Janani's Space

Anjanam Mai Ezhudhi

noreply@blogger.com (Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram) — Tue, 31 Jul 2018 11:27:00 +0530

Fashions always return after sometime - ensuring that a country's culture lives on. Sarees are in vogue. I see lot of people sporting those 70s hairstyles - hair tied in a bun on top, plait that is oriented to one side, big flower behind the ear, and stuff - I don't know what they are called, but I see them all over.

And, I see women making it a point to wear eyeliner before they step out of the house - even if it is to buy veggies or to pick up their kids from school. I find this especially fascinating. It is an amazing trend - revival of a tradition that was once taken for granted. Like kumkum, flowers, bangles, etc., anjanam or mai was considered one of the auspicious marks of women in India.

Almost all shlokas describing goddesses have at least one reference to her black eyes lined with anjanam. Interestingly, this description is also there for the 'bala' forms of male gods, like Guruvayoorappan, Bala Murugan, etc.

As soon as children were bathed, mai was applied to their eyes, on the forehead and cheeks. Little girls in pavadais, women in sarees, and even the older ones in madisars all had beautiful mai-lined eyes! Then slowly many people started shirking this custom in the name of fashion or blaming it on eye allergies. Now, it is nice to see many people wearing eyeliner again!

I have just one grudge though. I wish ladies will opt for herbal eyeliners instead of the chemical-loaded ones sold by multi-nationals. It is a beautiful Indian custom to line our eyes black, why not do it the Indian way. Go for a herbal, if possible, organic eyeliner, so you can look beautiful and reap its benefits too.

Did I say benefits? Yes. Like most Indian customs, wearing anjanam too has medicinal benefits.

Made with castor oil, pure anjanam has a cooling effect on our eyes.
Plus, it is also known to block dust from entering our eyes.
If made properly, the Ayurvedic way, it can also prevent and cure eye infections.

If your mom or grandmother knows how to make anjanam, team up with them and make it at home. It is not too complex - I have watched my mom make it. Castor oil (valakkennai) is smeared on a bronze vessel and this is placed over a lamp lit with til oil (nallennai), so that the flame slowly heats the castor oil. This is placed in a dark corner of the puja room. Slowly the heat chars the castor oil, and you can start collecting the mai in a small container. You can add a few more drop of castor oil to bring it to the consistency you want.

I believe there is also a more complex and even more traditional way of preparing this, which involves watching the setup till the mai is ready, chanting some mantras all the time. I am sure there must be some benefits brought about by the mantras’ vibrations, but not everybody would know that procedure - so we can at least try the simpler way!

Next time you reach out for eyeliner at a beauty store, pause for a moment and think about shifting to a more natural brand - or better still consider making it at home. Google will help you with the procedure :-)

Don't forget your pottu...

noreply@blogger.com (Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram) — Tue, 31 Jul 2018 11:09:00 +0530

... how often has your grandmother said this right after you finished your bath?

The pottu (bindi) we keep on our foreheads is more than a custom. A spot of research (no pun intended) I did on this years ago, when Google was not so popular and I actually had to dig into books like Deivathin Kural and other books to find out, showed that the place between our eyebrows is an important chakra. Several important nerves converge there, and a mild massage at that spot twice a day helps activate positive vibes and energies and wipe off negative ones. Being a sensitive spot, only a mild massage is required, and the pressure exerted by our ring finger is just perfect for it. This is why elders always insist that we keep kumkum with our ring finger and not index finger or tall finger.

Although many of us have moved to sticker bindis these days, we should at least keep a small dot of pure turmeric kumkum along with it, because the mix of turmeric and lime helps to ward off infections.

I also remember reading that the spot between the eyebrows prevents somebody from fixing their gaze on ours and hypnotizing us. This was very important in olden times to protect women from black magicians who would lure them away, for sacrifices or other bad deeds. Even though that risk is not there today, it is still important for women to have a steady mind and not be carried away by the honey-coated words of untrustworthy people.

Perhaps if elders explained these scientific reasons to children at an impressionable age, they would not give up our customs so easily?

If chaai is your comfort drink, make it your way...

noreply@blogger.com (Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram) — Thu, 11 Jun 2015 11:40:00 +0530

Although many people - including me - advocate having black, green, white or herbal teas without milk, the fact is that chaai, the indigenous brew of tea and milk, remains a comfort drink that many of us cannot do away with. So, if it really is a comfort drink for you, that is, if it makes you feel warm and good deep inside, then take some time out to make it the way you want, so you feel doubly good when you sit and sip a cuppa.

So, what can you add to your tea to make it extra special? Well, actually anything from milk to ginger and cardamom, or all of it for that matter. Each of these lends a special aroma and flavor to your tea. However, you need to know when to add each.

Source: Flickr; cormac70

The right ingredient at the right time

While some add all the ingredients together and boil, I feel that there is a time and place for each ingredient, in order to bring out its best flavor. Here are my suggestions:

1. If you're making ginger milk tea, first boil grated ginger in water for sometime to allow the acids to evaporate. Then, add milk and tea. When this boils, switch off the stove, filter, add sugar to taste and enjoy fresh.

2. To make mint tea, prepare milk tea as usual. As soon as you switch it off, add some sprigs of mint, roughly crushed with your hands, close the vessel with a lid for a minute or two. Then, filter and serve.

3. For cardamom tea, you can add the cardamom along with the tea leaves itself. In fact, whenever you use cardamom, you can put the peels into your tea container rather than throw them away. This will impart a nice aroma to the tea.

4. Lemongrass can be boiled for sometime with water and tea leaves, before adding the milk. This will help the essence to seep into the tea. But, don't overcook it either. Once the water comes to a boil, add lemongrass and tea leaves. Boil for a minute, then add milk, bring to a boil again, filter and serve.

Make your own combos...

You can add one or more of these ingredients to your tea. Some all-time favourite combos are ginger-cardamom, ginger-mint, lemongrass-cardamom-ginger, and of course, all of them together.

In such cases, add some of the ingredients when boiling the water, add others in the end, as required.

Or make your own chaai masala

While chaai masala is readily available in stores, you could make your own special blend using your favourite spices, in the proportions you like. As I said, earlier, if chaai is your comfort drink, you are the best judge of how to make your cuppa. But, when you feel adventurous try this chaai masala, which tastes somewhat like a mix of sukku-malli kaapi (a popular herbal tea of south India) and the north Indian chaai.

1. Take some or any of the following ingredients in the proportions you prefer - ajwain, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, pepper, clove, cardamom and cinnamon.

2. Dry roast them for half a minute in a hot kadhai, and powder them in the mixer-grinder. You can store this in an airtight container for close to a month. However, I would suggest making some every week, so that the aroma is fresh.

3. Boil water. Add grated ginger, lemongrass and this special tea masala. Boil for a few minutes.

4. Add tea granules/ leaves and milk.

5. Remove from the stove when it starts boiling. Add some sprigs of mint. Cover the kettle and let it infuse for a minute.

6. Filter, sweeten with sugar or palm sugar if required, and serve fresh.

My suggestion is to make this tea when you are free and savor it immediately. Can't we spare a few minutes to enjoy a heartwarming drink? Avoid reheating tea because it is bad for health - and is also a huge disappointment for your taste buds!

How to Make Super-Soft Idlis: Secrets Learnt from Here and There

noreply@blogger.com (Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram) — Fri, 5 Jun 2015 21:33:00 +0530

Now, let us talk about something we eat at least two to three times every week. Did I hear somebody mention idli! Yes, precisely. Humble though it is, the idli holds a special place in most south Indian households. Although the batter is made at least once or twice a week, many people keep worrying about whether they got it right, till the first batch is out of the steamer – white, soft and fluffy. Indeed, making idlis perfectly is a matter of pride for most women.

Frankly, I hated idli – with all my heart – for more than two decades. I thought it was the most boring dish ever – I was prepared to even skip a meal or settle for curd rice rather than have idlis (sigh, hope my son doesn’t find out I threw tantrums too)! But after my son was born, the convenience of having a meal ready in minutes and the greater benefit of being able to serve the same food to the little one too, made me pro-idli! And since then, I have gleaned many an idli secret from many a friend and many a commercial cook.

So, here are some tips I learnt, which I am sure will help you in your daily idli adventure too…

The proportions I prefer are 4 cups rice (you can use a mix of millets, raw rice and idli rice), 1 cup of de-skinned whole urad, a tablespoon or two of fenugreek and a fistful of poha (aval/ beaten rice). Wash all the ingredients. Soak the rice and poha together, and the urad and fenugreek together for at least four hours. Drain and grind each set separately. Mix them together along with salt and allow fermenting for 8 – 10 hours. Then, stow it into the fridge, or make the idlis immediately. Well, this is what everybody knows. So, let’s get to the real stuff…
Drain and preserve the water in which you soaked the urad and fenugreek. Use this to grind the urad batter. This enzyme-rich water will help your batter rise well.
When grinding the urad, add water only little by little. You will find that experienced people never pour water into the urad. They take the water in their hand and sprinkle it slowly. Allow it to grind for some more time; then sprinkle a little more water. Keep doing this, gradually, till the batter is done. When is this? Here is a test to find out. When the batter is smooth and springy, take a spoonful of it and drop in a vessel of water. If the urad batter remains like a blob and floats up, the batter is perfect. If it sinks, you need to sprinkle a little more water and continue grinding. If it disintegrates – oops, you have added too much water – and your idlis might end up flat L
If you like nice, round idlis that retain their shape, use 2 cups of raw rice and 2 cups of idli rice to make your idlis. Add a little coconut water when grinding the batter.
If you are grinding your batter in a mixer-grinder, chances are that the motor will heat up – and eventually your batter will also become warm. This is not a good sign. As a way out, use cold water to grind your urad. A friend once told me that she lets the urad soak in the fridge itself, so that the urad and the soaking water are cold – perfect for grinding in the mixie.
Some people hesitate to let the rice and urad soak overnight thinking their batter will be watery. This is a misconception. You can comfortably soak these two overnight, and make the batter in the morning, so it will be fermented and ready to make fresh idlis for dinner!
Your idlis will have a wonderful texture if you grind the rice a little coarsely. But, take care not to make it too coarse. Almost fine, but just a little coarse.
While many of us grease the idli plates with a little oil and directly pour the batter into it, the best way to make idli is to line the idli plates with a wet, thin muslin cloth and pour the batter on this. The moistness in the cloth will make the idlis super soft. However, removing the idlis from the cloth requires a bit of practice. You need to turn the idli plates upside down so that the cloth with the idlis falls upside down into a shallow bowl. Now, spray a little water on the back of the cloth and try to remove it from the idlis. It will come off smoothly. If you have never done this before, do it leisurely on a Sunday, because chances are that the idli will stick to the cloth and you will find it a challenge to separate the two!
If you are coating the idli plate with oil, use sesame oil as it gives a good aroma to the idlis!
Fill each idli ‘hole’ only up to half with batter, giving enough space for it to rise.
When arranging the idli plates, make sure that you place each plate above the other diagonally, so that the cups of the plate are in between the cups of the previous plate. This will ensure enough space for the idlis to rise and ensure that the idlis do not stick to the plate above them.
Now for a traditional practice that many people have entirely forgotten today! Basically, when the batter is fermented, the fluffy urad-rich paste rises to the top, while the sticky rice-rich paste sinks to the bottom. What most people do these days is to mix the fermented batter thoroughly before making the idlis. Well, nothing wrong, but just try this method and you will see the difference. Don’t mix the fermented batter. Keep taking the fluffy batter from the top to make your idlis. Once you reach a watery layer, stop making idlis, give the remaining batter a mix and use the viscous batter that is at the bottom of the container to make wonderfully crisp dosas. You will find that the batter at the top is perfect for idlis and the batter below it is ideal for dosas!

If you have an idli secret to share, please do… so many of us will benefit from it too.

Get rid of a nagging headache, naturally...

noreply@blogger.com (Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram) — Mon, 1 Jun 2015 14:12:00 +0530

Many people instantly reach out to allopathic medicines (aspirin, paracetamol, etc.) as soon as they get a headache. It is not that they are unaware of the side-effects; they are, but situations such as an important meeting ahead, a toddler nagging them, etc., increase the urgency to be rid of the headache!

Understandable! Nobody likes headaches. But, next time, please try one of these home remedies before you pop a pill.

1. Boil water. Add a spoonful of coriander seeds. Let it boil for a while till you are able to smell the coriander strongly. Switch off the stove and add half a spoon of tea leaves to the concoction. Close the vessel, and let it stand for a few minutes. Filter and drink it as it is without adding any sweeteners. Sleep or sit down and relax for just ten minutes. If you are lucky, your headache will be gone by this time.

2. Ginger is also a wonderful medicine for headache. If you don’t mind munching on a piece of peeled ginger as it is, perhaps with a dollop of honey, nothing like it. Else, add a spoonful of chopped ginger to 1 ½ cups of hot water, and let it boil for a few minutes. Then, filter, add some honey and drink it. What a tasty way to banish your headache!

3. If your headache is due to tension, then chamomile tea works wonders for it! Nowadays, dried chamomile flower is available in most organic shops. You just need to add a spoonful of the flowers to a glass of freshly boiled water, allow it to infuse for a few minutes, filter and enjoy with a dash of honey. Else, you can buy pure chamomile tea bags (Korakundah is a good brand). This will come in handy when your head aches during office hours!

4. I heard that herbal tea prepared with fresh mint can also help with headaches, but I also heard it aggravates the headache in some cases – so I’m wary of suggesting it to others!

Turmeric Milk - Truly A Golden Beverage

noreply@blogger.com (Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram) — Tue, 26 May 2015 21:01:00 +0530

Much has been said about the benefits of drinking turmeric milk - or 'Golden Milk' as it is fondly called by the Orientals. It has been advocated by several schools of native medicine, including Ayurveda. A simple Web search on 'turmeric milk' will tell you about benefits ranging from decongestion to weight loss, so I am not going to delve into that much in this post.

Instead, I want to share with you an authentic method of preparing it, which I zeroed in on after trying several recipes advised by Ayurvedic doctors, and found in many books.

1. Take an inch-long stick of turmeric. Remember that turmeric powder is never as effective as crushed turmeric sticks, because the chances of contamination in the powder are high, plus its efficacy is also bound to reduce during the heat-generating grinding process. So, take a stick of turmeric (the variety used in cooking; varali manjal in Thamizh) and crush it coarsely using a mortar and pestle.

2. Crush a few peppercorns too. The white variety is better.

3. Mix a cup of water with a cup of milk, add the crushed turmeric and pepper and bring to a boil.

4. Simmer for 20 minutes. By this time, the milk will reduce to a cup. This is the reason why I suggest you begin with a mixture of milk and water; else you will end up with a very thick, kheer-like drink that won't be as soothing.

5. Remove from the stove, filter, add a spoonful of honey or palm sugar, and enjoy the drink warm.

6. If you are taking this to relieve a sore throat, add 1/2 teaspoon of ghee to the hot turmeric milk before drinking it. The ghee will melt and coat your throat, relieving you of cough as well.

Note: The most important part is to sit and relax with this cuppa for a few minutes, relishing its soothing flavour and rustic aroma! This will enhance the feel-good factor.

Fresh homemade herbal teas beat costly 'dip' bags handsdown!

noreply@blogger.com (Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram) — Sun, 17 May 2015 19:16:00 +0530

If you like black, green or basically no-milk teas, then you will like herbal decoctions as well. I have experimented with a lot of spices and herbs, ranging from cinnamon and fenugreek to tulsi and oregano and realized that all of them taste fab. On days when you are free, you can try mixing and matching the ingredients, else make these 'teas' with just one or two herbs or spices.

Take a teaspoon of whatever spice reflects your mood on that day, say fenugreek, cumin, pepper, coriander seeds, dried chamomile flowers or liquorice (adhimadhuram), fresh mint, tulsi or oregano, crushed turmeric or ginger.
Add it to a cup of water, bring to a boil, switch off the stove.
Close the vessel and let it infuse for a few minutes.
Filter the tea, dilute it if you like it light, or have it as such with a spoonful of honey, palm sugar or palm jaggery (karupatti).

Honey combines beautifully with most herbs and spices. A dash of lemon also goes well with most of these teas, so feel free to add half a teaspoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice per cup of tea.

I would suggest you keep changing the spice or herb everyday so that you get the balanced benefits of all these. Each of these ingredients has some medicinal value, which is good in moderation. But, as we know, too much of even a good thing might be harmful.

However, if you keep changing your herbal teas everyday, then you are sure to enjoy the variety not just in the flavour and aroma, but in the health benefits too!

Millet(s) Idli

noreply@blogger.com (Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram) — Thu, 30 Apr 2015 19:32:00 +0530

Millets are getting their much deserved attention - at last. Everybody is talking about them. Honestly, we have been using millets for a long time now, and I personally find a significant difference in energy levels, resistance and general well-being. Anyway, I realised that idlis and dosas are a great way to sneak these super grains into our diet - especially in a form acceptable to kids.

Basically, you make the batter much the same way as for normal idlis but use the following proportions:

1 cup urad (ulundu/ black gram)
4 cups millets (any of them - pearl millet, little millet, kodo millet, foxtail millets, or a mix of these)
1/4 cup poha (aval/ beaten rice flakes)
1 tbsp fenugreek seeds

1. Clean all the ingredients separately. Soak the urad and fenugreek together in a vessel. Soak the millets and poha together in another. Let them soak for at least four hours.

2. Drain the urad and retain the water for grinding.

3. Grind the urad adding water little by little till it is soft and fluffy. (Use the soaking water.) To check if the urad batter is done, drop a blob in a cup of water. If it floats up, the batter is ready.

4. Grind the millets and poha adding water slowly. You will find that this does not take as much water as rice would, when making traditional rice-based batter. So, be careful when adding water. Add little at a time.

5. Mix the two batters well, adding a little salt too.

6. Allow to ferment till the batter rises well.

You will see that millet-based batters rise faster than the traditional batter. Mine usually rises within four hours. Use it as soon as it is done rising, or stow it into the fridge. Don't let it sit outside for too long, as it might get sour. Perhaps because millets are less processed than rice, and are therefore richer in nutrients and enzymes, the fermentation activity is very fast in them. If the batter gets sour, your idlis won't turn out well, but your dosas will be crispy and great. But, if you use the batter at just the right time, you will end up with amazing idlis that are even softer than the traditional ones. Don't mind the colour though - they won't be as white as traditional idlis.

Let me tell you another traditional trade secret, which most people don't follow these days when making idlis. Whether you make traditional batter or a millet-based one, never mix the fermented batter. Keep using the fluffy portions from the top to make idlis. And once you reach a layer of water, mix well and use the remaining batter to make dosas, uttapams or appam. The idlis made with the light and fluffy top batter will be super-duper soft! Try it to believe it.

Starting simple

noreply@blogger.com (Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram) — Fri, 4 Mar 2011 12:35:00 +0530

The National Library of Singapore has a very good children's section. Lots of interesting books, a very nice reading area, etc. We take Teju to the library almost every week, and find that he really enjoys it despite being the noisiest kid there (of course, that is more of a problem for us than for him!) All the other kids his age, even the sub-two ones, are so quiet. In fact, the kids section is almost as silent as the regular library. That turned out to be a huge surprise, but that is not the subject of this post.

Something that surprises me even more is that despite the very large number of books that the library has, I find it quite difficult to select books for Teju to read. The reason is that most of the books, even some of the alphabet books, are too 'creative'... stick figures, sketches, cartoons, comic characters, and so on. Some of the images are so abstract that I, at this age, am unable to figure out whether it is a dog or a hyena! How can my son understand?

I feel that such books are not appropriate for beginners, especially two-year-olds. I mean, if I pick an alphabet book that has realistic images of apples, shoes, dogs and other everyday objects, Teju will be able to connect with the pictures. Stories with trains, planes, lions, dogs, rabbits, people... those are the ones I can read out and make him understand. The next time he sees a lion at the zoo, he will be able to recall the story I told him earlier, and perhaps even recount it to us. Instead, if I showed him dragons, he would want to see them at the zoo too! What would I do? How would I make a two-year old understand that a dragon does not exist?

Last week I picked up a book called Rangoli by a publishing house called Tulika. It was a very simple story, about a girl who looked out of the window and saw her grandma drawing a rangoli outside the house, and how ants and other insects came to eat the rice flour of which the rangoli was made. The setting was something Teju could associate with. He could understand all the images... the girl, the grandma, the rangoli, the lamps, the flour, the mynahs, the ants, everything. So, he understood the story, and even recounted it to his dad when he returned from office in the evening. That is the kind of engagement I expect from a book!

From such experiences, I am led to believe that alphabet or number books (or flash cards) with simple, realistic images; and short stories with minimal, realistic characters and a simple storyline (perhaps involving everyday activities) are more relevant to pre-schoolers and will help imbibe the reading habit in them. Once they understand the concept of 'imagination', and that some things are real and others imaginary, they will be better able to enjoy comics and such creative books. What do you think? How has your experience been?

Try these quick recipes...

noreply@blogger.com (Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram) — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 10:15:00 +0530

I tried out some quick pointers I got from cookery shows last week. Some of them turned out to be good. You could try these too...

a) Add some finely chopped orange peel along with the tomatoes when you make rasam. The flavour and aroma are awesome. (I think I've also caught the 'awesome' bug from playback singer Sujatha, who keeps using this adjective when judging Airtel Super Singer 3.)

b) Take some curry leaves and make it into a thick paste. Add this paste along with some finely chopped ginger, finely chopped and roasted cashews, chopped curry leaves, and a dash of grated or finely chopped coconut (optional) to dosa flour, and make 'Karuveppilai Dosai'. I believe it's a Chettinad delicacy. Tasted very good, and is also nutritious because curry leaves are iron-rich.

c) Grind half a cup of green chillies and half a cup of coriander into a fine paste. Take a kadai, heat til oil, season mustard seeds and gram dal, add the paste and saute till the raw smell goes. Add a few tablespoons of thick tamarind paste, a little bit of salt and a good dose of jaggery. Boil the mixture till it thickens. Bottle and refrigerate. This chutney can last for more than a month. You can use it as a side-dish for curd rice, dosa and roti, or even as a sauce for bhel puri.

Porcupine Mountains -- A beautiful photo

noreply@blogger.com (Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 09:48:00 +0530

This is one of the most beautiful photos I've seen in a long, long time. Even more beautiful than the photograph is the comment by the author on how the ten seconds that it took to click the pic seemed like eternity. Relativity. Einstein must be turning in his grave every time we feel such a thing, without even knowing it's an aspect of relativity.

Kadlekka Parishe

noreply@blogger.com (Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 18:57:00 +0530

Last weekend we attended a strange festival at the Basavangudi Temple (Bull Temple) in Bangalore. It was so interesting that it has brought me back to my blog!

"Kadlekka Parishe" or Peanut Festival is celebrated on the last Monday of the Karthigai month (this year, the last Monday of the Kannadiga's Karthigai month was 24th November) at the Basavangudi temple. It order to draw the crowds, the jatra started on Saturday itself (although the rain did play spoilsport, on both Saturday and Sunday evenings).

Well, the highlight of this festival is the sale of peanuts! Farmers from all around Karnataka and even areas of Tamilnadu (like Dharmapuri) come to sell their first harvest of peanuts. As a result, you can see peanuts in every direction you look around the Basavangudi temple -- right from BMS College right upto the Ramakrishna Ashrama. The temple is crowded with a truly assorted array of visitors -- right from the villagers to the ITzens of Bangalore to foreign nationals! Naturally, there are other festive activities too, to entertain the crowd to the fullest -- this ranges from special pujas at the temple and music/dance concerts to stalls featuring bulls, sale of a wide range of goods, especially handicrafts, and amusement rides. But the overwhelming aspect of the whole festival is obviously the heaps of peanuts covering both sides of the road!

There is an interesting story behind this -- my neighbour tells me. Many years ago, Basavangudi was full of peanut plantations. However, strangely the villagers found that somebody was stealing their peanuts every night! Suspecting this to be either a thief or a herd of cows, the villagers stood guard one night, and one of them found a lone bull feasting on the crop! Mistaking this to be a thief, he threw his spear in the direction and on finding no further movement from the person/animal, he went back to resume his night's sleep. When the villagers came to the field next morning to review the night's adventure, they realised that the farmer had actually struck down none other than the Bull God (Nandi or Basava, the mount of Lord Shiva) himself, and in place of the bull, they found a stone statue. They also realised that in the guise of a bull feasting on the peanuts, the Bull God was actually guarding the peanut crops from thieves!

Worried that they had committed a sin, the villagers pondered over what to do, and built a temple to house the statue. However, to their surprise and shock, the bull kept outgrowing the temple! That was when Lord Shiva appeared in a troubled villager's dream and instructed that they should dig in front of the bull statue -- they will find a trishul (the three-pronged weapon of gods and goddesses), which they should affix on the bull's forehead to stop it from growing, and they should also worship the bull regularly and offer the first harvest of peanuts to the temple every year. This custom is continued till date.

This explains both the mammoth size of the bull as well as the strange custom.

In all, a wonderfully interesting experience -- which makes you forget that you are in the fast-paced and cosmopolitan Bangalore. Vikram and I felt like we were in Thanjavur or Mylapore, raging with festivities, old-world style!

India's Cottage Industry Rocks!

noreply@blogger.com (Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram) — Tue, 20 May 2008 10:55:00 +0530

Truly, India's cottage industry rocks. The wealth of fabrics and handicrafts that get 'exported' to the cities from our villages and small towns is truly mind-boggling.

But, I wonder where you buy these? Earlier I used to buy them at exhibitions and other handicraft showrooms, but now I feel the best places to buy these from are the government-owned/cooperative stores such as Janatha Bazaar, Cooptex, Khadi Gramodyog Bhavan, Sarvodaya, etc. You get them much, much cheaper!

Imagine getting a beautiful, ethnic pillow cover for Rs 21/- or a classy, aesthetic, durable bed spread for Rs 75/- And oh well, I forgot the 15% seasonal discount on them! These are pretty much the same goods (often from the same manufacturers) that you would buy for triple the price at posh shops!

If the products are so economically-priced and yet durable, why is it that more people don't buy from these cooperative stores? I can only guess. Maybe it's because these stores are very to-the-point without any fancy decor or lighting? Maybe it's because these stores are not given much publicity? Maybe it's because they do not stock 'everything' all the time and only moving stock that matches the season? Well, I would say, that is why they are able to sell at such a price!

Personally speaking, any day, I would prefer to window shop at exhibitions and upmarket stores and then go buy the same products (if available) from the Janatha Bazaars of this world! What if one pillow cover or dupatta fades... 90% of the time I am able to bet on the quality :-)

Thogayal -- ever so versatile!

noreply@blogger.com (Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram) — Fri, 2 May 2008 15:57:00 +0530

Have you tasted thogayal/thuvayal before? If you're a south Indian, you're sure to have, else you can try it out now, right in your own kitchen -- I'm sure you'll love it too!

Essentially, thogayal is a spicy variety of chutney made with vegetables/greens, dal etc. Tastes heavenly when mixed with rice, topped with a dash of til oil. Or you could have it as a side-dish along with idli, dosa, puris or the heavenly தயிர் சாதம் (curd rice)!

Curry Leaf Thogayal

One great thing about thogayal is that you can use the same basic recipe for any non-starchy vegetable (radish, beetroot etc), coriander, curry leaves or pudina. Even better, you can use it to imbibe in your diet many nutritious parts of vegetables which we would otherwise discard, such as the flesh of the snake-gourd, the peel of chow-chow, orange peel, etc!!

Here is how you make it...

Fry together a few spoons of urad dal, red chillies (according to taste) and asafoetida. Saute the vegetable/greens/peels. Grind both together, a little coarsely (if it's too fine, it will become sticky when you mix it together with rice).

Easy, isn't it?!!

Madrasis worship Ravana!

noreply@blogger.com (Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 04:25:00 +0530

A friend recently said that when he was very young, he was told that the 'Madrasis' worship Ravana during Diwali! He believed it. In fact, quick as children are to associate one thing with another, he went on to think that's why men from Madras had such big moustaches! Well, he did become much the wiser since then, but we definitely had a hearty laugh when he recounted this.

Let me be a spoilsport and dispel this interesting thought from the minds of others who might also have been fed this misinformation when young...

Diwali is an interesting festival -- one of the grandest events all over India, but if a foreigner asks five Indians why they celebrate the festival he/she will probably get five different answers!

While some communities burst fire-crackers to praise Lord Krishna’s victory over Narakasura, others light lamps to brighten Lord Rama’s return to Ayodhya after vanquishing Ravana; some worship Goddess Kali’s conquest of Raktavija while others celebrate the incarnation of Goddess Lakshmi; to some it marks the fateful encounter between Lord Vishnu as Vaamana and King Mahabali, to others it signifies the attainment of nirvana by Mahavir Bhagwan, the founding of the Golden Temple or the return of Guru Hargobind Sahib; some celebrate the return of the Pandavas from their 12-year exile while others consider it a harvest festival; for some the beginning of a new year, to others it is the day for playing cards and dice games thanks to the example set by Goddess Parvati and Lord Shiva… basically, we all have reasons to celebrate.

And less than 10 days to go... hope preparations are on in full-swing?

PS: Oh, when I started listing the mythological/cultural/religious reasons associated with Diwali, and as the list grew bigger and bigger... I wondered if there could, perhaps, really exist some community that worships Ravana on Diwali day!! Highly possible, considering we're literally a land of many... if you know of any such tradition, do leave a comment educating us.

Those fun and educational jingles our grandparents taught us...

noreply@blogger.com (Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram) — Wed, 5 Sep 2007 15:24:00 +0530

Janani's podcast

Give it a listen!

Click here to get your own player.

Note: The lead-in and lead-out music is by Saxaphone maestro Kadri Sri Gopalnath. The length of clips are within fair use. If however, you'd like to use the content of this podcast in any work of yours, please write to me and I'll email you the content without the background music, licensed under creative commons.

Wise Einstein

noreply@blogger.com (Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 04:34:00 +0530

Today, 'Einstein' has become an adjective for nerdy, uber-brainy researchers! Intelligence apart, he was also a very wise person, and I am sure all of you know that too. No wonder then that some of his pearls of wisdom are remembered even today. Here are some...

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."
"I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details."
"The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."
"I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."
"Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."
"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."
"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."
"Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it."
"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."
"God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically."
"The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible."
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."
"Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school."
"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."
"Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater."
"If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut."
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."

Mission Impossible!

noreply@blogger.com (Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram) — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 05:03:00 +0530

Last month we attended a performance at the Sydney Opera House's main concert hall. You know what, the Opera House is simply amazing just to look at... but listening to a concert there is just out of the world! Most brilliant acoustic experience I've experienced so far.

(Hmm, actually no, second-best, because the best acoustics any day is at the Kalakshetra Auditorium - Chennai, in its own natural, ear-friendly, art-friendly, heritage-friendly, cultural, cultured way!)

Coming back to Sydney... so, this concert was composed and conducted by Lalo Schifrin, winner of four Grammy awards and six Oscar nominations to his credit. But you'll probably recognise him best if I tell you he scored the famous 'Mission: Impossible' tune!

This concert was in his inimitable 'jazz meets symphony style', and was performed by the virtuoso James Morrison on the trumpet, and the upcoming Ambre Hammond on the piano, along with The Sydney Symphony orchestra.

As expected, the scores were scintillating and the delivery perfect. This the first time I've listened to a symphony orchestra live, and, not surprisingly, what amazed me more than the performance of the lead players was the brilliant, impeccable coordination of the symphony orchestra. Some of the instrumentalists had to play for less than a total of two minutes during the two and a half hour concert, yet they did it perfectly. The percussionists took such care to make sure that the the synchronisation was perfect... in fact, I noticed that one of the guys who operated what looked like an oversized gong (I don't know what the instrument is called!) actually used his hand to stop the thing from vibrating for a second longer than required! Exemplary team work.

Brilliant experience!

Self-illumination

noreply@blogger.com (Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram) — Tue, 7 Aug 2007 06:34:00 +0530

Self-illumination, an idea designed by Andre Hutschenaden. I guess Andre meant it to be humorous, as my friend said he downloaded this from the 3D humour section of a design website... but I think this is brilliant (no pun intended)!

In fact, use this as a visual cue, let your imagination run wild and jot down a few sentences on what thoughts it triggers in you.

As a journalist, the moment I saw this, I wished we had a gadget like this, which we can plug in every time we need an article idea :-)

Two Choices

noreply@blogger.com (Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram) — Wed, 1 Aug 2007 05:04:00 +0530

I received this by email today morning... and what a lovely start to the day it was! If it brings a tiny tear to your eye as well, do use the 'email' icon at the end of the blog post to send this to your friends as well.

Two Choices

What would you do?... You make the choice. Don't look for a punch line, there isn't one. Read it anyway. My question is: Would you have made the same choice?

At a fund raising dinner for a school that serves learning-disabled children, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question: "When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does is done with perfection. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?"

The audience was stilled by the query.

The father continued. "I believe, that when a child like Shay, physically and mentally handicapped comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child."

Then he told the following story:

Shay and his father had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, "Do you think they'll let me play?" Shay's father knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but the father also understood that if his son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.

Shay's father approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and said, "We're losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning."

Shay struggled over to the team's bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt. His Father watched with a small tear in his eye and warmth in his heart. The boys saw the father's joy at his son being accepted. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as his father waved to him from the stands. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again. Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat.

At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game? Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball.

However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay's life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact. The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher..

The game would now be over. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game.

Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman's head, out of reach of all team mates. Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, "Shay, run to first! Run to first!" Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled.

Everyone yelled, "Run to second, run to second!" Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base. By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball ... the smallest guy on their team who now had his first chance to be the hero for his team. He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher's intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman's head. Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home.

All were screaming, "Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay"

Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, "Run to third! Shay, run to third!"

As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet screaming, "Shay, run home! Run home!" Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team.

"That day", said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, "the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world".

Shay didn't make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making his father so happy, and coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!

AND NOW A LITTLE FOOTNOTE TO THIS STORY: We all send thousands of jokes through the e-mail without a second thought, but when it comes to sending messages about life choices, people hesitate. The crude, vulgar, and often obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion about decency is too often suppressed in our schools and workplaces.

If you're thinking about forwarding this message, chances are that you're probably sorting out the people in your address book who aren't the "appropriate" ones to receive this type of message. Well, the person who sent you this believes that we all can make a difference. We all have thousands of opportunities every single day to help realize the "natural order of things." So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present us with a choice: Do we pass along a little spark of love and humanity or do we pass up those opportunities and leave the world a little bit colder in the process?

A wise man once said every society is judged by how it treats it's least fortunate amongst them.

You now have two choices:
1. Delete
2. Forward

May your day, be a Shay Day

Lord Ganesha - The Supreme Management Guru

noreply@blogger.com (Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram) — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 05:12:00 +0530

A year ago, my sister-in-law's dad shared with me an interesting insight he gained from a management meet... on how Lord Ganesha personifies umpteen management lessons in his mixed and matched figure!

I have tried and recollected some of those in this podcast... hope this inspires you to look beyond the obvious and glean management lessons from whatever you see around you.

Have a great day!

Janani's podcast (Give it a listen!)

A word a day keeps boredom away...

noreply@blogger.com (Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram) — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 06:32:00 +0530

When you take a break... visit www.oneword.com

It is amazing how such a simple website can be so addictive, but it is! Simple... you go to the site, click on "Go" and it shows you one word and a text box. You have to just start typing into the text box whatever thoughts that word inspires in you. Just let your thoughts run wild and jot down whatever crosses your mind the moment you read that word!

As the developers explain on the site: "The real purpose of this exercise is to alleviate our natural tendency to edit everything-and learn to flow. An analogy would be a film camera: when a film is shot, the camera just rolls and captures everything-good and bad. When all the shooting is complete, the raw film is edited into a cohesive piece. The camera operator doesn't keep
stopping the camera and rewinding and editing on-the-fly-the camera just rolls. If it were to stop, some of the best performances and spontaneous moments might be missed. So: be the camera. Well, that's a stupid saying, but you get the idea. In writing-just flow. Go back later and edit."

An excellent exercise for writers; a good way to unwind for all others as well!

And once you fall in love with oneword, try their other sites onecaption.com and poetc.com as well!

Shantaram

noreply@blogger.com (Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram) — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 06:15:00 +0530

The opening lines of Gregory David Roberts' book Shantaram, are perhaps the most beautiful I've read till date. It goes thus:

It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured. I realised, somehow, through the screaming in my mind, that even in that shackled, bloody helplessness, I was still free: free to hate the men who were torturing me, or to forgive them. It doesn't sound like much, I know. But in the flinch and bite of the chain, when it's all you've got, that freedom is a universe of possibility. And the choice you make, between hating and forgiving, can become the story of your life.

I've not been through such miseries in life, thankfully... and hopefully neither have you. But then 'shackled helplessness' can come in different magnitudes to different people at different times -- it can be as simple as not knowing why a friend is upset with you (and hence not being able to bridge the cleft), or when you've made some decision which goes wrong and you 'hate yourself' for it, or when you see an injustice but cannot correct it, and many more such common situations.

But good for us, we now have with us lessons such as that on the freedom to choose, from Roberts' book -- lessons that'll surely help us at some point in life or the other!

Hey, not it's not such a heavy book all through! Mumbaikars especially will love the way Roberts resonates a love for their city! He surely is a master of description, narration... and life!

Village Diary

noreply@blogger.com (Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram) — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 07:44:00 +0530

By Satyan Mishra, founder, Drishtee

(Opensourced, with his permission! He wants to let it 'fly' - so pass this on as much as you can!)

A monsoon morning in any part of India is as beautiful as it gets. Perhaps it is the smell of wet earth which refreshes or it could be the sight of the cloud laden sky. Being driven on such a morning into the countryside of North Bihar with a chain of thoughts is an experience worth sharing. More so as the past and future run alongside as two lanes on the same road; one on which we are driving and the other one, broader and more promising, being laid fresh. But wait! Before I get philosophical about development let me tell you that I am headed to our project village in Madhubani, for the second time in the same week. That is where the Pollution Control Board has suddenly decided to make a visit and inspect the site where we are putting up a state-of-the-art bamboo gasifier plant to produce 25 kW electricity to bring to life the aspirations of the community.

Bihar's first rural BPO has been setup in the heart of the village to allow young girls and boys to work and compete with their urban counterparts. Ten village youngsters have so far found employment. There is scope for many more if the pilot succeeds. Jobs inside the villages would result in reverse migration and the growth of the market within the community, which should lead to the revival of a dying economy. Here I go again talking of development and future, while the present seems to be hidden under the dark monsoon clouds.

Why has the safest electricity producing technology manufactured at the prestigious Indian Institute of Science (Bangalore) with emission levels well within the Euro II levels, all within fancy acoustic enclosures, in the back of beyond village where the average income of a family is less than one US dollar a day, suddenly come under the stern eyes of the Pollution Control Board of an otherwise a sleepy state? Well to answer that question let us go back a week in time.

I had just returned from a trip abroad to receive a notice, under the Section 144 of CrPC, from the district authorities of Madhubani. It was in my name and stated that I can’t visit my home and the site of the BPO and the gasifier in the village Sauarth because there is a threat of riot with my implicit involvement, at the site of the gasifier. In that sleepy village where I have tried hard to shake people from their deep intoxicated slumber on the issues of development, self reliance, social values, what could have happened so suddenly to threaten peace.

I had two options in front of me. The first one was to stay in my air-conditioned office and send my lawyer and a senior Head Office team to represent me in the court of the Sub Divisional Magistrate at Madhubani. The other option was to carry my half unpacked luggage to the village to oversee things myself. The latter option was more tempting to the entrepreneur in me though it meant the defiance of the Section 144 notice slapped on me. I was in front of the District Magistrate the next evening to see a group of villagers gathered in front of the office, to show their support for the project in general and towards me in particular.

During the previous 24 anxious hours, I got a download on the entire story of how one family of bureaucrats had turned the story of unadulterated village development into a juicy family soap. Our next door, non-resident neighbours in the village, the undeclared first family of the village, had made their 'routine' yearly, week-long tour of the village in my absence and within the realms of their unlimited wisdom had declared the renewable, tested, certified and perhaps the best gasifier technology in the world as dangerous on account of causing health hazards, compared it to the famous 'Union Carbide' factory in Bhopal which had caused innumerable deaths.

Since many villagers were not aware about that incident, the hot rumour also included doses of possibilities of earthquakes and 'hot volcanic kind eruption' from the small gasifier. The usually entertainment starved villagers were in awe of the multifarious yet benign looking equipment. But the general reaction was somewhere between fear and excitement for the gasifier which was yet to start. The final touches to the acoustic enclosure had to be provided before the Section 144 was slapped.

At the exact scheduled time of the meeting, the District Magistrate who also is an IIT K alumni, called us. Within minutes of hearing the case, he admitted slackness on the part of concerned officials and agreed to withdraw the notice on the date of the hearing. The admission of mistake and clarity of assurance was either due to his honesty which reflected in his eyes or due to the large group of villagers peeping from outside, who believed more in development and less in the 'earth quake story'. Victory of sorts meant that work had to resume soon by the engineers from Delhi who had mercifully agreed to wait till the drama was over.

The news-hungry media have invaded every corner of the country and Madhubani is no exception. The story caught on to them and the weekend was spent between men, media and machinery.

There was relief and expectation in the eyes of the villagers, knowing little about yet another twist in the tale being round the corner. I left the village for Delhi with mixed feelings on the possibility of replicating such projects in the state as the pilot was proving to be a huge drain in terms of resource and personal energy. I was greeted at Patna with another bombshell. The Pollution Control Board at the behest of a complaint filed by the patriarch of the 'First Family in the village' had swung into action against the symbol of development which had not yet started, to prove its own credentials. The Board (Pollution Control) has anywhere between 10,000 to 100,000 such generators (mostly operating on diesel or kerosene which is non renewable) within its jurisdiction. A normal complaint for the fortunate can take in excess of a month to be looked into. The normal remedy is to suggest an enclosure or vibration pads, which our gasifier already possessed. But to move within 2-3 days of a complaint requires some strong push.

By this time, it was clear to me that the path to development in the state of Bihar needs much more than a change in government. It is the attitude of people which has to change. The individuality and selfishness within the rich and powerful has reached levels of obscenity leading to strong resentment within the poor. It is not hard to believe why the Naxalite ideology is finding deep roots in the existing system. While the state talks of attracting NRI investment, it is a mere pawn in the hands of a very small group of people who use the machinery to settle personal scores.

Well, it is difficult to remain upbeat always in the face of such frustrations. While such a small spirited effort acquires painfully slow momentum, there is a strong and harsh force ready to nip it at its bud. The Zamindaars might have shifted their base from the village to the cities but the Zamindari system continues remotely, virtually in various forms. These thoughts are nauseating in this country where time is in short supply. We need to do things quickly to save us from an impending disaster, maybe a civil war which is clearly visible on the horizon.

Talking of horizon, the monsoon morning is still in its rich splendour. The Sun has taken a day off it seems. The air still smells of wet earth. I need to breathe deep to come out of the dark thoughts and look up ahead to counter another challenge. What could the Pollution Control Board inspection team look into a technology certified by the best in the world... is the thought on my head as I enter my beautiful village where development is knocking on the doors from inside. If you can hear the knocks, come out of your own doors and help open these doors!

Copyright © 2007 Satyan Mishra. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license. You are free to share this work with others, in any form, provided this copyright notice is kept intact.

Boats!

noreply@blogger.com (Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram) — Tue, 3 Jul 2007 14:53:00 +0530

You know, a lot of people here in Sydney have boats parked outside their home like we have cycles or scooters! Initially, I was surprised but then somebody told me that one in seven people owns a water-vessel of some kind here. Interesting! And yeah, if you happen to go to one of the bays or beaches on a clear day you can see a lot of people sailing too.

Check this out, if you don't believe me...