Confusion Confounded

Sattu and Onion Parantha

noreply@blogger.com (SN Bagur) — Sat, 18 Jul 2020 12:55:00 +0000

Since last saturday my fasting schedule has been derailed. My parents visited, so I did 16:8 and that kinda stayed. It is unbelievably ready to wander off the schedule and not even realise it. I wanted to get on track and what better way than a long fast. So.. today I am on 23hr fast and for my OMAD I wanted something filling and satisfying. I opened my window at 11 with this Saatu and Onion Parantha with big dollop of butter and some curd. Closed by window at 12 with hot adrak wali chai.

I have also recently discovered a whole world YouTube 'experts' on fasting. This one dude has so many videos on fasting for women. Fasting for women is not that very different from that for men. There is fasting and losing weight and fasting and building body. Then again it is still common for men and women. Anyhoooo.. this dude on YouTube throws out fancy sounding words peptide yy and stuff. Yes we know what it is, so we also know when it is just bring thrown around! His biggest gyan is don't eat fiber! Kyu yaar? Apparently onion and garlic put too much pressure on our GI.. zucchini is a starchy veg so stay away. Uff! And there are people who are genuinely asking him questions and may even be believing him.

Who are these people that make daily meals so tedious? Food should be easiest.. no jhanjhat affair people have other things to worry about!

If you want to know what you must eat I have a simple test for you -

1. Is this food item found in nature? Yes, then definitely you should eat it.

2. If the food is processed, can you do the same process at home? Yes, then eat it. For ex: can you make Maida at home? No, then don't eat it. Can you make wheat flour at home? Yes, then eat it. Can you make refined oil at home? No

Can you make simple filtered oil at home? Yes

You're answer becomes clear.

Coming back to the parantha, its regular stuffed parantha with sattu and Onion filling.

Parantha dough-

2 cups Whole Wheat Flour

1/2tsp Salt

Water to make a soft pliable dough. Not too wet.

Sattu filling-

11/2 cup Chana Sattu

1 finely chopped onion

1/2cup Chopped Coriander

4-5 chopped green chillies

3 choices minced garlic

2tsp ginger paste

1tsp Kalonji

1tsp Ajwain

1/2tsp turmeric

2tbsp Mustard oil

2-3tbsp water

Salt

Mix all ingredients to form a loosely moist powder which should clump together and hold shape when pressed.

Chana Sattu -

1cup - Black Chickpeas

Soak chickpeas for 8-10hrs.

Drain the water and spread it over a towel and dry it for 2-3hrs. It shouldn't be completely dry.

Spread it in a single layer on a sheet pan and bake at 160°C for 30-40 mins or until you here popping sounds.

You can put it in a kadai and roast it for 30mins.

Blend the roasted chickpea into a fine powder.

If Saatu or black chickpea is not available where you live or the procedure is just too tedious, you can replace sattu with fried gram powder or dry roasted besan.

Hope you try this recipe. It's food.. it's forgiving.. give it a go 👍

Ladakh Winter 2013 - PART 2

noreply@blogger.com (SN Bagur) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:40:00 +0000

I stayed in Leh for a week. Everyday was the same. Camera shy Sonam Uncle used to wake up at 7 and do his daily prayer. I would wake up to suffocating smoke. It used to be the incense that uncle lit every morning. Like us, they don’t light one or two incense sticks, instead they light up a whole bunch of them. The incense also doesn’t have a particularly pleasant smell.. Its just smoke. It took a couple of days of getting used to. Dolma aunty used to wake up at 9 am and go straight to the kitchen. Can you imagine if we people had the luxury of waking at 9! Even housewives in the cities don’t have that luxury. Padma, Dolma aunty’s youngest daughter and I, used to lay awake watching Chota Bheem or Doremon until aunty would come with breakfast. She is 10 and studies in class 5. The rest of the day was spent visiting relatives, helping Padma do her holiday homework, watching TV, strolling around the city. The day ended around 5pm. The streets would be completely deserted by 6pm. Evenings were spent watching DD Leh, a 1 hour program and then Karan-Arjun kinda movies. Padma and I mostly spent the evening dancing away to Ladakhi and Tibetan songs. Dinner was usually between 8-9. We would be off to bed by 11.30.

Lazy 10 am in the morning inside

10 am outside

Me and Padma

In Ladakh, bathing, brushing etc, are not on the priority list in any season. Breakfast was had sitting in the razai, roti in hand with old mango pickle in it, sharing a bowl of previous night’s dal with Padma. Minimal use of utensils is a priority. There are no maids there and Dolma aunty has to do all the washing. There was this one time when I accompanied aunty to the kitchen with plates and tea cups one evening. She was washing them while we chatted. It so happened that she forgot to wipe them dry and left several of the damp plates on the surface. After about 5 mins she realized what had happened, I didn't understand what was happening until I saw her wedge them out with a steel spatula as they had frozen stuck to the stone surface.

Frost on the window every morning

Icicles on the window.. had never seem them shaped like this. Always thought cartoons exaggerated them.

New Year’s night was spent watching a special 1 hour program of DD Leh, the whole hour 10 to 11 (I think) was in Ladakhi. It showed the year gone by in Ladakh- The booming tourism, The Leh festival in Sep, Hemis festival, Losar among others. We had to sleep by 11.30 pm because the power was out and it was pitch dark to do anything else. The entire city was also asleep by then.

What surprised me was the continuous power supply, so i enquired about it. Electricity to Leh is usually supplied by a giant generator located bang in the middle of the city. Power was supplied only from 6 to 11pm everyday in summer. But in winter this time, there was power all through the day, leaving of course, minor power outages. I was told that a new Hydel power plant had been set up on the Zanskar. No sooner had I asked the question, the power went out and didn't return till the next evening. Rinchen informed us that the Zanskar had frozen! Problems that can arise only in Ladakh..

Rinchen is Sonam uncle’s brother. He is the go to guy for vacationing in Leh. You only need to tell him the places you want to visit and bham! Everything is ready. Extremely sweet guy, he visited everyday and gave me company lest I should get bored.

Rinchen

On one of the days I accompanied Padma to the skating rink. Ice hockey and ice skating are very big in Leh. Ice hockey tournament is held here annually and teams from the armed forces and other countries also participate.

Padma and her friend skating

Of the 7 days that I stayed on Leh, my birthday celebrations lasted 4 days. On 3^rd Jan, we had chocolate and strawberry pastries that we bought from a local bakery. On my actual birthday – 4th, I went and bought Aloo Tikkis, apparently they are aunty’s favourite and Jalebis. Yes, you get the famous dilli ki chaat in Leh throughout the year.

Me and Padma all geared up

This guy got a whiff of the aloo tikkis we were carrying and followed us all the way from main market to chubi

Aunty made her special Momos for dinner. The momos were made in typical ladakhi style out of wheat flour and were stuffed with all available veggies and paneer. On the third day aunty made chicken. Though I am a vegetarian, uncle insisted that Veg Momos was not a dish fit for birthday celebration and a non-veg dish should be made. Being a flexible vegiesaurus I agreed to have the gravy of the chicken dish, which as it turned out was the dal of the previous night :-)

The next day, Padma tried freezing a mixture of milkmaid and milk in an ice tray in the FRIDGE! She wanted to make ice cream for my birthday. The mixture did not freeze inspite of being in the fridge the whole day. Disheartened, Padma agreed to have it as it is for dessert after dinner. But by the time the ice tray made the journey from the fridge in the kitchen to the living room, it had frozen. We had milk ice cubes with toothpicks sticking out of them :-)

Padma with her ice tray ice-cream

Although I had decided not to take a bath, eventually I decided to have one for experimental purpose. So, I did bathe. Aunty heated the water with an immersion rod and it was surprisingly pleasant. Only problem was it became freezing cold by the time it hit my feet. Aunty warned me not to step outside with wet hair or they would freeze. Trying to be a daredevil I stepped out to hang my towel for drying and freeze they did! Tiny icicles formed all over my head. I tried clicking them but my camera could not focus. It was fun scrunching and crushing the icicles.. only to find icicle and hair pieces in my hand!

frozen feet after bathing.. trust me they were looking blueish :-P

All in all, it was a trip like never before. I was completely alone but was never alone or lonely to the point that for 2 days I forgot to call up home. The family was so loving and caring that I did not miss mine even for a minute. I have travelled to many places, but have always remained a tourist, here I was at home.

Ladakh Winter 2013 - PART I

noreply@blogger.com (SN Bagur) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 13:39:00 +0000

So I did my first solo trip this year, to celebrate my 26^th birthday. I flew to Leh and stayed with a family whom I had just met last year during our family trip. The whole family made a trip to ladakh last July. We stayed in Gyalson Guesthouse. The family that runs this place became such good friends with us. The aunty of the house Dolma, invited me to visit them in winter and I couldn’t say no!

Dolma Aunty with Nagpo (doggie)

I came back and the first thing I did was to book my tickets. According to initial plans a couple of my friends were supposed to join me in the trip. But as time passed, people came in and out of the group. My own trip became doubtful. GoAir cancelled the flight, and then re-scheduled it, changed my dates, My nana got hospitalized... But in the end it was 30^th December and by then all was well and my flight was inevitable.

My luggage consisted of 5kgs of my clothes including my rucksack. 5kgs of cauliflower, 3kgs of tomatoes, 500gms of green chilli, 2kgs of capsicum, 1kg of bottle gourd, 2kgs roasted groundnuts. 1 room heater and 1 blender set. :-) All of this requested by my mom’s new friend Dolma Aunty!

After the suspiciously heavy fog that had enveloped the airport since the previous day cleared, the ‘important flights’ were first to take off. Not that beginning my vacation on time is of any importance to anyone. Anyhow, after 3hrs of waiting our flight finally took off. It was an amazing flight. The pilot was also kind enough to point out the view of the Kashmir valley from 30,000 ft! The sight of the frozen Zanskar or Indus (not sure), snow clad mountains and hearing Julley Julley as the Ladakhis boarded the flight at Jammu.. was like instant therapy for my over worked brain.

Kashmir Valley (looking like a huge crater)

Frozen River (Zanskar or Indus)

I don’t know why, I am a South Indian, living in Delhi, but every time I see the Bakula Rinpoche airport approaching, some sort of a soothing, senti feeling over comes me. The ‘I am home” wala feeling. Well I can’t explain that feeling...

Finally I landed in Leh at 3.30 pm. I went from +12 to -7 in under 2.5 hours! Aunty’s family had moved to another house. Their guesthouse is a new building and fearing that it might get too cold in there, they had shifted to a more lived-in house in Chubi, Leh. The plus point of this house was that it had, perhaps, the only functioning WC in entire Leh. I had gone prepared to use the Ladakhi style toilets but it was not required. Though there was no water in the taps, a usable toilet was more than i could ask for.

By evening my acclimatization process had started with the usual nagging headache and loss of appetite. Aunty was so excited that she offered me Salted chai then sweet chai then snacks which consisted of afghani roti type snacks and twisted fan and an assortment of stuff which even she didn’t know what they were! I couldn't refuse her. I had a bit of everything. All of this followed by dinner. In aunty’s house, dinner always tastes the same. With liberal quantities of salt, chilli powder and oil it hardly mades any difference whether it is dal, chicken or sabji you are eating.

Every evening we watched TV, DD Leh, 6pm to 7pm, everyone laughed and then explained the jokes to me, in hindi it didn’t seem that funny. But they assured me it was very funny in Ladakhi.. It was so re-assuring to see such simple innocent TV programs and people of all ages sitting together and laughing heartily. Maybe there is still some hope and scope left for us. After DD Leh we watched Karan Arjun type movies till the power went out.

By 2am my acclimatization was complete. I woke up with a jolt. Throbbing, dizzying pain at my temples. Then Nausea! There was no power and it was pitch black and I was in a room I was unfamiliar with. I just had enough time to shout “Aunty light!”. Aunty immediately woke up and switched on an emergency lamp and handed it to me. I ran to the toilet and puked. Everything starting from lunch was out. I came back- no headache, no nausea, no stomach gud-gud, drank a glass of water and slept. I was ready for Ladakh :-)

Noon Sun shining brightly at -7

Parodontax- disturbing commercial

noreply@blogger.com (SN Bagur) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 10:42:00 +0000

I am very critical of advertisements. I try and find faults in them all the time. It’s fun, also I am anti-advertisement and brain washing. None of the previous adverts up until now, no matter how boring or ridiculous have they annoyed and disgusted me as the Toothpaste PARODONTAX commercial.

There are a couple of commercials around of the product. However one of them is particularly disturbing. The commercial focuses on the wash basin and the narrating voice says “The difference between this and this..” This and This being different brushing spits!!!

I don’t care if they are good toothpaste, addressing oral healthcare, and they are not even commercializing and brain washing. Every time it is on TV I cover my ears and shout out “La lala lalaa” so as to not hear them even spit! God forbid someday I will remember this ad while brushing teeth myself. I might end up puking my guts out. I don’t know how many more out there have had this kind of reaction to this commercial.

One Day...

noreply@blogger.com (SN Bagur) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 10:46:00 +0000

One day...

A man sat alone drenched deep in sadness. All the animals drew near to him and said “We do not like to see you so sad! Ask us for whatever you wish and you shall have it.”

The man said “I want to have good sight”. The vulture replied “You shall have mine”.

Then the man said “I want to be strong” the jaguar said “You shall be strong like me”.

Then the man said “I long to know the secrets of the earth” the serpent replied “I will show them to you”, and so he went with all the animals and when the he had all the gifts that he could take...

...he left

Then the owl said to the other animals “Now the man knows much and is able to do many things... suddenly I am afraid”.

The deer said “The man has all that he needs. Now his sadness will stop”.

But the owl replied “No I saw a hole in the man... deep like a hunger he will never fill... it is what makes him sad and what makes him want he will go on taking and taking...

until…

one day the world will say “I am no more and I have nothing left to give..”

-from Mel Gibson's Apocalypto (2006)

It's time to change

noreply@blogger.com (SN Bagur) — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 06:28:00 +0000

Its time to change, well I think the time to change has come and long gone. We are over due by a century for the change. Start to think what you want to change around you and one doesn’t need more than a second to start listing the endless issues that need our immediate attention and that have to be changed no matter what. Crimes against women, against people of different sexual orientation, against children, transsexuals the list is so long. I want the real world to become a mirror image of the blogging world. People are free to express their views; no politician can ever imagine interfering with this freedom and get away unscathed, women, men, children, transsexuals, homosexuals all alike are welcome to speak their mind with no fear of any kind of violence. Even if there is any disagreement or a grudge to settle it is all limited to repartee. There is no doubt that it is an utopian idea which can never be achieved but trying to get there may take us to place better than this present violent, chaotic and suffocating situation.

The change we require calls for a revolution. A revolution in every sphere of our society: in religion, education, societal perception, everything. Without a major revolution, minor bickerings and rantings will be of no use. The process of revolution calls for martyrs. Martyrs of every form. Women who revolt against the dowry system may have to cancel any plans of a married life, there might even be instances of lives being lost, people revolting for a more open minded society may have to become social outcasts, but in the end the supposed moral police of the society will give up and just accept the change at face of it.

I do not believe in sensitization of public towards an issue. Like the concept of reservation for minorities, sensitization calls for a primary classification and thereby segregation of the people & issues towards whom the public is being sensitized. When such classification and segregation happens then discrimination is bound to follow. There can never be ‘good’ classification and segregation. While being sensitized, people are fed with varieties of information detailing the weakness and the necessity for extra care and protection towards the persons which puts others in a special superior place as the givers of protection or the needs.

I think what is required is to desensitize people about issues. People need to stop observing others for weaknesses and start treating everyone as equals. Desensitization is the process by which the public are fed so much information regarding an issue and other co-related matter that they become numb towards it. Imagine a scene a man and a woman are walking in opposite directions and eventually pass each other. Sensitized man thinks “oh! There goes a girl. She has breasts which I must not touch. She has a vagina too which also I must not touch.” I do not see this as what we would want our society to become. This is definitely not our answer.

There is physical rape and a visual rape and any woman will tell you that both are equally demeaning and hurtful. If the above scenario happens all women would maybe be physically untouched but the mental trauma is still very much present. We will still constantly feel violated. What we need is desensitization of it. Now imagine the same scenario again only this time the desensitized man thinks “………………………………” Well, what is there to think? A woman passed by, so what? There is nothing to think about it. The way women are desensitized about men it is the best example there ever could be. When a man passes by a woman, she doesn’t think “Oh! A man. He has a penis”!!! At the most the woman might look at him but not exactly see him and nothing registers in her mind. That is what should be achieved.

Another good example of desensitization is of girls wearing jeans. Any girl wearing jeans pants would have raised eyebrows and would have become an outcast in our society some decades back. But due to the overt in your face bombardment of woman who wore jeans has led the society to become numb towards this attire. Today the jeans pant doesn’t register in anybody’s mind. Ask anybody if they remember what any particular girl was wearing and they will answer “don’t know, must be wearing some jeans and t-shirt.”.

We need to teach our children to learn to be scientific in their approach to life, accept women, people, sex etc as part of natural life and respect everyone as an individual. There is only so much the government can do but the real education has to come from the society itself. As long as mothers do not fight for their rights their children will not know the definition of respect. Of all this one can only conclude that we cannot pin point any one issue that requires change, all aspects of the society are interlinked and at the present situation only a cataclysmic revolution can rectify this society.

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What Generation Gap?

noreply@blogger.com (SN Bagur) — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 05:48:00 +0000

I know very little about my great grandmom, here is a little story I know about her life. I don't know why I am writing this, I felt like writing about her. Analysing the story that I do know about my great grandmom, I realised that there isn't much difference between us. Except of course that she was born almost a century before me. It is funny how each generation is perceived by the preceding generation to be more rebellious, adventurous and daring in comparison to them. Also the metaphors used to reprimand the kids also change and greatly signify the biases and mindset of the current generation. But the procedure of reprimanding doesn’t change. Each family, each community has it’s own very unique way of reprimanding and scolding its children.

My great grand mother (maternal grandma’s mom) was born in 1902. Actually her mother is the real hero. She got tutors for my great grandmother to teach her to read and write. It was her wish that her daughter should know at least to sign her name. My great grandmother studied till class 3 which was unacceptable in the society then. It was impossible to educate her more because it was time to get married. But her mother fought off relatives for quite some time. She was finally married at the age of 12years. My great great grandma had to face a lot of criticism from all relatives for having such an ‘old daughter’ at home.

My great grandmom insisted that, since she was ‘so highly educated’ she should marry a man who is also highly educated and should work in the city. She did not want to marry a purohit which is the profession of our caste. She was reprimanded for having become ‘like those city people’ and for getting so corrupted by her city bred neighbor friends. She was also scolded for wanting to wear her sari with a short pallu as was the fashion in the cities during those times. Aping anything the city folks did was totally unacceptable and amounted to having lost your brahmin ways. She had to face a lot of ridicule from the villagers and relatives because she, influenced by the city ways and educated till 3rd standard had become the black sheep of the community. They vowed that she would never get married as she had become so old and made an example of her to explain the ill effects of the city to others.

She ended up marrying a man who had studied till 11^th class and was working in southern railways as a manager. She moved to city had 14kids, sent all girls and boys to school, read Indian express everyday, loved Indira Gandhi and finally died at the age of 96years.

She was the voice who told my mom to get a job. She campaigned for my mom to my grandparents to send her to another city for her job. She was also the voice that told my mom to reject proposals of men who did not want their wives to work.

Mother Nature's Pyre

noreply@blogger.com (SN Bagur) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 17:47:00 +0000

Today was choti Holi. Today Hindu’s have a bonfire symbolic of Holika’s pyre. The story of today’s celebration is, one of our favourite, another victory of good over evil one.

Prahalada was a devout Vishnu follower. His father, Hiranyakashipu considered himself to be all powerful and demanded that everybody should pray to him. But Prahalada refused to pray to him and continued his prayer offerings to Vishnu. He ordered his sister, Holika to burn Prahalada. Holika had performed severe penance and gotten a boon from Lord Brahma that she would never get burnt by fire. Holika takes Prahlada on her lap and sits on a bonfire. Prahalada begins o pray to Lord Vishnu and it so happens that Prahalada remains untouched while Holika burns to her death. Thereby turning the bonfire into her funeral pyre.

Hindu’s have been burning to Holika’s pyre on the eve of Holi festival to celebrate this victory of good over evil. No scripture calls for this burning. Just like there is no written rule behind the burning of Ravan during Dussehra.

What I am trying to get to is that it is not mandatory to practice certain rituals and traditions if they don’t make sense anymore. Maybe we can have a small bonfire just to celebrate the festival and continue our long tradition. In this day and age where environment conservation is the need of the hour, we must take every possible step to curb unnecessary pollution. Starting from firecrackers to this bonfire.

In Delhi, different areas have unwritten competition amongst themselves on the size of their bonfire or the size of their ravan and for how long it burns. In the area where I live, each apartment complex has its own Holika bonfire and ravan during Dussehra and there are approximately 65 apartments.

This is the carnage in my apartment complex alone –

All of it chopped and burnt in the name of tradition and rituals. I am quite sure that no God will be offended if we don’t burn such a big bonfire. A similar one was burnt for Lohri as well.

I did not attend the Holika celebrations today because I can’t bear to stand there and watch the carcass of a glorious tree burn in the name of religion and tradition.

Who has seen Holika? It was really the funeral pyre of the tree and our beautiful mother nature.

When will Indian Politicians ever evolve

noreply@blogger.com (SN Bagur) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 15:25:00 +0000

The assembly elections results were declared today. Its SP again in Uttar Pradesh. All day long reading the breaking news online or watching the news on TV and then I read this article on CNN IBN. It is always the devil or the deep sea for Uttar Pradesh. All the agitations by the civil society led by Anna Hazare, Ramdev Baba and all don’t seem to have any impact on the politicians.

A 12year old child is killed by a stray bullet fired at the victory celebrations of Samajwadi Party leader Iqbal Mahmood in Sambhal!! How can these kind of politicians ever govern a society and protect it when the society actually needs protection from them. It will not be long for a politician from Uttar Pradesh to reach the centre.

There are always extensive debates on how to eliminate this class of politicians, but the debate always revolves around in blog world amongst educated people who don’t need any more education. It is just so frustrating.

But I must confess, I got some weird satanic pleasure reading the article.. “ha ha! Achcha hua! One more reason for such politicians to be exposed!”. Its just sad that the kid who died must have been ‘bought’ there by the party to maybe throw flowers at the politician for some paltry amount. His family may never hear about him ever again, he is not even named or identified as yet. God only knows if he’ll ever get identified, if his parents will at the least get some compensation for the sheer arrogance of the politicians. Who knows if this incident will get any more media coverage other than this little blink-and-you-miss 2 para article. maybe the now victor SP leader may get it all hushed up. Maybe after some years the link will also will not work, all related material may have been deleted at the order of a 'leader'. Who know?

Wish that Idea ad on TV "25 lakh eye witnesses from YouTube" would actually work..

And writing about all this, sitting comfortably at home is making me feel guilty..

INDIAN TRADITIONAL RAPE?

noreply@blogger.com (SN Bagur) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 09:11:00 +0000

Supreme Court has reprimanded the government for constantly changing its stands on Gay Sex issue. The government is appearing before the Supreme Court for an appeal against the decision of the Delhi High Court decriminalizing Sec. 377 of the Indian Penal Code saying that it is against the Indian traditions and society morals. Apparently homosexuality is not mentioned anywhere in the Vedas, Upanishads, Manusmriti etc, so it cannot be allowed. According to Ghulam Nabi Azad, it is a disease which has come from the developed countries.

The list of people campaigning against the decriminalization of S.377 is long and heavy. It carries big names from the world of Politics and Religion. Names that, if determined, can change a lot many things in the society, law and order and such. But social causes do not garner media coverage or vote bank favours.

Notwithstanding incidents of road rage and goonda raj, the recent spurt of rape incidents are causing shock waves in the country. It is simply scary to walk on the streets. Anyone, just for the heck of it, can drag me away in car and share me with his friends and then dump me in some corn field. Moreover now that it has been established that being called “Sexy” is a compliment and harmless, anybody on the road can comment on my body, call it sexy and demand a thank you in return.

All I am trying to say is that these supposed upholders of Indian tradition, moral values and whatnot like the Opposition leaders, Ramdev Baba, Government Ministers, groups etc, should shift their attention to more important matters of law and order and societal discord. Why are they not doing anything to raise awareness, spread education, discourage violence and try and increase the morale of the people? How does it matter to the nation what two consenting adults are doing in their bedroom? Is Rape not a disease which needs to be cured?

It is hilarious to see the government come out and give a press statement that it does not have any stand on the S.377 issue! Why not come out and support the Noida Rape Victim? She is not only a rape victim now, but victim of our society and all of us need to apologise to her.

It is just sickening that when there are such burning issues that need immediate attention of our policy makers of the country they are busy meddling into bedrooms and ancient culture.

Simple question: If they are so concerned to maintain our culture and tradition then they should eliminate everything that is in violation of it. So since they don’t seem to raise their voice against rape, does that mean Rape is part of our culture? Is it written in the Vedas and Manusmriti that if a girl drinks vodka she should be raped? That if a married women goes to a pub she should be raped?

Ahum Brahmasmi?

noreply@blogger.com (SN Bagur) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:16:00 +0000

Who or what is God after all? Something so big and so powerful that you feel absolutely powerless before it, something you have never seen but feel its presence. Belief in which, sometimes helps explains the inexplicable. Hurricanes, earthquakes, floods are all what we call 'natural calamities'. Lesser advanced people, as we call them, may call it 'god's wrath'. But what is nature separate from God? Thomas Robert Malthus said that nature has a way of balancing itself. Nature multiplies arithmetically whereas man multiplies geometrically. So when man over populates to such a number that nature can’t take it any more, there are ‘natural calamities’ to balance out the excessive population. Logic applied to Dinosaurs also. We might have logical explanations to all the calamities that befall us, tectonic plates and low pressure zones etc but at the height so science is the inexplicable- God.One can say that we have grown so much in number that God is having a 'pest problem'? His earth has been infested by humans who consume and destroy everything in their surroundings.

Applying the above.. here is my conclusion :-

I am God in some ways. I think that insects and other tiny creatures perceive us as Gods. We have the power to destroy their homes or put some food near it and help them prosper just like how 'God' creates the natural calamities for us or a sudden abundant harvest season. We squish them, torture and terrorise them when we fancy for fun like misleading an ant from its path in a long line of ants carrying food home or like when we hold a cockroach by its feelers and watch it scrambling in the air or like spraying water on a spider and watching it run.. when we do such things the little creatures must be praying to 'God' (read- humans) "Oh dear God! what did we do to deserve this! We are such a peace loving colony, eating all the woodworks and furnitures that 'nature and GOD' has provided for us." They might even be having an idol or a picture representation of their 'God' which may be a huge 3feet tall ant or a spider or termite as the case may be. A God that can walk on water, control everything that is happening in their universe and maybe provide answers to their eternal questions such as how life came to being in their little galaxy of Kitchen Cabinet.

Also considering that we humans are so gigantic compared to the tiny forms of these creatures.. maybe they cant even see us, we might be out of focus for their tiny eyes. They might, as we say in our little colony, not have the 'sight' or 'vision' to see 'GODS' without proper meditation and rigorous penance but they do feel our presence like the housefly that flies away just before you squat it or the cockroach that dashes into the nearest crevice the moment you lift that rolled newspaper, they don't know what they fled from, but they know something was there.

The little pests don't know who controls their Kitchen Cabinet, how their world's topography of cutlery changes after every 7 generations. It must be something of a prophecy handed down by the elder of the colony to new generations. Little do we know of the havoc that we cause every Sunday when we bring out the dinner cutlery. They don't even know that their exists another cabinet and so many more cupboards. Like we don't know how many more 'kitchen cabinets' there are apart from our Milky Way and a few others.

So, i believe that we are pests in God's house and we are Gods to the pests in our house. Should we not treat those pests how we would want God to treat us? :-D

Just a Thought

noreply@blogger.com (SN Bagur) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 11:34:00 +0000

At the risk of sounding stupid… I don’t understand economics. The concept of economy and its dynamics just blows over my head and hits me behind the ear like a sock full of wet sand!

It’s like me trying to explain cyber space. Its logic, which I don’t understand hence can’t explain. I use the internet, but I don’t ‘get’ it. It’s a network of cables under the sea.. connected to servers around the world?!! That’s it? So where exactly is www.google.co.in? – is it on a server somewhere… How? And I can access it in seconds through half satellite and half wire connection… How? But I open google 1000 times a day, have blogs, tweet, facebook etc... but I don’t ‘get’ it.

It’s like me trying to comprehend how big is the universe. Milky Way, then Andromeda, then 10 more galaxies, then what? Where does it begin and where does it end?

So, when I read in the papers that there is rampant inflation, that there is uncontrolled price rise. I simply don’t get it. As in, who is to say that there is inflation? How do we know what is inflation? Who came up with the idea in the first place and most importantly why should we listen to him? So when people tell that the Rupee is losing its value how do they know that? Suppose for whatever reason, people are getting poor or there is unemployment, why can’t we just print more currency and infuse it into the market? How will the country become poorer and deposits reduce?

No really, what would happen if we tell the world that we are not interested in their theory of economics and that we will function in the way it fancies us. We don’t want their FDI, globalization or open economy and such. Who is to say and enforce that an item that cost Rs.50 yesterday will cost Rs.100 today even though the same amount of labour and raw materials have been used?

No really, will our lives be so miserable and unlivable if we say… switch to barter system? Or if we take a more moderate view say, switch to a closed economy? Can’t we just grow and consume what we want and be self sufficient? I think it’s the easier way to escape the BT Cotton, beautiful looking tasteless bananas and mangoes with ‘tested. Ok.’ stickers on them. Easier to escape times when middle class families may have to lose out on their family vacation just to run a scooter, keep track of gold rates, stock rates, vegetable rates, interest rates, FD rates, saving bank rates, DA, PF, electricity rates, water rates, increment, school fee, college fee, medicines… phew!!

Its just a thought… who is to say that there is recession or slow down or mow down or any other ‘crisis’? All that I have seen is that billion dollar companies lose trillion dollars worth of value. Where neither the owner nor the employees have seen either the billion dollars or the trillion dollars and some guy with alphabets after his name tells them that there is loss so, the company has to wind up, people have to commit suicide and the country becomes pauper.

No really..

WHAT IS OBSCENE?

noreply@blogger.com (SN Bagur) — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 08:12:00 +0000

I cannot understand that why every now and then we hear the I & B Ministry and people in general making a huge hue and cry about all the obscene, vulgar content of the programs aired on TV. I am just concerning myself with the objections to vulgar content, not the propagation of antisocial behavior. I seriously have problems their bitching, conspiring and general bad behavior which they are insidiously teaching everyone not just impressionable kids.

What is obscene?
Offensive to morality or decency; indecent; depraved: obscene language. Offensive or outrageous to accepted standards of decency or modesty. Abominable; disgusting; repulsive.
As it is very clear, each of the words used to define obscenity is by itself questionable. What is morality? What is indecent? Or accepted standards of decency?

I also don’t understand why nudity, sex and related things are all categorized as obscene. In almost all spiritual teachings it is said that because we wear clothes our mind is corrupted. God/ Nature made us naked, we were not born with clothes on. All other animals in nature are living normally and quite happily I must add, without clothes. Our desperation to cover our bodies stems from our apprehensions about our sexual nature.

Without being too philosophical and spiritual if we ask, what is our purpose in life? The answer is very clear. It is the same as that of every other living being on this planet. It is to grow up all healthy and nice and mate, hunt for food, make a shelter, take care of the offsprings, teach them the ways of life and die. It is only our misconception that We have a bigger or a better purpose in life, than to indulge in silly trivial matters of the body. This we believe can be achieved by covering our bodies and pretending it doesn’t exist.

Some people argue that humans indulge in sexual behavior for pleasure and not as a force of nature and that is why it should be morally condemned. Such people must be informed that humans are not the only species to indulge in sexual acts for pleasure. There are other animals for example dolphins that do it for pleasure and breeding in just incidental to them also. We don’t see them wearing clothes and telling their kids to look the other way.

When we watch Natgeo or Animal Planet etc, we see uncensored, ‘educational’ videos about habits of animals around the planet. How does that become educational? The animals on the channel are for one naked and indulging in activity which is forbidden (mating). They are not nude but naked. There is also no question of the film being ‘aesthetically’ shot.

Having knowledge about the sexual habits of animals will constitute as General Knowledge and may even get you a doctorate and respect in the society. But having knowledge or even having a desire to learn, even a tiny bit, of human sexual habits is deemed as perverted and unacceptable. The person who is oblivious to his, as a human, sexual nature and that of humans in general, is hailed as naïve, seedha-sadha, bhola-bhala, uncorrupted or unpolluted etc. I say such a person is abnormal and in the wild, would be left to die without having accomplished his purpose.

We love to break rules. When something is taboo our mind is drawn to it. We have to explore it just for the thrill of doing something one is not allowed to. If straight forward facts are in our face then we will accept it and will eventually ignore shrug our shoulders and say “big deal!”. Like girls wearing jeans or spaghetti tops are now “No big deal”. Instead of running in the opposite direction, we must teach ourselves and our kids to accept and respect our sexual nature. It is not new, odd or something of a handicap that should be condemned. Its just normal!!

The Case of the Speluncean Explorers - Excerpts

noreply@blogger.com (SN Bagur) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 12:00:00 +0000

HANDY, J. Government is a human affair, and that men are ruled, not by words on paper or by abstract theories, but by other men. They are ruled well when their rulers understand the feelings and conceptions of the masses. They are ruled badly when that understanding is lacking.

Of all branches of the government, the judiciary is the most likely to lose its contact with the common man. The reason for this are, of course fairly obvious. Where the masses react to a situation in terms of a few salient features, we pick into little pieces every situation presented to us. Lawyers are hired by both sides to analyze and dissect. Judges and attorneys vie with one another to see who can discover the greatest number of difficulties and distinctions in a single set of facts. Each side tries to find cases, real or imagined, that will embarrass the demonstrations of the other side. To escape this embarrassment, still further distinctions are invented and imported in to the situation. When a set of facts have been subjected to this kind of treatment for a sufficient time, all the life and juice has gone out of it and we have left a handful of dust.

To read the entire case :-

The Case of the Speluncean Explorers

MURDER OF INDIA'S BEACHES

noreply@blogger.com (SN Bagur) — Fri, 29 May 2009 05:23:00 +0000

We are killing our beaches. India is going to have a port or a harbor every 30 kms if we don’t do something quick to stop it.

So why should we stop building ports??

Apparently ports obstruct the natural flow of sand and formation of beaches. Monsoon and winds move the sand inwards and create long beaches. Ports obstruct this movement. Therefore sand piles up south of a port whereas it gets severely eroded north of the port, leaving behind ugly black rocks.

People think that it’s a natural phenomenon. Whereas, actually, it is a complete man-made disaster.

All over the world the ports are responsible for dredging the sand from south to north to maintain the beaches. However in India there is no such rule.

Instead of having 5-6 big, modern and profitable ports, India commissions a small new port every few months. These ports mostly incurs losses and therefore can’t afford to dredge the sand. Instead of making it mandatory for the ports to maintain the beaches around them, the Indian govt gives lucrative offers to companies to fill up the empty beaches with rocks and build miles of rock walls along the dead beaches. It is one big land scam with everybody having a vested interest in murdering our beaches.

Beaches make the sea shore more enjoyable. You can walk miles into the sea with the water just waist high. Where there are no beaches, it becomes dangerous to get into the water. Since there is no shore, the sea bed drops drastically and suddenly.

If this goes on in a few more decades we will have only a long necklace of black rock!!!! As is so evident in Pondicherry already. Pondicherry has already lost about 12kms of its beaches.

This, death of our beaches affects everything that is dependent on it. Starting from loss of tourism. Even though we have one of the longest coastlines in the world, we still feel jealous when we watch beaches of Miami. Why?

Sand acts as a filter and does not allow salt and sea water to seep into the mainland. However, due to the loss of the beaches, sea side villages have now realized that their underground water has become saline and their crops are dying. Leading to the death of their livelihood aswell.

Where is Mamata Banerjee??? Does she ‘protect’ the rural people only from the Tatas??

Courtesy:: NDTV 24x7

Happy Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (SN Bagur) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 05:47:00 +0000

coming back post... Am still trying to catch up with all my fav blogs. I seemed to have missed so much. I've started going to college you see... :p so sudden time crunch...

so this is for my Blog-anniversary (3rd Dec) and my Birthday (4th Jan) :)

HAPPIE BIRTHDAY TO ME AND MY BLOG :)

It's been 3yrs since my blog was born and poor thing... this is its first birthday post :P

yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

happy deepavali

noreply@blogger.com (SN Bagur) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:19:00 +0000

A Very Very Happy Deepavali to you all :)

C-7 Ajji

noreply@blogger.com (SN Bagur) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 08:16:00 +0000

An old lady lives above our house on the third floor. She is a very old family friend of ours. I call her ajji (grandmother). She knows my mother from her college days. She lives with her son (mama) and daughter-in-law (mami) and 2 grandchildren.

There’s is typical bollywood melodrama household. Ajji does all the chores while mami watches TV. She cooks food for her grandchildren else mami will order pizza or whatever the children demand. Since she insists on veggies and home cooked food and doesn’t appreciate fast food, she becomes the bad one while mami who gives whatever the kids demand is the good one.

She is allotted a seat only on which she sits. She eats when she is served food. Actually not served.. but given permission to eat.

Once a proud wife of a librarian. She is also no less intellectual. But know she is reduced to a maid. Well, not even maid. One is scared of the maid that if you mistreat her that she might abandon you with unwashed dishes etc., and one pays her too.

But my ajji is not paid money or respect or anything. The once-upon-a-time innocent and loving kids follow the path of their mom and ill-treat their granny.

Its so heart breaking to see her sit on the stairs and cry night after night. She covers her mouth with the edge of her saree pallu to muffle the sound. She gets berated for crying loudly. She has forbidden me or my mom to tell anyone about it. She has asked my mom to find her an old age home. She plans to leave everything.

“Why don’t you just die quickly?”

“for what are still alive.. to eat my head.. I know..”

“you can’t just laze around and expect to get fed. You have to work for it!”

These are the kind of stuff one gets hear outside their door.

I have no idea what her son does in the house. How can it be possible that he isn’t aware of her plight?? Her cheeks and eyes are permanently swollen with tears. Can’t he see that? The problem is that most of this nautanki takes place only when mama has gone off for work.

I really can’t understand for what ajji is tolerating all this shit?? I mean she is financially independent. She has her husband’s pension coming in every month plus their savings and the house in which they are all staying. The house in which mama and mami are squatters.

Ajji can easily ask them leave her house. She can also file a domestic violence complaint or do so many things. Why doesn’t she do it????????

This isn’t the case with my ajji alone. She is just one of the 1000s of such ajjis and other weak, helpless and scared people.

I really see no solution as to what can be done in such a situation. No amount of legislation can help unless the victim decides to make use of it.

New Template!!!

noreply@blogger.com (SN Bagur) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 08:51:00 +0000

i made it!!! me me me me :))

noreply@blogger.com (SN Bagur) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 07:00:00 +0000

Stupid Blogger widget!!! ate my blogroll :(

child abuse

noreply@blogger.com (SN Bagur) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:26:00 +0000

There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child.- Walt Streightiff

Children are the future of the society. Playing a key role in driving the market economy. Top brands want to woo them. The govt wants to woo them; they are their pseudo vote bank. Parents nurture them as the torch bearers of the family name.. well.. That's you and me.

Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn't music.

There's another section who haven't been placed on a pedestal. Who are dehumanized everyday across the globe. Child Abuse is one of the sickest things anybody can perpetrate. It leaves behind grave injury- injury to the physical body, to the psyche, to the soul… what else is left??

The term 'Child Abuse' includes several activities-
1. Physical Abuse- beating, burning, whipping, making them to work as laborers in inhuman conditions etc.

2. Emotional Abuse- children are emotionally tortured and made to see their mothers or siblings being abused. Repeatedly telling them they are a big burden.

3. Sexual Abuse- Personal abuse as in rape, molestation or a commercial abuse like trafficking, forced prostitution.

4. Neglect- When parents/ guardians neglect the child- physically or emotionally its abuse again.
Children are one third of our population and all of our future.-Select Panel for the Promotion of Child Health, 1981
There are several legislations in India and several international conventions against Child Abuse. There are severe punishments prescribed for perpetrators. The world is a vicious circle of events. Beggary, prostitution, child labor and hoard of other activities have been banned keeping child abuse as a major factor. Most of the beggars on the streets are children. Most of the prostitutes are underage girls posing as majors. Everyday many pimps and their prostitutes are rounded up by the police. The pimps get away scot free, it's the prostitutes who bare the brunt. The child laborers have no where to go or do if they are not serving tea or shinning shoes. The police harass in the name of the law and others don't need any sanctions from law or God.

The abuser is usually the father or a male relative of the child's immediate family circle. Its the saddest fact of child abuse that the abuser is someone who should have beeen protecting the child from this big bad world.
Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see. -John W.Whitehead
It is weird that we write poetry, articles – as I've written this post, take photos etc., to fight child abuse. I do believe that it is for a good cause, we must spread awareness about such things that happens everyday across the world. But what have we done towards the cause?? For our brothers and sisters who are treated like toilet tissue..

Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man.-Rabindranath Tagore

As I write this post and as you read it, there must be a boy somewhere who is being mercilessly beaten for breaking a tea cup, a girl somewhere muffling her cries of pain and anguish for her brother's sake as she is brutalized by her once-upon-a-time-favorite-uncle. A brother-sister duo hungry, crying dried tears sitting by the roadside hoping against hope that their parents will come back. It's OK if they don't bring back food. A girl contemplating between suicide or prostitution, then deciding on the later as she can then assist her dad, financially at least if not in any other way being a girl n all.
You are worried about seeing him spend his early years in doing nothing.What! Is it nothing to be happy? Nothing to skip, play, and run around all day long? Never in his life will he be so busy again. -Jean-Jacques Rousseau
As you go through your life.. you don't have to do big things, small and simple things equally matter. Be kind to your maid- whether 14 or 40.
When you go to dhaba or where ever don't yell out "chotuuuu! Do chai la oye!!!!!" instead try "Chotu. Beta do chai lana." And enjoy the twinkle in his eyes.

-------------------

Know more about the state of child abuse in India. Read the 'Study on Child Abuse India 2007' by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Govt of India.

yipeeeeeeeeee!!

noreply@blogger.com (SN Bagur) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 10:45:00 +0000

My result is here!!!
I got 173 rank!!! M gonna go do Law finally :)

yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

going back to north campus.. gonna be super fun!!!

BC to AD

noreply@blogger.com (SN Bagur) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:40:00 +0000

i have a question.. i dont know why i thought about it. No one has yet given me a proper answer. There must be one... also.. i dont know if its a lame question but it has been bothering me for sometime now. So I thought of asking you guys.

All of us know that there was BC (Before Christ) before AD (Anno Domini) right? and that BC years are counted backwards until it ended with 1 and then AD started.

Well, my question is :: Did the years actually go backwards.. boleto.. did the people living in those times count their years backwards??? or is it that we now, in AD have made the BC years backwards, but the people back then must have counted their years normally 2,3,4..

:))

m bak..

noreply@blogger.com (SN Bagur) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 08:18:00 +0000

Soooo.. here I am, this is me.. therez no where else i'd rather be.. more so after I so horribly blew my civil's prelim exam. I can't go anywhere in public where anybody might know me and also know that I've given the exam. People don't remember simple things like my doggie's name or what i'm studyin etc but they do remember that i gave civils and they'll never lose a chance to ask "to kaisa raha exam? aah.. tumhara to achchaa hi hua hoga". Well.. i dunno.. i see the sarcasm dripping everywhere!! AAARRRGGHH!!!

I've got another chance at law and i'm taking it. Law faculty here i come. entrance exam is on 15 june. hope i don't bungle up this one.

well.. after the exam i've been left with sum side effects..

for one i think that i'm kinda pregnant. that's the only rational explanation for my unusual chocolate cravings. its all my fault i agree. but i didn't expect the addiction to linger on for so long. Well.. i used to drink gallons of hot chocolate at odd hours while studying. Now i'm simply hallucinating about rum chocolates and bitter ones, almond ones.. aaarrrgghh.. m hallucinating even while writing about them!!! I had for so long dreamt of eating a couple of DBCs but now i'm still stuck in Delhi while my mom is enjoying all the DBCs in b'lore!!! :( koi gal ni.. atleast it's kinda helpin me lose some of my exam weight :D

also all my known hobbies seem to have vapourised. i have no idea how to spend my break time. i used to go online and chat away. but now i don't even do that!!! i don't even read novels anymore- u know the normal fat paperbacks!!! I read EPW instead and Enid Blyton's Chimney corner stories!!! I dunt have any problem reading Enid Blyton.. its reading EPW that bothers me.

and the worst of all.. i speak statistics and figures. in normal life if anybody spoke to me the way i do now, my reaction would be a simple "go get a life!!" its like as if i've memorised an entire encyclopedia and put on a freak show.. spitting out figures and statistics!!! It has become sort of an obsession now. i've gotta know how much the govt spent on what? how many people shop in malls and regular grocery stores? how many people travel by metro, dtc bus, blueline bus and autos on a daily basis........................... bla bla bla..

okk.. whteva.. m bak.. yipeee :|

Celebrating Civils

noreply@blogger.com (SN Bagur) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 08:15:00 +0000

Its official.. my admit card is here!!!!

here are some pix celebratin civils.. before the exam!!!

my table!! I like it this way.. make me feel like i'm studyin!!

My countdown calendar

My notes!!! only i can read'em!! :P

View from my table.. not as lovely as the breeze that comes in..

My bed at 3 a.m.

My wall with all my models!! i know!! coz m gonna be designin clothes in my spare time as ambasador to Antartica

Half syllabus of prelims on my window.. other half is a mess so can't put that here

Half syllabus of mains on my door.. too far yet..

** my wall is occupied by lovely designers can't put things like my syllabus there, now can I??**

So, i'm just 13 exams, 1 interview, 1000 sleepless days/nights and 25-30 Kgs of study material away from being an IFS Officer..

Yipeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!