The Pizzazzy

Yesterday was the Kojagiri Poornima, this full moon is celebrated as “Kojagiri”. My mother-in-law had been reminding me since last few weeks about the Pooja. Last year she had written down the instructions for me on a piece of paper. So, it came handy this year too.

I had bought some Pom Pom’s for the Pooja. I have recently come to know that Pom Pom is Chrysanthemum. So, I got these beautiful golden Pom Poms known as the Virginia Chrysanthemums.

On Kojagiri full moon night we offer prayer to many deities: Kubera (the treasurer or the lord of riches in Hindu Mythology who guards wealth) and Laxmi (the Goddess of Wealth and Prosperity) along with Indra(the God of weather and war) and Chandra (the lunar diety, the moon). Masala milk, which is thickened milk prepared with a rich mix of dry fruits and kesar (saffron). For me I simply use Everest Kesar Masala instead of going into the process of grinding dry fruits together.

Our preparation for the Pooja started with preparation of the milk, meanwhile we also kept the prayer items ready like flowers, rice grains etc. The masala milk is first offered to Moon to soak up the cooling effect of the moon and then offered in prayer. For us the best place to find moonlight was near our swimming pool. Since the prayers are done at midnight we were ready with the milk around 11:30 and we went down to the pool. After 11:00 the lights around the swimming area are switched off, so the area was beautifully lit by only cool white moonlight.

We kept the bowl of milk at such a point where the moon was beautifully reflecting on the milk. Of course it took some adjustments with the angle and all. The moon was really looking very peaceful, cool and beautiful. Me and Anand sat chatting near the poolside till mid night. At mid night we just didn’t want to leave the serene atmosphere so we continued for some more time.

Finally we made it back and completed the Pooja. The milk tasted great and the Virginia Chrysanthemum offered to the Goddess Laxmi were also looking very pretty. It is believed that on this day Goddess Laxmi visits and blesses people who observe night vigil. At home we would have stayed up little longer but as the next day was a working day we went to bed with the cooling effect the moonlight had on us. Even though we were away from family, it has been a memorable celebration.

Everyone knows google is equal to search and google is also equal to online advertising. Adsense and adwords have created huge tsunamis in the world of online advertising. Now google is making a foray into tracking TV advertising. Many of the web masters with their hands and eyes on online advertising will vouch by google adwords: the click to click real time reporting that google provides is unmatched in any other media.

It would be really a boon to the advertisers to get a similar quantitative data to derive the statistics of their reach, target audience, impact and place ads in more appropriate channels and programs. Many of the TV advertisers buy airtime, then the ads are run and thats the end of it.

The scene is about to change as Google is planning to tie up with major cable operators and then study the data collected from set top boxes. To precisely know which ads were watched and which were skipped by which segment of people.

For ages advertisers have associated the ads viewership with the program viewership which everyone knows is not accurate. Appearance of some commercials really push you to flicking channels. Sometimes viewers can view multiple programs in a span of a 30 minutes by expertly avoiding the ads. Google is about to announce a partnership with Nielsen Company. Its planning to give advertisers a more accurate snapshot of how many people are viewing the commercials on a second-to- second basis and what is the segment of the viewers. This will help in specifically targetting segments that directly impact the ad ranking.

But just like we have internet users with eyes trained to avoid ads when visiting a web page the human brain is already trained to avoid all commercials while watching TV. It is highly possible that for some segment of users google can never get accurate data of what ads to target at them.

All said and done imagine a day when you sit down in front of your TV to watch a program and the ads during the commercial breaks are all relevant to you. Interesting and Innovative right!

The most popular drink next to water is Tea. Very common in India, China and Japan tea is also very popular in Britain and America and several other western countries. You would rarely find an Indian who does not begin the day without a hot cuppa.

Tea has a beautiful history. As per Chinese legend Emperor Shen Nung who was also known as divine healer, tasted the water boiled with some wild leaves fallen accidently from a nearby tree. He liked the taste so much that he started using tea leaves thereafter. And it was the Boston Tea Party that led to American Independence. 

I was not a great tea lover and am one of the rare people who can go without tea for days on end. But my husband is a tea fan. His days cannot begin without tea and every few hours he loves to take a hot cuppa. Even at 12 O’Clock in the night he can ask for tea. I have become a tea consumer only after meeting my husband some 8 years back, now if I think back our love story began over the daily tea that we used to have in our college canteen.

My new found taste now a days is green tea. I remember the first time I tasted this version of such a popular Indian brew in Japan. During a meeting we were served green tea, I just couldn’t get it down my throat. I found it terrible. Basically because it was so bland. For me till that point of time tea meant our normal indian tea with milk and sugar or my favorite  iced lemon tea, the gift of Americans, which I really love a lot or the black tea with a little lime juice. Shockingly green tea turned out to be a plain clear green color bland hot water with no taste.

Green tea is an acquired taste, you need to develop the taste for it like sushi or sashami. And I have started loving it. It was simply because I decided one fine day to start drinking more water thanks to my beautician (yes from the New York Skin Solution) who clearly told me my skin needed more hydrating. And going a step further I thought instead of having plain cold water let me take warm water. I started taking around 3-4 glasses of warm water daily. And another fine day I got bored of that too. Yes, I can go on for days without actually having a glass of plain water. I did have juices, coffee, tea, lemon tea or simply coconut water.

Since I was bored of water and still wanted the hydrating effect of water, I thought I can try green tea and I would be consuming water and on the other hand the health benefits of green tea will be really helpful. Then it all started. First I was taking one cup daily and slowly started taking around 2-3 cups a day. Now its become a routine to take green tea in office every few hours especially after lunch. Moreover its so easy to prepare, just take boiling water in a cup and stir in a green tea bag, leave for 1-2 minutes and sip the faintly fragrant, pale green brew.

It helps me digest my lunch and makes my stomach feel lighter, it cleanses and detoxicates my system and I simply feel more healthy now. So, if you are health concious then replace your usual intake of water with green tea. Without any sugar in it this makes the ultimate health drink.

To learn more about Green tea and its health benefits visit http://www.greentea.com