Abort the Blog

Hello.

Hmm…

Do you know blogging?

Of course I know, what’s a blog.

Do you feel like starting your own blog?

Mmm… no, I don’t think so. I am not good with comps.

I see. But I feel because everyone’s days are so interesting and if they can be written down well and authentically, it will be appreciated.

I see. But really I can’t imagine myself sitting on a computer, typing, saving, uploading and all that stuff. No way I could not do it well, even in a year; especially with number of hours... I can't spare in a day. It’s too complicated for me at this age. 

Fair enough. But I still feel that events of any interesting day uploaded on the internet could be of good value. Look at Amitabh Bachchan’s blog. All he does is to write down what he did in a day; who all he met, which shootings he did, who said what etc. I agree he is Amitabh and everything about him would be super interesting; but still, all he is doing is writing it down in an open diary, that is his blog, which is being lapped up.

So what are you trying to say?

I am saying that I could do the technical part for you. But what you have to do is to write down your ‘day’ in detail, in sequence, on a paper, take a photo and send it to me.

Oh! I am sure even that also is not going to be easy for me.

Are you interested in making some money? Your blog could be a source of that.

No, money doesn’t interest me that much.

I see. In that case let’s drop this project. Fictitious project I could say.

Yes, abort the mission. Bye.

Bye.

Mint Raita- recipe

When I am home alone, mostly I read, watch TV, surf the net, write and sometimes (though not very often) try my hand in cooking. I like making some side dishes or add-ons to main course. After making some of them a few times I seem to have got a good hang of certain dishes. One of them; rather simple one, is called Raita. It is basically a curds (Dahi) dish. Last time I wrote a piece about this, it was on a day that I made Pudina Raita and got burnt. I only wrote about the incident of getting burnt in the process of making a dish that essentially is supposed to be cold. I was quite excited with my stupidity and foolishness in doing what I did; so I shared it with everyone. But slowly I got pretty creative and started making different kinds of Raita. And surprisingly, I started getting complimented too for them. So I decided that it is now safe for me upload these recipes on the net. Of course it is safe for the readers too. Let me put my white hat on. Ok, here it goes -

Ingredients: Curds (dahi)- 500gms/ mint leafs- 50 gm/ Garlic flakes- 10/ freshly ground black pepper- to taste/ salt- to taste.

Chop mint leafs fine. Chop garlic fine. Put chopped mint and garlic in a small utensil. Add a large cup of water (not more than 200ml) in it and put it to boil. We are boiling them to basically get the mint leafs disinfected. It will also reduce the strong flavor of both, mint and garlic. Boil it on slow fire and keep it covered to retain the water from the steam. In 4-5 min, mint and garlic should turn soft. Cover it and let it cool to a comfortable temperature. After it has cooled put it in mixie just for half a minute. It would become smooth.

Now put Dahi in a large bowl. Add a little salt. Add black pepper preferably from a pepper grinding mill, because it retains the fresh taste of pepper. Now add the cooled mint and garlic in it and whip until it becomes homogenous. Taste it for salt. If you find it less then add some more and stir again. But it is better to keep the salt on the lower side and let others add it if they need.

If it has turned out to be smooth in feel and looks saturated light green color, with dots black pepper, I guess you have done it. Just in case the Dahi is too thick then you could add some more water before whipping it. Keep it in the refrigerator for at least an hour; two hours will be better.

Raita is a side dish of an Indian meal. It is had with Indian bread (roti) meals and also quite often with Dal and rice. Northern India, especially UP and Punjab are the lands where you can find a variety of Raitas.

You could follow the same process and make Raitas with spinach (palak) or Methi too. Use garlic for both; but you may not use black pepper for Methi. I like to play with flavors. I like the dish to be recognized as a ‘so and so’ dish with a clear hint of ‘something else’. Like mint Raita with a hint of black pepper. You could add a little ginger paste to the Palak Raita to get a hint of ginger flavor and not use pepper. Like that you could have various combinations; like this with that or next time something different. It is always good to have a clear flavor in a dish rather than mix many things and create confusion.

Raitas can also be made with cucumber (shredded fine), white pumpkin (shredded fine and boiled), onions (shredded), onions and cucumber, onions and ginger etc.

Original Delhi Darbar restaurant at Grant Road, Mumbai makes a very simple and interesting dish that is made with curds, onions, salt and sugar. Onions are chopped straight and fine, added to the curds along with sugar and salt to taste. It is stirred until the sugar is mixed smoothly. The sugar in fact is a variation here and is to be added just enough to be noticeable; without turning the dish too sweet. Also the mixture should be thick. So there has to be good amount of onions in it. Each mouthful should get a taste of curds with onions. It is more like a salad than Raita.

Human Extinction Preponed?

Violence in this whole wide world does not seem to cease. There is absolutely no let up. In India Kashmir blasts and Mumbai train blasts happened on the same day. Baghdad has never had peace for more than 10 days since the invasion of Kuwait? Recent car bombs and suicide bombers have killed hundreds of innocent commoners in Baghdad. After all for how long can men, women and children stay at home. There are things to do for a family. Men have to go to work; otherwise they have more serious job of looking for it. Women have to go out to shop for stuff to cook. A family may consist of parents, infants, small kids, grown up children, old or infirm, all kinds of people. They have to be fed and taken care of. They may have to be taken to the hospital or medicines to be purchased. Most of the population of Baghdad must be suffering from some form of physical damages to their limbs and if not that then most definitely anxiety or tension related diseases would be affecting most people, if not all!

The oldest country torn with unending violence near me is Afghanistan. As per surveys a large percentage of children in rural Afghanistan have had experience of being hit by either a bullet or by a landmine sometime or the other. Many have suffered multiple wounds and most of them have lost limbs in the process. We all have seen these visuals on TV news channels many times. We have seen those pathetic shots of young kids playing around, either limping with the help of stick or using just one good hand to hold the bat; but laughing and screaming while playing among each other. Kids cannot help but be kids. They have to playful. No one can lower the happiness and energy of a child. But sadly they don’t know that life with all limbs intact could be much different.

Why have we all allowed violence to become an inherent part of us? Why the losses of our near and dear ones have stopped bothering us? Why have our egoistic principles fogged our vision so much, that we can not see us are becoming worse than animals? We did become worse than animals as soon as we developed our capacity of think. We only thought of our selfish interests at the cost of others…

But the main point now is to find if there is way out? Is there still a point of return or we have crossed it? If there is any hope then who should take up the responsibility of asking questions, and to whom? Who should be informing violent groups that something could be done which will guarantee them a meal when hungry with peace and stability? Their family can live safely, raise and educate children, be part of the sensible world. Is someone out there who can contact the restless heads of this world and offer them advice to come to the table and think it over? How long can the human beings survive, remaining inhuman? Why can’t one think that he could live in peace and riches in his own homeland in place of struggling to find refuge in the caves of a foreign land? Have all the sensibilities died? Do killings solve problems or it gives others more chances to get back at you later? So many WHYs, but no answers!

"Violence is the real thing. We all are basically violent; non-violence is just a concept." If this maxim is so completely true, then we could stop our search for these answers and wait for the Homo Sapiens to get extinct.