A 'Crush' on Sugar-Cane

My affair with sugar-cane started a long time ago,at a farm where I had been on a call.

The wind was whistling and the sugar cane plantation was all'humms'

The breeze was going through the leaves and leaving behind a note of “sa la, sa la, sa la, sa la” and I was caught.

The farmers festival of pongal is a fortnight away and the fields are nearly empty after the harvest, except for the sugar cane , all ripe and ready .

Yesterday we had passed a sugar-cane field and a farmer was selling the Sugar-cane stems for the passer byes.

The stems were thick and dark and juicy.

We got enough to last a week of munching.

We see enough adverts on what keeps a teeth and gums strong and clean

For us I think it is the juice filled sugar–cane.

It is an art to munch away with out spilling the floor with the rich juice and courageous to break bits of them with the teeth.

The juice by it self is rich and its natural sugar aids our system when diseased.

And to stay healthy

May be u will have a crush on them too.

A Change in the Shade-Dravidian Idly

“Black is beautiful”,likewise “dark is nutritious”, is what Mrs v has realized recently and added to her list of slogans, making changes in her recipes.

One evening we had a few chaps who were discussing nutrition carry over the conversation to our Home.

We decided to share a practical lesson. We had idly for dinner planned, so a sample was decided for them.

I got them talking to them selves and took them quietly to the shadowed terrace of darkness.

We offered them plates with idlis and coconut chutney, they found it so tasty and carried on the conversation, before they left I showed them what they had in the lighted portico, they were astonished GREY IDLY, and so soft and tasty!!!

We are all aware of the preparations and traditional value and more of the idly but why grey?

We don’t discard the black urud dal coating, we wash and wash and use the stone grinder, and the salting and fermenting all similar,to the usual style of idly making.

Scientifically am sure there is much, in the coatings , better digestion and enzymatic process and good for our skin and keeps off fungals and yields better vitamin B 12 in the fermentation process.( so good for the non- carcass eating folks)and anti cancerogenic properties, in the flavinoids, we shall leave that to the scientists to confirm.

The grey idly goes great with the lentils podi, cold pressed gingely oil and coconut stone ground chutney, served with love on a home plate, which allows unlimited servings.

Facial Push ups - A Reflexion in the Mirror

The body looked taut and the face looked flabby.

We can work hard and sweat and walk and skip and do sit ups

And make our body trim and athletic, but what happens for the face.

I thought of all the school time drills and simple breathing exercises and

Worked them out,duck walks to stretches, everything with out weights went well.

Yet the face looked dull and drab.

I had a brain wave if it was exercise why not do it for the face too

And a natural method was easy.

That is how I thought laughing and smiling and weeping and crying was the best

And making faces at oneself at the mirror,the easy primitive way of a chimpanzee.

as the push ups method of exercising the facial muscles.

I heard the words of a long time friend, who was mr university body builder,

“smile awhile and while u smile there will be miles and miles of smiles”

I get to exercise many others of their facial muscles too with my words.

One Morning at the Village Market

I walked to the village market last morning as usual, the misty morning found me with my turban , protecting my ears.

The vendors lay their wares at the roadside near a local temple, most of them are direct

from the orchards near by and some get their wares from others to make a living.

It is a place for gossiping and to let out early morning steamy tension, we can see a friend bargaining for a coconut, or a beauty, sweet talking to a flower seller for an inch more of a garlanded jasmine.

All the wares are for small time families, so we can see 3 tomatoes laid for display or 2 brinjals, a palm full of goose berries or a small bundle of drum stick leaves for 2 rupees. The veggies are arranged in a pyramid shape for 2 rupees or a bit more now.

Fresh country variety coriander bundles are my favorite at 5 rupees a bundle, as I have been taught that they leech away the heavy metals from our system and more.

The seasonal custard apples are a craze, the vendors bring them in bamboo baskets and Sell 6 or more of them for 10 rupees.

The beauty women hackle and tackle a man vendor or a lady and get their wants at a bargain and still take away an extra to satisfy their heart of getting an added veggie.

There is a family that sells hot steamy moong dal sundal with flowery coconut shavings a palm full packed in a cone shaped paper packet for less than 3 rupees.

The fresh country brinjals ,small and bright are the chief crowd pullers,and so are the ladies finger, and bottle gourds.

I wind my way around the crowd and get to work my mind as to what my lady would like to have among these.

Ginger for 2 rupees and curry leaves for 1 rupee. country tomatoes for 4 rupees and a fluid heard heavy dark coconut for 5 rupees and drum sticks for 2 rupees each and a red rose for 2. and a fresh papaya at 4 .

I walk back with the load in a small weaved basket of coloured plastic, happily showing off my buys to those who see me on my way home.

Health Care Bill or Disease Scare Warrant

The religious Obamericans woke up on Christmas morning with a present of the Health care bill.

A bill of such volume and space , (2075 pages, latest Harry Reid version) I wonder if the senators listen to them or speed read them,it is difficult to understand the terminology of a bill, great and that too most of them are over the age of quick gait. so I can imagine the faculties of their mind.

So what do they really do, debate or trade.?

What skills are used in this game, and who are the beneficiaries, where are the health care workers,doctors in this ?

What if there is an amendment which says no one can change this bill in future ?

The time of the voting was late night,and Senator Harry Reid says “no “ first and then quickly changed to “ yes “ amidst laughter, would he have been allowed the switch if he was the other way.

I hope the ones who are watching keep a better watch, for the sake of the trusty Americans who voted for the man who promised a CHANGE.

Individual Medical freedom lost and medical slavery attainted.

Death Penalty

"All human beings must not be subjected to torture or to cruel or inhuman treatment or punishment", states the Universal Bill of Rights. Convinced… that the killing of any human being is cruel, whether by an individual or by a government, further convinced… that the use of the death penalty is an inhuman practice which degrades the society that permits it. Deeply disturbed by the very real possibility of an innocent person wrongly being found guilty for a crime which carries the death penalty.

I would like to play a devil's advocate here, and I'm not entirely comfortable with the proposal that criminals or people committing heinous crimes should be accomodated with a punishment less than a death sentence. It is very crucial to honour such people with death sentences for the survival of our very own nation & to prevent it from certain crimes. According to me the grave nature of such crime can be justified by some grave punishments. Not giving death penalties to such people is like giving them a safe passage to commit more & more heinous crime.

Death is neither cruel nor unusual. We all must die sometime. If one has done a very bad act, the state has the right to mandate he die early. It takes bleeding hearts of so many people to ask for someones death. Only truly terrifying crimes are punished by death anyways. If anyone here thinks that a hanging or a firing squad is "cruel" or "unusual", you should really go and have a look at the crime scenes these terrorists leave behind them, you will learn an entirely new concept of "cruel" & "unusual". As dangerous animals are shot down, even dangerous human beings should be. Any other option is an invitation to disaster. Any criminal who has had a fair trial, and been found guilty by an overwhelming evidence and also if the crime is heinous enough, the right to live of that person can be taken away.

I don't say that drunk drivers should get a death penalty, that would be too extreme, but those terrorists who slay bus full of children on the grounds of religions, such monsters who can drag you from your own lawn on a Sunday morning and kill you in your garage would you favour such people. Do you find that one life so meaningful that you can overlook thousands of people killed by these monsters. I can not overlook such a distasteful sight. I cannot overlook the riots that took place in Mumbai. I cannot overlook the Mumbai & Delhi bomb blasts. I don't find it sensible to let more people die by helping such people get easy punishment. And I don't find the thousand deaths cheap infront of that one death.

I have no words to describe how I feel when people like Abu Salem are not given death penalty, inspite of rich proof against him, but that's the job of the law. As H.H. Munroe said "He is one of those people who would be enormously improved by death".



Ragini (have taken comments from diff authors!)

Easier than breaking an Egg Shell...

Taking eggs has been a habit with most of us since childhood, trying to break awayfrom it is not an easy thing unless we have an alternative.One such alternative is green gram omellete.

Mrs v has been kind to share her skills in making them.

Vegetarian Omellete

Recipe

Split green gram 1 cup

Split urud dal 2 teaspoon.

Cold pressed cooking oil

Salt and pepper

Onions 2 medium size

coriander leaves

Method

Soak the green gram and urud dal in water for 20 minutes

Chop onions.

Drain the dal and grind it to a paste( not very smooth)

Add the chopped onions and salt to the paste and beat it

Heat the frying pan ( dosai tawa), spead the cooking oil, spread the

Green gram onion paste and add pepper , cook on both sides,

Add coriander leaves for seasoning

Serve hot with wheat bread.

Make sure there is enough for a second serving.

The Bitterness of White Sugar

Mother nature in all her glory has added nutrients to suit our taste in her creations.

Just the minerals and vitamins are a drab and dull and bitter, she has added flavor and sweetness and color and shape to them to bring on a fruit,seasoned for our living.

Man in his cunningness has removed the sweetness in the fruit and sent the other richness down the drain.

The typical country sugar (brown to blackish in color)full of vitamins and natural elements, is soon going to be a thing of the past.

Now we want sugar, to be white and crystalline, and shiny, surely much is lost during the whitening.

I shared this with a local man , he asked in wonder if this is right how can we get so much sugar at the ration shop and the government is starting new sugar factories ?

Well sure contradictory for his understanding.

If we wanted to destroy a society,no need to do a lot of thinking, send them loads and loads of white sugar or the more newer artificial sugars to do the needed destruction.

Artificial sugars bad ! who would believe that.

Our bodies are not suited to digest them , so they find alternative ways of assimilation, and storage and destruction in the body.

They cause spike and valleys , and are the reason for the cravings for food at odd times.

I have seen families add white sugar to even the sambar,( a local gravy which goes with rice) to make it sweet or to finish the loads of white sugar at home.

There sure seems to be lots of bitterness in this“Sweet business”.

A Jaundice Jab at a School

One afternoon I noticed a large banner at the entrance to the local school on a Sunday. “Hepatitis vaccine for 1/3 the price, come and get your shots today”.

It was a charity organization doing the rounds of their work, kind and benevolent.I bye passed my way through the thin crowd and asked for the doctor in charge “he has gone for rounds”.Well I made more enquiries as to what they were offering and what was in the ingredients.

I got glaring looks and “yes” “no” answers.

I was told that they have been given permission to conduct such programs and that they have the best of materials, they have even got low standard organizations behind bars and I was being answered as I had alphabets behind my name.

I got nervous and quietly got lost in the crowd.

I took the clue of intimidation and went away scared.

Under the Shade of the Fig Tree

Second Wednesdays of the month are days of remembrance if spent outside, it is a day

When we have a local shut down of electricity for the departments overhauling work.

A few kilometres from our village lies a spring at the foot hills of a local mountain .

We all have childhood memories of our folks taking us there in a bullock cart and sharing a meal of togetherness made with firewood and foresty herbs for rasam and other dishes.

So one Wednesday we had been there on a two wheeler.

The road was through small rice and banana plantations and winding up to the base of the hillock , suddenly we were at a cross between a forest edge and a village end.

There was this foresty silence, rich voices of monkeys and the twittering of a bird here and there and other sounds of creatures we would not know,we drove on until we reached the Spring, it has been dug up and a well created and an over head tank added and taps for bathers .

We cleaned up a space below a fig tree and was getting to like the stillness,We walked around the place carefull not to disturb the silence when we started to hear sounds of plop- Plop it was the sound of figs falling.

The monkeys were having lunch I guess and tasting the figs and letting the remains fall.

we had packed our lunch we found a quiet place on the rocks under the foresty shade .

our simple lunch of rice and tomatoes and pickle and curd was more tasty, than it normally would have been.

we were carefull not to leave any of the papery wastes of our leftovers.

We chit chatted with our minds lest we disturb the silence , and quietly wound our way back to our home carrying the richess of the fig tree and the picnic.

Diamond Dawgs (2009) [* *]

If you're looking for a low-budget, smooth movie without many surprises and, yay, no jarring background effects, this is a good watch.

A successful rap group gets carjacked during a party and a dj gets killed, the masters of their new release is still in the car. Soon after, the Diamond Dawgs, the group that did the robbery,  is the talk on the streets - everyone but the rap artistes know who did it. What follows is interestingly, what happens in most cases where people don't trust the police - they try to deal with the robbers directly.

Very low stress movie - if you watch it with lowered expectations, it's quite alright.

A Sinful Morality

Deep in her eyes,
I see guilt and shame,
She covers it all,
By lust and plays a bold game.

We are ready to assault her,
As her culture fills us up with terror,
Without even perceiving,
For her, it must be such a horror.

She sells her flesh,
In the filthy market.
For all the lusty eyes,
She’s the solitary target!

- Ragini

Woman…

The most beautiful creation of God,
Who is a little odd.
Her life full of emotions,
Since the earth came into motion.
She has a stranger in her eyes,
With whom she dreams to fly.
She is a mother, she is a daughter,
But now she dreams to be someone better!
To jus’ be a wife…
Is that her life?

She works from when the sun is bright,
Till the last ray of the light!
She looks so busy,
And her hair all frizzy.
Doing the household chores,
Is not her dream anymore.
In the colorful sky,
Is where she wants to fly.
So… to jus’ be a wife…
Is that her life??

-Ragini

An Obsession called "Neatness"

"A wet towel on the floor stays wet", is what my mom said to make me pick it up for drying.I sure was a difficult one to be disciplined, and am sure most kids are , until they get to discipline others.

Some of us have been lucky to have been schooled with lodgings, to get us to shine our own shoes and lay them for inspection and have us clean our cupboards and iron out the wrinkles on the counterpane of the bed, no grabbing at dinner table,walking in line and no jumping queues.

My mom is a virgo. ( not that i know her b' day, villagers remember b' days with the lunar cycles)

I know that by the way she keeps the home spick and span and always complaining that things are not in order, the shoes are out of place and the boxes are front behind, and the floor is dusty.

Good lord , what an obsession, but it is these folks who keep the home as neat as can be and tidy, and later the world at large.

I heard myself tell my kid this morning" pick up that wet towel for drying".

Going For a Ride or Taken For a Ride

Going for a ride requires a lot of planning and enquiries and enjoying one self innocently.

Taken for a ride simple means duped.

We can think of many examples from an excursion package tour , to a simple

Television advertisement.

Let me use it as a television advertisement.

Milk is considered as a complete food, right? (if u say wrong I have more points of similarities with u .)

Now we have advertisers , who promote food supplements in tinned and bottled forms, with this vitamin( u can pick any alphabet ) and that mineral combinations and more, let us consider them as enrichments.

So MILK+ENRICHED FOOD = MORE ENRICHED MILK

Some thing like good +good = good ‘o’ good

This starts happening from the beginning of childhood and goes with us till our end days. U can always debate that we use it with water, not milk .

who decides on the proportions and how does it get digested.?

I think it is ‘being taken for a ride’ from this angle.

I am sure each one will have their own stories of being duped.

Dristi Bombs on Indian Roads

Ayutha pooja is a celebration when there is a monsoon cleaning of the work station. ( at least once a year)

It is also the time of the year, when we see there is a massacre of the lovingly cared for ash pumpkins that are destroyed on the road side, hurled like bombs and the cause of many a road side accident.

The farmer who has brought the ash pumpkins to the market, may make a lot of money , but they sure weep when they see their works of labor brought to destruction,with out relishing them.

Ash pumpkins are a source of lots of minerals, they belong to the creeper variety of vegetables that are a great help to the body to maintain health.

The chefs make a variety of dishes with it, and the healers know many medicinal values to it.

A real pity that such practices are allowed to continue, when awareness is growing for the general betterment of road traffic, and prevention of accidents.

The guest for the inauguration of my work station for my services to make a living, came with a sling,he has slipped over a pumpkin hurled on the road ,while driving a two wheeler.

Imagine a person heaving a pumpkin over his head and hurling it on the road to smash it, and walking away as if he has won the world.

I am sure we can find alternatives for this .

From Freedom to Bondage - Under the Tree

On the way from my home to the work station, lies a peepul tree and beneath it was a pillaiyar statue.

The area around was cemented and it was regularly cleaned and washed by the street women.

He was devotedly bathed and anointed with sandal and turmeric paste or sacred ash.( vibhudhi)

and was garlanded and made fragrant with the flowers of the season,by the local children.

The local primary school was near by , hence the children used to come and have their lunch,

offer their food as prasadams to the pillayar and to the birds that flocked around,

in the evenings oil lamps used to be lit and on some full moon nights lamp poojas used to be conducted.

Such was the time,when one morning the local folk noticed pillaiyar's arm was mutilated,some one had tried to kidnap this diety away to their temple,and during the process had broken the arm of the statue,and seeing the mess ran away in the middle of the night.

The elders were called and they decided to replace the diety and so a new one was ordered.

An auspicious day was fixed and with the chanting of mantras the new pillaiyar was installed.

Now cautious folks wanted no more stealing away of their pillaiyar,so a grill was decided and it was installed all around.

The new pillaiyar is under lock and key and behind grills, for his own good, and cool under the shaded tree.

Medical Terms from a Vegetable market

I was walking through the vegetable market in search of medical terms.

We have bird flu, chicken gunya, fishy icthyosis, elephantiasis, chicken pox, mad cow disease and now swine flu.. the list could go on .

There never seemed to have been any fanatic vegetarians at the disease christenings, how it will be if we had some things like potato bunions, ivy itch, bitter gourd eczema, ginger calcanean spur, brinjal bruise and carrot top rash, these at least can help the future generations to know we did have such vegetables , and not all of us survived on packet foods and meat .

( I am sure the readers can let their minds wander as they go about the vegetable marketing and add titles to make the list grow.)

Deepavali - A Celebration of Death

The dawn of deepavali was more like being in a war zone, the blasting of the bombs and whistling of the rockets like missiles.

Past memories of deepavali , was helping the sivakasi cracker factory class mates ,burst and finish their trunk loads of fire works , that used to be sent to yercaud.

Kicking around the ground charkas and hurling the onion bombs on walls and sending love rockets to the girls on the other hillock .I was nervous of guns and still am .

Now divali seems more like bonus extorsion of money from the local sweeper, to the highway cops, and a mad rush to the clothes store.

The meanings of the festival has long been forgotten and its celebration of death misunderstood .

Between collage days and now,we had been taught to prevent child labour and to shun its nexus at the cracker level .we would like to do what we can to prevent the noise and child labour pollution.

Changes take time,for now it is best to flow with the tide and eat sweets and have a traditional oil bath and adorn new garments and burst crackers and do poojas, may be the traditions will get questioned by our children and theirs( as they ask questions which we have no answers for)and bring forth the truth of all our festivals in our wonderfull culture.

This festival is the celebration of Naragaasurans death.

One wise man split naragaasuran as

Nara ---human

Aga --- inside

Asuran---demonic entities

So it is the death of such forces and that is the celebration, with lights of enlightenment.

We lit lamps and passed the day with the buzz of the village and blessings of the neighbours and wishes of children .”happy deepaa oli”

I Am a Stealer

I am and always was a stealer.

I started with the looks,

Went on with the books,

Stole delicasies from the cooks,

And kept away from the crooks.

This art can never be taught.

I am a stealer.

The learned ones have a name for me

they spelled it as "KLEPTOMANIAC"

My fingers were once swift and slim,

Now they are pudgy and butterfingered and grim.

I have heard the wise say

"Borrowers are keepers,

loosers are weepers,

stealers will become healers".

While u are reading the lines

check your belongings.

My Duffel bag museum

Has an assortment of things,

From rubber bands to shapely spoons,

Taken from high raise buildings to petti kadai goons.

Like with all things i will evolve with times,

from petty things to pretty things of Mother Nature.

Valley of Death

Lord Tennyson would have been agast at things, may be he would have at least made a poem

for the present soldiers who are sent to war.

Honor the charge they made, honor the noise they created

Into the valley of death, drove the 30,000 more soldiers.

Their s not to reason why, theirs but to be targets and die.

Into the valley of death crawled the mighty smartys.

Signed by the elected peace man to go to war.

There never will be times of peace, only spaces between wars,

Hatred being built on and revengeful times of destruction.

Wont the awardees take back the honor bestowed,

To let the man know he is no more a peace man but a

True war man.

M is not for murder ...

The english language is gifted with a plethora of alphabets

all sharp and angled and curved, each bringing on moments of

emotions and thoughts.

One such alphabet is "M"

M is for mother, modest, and the closest of divinity in human form

M is for milk, the most nutritious and selective for a species,

M is for music, the feast for our ears, and a touch on our hearts

the interplay of notes , that can make our feet tap and our bodies sway.

M is for the media of electronics, the string that has brought us all together to form a garland.

M is for movie about which yoda writes as a critic.

M is for meditation, an act of doing or non-doing, which leads to the path of truth realisation.

M is for Master , the path finder for leading us through the intricacies of life and beyond,and

M is for MUCH MUCH MORE....

Patti -Kadu ( rural) Garden

It rained last night

The garden was all smiles

Waiting for us in the morning , to show us all her blossoms and fragrances.

The garden path naturally landscaped, is a blessing for the mind and the heart.

The hibiscus plants, with their just opening buds and the last of the rain drops

was a sight to behold.

The tiger stripped croton and the pink oleander and the yellow bells,

were all inviting to be seen.

The violet sankagiri lillies were just comming up with the grassy leaves.

The herbal mehandi and the other medicinal plants

All make our garden a welcome street to our simple HOME.

The simple pleasures of being a Gardner

AN " E " Prayer. SWAMY...

A silent prayer hitting the keys at the work station.

SWAMI...
Thank you for the wonderfull gift called " INTERNET"

Please keep my system safe from all the viruses.

Keep the B S N L and all the other servers happy ,
so they do not disrupt the connections with strikes.

Please keep away the policy making censors,
who are planning to allow only
Mind controlling and sense tickling programmes.

Please keep my senses sharp and my mind clear
to study all that is available , at least NOW.

Please keep me checked, and not learn tooo much truth and become paranoid.

Keep all my I RC friends and all my other net mates HAPPY and HEALTHY
so they continue to bring on a smile to my face and warmth in my heart .

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (2005) [* * *]

I never liked the Douglas Adams book - read a few pages and gave up. I think the movie has the same sense of humour as the book, it's been faithful in that way.

If you like sci-fi with a twist of caustic humour, you'll like this movie. Worth a watch simply because it's 24 on the list of THE best books ever written.(why?!!:)

Here's the story for those who want to know more: Arthur Dent's home is being demolished and his friend, an alien, comes and rescues him from a protest to hitchhike on a spaceship before the Earth is destroyed. What follows is a madcap adventure across the Universe and Love.

How to Cook a South Indian Meal in 20 mins

(Venkhat has totally influenced me with his writing! Now I've got words and ideas pouring through my head and I can't resist blogging in his simple style. Thanks, venkhat!:)

When I first began living on my own, I met this wonderful person who saved me from starvation. She told me how to cook a whole meal in 20 mins. Let me share it here, in case someone else would find it useful.

1. You need a pressure cooker with 3 vessels.
2. In the lowest one you put rice.
3. The next one you put daal, tamarind and tomato. In the top one you put chopped veggies.
4. When it's getting done, which takes 12 mins, keep a kadai ready with some oil, fry some papad (and make pooris if you're very efficient.:p).
5. Then, keeping only about 4 ladles of oil, make your tempering (mustard, jeera, red chillies and curry leaves) and fry some onions. Put half your tempering on the daal water and put the boiled veggies on the rest in the kadai, add the fried onion and make a dry veggie palya.
6. When that's done, you remove it and sieve the stock and tomatoes into the kadai and boil for 3 mins adding rasam powder. Remove it from the kadai.
7. Next add the sieved daal from the middle pan into the kadai and make a sambar with half your veggies. Keep your sambar masala ready in a tin (grated coconut/pwdr with red chilli, garam masala, dhaniya and jeera powder).
Voila! 20 mins! :D

Swimming - A Romance with Water

On the outskirts of Elampillai, in the midst of a coconut grove among some farm houses lies a tiled 20 to 40 feet swimming pool with clean bore well water and no chlorination, separate for the knights and the dames.

Holidays and vacations bring on the kids all giggling and squealing , with plastic cans for life support( before we used to have bottle gourds dried and tied at the back for beginners)

The learners are heaved and thrown into the water , with them yelling and crying for help, they some how thrash around and reach the walls of the pool only to be thrown back again.

I have always felt that learning to swim was like getting to learn the steps to a ball room dance, than the fist and leg work of a boxer ready for a bout.

we need to feel water as a friend and with that approach, I am sure we can learn to float and swim with grace, with the strokes adding to the silent swim and the rest is "Romance with water", each with their style of wooing and dance, to last a life time of friendship.

A Pinch of Salt

Ours is a culture that treats the home as a temple, and the kitchen as a santum santorum and the salt pot as a diety,many a house hold still apply the turmeric and kum kum and hold the salt pot as a heritage gift.

Ours is a culture that welcomes the new bride to the home of the groom and asks her to take the blessings of cereals and pulses and the salt of the home.

Ours is a culture that treats a guest to a sumptous feast on a banana leaf with the salt as the first serve.
I have always wonderded how is it that we who had advocated so much on salt and respected it so ,now tell ourselves to restrict salt and avoid it, there is some thing which we dont know, or something that has changed, the result is,
"A PINCH OF SALT ".
Our fore fathers used sea salt and we modern folks use industrial salt.

A few words on the differrences ,sea salt is cool to the touch and wet in damp days of humidity, it is greyish and crystaline and has all the treasures that mother nature has hidden in the sea , it is cheap and can be made naturally, and contains medicinal values and does not cause any diseases.
Industrial salt is dry and stays that way even in rainy days as all the hygroscopic trace elements have been removed,from it.
It is pure white and fine and powdery and flows easily through the salt shaker, is costly and made at a factory, it contains no medicinal values and only exicipients of alluminium and sodium and chloride, causes all the disease we have.

we have seen many an advert praising the goodness of the salt of a company from A to z ,do we think we can make it better,by adding iodine when it is already there,make it in such large quantites, when we dont need so much.

It is used mainly for other industries, from plastics to ammunition , i think there is a secret some where and it needs to be found and shared , for the basic health of all MANKIND.

An Altar for Sacrifice

From time immemorial and biblical age of Abraham, animal sacrifice has been in vogue.
It continues now as a tea party ritual and get together and family outings,
With a traditional religious setting ,and the goddess or a god as a silent participant.

We used to have one such occasion in our family get together which occured on the 2 nd week of January co -inciding with the pongal festival “karinal”.

Close to a place near Vanavasi a few kilo meters away from Mettur dam,lies a shady
Enclosure called Sanyasi Muniyappa on the road side.

There was a long forgotten story that our forefathers had set foot and walked away from that area, during a cholera epidemic,and promised to offer sacrifice if they survived.
We are the result of their survival.
We dutifully go and sacrifice lamb and chickens and have a get together.
I decided to end this tradition and with it went away the get together.

Our forefathers did have sacrifices but I am sure they meant it to be symbolically
Understood,and not a blood letting massacre.

The sacrifice and the animals were meant for us to stop acting like animals and not be a sheeple, to act with courage ,when we make decisions and not just follow the leader, to give up arrogance and be like a humble ruler.

Once we realize this the“pali peedam” (sacrifical altar) becomes an altar of self enquiry, and no real butchering is done and no eats and left overs and meat eating encouraged, one could lead to another and the world, a better place to live starting from our Home.

Hard-core

Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat (2009) [* * * * *]

One of the few explicit movies I've actually enjoyed. I could class it as gay porn, except that it engaged the mind and had a much better storyline with romance and so many interesting observations about the gay community. How much like heterosexuals they are in their relationships. I enjoyed every minute of it. You could see a woman directed it from the attention to the How of relating, from the larger world to ourselves.:)

9 Songs (2004) [* * * * *]
This would be the Why of relating, how to isolate yourself from the world. The other explicit one was a reflective, nostalgic view of a short-term relationship. It is explicit in the sense of love being in the love-making - the pair are alienated mentally or emotionally in the midst of a torrid affair.

It is only after it's over that the man knows what he had was as close to love as he'll ever get. Probably very descriptive of a male who hops through short-term relationships to avoid closeness. Interesting perspective, even if too mechanical and animalistic for my taste.

An Encounter under the Microscope

I had always wanted a man to man talk with a micro organism, I never knew it would happen this way.
One never gets to handle a microscope once we leave an institution, and this was a chance,
i was adjusting the light reflector and the focusing ring, there was a specimen used by the previous scientist and I saw through the eye piece of the microscope.

The morning gardening and the laundry and the cool spring water bath, took me heart and soul into the picture that i saw in the eye piece.

It was just a few bacteria moving around, after the initial shock of finding myself in that world,i introduced myself to a lone bacteria." I am a Human and i am called with many names".
He said” i am an organism and i have many names too, i change forms, my brethren have been in existence from time in memorial and we will be here all eternity”.

I made a request to have our encounter recorded for the benefit of my memory.

He went on to say that they are basically scavengers and move around to clean up dead and decaying matter, they do not have the capacity to haunt healthy live tissues, nor are they capable of destruction.

He said nature has entrusted this work to them, and they have been misjudged and honored to be the cause of many ailments to their credit, there have been no spokesperson among them to refute it.

He further added" there are a few bullies among us and we know how to keep them in check," "until u humans started to interfere with your chemical weapons for our destruction".

"Be guarded the weapons u use against us are the weapons u will destroy yourself with.
We would mutate to different forms and we are more intelligent than u think".

"If u could go along with us and stay healthy and fit, you would not notice us at all, may be we will give u lots of nutritional value in your food and coloring agents and flavors and many more... "

Now" wake up human" and may god bless us all with our roles of play.

It is mid morning now as i type these words.

Boredom- a state which has no borders

“It is Boring” a term heard so often these days.
A word and situation,which is a privilege for the ones who are mind oriented and need body works.
What ones needs at such time is spring cleaning the home or domestic help of the different kind.
Gets one so fresh, like having an inner bath of cleanliness.
An already clean cupboard can get cleaner and the shoe rack can get more orderly.
The shining floor can get an extra sweep and the kitchen sink can do with an overhauling scrub.
If there is one act very meditative at home,let it be a simple procedure of physical help, U have the solution to boredom and don’t u worry they come with rewards.

A DATE ON THE CALENDER

Birthdays come and go,but do we really grow?
Birthdays are specials days of remembrance of one present or past who has touched your heart,
And made u understand yourself and others,and the truth of existence through them.

It is not a day to blow candles and smear cakes,
It is sickening to hear folks teach kids to blow out candles, when we are here
to let them know that they are a light and here to brighten themselves
and others, and not to blow themselves out.

We can light a lamp at such festive moments and let them know the value of enlightening others with creative art and innocent games,
And share the sweetness of the refreshments with happiness.

Children need to know that they are special,and have much to give to the world,bringing awareness through celebrations can be a welcome change.

As one grows with the times,it sounds foolish to celebrate ones own birthdays, it is time we realize that we must have done something to make others celebrate it for us,or we must do some thing ,to let it happen at least before the next such day arrives….

Blessings from a chained slave

I was brought to my sences with the tinkle of that bell and the squels of kids "aaaanai aaaanai"I walked out to see a gathering of kids and adults around an elephant and his mahout on his topThey paraded the streets taking money and offerring blessings. I watched the scene and it brought out scientific truths in my mind , elephants can absorb atomic radiationlike the horses and the cows and that is why their dung is also respected,.. ok wonderfull.
My kiddy mind was seeing the eyes of the elephant, watery and liquid and warm and sending out feelings,I saw his foot mangled with a chain,i saw his gigantic royal stance brought to shame with the stick of the mahout.
Ours is a land of culture, with an elephant head as a lord and is this how we treat a lord in visible form,Dragging him around the towns ,whose feet are used to mud and grass and green foliage, to walk on tar, ashpalt roads?
I asked the mahout why dont u beg and let this creature just walk with u, u tie a chain with your leg and his leg together.I was given looks. even the local folks eyed me as foolish, and u wont get blessings this way.
I went to pray and asked GANESA "ennapa seriya"( is this ok ,man?) he gave me his answer in silence.
That evening i noticed him again, this time i saw a child hold two rupees in his hand, waiting to get mint with a hole.He saw the elephant, he went and got a banana and ran to the elephant and gave him that, the elephant eyed me from a distance Took the banana, Blessed the kid , turned around and with a swish of his tail, walked away MAJESTICALLY.

WAR

W orking A ggressively against R eason is W.A.R.

There is war going on in some part of the world every second and we are allowing it to go unnoticed with out any bombs affecting us in any way.

War seems to be the business these days,while the soldiers and civilians are used as " collateral damages".

It is time we realised that we are the perpetuators of this madness and allow our politicians to fear monger us and take us to war.

If not for the intellectuals they would not have any thing to use at war,we must prevent our scientific inventions from being used for war fare.

Albert Einsein felt miserable, when the bombs were dropped at Hiroshima and Nagasaki,he wanted to be reborn as a plumber if allowed another chance to life

These days it is war with germs and biological methods than with boombing bombs.
May our brethren see through the games of the war mongers and get those inventions be used for peace, betterment of humanity and peace for mankind.

Banana -the poor mans rich fruit

A walk thro the village market can show a variety of fruits , but non so baskety as bananas.
If we can get pally with the regular vendor from the farm we can get those that are not chemicaled to ripen and just fresh.
Bananas go well with the post lunches as a dessert.but there are other ways.
I am having them now as rings and seasoned with country jaggery( brown sugar)
having them with a fork at the work station can avoid a filling b fast at home.
Who has not tried the banana sandwitch with wholesome wheat bread, ringed and peppered, the bananas go great with any thing.

Scribbling Slate with Chalky Words

I feel like a kid who has been presented with a scribbling slate and chalks.
The new found pleasure has got me scribbling away on the types with enthusiasm.
THANKS to Yoda, for letting me BE, and to the others i am yet to know thro' the comments.

Cyclonic Drizzle

I got up from my siesta,to the soft taps of the rain drops dancing on the leaves of the croton plants in the garden,the clouds were heavy and the drops were getting bigger,
I was seeing the drops bouncing off the leaves and the noise that was pleasing to my ears.
I also saw the drops hitting the parapet wall and rebounding with flowery patterns,
It was an orchestra soon and the garden plants were all together with the music, my palpity heart was with the earthly dance.

I very much wanted to walk in the rain, and thought of an excuse,got my rain coat on and decided to get hot snacks for my MOM--- enough reason to go out.
Now the rain drops were dancing on ME.

Yercaud - lake forest

Yercaud Get together

I am one of the daughters of Mother Nature. My name is YERI KADU The englishman dubbed me as Yercaud.

I am normally chill in this time of the year but I was warmed by the presence of a family called STANLEY VETRANS 78.

They came in groups and singles, Nestled themselves into the cozy warmth of SHEVOROYS HOTEL, hands were shaken and hugs were shared and smiles reciprocated, I could hear whispers" hey u look the same" One sounded "hey i thouoght were the daughter" One was even bold to say "u could model"

They lit my dark starry sky with rockets and flowery pots and doom dammm deeem music.
They jiggled to the tunes around the bonfire with their kids leading the shakes, the organisers were quietly moving to see all felt at home,I was happy to be the HOME.

They walked around my beauty spots THE LAKE , KILIYUR FALLS, LADIES SEAT, MONTFORT SCHOOL,POGODA POINT Each trying to find them selves in me, I was willing to share myself.

I sneaked into the conference hall,
A beauty named Janaki sang to invoke the divine,and many came to share their hearts,
Geetha to say that things have changed and she is no more like old times quiet and timid, others to say things havent changed and all like old times.

While they posed for the group and family picturesI wanted to be one of them too, realizing that i am in all of them .

Selva sang "mounameeee" ... and "antha naal niyabagam vanthatheee..." They were with deep emotion and nostalgic feelings i guess.

They shared pictures of old times and new.

It was getting time to leave, but they wanted to meet again next year with more of them I was willing to honour them again But mother nature has more daughters like me, Where ever they are i will be with them.

That night I prayed to mother
"To grant the family of' STANLEY VETRANS 78 ' HAPPINESS AND HEALTH"

YERI KADU

P.S. I Love You, 2007 [* * * * *]

A touching love story about a man who dies from a brain tumour and leaves letters for his wife for an entire year to help her cope with her loss.

Death is so final, leaving so much unfinished for those who love. Dealing with the loss and moving on is made much more difficult by the crippling emptiness of being single again.

Well worth a watch. As her mom says in the movie,"We're all alone. Sometimes it makes me feel better to know that we're all together in that too." Thanks to Bo0m- for suggesting this movie!:)

2012 [* * * * *]

Though this movie has a very poor script, the special effects are stupendous! I bought tickets and saw it on the big screen because I heard so many people talk of it on the net. It was well-worth it just to see entire cities burn down and tidal waves smash up countries and continents drifting.:)

The ethics of the movie are what make you a little disgusted - it's a capitalist, all-american selfishness from beginning to end, with anyone raising a "what about the rest?" question being knocked down with a bullying sneer. In fact, that question never gets answered. So the plot suffers from self-doubt, and everyone's left thinking it's each woman for herself in 3 yrs... but so what: just watch the skyscrapers fall with blinkers on! It's kewl.:p

Vicky Cristina Barcelona, (2008) [* * * *]

A typical Woody Allen take on sex and love. Two women take a long holiday to Barcelona and one finds love and the other sex. Find out what happens. It's pretty steamy and mixed up emotionally - I really dislike Woody Allen for this kind of urbane confusion - all his movies have this unresolved conflict feeling to them. They make me restless to straighten the characters lives with some spiritual direction!:)

It's very interesting - but most of all, it has fantastic scenes of Spain, a country I fell in love with for it's rural idyllic beauty.

He's Just Not That Into You (2009) [* * * * *]

This is a lovely girlie movie - I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the fluffy, yuppie humourous take on modern dating. It was absorbing, like all movies about Love and finding a mate. I think they give us something to compare our own experiences with. Well worth a watch.:)

Coraline, 2009 [* * * * *]

Wow! If you think fairy tales and anime are mild entertainment, you should see Coraline's action-packed adventure!

I confess that I've never seen anything like it and I doubt if I ever will. Here's the fairy tale: Coraline has indifferent and very mundane parents (like we all do ;) and which kid doesn't go through an impatient phase with their everyday parents wishing for two more exciting people instead? Coraline does and she gets what she wished for - and how! Her new parents lives revolve around making her happy and giving her the best of everything ... only, they want something in exchange - her willing participation in a macabre ritual.

I don't want to give any spoilers here, but if you have kids who look at you with disappointment or argue with you all day - this is the movie for them to see and learn to appreciate that your honest best is better than the best dishonesty.:)

17 Again [* * * * *]

This is a feel-good movie that's quite terrific. You know how you lose your way in life, lose focus?

Mike [Matt Perry] goes from being a hot high-school basketball player to a has-been salesman who can't get past the glass ceiling. He's on the verge of a divorce, his kids are out of his reach.

He 'did the right thing' and gave up an opportunity to go to college to marry his high school sweetheart. Now he blames that decision for having held him back all these years.

By magical transformation, he gets a chance to be 17 again [done by Zac Efron]. He gets to do his life over. But ...!!... being the same affectionate and protective guy, he decides it's a chance to put things right for his family.

You should see it for the warmth and affection in it - it could have been so ordinary, but Zac Efron makes being a teen look good. Part of the fun is his friend and his older mind and old-fashioned values coming out of a young mouth. Loved it.

Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, 2008 [* * * * *]

This movie got me to start blogging again - I think I grew weary of the ragular Hollywood fare, though there were some good movies along the way. I'll try and blog those reviews in as well some time this week.

Ponyo on the Cliff is a Japanese animation top-boxoffice movie. The story is so unusual as to be amazing after the usual syrupy and tired Disney themes.:)

Let me just outline the whole marvelous fantasy so that you get an idea: Ponyo is the daughter of a sea wizard and is washed up on shore when she goes exploring. A little boy, Sosuke, picks up the creature and takes her with him. Ponyo is so entranced by the child that she magically transforms herself into a little girl to be with him. But in transforming, she unleashes the demonic power of the ocean almost destroying the very world she seeks.

The movie is many layers of humans, magical creatures, small gods and bigger gods. But most of all it's a story of two children bonding in a harsh world - and bringing out the best in themselves in the process.

Quaid-e-Azam: double dhamaka

NDTV finally took the discussion on the current Jaswant Singh's controversial book affirming Jinnah's 'secular' credentials to its logical end, by posing the question "Was partition good for India?", in its recent edition of the "Big Fight".

I am not familiar with the format of this show, but the panelists didn't quite 'fight', i.e., if you discount Ramachandra Guha, cricket writer turned pseudo historian, shouting his lungs off to get his point across via a video stream and Salman Khurshid's exasperation at Tarun Vijay's suggestion that RSS wasn't party to the idea of partition.

The discussions revolved around the possible percentage of Muslims in India if partition hadn't happened and how that would have served 'secular' polity better. The guy from Pioneer (a media house) stuck to his guns in reiterating that India was much better off with the partition. Surprisingly even the 'Hindu' basher, Ramachandra Guha, agreed with the man from Pioneer, going on to add that the atmosphere at that time with the muslims rioting at many places in India wasn't conducive to the idea of an united nation.

Salman Khurshid, our revered 'minority affairs minister', made the point that it was imperative to improve the percentage of minorities to a certain point where they can feel comfortable to hold their own against the majority. The pea brain, however didn't realise that he was suggesting the same thing that led to the partition of India in the first place. So his point of view that India would have been better off without partition didn't strike me as well formed.

Well there was this scion from one of the royal families that made the claim that with 51% of muslims as subjects, his grandfather's kingdom in the 40s was one of the most communally inclusive kingdoms. Funny that I thought that muslims didn't press for a sharia law variant until they touched the magic figure of 60% (like in Malaysia).

RSS wasn't far behind too. Tarun Vijay, a former editor of the RSS daily Panchajanya, made the usual noises about 'Akhand Bharat', and how India needs a strong central leadership to realise that dream. Now having been associated with RSS for a long time (an organisation I deeply admire for their organizational skills and social work), I did expect this line of thought from an RSS spokesman, but that he arrived at this stand based on his travels to Pakistan and Bangladesh where people he met were apparently 'craving to be united again', showed his intellectual dishonesty and the organization he represents on the subject of partition.

I was however surprised when the host played down a clear majority among the audience favouring a 'United India', and declared that the result of the poll is about even. Tiimes have changed since the noisy India-Pakistan bhai bhai nonsense thrown around in 2005, I guess.

The joker of the day was, unsurprisingly, the guest from across the border. Some dude, who was born to the son of the great Pakistani poet Mohammad Iqal (who gave us Saare Jahan se Achha before he decided to join the Muslim League). His claim that about a dozen of his relatives who migrated from UP into Pakistan are now doctors and engineers and that they couldn't have made it if they had stayed back in India was worthy of a puke.

But ofcourse the icing on the cake was, when asked if partition could have been avoided, the gentleman responded by saying that it would have been possible if there were two Quaid-e-Azams - one in India and the other in Pakistan. Even the host couldn't suppress his grin at that.

Wonderful entertainment.

p.s. Now lets see BigDaddys Daughter come up with a comment longer than the post :P

when 1000 - 754 equals infinity

Two weeks ago 754 was the odds on offer for a Gasquet win in the upcoming US Open, and now after he's drawn to play Nadal in the first round, the odds jump to 1000.

Richard Gasquet is now the illustrious company of Andreas Beck, Florent Serra and Christopher Rochus (the last one being particularly shameful).

My Love

I wake up this morning
Feeling very grateful
To my love
From His free gift of life
I’ve never really seen life like this before
I used to be hollow
Now I’m filled to the brim
With the love of my Love
That is out of this world

I was so unworthy
Yet my Love found me
And gave me so much
As if I’m so precious…..it takes my breath away

My love lifted me up, when I am down
My love wouldn’t let me fall
My love holds me in the palm of His hands
And says that I’m the reflection of the apple of His eyes

I woke up this morning
Felling very grateful
Because my love has found me
And accepted me perfectly with all my imperfections

My love is patient
His mercy is new with every breath I take
My love is ever faithful
My love’s love never changes forever and ever

My love loves me so much that He suffered and died for me
Even if I don’t deserve it

I was hollow
But not anymore
No words can express my gratitude
To my one and only love
BigDaddy...

By Twipzy

dr`doofus and Twipzy

Hey all,
We've got two new authors posting here from this point on - dr`doofus and Twipzy. They'll write about whatever they like - so it's not just movies anymore - probably poetry and tennis from what I know about them.:)

Welcome, both of you!

Streetfighter: the legend of Chun Li [* * * * *]

Now here's a hot actress. I've no doubt it's hard to do all that she does in this very hong kong/hollywood movie.

The story is quite cliched, but it's been really long since I saw a good movie about eastern martial arts and I, like most fans of the fighting arts, for one am really glad they made this.

The girl's father is kidnapped by the mafia and she trains to get him back. There's a bit of magic and romance but in the end, she's still alone. Not bad for a hk/hollywood movie to allow that, hm?:)

Watchmen [* * *]

Watchmen is a strangely interesting movie: it's a critique of superheroes and their excessive violence (they trash buildings and frighten people for eg.).

It's esp strange to see a movie about their growing disillusionment since we've never seen them in a very human light - Phantom, the comic, died the minute they tried to move his relationship forward; Superman grew very unpopular when he showed even the slightest anger towards Lux Luthor, etc.

Superheroes, in this movie, are very human. The hurt themselves, they hate their public, some of them fall in love very unsuccessfully with other superheroines ... the movie is very tragic-comic.

The reason that I didn't rate it very high is because it is so jaded it geared my mood down by several notches for a few days. Very much like a Tarantino movie, because the realism doesn't improve your reality, just brings to earth some pollyannas.:)

50 First Dates [* * * * *]

Must watch.:)