Iron Food

IELTS Preparation material

 IELTS Preparation:

Listening

Reading

Writing

Speaking

Some youtube videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md6qCsl3Yds

https://www.youtube.com/c/IELTSLiz789

https://youtu.be/UbJzVPoWnx0

https://www.ielts-exam.net/mock-test

https://ieltsliz.com/

Books for Infants/Toddlers/Kids

 Infant and toddlers 

Good night moon

Love you forever

If you give mouse a cookie

Goodnight Gorilla

Brown Bear Brown Bear what do you see

Your First Word Will Be Dada by Jimmy Falloon

Belly Button Book

Go Dog go

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed 

A Bear Called Paddington

The Rainbow Fish

The Very Hungry Caterpillar 

1,2,3 to the zoo

Will you be my friend? 

Yummy Yucky

Baby Be Kind

Lama Lama Red Pajama

Pat the Bunny

Baby Faces

My First Baby Signs

Sheep in a Jeep

I see a cow can you?

The Baby’s lapbook

Black on White

How a Baby Grows

More More More said the baby

The Book of Baths

Textures

Building a House

Colour Zoo

Max’s new suit

Spot goes to the farm 

Hide and Seek Elmer

1.5 to 6

Hide and Seek Elmer

Where the wild things are 

I wish you more 

Oh,the places you will go

The runaway bunny 

The colours of us

If you give mouse a cookie

Curious george series

Bubbles series

Pepper series 

Brown Bear Brown Bear what do you see?

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

The Rainbow Fish

The Very Hungry Caterpillar 

Guess How Much I Love You

Cave Baby

Room on the Broom

Gruffalo

Gruffalo’s Child 

Corduroy

Lama Lama Red Pajama

Mr Brown Can Moo Can You?

Potty

Welcome with Love (book to welcome sibling)

Flyaway ladybug

Colour Zoo

Max’s new suit

Spot goes to the farm 

My little Sister ate one Hare

I don’t care said the bear

Contrary mary

Mouse paint

Little lumpty

The seven silly eaters

Sunu sunu snail snail 

Adventures of toto the auto

The five tongued, firefanged,folkadotted dragon snake 

The runaway pepper corn

Why are you afraid to hold my hand

The Moustache Man

The ouch and moo

Dr Seuss books

Julia Donaldson books

Eric carle books

Don’t let the pigeon drive the bus and other Mo Willems books

6 to 9

The giving tree

Cave Baby

Smartest Giant in Town 

Room on the Broom

The Gruffalo

Gruffalo’s Child 

Corduroy 

Have you ever seen?

The Why Why girl (Indian author)

Granny’s sari (“)

All about nothing

Moin and the monster

Gajapati kulapathi 1 and 2

Junior Kumbhakaran 

Norbu’s new shoes

Padma goes to space

The moustache man

At least a fish

Kallu series

Ekki Dokki

Tiger came to tea

Have you seen a crocodile 

Button up

Yummy

Pippi longstocking

Dr Seuss books

Julia Donaldson books

Eric carle books

Don’t let the pigeon drive the bus and other Mo Willems books

9+

The Mahabharata -child’s view

Barefoot Husain

Handmade India

Mayil will not be quiet

Malgudi days

Your turn now

Tales of Historic Delhi

Wisha Wozzariter

The glum peacock

Diary of a wimpy kid series

Big Nate series

Harry Potter series 

Roald Dahl series

Narnia series

Five children and it

Jeremy strong series

Exclamation mark

The dot

Pancho rabbit and he coyote 

Snowman

Firefly July

I am Amelia Earhart 

Dragon breath

The adventures of nanny pigin 

Anna hibiscus

Make way for  dyamonde Daniel 

Bad Kitty

Rickshaw girl

Good night stories for rebel girls

The hundred dresses

Toys go out

Love was a fancy word until I met you!

You look for me the moment you get up from bed in the morning!

You hug me randomly and smile like everything is perfect in the moment! 

You want me to be there in your vicinity, even when you are busy! 

You care for me in your own ways, gets angry if someone claims me to be their's! 

I am still surprised to find out how much I love you from the moment you came into my life, without even seeing you! 

Protecting you from the world, loving you more each moment and keeping you happy is all that I can focus on!

First week in Vancouver - Canada

Before I'm gonna list down the basics that you should know once you land to Canada, few pre-requisites I want to point out that is important as of 19th July, 2022.

1. Download ArriveCan. You must have the ArriveCan receipt with you. It will be needed everywhere right from the source airport you board, till the time you come out of the airport.

2. Immigration is gonna take lot of time. If you think you can talk to people and get advanced, you just cannot. They are not responsible for your next flight. So you would get the token at the first point of entry, you need to just wait for your turn. In case you miss your connecting flight, and they dont have the next flight, you might need to spend the night at the place nearest to airport. If you are lucky they have next flight, they would simply put you on next flight, free of charge!.

3. Please please carry a credit card/ forex card that you are ready to use it for at least 10 days here. Without a credit card, life is impossible here. Debit card is also fine. But just with cash it wont work as Uber/ online food delivery( Uber eats/Doordash) / online groceries( instacart - Get $5 and free delivery from Instacart. Use my code I16A24 or link: https://inst.cr/t/ac786647f) they don't accept cash and you will be heavily dependent on it once you come here in first week.

4. Be prepared to spend extra 1000$ etc for anything miscellaneous be it food/stay/Uber. It's fine.

5. Change the country in google play store/app store (you need credit card details to change in app store)

6. First week is gonna be super super hard.

Now here is the list of basics after you land in Vancouver, Canada.

1. It is filled with Indians (Punjabi's) everywhere, they are super helpful, amazing people. Most of them you meet has been staying for 10/15/20 years etc. One guy we meet has been here for 48 years. He was driving uber as he was close to his retirement and dint feel like sitting at home. 

2. There are 100s and 100s of ways to earn here. You can find job in first week itself both technical/non technical. Now i understand why everyone moves to Canada, it does give you opportunity to earn which in India it might not be this easy. For example, we are staying in an Airbnb. This girl is hardly 28 years old, came when she was 18 years old, staying since 10 years and earning crazy. She has rented 2 places and renting it out as Airbnb, bought her own house and rented it as Airbnb. While our stay she was bust setting up another Airbnb. She also does some shooting and is working in some company as well. Now don't be surprised when I say she came here after her school to do nursing studies and no where continuing to what she learnt in college. My point is, here, no one works in their tech field. They are earning good, living good life just by doing Uber/salesperson and another fulltime job as security/company/restaurant/rental business etc.

3. For food - order groceries either online in Instacart or step out walk for 10-30 mins and get groceries from nearby stores. You will literally get anything in this world, you want. It is that diverse. You can also visit gurudwara's. You get free food to have anytime between 7am to 9pm on all the days. They offer you free bed/ groceries as well. Everyone will be ready to help you there. Some gurudwara also offers place to stay, however I'm not sure about that. Some said like "Gurudwara Dukh Nivaran" has provision to stay as well. You can get tiffin services. Search in fb marketplace or Yogi kitchen is very famous here.

4. We bought food from Punjabi restaurant - Ustaadji- 2 gravies dal and mix veg, it lasted us for 2 days/ 4 meals. Good quantity.

5. FB marketplace is your go to place for everything. You can literally furnish your home with free stuff, you need to research and take out time to go out and take it and transportation.

6. Go for SIN number - search for Service Canada center near your place. Start at 7 am in queue and you should get sin with in that day else it is never ending wait.

For SIM You can use my referral to get FIDO sim and you will get $50 credited to your account which will be adjusted in your bill. 

https://referme.to/nikitaa-60

7. Take your SIN number ( although its not mandatory to have a SIN number to open a bank) , id (i.e passport) , work permit to bank (td & scotia are most preferred, I got mine from CIBC, lot of people have moved to CIBC as it helps in mortgaging) and get a new account open. Usually you should get 300-400 cashback on new account at all banks. Ask for credit card as well. Download the app. You can transfer anyone via e-transfer with their email id.

8. Bank will issue you a direct deposit print, also called void cheque. Keep it handy, you will need this frequently for any recurring deposit/credit you want to do. Give this print & sin to your company HR via email. Now, you are ready to receive salary.

9. As you settle down, you can get BC ID/driving licence as a local ID here which will help you to get some discounts/offers here. For example: if you have a local ID, when you go for a SIM, they get offers in phone if you buy with the pack. 

10. You can rent a car from Avis/Hertz. Most credit cards covers the rental insurance, so check that if you have one else you need to buy insurance separately.

11. Office chair you can get it from Walmart, office desk from IKEA. Bed/Mattress take from IKEA (Malm and Hague - bed, Morgedal - mattress) if you want India type hard/firm mattress else everywhere you get the soft ones like in hotels! Pillows from walmart. You will need a fan too for summers if your place doesnt have an AC already. You can get it from walmart or Costco.

Where to shop from:

1. Walmart - Go to for everything you need. Any grocery, any utility you will find there. You will find organizers for your wardrobe too for good and cheap price. 

2. Dollarama - Here everything is priced from $1 - $4. You get all the utilities like dishwashing stuff, soap, shampoo, boxes containers, chips, chocolate etc.

3.  Mainly Walmart and Dollarama will help you set up home with basics of food and home cleaning. You will get utensils as well. To get more utensils you can check - Canada Tire ( expensive as compared to Walmart or Ikea too!) / Costco ( you will need membership to shop there. It is usually $60-$120) / Ikea ( you will get few things at very reasonable rate.

4. Indian stores like - Fruiticana, No frills, day to day are very popular.  My recommendation would be find a indian local punjabi store. We could get everything from there. It was next to gurudwara. SunPharm/Sabzi Mandi on 152 street Surrey.

5. Look for thrift stores in your nearby location, sometimes you can get very good deals. Value village is again very popular here. 

6. Last but not the least if you can drive a Uhaul or any mini truck, you can find free/cheap stuff on facebook marketplace which u can transport yourself.

Please note the above info is all based on my experience and learning in two weeks after landing here in Vancouver. I noted it down so that it can help a newbie. Leave a comment if you feel I should add/update any point or if it was useful to you! :) 

Places to visit in Vancouver

Tourism spots around Vancouver and BC

1. Malls: Pacific Centre, Metropolis at Metrotown, Guildford mall, Surrey City-Centre, Tsawwassen mills, McArthur Designer outlet

2. Museums: Vancouver Maritime Museum, Museum of Vancouver, Museum of Surrey, Britannia Mine Museum

3. Tours: Harbour cruises, Hop on hop off Vancouver buses (covers downtown), seaplane, whale watching

a. Example locations: Gastown, Canada place, Rogers stadium, Stanley Park, science world

4. Parks: Stanley Park (trails and aquarium) and Queen Elizabeth park

5. Vancouver Island: Nanaimo, Victoria and Tofino

6. Capilano Suspension bridge

7. Whistler

8. Vancouver zoo

9. Hiking trails – typically around the deep cove area in North Vancouver

10. Richmond Night Market, Steveston farmers and artisan market

11. University campuses – UBC (by the ocean) and SFU (Burnaby – mountains) have lots of attractions and sites such as botanical gardens and beaches

12. Vancouverbestplaces.com (gathers events happening anywhere in bc)

• Downtown: Chinatown, Sun Yat-Sen Garden, Gastown, Yaletown, Harbour Centre, Robson Street shopping, Vancouver Public library, Canada Place, the Marine Building...
• Stanley Park: Vancouver Aquarium, Totem Poles, Seawall, Lions Gate Bridge
• Granville Island: market and street fair, plus Granville Island Brewery
• The University of British Columbia: Japanese Gardens, Rose Gardens, Botanical Gardens, Wreck Beach, Jericho Beach, Museum of Anthropology
• Science World, H. R. MacMillan Planetarium, Vancouver Museum, Art Gallery
• Queen Elizabeth Park, Bloedel Conservatory, Van Dusen Botanical Gardens
• Pacific Centre, Metrotown, Richmond Centre, and Lansdowne Shopping Malls
• Kitsilano Beach, and kayaking in English Bay (Symphony of Fire during summer)
• a Vancouver Canucks hockey game
• lots of great golf courses
• the Pacific National Exhibit (fair / amusement park)
• Seabus and North Shore Lonsdale Quay
• Grouse and Cyprus Mountain hiking
• Capillano and Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridges
• 2010 Winter Olympics sites
• Whistler-Blackcomb Resort and the sea-to-sky highway
• day trip to Victoria and Vancouver Island by ferry or seaplane
• whale watching in the Strait of Juan de Fuca
• and, of course, the food! particularly good Asian restaurants

Places we have visited so far in Vancouver:

1. Sea to Sky Squamish - the ride is pretty enjoyable, you can see gold mines on the way, gondola and a nice indian restaurant as well.

2. Golden Ears Provincial park - we did a small trail and went to Alouette Beach

3. Buntzen Lake

4. 


Day trips:
1. Bowen island is a non-reservation route though. Same day or one day trip is great. 

Could also do Hope, Manning park, Kelowna, Vernon, Pemberton, Squamish

Seattle/Bellingham is a good short trip too.
We did penticton loop merit

Sushine Coast, Tofino. Galiano Island

Osoyoos - Summerland - Penticton - Peachland!

We did it in 2 days, tbh.

Day 1

- Left Surrey at 7 AM

- Reached Osoyoos around Noon (with 1 break in Manning Park for 20-ish minutes)

- Spent 2-3 hours on the shores of Okanagan lake 

- Checked into our hotel around 3 PM

- Rest and recovery till 6 PM

- Hotel pool until 8 PM

- Left for dinner and came back by 11

Day 2

- Breakfast at 8

- Left for Summerland around 10

- Took a break here and there in a couple of wineyards and farms on the way

- Reached Summerland around 11

- Left around 12:30/12

- Reached Penticton around 1:30 PM

- Left Penticton around 3:30/4

- Stopped at Hope for early dinner around 6 PM

- Back to Surrey by 8 PM

Personal Development Topics

 

Topics discussed on 1/6:

Also merging content from previous email so that you all have one view of it.

 

Book:  How to Memorize Anything by Aditi Singhal, Sudhir Singhal.

Topic: Understanding Memory

Wondering why we forget things we did just few minutes back. Let understand how human memory works:

• Potential of memory: 100 billion neurons, each about 1000 connections to store knowledge exponentially increase memory with each connection to about 2.5 petabytes.
• Memory would improve with more knowledge we feed to it, has not much impact due to age
• We are all Equal: Each individual has almost the same size of memory (Same hardware 😊)

 

How are memories formed: (3Rs of Memory) Registration, Retention, Recollection

• Registration: (Critical step in ensuring we remember)
1. Missing Keys: You were not able to remember where you placed keys because you never consciously register where when you kept those somewhere
2. We register information with five senses: Sight, Hearing, Smell, Taste, Touch. Associate information with more senses to remember it better.
• Retention:
1. E.g. We forget Words learned few days back, It’s Memory leak.
2. Strong association with prior knowledge, clear, vivid, imagery followed by periodic revision are key to the retention
3. Important aspects:

                                                               i.      Attention: Focus/attention to the fact/information makes strong imprint on memory creation. Information stored without specific attention is more likely to get lost. Attention/Focus means stable mind thinking only one thing at a time. Mere repetition/revision without focus will not improve memory

                                                             ii.      Interest: Interest play big role in forming stronger bonds in brain. We remember things/information which interests us for longer even till end of life.

                                                           iii.      Emotions: Similar to interest, emotional attachment has much stronger impact to memory. We almost never forget something which has emotional impact to us.

• Recollection:
1. E.g. A subject studied well but not able to answer during exam
2. State of mind at the time of recollection impacts ability to recollect.
3. Meditation, relaxation helps improving recollection.
• Quite a few techniques are described in book for Training Memory. Happy practicing… 😊

 

Book: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People:

 

• Paradigms and Principles:
1. Character Ethics == Foundation of success: Integrity, humility, fidelity, temperance, courage, justice, patience, industry, simplicity, modesty.
2. Personality Ethics -- (Secondary Greatness): Public image, attitude, behavior, skills and techniques
3. Ensure you work towards improving Character than Personality.
• Habit 1:  Be Proactive  --You are the creator
1. It means we are responsible for our own lives
2. Our behavior is function of our decisions
• Habit 2:  Begin with the end in mind
1. Create your personal Mission Statement
• Habit 3: Put first things first
1. Time Management topic described below
• Habit 4: Think Win-Win
1. Win-Win topic described below
• Habit 5: First Seek to Understand and then to Be Understood

1.       Seek to Understand

a. Influencing others

                                                                                 i.            You cannot influence just with techniques - others will sense duplicity and manipulation

                                                                               ii.            Real Key to your influence is you as an example, your actual conduct

                                                                             iii.            Your example flows naturally out of your character or the kind of person you truly are

                                                                             iv.            Public performance and private performance should match

b. Empathic listening

                                                                                 i.            "Seek first to understand"

                                                                               ii.            We're filled with our own rightness, our own autobiography.

1.       Our conversation become monologues

                                                                             iii.            We may practice pretending., attentive listening, paying attention and focusing energy on the words.. This is not enough

                                                                             iv.            Active listening

1.       Should not be with intent to reply, to control, to manipulate.

2.       Should be with intent to understand. - another person's frame of reference.

3.       Empathy is not sympathy (Sympathy - means you agree with someone, it makes others dependent).

4.       Empathy means you fully, deeply, understand that person, emotionally as well as intellectually.

5.       Communication - only 10% words, 30% - sound and 60 % body language.

6.       Listen with your ears, eyes and heart.

7.       Listen for feeling, for meaning, for behavior. You intuit, you sense, you feel.

8.       Empathic listening gives accurate data.

                                                                               v.            Diagnose before you prescribe.

                                                                                 i.            Four Autobiographical responses.

1.       Evaluate - agree or disagree

2.       Probe - ask questions

3.       Advise - we give counsel based on our own experience

4.       Interpret - try to figure out people to explain their motives, behavior based on motives

2.       Seek to be Understood

1.       Seeking to understand requires Consideration. Seeking to be understood takes Courage.

2.       Ethos - Personal credibility, the faith people have in your integrity and competency.

3.       Pathos - it's the feeling - alignment with the emotional thrust of another person's communication

4.       Logos - the reasoning part of the presentation.

5.       Effective Presentation

                                                                                                               i.            Ethos, Pathos, Logos - your character, relationships and logic.

                                                                                                             ii.            Jumping directly to logic is biggest mistake. First take into consideration Ethos and Pathos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Topic Effective management is putting first things first. (Time Management)

Management is discipline, carrying it out

 

Four generations of time management

First generation- Notes and checklists - recognition and inclusiveness to the many demands placed on our time and energy.

Second generation - calendars and appointment books

Third generation - prioritization, clarifying values, comparison of relative worth of activities--- specific goals - short term and long-term targets - daily planning

Fourth generation focus on preserving and enhancing relationships and accomplishing results rather than just time and things management.

Opportunities to develop rich relationships, spontaneity and quality of life

 

Quadrant II Focus:

 

	Urgent	Not Urgent
Important	I   Activities: Crisis Pressing problems Deadline-driven projects	II   Activities: Prevention, PC activities Relationship building Recognizing new opportunities Planning, recreation
Not Important	III   Activities: Interruptions, some calls Some mail, some reports Some meetings Proximate, pressing matters. Popular activities	IV   Activities Trivia, busy work Some mail Some phone calls. Time wasters Pleasant activities

 

 

	Urgent	Not Urgent
Important	I   Results: Stress Burnout Crisis Management	II   Results: Vision, perspective Balance Discipline Control Few crisis
Not Important	III   Results: Short Term Focus Crisis Management Reputation-chameleon Character See goals and plans as worthless Feel Victimized, out of control Shallow or broken relationships	IV   Activities Total irresponsibility Dependent on others or institutions for basics

 

 

 

Topic Think Win-Win

 

 

 

Win-Win:

Win-Win or no Deal.

Win - Lose

Lose - Win

Lose/Lose

 

Five Dimensions of Win/Win

 

Exercise of each of the unique human endowments - self-awareness, imagination, conscience, and independent will in our relationships with others

 

The principle of Win/Win is fundamental to success in all our interaction and it embraces five interdependent dimensions of life.

 

Begins with Character and moves towards relationships out of which flow agreements

Its nurtured in an environment where structure and systems are based on Win/Win and it involves process

 

Character: - This is foundation. Everything is built on it

3 Character traits:

1.       Integrity - Habit 1,2 and 3 help us develop integrity.

2.       Maturity - balance between courage and consideration If person can express his feelings and convictions with courage balanced with consideration for the feelings and convictions of another person, he is mature.

0.       Abundance Mentality

a.       Paradigm that there is plenty out there for everybody.

b.       People with scarcity mentality have a very difficult time sharing recognition and credit, power or profit - even with those who help in production.

c.       Public Victory does not mean victory over other people. It means success in effective interaction that brings mutually beneficial results to everyone involved.

 

Relationships

1.       The trust, the Emotional Bank Account, is the essence of Win/Win.

2.       A relationship where bank account are high and both parties are deeply committed to Win/Win is the ideal springboard for tremendous synergy (Habit 6).

 

Agreement

Note: An agreement means very little in letter without character and relationship

Five elements of Win/win agreements:

1.       Desired results: (not methods) identify what is to be done and when

2.       Guidelines: specify parameters (principles, policies)

3.       Resources: identify the human, financial, technical or organizational support available to help accomplish the results.

4.       Accountability: sets up the standards or performance and the time of evaluation

5.       Consequences: good and bad, natural and logical what does and will happen as a result of evaluation.

 

Developing win/win performance agreement is the central activity of management.

 

Systems

Win/Win can only survive in an organization when the systems support it.

Often the problem is in the system, not in the people. If you put good people in bad systems, you get bad results. You have to water the flowers you want to grow.

As People really learn to think Win/Win, they can set up the systems to create and reinforce it. They can transform unnecessarily competitive situations to cooperative once  they can powerfully impact their effectiveness by building both P and PC.

 

In business executives can align their systems to create teams of highly productive people working together to compete against external standards of performance.

 

Process

First, See the problem from the other point of view- Seek to understand and to give expression to the needs and concerns of the other party as well as or better than they can themselves

Second, identify the key issues and concerns (not positions) involved

Third determine what results would constitute a fully acceptable solution

Fourth identify possible new options to achieve those results.