Cuisine and Its Commercialisation: Indian Raita

Picture taken at ICA--Swedish Walmart...

Raita: Simply a yogurt dish.  Yogurt/milk curd base-made with common spices found in any Indian kitchen and fruits and vegetables.  Mostly vegetables.  The most common one is made with grated cucumber and yogurt.  Add salt, roasted ground cumin, a little amachur (dried mango powder) and top it with fresh coriander leaves.  Simple.

YOU DO NOT NEED TO BUY A PACKET--which in my opinion ultimately tastes bland and stale.  And produces much garbage because of its packaging.  And imagine how many other similar things that are 

Go natural, go simple.  Here are a few recipes for Raita...make it at home, experiment with different spices, create your own version.  DO NOT BUY THESE PRE-MADE PACKETS....They bring no creativity to the kitchen.  The greatest thing about Indian cooking is 'anumaan' --an idea, an estimate.  Unlike western cooking, Indian cooking never relies on 'exact' because, nothing in life is exact...experiment learn and create your own family recipes....and yes, in that follow tradition too. Something created just for the market or just to be innovative are really not good for you. E.g. Tumeric Latte, as sold by Starbucks.  We grew up drinking that --especially in winters.  It should be had in a certain season, cooked with black pepper (which gives a taste that is not for everyone)----don't just copy any old eating habit and absorb it without understanding that foods created for one region may not be the best in another region.  E.g. Mediterranean cooking, hailed for hits light-weight recipes and low calories --is  best for coastal climate...Not recommended for temperate!!  

Here is the recipe.....  I would drop the powdered coriander---just and make sure to roast the cumin before grinding it.  Do not use cumin seeds.  Also, let it stand at least a half hour before serving, so that spices have the time to soften and blend--better for flavour.  This is the simplest and the most common one.  Here is another one, but you have to buy the boondi (fried and crisp, chickpea flour batter)--or make it--and this is the second most common one. Others such as onion raita etc. that are popularised and sometimes sold at Indian restaurants are not that popular...often times onion and milk products are not mixed.  Traditionally, it is not respected. Milk is considered a complete food and even divine food (sorry vegans, more on that later)

Try it and then share your experiences!! 

Discovery

I love this word. Discovery.  Finding something that always existed, just that you did not know or did not pay attention.  But then viola--discovery!!

So last year we had a german girl staying with me for a short time and she pointed at a tree near by and said, that is a Hazelnut tree.  

No way, I said. 

'Yes, it is, my mother has it in her yard and I cannot miss it'.  

Later I found out that it was TrollHassell, meaning a tree from the same hazelnut family (I think), but ornamental.  It does not bear fruit. Technically, it bears flowers, but I have never seen them.  

And then recently, as I had to cut out a few outgrown shrubs, I found these tiny berries on a plant that was not visible before. It had been growing under the shrubs that had grown unruly.  

These are delicious blackberries....not blue, but blackberries....

There were only these many, maybe the others died out. Maybe there was no room to grow so they remain stunted.  But then...today, they get my smiles and they smile back at me.  For now they have been found. 

But Ah, the discovery.....the DISCOVERY and a gratitude for our abundant universe...

A New Tulip Capital

Guys, will delete this post soon, coz I am starting to think I should have only those pictures that I talke featured on this site. But wanted to share, that soon India will be the new tulip capital...

Art of Love and Grocery Stores

“For one human being to love another; that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.--Rilke

I saved these following pages for a while--mainly with the idea of writing a post.  Threw them out a few months ago, after I took these pics. 

This was distributed a bit before valentine's day some years back.  Imagine walking into your regular grocery store and they hand you these pages with a survey.  

What is it for?  You ask,

Oh, if you like someone and want to talk to them, here are a few questions ----that you can ask them to get to know them better. Imagine how lucrative it can be for grocery stores ---if they become dating hubs? 

Seriously? At a grocery store?  That reminded me of aa joke from Seinfeld.  Seinfeld says, 'My grandfather often says, you need to people in their natural environment where they are doing regular things, rather than create formal, artificial dates."

Sure says-- Seinfeld 'I have often wondered how would it be to meet someone in a grocery store and ask them' he extends his arms 'would you like to dance"

Movements and Purpose: Peace and Clarity

Holding petals of cherry blossoms, as a sign of hope, even when they fall on the ground. 

Year 2020 has been really strange. I have some of my own stuff going on. Hope to ride it through.  I am still grateful for much good in my life. 

While I am really disturbed by what is going on in the US---and all the anger was justified, I am not sure, if all the violence is ---or if it is/will be useful. 

Gandhi, who inspired Martin Luther King said, 'An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind'.

What would be the result of this?  They toppled George Washington's statue over this weekend.  Geogre Washington and the Cherry Tree is how I first learnt about him, in fourth grade.  Doesn't matter if the story was true, it was about telling the truth.

Before I go too far, I will say that India's independence movement though heavily influenced by Gandhi's non-violence strategies, was along side accompanied by and did require violence and killing and burning (not looting)--so I am not ignoring the fact that sometimes all this becomes a need for change. 

Now, back to violence. Is removing Jefferson, who I read in relation to journalism (the most famous quote, if I were to choose between newspapers without a government or government without newspapers, I would choose the former--) who definitely owned slaves, as it became public in the late 1990s, where some African origin people were cousins to caucasian people--going to help? They did horrible stuff, surely.  I also feel that way about many British and Mughal kings, who have been honoured in Indian history. Both were colonisers, with a God complex of civilising peoples. Sometimes I think and wonder why Hindus let their kindness turn into stupidity of believing people without a culture, without an understanding of the delicate relationship between man and nature that Hindus (also Native Americans) naturally live by...

But as they say, 'Vinaash kale, Vipreet buddhi'.  When time is not in your favour, you make bad decisions. 

But what I still ask is....what about the Native Americans?  The only reason today BLM is ongoing is because there IS an African population that is spread around the country. But Native American population is small and limited to the reservations. 

And do the protestors have a solution?  What will come after this?  Is there a a solution that is proposed?  That is my issue with anarchy.  Civil rights demanded right to vote and access to public facilities.  There was a clear demand and a very peaceful, concentrated effort.  No looting, as far as I know.  

Think Occupy movements.  At the time it was going on in the US, there was a similar movement in India.  It was not called that though. It was called anti-corruption movement.  And at the end of a year, there was a new political party, with household broom as its symbol, implying cleaning of the political system. It called itself, the common man party.  Ok, with all its idealises, which impressed even me, they have not really fared v. well. Although in 2014, they won by landslide and started some 'socialist projects' thereafter.  They are already struggling now.  But the point is that --it was not a violent movement, and had a goal in mind (albeit funded by outside India forces to rupture its fabric.).  But non-violence won them votes. 

How about violent protests? Or associated violence? 

Will these violent protests result in fear in the white population where they will not say anything even when they are right?  Just like it was before for the African origin people?  Will it move more people to buy guns?  Will it create a more fearful society?

I am not sure if this will lead to love and trust.  That is something that has to be built over the years.  I know and understand that there was systematic racism.  

No question about it.

But what no one is willing ot talk about is, the breakdown of family which lead to all this. Families created ways of supporting each other, businesses and communities.  Now we have individuals relying on the state.  Single mothers, and even single fathers.  Children being raised by grandmothers because parents are either jailed (yes, quite often wrongly) or on drugs, or not responsible.  Imagine the collective frustration that it leads to?

But I am worried about the young, I fear for the ones who have lost family members in these riots.  While it is true that African slaves laid the foundation for America and Native Americans were the ones who tended their own land---would looting those who worked real hard for generations and never owned a slave work?  How does that work out?  How many businesses owned by blacks and many immigrants have been destroyed in this? 

I believe in Karma --but not over one lifetime --over many lifetimes--so things even out.  Balance out.  It does get balanced out, even if we are not aware of it. 

I have stopped watching the news. Actually, it happened a long time ago. I used to be addicted to news.  Especially when I was teaching international communication.  I have no background in Political science or international relations.  By immersing myself in books and commentaries both NPR and BBC, I learnt much about the world.  I took advantage of all the free audios and CDs that these channels gave away for educational purpose.

But when I left the US, timings and locations changed.  Mind set changes.  It becomes hard to keep up. Now I know v. little about the US.   Even Sweden.  Because news bothers me.  I keep away.  In fact, I have stopped going to FaceBook.  And only visit twitter, and that too sporadically.

But I have been affected by seeing so much destruction in the US.  I did not get along/agree with the culture of the country.  But now --years later, I realise that the actual reason is that I am allergic to many concepts of modernity that go with 'anything goes'.  There was no sense of discipline or self-control in the body, mind and language.  

India, influenced by the west is trying to go the same route.  On twitter I find many interesting young people who are challenging it --just as a many young people who want to belong mentally and culturally to the west.  There are young women who have disassociated the shame linked to drinking and living together culture.  Then there are those --both men and women, who believe that early marriage and joint families are the best ways to keep a society together.   I agree with the latter, and I say that because of having travelled the world. 

But having said that (and I will come back to that later) I must say that US is an absolutely beautiful country.  Wide and vast.  If not culturally, the US is at least climatically v. diverse (although India beats it and we will talk about it somewhere else, India has about 15-16 climate zones, that is how diverse it is).  Culturally, the US is pretty uniform thanks to the corporate and big business culture, the same stores everywhere, the same ways of dressing, the same pizza and chicken nuggets.  From food to language to ways of dressing, except where extreme differences in climate warrant a different outfit. 

But climatically--geographically US provides a great diversity and is absolutely beautiful.  When I watch its old movies (I was addicted to AMC--American Movies Classic in the US) I longed for the old 'community' that existed in the US at some point.  And realised that the community that faded post 60s.  Then came civil rights, one of the greatest achievements for the US.  But where are the Native Americans?  In my decade and a half stay in the US, one hardly met, saw, interacted with Native Americans (wrongly called Red Indians, because obviously Europeans had little sense of direction --Ha, Ha...but all jokes apart, it is said that when all the continents were one, some Native American tribes might have migrated from Indian plains.  The high cheek bones are certainly reflective.  Won't go into detail here, it needs much research).  

Another question, do the African Americans realise that the Christianity and Jesus they swear by also came to them via colonisation, a violent form of forced beliefs?  Read 'Being Different: An Indian Challenge to Western Universalisation' by Shri Rajiv Malhotra. Where he challenges this whole belief propagated by Christianity that Jesus died for ALL of humanity, ALL of humanity is born with original sin, and ALL of humanity needs to be redeemed, and that redemption can only come through the Church. Oh and Btw, Jesus was blonde and all that.  I never understood why no one questioned that? It made sense in India, where our Gods are coloured in all sorts of colors, white, and black and green and blue---colors are just their qualities.  Btw, blue and green ---my most favourite colors because blue and green are the most common colors in nature. 

So the real question in the heat of this 'movement' is....will Caucasian people be fine with bowing to a Jesus that looks physically similar to Bin Laden or Hussain?  And notice, I just mean physical similarity.  Haven't we--by lying about the way Jesus may have looked, switched the concept of purity, love and goodness to one race? Now, to the media.  Denzel Washington is an actor par excellence --I have not seen 'Hurricane' but understand he gave a stellar performance.  However, he got an Oscar for 'Training Day' where he plays a corrupt cop.  Halle Berry, the African cinderella -got an Oscar for a similarly negative movie.  When they are remembered for roles where African Americans are not shown in good light--what impressions do we get of different races? It was obvious when in the 70s and 80s--BET-Black Entertainment Television created a niche for stories of black people, -acted in, written by and directed by black people.  Good.  But guess what, it also undermined the integration, assimilation effort.  Now there were different television channels, just like different churches. 

Music in african and caucasian churches was different too.  An entirely different culture.  No intention of meeting or merging.  Not saying that merging and assimilation also equal differences.  There needs to be a respect for the difference.  If one culture favours large and joint families then another culture should not impose a small nuclear family style of life.  Nuclear families ---in the long run, end up being one-child families, which is the most vulnerable a person can be to the state.  All over the world, the focus on women working and reduction in the size of the family --has also seen a rise in broken families and increased social chaos.  Family, family, family.  Not a solution only when it is not supportive (needs another long post)

And as African Americans embraced Christianity they forget their own sacred symbols (of which family was an important one).  That has been the project of Christianity to begin with.  If I had not travelled and lived in every continent, I would not have been able to say this with conviction. Islam did the same, but with different intensity. It used language and repetition of prayers and phrases.  Because image was 'haram' (illicit). Family is important because that is the best way of increasing the number of followers.  So, it did not need to dismantle the old ways. 

Monotheistic ways in general did not honour local cultures.  Sacredness of each culture was disconnected from the people and their daily existence.  And the people converted weere asked to believe in the concept of divine which had nothing to do with them as a people, their surroundings, their rituals and traditions.  Slowly, civilisations, ways of interacting with nature and understanding ourselves in context of our environment died out. 

And lets not forget that goes for Caucasian people, even though they have forgotten how Christianity came to them.  With the same violence and manipulation.  Caucasians were --Celts and Vikings, their Gods similar to Greek and Hindu pantheons. 

What got lost in this process was sacredness of the land itself.  Now sacred is just Jerusalem or Mecca.  Not the Americas.  In Mexico the sacred sites that are considered Christian today,-- are actually original sacred sites of the natives. 

Recently found out that Mount Rushmore was carved at a sacred site of Native Americans.
Yes, the great American icon that the world know Hollywood by, was a sacred site of Native Americans.  Not very different from making Churches at the desecrated sites of Pagan temples.  Reminds me of numerous Mosques made in India over ancient Hindu temples.  Another strategy for Muslim invaders was to disfigure Murthis (images and carvings of Gods, --DO NOT CALL THEM STATUES OR IDOLS, ENGLISH HAS NO WORD FOR MURTHIS..murthis are embodiments of energies of the Gods, and temples are not places of worship, by Houses of Gods, meaning the Deities reside there.  We live by their rules and use the space by those rules). Islamic invaders disfigured the Murthis, because they knew that those cannot be worshipped. Either a new murthi has to be installed or the temple abandoned.  The idea was to kill Hinduism and Hindu practices.  Not different from what Christianity did to the world.  This idea that anything that was not Christian was sinful and illegitimate. And then the connection of Christianity with whiteness. 

My travels revealed so much to me.  It became hard to ignore inconsistencies in this thought process. 

In comparison, Hindu belief is that ALL OF THE WORLD IS DIVINE, including the not so good parts of it.  ALL OF US ARE GOD POTENTIAL, we behave differently so long as our minds are covered in ignorance and we are unaware of our truth. And hence the focus on Yoga, Meditation, vegetarianism so that we keep our bodies light, to raise our vibration at higher level.  The process is so subtle that it may take lifetimes to perfect.  This world is our Karma-Bhoomi---the field where we act--our grounds for research, practice and improvement.  Higher souls come, at their own will.  But most of us are earth bound.  Then there are other planets and galaxies.  Ofcourse, our technology is not advanced enough to understand or see all kinds of life.  All beings do not look like us, nor are they made of the same material.  On some planets beings may be made of 🔥 Fire---or other elements (according to hinduism--we have five-paanch tattva-elements in us: Fire, water, earth, ether/space and metal).  Different planets will require different elements or levels of combinations for existence.

PS: a detour--look at a Havan (fire) ritual in Africa.  Definitely Hinduism, but it is closer to  nature based religions that Africans practiced.  Hinduism provides books and reasons and science behind it--(Hinduism is both oral and written tradition)--click the link to view. 

So, do African Americans realise that their ancestors had different beliefs than Christian beliefs and that they were made to feel 'shame' for believing in nature and natural forces? 

Will this movement also be beneficial for Native Americans?  Do the Native lives matter too?  

Please listen to Michael Holding and Thomas Sowell who are both of 'African origin' and suggest that this movement needs a deeper closer look....

PS: This is a terrible video, but in haste this is the only one I can find right now. All the money comes from Churches in US, UK, Australia and even Scandinavia--who are hell bent on converting a nation like India.  To their disappointment, Indians return to dharma--that which supports.  Hinduism and faith in nature and energy and the idea that we are all are divine, rather than being sinners. (what a sad concept :()

Some of these questions that have been coming to mind.  So, news bothers me much.  I have stopped watching or reading the news.  I hope peace prevails.  I hope there is true reconciliation.  After civil rights, the country still remained divided.  I remember asking my African American friends about it.  

'At some point, we just become different, our music, our hobbies, our interests' she had said, 'and we drift apart'.

I always ask myself, about India, how did it work there? I grew up in Delhi and most of my friends were like me. But I did have friends who were from different parts of the country --meaning they spoke another language at home, their food was different etc.  But there was a connection that brought us together as Indians.  I did not see that between white and black Americans   It was as if their history was different, and their language might have been different as well.  Their churches certainly were.

But in all this, I think media has played a big role.  They focussed so much on divisions, and now that they have divided, they then highlight differences. 

More than interracial marriages --there is a need for --a real need for inter-racial friendships.  Friendships are a gateway to change.  They initiate interactions, understanding, cultural exchange, learning, and may eventually lead ot inter-racial families.  But that process is important rather than only focussing on inter-racial marriages.

On my end, it is different. I DON'T HAVE A RACE.  I have a culture, a civilisation in me.  I never thought of myself as having a race.  Nor do I think there was ever any racial discrimination against me.  But then, it might be, because I don't define myself by race, so I do not notice anything.  I did notice lack of friendships between Blacks and White (detest using these terms, for me it is African-American and Caucasian Americans).  

I speak on another level, on a discrimination that is so wide-spread and has been absorbed so much that it is touted as a reality and no one questions it.  That is that 'pagan religions are demonic'.  That being in communion with nature and natural forces, that to honour them is against 'God'.  That Jesus or Allah are the only truth.  

I wonder if BLM movement is wise enough or big enough to question institutions that have propounded that belief so much so that people think Hinduism and religions that do not follow the 'monotheistic-abrahamic-way' is not just derogatory but a sign of cultural illiteracy and spiritual shortsightedness? 

Things to think about.  I hope and pray Peace Prevails. I hope people chart out a goal a plan for what they want out of this.  I hope they address that looting is not a solution.  And more specifically, in this environment we do not know who all were paid to those, who did it as a 'mob mentality' and who just want to misdirect the movement.

Right now its all Chaotic, and things and concepts are murky.   

Without the clarity that the civil rights movement had, we might not have a plan after this destruction.

And that concerns me.  

Once again, I pray for Peace, and Clarity. 

Under the Weeds

First published 8 years ago--EIGHT--wow, (July 7, 2012)--here it is again, just coz t'is the season....

I have been told to remove the 'ograss' (not grass, or weeds in swedish).  And so, I did.  Although these pretty dandelions can be used in salads and soups.  I removed them. And found something else underneath.....

Life.....

Some may call them snails.  I identify with them to a certain extent.  For I carry my home, on my back. 

Some call them pests, but to eat leaves and grass is their nature.  In any case, life (as I read in Joseph Campbell's works) lives on life. You cannot eat something that was not alive at some point. Can I kill them to protect my garden? And is my garden, my few plants, are they valuable enough to kill this life? Of which I know little .....could I be as inconsequential to it or others as it seems to me?

So, I let it be.  I picked them and kept them by the roadside. I wish I could have taken them to the skogan (forest) but this was before I got my bike.  Yes, they will destroy in order to live, in order to survive where ever they go...but are we any different?

The following pictures are just from the neighborhood, of how life thrives in summer.  Even when we consider it destroyed by pests, it grows and grows, shrubs, trees, flowers and weeds alike...then how can a few snails....be any harm.....