Discover Bangladesh

If I were asked what I usually do when I’m home on the weekends, my answer would always be cooking. I try to make different Bangladeshi food and desserts when I get little free time. Past weekend I made Carrot Halwa, which is one of the most famous traditional Bangladeshi desserts.  Though this wasn’t my first time making carrot Halwa, but I thought I would share it on my site as a tutorial assignment.

To make Carrot Halwa, we’ll need the ingredients given below-

1 kg Carrots, 2 liter Milk, 2 cups of Water, 1 teaspoon Cardamom seeds, 4 tablespoons Ghee (butter), 4 cups of sugar (small size cup), 2 tablespoons Raisins, 2 tablespoons Almonds.

 Here are the steps to make delicious Carrot Halwa are given below-

1. Peel and slice the carrots into small pieces (not too small). Then put the water to boil, when it starts boiling add the sliced carrots. Cook for 5-7 minutes.

2. Drain the carrots from water and blend them (Don’t blend too much). Then set them aside for following step.

3. Boil the milk on medium-high heat in a non-stick pan until it is reduced to about 1 and half cup. Stir often to ensure the milk does not burn in the bottom of the pan. Set them aside.

4. Melt the butter in a frying pan on medium heat. Add the cardamom seeds. Then add the blended carrot paste and stir-fry for about 7-8 minutes. Carrots should be tender and slightly changed in color.

5. Add the milk and cook until the milk dries. This will take about eight to ten minutes.

6. Next add the sugar and stir-fry for another three to four minutes until the halwa starts to leave the side of the frying pan.

7. Remove the halwa from heat and arrange in a serving dish. Garnish with almonds and raisins.

Special Suggestion:

You could also cook the halwa a little more and pour on a greased plate. Spread the halwa until it is flat and 3/4 inch thick. After the halwa cools, cut in squared pieces. You could refrigerate them for up to months or so. When ready to serve just have to warm it for 10 seconds.

Though it takes about 2 hours to make this special dessert, but after tasting it, you would say it’s worth it. So folks take your time and try it if you’d like.

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Acccording to Lev Manovich Transcoding is the process by which something is transformed from one form into another. For example, taking media and turning it into computer data. However, once it is transcoded, or transformed, it takes on a different shape digitally while remaining the same visually to the user. Manovich refers to these two different visual planes as the culture layer and the computer layer. The culture layer is what remains recognizable to humans while the computer layer, you guessed it, is digital coding that the computer uses to translate into objects we are familiar with.

In my view, Manovich sees the Transcoding as an eternal process of new media. Manovich writes, “As hardware and software keep evolving and as the computer is used for new tasks and in new ways, this [computer] layer undergoes continuous transformation” (Page 46). As long as new technologies are developed, new office applications, new photo manipulation programs, new flash sites, etc., the computer layer will continue to evolve. The underwriting will become more complicated while new opportunities for the user become available. Visually, the screen will remain the same. The computer screen will still consist of individual objects of information that can be individually manipulated by the user with the aid of the ever-changing programs.

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While I was a teen, I left my country and came here in NY to live my life alone. At the beginning, life was very miserable for me. All I had going on in my life was work and missing my friends and family. I wasn’t really having any social life. Life started to change when one of my cousin suggested that I should open a social network. Then I opened a Facebook account in 2006. I started meeting new friends and found my old friends from back home. I felt like having all of them around me even though I was thousand miles away from them.

The biggest turning point of my life while using Facebook was when I met this guy from UK named Rousseau. He was from my country(Bangladesh) and was also studying alone in Scotland. We became very close friends over the years. We never saw each other in person but started to like each other. However, I wasn’t really interested to involve in any kind of relationship. I was focusing more into my study and family. We still kept in touch as very good friends. Fortunately in 2009, we both went to Bangladesh at the same time and had a chance to meet each other. We became more certain that we wanted each other from a long time. Now, Its been almost 2 years that we’ve got married and happily living our lives. Often we remember about the times we used to spend chatting on Facebook. Now a days, I feel like Facebook had become very commercial and open to people which is harmful for it’s user’s privacy. Facebook team should be more concern about their privacy settings. There are many people who says social networks are nothing but waste of time but I strongly oppose their view. I’ve found my destiny through this social network and ended my loneliness.

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