nainashenoy

[nainashenoy]

Basil Pesto. Inexpensive & Tasty

Ingredients: Sunflower Seeds (1 handful) Purple or Green Basil Leaves (Couple of sprigs) Olive Oil Garlic Powder Salt Flakes (or Rock Salt) Fresh Cherry Tomatoes (a handfull)

Direction:

In a pestle, crush the seeds to a coarse powder. Add the basil leaves. Once minced, add the salt and some olive oil to pestle it down to a nice mix. Add more olive oil as per needed consistency. Add the garlic powder for taste. Half or quarter the cherry tomatoes and add to the pesto. Mix and transfer to a serving.

Goes best with fresh baked breads or boiled pasta.

[nainashenoy]

Kokos Bonas

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 cup quinoa 3 tablespoons rice 1/3 cup coconut milk 5 big broccoli florets 1 Canned Mix Beans 1 teaspoon kori rotti powder (Chakrika powder, South Canara, India) Salt to taste

In small pot, add 2-3 cupos of water. In boiling water add quinoa and rice. Halfway add broccoli. Cook broccli until overcooked and mash it with fork in the quinoa mix. Add the the kori rotti powder and coconut milk. Bring one boil. Add salt to taste.

[nainashenoy]

Valedictorian 2019

I had the opportunity to make the Valedictorian speech at my masters graduation at the Linnaeus University, Sweden on the 3rd June 2019. I was very excited and nervous at the same time to be saying goodbye and welcome to the next chapter of life. I am putting my speech out here so that at some point I can even come back to feel the same that I felt while delivering it.

P.S. Credits to my dear dear brother for giving my raw speech a beautiful facelift.

Good Afternoon Everyone

i feel very honoured to stand before you today.

Firstly, I would like to extend y warm greetings to the pro-deputy vice-chancellor, the administrators, faculty, family and friends and, most importantly, to my fellow cohort of graduates.

Not to stereotype my fellow Indians here, but we are an emotional bunch so do not lose your stern disposition if I jerk out a tear or two as I run through my speech with an emotional, albeit proud heart. I stand here today, channelling my parents’ pride, my fellow classmates’ pride and my own, at having reached this milestone of graduating from the master’s programme.

Two years ago, most of us were a group of nervous souls not knowing what the future had in store for us. The anxious and hopeful faces around me at the orientation rooms have today become friends, and some of them, I’m sure, for life. For most of us, the Linnaeus journey took us away from home - for some of us a few 10s of miles and for the likes of me - a few 1000s of miles. My fellow batchmates, I could not have survived this separation from home without you all, so thank you.

The sense of community I feel today standing here cannot be out into words. Linnaeus University for us became a home away from home, albeit in my case from a tropical beach city to a very cold, windy and wet home. A home that gave new meaning to the popular game of thrones phrase ‘Winter is coming’. A home where each and every one of us have had unique experiences, some life changing ones even, topped with the darkest is winters. Thank god for coffee and lots of candy.

As I look back at my two years at Linnaeus University, I am reminded of the late Ingvar Kamprad’s quote: “Happiness is not reaching your goal. Happiness is being on the way”. As we all set out on our varied paths to happiness, I cannot think of a kiln better than Linnaeus University to have prepared us for our future travels along these paths. Inside and outside our classrooms, the Linnaeus University education has instilled in us equal measures, a new sense of ‘come whatever may’ attitude, life defining values and integrity. For that, I thank my teachers, who relentless in their pursuit of preparing us to pursue the ultimate that is knowledge. As my country’s late president Abdul Kalam said “A teacher’s life lights many lamps”. My dear teachers, you have definitely lit my lamp and that of my fellow graduates.

At this point, I would like to thank the most important cog in most of our lives, our families. On behalf of all of us students, I would like to express heartfelt gratitude to our parents, families, and best friends who are present here and back at our homes. You have been our constant champions, pillars of support and an unlimited reservoir of love. Without you all, this journey would not have been possible.

On a personal note, I would like to thank my mother who I am so very happy could make this long journey to witness me taking my next steps. Thank you for being my champion, guide and protector.

Okay, now that I am done with the mandatory parts of the speech, I want to talk about what I’ve really learnt at Linnaeus University and in Sweden. I will forever be grateful for introducing me to Fika. Coming from a country where everything is in limited supply, including time, Fika has taught me to take a step back, let my hair loose and just take a break without a bother in the world.

On a serious note, the Swedish way of life has left an indelible mark on me, and I can see the positive effects it has had on my mental framework and attitude to life. Your mindfulness, your conscientiousness about your natural resources, you live-and-let-live attitude, your warmth and welcoming nature, and your liberalism have all taught me important lessons.

Before I conclude, I would like to assure my teachers and the administrators of Linnaues University that we, the batch of 2019, will be some of the brightest of your flag bearers int he world that is waiting for us.

To my fellow batchmates, let’s kick some ass out there like we’re meant to.

I would like to conclude this speech by a poem by the famous Indian literary savant and first Asian Nobel Prize winner, Rabindranath Tagore:

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where the knowledge is free;  Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from depth of truth; Where tireless striving stretches it’s arms towards perfection; Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever widening thought and action- Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Congratulation class of 2019