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.