Animals and Ayurveda

I wanted to post about Ayurveda for a long time, so I decided that since the topic is so large, I'll post it in series. I always thought that Ayurveda was about alternate medicine and healing. But to my surprise, Ayurveda is a way of life. Allopathic medicine provides cure for diseases, while Ayurveda tell us how not to get those diseases in the first place. And food is categorised in three catagories, Satvic, Rajsic and Tamsic. I stumbled across this piece on the net and thought that it aptly described the 'Three gunas'.

The Elephant, The Tiger, and The Jackal

"You are what you eat." Ancient Indian texts explain Aahara, or diet, by using the example of the elephant, the tiger, and the jackal. The elephant is a vegetarian. This animal represents the sattvic mind. With Sattva, we can think clearly, and act appropriately, according to the laws of nature. The elephant is strong, gentle and intelligent. The tiger is carnivorous. He represents the rajassic mind, which is action-oriented. He kills and eats animals, which makes him fierce and aggressive. The tiger is restless, always on the prowl. The jackal represents the tamasic mind. Tamas is destructive, but this is not necessarily negative. We need to finish something, complete it, before we can move on to the next. The jackal survives by eating food left uneaten by other animals. He is fearful, cunning, and lazy. Our goal is to acquire the saatvic qualities of the elephant. One way we can do that is to favor a vegetarian diet, and eating fresh foods, beans, and almonds to to increase calmness, clarity and creativity.

*source- CoffeyTalk.com

And you can see the effect of these foods on you body and mind. So judging by the predominant activity you do, its good to eat the corresponding 'Aahara', just even the knowledge of these aspects helps us be more conscious of what we are putting into our body. And its also good to observe which of the 'Three guns' are predominant in us, and you will be surprised that its exactly the kind of food we eat, though not always, that in fact also depends on our individual 'Prakruti' and 'Dosha'. I'll save that for the next post.

Two of a kind

Living with roomates is like having the best of both worlds. You get the care and concern of a parent with delicious home cooked meals. Also no unnecessary nagging inflicted on you as though you were an eternal teenager. And I for one have been very lucky to have two brilliant girls staying with me.

Karpagavalli

If you want to do a crash course on south Indian culture, just step into my house, most likely you’ll be welcomed with a strong aroma of ‘Rasam’, that's been prepared by KK or Karpagavalli. An engineer and YES!+ teacher.

And don't be surprised to find an equally beautiful girl, sporting a gigantic tattoo, working on her macbook. that's Priya, an advertising professional.

Both teach YES!+ workshops, both stunningly beautiful Tamilian Iyers (in fact I share those traits in common trait, especially the beautiful part) and that's where the similarities end.

One cooks, the other eats. One is a fashion diva, the other rooted in traditiona. One the epitome of enthusiasm and zest for life, other, the personification of ethereal calmness. One totally into chic flicks, other, Sci-fi freak (she watched hard core Sci-fi three nights in a row)

Tattooed: Priya Mani

Opposite values are complementary and this is a real, live, practical example.

Now that I’ve created enough curiosity, I’ll leave the rest for you to discover. An easy way will be doing the YES!+ workshop that they teach at Koramangala one from 25th to 1st july, 5-9 pm @ Indian Heritage Academy.


Warning: The above text was NOT written for matrimonial purposes. Please do NOT start spamming my inbox with those intentions (even otherwise spamming is bad!).

Thayir Sadam

Note: this post is dedicated to my brother in the dire hope that he is graced with the ability appriciate finer things in life (meaning, he unfortunatly does not like Thayir Sadam, although he lives in Tamil Nadu)

On a hot evening, after a long day’s work, I get back home. First thing I do is scout my refrigerator for ‘something to eat’. And today, there’s nothing but a packet of curd, probably gone sour, some curry leaves on the verge of fossilising and a half cut pomegranate looking more like tiny blood shot eyeballs.Its hot and I’ve had a long day. And I need dinner.

Its one of those unfortunate days when KK’s (my room mate and a brilliant cook) gone outstation, and I haven't eaten while out on an assignment (that's how I manage dinner). Back to reality. I need ‘something to eat’. My first impulse is to walk down to ‘Raghavendra Upahar’, and pack an Idly vada, which costs 20 bucks. But the very idea of facing that mind-numbing traffic, which took me an hour to get out of today is alarming. My second impulse, ‘order a pizza’, then I remember, how much I’ve been eating out lately resulting in a bowel activities incurable by a dozen Triphala tablets.

I take another peek into the fridge, hoping that out of a miracle, my Mom’s Sambar-Sadam and Thayir-Sadam (Sambar rice, curd rice) would materialise. Tough luck! I guess its a sign that I need to fast. My mind, body and senses protest violently. And I resign to my fate. I need to cook something. What! I mean what if get food poisoning, what if I set the house on fire, ....I don't cook, I taste people’s cooking and write what went wrong with it.

I take another peek into my fridge, and empty out the contents, and am hit with a sudden epiphany. Thayir Sadam....there’s curd, I have finally mastered the art of making rice in a cooker without it exploding, and there are these pomegranate seeds. The ingredients are perfect. So the next fifteen minutes I busy myself. The rice is cooked. The tadka is ready, so is the garnish. I mix it all with rice and add the curd finally. And Viola! I am struck by an overwhelming aroma of Thayir Sadam, bringing back all the nostalgic memories of a dish that is more of a Tamil legacy. I don't remember a time when it wasn't a part of my meal. My grand mom would use the leftover rice, and add curd, making a quick snack before the next meal. I grew up in mostly in northern parts of the country, where the concept of curd rice was non-existent, I clung to this part of my Tamil identity. Thayir Sadam with Urga (pickle) or Vathaikozambu beats the world’s most exotic and gastronomic delicacies.

I take another peek into the fridge...and this time its really a miracle. In a beautiful glass dish is the sacred ‘Thayir Sadam’. As I remove it out with utmost care, the soundtrack of ‘Chariots of fire’ plays in my mind. And I know that today will go down the history as the first time I made ‘Thayir-Sadam’. I am so super impressed, maybe I could open a Thyir Sadam exclusive restaurant. We could have flavours of Thayir Sadam, pineapple, strawberry, grapes. Abhishek and Ash would visit the restaurant, and my interview would be flashed on TV as breaking news .....whoa wait!

Right now this moment is what counts. Me, My Thayir Sadam and nothing else.

Thayir Sadam Recipe

Ingredients
Rice

Fresh curd

Asafoetida

Green chilies

Coriander leaves Salt

Ingredients for seasoning

Mustard seeds Curry leaves
seeded pomegranate/ grapes

Method of Preparing Thayir Sadam
Rice is sieved, washed and boiled. Later it is cooled and mashed. In the mashed rice, milk is added and kept aside. A cooking pan is taken and white oil is heated in it. Then mustard seeds are crackled in it with curry leaves. It is tossed in oil until light golden in color. Then chopped green chilies are added. Then mix rice with curd along with asafetida and add salt to taste. Finally mix the seeded pomegranate/ grapes and garnish with coriander leaves.

March against media

Its was an event by the YES!+

March 1st 2009 was a historic day for youth of our nation. Where The March was organised

In Delhi, as more than 10,000 youth marched on Parliament street to stand up against corruption and terrorism along with likes of Prahalad Kakkar and Kiran Bedi supporting the cause.

One would imagine that such a news would be covered by all major media, its BIG news for sure. Well all major media like NDTV, CNN-IBN, TOI etc were present, and surprise surprise, none of the big channels and print names reported one word of it.

‘The March’ also happened just before the elections, and reporting such an event would definitely be a slap on the face for the government, which unfortunately got re-elected. A few days back I stumbled upon this interesting forward, which I suspected had some truth in it, especially after having a first and experience working with TOI.

* NOTE: the contents of the below article are of questionable origin, it may not fully true, it is used purely for the purpose of illustrating a point.

Who owns the media in India ?
Let us see the ownership of different media agencies.
NDTV: A very popular TV news media is funded by Gospels of Charity in Spain Supports Communism. Recently it has developed a soft corner towards Pakistan because Pakistan President has allowed only this channel to be aired in Pakistan . Indian CEO Prannoy Roy is co-brother of Prakash Karat, General Secretary of the Communist party of India . His wife and Brinda Karat are sisters.
India Today: which used to be the only national weekly which supported BJP is now bought by NDTV!! Since then the tone has changed drastically and turned into Hindu bashing.
CNN-IBN: This is 100 percent funded by Southern Baptist Church with its branches in all over the world with HQ in US.. The Church annually allocates $800 million for promotion of its channel. Its Indian head is Rajdeep Sardesai and his wife Sagarika Ghosh.
Times group list: Times Of India, Mid-Day, Nav-Bharth Times, Stardust, Femina, Vijay Times, Vijaya Karnataka, Times now (24- hour news channel) and many more...
Times Group is owned by Bennett & Coleman. 'World Christian Council¢ does 80 percent of the Funding, and an Englishman and an Italian equally share balance 20 percent. The Italian Robertio Mindo is a close relative of Sonia Gandhi.
Star TV: It is run by an Australian, who is supported by St. Peters Pontifical Church Melbourne.
Hindustan Times: Owned by Birla Group, but hands have changed since Shobana Bhartiya took over. Presently it is working in Collaboration with Times Group.
The Hindu: English daily, started over 125 years has been recently taken over by Joshua Society, Berne , Switzerland .. N. Ram's wife is a Swiss national.
Indian Express: Divided into two groups. The Indian Express and new Indian Express (southern edition) ACTS Christian Ministries have major stake in the Indian Express and latter is still with the Indian counterpart.
The Statesman: It is controlled by Communist Party of India.
Asian Age and Deccan Chronicle: Is owned by a Saudi Arabian Company with its chief Editor M.J. Akbar.

Looks like we have a huge task ahead to reform our media.

Ephemeral Flower

Dear all,

As you can see, my blog has undergone a total makeover, its the same old me, just a new look.

I think all of us need to infuse some newness in life every once in a while, just like nature does, its ancient, but evergreen, ever vibrant and ever fresh. I hope to do the same with my writing, consequently have it trickling down in life as well, with an experience of a new life with every breadth, and in this case, with every word I type and every click.

Yours comments, criticism and feedback mean a lot to me. So keep them coming. Also tell me what you'd like to read and what you'd not.

Lots of love

Ephemeral Flower

Baby Eaglet

I posted this on my blog about two years ago, and its always been one of my favourites. I have always loved animals and birds, and this is one of my rare posts on them.

Black eyes with grey pupils, occasional blinking would reveal silvery eyelids.... it lay there, crouched, helpless, and frightened to death. After all the initial commotion and hushed 'oohs' and 'aahs', it lay forgotten, battered and unattended.
I wondered what all the noise was about as I climbed up the stairs of my hostel, and I saw instantly a sight that was hard to miss .
Because it was the most beautiful and heartbreaking sight. A magnificent eagle, lay at the corner of the balcony, for a moment I, froze and felt as helpless as the eagle.
"Ooh what happened"...Rims was as awestruck as I, we just stood and gasped at the sight. What do we do? What do we do? After a flurry of phone calls, finally Harsha comes from PFA(people for animals). By this time, we were fast friends with the eagle, Rims was playing Radio Mirchi songs to him, and we were in the process of baptising our friend.
"Its so clichéd",...said rims sounding disgusted, and wouldn't let me name him Angel.
Harsha spread his beautiful wings, and I was scared,
" he’s not had water for a couple of days, so has fainted of dehydration, he’s barely 20 days old"
"Ooh a baby eaglet!
"A baby eaglet...there's no such thing as baby eaglet".
We fed him water, and he was up in minutes. "Can he fly"
"sure, in about a month"!
"That long"?
"Yeah, coz it cant hunt yet"
"so its really a baby eaglet"
"i said there aint nothing known as......"
"Where are you going to take him?"
"Animal hospital"
"can we come visit him"
"we have about fifty birds, you wont recognise him"
Harsh then put eaglet in a shoe box...and I made one last desperate attempt ."Can I carry him"
"uh, no thanks".... and he was gone,
We named him Eaglet (and that’s not clichéd?)
Phone rings an hour later saying he's in the ICU and will be fine. Somehow the image of Eaglet in ICU on the ventilator and nurses fussing over him cracks me up. "You can visit Saturday’s and Sundays", which cracks me up further.
I don’t think I’ll visit him, One day when I look up at the sky, I wouldn’t be surprised to see my Angel...er...Eaglet soaring high watching over me. And who says I wont recognise him.

Beyond words

Here's the problem I face. I write for a living, and when this is all you do, day after day, any extra writing, starts feeling like a pain. In circumstances such as these I have realised one thing that makes every piece of writing memorable. The integrity in it. Writing for a newspaper, I pretty much don't have a choice on what to write. And over a period of time, writing starts feeling artificial, as if they are just a lifeless string of words, meant to be forgotten in a nano second. But writing can be alive, it can be vibrant, and it captures in them, the very essence of who you are.

So the best pieces of writing reflect your image like a mirror. By ‘your’ I don't mean the writes’s but every person who reads that it. The words start becoming a part of you, as though it was echoing your own thoughts. And for the writer, its a spiritual experience, like art, it manifests itself out of thin air and acquires a personality of its own. Then you read back your own words and go ‘I cant believe I wrote that!’.

But when you write for a living, these moments are so rare, that you almost fight for it...and then when you let go, it magically reappears. As vibrant, as alive as ever. Waiting to be written. In such times there is really no difference between the writer and the pen or keyboard in this case, as both are mere instruments, that allow higher experiences and knowledge to flow though them. In fact there is really no difference between the writer, the pen, the words and the reader.

Its not a problem anymore, so what if I write for a living, so what if i do this day after day. So what! Its all the same anyway. The writer, the pen, the words and the reader.

And as a writer its not what I write that counts. But the experience in itself. I don't write 'for a living', but I write 'living'.