Banana -chocolate chip cake with peanut butter icing

It all started with an article on NDTV site extolling the virtues of peanut butter. In the end there was a recipe for banana peanut butter cake.  I love peanut butter but I do not trust the recipes from this website because there always seems to be something not quite right about them.  And yet, I could feel the taste of the cake and I knew I had to make it.
I looked up quite a few of the recipes on the internet and then fell on to my tried and trusted banana cake recipe.  I added broken chocolate bar (Dark Chocolate from Amul) as substitute for chocolate chips.
The frosting turned out to be a challenge. I knew I had to beat butter and peanut butter together to create the frosting but I was too lazy to do the beating by hand as I do not have a mixer.  Then I found the icing recipe at this website.  The icing turned out to be little too thin but that was okay because the cake soaked it all up and became soft and moistened.
The next day morning I took 75% of the cake to the lab and gave the remaining to Sumitra for her two boys.
The day was busy as we had a new project trainee (my Ph.D. student, Popy, who is now teaching in Bangalore, sent me her M.Sc student for training) and then there were interviews for the direct Ph.D.  In the whole rush I forgot to inform my students that I had made a cake for them.  But, no problems! When I rushed in around 1pm to tell them about, the cake had been found and consumed.  They assured me that it was good.  And today morning, Sumitra told me that her children had loved it and they had said thanks.  
This is a cake I would love to make again though this time probably with a good thick frosting.

As I walked out one midsummer morning- Laurie Lee

When I told my brother how much I had enjoyed 'Cider with Rosie' by Laurie Lee, he very kindly got me the other two books in the trilogy with a warning that it might not be as cheery as the first one.
'As I walked out one midsummer morning' is the second book in the trilogy and begins with Laurie Lee leaving his home in Gloucestershire and walk towards London and eventually makes his way to Spain because he knew the Spanish for "Will you please give me a glass of water". 
He describes a life that is hard to imagine today. Who would decide on a whim to go to another country and walk from place to place in that country, and when needed money would stand in a corner with a hat and play the violin. People drop in pennies, enough for a meal, enough for a drink, enough for boarding, enough for a day.
The Spain he describs is on the verge of civil war and to it he returns in December 1937 to participate in it as part of the International Brigade- a motley crowd of Republicans.  This brief foray into the war is what he describes in the last of the books " A moment of war." If going to Spain because he knew one phrase was flimsy, then returning back to the country to participate in the war was based on just a whim. He had fallen in love and he wanted to show her...the reason for returning back to Spain to the war is not very clear.  He crosses over to Spain from France and is immediately arrested by the Republican Army because they suspect he is a spy for General Franco.  He escapes narrowly from being executed. There are no heroics. There are no battles. He is eventually asked to leave in January 1938. 
The writing, the imagery that he evokes is voluptuous. The description of a country at war was heart-rending. General Franco, in a bid to subdue the entire country to his will, enlists the help of the German war planes to drop bombs on his countrymen. Hitler is only too happy to oblige. He uses Spain to test how to use war planes to drop bombs on a city.  The cold-bloodiness shook me.

Are our students learning better- the misplaced priorties of the government

There are three news items that propelled me to write this post.  And no, this has nothing to do with Panchjanya, the RSS mouthpiece, declaring that JNU is a hub of anti-nationals.  Anyway, for a change, the VC has given a befitting reply.

1. I read the first two news items on Nanopolitan.  Basically the government is going to give a boost to technology development and has started an IMPRINT program for IISc and IITs.  Secondly they are concerned that none of the institutes (meaning IITs and IISc) are amongst the top 100 and therefore, they are going to boost them with 100-500 crore grant.
2. The second news  appeared in Scroll.in today regarding the learning versus scoring.  With near-perfect scores are our students learning any better? The answer is of course a resounding NO. Just ask any teacher and they will lament how bad the situation has become. The MHRD is worried and therefore, has ordered that the scores should be moderated so that students do not get inflated marks.

The first and second issue are intertwined.  The ranking of Universities/Institutes takes multiple parameters into account. Teaching, Research, publication, grants generated....  IITs basically cater to undergraduates though they do have M.Sc and Ph.D. program.  However, very rarely do the B.Tech students join for M.Tech or M.Sc at IITs.  Usually, undergraduates for universities flock to do M.Tech/M.Sc at IITs. The M.Sc program in Chemistry at IIT Kanpur was considered to be one of the best. IISc does have a selective undergraduate program but they focus more on Ph.D program.  Has the MHRD given a thought as to where will the undergraduates and postgraduates for IIT and IISc come from?  They are going to come from Central and State Universities and if you do not support these Universities, give them autonomy and ensure that the teaching program improves, how will IITs and IISc become one among the top 100?  And extending it further shouldn't the government be paying attention to school education?
And really, by just moderating the marks, they believe that the learning program will improve at school and University level? 
I have given up on the hope that the MHRD will someday become sensible.  They are simply hopeless. 
Oh the icing was the news that the funding for mid-day meal scheme for schools has been slashed. After all if moderation of marks can get the result why bother with mid-day meals for children?

The onset of winter- Rosy Starlings and Shrikes

In this age of silliness -what else can one call it when the Right loonies start taking pot shots at Shah Rukh Khan of all the people.  He might be the worst of the actors (according to my brother he is the worst actor though I remember him in Fauji, a television serial that used to air in 1989.  That is when we girls fell in love with him) but to really equate him with Hafiz Saeed is height of absurdity. I can only think that the Right Loonies like to be always on the front page and therefore, make the most provocative statements just to ensure their five minutes of fame. On the other hand, it is now easy for me to decide not to read the newspapers in the morning. It is really pointless.
Instead I glorify in the annual migration of the birds.  The Shrike is the harbringer of winter.  It has a favourite tree where it sits and calls out- an amazing sight.
This year I am also seeing a black-golden brownish bird about the size of the myna. They roost together in large numbers, are extremely noisy and it is an amazing sight to see when they all fly away together.  The expert in our department, Dr. Surya Prakash, enlightened me today. They are the Rosy Starlings, he told me, belonging to the same family as the myna. They are on their way to down south.  In a week or two, they will start moving. They move back in March/April but apparently they take a different route that allows them to gorge on locusts and grasshoppers.
The two check-dams in JNU are also having the winter migrants. I have to go and check them out.
Meantime, the nilgais ate up my brinjals and cauliflower plants. So we had to put a fence around, which made them so furious that they completely ate up one of my hibiscus plant.
Despite all this mayhem caused by the nilgais, I have managed to save the crysanthemums. They should flower within another week or so. We have also planted nastritiums and allyssums. The poppies are ready for transplant and I have to get petunias, pansies, and strawberries to complete my winter garden.