Author: Ajmal

passionate soulful prowess

Posted on by Ajmal

Recently I’ve have been grazing through the videos by Chinese blogger Li Ziqi, who became an internet sensation after her videos on handicrafts, traditional cooking, and DIY from the countryside of Mianyang in southwest China’s Sichuan Province grew in popularity and caught netizen’s attention worldwide. What attracted my attention is the inherent calmness and the passionate composure with which each theme is made. It is in stark contrast with the heavily commercialized video bombardments, often largely obliquely spurious that we see on every video platform. Each video I’ve seen so far is so genuine and brilliantly captured. From what I’ve read in magazines, Li lives with her grandmother in a Chinese rural province. Orphaned at a very young age, she moved to city to work. After her grandfather’s death, she returned to the village to take care of her grandmother who fell ill. All her food and handicraft videos are often crafted from scratch and are prepared using authentic basic ingredients and tools making the best use of Chinese traditional techniques.

She initially started posting videos on Mepai, which is a very famous social platform in China and garnered great attention. In 2017, she started posting videos on Youtube which grew in popularity ever since. Her grandfather was a cook in the village. She learned how to grow vegetables, fish, carpenter handiworks, traditional dishes, and bamboo crafts. The well-made videos with its passion and subtle nuances give a wonderful experience of Chinese traditions and culture and her positive spirit on self-reliance sent by her life expertise has attracted warm international reception.

Her videos are unfeigned, lucid and basics from scratch and mostly don’t use any sort of modern technology or even electricity in most cases. She does everything on her own from cutting goat and rabbit fur for the brush hairs to chopping small trees to make paper. In one of the videos that I saw, she built a coffee table and two sofas using bamboo in its entirety using carpentry skills inspired by her grandfather. In some other videos, lip colors are prepared from fresh flower petals and honey. You’d be amazed by how she delves to the roots. The honey shown is not from a supermarket, but from a beehive in the village. She prepares her own deserts, sweet potato jelly, and pancakes from the sweet farm potatoes which she harvested on her own. A lot of traditional ways of preparations are shown.

The authenticity and fervent equanimity keep these visuals apart from the rest of the crowd and has truly impressed me. As we touched upon in our note on compassionate prudence, true magic ensues when people put in their signature on every single thing they do and when everything is done with love. Stories like this truly inspire!. God bless!

change | influence | build

Here are a few.

a piece of happiness

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Thank you Molten Chocolate Cafe for crafting this elegant piece of happiness!
Here we kick off Ep 1 of our new series – ‘Culinary Experiences’ for journaling some of the best ambrosial culinary experiences, be it the finest cordon bleu delights of a master chef or a cheesy experimental simmer at our little kitchen, we are trying to scribe it here.





Molten Chocolate Cafe is an elegant dessert eatery situated at the heart of Al Majaz Waterfront in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. We visited it on a fine winter evening and boy it was true happiness experience as they say it. They have a plethora of good European confectionaries. They’re born to satisfy your tiniest sweet tooth through their delectable and rich indulgences.  Their culinary dessert assortments range from French crepes to Belgian pastries and waffles tailored to cure the cravings for all things chocolate, a cocoa experience that anyone with the tiniest sweet tooth would remember! We tried Cheetos Chicken which has Focaccia bread, red cabbage slaw, crispy chicken, sriracha sauce and Cheetos crumbs. The dessert we savoured is their molten lava cake which is their signature chocolate cake dusted with icing snow, topped with a scoop of ice cream with a slice of strawberry.

Location

interpretive

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A photograph of a world traveler that I took on a visit to Princess Islands in Istanbul. Remembering the words of Eliott Erwitt that “Color is descriptive. Black and white is interpretive.” She was delightfully surprised at the seagull glancing at her through the ferry window. The year is 2014.

“ Perhaps I am old-fashioned, but black and white films still hold an affectionate place in my heart; they have an incomparable mystique and mood.”

― Ginger Rogers

Ponder Series | Visual Narrative

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Made a small visual narrative for Ponder Series.  In the commencement post, I had written:

Often in the rush of our routines, we fail to appreciate certain hidden subtleties and nuances of living in this universe, which we can only admire if we consciously make an effort to think deeply with profundity.

Some of the chapters from the Ponder Series include :

> Reflecting on Shadows
> Stumble over Pebbles
> Ethereal Quality | Petals
> Golden Ratio
> Vision – Pondering on the intricacies
> Ruminating on Bird Nests
> Living Embellishments
> Pondering on Birds 
> Perceptions

Ruminating on Bird Nests

Posted on by Ajmal

This is a photograph of a nest that I captured from Al Ain Oasis in Jan 2019.

Although we don’t find a bird nest so often, that’s something to reflect very deeply. If we delve in deep and ponder over the intricate aspects of a bird building a nest, that’s truly miraculous and inquisitive. It’s truly astonishing and thought-provoking to see a bird carefully and meticulously engineering its nest like a masterful civil engineer. I thought of sharing some interesting aspects on bird nest construction that I’ve read some time back and trust this would be an opportunity for both of us to ponder and reflect on this wonder around us. Welcome to the Ponder Series.

Nests are usually designed by birds for camouflaging their defenseless offspring chicks from prey. Hatched newborn birds are often immobile and are hatched without any feathers and a well-built nest would cater as smart thermal insulation for them from cold. Grasses, twigs, and yarns are used to construct them and a few birds even choose hair and fine grass within the nest to produce far more comfort and softness and additionally aid in providing extra insulation. Several species of birds use differing kinds of materials in building their nest.  Mud, leaves, feathers,  are the base materials typically opted for. They’re illustrious to be naturally sturdy materials. They’re additionally inherently elastic and are tough at the same time. Some birds go a step ahead and even make use of plant fibers in a mixed-use with mud. This arrangement prevents any cracks from developing. Mud is usually employed by birds as a structural adhesive to connect totally different components along. Firstly, the best location for building is identified and as a primary step, they’d gather mud and feathers and they’re typically transported via their beaks. Certain birds combine their spittle with mud and at first prepare a base portion that is sort of a hub and that they can house with grass, moss, and feathers. They normally prefer overhanging locations to forestall rain or water from accumulating and inflicting any potential damage.

Some birds sew totally different elements by utilizing their beaks as sort of a stitching needle. Some species like tailor birds commission structures using silk from cobwebs, cotton from seeds and fibers of tree bark. By making use of their sharp beaks, they punch holes on leaf edges and spider silk or plant fibre is seamed through these holes and knots are tied in every sew to forestall slippage. Once this base is available, grass is embedded into the inner chambers. Another inner nest is weaved and eggs are usually hatched in this inner nest. Isn’t that amazing?

” The human bird shall take his first flight, filling the world with amazement, all writings with his fame, and bringing eternal glory to the nest whence he sprang.”

   –  Leonardo da Vinci


Think about these wonderful creatures and how do they accomplish all these miraculous constructions and acts of purpose. Hope next time when you glance at a bird, you’ll be having an entirely different perspective. Pondering, thinking and reflecting on everything around us helps unravel the subtle depths of the Divine.

” Glory be to You, O One whom flying insects glorify with Your praise with their chants of thanksgiving. Birds and their chicks glorfy in the nests with their songs of gratitude, through the tongue of the order and balance in their creation and movements, and of their designs and adornment. They proclaim Your favors on them and thereby manifest their gratitude when tasting the fruits of Your kindness and being fed with the works of Your mercy. “

        – Seedbed of the Light by Said Nursi.

More to explore from the Ponder Series :

> Reflecting on Shadows
> Stumble over Pebbles
> Ethereal Quality | Petals
> Golden Ratio
> Vision – Pondering on the intricacies
> Living Embellishments
> Pondering on Birds 
> Perceptions

Resilio Sync – Best File Sharing Solution

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I’ve been thinking of starting a new section wherein I can share some of the productive software tools that have been of tremendous use for me over the past few years. The software review section would cover these articles.

Be it any profession or activity we do, each one of us would have definitely come across situations wherein we need to share large volumes of files (large quantities and large sizes of files) with our friends or co-workers. Often this can become a hassle and a troublesome process, especially if you and your friend/coworker work together on a similar project or assignment and both of you put up with or exchange several files back and forth in the same folder.  The hard and painful way would be to use a USB flash drive to exchange files back and forth. Other people opt for cloud-based file-sharing services like Dropbox or Box. For large scale work, using these cloud services could be a problem as these cloud-based file-sharing services do have storage limits and they often have a cap on the file sizes being shared. For instance, it’ll be a trouble to go ahead and share a file of size 5 Gb as an example. One solution that I’ve been using for the past several years is a product called Resilio Sync. It’s free for personal use and they have a paid version for professional use. This software uses peer-to-peer technology in a very effective way.

I shall demonstrate a scenario at home or work which almost all of us can relate to.
Let’s say Person A and Person B collaborate together on a project. They’re basically looking to have a common shared folder on each of their computers and if Person A puts a file into the folder, Person B should also get it. And any changes made by any person need to be synced with the other person as well. And this sharing process should have no limits in terms of the number of files being synced or the size of the file being shared. Now, here’s where Resilio Sync can be of immense use for you!

First, Person A and Person B each have to download and install Resilio Sync. It’s a nifty little app that sits in your system tray. It’s available for Mac and PC as well. Person A can create a folder in his / her computer and add that folder to the Resilio Main Window. Once it’s added, on right-clicking that folder, Person A would get an encrypted sharing key. It’s a mix of letters and numbers. Person A has to send this to Person B. On the other side, Person B, after installing Resilio has to add this key to the main window and select a folder to be assigned to it. That’s all.

Now, Person A and Person B have corresponding folders in each of their computers that sync with each other. There is no limitation on the size of the file or the number of files that can be synced.

This program has been of good use for me for the past several years and I thought of sharing it here may that it might be of some use for all of you in some way or the other.

choosing the circus | fine art

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“Don’t blame a clown for acting like a clown.
Ask yourself why you keep going to the circus.”

Going through a very interesting phase of reevaluation of expectations & realignment of actions. This piece of digital art is to artistically commemorate it : )

Planted Aquariums – Making them last!

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Maintaining a planted aquarium would require care and attention that can be fueled by your passion to keep it going and a solid understanding on the different components and aspects that we need to be aware to use them wisely. We’ve a tank running from November’2019 and I shall share some details that I learned purely by my experience of curating them. I shall also put in some details of products tried and found to work well. Instead of making this a long format post, let’s make it short and simple.

For planted aquariums, if we take care of the below aspects, we’d find it lasting and healthy.

  • Ample light – It’s very important that the aqua plants get enough light to live on. A very important aspect that might be unfamiliar with newbies would be on the amount of light to be used in the aquarium. Having the right balance of light exposure is paramount. Based on my research online and watching several videos of aquarium curation, 8 hours of consistent light is the golden number that seems to strike the balance. If we go below 8 hours, the plants wouldn’t have sufficient light for their photosynthetic activities and they won’t stay longer. On the other hand, if we put in excess light beyond 8 hours, that’d lead to excess algae growth which eventually can deteriorate the quality of the tank. Hence, the balance of 8 hours is very important in my experience handling them. I use a Wifi plug timed with Amazon Alexa for lighting up from 5 PM to 1 AM so that we can avoid the hassle of switching on and off on a timely basis.
  • Water Quality / Dechlorination – This is something very obvious. Aquascaped plants and fauna would require good quality water to flourish. If you are lucky to be in a village area with good water quality, especially from a well, then there is no need to go for any dechlorination or denitration activities. On the other hand, if you’re living in a city and getting municipal water lines, there’s a good chance that there’s good chlorine content in the water and unless it’s not your permanent place of stay, it’s a complicated process to have sort of a dechlorination set up ( a mini plant). For most of us, this might be impractical. The best solution is to use commonly available dechlorinating chemicals in the market. The ratio of usage would be specified in the pack and depending on the volume of the tank, it can be used. These chemicals remove chlorines and chloramines and can also aid detoxifying ammonium. (Product I’ve tried – SERA Chlor-ex)
  • Carbon dioxide Supply – If you’ve aquatic plants, having a robust supply of carbon dioxide is as important as ensuring good water quality. For good plant growth, carbon dioxide is an essential component.  Carbon dioxide in its purest form is a gas, but like oxygen, it can be readily dissolved in water. Just like how a tree or grass in the garden would do, aquatic plants would require dissolved carbon dioxide to photosynthesize. There’re several ways to provide dissolved carbon dioxide to the aquairum. For larger tanks, this is done with a CO2 cylinder and a slow diffuser (something like this).  Using a C02 cylinder can turn out to be expensive. So, if you have a smaller tank like mine, an alternative cost-effective solution would be to use CO2 tablets. The quantity to be used would be in the packaging. For my smaller tank, I generally pop in half a tablet per week. Similar quantities could be tried and you can see the results. I try not to put in excess tablets as it’s important to note that Co2 can cause pH level swings in the tank. We need to note that carbon dioxide, when dissolved in water, is pushing the pH towards the acidic side. Excess built up of CO2 added to the tank can cause the pH level to drop rapidly and can cause damage to the aquatic elements in the tank.
  • Plant Nutrient Supply – This is another important aspect. Regardless of our assurance on good quality water and ample carbon dioxide supply in the tank, essentials nutrients and liquid fertilizing are required for ensuring good growth of aquatic plants. They’ve all the necessary minerals and trace elements. I’ve tried certain products from SERA (Florena) that seem to work well in my experience of using them.
  • Food for fish – Food fish is normally available in variants of granules or flakes. Depending on the fish types you have, the type of food can be selected. I have a small tank with some Neon Tetras and Half Moon Bettas and I feed them granules and it happens to work well for them. It’s very important to take care of not feeding the fishes excessively. Not only is it harmful to the fish but at the same time, it can lead to some excess debris in the tank that could lead to other detrimental growths that we don’t need in the tank.
  • Snails in the tank – Snails, again like other things are to be used in a balance. Snails can be a good inhabitant in an aquarium as they are natural vacuum cleaners and can be used as effective tank cleaners. They are potential algae eaters and can free the tank from uneaten food, dead plant matter, and other debris. But they can spread rapidly as well and kind of do the opposite effect and it might be difficult to control them and can end up as straight-up pests. Hence, they’re to be monitored closely and a balance has to be struck.
  • Taking control of Algae growth – Every planted aquarium hobbyist or enthusiast would have to face algae menace in their tanks at some point or the other. When I started up, I didn’t have any clue on certain growths at some portions of the tank and it took some research to understand that they’re basically different types of algae. If you search on it, there’re different types of algae like brown algae, white algae, etc. I would recommend to google the type of growth you notice and you’ll find Youtube videos on effective methods of removing them. When I clean the tank, I closely examine the wooden portions and plant stems for any algae growth and I try my best to scrape them off. Trust me, algae, if not brought in control, can completely jeopardize your planted tank dreams.
  • Setting a routine and order in cleaning & maintaining – We need to spare half an hour every week to clean, curate and maintain the tank. I recommend around 25-40% water change every week with proper dechlorination and other treatments. CO2 charging need to be done regularly once in a week in a consistent manner. While cleaning, take extra care to scrape any algae growth from wooden or rocky elements in the fish tank.

Below, I’m sharing the details of the products that I’ve tried. This is sort of like a kit or suite of items that I use regularly on a weekly basis. Hope I could help with some information and basic guideline on curating a healthy tank. Happy Aquascaping!

Some resources of interest that have inspired me with aquascaping are linked below:
– MD Fish Tanks (I had sent a personal message to MD thanking him for his videos)
– Aquarium Co-Op
– Planted Aquarium Tutorial by Botanical Woman.

Reflecting on Shadows

Posted on by Ajmal

If you remember, we started the ponder series by a small post about perceptions. Today, we’re thinking about something very subtle that we don’t think about much – shadows. For our new readers who aren’t familiar with this series, Ponder Series is an initiative from The Border of a Mind Studios in exploring and pondering on those miraculous themes all around us to which we shut our eyes and thoughts to in the daily life gallops.

A shadow is technically a region of darkness that forms on a surface when an object is between a light source and the surface. The shape of the shadow resembles the periphery and outline of the object casting the shadow. For example, when we shine a torch on a wooden box sitting near a wall, the wooden box outline would be the shadow cast on the wall. Although this looks pretty straightforward, the size of the shadow is depended on several factors. The primary thing is the distance of the object from the light source. When the object is closer to the light source, it casts a larger shadow. When the object is closer to the light source, the shadow is of a smaller size. Also, inclinations also have an influence on the outer periphery of an object cast as a shadow. When we see something in front of us, what we’re seeing a visual representation of it at the visual center at the back of our brains. We’re not seeing the “original” of what is in front of us, but a copy at the back of the brains. Imagine a view of a busy street with people walking and cars on the way. This “image” is seen at the back of our brains. Brain researchers working on the subject have found out that if a person resting in a lab is fed with these “signals” of a street, they’d feel that they’re in the street when actually they’re not. The image in the visual centre at the back of our brains is so perfectly rendered in all its 3-dimensional feel and layering such that we mistake it for the original without thinking that it’s only a copy that exists in our minds. Among the several factors that make this so convincing like distance, light, depth and colors, one important aspect in making this visual experience so real is shadows and shades. Artists, painters, and craftsmen use shadows as a tool to give a sense of depth and realism to a work of art by traversing avenues of shades and perspectives. If we look at the world around us, the shadows are intertwined so miraculously around us forming the visual experience we savour and we don’t even notice it as it’s so entwined in our vision. I truly believe that’s the masterful craftsmanship of the Almighty.

“Feeling at peace, however fragilely, made it easy to slip into the visionary end of the dark-sight. The rose shadows said that they loved the sun, but that they also loved the dark, where their roots grew through the lightless mystery of the earth. The roses said: You do not have to choose. ”

― Robin McKinley, Sunshine