The Return of the Butterfly- Book Review

I purchased it the day before I took the train to Chennai. It was the perfect reading material.
I was first introduced to the Butterfly by my brother. She is, in her own words, a sophisty, convent-educated socialite.  She lives in, thank heavens, in Gulburg, in Lahore, with her husband Janoo (who is a loser), and her son Kulchoo (who, unfortunately, is turning out to be a loser too just like his father). Janoo does not like party-sharty while Butterfly thrives on it.
Moni Mohsin introduced Butterfly to the readers of The Friday Times and later she compiled some of these articles into The Diary of The Butterfly.
The Return of the Butterfly continues with Butterly's trysts with trying to lead a normal life with GT (oho get-togethers baba) and parties despite the Taliban banning things like Basant. Her only problem is that Kulchoo is becoming exactly like Janoo.  He even puts up a poster of Occupy Wall Street in his room. Initially Butterfly thinks that this is a good thing and that her darling son is thinking of making lots of money but Janoo soon shatters this illusion when he explains to her what Occupy Wall Street really is all about.  It is enough to break her heart. But Butterfly is resilient and she is soon back preoccupied with things that matter to her the most.
I love the Butterfly.  She is silly and yet, there are times when she makes the most devastating statement about the political situation in Pakistan.

Darwin awards and men

Okay, originally I was going to title this post as "Men are Idiots" but prudence prevailed.
Darwin awards are given to those human beings who improve our species by removing themselves from the gene pool (The Supreme Sacrifice, if you will).
The Christmas edition of British Medical Journal this year carries a study about sex difference in idiotic risk behaviour. The results are unsurprising . It is just as we have always suspected. Males are significantly more likely to receive the Darwin awards than females. As the report in Science says: "We now have scientific evidence that men are idiots."
Post Script:
I was going to write about the latest Rajnikanth movie. No, I have not seen it and I will never see it. Is it only me who is nauseated with the idea of a 60+ man romancing a girl about his daughter's age? All the newspapers are carrying reviews but no one seems to be bothered by this romance. 

Section 309 of Indian Penal Code deleted

The new government has not inspired much hope in me. The less said about Sadhavi Niranjan Jyoti and the VHP and the RSS the better. The HRD minister has been taking decisions which at best can be said to be arbitrary. In this gloom the only good news came in today when the Government decided to delete the section 309 of the Indian Penal Code. With this suicide is no longer a criminal offense. It never made any sense to me that a person who has been driven to commit suicide is clapped up with a criminal charge instead of provided psychiatric help to deal with their desperation and depression.
Now if the Government would only see sense and decriminalize homosexuality.

Crocheted Table Cloth

Last year I embarked on my fourth crocheted table cloth. The first one I made when I was in grad school. It was largely completed in the plane while traveling (It was those days when one could carry crochet needles safely on the plane). The second one was completed partly in Colarado and partly in Bangalore. It was after that I took a vow never again. Till I made one for my student when she got married. This is the fourth one- the easiest as I only had to make fifteen motifs and stitch them together. It was fun to do and looks very pretty on my table. 

I now get back to cross-stitch. I purchased few patterns this year and I need to complete them before I embark on any more crochet.

Arugula Chickpea salad with sweet potato soup

On Sunday we harvested the arugula as well as spinach.  This was the third crop of the spinach. The previous two had bee enjoyed by the peacocks and the nilgais. The peacocks also took one crop of arugula leaves at which point I put a green netting to prevent them from entering.

Today's menu, therefore, featured arugula leaves. I made a salad using chickpeas, potatoes, red radish and cucumbers.  I heated one tablespoon of olive oil and added cumin seeds. When they crackled, I added the chickpeas and potatoes and sauteed them for a bit. Seasoning was with salt, black pepper and lime juice. In the end I chopped arugula leaves and mixed it in.

I also made soup with one sweet potato, carrot, and onions. Today I used green chillies as spice. It was a nice meal to have with rotis.
Meantime, the spinach bed has been cleared and we have planted strawberries. I did not know that one can grow strawberries in Delhi. My gardening bible- A Sahib's manual for the Mali by Alick Percy-Lancaster- merely said that the strawberry plants should be planted 1 1/2"apart.  I saw some plants last year and tentatively broached the subject with Nanku Ram ( In many ways he is like Angus McAllister of Blandings Castle and one needs to be cautious will approaching him). He was most receptive- only telling me to get it from Rajdhani Nursery as they have the plants that would bear fruit.  So let us see whether we get strawberries this year or not.

Banana cake with lemon sauce

I love banana bread but all the recipes I had used eggs. Most of my students do not eat eggs so I have to  constantly experiment how to replace eggs in the recipes I have. 
I have this wonderful cake recipe book published by Better Homes and Gardens. I  purchased this when I was a grad student at UVa (currently in the news for all the wrong reasons and more about that later) and once I made the ice cream cake from this book for my friends because one of them wanted to eat an ice cream cake. There is a lovely pinapple-orange upside down cake recipe too- absolutely delicious cake but again calls for eggs.
I turned to it yesterday looking for recipe to adapt and there it was- Nutmeg cake with lemon sauce.
This morning I made it.  It is a rich cake calling for 1/2cup of butter and 11/2 cups of sugar. As the sugar crystals are large, I grind them to powder along with vanilla pod. Today I also added half a piece of nutmeg.  I usually melt the butter and beat it into the sugar.  It called for 3 eggs which I replaced with the puree of 4 over ripe bananas. That too went into the butter-sugar mix. 
For the flour, the recipe called for 2 cups of flour and I did not give in to my temptation of adding atta into it. I used 2 cups of maida as recommended. If you are using eggs, you need to add only 1 tsp of baking powder. If bananas are replacing eggs, then you need to increase the baking powder. For each egg, add extra 1/4 tsp of baking powder.  So I added 1 3/4 tsp of baking powder.  And 1 tsp of baking soda.
The recipe also called for 1 cup of butter milk or sour milk (add lemon juice to milk).
Alternatively add flour and milk to the butter-sugar-banana mix and fold them in. Pour the cake batter onto a 13 X 9X 2 inch pan and bake at 180oC for 30 minutes.
The lemon sauce is also very rich. I heated 3/4 cups of sugar with 5 tablespoon of corn starch and 1 cup of water till the mixture became thick. Then 2 tablespoon of butter was stirred in along with lemon juice and lemon peel.
Once the cake was done, I poured a little bit of sauce over it as I was planning to take it to the lab meeting. However, the appropriate thing is to serve the cake with sauce.
The picture of the cake is here:

The little corner is cut off because I wanted to taste it and
I forgot to take the picture before cutting the cake.





It is when I tasted it that I realized that I have the perfect banana cake- the one I had been searching for a long time. 

Roses from the garden

We have pruned the rose trees and they are blooming. Here are the pink roses from the garden.

Dal with mooli/radish leaves

On the way back from Kosi Kalan on Sunday, we stopped at Ballabhgarh market as both my aunt and I had to buy vegetables and fruits.  We went slightly berserk at the sight of fresh vegetables and only the fact that darkness had set in stopped us from going on a rampage. As it ended up I purchased mooli.  I made mooli parantha and then not wanting to waste the leaves, I decided to make a dal.  I had some mixed dal which I soaked overnight (this I realized is absolutely needed otherwise the dal does not get tender) and pressured cooked it till it was mashable. I heated the oil and added cumin seeds and 1 chopped onion. Then seeing ginger on the counter top, I added little bit of it. Once the onions were tender, I added tomatoes and stirred till they started becoming tender. Meantime, I sorted the radish leaves and washed them. They were also chopped and added to the onion-tomato mix.  The leaves immediately wilted and once they were done, the cooked dal and salt was added.  For spice, I added the sambar powder and the dal was done. It tasted really good. I had it with a rice dish given to me by a colleague.

Currently I am attempting  to make eggless banana bread once more. Let us see how it turns out.

Another site visit- Tuition center in New Seemapuri

We have been supporting enrollment of children from economically weaker section into public schools under the Delhi Government and RTE clause. The hard work was done by people from Pardarshita while we supported it financially. This project was started in 2005 and 8 years down the road it feels good to know that those children are still going to school as most of these children live in urban slums and resettlement colonies. One of the major hurdle is of course how to keep the children motivated. Most of the public schools do not enough attention to children and these kids are handicapped by the fact that they  most often first-time learners. So the idea of tuition centers took root and this year the first tuition center was started. It is still in fledgling stage though one of the parent is very happy-his restless child for the first time is taking an interest in school books.  We have a teacher who has been trained by District Institute for Education and Training (DIET), a government venture to train teachers.  We are keeping our fingers crossed and hope that we will see good results.
To get to Dilshad Garden from JNU was a two hour journey. It was mostly enjoyable except for  one glitch- I took the gramin seva from JNU to Chattarpur metro station. A big mistake. Gramin Seva are okay to travel between Munirka and JNU or JNU and B-block market in Vasant Kunj. Anything beyond that is a risky business as the infrastructure is minimal and one ends up with an aching back. The metro itself was good and afforded me a chance to hear bits and pieces of conversations. As most were college kids, they were either discussing CAT exams or their board exams and the forthcoming semester exams. The girls were fully made up making me realize that times have indeed changed. I also finally understood, both literally and metaphorically, ugliness of Indian men. I was told by my cousin to read the book "The Ugliness of Indian Men" by Mukul Kesavan. Today I got to see and hear it. The coordinator of Pardarshita is a trained lawyer and works as Judge at the Children's court. She told me horrific stories of rape and sodomy. I am still trying to digest all that I have heard.
The children living in these resettlement and slums continue to be at risk- both boys and girls. The only way out for many of them is education and I really hope that the children whom we got enrolled get to make a better life for themselves and their families.

Doing pointless work

I was going to post about the soup I made today. However,  yesterday I promised the Dean that I would work on the UGC project document for the department. The last date is 15th for the online submission and though the document has been prepared we had to upload it on the site.  I have had previous experience with UGC website and I was fully prepared to deal with it. But I must admit I underestimated UGC. I have no idea who prepared the online submission form. It obviously went to a company on least quote. The first problem I and my colleague encountered yesterday was that when we filled up a page and hit the save button, it refused to save the data. This morning I finally figured out the problem. Every field, especially the one marked with asterisk, should be completed before it will save and allow you to continue.  I was very happy at having cracked the problem and I breezed through the document till I came to the one termed seminars and conferences. I filled up every field and uploaded all the documents and yet it will not save it. I have given up. Tomorrow is another day. A fresh day and there will be two of us to work on the document and hopefully two Ph.Ds can figure out the glitch.
Meantime, I have prepared almost all the files in the required format. They require huge amount of information (most of them pointless according to me but possibly of relevance to the babus).  We finally decided that we do not have some of the information and cannot possibly gather it. One such information is about the total number of publications that each faculty has and then number of publications each faculty has in the past five years. We managed to get the publication list for the past 5 years for most of the faculty but gave up on the total number of publications. Fortunately, this had to be submitted as annexure otherwise I could not have proceeded on the online form.
I am looking forward to tomorrow when I will be done with it and get back to mundane things like submitting manuscripts to journals.
As for the soup, it got made in the morning. Sweet potato, potato and carrots, boiled and pureed. I had it in the afternoon with a dash of cream.

Warming up with soups

Now that days have become shorter and evening cooler, I tend to include more soups in my diet. Winter is always delightful with wide range of vegetables. On my grocery day I picked up fresh peas and carrots so today I decided to make peas-carrot soup. It was simple. I gave tadka of jeera (cumin) and sauteed one onion, one carrot and few shelled peas. I then added water and allowed the vegetables to slowly cook. I flip-flopped about what spices to add then decided on using sambar powder. So that too went into the pot along with salt. Once the vegetables were done, I allowed it to cool (I learnt the hard way that patience in this matter is always a virtue or else you will end up with soup splashed all over the kitchen and one self).  Once cooled, I pureed it in the blender. Before eating I warmed it up and added garnish of coriander leaves.
Here it is:

As an aside, Nanku Ram today decided that we should plant coriander in the garden.  Sumithra has been telling him to plant it but he has been resisting the idea. Today he finally decided that on Sunday we will plant coriander. So hopefully, this winter I will have fresh dhaniya from the garden.
The garden is now being readied for winter flowers. We pruned the hibiscus and the pavazha malli tree.  Plots have now been prepared to plant nastriums, allysium, poppies, pansies, and of course petunias.  We have started the seeds for all except pansies (which failed to germinate) and petunias.  Once the plants have become hardier, we will transplant them into the prepared beds.

On Pedagogy

This post is inspired by my observations made on teaching systems in schools (both formal and non-formal) in India. Directly it is a result of my visit to a formal school for girls about 3 hours drive from where I live.  The teachers lamented that they do not have good teachers and that their girls are scared of speaking or reading English. The two are connected in many ways.
The girls are scared of English because no one around them speaks English. There is no body to correct their mistakes or to encourage them to read story books.   If they had a teacher who could speak English and who taught only in English then there is a chance that they will pick it up. A good teacher would use different methods to get them over the psychological barrier. One way is to make them keep a diary. Tell them to write a story and then read it out to the class. Mistakes will happen but the more they write the better they will become.  Include a library hour where they will have to read English story books. Currently, they do have story books for the primary classes but it is a structured reading. They are not encouraged to imagine. This is not the problem of this particular school. Many schools (including even the so-called good ones) fall into this trap where the teacher is more anxious to finish the syllabus than to worry about the imagination of the child. In fact lesser the imagination the better it is because the child will accept anything that the teacher says and not ask questions.
This is now tied to the second point. What is the definition of a good teacher? And can one get a good teacher by paying enormous amount of money.
I believe that a good teacher is the one who can hold the attention of the class and inspire them to imagine, to ask questions. As a teacher, I might not know all the answers but as I teacher I should be ready to read about it or to point the students into the direction where they can get the answer to the question. Of course the student will also have to put in extra effort but many times they will do it as long as the teacher demands it.
Yesterday I was observing the science classes and I felt so sorry for the children. In biology they were reading about Spirogyra, which reproduces through fragmentation. A student wanted to know how it happens. The teachers said it just happens. The girl was silenced. It is not the fault of the teacher. That is all she has been taught.
Many of the biological principles can be taught by experiments. Instead the students sit in a blank room memorizing photosynthesis, starch production, and principles of genetics, unaware how you can relate it to the world outside you.
Yesterday I was really itching to step in at some point.  I would love to teach and see if I can make the change but I am also scared that I might bite off more than I can chew. Making a commitment like this implies that I should be ready to fulfill it.

Herta Muller- In translation

Herta Muller was awarded Nobel Prize in literature in 2009.  Vani Publications decided that her novels would be appropriate for translation into Hindi and approached my colleague in the German Studies center. Yesterday was the book release of the Hindi translation of her book Atemschaukel (English translation: The Hunger angel; Hindi translation: Bhookh ke Vyakaran). Her another book with a long title Der Mensch ist ein großer Fasan auf der Welt (English translation: The Passport) has also been translated into Hindi as entitled "Kaanch ke Aansoo" by the same translators.
After the book was released, the translators read out small excerpts from the book  The first book deals with a protagonist who is sent to the labor camp in Soviet Russia. The book was inspired by what happened to Herta Muller's mother (she too spent 5 years in a gulag) and by the experiences recounted by poet Oskar Pastior.  The description of the gulag was just too vivid. They read out a section where a woman is killed in the labor camp and the violence that she describes was just horrific.
The second book, frankly, I could not understand.  The excerpt was about an apple tree which starts eating its own apples. I could not make it out whether it was a parable or was it an allegory. 
Later, my another German Center colleague told me that both the books are difficult to read and if the first book made sense then the credit should go to the translator.
 Listening to Herta Muller's books made me realize that Maxim Gorky and Fyodor Dostoevsky were positively cheerful, jolly old fellows in comparison to her.
Will I read Herta Muller? I do not think so. Or maybe one day I will. After all I did manage to read Mother by Maxim Gorky and Crime and Punishment by Dosteovsky. On the other hand I could not read University Days by Gorky or The Brothers Karamazov by Dosteovsky. Though I think in all fairness it was the names in The Brothers Karamazov that did me in.
So I will wait and see whether I ever gather up enough courage to read Herta Muller.

Cider with Rosie- Book Review

Laurie Lee was born in 1914, just at the beginning of World War I. Cider with Rosie is his famous book and my brother recommended that I should read it. I had the book but somehow never got around to reading it, primarily because I am always wary of books recommended by my brother (except of course Wodehouse). I do not like gloomy books and my brother has a tendency to like art house movies. There is no connection here but since I associate art house movies with gloominess and did a little bit of extrapolation- there you have it.
Anyway, I started reading it these Diwali holidays and I was hooked. It is simply a wonderful book and I can understand why it is a recommended text book.  His uncles reminded me of my own numerous uncles each one with an endearing character.  The village school was somewhat like and yet nothing like the school described by Miss Read.  Miss Read comes across as a sympathetic character but of course it is written by the teacher whereas if the students were made to describe their teacher they would probably turn out to be somewhat like Miss Crabbe and Miss Wardley. It is a matter of perspective after all.
But most of all I simply envied the fact that he grew up amidst the greenery. Life was changing- in few years motor cars would become a common sight. But during the period he describes, life was still slow, tar roads were still uncommon, and there was all that greenery.  I know I am lucky to live within the University campus and that my bedroom opens into the jungle and that I can feast on the greenery any time of the day but I also know that all this temporary. The rate at which new buildings are coming up on the campus all I will see one day is red brick buildings.
There are two more books in the trilogy.  Flipkart has the second book in this trilogy so that is now on my 'to purchase' list.

Deepavali- The festival of lights

Today is Deepavali in the North India. We celebrated it yesterday as the South Indians celebrate it for the killing of Narakasura by Krishna.
The fire crackers are being burst enthusiastically by the children. My neighbours were murmuring that the firecrackers should be banned. Child labour, they are saying.
For me the issue of child labour was brought home by my aunt, the writer long time ago when I was maybe 7 or 8 years old. She visited us one year either after visiting Sivakasi or after writing her novel "Koottukkunjugal".  I remember she told us the horrors of child labour in Sivakasi and how children were maimed after accidents in the fireworks factory. It was the first year when, if memory serves right, my brother refused to buy firecrackers. My mother was upset because she felt we were breaking away from the tradition. She purchased few sparklers and persuaded me to light them but it was no fun without my brother participating.  In the subsequent years we completely gave up purchasing firecrackers as it was always associated with child labour for us.
I am forever grateful to my aunt for making me aware of these issues.
Happy Deepavali!

Hibiscus

Last year I got a double hibiscus from Rajdhani Nursery and potted it in a pot in my balcony. The plant did not like it and started showing both stunted growth and yellow leaves. In despair, I planted it on the ground and gave it up on it survival.  But the plant thrived and this year it is full of blossoms.  Enjoy!

Chargaff's rule

Teaching the nature of genetic material to the first semester M.Sc students is a challenge since they have been learning about DNA right from school.  Thus, when I talk about Hershey and Chase experiment or Meselson-Stahl experiment they already know about it and are bored.  So I have to find ways to make it interesting for them.
One such thing is Chargaff's rule.
Erwin Chargaff's experiment were a key point in understanding the structure of DNA. He showed that DNA from any organism/cell had a 1:1 ratio of purines to pyrimidines. This was the first rule.  Further, the amount of adenine was equal to that of thymine while the amount of guanine was equal to that of cytosine. This was the second rule.
Chargaff did not conclude that the DNA was a double-helix from his experiments because the nature of DNA was not known at that point of time. His rules were used, however, by Watson and Crick to solve the structure of DNA.  In fact Linus Pauling lost the race because he failed to take Chargaff's rule into account. He proposed a triple helix structure of DNA which did not follow Chargaff's rule.
But the question really is whether Chargaff's rule applies uniformly.  Further, from the data can we always conclude whether the given genome is double-stranded or single-stranded?
The question I posed before the class was what if the amount of adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine each is 25%.  Can you then figure out whether the genome is double-stranded or single-stranded?
It turns out that Chargaff's rule has exceptions. The rule does not apply to single-stranded DNA genomes as well as to mitochondrial genome (one strand is C rich and the other strand is G rich- so the first law does not apply).
The answer to the question I posed is that you cannot predict whether the DNA is single-stranded or double-stranded.  That is the fun and challenge of Chargaff's rule.

Mera Sahara- Site visit to Nithari Village

Nithari shot into fame when the bones of children were discovered buried in the backyard of a house. The owner of the house and his servant were arrested. While the owner walked out free, the servant was held guilty and death sentence was imposed. That sentence has been stayed by the court. In the aftermath of the Nithari incident, the Joint Women's Program initiated set of measures in the Nithari village. The village is mainly populated by Gujjars and migrant workers, most of them illiterate. Their children do not go to school as education is not considered a priority. The girls are especially at risk as they can be kidnapped for selling into prostitution. It is with this at risk population JWP started their Mera Sahara program.  The program offers formal education up to class V and along with girls, it was heartening to note, many boys too had enrolled. The program does try to mainstream the children by admitting them into government schools. I was told today that the education that they imparted to their children was so successful that they were admitted into higher classes in the government. Thus, a class III child was admitted into class V.
The driving force behind the JWP is Dr. Jyotsna Chatterjee, who must be in her late sixties or may be in her early seventies. But she is enthusiastic, dynamic personality with whom it is a pleasure to interact with. Today she told me that she is still recovering from a hip replacement operation but now she has kicked off the walking stick and is able to walk by herself.
Today I also noted many positive points about the project. One, they have moved into a big house that can easily accommodate 100 odd children, a skill training center, and a sewing center. The house has enough toilets (though the village itself has only open drains and when it rains, the waters enters into the houses) and they can lock the main gate keeping the children (especially the girls) safe within their premises. This was especially a problem in their old premise which had no main gate.  The other thing is that the children really are learning. A class IV/V child was reading English sentences written on the blackboard. After she had finished reading, I asked her to explain it in Hindi. She was able to do it, which is really encouraging.  The teachers, I was told, had been given training and since I visit it every year, I was able to note that this time the teaching quality has improved. I was very happy to note that. 
It is difficult for many NGOs to find good teachers or to retain them since we cannot afford very high salaries. So when I see a good teacher at an NGO I am very happy.

Pavazha Malli (Night Jasmine)

It is the state flower of Bengali. My Bengali colleague tells me that Durga Puja is never complete without Pavazha Malli/Harsingar/Parijat as it always flowers during the puja time. I planted a small sapling last year and watched it grow into a fine tree. This year we trimmed it and lo, it flowered right around puja. Today I had enough to use it for decorating. Here it is:

Theyyam- folk art from Kerala

I have been getting emails from the Lila foundation about their lecture series. They had some very interesting people but due to my teaching commitments, I  never found time to attend them. The mid-semester exams came as a boon especially since Pepita Seth's lecture was scheduled for Saturday instead of a weekday. And as Rajinder has a car that I can use any time the whole thing really worked out beautifully. I am glad it did for the talk was fantastic and I learnt a lot about Theyyam.
Pepita Seth is based in Guruvayoor, Kerala. She is a photographer and a writer, who has researched extensively on the temple arts and has written a book on the Guruvayoor temple.  She is currently working on the folk art of Malabar region, specifically the Theyyam tradition. She told us about the Annapurnaeshwari temple of Cherakunnu.  The legend is very interesting. Annapurnaeshwari came to Malabar from Kashi on a boat manned by Muslims. She told the boatmen to wait for her in case she wants to go back to Kashi. The boatmen waited for her and there is a masjid in Cherakunnu where the Muslim boatmen are believed to be buried.
She talked about the traditions especially Theyyam (which is a corruption of Devam) enacted by male dancers. The tradition is now dying ironically because of education. The tradition requires children to be trained into the art and during the season they have to devote most of the day to the art form. No school will give that kind of permission.
The only grouse I had was about the moderator who gushed immoderately about Pepita Seth. Other than that it was a wonderful evening.

Swacch Bharat

With great fanfare Mr. Modi and his ministers inaugurated Swacch Bharat movement yesterday. Today it is Dusshera. The good conquers the evil (I have great many problems with the Ramayana but I will go with the general tone). Crackers have to be burst to celebrate it. Cleaning? Ah!
This is the state in which our park was left after crackers were duly cracked by some of the residents (four boys on motorbike swooped in, burst the crackers, and swooped out despite my telling them that they have to clean it up) of the university. They assured me that it would get cleaned up automatically.

Symbolisms are fine (and I loved the way Mr. Modi has in one stroke rendered both Congress and AAP completely rudderless) but to make our country clean each one of us has to participate and understand. We have to teach our children that littering is simply not okay and that to pick up the litter is not derogatory. Meantime, I am wondering how the litter will get cleaned up automatically.

Dear Committee Members-Book review

Trawling through blogs devoted to books I came across this one- Dear Committee Members by Julia Schumacher.
It is a series of hilarious (and somewhat sad) set of recommendation letters written by Jason Fitger, Professor of Creative Writing and English. We learn his story (once considered a promising writer but now divorced and a forgotten writer who survives on his teaching) through the recommendation letters he writes for his students and colleagues. All those of us who have to write recommendation letters on daily basis will sympathize with him as he is bull-dozed into writing a letter for a student whom he has known only for 11 minutes (10 of which were spent in her convincing him to write a  letter on his behalf). As the University tightens its budget and slashes hiring (ah! don't we know about it? It was such a panacea to know that there are others who too struggle when the university tells them that there is no money), he struggles to get fellowships for his students. Through that emerges the story of his student Darren Bowles, a student with whom he empathizes possibly because he sees in him his own younger self.
The first half of the book was truly hilarious (my best part was when  the plaster of the department roof caves in on a student. I experienced the same in my old residence and which, I suspect, the University still has not repaired. I prudently moved to the newer flat which was offered to me at that time) - the second half turns serious with a twist that I, at least, did not foresee.
I purchased the book on Flipkart who sell it as a e-book. E-books are fine but I missed the pleasure of turning a page and curling up with it. 

Shrikhand

Shrikhand is an acquired taste. I remember eating it for the first time in Baroda. I was unsure about it. I am still unsure about it. I think it is okay in small teaspoonful doses but not in larger quantities.
Today I made  Greek yogurt. After making yogurt parfait, I had some leftover yogurt and on the spur of the moment decided to make shrikhand.  Basically, you need to beat powdered sugar and cardamom into the curd till it is smooth as silk. You can add nuts- I added almonds- as well as saffron-which I did in miniscule amount, so that it still retains the white colour of the yogurt.

A visit to jail- Site visit for Samarpan foundation

I am terrified of jails.  So when Asha Berkeley asked me to do a site visit to Samarpan Foundation, I thought I had finally the opportunity to get rid of my terror.
Samarpan Foundation has many projects across the country and one of the projects is in Tihar jail where they work with the inmates (both undertrials and convicts). They started this project by helping out the family members of the inmates (getting them ration, providing assistance for education, house rent). After a year or so, the welfare officer at Tihar Jail called them in for a discussion and asked them to work with the inmates. They have been working at Tihar Jail for the past 4 years.
Tihar Jail, which is largest jail in India, has 7 jails. Jail #2 houses the convicts while jail #4 (the largest) houses both undertrials as well as convicts. Jail #7 houses the teen convicts. There is one jail within the complex for women prisoners. Entry is restricted. I could enter only because the volunteer spoke the superintendent and got permission for me to accompany her into the complex and observe her work. You cannot take any money or mobile or anything into the jail complex. The guards were very nice because they knew the Samarpan Foundation volunteer. I was, therefore, ignored and could observe the work without being bothered.
The foundation volunteers do faith healing for the inmates. What I understood from the volunteer was that the healing involves removing negative energy from the patient and infusing positive energy into them. The healing started right at the entrance when the guard recognized the volunteer and asked her to heal him.
The jail complex itself is very clean and neat. The jail is woefully understaffed and therefore, the inmates work in the office premise in various capacities. The convicts are trained in various skills depending upon their interest. Within jail # 2, for example, there is a meditation room, a music room, a library, a literacy/education center, a radio station which plays music through the day. There is also a dispensary but the doctors seem doing nothing other than handing out painkillers.  The superintendent of one of the jails told me that they very badly need dentists or dental clinics as well as spectacles for many of the inmates. They also need lots of computers both for training purpose as well as for official work.  One of the jails has 6 computers which were donated few years back and 4 of them are now unusable. So computers is one of the major requirements.
The faith healing has instilled as sense of confidence in the organization both amongst inmates and the personnel manning the facility.  The inmates open up to the volunteers and tell them their problems. Very often the pain they feel has a psychological connotation. They are often worried about their family especially those who come from economically poor background. When the foundation takes care of their family they begin to trust them and tell them about their problems. Today for example, one person was worried. He had a headache. He has been having it for few days. You see his release papers have not come. It turns out that LG of Delhi has issued orders to release undertrials who have been put in prison for a very long time. This particular person qualifies for that and he is now worried that his papers have not come. So the volunteer healed him and said the papers will come soon. He went off relieved. He just wanted somebody to listen to his problem.
Samarpan foundation also has conducted inter-jail quiz competition which was evidently a success because one of the assistant superintendent was describing it with great enthusiasm. The foundation is planning to now to work with the teens but I could not visit them as the superintendent did not give permission.
One thing I realized was that the smooth functioning of the jail depends a lot on the superintendent. If they are good and enthusiastic, a lot of reform can take place. If they do not care, nothing gets done. The reform of Tihar jail was of course started by Kiran Bedi and it is still continuing.

Why can't the Indians teach their children how to behave?

I am feeling as frustrated as Professor Higgins did in My Fair Lady when he sang "Why can't the English teach their  children how to speak".  The frustration has been building up for quite some time now and it makes me angry when I see the people around me lack even the basic courtesies of life.
The immediate provocation of this blog, though is quite simple. I walk through the narrow path cutting through the jungle to go back and forth between my work place and my apartment complex. This is one of the delights of living in the University campus. It is peaceful and serene, I can observe the birds and if I am lucky, I will catch sight of the nilgais. However, very often I will also meet other travelers. If I do, I will stand aside to let them go. But never do they acknowledge the fact or say a simple thank you for the courtesy I am rendering. Once, in fact, the person actually pushed pass me and did not even bother to say sorry. And never will they stand aside to let the other person pass through. It is almost as if it is their right to have the right of passage.
Why can't we learn basic courtesies like Thank You, Sorry, and Please?
I am not alone in this frustration. My colleague expresses the same thing. She often takes the lift as her office room is on the fourth floor of our building. If the lift stops at a floor, and there are many people getting out, she will keep the door open by pushing the button on the lift. She will also often wait to allow others exit before exiting herself. As she ruefully noted, not one has ever bothered to say thank you to her.
It extends to other spheres too. The footpath is always unusable and if it is useable condition few enterprising motorbike riders will use it as a road. You can observe it when there is a traffic jam or  at the red light. If a pedestrian dares to use the footpath it is that person's fault not the motorbike rider's.
Take the queue. Invariably it will be broken. And if you dare to point out that there is a queue, you are the person who is in the wrong. This has happened to me at the milk booth many times. Few of us will be standing in the queue waiting for our turn to be served when an interloper (really, I cannot call them anything else) will barge in and demand to be served before any one else. If you point out that there is a queue, they will either ignore you and continue their demand or will continue to stand there by saying okay, the vendor can serve me after you (just because I am protesting I suppose). There are few who will sheepishly join the queue but it always makes me wonder.  When I see all this, I always think of those old Hindi movies where they show people standing in a queue at the bus stop in Bombay (watch the lovely song from Mr and Mrs. 55-Dil pe hua aisa jadoo or the wonderful song from Chitchor- Janeman Janeman and you will realize what I am saying).
There is also my other pet peeve- punctuality but that is another story.
So tell me why can't we teach our children how to behave? Why can't we learn the basic courtesies of life?

Teaching DNA structure

The first class I do with every new batch of M.Sc students is on structure of DNA. Every year I struggle to get the concepts across. Accustomed to memorizing and believing that the DNA, as shown in the text book, is a 2-dimensional rigid structure, it takes a lot of effort to demolish these myths. At the end of it I am not even sure whether I demolished the myths and made them realize that the DNA is a dynamic 3-dimensional structure.
There are two concepts that I find exceptionally difficult to get across:
1. The double-helix is a consequence of polymerization.
2. The major and minor grooves arise as a consequence of inherent asymmetry in the double-helix structure. The glycosidic bonds are at 120 degrees. If they had been at 180 degrees, it would have been a symmetric double-helix and consequently the grooves would have been equal.
I do lot of crochet and decided to use it to illustrate both these points. Anyone who does crochet or knitting will realize that the first two lines are the most difficult to do. In crochet when we make a long chain, it has a tendency to wrap itself into a helix shape. Similarly, in knitting, the first two lines will always wrap themselves in a helix. So here is my model of DNA using crochet.

It is very simple. I made a long chain. Then I started working on the first row using treble crochet (wrap the thread twice around the needle and draw the hook through the chain such that you will have four loops on the hook,  bring the yarn over the hook and draw hook through first 2 loops, yarn over and draw the hook through 2 loops, yarn over and draw the hook through remaining 2 loops), ch, treble crochet till the row ended.  As one does this, the crochet pattern will start forming a helix. And since the stitches are at 90 degrees, the grooves formed will be equal in size.
I used this yesterday to illustrate my point on DNA. I like to think that the students got the point. I will know only when I correct the answer scripts.

Yogurt Parfait (Or Wake up to the Smell of Yogurt)

When I last visited my brother and his wife in UK, they were kind enough to get me fruit yogurt to eat in the morning as I cannot abide either tea or coffee.  Those days there was an ad airing there for a particular brand of coffee that went : Wake up to the smell of coffee.  I parodied it to Wake up to the smell of yogurt.
I have an on-off relationship with yogurt. When my allergies become bad I stop eating yogurt as it aggravates it.  When the allergies subside I start eating yogurt again. This is my on season and I noticed that the shops are selling yogurt parfait. Pretty expensive stuff for something which is essentially layers of yogurt alternating with fruits and granola.  As it is very healthy  I decided to make it at home.  All the recipes I found on the internet called for Greek yogurt which turns out to be nothing other than yogurt without whey. This is the same thing that is used for making shrikand.
So I strained the yogurt overnight in the refrigerator. It can be done at room temperature too but the yogurt acquires a tart taste, which I dislike.  In the morning I had a nice creamy yogurt which I layered on a glass bowl. I used Kiwi fruit and granola for the layers. I added honey as sweetener.  I refrigerated it for a day to soften the garnola  before having it for breakfast this morning.

This can also be had as dessert. You can add any fruit.  You can add chocolate chips or coconut shavings or nuts or raisins. 

Lilies and Tulsi

Now that the monsoon has finally hit Delhi, my white and yellow rain lilies have started blossoming.
Here they are:

Nanku Ram and I also discovered that some Tulsi seeds have sprouted. We are allowing them to grow though I do not know how it is going to survive the bitter cold. All my attempts to nurture the Tulsi through the winter has failed miserably.

An aside: I am glad that the Indian bureaucracy has been very efficient and issued an Aadhar card to Hanuman.  I hope they do a similar exercise for the entire pantheon of 33 crore Hindu Gods.

Hostel issues

While returning from Nehru Place (my laptop crashed and I had to give it to Toshiba Service center) I noticed that the new hostels in IIT are multi-storied. The one facing the road had 8 stories and I was impressed. We are building new hostels too but as we believe space is not a constraint we always go for horizontal expansion. So the new hostel will be 4-storied. The rationale being provided is that otherwise lifts will have to be installed and one never knows with the lifts. I would have thought that since we have such shortage of hostels, we would think ahead and build a hostel that would be at least sufficient for few years. But of course I am wrong. The idea is to keep building because that is where funds are. Few years ago I did dare to suggest in informal conversations that the old hostel buildings (which look more like slums than anything else) should be either razed or renovated. I was told categorically that while funds are available for building new hostels none are available for renovation. This is in keeping with policies of other funding agencies too- we always get funds for purchasing new equipments but none for maintenance. So when equipments break down we scramble around for funds. Worse is that we get no budgetary allocation for hiring personnel for running these equipments. Very often we make a deal with the company- along with the equipment you will provide a person to operate the instrument for three years. After three years we are back to square one.
I was also told that the hostels in the institutes have laundry machines and I thought it was a wonderful idea. When I said so I was told that as per UGC rules we cannot provide laundry machines. Also the rules state that each hostel room can have only one fan and one light. Someone should remind UGC that the world has changed. But given the fact that they are too busy trying to impose strict rules about what kind of degrees can be given I guess they do not have time for anything else.
Meantime the hostel mess in the university continues and most of our students do not have hostel rooms. They have been instead provided dormitory space. As far the students travelling from far-flung areas of Delhi, they cannot even aspire to this facility. So the poor kids travel 2-3 hours everyday each way sometimes trying to get to their classes/labs.

Patty Fairfield-review

When I am bored out of my wits in the office-there are many such occasions-I try to read book. The Project Gutenberg is a wonderful place to browse through. They have, for example, almost the entire collection of Angela Brazil. She wrote schoolgirl books which were as bad as Elinor Brent-Dyer's books. Enid Blyton's Malory Towers and St. Claire's were way superior to the tripe that these two turned out.
However, Project Gutenberg collection is huge and difficult to browse in entirety. There is a wonderful blog called Redeeming Qualities that I read to get pointers about which books might be worth reading. It is thanks to this blog that I  have read the delightful Patricia Brent-Spinster and Melting of Molly and other lovely books-books that make you laugh and feel wonderful and sunshiny (Not the blazing heat of May but the gentle sunshine of February).
Today while I was waiting for my student to edit her paper I decided to read Patty Fairfield books by Carolyn Wells. There are 17 books in this series and I started with the first one- Patty Fairfield. As plots go there is none.  Patty is a 14 year old girl who lives with her father in Virginia. She has 4 aunts living up North and her father sends her to visit each one of them for a 3 month period. At the end of the year her father plans to sell his business and move back North. Patty visits each of the aunt in turn and learns about proportion in life. The first aunt is all about money and does not care about anything. The second aunt is all about literary life while the third aunt is all harum-scarum so that nothing gets done properly. The fourth aunt is, however, all about correct proportions and so Patty learns at the end of the year that in life one should have a sense of proportion. The book is sort of like Goldilocks and three bears. It was a fun read, something that drove the boredom away.  My student has not still edited the paper so maybe I will dip into the other books in the series.
One thing that stood out when I read the book and then thought about all the other girls books I have read written at the turn of last century was the emphasis that these books placed on the idea of womanhood. The girls were sent to school and there was emphasis on sports but the idea was that the girl should grow up to be healthy and well-versed in all the household activities. Even if she earned her living like Anne of Green Gables does, at the end of it she has to get married and have a family and take care of them.  So the school in a sense is the training ground for the girl to acquire all these traits. In fact it is a theme that recurs even in Enid Blyton. Miss Grayling, the headmistress of Malory Towers, tells this to the girls on the day they join the school.
It is very fascinating to read it in today's time. I wonder what I would have done.

Showing respect

I had planned to write about LPG subsidy but then I saw the horrific headline about a boy's hand was chopped off because he did not show respect and changed my mind. So today I want to address this aspect of showing respect.
The incident I am talking about happened in Tamilnadu where the panchayat head's husband felt insulted that the boy did not stand up when he walked past and as a punishment chopped off the boy's hands. The boy is just 17 years old.
I have never understood this aspect of showing respect. I get very irritated when students try to touch my feet. I always stop them. I thought we should show respect only to God. At least that is what my parents taught us.  Oh, we were asked to do our namasakarams to the elders but they really had to be old. I do not remember, as a child, ever doing namaskaram to any of my mamas and mamis. My parents did it but they did not ask us and we did not do it. We do not even do namaskaram to my parents!
The thing is that one cannot demand respect. Respect has to be gained. This is a point we often miss out. Instead showing respect is all about ego and hierarchy. I am older than you and therefore you should touch my feet, never mind you might be cursing me in your heart and behind my back. And if you do not show me "respect" I will be so hurt that I will harm in the worst possible way. Or as the Hindi proverb says it Nani Yaad dila denge. There you go!
This showing respect aspect, I believe, has stopped us from questioning the elders. In the scientific community I see it all the time. We will not question the senior scientists however wrong they might be. I won't critique them. Instead I will bow down meekly so that their ego is massaged and they feel they are respected. I will do this because I know the punishment is going to be harsh. My grants will be stopped, my promotion will be stopped, my career will be braked.
Then we grumble and moan that science is lagging behind. How can it progress when we don't allow our students to question. My data might be correct but my interpretation might be wrong. Shouldn't some one point that out? Why should I feel especially hurt if it is someone junior than me? Maybe he/she has seen something that I have missed out. The bottom line is that we can only progress if we question.
This is whole thing about showing respect and not questioning is so antithetical to what the Upanishads propound. I bring up Upanishads deliberately because that is another thing we are so fond of- Every written word is so scared that it cannot questioned and our traditions are so great! 
The entire Upanishads is in the form of question and answer. So tell me why we can't be free to question? Why do we have to constantly show respect to elders?

Palak Dal

Yesterday I cut the first spinach crop. I planted it in June and went to Chennai for a break. When I came back all the saplings had dried up. Nanku Ram said that the heat had been too much for it and we will now have to wait for the rains before attempting anything more on this front. But when the first rain came the plants too sprang back into life. A fact we discovered while weeding that area. Here they are after the rains:

And my first batch harvested and washed:

Nanku  Ram told me to put it in the dal. So I made palak dal today using toovar dal. I got the recipe from Hare Rama Hare Krsna cook book. It called for tomatoes but I eliminated it.  I just did a tadka with cumin seeds and sambar powder. Finally I added some lemon juice. The recipe does not call for sambar powder but I told you I improvise depending on my mood.
Meantime, we uprooted the bhindi plants after harvesting the last crop. I thought I would never say it but I do not want to see bhindi for some time.

Toilets for all

I do not listen to speeches on Independence Day or Republic Day. They are too boring too nonsensical. But today I decided to listen to Mr. Modi. There has been lot of curiosity around him. What kind of speech would he make? Will he announce policy decisions? Will he speak in Hindi or English? Will it be extempore?
There were two points I liked. One was on women safety. He was right in asking whether  the parents ever dare to put the same kind of fetters around the son that they so blithely put around their daughters. They ask the daughter where she is going, what she is doing but do they ever dare to ask their son the same questions.
The other issue is about the toilets.  I really feel sorry for the women who do not have access to toilets. I had to face it only once in my life. I had gone for a site visit to villages around Kushinagar. The people who took me said that we will stay there overnight. Then, little diffidently, they said that it would be difficult for me because the toilets will not be up to my standard. It was only later that night I realized that there were no toilets. It was a big house. There were daughters in the house. There was a minimal toilet which no one used in the night. Actually, it was used only for emergency. I was not an emergency and I had to do what others did. It was an experience that I hope I never have to repeat.
As we went around Kushinagar that evening, I saw women going towards the field as soon as darkness fell. That was their private time when they could be sure that no man would see them 'go'. Worse, most women do not drink water through the day to avoid going to toilet. The end result, is as the PM said, they have so many diseases. Primary amongst them is the kidney stone for which they have no cure.  The only way to get rid of kidney stones is to drink water which they cannot.
The worst time for them is when they have their periods. Further, one of the major cause of girls dropping out of school is because of lack of toilets.
So I applaud the PM when he says that he wants to see toilets built in every school and he invites the corporates to participate in this process through their CSR funds.
But I want to tell the PM that building toilets is not sufficient. What you need is to also educate the people on two matters: one is on how to use it and second, that it is not unclean to clean the toilet ourselves.
I know many NGOs who work on education sector, including Asha for Education, cannot fund building toilets. But can they take up the other two tasks?

Flowers from my garden

Need I say more?

Let us throw the bath and the bath water and the baby out

Apparently the honorable MPs raised the issue of four year undergraduate program in the Parliament. Smriti Irani has responded by saying that UGC has issued notice to IISc regarding its four year undergraduate program. I read about it in Abi's blog Nanopolitan. I suppose we should have anticipated this but... After all we are great believer's in one size fits all.  The IISc program is quite different from DU FYUP though the problem remains what do these students do after 4 years of B.S program. I guess most of them will end up going abroad.
The DU FYUP ended up being the confused program ever envisaged and executed. The VC and I suppose the then HRD minister were unsure what they wanted. If they wanted the American system then the students would have the freedom to choose their major and minor subjects after two years of college. Instead in FYUP, you had to declare the major and minor subject right at the start which implies there is no freedom.  The second point that led to its demise was its failure to take the stake holders along. Truthfully I feel sorry for the VC for in a system as vast as the DU it is difficult to get everyone on board. Frankly, most of the University/college teachers work under horrendous conditions and there is no motivation. Even if they had been passionate about teaching few years down the road they lose that. Many of them of course have no passion to begin with. Under this circumstances they are happy to plod along as ever. When faced with FYUP which was being thrust down on them they objected. And the present government obliged.
However, to throw all the four year programs out without even analyzing and asking whether we need to rejig our education system is plain stupid.
We, of course, do not teach undergrads but our post-grads are usually DU products. When FYUP was introduced, our anxiety was about our catchment area. Who will come to our M.Sc and Ph.D. programs.  I had a chance to ask Prof Lakhotia about the FYUP when he came for the 40 years celebration to the School of Life Sciences.  I remember he said that he had been on the committee that had recommended the shift from 3 year to 4 year program. They had introduced all safeguards including recommending 1 year M.S program. Of course in the haste to implement the FYUP, all this was forgotten and what we got was the mess.
And now the extension of it is-- let us throw all the 4 years programs out.
What was UGC doing when it first gave the approval?

As an aside: For the first time, I did not want to teach this year. I have no motivation left after fighting for promotion and other things.

The UPSC row and all that

My student is searching for a place to stay as he has to vacate the hostel after submitting his thesis. I asked him today how is the search coming along. The easiest place, where the students flock, is Munirka. He said he will not be shifting there. He and couple of his batchmates went to search for a place in Munika as they all  need one. The landlord's agent asked my student where he was from. My student said that he was from Manipur. The agent told him that the landlord is not looking to give the room to people from his part of country. His batchmates were ready to pick up the gauntlet (our students are ever ready to fight for equality and justice and I am proud of that) when my student pulled them away. There was no point he told them. He would not shift into a place where he was clearly unwelcome.  Hopefully, he has found a place in Ber Sarai. I hope so.
I am highlighting the episode to talk about how parochial and insular we are. I know that it existed because in the US I have experienced it. There would be an Indian association, and then a Tamil association, a Kerala association,  Marathi association and ad infinitum. But when you experience the racism at such close quarters it is frightening.
Which brings me to the UPSC row. The protesting students want CSAT scrapped because it heavily favour students who know English. I do not understand why we cannot come up with an aptitude test in all languages but that apart it is the government's response that is appalling. English language test, they said will not count for marks. I  am not very clear what will happen to the students from the North East. But my grouse is that most of the protesters are from the Hindi heartland who are very clear that they are not going to  learn any other language. The three language formula actually says  that we all have to learn three languages. It is a good principle but it has been jettisoned in this concept of MY LANGUAGE.
The problem today that we are facing is that we are highly prejudiced, highly racist and do not want to get out of our comfort zone be it in terms of language, religion, or food. I have had students who claim they cannot go to the South because they eat only rice. Go Figure!

Antibiotic resistance in India

Yesterday I went to the pharmacy to pick up cough syrup and few lozenges for my throat. The pharmacist, incidentally the pharmacy is attached to a hospital in Vasant Kunj, gave me Cofdex manufactured by Cipla. Back home I took a dose as recommended and I must say it was good syrup. Within few hours the pain in my throat had eased.  It was at this point I examined the bottle and found Schedule H warning printed on the bottle. Essentially, the pharmacist cannot sell this cough syrup without prescription. I had no prescription.
In my lab we routinely use antibiotics like ampicillin and ciprofloxicin. We are supposed to purchase these antibiotics from sources like Sigma which sell them for laboratory use only. You cannot consume it. However, they are expensive and tedious to obtain. When I first started my lab I did try to get it from a chemical company but later found out that both can be purchased from our pharmacist. My jaw dropped because in the US antibiotics are sold only under prescription. I was told here at the pharmacist in the campus one can obtain antibiotics without prescription. They are cheap and available at all times. We get it from him.
There was a hue and cry when the first report of NDM-1 strain emerged. The government predictably wanted to deny the existence of such resistant bacteria in India. Two days the Center for Science and Environment has pointed out rampant usage of antibiotics in poultry industry. The newspapers pointed out that we can become resistant by consuming these chickens while CSE called for regulation.
However, it is all a case of missing the woods for the trees. As long as antibiotics and other prescription drugs are sold over the counter and there is no appropriate punishment for the violators, we can shout ourselves hoarse from the rooftops but nothing will happen. The abuse will continue.   The problems is also compounded by the doctors who prescribe antibiotics for viral fever and the people who expect antibiotics for every ailment. Further, there are people who will not complete the prescribed course. All this is a healthy ground for emergence of antibiotic resistance.
The onus is now on the Health Minister. Will he implement tough laws to deal with this menace and ban the sale of prescription drugs over the counter?

Lemon Yogurt Cake

If it is Saturday it is lab meeting.  Now that the heat has abated I try to make a cake for my students to munch during the meeting. It is something I learnt in Charlie's lab. Lab meeting always had goodies to munch and coffee to drink. The atmosphere was free and everyone asked questions. I am trying to inculcate it in my students. At present they are too much in the grip of Sir-Ma'am culture- a culture I believe stops us from asking questions. So when students join my lab, the first thing I ask them is to stop calling their seniors in the lab as Sirs and Ma'ams. I was greatly helped in this endeavor by Mac, Lal, and Dominic- my first three students. They had the charm and the ability to put the new students at their ease such that soon the new students would forget that Mac/Lal/Dom were their seniors. I hope that the culture persists now that Dominic has submitted his thesis and is the last of the trio to leave the lab.
This Saturday I made Lemon Yogurt Cake. I found the recipe at Have Cake Will Travel blog when I was trawling through to find a easy cake recipe. I liked it because it had no butter (there was no butter in my fridge), no eggs (half of  my students do not eat eggs), and no fancy ingredients. It just used 1 cup of yogurt, 1 cup of sugar (I used a mix of brown and white sugar), 1/ 2 cup of oil,  and flour, baking powder, and lemon zest.  It also called for vanilla essence. Ever since I found vanilla pods I have replaced the essence with ground pods.  It also called for lemon essence which none of the shops had.So I added 1 tsp of lemon juice to give the cake a lemony flavor.  The cake, after it had baked, was chilled in the refrigerator. This morning I made the lemon frosting to give it a festive look. 

You will notice that one corner has been already cut. That is my share of the cake. It was truly yummy. I hope the students think too.
As my father loves yogurt, this is the cake I am going to specially bake for him.

The new Airtel ad

I do have a television. I do not watch it because I find the programs too boring (apart from The Big Bang Theory) and the advertisements make my blood boil. Everybody in the ad is fair complexioned. Most of the advertisements promote fairness cream. The woman does all the washing and the cooking and serves her husband and the kids. The men feature only in the car and the air-conditioner ads. The woman meekly sits beside  her husband as he drives his family around. That is not to say that there are no ads with women driving cars- but they are single and therefore, to be pataoed. You get my point?
That is why I have not seen the airtel ad. But Firstpost has an article and the ad on their website. So I watched it. And I wished I had not.  Much like I wished I had not watched Excuse me Mr. Kandasamy- my brother is going to pay heavily for pointing out this song to me.

Anyway, I watched the ad and I have questions:
1. I would like to meet the woman who is energetic enough to cook up all those dishes after a long day in the office. I want to know the secret of her energy. Maybe I will then feel like dishing up lovely dinner after a day with my students.
2. If the roles were reversed, would the husband have done the same?

I suppose I should be thankful to small mercies that at least they showed that the woman was the boss but I am not. All that the ad says is that even if the woman is doing extremely well in her career, she still has to come home and cook food for her husband. 

Oh, the worst ad?  There is this surf excel ad that pops up whenever I listen to music on You Tube. The ad ends with this boy saying "Tell mummy about the new surf excel" Garrh! 

Let us talk of many things

The title, of course, comes from my favorite poem 'The Walrus and the Carpenter'.  I used to blog at scribblesside.blogspot.com but I cannot sign in anymore to that blog. Hence a new blog and a new beginning.

The time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things...

I am going to talk today about my garden.  This year my gardener was inspired by the tiny plot of land that I have carved out in my apartment complex. The university gardeners had planted some evergreen plants which I rooted out and instead planted series of roses and jasmines. It was not enough for my gardener, Nanku Ram. He decided that the time has come to plant a vegetable garden. The first vegetable he chose was bhindi.   We planted it in mid-April and by mid-May I was plucking bhindis every day. 

I took some for my parents when I visited them in June end. Nanku Ram also was able to take them home at least twice. 

Today's menu featured bhindi with potatoes. I ate this long time back in the hostel. It used to be, as was norm with most hostel food, unedible. I tinkered around a bit to get it to my taste (not to my father's who believes that bhindi should be perfectly cooked such that no trace of the green color remains. It should, preferably, be black after cooking.  And in this world there is only one person who can cook bhindi to his specifications.  And it is not my mother.).  I also realized, as I was making it today, that I would hopeless giving out recipes because I cook as per my mood. Today, I decided to use panch phoran (Bengali spice) for tadka.  As I chopped the bhindi, I changed my decision and chopped one onion too.  So this version of my bhindi-potato contained panch phoran, onion, and no turmeric.  I heated the oil, added panch phoran, and then the onions. After the onions became translucent, I added bhindi.  It was hot, so while bhindi was cooking, I came out and played few games on the computer.  Once the bhindi was done, I added two small boiled potatoes, salt and one green chilli finely chopped. Few turns and it was done.  Some times I omit panch phoran and instead add cumin seeds. Some times I add a tomato or amchur powder. It all depends on my mood.

But one thing is certain: the bhindi from one's garden tastes heavenly.