Thanks to a capital raising workshop in Banjara Hills this morning, I crashed at Banjara Hills for second time in a week. This time I was tired of going out to eat so I offered to make my first Indian dinner. I found a recipe for chicken tikka masala and made my shopping list accordingly. I did not know what half of the items on the list was and very grateful to one staff member at More Supermarket in Banjara Hills. After venturing by AC bus for the first time I headed straight to the supermarket. I was impressed that they zip tied my backpack instead of having me leave it at security which is the protocol at Vijeytha. I started in the spice aisle just browsing the immense selection of masala spices and found some items on my list. As I turned into the next aisle a guy who was stocking the shelves saw I was utterly confused at what I should be getting. He took my list and helped me pick up the smallest quantity of each item. He even got the loose lentils and weighed them for me. I then proceeded to find the tomatoes and dairy products. I couldn't find heavy cream but got a good amount of chicken. I even decided to do my own food shopping since I was down to just uncooked brown rice. I bought ingredients for poha and Punjabi Tidka Dal. I also picked up some plastic containers for storage since all of mine went to salt, oil and rice. After ringing up all my purchases I saw it was my most expensive grocery run but I think the spices will last me for a while. The chicken was the most expensive and I don't plan on buying it often. More is much cheaper than my local vijetha where I spent half the amount and ended up with not much food that I found myself rationing the food. I headed to Kheerti Lakeview apartments to begin cooking. Okorite was my assistant chef as I whipped up my first Indian meal that ended up missing some ingredients. I purposely didn't buy chili but didn't write a complete list and didn't get cadamon or tomato paste. It came out pretty good much to my surprise since I eyeballed all measurements for lack of measuring spoons.

Today was a Sankalp Forum capital raising workshop that IDEX kindly paid for our admission It was well organized with intellectual speakers who were up to the task of imparting information. I think IDEX should take note because even though it did not start on time it was much more useful than the orientation week fundraising workshop. The speakers encouraged questions and were organized in their presentations. They did not spend the allotted time talking about themselves and what they do but acted as mentors to the audience. The panel discussion was interactive and informative. Both panelists were able to speak on the challenges in the field, common mistakes of entrepreneurs and the mistakes made that can't be overlooked by investors. The first speaker spoke on the steps to capital raising from knowing why, how much and where a promoter should seek funds to ultimately securing investors. It was a great networking event and I plan to contact the speakers and the gentleman from Learning Fields. I am not one for finance but I do understand the importance of understanding finance, investing and how to secure funds