Being Indian!

I crib almost every day about the state of our country, the pollution, infrastructure and the corruption. But it hurts and angers me when I see people treat our culture with an irreverence that they lack balls to display with any other culture. The corruption is something Indians love to hate. They love to show off their eloquence, wiki-knowledge and google-expertise by trashing every aspect of the Indian culture.

100′s of years of rule by powers that failed to understand our way of living, made things worse. We seem to have lost our wealth of knowledge about things that survived many 100 years. My thought always has been that if something had to survive for so long, it must have been good for a period of time. The fact that we don’t have the skills to continue, should not be basis enough to say that its useless. Ayurveda, Yoga, and so much more ‘seriously Indian’ aspects are just ‘Twitter’ topics for a bunch of people to fill their 140 with.

Why does an Indian feel embarrassed to acknowledge practices that were part of his culture? Its almost like we want to get the old and the aged out of our sight since we have lost the value we can derive from it. And of course, like every other exit, we want it to be scornful, painful and dramatic. Other cultures seem to be happy selling their Ginseng medicine and Zen music and movies on the Templar treasures, ad nauseum. But we, we don’t need outside help. We will destroy the memories and the brand of everything we had!

We want to be American. We want to be British. Even South American. But not Indian. We are ashamed to say that we are confused people hanging onto vestiges of what used to be a flourishing culture and currently in a place where we are figuring out the ‘new’ us. There is a scurry to belong to other countries in way of religion or citizenship. Even in profession we want to be an Italian chef or a ‘salsa’ dancer. A UNESCO medic or a BBC photographer. A Japanese martial arts teacher or an Australian backpacker.

Today, after years of Rape by other countries and our own politicos, our culture has no fragrance left. The country has gotten old, and all that is left are the occasional, derisive 140′s.

Birkenau

You could easily mistake the place for a summer camp. All that green and all that beauty. You could mistake it for any place until you pause and hear the silence and feel the weight. A cloak that hangs heavily on your shoulders as the trained guide drones on about the events that soaked the earth of the place. She has probably been told not to make eye contact as the information would start taking a more personal note. Thank God for that!

1,100,000 people killed. That is the minimum number. The reason that we have this number is because documents were found. The true number is not known. Seeing their need to upgrade(?) from Auschwitz to Birkenau, its not too difficult to guess a number. The only entry was by train. Into the gates of Hell…

None of our little team of 12 people spoke or even gestured to one another. People went quietly from one exhibit to the next, trying not to process the information. Trying not to let the information become a reality inside them. Till the room of hair…

When I saw the mountain of human hair I almost groaned out loud. What was going on in your head, S.S people? Just one man’s anger was enough for this? The possibility to take another’s property and to wipe out a race. To pick articles off a dead body, of your own kind? To extract gold from the dead person’s teeth? O Yeah! These were the creme of the Jewish society and you did tell them that you were providing them a job. Why wouldn’t they come into this hell hole with their precious belongings? You-even-got-them-to-buy-their-own-ticket. The entire process was well thought through and what’s worse, executed to perfection.

It’s not possible to cover all of what Auschwitz and Birkenau has to offer. Mainly because the dogs (S.S Army) bombed many of the gas chambers to destroy evidence; And you may not have the stomach to complete the tour. Its a good thing that they try to discourage children under 14 to visit this place. Auschwitz and Birkenau was chosen because they could be accessed by rail. Nazis dream to have all Jews destroyed suddenly started taking flesh. Of course, they threw in some Polish and Romany folks as well-but the targets were the Jews. They told the Jews that they were getting relocated, asked them to move with their family and belongings. They were packed into bogeys, 70-80 in one, and for this service, each of them had to purchase a ticket. Once they entered the death camp (There is a difference between a death camp and a concentration camp, we were told) the weak, aged, sick and children were asked to go to chambers below to be ‘cleansed’.These were basically the ones who could not work. The chambers downstairs were all set up to make the people believe that they were actually going for a bath. There was an initial chamber were they had to disrobe and this chamber was well prepared with even wall messages on cleaning the prisoners. The walls were painted with faucets and the gas chamber was fitted with fake showers too. Once the entire load of people were filled into the chambers, the doors were shut and ‘Cyclone B’ was dropped from the openings in the roof. The entire lot were gassed to death.

Once the death process was over, then able-bodied Jews were asked to strip the bodies of any possible articles that could be sold to make money. Even gold filling in the teeth. Contrary to popular belief, this was one of the best jobs in the death camp, next to working in the kitchen of course, as the rest of the jobs from morn till eve was bone melting. People didnt survive very long at these camps. Women survived for about 2-3 months. Good for the ones who died, as the women who survived were experimented on by the Angel of Death (Josef Mengele) Their uterus was sealed shut, chemicals were injected into their bodies and they were repeatedly passed under x-rays to study infertility. His special interest was the study of ‘twins’. The Aryans were believed to be a superior race. The idea was to destroy the Jews and to increase the numbers of the Aryan tribe.

The rooms, beds, toilets, every facility was worse than what would have been provided to animals. Walking through those ‘sheds’ I couldn’t help but imagine those miserable souls, shivering in the utter wretched cold, with just a tea for breakfast and a piece of bread as dinner in their aching tummies, huddled together to keep warm. Most of them must have died because they just didn’t have the will to live. It’s a miracle that a few of them survived, even after the death march.

When we left, ‘The road to Hell’ was playing in our van. The memories of the place would just not leave. But the thing is, how did the survivors go on? With the memories haunting them every night. The thoughts of family dying. The thoughts of taking articles from your own dead people. The thoughts about waking each morning just to find that the person you slept next to had died in their sleep. The thoughts about the screaming, the sounds of shooting, the dull thuds of people being beaten, the crack of bone…

Basundhi

The Basundhi is a milk based sweet dish that takes almost an hour to make. The pain is in the constant stirring and the monitoring. But I guess it is so worth it. The simplicity lies in the fact that you dont really need to do anything other than keep moving the milk ‘skin’ that forms periodically, to one side. After a bit, the milk condenses and you are left with yellowish thickened milk and a whole load of skin. (Still milk)

Now is the time to add one table spoon or two of sugar. As the condensed milk is already sweet, you would need very little sugar to compliment it. Finally you can add some crushed almonds or saffron threads to garnish the basundhi. Don’t forget to chill the dessert before you eat. The dish is ready.

In the name of the Father

My Father. The man who has sometimes been with me in person and many a time been with me in spirit. I don’t know which presence I like better. He has been a father and he has been my child. The child I will always cherish and love as my first born.
A father is a strange relationship in a woman’s life. Strange because there is no blood connection. No cord. No breast milk and definitely not someone whose heartbeat you recognize. It is even more strange that without any of this physical evidence, the connection is as strong. Like a cord that connects your rib to his and tugs at, when he is in grief or pain.
His is not a gentle soothing presence. His words are not trained and correct. There are more helpless silences the father and daughter experience, when he does not know how to make a sad child feel better. More often there is an anger that he can’t set things right.
I am fortunate to have met you in this life, my sweet sweet daddy. My investment of time and emotion in you have more often been returned multi fold. Sometimes more than I could have possibly deserved or earned. My greatest fear is having to be in this world without your love and presence to guide and protect me. Like a weak and lazy creeper, I am used to using your strength and hard work to prop myself on.
I believe there is a God because of you. I thank you for what you have done for me, what you continue to do and what you will always be, till the end of my life. Thank you my father. My child. My very spirit.

Almond Milk-Vegan Diet

Whatever you need to know about the benefits of Almond milk, I think you can get it from this link http://www.sweetadditions.net/food-drinks/almond-milk-benefits-and-side-effects

What I will give in this blog is the tips for the extraction process to make this milk at home. Tips that you may not find in a recipe found on the web. Firstly, when you soak the almonds try to soak the ones with the skin and not the pre-cleaned ones. The less the food is handled at the store before you eat it, the better. Secondly, some recipes ask to whip the almonds with the skin. I find that this gives you an end product that is brown and not white. You can remove the skin before you whip the almonds

Once all the almonds are peeled, use clean drinking water to whip the almonds. Unlike the extraction of soy milk, this milk does not need to be boiled. Hence, its better to use boiled and cooled water or purified water. Also, don’t start with whipping the almonds together with the water. Run the almonds through first and then pour in the water. It helps the extraction better.

Post whipping the almonds in a mixer, the painful process of running the slush through a thin muslin cloth starts. This is the most time-consuming part of the process and you will have to run the almonds through the cloth at least twice. Every set. The process is so worth the thick almond milk that you get. I tried whipping some mangoes with a glass of almond milk at the end and the mango milkshake was better than one made with cow’s milk.

The residue is so rich, it would be a crime to throw it away. I usually add some organic honey to it, and store it in the fridge. Some good face pack gook for the next month. It works amazingly well for dry to normal skin.

Diamond Cuts-Savory

I miss my Grandmom and sometimes just a simple recipe from her book is enough to bring those lovely memories right back into this dimension.

Diamond cuts is a snack that takes about 15-20 mins to make and they are so addictive-you have no idea! And you thought potato chips are the only snack that took over your hand-mouth control systems!

Diamond cuts stay good for a week or two if kept in an airtight jar. Take care to close the cover after they have cooled down. Since the snack is so simple to make, it shouldn’t be a problem to make it during the weekend when the family is feeling particularly peckish.

I remember rolling out the dough and cutting them into diamond shapes and helping mom out with making this snack for every relative that would drop by, just to taste mom’s food. I’m glad I helped out then, ’cause it’s the practice then that helped me remember the recipe after I lost a whole book of mom’s recipes. The sweet diamonds are great too. What more, J loved them. #Win

English Breakfast

English scones was the plan for breakfast and it started a bout of quick shopping. Off to Bandra with J to drool over lovely baking tools and randomly pick up stuff that I ‘may’ use. Went for a lot of teflon coated baking trays. Wonder if that is good? Arif’s shop opposite shoppers stop is such a blessing. Thanx to @saffrontrail for the details.

English scones is something that J wanted and I was itching to try my hand at baking. Went through a couple of recipes on the net. I kinda like JoyofBaking.com for some of their videos and recipes. You can check out their recipes for scones there. I tossed in some raisins into my flour.

The process from mixing bowl to oven takes just 20 minutes and 20 minutes in the oven. So in less than an hour you have a lovely breaka ready! You can see my shadow as I sit waiting for scones to rise. The test to see if the scones are done is to dip a toothpick in and it should come out clean.

Once the scones are out then allow them to cool a bit. You can add the the topping
of your choice. Creme, Rasberries, Blueberries…the list is endless! Since the scones by themselves are heavy, a light fruit or mint tea would go very well with this breakfast setting. Contact me for the step by step recipe if you need it.