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Economically & Culturally significant Jaggery and Sesame

We might wonder about the small seeds present on the burger buns and what are they for? The small seeds are called sesame seeds and have a huge range of health benefits as well as significance in a very unique dish. Jaggery Roti (Gul Poli in Marathi) is a dish that’s made on the occasion of Holi and Bhogi (pre Makar-Sankranti). In my family this unique recipe is mastered by my grandmother and she is the one who makes them every year. Even now, at the age of 70, she makes the recipe with same enthusiasm as she used to make it in her 20s. This unique recipe was taught by her mother. She is been making these mouth-watering sweet rotis for more than 40 years.

Sesame has its own importance on the occasion of Holi and Bhogi as they both come during the onset and offset of winters and thus to neutralise the internal body heat, dishes consisting of sesame seeds and made like Sesame and Jaggery Ladoo as well as the Sesame Jaggery Roti which help in many other aspects like protein and calcium. Sesame being fibrous in nature is helpful in fat loss as well. The iron found in sesame can help prevent iron deficiency tied to anemia and boost low energy levels. And although copper deficiency isn’t as common, sesame seeds provide a good supplement of the copper needed per day to maintain nerve, bone and metabolic health.

Apart from the health benefits, sesame seeds and its oil have a cultural significance too. In Marathi language there is a quote which my grandmother narrated to me-

Tilache tel(sesame oil),

Kapsachi vaat(cotton thread in Diyas),

Diva jalo saari raat(let the Diya be lit all night).

As narrated by my grandmother, earlier there weren’t many options when it came to oils for cooking. Only sesame oil was available which was healthy as well as affordable. These days many of us use oil for cooking during the fast in India but in earlier times only ghee was used during Fasts to the make the food and thus it was expensive as well. But people gradually with their own logic also started using peanut oil for cooking as peanut as whole can be consumed during fasts so why cannot its oil be. Jaggery also had economical significance as it was used in place of sugar in earlier times as sugar being expensive was not affordable by many. So only a small portion of sugar was bought for the tea if any guests arrive and thus rest of the family members had tea made with jaggery as the sweetner.

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Banaras- A treasure for Food Lovers

We would have heard of God’s own country. But visiting God’s own hometown is another kind of experience. I am talking about Varanasi a.k.a Baranas. Visiting this culturally colourful city, though chaotic in the months of May or June may not be a good idea. But if one is fond of enormous delicacies of Chaat as well as sweets, then you’ll bare the heat and let your tummy enjoy the food. After roaming around the city, I can surely say that Banaras has its highest income from Chaat, Sarees and God.

Walking towards Dashashwamedh Ghat (the Ghat where the famous Ganga aarti takes place) you’ll find a crossroads where the entry for two wheelers is restricted and one cannot even imagine driving a four wheeler in the main market area. The only mode of transportation there is the manually driven rickshaw which brush passes each and every pedestrian walking on the street. Walking across the busy street and looking around for delicious chaat and beautiful sarees, you are likely to be gazed upon if you’ve worn western outfit such a ripped jeans and t-shirt. I don’t know about us but it may be new for them to look around.

One of the most astonishing places for shopping that I discovered was Suvidha Saree. This brand from the outside would seem as if it’s a 10x10 shop. But once you enter the corridor, you will be shocked to see a huge showroom of all kinds of Indian clothing ranging from Banarasi Saree, Lengaas, Dresses and what not. Colourful and pretty are the only two words that would come to your mind by looking towards the collection. If you walk further towards the Dashashwamedh Ghat, you’ll come across mouth watering stalls of Lassi filled with Malai (butter in hindi) and hot tea being served. Just after filling your stomach with cool and refreshing Lassi, walking down the stairs of the Dashashwamedh Ghat, you’ll find four platforms where in the Ganga Aarti is performed. And as I say, it is actually performed by four devotees wearing the same clothing and performing the aarti in sync. The scene is perfect for photographers to capture the traditions and cultural practices of the city.

If you are early bird, then I insist on going for a boat ride across the Ghats at around 5 in the morning when you can see the serene sunset and enjoy the peaceful environment before the city awkes. Breakfast in Banaras is not a difficult task to figure out; as there is the famous Aloo Puri (Deep fried flour bread along with spiced potato gravy) which is enough to fill your empty stomach, early in the day. And all the people with a sweet tooth are requested to at least visit Pizzeria Vaatika Café which serves delicious Apple Pies and Pizzas. The layering and crust along with the filling of caramelised apples is just non-resistible. The apple pie is also served with ice-cream which turns out to be a great combination with the hot pies.

This city turns out to be a treasure for food lovers and also for devotees of Ganga river. But it is suggested to visit Banaras in the moths of October to December during which you can find comfortable weather to travel.

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Hunger, a state of where a person scatters from inside!

Hunger should never ever hit anyone in terms food. I would just make you aware of the very touching incidents that I saw with my own eyes till now.

A child becomes so much mature enough that he understands the terrible conditions of home.  The mid – day meals provided in all the government schools is a meal for whole family sometimes.  I visited a government school in the old city where the afternoon mid – day meal had just arrived.  All the school students had a hope of having their stomachs full that day.  After sometime, I noticed a boy packing the lunch provided to him and putting it in his bag.  I asked him, why did he do so? His reply brought me into a sea of tears.  He said that the lunch was for his parents at home who have lost their jobs from a construction site.  No child should be in such a terrible condition for god sake. His innocence was snatched away from him, the day he started thinking about his family member at a very small age.

Other and more disturbing incident that I saw was at a garbage dump where the leftover food of a marriage function was just thrown away.  A lady, mentally disturbed and hit by a hard hunger started filling her stomach digging herself into the garbage pit of wasted food.  The speed at which she was gulping the food can describe her stomach’s hunger at that point of time.

The amount of food wasted in the weddings and other functions is equal to a school’s mid – day meal.  So make food as well as eat food wisely and according to the need so that a child would not have to search in for left over in a trash can.

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Adoption, why still facing a state of denial by Couples?

Parents who have a problem physically and could not conceive a child often sit saddened watching other parents with their babies.

But there’s always a life waiting for you at an orphanage to brighten your sad face and in turn you being a light of hope in that not so fortunate child.  And adoption should be done only if the parents are ready to love the child as their own blood and not making him/her realize that they were adopted.  If so is the case than do not hurt a child’s feelings who has already being hurt by their own parents.  Exchange of feelings with the cause of time will eventuality make you a family altogether.  And the parents should never keep that orthodox thinking India i.e. “Akhir Apna Khoon to Apna Khoon Hota Hai”.

Parents who are planning for a second child can also adopt a child.  If your ego in the society allows you do so, please go ahead of it same as you take care of your first child.  Revealing this fact of adoption to the first child is also not a good idea for future. I know all you can conceive a baby biologically, no doubt in that but instead, please give a life to the one who has already stepped into this world.  And talking of future behavior which generally parents adopting a child have an ideology in their mind that the child would have the same induced character as his real parents.  But the process of building up a human being is in the hands of the person who brings up an infant.

And if the society is the matter of concern that always tends you to take a step backward while climbing the stairs of an orphanage, then in that case the parents should literally ignore the comments and remarks made by the society.

So go ahead and adopt a life to make your life brighter & happier.

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Travelling, a journey within ourselves.

Travelling involves a person’s mind, soul and body altogether combined for a person’s satisfaction.  Travelling alone or with a person makes it more interesting and fulfilling.  One shouldn’t be travelling with a person whom he/she doesn’t like or is not comfortable with.  Travelling alone makes a person explore within himself about what he likes, what he dislikes as well as what changes should be bring in his day to day life. Alone going to places also makes a person self – independent and teaches him new experiences of life.  

Travelling with a partner make both of them explore each other and makes them understand more in deep.  Selfishness is something that gets eradicated while travelling with a partner.  You learn to listen to others as well.  Exploration and introspection are the only two things that we do while travelling. One may find a place where he/she would love to spend the rest of the life after retirement.  One may even get to know about a person you comfortable with, who is your travel partner.  I suggest that before marrying someone, one should go on unplanned trip where things could not be planned as well as would not work according to us which would in turn make the two person get to know each other and how they would tackle the obstacles in future together.

Travelling is like diving into a deep sea for corals and reef same as diving deep into your selves for a good life ahead.

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A girl is a Human Being my friend, not an object.

I don’t know why but since ages passed away, still we don’t respect our female counterparts.  And those are respecting them are appreciated by the females but laughed by the stupid males.

Females are taken for granted that they would just tolerate or accept whatever is said or acted towards them.  But no my friend that not the case at all.   Deep down they know everything, whatever the truth is, they get to know everything and are also hurt deep inside which would make you degrade yourself in her mind.  But as we just keep on repeating the same mistakes.  Female is such a creation of nature that is just like a coconut if compared with something.  Hard from outside, soft from inside.  And if a person is successful in breaking that hardshell and cherishing the softness inside, then he is the most perfect man whom a girl can dream of or in other words, “Dream Boy”.  Though that’s true in a positive manner.  As a dog is the most loyal partner we could have in the world.  A dog would never get detached emotionally from human beings even if they ignore them.  A dog would read a humans mind when he/she is sad.  Same is with girls.  They would never leave your hand if loyalty and kindness is given in return to them. So next time think twice before abusing a female, because it is complimenting her in turn and just making you a worse man a woman could think of.

Why is it so that a female is just seen through lusty eyes these days?  If you just want to have sexual intercourse with her, then my friend you should go out in the market and buy yourself a sex doll because as your consider females an object so be it so.  No need to let her waste her emotions and feelings on your disgusting character.

A girl should stay single forever rather than spending time or wasting time with a person with cheap thinking and disgusting low character who doesn’t deserve a place in society.

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Show off. Is it really necessary?

The word itself portrays a negative impression. So why many of us want to create this type of negative impressions by making people look below us.  Showing off in my words would be making people notice your belongings purposefully in order to degrade them for the sake of revenge or entity.

 Here negativity is accompanied by the grudge feeling sometime or many actives make a fake of the person.  Uneducated people who get very much more than they deserve generally leads a person to show off.  A well – educated person, wealthy or not doesn’t matter but would never show off his/her belongings because they know that after how much hardships, they have got to this position.

 But at the time, we see the children of this wealthy or educated people who just flaunt the branded clothes, luxurious cars, phones, which they have not even earned themselves.  The amount of ego in these kids eventually leads them to do nothing in life ahead but to just spend their father’s wealth.  They tend to put the photos of their father’s wealth and how they are enjoying it which in turn provokes and invokes the same feeling of showing off in the other children who either have some or lesser wealth and luxuries of their own father’s.  The ratio of girls and boys flaunting their father’s wealth is equal in this care.

 This makes the child intolerant towards every small things that we face every day.  For e.g. the level of ego in a boy can be this much that if he goes to a party and if all friends do not greet him even if some of that doesn’t wish so, his ego gets  hurt. But you spoilt brat, what have you achieved in your life that everyone needs to greet you compulsorily.  The way of talking also changes in their children. Their tone is now never in a kind or humble manner.  The negative attitude simply can be seen in their tone.

 But if you look at the Royal families who have a lot more than the wealth of these flaunting people, live a simple life, because they know the value of it.  If you see a princess in India, she would be wearing a silk saree with just her “Mangalsutra” and the Prince wearing simple shirt and trouser, nothing else.  On the contrary, these ladies who have much less than the royal families flaunt their jewellery as if they only have it.  But my friend these Royal families have so much amount of jewellery with them that if they wear it all, they would not even be able to stand up.

In conclusion, be grounded and down to earth even if you after own the earth.

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Teenager’s Life in a Slum Area

The teenager phase i.e. from 13 to 19 years of is a phase where a parent in a slum area leaves his child free to do anything without even keeping the track on their children.  A boy in a slum area tends to either go on a wrong track which could devastate his life or he goes on doing hardships and progresses ahead in life.  The atmosphere around them is very filthy in terms of people also.  People tend to ask or provoke these children to steal money or things from their house due to their poor condition.  Majority of the waiters working in Hotels, restaurants and bars come from these slums who really wish to     work hard and progress in life.  We as the customers there should understand that these boys have a disturbing atmosphere at their home which may sometimes disturb them at work as well.  But we as spoilt brats do not understand their moral situation and we start screaming and abusing them.  Mistakes do not happen intentionally.  If a drink, dish or serving falls on you or somewhere else, we should not shout at them. They work in the restaurants due to poor financial conditions at home.  If they had a interest of working in hotels, they would have gained knowledge from hotel management classes.  But that’s not there. All they need to work for whole day is to not to sleep empty stomach at the end of the day.  They are not your slaves; they are there just to help you fill your stomachs.  So why you could not co operate if something happens while they are working hard to fill their already emptied stomach.

And there are some spoilt brats who just puff up cigarattes, drink liquor and just chit-chat with their collegues of same attitude towards life.

But in the case of a girl, freedom is still restricted.  Adults as well as boys of their age stare at these girls with eyes full of lust which makes them prone to rape, harassment, eve teasing and many more disgusting acts. The spoilt brats of slums are just looking for a girl who would come into their trap of so called “Love” and they would use them.

So if it is a girl or a boy, filthy atmosphere is always surrounding them trying to chop their wings off.

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Peace at Home, Peace at World

One feeling that every human being craves for is peace.  Peace in this context is not the peace that all the politicians shout for.  But unfortunately peace is not at all present anywhere around the world. From the very childhood, a child’s development depends on how much peace is the child brought up with.  A child doesn’t want his/her parents fighting over some issue or their family staying disturbed all over the day.  The environment that a child is brought up with is the kind of nature that he/her imbibes in it.  No matter how a qualified counsellor would counsel that child’s disturbed mind, nothing would help him/her unless and until their environment at home is calm and composed.  The way of living i.e. lavish or simple doesn’t matter in this case.  A child living in a 2 acre villa would be disturbed over a family issue but on the contrary a child living in a 2 bhk flat would live happily his life if the environment is composed.

 This behaviour of family is always inheriting. There can be two sides of a disturbed child’s mind.  While growing up to be an adult, that mind would either inherit the same harsh behaviour of his family members which unfortunately would result in domestic violence.  And please note that domestic violence doesn’t always mean a man hitting his wife, the scene can be the opposite too.  And the other side of a disturbed child’s mind would fortunately teach him lessons at a very early age about how to live a peaceful life.  Then this child would definitely grow to be the best husband, father and a family member because he would learn from the harsh situations that he had faced during his childhood and not repeats the mistakes.  But the ratio of conversion into a good human being is very less.

This is the very reason that we don’t have peace in world.  Terrorism comes from bad bringing up of children.  The feeling of revenge emerges out from these minds that didn’t had peaceful environment during childhood.

But unfortunately, we find peace only after we die, i.e. Resting in Peace.

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Journey of Emotions: Letters to Emoticons

Communication has been the best through writing form from many centuries. Talking about letters, where a person would take out some time specially to write a letter to that special person, be if father, mother, sister, brother, girlfriend, wife, etc. It is observed that writing something down with pen and paper is much more indulging and interesting to the writer as well as the reader.

 A person would let his/ her all emotions flow on the paper through his/her pen and write a letter to someone.  He would be transparent as well as open – minded while writing a letter or sometimes even cry out along with the flow of emotions. Then he would carefully fold and post that letter to the beloved ones and wait for their reply.  Patience was the most important thing that letters taught us during their days.  At that time a postman was considered and treated like a son-in-law of the house. He was the person who would travel with hopes in his cloth bag.  Sometimes the hopes were absent for some people.  The letter received by the recipient was opened up and read with both shinny and happy eyes or with eyes full of flowing tears.  People at that time were valuing the feelings and emotions of the other person who has written the letters.  People knew as well as understood each other completely without being judgemental.

  But unfortunately the scenario has completely changed now. People have become restless in terms of communication.  Understanding of the emotions and feeling have become extinct in today’s world. And patience is endangered these days. People tend to write short forms of every word.  And the most important thing that spoiled this who scenario are the emojis.  They are the culprit of spoiling each and every one today.  If a message is sent with a happy emoji.  Then the person on the other side of the conversation would definitely interpret on his own way and the fight would start.  The intellectual thinking about the emotions and feelings have been lost somewhere.  People have a tendency to consider themselves the most important person in the life of the person on the other end of the conversation so it leads to a person becoming impatient about why the other person has not read my message, is he/she ignoring me or something.  Chill men, people have work to do.  The journey of emotion has been form heaven to hell now.  “The difference between technology and slavery is that slaves are fully aware that they are not free. “said Nassin Nicolas Taleb”.

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Big Fat Indian Wedding. Really?

The word “Big Fat Indian Wedding” itself describes how huge this event would be in terms of money and scale.  Families who are wealthy enough to conduct a Big Fat Indian Wedding spend crores of rupees for a 4 days event that would last or not is not even sure.  Youth these days are not even sure about their careers, then how could they be sure about their worth of this whole ton of expenditure that their parents do, not even the child is bothered about how much the expenditure would be.

The son / daughter who is getting married is blindly putting their demands in front of their parents without even analizing their parents condition, financially.  These spoilt brats should understand that the money that they are making their parents spend is of no use.  They would not even think of marrying someone, if this whole bunch of expenditure is imposed on themselves.  Then we would see how many useless demands do they fulfill for themselves from their own pockets.

We think that celebrating our big day on a “big” scale would uplift our social status.  But we are mistaken, none of the realtives and friends bother about how the event was, offer a few days of celebration.  But that’s still not the worse case we could think of.  Some relatives who we have invited to witness the wedding ceremony, they try to bring out the voids in the preparations and talking this throughout the wedding.

But please think of that helpless man sitting outside a temple or the old people whose children have left them in the oldage homes.  People would attend your wedding, wipe their hands on their asses and go away.  But if the love of spending is shifted towards making the helpless, homeless people happy, then there would be no bigger person to give you blessings in the world.

Celebration should be there of our big day but I suggest that unnecessary spending is not at all worth.  The dress that the bride wears during the wedding costs around 5 to 6 lakhs.  Just imagine, people are spending this amount of money on a piece of cloth which they are never gonna wear once again in their life.  Instead of this we should but clothes for those people who need to feel proud by wearing torn clothes.  Their holes in clothes should be observed and brought out.

At last, if the marriage is all about two rings exchanged in the court room with marriage certificate then one should do so if it feeds your unnecessary ego.

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Fuel is a resource for transportation not for wasting it for Adventure and Thrill sports.

The journey of vehicles especially motorized vehicles from bikes and cars for transportation for adventure and thrill. Showing off to anyone except his own soul for pleasure.  A person should now realize that we should do a more favour to planet Earth on whom our residence is.  “Charity begins from home”.  We have forgot this motion I think.  We should first help our home, planet earth so that it stays in a condition on which humans can live.  

Contestation of these driving skills on track is considered as a sport.  But is it worth considering ? This idiotic act of ours would just result in empty oil fields transportation.

The fuel used during these races is of aviation quality which is considered most pure form of fuel consumed by all the F1 cars in one year is 2,65,813 litres.  Just F1 cars collective fuel consumption is 0.0000050898% of the total oil consumption of the world.  There are total 19 races in one season with 11 teams and 2 cars of each teams.  Each car averages around 75 litres per 100 km of drive.  300 km to 310 km drive happens during one race by one car.  So multiplying 310 x 19 = 5890 km per car in one season.  So 22 cars x 5890 km =  1,29,580 km of drive collectively consume 97,185 litres of fuel for 19 races.

 That was not enough.  Now the laps they run during practice and qualifying sessions. 75 – 80 laps are driven by each car during three practive sessions and three qualifying sessions.  The average circuit length is 5.23 km.  Thus, 80 x 5.23 = 418.4 km per car per race.  For 22 cars and 19 races, this becomes 418.4 x 19 x 22 = 1,74,891 km. The cars consume 1,31,168 litres during the practice and qualifying sessions.

 We as citizens of the world are spreading the word of saving fuel and on the other hand these adventure freaks are burning fuel without even thinking about the earth for once.

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Uttrayan – A different Perspective

The festival of uttrayan though celebrated at the very commencement of the new year, but is the first and last festival of the year that is “organic” in nature.  Just have thought and think over it.  The traditional way of celebrating uttrayan that includes just kite flying is organic, excluding Chinese threads.  The kites are made up of paper and wooden sticks while the threads are prepared using all the natural ingredients coated on the cotton threads. Even the sharpness of the thread is required using glass powder.

But now this “organic” festival has included the rituals of sending gas balloons made in china, out in the air to higher the risk of fire breaking out.

Uttrayan has also included the celebration process of bursting fire crackers.  People around Gujarat, especially in Vadodara burst a ton of crackers.  This amount of crackers are not even bursted in the Diwali festival itself.  But uttrayan, teaches a person the most important reason of life i.e. forgiveness. The act of disconnecting other persons kite with ours teaches a person to take of bit of revenge as well as take it in a fun and light – hearted manner.  And the person whose kite got disconnected from him inhibits the feeling of forgiveness.

Concentration is the another factor that kite flying teaches a human being from the very initial stage till the kite being cut or you cutting someone’s kite, a person is in his tate of full concentration which our youth needs the most.

But some children’s safe is not to celebrate uttrayan on terrace but being on the grounds, collecting the fallen kites, risking their lives and selling them to earn some money. The hope of earning for a living for underpriviledged children comes in the form of kites during uttrayan.  Something should be done for these kids and their families as they could also celebrate this “organic” festival as we do instead of we spending a ton of money on those polluting fire crackers and Chinese balloons.