I AND MY WORDS

Well I was at an event today (I will not say where) and I was hearing these two Australians talk about the carbon tax debate that has split Australia right down the middle. It was a fascinating discussion as I overheard them, as they kept saying that it was about a terrible goof-up and a media fiasco of the Australian federal government that led to this mess in the country. To hear people discuss the impact of green issues on national politics was both an assuring as well as a scary prospect. It was assuring to see how Australia's national debate has been revolving around green issues. This is not to belittle other issues, but countries with such unique environment as Australia should certainly be discussing environmental issues with increasing realization that all issues of development come back and link to the issues of the environment. Moreover, what impressed me even more was the fact that some of those very eager to see the tax to be brought in were entrepreneurs who see it a

And while I stood waiting, the world walked past me And I got left behind While everyone ran around and chased their dreams My dreams got blurred in my own teary eyes While I kept looking around me, trying to make sense of my life The world moved away, its giant strides crushing, unkind And I looked across, straining my neck To see what was left of the world's grind It was a lonesome scene, standing alone While the world walked past me, leaving me behind

Some time since I put in a recipe. For all those who love to eat chutneys and sauces on the side, and who also love yoghurt, this is a great idea. Muji Chetein ( muli chutney in Hindi or radish chutney) is a common side chutney popular amongst Kashmiri Pandit.   What you need are the following: 1 white radish - grated 1/2 tsp red chilli powder 1 tsp caraway seeds (shahjeera) 3/4 tsp salt 400 gm yoghurt 1/2 tsp sugar Simply mix in the ingredients and serve spoonfuls with rice or chapatis . It goes well even with paranthas and makki di rotis . Believe me, its worth a while.

Brahma was furious. He had fired his fierce crystallizer towards the rotten creature, and yet his anger towards the thing that dared to enter his garden and make it look ugly. And yet, even after he had crystallized it, he was angry. It was a strange set of events that had led him to be so furious as to throw weapons in his very own garden. Brahma was fond of gardening. He took pride in the beauty of the various flowers that he, the Creator, had created from the elements of nature; those very elements that he had created by moulding the various molecules and atoms that were moving about without any purpose in this universe. Now, what is Brahma, or who is Brahma, you may ask. Brahma was the force, the matter behind everything, the Higgs Boson itself. It was powerful enough to create everything out of itself, by stripping itself to create molecules so that he could re-engineer them to create new entities. And it was thus that he had created the earth, the water flowing on it, the soil

Well, it is always fun to cook for me. I would in fact say that it is akin to meditation for me, as it gives me immense peace of mind. I had tried a new recipe recently from the gourmet's paradise Sri Lanka, and though it is slightly different from the original, the end result tends to be the same. This time around, I tried cooking pumpkin a bit differently. The need to cook it differently arose from the problem that the cold weather poses - tamarind tends to spoil throats, and everyone is already fighting sore throats and sniffing noses. I recalled something I had seen on television aeons ago, and thought I's try. The end result was wonderful. Wattakka Kalu Pol roughly translates to Pumpkin Curry in Coconut Milk, and the recipe is a must try for it gives you an option of eating pumpkin with rice, something unheard of before. So here goes the recipe. Hope you guys enjoy it. This recipe is for 2-3 people, so just adjust if you want to make it for more people. INGREDIENTS 250

I was driving the car. Having just dropped my mother and brother, I was turning around a sharp bend when a car came around and hit me hard. It jolted me out of my senses, and I was stunned by its impact. I got out of the car at that moment to see the rear totally mangled, looking like a piece of waste metal that is of no use to the smelting workshops and gets discarded. Anger boiled over as I walked in search of the person responsible for it. There were minor bruises on my forehead luckily, and just thenI saw the man, standing there, inspecting the wreck of the car. "You! How dare you do this to me and my car!" I shouted at the driver, running towards him lest he ran away. He looked at me, surprised, as if he had seen a ghost. "I'm sorry madam, but its not my fault. Believe me, I was just sitting by the side and eating some chocolate cookies." He was scarred on the forehead with a big gash, and yet the man had the gumption to pretend that he wasn't respo

Today the Delhi based newspaper Hindustan Times reported the news that Nobel laureate Har Gobind Khurana, the man who decoded the RNA sequence, died on Wednesday at the age of 86. His story is little known to today's Indians, and perhaps life prior to the Nobel Prize is forgotten in India. I am raking up a dead man's past because I want to point out  certain things that happened in his life that continue to happen even today, and we should stop and think for a moment what we have 'achieved'. Har Gobind Khurana's story was like any successful Indian emigrant's story with the typically filmy twist. Very few people would know the fact that he had applied for the post of lecturer with both the Delhi University and Punjab University, Jalandhar. As every successful emigrant's story goes, his application was rejected just because he did not have any political affiliation. My point is that the reason we today suffer intellectual bankruptcy in India even today has