Capsicum Mushroom Chicken - Restaurant Style

I don't know if this is an Indian recipe or Indian Chinese recipe. May be a combination of both. In any case, this is one of my favorite party buster.

Here is how I go about doing it.

Get fresh cut whole chicken and cut into further small pieces. Wash until the blood is pretty much washed and marinate with salt, paprika, ginger powder, garlic powder, freshly ground black pepper, paprika and chicken masala powder. Adjust the amount to get desired taste.

Cut red onions into half rings and saute in a large skillet with desired oil. Once the onion turns brown, add ginger garlic paste, long cut green chili pepper and saute for a while. Then add cut tomato and saute until the mix becomes a pulp. Add marinated chicken pieces and cook in low flame until the juices start flowing. Add quarter cup of water if you don't see much juice. Cook for 20-30 minutes with a lid to cover. Remove the lid and add finely chopped spring onions and cilantro and cook in high flame for 5-10 minutes till the juice disappear.

Meanwhile, on a separate woke, stir fry cube cut red bell pepper (Capsicum) and sliced mushroom on high heat. Once the sides of the pepper and mushroom turns brown and you don't see any moisture in the pan, add salt and crushed chili to taste. Pour the contents to the chicken prepared in above step.

Serve in a large bowl. Squeeze half lemon and garnish with chopped spring onion and cilantro. (Curry leaves if you like south Indian flavor).

Note: The picture shown is taken today while we are vacationing in Seattle. Hint....to our other friends....you have good reason to have us come over for a visit :)

To save or use - that is the question about carbon credits

My parents never owned a car in their life time. They mostly walked to their schools and studied books during day light. They took public transportation to get to work and worked without fan and air condition on hot and humid days. Our annual electricity usage averaged below 30 KWH (US average is around 9000 KWH per year) when we were growing up. Even that was very high among our many neighbors. We did not have a refrigerator until we started going to college. Many families in my village still do not have refrigerator. We bought our first television when I was 20 years old. I am just 34 years old, Thank you very much if you thought I am a very old man!

When I got a job that paid well, I bought a car. It had three quarters of a liter engine, two cylinders and four crammed seats. It probably gave me 50mpg (miles per gallon). But that was too much petrol (gasoline) compared to the 150mpg I was getting from my old Vespa scooter. But it was worth the prestige and mark of success it brought to my otherwise lower middle class Indian life.

It was an opportunity of a life time to come to the US and see the prodigal life styles of baby boomers in the US. McMansions, Hummer Limousines, larger than wall TVs, 8 passenger SUVs for the soccer moms and 400 horses for the NASCAR dads, the list is end less. But it did not tempt me to buy a V8 as my first car. I went with the Asian bet on Honda Civic. It had four cylinders, 100 horses and five comfortable seats and gave 32 mpg. Not a bad upgrade from the two cylinders. I found my peace in my civic among the gas guzzling SUVs and roaring sporting machines crowding southern California freeways.

Then all of a sudden, the largest contributor of global warming (US) realized that the way of extravagant life at the expense of the unsustainable fossil fuel is at risk. Celebrities lined up at Prius dealerships until Toyota started making it in abundance. Al Gore bought a hybrid lexus SUV as a brand ambassador for inconvenient truth. He also bought carbon credits to offset the global warming caused by the energy costs of his Tennessee Mansion. Oscar went green by buying carbon credit.

That made me realize the pile of carbon credit I have been sitting on all my life. As a legal heir of carbon free ancestors, I inherited lots of carbon credits. I also managed to collect quite a lot of carbon credit on my own. I walked to work for many years until I moved to a place that was beyond walking distance. We used very little electricity to cool and very little gas to heat by continue to practice thermal management as in the old days. Thermal management is a fancy word for opening windows in summer nights and wearing warm clothes in winter. Thanks to Victoria Secret, sleeping with nice warm sweater in winter is so un-cool these days. We switched off lights when not in use. We bought CFLs in place of ordinary bulbs. We used home filtered water instead of the plastic bottles from Fiji. We banked online with paperless e-bill.

So we decided to use some of the carbon credit slowly but cautiously. We just didn’t want to run out of it in my life time. Using those credits, I decided to buy an SUV. I saved some credits by buying a super low emission vehicle (SLEV) with above average SUV mpg. Later I lost my Honda civic. So I had to use more of those credits once more to buy a Honda V6 instead of a 4 cylinder. But I believe I still have more credits left even to buy and heat a McMansion at some point in my life. So I have to be careful not to spend too much of my carbon credits. I would rather save the habitat for Sundarbans tigers than owning a McMansion habitat. But then that is what I though when I did not own a car. 'I would rather save the ozone than save a walk'. Saving planet is awfully difficult when you have the means, especially in a 'Super Size It' and indulging society. When some one is urging the public to ride public transportation, they mean what they say. The 'public' to ride public transportation so that there are less cars in the freeway when they cruise along in their Lexus RX 400h.

Save a buck, save the world

The cricket - the dangerous way of life

Pakistan team coach Bob Woolmer is found dead in his hotel room after some one strangulated him for reasons unknown at this point. The story is still unfolding with unbelievably sketchy details of corruption crime and betrayal. Entire cricketing fraternity is praying that the investigation does not lead to any one from cricketing world. Money corrupts cricket. Black money kills it.

When British first played cricket, they did not play a sport. It was a way of life for them. The pass time of the aristocracy. They broke for tea and lunch in between. They played days non-stop in the sun, clad in white. It is no longer a gentleman's game. It is a game of black money, match fixing and death. Yes, you can get killed if you coach a team or play cricket.

It was before the television popularized the game of cricket in erstwhile British colonies. My Chacha (Father's younger brother) introduced me to the wonderful game of cricket. I was not presented with a cricket bat and a kit by my rich Chacha on my birth day as you may have betted. My Chacha was a disabled person from childhood polio. He could walk but not without falling down frequently. So he preferred to sit down. In the verandah of the ancestral home, he sat on a wooden bench all day, from dawn to dusk. Waiting for a test to begin.

Cricket was his life. He would listen to BBC radio commentary of every single cricket match that was played. Back then, it was played in 5 days and players did not wear colorful outfits. They wore white trousers and T-shirts. Early mornings and evenings, they wore half sweaters. They broke for tea in the morning and evening. They took an hour lunch break. It was slow and boring at times. They played 5 days of 'outdoor chess' and still did not produce any result. But it was the real 'test' of patience, skills and mind game.

My Chacha went to school and all but dropped out early on after few falls in school. But he learned to understand the English commentary over the years. He could eventually count upto the highest score made by a test team in an innings. (952 by Sri Lanka against India).

Test cricket was his only solace in an otherwise lonely life. He had a small transistor radio and he tuned to BBC sports for English commentary. He took tea break when the test team broke for tea. He ate lunch when the team broke for lunch. When the cricket is played overseas, he quietly listened to the radio when every one was asleep.

India did not win all the time. In fact, they lost most of the times. But they were admired for their sincerity to the game of cricket. The days when the class of the batter is judged by the number of days he camps in the crease frustrating the pace batteries of the world. Sunni's copybook perfection and single minded determination to dominate the fearsome four;Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Malcolm Marshall and Joel Garner.

They were underdogs and they wanted to prove the world that they be taken seriously. Just like the Bangla boys of today. They did not make millions from endorsements but they made billion fans proud when they won the first ever world cup by upsetting the then mightiest West Indies. The image of Kapil clad in Blue blazer hoisting the world cup from the balcony to the fans, never repeated in like or kind.

My Chacha grew increasingly disengaged from life and eventually from Cricket too. The transistor radio stopped playing BBC. It lost its owner and operator. He is no longer in this world to witness India getting out of world cup cricket in the first round by one of the weakest campaigns in recent history. He is not there to hang his head in shame with a billion people. He would be happier dead than living through the times of betting, match fixing and murder in cricket field. Because the purity of cricket meant so much to him. He would prefer the slow boring days of test cricket than the glitz and glamour of celebrity cricketers of India who buckled under pressure every single time without fail since the (in)famous sixer by Miandad of Chetan Sharma. The days when Bollywood actresses flew to Sharjah to watch cricket sitting next to Dawood Ibrahim!

Why organic is not cool any more; Local is the new organic - kitchen 150

Just when I am about to get cheap organic produce from Walmart and Costco, the game is changed on me. Organic is not good any more. Local is the new Organic!

All of a sudden, transporting organic fish from china and organic apple from New Zealand to far way places like US does not sound politically correct any more. For that matter organic salads from Salinas valley (Northern California) is not consumed in New York without feeling guilty of burning middle eastern oil.

Most of the time it is hard to say what is fashion and what is real. What is sustainable and what is not. What is healthy and what is carcinogenic. Do you trust a cow or a chemist? Do you protect your wallet or earth? What is more important, being able to grind Tellicherry pepper, shipped from half way across the globe, into your platter or use chili from farmers market? Answer is complicated and it changes from time to time and depends on whom you talk.

With food, it has always been very confusing. Some 60 years back, my parents from a small village in Kerala, India, ate whatever they got. Some times it was mangoes from the neighbors trees. Some times it was the rice and vegetables from the family farm. They made yogurt at home. They chased chicken and milked cows. They fished from the nearby creeks. They pulled crabs from the dirt holes next to the running water. They ate pretty much what they could get local and grown organic. But they did not know it had a name. For them it was FOOD.

Well, then they were born at the times of Bengal famine that killed 5 million people in British India. While economists disagree on the causes of the famine, the new government in free India decided to take on the mission of being self sufficient in food. The green revolution in India took roots and India started its mission on industrial scale agriculture with massive dams and canals for irrigation, genetically modified high yield rice and wheat and fertilisers and pesticides. The farming practises changed everywhere including our family rice farms. They used IR-8, high yield genetically modified rice variety. They used Urea and other fertilisers. They used pesticides that included some form of DDT. India started building food warehouses all across India with size larger than Walmart super centers. They transported food across the length and breadth of the country in coal burning rail engines. Famines became a dreadful thing of the past. India started exporting food grains and processed food. Government created a new agency to oversee Agricultural and Processed Food Export Development (APEDA). India became self sufficient in food and assured her children that their photographs will not end up winning the best photograph awards for showing rib cages of poor children in third world countries.

By the time I was a child, we started eating apples and grapes from far away himalayan states.
The food aid from US was beginning to taper. Still saw the stars and stripes for the first time. Vegetables came across the western ghats in the underbelly of the interstate bus routes that crossed mountain divides. We even ate dates shipped from Saudi Arabia.

Then I started reading books. Magazines. I read about vegans. I read how much energy is spent on a chicken before it gives back fraction of it as egg and meat. I was convinced that if we spend a fraction of that energy in producing vegetables, we can feed the entire starving people in the world. So I became a vegetarian. It was tough being a vegetarian in a home where fish is eaten for at least two meals a day. But I survived without chicken, egg and fish. I read about green movement in the western world and swore to god that I will never buy a car that pollutes the air we breath. It was easy for me to decide because I never had any prospect of having the money to buy one. Plus no one I knew owned a car except for the local doctor.

Then I moved to the big city Delhi. I saw people driving imported cars. Scoda Octavia, Opel Astra, Honda City and Even Mercedes. People in Delhi liked to eat at TGIF, McDonald and KFC. They were very impressed with the french fries from McDonald. They thought it was a wonder food. I could not afford McMeal back then! My friends asked me to throw a party at KFC after getting my first job. Fried chicken and biscuits. Meal for 5 cost me more than my month hostel bill. But to be honest, I felt very proud to be able to dine at KFC. It was cool to eat imported food at an imported food joint. Being a vegan did not sound cool in a country where even the predominantly vegetarian Hindus sneaked out and ate chicken nuggets . Being vegan was for the Santa Monica and Mountain View purists who searched for higher purpose in life than just eating good food.

My room mate used to buy pringles and used to give me a few discs. The cucumber from the farmers market did not look very sexy in front of the frozen packaged food the rich started buying in bulk. Traditional lentils curry and wheat roti could not be found in the IT campus cafeteria where hot pizzas were served for free to employees. Dal Roti were served just outside of the sprawling campus in a tin shed dhaba where rikshaw pullers and students ate. There was so much urge to consume everything that was offered in glittering shopping malls and food joints.

Then US dream came calling on me. It was time to come to the US. I told my friends that I will eat KFC when I land in the US. Little did I know about CPK. Shocked to learn that McDonald is a 'cheap' food chain in the US that offerred cheap and fattening fries and burgers. I saw people lined up at In-N-Out drive through. Farmers market was the coolest place to be. I saw people buying tomatoes and vegetables that had far from perfect shapes. The game is changed one me one more time.

Whole foods expanded like corn popping inside the burner. Organic is in and conventional is out. Scare of growth hormones triggering early puberty in kids. Scare of pesticides causing irrecoverable damages to childrens nervous systems. Finally people thought that they found an answer to what causes cancer. It appeared that the the conventional food we bought from Ralphs and Vons caused it all. But the price is steep to buy organic. More over USDA still did not not recognize any health benefits of eating organic. But what do they know about the health effects of chemicals.

For millions of scared parents, the good news came when Walmart announced that they are going to sell Organic produce at fraction of the Whole Foods price. Costco already started carrying organic milk and other produce at reduced price. Organic is beginning to loose its exclusivity. Organic is not romantic any more especially for visionaries like Google food service manager John Dickman who created 'Cafe 150' for googlers where they only cooked that were produced within 150 miles of mountain view. According to him, "Organic was cool at Google in 2004" and now it is local. They cant serve shrimp and scallops since they are not farmed within 150 miles. But that's a small price to pay for being cool.

As a kid growing up in a small village in India, I used to dive at the bottom of the river to collect clams. I never told this story to my US friends lest being ridiculed as Yahoo from third world country. Now I feel cool. I can tell that I ate at 'Cafe 1' that is my mom's kitchen within 1 mile where she cooked the bounty of clams that I collected from river bed. She cooked tapioca roots that I pulled on my way back from school. She grated the coconut that just fell from the tree. She did not know she was a locavore. She was just cooking.

Unlike my mom, Wolfgand Puck knew what he was doing when he served organic and humanely raised French Osetra Caviar for this year Oscar "after party". Next year it will be Oscar 150. That will not include the container of shrimp from China parked at Long Beach!

Local is the new organic TIME Magazine Article

Read my previous post on Organic food. Tips for buyers of conventional produce

Read my previous post on Tellicherry Pepper

New mexico professor finds world's hottest chili in Assam - Need any more proof that India is HOT?

Once I went to Santa Fe* and went to a local restaurant and placed an order for Chili Enchilada. The waitress asked me how do I like it; Red, Green or Christmas? Well, in the true Indian tradition of nodding the head in all directions, when confused, I ordered Christmas. I was pleasantly surprised when the platter came with one side green chili sauce and on the other red. Boy was it hot! Wait, its gonna get even hotter.

According to Guinness world records, New Mexico professor finds world's hottest chili pepper. Its called Bhut Jolokia (also called Naga Jolokia) from Assam, India and it rates at 1,001,304 Scoville heat units, which measures hotness (Number of times the chili extract needs to be diluted in sugar water before no trace of hotness is tasted). This chili pepper is nearly twice as hot as Red Savina, the variety it replaces. Professor Paul Bosland says Bhut Jolokia translates as ghost chili. The ghost chili grows mostly on hilly terrain and is considered a staple of every meal in the northeast. Next time you see Andhra chilli pickle in Indian grocery store, don't assume that its the "hottest" thing in the world.

After Guinness nod to Indian chili, woman to set record eating it

* Santa Fe is state capital of New Mexico and I drove past 'downtown' looking for it! Its amazing how they could maintain the low profile hamlet feel of this tiny state capital

Can Resveratrol help you age slower - Dont gulp the red wine yet

Resveratrol, a new medical fad? We thought it was anti oxidants that helps us fight the wrinkles.
David Sinclair of the Harvard Medical School has found that resveratrol increases the activity of a protein called SIRT1. Resveratrol significantly increases the lifespan of yeast and mice. There is hope that it could do the same for humans. A number of beneficial health effects, such as anti-cancer, antiviral, neuroprotective, anti-aging, anti-inflammatory and life-prolonging effects have been reported in non-human species (e.g. rats). Resveratrol is found in the skin of red grapes and as a constituent of red wine but based on extrapolation from animal trials, apparently not in sufficient amounts to explain the “French paradox” that the incidence of coronary heart disease is relatively low in southern France despite high dietary intake of saturated fats.

Millions of dollars are pouring in to the research of Resveratrol in the search of cure for "disease of aging" and Sinclair and his team is in the forefront of that research.
Wine molecule slows aging process

Wahhabification of Kerala? - How a cultural melting pot is begining to show signs of boiling

Los Angeles Times ran a front page story today (Jan 28, 2007) about how migrants returning from the Persian Gulf with stricter views on Inslam are altering the melting pot in an Indian province of Kerala.

It was not long ago when hindus visited islamic shrines and offered prayer before a sufi saints. I was there in one of the jungle shrine on the way to a hindu temple called Mamanam Temple in North Malabar during my school days. The islamic shrine is called Nilamuttam (Courtyard of moon light) in the midst of green forests of western ghats. I stood with my parents infront of the shrine with equal if not more reverence and god fear with which we stood infront of the hindu diety we prayed an hour ago. It was mesmeric and was an early education to me about the organic harmony with which two religions coexisted in Kerala.

Last time I checked with my parents, the hindu visitors are not visiting the islamic shrine any more. I dont know the reasons. It could be that hindu extremists started spreading word that its an insult to their god that the hindu visitors stopping by an islamic shrine after the temple visit. It is also possible that doors of the shrine are closed for hindu visitors. Either ways, its a sad thing that happened to Kerala psyche. It looks like the trend is not singular. The pull to the extremes are getting stronger as years pass by. Los Angeles Times article chronicles the wahabi part of the story. But other side of the story deserves mention. When my cousin showed up at work in Saudi on Dec 7, 1992, the day after Hindu extremists demolished a disputed centuries old mosque-temple Babri Masjid, his arabic manager asked him, 'Are you guys getting more intolerant towards our brothers in India?'. He did not have an answer. Let us hope that Kerala find her answer by keeping its tradition of beinga true melting pot that never boils over.

Read the Los Angeles Times report

Dor; a must see movie for every Indian - Nagesh Kukunoor's Jodhpur Blues

Nagesh is not the regular Bollywood type and you can always expect something special, something different from this chemical engineer from Georgia Institute of Technology.

A young man from Jodhpur dies in Saudi. Another man from Himachal is accussed of pushing the man from the balcony and waiting for a pardon from the victim's wife to avoid execution. Wife of the accused travels to far away jodhpur to find the victim's wife and convince her to get a pardon to save her husband's life.

From Merril Diniz in Rediff movie review:

"Dor is a must-watch for all Indians; the core message transcends religion, community, strata and gender and it has a superb anti-climax. The film is entertaining and also has multiple messages that are delivered in the subtlest manner. And there are many highlights. The film is aesthetically shot against picturesque locations in Himachal and Rajasthan and some of the scenes shot in Jodhpur simply take your breath away. The script is engaging; the dialogues entertaining, witty and yet quite profound. You also have several sub-plots that surround the main story. And every scene seems to have been well etched out."

If you wonder how the pardon letter can remain in the dessert sand after hours of dropping it, loosing hope of getting a pardon from the victim's wife, then you are not alone. If you wondered about the transformation of the con artist Behroopia from a bag stealer into a companion in the search of pardon, then also you are not alone. Even Kukunoor has his blues! He is too parallel for Bollywood and too bollywood for Satyajith Rai school. No wonder why he looks at a loss at Filmfare night. But no probs. What you show to us is worth all the pardon!

I am yet to see the Malayalam film Perumazhakkalam directed by Kamal, starring actresses Meera Jasmine and Kavya Madhavan, which inspired the storyline of this movie.

Read the review

Longest ever speech delivered in the UN Security Council - 50 year anniversary of V.K Krishna Menon's speech

It was 50 years ago today (Jan 23 1957) V.K Krishna Menon started delivering a marathon 7 hour 48 minute speech in UN Security Council on Kashmir issue as a reponse to Pakistan Foreign Minsiter's speech a week earlier. Not Menon's flow of words but a single nyet (NO in Russian) uttered by Russia's Arkady Sobolev called a halt to the U.N.'s efforts to mediate in Kashmir, little over a month after his speech.

By casting the Soviet Union's 79th veto in the Security Council, Sobolev effectively killed a resolution, jointly sponsored by the U.S., Cuba. Britain and Australia, to send Council President Gunnar Jarring of Sweden to Kashmir as a step "toward the settlement of the dispute." The resolution did not mention plebiscite, but noted in passing that former U.N. resolutions calling for demilitarization and a plebiscite in Kashmir had so far been ignored.

If you have time to read the 8 hour long speech click the link below.

Read Krishna Menon's Speech at UN

Trivia: V.K Krishna Menon probably is the most famous tea drinker in the world. He used to drink as much as 30 cups of tea a day which made him collapse in a heap at UN. His doctor said he was "a very sick man" who had been working too hard while sustaining himself on "about 30 cups of tea a day, absorbing all of the salt in his body." If you want to know what happens when you drink too much fluid, read my previos blog.

Too much water?

Pronunciation tips for Desi tongue - lucky you, if you are trained at a call center

The problem most desis (including me) face when speaking English has similar pattern. I am not talking about the accent or emphasis on certain sounds but something more basic. Most of the time the problem is in translating the English vowels into Devanagari. We mix up अ and ए for A, इ and ए for E, ऐ and इ for I and अ and ओ for O. Most of the time we get it right. But some times we mix up.

May be the examples below can be of help to you if you are like me who frequently gets 'I dont understand what you are saying' look from walmart associates when asking for pecan (p-ई-k-अ-n) aisle (अइ-l) :) OK I exaggerated a bit...but here are some samples that we often goof up.

Note - The dash is just to separate english letters from Hindi. Not to suggest any phonetic pause.

Aisle - Do not ask for an अइ-l seat. Ask for अए-l seat
Apple - This is a classic mallu (thats me) issue. Do not eat आ-pple, eat ए-pple
Can't -Do not say K-आn't, say K-ए-n't
Configuration - Do not say k-ओ-nfiguration, say k-अ-nfiguration
Data - D-ए-ta and D-अ-ta are OK
Deposit - Do not D-ए-posit your money, D-इ-posit it.
Detail - Ask for D-इ-tails or D-ई-tails, you will get it either ways.
Dinosaur - D-ऐ-nos-ओ-r
Direction - Ask for D-इ-rection, not D-ऐ-rection
Economy - Indian इ-k-ओ-n-अ-my is booming. Not ए-k-ओ-n-अ-my
Feminine - Appreciate F-ए-m-इ-n-इ-n beuty NOT F-ए-m-इ-n-ऐ-n beuty
Finance - F-ऐ-nance OR F-इ-nance - bot are fine
Garbage - G-आ-rb-ए-j NOT G-आ-rb-ऐ-j
Garage - Your car is in the G-अ-r-आ-j or G-अ-r-आ-sh NOT in G-अ-r-ऐ-j
Hi - Say H-आइ NOT Hऐ
Hello - Say H-अ-llo NOT H-ए-llo
Manager - Ask for a M-ए-n-एइ-jer.
Naive - N-अई-v. Dont be a N-ऐ-v
Narrate - N-ए-rr-ए-t a story. Dont N-आ-rrate
Oven - Heat in an अ-v-ए-n NOt in ओ-v-अ-n
Oscar - Watch ओ-sk-अ-r awards, NOT ओ-sk-आ-r awards
Pecan - Never ever ask for buuter p-ई-k-ए-n icecream. You will NOTget it. Ask for p-इ-k-आ-n OR p-इ-k-ए-n OR p-ई-k-ए-n
Valet - Park your car with v-आ-l-ए or v-आ-l-एt. Both will park your car.
Vinyl - Do you have V-ऐ-n-अ-l floor or V-इ-n-अ-l floor? You have the first one.
Wallet - I have a long story to tell about this. I had to spell this to walmart associate. Never ask for v-आ-llet ask for v-ओ-llet
Walnut - v-ओ-lnut

Its really Nअts.. but cant help it :)

Colbert corrects himself to pick Amitabh - Why its all part of the plan to woo Indian audience

Colbert show did not become what it is now for nothing. He is smart and knows how to market his show. He highlighted the celebrity feud between Bollywood's King and Prince, Amitabh and Sharukh in his show. He picked Sharukh for his toe teasing dance using Bhangra-Meter. (Hint to webster: new word of the year??)

Read about the previous show

Now he does it again but this time picked Big B, citing his dancing performance in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (KKKG). He did this in an apparent attempt to cool the nerves of the edgy tech support guys in India, upset about his pick SRK in his previous show. Folks, it is all part of the plan. Don't be surprised if he invites Karan Johar to have Koffee in his show. He also dropped the 'H' word when mentioning about his Hindu audience. Little did he know that an Afghan muslim in Kabul and a Saudi Prince is equally hurt first and rejoiced later. Bollywood is secular (why do you think we have a Hindu King and Muslim Prince in Bollywood?). But we accept your aplogy Mr Colbert, since you are our well wisher and we like your show more than papa bear's.

Watch Video on Youtube

Owens river valley, Kaveri, Mullapperiyar - water disputes in the world and lessons learned

This is the tale of three rivers and how tricks, deception, imperialism, coercion, false science and historically established use took water away from its real owners for good. No one will be able to deny Los Angeles its established use right over water from Owens valley. No one will try to deny Madras its established use right over Kavery and Periyar water without risking bloodshed. There are lessons to be learned. The most important of them all is 'Water is precious. Find ways to preserve it.'.

Owens River in Northern California:

Owens river runs through the ill fated Owens valley in Northern California. The valley is approximately 75 mi (120 km) long, trending north-south, and is bounded by the Sierra Nevada on the west and the Inyo and White Mountains on the east. The mountains on either side (including Mount Whitney) reach above 14,000 ft (4,300 m) in elevation, while the floor of the Owens Valley is at 4000 ft (1,200 m), making the valley one of the deepest in the United States. The bed of Owens Lake, now a dry alkali toxic flat, sits on the southern end of the valley. The valley provides water to the Los Angeles Aqueduct, the source of one-third the drinking water for Los Angeles, and is famous as the scene of one of the fiercest and long-running episodes of the California Water Wars.

1898 - Frederick Eaton, mayor of Los Angeles created the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) and appointed his friend William Mulholland as the superintendent.
1898-1905 Eaton lobbied Theodore Roosevelt and got the local irrigation system cancelled and used the inside information from Bureau of Reclamation to learn about the water rights in Owens valley.
1905 - Through purchases and bribery, Los Angeles purchased enough water rights to enable a gravity-fed aqueduct to deliver the Owens water to Los Angeles.
1913 - Completion of the 223 mile (359 km) Los Angeles Aqueduct to divert water from the valley to Los Angeles.
1924 - The water right purchases by LADWP using questiuonable practises led to anger among local farmers, which erupted in violence in 1924, when parts of the water system were sabotaged by local farmers.
1970- LADWP completed a second aqueduct from Owens Valley. More surface water was diverted and groundwater was pumped to feed the aqueduct. Owens Valley springs and seeps dried and disappeared, and groundwater-dependent vegetation began to die. The valley became a alkali dust bowl. Years of litigation followed.
1997 - Inyo County, Los Angeles, the Owens Valley Committee, the Sierra Club, and other concerned parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding that specified terms by which the lower Owens River would be rewatered by June 2003. LADWP missed this deadline and was sued again. Under another settlement, this time including the State of California, Los Angeles promised to rewater the lower Owens River by September 2005.
2005 - LADWP announced it was unlikely to meet this extended deadline.
2006 - Water was returned to the Owens River on Dec. 6, when Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Inyo County Supervisor Susan Cash symbolically concluded the most celebrated water war in American history. Hollywood movie China Town is based on this epic water war.

Water wars in India is equally full of high drama and politiking. Raw emotions are plenty among the neighbors Karnataka, Tamilandu, Kerala and Pondichery over Kavery water and between Tamilnadu and Kerala over Periyar.

Kavery River in Southern India:
Kavery originates from Karnataka and flows through Tamil Nadu and discharges in Bay of Bengal. There were disputes as long back as 1807 between Mysore Prinley State (Now Karnataka) and Madras Presidency (Tamil Nadu) states. The center of the dispute is the agreement signed between two states in 1892 and 1924 which required Mysore to obtain Madras' consent for any water it wished to utilize or for any project it wished to undertake to utilize the waters. Karnataka deems these agreements as having been between unequal partners because while Mysore state was a princely state, Madras formed a part of the British Raj. After many Supreme Court interferences, Tribunals, Interim Awards, River Authority, Monitoring Committe etc, the dispute continues even today with occassional flare up of emotion between the states and its people.



Periyar River in Kerala:

Periyar river originates from the western ghats and flows west ward to Kerala and then discharges into Arabian Sea. The center of the controversy between Kerala and TamilNadu is the Mullapperiyar dam commissioned in 1895 to divert water from the river to arid districts of Madras Presidency through a tunnel cut through the watershed divide. 999 year lease was signed in 1886 between princely state of Travancore and Madras Presidency for the construction of the dam for sum of Rupees 40,000. Kerala deems these agreements as having been between unequal partners because while Travancore state was a protectorate under British Rule, Madras formed a part of the British Raj. Sounds familiar?

Kerala always believed that its a water surplus state. So it never found itself frugal in giving away her water. They now realise that it is a myth based on very old and inaccurate water data. But they realise the impossibility of denying water Tamil Nadu enjoyed for centuries. Kerala agrees to give water to its neighbors rain shadow areas (The monsson winds hit the western ghats and rains in Kerala leaving rain shadow on the other side of the mountain range). Their main contention is about the safety of the century+ old masonry dam made of lime and sugar mixer. It has been showing signs of aging and leaking for many years. Kerala wants the century old dam to be reconstructed using modern day technology while Tamil Nadu sites the central water commission report regarding the dam safety to increase the dam height to 143 feet from the current height of 136 feet. Supreme Court gave Tamil Nadu permission to increase the heigh considering the report. However Kerala Assembly had passed a legislation in August 2003 reserving for the State the right to decommission a dam, if found unsafe, by draining out the waters stored in its reservoir. Kerala maintains that Central Water Commission did not consider the earth quake risks to the dam while preparing the report. Supreme court gets involved again and asked both parties to find a political solution. The discussion broke down and the ball is in the court again. Some politicians from both sides takes extreme position. Some Kerala politicians want the lease cancelled unilaterally siting lack of maintanance of the leased property and unequal nature of the parties in the lease agreement. Some in Tamil Nadu wants the dam height to be the original 152 ft.

So what are the lessons learned from these water disputes?

1. Never enter into an agreement of unequals. Owens valley farmers were tricked into selling their lands (water rights) to LADWP for paltry sum. State of Mysore, a princely vassal (a person/entity under the protection of a feudal lord to whom he/it has vowed homage and fealty) state under British Raj, had to be content with an unfavorable agreement with the British Province of Madras. State of Travancore signed a less gain - all pain 999 year lease agreement with the British Province of Madras for a sum of Rs 40,000. (Inflation was not something they were mindful of back then)
2. Settle the disputes sooner than later. Prolonged water usage , even if the water right is acquired by questionable means, renders some degree of legitimacy which becomes harder to nullify later on. It is impossible to reverse the water usage pattern without huge human sufferings.
3. Do not try to put a price on water. Water is priceless. If you want to sell water rights, sell yours not your grand grand kids. They will not pardon your short sight.
4. Water is precious. Find ways to preserve it rather than wasting TMCs (Thousand Million Cubic feet) to water logged irrigation lands, seeping canals and man made sodic lands.

pizookie - easiest recipe for another party hit

What is pizookie? Its a warm chocolate chip cookie, seved with ice cream on top right before it hardens. Wonder why the name pizookie? It is coming from Pizza Cookie. Cookie served with toppings of ice cream, thats all. (We had it first at BJ's restaurant)

All you need is chocolate chip cookie dough (we use ready made pillsburry dough) and ice cream. (Our favorite is classic vanilla. Any other flavor will interfere with the freshly baked cookie).

1. Pre heat the oven at 350 F. Cut the dough into small scoops and put it on baking tray over aluminium foil 2 inches apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the dough melts and turning brown. 2. Let it cool for 1 minute and serve immediately in a bowl with one or two scoops of ice cream.
Cook and Cool it more or less if you like the cookie hard or gooie.

Your friends will think that you are a pro :)

Amitabh Bachchan vs. Shahrukh Khan - Comedy Central decides with Bhangra-Meter

Almost two minutes in his 30 minute show Colbert Report on Comedy Central, Steven Colbert talked about the reported feaud between King and Prince of Bollywood Amitabh Bachchan vs. Shahrukh Khan.

He looked undecided between the distingusihed old gentleman and the young dancing machine. He finally used his internal Bhangra-Meter to decide the winner. He had hard time pronuncing names of bollywood actors showed up at Sharukh's new year party but he did a good job of reaching out to the young desi viewers in the USA by picking SRK. Big B fans, no hard feelings about that. It is just show business :)

Watch Video on Youtube

Renter's insurance - Tenant's liability and subrogation procedure

If you are renting and don't have a renters insurance? Think again. Whether you just landed in the US or a long time tenant, you need to consider renter's insurance. In the event of a fire or any damage to the rental property caused by your negligence, then the property owner or their insurance company may collect the damages from you.
The property owner can transfer the legal right of the claim to their insurance company (called Subrogation in legal circle) and they may collect the money from you if the damaged is caused by your negligence. It is more difficult to flight with a big insurance companies and their pricey attorneys than fighting with the property manager or property owner.

The Landlord/Tenant subrogation rule in California holds that a tenant's liability to the landlord's insurer for negligently causing a fire depends on the intent and reasonable expectations of the parties to the lease as ascertained from the lease as a whole. (Does your lease agreement mention Subrogation waiver? Are you a co-insured in the property insurance purchased by the owner?).

For complete description of the rule in each state, visit the site:

LANDLORD / TENANT SUBROGATION

If you buy renter's insurance, then your insurance company will cover your liability and pay for your personal belongings. You can either buy Liability insurance (covers the damage to the structure due to your negligence) or Personal property (any covered damage) or both. It is fairly inexpensive to get renters insurance from your auto insurance company ($12-15/month)

Gajar ka kheer - easy recipe for a party hit

This is not gajar in kheer as you might have feared. This is cousin to the delicious 'Gajar ka halwa' and no less cousin that is. Here is the recipe from my wife who makes this well. As usual, we wont tell exact measurements. Not that we don't want to but that we don't know either. Do what feels right. Andaz apna apna :)

1. Grate 3 carrots and fry in ghee/butter (2-3 spoons) until carrot color fades (10 minutes). If you take a bite at this stage, it should not taste raw.
2. Add sugar (as needed) and stir fry for 10 minutes till the mix tightens
3. Add boiled milk (one cup milk microwaved for 2-3 minutes) and stir for 5 minutes or until the right consistency is reached.
4. Add one cardamom powdered for flavor
5. Add some condensed milk (3 spoon)
6. Add cashew and raisin fried separately in ghee
7. Serve hot or cold, you cant go wrong either way.

No health benefit from organic banana?

Surprised? The reason is simple. Any pesticide residue in banana is probably discarded along with the peel. This article is not to confirm or deny the health benefits of organic food. Try the following tips if you are on a budget or just don't like the price tag of organic produce.

1. Fruits and Vegetables: Wash the fruits and vegetables thoroughly under running water before consuming. Peel the skin of apple, pear, grape and straw berries whenever possible (especially when giving to small children.) The risk of pesticides outweigh nutritional benefits of the skin.

2. Milk, meat, poultry and eggs: Buy fat free/low fat milk, lean meat, remove excess fat from meat and poultry to reduce the exposure to pesticides. Pesticides residue is found almost always with the fat. Growth hormones and antibiotics injected to animals has been a concern, however US and UN health agencies concluded that these do not pose any health risks to human since these get destroyed in the pasteurization process or broken down during digestion. If you are still concerned, consider rBGH and rbST (growth hormones) free milk which is cheaper than USDA organic milk. Foster Farms chicken is hormone and steroid free.

3. If you are growing fruits and vegetables in your back yard, do not use any pesticides 2-3 weeks before harvesting.

Read more on the latest in organic industry:

Article in Business Week

Fighting Cholesterol , Triglycerides and loose some weight - No dal roti, rice for dinner

I weighed 210 pounds and had an elevated Cholesterol and Triglycerides couple of years back. My wife wanted to loose some weight after our son was born. We tried diet and some indisciplined exercise regime. Sure it failed.

Then we tried something different. Skipped carbohydrate for dinner. Ate moderate carb for break fast and lunch but skipped for dinner. No roti, rice, dal and aloo for dinner. No sambar, idli, dosa, uppuma tiffin. Some times we baked chicken wings. Some times we baked fish (mostly salmon). Some other time we ate lightly fried hard boiled egg whites. Egg omelets with just one or two yolks. In between, we made pasta with lots of chicken, shrimp and vegetables and very little noodles. Before the E-Coli scare, we made salads with baked chicken strips and boiled egg whites. Whenever we baked, we baked lots bell peppers and mushrooms to fill up. It was a welcome and interesting change. In less than 6 months, I lost 15 pounds and my wife lost 10 pounds. The best part is that my Cholesterol and Triglycerides are normal. So are able to maintain the lost weight for more than a year now. Since we enjoy the diet change for dinner, we have hopes of sustaining it for long.

One more change was to have early dinner. We finish our dinner by 6.30- 7.00 PM with no snacks after coming back from work.

Changing the dinner helped in two ways.

1. Rice and Roti is mostly ate with sambar/dal/potato/other lentils curry adding more easy calorie to the diet. Having only one item to eat reduces the total calorific intake.
2. Since baked fish/poultry is not native to our (Indians) palate , we don't tend to over eat.
3. Since the protein makes you feel full faster and deprive the body of fast energy (carb, sugar), the body breaks down the fat from storage and thereby help body spend more energy.

This is not to suggest to go carb free. We eat more of unprocessed carb (grains, par boiled rice, fruits and vegetables) but less of processed carbs (sugar, flour, maida, polished rice, basmati rice). I wont call it protein diet. But tipping the scale from carbohydrate diet to carb neutral diet.

Remember what your grandma warned you. Skipping dinner will make you loose a dove's weight. Skipping carb for dinner will help you loose half a dove.

Chicken biryani recipe -This is how we make it

What is Biryani?

According to noted Biryani Chronicler Vishy Shenoy:

Biryani is derived from the Persian word "Birian". In Farsi, Birian means "Fried before Cooking". It could have come from Persia via Afghanistan to North India. It could have also been brought by the Arab traders via Arabian sea to Calicut (Calicut Biryani). We know the history little better during 1800 to 1900. During Mogul empire, Lucknow was known as Awadh, giving rise to Awadhi Biryani. In 1856, British deposed Nawab Wajid Ali Shah in Calcutta, giving rise to Calcutta Biryani. Aurangzeb installed Nizam-ul-mulk as the Asfa Jahi ruler of Hyderabad, as well as a "Nawab of Arcot" to oversee Aaru Kaadu region (Six Forrests) south of Hyderabad. These moves gave rise to Hyderabadi Biryani and Arcot Biryani. The Biryani spread to Mysore by Tipu Sultan of Carnatic. Needless to say it was a royal dish for Nawabs and Nizams. They hired vegetarian Hindus as bookkeepers leading to the development of Tahiri Biryani.


Now if you want to skip the history and get straight into kitchen to give it a shot of making your own version, here is the helper.

Recipe for chicken biryani - Apartment style*, servings 6

1. Get a whole chicken and cut into medium size pieces
2. Marinate with ginger garlic, green chilli paste, black pepper and chicken masala. Add 2-3 spoon yogurt if needed. Or add one spoon lemon juice. (The adventours can make the chicken masala from ground up but it will take longer time and no guaranteed result.)
3. Fry 3 cups of Basmati rice in 2 spoon of ghee or butter for 2 minutes
4. Add 6 cups of water and add bay leaves and salt. Bring it to boil and keep it in very low flame till water dries up almost completely. (15 minutes or so)
5. Add 2-3 spoon oil and Fry Red/white onions in a pressure pan/pan till brown
6. Add ginger garlic paste and fry till brown
7. Add diced tomatoes (3-4 large) and cook till it becomes a paste.
8. Add marinated chicken and cook for 5 minutes without adding water
9. Add 1/4 cup water and whistle the cooker twice. (only once if the chicken is young). Do not add water if you have residual water in chicken from washing.
10. If cooking in a pan, cook it closed until chicken is well done.
11. Dry the juices on high flame till the gravy has disappeared. If the gravy is watery, remove chicken and bring the gravy to thick.
12. On a glassware or oven safe wide bottom deep vessel, add layers of rice, chicken, chooped cilantro, mint leaves, fried ring onions (if needed), freshly ground cinnamon, clove and cardomom. (You can use packet garam masala but risk poor flavor)
13. Add safron/food color mix (mixed in rosewater or water) as patches on top of the rice if needed
14. Keep the vessel closed and keep it in oven at 300F for about 10-15 minutes
15. Serve hot with chicken pieces at the bottom of the platter covered with rice.

If you wonder about the measurements of the ingredients, then I cant help you. Because you should know how much of of each spice you can tolerate. If you are unsure, keep it simple. Remember, less is always safer and better.

One more thing. If you made your biryani and ate too much of it, then you can make sulaimani tea (black hot tea with lime juice). People in calicut belive that it helps digestion :)


Happy Biryani!

* To cook biryani in the traditional way, you need specialized vessels to dum (cook in a sealed vessel with light heat from embers from above and below) the layers of meat and rice. Plus you need embers from coconut shells to make Calicut Biryani. So hence this recipe is for people who cant make embers from their Apartment balcony :)

Tellicherry peppercorn

You may have heard of Tellicherry Pepper from one of your favorite cooking shows. Or you may have just bought McCormick Tellicherry pepper from Costco.

Tellicherry is an old port town in Kerala and it was a major export hub for British East Indian Company to trade spices from South India. For centuries, europeans enjoyed the flavor of Tellicherry pepper in their gourmet meals.

What exactly is Tellicherry pepper? By definition, it is 10% of the largest and ripest of the peppercorn harvest from Malabar region. What makes Tellicherry pepper so special?

The tropical heat, monsoon rains, and iron-rich laterite soil creates the best growing environment for the pepper. Better location to receive extra sunlight, location of the fruit on the vine to get better nutrient and time a fruit gets to mature before harvest etc contributes to make bigger, better pepper. And chefs across the globe swear by its rich aromatic oil and flavor when they grind Tellicherry pepper into their platter.

Soft vinyl toys and clear bottles - Toxic?

San Francisco recently banned toys containing two chemicals bisphenol A (BPA - pronounced as bisenol A ) and phthalates (pronounced as thalates). European Union also has a ban on these substances in toys. But US states did not impose a ban yet. Toy and chemical companies suing San Francisco for the ban arguing that the ban is not supported by science and will have a devastating impact on San Francisco toy retailers.

bisphenol A (BPA) - found in soft vinyl like teethers, pacifiers, nipples, "sippy cups" and heavily mouthed toys made of soft plastic, unless they are labeled as PVC-free or phthalate-free.

phthalates - found in clear, shiny plastic baby bottles, unless the manufacturer states they are not made of polycarbonate (which is made from bisphenol A)

Animal and human studies have linked these substances to a broad swath of health problems, including prostate and breast cancer, and altered genital development. Experts suggests parents to take steps to reduce/eliminate exposure.

Read Time Magazine Article

Crocin (Paracetamol) is the same as Tylenol (Acetaminophen) - Did you know?

Did you ever carry packets of Paracetamol for overseas travel from India thinking that you cant get this cure-for-all pain magic outside of India?

Do not worry.

Paracetamol (Crocin - brand name popular in India) and acetaminophen (Tylenol - brand name popular in the US) are essentially the same. The words acetaminophen and paracetamol both come from the chemical names for the compound: N-acetyl-para-aminophenol and para-acetyl-amino-phenol.

Common brand names for the drug include Tylenol in Brazil, Canada, South Korea and the U.S., Paralen in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Panadol in Taiwan, Australia, Greece, Central America, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Malaysia, Hong Kong, the UK, Sri Lanka, Romania, Portugal, The Netherlands, Finland, Singapore, Kenya, and Hungary, Perdolan in Belgium, Doliprane, Dafalgan, and Efferalgan in France, Tachipirina and Efferalgan in Italy, Crocin in India, Gelocatil and Efferalgan in Spain, Benuron in Portugal, Alvedon in Sweden, Panodil and Pinex in Denmark and Iceland, Acamol, Dexamol and Rokamol in Israel, Pinex and Paracet in Norway, Depon in Greece, Lekadol and Daleron in Slovenia Plicet and Lekadol in Croatia , Adol in Oman and Biogesic in Philippines.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracetamol

Malayalam cult movie - classmates

If you are a Malayali from Kerala, then you have seen this movie many times over. If you have not, then you must.

If you are not a Malayali and want to know why this movie is becoming a cult for the new generation Keralites, then you should watch too. Is this a musical with songs and dance? Sure it is. Are people falling in love in this movie? Sure they do. So what is the difference?

The difference is the subtle ways in which the lovers fall in love. What is granted to lovers as a right in today's bollywood is a mere luxury in this movie. It is kind of a journey backwards. It is not about the freedom of expressing love. But the lack of it. It is not about the happily ever after end. But the lost opportunity to live happily ever after. And you kind of feel that love from a distance is a bit bitter sweet than the love from near.

The one song that captures the mood of the movie is 'Ente Khalbile Vennilav Nee Nalla Paattukara.....'

Ente Khalbile Vennilav Nee Nalla Paattukara.....
Thattamittu Nhan Kathu vachoren Mullamottiloorum....Atharonnu vendee...
Atharonnu Vendee....
Ente Koottukaraa...Suthante Chelu kara......

Continues..........

It is a very powerful song and unfortunately you need to know malayalam to fully appreciate it. I tried to capture the essence of the song in the following lines. My apologies to Vayalar Sarath Chandra Varma (writer of this song) for taking the liberty of translating the song for non malayalai readers.

In the movie, this song is penned by a muslim girl, clad in black burqa and veil, for her secret admirer. The guy is the popular singer in the college and manages to get hold of her poetry and gives life to her secret desires.

Here is the translation.

You beautiful singer – moonlight is upon my soul.

Moonlight is upon my soul listening to your tunes
Take; my good friend; the scent treasured in Veil
The jasmine buds are for you to sniff - Sultan of mighty charm
Hidden are my desires behind the screen of my veil – the way I lived
You beautiful singer – moonlight is upon my soul

I could be the sweet thing in your smile- milky bright
Could be your beat – forever mine
Wished you saw me dancing in a wedding eve
Hands were made with mehndi - wished to see my sultan’s charm
Hidden are my desires behind the screen of my veil – the way I lived
You beautiful singer – moonlight is upon my soul

Guitar strings – tense and ready for music
That’s how you stood near me
My hands were for you to take – but you did not
I was ready to hum with you, let loose the claps
Anklets teased me to break into steps – many times over
Hidden are my desires behind the screen of my veil – the way I lived
You beautiful singer – moonlight is upon my soul.

__________________________________________________

The full version of malayalam song

Ente Khalbile Vennilav Nee Nalla Paattukara

Ente Khalbile Vennilav Nee Nalla Paattukara.....
Thattamittu Nhan Kathu vachoren Mullamottiloorum....Atharonnu vendee...
Atharonnu Vendee....
Ente Koottukaraa...Suthante Chelu kara......

Ninte punchiri palinullile panchasarayavaam...
Ninte Nenjile thappu muttumay ennumenteyavaam.....
Oppanacku nee kooduvan.....Mylanji monjonnu kanuvaan....
Enthumathramennagrahangale moodi vechu njan....

Ente Khalbile Vennilav Nee Nalla Paattukara.....
Thattamittu Nhan Kathu vachoren Mullamottiloorum....Atharonnu vendee...
Atharonnu Vendee....
Ente Koottukaraa...Suthante Chelu kara......

Thottu meettuvan ulla thanthrikal pottumenna polee..
Thottatuthu nee ninnuvenkilum kye thodanjathendee...
Lalanangalil mooluvaan..kyethalamittonnu paduvan....
Ethra vattamen kal chilankakal konjiyennoo.....

Ente Khalbile Vennilav Nee Nalla Paattukara.....
Thattamittu Nhan Kathu vachoren Mullamottiloorum....Atharonnu vendee...
Atharonnu Vendee....
Ente Koottukaraa...Suthante Chelu kara......