Directions:

1. Marinate the chicken pieces in the ginger and garlic pastes for 30 minutes.

2. Heat the ghee / oil in a pan.
When hot, add the chicken pieces with the marinade.
Fry until lightly brown all over.
Add salt, yoghurt, and wholemilk fudge.
Cook until the yoghurt is completely absorbed.

3. Add the green chillies, green coriander, and mint leaves. Mix well.
Add the coconut milk.
Simmer, covered, until the chicken becomes tender.

by Jay Lowder

"He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he who controls his spirit than he who takes a city"
(Proverbs 16:32).

I recently heard a national news story of a woman who was so angry with her son for talking back to her that she shot him. Although this is an extreme example, it's a reminder that explosions of unleashed anger bring devastating consequences.

Anger is an emotion that is typically caused by frustration, pain or unresolved past hurt. Similar to an infection under the skin, anger festers until its breaks through the surface, oozes out and contaminates its surroundings. The venom of angry words and actions have killed more marriages, destroyed more friendships and wrecked more lives than any other behavior.

Dealing with feelings of anger can be handled in numerous ways. Some choose spontaneous reaction, which often spawns regretful words and retaliation from others. Others choose is to suppress their feelings and not address the root cause of the problem, but ignoring issues never brings solutions but instead usually gives a breeding ground for resentment, victim mentality, and bitterness.

God's choice is for us to approach those with whom we have offended or who have offended us with openness to our own faults, honesty, forgiveness, love and compassion. Only then do we have the ability to reconcile differences and diffuse a relationship bomb. If the other person's response is below our expectations, which it often is, then we have to ask God to help us contain our anger and make the decision to forgive. Forgiveness is nothing more than a repeated decision that God will enable you to make.

People are remembered for the problems they create or solve. While some issues are alleviated by a kind of righteous anger that is aimed at injustice, there are far more problems that are created than removed when people allow anger to go unchecked. Proverbs 25:28 says that a person who cannot control his emotions is like a city broken down without walls. Uncontrolled anger leaves us without a guardrail of protection. In another verse found in Proverbs 18:19 we are told that anger can keep us away from others like the bars on a castle.

In a conflict, here are five ways to initiate healing between yourself and your significant other.

1. Don't wait for them to make the first move. Pride is often the primary reason people wait for the other person to initiate reconciliation. Waiting for someone else to repair walls only leads to lingering trouble. God promises to lift those who are humble in James 4:10.

2. Start with sensitivity instead of solutions. Solving problems is the end goal but beginning with compassion works to accelerate an understanding of another's feelings and helps to avoid similar conflicts and misunderstandings in the future. We see in Matthew 9:36 that Jesus was moved with compassion when he saw people, and we should be the same.

3. Confess your fault and responsibility for the conflict. While it's easy to focus on wrongs committed by others, there are almost always some things we did or didn't do that helped create the problem. James 5:16 says that healing begins with confession.

4. Don't be defensive, but maintain an open heart and mind about actions you may have taken that were wrong, offensive or maybe even misunderstood. Proverbs 19:20 tells us to listen to advice and receive correction. When we are unwilling to recognize mistakes, failures or wrong actions, we are acting foolish and unable to grow.

5. Be a good hearer and focus more on listening than talking. It's wrongfully easy to not pay attention to what someone else is saying because we are thinking about what we will say in response. Jesus' half brother gave some of the best advice to diffuse relational conflict when he told us in James 1:19 to be quick to hear and slow to speak.

About The Author:

Jay Lowder is the founder of Jay Lowder Harvest Ministries and author of 'Midnight in Aisle 7'.

by Dr Mercy Abraham, UAE

I am lost in the labyrinth of ways.

I was walking through ways that seemed familiar
searching for my home.
I was in my church in a worship service.
I was tired by the people and their rituals.
So I came out and walked through
by lanes that were familiar
but I lost my way, I am tired.

How can I find home and reach
surroundings of my familiar village
where people know me, now.
I am in another continent
across seven seas; I see people
and faces that are arrogant.

Here, there is nothing familiar
there is no friendly smile and I
hide myself when I hear a footstep
I peep through the shadows that
surround me, it is dark even though
the street lights shines around.

I think about the warmth of home
where mother cooks the cozy dinner.
The aroma of her food streams across to me.

Even though I am so far
I want to go back in time and be
a little girl, where everything is pleasant
around her, even though
there are no riches, there is love
that surrounds her and protects her.

Here there is nothing except futile thoughts
and darkness like a pall of smoke.

Oh Lord, show me a ray of light
a golden thread, a rainbow of colours
across the drizzling rain
let me watch and be glad
in this gloom of clouds and fear.

Lord you are merciful and kind
have pity on this forlorn traveler who
has lost his way in the labyrinth.
Who wants to reach home and rest
after all his futile wanderings and
heartbreaks in the labyrinth of the world
and its riches, ways that mislead me across time.

About The Author:

Dr. Mercy Abraham is a graduate of Kottayam Medical College. She had been serving patients in UAE for over three decades. She is truly the "voice of the wilderness and dessert". The eerie landscape, the desert and the hot winds inspire Mercy to write her poems.

by Punit Soni, Chief Product Officer at Flipkart

Well, its a little less than an year, but enough to be able to write this post. Even though I was born in Bombay, I have not spent any significant part of my adult life here and so this has been quite an interesting year. I have the interesting vantage point of both understanding the underlying cultural nuances and being able to notice them since they are so fresh to me.

A year is genuinely the magic mark. Things do genuinely get better with time and one has worked out most of the kinks by then. You are also clearer about what you really came here for, and whether it was all working. Given all that, a few random observations:

BANGALORE

The noise never stops. The entire country is under construction it seems and the view from my window is a Mordor like hole in the ground with tons of work going on everywhere. On the other hand, this whole city is reinventing itself literally in front of my eyes. Its an incredible sight

The work required to settle in is not too different from settling into any other country to be honest. Utilities, various cards, housing etc is a breeze especially if you have professional help ( I do agree that I have had way more professional help than the average incoming person). Though my wife had to file for an FRFO card and that was an incredible pain. It was like time-traveling to old India

The traffic is not that bad if you live very close to work (I live around ~1km away), and know when to venture outside the bubble that is your gated community. The weekend rocks, mid-day is ok, early mornings and nights work well to head into the city. It could also be that I have just resigned myself to not really exploring the city on a whim anymore… I sincerely feel unless drastic measures are taken, this city will become unlivable in a few years

You will really really miss open spaces though. There is no real Castro street or a typical downtown area to walk around. No hikes in the vicinity, no waterfront, not much of sidewalks to be honest. Only a couple of parks and they are very dispersed. The one thing that is incredibly hard to do in India is go for a long, thoughtful walk

As soon as you leave Bangalore, the infrastructure miraculously improves, the roads are awesome, the views are incredible and there is just tons to see and do. One trick is to avoid all published tourist areas because they are inevitably overrun by umm..tourists. Talk to the locals and go see stuff others do not know about. There is so much to check out

ENTERTAINMENT

The community is very welcoming, social life is buzzing and there are tons of people around (sometimes way too many!). If you have family in the area, then your house will be almost always full of parents, relatives of all stripes and shades. Its fun!

Festivals are incredible. There is song, dance, lights, parties, friends, family, food everything you want. India is at its absolute best during festivals. Its key to party up during those times

I have not found anything interesting to watch in Indian TV. The shows look like knock-offs of bad american reality shows, or crappy family soaps. I mostly survive on Netflix original content. The theatres are amazing but the movies they show are mostly ordinary. The really good, independent stuff never show up in the really good theatres

Bangalore has an incredible variety of shows, comedy events, concerts, pubs, cafes to choose from. The restaurant and food scene is great. There isn’t really any good place to go dancing, but then the clubs close way to early here anyways. Bombay rocks for nightlife. Its better to fly there for the weekend or head to Goa from what I see

WORK SCENE

The startup scene is buzzing and this place is absolutely filled with tons of entrepreneurs and folks who want to solve all sorts of problems using technology. I believe a great Indian product company is being incubated somewhere in Bangalore as we speak. Its inevitable given the ambition, the energy and the tons of smart people

In general, I notice a lack of thoughtfulness in the air. The roads are shoddily built (and then rebuilt every year). The work that your average plumber/carpenter/electrician does is ramshackle. Glass buildings are being built all over the place with no thought for the dissonance with the tropical climate they are set in. It permeates everything. Overall, there is an acute need to step back, be thoughtful and try to aspire for completeness in whatever mission one is aspiring for.

I think this lack of thoughtfulness permeates the business/startup culture too. There are a lot of lofty ambitions, but in the breakneck speed in which things run, stepping back is hard to do

There is no lack of entrepreneurial leaders to look up to. Folks who have built companies against all odds. But there is a real lack of product/tech leaders to look up to (even if I say so myself). The next evolution of Indian startups will be based on core tech and so its key that there be most folks who can mentor and build stuff. And also key that folks understand the value of that work in building long term companies

On that note, I want to do my humble bit to learn more and give back to the startup community here given some of the experiences I have had the fortune to be a part of back in the valley. I will be starting weekly office hours (on a personal basis and for a few weeks) focused on conversations with founders, startup folks, whoever wants to chat with me about how to build stuff/culture etc. More soon. It's an experiment, and so we will see how useful it is and then iterate.