Bullet-Points Tips: February 2012

Wednesday 22 February 2012

1 Kg. Sambar Powder & Tasty Sambar

How to prepare 1 Kg. tasty Sambar Powder & tastiest Sambar? Explained here in a simple and easy to understand language:-

Ingredients Required

1/2 kg. (Half Kg.) New Dried Red Chilli (Long). Keep it in sunlight for a day.
Coriander Seeds (Daniya whole) - 250 Gms.
Thoor Dal - 150 Gms.

Cumin Seeds (Jeera) - 50 Gms.
Fenugreek Seeds - 10 Gms. (Hindi-Methi, Kannada-Menthya, Telugu-Mentulu, Malayalam-Uluva/Ventayan, Marati/Bengali-Methe)
Fry all the above separately without oil. No need to fry Dried Red Chilli.
Grind all the above. Instead of Mixi, get them well-ground/milled from Flour/Rce Mill to reduce to 100% fine particles Sambar Powder.
Home-made Sambar Powder will last for 6 months and will be economical.

Hints to Prepare Tastiest Sambar

Use white seedless Tamarind & extract tamarind water with hot/warm water.
Filter Tamarind Water well so that waste particles of Tamarind do not get mixed with Sambar.
Add Tomato, depending upon the quantity of tamarind you use.
Also separately boil Thoor Dal to be added with Sambar. Ensure, Thoor Dal is not over-boiled.
When you add Sambar Powder, add Turmeric (Haldi) Powder & less quantity of salt. If you need more salt, you can add later.
Ideal Vegetables for Sambar : Ladies Finger (Bindi), Potato, Drumstick or Brinjal.
Separately fry Onion, Curry/Coriander Leaves & Green Chilli with Oil and add with Sambar finally.
If you follow the above hints, you will get very tasty sambar.

General Techniques to Dance

'Dance' is a move rhythmically to music, with a series of body movements. Be it country or western dance. Here are the general tips to dance well:-

Wear comfortable clothes. Most important is the shoes you wear.
Be 100% sure that you will be able to dance freely and comfortably with your shoes.
For any dance, creativity is most important. Be creative in new moves. And do not repeat a move more than 2-3 times. Audience will not like repetition of same move for more than 2-3 times.
Change your dance moves according to music.
Practice the dance you like at least 15-30 minutes daily.
Practice in front a full mirror as your audience.
Breathe deeply when you practice and when you dance.
The more flexible your legs are, the easier it will be for you to move them.
Ensure you are capable of being flexible in all moves. Keep your hands / arms loose and your hips free.
Dance is something what you feel. If you really love dancing, smile while dancing.
Not only your body movement / posture, make sure your eyes also convey message according to lyrics of the song and its music.
Dance according to the space available.
Think whether you will have to dance on a crowded dance floor, close to someone else or with a partner.
If you participate in group dance, timings & Co-ordination with other dancers are important. Have 100% presence of mind in group dance.
Above all, each move in your dance should look quite natural.

Japanese Food Habit Secrets

Most of us know Japanese women do not old or fat. They are able to maintain their health due to some of their following good eating habits.

The Japanese diet is based fish, soy, rice, vegetables and fruit.
The classic Japanese home-cooked meal is a piece of (a) Grilled fish, (b) A Bowl of Rice, (c)Vegetables (cooked in a liquid below the boiling point), (d) Soup containing high-protein food paste of soybeans, barely or rice and salt. (e) Sliced fruit & (f) A cup of hot green tea.
They eat in smaller portions and serve them on a beautiful and small size tableware.
Japanese never completely fill up plates and never serve big portion of any item.
The Japanese eat medium portion of rice instead of bread with almost every home-cooked meal.
Like lunch in India, In Japan, breakfast is the most important and often biggest meal of the day.
Japanese women are crazy for chocolates, pastries, ice-cream, cookies and crackers but in smaller portions.
Japanese women are both the world's longevity champions and the industrial world's obesity champions. They are not into diets.
Japanese always have good and healthy relationship with food.

A dog's personality is established at birth. There will always be the active, outgoing puppy and subdued puppy. As a dog owner, you can identify certain behaviour you do not like, but with training, you can change them. Here are some useful tips for managing and training your dog:-

Schedule food and water to better monitor dog's input and output. If you are house-training your dog during summer, do not give food or water three to four hours before bedtime.
After dog is house-trained, it should always have access to fresh water and food. Never give any leftovers from his previously uneaten meals.
The dogs have an innate desire to be clean, so they won't eat or sleep where they have used the bathroom. The cleaner the environment, the easier it is to house-train a pet.
To teach the terms like "Go Potty" or "Hurry Up", apply them while your dog is going to the bathroom so that it associates the word with the behavior.
Give minimum 10 minutes to your dog to use the bathroom.
In general, puppies need to go out every 3 hours, while adult dogs better to go out every four to five hours.
Train your dog to bathroom on various surfaces like grass, grates, pavement, and mud. Also train your dog to do its business on or near the curb as nobody likes to step over it in the middle of sidewalk.
Fresh food is healthier food. The more unprocessed, whole, and complete the food is, the better it is for your dog. The healthier your dog's diet, the less output there will be from the dog.
Read/know the body language of your dog to know if your dog wants to go out. Your dog wants to go out if it walks in circles while sniffing the ground, looks uncomfortable, sits near the door, barks/produces noise at a relatively high pitch or stars at you.
Feed your dog in the same area every time and in a relatively calm environment to create positive associations with the space.
Bond with your puppy. Teach your puppy using positive methods. Make training fun.
Realize your puppy will make mistakes, and do not get angry when he does.

Get Promoted Faster

You like to get promoted faster in your Job Career! Following are easy-to-appy ideas & guidelines:-

Prepare "dream list" for your ideal job or position. Imagine that you have all the education, knowledge, experience, contacts, time & money you need.
Select the right company (be it small, medium or large). Select the Company which interests, attracts and draws you toward it.
Interact with you superioir effectively. Tell your superior honestly and directly what he/she could do to enable you to be more effective.
Be positive, Refuse to criticise, complain, or condemn when things are not going well.
Resolve today that you will dress, groom and look in all ways as if you were already the big success you intend to be. Know how to combine colors and accessories. Get rid of those clothes that no longer consistent with the message you want to send.
Decide to be hardest working person. Continually look for ways to make yourself more valuable.
Write down now as many details as possible that would describe your perfect job, life and career in the distant future. To creat your perfect future, begin making those changes today.
Prepare a list of activities and accompanishments and ask your superior to prioritise highest value activitiesto propel you onto the fast track.
Unlock your creative powers by continually applying them to your work and your personal life. Be clear in your in your goals, problems and questions.
Make a list of all important people inside your company. Look for ways to put something into the relationship before you think about getting smething out.
Begin a daily reading program. Morning, use first "Golden 1 Hour" by reading something educational, inspirational or motivational to eventually change your life.
Develop standards of performance, measurements for your key result areas. Continually strive to improve.
Treat your company as if it belongs to you and find ways to reduce costs or simplify activities.

Small Business Ownership

Many of us indulge in owning business. Thousands of new businesses are lauched around the world each year. But over 50% of them close within five years. Scan the following factors to determine whether you have the desire, discipline and resources for running your own business:-

That you alone will be able to decide and develop business & organize everything at the initial state.
Will be mentally and financially prepared to meet overhead and operational expenses, before you get your profit margin.
Have the skills or will you improve skills in Planning, Operating, Accounting & Marketing your business well.
You will need to work a lot. Many successful sole proprietors and entrepreneurs are less likely to get "burned out" by carrying all the responsibilities of business on their shoulders.
Decision-making is most important skill, a small business owner should always have. Develop decision-making skils even under pressure and independently. Find many good alternatives and select the best.
Are you ready to go through difficult phase of first few years when you will need to balance your work, family demands and financial difficulties.
Will you be prepared to run your business without any profit at the initial state which might be months or years?
Project your sales and break-even point and your profit margins.
If you still have doubts in forecasting sales, break-even point and profit margins, consult the successful sole proprietors/entrepreneurs who have recently started new business.

How to Prepare Good Proposals?

Any proposal should be undertaken only if there is a chance of winning the Contract.

Creating a winning proposal needs skills in marketing/sales, decision-making and personal overall knowledge in various subjects. Steps involved in preparing a good proposal:-

The first and most important decision you have to take is, whether to bid or not bid for the contract for your company. Here you have to undertake an economic analysis to decide whether you will get margin after completing the project or not?
If yes, decide the manpower strength/no. of team members required, depending upon the importance/size of the project.
Analyse the Request for Proposal (RFP) of the client. This helps in developing selling point to make your company stand out from the competition.
To make sure the deadlines would be met, the manager responsible for the project should prepare a 'Schedule' and keep track of individual's/group's authorities and responsibilties.
A more sophisticated method of assigning and tracking tasks can be done by using PERT/CPM (Project Evaluation & Review Technique/Critical Path Method).
The next step for the Project Manager is to develop final program design which includes time and cost estimates.
Once a draft proposal is prepared, top management will review it and suggest changes, if any.
After finalizing the draft proposal, the team has to prepare Cover Letter with Table of Contents, List of Graphics/Tables & an Executive Summary.
The final step is 'Presentation to Client". Your proposal will definitely deserve the best chance for success, if the above steps are strictly adhered to.

Women! Tips to Organise Kitchen

Organising and managing a Kitchen is not only a fun, but also saves time, money and avoids waste and stress. You feel your kitchen is always chaotic? It is very difficult to have a perfect kitchen. Organising your entire kitchen at once is not possible. If you have a kid, try to maintain your kitchen kid-friendly. Following few general guidelines will help you control chaos in your kitchen:-

Any small appliance or tool which serves only one purpose is definitely unnecessary consumption of your kitchen's valuable space. Find out those and dispose.
Prepare list of items you rarely, daily use and items yo use only for festivals or special occasions. If you have not used any items in a year, dispose them.
Store your spice items together. If not possible, to easily locate the items, follow 'Color Coding Technique' depending upon the cateogory. Use Storage Containers with different color caps for different purposes to quickly and easily get even when you are busy in cooking & require the item urgently.
There are some kitchen items which you often use.
Avoid multiple of things which you use for same purpose. For example, multiple knives or cutters will create clutter and chaos. Try to avoid multiples.
Keep items at appropriate place. For example, keep the cooking pans and pots near the stove if you have adequate space in kitchen. If you do not have, keep them at the place where you can quickly reach.
Most important. Every month or fortnightly, take inventory of items. Check expiration dates of items. This will avoid unnecessary wastage of money and overstock of unecessary items.
Scan your refridgerator atleast fortnightly, if possible weekly. Check the expiration dates of all items stored in it.
Have extra storage space by using Cabinets & Drawers. You can even try hanging storage.
Store/keep/place those items which you often use as reachable as possible. And put rarely used items up high or in the back of your cabinets.
Make changes in your kitchen periodically and make improvements to simplify your kitchen.
Have a small white-board in your kitchen. Whenever possible, note down what you grocery items you have to use shortly or what what you have to buy?

Speaking Skills

Simple tips and techniques to speak effectively:-

Before start talking, take adequate time in organising your thoughts and plan what you are going to say.
Take a breath before you start to speak to help improve the volume at which you speak, and you will have enough air to finish a sentence.
Always face listener to easily and effectively communicate.
Quiet environment is deal to have conversations and to hear and be heard better.
If your dry mouth is a barrier, take a cup of water before start speaking.
Use in short, concise phrases or sentences.
Force your tongue, lips and jaw to work hard as you speak. Finish final consonant of a word properly before beginning the next word.
To reflect your mood while conveying your message, vary your facial expressions.
While talking, if you feel distracted, close your eyes to minimize environmental distractions.
Use gestures while you talk, but only if needed to point an object as most listeners do not prefer body movements.
Sometimes, simplify your question to get yes or no answer and use some gentle prompts before beginning a new topic of conversation.

e-Learning

e-Learning (electronic learning) simply means 'Instruction which is electronically delivered via Internet, Intranet or through CD and DVD'. General information about e-Learning:-

e-Learning is delivered to end-user, using standard internet technologies.
Learners can go through the program at their own pace, anytime & anywhere.
eLearning is a proper way to gain education as it removes barriers in terms of time and geography.
A number of other terms are also used to describe elearning like Online Learning, Virtual Learning, Network Learning, Computer Based Training (CBT), Internet Based Training (IBT) & Web-Based Training.
Because of its digital nature, elearning is cost-effective as it reduces travel expenses and does not require classroom/instructor infrastructure. An inexpensive worldwide distribution.
Learners interact with learning materials, their instructors and other learners from various locations and often at various times using network technologies.
Learners can access an e-learning course anytime, anywhere at their own pace.
e-Learning has, however, some disadvances like Bandwidth Limiations, Loss of human contact & Consumption of time in developing eLearning Program takes time.
Not all courses can be delivered by computer. For example, Team Building issues need personal touch.