Those are the actions of a fed-up team of incapable politicians and army-men who are tired and want to take the easy way out.

I honestly, don't know the accurate history of the middle-eastern conflict and I don't care to know it. What I know, and what every single person in the world should be ashamed of is the innocent people and especially the kids who died in this war. Shame on each one of us who turns a blind eye towards it and shame on Israel for taking this cowardly easy route and shame on Hamas for exposing civilians to their enemies and shame on the US and UK politicians for turning their backs on this strike stating that "Israel has a moral right to defend itself".

It's been a sad couple of decades for the global society with unipolar earth after the long-term manipulation and eventual demise of U.S.S.R. and total world domination - economically and politically by the United States of America. But I see a more balanced world in the next 10 years with China willing to speak up and not fearing the downward effects on it'e economic output and India becoming more visible to the world as well. France, Germany, Brazil and all the other "neutral" countries not letting the USA get away with what it sees as it's moral right.

I just want to say that I miss all the 410 children like my own children. The heart bleeds to know that they won't be playing in the street tomorrow morning, that they won't be banging the doors to announce to their mums that they are hungry, that they won't be sneaking up in the bedroom because they are scared, that they won't be stealing your hearts and defeating you with their smiles. Each kid should grow up to choose a path in life and no parent should have to live with the grief of losing a part of their own. I am sure these children have been taken by God in it's stride and I KNOW that they are in place which HAS TO BE better than this one.

Miss you all...
Gaurav

recipe for chicken kebabs

hey folks

i recently marinaded some chicken for curry and had excess leftover in the fridge. the kebabs from them turned out pretty darn good! here's the marinade for 500grams of chicken thigh fillet.

cut the chicken in the size of around that of a golf ball

marinade- yoghurt 100grams, turmeric 1 teaspoon, garam masala 1/2 teaspoon (that's it!)

add all the ingredients and mix thoroughly using hands. this is important so that we don't have lumpy yoghurt.

leave in the fridge for 48-72 hours. take out, drain excess fluids, put the kebabs on to the skewers, and serve with sliced onions :)

cheers
gaurav

Mutton Biryani

This is a recipe I obtained from some site and reading it, it sounds quite promising.

Mutton Biryani ( Pakistani) 85mins



Hot Lamb Main Course Pakistan Asia
Serves 4-6

Ingredients
240ml/8fl.oz. Ghee or Oil
2 Onions, finely chopped
675g/1-1/2lb Mutton or Lamb, cut into 2.5cm/1 inch cubes
Salt to taste
2 teasp Red Chili Powder
2 teasp Turmeric Powder
1 ½ teasp Black Cumin
4 2.5cm/1-inch pieces Cinnamon Sticks
4 Cloves
4 Cardamom Pods
2 Bay Leaves
2 teasp Ginger Paste
2 teasp Garlic Paste
720ml/24fl.oz. Water
4 Tomatoes, chopped
180ml/6fl.oz. Plain Yoghurt
675g/1-1/2lb Rice
1 tbsp Freshly chopped Coriander
a few Mint Leaves
1 teasp Lemon Juice

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the onions and fry until golden brown.

2. Add the mutton and fry over a high heat for 5 minutes, turning from time to time.

3. Add the Salt, Red Chili Powder, Turmeric Powder, Black Cumin, Cinnamon Sticks Cloves, Cardamom Pods, Bay Leaves, Ginger and Garlic Pastes together with the water, mix well then reduce the heat, partially cover and cook for 45 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, place the rice in another saucepan, cover with 5cm/2-inches of water, bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes only until half cooked. Drain well and set aside.

5. After the 45 minutes cooking time, stir the yoghurt into the meat mixture and cook gently for a further 5 minutes.

6. Place one quarter of the half cooked rice on the bottom of a large saucepan then top with one quarter of the meat mixture. Continue layering until the rice and meat are finished. Sprinkle with the chopped coriander, mint leaves and lemon juice, cover and cook over a medium heat for 5-10 minutes unit rice is completely cooked. Serve hot.

turning 28 hasn't exactly worked for me

After I turned 28, I have had 1500$ loss on the cancellation of my air tickets, been fined for speeding and had a "short-paper" acceptance (that's such a slap on the face). Rewind please :)

Well, at least I got a cake from my students for my birthday :)

High-precision math

I was wondering a couple of months ago about how to achieve accuracy in floating-point computations such as say, try to multiple 4.34524362 with 2.456357642456 while we know that there is only finite precision that can be provided by programming languages. A way around this problem was to save the values as strings and multiple two strings rather than two numbers - so you won't be able to multiply two "values" a and b as a*b but you multiply them as multiply(a,b). Using operator overloading, even a*b can easily be achieved. Now, what I have done so far is +,-,*,/, factorial, combinations on integers and being too lazy, I only implemented the * functions on floating-point values. The implementation works for extremely large values (as high as the compiler would support for a string - which is pretty high :D)

The math_library.cpp (right click and choose "save target as") can be used by anyone but NOT for commercial purposes.

pumpkin masala / kaddu ki sabzi

This is a recipe I am posting as an apology to Eric for not turning up for the skype chat on Wednesday evening :(

Serves 2

1kg Pumpkin - JAP - the green one
Mustard seeds - 1/3 teaspoon
Cumin seeds - 1/3 teaspoon
Chilli powder - 1 teaspoon (for spicy otherwise half)
Turmeric powder - 1/3 teaspoon
Coriander powder - 2 teaspoons
Oil - 4 tablespoons
Coriander leaves for garnishing

cut the pumpkin. the size of the dices in the image will make the end product mushy (which i like). NO NEED to skin the pumpkin :) if you want the pieces to be separate at the end - cut bigger pieces.




Heat oil in a saucepan and when hot add mustard seeds and after 2-3 seconds cumin seends and after 3-4 seconds the diced pumpkin. toss so that they mix nicely. cover lid, turn heat down to 3 o'clock and cook for 20 minutes, tossing one or two times in between.

mix the chilli, turmeric and coriander powder in a cup with water so that it dissolves and becomes a liquidy paste. turn the heat high and add this paste, stir till they mix decently and turn the heat down again to 3 o'clock. Cook for another 5 minutes and done! garnish with coriander leaves and serve with bread/naan/ chapaati/ pooris (but not rice :D)

pumpkin masala recipe as an apology to Eric

This is a recipe I am posting as an apology to Eric for not turning up for the skype chat on Wednesday evening :(

Serves 2

1kg Pumpkin - JAP - the green one
Mustard seeds - 1/3 teaspoon
Cumin seeds - 1/3 teaspoon
Chilli powder - 1 teaspoon (for spicy otherwise half)
Turmeric powder - 1/3 teaspoon
Coriander powder - 2 teaspoons
Oil - 4 tablespoons
Coriander leaves for garnishing

cut the pumpkin. the size of the dices in the image will make the end product mushy (which i like). if you want the pieces to be separate at the end - cut bigger pieces.

Heat oil in a saucepan and when hot add mustard seeds and after 2-3 seconds cumin seends and after 3-4 seconds the diced pumpkin. toss so that they mix nicely. cover lid, turn heat down to 3 o'clock and cook for 20 minutes, tossing one or two times in between.

mix the chilli, turmeric and coriander powder in a cup with water so that it dissolves and becomes a liquidy paste. turn the heat high and add this paste, stir till they mix decently and turn the heat down again to 3 o'clock. Cook for another 5 minutes and done! garnish with coriander leaves and serve with bread/naan/ chapaati/ pooris (but not rice :D)

Addendum: You can skip skinning the pumpkin - just dice without peeling!!! Saves a lot of time and is equally tasty, if not more :p