Coffee Culture -- country Culture 10-30

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Coffee is more than just a drink,

Let us see how it can be used as a deodorant, fertilizer or to remove the odor of Garlic


Coffee Culture - Country Culture

( The article , still in making last part)

This is the final part of the making process of the article. this deals with how coffee ground (coffee powder) can used as a deodorant, fertilizer, as a filler for fixing scratches in furniture, for removing the smell of garlic from the hands and many other ways the grounds can be used. 


Please read on to know how coffee grounds can be used in the day to day life. Of course the actual effect of the coffee ground depends on the intensity of the coffee. More intense the coffee, more the action. Most of the African brands are intense, Indian brands are intense. European brands are less intense. If you are in North America, Europe or Caribbean countries, you have roast levels on the packet.  You can select the dark roast for better results. Some brands have the flavour of fruits, which kill the original aroma of coffee and may be less effective in some cases.

Sweeten Smelly Hands

Keep a small cup of coffee grounds near your sink, and use them to scrub your hands after you’ve worked with garlic, onions, fish, or other smelly items. The grounds will absorb the odor and also help exfoliate the skin.

Fix Scratches

Use coffee grounds to minimize scratches and scuffs on dark wood furniture. Start by placing some damp coffee grounds on the scratch, then work them in with a cotton swab. Let the grounds sit for 5 to 10 minutes, then buff with a clean soft cloth. You may need several applications, depending on the darkness of the finish. You can also rub coffee grounds on light wood furniture to create a weathered or antique appearance.

Dye It!

The tannins in coffee grounds make them effective for dyeing Easter eggs, fabric, or paper. Mix grounds with a little bit of water to create a slurry, and then dip the objects to be dyed into the mix. The longer you leave an item in the mixture, the darker the shade of brown you'll obtain. To create a streaky, antiqued look, rub the grounds into the fabric or paper.

Natural Deodorizer

Use dried coffee grounds as a natural deodorizer for the refrigerator, freezer, closets, or car. Dry a batch of coffee grounds, and then place them in an open container to absorb odors in the fridge or freezer. For closets and cars, place dried grounds in a piece of cheesecloth or a section of old pantyhose; tie off the ends and then hang.

Fertilize Flowers

Coffee grounds are acidic and therefore can be a great natural fertilizer for roses, azaleas, evergreens, rhododendrons, blueberry bushes, camellias, and hydrangeas. Adding coffee grounds to the soil around hydrangeas can produce vibrant blue blossoms, because the extra acidity helps the flowers absorb aluminum, leading to a deep blue hue.

Attract Worms

Everyone knows that worms are great for the lawn and garden, but what you may not know is that worms are attracted to coffee grounds. The grounds are gritty, and worms need that grit to aid in their digestive process. And if you are using worms as fishing bait, mixing coffee grounds into the soil in the bait box will help keep the worms fresh and wriggling all day long.

Your Compost Pile

Coffee grounds are chock-full of nitrogen, which helps speed decomposition by feeding the microorganisms that break down the biological material in the bin. Coffee grounds also contain other trace nutrients, including potassium and magnesium. Just pour in the grounds, mix, and walk away.

Repel Slugs and Snails

The same gritty texture that attracts worms to coffee grounds acts as a natural repellent to slugs, snails, ants, and other creepy-crawly bugs that can’t stand the acidity of coffee. Sprinkling coffee grounds on the soil around sensitive plants or mounding up a ring of coffee grounds a few inches out from the base of those plants will keep these pests away.

Scat, Cat!

You may love the neighborhood kitties, but it's kind of gross when they use your garden as a litter box. Sprinkle some coffee grounds around your flower and vegetable garden beds to encourage cats to go somewhere else. You also can place coffee grounds around your indoor houseplants to deter kitty from snacking on the leaves.

Freshen the Fireplace

Before you clean out your fireplace, sprinkle the ashes with damp coffee grounds to minimize flyaway dust and debris. When cleaning the hearth at the end of the season, sprinkle a layer of dried coffee grounds along the back and sides and leave them there to eliminate any leftover smoke odors.

26-12-2015
Every coffee has a tale to tell !!!!!
(Coffee Culture - Country Culture the article still in making)

Every coffee has a tale to tell !!!!!

You just need to ask …….

I asked and here is what it has to say…..

A Telltale from coffee……

Coffee Culture Country Culture

( The article still in making ) 

When I published the first post in the making process in October 2015, I received a surprisingly large inquisitive audience. The first post dealt about the Bambawallahs in Tamil Nadu and the five feet coffee. I  am grateful to people who appreciated my intention to work on this subject. fortunately no one thought I was wasting time, mine and theirs.

After that I ventured into the coffee cultures across the countries and the Continents. Being in Canada facilitated my access to the tastes and flavours of various countries.

The noting I have made, the data I have collected will evolve into the article that I will publish in March 2016 after returning to India.

I can however share some interesting titbits here…

We have heard the scooters and the cars being sold over a cup of coffee. But have you heard the scooter brand being used to sell coffee. 

No...

Here is an example...

In Italy where the brand “Vespa” is a National pride, a coffee brand is using the image of a scooter on coffee pack to sell their coffee. The “Vespa” helps people to identify it as a distinctly Italian brand. It stands out among the brands from various countries. Just like “Taj Mahal” brand identifies the tea with India.

Zavida the responsible coffee growers. Responsible towards Environment and sustainability.

Next brand is Zavida the environment conscious organization from Canada. This organization promotes organic cultivation. 

Please hear what they have to say.

"Celebrating 7 Years, this is the original 100% Rainforest Alliance Certified™ Organic Arabica coffee blend exclusively from Zavida. All natural, great tasting organic coffee promoting environmental sustainability, social responsibility and worker care. Considered a "coffee for the professional", this coffee is rich, well rounded, with subtle aftertones and a nice clean finish... Delightful! "

Some of its certifications

	CERTIFIED ORGANIC BY QAI. Organic coffee is grown without the use of non-organic synthetic pesticides, herbicides or chemical fertilizers on special isolated farms committed to using sustainable agriculture techniques.
	THE RAINFOREST ALLIANCE CERTIFIED™ seal ensures the coffee comes from farms where forests, rivers, soils, and wildlife are protected; workers are treated with respect, paid decent wages, properly equipped, and their children are given access to education and medical care.
	CARBON NEUTRAL CERTIFIED BY TREES FOR THE FUTURE™ we plant enough trees in the developing world to offset all of our carbon emissions on an annual basis. Over 150,000 trees planted

Another brand uses the Komodo Dragon (Huge Lizard) as a brand ambassador for marketing its coffee. While people can easily relate the coffee to its origin in Indonesia, people who actually see the picture or video of the animal will not drink coffee of any make. The animal is so repulsive in look, you wouldn’t feel like eating anything for a few days. It is so huge that it hunts and kills animals and mammals.

Video of  Komodo Dragon in action.

But it still makes Indonesians proud and is displayed on its coffee product. Similarly an Elephant features on a Kenya Coffee.

There are many other brands with very distinctive brand ambassadors with that relate to the country culture.

Finally does the coffee reflect a country's culture??

Yes it does and you will also agree after reading the article.

There will be many such facts events and history related to coffee from various countries in this article.

Please read the article in March and share your insights with me.

Best wishes,

Shyam

30th October 2016

Coffee Culture - Country Culture

The making of the article

Can we evaluate a country's culture by its coffee culture ???

Can a discussion over a cup of coffee make the entrepreneurs more inclusive? or can coffee make people more forthcoming and participative, when working on inclusive projects. 

Can coffee really help the change agents or Can coffee itself be a change agent??

Crazy thoughts occurred in mind and I started the research, tasting the coffee from different countries and getting inputs from people from the time I landed in Canada and this will continue till Feb. 2016. My article will hopefully be published in March 2016.

We cannot diminish the value of coffee. 

We already know that more problems have been resolved over coffee than by gun. 

Java program would not have been created, but for the continuous intake  of the brazialian coffee by James gosling. or at least it would not have been this fascinating without the coffee component. We have to ask Vinod Khosla as to how much he paid towards their coffee bills. 

While working on that, my thoughts naturally went to India its coffee culture.

In my childhood (in Nagpur Maharashtra),we had the people raving about the filter coffee being served in South Indian hotels.

People returning from South India tour, used to speak about the tasty coffee and the Bambawallahs serving the coffee (Bamba is a colloquial term used for the copper boilers used by them.) They also used to talk about the coffee in terms of length 4 feet,5 feet coffee. We also had some Punjabis wondering as to why this coffee was not served in Patiala quantities (large glasses like Lassi.) This was in 50s and 60s when not much was known about South India in that part of the country and we were all bundled under a name Madrasi (From Hyderabad to Kanya Kumari).

I wonder why this important aspect of India (5 ft coffee) is not covered when they promote Indian culture. When you talk so eloquently about the Dabbawallahs, why not the Bambawallahs.

People may ask, how about the countries that don't have coffee culture?

Can we evaluate them by their whisky culture ? May be yes, but since whisky is an uncharted territory for me, I will stick to countries with coffee culture.

In case you have any inputs on this topic, please do email it to me at cbdsee@gmail.com . Any input small or big will be useful and valuable for me.

Thanks and please read my article in March 2016

Best Wishes,

Shyam

Champions of Change Management... The lighter side of Change Management 08-23

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Added on 19-10-2018

Change Management is a topic that is taught to the students of MBA, Engineering and other graduation courses. Students learn with interest Change Management only to forget it immediately after the completion of their course.

Demonetisation in India taught the Indians a totally different kind of change management. Rs.2,000 denomination notes were introduced, but you couldn't use the note unless you purchased something worth that amount. New Rs. 500 notes had not been introduced and Rs. 100 notes had gone scarce. Two years later, although India has recovered from the trauma, indelible scars are still visible.

However, this article is not about Demonetisation, and was written much earlier. It is about a different kind of Change Management. Now the article...

There are some champions of Change Management who not only learn change management through their profession, but implement it throughout their life time. And surprisingly they are neither students nor the management professionals.They are not  even entrepreneurs.

I interviewed the following people (just imagination) and lo!!! I was pleasantly surprised by the quality and quantity of the output.

Bus Conductor / Operator

A Housewife

A Beggar

Let us conduct an imaginary interview with them and find out from them their expert view on change management. Let us imagine what each one of them say about change management. 

We start with the Bus Conductor....

Bus conductor

"Oh yes, Change Management is a great art which you master it with experience." 

"There are lot of factors involved in it. You need to be very careful and balance every step.

You should master the art of correct balance between taking and giving change. If you give too much of the change too liberally and too frequently, you are not left with any no change when you have to give change to the genuine passengers.

Yes there are genuine passengers and not so genuine passengers, who would have change but pretend that they don't have it. You need to distinguish and discern between the two. These things of course come with experience. Change Management as I told you is a tough challenge for us. That is why even Mahatma Gandhi stressed the importance of change when he said.." 

"KEEP THE CHANGE YOU EXPECT FROM OTHERS."

I was shocked. I never thought Mahatma Gandhi could be so grossly misinterpreted. We have often seen politicians doing it, but a bus conducter, well! it was unimaginable.. He however he was happy,that he had presented himself as an intelligent being. Few other conducters who had gathered around us and were listening to our conversation nodded their head in appreciation.


"But you also have problems when you don't give the change to the commuters. Your bag becomes heavy and messy and the biggest problem is, when you deposit the cash at the office, the staff wouldn't take change, they insist on larger denomination currency."

"So as I said, Change Management is a delicate art and you learn it by experience." he concluded.

I thought that it was much more than what I could take, so I thanked him and excused myself.

Next we move to the most important net-worker between the religions and the great evaluator of the changes in the society "The Beggar"

The Beggar 

I went to a place of worship and selected a senior graying begging professional and told the purpose the of my visit. He not only understood Change Management, but also agreed to share his perspective on the subject.

Let us hear him.

"Change Management is an important aspect of our profession. We are the champions of Change Management. We can monitor and evaluate the change in the society better than what anyone else can do and we can also advice on the ways to channelize this  positive change for the betterment and upliftment of the society.  " 

"Can you please enlighten me on that" I asked with a pretended humility.

"Yes why not" he said and added "You know that I am a senior begging professional, my charges will be higher for this management information, can you afford it?" “Yes" I said and settled the price.

He started in a very calm and confident manner with a saintly expression.

We have found a very positive change in society, more specifically in the youth in the recent times. Since our professional work takes us to the places of worship of all religions, we keenly observe the changes in thinking and the attitude of the people of different religions. Among men, among women and among the youth."

"From the amount and type of collection, we can even tell about the profession of the youth coming to religious place."

 "We now get fifty and hundred rupee notes in our bowl. This shows that more of youth are coming to the temple. And recently we are getting more of larger denomination currency like 100 & 500 Rupee note. This indicates that more and more of software professionals are visiting places of worship. Previously we only had retired people visiting us and we had only coins of one two and five. After that middle aged employees  started coming and we started getting notes of ten and twenty rupee notes. 

With this influx of youth, the value for the begging profession has increased. Educated unemployed youth are taking to this profession, because the monetary returns are as good as the one s in software industry and of course no pink slip. We are now auctioning the begging spots and new entrants are more than willing to pay a higher price. 

We also conduct free orientation in begging technology for the new entrants. 

About the Change Management

Now the youth seems to be getting more and more interested in religion and this change has to be managed positively by the elders and religious preachers in the society.

"How can you say that so confidently" I asked eager to hear more from him.

"Previously this young men and women used to discuss Boy/Girl friends, but now they are discussing the values in life, honesty in public life and about technology and management. The same people are sometimes seen at the worship places of different religions. this shows they are trying to understand the values in other religions and develop tolerence for all the religions.

"I feel when these people grow up and administer the country; they will give clean and principled governance without any communal hatred."  We can see the emergence of real "Incredible India" when people run the country."

"How do you think would the elders would react to the resurgence in thought process in youth" I asked inquisitively.

He said " They will have to give in to the change and be a part of the stream." 

"There is  still lot more to discuss about change management, but my peek business time is approaching. Can you please come sometime next week with prior appointment; I will give two hours time. 

I said “OK”, paid him more than the agreed amount and left a happy and satisfied man. Now I know where to go, if you want to know about the changes taking place in the society.

I next searched for a housewife, and found a middle aged lady standing outside the house and gossiping with the neighbor. I explained her everything and she readily agreed to contribute.

Let us hear her... 

 A Housewife

“Yes it is tough. The way we housewives manage it, I don't think any other human species can do it. (Only Human Beings are into it, isn't it ? she asked not all that innocently, I was stumped, but still managed to say sheepishly "Yeah I think so, but I haven't evaluated this art in other species, hence I cannot authoritatively speak on this subject."

"How do you go about it?" I said taking the conversation further...

"It is vast subject, and it will take some time for you to understand"  she said and added     " why not we sit inside the house and discuss this over a cup of tea."

The lure of tea was so tempting that I did not notice the bait hidden behind it. And yes I fell for it.

We sat inside comfortably on sofa. She brought two cups and a big flask full of tea along with some snacks. She started her perspective of change management which consisted how she struggled to change the her in-laws, husband and relatives to her ways and how she succeed. She enumerated with minute details how her own sister drastically failed it this management.

"Then, how did she solve the problem" I asked curiously 

"Oh, she changed the husband," she said nonchalantly. "The new husband is so good that he doesn't need any Change Management." she said showing a lot of relief in her voice.

Three hours passed by the flask was empty, and still she was not through. ...

"There is still a lot to discuss on this subject. Why don't you join me for lunch" she said...

"Bait, a second time" I thought, 

This time I was careful, I excused myself saying that I had an important appointment to keep. I promised her to come next week with prior appointment.

I left the house with a resolve to myself that I will not visit that area for at least a year.

My god !!!!

She has changed my perspective of Change Management, I am lost.

Will someone please explain to me WHAT CHANGE MANAGEMENT IS ACTUALLY ALL ABOUT? And this time I would like a Management Professional to coach me.

Best wishes,

Shyam

Post Script.

This article is a satire with message.

1. I just wanted to say that knowledge can be acquired from anyone and everyone.

2. All the professions need to respected and no profession is less than any other profession.

Please Do not conduct condolence meeting for Dr.A.P.J Abdul Kalam 08-08

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Please do not conduct condolence meeting for Dr.A.P.J Abdul Kalam

"Seeding the Visionary Dream of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam"

Please Do not conduct condolence meeting for Dr.A.P.J Abdul Kalam.Change the name into"Seeding the Visionary Dream of Dr APJ Abdulkalam"

Use the below 10 points oath given to students and youth and also download other oath for all type of professions from www.abdulkalam.com and take the oath whole conducting this functions.

My kind request to all of you is to communicate and share your friends, elders and organisers of such function.

By

V. Ponraj

Oath For Students and Youth

1 I will have a goal and work hard to achieve that goal. I realize that small aim is a crime.

2 I will work with integrity and succeed with integrity.

3 I will be a good member of my family, a good member of the society, a good member of the nation and a good member of the world.

4 I will always try to save or better someone's life, without any discrimination of caste, creed, language religion or state. Wherever I am, a thought will always come to my mind. That is "What can I give?"

5 I will always protect and enhance the dignity of every human life without any bias.

6 I will always remember the importance of time. My motto will be "Let not my winged days, be spent in vain".

7 I will always work for clean planet Earth and clean energy.

8 As a youth of my nation, I will work and work with courage to achieve success in all my tasks and enjoy the success of others.

9 I am as young as my faith and as old as my doubt. Hence, I will light up then, the lamp of faith in my heart.

10 My National Flag flies in my heart and I will bring glory to my nation.

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Responsible Communication, That evokes interest and admiration 08-06

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Communication is presented to people as a great skill. It is not a skill at all. It is inborn, innate character trait.

Even dead bodies communicate.

Rigor Mortis is a process that communicates and confirms the death of a person and the end of chemical and biological processes connected with life. The doctor declares the patient clinically dead. But certain chemical and biological processes continue even after death. With the  Rigor Mortis process, the body communicates the end of its biological existence. You can see it happening, with the stiffening of muscles and the body.

If tomorrow, some self-styled communication expert tells you that, you are a dead body or an inanimate thing if you don't communicate, tell the person that even dead bodies and inanimate things communicate.

Yes, they do…

The deafening silence of the valley, the silent whisper of the breeze, the constant back and forth movement of the sea waves all communicate something or other. The philosophers interact with them, The poets see ideas in their communication for their poetic creation. The artists and the authors weave astory out of their communication.

The great Urdu poet Sahir Ludhyanvi also believed that these beautiful parts of nature also communicated. If you understand Urdu, you will understand his beautiful lyrics.

ये वादियाँ ये फ़िज़ाएं बुला रही हैं तुम्हे

खामोशियों की सदाएं बुला रही हैं तुम्हे

नदी की मस्त अदाएं बुला रही हैं तुम्हे 

खामोशियों की सदाएं बुला रही हैं तुम्हे

Translation: 

These valleys, This breeze is beaconing you.
The voices of silence are calling you.
The vivacious movements  of river are calling you.
The voices of silence are calling you.



Animals also communicate with one of their kind, they also communicate their fear or aggression, or empathy and compassion to other species of Animal kingdom.

Silence is a more effective communicator, than the spoken word. Dignified serene presence often outscores manufactured flamboyance. The syllable of silence is always more effective than the decibel of verbal communication.

An Audio-Video sync while communicating is good, but if your narrative and the actions are not in sync with your natural body language, your actions will be a distraction, and may even take away value from your discourse. And yes, nothing can beat the communications levels achieved when souls gets synched. Of course, it is more of an emotional activity, but your presence must be able to achieve that.

The effectiveness of your presence, depends on the way you are introduced to the audience . You should always write and give your presenter the introduction text, and request him to adhere to it. The prepared text should only speak about the  results & transformations, and as far as possible cut out on adjectives please...  

This does not mean that it is all a path of roses. There are reversals too sometimes. Once in a while, when you communicate and expect to be admired, you find yourself mired instead. This happens mostly because of the circumstances on that particular day and may be due to some factors not going your way. Believe me, this is a temporary lapse and certainly not a case of your communications going rogue. Keep your confidence, next event will be normal as usual. You will come out with flying colours.  

This long preface is just to stress the point that communication is not a skill, that is required to be imparted or learned imbibed. It is an inherent and ingrained character trait in every living being in some way or other. 

All you need to do is just tweak it a little, and customize it to your personal or professional need. And next time when you are attending a communication skills class, just remember that you getting what you already have. Only your already filled glass is getting filled to the brim. It is only an addition, not creation.

The gist of what I have written in this article is that the communication is too specific an attribute to be treated in a generic sense. To effectively and efficiently communicate, we need domain specific skills.

We need domain specific communication experts to impart domain specific skills. Responsible communication skills emanate only out of the underlying domain expertise.
We must evolve ourselves to a stage where the communication skills are re-segmented under technical skills, not just Soft Skills.

Even people aspiring for leadership, need a performance, that speaks, based on robust domain Knowledge.

Here the technical linguistics, work better than the language linguistics, and convey a more impactful message. Even a silent demonstration of work, results in better imbibing of skills by the trainees. This also results in better and more impactful sharing of knowledge and intellect.

I am not against the imparting of communication skills. I want it to be upgraded to technical perquisite for the trainees.

Finally, I do not want the communication skills to be identified with the language proficiency, ability to gesticulate, outwardly visible buoyance, a forced extrovert outlook.

I feel articulation is more important than gesticulation.

Sedate seriousness can deliver better than outwardly visible buoyance.

An introvert need not wear a mask of extrovert behavior to communicate better.

Don’t we have the need to redefine, what actually communication skills are?????

Now with this new found confidence, please read rest of the article.

Responsible Communication, that evokes interest and admiration

There are many areas to look at in communication: a message is communicated through visual, vocal and verbal means. From that, comes the importance of body language, how we present ourselves, and so on. The visual and vocal elements are indeed very important to effective communication, but we will not touch on that here.

Rather, let’s look at why many people experience a challenge in communicating effectively from the verbal aspect:

1. Self-consciousness.

It’s often our own self-consciousness that makes us tongue-tied and awkward. We are so pre-occupied with what intelligent idea to share next, that we can barely concentrate on listening to and understanding the other party.

Then a great truth is that, – to be a good conversationalist, we simply have to be a great listener. We have to be genuinely interested in what the other person has to say, ask the right questions (because we genuinely want to know more) and presto, people will laud us as great communicators!
2. Non-empathy

The other block to good communication is non-empathy. We are sometimes so intent on putting our ideas across that we forget to be sensitive or empathic to the other person. Is the person in a rush, or does he or she have other matters on his or her mind?

A good example is when we want to sell an idea to our boss: is he or she rushing for another meeting? Or perhaps he or she has just got some flak from his or her boss or a customer and is simply in a lousy mood.

3. Lack of clarity

This comes from a lack of clarity in our thoughts as well as our verbal communication. It starts from our thoughts: are we quite clear in our minds what is the message we wish to convey? From there, we move on to effective choice of words. Some people may have a language problem: they may be thinking in their mother language, say Mandarin or Punjabi, and trying to express their ideas in a language they are not comfortable with, say English.

Learn to organize your thoughts. Before making an important presentation, list down the points you want to make in a logical sense. If language is a challenge, then I suggest you write your ideas down in proper sentences and ask a friend to go through for you. I’m not saying you should read from your paper or memorize the “speech” but just writing it down and reading it a few times will help you a great deal in putting your message across.

Many people think as long as they speak fluently, they are good communicators. Not so, as those of you who have had to listen to someone go on and on about themselves, will testify. They may be such eloquent speakers, and even entertaining at times, but there’s only so much we can take in a one-way communication. I’m sure some of you have been in a situation where you just wish you were somewhere else after 20 minutes!

The highest level of communication which I personally would strive for as a communicator is what is known as persuasive communication. This takes place when the person we are communicating with, 1) understands what we want to say, 2) feels what we are feeling and is then 3) motivated to take action on what we have said. Effective communication may stop short at (2); the listener may not necessarily want to do something about what he or she has just heard.

One skill that can help you move from effective to persuasive communication is that of asking questions. This is a powerful skill that once you have mastered it, will indeed help you see immediate results in your daily communication – be it sales, presentation of ideas, talking to your friends or simply getting your child to do what you want.

Best Wishes,

Shyam

Please also read my related articles

Understanding the Vocabulary of Silence

IN CONVERSATION WITH SELF...