Spicy Talk

I am sure that we all spices. The best thing about spices is their aroma, taste and their hue. Today I will dedicate this blog to spices. Do you remember that in one of my blogs I had mentioned that therere five spices in Bengali cuisine (Panch Phoron): Mustard Seeds (Sarson), Cumin Seeds (Jeera), Fenu greek (Methi), Nigella (KalonjAi) and Fennel Seeds (Saunf). There are many other spices too like Carom Seeds or Thymol Seeds (Ajwain)
Sesame Seeds (Til) and Clove (Laung). I am going to to tell a little about all of them.Carom Seeds: Carom Seeds are also known as Ajwain India. They are in great demand in Gujrat and UP. I  call them very adjustable becausetough they are put in so many dishes like '' Kadhis"   cooked veggies; dpughs of (rotis) , (samosas),  (puris) etc. they go off so well. The best recipe I find for Carom Seeds is this; just sprinkle some Carom Seeds into a glass of buttermilk and your day is made!. Sesame Seeds: Sesame Seeds help in curing skin problems. There are two types of Sesame Seeds  one is ''Black Sesame Seeds'' used in laddoos, chikkis etc. ''White Sesame Seeds are used to make dishes during the festival of Sankranti. Clove : Clove oil is used to cure toothaches. We have talked enough of thinges related to food now lets stop or we all will feel hungry!.

Rembrandt Harmensz.van Ryn, a famous dutch painter.

While flipping through the pages of an art book I came across this painting called'' Night Watch'' by Rembrandt Harmensz.van Ryn, a famous dutch painter. He was born in Lieden , but he later  succeeded as an artist in Amsterdam. At one point of time he was very rich and he bought an elegant mansion for Rs 13,000 which was a large some in those days. His life was a sad one for two of his children had died  and later his wife Saskia died of tuberculosis. He was also accused of bankruptcy by some. His famous paintings  include the '' Night Watch'' which shows 17th century militiamen standing with a dog in the right and a young girl in the left. It is his most famous painting . Some of his significant painting were "The three crosses ", " The  storm on the sea of Galilee". One of his painting called "Young woman sleeping" was reminiscent of calligraphy with a few brush strokes of ink on paper. He was a very creative artist. Rembrandt died in Amsterdam.

Bard of Avon

Recently we went to''Starmark'' the famous book store in Calcutta, and bought a book called ''Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare'' by E.Nesbit. This is the perfect book for those who are interested in Shakespeare. This book includes famous stories like Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo-Juliet, etc. My favourite story is Hamlet. This book is written in simple English for children to understand. In today's world we use words like addiction, bedroom , cold-blooded, fashionable and many more. Do you know who has given all these words? Shakespeare is the correct answer.
Did you know that Shakespeare was called the '' Bard of Avon''. He used 17,677  words in his plays, sonnets and poems, Many of his stories are now being made into Hindi movies like Omkara(based on Othello), and Maqbool (based on Macbeth). We have just reached to the end of today's blog just two more quiz questions left..
1) I live in Venice , I am a Jewish moneylender I have a young daughter called Jessica. I hate the rich and prosperous merchant Antonio. I will soon have my pound of flesh. Who am I?
2) Which planet has all 27 satellites named after Shakespeare's characters?
Answer- 1) Shylock 2) Uranus.

Palindromes

Happy ''Teacher's Day'' to all the teacher's viewing my blog. Palindromes are words or numbers that are same when read from front or back like madam, mom,  pop, they can be numbers also like 1331 121 999etc. Today I will share some problems with you involving Palindromes.
Problem no. 1: Find the total no. of 4-digit Palindromes?
Problem no. 2: Find the total no. of 5-digit Palindromes?
Problem no. 3: How many 7-digit Palindromes are there that do not start nor end with 1.
  Solution for 1: A four digit Palindrome is like ---- where the first and the last digit is the same and the second and the third digit are the same. So for the first and the last digit we have 9 choices(0-9) and for the second and the third we have 10 choices (0-10). Answer 9 multiplied by 10.
Solution for 2: A five digit Palindrome is like ----- where the first and the last digit are same and the second, third, and the fourth digit are the same.So for the first and last digit we have 9 choices(0-9) , for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th we have 10 choices(0-10) each. Answer-9 multiplied by10 multiplied by 10.
Solution for 3: a seven digit Palindrome is like ------- for the first digit we have 8 choices because it cannot be 0 or 1, for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th,5th,6th we have 10 choices each (0-10), and for the last digit we have 9 choices  since it cannot be 1. Answer is 8 multiplied by 9 multiplied by 10 multiplied by 10 multiplied by 10 multiplied by 10 multiplied by 10. I came across this problem when I was reading a book by Mr ''Titu Andreescu'' . Bye-Bye.