Is life to live, give, or give up? [Food for the mind and the body: Project 365/6]

Food for thought: Living life and ending it

Life is given to us. We earn it by giving it, Rabindranath Tagore says in his compilation of stray thoughts, or as the poet in him would have it, ‘Stray Birds.’

Every day, over the past many days, or even weeks – or is it months – I’ve been following news briefs reporting suicides. I am not talking here of suicides due to dowry harrassment, failure in exams, or debts – the sociological bases and consequences of which are already the concern of researchers. The suicides that I’m concerned about here are of those like Roopa, a 23-year old woman who committed suicide on Sunday [Feb.26, 2012] by hanging herself after a verbal altercation with her husband, a realtor.

Leave alone ‘earning’ the life that has been ‘given’ to us by ‘giving’ in return, it appears that life has become such a burden, or so cheap [and there could be other ways of looking at it]that it is not even considered worth preserving!

Though it may seem morbid, I think these suicides provoked by the simple process of conflict in every day life need to be monitored too, as much suicides by farmers, students, and harrassed women.  So, starting today, I also shall be posting, in food for thought, reports of these suicides that are apparently caused by momentary aberrations that come with the business of living. The question that I would like to ask at the end of the year is: is there a pattern to these suicides too?

Food for the palate: Coriander masiyal

Cook 3 ounces of split red gram till soft. Grind to a paste a 1/4 kilo bunch of fresh coriander leaves with green chillis [the spicier the better, though taste and health considerations are paramount]. Soak a small lime-sized ball of tamarind in 4 ounces of water and squeeze juice. In a pan, heat oil, splutter mustard, a few fenugreek seeds and add ground paste. Baste till raw smell goes. Add cooked gram and tamarind water. Let boil well for about 10-15 minutes, till the masiyal gets thick and smells good. Season generously [this is crucial, not optional] once again, with hot oil, spluttered mustard, 2-3 red chillis and asafoetida. Eat with rice, roti. Best with poori. Also goes with idli or dosa.

 

When should we pause and take stock of our lives?

Food for thought: I regret …

I wish I had been truer to myself – been more ‘me’ than being what others expected of me: this is one of the major regrets of people who are close to dying. What are the other major regrets of people who know they have only a little more time to live? What would be our own, if we were to pause a moment and look back on our lives, and imagine we are now running a race against time?

Do read the article in Guardian about Bronnie Ware’s book, ‘The Top Five Regrets of the Dying,’ at the link below to see how much more important it is to be happy and cheerful than to be ambitious and a go-getter :

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/feb/01/top-five-regrets-of-the-dying

Bronnie Ware, from her blog, ‘Inspiration and Chai,’ seems like the person-next-door – a simple soul, moved by the ordinary things that could affect any one of us in similar ways as her. You may find her tryst with life and living interesting. Here’s  a link to some of her articles:

http://www.inspirationandchai.com/archives.html

Food for the palate: Easy-peasy Coriander Chutney

Grind together a bunch of coriander leaves, with red chillis/ red chilli powder, salt and tamarind to taste. Add a teeny bit of water to make a paste. Heat a tablespoon of oil, splutter mustard, add a pinch of asafoetida, a few fenugreek seeds, and the coriander paste. Add a spot of jaggery. Let mixture cook till it leaves the sides of the pan. Cool and store. Keeps well in refrigerator for even a month. Use with curd rice, or mixed into rice. Also goes well with dosa, roti, idli, bread.

How not to waste food at weddings: a committee recommends measures

Food for thought: Thoughts on food

Prof. Suresh Mishra’s committee seems to have been unusual: both for the intent with which it was conceived and for its sensible, eminently do-able recommendations. The question before it was wastage of food and how to prevent it. Some of its recommendations:

• Many wedding invitations say ‘No gifts, please.’ They could also say, ‘Please don’t waste food.’ [Maximum wastage of food occurs at weddings, followed by birthday parties, and seminars and conferences.]
• The media can play a role by highlighting the wastage at ostentatious weddings/ social events rather than concentrating on the opulence at such weddings.
• Food wastage at government functions needs to be addressed first, by beginning the austerity drive from within.
• Celebrities, including political leaders, bureaucrats, and industrialists can become role models by conducting their family and other get-togethers in a simple manner. The media ought to highlight this too.
• Food wastage as a topic can be included in the curriculum at the school stage itself and children can be made aware of the desirability and importance of ‘no wastage.’

These recommendations were made by a three member committee, appointed by the food ministry of the government of India. In a nation where so many go hungry, the immense waste of food that occurs in social events is no less than a crime, and it was important to take stock of this. But the committee’s recommendations have universal adaptability: many of us could adopt them, in whichever part of the globe we reside.

Food for the palate: Simple upma

Heat 6-8 tablespoons of oil in a pan. Splutter mustard, brown a teaspoonful of split bengal gram and split black gram. Add a pinch of asafoetida, a few curry leaves, pinched. Add 4 ounces of semolina [rava] to the hot oil, fry till golden brown. Add six ounces of hot water, salt to taste, a pinch of turmeric, and keep stirring. Keep adding water [hot or cold] till the mixture is soft without being squishy. Garnish with lime juice and coriander if you have them. Eat hot with sauce, chutney, sambar, pickle, or curds. Or just simply by itself.

For patients: A new networking website

A US-based doctor, Nirmalya Roychowdhury, has launched a website to help patients all over the globe network and learn from each other. “No one can be of greater help to a patient than a fellow patient who is going through the same sufferings. Hope Chain is created to help patients and their families to interact, share views and build a chain of hope for a healthy life,” says the home page of the site, which has a wonderfully uncluttered look – itself very soothing for the patient. It is also easy to navigate, with a detailed listing of various disorders.

You can visit  Hope Chain from the home page of this blog; click on ‘networking site for patients’ in the column on the right, under Disabilities and Health links.

Discipline, but don’t punish: child-rearing realisms:Food for the mind and the body [Project 365/6: Feb.14, 2012]

Food for thought: Parenting to cure self-centredness, prevent aggression in offspring

“… Lack of compassion and empathy, I’ve found, is rampant in today’s hypercompetitive parenting culture in which almost every child is eternally being groomed to look out for No. 1, cheered on by parents who view other children more as potential impediments to his or her full flowering than as comrades-in-arms — or friends — united in the difficult task of gracefully growing up … We parrot a certain amount of knee-jerk politeness, urging our kids to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you,’ but I don’t necessarily have the sense that all this is aimed at doing anything more profound than making our kids (and ourselves, by extension) look good,” says Judith Warner on Time [http://ideas.time.com/2012/02/10/why-american-kids-are-brats/?xid=newsletter-weekly]

Also in’Time,’ Bonnie Rochman reports, “A new analysis of two decades of research on the long-term effects of physical punishment in children concludes that spanking doesn’t work and can actually wreak havoc on kids’ long-term development, according to an article published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal … ‘We find children who are physically punished get more aggressive over time and those who are not physically punished get less aggressive over time,’ says Joan Durrant, the article’s lead author and a child clinical psychologist and professor of family social sciences at the University of Manitoba.” [http://healthland.time.com/2012/02/06/why-spanking-doesnt-work/?xid=newsletter-weekly]

Selective recognition to rights abuses: Food for the mind and the body [Project 365/6: Feb.13,2012]

Food for thought: Tibet burns, Irom Sharmila fasts, the world sleeps …

Rightness or otherwise of causes are always subjective. Yet, it beats me [perhaps I'm naive] why certain causes attract the attention of the world’s change leaders, while others attract only the attention of the common people.

In the past couple of months, at least 19 Tibetans have self-immolated themselves in China in a desperate attempt to draw attention to the continued violation of their rights by the Chinese government. The latest is Tenzin Choedron, an eighteen year old nun. Yet, all American eyes are only for the Chinese premier to be – Xi Jinping.

In the beautiful north-east Indian state, Manipur, Irom Sharmila has spent one-fourth of her life [she will be forty on March 14 this year] in a hospital bed, being force-fed through nasal tubes, fighting for a cause she believes in: repeal of an act that gives special powers to the armed forces in certain states like hers, which suffer from insurgency and militancy. But the administration that is quick to take her into custody and force-feed her to subvert her hunger strike, has still to respond adequately to her single-point demand.

Food for the palate: Spinach palya

Cut 1/2 kilo spinach into small pieces. Heat a teaspoon oil in a pan, splutter mustard, add 1 green chilli, a pinch of asafoetida and a teaspoon of split bengal gram [vary the quantity depending on the quantity of greens]. Add 2 tomatoes cut into small pieces and fry till juice seeps out. Add the spinach, a spot of salt and turmeric powder, cover and cook. Do not add water. Stir periodically till cooked. Garnish with fresh grated coconut, stir over heat once, and remove. Goes well with rice and roti.

Where is America going …? Food for the mind and the body: Project 365/6 [Feb.9, 2012]

Food for thought: Parenting singly, wilfully

Unprotected, impulsive sex is becoming easier – a university in Pennysylvania shows the way … by providing a vending machine in the student health centre on campus to dispense morning-after pills!

At the same time, an American columnist writes about the importance of a supportive family environment for raising kids…

“Liberals sometimes feel that it is narrow-minded to favor traditional marriage. Over time, my reporting on poverty has led me to disagree: Solid marriages have a huge beneficial impact on the lives of the poor more so than in the lives of the middle class, who have more cushion when things go wrong… One study of low-income delinquent young men in Boston found that one of the factors that had the greatest impact in turning them away from crime was marrying women they cared about. As Steven Pinker notes in his recent book, The Better Angels of Our Nature: ‘The idea that young men are civilized by women and marriage may seem as corny as Kansas in August, but it has become a commonplace of modern criminology.’ ”

via The White Underclass – NYTimes.com.

Food for the palate: Cobri Mithai [Coconut burfi]

Heat 1 ounce of water in a pan, add 6 ounces of sugar, and when the sugar has dissolved, add 6 ounces of fresh coconut shredded or grated.  Add a drop of rose food colouring and a drop of rose essence [both these are optional]. Keep stirring till mixture begins to leave sides of pan. Pour on plate greased with a spot of ghee, let cool and draw into small sections. When completely cooled, break into pieces and store. If the cakes do not happen, you can still have a delicious dessert – just roll the mixture into balls.

When we have to pull them off the pedestal …Food for the mind and the body: Project 365/6 [Feb.8, 2012]

Food for thought: When we have to pull them off the pedestal …

A teacher’s aide has been accused of videographing himself in sexually explicit acts with his students. While this news comes in from a school in Brooklyn, New York, two ministers have been accused of watching a blue film even as they were participating in the state legislative Assembly session in Bangalore, India.

Every time we have to pull off the pedestal people in whom we have invested some amount of trust, how much more vulnerable do we become? To what degree is our trust in humanity compromised? How can presidents who lie and misuse their office and icons who drug their way to success continue to stalk the public stage as though the game has not changed? Is it their sense of shame that is in question or ours? Why are we not pulling them off the pedestal or, better still, pulling the pedestal from under their feet?

Food for the palate: Beans sathumadu

Snip 200 gm of French beans into 2 inch long pieces. Cook tender with 3 ounces of split red gram. Soak a ball of tamarind [size of a small lime] and squeeze out the juice. Boil together for about 10 minutes the cooked gram, beans and tamarind water with 2 heaped teaspoons of rasam powder, a few curry leaves pinched into bits, and salt to taste. Remove from heat after raw smell of tamarind goes. Season with mustard, spluttered in hot ghee/ oil and a pinch of asafoetida. Garnish  with coriander leaves if you like it and have it handy. Drink as soup or eat mixed with cooked rice. [Find rasam powder recipe at http://kshama.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/food-for-the-mind-and-the-body-countdown-3656-jan-6-2012/ or buy off the shelf]