Coffee aahaan.........

Today after lunch I felt too sleepy and above all I knew I don’t have any work to do before 5 p.m. it was really very difficult to keep my self awake. Although tried browsing net, peeping in fellow bloggers blog, went through some news sites but still felt drowsy. Then it clicked to me and I went to pantry to make a cup of coffee for me, and lo within seconds my drowsiness was gone and felt fresh. So what’s a big deal to it.

Every one of us know that coffee has high level of antioxidants and used by most of us to come out of fatigue or tiredness, students will definitely agree with me as it helps them to burn their night lamps. So I discovered nothing new :P

but what I did in my free time is I googled for coffee, it’s history, benefits, harms etc. This shows how IT people cannot survive without google search engine at all :D
Jokes apart going through the history I discovered few interesting things which I thought of sharing with you all guys (May be am too late to write and most of you must be knowing it already)
It was discovered even before 13th century and the name coffee was derived from the Arabic term Kahway or Gahwa.
Legend popular about coffee is that there was an Abyssinian goat herder whose name was Khalid. Khalid use to feel drowsy during afternoon due to sun’s effect and he discovered that his goats became hyperactive after eating some berries. So out of curiosity he too tried chewing some, he ate few berries whole and felt hyperactive as his herd, when his wife came to knew about his being energetic instead of normally exhausted one while returning back home she asked for the same and on knowing the reason for the same she urged his to share his wonderful discovery with local holy men in monastery. The chief monk their did not felt happy at Khalid’s discovery and declared the berries as “The work of the Devil”. He took berries from Khalid and threw them in the fire to banish their offending presence. Soon the room got filled with delicious aroma of roasted berries, and other monks too gathered there to discover the new delight.
The chief monk then picked up those smoldering berries, dissolved it in water and instructed other monks to take a sip of it. As soon as they drank it, they felt good and experienced clarity. The brew was proclaimed a miracle and was then used to keep them awake during their evening prayers.

According to another legend (The Arabian legend of Omar the Dervish) it is popular that Omar was well known for his ability to cure sick through prayers and medicines. Although not everyone agreed to this and eventually his enemies forced him to wander in the desert outside Yemenite port of Mocha. In his starvation days he happen to stumble over a bush with berries. Thinking it to be good sign by God he tried to eat those berries, but they were very bitter in taste, so he decided to roast them and placed them in boiling water, still he found beans were very bitter, so he drank the potion and he miraculously recovered his strength back. The word spread about Omar’s magic potion and people took his survival as a religious sign. Soon people were spreading word of the restorative powers of this amazing new drink. The plant and its beverage were named Mocha to honor this event, this is how coffee gets its name as mocha . Omar was eventually invited back to Mocha where he was made a saint.
It is believed that coffee plant grew naturally in Ethiopia and was later transplanted in Arabia. Arab people monopolized it. The tribes from Ethiopia doesn’t use it as drink but would wrap these beans in animal fat as their only source of nutrition while on raiding parties. The Turks were the first persons who adopted coffee as a drink but they use to add spices to it as clove, cinnamon, cardamom etc while brewing.
Coffee was introduced to other countries beyond Arabia in much later time as Arabian people took it as delicacy and didn’t allowed it to go anywhere else, they even use to guard its secret as if it is some top secret military plans. Its export was forbidden by Moslem Nation, The coffee actually spreaded illegally. Even in India it was smuggled by one Arab named Baba Budan, he smuggled it to some mountains near Mysore and started a farm there. Early in this century, the descendants of those original plants were found still growing fruitfully in the region.
There is also one belief that some Christians considered coffee as a devil’s drink. Pope Vincent III heard this and decided to taste himself. He found the beverage good that he baptized it saying “coffee is so delicious it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it."
Anyways whatever be the reason, coffee is enjoyed worldwide and is good for health if taken in moderate quantity. Few of its benefits am listing here courtesy research on net
Ø As coffee helps you to keep regular so there is a possibility that it reduces risk of colon cancer by up to 25 percent.
Ø Two observational studies found that regular coffee intake reduced the risk of developing kidney stones
Ø Coffee has a compound called theophylline which acts as a bronchodilator which helps people with asthma to have up to 25 percent lesser symptoms
Ø Coffee may prevent some other diseases like cirrhosis of the liver, Parkinson’s disease, skin cancer and gallstones
Ø Okie one good thing I found on net is and strange too that coffee may help some people to loose weight as it may boost the number of calories you burn per hour by 4% (don’t know how much this point is true :D)
Ø Coffee may help to deal with jet lag also as it helps to shift the body’s natural time cycle after time zone changes as in case of long distance travels. It is recommended to drink coffee in morning when traveling to west and in late afternoon while traveling to east.
Ø Although people with high blood pressure must be careful with caffeine as it can rise up to 5 or even 10 millimeters of mercury. The amount depends on the individual and dose.
Oh I think enough of it, rest if interested read on net courtesy google search :D
I had a great time pass while writing about this and enjoyed writing it while sipping my cup of coffee
So coffee for you too?
Enjoy

A story so far....

It was her daily routine to browse net during night, whenever her dad went off to sleep she’ll connect net and get back to her routine. She has taken her mother in confidence and promised her to surf net every night just for one hour and not more than that as her dad was strictly against it. She had tried everything from chat room to movies website, from googling to e-greetings site. She had made few good friends also on net and then limited her chatting with those friends only. Now she don’t bother to go to chat rooms to chat with invisible people, she was bugged up with the first question asked by every Tom, Dick and Harry “Hi there, ASL please”
Now she always turn down any unknown friend request and then too her studies seriously. As it was high time now. Being eldest of three sisters and no brother expectations of her parents were high from her. They were proud of her as she always managed to grab good position in her class. She was considered the most sober, soft spoken and intelligent girl in her school and college. She had a dream to be at some top notch position one day, she wanted to do some professional course but her dad can afford only basic graduation and post graduation, He cannot spend more on professional coaching and all. She was compelled to give B-ed entrance, she gave it half heartedly, her bad luck she cleared it. On the day of counseling she pleaded her dad that she want to do some professional course and not B-ed. Her dad was adamant as he cannot afford fees for the professional course. On her name being called she started crying and rushed back home.
She got scolding from her dad, her mom tried to convince her dad to let her go for professional course. That year government had introduced Voluntary Retirement scheme for bank employees, her dad grabbed the opportunity and took VRS. He said now you can go for your professional course. She was the most happiest person on earth. So took admission and went to stay in hostel. Although she was missing her family a lot but still she was happy that she is going to achieve what she dreamt off.
During weekends she use to come back home and then use to follow her old routine, browsing during night. Talking with her virtual friends who had become her best pals, with whom she use to share her happiness and sorrows.
One fine day a new messenger was launched. Just for the heck of trying she downloaded, now she wanted to test it also, so was looking in the list to find out a suitable person with whom she can talk. But suddenly a message popped from him. “Hi there”. As she was also looking for someone to talk and test messenger she responded. Although the moment she logged on to new messenger she started getting so many hello messages from unknown people, but she had already responded to Him, so she kept on declining others invitation.
The other person on the end sounded so informal that she liked talking to him. He never asked "ASL please"They talked for an hour and still none of them asked each other’s age or location. She was wondering if that person is quite old in age or may be very younger than her. But never mind she liked talking to him. In between he got some mail, he had applied for some job and he got that job. He asked her to hold on as he wanted to share this news first with his parents, but asked her not to leave. She waited and he came back after 10 mins. He sounded so excited. He said he got a job as General Manager in some company. She gave her best wishes but then wondered she is in her first year of her course and the other person whom she is talking to is GM now, will it be good to talk to him. Anyways they bid goodbye and went back to sleep.

..................................... To be continued...............................

New Begining

Its been very long time I have written something meaningful. Just few updates, going on vacations , coming back from the same kind of posts. Even today I don’t have much to write, don’t know but life has become monotonous and tiring, Want to take time for myself, for family but don’t know where the time is. Sometimes wonder is this the life we dreamt off??
Both of us hardly get time to talk, such a busy and fast life that being in office sometimes ping each other to talk whenever we get some 5 or 10 mins free, No time to pursue our interests or hobbies, Cooking just to satisfy hunger and not for pleasure, only weekends we do get some time to spare. But still feel two days are too less to rest, as have to do all the pending chores of week days.
It’s new year now and haven’t made any resolutions this year, neither do I think Sachin made any. This reminds me of last year post by Sachin, where he made some resolutions, Let me go through it and see what have we achieved out of it:
http://preetisachins.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_archive.html

“Things which remain unaccomplished .... And to accomplish in 2006
Yet to channel-ise career goals
Create fund to buy a House by Dec 2007
Manage finances more professionally
Try and reduce 6 kg atleast
Start a workout R-E-G-U-L-A-R-L-Y
Be regular with this blog “

Now 2007 is here :
Career Goals, Still not steady on the same
Fund: Not achieved
Manage Finances: Yes we have achieved that
Weight reduce????? Whats that :D Okie Sachin did reduced some but am the same
Workout: Forget the spelling even
Regular with blog: Still trying

Overall A good year So here we both welcome Year 2007
With a hope that this year will bring satisfaction in all aspects. A wish all of you may gain wealth, health and prosperity.

So Friends A very Happy new year to all of you.

PS: Pic has nothing to do with my current mood, one moment am stressed , other am happy and fine, just was googling to get image for TGIF and landed on this, full credits to it's owner, source of the image can be viewed here

Fun but true

Before leaving for the day today just found an aboslute wonderful, hillarious piece of writeup which is totally true, Do read it. It's worth reading :)
Click here

~preeti