This, That and Some More

(Based on thoughts generated by the article in my previous post) When I see the Times these days, I wonder whether I can continue subscribing to this paper for long. From a paper who believed in serious journalism it has degenerated into a rag which mostly prints syndicated material with some writing here and there by correspondents. My uncle was an eminent journalist with the Times, my cousin was the Editor for a while, I grew up with discussions about politics and happenings at the newspaper office and somehow Times has been a habit for as long as I can remember. Now it has grown into a massive media juggernaut and the groups priorities seem to have shifted and it seems they take the slogan 'sex sells' very seriously indeed. They can read the minds of the strapped for time urban lot who prefer light reading. They know exactly how to add spice to each and every section. Even Economic Times has the occasional titillating picture or a 'juicy' snippet. The morons that we ...

I came across this article in Outlook by P Sainath, which is almost an exact opposite to Fareed Zakaria's article. We who work in the sunshine sectors and live in major metros have absolutely no idea about how the rural majority live. I read somewhere that Ashutosh Gowariker is heading some foundation that encourages the youth to contribute and participate in projects which benefit the rural communities. The publication also advised that the 'mallrats' residing in cities should get moving and do something useful instead of making the rich richer by buying things we don't need. It's a long read but definitely an eye opener... Lost The Compass? Rural India is a giant canvas that is begging the media to do a portrait, many portraits. But it has failed — resoundingly. P. Sainath 70,000 Indian millionaires...and growing Page 1 headline, The Times of India, June 11, 2005 "The bottom 400 million is a disappointment and a social responsibility, and while it harbours va...

AT Kearney has ranked India as the most preferred country for offshore outsourcing. India is among top few in the emerging markets in the retail sphere. The World Economic Forum at Davos featured 'Incredible India' as a theme. George W Bush has suggested that Americans learn Hindi and Chinese. Indian stock markets are booming. Automobiles, healthcare, supercomputing, biotechnology, education, technology and many more sectors in India are steadily climbing to be the best in the world. All publications talk about the burgeoning Indian middle class and the demographic advantage that India has with more than 50% of the population being under 30. When I read all this I am reminded of the time when I was growing up when Indians as a race suffered from low self esteem, all things across shores towards west seemed so attractive. Kids at school loved showing off their pens, pecilboxes, toys and gadgets from abroad. Most students (they still do I think) studied hard to clear SAT/GMAT/GRE...

Anonymous asked me to come up with a vegetarian recipe so here I am trying to cook up one. Now that I sit and try to think of something I am quite blank. Yesterday the egg man knocked and said that all is fine with bird flu and I promptly bought a dozen eggs and now all I can think of are egg recipes! Besides Bengalis cannot think vegetarian so this is indeed a challenge. Here goes... Lou Ghonto (Bottle Gourd Mish Mash) (I have no idea how to translate 'Ghonto'!) You need 1 longish bottle gourd (lauki) 3/4 tsp cumin seeds 2 tsp sugar 1 bunch coriander leaves 4 slit green chilies 2 tbsp oil (mustard oil is preferable) Salt to taste Handful Mung Dal vadi (optional) Peel the bottle gourd (reserve the peels which you can fry with potato peels, poppy seeds and onion later) and chop into small cubes. Heat oil till hot, reduce flame and add cumin seeds. Add the bottle gourd when the cumin seeds are fragrant. Cover and forget about it for a while. Lots of water will come out, allow the...

My time under seige, hopefully I will be able to write tomorrow. I discovered this interesting concept of a word cloud thanks to Anindita so I went ahead and gave it a try and the results seemed worth publishing. I have also been discovering tanabana and its deeper meanings in this new blog. I also realized that I have been spammed in the comments, I happily thought that I have yet another visitor who had been kind enough to leave a comment but when I checked I found some sort of an advertisement and a vague link so I have turned on word verification now which will hopefully stop such entries. Here are my blog word clouds - I have a preference for Cloud No 9! Cloud 9 Cloud 7

I have this love and hate relationship with weekends, when the weekend approaches, I have so many plans that I will sit and laze around, read one of the five books I am in the midst of, see Memoirs of a Geisha in Wadala, window shop and eat a subway tuna in a nearby mall. The weekend looks full of possibilities to have a great time and in anticipation I finish all my household chores on Friday so that I can have a longer Saturday. But of course the above is just a dream which only comes true in parts once in a year or so, if at all. As soon as Saturday dawns, any one of the following things can happen: I can see cobwebs on the ceiling which need to be dusted off immediately The curtains and upholstery suddenly appear to be very dirty and need to be washed immediately I suddenly remember that the Parent Teacher meeting at school is at an unearthly time of 2:30 PM in the afternoon which spoils my plans to do anything There seem to be just too many mailers and letters strewn all about whi...

Every morning when I land at work, I have to rush to the washroom for obvious reasons and to rectify my scarecrow like appearance to suit the sleek corporate environs. As soon as I enter I am assailed by this bevy of beauties chatting constantly while applying various forms of paints, powders and creams on their faces and brushing their carefully streaked, styled and rebonded manes (perms are out of fashion). My focus is to push through and find an open door. While I am inside I get to hear the most amazing conversations and juicy bits of gossip which is kind of difficult to come by in the circles I move in. So yes I am guilty of staying inside and eavesdropping at times like these while feeling quite miserable about my shoes and handbags which never match, my unpainted trimmed nails, my boring black hair, my two lipsticks which are at least six years old and my seemingly dowdy loose fitting clothes. Eavesdropping was my sweet revenge! There are some queen bees who lead this pack and ...

Railway platforms can be rather interesting places if one cares to be an observer rather than fret and fume about the delayed arrival of a train. I had reached earlier to receive my Mother and discovered that the train was due to arrive 30 minutes later that expected. So I stood around and waited amongst the ebbing and flowing sea of people. I observed the arrival of three trains during my wait, trying my best to ignore the rather unpleasant smells all around me which are unique to only India railway platforms. Bangalore Express arrived on platform 4, hordes of people alighted from the train, women clad in kanjeevaram silks, men in white lungis, children brightly attired, most of them carrying their own luggage and studiously avoiding all the rickshaw and taxi drivers who pestered them. I saw many Europeans and Americans with their back packs, the women had short hair and the men had long hair and were in clothes which had seen far better days. I truly admire their courage to go around...

That’s the old adage, many of us may have heard from the generations above us saying these words. As we progress, we have gadgets and services which save us time but no matter how much time we save we still don’t have time for tried and tested ways or taking a more proper approach, today everything is about shortcuts in all spheres of life. Cooking Instant chapattis, ready made meals and frozen dinners may have made an entry into Indian markets but I haven't seen too many families using these products. I myself use shortcuts a lot during cooking though and the two tried and tested 'shortcuts' are listed below: Spaghetti Bolognese Mix packaged tomato soup with fried mince meat, add cheese and seasonings and ladle over boiled spaghetti. No one can tell the difference - I haven't tried this on Italians though. Alu Posto (Potatoes with poppy seeds) This is a low cal quick version. In a pressure cooker, pour about 2 tbsp oil, temper this oil with nigella (kalonji) seeds, spl...

We have known Oscar for the last 6 years, he was dark skinned, had these long doleful eyes, floppy ears and his general demeanor was friendly and playful. We often heard from his Daddy that he loved to eat eggs and had three boiled eggs every day. At times he would wander into our house if our door was open, inspect all rooms, sniff around and walk out. At times he played with the children and either ran off with the balls or got them back from wherever they had landed. All the residents of the building whom he liked were rewarded with a few wags of his tail and the chosen few with licks. Oscar had been suffering from a chronic illness for the past few months and yesterday we heard that he passed away at 4 AM in the morning. We met his Daddy downstairs when going out for a walk and offered our condolences. Any grieving person finds solace in describing the passing away and the last few moments, so we lingered on to hear about it. Oscar's Daddy took him to the hospital everyday for ...

I am about two months old as far as blogging goes, I am not sure what was the motivation behind blogging but my writing attempts are about a few years old. I started off with soulful philosophical letters to people, and then I moved on to writing editorials for an in-house publication, then some articles for the company magazine and now this blog. Hopefully I will graduate someday to full time writing ... guess only time will tell. I am utterly charmed by the whole concept, it is like sitting in a breezy sunlit room with all my thoughts spread out and people drop by from all over the world across cultures and communities, browse through the sheaf of my thoughts and leave their comments. At times I wish I had eyes and ears to see these visitors, offer them tea and biscuits, chat a while and hope that I'll see them again soon. I like following the footprints people leave and go around the whole world and discover so much more than I would have done without discovering blogs. A big Th...