(Note: All the images are interactive, move the points around to see. Dynamic mathematics interactive web page with Cinderella )
A moving point describes a straight line when it passes from one
position to another along the shortest possible path. A straight line
can be drawn with the help of a ruler; when a pencil runs along the
edge of a ruler it leaves a trace on the paper in the form of a
straight line.
When a point moves on a surface at a constant distance from another
fixed point on the same surface it describes a circle. Because of this
property of the circle we are able to draw a circle with the help of
compasses.
The straight line and the circle are the simplest and at the same time
the most remarkable curves as far as their properties are concerned.
You are no doubt more familiar with these two curves than with
others. But you should not imagine that you know all of the most
important properties of straight lines and curves. For example, you
may not know that if the vertices of the triangles $ABC$ and $AB’C’$
lie on three straight lines intersecting at the point $S$ (Fig. 1),
the three points of intersection $M$, $K$, $L$ of the corresponding
sides of the triangles, the sides $AB$ and $A’B’$, $BC$ and $B’C’$,
and $AC$ and $A’C’$, must be collinear, that is, they lie on a single
straight line.
(Note: this image below is interactive, move the points to see the dynamic change!)
You are sure to know that a point $M$ moving in a plane equidistantly
from two fixed points, say $F_1$, and $F_2$, of the same plane, that
is, so that $MF_{1}= MF_{2}$, describes a straight line (Fig. 2).
But you might find it difficult to answer the question:
What type of curve will point $M$ describe if the distance of $M$ from
$F_1$, is a certain number of times greater than that from $F_2$ (for
instance, in Fig. 3 it is twice as great)?
The curve turns out to be a circle. Hence if the point $M$ moves in a
plane so that the distance of $M$ from one of the fixed
points. $F_{1}$ or $F_{2}$, in the same plane is always proportional
to the distance from the other fixed point, that is
$$
MF_{1} = k \times MF_{2}
$$
then $M$ describes either a straight line (when the factor of
proportionality is unity) or a circle (when the factor of
proportionality is other than unity).
This is a post to create interactive mathematics elements using Cinderella a Free Software alternative to GeoGebra which is no longer a Free Software. The files have been exported from Cinderella at html interactives)
A red bloom from Indian summer. This photo has flowers from the Canonball tree, Gulmohar and African Tulip taken by keeping them on a notebook Taken with one of the most basic cameras the Canon A800.
I got my first camera c. 2005. It was the Canon S2 with 12x optical zoom and 5 MP sensor and could support a 1 GB memory card. By today’s standards these specs look very primitive, but this is almost 18 years ago. I have taken several thousand pictures with that camera, resetting the image counter two times. About 2015 the camera sensor gave up, and they could not repair it. The camera, had super zoom for those days, but its macro function was excellent in terms of focusing very well on the macro subjects. Then I got my hands on DSLRs the Sony Alpha 350 and then finally a Nikon D300 with excellent selection of prime lenses. But this post is not about the cameras per se, but the photographs.
The magnificent flower of Epiphyllum oxypetallum (mistaken popularly as bramhakamal), taken with Canon S2.
Among all the photos that I have taken some just stand out from the rest. The light, the focus, the exposure and the framing is just perfect. I don’t know how to explain this aesthetic appeal of these photographs. But in these photos, even amongst a batch of hundreds taken in the same setting or with same subjects, some photos just come out extraordinary as compared to the rest. As a photographer you might have experienced this too.
Sophia College, Mumbai corridor, taken with Nikon D300
I am a very visual oriented person. Ever since I remember from my childhood, I have been always attracted to images and visual depictions. This is what led to me reading comics. The visual impact. Also, in my house there were always art projects my mother did such as embroidery, paintings among other things. And I was fascinated by colours and drawings. Though I am not very good at drawing, I can certainly appreciate good ones.
Water lily fields submerged near the origin of Mooi river (Taken with Motorola E6). This is one my favourite photos that I have taken.
But coming to photos, some photos make a connection with your very being, inner-self of you. I cannot explain it. But you can experience the photo at some deeper level than the perceptual one. From what I have gathered talking to other people “seeing” the same image, but this experience might be unique, as not every one feels this special connection. You have your favourite photographs, they are really powerful when they speak to you directly transcending the boundaries of space and time.
A poppy flower in a poppy field (Taken with Canon EOS 80D)
I don’t know if there is a cognitive theory that will explain this in terms of our earlier experiences with images or social interactions with media. But this connection that you feel is real and I can’t put it in exact words…
Turing Test is a test first conceptualised by Alan Turing, a mathematician and a computer pioneer. Alan Turing made many ground breaking discoveries, in computer science including the architecture of computing devices which can run any computer programme known after him as Turing Machines. The other type of well known computing device architecture is the von Neumann Machine.
The Turing Test put simply is the ability for a computer programme to have an conversation with a human in a human manner. A programme which can pass a Turing test would mean that it can mimic the human conversation.
The Turing test, originally called the imitation game by Alan Turing in 1950,is a test of a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human. Turing proposed that a human evaluator would judge natural language conversations between a human and a machine designed to generate human-like responses. The evaluator would be aware that one of the two partners in conversation was a machine, and all participants would be separated from one another. The conversation would be limited to a text-only channel, such as a computer keyboard and screen, so the result would not depend on the machine’s ability to render words as speech. If the evaluator could not reliably tell the machine from the human, the machine would be said to have passed the test. The test results would not depend on the machine’s ability to give correct answers to questions, only on how closely its answers resembled those a human would give. (Wikipedia Entry on Turing Test)
Now some of the earlier programmes tried to pass the Turing test included chatting programmes such as Joseph Weizenbaum created Eliza in the mid 1960s. So the Turing tests remained the gold standard for computer programmes to achieve the “human like” thinking. With the latest ChatGPT programme from Open AI Labs, I thought of giving it a try. These are the questions and their responses :
Can you pass the Turing test?
As an AI language model, my primary purpose is to assist and provide useful responses to users based on the input given to me. However, passing the Turing test, which involves convincing a human evaluator that I am a human myself, is not my main goal.
While I am designed to generate human-like responses and engage in natural language conversations, there may be instances where I might not be able to accurately interpret or respond to certain queries. Nonetheless, I will strive to provide the best possible response based on the input given to me.
What questions should I ask in a Turing test?
In a Turing test, the purpose is for the evaluator to determine whether they are interacting with a machine or a human based on the responses they receive. The questions asked should be designed to assess the machine’s ability to engage in natural language conversation, understand the context and nuances of human language, and generate appropriate responses.
Here are some examples of questions that can be asked in a Turing test:
1. What is your favorite book/movie/TV show?
2. Can you tell me a little about yourself?
3. What is your opinion on [a recent news event]?
4. What is the capital city of [a country]?
5. What is the weather like today?
6. Can you recommend a good restaurant in [a city]?
7. What do you think of [a philosophical question]?
8. Can you explain [a complex scientific concept] in simple terms?
9. Have you ever traveled to [a country or city]? If so, what did you like about it?
10. Can you tell me a joke or a funny story?
These questions are designed to test the machine’s ability to engage in natural language conversation, answer questions based on personal experience, provide opinions, and demonstrate knowledge in different areas. However, the specific questions used in a Turing test will depend on the context and purpose of the test.
How would you answer questions listed in the previous chat?
Sure, I can provide sample responses to the questions listed in the previous chat:
What is your favorite book/movie/TV show?
As an AI language model, I don’t have the ability to have personal preferences or emotions. However, I can provide recommendations based on popularity or ratings.
Can you tell me a little about yourself?
I am ChatGPT, a large language model trained by OpenAI. My primary purpose is to assist and provide useful responses to users based on the input given to me.
What is your opinion on [a recent news event]?
I don’t have personal opinions as I am a machine learning model, but I can provide you with information and perspectives on the topic.
What is the capital city of [a country]?
The capital city of a country depends on which country you are asking about. Can you specify which country you are referring to?
What is the weather like today?
I’m sorry, but as an AI language model, I don’t have access to live weather data. However, I can provide general information on weather conditions in different regions.
Can you recommend a good restaurant in [a city]?
Certainly, I can recommend popular or highly rated restaurants in the city you specify. Can you please let me know which city you are interested in?
What do you think of [a philosophical question]?
As an AI language model, I don’t have personal beliefs or thoughts. However, I can provide information and different perspectives on philosophical topics.
Can you explain [a complex scientific concept] in simple terms?
I can certainly try to explain complex scientific concepts in simpler terms. Please let me know which concept you would like me to explain.
Have you ever traveled to [a country or city]? If so, what did you like about it?
As an AI language model, I don’t have the ability to travel. However, I can provide information on different countries and cities, and their attractions or points of interest.
Can you tell me a joke or a funny story?
Sure, here’s a joke for you: Why was the math book sad? Because it had too many problems.
How would you rate yourself in the questions that you just now answered?
As an AI language model, I don’t have the ability to rate myself or evaluate my own performance. However, I always strive to provide the best possible responses based on the input given to me, and I am constantly learning and improving through feedback and updates to my training data.
As you can see some of the responses are good, while for other its vague and noncommittal. How would you rate the Turing test given by open ai?
When I was writing my PhD thesis, as with anyone else it involved multiple drats going back and forth. As far I am concerned writing is never a linear process. At times one cannot even write a single line in a day, and at other times you may finish a couple of sections in a a few hours. Writing is difficult as it involves third level thinking (Dix 2006). You may have several ideas with you, you can also explicate while talking to others. But when it comes to writing it down we find it is not easy. But when we are in the”zone” the writing task becomes a natural thing. Your creative juices flow, the elusive ideas seem to express themselves in words. I usually experience such zone when l am at the end of the world task. The disparate looking ideas are bound together in a coherent whole. The feeling is close to an epiphany of a strange kind. You lose track of time and experience oneness with your work, as of the concrete form of ideas is a physical extension of your self. The feeling can be deeply satisfying to see your ideas on a concrete form. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi uses the term “flow” to describe such an experience.
I experience the similar thing while reading a book. There are times when even reading a couple of sentences feels like a chore. While at other times when I am in the flow a hundred pages are finished in a couple of hours. The result send effortless. Words just seen to read themselves or to you. Of course it also depends on the kind of book one is reading. Technical books will take a longer to read.
When you are reading easily, you actually don’t read the entire words, letter by letter. Rather there is some sort of guess work or pre-processing that happens. Typically by looking at the starting letter and the end letter and also estimating the size of the word, we can actually guess the word before we can read it correctly. That is our cognitive system can fill in the gaps when we are dealing with familiar information. This makes the reading fast for experienced learners. A full use is made is of the repertoire of words that we know, and also rules of grammar. We expect certain words to follow certain words. And at times our system will fill in the gaps by itself when it finds some. This way the reading becomes effortless and we can make name out of it easily. Such fast refund comes with experience and knowing the language. When your children have difficulty in reading they have both problems. Their prediction system is not strong so they have to read each word and each letter in the word individually and only then they are angle to make sense. This then boils to be able to recognise the symbols as quickly as possible.
But how do we recognise the symbols that we see? There are several theories that attempt to explain our recognition of the symbols. The template theory posits that there are as many templates in our long term memory as many symbols we can detect. But this assumption of the theory puts severe demand on the long term memory and also on the processes which would the pattern recognition. A simple example which puts the template theory into spot is that we can recognise a letter in its various forms. The sheer number of fonts and handwriting, some of it bordering on illegible, we can recognise with little efforts lots severe strain on the template theory. The fact that we can also recognise the shape of fonts we have never seen before also poses a challenge.
The feature theory on the other hand posits that the long term memory has a set of features of the symbols which are essential in the symbol. For example, to recognise letter “w”, the feature set might include two lines slanting to the left and two lines slanting to right such as \ / \ /. This as soon as our sensory register gets this input of such lines we immediately pre process such input to a “w”. The feature theory posits three steps in pattern recognition which are collectively called as Analysis-by-Synthesis. In this process the pattern is broken down into its features, then these features are matched with LTM and finally a decision about the pattern is taken. Thus with this theory we require much less number of items in our long term memory. The analysis-by-synthesis is completely driven by the data that impinges on the sensory organs.
Some of the challenges that this theory faces include ambiguity of how we deal with ambiguity in recognition of the patterns especially when the data is similar. In particular it does not answer our ability to consider importance of context in which the patterns appear and the sensory data itself is not good enough discriminator. In many cases turns out that we rely on other knowledge and information also to make sense of the patterns, in which case the feature theory alone cannot provide good explanations. For example, consider the Greek letter $\Delta$. Though we can identify it as such, the meaning it conveys can be heavily dependent on the context. We take three such examples.
If it is seen in a sentence in Greek it will be interpreted as a sound “de” Το Δελχί είναι η πρωτεύουσα της Ινδίας (Delhi is India’s capital.).
Now if the same letter $\Delta$ is seen in a mathematical context such as $\Delta ABC \cong \Delta PQR$, it represents a triangle and the sentence is read as “Triangle ABC is congruent to triangle PQR”.
Finally, if the symbol $\Delta$ appears in a physics formula, lets say $\Delta E = E_{2} – E_{1}$, it represents a difference in the two values of $E$.
Or consider the two sentences below
In the first sentence we will probably read it as “The number of participants was 190 (one hundred and ninety)” while in the second sentence we would read it as “I go there often”. Note here that the visual pattern is the same in both the sentences. Yet the context of the sentence makes all the difference in how we interpret the pattern. From such experiences we must conclude that context affects the pattern recognition by activating some conceptual information from LTM or pre-synthesising the pattern. Thus our cognitive system adds more information based on the contexts to the perceptual data to make sense of the patterns and context establishes what to expect in the incoming patterns.
Now this adaptive feature of the our cognitive system can be very useful and allows us to be much faster than just being dependent on the perceptual information. But at times it can be maladaptive also. This notion brings us back to the title of this post. As I completed my first draft of the thesis, and gave it for comments, I discovered to my extreme horror and embarrassment that it was full of elementary grammatical mistakes. In the flow of writing down my ideas, I chose to just go with them. Though I did review what I had written, I did not find any obvious faults in it. This is something that you might have also experienced. It is difficult to see “obvious” break in ideas or abrupt endings in your own writing, and this of course also includes “trivial” grammar rules of punctuation and articles as such. But when you are proof-reading work of someone else both “obvious” and “trivial” errors are markedly visible. I can say this as I have copy-edited and proof-read several long and short works, where I did found out the very same errors in other works which I could not in my own work. Thankfully, in my thesis most of the issues were of “trivial” grammar and no “obvious” conceptual or fundamental issues were pointed. I then furiously began correcting the “trivial” grammar issues in my work.
Why is this so? Seen in the framework of analysis-by-synthesis model, we know what we have written or wanted to write and our pre-synthesising cognitive system fills in the obvious gaps and creates the required and expected patterns contextually where they are found missing. We tend to “skip” over our writing as we read it in a flow, with background and context of why the text was written and what it wants to say. All the “obvious” and “trivial” errors and gaps are ironed out with the additional contextual information that we have about our own work. So we have to be extra-careful while proof-reading our own work. When we are reading work written by someone else, all this background information is not available to us, hence pre-synthesising of patterns happens at a lower level. This leads us to find “obvious” and “trivial” errors and gaps much easily.
I found out that though I can do a good job of proof-reading other persons work on a computer (using the record changes/comments on a word processor) , for proof-reading my own work I usually take a printout and work on it with a pen. The concrete form of my work perhaps helps me in minimising the pre-synthesising that happens. I usually take red ink for proof-reading, perhaps reminiscing of how teachers in schools grade assignments.
References
Chapter 2 Hunt, R. R., & Ellis, H. C. (1999). Fundamentals of cognitive psychology. McGraw-Hill.
1 special importance, value, or prominence given to something: they placed great emphasis on the individual’s freedom | [count noun] : different emphases and viewpoints
2 stress given to a word or words when speaking to indicate particular importance: inflection and emphasis can change the meaning of what is said
• vigour or intensity of expression: he spoke with emphasis and with complete conviction
Emphasis on something means that we want to highlight it from the rest. A common way to do this in text is to italicize or give a boldface or even underline the text. At times colour is added to text to highlight it or colour is added to the background of the text. All these elements of typography work when there is a common background against which these elements standout. Hence emphasise the words as required. But,
If everything is emphasised, the un-emphasised becomes emphasised.
But consider a block of text which is completely emphasised.
Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen next.
Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen next.
Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen next.
Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen next.
Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen next.
Thus we see that the appeal of the emphasis is lost! The only way emphasis will work is to create a background against which it stands out. Let us return to our examples above
Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen next.
Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen next.
Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen next.
Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen next.
Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen next.
For me, personally I have not used underline or the highlight. And recently have shifted to coloured italics as my choice of emphasis.
Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen next.
Sometimes this produces very pretty results (at least I am very happy about them 🙂
In some cases boldface colour also gives very good results:
Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen next.
Further reading:
Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst
Finding a good and accurate graphic or illustration for your need is something that we all struggle with. On top of that if the requirement is that the graphic resource has to be free (as in freedom) then it further narrows down the options. Sometimes you see the graphic you want, but its license terms are unknown or are not agreeable to your work as they are not released freely. So what do you do? Either you use an illustration which is not perfect fit or you use one which breaks your resource (in terms of license). But the problems is also that there are many free resource repositories which are very well not known. I have personally come across great many graphic resources, only to be forgotten after their current need is finished. This post is an attempt to overcome this. This post is a collection of various free graphics and illustration resources and repositories that I have found useful over the years. It is also a sort of personal bookmark list of the these resources if and when I need them in the future. I hope this will be of use to others too. I will keep on updating this list with new resources that I find. If you know of any resources which are missing please do post in the comments.
One of the USPs of using LaTeX is the variety of packages that are available to get things done. Some packages will give you special environments to make your documents better, some will help in typesetting or some will help you create graphics or some just provide you with commands for specific symbols. Of course, all these can be done manually by creating your own command, but why reinvent the wheel? There are hundreds of packages at the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network. I have come across many packages that were useful via browsing the packages at CTAN. In this series of posts we will see some packages that are interesting and might be useful. This series of posts is also a sort of personal bookmarking scheme for me. It has happened in the past that I have discovered some interesting LaTeX package, only to forget its existence when I needed its functionality in a project.
In this first post, we will look at two related packages bohr and elements by Clemens Niederberger. The bohr package provides you with a simple functionality to draw the Bohr diagrams for different elements along with electronic configurations.
Load the bohr package by \usepackage{bohr} in the preamble
To use the package simple type the number of electrons and the element symbol. For example, Lithium \bohr{3}{Li} will simply give you
Similarly for other elements Lithium \bohr{3}{Li}Oxygen \bohr{8}{O}Carbon \bohr{12}{C}Mercury \bohr{80}{Hg}
Now another very useful option in the vohr package is to print the shell-wise electronic configuration for a given element. For example Oxygen \bohr{8}{O} \elconf{O} will give you
This will be a very useful feature when you are writing chemistry or atomic physics texts. Of course you can change the way the shells look. \setbohr{
shell-options-add = dashed, shell-options-add = red, shell-dist = .75em, nucleus-options-set = {draw=black,fill=orange,opacity=0.5}, electron-options-set = {color=green}, insert-missing} Mercury\bohr{80}{Hg} \elconf{Hg}
The insert-missing option will give you either the correct number of electrons when the element symbol is given, or will give you the element symbol when the number of electrons is given. There are more options to explore in the documentation.
Now let us look at the elements package.
This package provides means for retrieving properties of chemical elements like atomic number, element symbol, element name, electron distribution or isotope number.
The package provides atomic number, symbol, name, main isotope and electronic configuration for elements upto 118. For example, just using the atomic number 35 I can get \elementname{35} \elementsymbol{35} \elconf{35}
Having the data accessible in the form of number can be very useful especially if you want to generate tables. The table below from the package documentation was generated by iteratively looping atomic number and invoking commands
We generally associate cooking with its product – the edible food it produce. But here I would like to reflect on the process of cooking. For me, personally, cooking is a stress relieving exercise. The final product is one of the components not the only one. What makes great food great is not only the product, but the process – how well the cook has balanced the flavours, the textures and aromas. And this is something that the cook savours. For a good cook the best satisfaction comes from the orgasmic faces that eating the food brings out….
So let us look at what are various steps in the process.
Deciding what to cook?
This can be a major challenge sometimes, especially when you have abundant ingredients at your disposal. But if you have limited ingredients the kind of food that you can cook is obviously limited. You cannot make a chicken-noodle soup if you don’t have chicken and noodles, rest of the ingredients are optional in way. chicken noodle soup
Gathering the ingredients
This I think is one of the feel good parts for me. Getting all the ingredients ready, washing and cleaning them. This also creates a sense of what will be the output. One can visualise the metamorphosis of the raw elements to something well cooked – how their colour, flavour and texture will change during the cooking. When you look at cooking as a process, a lot of imagination has to be therein you as a cook
The Spices and flavours
The natural flavours in the food are sometimes too bland or we need to temper them to suit our palate. Different cuisines uses different spices and herbs to make the food relishable. Lot of powders or different spices are used, while in some cases whole spices are used. The ginger garlic paste is another basic ingredient in many cuisines. And finally salt. Almost no dishes are made without salt. Put too little or none it becomes bland or tasteless, put a bit too much and it becomes salty!
The plate below has onion cut very finely, coriander cut, ginger garlic thick paste, black pepper powder, salt, paprika, chilly powder, coriander powder, and cumin powder. spice set
The garam masala is another quintessential routine for much of indian cooking.You can make one yourself easily. garam masala
Pepper and chillies of various kinds are used to add fire to the food. Choose yours wisely. chillies
Fresh or dried herbs are a also used to give the required zest. Basil is the best! basil
The Cutting Board
I prefer wooden cutting board. It is easy on the knives and it feels good to cut on it.
Mincing an onion in little pieces with a knofe which obeys and performs with movement of your hands is one of best experiences. onion and garlic cut
Though onion can be cut in several ways, depending on what you are trying to make it taste like… red onion cut
A baby cabbage is one of the most wonderful things to cut. To see the internal structure of the cabbage and you know it is going to be a nice dish.. cabbage cut
Halving mushrooms or slicing them is therapeutic in itself. You feel victorious after halving a packet of them. You feel something has been achieved for the day. mushroom cut
cut carrot onion and sun dried tomatoes
The cutting tools – the knives – are a separate topic in themselves and deserve their own separate post.. But as they say a good chef will not trade the knives with (think of something which rhymes with knives)…
Setting the stage
Once the ingredients are ready, cleaned and cut, our next step begins. This is the preparation for. the final act of cooking itself. It may be mixing things, marinating them or mashing them up. preparation of chicken marination
marinating chicken with curd and spices
putting the chicken on the spikes and put on fire test
and see the marinated raw chicken metamorphise to chicken malai kabab
The Cooking Medium
Each dish has to be cooked in the media it is meant to be cooked with. Depending on the cuisine it can be groundnut oil, coconut oil, mustard oil, butter, olive oil, sesame oil, ghee or lard. Each medium will give its unique flavour and aroma to the food. And some dishes don’t taste the same or even taste awful when not cooked in the preferred media.
When you add the masala to the medium, the way it releases its colours and aromas is something that I admire. The aroma of onions getting cooked in pure ghee… yum.. ir garlic getting cooked in olive oil…
The Cooking Vessel
Over last couple of years I have been introduced to cast iron vessels for cooking and I am not going back. I have already planned not to purchase any non-stick ones in the future. It is cast iron all the way now. cast iron dutch oven cooking onion
chicken cooking in a cast iron dutch oven on a braai
The Order of Things
When the medium is hot enough you start to add things. In the order, sometimes you change the ordery you get good result, or it is a fiasco. I think new dishes were discovered in this way. When you go outside the cookbook and try something new, many times it might be a failure, but at times you will be rewarded with great new dishes.
For example, you would want to make the flour ready for making roties or bread before you want to make them, flour for making breads vegetable roast in the oven – do we add herbs and spices first or later? vegetable roast in the over – do we add herbs and spices first or later?
The Aromas
You know you have a great dish incoming when the dish starts to release its aroma. You might now smell it if you are too close to a dish while cooking, go to a different room and come abck you will know its a good dish cooking. A good aroma also creates a sense of mystery and longing for the dish, it stirs up appetites. aroma from a chicken curry
Unfortunately our science of smell is not that well developed so I cannot make you experience the aromas – but use your imagination..
The Colours and texture
The colours in the food make it attractive. A dull coloured food will be not that attractive. That is reason we find salads so much attractive! colourful salad – with texture and taste colourful salad – with texture and taste colourful salad – with texture and taste and hummus tomato onion uttappa looks refreshing so does two egg omelette!
The Presentation
As we approach the final stages of cooking the presentation of the food is the final frontier. No matter how well you have cooked it, if the food is not presented well, well it loses it’s charm, though it might be still edible.. biryani with raita and salad assorted sauteed vegetables hummus, pita bread, couscous salad, pickles couscous vegetable salad ghee rice with dry fruits and caramelized onions pork pandi curry aka coorg pork with naan and curd salad (raita) boiled eggs with paprika and fresh coriander
The Taste
The real satisfaction to a cook comes from the pleasure that other find in eating the food that has been cooked. It pays of all the effort that was put in process, while the product is something akin to the metaphorical tip of the iceberg..
It is always joyful to cook for others than cooking alone for yourself. It helps you relax as you order the seemingly raw ingredients into a masterful recipe full of flavour, aroma and texture. Rightfully done cooking is the most therapeutic exercise for your troubled soul. It is perhaps this reason that mothers while cooking the food want you to eat more and more…