Aarrgghhh...switch off the lights!

It's interesting to sometimes observe how our minds take us so swiftly from one thought to another, often without even the slightest realisation that we have moved from one topic far away to another realm all together!
I was reading about the increase in VAT prices and this quickly took me to price rise in many stores across the city. Well essentially speaking the price rise isn't as drastic as I thought it was going to be. A big store I know has increased prices, for example from £1.95 to £1.99. And whilst I was thinking of the store, my mind drifted to how the main lights inside that store get switched off 30 minutes after the store shuts for business each night and leaves only a couple of emergency lights on or lights are on where people are working to fix lights, displays, etc. Then I recollected a bus ride a while ago through the heart of London city. Almost all the office buildings I saw along the way had lights switched on. I thought perhaps there may be people who worked late there... so I squinted my eyes in hope to find some flustered employees working frantically at their desks... of course there wasn't anyone there! Entire floors of empty desks & chairs and floors & floors of lights for ghosts I'm guessing because they won't be able to find their way in the dark perhaps! And its not just one or two buildings... there are so m any office buildings across London that leave their lights on. It's appalling the way so many of these corporate buildings waste so much energy for god only knows what reason. So much for corporate responsibility!!!!! Whilst eco-activists and even many energy companies are trying desperately to spread awareness amongst the population, these big & not so big corporates seem to be living on another planet... besides its not their job to save the planet, right?!
This topic has been the pea in the mattresses of my mind!! Its so freaking annoying. We watched this program on current tv quite a while ago about these eco-warriors who went around Paris switching off unncessary lights in shops & office buildings... I think more of this is needed unless of course companies become more eco-conscious & only keep switched on whats necessary. The world could do with less light pollution!
Darkness is as essential to our biological welfare, to our internal clockwork, as light itself. —Verlyn Klinkenborg
Of course I started thinking about light pollution. Its been years since people have been talking about switching off lights inside their homes when not in use... I recollect TV ads back in the 80s & 90s that used to promote this awareness in India! If we can switch off lights at home when we aren't in that room, why can't we do it at our work places? Is it because we don't pay the bills for these commercial/work places? But then ultimately we will all pay the price of this unchecked light bill!

PLEASE SWITCH OFF AFTER YOURSELF AT WORK & ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO DO THE SAME!!!!!

Tintin's birthday

It's my older nephews birthday today & we nicknamed him Tintin as he graced this planet on the date that one of the most famous & loved private detective Tintin also celebrates his birthday. The comic character has been our family's favourite ever since we first laid our eyes on the first Tintin comic book or graphic novel as they are now called. And the same goes for my nephew... we all just fell in love with him from the first moment. He's 11 now & I find it so amazing that so many years have passed. He used to be the most adorable baby with his little button nose and his cute mannerisms. Today he's a strapping 5' 6'' tall and as awkward as any pre-teenager can be. He may not hug us as much anymore or respond to all our strange cutesy weird nicknames we call him but he will always be the first whom we all fell in love with.
Sourab Banerjee, we love you so much.
And then Mihir came soon after Sourab... and now its hard to decide who was a cuter baby... Mihir is like cherry pie, ice-cream, honey & cream... oh dear...  I love my nephews :-)
Happy Birthday Sourab for 10th January & Mihir for 21st January!!!!

Love... Always.

Food travels!

Visiting India after such a long gap was a much needed break and it was also an experience that was a treat for all of one's senses! It was the most amazing culinary experience. From the spicy ghee dripping parathas of Northern India to the typical fauji mess-style food and the simplistic Meitei cooking...and to add to all of this lots of lovingly made home cooked food everywhere we went. Each morsel was a culinary journey.

The mouth watering ghee-dripping, high calorie, aromatic Dhaba food along a highway in Northern India

Shatabdi express (train) served all this - a neatly packed vegetarian sandwich, a samosa, some sweets & I don't recollect what the thing was in that red packet. It was all very neatly packed & service was amazing which was a great experience considering the not so great experience on Jet airways!!

Tenowanbi

This variety of beans I've so far only come across in north eastern states of India. Its eaten raw in salads & has a delightful crunchy taste. It goes amazingly well with a paste that's made with fermented fish or ngaari and it tastes heavenly if you're into that sort of thing! :-)

One can never go wrong with deep fried fresh water fish

Singju - It's the manipuri equivalent of a salad but is 99% of the time way too fiery for the non-north eastern palate! The 1% is for children and tourists! It's incredibly healthy, crunchy and full of flavours. If you haven't had singju in Manipur, you've pretty much missed the plot! 

And some more fried little fish which were bought from the local fish market in Dimapur, Nagaland... perhaps fresh catch from the nearby river?! I can assure you, it was delicious!  

The Brahmans or Bamons in Meitei culture traditionally prepare the feast for all ceremonial or religious occasions. They have a penchant for making food taste heavenly even without such ingredients like ginger, garlic & onion and even meat and fish. Each dish they prepare is a testimony to an extraordinary culture that spans hundreds of years that is featured in a place as epic as the Mahabharata and in modern equestrian sport. 

And the countless cups of tea daily... so many cups shared over so many thoughts, joys, laughter & pain.
Next destination : Dimapur, Nagaland - the land of mysterious tribes & magical traditions!

Walking through a local market in Dimapur

The amazingly sweet & colourful maize corn that's commonly found in the northeastern states of India

Bhoot Jholakiya/ ghost chillies/ Oomorok... whatever you'd like to call it... it doesn't temper the hotness of this chilli variety... tread..i mean taste with care!!

Fat juicy silk worms... high in protein & apparently very yummy.. nope..I didn't try it! 

So green...so greeennnnnnn

Bee pupae still in their honeycombs

Dried fresh water fish of all possible varieties

Dimapur & Nagaland in general was full of delectable surprises. As is with every ancient tribal or ex-tribal society, there's an interesting mix of flavours and characters in the local cuisine. Dimapur has some fantastic restaurants that'll even surprise the seasoned restaurateur. 

 Raj Kachori Chaat at Gangaur in Kolkatta. Kolkatta street-style food is the bestest everrrrr!!!!! When visiting Kolkatta, one must sample all the amazing street food you get there - puchka, jhaal-muri, dahi chaat, momos, chowmein, rolls... yum yum drool drool

The classic egg-chicken roll from Nizams! 

If one begins to write about the varieties of cuisines one can find in India, one would run out of pages. Each cuisine from each region is distinct and an extraordinary experience. I'm sure I'll still have plenty to write about Indian regional cuisines in the days to come... till then Bon Apettit!!

Learning....

Years have passed and dreams have moulded themselves differently as I had once expected them to be

My mission to Pluto seems to be just as far away and the dogs in my old neighborhood still run astray

Children are still dying from unheard diseases across the globe for a vaccine I never did invent to cure all human ailments
I haven't yet learnt how to drive a car properly let alone a Boeing 747

and the fuel industry still burns the planet for the wonder fuel that I never created
No Grammy or Oscar award sits on my mantlepiece looking adoringly at me

and no accolades for having discovered a new plant or animal species
And despite all that I've learnt a million things that I can't even understand for real
These learnings & gifts can't be found in things material...
To treat people kindly and love with all my heart and that in Gods eyes all are equal...

for the earthquake and the tsunamis don't spare the rich, the poor, the beautiful or the ugly!
I've learnt that pain doesn't spare anyone but I can choose to handle it differently
That happiness is only a state of mind as much is sorrow
That the night always will be followed by tomorrow...

That everyone only really wishes to be loved and accepted so that they can learn & grow

Thank You Oprah!

Talking to my brother this afternoon an interesting thought came up. For the last decade or so, whenever we, meaning my my two sisters, my brother & myself, have spoken to each other over the phone we've always ended conversations with 'love you's! And as a habit now I tell my close friends and family I love them at the end of each telephonic conversation I have with them. And this we owe to Ms Oprah Winfrey!!!! There's so much to thank her for even though I've never met her and may or may not ever meet her.

When the cable revolution began in India back in the 90s, it very quickly became one of our favourite shows. Whilst our friends were following the lives of the Forester family and the ups and downs of life in Santa Barbara, my sisters & I were immersed in the world of the talk show, very specifically in the Oprah show.

There's much to thank her for. Thanks to her shows, I learnt about the real hardships faced by the black American community in America during the post WWII era. I cried along with all the other members in the audience when the first Black American girl to attend regular school was on the show after so many decades. I watched in awe as brave firefighters shared rescue stories. I also learnt some very valuable lessons - there was one about heartbreaking accidents where a woman accidentally ran over her own grandson because she hadn't seen him in the rear view mirror - how could she; he was barely 2 feet high & had rushed out without creating any noise! After that I recall telling everyone to get out of their cars and checking if there was anyone behind as one can't see the entire view from the rear-view mirror!

The stories were always poignant and about the strength, the kindness & beauty of the human spirit. In one of the episodes, she interviewed people who had lost loved ones suddenly and it was saddening to see so many people's greatest regret was that they didn't get to tell their loved one how much they loved them. Oprah spoke about how important it was to let your loved ones know how much you loved them lest this be our last day in this life. It really hit me very hard and I decided right then that I shall do exactly that. Of course this was the most difficult task as I come from a family that is far from expressive about their feelings unless it was a feeling of anger or annoyance or something negative. Besides it was almost a taboo to use the 'i love you' words! Well it took time but now its become part of our family conversations. I recollect the first time my dad said he missed me... I was sad & happy all at the same time. Happy because I got to hear it for the first time form him. The tears wouldn't stop for a long time.

But I mostly want to thank Oprah for introducing loving kindness in our lives. For her we know about struggles of women across the globe and of pioneering women and men who have set out to change the world positively one stitch or one book at a time.

Dedicated to you Oprah, the most inspiring woman I've ever seen & hope to meet someday! I first saw your show when I was 17... I'm 31 now and I still love your shows as much as I did then! Earlier this year I learnt that her show was about to come to an end... I wonder if there ever will be another personality like her for a long time!

With Love.

daily doodles!

The Young Ones

For the last few months whatever little and limited coverage on Manipur that was available to the media was focussed entirely on the chaotic and depressing conditions that have been occurring there. It's not a new story but this time it came to the country's notice sooner. The unrest between the Nagas & the Manipuri people has only become more severe but something tells me that this unrest is propagated & perpetuated more by small factions of people who yield either political or gun power! If one were to ask the common people, the 'aam junta' in these states what they really want, one would get answers that were more focussed on immediate issues rather than the drawing of borders. Education, 24 hour electricity, better roads & infrastructure, better educational institutions, clean and continuous drinking water, financial encouragement for small entrepreneurs, environmental protection to name a few!

So it was a pleasant surprise when I found out about this little big group called 'Volunteer for Manipur!' It has been founded by a group of Manipuri youngsters along with the Youth Congress of Manipur who envision a better Manipur. They started the group online in April 2010 and they haven't stopped contributing to the society in their small little ways. Their most recent project being to encourage the cleaning of the river Nambol Naga that runs through the busiest part of Imphal. They conducted a survey to show the ill effects of badly managed garbage disposal in Imphal's most crowded and most famous market - the Ema market or the Mothers' market - a market run entirely by women. It has long been one of the state's most famous tourist sites but it recently gave way to the construction of a large mall in its place. The Ema's(Mothers) have been forced to have their shops along the roads and under very unhygienic sorroundings. The river Nambol Naga that passes through this area has clogged & choked up due to the amount of rubbish that gets disposed off into it.

The most encouraging part of this is the number of young people who have opted to join this movement. I choose to call it a movement as it is nothing less than that! The youth are desperate to make the situation better within first. I hope to contribute to the group from this point on... Its wonderful to know that there are many like-minded individuals who want to make a change & be the change!

Hats off to this group!!

Here's the link to their facebook page :

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Volunteer-for-Manipur/128832570468401

Khoiramjari