Mango Dal

A recipe after a very long time. This week was pretty good on the food front , as i experimented with new dishes and flavors, all Indian cuisine. This was inspired by the need of me getting bored of the routine stuff and mainly because I had to cook food for someone else this week other than me. Well, that means i can not survive by cooking just twice a week and lasting on those supplies. For a change i cooked almost 4 times in these 5 days of the week. It does make a difference to your cooking when you are cooking for someone else, other than you. From next week i am back to feeding myself though :-).
This week i made Bhindi Kadhi, Aloo Jeera, Bhindi Masala & the delicious mango dal. Here is the recipe:

1. Boil the Arhar Dal (Toor Dal) in a pressure cooker with salt and turmeric powder added to it.
2. Cut two tomatoes, slit 2 green chillies, and cut a green mango into big slices.
3. Heat Ghee in a Kadhai, once hot add cumin seeds and mustard seeds. Wait for them to sputter.
4. Now add the diced tomatoes, green chillies & ginger. Add a pinch of turmeric powder to this and let it become a gravy.
5. Next add the mango slices to the tomato gravy, and let them heat for a few minutes.
6.Once the Dal is pressure cooked, add it to the Kadhai and mix.
7. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves.
8. Serve hot with white rice.

That Land

I miss the sweet smell of the mud after the first rain, and the excited faces of people. The steaming hot tea, and the dazzling street markets bustling with noisy crowds. The guy frying samosas and selling them to the young and old. I miss the excitement of the holiday, spending the day on the road feeling that freedom like no one has. The crowded buses now replaced by the elegant metros, hopping on and off them to reach the malls with utmost ease. I miss the hundred options in a snack shop filled with delicious munches to eat. I miss those PVR shows, with chips and salsa in the intervals of long boring movies. I miss drying my wet hair on the bench in the tender winter sunlight, and enjoying the winter salads on the rooftop. I miss the proud feeling of driving the car to the college for the first time, and the endless times spent in waiting for the DTC buses to use the student pass. I miss the walks to the temple every other day in the fresh and crispy sunlight of the summer. And those juicy leeches and mangoes in abundance every summer.
I miss that land, my own land.

We are

Ofcourse, human beings "Homo Sapiens". A specie which evolved from the apes. Apes which evolved from some early vertebrates, which inturn evolved from sea life , which eventually boils down to some cyanobacteria, the originator of life according to the published theories.

Physically we are all a bunch of atoms and molecules, and we were created as a result of Big Bang. These atoms and molecules we are composed of, keep getting recycled everyday. Everyday our composition is different, but ultimately we are all a result of some comet that might have hit the earth or some fragmentation that formed it in the first place, billions of years back. We are just star dust from Big Bang.

Chemically, we are all (all species of plants/animals) organic carbon compounds with some amounts of other elements like zinc, calcium, phosphorous etc. We inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide and there are many chemical reactions going on in our body to keep us alive.

Biologically we are a bunch of cells, the life forming building blocks. These cells carry information on chromosomes and genes, and they manufacture energy for us by burning the food we eat. The genes are probably what separates one specie from another and organisms within the same specie too.

So what is the meaning of alive or dead in terms of the biological, physical and chemical processes. These processes can be conducted in a science laboratory too? So what is it that makes us fit to be called alive? Soon will we be manufacturing life in the lab using the advancements made in genetic engineering? I think yes, considering the fact that scientists have already created genetically altered species of different plants and animals by disrupting the normal genes..
Would Darwin have imagined such a day would come?

When the going gets tough

Rounds of layoffs, pay cuts, increasing work pressure, increasing work hours..huh..Quite a history making time in economy i guess, after the great depression. These times are tough on pockets as well as minds. What do i think? Maybe at the other end of the tunnel, this time there will be some new trend setting. This could mean new types of jobs emerging in the next decade after the dot com surge, this time it could be green, stress pacifiers :-).
These times could be hard on you so watch out, try to get descent amount of sleep, and enjoy some moments in the day to day life. When the going gets tough, the tough gets going..

With this Economy

Where are we heading? Money & power makes people dance on its tunes everywhere on the globe. With the dismal advancements in economy, jobs are being cut in thousands everyday. Everyday you go to Reuters and see some XYZ is cutting 7000 jobs. In this turmoil, many people have and are being affected everyday. So what are we going to do about it? Its a vicious circle, keeps engulfing more and more people and businesses every moment. The prices are falling, so is the demand violating the simple price and demand rule of any economy. And its not just hitting the IT industry or Finance, its hitting all segments equally be it manufacturing, housing, retail or anything else. Where is somebody expected to go without even having enough for 2 meals in a day for his family. There are so many mouth to hand people who live pay check to pay check. Its probably the toughest time for them and a fear lingering at the back of everybody's mind as to how the future would be. This entire thing of collapsing economy still doesnt get into my mind seeing its magnitude and gravity. Its quite incomprehensible as to why and how for an economy illiterate for me. I just see people getting jobless and the general moral sinking. I wish there is something that each one of us common person could do to improve the situation. But all this money game across the world is a web spun by Money Moguls. Its something only they can entangle or do something about. So common man is just a silent spectator, i wish we could so something.

Eye Twitching

Daayin Aankh Phadakna, is it considered good or bad? I am sure many people will have 100 beliefs about it. I dont put myself in this list :-). Stress is one factor i have realised atleast for me. Puts you in very embarassing situations sometimes i bet, imagine talking to somebody at work and there goes your right eye. Involuntary muscle movements. Not sure if they are that dramatic that the other person will notice , but still puts you in a spot. I have been dealing with it for almost 2 days now. Never used to have this problem before. Recent addition to the list of my problems, now i am not whining :-)

Void

Time teaches us so many things. It teaches us how to accept certain things the way they are, other things the way they are not. If i look at myself 1 year back from now and compare it to myself right now, 'Change is the only thing thats constant' proves itself without any doubts. There are so many things that i might have considered a big deal earlier, and now it means nothing. Is it all for the good?, cant say.
Our surroundings, desires, dreams, confusions keep affecting our inner conscience constantly and gradually keep changing it. The way things are done on this planet, which has been designed by humans over all these civilizations in the past, some time or the other makes us fall into that vicious circle. The circle in which you get so involved to fulfill your & your family's 'roti, kapda aur makaan' needs and even more so much. What about the needs of the soul, do we ever give any attention to that? Most of the times we dont, as by fulfilling those we dont earn any material assets in this world. And in the first place, its not trivial to identify the needs of your soul. It could be helping others to fulfilling your lost dreams to anything unreasonable. The soul knows no bounds, it can desire anything. Maybe thats befuddling enough, atleast for me so will end it here.