Veganism - Worth the While?

With the popularity of the internet bringing along new fads in the 2010s, Veganism was revived.

Growing up in a Vegetarian household where consuming meat is frowned upon, I grew to look down upon others who did not share our eating habits. 

A sense of superiority does rule over many who choose not to eat animal products. 

Coming back to the 2010s, what happened to the entitled vegetarians? 

They were relegated to being second class citizens as the new 'Vegan' community shunned any & all animal cruelty and abuse. Hence people whose diet consisted of mainly vegetables but seldom milk/dairy products or even poultry were subject to being 'Vegetarian' vs those 'Vegan' who abstained completely from animal products.

Looking at Veganism from a perspective of Global Warming and CO2  emissions, the narrative stands strong. I mean if your government does not have a progressive carbon emissions policy, you can surely do your part by skipping that steak next Sunday barbeque.

But that's too harsh and just like being Vegan does not give anyone the right to have high handed attitude towards others.

Crunching the numbers it is quite clear that eliminating red meats from your diet can eliminate your carbon footprint by a quarter. By eliminating all meat products? You can halve your food carbon footprint!

Talk about saving the planet and doing your part. Now I would not mind being a little entitled if someone had told me this back when I was my younger self. 

Coming back to the point, I won't disagree with anyone about how good that chicken wing or how delicious that rib-eyed steak is. But, what if a guilt-free version existed?

Science has come so far! You just cannot find the difference between lab-grown meats and the real deal, be it taste or texture. So why not give it a shot?

Guilt-free eating will find resonance in many of the religiously inclined as well, after all. All life is sacred, isn't it?

Flooding coastal cities and drowning consciences, both can be saved just by adjusting your food habits slowly but surely.

I cannot advocate suddenly changing your food habits overnight. But trying new alternatives and cuisines that advocate simpler wholesome foods is the need of the hour. 

Clearly, the pros outweigh the cons.

Happy hunting...

For your new meal prep routine. :)

Cheers

Sarthak

Web Development From Scratch - An Intro

 My last college exam was on 4th June 2020. The very next day I felt as if a weight had been lifted off my shoulders, I was a free bird. 

Little did I expect, that this newfound freedom in the lockdown would soon turn to boredom. And this boredom would exert more pressure on me than my seemingly expansive college exams.

As I began to grow restless my father came up with the requirement of a website for his coaching institute. I had a vague idea about coding, I was averse to it. Still, all that free time got me studying.

 Upon reading, it turned out that web development is an offshoot of traditional software development focusing on an environment that runs solely on your browser. I became interested and started learning more about it.

Web Development is divided into two parts-

1. Front-End Development

2. Back-End Development

Front-End refers to the interactive and catchy part of the website/app that a developer creates, this includes the wireframe ie the whole outline or the setup of the webpage, the color scheme, the sizing, and proportioning of various buttons and fonts, their placements and positions, etc. 

Front-End is essentially the part that the user interacts with and everything he sees, I learn it should be made with ease of use in mind and creativity of expression to show the uniqueness of each website.

This also means if you want to become a full-stack developer, it will be easier for the person if he can visualize and start building the Front-End of his app first.

There are 3 main learning objectives that make up the fundamentals of Front-End development.

These are:-

1. HTML- HyperText Markup Langauge

2. CSS- Cascading Style Sheets

3. Javascript

HTML can be termed as the formating tool of the text inside the body of the webpage. All text written on a website is written in HTML tags.

CSS is mainly used to add effects and further provide a muscular structure to the skeleton that is HTML. CSS applies to HTML elements by linking these elements to the CSS methods which provide the desired effect.

Javascript is where the magic happens or as developers would say where the logic happens. Using various methods built into the language and using operators along with if-else statements complex arguments can be made to bring about phenomenal changes in the appearances and interactiveness of the website. It is the nervous system to the nervous system that is CSS.

However modern-day web developers do not compile thousands of lines of code each time they want the desired effect. For these purposes, there are libraries and frameworks which are compiled works of code already written ie ready to use.

The most popular Javascript libraries and frameworks are React.Js, Angular.Js, Vue.Js, etc.

Libraries and Frameworks are a vast collection of code. They make the life of Front-End developers very simple by holding down various methods(functionalities of certain code) and making them available with simple commands thereby saving them a lot of time and effort.

After the User Interface has been set up, the functionality of the links and buttons has to be thought of.

This is the work of a Back-End Developer. Which is a story for another post.

Cheers

Sarthak

Correcting Your Diet : The Ayurvedic Way.

 According to Ayurveda, everything in the universe is made up of various proportions of the same five elements(panca mahabhutas), they are- Space, Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. This article aims to explore the concept of the individual nature of an individual or the 'Prakriti' of an individual.

There are infinite combinations through which these aspects manifest themselves in our physical bodies and that is what gives rise to the 'Individuality' of each person and their own genetic makeup. This is called the 'Prakriti' of the individual and does not generalize a set of rules by following which a person can maintain their health.

Prakriti as mentioned; is formed by the five elements. Further, it is categorized as Vata(Air & Space), Pitta(Fire & Water), and Kapha(Earth and Water). In a way, the word 'Prakriti' can be said as 'the first formed nature', hence it remains the same throughout life. A person's health can be made prime by various spiritual practices, yogas, and definitely by a correct diet. 

By understanding these qualities of our natural constitution or our Prakriti, we are able to understand ourselves better. This Prakriti plays an important role in our health and how we function in the world. We also become aware of certain factors like the type of food, change of season, etc that have an effect on our health and hence can make informed decisions and better care of our health. 

A person is usually a combination of the constituents of Prakriti, few people belong to the category having pure Vatta, pure Pitta, or pure Kapha. Usually, one is in a dominant role, while the other one plays a secondary role. For example, You might be a P-K person that has Pitta dominance, while Kapha is secondary. Or a person can be V-P, where Vatta is primary and Kapha is secondary, all combinations are possible.

Here, try and find your Prakriti and the foods you should be avoiding.

Types Of Prakriti

 1. Vatta-

Understanding Vatta Personality:

• Feel hungry at any time of day or night.
• Love excitement and constant change.
• Sleep at different times every night, skip meals and keep irregular habits in general.
• Display bursts of emotion that are short-lived and quickly forgotten.
• Walk and speak quickly.

Foods to avoid:

• Avoid unsoaked dry fruits as they can cause problems like constipation and indigestion.
• Vegetables that cause gas like cabbage, cauliflower, etc.
• Millet, Corn, Rye, Barley, Oats, dry preparation like muesli, flakes, etc.
• White bread, cookies, pastries, pizza.
• Difficult to digest beans like Chickpea.
• White Sugar
• Green and Red Chilli

2. Pitta-

Understanding Pitta Personality:

• Feel frantically hungry if dinner is not on time.
• Lives by their watch and regret wasting time.
• Wakes up in the night feeling hot and thirsty.
• Takes command of situations or feels like doing so.
• Others may find you too sarcastic or critical sometimes.
• Have a determined step while walking.

Foods to avoid:

• Very sour fruits.
• Carrots, beet, tomato, onion, radish.
• Curd, cheese, sour cream, preserved milk.
• Raw or roasted nuts.
• White Sugar.
• Pickle, spicy condiments, sour salads.
• Vinegar, red and green chili.

3. Kapha-

Understanding Kapha Personality-

• Thinks over a very long time before making a decision.
• Wake up slowly, lie in a bed a long time.
• Is happy with the status quo and preserve it by conciliating with others.
• Respect other people's feelings with whom you feel genuine empathy.
• Seek emotional comfort from eating.

Foods to avoid:

• Banana, Litchi, Mango, Watermelon
• Cucumber, Tomato
• Curd, Full cream dairy.
• All nuts
• Sesame oil, Coconut oil
• White Sugar

These lists roughly denote common indicators of your doshas and are non-comprehensive. An accurate diagnosis from a suitable and skilled practitioner must be considered before altering any food habits and to find out your Prakriti. All in all, Ayurveda in itself is all-encompassing in its knowledge of the science of medicine and our diet forms a substantial part of it. Hence, It is our duty to maintain optimal health by treating our bodies like temples they are.

Cheers 

Sarthak

Welcome Folks! Hope You Enjoy My Obscure Blog ;)

Soooo, Basically, I'm starting this blog out of both curiosity and need.

Yes! I have always wanted to write. And now I have a reason to do it.


This blog is a project for my Digital Marketing module and shall chronicle my views on seemingly random topics..

I haven't exactly thought of the type of 'genre' I'm going to put out here, but it's mostly going to be personal stuff and my views on life and situations I encounter daily.

Here's a little bit about me-

Basically, my first love in sports is 'The Beautiful Game' aka Football.
Played by over 250 million players in over 200 countries, it is by far the most popular game in the world. It's also my favorite pastime.
 I also have a love for Motorsports, Volleyball, Table Tennis, Tennis. I don't usually follow them on TV but seldom do read about them in the newspaper.

I occasionally used to play games on my Laptop but that has waned over time as my laptop has grown old and I have more responsibilities now.
My all-time favorite FPS is COD-4, which I believe many people of my age still play all over the world.

I love all genres of movies and documentaries except Horror.

In my taste of music, I'd say I'm a scavenger. I go around looking for playlists made by other people and come across new music like that but I don't actively search for music because that is a very cumbersome process. Like it once took me a whole day to shortlist 20 good songs from my Soundcloud feed! A whole day!! Or you might just say I'm very choosy when it comes to music.

As a kid, I used to read a lot and loved reading. But growing up time just divided itself into other prioritize. I still yearn to better my command of the language, gain more knowledge. Maybe become a bit more intellectual and scholarly. Currently trying to understand Ayn Rand's perspective.

Presently working as a Captioning Agent at Teleperformance and looking towards the changing horizons of my future.

Cheers

Sarthak