Emotional re-balance

Am not the most emotional person you would find. Recently, I have gone through some tough times in a emotional manner. It was more like an emotional roller-coaster ride. At first it affected me, then my brain took control and shut me down (like a power plant shutting down) emotionally.

About a month back, when almost all the trauma was over, I think my Left brain woke up the right brain and started the process of emotional re-balance. Now its almost over I guess and I am back to almost where I was 3 months back.

Typically, a person's brain shuts down emotionally when the external stimuli varies greatly making the emotions hit the top and bottom boundaries of the band in which they should fluctuate in STP environment. The time to shut down varies from brain to brain.

I dont know if "emotional re-balancing" is a principle or a widespread word from a classical psychology point of view, but I am using it just to explain the phenomenon.

If you use this table given below - with value on X axis varying between 0 to 3600 at an interval of 300 and value on Y-axis being Sin of these values (remember Trigonometry ???)..

X	0	300	600	900	1200	1500
Y	0	-0.99976	0.044182	0.997803	-0.08828	-0.9939

 

1800	2100	2400	2700	3000	3300	3600
0.132202	0.98806	-0.17587	-0.980	0.21919	0.97060	-0.26208

You get a graph if you trace Y-axis... something like this -

So, at 0 - the emotions displayed are also "ZERO". Once the brain starts re-activating right side brain, the emotions per situation varies as Sin of situation index always staying between +1 and -1 (cos thats what sin curve does). It keeps going from one extreme to another extreme for a few days - remember - this is not normal - normally it might be a linear curve for the less emotional people and may be an exponential one for more emotional people - but the variation is always directly proportional to situation index (that's the phrase I coined for this blog).

While emotional re-balancing is going, if I explain in LAYMAN's language - then the theorem goes like this - "the emotions of a person varies for a small change in situation index oscillating between positive and negative values" - which means that the predictability of emotional behaviour of a person for any external stimuli (situation index) becomes very low.

Emotional re-balancing is a process which the brain undertakes to bring back the person to a less logical state from an absolutely logical state.

Now consider, dampening of the curve shown above - which means that the oscillations become less and than become predictable again. The emotions start varying within a band.

Slowly, the brain also starts oscillating within a band. The brain keeps playing Ellsworth Toohey turning Howard Roarks of the world into Peter Keatings.

Dal-bafle and churme ke laddo

I love Dal-bafle. Whats that? Valid quesiton. Typically a lot of people in cosmo-westenised world have now heard about dal-bati which the marwaries have popularised. I thing the marwaries are more enterprising than the malwa-ries. Malwa-ries - are the natives of malwa - the place where I come from in MP.

Malwa is the land of cotton - black soil, warm temperature and warm people. Cotton trading started in Ujjain some 200 years back. Almost the same time when three GERMAN BROTHERS started trading cotton in mid western US and then moved to NY. More about them and the company they formed later. Anyways, so the idea is, that people of Malwa didnt get ahead much in trading.

However, the NOT-enterprising nature of malwa-ries is limited to cotton trading only. In terms of food, you cant even begin to compare Malwa people with anyone else in the world. We are ahead by miles. I have travelled around the country and some part of the world and I dont think any food cuisine comes even closer to the Malwa food richness and variety. (people from other regions, pls don’t take offense, take this as an emotional comment).

So, coming back to Dal bafle (pronounced as baaf-lay). How do you prepare it? Its a very long winding process. A mixture of 5 pulses is a good dal for this. Urad, Masoor, Toor, Moong and Chana dals. Mix them in equal quantity and prepare dal - the way you prepare with onion and garlic.

For bafle -

- Take mota aata (you should ideally not add any rawa if you dont have mota aata, the taste does not come out very well).
- Add salt + ghee (as mohun - binding agent)
- Then add water and knead it hard - make cakes (bafle) almost the size 4 cm by 4cm. Professional cooks make much bigger cakes. Almost 4-4-4 cm or 64-70 cu cm.
- Now boil water so that all the bafle can be put it in. Put haldi in the water. Once water starts boiling, add the bafle to the water and let them be in water till they start floating in water.
- Now, allow them to float for 2-3 mins, take them out and put them on a cotton cloth to dry. Rub and dry the bafle properly.
- While the bafle is still in water, get cowdung cakes (kande in Hindi) and ignite them. Once its ignited well, start putting the dried bafle on kande. Its important that the bafle are dry before being put on kande, otherwise it gets sticky
- Allow the bafle to bake properly, it will become all blackish because of ash from kande. Take the baked bafle and clean the ash completely.
- Break it in two or four pieces and put them in the pot of ghee so that the ghee starts soaking in.
- The Bafle are ready to be served once they are soaked in ghee.

For Churme ke laddo -

- Take mota aata, ghee, milk and water and knead it.
- While you are kneading it, make sure the cow-dung cakes (kande are ignited)
- Make the aata mixture from above and make round laddos out of it.
- Put them on kande and let it bake for some time.
- Keep turning to bake them from all sides. The laddo start cracking once baked.
- Once they are baked, take them out and clean the ash.
- Break the laddo into smaller pieces and finely ground them in a mixie till it becomes coarse powder.
- Now, add ghee and sugar and mix - make them in laddo.
- Churme ke laddo are ready to be served :-)

You cant eat dal bafle, laddo in buffet format. Sit down with a dona - pattal, thats plates made of dry leaves. Take bafle with dal, kadhi, aloo- gobhi ki subji with churme ke laddo, green chutney + pickle with a dash of lemon will add to the taste. Hmmm...

People have started adding dry fruits, mawa to dal bafle and also to ladoo. It depends it you want to do that. You can easily use oven to cook this at home instead of kande.

Note - Make sure not to drink any water post eating this for at least 2 hours otherwise the bafle (which are full of ghee) expand in stomach. Dont wear belt + wrinkle free cotton trousers - kurta- payajama is better :-). And NEVER and I mean NEVER have dal-bafle for dinner.

The current record for eating most dal bafle + laddo is two and half bafle and 12 laddo in one sitting in the year 1996. The record is in name of yours sincerely. Want to break it anyone...

Happy eating!!!

Shab-e-Malwa...

I come from part of Madhya Pradesh (M.P.) called Malwa. There are total 6 malwas in India. Two in MP itself - one is the very famous malwa plateau where I come from and will describe and another is Seoni Malwa (now Hoshangabad district of MP). There is a another malwa in Punjab which consists of 10 out of 20 Punjab districts. Bhatinda, Ludhiyana, Firozpur, Faridkot, Patiyala are a few of the famous ones in Malwa of Punjab. The other Malwas are believed to be in U.P. (Gorakhpur in U.P.) and some part of Gujarat is believed to be called Malwa at some point in time.

The malwa we will talk about is the Malwa Plateau of M.P. M.P. is divided in various districts on political landscape. However, if we consider a physical map, we will find that its divided in 5 major regions - Malwa (Ujjain, Indore), Bundelkhand (Jhansi, Gwalior), Nimar (Khargon, Timarni, Khandwa - hot and dry region), Mahakaushal (Jabalpur) and Chattisgarh (Raipur, Bhilai, Bastar). Chattisgarh is now a separate state.

The name Malwa is as old as the human race itself. Historically, the word was used in Matysa-puran, Scanda-puran. Also Panini used it in his Ashtadhyayi (Not the panini sandwiches you get in Mocha. Panini lived in around 4th century BC in Gandhar region of India(now Afganisthan/Pakistan) and was the father of Sanskrit grammar. He wrote "Ashtadhyayi" which is a comprehensive document on Sanskrit grammar. This marks the beginning of Classical Sanskrit era and end of Vedic Sanskrit era).

Alrite, coming back to origin of word Malwa - historians have their differences about the origin of Malwa but Matysa-puran reference is the most popular one. Matysa-puran describes the story of Savitri and Satyavaan. When Savitri ask Yamraj not to take her husband Satyavaan with Him, she asks Yama for a vardaan that she should have siblings and also praises Yamaraj in the process. Lord Yama grants Savitri's wish and returns her husband. Also, grants the wish of her having 100 siblings which He says will be called "Malaw" (read ma-luv) named after Savitri's mother "Malwi". Also Savitri's 100 sons were called "Mukhars". They say the 100 brothers of Savitri came to a region in Central India and so Malwa is named after them.

Indore, Bhopal, Ujjain, Dewas till Ratlam is called Malwa (Also, Datana-Matana, Narvar, Sanwer, Ashta, Sonkachch, Sehore are some smaller places in Malwa region). Its the central part of M.P. rich in black soil good for cotton growth. Its in this part where cotton trading first started around 200 years ago but malwa-ries are not as enterprising as the marwaries, so Ujjain fell short of becoming the New York of the East. In NY, three German immigrant brothers did something similar almost 200 years back (More about the organisation they built later, you will find it everywhere on business news). Ujjain has a very old stock market. Now a days, they dont trade on anything but rain.

It also has a story. The brokers from Ujjain bet on rains rather than short-selling some of the investment bank stocks. The idea is to bet how much will it rain. Patre, Kavelu, Nali, Patri, Rapat, Chota Pul (bridge) and Bada Pul. These are various levels. Patre (patra) is a corrugated iron sheet. Kavelu is the earthen tiles (reddish in colour) used for roofs of huts. So, if the rain water starts falling from a particular parta(roof), they say "patre ho gaye", similarly, if it rains heavily, the mud of kavelu roof after soaking some water, will start flowing so - "kavelu ho gaye" and it continues and the bet continues :-). interesting huh.. well that's malwa.

The nights of malwa are extremely pleasant. No matter whats the temperature of the day 45 degs or 47 degs, at night the temp drops and cool breeze starts flowing. That's why they say -

"Seheri-Banaras, Sham-e-Awadh aur Shab-e-Malwa".

Jai Mahakaal!!!

The state of relative proudness

"Jana gana mana - the best national anthem", says UNESCO. Got this email from someone. Read it and thought its such a crappy thought to rate national anthems from best to worst. And because I am the non-believing types, I googled it and found its a spam.

I am an Indian and so understand people feeling proud of their national symbols, culture, anthem etc. Thats perfectly valid. I am proud to be an Indian, but why do people go down to this level as to boasting about stuff which demeans the national symbols belonging to other nations.

I don't think this is required. Its good to be proud of your nation but there is no need to demean other nations. The feeling of being proud of your own country is surely not relative.

I think people should try and come out of the state of "relative proudness".

Leonardo da Vinci and Adarsh Kachori Bhandar

Say if Leonardo da Vinci comes to you and describes in great detail how he created the masterpiece "The last supper". What are the chances that you will be able to draw it the way it is? Not the most difficult question to answer.. the chances are Zilch, Zero, 0. Why? Because, its an art, you cant really draw it based on a description.

Similarly, if Adarsh Kachori Bhandar, New Market, Bhopal reveals his recipe of how he makes perrrrrr...fect Kachories, chances are that you wont be able to make it like that.

I love Kachori. I like Samosas too, but Kachori is really very close to my heart. Making perfect kachories is an art. A real art. There are so many namkeen vendors in the world who make them, but a very few can make what I call perfect Kachories.

The interesting part here is that all the vendors who make them (or rather create them) think that they make good kachories and they keep making them over and over without getting "continuous improvement" in process. Thats the reason why you can distinctly figure out the name of the shop based on the taste of the kachories they make. Thats not exactly the case with Samosas ( sort of a cousin of kachori ). Nearly all vendors can make samosas which almost taste the same. The only difference is the size - some make them larger than the others.

And because everyone thinks their kachories are good, there has been no evolution in kachori making since centuries. There have been some variants though - like Aloo ki Kachori, Bhutte (corn) ki kachori etc. But all these variants basically have the same problem.

So, what is actually a perfect Kachori? Well, there are a few characteristics of a perfect kachori -

- It should not a residual oil
- It should taste good, but even after eating, it should not cause any acidity or the feeling of residual oil within the system.
- When you press it, it should break rather than getting pressed - that shows how khasta is the kachori.

Typically, a lot of kachories you would come across do not satisfy all these criteria. They might taste ok but its the after-effects of eating the kachori makes a difference between good and not-so-good kachories.

Personally, the only shop which sells great kachories is - Adarsh Kachori Bhandar in Bhopal. My love for kachori however takes me to various places tasting various kachories which are mostly not great and so I have acidity post eating those - but I will not stop trying various kachories just because I might get acidity. I will continue. I feel the government should put some funds to make sure that there are courses offered on the art of kachori making, so that tomorrow, we can have people with qualification M.A. - Kachori making and Adarsh Kachori bhandar will surely get a Padma Bhushan :) and that day I will publish my non-fiction novel - "Zen and the art of Kachori making" :-)

Rock On!!! - Movie review

Rock On!!! Nice movie overall. Can easily be watched almost once. Almost because, at some point, it feels like its become longish... Not long, just longish.

Very strong theme, "Do what you passionate about", "Go for it" types. Story goes like this, four guys formed a band while in college and later because of some reason, break up. Now all of them have not met for ten years. They are all doing various things and are successful /unsuccessful in various ways. The name of their rock band is "Magic". Can you believe it? Its such a weak name for a rock band. I would never make a movie around the name Magic. Anyways, out of the four, Poorab is ok, he tried copying Aamir Khan in DCH. I liked Luke Kelly - very normal acting but natural. Farhan sucks, sings well though and Arjun Rampal was ok cos he looked very old compared to the others.

All and all, the movie surely would have been good had Farhan Akthar directed it rather than Abhishek Kapoor. The story was very mediocre, screenplay was almost non-existent.Direction was weak. Farhan sucks as an actor, the only reason why the movie is worth-watching is because it has a very strong theme.

Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy impressed once more and Farhan was a good find as a singer.

Food glorious food...

I just love food. Eating mostly, not cooking as much. Have had various types of foods and liked them. I was thinking for a long time what I miss or what I liked a lot at various times in life.

Will start publishing food items which are just amazing according to me.

Watchout for this space.

Bombay to Bangkok - Movie

Another one from Nagesh Kukunoor. This is what I feel about the movie - this is one of the worst movies I have seen.

After watching this movie, I realised how wrong I was about Dor which I thought was one of the worst movies Nagesh Kukunoor has ever made and acted in. I cant even begin to compare the two movies. At least there was something good about Dor - Shreyas Talpade and Rajasthan, here there is absolutely nothing.

The more I am watching Farhan Akthar, I am beginning to appreciate his movie making skills - from DCH to Don to Rock On. Amazing stuff and the more I watch of Nagesh Kukunoor, I aver that Chemical engineers SHOULD NOT make movies.

The story of Bombay to Bangkok is nothing. Its just a movie you MUST NOT watch - even if someone is paying you for this. Earlier I thought he (Nagesh, who else) is trying to make a descent porn movie - but then I realised its not even that.

Shreyas Talpade is very ordinary, there is nothing for him to do anyways. The rock star villain added some idiotic comedy. Lena Christensen has good body and should try to learn acting. I don't know what else to say about her. There were no expressions and of course - not even an iota of acting.

Surprising part is - music is good. "Dheere dheere" is a fabulous song. That's the only song worth remembering, think it comes twice in the movie (probably broken down in two parts).

All in all, I take everything back I said about Dor. Its not the worst movie by Nagesh - but this one (B2B) surely is.

Great job Nagesh - you out-performed yourself.

Time has come...(31st May 08 - 91)

I have been struggling with this for a long time now. Well not exactly struggling, but have been trying to reduce weight. Nothing much happens on a permanent basis.

I think now time has come to do something about this. I have a very old weighing machine and on that I weigh 91 Kilos as on 31st May 08.

Will keep posting weight every week/15 days and see how it gets better.

Of busy fathers and beauty conscious mothers

14th Feb - Valentine's day. There was a function in Arjun's school. Fathers invited only. No mommy's, but as usual, there were some fathers and some mothers.

It was a well arranged function. Games, video, something to eat etc etc. There was a dancing stage set and photographers ready for you to take pics of you with your son/daughter. All in all, a job well done.

The idea was that the fathers can spend some time with their children. The fathers were spending time with their children, yes, but were also checking their mails on blackberrys, talking on the phone continuously.

Seriously, I admire the fathers who just said 'sorry' and didn't come. At least the mothers were doing a good job of being with their children.

Well, some of them were also putting a lot of pressure on their children to look good. :-) Just before the photo session, the combs and talc came out of the big purse and... Zaayyyyyaaaaaaaaad... please come here bete and comb and put powder. :-)

Well, such is the way of life... you need to look busy and good. Convoluted Simplicity should be the phrase...