3 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake

I tried out this amazing recipe today. This chocolate mug cake was easy to make and very delicious to eat. I loved this recipe because I didn't have to use my gas oven, which either half cooks or burns cakes when I try to cook them properly.  This cake is made in a microwave oven.

Ingredients

4 Tablespoon flour

4 Tablespoons of milk

4 Tablespoons of oil

4 Tablespoons of sugar

2 Tablespoon cocoa

1 egg

3 Teaspoon chocolate chips (optional)

1/2 Teaspoon vanilla extract (some even add jam but I didn't add the last two ingredients)

Method

1. First mix all the dry ingredients in a coffee mug.

Tip: Remember use castor sugar or powered sugar.

2. Now add egg in it and then add milk and oil.

3. Mix the batter thoroughly.

4. Place this coffee mug in microwave oven. Set the power at 1000W for 3 minutes.

5. Take out the coffee mug and cool it. Then serve.

Tip: You have to balance the amount of sugar added.For example, I had to add 5 tbs. because I was'nt adding any  chocolate chips.

Have fun!!!

Reference:

http://www.food.com/recipe/5-minute-chocolate-mug-cake-354827?photo=352932

What is my hobby???Obviously reading!

I was in 5th grade when my mother gave me a novel of Enid Blyton. She gave me this novel so that I could improve my English speaking skills and creative writing. After Famous Five, I read R.L. Stine's novels. Then Harry Potter, Hunger games, Divergent, Pride and Prejudice and so many more.  Reading  is my hobby. Reading helps me to get rid of stress. It keeps me for a limited time in a world other than my own. Whenever I an reading a novel, from its start till its end I feel light and happy.  But its not like I am reading novels all the time. I just vigorously (really I read a trilogy in nearly a week on my laptop and then I was having a headache for many many days) read novels in the beginning of the semester and after  week or so I stop touching any novel.

There has always been a query in my mind. How do people get inspired by novels? I mean I read Alchemist but its not like I changed because of it, but I do know some people who do get inspired by it. Although I don't get inspired easily, I was inspired by a religious Urdu novel.

Now that I am addicted to novels, my mother often tells me that she regrets the day she handed me that novel :-D. She knows every story that I read because I share all of them. Although she wasn't interested in Harry Potter, she knew all the story by heart. I even caught her telling my father about the disparities between the books and the movies. Sometimes I get astonished when someone tells me that I told them something. It's because I am way to talkative and try to share the things I like with others.

Moreover, I am trying to develop interest in books and newspapers. I also check the blogs that I follow. I love information. Anyway here is a poll, please participate if you can.

Be informed about your country's governance!

Let me share something really exciting that I learned this semester in my optional subject, "Governance and Public trust". Some of you, like me, won't know what governance is. Governance is the process of decision making and the process by which these decisions are implemented or not implemented.

Unlike government, governance includes all the stakeholders. Three main stakeholders of governance  are civil society, government, and market. These three make governance at national. Good governance is a normative (opinion based) concept. Good  governance includes parameter, such as it is  participatory, consensus oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient, equitable and inclusive and follows the rule of law. For further information on this topic, click here.

Different agencies calculate governance standards. These include World Bank, Asian Development Bank, UNESCAP, etc. Here I will tell you a website where you can find governance percentile rank ( more rank near 100 more high is the governance level) of your country through parameters such as government effectiveness and efficiency, rule of law, voice and accountability, etc. You can compare the rank of your country  with other countries and the rank of these indicator under different political regimes.

Step 1

Go to this website  http://databank.worldbank.org/data/views/variableselection/selectvariables.aspx?source=Worldwide-Governance-Indicators

Step 2

You will see Country, Timeline, and Series. Select the wanted series (parameter), timeline, and country. If you will select two countries then you can compare the selected indicator over the selected timeline. 

Step 3

After you have selected your required information look at the information given in the top right corner. You would see table, map, graph, etc. Click on the type in which you want to use this data. You can also download graphs in excel sheets and the click line graph icon to form a line graph.

 

I enjoyed this practical, I hope you will. Even if you are not interested just try this activity once. With these indicators you can have informed opinions. You can argue on the basis of facts.

'In my time' (میرے زمانہ میں)

It has been only two decades since I was born and I already refer to my childhood as  'In my time' (میرے زمانہ میں). When I try to explain my seven year younger sister something, I often use this term.  My mother then laughs at me and tells me that I speak as if I am so very old. To me, though, this seems a very correct notion. The time that I am in now is completely different from that of my childhood. I will elaborate these feeling with certain experiences of my own:

1. When I was a child, mobile phones were not so common. I remember that we used to go to a PCO (telephone booth) and call our relatives. There used to be a card, which ,when used, allowed us to talk for few minutes. Some time after this my father bought a mobile phone. This phone had a blue screen with black font. This screen was no bigger then a scientific calculator's screen. We also had a telephone installed later on. Then we bought a computer. We used a card (more specifically called Rabata Online) to connect to the internet. A relative of mine had a phone with camera and colors, and it was like a wonder for me. Now you see smart phones have so many functions and are so commonly used. Has not the technology improved in these two decades??

2. The entertainment industry has changed a great deal. Hollywood and English music has suffered a less sudden change then bollywood. When I was a kid there would be a brave and good hero and a nice and beautiful heroine in most of the movies. The music used to be soft and the voices for heroine's singing used to be shrill. Now-a-days women with heavy and less shrill voices are preferred. Heroes are mostly thieves, etc. The idea of beauty has changed a great deal.

A heroine of that time

A heroine of this time

Above all, I have changed. Not because I have grown up, but because I am not the same person, in nature, anymore. I, in my own account, have improved a lot. My interests changed. I developed new hobbies, such as reading novels (I love to read novels). I have observed my errors and weaknesses, and  I have tried and am trying to improve. I have changed from over confident to less confident (this is wrong but also good at times). My tastes have changed, my choices are now more well thought of. Nevertheless, change is still required and change is inevitable.