Saturday, December 27, 2008

പരാത്തയും ചിക്കന്‍ kariyum

വഴിയില്‍ കൂടി വൈകുന്നേരം നടന്നാല്‍ കാണുന്നത് എന്താണ്?

എവിടെയും പറാത്ത അടിക്കുന്ന കാഴ്ച. ആരും ചോറ് തിന്നുന്നില്ലേ രാത്രിയില്‍?

Parathas are tasty and crunchy, but are they not hard on the digestive system, might even tear one's colons.
Add chicken to paratha, we are abusing our system
Why not use residual atta (wheat flour after seperating semolina and white flour) which is high in fibre?

Monday, December 15, 2008

Smoke gets into your eyes / Burnt offering

The neighbourhood is just like any Kerala suburb, roads that are not straight, roads that are not roads, just mud tracks, houses of different age, quality and size.

Yesterday, smoke got into my eyes, it came through my son's bedroom balcony. who his burning things this time? There are two possibilities, on the norhern side of my compound there are two neighbours, so it could be one of them. No, out of the two, only one regularly burns his garbage in the back yard.

Now people burn plastics, paper and anything with paper and board in their own compound. Chaps in flats may have contractors doing the job for them through their residence associations.

In burning plastic with garbage, the muncipal corporation is in the forefront, if one one think of a walk in the early hours of moring, one would think, he is in smoke street, the government appointed sweepers are found burning, leaves and plastic , on the street, some times under live trees, killing the trees.


organised, and each one is left to his own, when it is left to dispose off thrash (garbage)

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Thoughts on food

Did anyone say that humanity marches on its belly?
Speakers of Hindustani ( Hindi Urdu mixed dialect) would certainly recognise the saying,
"daana daane mein likha hai, khana Khanawale kaa naa" - translated it means, on every grain, it is written who is going to eat it.

Malayalees say "annam kaathal aaru kadakilla" which means, if you wait for food, you will never cross the river"
Another Malayalam (language spoken in Kerala, India) proverb is
"anna vicharam, munna vicharam,
pinnay vicharam , karya vicharam"

(Think food first, then anything else)
In India and Pakistan, where Hindustani is spoken,
everybody has three priorities,

Roti, kapada and makaan.

(food, clothing and shelter)
So, very often, electioneering politicians, offer the masses,
"roti, kappada and makkaan"
Man is driven by the need for food. We often believe that, the human race, first ventured out of Africa, in search of food.
Any gathering of people, is not complete, unless it ends with a great feast.
Petroleum Development Oman, a Shell joint venture often organises "techtalk@
The talks are often scheduled at lunch break, so that people can be away without interrupting their work. At the end of the talk, lunch will be served. How to ensure that people will shop at the beginning? Serve food at the start time!
Jamal Fruitwala, an employee of Petroleum Development Oman, once visitied Taiwan. He was surprised to note that (so he says) there are no kitchens Taiwan houses! Taiwanese Government does not like the idea of women wasting time in kitchen, instead they should work in factories and add to the gross domestic output. Food could be eaten at food courts everywhere. There will be economy of scale when food is procured and processed for thousands of mouths together.
Singaporeans are Chinese, mostly, that is, there, houses do have kitchens. Since everyone in a family gets out of his house, at 6.30 am, they normally do not cook, rather on descend on food courts and eat their break fast.
Rest of the world could learn from these Chinese communities. When , in a family, both husband and wife are employed, there is no point in cooking food at home. Women need not necessarily go to an eatery, may be they could run a cooperative mess.
Expatriate workers living in camps, in various countries of Arabin Gulf, have no families with them in most case, they live in camps and eat in messes. A typical camp run by Suhail and Saud Bahawan (dealers of Toyota in Oman) had several messes in one camp. There is a South Indian vegetarian, South Indian nonvegetaina ( south Indians mostly prefer rice and curry) North Indian vegetarian, North Indian non-vegetarian (chapathi and dal are the mainstay of North Indians). Employers provide cooks, utilities and utensils, but employee nominated committe would collect money from members and do the buying or raw materials. This particular camp had no Filipinos, where and when there are Filipinos, there would be seperate mess for them.
Pakistanis normally identify and group with North Indians and Tamil Srilankans, if any, would jon the South Indians.
Back to Shell Oil joint venture with Oman Government, Petroleum Development Oman.
A new building was proposed and , part of the drawing had a dining hall which would seat 750 people. No cooking would be permitted in the office building, but precooked food will be served.
The company had 50 plus nationalities (total at Mina al fahal , where head office was) majoriety was Omani Nationals, expatriates were mostly from Shell Holland and Shell UK. There were few Indians and sprinkling of people claiming nationalities as varied as Aruba and Venezuela.
Omanis were themselves, speakers of Swahili, Arabic, Baluchi and Lotya languages. Some Omanis did not speak much Arabic, they were born and educated in Africa. All these people had varied likes and dislikes, so what kind of food would be served. The management had no clue.
An on line voting was conducted and the winner was _
rice and cury