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I had to write this note today, for if I can’t start a debate, register a protest on the use of recorded bird calls for sighting on Salim Ali’s birthday, what other time would be appropriate. Two years ago at BNHS Sasan Gir camp we noticed almost all the guides on the safari (In almost all national parks, the guides are boys appointed by the forest department during the safari season, and they are allotted by rotation) had recordings of bird calls on their mobile phones. What was seen as a good tool to learn and identify bird calls has become a tool in the hands of ill-informed guides to please their customers – I presume the birds responded to calls and were sighted. We had in Gir told the guides not to play any calls. In Gir at least the issue is settled for most visitors come hoping to sight the lions and not so much for birding. Also, a dry forest like Gir makes bird sightings lot more easier than the dense Himalayan forests or the rain forests of North East. We were ...

November 1990, was more grim and looked a real winter of discontent than what November 2015 looks like, not sure how many would agree with that. 25-years ago when I took up my first job as a trainee journalist with Bennett Coleman, deputed to the now extinct The Independent the discussion inside and out of the newsrooms were about the imminent breaking up of India, the balkanisation of India, and how the idea of India wouldn’t hold anymore. Like a rangoli drawn on water, to literally translate a Tamil idiom, neer mel ezhudhiya kolam the National Front government fizzled out. Even after Bofors Rajiv Gandhi had some sympathy among voters, and V.P.Singh some elite following after Mandal. It was in those turbulent days one travelled alone to Bombay then, alone. In September of 1990 one had written the last academic exam of life and was immersed in writing the thesis to get M.Phil., degree. Already had UGC certificate for lecturership after passing the first  ever such nat...

Many would snigger at food posts as much as the saree posts. Nevertheless, for me food, textiles are all part of the glorious cultural tradition, to be talked about and cherished. It is only when I started visiting temples in the North, a few homes in Mumbai during festivals, I started seeing the phenomenon of buying food from the restaurants and sweet shops for Naivedhyam, Thiruvamudhu in the Sri Vaishnava parlance. Sri Vaishnava temples in the south have families who have been in the service of the God as hereditary cooks and only they can make food in the Thiru Madapallis even today. Even at home, in south India as far as I know even today Naivedhyam has to be prepared afresh and not bought. If one isn't able to cook, offering of fruits, milk, butter would do. More than buying Naivedhyam, I was saddened by the thought a distinct bhog for Ganesha, the kozhukattai or modak, remained so only in shape and not in its substance. Call us “exclusive”, but kozhukattais are not made gen...

22 September 2015 at 22:38 Public Friends Only Me Custom Close Friends Family See all lists... Freelance Writer Self-employed Mumbai, India Area Go Back There are a lot of things which are fixed in my brother’slife, like the food he would eat and the restaurants he will order them from –for the years he lived in western suburbs it was just a veg kholapuri from thesame Udipi. Now, in Navi Mumbai it is veg chili mili from two or three, oneUttarakhandi, and two Udipi restaurants. Nowhere can you find a stable customerlike these days, when everyone wants to experiment with the latest. That iswhere a story of a Food Panda or aZomato becomes irrelevant to the lives of may be at least half the population.Street food, udipis, Iranis have been for long the sustaining forces of thisgreat city. Recently we heard the story of journalist Olga Tellis, who haslived all her live in Colaba without an active kitchen. Apparently she told ashocked Shoba De, her friend, “well no one would run...

10 August 2015 at 17:57 Public Friends Only Me Custom Close Friends Family See all lists... Freelance Writer Self-employed Mumbai, India Area Go Back                                                    Little bit of fusion Howto name it? I hardly attempt fusion,for I try to be just as close to the original recipe as possible. There aretimes I need to make adjustments for avoiding onion and garlic – last timeManjusha came up with a red pepper chutney I had to improvise it to make itinteresting and less sweet without them. Also, some compromises have been made tothe ideology of sticking to ‘glocal’. Since daughter wants some pasta andnoodles occasionally I have some cheese and olive oil in the kitchen now. So, broccoli,red and yellow bell peppers too find their way in these days. Had to rustle up a quick ‘brunch’ today from thelast night de...

13 April 2015 at 19:53 Public Friends Only Me Custom Close Friends Family See all lists... Freelance Writer Self-employed Mumbai, India Area Go Back Am I obsessed with food, no, I am not. But, why am I writing notes here mostly on food. Starting with my earliest note, the effort is to keep writing about some simple recipes which we tend to forget with time. Only last week was reading an article "Is broccoli to be blamed for California drought" - why should we run after some exotic stuff, pay a huge price in terms of our pocket as well as on environment. Quinoa one day, broccoli the other day, oats the wonder cure. This morning my friend here, Sulabhaji posted photos and medicinal properties of beal fruit or wood apple. I still have doubts whether the beal, wood apple she posted is the same as the one we call vilampazham. ...Some of them in her picture and while searching on google showed Vilampazham. Vilampazham pachchadi used to be an occassional affair whenever ...

COUNTRY SALAD 30 March 2015 at 20:02 Public Friends Only Me Custom Close Friends Family See all lists... Freelance Writer Self-employed Mumbai, India Area Go Back Crunchy, tangy country salad This may not be a taste everyone would like – I can’t go on like the television food show hosts who would say, kids would love it, even elders can have etc., As kids during summer vacations, sometimes when there was nothing to treat us with for evening snacks, the pori arisi would be made. I was chatting with my mother about something that has been forgotten. She recollected how it was a recipe made for travel either for long pilgrimages or for short festival tours. Traditionally it would mean dry roasting rice, moong dal, and channa dal definitely not in equal proportions, pounding them to power and mixing it with “naattu sakkarai” a powdery jaggery and ghee. Made into kind of laddoos these would last for days, weeks and to a month. I decided to make some changes and try ...

25 February 2015 at 21:31 Public Friends Only Me Custom Close Friends Family See all lists... Freelance Writer Self-employed Mumbai, India Area Go Back A spring recipe From the time I moved to this house sometime in 2006, the seasons have been sweeter. That is because of the variety of trees, plants and birds around. With rains came the guavas and the wonderful songbirds, bulbuls. When the mango trees start blooming the cuckoos get sharper with their calls. Coppersmith barbets herald summer. Have been feeling intoxicated the last two weeks with the heady smell of mango flowers from a house few doorsteps away. When I walked around yesterday felt so bad to see all the flowers on the floor getting muddied with the waters from all the cars washed around in the lane. Then, I remembered a friend telling me long ago about her great grandmother making chutney out of maampoo for her mother. Somehow, never bother to ask her for a recipe. Like veppampoo one has to spread a paper, c...

1 October 2014 at 15:30 Public Friends Only Me Custom Close Friends Family See all lists... Freelance Writer Self-employed Mumbai, India Area Go Back Despite my disclaimers, I get into trouble here. Nevertheless, this is just mid-day musings, nothing in support or against anyone, anything :) A few days ago Editors’ Guild apparently wrote a letter complaining lack of “access” with the new government. Did we ever officially seek “access”? One joined the profession as a rookie reporter, was pushed into Dalal Street – neither did I have any knowledge of stocks nor Gujarati. None of my editors asked, BSE, MSE, NSE, SEBI etc, to give us an access. Before the electronic security devices and punching cards, biometrics etc., one had the convenience of walking into any office, trying to meet mid-level officials, make contacts and that is how one survived. Till the time you turned up with a tricky story, bosses never asked about one’s sources and once in a way a guidance, a conta...

10 September 2014 at 16:45 Public Friends Only Me Custom Close Friends Family See all lists... Freelance Writer Self-employed Mumbai, India Area Go Back In the last two weeks, seen a couple of advertisements by the Bihar Tourism department asking faithfuls to perform rites to ancestors at Gaya during Pitrupaksha. Today, there was a big advertisement in Times of India about package tours to Gaya during this period. I cannot say if it is good or bad - the advertisements to visit Gaya for Pitrupaksha for doing pinda daan. Even during annual shradhams for the departed souls Gaya is mentioned, and the akshaya vatam there called out when pinda samarpan is made. So, Gaya and shradham are well known, Brahmins for generations have been going to Gaya from south India to perform the rituals. Legend has it that an asuran by name Gayasur attained salvation here at Vishnu's feet, and Vishnnupad in Gaya is where one goes to place the Pinda daans, apart from the Phalgu river an...

We had a long conversation in the morning about cooking without onions. But, for those who cannot do without them I wonder where has the art of making vadagams disappear. Personally, I used to hate the smell of it going to pan when my neighbours cooked in Arakkonam. For, that is where I had watched the annual ritual of vadgam making even as we made rice and javvarisi vadams (sabudana fryums) in summer. Maybe some friends here know the recipe for it. It used to be made of urad, channa dal, methi, chillies, and of course onions and garlic. It is not like a city, Arakkonam in 70s and 80s was I can say very "backward". Availability of vegetables and fruits were strictly seasonal. So, when the onions were in plenty and cheap, neighbours made vadgams. Forget onions, since that was not part of our menu. But, we bought cartloads of the best mullu kathirikkais (brinjal) we can get, sun dry them for a rainy day. Brinjals, bhendis, the humble gawar, all used to be avail...

19 June 2014 at 19:14 Public Friends Only Me Custom Close Friends Family See all lists... Freelance Writer Self-employed Mumbai, India Area Go Back I had to write this after reading all those tweets and posts about the new government's move to make all official communication in Hindi, with Tamil Nadu being an exception. A few days ago, I encountered a moment which a few hours later I thought was like a Murakami character. Loss of language, tongue, memory whatever it might be...not getting into a psycho analysis of that. Asian Paradise Flycatcher, what is it called in Hindi, sure I didn't know. But had to make daughter write about five Indian birds in Hindi, a difficult task because either I didn't know the words or my memory failed. Googling helped - figured out from one site that Asian Paradise Flycatcher the rufous one is called Husainin Bulbul or Shah Bulbul and the male white one Sultan Bulbul. Lovely names, should write in poetic terms I thought. For...

It has been 50 years since S.L.Bhyrappa’s ‘Vamsavriksha’ was published, The Hindu reminisced and a friend posted the write up on Facebook. She commented that while she recalled the time it was published and also controversy surrounding the book ‘Madhorubhagan’ by Perumal Murugan surprised the former didn’t meet the same amount of opposition. For both deal with Niyoga was her point. I had not read ‘Vamsavriksha’, and sadly got to know of an author called Bhyrappa only 10-years ago on a chance picking up an old and dusty copy of ‘Parva’ at the Sahitya Akademi exhibition in Mumbai. I was so taken by ‘Parva’ I went online to know more about the author and his books. Since then I have followed him and was so shaken when I read his ‘Avarana’ in Tamil translation couple of years ago. But, I vaguely remembered ‘Vamsavriksha’ from the Telugu movie, and couldn’t relate it to ‘Madhorubhagan’. My friend ofcourse stood her ground supporting it is all in perception. I have no objectio...

Caste  Sitting at Ethiraja Kalyana Mandapam waiting for Sanjay Subrahmanyam concert to begin, saw someone sitting infront of me read The Hindu article on the controversy over ‘Madhorubagan’. Asked for the paper from the person and quickly read it. Two days later at the Museum book shop saw this bright red coloured cover of  the book  - it was a small book and immediate inclination picked it up. Hectic travel followed it and the book travelled with me to Mumbai unread. Last afternoon after seeing the author’s reaction to threats and the overwhelming support of intelligentsia decided to leave other works aside and read it. As a student of literature and avid reader, over the years one has encountered all sorts of books ranging for serious adultery to free sex to whatnot. So, was not shocked or surprised to read this book which mainly deals with fertility issue and an open free sex day at a temple as a way to solve it. From the so called “animists” to Hindu Gods fert...