Where the mind is without fear

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
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.

These immortal words of Rabindranath Tagore haven't ever been more relevant than now. India, as we speak in plunged into a state of sorrow and anger after finding out about the innocent 5 year old and what happened to her. I don't want to repeat the torture that she went through here but one thing that is seldom mentioned is the amount of types these kind of events keep on happening. I'm tired of calling each of them a wake up call. How many types will we need to be woken up. There is a breaking point to everything. But these events keep on repeating and out toothless laws do nothing to set a deterrent.

Rather than regular debates which we see on TV we need to move on. Laws as we have seen do not act as a sufficient preventive measure for these criminals. And although hanging a child rapist is a amendment that needs to be incorporated into the law, significant other measures need to be taken. One major thing that is not being addressed is the psyche of the people of commit these acts need to be understood. Seeing these stupid debates which pin the blame of porn and bollywood movies is cringing. 

Which brings me to the poem, i started with it as a grim reminder that the above mentioned India is what our forefathers and revolutionaries envisioned. I dont want any person, more so the mothers, sisters and daughters to step out with fear in any city and fear for their lives. Rather these shallow domestic barriers need to be broken and a new discourse has to be thought of.

( P.S. will be expanding this piece into a column with a more focused view)

A Sad Day

As i type this post, the cause that prompted me to write this post saddens me. It could have been so much different. it was just a normal day this Monday morning, Houston was getting hotter by the hour and thus announcing the onset of spring on the city and it all changed as i saw the horrible news on TV. Another bomb attack, again an attack on innocent individuals making a mockery of the civilized world we live in. What have we become?. I thought the society that we lived in was never filled with barbarians. Have we become so barbaric that such attacks keep taking place. I come from a country, India, which has seen some of the worst terrorist attacks in the the last two decades. As the horrifying images flickered on screen, the screams and the scenes brought back sad memories. Memories of youth that had been scarred by seeing these attacks happening in various cities. Somehow the world i remember used to be a very peaceful place devoid of tensions and hatred. 

          The perpetrators of this heinous crime are still to be caught and the law is taking its own course. But like millions in the world, my prayers and feelings go out to the people in Boston who are suffering and going through this terrible tragedy. My heart goes out to families who were waiting for their respective family member to finish the marathon so that they would meet them and congratulate them. What have they done to deserve this?. Among those that the blast consumed, was an 8 yr old boy. Just the thought of him going through this sends a chill down my spine. I have been seeing the analysis of the facts of the case and comments on security lapses and so forth. Although this is very important and needs to be addressed, What bothers me the most is 3 people have lost their lives in such a way that no one in this world deserves too. 
            
            The more i see and hear about these attacks the more aggrieved i feel as with every innocent life lost i feel that I've lost a part of myself. With that lets hope that the Almighty gives strength to the people going through this ordeal. And having seen thousands of people losing their lives to such attacks  I will pray tonight in the hope that civility returns to the world, and it becomes a better place as all we strive for is a little bit of peace. 

I will be praying and i hope you do as well.
-AK

East of West, Ahmedabad is the Best

Not much is written about Ahmedabad nor does it regularly feature in the ‘touristy’ places, if I may call them, of india. But there is so much to Ahmedabad that we don’t know or sometimes even though it is in the known we haven’t explored that part. Now what defines an ‘amdavadi’ (yes we people from Ahmedabad call it ‘Amdavad’ and refer to each other as ‘amdavadis’ ) from everyone else? Yes we are entrepreneurs, love garba, and exist in every part of the world but the major thing that we all love is food. Ahmedabad’s food culture is one of the most underrated food scenes in India. From delicious street food, to suave restaurants to great bakeries and great cafes - it is all here. The influence by various

Culture and religions form the city of Ahmedabad and give its charm. There is a lot ofinfluence of Jain, Parsi, Islamic, Hindu cultures in the living style with a sizeable population of Sikhs and Christians too. Contrary to a lot of beliefs it is quite a cosmopolitan city.

Most people when visiting Ahmedabad, visit the main city and go back. I agree that the western part of the city is upcoming and developing quite rapidly, but for me a visit to the city is incomplete without visiting the roots. The Eastern part of Ahmedabad more famously known as the walled city is where the old Ahmedabad starts and it has a unique charm to it. No other city in the world has the ‘pol’ concept like Ahmedabad. You will find houses lined up close knit with a small lane between two rows of houses. It was said that during the pre-independence days the revolutionaries could jump from one deck to another and go sideways to emerge from a completely different ‘pol’. This is how complex the construction of the pols was. The eastern city boasts some architecture marvels like the ‘Sidi Sayed Jali’, ‘Hutheesingh ni Haveli’, ‘Hutheesingh Jain temple’, ‘Jama Masjid’, the ‘Jhutla Minara’ (where when one minaret was shaken the other one would move as well), ‘Bhadrakali Temple’ and many more. The list is endless. A heritage walk that takes you through the city is highly recommended. The gates of the city like the ‘Teen Darwaza’, ‘Lal Darwaza’ which used to be the entry points of the city are worth checking out. For the foodies, there are lot of options around the old city, apart from the restaurants around two places are a must visit. Manekchowk which has some the best local street food that there is a must go. Open till late in the night a visit in the wee hours is recommended, the energy of the place is the sight to behold. For the meat lovers in Ahmedabad Bhatiyar Gali is a place to visit. About 80% of the city is vegetarian, so there are lots of vegetarian options available and places like bhatiyar gali for the meat eaters.

Ahmedabad along with all of the above characteristics is a city of the festivals. Navratri and Uttarayan are two festivals where the city is like no other place in India. All the other 2 festivals are celebrated with equal joy but there’s something special about these two and
celebrating them in Ahmedabad. Ask someone who has gone to celebrate kite flying in Old Ahmedabad,, it is a sight to watch. The sky with the colorful kites in the morning and the lanterns (tukkals) in the evening is a brilliant sight. On the 14th and 15th of January the life comes to a
standstill and people are to be seen on their rooftops celebrating a unique festival. Navratri is another popular festival in Ahmedabad. The garba continues for nine days making the atmosphere and the energy of the city absolutely brilliant. For nine days amdavadis forget everything and just dance. The best part is going home late on the last night and having some delicious fafda-jalebi as an early breakfast for Dusshera. For amdavadis every festival or an event begins and ends with food.

The old city then was connected with the new city with a slew of bridges where in Ellis Bridge, a historical bridge built in the 19th century, is an interesting site to go to. You cannot leave the city by not visiting Gandhi Ashram and the Calico Mills. Once known as the ‘Manchester of the East’ and having more textile mills than any city in India, the old dysfunctional mills are a grim reminder of the city’s glorious past in textiles.

The new era ushered a new kind of energy into the city. From the cozy city where you would almost always find a known face at certain place was next to impossible now. Gone are the days when you had to go through the small ‘galis’ and now the enormous over bridges and the roads await. Posh restaurants and sprawling malls have risen throughout the city. They say change is inevitable so I welcome this one as well. It’s just that as an amdavadi, I hope that the old charm of the city is not lost. Do I miss the city of the 90’s, a part of me would say “Yes”, but this is a new beginning for the city. It is now that it has become a symbol of aspiration, hope and achievement. It saddens me that people only characterize it with certain events in the city. This is an example of the event when the correct leader and the correct intentions juxtapose and you get great results for the city. The river front projects, the redevelopment of the highways are all examples of how different this city has become. One thing though that hasn’t changed is the spirit of the city. It is said that Sultan Ahmed Shah founded this city when he saw the brave act of a hare chasing a dog. This typifies the city I was born and brought up in.

To me, Ahmedabad is still one of those beautiful cities in India that amalgamates the past so beautifully with the present without changing the character of either. Visit the place and I hope you would fall in love with the city and love it as much as I love it today even though I haven’t
seen it for the past six years.

As posted on kidsfreesouls http://www.kidsfreesouls.com/index.php/kidsfreesouls/guest-column/aadit-kapadia/1056-east-of-west-ahmedabad-is-the-best

-AK

Gujarati Cuisine and Handvo

Known for its economics, entrepreneurship and off late political leadership, Gujarat has a lot to offer in terms of food. The most common myth with Gujarati cuisine is that it is always sweet and all Gujaratis love some sugar in their food. The cuisine is much more than that and ideally Gujarati cuisine can be divided in to 4 aspects: Saurashtra cuisine, Central Gujarat cuisine, South Gujarat cuisine and North Gujarat cuisine. All of them have remarkable influences on an average Gujarati meal or thali as its better known as now.

South Gujarat food is on the spicier side with most of the dishes having a hearty mix of chillies and other assorted spices. The famous ‘surtiundhiyu’ cooked in an earthen pot below the surface comes from South Gujarat. North Gujarat and Saurashtra possess a far more rustic feel to their cuisines and the food is closer to the rural backgrounds. North Gujarat also has Kutch which has its unique taste and is also influenced by Sindhi cuisine. Central Gujarat includes the contemporary Gujarati cuisine amalgamated with the old school dishes. This also has the two biggest cities Ahmadabad and Vadodra. Ahmedabad has two huge influences in the food, the Jain/Vaishanvite influence and the Islamic influence. In the by lanes of the old cities this is quite evident, where the non-vegetarian cuisine in the old city is primarily influenced by the Mughalai and Islamic heritage, the vegetarianism in the city (lots of it) come from the former influence. Vadodra on the other hand although is predominantly good Gujarati fare, has some food influenced by Marathi cuisine since it was ruled by the Gaikwads once.

Some of the famous Gujarati foods include undhiyu, khaman, khandvi and so forth. An interesting thing about Gujarati thalis are that they would always have around 10 or more things prepared. Most Gujaratis love some ‘farsan’ with their food, which are basically different kinds of side dishes prepared with mostly quite basic ingredients. They include khaman, khandvi, kachori and so forth. Another unique aspect of Gujarati cuisine is the now famous sweetness in subzis and dals. Traditional Gujarati dal will have a little jaggery put in and will also have chilli and kokum. This gives it a unique sweet, sour and a slight spicy tinge. In fact Gujarati cuisine has reinvented the concept of sweet and sour foods by the use of kokum. Khaman, Dhokla (yes in Gujarat, khaman and dhokla are two different things); khandvi and other things are quite popular and are used as side dishes or appetizers. Let us know about a dish which is a complete meal and quite easy to make. It is known all over Gujarat as ‘Handvo’.

The concept of this dish is that it includes all the necessary components of a meal namely dal, rice and veggies. Thus it is not only a complete meal, but also very nutritious. Although this has been made in Gujarat for a long time, with new electrical appliances after the 80′s and the 90′s it is much easier to make.

So without further ado here is the recipe of a good and delicious handvo:

RECIPE

Ingredients

Dals

• 1/2 cup Toovar dal (arhar)
• 3 tbsp. urad dal
• 3 tbsp. chana dal

Rice and Curd

• 1 cup rice
• 1/2 cup sour curd (depending on consistency.. make sure that the curd is a little lumpy and it has to be sour)

Veggies

• 1 ½ cup of doodhi (bottle gourd) (it has to be grated)  (If you want to create a mix veggie handvo u can also put carrots, green beans, cauliflower, tomatoes, and some potatoes — (all finely chopped and grated)

Oil and Spices

• Around 6-8 tbsps of oil
• 1 tsp sugar
• 3 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp turmeric (haldi)
• 1 tsp green chilli paste
• 1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
• ½ tsp bi-carb for the salty texture

Salt (as required)

Vaghar (Tadka)

• 1 tsprai (mustard seeds)
• A pinch of hing (asafetida)
• 1 tsp til (sesame seeds)

Serves around: 6-8 people

Procedure

• Mix all the dals and soak them with rice for around 5-6 hours
• After the rice and dals have adequately puffed up; blend them to a flowy consostuency.
• Mix this mixture with the yogurt and let it sit for fermentation. Preferably overnight with normal yogurt but with sour yogurt 6-7 hours should suffice
• Add all the spices with 4 tbps of oil and the bottle gourd and mix it with the mixture
• Take a quarter of this mixture (half if you have a huge tray) and put into an oven baking tray. Make a thick layer and pour about half of the pan because it will puff up. Make sure the tray is adequately greased with oil
• For the tadka, take 3 tsps of oil and put the mustard seeds and let them simmer
• Once they are simmered add the hing and sesame seeds and pour over the batter.
• After pre heating the oven; bake this for around 35 minutes till its golden brown
• Repeat the procedure for more batches

The process of cooking the dals and the curd is long but you just have to mix it overnight, and put the handvo to bake before your meal; it will come out perfectly.

Handvo tastes the best with Gujarati mango pickles, lemon pickles (if you like a little zing), green chutneys and Sugar (since handvo will be on the sour side sugar will taste good),

All these four and a glass of masala chaas and it will be a nice filling Gujarati meal.

As I mentioned before you can always add more veggies and make it a veggie handvo in that case proportion it against the bottle gourd and some increase in the dals.

A new beginning

Been thinking of creating a blog for a long time. Never gave it a serious thought, but i am now thinking of writing and doing something what i'm passionate about and what I've wanted to do for a long time. I will be posting my thoughts on a variety of issues ranging from politics, sports, food, lifestyle, culture and a host of other issues. 

          Being an avid reader i love to read about current issues and writing on them. So starting a new venture with this. i will also be posting my columns on other websites here. i look forward to feedback on my write ups. 

Cheers

-AK