Mental Excursions

Say cheese! I am not asking you to pose for a photo, nor am I selling/promoting cheese in any form. I am not even going to talk about the hundreds of varieties of cheese countries around the world boast of having, but would focus microscopic attention on the easily available variety in India which is called paneer. What has prompted rumination over this topic is a friend’s message earlier this week on paneer (pa pronounced like in potatoes with the two es much like in keen, seed, been) which caught my attention and I realised that I kind of agreed with him. Most of us can make paneer at home. Boil milk- with or without fat (you get crumbly cheese), whether of cow or buffalo or the pasteurised kind you get in a packet/bottle/carton. As it starts to simmer, add a little acid- lemon/lime juice, yogurt, vinegar or even citric acid ( never rennet in India. I don’t even know if it is available). The milk splits into curds and whey, and you turn off the flame. Run some water over it ...

Much ado about nothing? We went to watch a play earlier this week. Like for a film, selecting a play to watch also requires some home work in my family. But association of Urmil Kumar Thapliyal with the play, the Girish Karnad of Hindi theatre, was attraction enough to pull me to the auditorium although it has been several years since I have watched a play in the city.   Moreover it was a comedy. Playwright and performer late Mr Thapliyal had worked for the revival of nautanki style of theatre all his life and he presented it with an urban touch. He expressed his brilliant hold over satire in Hindi with plays including Harishchandra ki Ladai (Harishchandra’s fight) Hey Brecht, Abu Hasan, Octopus and Sooraj Kahan se Ugta hai (Where does the sun rise from) etc. He was honoured with many prestigious awards. The time given was 7.00 p.m. and because entry was free, we went well ahead of time to be able to get good seats. The air-conditioner was working fine and the seats were comforta...

Little little things, big big issues! India is a country whose constitution mentions 22 scheduled languages even as we Indians speak in hundreds of dialects. Obviously, we would need one common language for communication. May I say ‘thanks to the British’ who unwittingly unified India and English began to be used as a tool for communication? (Let us skip lessons in history or patriotism for the time being.) No wonder then, though not our mother tongue, English has been happily accepted as the language of communication in our country. Yet, always ahead of the rest of the world in small inventions and big discoveries, we have made the best of it and now a researcher can compile a whole new dictionary of English expressions we have ‘Indianised’. These terms might sometimes pose a roadblock in verbal or written conversation for a native English speaker, but to us Indians, they make perfect sense. You might not find them in the conventional dictionaries but their roots are growing deeper ...

  T here is time for everything Does it happen with you too that sometimes time just passes by and you merely go through the motions of life feeling as if you are not actively participating in it? For me this past week can be counted as time in that category. It was like I was merely a mute spectator and not participating in life. It is not that I had nothing to do all these days but there seemed no urgency. Even my crochet sat unfinished. During this lethargy there were intervals of joy and of other emotions, which now seem like snatches from a dream. ***** Among the moments that stirred me included the kriya (13 th day rituals among Hindus to bid the final goodbye to the deceased) ceremony of a neighbour’s father. One thing if I may share is that food served is vegetarian, without onion, garlic, not tasted before serving, pakka khana which means not the food we eat on a regular basis like dal- rice, roti, veggies but pakwan (food cooked on festivals and special day...

Step into La La Land My sincere thanks to Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim, the founders of YouTube, for they have made watching films of any era, any time, anywhere possible with a mere click of the mouse or tap on the screen. The icing on the cake are Netflix, Amazon Prime and a host of other platforms which have made the task even easier, no need to look for and hoard DVDs and CDs now. No wonder then, I always remember not to do anything illegal and punishable for we haven’t yet heard of prisoners in India being provided the option to watch movies/programmes of their choice on mobile phones, laptops or television. Stay away from jail, is my motto and everyone else’s should be too. But there is another aspect. The joy of watching a story unfold on the conventional large screen has its own charm. It can be combined with eating out, meeting friends or shopping, making it a major activity. The first film I had watched was Rajesh Khanna – starrer Anand . A small girl, I did no...