Truncate vs delete from

Sometimes I make weird rookie mistakes when working with SQL and one of them is confusing syntax of various commands. Today it was truncate.

So the syntax is

Truncate table table_name;

It doesn't have a where clause and is used to remove the entire data. On the other hand when we use delete, the syntax can be

Delete from table_name;

It will delete the entire data, but we can also use a where clause.

Delete from table_name where column_name = criteria;

I was using truncate table table_name where date = cast(getdate() as date);

Wouldn't work and will definitely fail.

Sugandh

The Integration Tables

Hi, 

From the depths of a corporate office, where I write SQL queries for a living. When I was studying data warehousing and business intelligence - which was eons ago - we had staging tables and the productions tables. 

The staging tables consisted of unaltered data. Data directly from source and then you can manipulate data - transform/clean/ standardize it and then load it to the production tables that could be used by business intelligence or knowledge mining teams.

Yesterday I found out that staging tables are now called integration tables in Microsoft-verse. With a slight addition that since there could be various data sources integration tables are used to consolidate the data from all those sources. It was also done earlier, but somehow the powers that be needed to clarify this.

Hope you have a great day.

Sugandh

Setting Up A Kitchen

The most difficult thing that i needed to do when I started living alone was set up my kitchen. Living alone happened in two phases, once when I moved out for studies and once when I got married. 

Setting up kitchen for a single person is relatively easy as it is only you, you are responsible for. Back then, I could cook like three things and lived on those. I would make a huge pot of pasta and eat it for next three meals. At times, I'd have corn flakes for dinner. Afternoons were spent at university - so cooking wasn't a huge part of my life.

In terms of spices, I had the following.

Red chili powder

Black pepper

Salt

Oregano (pasta!)

Ground Coriander seeds

And that's about that.

The second phase was way more different than the previous time. I was responsible for running a grownup home, and I was anything but. I knew the basics. I needed pots and pans, stirrers and spatulas, some containers and that's about that. What I didn't realize that a functional kitchen has much more than I thought it would need. There are pots for cooking rice, meat and vegetables and there is a pot to make sweet dishes or boil milk in. There are different size pots for making tea and smaller pots for warming up food. A frying pan, deep enough for deep frying and a smaller one because the bigger one would take too much oil. a container for oil, plates - a lot of plates.

I bought a chakra belan (a rolling pin and a rolling board) and a container for the flour, but I forgot to but a dish big enough to knead dough. That I bought second time. I also realized that I needed strainers and colanders of different sizes for draining tea, rice, pasta etc. and then there were organizers, a container to store small gadgets - measuring spoons, measuring cups, funnels, a tiny grater and a bottle opener.  On top of that my kitchen doesn't have drawers, so I have to get containers for cutlery and other stuff.

When it came to cooking there are more spices needed than the ones, I was familiar with. For example, I needed whole spices and garam masala and turmeric etc., I needed ginger-garlic paste and soy sauce and chili sauce and mixed herbs, just to make food that I wanted to eat.

Then there were baskets, for fruits and for other things. Packets of pasta, rice, spices, jars for jams, bottles for sauces. Just to keep things organized. It was also necessary for me to train my husband in the art of organization in our kitchen. I don't personally like men who knows nothing about their kitchen and can't find a spoon when needed. 

Sometimes, when I was trying a certain recipe, I would realize that I am missing a certain spice, and I would decide to move ahead without it. The food was edible, and not perfect at all. I would add that spice to the shopping list for next time. I also had to collect recipes that we both enjoyed eating and were easy to cook. 

Through all of this, all I wanted was a list of things for people who were starting new home from scratch. What are the must haves. Here I am making a list from my own experience.

Things to have in a starter kitchen:

1. Depending on people pots of different sizes: for rice/pasta/noodles, for meat and vegetables - things cooked with spices, for sweets and milk/tea. 

2. Strainers and Colanders

3. Baskets for fruits (I have in different sizes)

4. a gridle (tawa)

5. a bowl/platter for kneading dough (I forgot this one)

6. mixing bowls

7. frying pans

8. containers for spices/ lentils/rice/flour etc.

9. Containers for storing half used packets of stuff.

10. spatulas and turners.

11. Wooden spoons for cooking and mixing

12. beaters and whisks

13. plates and glasses

14. serving bowls

15. cutlery

16. serving spoons

17. Rolling pin and rolling board/mat

18. Cutting board

19. Knives different sizes and knife sharpener

20. Blender and a grinder

21. pestle and mortar

22. measuring cups, measuring spoons, measuring jug

23. Water bottles,

24. Oil bottle/jug

This list is not at all exhaustive. Depending on your lifestyle and the kind of cooking you do, things can be added or subtracted. 

If you are reading this and making a new home, I hope that your home brings you happiness and joy and you enjoy setting up your kitchen and using it.

Thoughts on Being Famous and Self-Promotion

I have never wanted to be famous. I have never wanted anyone to know me. I have wanted attention from a handful of people in my entire life. I crave anonymity and solitude. But for the last few days, I have been thinking about self promotion a lot.

I have been seeing these people write articles about things that there are thousands articles on. I have been seeing people at work list the tasks that are everyday maintenance work as things they did. I have been noticing people post their pictures with famous people to assert their importance and flaunt their knowledge. There is so much self promotion around me that I have been feeling inadequate. May be it is the first time I am seeing people who know more than I ever will or they are just good at saying that they know more when in reality all they do is know as little as I do.

This begs the question: what do I want to do in this situation? Change who I fundamentally am (was) because I do crave recognition for my work and skills, or just let things be and continue doing what I have always been doing (not care for anything).

Life has so much been about learning new things every year, but the most difficult are the things that one learns about oneself. There you are secure in thinking that you are basically a good person and not need change, but then you come across a scenario that you never thought about and you question the philosophy that you have painstakingly curated throughout the life. Your fundamental beliefs about yourself change and you realize that you are not who you thought you are.

So this scenario around me - where everyone is blowing their own trumpet - where does it leave me? Do I still need to be anonymous as I always wanted to be, or do I change and ask for recognition in the gaudiest of the ways possible (for me) to get the recognition that I crave.

Sugandh

A Room of One's Own

When Ahsan and I were looking for home, even before we were formally married, i insisted to have a home with an extra room, so that i could have a room of my own, where i could be as wild as i want to be. That wouldn't be accessed and judged by anyone coming from outside. A room that will be the implementation of my wildest dreams and the finest of the luxuries that i so desired. Room that is reflection of my thoughts, ideas, creativity and would house my women, my dolls and statues. 

I have that room now. It is not yet as wild as i want it to be, but I'm slowly getting there. It is my refuge and manifestation of me. I love my entire house but i love my room the most.

The Fiasco of Walnut Halwa

If you have known me for a long time, you would know that i have very less affection for cooking, but I love new tastes, particularly if they are sweet. I will do anything to keep the meetha in my life. Even if I have to cook it, when no one is around to make it for me.

When I was getting married, I got a basket full of dried fruits and nuts. I ate almost all of them except for this huge bag of walnuts. I tried eating them, but I am not hugely fond of them. What I am fond of is something called "habshi halwa" - which is a mithai made of walnuts. [we siblings used to call us "qeemay wali mithai" - mince mithai :D] Therefore, I called my mother and asked her if I could make something out of the walnuts that have been sitting in my fridge for two months now and she suggested that I make "Walnut Halwa" and she whatsapped the recipe, and here begins the fiasco that was my akhrot ka halwa because of the badly written recipe. [Remember that I am not an active cook and need clearly written recipes to cook]

After I gathered the ingredients in many iterations [because I just set up house and had no idea how many maslas should be stocked in the kitchen] I set about to make akhrot ka halwa one fine Sunday evening.

So here are the ingredients:

• Walnuts 500 g [didn't have any weighing scales, so my saint of a sister told me that 500 g are approximately 4 cups]
• Semolina ½ cup
• Desi Ghee ½ cup
• Green Cardamom Seeds 8-10 seeds
• Sugar 1 cup
• Milk 1 cup
• Khoya 100 g [Amma told me that if I don't have any khoya I can use milk powder so I used olpers milk powder. They come in convenient sachets]
• Butter 100 g
• Dry Nuts 50 g

The cooking seemed fairly easy.

Step 1: In a pot, add Desi ghee, green cardamom seeds and sauté it. 

            Hmmm look easy. Since I grew up among wonderful cooks, I remember the term "choti ilaichi ko ghee mein karkaraein," that's practically a sound that will come from the pan when you saute the green cardamom sees.

Step 2: Now add, walnuts, semolina, sugar, milk and cook well for 4-5 minutes.
             Here is where my problem started... I added the walnuts to the oil WITHOUT grinding them. That is what was missing from the details of the ingredients for a total novice cook like me. Second thing that was missing was how long am I supposed to fry the walnuts? Am I supposed to  add all the ingredients at the same time? What?

So I fried the walnuts, and then they were not getting any softer and I started panicking. SO I decided to add the suji (semolina) and sugar and to my horror I realized that the walnuts are not going to get soft themselves. I need to do something and by then I was dealing with this:

 So I turned off the fire and started pounding on the walnut, semolina and sugar mixture in my frying pan to break them into smaller pieces. and I pounded and pounded and till I was sure that the pieces are small enough to make the halwa soft enough to call halwa! And then I added milk and boo the milk quantity that was written was not enough to get the consistency that was show in the video, so I increased the quantity by half.

Step 3: Afterward, add butter, Khoya and dry nuts.
             After I have saved the halwa from being a total disaster, I added the last ingredients and voila I was done. and here is the picture of my halwa that I enjoyed along with Ahsan and our landlord!

 So, in conclusion if you are a novice cook, please make sure that you have gone through the recipe and video tutorial multiple times to notice everything. Ask plenty of questions from anyone who knows about cooking. So if you are making this akhrot ka halwa please make sure that you grind your akhrot coarsely in the beginning and save yourselves from the panicky twenty minutes of your life!

Sugandh

Living with Two Mugs

I got married and moved to a new home! I have exactly two coffee mugs. One for me and one for my husband. Life sometimes is very difficult with only two coffee mugs. I have exactly one of everything in our kitchen. One frying pan, one pot, one saucepan and one saucepan for tea. I have a coffee maker, and a blender/grinder set. and few of the turners and stuff like that [setting up a new home is kinda fun and daunting at the same time.] Things that are absolute necessity and nothing over the top or extraordinary.

the temptation to have more of everything, to be able to have multiple choices and to buy more stuff is very real. To fill the house with more of everything and have multiple options will be awesome. but is it a way of life? how much is too much? how many of each should I have? Where do I stop. These are the questions that I want to answer before I buy more of something.

having watched the documentaries on de-cluttering and minimalism I cannot buy any more mugs than the ones that I already have. Sometimes, the temptation is high, especially when I don't feel like washing the ones that I already have. Having seen those documentaries I have learnt that mostly things accumulate when we are being lazy. It is very enchanting to have an endless supply of the coffee mugs. I can just use and use and use them, without worrying about washing them until I run out of the very last one. And here I stop. I will eventually run out of the mugs and I have to wash the ones that I have. So, on to the lessons learnt from Marie Kondo and the minimalist guys - I'll only keep what is absolute necessary and wash the dishes regularly.

Sugandh