Babban Hajaam

Once upon a time, there was a Raja. The Raja was very nice and people were living happily in his kingdom. Suddenly one fine day, Raja’s barber dies. He was very old and has been with the family for a long long time. So obviously the search began for the next barber who can be the King’s barber. After a lot of search, this post was offered to a young lad called Babban. Babban was conscientious, hardworking and diligent; without coaching or reservations he was selected for the royal snip snip snip. As he did ‘Hajaamat, people used to call him ‘Babban Hajaam’. Babban was very happy. After around a month, came the time when Raja needed a haircut. Till that time, he was busy with cutting hairs of the other members of the royal family.

It was a nice Sunday morning. Babban whistled his way to work and continued humming the newest hit song by the courtesan Billo Chamanbhaar. The Raja too was keeping up the beats by patting with his palm on his thighs. Suddenly Babban paused. The Raja did too. Babban continued but alas, the scissors froze.

Babban baulked again. He rubbed his eyes, pinched himself. But still he couldn’t believe his eyes: Horns on the royal pate? O swami of Hari-ki-Dun! The Raja half-turned and with a straight index finger on a shivering mousatche said – “Sshhhhhhshshsh, if you say another word about this to anybody, that will be the last day of your life.” And thus it wound up, with a scrape scrape and brush brush and talcum powder puff puff, and certainly no mirror.

After this, a peculiar thing started happening. As hours progressed, Babban’s tummy swelled. By late evening, his tummy was of the size of a football. By next day morning, the swelling reached upto his neck and he was looking like a big barrel. By Tuesday, his whole body swelled up and he became like a huge balloon. This was happening because he couldn’t keep the secret for such a long time. At last, the poor lad tried to run but it looked more like he was rolling. He rolled towards the woods. Finally when he was deep inside, he told the secret to a tree. He told the tree – “Raja ke sar pe seeeeeng”. Soon he shrunk back to his normal shape.

But now, the tree started swelling and it swelled well. One fine day, after 6 months or so, a woodcutter was walking though the forest and he saw this tree with a huge trunk. He tapped on the trunk. It gave a nice hollow sound. He thought, “Wow, this makes such a nice sound. This wood will be awesome for musical instruments.” So he cut the tree and gave the trunk to his friend who was a maker of musical instruments. The friend was very happy and gave him a lot of cash in return. The friend made 3 instruments out of it: A violin, a harmonium and a set of Tabla. Soon after he made them, a band of musicians came over and were very impressed by the quality of the instrument and bought them at a very good price.

Soon, one day the singers were called to the durbar of the Raja. It was a great day. It was Raja’s birthday. There were a lot of Durbaris. Nice looking women dressed in the shady kind of clothes that the Apsaras Menka and Rambha generally wear, were serving food and paan to all the durbaris. After a scintillating performance by Raja’s favourite Billo Chamanbahaar, came the turn of these musicians, the rising stars of the kingdom.

People waited with baited breath. The musicians came to the stage and started tuning their instruments. In the middle, while they were checking the sound system, suddenly the violin lifted on its own and started playing by itself:

Raja ke Sar pe Seeeeng.. raja ke sar pe seeeeeeng.

Soon the harmonium also started off:

Kisne Bataya Kisne Bataya

And the tabla started the beats:

Babban Hajaam Ne, Babban Hajaam ne.

All the people in the court fell of the chairs laughing. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men, could not put the courtiers back on their chairs again.

Note: I would like to thank Kaushik Ramu for the bare bone structure of the story

Fastest Egg recipe

Let this thanksgiving be about a few recipe posts from me. Like the earlier one, this one is also pretty open ended and may need a few trails before perfecting. Before I go ahead with the recipe, let me thank my friend Nirmal for introducing this recipe to me.
The main advantages of this recipe are:
1) If you want to eat egg, and not the house smell, you eat egg boiled. This takes atleast 20 minutes. So by the time the egg actually is ready, you have lost your appetite. This recipe just takes 3 minutes literally.
2) If you are a stickler like me who believe in not loading the sink with used utensils, this is a boon, u need only 1 vessel to cook and that too easy to wash. Compare this with an omelette vessel where you need two, one to beat and one pan to fry.

OK, now lets go ahead with the recipe:
Ingredients:

1) 2 eggs.
2) one tsp vegetable oil.
3) Mushroom/Peas etc (Optional) if you want to have something inside your omelette.

Procedure:

1) Take a microwavable stone/china bowl. The bigger base, the better.
2) Break the eggs in the bowl, add salt, optional veg and beat it for sometime.
3) Pour oil along the edges. The lesser the better.
4) Microwave for 2 minutes. You can take it out after one minute, scramble it a bit and put it back again.
5) Scrambled egg is ready. No smell, no vessel, you can eat in the same bowl.

Recipe: ShimlaMirch-Aaloo Ambajhari (Indian gravy based Capsicum and Potato)

After a long long time, I did something I really wanted to do. I cooked the way I wanted. It was nothing like slight variation. But definitely a mix and match of many different recipes. Lets call it ShimlaMirch-Aaloo Ambajhari , a Capsicum and Potato Recipe. If there exists Hyderabadi Biryani and Veg Kolhapuri, why not this. BTW Ambajhari is a place near Nagpur where I was born and brought up)

Ingreditents:

For the gravy:

1) Onion

2) Tomato in any form (paste, chopped, chunks)

3) Groundnut powder (1-2tbsp)

4) Grated Coconut (Only if you like it)

5) Yoghurt (Optional)

6) Chilli Powder/ Green Chillies (Depending on ur palate)

7) Garlic and/or ginger

8) Anything you find interesting to put in a paste form (Cashew, Raisins etc)

For the curry:

1) Capsicum (cut into 0.5 square inch pieces approx)

2) Potato (boiled and cut into small pieces, again around 0.5 cubc inches)

3) Salt (to taste)

4) Any Indian masala ( I tried tava fry masala) 1 tsp (Just for flavor)

Procedure:

As you have already noticed, the quantity is not specified in any of the main ingreditents because I feel it strictly depends on your taste. For example, my onion ratio was a bt on the higher side resulting in a ‘Jhanjhalo’ ( a Bengali word, basically the adjective for reason why onion makes u cry).

1) Put all the ingredients in the ‘For the Gravy’ section in a blender and blend it well.

2) Heat oil in a pan. Add the usual cumin and mustard seeds if you want to, else leave)

3) Pour the contents of the blender in the pan and fry till oil separates. This will take a long time. So you can put salt, turmeric (optional) in between.

4) Add the masala of your wish towards the end stages of oil separating.

5) Put the capsicum and some water. Allow it to boil depending on how crunchy you like your capsicum.

6) Towards the end, add the boiled potatoes, mix well and remove from heat.

It tastes the way you want it to taste, because you have decided the quantities and the products too.

You can do this with any vegetables. Some suggestions:

1) Only Cauliflower (Boil the cauliflower first. You don’t want this raw)

2) Peas and Potato

3) Only Potato

4) Paneer

5) Mushrooms

Dada

Well dada means a lot of things. To me, it means my elder brother Sambaran. To many of the people, in a typical work/society the elder Bengali will be called a Dada. In the roads of Bengal, till sometime back, it was the same as Anna of Chennai or Swami of mangalore. But ofcourse, most likely if you ask anybody, who is Dada, the answer will be: Who else but Sourav Ganguly.

It took some time for me to accept his popularity. I always thought it’s only West Bengal, and seems the truth is not very different. I have even seen many people getting jealous. ( but pretending to be either angry or disgusted or as a big shot of cricket and denounce him). But this is the truth, the way Ganguly is adored in West Bengal, no body will ever be adored in any part of India.

As they say, you have to be there to feel it. I don’t get many chances to go to Kolkata and which coincides with some cricket match, but it is a sight to watch. The whole time Dada is on crease (which thankfully is generally not much), is like some last moments of world cup final. People observe every movement of his, will do ‘ishhh’ on his misses and jump on his fours and sixes. It’s just amazing being with all of these. You can’t dislike him anymore.

Ofcourse then, it’s quite obvious, that Chapell will be considered villain. No way can people forgive him when he did something that bad to their won dada. But it was poor Dravid who also got the wrath of the people for no good reason, simply because he was the one who replaced dada. When I tried to discuss any cricket in these lines with any common person (not some very jaankar kind of), it seemed I am a fool if I think otherwise that Chapell may be right, dravid may be good.

The guy who comes out clean in this case and for that matter any controversy, is Sachin. At a position, when he can command anything he wants, they way he never shows his temper and maintains his image is simply amazing. No wonder people refer him as the God.

Anyway, coming back to Ganguly, I now realize, that the reason for his popularity is that he has been the only achiever for Bengal for a long long time. Amartya Sen, though a Bengali has been too long outside to be considered a son of soil, and so are Arundhati, Jhumpa, Rani, Sushmita or Bipasha. Though you see almost half of the reporters in the news channels as Bengalis (leading the pack ofcourse is Sagarika Ghosh) they are all what we call “Probashi Bangali”s. To add to it, the Bengal politics is in a mess, the govt is in the hands of people whos average age is 70+ and the opposition is a lady who has left her brains somewhere long ago. The recent situations in Nandigram makes matter even worse. In all this, the only good thing that has happened to West Bengal in last 15 years is just Dada. No wonder then why Bengalis react to him this way.

Before I end, just as an unrelated note, have any of you read the recent reports of peaceful demonstrations in Kolkata, which was described as a march by the intelligentsia, the writers, the film personalities and the socialites. I just wonder who constitute the intelligentsia :)

Gujarat riots, Tehelka Expose

I feel so sad, and to a certain extent guilty, about the Gujarat riots. Tehelka has exposed the fact that Mr. Narendra Modi was behind the riots. But didn’t we all know about that? People may have had doubts about the extent of his involvements but rumors never spread out of thin air, and especially rumors this big (not Rani marrying Aditya, for that matter even the initially debunked rumors about aish and abhishek had some base in it). So Narendra Modi is guilty and in this case, less or more doesn’t matter.

People always tend to think the wrong directions or biased opinions in this case. The learned Muslims know the lesser said the better. The illiterate Muslims do what the Qazis tell them to, who in turn are politically inclined. What depresses me is the opinions that the Hindus have. There are fanatic Hindus who went on describing about the barbaric deaths of the people who were burnt in the train. And they tend to justify the riots based on this presumption. There are a bunch of Anti-Hindu hindus (Yes, there are lot of them), who think that the Godhra Train massacre was also self created by the Hindus just as an opportunity to kill the people. In either of these, people are moving from the depth and gravity of the situation to petty finger pointing.

I have simple views. I believe the first reactions of the people are always true. The fast reactions can generally never be painted. So I do believe that something bad happened in the train. But what I DO believe is no matter what happens anywhere, killing people is never a solution. Even though it is in retaliation of something really disgusting. So I condemn the entire Gujarat riots. I know people will agree with me up to this point. Now I will go further and say that though Modi and a few others who may be responsible for the riots, I will, as a human being, consider it as barbaric as the riots if somebody kills these people. Let the justice take its action. (I firmly believe capital punishment should be banished. There are ways to let people live their entire life in repentance and guilt of a terrible crime than just kill them).

I would like to mention the Grahams Staines death. This may be true that the means Graham Staines adopted to spread the word of Christianity were really of the third degree. But that doesn’t qualify somebody to kill him and his children. Again, I tend to believe it’s not Dara Singh who is alone responsible for this. It must be some rich educated hindu fanatic who brainwashed his mind and made hi commit the murder.

The root of all these become very apparent. Lack of good education which should promote clarity of unbiased thoughts. And as my Mom and Dad say, Rabindranath Tagore has written something about every situation, which appears to be true in this case, I end my blog with some lines which I consider very relevant:

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way

into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward by thee

into ever-widening thought and action--

Into that heaven of freedom,

My Father, let my country awake.

A look at Current Affairs

Let's begin with me. I have shifted my base to Natick, a suburb of Boston to be precise. For a living, I work with a software company, but strangely, it's not the typical software company (Oh so Cliché, but it is. ) And I am happy so far and guess that's important.
It's fall and you can see it best here. People go to other states nearby to see the fall colors. This year I am content with whats happening around me . Trees from all shades of green to Red with orange, yellow in the middle stages. Its too good. And what makes it more wonderful is its not same for all trees. So U just see colored trees at random. Its too good.

Next let's go to the Nobel Peace Prize. Well deserved for Al Gore I would say. He did real good work in creating awareness. The movie which I have not seen and the 07-07-07 world wide concert which I have not been to are just a few good moves. It did put the word in everybody's mind, especially in America who just never think of these kind of consequences. In addition, IPCC was the co-winner. IPCC headed by Rajendra K. Pachauri. I don't know to what extent we Indians need to be proud of that fact? Am not very sure! We may congratulate Rajendra K. Pachauri for ths fact, but it can't be a national pride. The worst of this came out in a Hindustan Times disussion panel where Shahrukh was speaking about rising India and what needs to be done for Globalizing Hindi movies. It was quite natural taht he mentions Oscars/Chak De etc. Suddenly this Nalini Singh jumps and asks why didn't you mention Mr. Pachauri. It seems we are ignoring the achievement. Shahrukh Khan was dumbstruck. Apologized and named Pachauri. But I think nalini Singh proved that she is dumb. But I liked her DD shows and thought she wasa good journalist. 1 heartbreak.

Moving on to Harry Potter and Hogwarts Pandal in Salt Lake, Kolkata. Get what happened from the news. I think what happened was good. Indian should know the extent to which copying is OK. I guess JKR would have herself come down and inaugurated the Pandal if she had been asked to. But these people never thought of that. I think lawsuit was an accident, but the court ruling was the best. Go ahead this time, but be cautious from next time. It is very important.
What I didn't like about the whole episode is the reactions of non-potter lover indians. They think JKR is evil. Greatbong is one of them. He has gone way too much with renaming Hogwarts as HagooWarts. I thought he was a good blogger. Another heartbreak.

Lastly, lets discuss the Rizwanur case. As with most of the murders this one too, though a love story murder failed to catch my eyes which generally go to the right side movie section of rediff, first thing in the morning. I read all about it after going through the Jhumur Bose blog on CNN IBN. My views went for one extreme to the other as I first read the blog and then read the comments. What my views stand is this: Whatever happened (murder/suicide) was sad. The guilty should be punished (I am anti capital punishment though). But now let's move on to the Mom-Dad-Daughter and Rizwanur angle. Its perfectly right for the daughter to fall in love with Rizwan and vice versa. They may decide to marry and nobody should stop them. But it's also perfectly valid for Mom and Dad to oppose the marriage. If one can love somebody for no good reason (which is generally true, love looses its meaning if it is with some motive) there is no rule that nobody can hate him. So it's also perfectly alright that they express their displeasure to their daughter. But it should have stopped at that and the parents laying the condition that if you go ahead, we disinherit you. At this point, the girl should decide what to do, to go with heart or brain . In this case because Rizwanur has good earnings as an animation expert, its not a bad idea to go with love and promptly get out of her family. This may be very hard but had to be done. I guess this is what would have happened in the west. But I don't know why we Indians always go for a compromise. The father thought of talking to the police. Who knows if he hired gundas. This is what is going beyond what is needed. On the other hand, the people would have felt bad even if he just disinherited his daughter. This is bullshit because he can do whatever he wants if daughter goes against his wishes and is over 18. he can have cast/money bias. Can't be helped. All in all, the matter should have been left with just the mom,dad daughter and riz.


Anyway enuf of my views. Eid Mubarak. Happy Navaratri and Durga Puja.

The Bunty and Babli age

Rightly depicted in the movie "Bunty aur Babli", this is the age of the small town people as rightly depicted in this article. Dhoni, Pathan, Sreesanth, Amit Paul , Prashant Tamang and most of the Indian Cricket team as well as Indian Idol finalists just strengthen this belief. The IITians are coming from small towns . Mallika Sherawat and Priyanka Chopra are the examples in the tinseltown.

And why am I happy? Because I am a small town guy. And like most of the others I feel a great aversion to the Big City people. The Mumbaikars, the Delhites and the Kolkatans. I do not count Chennai as I haven't seen many Chennites who fall into this hated category. I exclude Bangalore because though there are a lot of people in Bangalore who belong to this category for some particular characteristics of theirs, they are not the "Original Bangalorites", they are migrated.

By the way, what are the characteristics that make me or may be many others averse to these people?

• These people think that that particular City is THE city and life hardly exists beyond that.
• Fashion and looks are foremost in their minds and being non trendy is considered a big sin.
• They expect you to know "Ghatkopar ka CCD", "Sector 18 mall" and "Puja@Maddox Square", but won't even CARE to know any facts about any small town.
• They showoff. They invent their own lingos and expect you to know that.
  
• The girls are most confused. The vague notion that they are being modern by changing a few cosmetic things but in essence they never develop the modern outlook of the west as well as they loose the calm composure nature of the natives.

Ok, enough of this big city bashing. I hate them somehow and I can go on and on about it. But I do see many exceptions. It may also be true that the people on whom I based my opinion does not truely represent the local middleclass/poor population which sadly enough accounts for the major population of any Metro. But then they never make a fuss about Big City/ Small City.

Here are the exceptions. There are ofcourse people in the upper middle class also who behave down to earth/normal according to my yardstick. These exceptions are most welcome when it is this way but I just loose my cool when it is the other way. And this is what happens in Bangalore. The nice, good and simple Kannadigas of Bangalore, they have been in Bangalore all their life beautifying it. And in comes about 1-2 lakh people a year, mostly from small towns but suddenly feeling all high class. These people will tend to act pricey, go for the foreign brands, wear unnecessary sunglass, put all kinds of perfume, deos even if they are just going down Sabji Shopping and then hog around the pubs on weekends.

Frankly speaking even I have been through this mode but soon realized that though i may be a part of it, I do not like it. And now I realize, there is absolutely no harm in staying simple.

Though not very relevant, but I have seen this trend here in US. Guys drink only beer rather prefer beer. I don't understand though I sometimes do the same myself just trying not to different, what is so great about a drink which 1) Doesn't taste good. 2) Doesn't get you high easily. 3)Stinks more than any other and 4) Makes you feel so pissy. :D

Ragging

The recent reports of how a student from Lucknow was ragged and was in hospital compels me to get started on the topic.

Being a hostelite, and surely like every other hostelite I do feel that “Those were the best days of my life…blah blah blah” but I don’t agree with most of them on another cliché statement “Ragging as long as it is not physical, is good for personality development.” I am also surprised that many of the fraternity people here in US where ragging is called hazing also defend the culture.

Though most of my friends laugh back at those first year days, and I can also laugh aloud if I really want to, but I am still not able to forget those days. Just the fear of going to college from high school was so prominent that I failed to recognize the biggest change in my life – leaving parents. There, my mom stood in the balcony suppressing her tears, my friends encircling me waiting for me to break down, and me like an idiot, more afraid of the future, just couldn’t feel the gravity of the situation, I didn't shed a single drop of tear and neither was i sad. Though I think my dad and to some extent my bro are of the braver kind, still I don’t understand how the fear got into me.

On landing in Surathkal, the fear was gone as I realized that any form of physical abuse was not going to happen, but soon the feeling of disgust. This was even worse. I had to go to the ground everyday, just sit or play, but for a person, who doesn’t like to play it was a burden. There were also many restrictions. Don’t go to the beach; don’t go to Surathkal/Mangalore alone etc. etc. It was all done for good so that people don’t get carried away and for their own safety. But I feel, for a person of 17, he better be the master of his own will or of his parents who can contact through phone. We are a democratic country and to curb ones independence is a violation of Fundamental Rights.

The officials think they do a good job. Nothing really drastic happens in our college anymore. But instead, the first years are never allowed out of their hostels at any time. They have to keep a log of their times. All this, for their safety. But what about the independence?With all this though I got the security, there was still the mental fear that I went through, I will never forget though I may forgive. Though I began to like all my seniors, the TRUST never came and neither did any respect for the wardens.

When I came to second year, it became our responsibility. I wanted to make sure that atleast my juniors can trust me and then I can show them the path to freedom. I could show them the towns, the good food places, the most beautiful beaches. But that was not to be. Taking a junior outside was considered a big violation of rules.

Anyway, on the whole, I feel any form of restrictions either imposed by the university or the seniors of the college is a violation of fundamental rights. Instead, people should work on to maintain the independence of freshers and help them in a SMOOTH transition.

Absolutely Random

Call it joblessness or urge to increase post count. I just want to write something. But didn't get many ideas and the ones which I got are too colored or too regional. So i stop it that. Let's see, even at this point of time, I don't know what I will write. It's just that I will ask myself 10 questions which will be like Top 3. ie. Top 3 places etc etc. and they will be my own views of course coz its my own blog. I will try to keep the questions as distinct as possible. Also the best one will have a picture.
Ok Start:



1) Top 3 women Authors:
Jane Austen, Enid Blyton, J.K. Rowling










2) Top 3 places I would love to work:
UNICEF, Infosys Facilities Department,
Keep it simple: Mathworks :)











3) Top 3 beaches I have seen (Haven't seen Many):
Beach next to Cabo De Rama, Palolem, Puri










4) Top 3 songs that come to my mind:
Shanti Ashantagi, Banke Tera Jogi,
Aamaar shokol Niye boshe aachi









5) Top 3 Smells:
Earth after first rain, Nail Polish, Cigarette







6) Top 3 states of India (Based on people):
Karnataka, Kerala, Goa







7) Top 3 places at Texas A&M:
MSC, Bonfire Memorial, Sterling C Evans Library











8) Top 3 topics I like to talk:
NITK life, Harry Potter, Indian films







9) Top 3 things about India's Struggle for freedom:
Quit India Movement, 1857 Sepoy Mutiny, Formation of Indian National Congress








10) Top 3 sportsmen I like:
Christiano Ronaldo, Pete Samprass, Kapil Dev

Tapur Tupur Brishti

It can surely be called one of the bold and selfish decisions I took in past few months and I have done many big things. I got a job, defended my thesis, got a degree completion etc. But it was more like I had to get a job and I had to finish my studies. One thing followed another and it was all done.

It was a simple thing. I got wet in rain. And it was a fully conscious decision. I was in Zachry (My department) and was feeling very sleepy. So I decided to go back home. As soon as I was nearing the exit, I saw it was all dark outside and raining too. But I had made up my mind. I will go in the rain. I did have a 900$ laptop in my backpack but still didn’t feel like waiting. The backpack claimed to be waterproof.

I started cycling. Rain drops falling on my face and everywhere. It was so much fun. Thanks to my mom, I have gone out in rain very less. She just won’t let me. Anyway when you go from home to somewhere, you always have access to umbrellas. The problem is only when u forget to bring umbrella and u have to go back home. So this was the same case.

The rain was very pleasant. It was neither too heavy nor just drizzle, just the right kind. I felt so independent and so happy doing this lil act of bravery.

Lots of songs and jingles came to my mind:

Peter Pater rain drops, go away, go away

Barson re megha megha

Pehli barish bheege honth , nagare nagare nagira oooo

Dekho baarsish ho rahi hai, its raining its raining its raining.

Chai Chappa Chai, Chapak chai, paniyon ke cheente udati hui ladki

Tip Tip Barsa paani.