2 March 2021 / knowyourtown.co.in Know Your Ingredient: Cucumber Bhavya Pande Cucumbers contain around 95-96% water and are packed with several essential vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin K, vitamin C, vitamin B1, Cucumber Raita copper, potassium, manganese, phosphorus and magnesium. Adding Recipe cucumbers to our diet has many potential health benefits, including balanced hydration, weight loss, lower blood sugar levels, good digestion, Preparation Time: 10 minutes Sufficient for: Four people good skin, healthy hair and nails, stress and heartburn relief. Ingredients: Procedure Cucumber: 3-4 medium sized 1. Keep all the ingredients ready. Curd: 2 cups 2. Wash, peel and grate cucumber. Roasted cumin powder: 2 tsp 3. Squeeze out excess water from grated cucumber. Add turmeric Red chilli powder: ¼ tsp or as per taste powder, mustard paste and chopped green chillies to it and keep it aside. Mustard paste (Optional): 1 tsp 4. Whisk curd, add roasted cumin powder, grated cucumber and salt to Chopped green chillies: as per taste it. Mix well until combined. You may add a little squeezed out cucumber Chopped coriander leaves: 2 tsp juice/normal water, in case the consistency of the raita is too thick. 5. Garnish with chopped coriander. May sprinkle some roasted cumin Turmeric powder: 1-1.5 tsp powder and red chilli powder on top of it too, to give it a final touch. Salt: as per taste 6. Goes well with parathas or regular meals. March 2021 / knowyourtown.co.in 3 EASE OF HAPPINESS... t’s indeed not good news for India based on the quality Thane, Kalyan-Dombivli or for of life, economic-ability of a that matter Navi Mumbai,as city, and its sustainability and Ithese emerging cities have resilience. The assessment also missed the top five positions incorporates the residents’ view in the survey conducted to on the services provided by city compute the ease of living administration through a Citizen index (EoLI). Thane has secured Perception Survey. 58.16 marks thereby bagging the 11th position. Bengaluru Quality of air, condition of with 66.70, Pune with 66.27 and roads and other infrastructure, Ahmedabad with 64.87 have public transport system, won the first three positions. water and power supply, beautification, green Mumbai,which boasts of cover and open spaces, being the commercial capital educational and medical of the country is on 10th facilities, connectivity,heritage position and performed a shade conservation,cultural activities better than Thane. Ofcourse and many correlated functions that should not be treated as come under the scanner in such consolation but a reason for surveys. Thane has apparently introspection to work on the not lived upto the mark and the failures. civic administrators must look The rankings under Ease into it earnestly. of Living Index 2020 were announced for cities with a There was mention of the population of over a million, happiness index in the TMC and cities with less than a budget last year. It does not million people. The assessment find a mention this year. The Best Wishes, exercise was conducted last pandemic may give a benefit year. As many as 111 cities of doubt for the exclusion, but participated in the exercise. then there are many things which can be achieved without The Ease of Living Index spending a penny. Discipline [EoLI] is an assessment tool is the key for ease of living. It that evaluates the quality cannot be purchased but has of life and the impact of to come from within. Discipline Miilind Ballal various initiatives for urban and ownership towards the city development. It provides a go hand in hand in creating Editor, Know Your Town comprehensive understanding happiness and that too with of participating cities across ease. Know Your Town Owner MIilind Ballal Printer, Publisher Miilind Ballal Printed at Thane vaibhav, Damle Apartment, Veer Savarkar Road, Tembi Naka, Thane (w) Tel 022-25341526 | Fax 022-25348594 | email id: [email protected] Editor and Publisher: Miilind Ballal | Managing Editor: Niikhil Ballal | Associate Editors: Juili Kulkarni Design Editor : Sunil Pathare | Photo Editor : Ashok Ghag, Ramsing, Gajanan Harimkar | Accounts : Priyanka Mane | Circulation: Pramod Gholap 4 March 2021 / knowyourtown.co.in IMPECCABLE Nikhil Ballal / Juili Kulkarni It starts with a dream, add action and perseverance, and it ends up becoming a reality. A little boy from Vangaon, a village in Palghar, with dreams in his eyes to start a business, set up his own company, fighting all odds and rising strong to make it big in life. With a workforce of close to 1000, clients in excess of 100, and projects over 200, Miraj Instrumentation is going from strength to strength. It has served various industries like Oil and Gas, Power, Fertilizer, Chemical, Water, Life science, Refineries, Steel Plants, LNG Terminals, Cement Plants, FMCG & Manufacturing Plants, Agro-based Industries, Beverages & Distilleries etc. Its reputation is backed by a high level of commitment towards its customers. This is continuously sustained by great efforts made by its highly qualified and trained team of professional engineers and managers. In a span of 25 years, it has become one of the leading companies providing Electrical and Instrumentation Services across India and GCC countries. ajesh Solanki spent his impressionable Instrumentation from VPM Polytechnic College no immediate vacancies there. When he was years in Vangaon and then moved to in Thane and soon after that started working there, he saw a consignment of goods, which Ambernath, courtesy of his father’s as an apprentice. “I worked for a big company, was apparently required to be transported transfer, who was a government everything was good there, but the only to Mahad& for some reason, the person, Remployee.Hailing from a typical middle class, drawback was that I hardly got an opportunity who was responsible for the transportation Rajesh always wanted to start his business. He to learn. My main aim to do a job was to was not available. Grabbing this opportunity did not have a business background as such gather as muchknowledge as possible. Since I with both hands, Rajesh offered to do the apart from his maternal uncle, who was self- was not learning anything there, I quit in one needful. The interviewer agreed and the next employed. “My father believed that Business and a half months,” he adds. day Rajesh transported the goods to Mahad. Symbolizes Progress,” says Rajesh. After that, Rajesh was again looking for a He not only transported the goods but also He completed his Diploma in job. He went to a company however there were started working on the site. “I worked with this March 2021 / knowyourtown.co.in 5 company for close to two and a half years”. guardand none of the workers are ready to I learnt many things therealso I did different work because of the fear of deadly cyclone jobs which helped me to gain an all-round Social initiatives of Ek Udaan and the giant corporation was looking perspective of things,” Rajesh explains. for a new contractor. Balaji, who used to In that company, there were some Under the umbrella of ‘Ek Udaan’, Rajesh be Electrical and Instrumentation Head senior people who wanted to start their Solanki and Jayashree Solanki have formed at Cadbury in Thane referred Rajesh to own business. They knew about Rajesh and a trust to provide capital to the budding and Reliance. Rajesh had worked on a Cadbury his desire to do business. They approached upcoming businessmen and businesswomen project in his previous job and during that him and Rajesh agreed. It was decided that time he gotto know Balaji. the senior people would join the business hailing from financially humble backgrounds. Reliance was just the start. It was as soon as they get their first project. The objective is to provide encouragement followed by L&T and Kellogg’s. Rajesh Meanwhile, Rajesh had quit his job and was to the entrepreneurs and offer wings to their struck lucrative deals with these companies. full-fledged involved in the business. After dreams to fly high. ‘Ek Udaan’ is currently in After working a fair bit in India, Rajesh close to six months, when Rajesh could the lookout for such budding entrepreneurs started getting global opportunities. not bag a project, the senior people from “It was L&T again. The company his former organization, gave up the idea whom they can help. wanted a contractor for its work in Sri of business and started working for big The other social initiative that Solankis are Lanka. During that period LTTE was active companies. The business which was going working on is empowering domestic help. in Sri Lanka, and because of this reason to be a four-person game ended up being At present, there is no fixed wage structure they could not get the required personnel. a sole proprietorship. for people working as domestic help in our L&T approached me and with no hesitation In 1995, the founding stone of Miraj I decided to pounce on this opportunity. Instrumentation Services (I) Pvt. Ltd. was households. In pursuit of streamlining this I submitted a tentative budget, and the laid. The first few projects helped Rajesh otherwise unorganized employment, Ek Udaan company was happy that it was half of its to breakeven. For a couple of years, he is working towards a proper salary structure expectations,” recollects Rajesh.After Sri could only manage to get small jobs.Finally, for domestic help and conduct programmes Lanka, Miraj Instrumentation conducted all is effort and hard work paid off when and workshops for the overall development of successful projects in Dubai, Bahrain, Saudi he bagged the Reliance Jamnagar Plant Arabia, Kenya, Libya, Iran, Sharjah, Oman, Project.