The Conflicted Solitary Reaper

I don't remember what triggered the conversation - it was either rain or non-vegetarianism.. either ways the emotional turmoil it led to stayed with me long after.

#1.
मी : तू लहानपणापासून ते आत्तापर्यंत किती कोंबड्या मारल्या असणारेस?
ससा:  तू आत्तापर्यंत किती plants मारले असणार आहेस?

To be honest, the guilt has been with me since many years. My Cummins friend Gauri opined that all the so-called vegetarians are hypocrites because even the plants have life. A friend Atul told me that this moral debate has been discussed in Dnyaneshwari, the work of a great thinker Dnyaneshwar. A UF friend Kapil, has an interesting hypothesis, which he shared one day over Krishna Lunch - If we were to be self-reliant, we would have been green like plants and doing our own photosynthesis. To sustain our life, we HAVE to kill something, either a plant or an animal.

Inspite of Kapil's logical observation, the dilemna stayed with me. One day, the American guy, Ben, who taught me driving, dropped by for lunch. I shared my dal-rice with him, but politely refused his chicken-tiffin citing religious reasons. I explained that Hinduism is a very peaceful, non-violent religion, and hence meat is prohibited. I further shared that Hinduism is a very ancient philosophy and later Indian religions like Jainism built over it. Jains don't eat "roots" like onions, potatoes or garlic because a plant is killed in the process. In fact, Maharashtrian Hindus too ideally + ideologically do not eat onions n all during 4 months of "चातुर्मास". It is interesting to note that "Chaturmas" falls during the rainy season in India. Is it a coincidence that Onions, garlic are sort of dry things and can be stored to be eaten later?  Maybe take them out of soil after they have led their life and then one can have them year-round?

It is okay to have my own misgivings at the back of my mind, but when Sasa directly accuses me that the food I eat has also led to wheat plant deaths, I take it as an effrontery and argue against it.

Me: The farmer only cuts out the flower that has the wheat seeds. Why will that kill the plant?
Note: My argument is based off the basil plant. My granny regularly cuts off the "मंजिरी" or tulsi seed agglomerate, yet that tulsi plant has been with us for 15+ years.
Sasa: If that did not kill the plant, why would the farmer need to sow seeds every year?
Me: Maybe the plant dies because of natural end of life cycle a few days/ months post the harvest.
Sasa: Or maybe the farmer cuts off a lot of plant during reaping, and so the rest of the plant just withers away.

One of the jokes that does rounds in India is that the cyberkids believe "plastic tetrapak yields milk" because they have never seen a cow being milked. Laugh as we may at their ignorance, we are no different. We come from a primarily agrarian country, but have no clue about how the food is grown. Never having seen the hardships of a farmer, we take things for granted.

#2.
.....yapp yapp yapp...
Me: So are the farmers gonna flip open their mobiles to check when would it rain?
Sasa: why do you think farmers wont have mobiles/ use technology?
Me: I think farmers don't need government or anyone to tell them when it will rain and all.
If I have to know a tool as a vital part of my career, I will learn it by myself if there is no tutorial.
Similarly, when their entire life-saving is rain-dependent, farmers will obviously learn to predict things in a year or two.
Why I think so: My granny grew up in Konkan, the East coast of Maharashtra. She can accurately calculate high tide/ low tide timings based on the phase of moon. When I had been to Dapoli, another place in Konkan, any random local person could warn us when to stay off the beach thanks to the low tide.
Sasa: Government puts so many satellites and all to forecast. US has such an advanced farming because they tell people so much about weather.

In retrospection, if they really knew when and when wouldn't it rain, the farmers wouldn't have sowed seeds only to have no rains later! And if really all the Government had to do was to put up more satellites, and broadcast info. to farmers, and it still couldn't do the job...........

One solitary lass's anguish wont change anything yet she seeks her answers.

Work Visa - VI

When I went for my F1 visa, we had a google group where everyone had posted their visa interview experience. This time as a work visa interviewee, there was no such support system. So here's my "been there, done that". Hope it helps someone.

1. Photo: You do not need any hard-copy photo. You do need a soft copy though. The visa application website provides a tool to get a photo of correct dimensions etc.
Both CVS and Walgreens said that they only give hard copy of the photo. Sure, there is a scanner, but I paid a dollar or two extra at Walmart to get the softcopy on a CD.

2. Home Address: I used my India address , and not the US one.  Once you get the visa, the passport will be mailed to this address, and hence it is essential that this be an Indian address. (My passport was mailed to the local passport centre, but there is a way you can pay 300 Rs after the VI and get the passport delivered to the home address.) The US one did feature on the application as the address where I intend to stay in the US.

3. Previous Work exp: I listed my volunteer work with my Professor too, as I think it is updated with SEVIS by my Grad Advisor. I did mention in the job title that it was a volunteer post.

4. Visa Fees: When you come to the fee-paying step, you will get a unique number. My parents quoted the number and paid at an Axis Bank. I could book appointments the next day. (Allow some processing time.)

5. OFC appointment day 1, VI appointment day 2: i took both on consecutive days.

6. I carried docs like my Educational transcripts, etc Your company will give you a comprehensive list. But in reality only I797 and passport is needed. Out of the 20-30 people who had their VI's with me, only one was asked to show his transcripts.

This is a questionnaire based on mine + other people's VI:
1. Which company, which location, nature of work, how much you earn.
If your company is in India: how long are you working with them, etc.
2. Are you single.
Spouse's work details.
Carry a good wedding picture, must include some ceremonies like a photo of walking around the fire, a photo of the guests. Please have good quality photographs with you.
Accurate info. of kids' birthdates, wedding date etc.
3. Previous visa details: Which University for Higher Education etc
4. Which other countries have you visited.

My passport was couriered to the facility in Pune. You need an Indian identity proof + its photocopy to get the passport.
Best Luck!

Sasta roye hazar baar

Saturday 03/23/2013: Bought a Smilesonic replacement brushhead to replace my Philips Sonicare toothbrush. It knocked off my dental filling in the 1st brushing itself!

Sunday: Searching for low-cost dentists. I know that there are dental students' clinics which offer services at a lower cost. I check out the nearby BCC: cleaning only, no fillings.
UF dental clinic needs a commitment that I will be able to make 2 trips a month!

Monday: Visit to Aspen Dental on my way back after dropping my roomy to Orlando airport (more about that day's scary drive later..)
Aspen insists on a X-ray. I highly covet my brain and don't like the concept of X-ray so close to my brain. The lady assures there will be a shield.

Tuesday: Bought a Dentek purple colour 6$ 12-use mini-bottle as a temporary filling. Its real temporary.

Thursday 03/28/2013: My dental appointment with Aspen. I fill out a form about my dental history, reveal my SSN etc. (I am sure they will track my SSN and the cost quote will depend on that :x).
Step 1: X-ray. The shield only covers your body and not the head. Hold a real big rectangular piece in your mouth. At least the lady is sympathetic and gives me breaks to swallow. Remove the piece and reinsert that one or a wee bit smaller one 16 times to get X-ray of the whole mouth. Step 2: A different X-ray machine which goes round my head. God save my brain!

Step 2: A hygienist checks my gum health. She tells me it will be rated 1-3 for good, and 4 onwards for crumbling bones and all. Pokes around my gum line with a pointed instrument. Ouch! It hurts. My numbers are 2's, 3's and some 4's. She doesn't "recommend" but insists on scaling + fluoride treatment.
Note to self: I have visited 2 dentists in India, just a month ago, and both did not mention that I need scaling.

Step 3: Dentist steps in. Indian lady whose hubby is from Mumbai, and speaks Marathi at home. Asks me where I am from and quips "Ranade" will be a Maharashtrian. (I guess concept of "2 states" type weddings was unheard of at my parents' time? Though my parents' + grandparents wedding story is from 2 states) Tells me that all 4 wisdom teeth need to be extracted. Tells me that I have cavities in all teeth except canines.
Note to self: Both dentists back in India counted only 3 cavities. One recommended that 2 wisdom teeth be removed, whereas my regular one filled one in, and recommended to extract only 1. The costlier dentist had said she could remove the discoloured fillings and redo it to which I yell WHAT!! (If it is not broken don't fix it!!)
Dentist insists on scaling n the hygiene thing, and says right side one tooth needs ASAP attention.

Step 4: Office Manager: Calculates cost for me. My "complete treatment" quote is an astronomical figure that will cover 4 India trips. Just the cost for the one that needs fixed ASAP will cover 1 trip. The cost to get the knocked out filling = hygienist + filling is half a trip to India.

To top it all, I have scratched my blemish-free car on a parking column, plus  a150$ change fee to cancel my Washington DC trip - my clairvoyance was making me uncomfortable when I was booking the ticket, but I failed to recognize the signs! Might have to drop the Iph 5 plans as a tiny chipping in compared to the 1000's that are looming large.
Lets out a howl!

As my N 3110 moves on..

As I get ready to discard my N 3110 in favour of something smart, cant help reminiscing about it..

Everyone I knew was pretty clumsy about their phones. I once dropped my phone from the 1st floor of my college building, it yet stayed intact. I simply loved my phone! After nearly 5 years of use/ abuse, of which 2 years were spent with texting and calling every other second, my phone battery still performs reliably.

Naturally when I now transition to a smartphone, my first choice was N L 920. More so after reading that it has the best camera amongst all other smartphones. Owing to my US stay with its online shopping culture, I now tend to buy things only after reading its reviews. I was sure there were several loyal fans out there who will have used other smartphones too, and give me a balanced feedback.

Whichever keyword I entered, all screamed of the same thing - battery sucks. Everyone had a problem in their 1st week, which was thanks to some apps being ON and continuously syncing for updates. Morever, it used a different Li-PO battery rather than the standard battery everyone now knows how to use. While some users hoped that the problem solves itself over a few charge cycles, others had already drained their batteries below its saving grace voltage. Plus with non-removable battery, there was nothing anyone could do.

I tried to recall my 1st days with my N 3110. I guess the default setting was that bluetooth is on. But when I had bought the phone, everyone else had already told me of the problem, and I knew that I needed to switch bluetooth off as soon as I lay my hands on my just-out-of-the-box phone. 
In the L's case, it was not so easy. There were so many things that needed to be turned off - WiFi, 3G, LTE, this app, that app, mail sync and what not. Morever according to the reviews, closing an app running in the background was not so easy.

Had they not tested their phone before launching it? If the battery needed a different procedure than normal, why wasn't there any user guide accompanying the phone? When the phone was supposed to be its last straw, why couldn't they make something so perfect? 

About OS: if a group of E&TC bachelor students can come up with an miniature OS in 4 months of their last semester, I am sure dedicated coders could have done a much better job! When I finally scratched NL off the list, androids werent problem free either. One phone's reviews said that the UI layer above the android messed up everything.

You know why those E&TC grads could come up with the miniature OS? Because they started from scratch, and added whatever was needed. More so, they implemented the simplest thing that still did the job! And with only a single phone-maker who followed this strategy, I guess the choice is clear!

Aji's recipes: Eggless icecream and gheeless sevaiya

Thanks to my yesterday's success with Mojito, I tried few more ventures in the kitchen. I was searching for ice cream recipes, and a few I read involved contraptions like ice cream machine, or a container-in-container_containing_ice_and_salt, or beating icecream every half an hour for 3 hours so that it does not crystallize.

My aji has a unique method for most stuff. And mind you, aji being aji, there is no egg involved in the icecream. So the big secret is if you have to prevent water in milk from crystallizing, try doing away with that water. Now, I have to give due credits to my mom too. Mom says softy icecream that one gets for like 5Rs in India is so cheap because there is mashed paper pulp in the softy. I guess my mom and aji put 2-n-2 together and came up with this recipe. So here goes my aji's secret ingredient: bread crumbs to soak up water. Starkly simple ain't it? Wonder how the western smartypants dint come up with the idea. Aji suggests 4 slices of bread (with brown sides removed) to be crushed real finely per litre of milk. Aai also adds a couple of "pedhas" to make the milk a bit thicker, note again there is no egg involved so custard powder to make a base is out of question. 

Quick, simple and non-messy ice cream recipe:
Boil together milk, a couple of pedhas / corresponding amount of khoya, sugar on low-medium heat . Let it simmer for a couple minutes. Pour the mixture into a regular dabba with a tight lid and keep it in a plate full of water to cool it. (Aji doesnt transfer hot things directly to her fridge.) When it has cooled, add the bread crumbs, and a few drops of vanilla essence and now is ready to be transferred to the freezer. Aai recommends stirring it once after initial round of freezing. Ice cream is ready in a couple of hours.

Quick Sevaiya
Sevaiya Kheer has been my standard one-of-the-five "pancha pakvanna" for Ganapati for my last 3 years of Gaeshotsav in USA. (The other 4 being shira, khirapat=sugar+grated_coconut, shikaran = indian version of banana smoothie  and 5th something from Indian store.)  My recipe was roast sevaiyya on ghee till golden brown and add milk. Aji knows better. Aji's recipe does away with milk chugging by sevaiyya and "tupache tavang" or ghee film on milk.
Aji's recipe: cook sevaiyya in plain water. Top it with sugar and milk.

Hats off to aji. I have literally had kheer in almost every wedding, I have even tasted Id special kheer several times. No one else has thought of this idea to do away with tupache tavang. (Usually in weddings and all, they use Dalda/ not the real deal in place of ghee, and such a kheer with a thicker "tavang" leaves a sticky film down the palate as it is eaten.) 

To all the guys and gals out there.. sure you will find a lot of recipes online. But in most circumstances, your parents and grandparents have a special something born out of years of experience. No better gift to receive than a handwritten book of recipes passed to the gen-next.

India Diary: Ghar ki Lakshmi Beti

Mom wanted to see Rajasthan. Apparently, the in-season for Rajasthan is September to March. Usually people go to India during December. My friend Amriti suggested that I should go to the VI when there arent too many people queued up for the VI. And so - I landed in India in Feb. Away from December visa-seekers, and too early for the Fall-students.

More about jaipur trip in later blogs, but I came across a disturbing poster in Jaipur.
It features a wooden crib (palana), and urges people not to kill their unwanted female babies, but to drop them off in the "palana". Note that Rajasthan's Chief minister at the time is a woman.

Following are the excerpts of some conversations/ incidents during the trip:
1. Our driver has two sons. Mom asks if daughter was also venerated. Driver changes topic.
2. A illiterate woman in train, travelling with her 2 daughters, out of which one has completed BA. Her husband is 12th pass, and doesnt have a fixed job. The woman, though well educated, stiches saree blouses at 20Rs each (the rate in Pune is 100 Rs) to make ends meet. The older woman  has only one son. His wife has 4 daughters. She tells that her son wanted to stop after 2 kids, but the mom insisted they try for a son. I have an only son - "vansh" should propogate. My mom is like "beti to donon gharon ko ujagar karti hai" (Daughter lights up both homes - her parents' and in-laws').
3. We meet a young high ranking army officer. Baaton-hi-baaton mein the topic shifts to if he is married, and mom asks if he has kids. The man says he does not want to bring new kids to the bad bad world/ overflowing population. We are like, we are sure you will raise your kids to be good citizens.
4. I see some women in traditional ghaghara at Pushkar. Our driver tells me not to take the pics of women because if someone catches me in the act, they may misinterpret it and I will be in trouble. I finally get a pic later in the day at Chittorgarh.
5. The fort which houses Jayaban cannon, Jaipur: a group of other tourists are hitting on me. My driver asks me to identify the guys and tells me that "ye rajpooton ka ilaaka hai, yaha koi tumhara baal bhi baanka nahi kar sakta".
6. We are returning quite late from the sound and light show at Chittorgarh. The road from top of the fort to the city is dark and isolated, and I am literally praying. But all is well.

Celebretory bartender

So its the Saint Patric's day tomorrow, and ever since I tasted the Virgin Mango Mo"h"ito at Chicago Signature Lounge, I cannot get that taste out of my system. Since then, I have had the drink at Carabbas, but there sure was something signatory about the Chicago one. It was my special wish for my b'day. But a restaurant called "Mango Mango" in St Augustine flatly refused to make a mojito, saying that they dont stock the mojito mix anymore. Jilted anger, plus high on a seemingly simple recipe = .my takes at the homemade version. (Background score: निम्म्या किमतीत पापड करी, झकास झटपट घरच्या घरी!)

Take 1:
Goya Mango juice bottle - 1/2 l
Few mint leaves
quarter lime + loads of lemon juice
Everything blended together in  mixer. Serves 2. Tasted good.

Take 2:
Emboldened by my 1st ttempt, I tried one today.
XYZ mango juice - 1/2 l
More mint leaves than last time
Lemon
Deepika's "signature" touch: a can of Sprite to add the fizz/ emulate club soda.

Tasted awesome. Sprite literally made the lemon zing.

Some observations:
I am guessing you have to get mint extract, and not mint pulverized. Leaving mint soaked in the fizzy liquid - its acid might draw out minty extracts.

Take 3:
A quarter glass Sprite + quarter glass ice / cold water - pestle mint and lemon into Sprite. Top off the remaining half a glass with mango juice.
Result: tasting awesome again, but mint flavour dint really seep into the drink.  My granny has a "yantra" to squeeze lemon juice. Looks like I should import one of these for the mint extract. Or contend with "pudin hara". Or throw up my hands in air like Mango Mango, and say that I dont have the mint mix.

Happy realization: bartending is probably not as easy as throwing in a couple of "punches".

P.S: Sometimes I really wonder whats so special about -OH, that people want it inspite of headaches and throwing up next day. I wonder about this even more since I discovered that cocktails can be made "virgin" and taste as good nonetheless. Apparantly people socialize better with -OH. Yeah right! Its all in the state of mind!

India diary: Exotic chocolates and my friends

Whenever I had asked my friends if they wanted anything from US, their answer was "XYZ, and chocolates ofcourse". When it was time to actually gift them the chocs..i found it to be quite otherwise.

Personally, whenever I would go to Butler Plaza in GNV, I would seek out a different flavour of Lindt each time I go.  Amongst all quirky flavours I tried, I liked Lindt Orange, Chili and Sea salt the most. Orange is my perennial favourite in anything, but chili and salt is something you so cant imagine with chocolate that I found the flavours mesmerizing. Obviously, when it was time to shop to gift back home, Orange, chili and sea salt topped my list.

But my friends reactions put me off, to the point that I was really hurt. Sometimes it literally felt like my firnds were doing me so favour, the way I was begging/ vouching that it tastes awesome and they should try it.

When in US, I was eager, literally yearnt to try what one doesnt get in India. My friends couldnt. And if a chocolate chocolate was all that they wanted, technically there is no difference between an Indian Cadbury and an american chocolate. Oh yeah - there is one major difference - the Indian one costs about a third of the firangi one, and wouldnt have needed to be carried from US.

My 2nd shocker during my India stay!

India Diary: Stray Dogs

Living away from India hides you from a horror story lurking round the corner.

My best friend is a huge fan of dogs - though once she has been bitten by a pup she was so lovingly trying to feed. The other day she visited me, and for some reason our conversation turned to how to not panic around dogs. The next day, I was returning from my Pune shopping at around 3 pm. About 5-6 stray dogs who while away in my parking lot suddenly encircled me and started barking.

There is nothing you can do.. you cannot run - because a dog can outrun you. You cannot yell for your mom 2 floors above the scene, because it will only reflect you're scared. I tried baby talking, as my friend had suggested - which dint help.

Finally after barking at me for about 5 minutes, the dogs got bored of me, and ran out. Now that I could look around, I saw our neighbour's maid standing at the gate and literally enjoying the scene. There is a building being constructed right in front of my apartment, but no mason from the site felt any necessity to aid me.

I can draw only 2 conclusions from this - dogs rule Pune street, and incidents like this happen so frequently that no one cares about the poor human. Or people have become so indifferent. Either ways.. a big shocker during my goody-goody stay in India.