On semi-gods and women

The recent sex scandal has risen drastic views on how semi-gods and their sexual fantasies. It is not a new state of affairs at TN and certainly, not a new niche to add a yesteryear actress to it. There are quite a few thoughts of mine on this issue.

The emergence of gods in men is not a recent phenomena. The commercialisation, the advent of adding yoga-meditation to it is. The funding oriented working model or the beggar bowl syndrome has been there for long, but the orientation of a business model is new. There is nothing to clinch at this evolution, because with income tax exemptions and high-end MD's looking for spiritual solace, this seems to be the most natural dimension.

What really went off tangent when sexual scandals were exposed - The media.

If it is naturally natural for such saints to indulge in sex, and have kollywood heroines to be mates, then it is perfectly natural for their believers to be okay with it. I am not a believer in any of these god turned men, but I firmly believe in human calls.

There are some aspects of trade that should not be commercialised - education and spirutuality . In today's society, the one in which I am spending my 20's both are exploited. Commercialising has a ethic of delivering quality or quantity, but exploitation is mere money trade.

And it is more than money trade - it becomes emotional atyaachar when worship happens. I am so proud, yes that is the word of the kind of uprising I have had for not being able to follow a man without a question. I fail to understand/make any efforts to understand the worship of men as Gods ( i do understand, when a guru pooja happens). Criticism against a belief is criminal to say the least, so it is best to refrain from it. There are many videos on specific god-men on youtube. I shall not post them here, as I have a lot of good friends who have a belief, and I shall hate to destroy it.

Till I reach there.

It is amazing of how a change in a place, change in the kind of people we meet can influence the inner person.I find a million changes in perspectives from within, and I am so not sure of how the hell it is going to change me. Waiting and watching it all unfold is going to be a experience. I can say, I am getting more philosophical, than I ever was. I am less judgemental, so dont know if that is good or bad!

Relationships have always baffled me. I think I am there, when I realize it is the wrong bus, or sometimes the wrong route itself. The detour process is painstakingly exhausting and the only way I know to go through it is to enjoy it. Cynic as it may sound, I am now chiseled enough to spare a half-tear and walk off. Just like that. I wish I could say the same to the baggage, unfortunately I carry quite some along.

I know some day, I will be there. Accepting someone, other than myself just as it is. As of today, I have super serious issues with the idea of even getting along, forget hooking up. And I am weird enough to say that, even when I am with one fantastic person. I have done that. I know.

Reflective blog, not so open for judgments now,

Back to Farming.

This post is written on absolute anger, disgust and a part disappointment. Though it is a vent post, it is also meant to break certain ideas/myths we have on education.

I was never interested in this ploughing business, and that is not something I want my kids to emalute too. I am talking to a gang of guys who work with on of those swanky financial services office. They are mostly the deadly combination of a B.E and a MBA ( Finance) with half a dozen year expereince in the IT biggies. Sounds classy?

I have a few questions – why does he do a B.E when he wants to financial modelling for a career? Why not a B.Com? Is it because it is less cool to do it, or because he was undecided then? Well, whatever it is – I leave the case because more than not, people don’t really know what they want to do at 17.And I was one of the undecided creatures too, who started with civil services, dabbled with some advertising in my dreams, worked in finance and now to organisational management. But for the absurdity as it may seem, i am not trying to understand networks now( another issue, that I got no aptitude to do so)

If I leave that case, why did he land up in a MBA program after three years in tech? More importantly, why did he not continue with tech? Did he find tech no longer fascinating? Or, did he suddenly understand the importance of being a investment banker?

As it is so obvious, it is the money. With places like GLIM and ISB offering MBA’s for fancy amounts, and pressing on placements for almost the same value – it only gets better! A average ISB student starts thinking about his placements 8 months before he starts his application procedures. The guys who pay are absolutely pleased as well- who would not like to have a “brim filled finance ready to puke” guy at work?

I guess we are moving back to our basics – agriculture. Our kids are being fed, sowed with seeds to reap money later. Sowed seeds of science, some little manners and lots of money mindedness, manured with engineering, a dash of finance and of course a MBA degree. All set to reap lakhs, preferably in dollars and if possible millions!

P.S - The first draft of this post was saved on April 16, 2010. A time when I was working, and a time when my frustrations flew out of my finger nails. I am so damn better now, and I hope the next post is a more positive one!

Bird Tales - Sparrow and its Sorrow.

Anu wrote this and on seeing a comment from Deepak, I was pushed to write this post today.

In 3rd class when they teach us about ecosystems - they do not tell us that feeding sparrows is the way to keep the system in place. Lack of our education system, but I will deal with that in another post.

I googled on sparrows and their disappearance and it seems to be the most saddening fact I have ever come across in recent times. Sparrows, to many Indians are a part of childhood memories. It is a memory to think of grandparent's homes and sparrows hitching on trees. It is another to think of how the grocery store had sparrows lingering all around. When we shifted to AGS Colony, Velachery - one of the first things I fell in love with was to wake up to the sounds of birds. My apartment literally had birds chirping to its glory as a alarm clock. 6 years later, I dont find any even if I dutifully keep pots of water and sprinkle grains all over the garden.

Much has been attributed to its decline in India. Sparrow is a bio indicator. In short, it tells us how poorly we have managed our systems. Grocers no longer have gunny bags to store grains, so nothing seeps for birds to feast on. We no longer have trees, so there is no place for them to build nests. A recent article I read says, it takes about 7 hours to build a nest - that we shamelessly stomp off in minutes. On the 20th of March, Delhi started to celebrate World Sparrow Day. Sheila Dixit has commissioned nesting boxes all over the city ( Read more here ). It is another story that a fellow blogger says crows and ravens use these boxes.

England has risen to this issue, and has a detailed study on sparrows and their decline here . In chennai, one of the prime reasons for the disappearence is cellphone signals. More reasons to cut on our calls. Thanks to deepak, I have some gyaan to share now. Sparrow's feathers act as dielectric receptors. So ,when two cellphone beams intersect ( very common nowdays with the rise in towers we have in the city) sending the same signal wave at the same time, it creates a standing wave. When birds are flying, they tend to hit on this temporary standing wave, they become totally disoriented and start flying as a group to the ground.Their natural altimeter and sense of direction gets destroyed.

Quoting - According to Dr S. Vijayan, Director of the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology andNatural History (SACON),“A number of studies has been conducted to find out the relationship between the increase in electromagnetic waves and the decrease in the number of sparrows. A positive correlation has been found between them.” “There have been studies in Spain
which showed that sparrows disappear from cities where electromagnetic contamination is very heavy,”Dr vijjayan added

Sparrows are found to rapidly disappearing from places where new towers are being installed. It is opined that these signals affect their central nervous system, thus paralyzing them to fly further. Most times, they fall down and die or become immobile. As I was writing this post, I began to wonder if it would make sense to cage them at home. I am not a advocate of caging birds, but looks like the sparrow could be saved this way. I am still unsure of the kind of radiations inside a home, or the way it is feasible.

What we can do is possibly reduce calls in the open, and follow some simple stuff like leaving water, feeding grains and if possible, keeping a wooden nest. To know more on this - read here.

I am a lot disturbed on this post. Not only because of the irresponsibility we do, or the kind of foot print we leave but on the posterity of the world around us.

..

Kodak!

This loner was found one monday morning near the pudina pot. We rescued and placed it on a attai dabba, also strew some grains around. After about 45 mins, his mother came around, pecked it and flew off in a nano second. The only remain of that flight was this frightened photograph! Bliss of living outskirts :-)



Marapachi. It is a tradition to keep these wooden dolls during golu. In my home, they are there at the foyer. Paati dressed them up recently, and I took little stitching lessons :-)

My pudina, thulasi, vendhaya keerai are all ready to be clicked- with some wow facts. Next post, that is!

His and Her - The Second Bit

I blogged this months back.When I wrote that, I was meaning only the aspect of how feminity is not let to be shown in men. I did not realise, that many men do not want to show the feminity.

Looking at Shiva as a Master came easily to me. With that thought process, this quote underwent even more torture in my grey cells. If the Masculine Master was half woman, what are the macho men we see around?

Nature has defined certain aspects as masculine and society has amplified the gory truths behind these definitions. If physical strength was masculine, beating up a woman was a crown. If endurance was masculine (physical), then holding on baseless belief systems (useless or otherwise) was allowed (Ego). It was not a case of one man creating a rule, but of the exaltation of an entire gender. This elevation has almost given, I repeat – almost given a semi-demi ruler blanket to men.

Women were glorified and made to rescind – to make some way. It is an easier option to call her Ganga, make her sit on a pedestal, dress her in ornaments and perform austerities. In a way, I believe women were made to be worshipped. All the literature that speaks on women as Gods ( I hate the usage of Gods to people, baring this instance) are means to keep Her away from the evolution process. When you glorify someone to an unimaginable extent, make her as a statue in time – she is not allowed to grow. In my opinion, that is what has happened in this country. As a nation, we have learnt to keep the woman within doors not in the pretext of dominating her but by playing a physiological phenomenon as glorification. If physical adoration restricted authority, the emotional bondage restricted fruition of the mind. It is to be noted, that mythology and literature speak on why this practice of “shielding” was followed – it also spoke on how relevant it was. We have moved far from this “shield”, yet we continue to take solace in its relevance. This is absurdity. When we have evolved in thought, acceptance and generations to allow women to do what she wants to - we simply have to move on from the old relevance of shutting her down emotionally and psychologically.

When nature showed her intrinsic capabilities of bestowing feminine characteristics in men, it confused us. Ascribing tendencies to a gender is not under the capacities of a human. It is a law, and it has to be obeyed. It riles me every single time I see a person being typecasted for the sake of being born into it. If we only learn to accept that a gender is not a mere classification, but denotes a sense of unification with the world – our lives are bound to be better.

When a man becomes a woman, it is beautiful. I have read a semi-autobiography of actor Prakash Raj and in that, he speaks on how lovely it is to experience motherhood. He writes on how he spent his college days reaching home late and on never being questioned on why he was late. There have been days when he has not returned home as well. On all those days, he says dinner was always kept for the son who may return home. It has taken him years to feel on how the mother has felt during those evenings. To her, it did not bother that her son was late. It did not bother if he ate. What bothered was her call as a mother, to keep food for him. I do not advocate this paradigm, but the most important part to read between the lines is her nature to do what she does best, irrespective of how the receiving end is.

As a generation, we have forgotten acceptance. It could be due to the constant fight of survival, or rather upliftment. In a non-natural, self imposed cycle – moving from a defined masculine tendency (earning, working, being the head of a family etc) to a once again, defined feminine tendency ( caring, nurturing, looking attractive) is derogatory. This is the vicious cycle this entire generation is flooded with. In the earlier times, there was no such movement because it was a set rule, a defined space to live. Today, we see a lot of acceptance and a lot of movement. Yet, it has to grow.

We need to realize that there is a law which regulates us, and it is not created by anyone here. It is natural, it was, is and shall be there. Understanding the basics of where we are from and agreeing to the growth is the fundamental step towards movement. It has to happen. Either the men and women of today shall learn to adapt it gracefully and live their lives to a satisfactory experience, or they let the change pass by and look back in awe at what the world has become when they kick the buckets.

Writing this post has been one of the best ever blogging experiences.

Joy of Photographing

I am loving to capture moments, more so those aha special views that seem to look so beautiful over a camera lens. Here is one. A very ordinary picture of corn and paneer on the kitchen counter, the day I made pizza. The corn toppled on the paneer...and here it is.

A quote and all the thought that went behind it.

"Shiva is the most masculine man you can ever see. And, he was half man- half woman"

The most masculine man is half a woman. I have a lot, a real lot to write on this. Now, I am off to my work and once I am done - I am editing this post, and writing on this first. It is itching now, to talk to someone about this.

Biscuits, Bakes and a Truth

As you all must be knowing by now - I bake. And I don't stop at that. The long resigned research analyst in me does a lot of studying on each and every ingredient. There is practically nothing, that I don't google on. But, then there are a gazzilion things that google does not show. Like it does not tell you that most biscuits you buy have eggs in them!

Here is my bourbon and custard-jam biscuits.

The Bourbons contain one egg yolk and the custard jam contains half of a egg. I am not a non-egg eater, but I try and avoid them unless it is impossible to make without it. The biscuits were very tasty and did not smell or taste eggy. But, the fact remains that we the consumers of store bought stuff do not know that most of them contain eggs. I may sound like I am making a big fuss - but to non-egg smellers/touchers like my paati, this is a very big deal. I am wondering now how the green symbol comes. May be I am wrong. May be they really dont use eggs. But, yes from my limited understanding(read: buying all biscuits on store, and trying atleast 6 variations) most of them contain. Milk Bikis, Digestives, Rusks are safe. Anything that gives you a very crisp exterior but makes you bite into it at ease does.

Another revelation - Now, prepare to hear the worst. All breads contain vegetable hydrogenated shortening. And most store bought breads contain egg. I have tried tasting a eggless, butter used bread and a egg used, dalda used bread. The latter tastes just like store bought. Also, when you try and buy the so called brown bread it is not wheat, as the ingredient list says. It is maida, with probably a portion of wheat. I know, that is the way to make brown bread but I have my own doubts if they use a full portion of maida and brown it with caramel. But, that is just my doubt.

We have been using Vanaspathi for decades. Later, they found it is completely transfats. From a google generated lead - When vegetable oils are hydrogenated under conditions of optimal temperature and pressure in the presence of a catalyst, the liquid oils are converted into semisolid and solid fats. This hydrogenated fat is termed as vanaspathi. Paati and CV say, Poori turns best in Dalda. Now, Dalda is not such a big thing to worry about - but I just thought I should let you know. Most restaurants use vanasapathi.So do all pre-packaged mixes. The soups which call just for a boil, The cake mixes that say in a minute, and THE 2 Minute Noodles - all of them do.

By the way - the pics are

Bourbons
Custard Jams
Caramel Cake

I am in glee!

Actually double glee. I have been rummaging through some old cookbooks from a old book store, and found over 10 priceless copies of 1965-1980 printed US library discard books. I spent so much time thinking which one to do, and I did this first.

This is a oatmeal-wheat-date muffin. The recipe originally has eggs. For all those who need eggless bakes, substitute one egg with one tablespoon flaxseed powder mixed with two tablespoons water. Healthy, Eggless Muffins.

So yaay! No more thinking eggless bakes taste little less good. This one is awesome, with honey, walnuts et all!

Update : I tried the same recipe with brown sugar and whole wheat. Still pretty nice, though not very spongy on texture.

Kids and Sevai.

People love cute children. Kids with pink bands, and lollipop smiles. Kids who walk thatka pothaka and talk in gibberish. Kids who say ABCDJKLMWXYZ always. I love them too. Most of the times, we fondle the baby, kiss at least twice in five minutes and try to maintain hand contact with the baby. At least, I try to.



We have always liked cute children to play with. And we appreciate them open heartedly. But, how many of us do the same with well mannered children? I know of a wonderful child in my apartment who is very good behaved, talks politely, thanks every time for a cookie and puts garbage only in the right bin ( Now, that's very very disciplined). He belongs to the East of India, but sings vada mapillai and speaks in suthama tamizh when asked in tamizh. I have alwways told his mom, that S is the best ever behaved child I have come across. This snap was clicked last week when we both made sevai together.I think we should learn to appreciate more ( that's a separate post by itself), but we should really know to do so to such sweet kids.

This is Shreyas:-)

And when pongal happens at home...

Kannu follows. I am inspired to share some pictures, from this post of Anu. The vazhaipazham, vethlai and manjal are homegrown. I was insistent on starting a garden last year. But, never had the skills for it. Thanks to paati's sustained interest, we now have a "at least 10 fruits a month yielding" guava tree, vazhaimaram, ginger, manjal( been growing it just for pongal) vethlai (betel), pasala keerai, vendhaya keerai, kothamali, karuvepillai and lots of sembarithi, rose and one kutty watermelon creeper. I am really looking to grow more veggies over this summer. That pazham is a ilaki, and is very tasty. The vazhaithandu literally melts in the mouth, with no strings (naaru) in it. I am so proud of myself today!

Kalyanam lingo

I am wondering from where the word "arranged" marriage came into usage. Are not all marriages arranged by people? And, why the word "love" marriage? Are not all marriages supossed to happen between people who are or have to be in love? I think using - "self choice" or "parents choice", "aunty's choice" or may be "matrimonial website aided" - but sick of the word - love and arranged!