Sunday 27 May 2012

Dear Bollywood movie makers, production houses!

We, the Indian parents, desire soothing, comical, non-violent, non-abusive, fun of fun and masti bhari inspirational movies for our kids. Show the brilliance of your minds, fore-go the same formulaic money spinners or duds that you deliver repeatedly and produce movies that are kids oriented and help them in our wake of life. Watching these movies kids get inspired and transform into dynamic leaders of our country.

                  We miss the old charming songs written specifically for kids like -- Naani teri morni, Daadi amma daadi amma man jao, and Lakdi ki kaathi. Reduce the mass masala dhishum-dishum movies to bring forth simple and endearing movies that kids would love to watch. At least on Children's day, Mother's day or Father's day there should be release of one such cool and calm movie, without any tension, violence and formula used in most of the movies catering to Adults. More than half of the society will be over the moon to have such movies for kids. Such movies that can help the kids to dream, aspire, achieve high in life.

                Movies like "Koi Mil Gaya" and "Ra One" aspire to be kids oriented but still have lots of masala for Adults. We want complete kids movie which their tender hearts can follow and enjoy. Movies which we can all sit together in a family and watch without getting embarrassed.


Khaman in Microwave

Steps to follow -
1. Mix a bowl of Besan (Gram Flour) with a bowl of curd.
2. Add half tablespoon of salt, two tablespoons of sugar, one tablespoon of cooking oil. In this mixture add juice of fresh lemon and baking soda.
3. Mix thoroughly with beater.
4. Now again add a pinch of ENO in it and again mix.
5. Transfer the mixture in a microwavable bowl which has been glazed with oil earlier.
6. Microwave it for 4-5 minutes.,
7. In a Pan splutter a teaspoon of Mustard seeds in a spoonful of cooking oil.
8. Add 1 litre of water with half bowl sugar in it. Put it on gas stove and let it simmer till the solution boils.
9. Take the Khaman base out of the Microwave and turn it upside down in a platter. Pour the syrup solution we prepared earlier on the base slowly, so that it gets absorbed in the base.
10. Garnish it with coriander leaves.
11. Enjoy the Khaman with coconut-dates chutney.

Summer fruits

Common man has something to cheer. In the hot Indian weather here are some fruits that tickle our taste buds and give us contentment.

1. Mango: We all wait for summer time for this golden/yellow, delicious and juicy fruit. Almost all fruits are now available in Market throughout the year however this king of fruits is available in market only for 3 to 3 1/2 months. After all this is our National fruit and "King of Fruits". Summer comes and markets are flooded with Mango. Aam ras, mango shake are some products of this fruit which we can enjoy.

2. Lemons: Another yellow fruit which is a very healthy fellow. A pinch of salt, teas spoon of sugar, and magic masala (not maggi masala) with 2-3 cubes of ice makes a heavenly lemonade.

3. Water melon: These summer fruits, melons have the longest season. Green, green here I come.

4. Pine-apple: Sharp, thorny fruit with many medicinal values. More flavored and tastes some what like mango.

Cycle ki savaari

As the Petrol prices in India have sky rocketed with a huge hike inflation is going to increase further more and the common man faces increase in prices of daily use items - milk, vegetables, pulses, sugar, rice, wheat etc. In current times and age kids still use cycles for fun and transport. The usage by adults has been restricted to people with very less income who can not afford the motor cycles or scooters. By embracing the environmentally friendly means of transport we can "Go Green", reduce the Petrol consumption also improve our physical fitness.

Cycle is a miracle invention by MacMillan. It converts the riders potential energy into motion. Thinking about health benefits, cycling for 10 minutes burns enough calorie to keep a person fit and it is a good daily exercise.
We cannot accomplish anything by coming on the roads and protesting. We Indians are good at Jugaad. Why not use this means of transport as a major mode of transportation and increase Public transport systems which will also help us in foregoing use of petrol guzzling personal transportation. It should be considered as a complete transportation system where we use public transport for long distances and use cycles to cover the last mile.

Cartoon Cartoon.

Censors in the house, furor in Parliament over a cartoon in the NCERT text book. Why not censuring the political leaders from attending the same parliament session, after spending so much time in jail due to massive scams. No disgrace, no embarrassment on such issues. Fighting over the matters which general public has not even bothered about. What is this if not a feudal system with no laws rules to be followed by these feudal lords of today. This reflects that there is no control, restraint.

                          Worried about the image of political class for cartoons but not worried about the character they display while making their hands dirty in mind boggling scams. The scams present a much more dirtier and vulgar picture than the satirical cartoons. But no body is bothered. This is ironical as well as tragic. Government says delete the cartoon and revise all the text books but says why not erase the names of corrupt and tainted and revise the parliament. Parliament is the pillar of democracy and it must be protected from the black hands of greed and corruption.

Sunday 20 May 2012

Force fed creativity

In our studying days, there were no summer camps, special vacation classes, reading sessions. During our summer vacations we used to study, play on our own at our home, or go to our grand-parents and listen to folk tales and Epic stories. We used to spend some time in gardening, watching Jungle Book (Mowgli) on Sundays on Doordarshan. We used to borrow books from the Government library and read interesting stories. We used to read comics like Motu-Patlu, Chandamama, Champak. This is how we passed our time and do it with ease without any tension. We passed our holidays happily spending time with family, grandparents, massi, mama, bua.

                                          Now we see that there is a trend of summer camps. They teach painting, drawing, cooking, drama. In some camps, they teach about Robotics also charge a hefty amount for these. So sometimes I feel this is a generation gap why our kids are different than we were as kids. This method to attain the goals is materialistic. Ours was more relaxed, grounded, connected with family and stimulating experience. Nothing was imposed on us and we were not doing something because the neighbor's kid was doing it. We did not need to go to a specific institute/school to listen to stories, our grand mama used to tell us stories routinely at night time.

Our kids are living in an age where every one has to follow the trend and do things as a mandate rather than a choice.

Hitech kitchen

Kitchens are now equipped with latest hi-tech appliances making life easier and more convenient for households. Kitchen holds the most important place in a house, the place which gives energy to the entire family. Kitchen has evolved a lot from the small place with single stove, some utensils and water connection. In today's modern home the kitchen has also become modern. The latest kitchen appliances have made time consuming and sometimes difficult tasks easy and simple. Just for example cutting, chopping have become easy and the processes are so simple as putting everything and press a button. Processors can cut, chop, grind your vegetables at the wink of eye, mixer/juicers can make smoothies, fruit juices within seconds. No more tears while cutting onions only smiles.

                       One more such appliance is a Microwave Oven. Every middle/upper class household owns a Microwave now. With endless number of recipes possible make foods you like and without a bother of constant involvement and monitoring. With large number of set programs/functions available just follow the recipe book and make delicious dishes with no hassle and with lot of predictability.

These appliances are our modern day Jinn's who fulfill our wish and perform actions we did manually before. Press a button and the dishwasher embarks on the journey of cleaning and sanitizing your utensils of all shapes and types. These equipments are a blessing for anyone working in the kitchen reducing the time taken to accomplish tasks, multitasking as you can start one appliance forget it and then move on to starting another appliance. The housewife can reduce effort in the kitchen and give more time to kids and a working woman can do things with less effort sparing her the energy needed in her work commitments.

                                       The daily chores of the kitchen now look more and more easy and less tiring making the modern day Jinn's the kitchen appliances  companions who are needed day and night. Hail the productivity boosters of the modern kitchen!

Imagination in a kids world

Kids have a very innocent imagination and lot of inquisitiveness. They keep surprising us with the questions that come to them and also the things that they imagine. My little daughter is going to be in PP-2. Once I told her to write the Hindi alphabets Ka, Kha, Ga, Gha etc. My 4 year old started writing after looking at the book she said Kha is like 201 number with 0 and 1 joint together. She asked should I write 201 repeatedly to practice this Hindi letter? This is how she linked it with the Math numbers she had learned. This is how a small kid can imagine about numbers and alphabets. Even the 2 subjects have no relation at all she was seeing the similarity in the shapes and coming to some conclusions of her own. 

                                                             Kids have a very fertile mind and relate to things that they are learning like letters, numbers, words in their own unique way. "I will not go to school Mama, because you will be alone at home. Who will take care of you?" Sweet kids, sweet talk.


Sometimes they ask some questions to which we don't have any answers. Why this chapati is not rectangle shape? Why is it round? Why different leaves have different shapes? Why flowers have different colors? Why our grandparents do not come to visit us frequently? Why we don't have wings like birds? Dogs bark and Cow Moos, why they don't talk like us? This is kids innocent world away from all worries, away from all politics of Adult's world.

IPAD Generation

IPAD is the latest Hi-tech gadget that is being introduced in Educational institutes. When we were studying IPAD or Tablets were not being used. We had text books, Black-boards, slates, notebooks and the desktop computer. Notebooks/Laptops came in after we finished our studies and now the Students are using IPAD/Tablet computers. Our parents never saw a computer when they studied and now the students use high-tech devices, computers/tablets and also learn in Digital class rooms where multimedia enabled digital boards, projectors etc are being used. The digital revolution has changed the way study material is presented using audio/visual presentations, digital animations. The study enablers are supposed to make studying more interactive and easier to grasp difficult concepts. Our generation and the generations before that missed the interactive study materials. The Advertisement blitzkrieg by the service/product providers for these gadgets and the study materials states that with the help of all these the difficult concepts of science, Math will be easily understood by students and more Engineers, Doctors and Science graduates will be produced. However this statement/claim is debatable?

                                            Let's see the reality as is already proven. Use of devices like laptops and desktop computers for a long time cause many health issues  - eye problems,  hand/wrist injuries, back ache, headache etc. Is it advisable to give small kids these devices if they have caused issues/problems to adults. Interactive study material and enabling gadgets may be good in making some points clearer however it may make the new generation completely dependent on them and will may cause them to have limited imagination, deductive powers, analytical skills and problem solving skills. With books the student needs to use his/her own mental capabilities to fully grasp the concept and the ability to use the same to solve problems. It may be fine to use these technological devices at a mature age, however it is highly debatable without fully understanding the health as well as other implications to introduce them at an early age.

                                           With no real need to develop writing skills if IPAD/TABLETS are used to do class work/ home work submit assessments and giving tests online/offline on computers the skills will be lesser and lesser developed in coming generations and the dependance on these devices would become a handicap. If the work of literature would be presented in Visual form it may become very easy to understand for all however people will miss the enjoyment of visualizing the stories and getting fully immersed in the stories.

We may produce copies of educated students, however the individuality will go missing with everything being spoon fed.

It is still too early to make hard conclusions on this topic however at this moment I believe it will be more a bane than a boon to students in their young age. Let's see how the things work out in the long run.
 

Friday 11 May 2012

Dates - Tamarind Chutney

My kids love this khatti-mithi chutney.

Steps to prepare this delicious Indian chutney:
1. Soak 8 - 10 dates overnight.
2. Grind the dates with 2 spoons of tamarind paste.
3. Add a spoon of Sugar to it.
4. Wow delicious chutney is ready.

Tip:- Can be served with a parantha. To increase the zest add 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper.