Navarathri Golu - Photo Blog

We started to visit our friends for Navarathri golu. For a nice description of the Golu concept go to Mitr's Post. For a different take on the Golu see Ferrari's post.

My daughter was all excited even as I picked her up from daycare. First thing she said was "I am going to wear my Pattu Paavadai today !!" (silk frock).



The two prettiest women on the planet then decided to stop over at our friends place to see the Golu displays.

Our friends had some creative displays of the dolls. This one is using a swing for the steps.


The next one was on a dining table (their son is at an age where he grabs anything at ground level).
More golu visits today and tomorrow. We dont have a Golu at our place. We only invite our friends to come for a prayer. Just need to convince the older generation at home that if my daughter wants a golu in the house, I will not be able to say no to her.

In our family, the elders decided that doing the Golu (doll display) is a bad thing for the family. Every year my granny did the golu, one of her kids died. So they stopped the custom and none of the survivors keep the Golu! If I was alive then, I would have enrolled grandma and all my uncles, aunt and my dad in a nice Statistics course at the local University.

I am a big fan of the resident statistician (where I work) who always mocks conclusions based on correlation without causality ! Maybe it is time to break some traditions ??

Google ???

Last week we were invited to eat in the Google Cafeteria !! thanks to our relative who works there. Originally he had signed us up to be a lunch guest for Googles 7th birthday, but I was sick and bed ridden, so we managed to go there this past week.

It was an amazing experience. Have never seen a cafeteria provide that much stuff for free to its employees. Great food, great ambience, great people !! It looked and felt more like the RPI cafeteria (except the food was much much better compared to what I used to get 8 years ago!).

One of the things we talked about was how Google doesnt advertise anywhere. They just get free publicity and they generate all their profit from advertising !

This week I watched both CSI New York and the CSI episodes on CBS. In the CSI New York episode Google got free advertising (as the best place to get information). There was more advertising for google when a suspect gives an email address which is gmail.com !!!

Either Google is paying CBS for advertising or CBS script writers are pissed off with Microsoft !!

Here we go again...

Most of you have read the previous post on Kushboo and the current state of "freedom of speech" in India.

Was watching the TV serial "Kolangal" with my wife yesterday. I am not a regular Tamil Mega Serial watcher, but a few glances at the screen are enough to tell me what is going on ...

Two things instantly caught my attention.

Have you ever noticed how easily the leading ladies in these TV serials get pregnant. One night stands always end up in pregnancy. I think at this rate, people in Tamil Nadu will start praying to god along these lines "please make me pregant as fast as Radhika got pregnant in Selvi" or "as Usha got pregnant in Kolangal".

The second thing that came to my mind was that the supporting actress in "Kolangal" is not married, has "premarital sex" (one night stand) and is PREGNANT and is talking about raising her child alone. What is really interesting is that this same TV channel (SUN TV), made such a hoopla about a rival TV channel's lead anchor's statements on the same topic. The claim was that Tamil Women have been defamed by such acts!!

Here is what is happening in the second most watched prime time TV serial (SELVI). The supporting actress is accused of being "barren" or terms to that effect. Her husband is the one with the reproductive issue, so she goes and gets pregnant with another guy and tells the world that the husband is the father !!

Tamil Nadu goes to stand still when these two serials are airing. Even my grandparents dont encourage visitors when such serials are playing on TV. Traffic reduces by 60% when these serials come on. What is being portrayed in these episodes, is projected so naturally that it conveys the idea that these are the norm in Tamil people's life.

What is the case here ? Life in general imitating art, or art imitating general life ? Ten years ago, it was inconceivable to see leading ladies in serials talk of being single mothers to children born out of wedlock or just go get pregnant with the next guy who comes by !!

Have we come a long way (wrong way?), or what ? The bigotry continues, and I get sick to my stomach. The good news is that these issues die down as quickly as they are raised and are long forgotten in the span of a few days or at the most a few weeks.

Long live Selvi, Long live Kushboo, May Kolangal be blessed with many more glorious episodes. God help the Tamil TV viewer !!

Rava Seedai - something for the road ...

Have been writing about very serious things the last week. Time to write something on the lighter side.

Happened to see "paravai Muniamma"'s Village Feast cooking show on Sunday. She made Rava Seedai (crunchy deep fried rice+ cream of wheat snack). She also claimed that there is always something different about making it fresh at home as opposed to current city dwellers buying it off the stores.

She also sang a song about how kids in the villages may not be going to school (instead they become goat herders), but they get to enjoy fresh made Rava Seedai.

My daughter is going to school and she doesnt get to see a goat unless she goes to a petting zoo, but I didnt want her to miss out on Rava Seedai.

So, put on the apron (my dirty oily towel rather) and made Rava Seedai. Came out well.

The recipe (deceptively simple thanks to paravai muniamma) :
Mix 1/2 cup rice flour + 1/2 cup rava (cream of wheat)+ 2 spoons of butter + 1/2 spoon cumin seeds with minimal water.

Let the dough sit for 30 mins, then roll it into little balls (1cm diameter), WAIT for another 20 Minutes before you deep fry them in oil.

WARNING : Do not try this at home unless you are experienced or have a spatter guard at home!!!

Now, let us look at some of the reasons why city dwellers just buy Seedai from stores instead of making it at home.

a. Making seedai must be the number one cause of death/disability among the untrained novice cook. If the little balls of dough are not dry enough, they explode three four seconds after you drop them in the hot oil. My scientific explanation for this is that the surface hardens first but then the core if still moist must be generating super heated steam which cracks the shell, exploding into a hundred or so bits, propelling the broken shell and hot oil around the room. This I pieced together (CSI style) when my wife tried to make Seedai, when she was a newly married bride !! I am pretty sure most of those unsolved Dowry deaths in India where the women die in the kitchen accidents must have "Seedai Explosion" as the suspected cause.

b. Apartments, houses in City's are not easily cleaned after a Seedai explosion. We have to worry about paying a few hundred bucks to the steam carpet cleaning dude or losing our security deposit on our rental. The village mom on the other hand can take a broom and brush a few layers of dirt (sand) off the floor of her hut and everything is back to normal !!

c. Last but not the least, took me over an hour to make 100 of these little guys and our entire house had to be aired out for another hour to get rid of the oil smell. If this was winter, the Seedai would have cost me an additional $50 in heating bills after the airing out session. I could always pay the $5 at the local Indian grocery store (they would have probably spent 50 cents to make it) and still save myself the heating bill.

It was still nice to taste fresh made Seedai !!

Thanks to Paravai Muniamma for the inspiration , and the insinuation !!!

Mahatma Ghandi's Birthday

Ghandi's bithday is tomorrow October 2nd.

He got India independence from the Britishers by reinforcing "Non-Violence".

To commemorate his birthday, SUN TV (the tamil TV channel that is most popular in the US) is playing a recently released "Hit" movie titled "youth"

The trailer for this movie shows the hero threatening pretty much anyone and everyone who stands in his way with, you guessed it "VIOLENCE". Even the comedians in the movie seem to go around bashing people with sticks !!.

We might forget the fact that we got independence from a foreign country. Today's generation has been born in an independent country, and they take independence for granted..

We might even forget Ghandiji for having worked untiringly to get us the independence we enjoy.

But forgeting his message of "non-violence" and playing a violent movie to commemorate his birthday , tsk tsk !!!