Check! Check! Breakfast Testing!

It happened twice! In the span of only a week or a mere seven days! If I was bemused in the first instance which was only natural and had the inclination of dismissing it with a grunt, the second instance made me veritably confused! It put me in the ‘search’ mode—the search for possible answers to a query that is as mundane and foolish as it could be! Damn it! I’ve lived my entire life with it: right from the birth time and date; all the time while growing up; all the time while socializing, working or traveling. It’s always been considered an integral part of living—something very important and even sacred. I even discussed the issue with my wife and she opined that it must have had something to do with people’s perceptions while endorsing my lifelong perceptive or otherwise truth of living as well as hers.

So, what the hell does ‘breakfast’ mean? Such a question would make anyone angry and annoyed, obviously. But I still wanted the answers, realizing the conflict raging inside me which was so immensely capable of making me disoriented and lost. I searched up the internet for the meaning or possible applications of the word ‘breakfast’. The explanations confirmed more or less fully my understanding of the word: that it means a morning meal or the first meal of the day; that it means the same if we split up the word into ‘break’ and ‘fast’—‘breaking’ the ‘fast’ meaning normally we retire to bed having our supper and don’t get up in the middle of the night to meddle with the cold sausages in the fridge which means further that while sleeping we rather biologically launch ourselves into a night-long fast that is not eating or drinking anything unless in an emergency and thus get up in the morning to break our fast.

Foodies, dieticians and all of that ilk alike emphasize the importance of this first meal of the day, and how balanced and nutritious it must always be. A few generous souls of the net also explain further that people may take similar foods like that in their breakfast anytime in the afternoon or in the evening too. But they normally call it afternoon or evening snacks and would never call it breakfast. I think nobody would ever say “I have eaten my breakfast in the evening” unless, of course, extraneous circumstances forced him/her to remain empty-stomach throughout the day!

Okay! Perhaps I will have to give another concession or make an exception in a country like India where fasting is very common among the population, due to reasons of religiosity, spirituality, ritualistic customization or simply dieting. Therefore, in cases like these they may be on fast not only during the night-slumber, but also during the whole day, and ideally, they’d break their fast with a sumptuous meal in the evening/night. But even then, they’d not call it breakfast or morning meal; they’d call it the fast-breaking meal. Besides, like breakfast it can’t be the first meal of the day, because most of them continue to drink and take fasting items like fruits, salad and other non-rice and non-roti dishes cooked without oil and masala. I think we don’t need to state that some of the blissfully fasting souls end up eating more during the ‘fasting’ hours. In any case, as the experts confirm, if you take your first meal before sunrise you can call it early breakfast and if you take it after 10-11am you can call it a late breakfast, and that breakfast can never be later than ‘lunch’ under any circumstances.

However, those two instances I aforementioned belied and defied all such explanations, perceptions and convictions.  

In the first incident I received an invitation to an evening local event the schedule of which said ‘breakfast’ at the end of the program. I laughed over it and dearly wanted to say to the organizing secretary ‘I really enjoyed the menu of the breakfast!’ which I didn’t finally say lest it would hurt their feelings whatever those could be.

As I indicated earlier, the second incident was of a more serious nature. A septuagenarian neighbor visited us in that evening, just about five days after the first incident. He was telling us about how satisfying was the felicitation given to him for the release of his first book.

“The program started around 4 o’clock. There were lots of presentations, lectures including mine, musical interludes and prayers for his good health and the wellbeing of the whole neighborhood! It continued till about 6 o’clock. After that there were informal meetups, photo sessions, selfies and all that. Finally, we had our breakfast at 7 and left the venue shortly thereafter. It took us nearly three hours to reach home due to traffic…” he paused as I, confused, interjected.

“So, you stayed there overnight?”

“No, we left the same day as I just told you! We got home after 10 o’clock!”

“But the program was in the afternoon, no?”

“Yes, right!”

I gave it up looking helplessly at my wife. She gave me a reassuring look that seemed to say what she did say later. Perceptions, huh? And then my frantic search began! 

And of Adopting a New Approach to Write Truncated Pieces!

That evening in end-July a Bangla family friend came to our house in Kolkata profusely sweating and drenched in it from head to foot. However he was carrying with him a packet of smoking hot beguni (Brinjal fritters) and Chops (Cutlet fritters). Before he could cool himself enough under the full-speed ceiling fan he commanded us to partake of the items before those cooled off! And yes, we had those gobbled up quick in extraordinary gourmet delight and also supported by hot steaming cups of tea! Well, in our traditional belief that ‘heat neutralizes heat’, particularly when the heat (like May) is oppressively humid (like monsoon)! This dictum is of the utmost importance now, because the supposedly wettest months of the South West Monsoon, June and July, have gone with absolutely no rains in South Bangla and Kolkata city. In fact, the month of July has proved to be the driest July in history in the Eastern and North Eastern regions of the country. And into August now, there’s hardly any sign of the monsoon in any mood to expedite its proceedings. The seemingly blackening sky along with false thunder eventually pierced though the merciless sun, countess times!

 

At a time when we’d have loved a few days of genuine rains and cooling weather we were instead forced to have a literal rain of hard cash thanks to the equally hot episode of one minister of the Bangla state government and a stalwart of the ruling regional party getting arrested along with his lady associate, supposedly. About half a billion of rupees have so far been recovered from the lady’s flats along with other properties in hiding and a few missing foreign cars. The veteran minister after being distanced and rebuffed by his own party started crying ‘conspiracy’ saying the money was not his and the lady clamoring out haplessly that she was not aware of the money being hidden in her flat. Well, her connections with ruling state party had been somewhat exposed by the media and therefore, it’s come as a huge setback for the party with its Chief Minister projecting her national ambitions since her landslide assembly election victory in 2021, making the strong ruling national party a poor second.

 

The people of Kolkata are like the people of Mumbai as far as the ‘spirit’ is concerned. While the Mumbaikars always show their indomitable spirit in terms of continuing the hard work and making more and more money come what may, the Kolkattansalways show their spirit in continuing to enjoy life in terms moderate living but high eating come what may. The mouthwatering array of chops, rolls, cutlets, samosas, fish fries, fish and meat curries and so on at cheapest-in-the-world prices anywhere, from the street side open joints to the limited posh restaurants notwithstanding, I think, the Bongs should start worrying now, because the Met office has reportedly made a forecast of less rain in August and in September too which means that Bengal’s main festival of Durga Puja, starting this time right from the start of October, is in some real danger of getting washed away. Therefore, they should give less attention to the ‘heat neutralizing heat’ experiment and should not let themselves be swayed too much by the huge corruption in the education sector, the arrested minister being the former education minister, and should focus on chanting some prayers in advance to God and Mother Nature so that Durga Puja does not come under any threat.

 

The local media is not giving enough attention either to Nature’s heat let loose on most parts of the state and in Kolkata or on the farmers staring at a Kharif crop season crisis; no wonder, the way they’ve been consumed up by the hard-cash thunder showers. They’d better started rolling back the focus fully on the ‘monsoon crisis’ so that the lip-smacking people turned their attention to some prayers as we just said so that their thakur dekha (Puja pandal hopping) did not get hampered too.

 

Finally, as to why this writer has suddenly decided to adopt this ‘truncated’ approach to combine several well-planned pieces into a single piece, enough be said that he’s no longer game for the miserable 10 or so hits to the pieces on a rich variety of subjects that he’s devoted a lot to time and energy upon to make those interesting. Often he’s accidentally or even deliberately made mistakes hoping for some discerning readers to point those out. But no! Pointless expectations! So yes! He’s not interested any more in dishing out free matter that nobody cares about, with apologies, of course, to the handful of genuine readers he still has. The writer thinks that it’s better to redirect his energy to writing more books, because even if nobody, again, reads the books, the books would always remain on record as his works. Besides, if the Indian cricket team can go on experimenting with international matches (stopping those only during the IPL for the sheer force of the money power) without bothering about winning or losing why not this humble writer! This writer does possess the power, even though it’s useless, to show his disdain for Indian cricket and stop writing anything about it in future which he’s already and actually started doing, to be honest!

A Festive Thought...!

The ‘festive’ thought as mentioned above could be interpreted as controversial after the words that follow are swallowed up, and therefore I clarify at the outset that there is no malicious intention behind this thought. There is only the spirit of celebration.

The Indian festive season starts around September every year with various non-religious, religious and intra-religious festivals taking place almost every week. Since all such events of worship or otherwise are now called ‘festivals’, these get naturally opened up for everybody to participate. Like the quintessential slogan given in West Bengal by the Chief Minister during the Durga Puja ‘festival’, ‘Religion is mine, religion is yours; festival is for all’. For example, in this year’s Christmas ‘festival’ on the streets of Kolkata you would hardly find a ‘religious’ being among the thousands of intense merrymakers. So then, everyone waits for the occasion from September to New Year Day to participate which translates into roaming around, extensive use of public transport and a lot of eating.

Business enthralls on every Indian street with quick-bite stalls, fast food joints and the usual restaurants each of which gets literally surrounded by ‘celebrating’ revellers. It becomes ‘binge eating’ in the truest sense of the term. And, it is not at all a joke to indulge in this over a reasonably long period of 3 to 4 months.

While it is definitely a positive development of religious occasions transcending all barriers and allowing all across all religions to take part wholeheartedly, there is a bit of a concern, at least for this nondescript writer.    

You see, after continuous ‘binge eating’ bellies around are sure to grow faster. In fact, the human observatory data as revealed to this writer indicate this very phenomenon. As you know, in India public transport is very crowded, particularly during the festival season. Nowadays while travelling in a public mode you need to be on your constant guard to counter the pushes and pinning by the backpacks. Even non-celebrating normal commuters carry the omnipresent slinging backpacks. And, they bulldoze through to create a space for themselves, maybe just to indulge in the inevitable mobile surfing. Now, after bellies start growing faster you’ll have the added misery of countering the front-packs too. No alternatives. At least till the New Year pledges which may or may not contribute to a bit flattening bellies...

Food Harmony In North Eastern India!

In the Paleolithic age humans survived on edible plants and hunting of wild animals. They lived in small groups, made rough stone weapons and killed animals for food. The use of fire in the Lower Paleolithic age revolutionized the act of eating as they began to cook their foods finding wonderful ways of having vegetable dishes or mixing vegetables with meat. The survival instinct of eating got gradually replaced by the gourmet approach. The point to note here is that vegetarian and non-vegetarian ways of eating existed on planet earth since pre-historic times. - Please Click to See more Here:  

(This article was first featured in newskarnataka.com's print publication 'Karnataka Today' Volume 1, Issue 1) 

The Maggi Muddle!

Repeated food safety tests across India confirmed the presence of poisonous lead and a chemical monosodium glutamate, widely known as MSG in the famous 2-minute Maggi noodles. First the capital Delhi banned the noodles for 15 days and then state after state of the country started following suit. On Friday, the 5th of June, 2015 Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) ordered Nestle, the company producing Maggi, to recall all nine variants of the noodles from the Indian market. After that branches of FSSAI got into action in states like Maharashtra, Meghalaya and others too where the ban was not yet announced pending test reports or non-conclusive results. 

Even after all these serious developments Nestle refuses to admit that their noodles are not really fit for consumption, particularly for the innocent children who were too fond of it, or that at least some serious problems could be present. Obsessed perhaps with the need for damage control to prevent huge losses the company attributes the findings as 'confusion' and says that the noddles will return to the shelves very soon. They are trying to prove that all the tests done across India are wrong and that testing standards in the country are very poor. 

Nestle must understand that the 'confusion' is in fact created by them only and not that the 'confusion' has damaged their products. They are trying to mislead the consumers. In most parts of the country consumers do not have proper awareness about food safety and related issues, and they do not want to give up their food habits easily. The noodles have been in their homes for around thirty years making them almost accustomed to provide 2-minute meals to their children. Now with the company's so-called assurances that could have been passed on by the dealers spread across the country most ot them who are not very media-savvy are finding it difficult to decide. 

Confusing reactions are being heard all over. Most people would want to know why nothing was found wrong in the past thirty years and why now only. Well, they must understand that a wrong remains a wrong irrespective of when it is finally detected and they should appreciate the fact that it is found out before serious health problems could actually occur. Some others are stoic or indifferent, 'how does it matter, if you like eat it, if you do not want don't eat! Who has died eating Maggi?'. Or 'As long as I find it in the stores I'll continue eating it!' Some other reactions border on the ridiculous and absurd. 'You see, this whole thing is being orchestrated by a political party who could not get enough funds from Nestle in the last elections!' Well, in India everything gets politicized. But you also need to know that eating is not normally a political issue and that states of all political hues and colors across India are in fact banning the noodles. 

In the recent years most of the popular fast foods are being categorized as junk food which are harmful for health due to the numerous dubious ingredients found there. But no serious efforts have been made by any government to create awareness about fast food or junk food. Food safety is a must. Now is the time for starting campaigns similar to 'no tobacco' ones in relation to all packaged and junk food that are harmful or could be harmful. The FSSAI too must go hammer and tongs to improve its stadards and ensure food safety for all citizens of the country. 

Eating Under Threat!

If you have already given up the smoking and drinking habits you have hardly done enough. You find yourself in a greater and debilitating dilemma about what to eat or drink or what not to from the fast diminishing options. If you thought only plain simple fats had been making you fatter all the years, now you had to worry about trans fat too.

If you have loved the fast foods now is the time to go slow. Fast foods are also called junk food. You must be aware what junk food is. Well, it means foods without having enough nutritional value, but scoring high on fats, salt, sugar and calories. You must never fall prey to the mouth-watering smell and taste these foods have.

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a public interest organization of India, had only the other day come out with its devastating report on junk or fast foods. All of such foods or soft drinks marketed in India by the multinational companies contain much more trans fat, the worst kind of fat, than is advisable as per the international standards of around 2 per cent per person per day, the report says. Just one serving of any such foods like a burger or a plate of noodles or a packet of chips finishes off your quota of fats for the day and as far as sugar intake is concerned it robs you of your sugar quota for two days. Your dream of doodling with your noodles has just about turned into a nightmare. Now, you must look to other options.

Switch over to the traditional foods? Well, what are they? Maybe your glass of steaming hot milk! No! It contains or may contain pesticides thanks to the CSE again and to make matters worse other studies had reported that more than seventy percent of total milk supply in India was adulterated too. You come up with the next viable option—fruits and vegetables. No again! The CSE says all these contain untenable proportions of pesticides due to the increasing use of fertilizers by the farmers. You have to undertake a fresh start to find fresh fruits and vegetables.

Inevitably you turn now to the meaty options. While the red meat has always been a red signal for you in recent years the options of fish and chicken appeal more to you now. But the problem here is that you cannot devour them raw. That is to say, you need some amounts of oil to make it cooked fit for you. The CSE had already made it difficult for you by pointing out high amounts of trans fat or unsaturated fat in all brands of edible oil. Now you must launch yourself on an exhaustively original and creative search for your food options.

There are many pointing fingers towards a utter lack of regulatory laws or enactment of only weak and ineffectual laws in India regarding showing and labeling of fat ingredients on branded foods. Due to this lacuna the multinational brands allegedly put up labels showing zero trans fat content in their products just to derive the marketing advantage. To make things more complicated no one is asking the street vendors and country eating joints as to what are being used and in what quantities in their hot selling dishes.

And what about the Indian society standards with a high hospitality quotient and a seemingly unending stream of parties, get-together and congregations. You can control your own kitchen to some extent no doubt, but you just cannot walk up to the hosts or organizers and demand to know the trans fat content in the food served—that too free.

Cynics would tell you to choose or reject as per your judgment hardly knowing the fact that you are fast running out of options. For the time being it seems a free mind, a daily routine of strenuous physical activity and moderation is the ideal menu for you. Maybe your favorite or compulsive rice-plate at your favorite canteen is also okay!

Ceremonial Eating!

Article first published as Ceremonial Eating! on Technorati.

Eating has been and is vital to the Indian way of life. If religious eating is a little subdued, ceremonial eating is extensive and expansive. Indians just do not need an excuse to eat!

Main ceremonies are the weddings where eating arrangements are always huge. In earlier days there used to be snacks and teas, but now a belly filling, rich and full meal is the norm. There are various functions or rituals spreading over a maximum of five days within a marriage ceremony and each of these are never complete without sumptuous meals. Even two days after the formal wedding the bridegroom’s family hosts a feast for near and dear ones in some sections of the Hindu. Eight days later the party is repeated at the bride’s place, though with limited invitations.

Other ceremonies where eating is central include birthdays, anniversaries, initiating at least six months old babies to staple diet, sacred thread function for Hindu Brahman boys and so on. Such occasions, ceremonies and functions keep people’s expectations for good eating prospects rising and rising, so much so that they expect to have a grub on all other formal occasions too like professional concerts, book releases, open discussion forums, literary meets and just anything. The hosts or organizers now look on this part as a ‘must’ or they fear no eaters…err sorry…no audience will turn up!

The funerals are also no exceptions. In normal Hindu families funerals range from 11 to 13 days of rituals and formalities. On the fourth day near and dear ones outside the concerned family are served food. On the eleventh day a public reception is held along with the main religious ritual. On the thirteenth day there a big feast again when the members of the mourning family come back to normal food habits.

The never ending eating spree often puts people in great difficulty and health hazards. During particular seasons they get numerous invitations on every single day and they are socially obliged to attend and …to eat. Health conscious and discreet people exercise their own methods of eating management. About all the disorganized ones…well…it’s always advisable not to make any comment!

Eat, eat and be merry!

Religious Eating!

Article first published as Religious Eating! on Technorati.

Indian people have certain religious rituals associated with eating. But due to resurgence of modern times and thinking people are getting secretive about such rituals.

The crux of religious eating is simple to decipher. Just before embarking on your dish you think of God and thank Him for being so kind to provide such benefits.

I witnessed my grandfather doing those rituals elaborately whenever and wherever I had the privilege of having meals with him. He would always sit on the floor and make a circle of water drops around his plate of rice and other items. Then he would offer grains of cooked food on the water drops at the central point. This simply meant he was offering to God whatever he had access to eat. I used to wait eagerly for the rituals and enjoyed a lot.  Everyone present started eating just when he was ready.

These rituals are disappearing fast with the onset of modern lifestyle and people who know are becoming secretive lest others laugh at them.

Once having a dinner on transit at a railway canteen I accidentally saw one middle-aged person sitting on a table in front of me moving his hand around the rice plate and touching his forehead. He repeated this several times looking suspiciously around and in the process he discovered me staring at him—to his horror and mine too.

I instantly withdrew my look and concentrated my attention on my food knowing fully well that the person would keep on looking at me before he really ate. In a deliberative mood I started telling my wife about it cautioning her not look that side as if we were discussing some investment plans. I sensed that though the man started eating finally he still paid furtive glances at me trying to make out if I was making a joke about it.

If you are so noble and want to pray to God before having your meal why be secretive about it? I wonder!