Vegetable Preservation - Old Practices

Though I am aware I have to finish off my list of favourite Hindi, Telugu and Tamil movies but can do that when I have more time than I have today.
It's state elections. Have to cast my vote and rush off to attend a ceremony elsewhere.

Instead I thought I should share with you a short one on something which struct me as I was buying the raw banana for tomorrow's curry or whatever, at the grocer's.
They were a bright green and very healthy looking ones. I had to buy them even as thoughts of many recipes with them raced through my mind.

In my childhood it was a common sight to see a bunch of raw bananas (which are meant only for cooking and not ripening into fruits) floating in a container filled with water. That too for days on end (even for as long as 15 days) before it could be cut to be used in simple curries and other dishes like koottu, chips, podi, etc. They would remain fresh. Only this vegetable was put in the water.

I asked my mom the reason for putting them in the water instead of in the fridge. She told me it was to prevent it from turning ripe. A raw banana is treated as a vegetable. Even if it were to ripen we don't prefer to eat it. The fruit variety is different from this vegetable variety both in shape and size. I have noticed how they turn blackish and tasteless when stored in the fridge.

We have a lot to learn from our previous generation on naturally available preservation techniques. As an after thought, in these days of Dengue is it good to keep water surface open? Inviting mosquitoes in to lay their eggs in fresh water and cause ailments to us?
Food for thought!
Cheers.
Mahalakshmi

My Favorite English Movies

I have always loved good stories. Not too sad and melancholic nor too racy and artificial.

These are my all time favorites which I enjoy each time I had watched it (not more than a couple of times each!). Watching movies has been very far and in-between. During our Hyderabad days (till age 25) we really saw many movies and enjoyed them so much. In all languages - English, Hindi, Telugu and Tamil. Afterwards movies were far and few yet we did enjoy them now and then.

English:
(Pardon me if I get some names of the titles, heroes and heroines wrong).

Gone With The Wind - Clarke Gable was the most handsome man ever, with the looks one could die for. And that soft-spoken cousin of Scarlett who knew about Scarlett's crush on her husband, yet remained ever dignified till her very end. The best punch line which I use even now, in my daily life, "Tomorrow is another day".

The Sound of Music - Though it was through and through, a musical and what beautiful music they made! The film kept me enraptured for its story for a long, long time. I used to play all the songs on the harmonium, sitar and veena especially, the 'Do Re Mee...' tune. My favorite song remains the farewell song - 'Eidelwise, you look happy to meet me...'. I loved those good-hearted nuns who helped Maria leave the nunnery free from any guilt feelings. And the bumbling villi (read vamp) who was so good and true to her character, and I was so eager for her to go away and make way for our heroine, for how could the hero be so blind. It was almost like the typical Mills and Boon type story yet so powerful and so musical.

To Sir With Love A story line with a difference. I liked the bold theme. I thought it was much ahead of its times.

Krammer Vs Krammer
This was a very thought-provoking movie and I loved it so much. I became a Hoffman fan forever. The child star stole many a hearts, I am sure. I was too young to realize yet it was strange to know that even men cared and had feelings for their family and their young! It was quite a revelation to me at that time.
I din't miss seeing Mrs.Doubtfire for Hoffman's sake and he din't let me down either. I loved Hoffman in yet another family drama in Mrs.Doubtfire.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
A different story with a different ending which disturbed my mind for a very long time. I could not forget it even after deliberately seeing different genres of movies. The story kept coming back to my mind again and again.

Pretty Woman
What a lovely movie. I had a new hero to die for :D
Until then, it was Clarke Gable whose place none else could take and after this I knew I was wrong. This hero (whose name I am unable to recollect right now but who is into Dalai Lama and things now) was too good to be true. Julia Roberts was at her acting best. Though it resembles our Hindi story lines, yet I simply loved this spin. It had a happy ending to it.

The Jurassic Park
Fantasy through and through and how realistic it all looked. The best any day in all departments of movie making. Its an original and very thought-provoking. The message is clear - never meddle with nature with some scenes in-your-face and quite scary.

The Schindler's List
I could not stop crying. The power of one man who did all he could for so many people who had no hope being alive the next day. This was too good. It brought out the goodness of human nature at its best. Even now, I love reading such true life stories in the Reader's Digest, yet to see something similar on screen, made such a huge impact. A very well directed movie. The hero, the most handsome man ever. Or is it that goodness makes men look handsome?!

The Titanic
A giant of a movie. What scale, what magnificent settings. It all seemed like a dream during all those hours I was glued to my seat in the movie theatre. Kate, I thought was the most beautiful girl in the whole world after this movie. A Beautiful face-cut she has. The solo song by the Canadian singer (Celina?) stole my heart. What a divine tune it was and such soulful singing. Very few English songs have managed to touch my heart and this is definitely one of them.

All Charlie Chaplin and Laurel & Hardy movies
Laughter is the best medicine anytime. Yet there were some which brought tears to my eyes. It's all about happy-sad-funny kind of movies touching real life incidents. I still remain Charlie Chaplin's fan for the wealth he left behind without speaking a word as dialogue. The Laurel & Hardy pair had never failed to give me my fair share of stomach aches from laughing until tears rolled down my eyes for long while watching their silent antics.
'Heard sweet, unheard sweeter!'

All Lucile Ball episodes on the TV in those days
A laughter riot. Lucile had the most innocent looking eyes I have ever seen. She was the best where comedy 'timing' was concerned and who can forget all those antics. Wonder why no one screens these evergreens anymore on TV channels these days.

I was too small when Ben Hur was released and all of us cousins, went to see the movie in a local theatre near my uncle's house in Kurnool in the scorching sun when all others were snoring right royally at home with us kids not knowing what to do next! Perhaps we wanted to escape the heat as well as the sound!
Since the town was small someone known to the family saw our gang and reported seeing us at the theatre unaccompanied, at home. My eldest cousin who is quite aged came to get us and how! He shouted for us all to come out of the theatre standing at the main door. Each head in the theatre turned to look at us as if we had committed some crime and were being punished. The projector came to a halt (the theatre manager knew the family well) so that we could all come out without the public raising a hue and cry over such a disturbance during the show.
I still remember nothing of the movie except the clash and fireworks when two chariot wheels came too close to each other. We never saw anything beyond this scene.
All of us kids came out with very angry and sad expressions at being caught seeing a movie, that too an English movie, which we had no right to see, unaccompanied (by at least one male elder!!).

Me and my sister were left unharmed while all my uncles' kids were beaten black and blue that day. We both were petrified at the wild punishment meted out to all other kids and we were literally shuddering at the thought of when our turn would come. It never came, much to our relief. Perhaps we were city breds, were convent educated and had come for vacations or may be for some other reason but the very thought of those brutes touching us to beat, gave us so much tension and we were cringing with fear throughout our stay after that sorry episode. We wanted to get back to our beloved Hyderabad at the earliest. This was a lesson for us too. We could hear them commenting not to imitate city people! While we knew that all these cousins made it to the movies, on the sly, all the time and especially during summer vacations as a past time - city or no city upbringing!! Yet they managed to hurt us with words.
I am yet to watch Ben Hur till date.

After that, we never went to Kurnool again for our summer vacations ever. It taught us sisters never again to see a movie without informing our people at home ahead of time. Later while in college, we never went to movies with friends either, after college hours. This one incident had that kind of impact on our minds for a very long time indeed.

Cheers!
Mahalakshmi

Always Wanting More For Less!

Yesterday the scent of cut jack fruit stopped me in my tracks.
Push carts on the roads sell fruits, vegetables, etc.
Had to buy the over powering jack.
Asked the seller how many pieces for Rs.10? He said 5 pieces for 10 and commented that actually he wanted to sell only 4 pieces but thought 5 will sell better as it was a better number! Sure.
Thought it was strange but a beneficial logic for buyers.
I bought 10 pieces for Rs.20 and was tempted to jokingly tell him to sell 11 pieces instead of an even number like 10!!
But resisted that joke, as driving poor people against the wall is bad.
He may gain only a few rupees from us to eke out a meagre living.

Today had to prepare the jack fruit payasam as the cut fruit will get sour if left for too many days, besides odorizing the entire fridge.
It was yummy and all of us enjoyed it so much.
Cheers!
Mahalakshmi

Tata Magic And Auto Drivers

I take the auto everyday to T.Nagar for work.

During the past few months auto drivers who used to demand a lot more fares than the already normally high rates due to petrol price rise! From Adyar to T.Nagar they would demand anywhere between Rs.150 to Rs.175. Last year it was anywhere between Rs.70 to Rs.90.

Vegetables prices had more than doubled. Ditto with Groceries and milk and many other things.

Bless the elections. Thank God we are carrying money and get vegetables in bag fulls whereas in the not-so-distant past we were carrying money in bags for very little of these.

These days auto drivers are asking between 90 and 120 and finally agree to Rs.100 for that trip to office. This has nothing to do with elections, though.
Many drivers are muttering that the Tata Magic has taken away their business (of extortion!).
I have not traveled in it yet but it looks decent and roomy with good seats. Its the latest share auto or should we say share van and much much better than those rickety black-yellow ones which were not at all convenient to share with others.
The charges in Tata Magic are so nominal too, that people are completely ignoring autos in Chennai. Its a boon to have such competitive and alternate transport system in place and that too without making too much noise over it.
It's come in very quietly and doing its job of ferrying the masses at a very affordable rate and far better than these over-crowded buses any day. It's here to stay as it's getting very popular due to public demand.

Thanks Tata Magic. You are silently creating a revolution in the transport sector.
I thought the Nano was a gem of an idea. This is even better! Because you see those rough and tough auto fellows come down from their high horses.

Now I know why Ratan means a gem!

Cheers!
Mahalakshmi

Preparedness Before Disaster Strikes

Life goes yet thoughts are on people of Japan and how they are coping with the devastation.

Now and then watch the news for latest on Fukushima.
Could see helicopters jetting water into the reactors to cool it down. A bit too late yet under the circumstances they are doing what they can to bring the situation under control.

Since last week I have been busy writing a chapter on taking precautions before monsoons set in. This is one among many chapters in a project for a client. There are so many things to write about.

Was thinking about how preparedness helps minimizing losses of many kinds. So too is the case with the nuclear reactors. Japan's example must have shaken the world and I hope countries having nuclear reactors will plan for any eventuality. Of course the single focus in such cases would be to concentrate on cooling the core and the sooner they get on to the job, the better for saving people and property.
As a measure of precaution they should have massive pumps and sumps holding tons of water on the periphery (other than those coolants near the core) which should get activated once disaster is imminent. The pumps should start spraying water in the direction of the core from a distance, to cool down the fuel rods used in reactors.
I wonder if it would make sense to have each reactor placed some distance away from another reactor unlike what we saw in Fukushima prefecture. They seemed so nearby to me on the TV. But having all clumped together also may have its own advantages.

Each reactor should have fire-fighting equipment surrounding it. These fire fighting systems should be planned in layers around each core. There should be inner rings and outer rings to take on this job in case of such disasters. This is the real and practical insurance against such natural calamities.
Money loss can always be made over with help from inside and outside but fire fighting after a disaster is disastrous to say the least.

The world will pay more attention to developing solar energy from now on.
I guess its already been researched and kept ready by some developed nations like the USA and Europe but they will wait until oil is really dear.

Solar energy is clean, non-polluting, with almost no supply hassles, cost effective over a period of time for the equipment which needs to be put in place to tap it, though initially capital intensive it does have long run benefits which far out weigh any other source of energy. Barring a few disadvantages like
# getting the sun to shine :)
# Trapping maximum energy
# Storing - especially during cloudy weather and rains - until it could be used by the end-user which is the biggest challenge
# Ensuring minimum loss while supplying from source to the end-user by having very effective insulation for carriage.

Solar energy has been my pet subject ever since I came across several projects in I.I.Sc. Bangalore. One was in the silk manufacturing units of Kanakpura which used solar panels to heat water, then some interior villages like Ungra and one other which I don't remember right now. All this almost 30 years back!!

May the sun god always smile!

Cheers

Mahalakshmi

Leaving The Nest

When the young of the birds come out of their egg-shells they make such a big noise that the parent rushes back to calm them down with bits of food.
The young don't understand that making noises could attract unwanted attention from preying enemies who are ever ready to make a meal of the young of birds and animals.

Then a vigilant parent often teaches through demonstration how the young should flex their wings to fly and how to hunt for food. The young ones simply follow whatever their parent does and learn the subtle tricks of survival.

Over a period of time, they are fit and the parent never hesitates to send them out on their own. That's all. The parent gets busy for the next breeding season and has no time for the young ones who have been taught to be independent.
They are karma yogis and do their jobs without a trace of attachment. Yet not long back they would have fought to protect their young at any cost.

Alas! Humans never can forget their young until their last breath.
We have so many ancient texts that show us how to be wise, detached, kind, loving, dutiful, spiritual, etc., etc. Yet we are far from remaining balanced in our good as well as bad times.
We are attached to our children so much that we want absolute control over them or at least want maximum control over their minds.

Most families have one or two children. When they grow up they invariably leave home and usually settle far away. In good time they start their own families.
Mostly busy with work and taking care of their own families, might leave them only with a few days or weeks to visit parents, friends, classmates, relatives, in-laws' side of relatives.
Some families make the most of such vacations while some turn these into nightmares with complaints, accusations, etc.
Parting time is one filled with a lot of emotions either way - happy or sad.
Sadness at parting by both parties.
Happy to part and feel relieved that at last it's 'time' to head 'homewards' to one's own nest.

Can we be like those birds or animals? No. We should not be like them either. Otherwise what will set us apart from those creatures?

I think we have to balance our feelings. Have some activities to keep us busy.
Be there when they need help and stay away when they need to lead their own lives. Just like God is not there but HE is there when we need HIM the most! Sigh!!

Cheers.

Mahalakshmi.

Earthquake and Tsunami

Sorry about the long break from blogging.

Work, work and more work coming my way which is good for the mind.

What shook me out of my stupor is the devastating earthquake and Tsunami.
Just 2 days before this event, yahoo had put up a picture of a big moon with a caption 'supermoon...' The explanation which was given was the moon will be very close to earth on the 19th March.
I shared this piece of news one day before the tsunami, with my husband over our morning cup of coffee. I was saying, this natural phenomenon means there will be an earthquake of high magnitude but to find out where, I din't have the time to check out on some things.
Varahamihira, the great handed down some gems of predictions based on the natural phenomena perhaps after observing keenly nature over a period of time, so many centuries back. It holds good even today!
Many question the logic behind these superstitions yet there appears to be solid reasoning behind what is to come in a given circumstance.

Let me quote some examples of what has been handed down to us by our wise rishi-munis.

1.
An eclipse will result in natural calamities like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, etc.
I have followed this one since the past 11 years out of interest. I have observed, especially after a total solar eclipse there has always been an earthquake of more than 5.5 Richter scale in one region or the other. Then there are volcanoes which get quite active after eclipses.
This is not mere superstition.
Though earthquakes keep occurring all the time in one part or the other all over the world, it is the magnitude plus the duration which matters (and these invariably occur after or around eclipses), it shakes up the earth unlike the mild tremors which keep adjusting the plates across the land mass or continents.
My observations have led me to believe that lunar eclipses or moon moving closer to earth leads to gravitational pulls of the vast water mass which in turn disturbs the land plates. Hence the earthquakes and at times followed by tsunamis - mild or strong - again depending on the magnitude of the earthquake.
Whenever there is going to be an eclipse, I Google to see the path of the eclipse across the globe. Then there's a spot where the eclipse is intense or lasts longer. Invariably around these areas - natural calamities can be expected.

2.
Many have reportedly lost their eyesight due to carelessness in not taking adequate precautions during solar eclipses. It is a superstition not to go out at all during such times. Maybe they want to prove that nothing will happen even if they watch the sun during solar eclipses without adequate/proper protection thinking it is all superstition. Ancient wisdom is full of logic. Maybe the down-the-line generations have put a fear in the minds of the people in the hope that they will obey these things without questioning. People need to know the logic behind to follow some precautions.

3.
Then Varahamihira mentions how excess of bamboo flowering in any year will be followed by famine in the region.
This phenomenon has proved to be true each and every time. The north east regional states in India have abundant growth of bamboo trees.
There have been famine during certain years. And if one looks closely there would have been an abundant flowering on bamboo trees in those years preceding the famine.
I wanted to find out a logical reason for this. I found that out!
Excess flowering would mean excess food for the rodents and pests. They will gorge on it and multiply their population further. When the flowering season would be over, they will turn to the grains or anything available in the fields. In no time the army of insects and rodents would decimate the yet-to-be harvested crop. What follows would certainly be famine in the region. These are modern times so mankind is clever enough to take care of the rodent and insect population during such times if they are wise to observe nature from close quarters.

These are such logical explanations and we say there is a lot of superstition going around. I would say, behind some key superstitions, lie lots of wisdom which mankind could use to great advantage.

May all the souls rest in peace which left their mortal frames in the recent tsunami.
May the Japanese rise like the Phoenix yet again. Easier said than done but Japan is a brave and disciplined nation. They have never been afraid of working hard to help their nation get on to its feet in record time. It may seem hopeless when we watch the re-runs of the devastations on TV channels but soon the nation will come to terms with this tragedy too. But God has been really unkind giving them so many upsets one after another in the past couple of days - earthquakes, tsunami flooding, volcanoes, nuclear explosions...

Mahalakshmi