River Sutra by Gita Mehta
I just read River Sutra based on stories centered on the Narmada river. I learnt new things about this river. The Sanskrit name means 'giver of pleasure'...and even a more provocative name.
It has never changed its course in hundreds and thousands of years.
The writing style evokes a vivid image of green mountains, gushing currents of the river in monsoons...tribal beliefs and legends...and also beliefs of Jainism, Sufism, music, Shiva all together...it is a heady and intoxicating mix...
Memorable lines:
From the Jain monk who has renounced the world
'Human heart has only one secret...the capacity to love'
Imrat, the blind musical prodigy singing Rumi's verse:
"The heat of your presence
Blinds my eyes
Blisters my skin
Shrivels my flesh.
Do not turn in loathing from me.
O Beloved, can you not see
Only Love disfigures me?"
Silk disguises strength in softness; water erodes the unforgiving nature of stones.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Vegetarian adventures in this WORLD
I love food...I dream...I plot...I experiment..and then when I travel..begins the struggle.
I have been vegetarian..always....and I am ecstatic that I am....:)
Food around the world is devoted to meat eaters...India is a vegetarian heaven...another reason I consider myself lucky to be born in that land (among several other)...but what about other places??..In places where English is not widely spoken, I make sure I learn the words for 'vegetarian', 'no meat no fish'...
In Spain, I was hungry a lot...and managed to get something...here are some memorable foods I remember (Vegetarian in Spanish -vegetariano pronounced with a B instead of V)
Tortilla (potato omelette thing)..over and over again
The best mushrooms sauteed in olive oil and subtly spiced....flavorful
Salted Peppers fried in oil
Mango yoghurt...slurp!
In Thailand, N helped me....(Jeh is Thai for vegetarian/vegetables)
Some of the foods...
Fried rice with vegetables - not as good as Indo-Chinese available in apna desh..:)
Papaya salad---green raw papaya with chillies, lemon juice, peanuts...tangy..the best salad ever!
The awesome tropical fruits of Thailand...my favorite is Longkong....enormous, juicy lychees, mangosteens and of course the smelly fruit durian ...I ate a durian holding my breath..it has mango-like consistency but the overpowering smell made it difficult for me to appreciate it more....my sense of smell being highly acute..
Then the memorable time in Mae Sot (border town in North Thailand close to Burma)...
Tea leaf salad--- young tea leaves, tomato, peanuts, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, fried garlic, & lemon..tie with Papaya salad...these salads are the best
Tamarind tofu---can anything go wrong with the delightful Indian date- tamarind?...the original date is not a patch...:)
Hot thin rotis smeared with condensed milk in the dhabha near the Mosque...yummm..
Cambodia
Banana and pineapple pancakes
I have been vegetarian..always....and I am ecstatic that I am....:)
Food around the world is devoted to meat eaters...India is a vegetarian heaven...another reason I consider myself lucky to be born in that land (among several other)...but what about other places??..In places where English is not widely spoken, I make sure I learn the words for 'vegetarian', 'no meat no fish'...
In Spain, I was hungry a lot...and managed to get something...here are some memorable foods I remember (Vegetarian in Spanish -vegetariano pronounced with a B instead of V)
Tortilla (potato omelette thing)..over and over again
The best mushrooms sauteed in olive oil and subtly spiced....flavorful
Salted Peppers fried in oil
Mango yoghurt...slurp!
In Thailand, N helped me....(Jeh is Thai for vegetarian/vegetables)
Some of the foods...
Fried rice with vegetables - not as good as Indo-Chinese available in apna desh..:)
Papaya salad---green raw papaya with chillies, lemon juice, peanuts...tangy..the best salad ever!
The awesome tropical fruits of Thailand...my favorite is Longkong....enormous, juicy lychees, mangosteens and of course the smelly fruit durian ...I ate a durian holding my breath..it has mango-like consistency but the overpowering smell made it difficult for me to appreciate it more....my sense of smell being highly acute..
Then the memorable time in Mae Sot (border town in North Thailand close to Burma)...
Tea leaf salad--- young tea leaves, tomato, peanuts, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, fried garlic, & lemon..tie with Papaya salad...these salads are the best
Tamarind tofu---can anything go wrong with the delightful Indian date- tamarind?...the original date is not a patch...:)
Hot thin rotis smeared with condensed milk in the dhabha near the Mosque...yummm..
Cambodia
Banana and pineapple pancakes
Some travel memories and more
Blog are very self-indulgent and I continue in the same vein. After writing my diary entries about Japan here, I started thinking of experiences and moments in other new places.
Before arriving in a new country, I am breathlessly excited and almost always feel a little bit let-down afterwards...not because I am a pessimist (a whole new blog entry for that) but because I have this notion that it will be totally different from what I have seen so far.
This entry is a brief account of my impressions and moments landing in a new place starting from my very first trip outside India to the US of A. I often remember things from a long time ago...my fourth birthday..I am sucking orange toffees in the balcony on a sunny January afternoon...and Mummy is inside and no one else is around...this moment is frozen...mentally, I don't see a dramatic change in me either....haha..
Starting from my first few days in the US, some unforgettable moments:
The air is crisp and the sun sharp when N and I step out into the street. I am enamored by the well-dressed people in suits in Manhattan...
An unforgettable image..on Fifth Avenue at the traffic light a newly wed East Asian couple runs across the road, stops in the middle and kiss with people cheering them...and then they step into a limousine.
In the classroom, I am surprised by the sight of students with drinks and food as the instructors teach...how quiet I was at that time... The informality of the instructors is fascinating....a different academic world.
I get into an elevator and a stranger smiles and says hello...I am taken aback and start liking it.
Spain
Impressions of Madrid, Toledo....
People milling around in the subway station...in Plazas...in streets...dressed in leather, women in heels and pants so long they sweep the streets.
All parts of animal meat displayed like art exhibits in the shops....bright shining New Year lights and the music...Feliz Navidad played in malls....the produce salesman at the shop forbids me to touch fruit before buying it....I do not like it.
In Toledo, we meet a beautiful woman in an exquisite art shop...white hair and green eyes dressed in pink with a sparkling smile and a pink ribbon in her hair...We struggle to communicate without a common language... and naturally :) we ask her birth date....she does not understand...N hums the Happy Birthday tune and she gets it...runs to a calendar and points to February 14...
Thailand
The tropical foliage of this part of the world is simply heaven...the fruits...the flowers...the leaves....the waters...Bangkok is just fine...not worth spending more than a couple of days..
What is better....north Thailand going towards Burma...where army men check our IDs vigorously...the town Mae Sot so close to Burma...we see Burma across a river...it is like India..lots of people of Indian origin residing here...the most amazing food we had here...(a whole new blog on food for determined vegetarian travelers..:)..the pouring rains....ahaa...nothing is like rains in this part of the world...dream of going to Rangoon (Yangon now) one day....introduced to Burmese food and am not the same since....delicious is an understatement.
Siem Reap, Cambodia
Teenagers and younger kids chase you down to buy wares in this dusty and dimly lit town....settle in a guest house...with alligators in the back yard!...I peered through the curtains and saw two of them basking in the sun...oddly, I did not feel any fear...
At Angkor Vat, again face a deluge of eager sellers who will say anything to sell their wares including praise of feminine beauty...My heart is racing as I climb up and down the steep stairs in different enclosures in the complex.
Images from Ramayana and Mahabharata adorn huge walls ...and incongruously (or perhaps not), statues of Buddha installed in the temples covered in saffron cloth....
At night as we crave desi food, we step into an Indian restaurant and eat possibly the worst food...There is no other customer and an over eager host...should have been a red herring..
European tourists flocking the restaurants in the evening...Saw a menu which stopped me dead in my tracks....snake, kangaroo, ostrich and alligator..hello!...are those alligators in the back yard ending up on a plate??..yikes....see the menu..
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Movie time
New York, the movie
Engaging movie. Taut. There was an editor in the house actually..:)...I love movies which are well-edited...Naam - a notable example. Anyway, this movie starring John Abraham, Katrina Kaif, Neil Nitin Mukesh and Irrfan Khan was good. Peformance wise (with no surprises): Irrfan > >> Neil > Katrina ~ John > the stilted random American actors.
Music flowed in with the story...no jarring notes. I liked the realistic portrayals of New York neighborhoods especially Brooklyn.
Some minor quibbles:
Quibble 1: Where were the families? conveniently absent I guess...at least one of them could take care of the kid after his * SPOILER ALERT * parents are dead!
Quibble 2: The students on the American University campuses in Hindi movies seem to be having waay more fun and games and bonhomie than I have seen ...with all the time spent on campuses..
Quibble 3: Where do the actors who play Americans come from? Some parallel universe where even poor John would come across as a great thespian in comparison...lol!
Well these are minor points...it was well-made and understated even though *SPOILER ALERT* I did not understand why Katrina had to die....too sad.
John manages to emote a bit in some of the scenes...his pure-heartedness and charm still shines through (sorry, having a tough time being objective..;)..nevertheless, I admit he is the weakest actor except the director is clever enough to give him less speaking time. Katrina is good as the idealistic and sympathetic Maya. Neil is the best out of three (which is not saying a lot)...his shy and hesitant demeanour makes him the most real character out of these three. He infuses some passion in his role. Irrfan can sleepwalk through such roles and yet he does not. His witty everyday remarks (especially the one about his hatred for pasta) makes me wonder every time (in this movie and others) if he writes his own dialogues or does the writer suddenly get creative... a true actor he is.
Special bonus points for the director Kabir Khan....He did not make another thoughtless and predictable love story/action/drama. I did not have high hopes from this one and I was pleasantly surprised...Go Kabir!
Overall rating: 3.7 out of 5 stars
Pros: slick editing, good music, Irrfan, sometimes Neil, beauty on display (JA and KK)
Enough said.
Engaging movie. Taut. There was an editor in the house actually..:)...I love movies which are well-edited...Naam - a notable example. Anyway, this movie starring John Abraham, Katrina Kaif, Neil Nitin Mukesh and Irrfan Khan was good. Peformance wise (with no surprises): Irrfan > >> Neil > Katrina ~ John > the stilted random American actors.
Music flowed in with the story...no jarring notes. I liked the realistic portrayals of New York neighborhoods especially Brooklyn.
Some minor quibbles:
Quibble 1: Where were the families? conveniently absent I guess...at least one of them could take care of the kid after his * SPOILER ALERT * parents are dead!
Quibble 2: The students on the American University campuses in Hindi movies seem to be having waay more fun and games and bonhomie than I have seen ...with all the time spent on campuses..
Quibble 3: Where do the actors who play Americans come from? Some parallel universe where even poor John would come across as a great thespian in comparison...lol!
Well these are minor points...it was well-made and understated even though *SPOILER ALERT* I did not understand why Katrina had to die....too sad.
John manages to emote a bit in some of the scenes...his pure-heartedness and charm still shines through (sorry, having a tough time being objective..;)..nevertheless, I admit he is the weakest actor except the director is clever enough to give him less speaking time. Katrina is good as the idealistic and sympathetic Maya. Neil is the best out of three (which is not saying a lot)...his shy and hesitant demeanour makes him the most real character out of these three. He infuses some passion in his role. Irrfan can sleepwalk through such roles and yet he does not. His witty everyday remarks (especially the one about his hatred for pasta) makes me wonder every time (in this movie and others) if he writes his own dialogues or does the writer suddenly get creative... a true actor he is.
Special bonus points for the director Kabir Khan....He did not make another thoughtless and predictable love story/action/drama. I did not have high hopes from this one and I was pleasantly surprised...Go Kabir!
Overall rating: 3.7 out of 5 stars
Pros: slick editing, good music, Irrfan, sometimes Neil, beauty on display (JA and KK)
Enough said.
Sweet Spree
I am on a sweet spree...I made besan ladoos and badam katli a few days ago.
Besan ladoos:
I cooked besan (chickpea flour) on medium heat till it emitted its characteristic odor. Then I added ghee (the more the merrier...:)...actually 1: 0.5 proportion/ besan: ghee) and cooked some more till it was brownish. I had to be careful and I kept stirring and did not raise the temperature. Then I added sugar (amount depending on taste...I like it just right). I kept tasting it to achieve the right balance. Then I stirred some more and finally added some slivered almond. Stirred and heated some more. Let it cool....Viola!...pressed into the ladoo form (circular)...Relished it once a day..:)
Badam katli..
This was even simpler. I soaked slivered almonds overnight. The next day, I put these almond in a blender with a little milk for a paste-like consistency.
Then I transferred the almond paste onto a skillet with sugar (according to taste..balance is the key again..:)..I keep tasting it. I cooked on low to medium heat for some time. It took me about 25 minutes...stirring regularly to avoid charring. It formed a soft lump. I tasted it and it seemed ready (very scientific I know..:). Let it cool. Then I pressed it into rectangular form (the rhombus shape was difficult for me)...tasted like marzipan.
HAPPINESS.
Besan ladoos:
I cooked besan (chickpea flour) on medium heat till it emitted its characteristic odor. Then I added ghee (the more the merrier...:)...actually 1: 0.5 proportion/ besan: ghee) and cooked some more till it was brownish. I had to be careful and I kept stirring and did not raise the temperature. Then I added sugar (amount depending on taste...I like it just right). I kept tasting it to achieve the right balance. Then I stirred some more and finally added some slivered almond. Stirred and heated some more. Let it cool....Viola!...pressed into the ladoo form (circular)...Relished it once a day..:)
Badam katli..
This was even simpler. I soaked slivered almonds overnight. The next day, I put these almond in a blender with a little milk for a paste-like consistency.
Then I transferred the almond paste onto a skillet with sugar (according to taste..balance is the key again..:)..I keep tasting it. I cooked on low to medium heat for some time. It took me about 25 minutes...stirring regularly to avoid charring. It formed a soft lump. I tasted it and it seemed ready (very scientific I know..:). Let it cool. Then I pressed it into rectangular form (the rhombus shape was difficult for me)...tasted like marzipan.
HAPPINESS.
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