Food for the mind and the body: Project 365/6 [Jan. 30, 2012]

Food for thought: The only worthwhile piece I read in the papers today

The comic strip was the only worthwhile item in the newspapers today. As the year began, I decided to write only about news that is in keeping with this blog’s purpose, which essentially meant I keep out the ‘big’ news made by the ‘big’ people: the great, the famous, the rich and the powerful. And, I was going to draw only on the papers I read every day. So far, it has not been too difficult to find news that is about the common people or at least matters to them. But today has been different. So here goes:

‘Where’s the toilet please?’ asks this dainty stick figure at the reception. She has just fallen off the door on which she was stuck. [Courtesy: Mike Flanagan]

Beetle’s sleeping in a tent, in the middle of a dark foest. ‘Who’ says a bird, and ‘Who’ again.

‘That should be spelled hoo,’ says Beetle to the bird.

‘Sorrie,’ says the owl. [Courtesy: Greg and Mort Walker]

Food for the palate: Mixed veggie kuzhambu with the aroma of capsicum

Cook 3 ounces of split red gram and mash well. Soak a small lime-sized ball of tamarind in 2 ounces of lukewarm water. Chop 2 capsicum into tiny bits, grate 1 carrot. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in pan, splutter mustard, add a few pieces of curry leaves pinched, 2 green chillies slit, add cut capsicum and fry till semi-transparent. Add grated carrot, stir a second, add cooked and mashed gram, squeezed out tamarind water, kuzhambu powder/ sambar powder bought off the shelf or prepared at home [see earlier post http://kshama.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/food-for-the-mind-and-the-body-project-3656-jan-17-2012/], and salt to taste. Let simmer for 10 minutes or till raw smell of tamarind goes. Eat with hot rice, dosa, roti, idli or use as dip for plain bread.

CHEE!

An Indian minister describes the very public desecration [I use the term consciously] of some of the top scientists of the country, who were at the helm of one of the nation’s premier scientific institutions,  as ‘a warning to the scientific community.’ How should one read this? As a threat to the people of science who had better recognise that in our democracy not all are equal? As a critique of the policy that gave primacy to scientific institutions in the belief that the country would benefit? As an advice to those who may want to do science in India that they had better know the politics before they know their subject?

Were the scientific community of India, thus warned by the minister, decide to put their pens down, take just half an hour off from work, on just one day, to contemplate on the ramifications of this dictum, where would the country be?

While the desirability of development in the form it has taken, and the semantics of what the term progress means or should mean are important questions, it is also true that our present levels of comfort and confidence owe much more to the scientific community than to the political establishment that has deemed it fit to issue the ‘warning.’

Food for the mind and the body

Food for thought: Spitting in the sky

Top scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation [ISRO] have been accused of complicity in a deal with a private firm that allegedly cost or would have cost the nation thousands of crores of rupees. Theirs is a trial that is being held in full public glare, with not a fig leaf of dignity allowed to them. These scientists have been at the helm of various departments of the organisation. If India’s space programme has been hailed for its success, its indigenous growth even in the thick of the sanctions imposed on it by the global community in the wake of its second nuclear test, surely, these men at the helm had a role to play? In the light of this, the government of India’s  gesture in branding the scientists as ‘guilty’ on the basis of a report, and making a public spectacle of it, without giving the accused a considered hearing appears unseemly and suicidal.

Food for the palate: Cucumber raita

Peel and cut cucumber into tiny pieces – as small as you can make it – to make about 8 ounces of the cut vegetable [this is an art by itself and only comes with practice; the pieces, when done by an expert, would each be no more than a millimetre square!]. Grind together 1 teaspoon raw mustard and 2 red chillis to a fine powder [more of this powder can be prepared and stored] and blend into cucumber, using a spatula to mix it in gently with salt to taste. Add 2 tablespoons grated fresh coconut, mix in gently with curds to make the desired consistency [ should be fairly thick]. Serve cool or cold. Spice, like salt, is a matter of taste and add more of mustard and chilli powder if you like it hot.

Food for the mind and the body: Project 365/6 [Jan. 23, 2012]

Food for thought: Deprivations take the back seat

After a late night journey, a passenger left a bag with five hundred thousand rupees [Rs. 500,000] in a hired autorickshaw in Bangalore, India. K Panduranga, the driver of the vehicle, contacted the police to return the money to the owner. In a country that has been waging a people’s movement against corruption in high places, the humble autorickshaw driver’s honesty has been much admired.

If Panduranga’s economic conditions took the back seat in a commendable act of integrity, so did deprivation of gender in the case of the women achievers [see below] who broke the ‘glass ceiling’ to smithereens, each in their own way.

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“The more we talk about the glass ceiling, the greater disfavour we do to ourselves, as women,” says an Indian woman in a society where women continue to be more vulnerable because of the traditionally patriarchal society. [Kalpana Morparia, CEO, JP Morgan, in ‘Business Standard,’ January 23, 2012.]

Other women’s voices, also in the same publication:

“The proverbial glass ceiling is a … mental construct that women must shatter to fulfil their dreams … I believe that women must never adopt this self-defeating belief in a glass ceiling beyond which they cannot soar.” [Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairman and Managing Director, Biocon]

“Given the size of the women labour force and the scarcity of leadership talent, utilisation of womens’ talent and skills is necessary not just from the micro-perspective of the company but from country’s growth perspective too.” [Shyamala Gopinath, formerly Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India]

“Women should regard the glass ceiling as one of life’s obstacles and not ‘The’ obstacle in their career … it would erode once people appreciate the different leadership style of women … Contrary to belief, they [women] tend to take more risks and try out a different way of solving problems than men.” [Preeti Vyas Giannetti, Chairwoman and CEO, Vyas Giannetti Creative]

Food for the palate: Coconut rice

Cook 4 ounces of rice and keep aside to cool. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a pan, splutter a teaspoon of mustard, add a pinch of asafoetida, a teaspoon each of split black gram and split Bengal gram, 5 red chillis and 5 green chillis. When lentils brown, add 4 ounces of finely grated fresh coconut to the hot oil, and stir fry on slow flame till coconut shavings turn golden brown. Add cooled, cooked rice, salt to taste and stir gently over slow flame for a few minutes, till well blended. Eat hot or cold. No side dish required.

Food for the mind and the body: Project 365/6 [Jan. 19, 2012]

Food for thought: Love and politics! And an amazing survival story

A regional party in India has promised more parks for lovers, and has promised an end to ‘moral policing.’ So, what is the name of the party? ‘Love Party’ of course! And, this is for real. They are actually campagining for a forthcoming state election and have already announced the names of candidates for a hundred constituencies in elections for a state assembly with more than four hundred seats.

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And, in another amazing story, on the other side of the globe, Yong Chun Kim, a resident of Tacoma in Washington, got lost in a blizzard when climbing the volcanic Mount Rainier. He kept alive by burning money and socks for warmth. Kim is sixty-six.

Food for the palate: Okra [lady's finger]  menthya kuzhambu: a spicy soup with the goodness of fenugreek

Soak a small lime-sized ball of tamarind in about 4 ounces of water. Grind to a fine powder 1 teaspoon of raw mustard, 4 red chillis, 1 teaspoon of fenugreek seeds. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a pan, splutter mustard, add a pinch of asafoetida and 1 teaspoon of split bengal gram. When gram browns, add 200 gm of okra cut into inch-sized pieces, stir a minute, add the powdered spices, 1 teaspoon of bengal gram flour, 1/2 a teaspoon turmeric powder, 1 teaspoon of rasam powder [see earlier post for recipe or use search on top] stir a second, add tamarind water, a tiny piece of jaggery, salt to taste, and bring to a boil. Let simmer on low flame till vegetables are cooked and a thickish consistency is reached. Goes well with roti, poori, dosa, idli or hot cooked rice, particularly with some crisp savories as a side dish.

Food for the mind and the body: Countdown 365/6 [Jan. 18, 2012]

Food for thought: The ways of law and justice

Robert Gattis killed his girlfriend in a fit of anger in 1990. He was sentenced to death by the courts that heard his case. It has now been commuted to life sentence, but without parole. Robert had been subjected to continuous sexual abuse as a child. As a consequence, he was mentally ill and prone to involuntary violent impulses. [See editorial in New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/opinion/a-death-penalty-commutation.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha211]

Police constable, Arun Kumar, stopped three men on a bike in the wee hours of Saturday [Jan. 14] and asked the driver, an advocate, for his driving license. Arun Kumar was only doing his duty, as per the orders issued by the police commissioner’s office.  Lawyers, protesting the treatment meted out to a colleague, took out a massive procession, without the mandatory permission from the police, and paralysed the city of Bangalore, in which the incident occurred. They dispersed only after their demand to suspend the police constable was conceded. “I did not expect that I would be suspended for doing my duty,” says Arun Kumar.

Food for the palette: Sweet pumpkin and lentils

Cook four ounces of split red gram till well done. Heat a teaspoon oil in a pan, splutter mustard, add a pinch of asafoetida, 8-10 green chillis, slit, a 1/2 inch piece of ginger, grated, 4 ounces of water, and 2 cups [of approx. 4 ounces each] of sweet pumpkin cut into cubes.  Add a teaspoon of turmeric powder and let cook. When the vegetables are well cooked, add the cooked gram, salt to taste, and let simmer for about 5 minutes till gram and vegetables are well meshed. Add 1 ounce of grated fresh coconut to the thick gravy. Remove from flame and add a tablespoon of fresh lime juice. Stir. Serve with cooked rice, roti, dosa, idli.

Food for the mind and the body: Project 365/6 [Jan. 17, 2012]

Food for thought: Of cab drivers and penguins: in the spirit of adventure

“Sir, you need three things: Good eyes, good brakes, and good luck.” – A Delhi cab driver to best selling author, Wilbur Smith, on how people manage to drive in Delhi. [See Aabhas Sharma's interview with the author in 'Business Standard,' Jan. 17, 2012]

………..

“[Penguins] came running up in twos and threes to greet us, and a more delightfully comical sight can scarcely be imagined …  Their interest was intense, and their haste to reach the ship was checked only by their childlike care in jumping over the little water leads between the floes; and, at last, when only a hundred yards or so intervened between them and ourselves, they would stand and stare in open-eyed astonishment, craning their necks to see all they could at a safe distance … Sometimes one of them would advance a little further with an inquiring squawk, and then overcome with its temerity it would retreat again to turn and stare and stand on tiptoe and flap its flippers and laughed at its own absurdity.” – Extract from an issue of ‘South Polar Times’ the first journal to be published from Antarctica, a pet venture of the indomitable Robert Falcon Scott, who reached the South Pole a hundred years ago, today. [See http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/science/scotts-south-pole-times-penguins-hockey-and-serious-stuff-too.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha210]

 Food for the palate: Mixed vegetable kuzhambu

Chop a miscellany of vegetables into cubes [potato, carrot, sweet pumpkin, sweet potato, beans, etc.]. Soak a small lime-sized ball of tamarind in water. Cook 3 ounces of split red gram, and vegetables, till well done.

Heat a teaspoon oil in a pan, splutter mustard, add a pinch of asafoetida, add the cooked gram and vegetables, squeeze out the tamarind, adding up to 6 ounces of water. Add kuzhambu powder bought off the shelf [or see preparation below]. Add salt to taste. Let boil till well meshed. Eat hot or cooled with rice, roti or dosa.

Kuzhambu powder:

Grind to a fine powder 4 ounces of coriander seeds, 2 ounces of split bengal gram, 8 ounces of whole red chilli, 1 ounce of fenugreek seeds, 1/2 ounce black pepper seeds, 4-5 cloves, an inch long stick of cinnamon, 1 green cardamom, a heaped teaspoon of turmeric powder. The powder here is sufficient for this dish, but can be prepared and stored in bulk for up to a month, without refrigeration. 

Food for the mind and the body: Project 365/6 [Jan. 16, 2012]

Food for thought: Fancy jobs and fashion parades 

Banking, Marketing and Automobile sectors continue to fascinate and attract those graduating from India’s premier management schools. In the top ten sector preferences listed by about 500 students graduating this year, none has marked education or health or non-governmental sector as options they would prefer to work in/ for. Besides, a majority would prefer to work in ‘developed’ economies. USA and Britain continue to dominate the imaginations of these youngsters despite the downturn.  Is the challenge of using knowledge for making a better world for more numbers less exciting than making a better world for oneself?

Elsewhere in India, cattle decorated in beads and balloons, garlands and silken shawls, bells and anklets, ribbons and gaily coloured glitter walked the ramp in a first-of-its-kind fashion show for cows. The owners walked away with the prizes, of course!!

Food for the palate: Tomato chutney

Grind to a paste about 8 medium sized tomatoes with a small marble sized piece of tamarind and an ounce of water. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a pan, splutter mustard, add a pinch of asafoetida,  and the ground paste. Stir in 2 teaspoons  of red chilli powder, ½ a teaspoon turmeric powder, a piece of jaggery about the size of a grape, salt to taste. Let simmer over a medium flame, with periodic stirring, till the paste leaves the sides of the pan.  Chutney can be eaten with rice, spread on bread toast, with roti, dosa or used as a pickle with any dish. Can be stored in refrigerator for even a month.