Restaurant Review – Tulips

I eat at Kemps Corner a lot. My only excuse is that it can quite literally be considered student budget heaven. And with that confession out of the way, I’m going to proceed to write about Tulips, which is just another pseudo – italian restaurant, looking to find its place in town.

The thing with Tulips is that they love their herbs; be it basil, cilantro or thyme – they’ve got it covered.

These are the dishes I ordered:

Basa fillet(s) in Cilantro and Lime 

This dish was actually rather decent. The overpowering flavour of cilantro wasn’t a put off as much as it was slightly unfortunate. The Basa fillets however, were cooked to perfection. I’m talking melt  in the mouth perfection. The herbed (surprise, surprise!) spaghetti was a pleasant addition. It was light and well seasoned – A little too much pepper though, but who am I to talk? I ordered steak in pepper sauce. But more on that tragedy later. What I found interesting about the combination of the fish and the pasta was that individually, they were both alright (and this may or may not be the north Indian in me who likes to mix everything on the plate talking), but together, they made a pretty good team. One that I’m not going to complain about too much. Then there was the stereotypical side salad, with diced onions, cucumber and bell peppers in lime, salt and pepper. It went pretty well with everything. I won’t lie. Even if it was just a clever tactic to cover up the empty edge of the plate because the pale whiteness of it was just too depressing for them to be able to present to their customers who had been waiting for a good half an hour for the plate to show up in the first place. I could swear I developed a mild case of whiplash that day, from turning over and looking at the waiter every few minutes with a  desperately hungry expression on my face. Borderline ‘Pussin Boots.’

On a scale of 1 to 5, I would give this dish a 3, which is honestly based more on the quantity.  I was happy once I had eaten though, simply because I was extremely hungry at the time and the dish served my purpose in that respect. However, the fact that the fish was cooked so wonderfully, that being the highlight of the plate, earns it a few extra brownie points. 

 

 

Tenderloin Steak in Pepper sauce

This is where things went beyond wrong. The steak was actually a recommendation by a friend.The sauce was supposed to be delicious, which was  interesting for me, since I’m not really one to like anything that’s too peppery. This time, however, my “medium rare” steak was burnt – Not just around the edges, but more along the lines of “left it on the grill and decided to take a break” burnt. The side salad? Great. The fries? Even better! But the meat?! What a mess! On being questioned, the only words the stunned attendant could manage to conjure were, “Ma’am, you said medium rare.” So I figured, arguing wasn’t going to help me here. I must confess, if you haven’t figured already, I’m a complete carnivore, so I like my meat sightly undercooked. Especially when it comesto steak, that partially raw centre is where all the flavour lies. So if you’re going to over cook my meat, you might as well do it right and try not to burn it or leave it crunchy enough for me to taste nothing but the char on its curled up edges. On a scale of 1 to 5? I’d say it earns about a 1 – and thats for the fries and the salad. As far as the sauce goes,  well let’s just say it could have been better and leave it at that. In fact, let’s just move past the steak and talk about dessert instead.

 

 

Chocolate covered Strawberries

 

 The dessert selection at Tulips was quite intriguing, really. There was an array of pies, pastries and tarts to choose from (The apple pie looked particularly scrumptious), but being a strawberry lover on a student budget, I chose this little dynamite for 25 rupees a pop. Smooth chocolate, fresh strawberries, no complaints. It was pretty great. 

So overall, here’s what I learnt:

• Tulips didn’t really make a spectacular impression on me, personally. 
• I’d say drop by once and experience it for yourself, if you like your food overpowered by herbs.
• Plating is not their forte.    

Pallavi Mathur

M11032

Sen vs Bhagwati – A Dinner Table Conversation

 

 

It has been three weeks and it still continues to pour with incessant vigour. The Sen-Bhagwati debate is unending and elusive. It touches on too many topics from economic ideologies to political orientation to personal connections. The media continues to comment with frenzy and politicians continue extending their little understanding of politics to their non-existent understanding of economic nuances thus drawing political generalisations and then condemn the economists.

The final verdict is long overdue. At the pace (that of two 80 year olds) this debate seems to be progressing with, the last word seems like a highly unlikely phenomenon in the near future. I imagine how convenient it would be to bring all these viewpoints to the table and consider. Probably have a dinner table conversation. Jagdish Bhagwati, Arvind Panagariya and perhaps Vivek Dehejia on the right side of the table seated elegantly. Panagariya prefers to have Gujarati food tonight to make a point. On the left side Amartya Sen, Jean Dreze and Mihir Sharma order some South Asian dishes in clear defiance of Panagariya’s expression. Somewhere around the table there is Sagrika Ghose sifting through the pages of Bhagwati’s and Sen’s books preparing herself for a conversation where she sounds intelligent. Then there is Manu Joseph who prefers to sit with his legs on the table, greatly offending the Harvard/Cambridge/Columbia/whateverelse Professors’ western sense of etiquette. At the head of the table, of course, is Twitter, changing its economical stance every other second.

Like most arguments, this one, at the dinner table begins with a twitter update as well, a reference to The Economist’s review of An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions. There is talk of the lip service to growth and the defence coming from Sen justifying himself as an advocate of growth ‘but not at the cost of development’. Dehejia steps in to speak for his “own great guru”( Bhagwati) and predicts that the Government will have to eventually turn into a growth-oriented “reform programme to stave off economic catastrophe, as happened in 1991.” Sen whose only counter attack is defence as usual, chuckles and says that he has been wrongly labelled as someone who is “against economic reforms and wants the liscene raj to come back.”

Someone brings up the word redistribution and Sen again goes on to explain himself. Sagrika Ghosh experiences a moment of Deja Vu as she understands the real meaning of the word explained but unable to grasp the concept she diverts the conversation towards a direction she can keep up with. She asks Sen “There is the much doubted Narendra Modi model of governance. What do you make of that model of governance? Do you approve of it?”

This is Mihir Sharma’s cue for an abrupt entry into the conversation; He states that the debate has become an “increasingly unseemly and uninformative spectacle.”  He explains that Bhagwati’s ideologies are not right of centre per se and Sen’s are similarly not left of centre. There is the discussion about minor differences that boil down to sequencing of events. Track II reforms after Track II or vice versa.

What comes first?  Deregulations and growth that will empower the poor and the rest to educate themselves and up their lifestyle on their own or state led social reforms with emphasis on health and education and development which will lead to an educated dynamic workforce, capable of inducing growth in the economy. The co-authors jump in here and site Indian examples (Kerela vs Gujarat). Twitter seems to come alive at this. Chandan Mitra, Manish Tiwari, Shashi Tharoor start exercising their freedom of expression and their belief in the social media.

 Someone mentions food security bill and thus comes about the topic of Sen’s tendency to seduce the reader with romanticism of poverty and state-sponsored entitlement-based public schemes. Manu Joseph jumps in to drop some irrelevant but witty reference to Arundhati Roy and Eduardo Galeano  (unfortunately mentioning and comparing the former with the latter in a single sentence. Which makes as much sense as the Mother Theresa-Sen metaphor) and quotes a bit of Eduardo Galeano. This finally makes for some good reading.

Bhagwati is likely to get impatient by this time, a trait that Sen wishes the poor of India would express more often. He, Bhagwati starts name-dropping and Dreze mentions his position as a member of Sonia Gandhi’s NAC. Twitter comes up with Niranjan Rajadhyaksha update and both Sen and Bhagwati quickly state that they do not support any party. It is a different matter that Bhagwati has been a friend of Manmohan Singh since about 60 years and Sen is UPA’s only qualified and widely followed advocate of the Food Security Bill.

 At this point all the entities on the table turn to Manmohan Singh. I apologise for having forgotten to mention that he has been a part of this dinner since the beginning, you might agree with me when I say it is easy to do so. Singh is calm in demeanour; he surveys the room and simply nods in agreement. Everyone assumes his concurrence to their respective viewpoints.

Bhagwati starts describing the breakfast he shared with Rahul Gandhi the other day, Sen orders for some strong tea “Indian Style.” Manu Joseph spots a Nandana Sen meme and smiles at another devious idea for a column.

Mihir Sharma and Vivek Dehejia assume their duties as journalists/analysts and attempt to conclude. One ends on a note of wistful thinking, a fantasy about a crisis that would force the state to subscribe to Bhagwati’s ideologies to survive. The other ends it on a pragmatic note emphasising on the finer details of their ideologies. But no one can top Manu Joseph’s last word as he talks about India’s economic policies that diverted expenditure towards science and warfare technology development instead of welfare schemes by saying “And soon, when India goes to Mars, there will be much joy with commercials in between. It was partly malnutrition’s fault then that it was simply not as sexy as space.”

 

 

Drashti Thakkar

TYBMM Journalism

M11058

FROM BOMBAY TO MUMBAI

FROM BOMBAY TO MUMBAI: A CHANGE

Though the name Bombay officially changed to Mumbai in 1995 for some people it will always remain Bombay. Though it didn’t affect people that time but it definitely does now. As someone said “Mumbai is a city but Bombay is an emotion.”
Through the years this city has evolved in every way it can. From the name to the concrete jungle it is now. The dream for everyone is still the same.
This is definitely not the same city it was thirty years back. Still standing by its name as the city of dreams. As an outsider one can say that this city is an experience and if you have it for too long -it’s all that you’ll ever want. Bombay grows on you. So the change in the city -my grandfather doesn’t remember Bombay the way it is now, there are no more walks it’s replaced by cars. The city still alive was full of joy and everyone loved whatever they were doing now it’s become a race. Known for its fast life the city’s pace is increasing by the minute, always on the move. The acceptance level of this city is the most in India.
Bollywood will always remain an important part of the city, it’s seen it all. It captures people from all over and gets them to Bombay back then and even now. Let’s see what are the other things which make Mumbai the city it is now and Bombay the city it was.
First will be the veins of this city, the local trains –this is the backbone of the city about 7.2 million commuters travel everyday by this mode of transport divided into three lines according to the routes you take and where one has to go. Back then this was as important as it is now. The fastest and the easiest mode of transportation is this, its where friendships are made , love stories start , family stories are exchanged all throughout the journey. The city is incomplete without this and majority of them use it. This is what binds the city together.
Next will come the Bombay’s cutting chai- which is called cutting because it’s half a cup of tea so it . Unique to this city, this plays one major rule . As one says one is never early or too late for cutting chai. Every mumbaikar would know this cutting chai is the city’s drink and will always be any season and any time.
Vada Pav- this city’s staple diet , a vada pav costs less than a bottle of water and trust me it’s a meal all together, a friend potato piece in between a bun is all one needs here. There are obvious other things like egg and butter which replace the potato in its other dishes, but it’s the vada pav which defines the city. and you will get it anywhere and everywhere in Bombay .
It has to be the padmini taxis , Bombay has traveled through them . These taxis are also famous for the story they carry along with them, all mumbaikars have emotions attached to these taxis . they are a major part of the city and they have a major role in making Bombay what it is with the yellow and black taxis , it’s always been famous for.
How can one not include marine drive , the famous portraits of this city have been of the marine drive. A favourite hangout for all here then and now , this has always played a major role , films back then and films till now all depict Bombay with marine drive which is never empty , it always has people . and always bustling at any time of the day. Well This is Bombay and will always be.
One cannot forget juhu chowpatty – weather it is the street food there or people dancing . its always a carnival in chowpatty. The sea calling out to the people and everyone enjoying it. Its been a part of Bombay from the very start and will always be.
Some major parts of the city haven’t been mentioned but that’s for everyone to figure out, go out and explore the place.
And The spirit of Bombay which is defined by the people, everyone is always on the move despite all odds. That’s what makes Bombay unique.

The Kite Runner

Price: Rs. 248

Publication:Bloomsbury India

The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini.

This book is set during the 1970’s in Afghanistan about two young boys who are best friends, courage, love, dishonesty and finally redemption. The author has done a brilliant job in describing how a persons past never leaves its shadow even in their present lives.

The story revolves around the bond that these two Amir and Hasan share, even after one being a member of the Pashtun tribe and the other being a part of the Hazara tribe. The distinction in the way these two children live their respectives lives is very striking. Hasan’s sacrifice for Amir, a childhood horror and Amir’s guilt that follows and haunts him for the rest of his life till a particular turn of events. Its extremely engaging and keeps your attention glued to the book.

This book is filled with various emotions, the way the author describes every aspect of the book with exactly the same passion throughout is very enticing. The description of Afghanistan and California and their stark differences in living later on leaves you wondering and wanting to read more about how the story proceeds. From being young loving bestfriends, to a horrible choice of cowardice; from Kabul to California; from guilt to finally redemption, all of this and more a story being told by Amir is portrayed in a very strong and vivid manner. There are descriptions in the book that leaves one thinking, feeling and imagining that they were a part of the place, which is very important and has been very simply and powerfully evoked.

The characters come alive, some are complex while the others are simple.

The book ends rather dramatically, it goes from being a powerful and enticing story to a power packed action sequence towards the end. The charm of the book stays intact from the beginning till the end.

Shreya Shetty.

TYBMM

M11053

BEYOND THE BABY AND BOLLYWOOD

By Devina Sethia (M11047)

78 people died and 136 were injured in a rail crash in Europe. It was one of the worst rail crashes in Europe. UN’s Refugee Chief said that countries like UK and the US may be asked to take thousands of Syrian refugees due to civil war in the region. Closer home, five states namely, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand and Himachal Pradesh were severely affected by floods. Rain in Uttarakhand once again made rescue operations difficult. However, the media over the last few days gave little importance to these stories.

Prince William and his wife Kate gave birth to a son in London. The media went all reported anything and everything there was to report about the baby. Why? All because the baby is blue blooded, he’s a royal baby. All sorts of stories including how an Indian doctor had assisted in the childbirth to how happy Selena Gomez was because she shared her birthday with the royal baby were carried. Every second tweet on Twitter was about the royal baby. Some people tweeted with excitement while others cracked jokes, some even lame ones. Rakesh Satyal tweeted, “Hopefully, it’s a Belieber. #RoyalBaby”. Another tweet said, “Prince Williams heir is falling out”. “No word yet on which house the Sorting Hat has placed the Royal Baby.”  But the royal baby could not be ignored even on social media.

‘Good news’ for all Bollywood fans happened. ‘Karan’ and ‘Arjun’ hugged each other at an Iftaar party. According to the media five years of rivalry between Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan had ended. They reported with an urgency and excitement as if the rivalry between India and Pakistan had ended. This story was featured in the exclusive section of the news channels. Experts (including the likes of Dolly Bindra) were called to comment on the two Khans finally ending their feud. Zee News went to the extent of having an expert to read the body languages of the two actors. If the hug was just to be polite to one another, they could have just shook hands. Was the hug real enough for us to believe the fight between them had ended? This is the primary question asked. The hugged was discussed and talked about at social gatherings and on social media. people joked about how they would not believe the fight had ended till a sequel to Karan Arjun was made. How will the Food Security Bill affect the farmers? Will a common person afford a meal in Rs. 12? If yes, what will the meal contain? Are we interested in these questions?

Why do the media give so much importance to these stories? Obviously, because we are interested and it increases their readership. Why are we interested? Anything and everything about celebrities tends to excite us, from their professional lives to their personal lives. It is in our nature to gossip and be interested in other people’s lives. It’s almost like a need, a desire that needs to be addressed every now and then.

On the other hand, maybe these stories caught so much attention because they were a refreshing change from UPA bashing Modi and stories of Modi bashing UPA. Who said what and who accused whom of what? After sad and disturbing stories of the floods of Kedarnath and the Ishrat Jahan case, maybe the royal baby and the end of the fight between the two Khans were a refreshing change. Happy news of sorts.

However, the media and the audience need to realise that there is a issues beyond the Baby and Bollywood.

The ‘Organic’ label and its implications

 

 

Ramona Pinto

In the 1960s and 70s, there was a period of rising environmental awareness for organic products in the US, which led to a backlash against pesticides and increased demand for “green” products. Slowly over the last 20 years, the demand for organically grown goods has increased around the world and a new market for organically grown vegetables was born.

Today, most products ranging from clothes, to food claim to be organically manufactured. The term ‘organic’ has, however, been misunderstood by most people. An organic product is free from the use of genetic engineering, or genetically modified organisms (GMOs). This means an organic farmer cannot plant GMO seeds, an organic cow cannot eat GMO alfalfa or corn, and an organic soup producer cannot use any GMO ingredients. If a product goes through this criterion, then only can the product be considered organic.

However, few can afford to buy organic food on a daily basis. Because of this long drawn out procedure, the cost of producing organic food is, naturally, higher than that of producing regular food. A consumer who prefers buying products that have been grown organically may do so for a variety of reasons. One might be that while appealing to their moral sensibilities, buying organic products also makes the consumer feel good about the fact that he is doing his bit to protect the environment.

However, in the US, looking at the potential consumer base for organic food, corporates have begun misusing the term ‘organic’. Organic foods have become a huge, profitable industry (to the tune of $23 billion a year and growing fast). Giant food companies like Kellogg, Kraft Foods, and Coca-Cola now own huge stakes in the organic food market and with their presence comes the power to lobby. The corporations have reportedly set out to do what they do best: make more money. And they’re doing it by continually by getting more of their foods slapped with the organic label.

The organic certification is slowly becoming a lie that is being sold by the corporates to earn big bucks. is a marketing option. If one chooses to become certified organic, then one is focusing on a niche marketing opportunity. The tag acts as a factor to differentiate the product from the competition. It can also instill customer confidence and loyalty to those consumers that want to know where and how their food is grown.

Focusing closer home, Even though the market for organic goods in India is relatively small, awareness about organic products has begun to spread among urban elite. However, the sight of a woman bargaining with a vegetable vendor in order to buy cheaper groceries is not uncommon in India. The reason for this may be the fact that India suffers from shortage of food. Ironically, while there is surplus food rotting in our granaries, on the other hand, people are dying of starvation elsewhere. There is little importance attached to what ends up on our plate.

Another reason, this trend has probably not caught up in India is that in order to produce organic goods, the law requires that the resources to produce goods, be entirely organic too.

However, that may not be possible as the population of our country is so huge, that extra resources may be difficult to suffice, let alone obtain. However, maybe in the future, one can expect people to be more particular about their food, owing to the number of food related tragedies that are taking place in India today.

BOOK REVIEW: AND THE MOUNTAINS ECHOED

BOOK: And The Mountains Echoed

PRICE: Rs. 599

AUTHOR: Khaled Hosseini

PUBLISHER: Bloomsbury

 

Afghan American novelist Khaled Hosseini has yet again managed to climb onto the Best Sellers List with his latest, And the Mountains Echoed.  His former books, The Kite Runner (2003) and A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007) combined together were on the List for 171 weeks. By the looks of it, this book has managed to park itself on the List for quite a few weeks.

 

Hosseini is a truly gifted story teller. He knows how to bring his characters to life and capture the minds of his audience. Like his former books, even this book grips the reader forcing the person to turn one page after another until he or she finds out what happens at the end.

 

The story starts off on a promising note with a children’s bedtime time story which sets the base for the entire book. The story revolves around two siblings Abdullah and his sister Pari, who mean the world to each other. The story is narrated to them by their father Saboor, a man who is exhausted with life. A line in this story, “A finger has to be cut to save a hand”, is what we see through every stage of the book. With each passing chapter one finger is chopped off after the other.

 

As his other books, even this one is centred on family. It describes the different emotions in various families – love, care, joy, sorrow, loyalty and betrayal. A sister who means the world to her brother, a woman who takes in a little girl as her own, a father who sells his daughter to prevent his family of starvation, an uncle being loyal to his niece by writing a letter telling her the truth about her actual family, a woman taking in a little girl as her own and loving her as much as she can to tell her at the very end that she might not actually be her daughter.

 

The book takes various turns with many characters in it. However, the deluge of characters has a tendency to confuse the readers. Each character’s story is written in a different style and it enchants the readers, but also making them a little impatient at the same time.

 

Abdullah and Pari’s story does not get the focus it deserves. The book begins with a setting in the fall of 1952 and extends all the way till the winter of 2010 covering the olden and modern day Afghanistan including the Soviet invasion of the country, the streets of Paris, San Franciso and New York. Apart from stretching over such a long duration, the book also has the childhood stories of characters that do not concern Abdullah and Pari. Characters whose stories even if were completely eliminated from the book would have made no difference. The stories are most beautifully told – the structure of the narrative capturing the audience’s

 

attention but at the same time also causing a tinge of impatience for the audience making the reader brush by it and get back to the main plot.

 

Abdullah and Pari are separated from each other when they are little. Life’s journey takes them through very different paths and across seas. Abdullah finds himself a wife and settles in USA and Pari is taken by her mother to Paris and that is where she makes a home for herself.

 

Nila Wahdati is an interesting character who establishes herself firmly in the mind of the readers. A young lady wearing sleeveless knee length dresses in Afghanistan in the 1950s. A smoker, a drinker, a promiscuous woman who writes scandalous poetry. She takes in Pari and looks after her as her own. Her husband who is homosexual and in love with their chauffer, never really paid attention to her and let her have her own way. Nila Wahdati also leaves her husband when he is on his death bed and runs to Paris with her daughter where she lives her life writing poetry. A free, light and modern woman on the outside, once we get to know her, she is lonely and depressed with her life. Love and companionship never really came her way and her only companion who was her daughter drifted away from her.

 

And the Mountains Echoed is a book which captures the attention of the reader with its narrative. Hosseini, a talented story teller sure knows how to work the imagination of his readers and touch their hearts with his tales. The book ignites interest and even though there are many characters to follow, the reader will not want to put this book down as he or she is on a mission to reunite Abdullah and Pari and will pass all hurdles to reunite them.

 

 

 

Required: Not just food but safe food!

 

On a warm morning, this wouldn’t be on her mind. Assuming that this education is something she never got, definitely not with a mid day meal- it would’ve seemed so perfect. We cannot even begin to imagine the plight of that mother who dressed up her child for school that morning, probably forced him/her to go to school, just like the usual Indian mother, who knew what was in store? Who knew all of that effort was made only to hear the most tragic news of her life, that by the afternoon, those tiny chappals would lie in a corner of the house? Who knew that one meal which had provided the parents fulfillment till now, would bring the most horrifying news to their lives? In a country where a large part of the population struggles to survive below the poverty line, it is more than heartbreaking that the food which a government owes to the country’s children becomes the reason behind their death. My heart goes out to the twenty three children of Bihar, their kith and kin. These are just the few cases that got media’s attention, but there are so many which don’t. Young girls are dying because of the lack of sanitation in their villages, polio is still attacking children; in spite of the government’s efforts to eradicate the latter.  There are a thousand issues for which a scheme still needs to be passed but before that one thing needs to be addressed – Strict enforcement of the schemes that already exist!

As mentioned in the Hindustan times last week, the growth of the state of Bihar has been 14.48% as per the annual report, but this growth rate doesn’t count as the number of deaths cannot be justified. Also, a report by PTI clearly states that 70,000 schools in the state fall under the mid day meal scheme but still, around 10 lakh students are deprived of the mid day meal.

The central government needs to ensure that the scheme is employed as per the rules. A regular system of keeping a track of the level of food ( across parameters like nutritional value, cleanliness, regular supply of grains) should be strictly enforced.  State governments can take an inspirational message by the actions undertaken by the Chattisgarh government (as reported by PTI on July 27^th), which has started a training programme for cooks of the mid day meal so that they understand the nutritional value of food and care about the hygiene at the same time. This is not a state based issue, because a scheme which is essentially designed to feed around 10.4 crore children in India should be taken seriously.

We write obituary after obituary for the ones who have contributed towards the country in one way or the other, which is right but who will think about the ones whose death we contributed for? The ones whom we didn’t even give a fair chance to study and learn; contributing towards the country being out of question. This attitude needs to change, because surviving in those bubbles of joy where we are able to read, write and able to afford food doesn’t make sense, because most of the children in this country still sleep with the hope of getting a meal at school tomorrow. With the thought that, that meal will be their only meal of the day.   Poisoned food in school is not solving any issue, just making matters worse, as for these children, education and food go hand in hand; its either both or nothing! This also goes out as a reminder for the educated-healthy ones in the country, with privilege comes responsibility- not pride and ignorance!

Khan Aiman

M11022

THE MIDDAY MEAL – A NIGHTMARE

The recent spate of children falling ill and some even dying in Bihar on consuming food by The Midday Meal Scheme has got many tongues wagging about the malpractices involved. The scheme, which is a Government programme, was started back in the pre- independence period. However, the programme always had criticisms to it, which now seem to have gone worse. The Midday meal scheme meant to feed financially backward kids has fallen on its head and badly at that, killing children and making many sick.

The Midday meal scheme along with being a big scam has become a farce. The programme being used for the good is a concern that comes furthest in the scheme of things. The whole project is problematic and has many loopholes. Firstly, laundering of funds allotted by the government for the project is not a new phenomenon. A staggering amount of Rs 17, 00 crore allotted for the midday meal and health care went unused in Bihar. These unused amounts are then invested in banks for a period after which it is returned to the government but that is only after getting a considerable amount of interest from the banks. If not this, then funds are misappropriated and no records of the money are maintained or even given to the government. It is another thing as to why the government does not question people who deal with the funds to crack on this malpractice. Then comes, the food standards among other things. Even though there are guidelines regarding the safety and hygiene specifications in place it is not known if they are followed to even a minimal degree.

It’s not ended yet, then you have people like Nitish Kumar who happens to be the Chief Minister of Bihar but hasn’t spoken about an issue happening in his state for nine days after it. Worse, he doesn’t even feel the need to visit the location, the families of the deceased or even the children hospitalized. After staying mum on the issue for many days the Chief Minister says that he was ill. Guess what his illness was? He injured his wretched toe of the left foot. That is a lot of illness to visit a hospital five miles away from his residence.

This is not all. You have others who are still worse. It doesn’t occur to me how people could be insensitive to an issue like this where kids die for no fault of theirs. So, you have all politicians who like swoop in on this issue vultures and rip it up. Their actions reek of callousness. They make use of a delicate situation for their own good at the same time failing to understand their responsibilities towards citizens of their state. Citizens who trust politicians them and expect them to do good for the people which seldom happen. Then, begins the vicious game – “the blame game”. Every party tries to milk this incident as much as they can and blame the other one. They wouldn’t care for lives. Staging protests against the ruling party is a common thing. Opposition parties by this time started calling the Bihar government names and even called them a failure. Here, Nitish Kumar came into play to defend his government and said that the whole midday meal incident was “a conspiracy” because it was impossible for insecticide of that quantity to be in the food. He said that the SIT would initiate a probe on the same. He also said that it was impossible to get the dead kids back but he would provide all kinds of facilities from water to electricity to the village of Chappra. By making such a statement, it looks like the Chief Minister is trying to gag the mouths of the people of Chappra. The government also announced a sum of Rs 2 lakh as compensation to the family of the deceased. Can money take away the pain of losing one’s loved one especially a child? This moral question is never taken into account. Giving compensation to some extent equals to bribing. All of this just shows how much the government cares for their people and to what lengths they can go to play dirty politics.

The main thing is that had here been stricter guidelines which could not be flouted this poisoning wouldn’t happen in the first place. Special teams to check the standard of food should be setup to keep such untoward incidents at bay.

The Midday meal is the world’s largest school feeding program. There are a number of things that need to be altered to make this scheme achieve its aim of educating as well as provide nutrition and food security to many children in India.

Delilah Rodrigues

M 11046

 

FUSED FLAVOURS FROM FARAWAY LANDS

Kruti Patel

M11039

Let’s have a bit of fun- it starts with this innate desire to mix and match everything to come up with something fancy. That I believe is the origin of fusion food in India and all over the world. Further as ‘Globalisation’ proliferated, people travelled from China to America, France to India, Germany to Australia etc. and with them travelled their native flavours and grandmother recipes. Chefs and cooks all over the world borrowed these flavours and assimilated ideas from diverse nationalities, but in the process still maintained their unique flavour. This gave rise to the birth of FUSION.

Fusion Cuisine generally is the amalgamation of an assortment of elements from different regions along with their cuisines. This became exceedingly popular in the 90’s. Fusion also includes presenting authentic dishes with a few different ingredients to ‘add a little spice’ in a repetitive dish.

Indo-Chinese is among the most prominent fusions in India today. A classic example of this fusion which we find gracing the menus of many restaurants is the “Chinese Bhel. It is a creation of huge Chinese community residing in India. The conventional puffed rice is replaced by crunchy fried noodles to adapt to the Chinese palate. However one can agree that most “Chinese” food in India, may that be Chicken Manchurian or Fried Rice, all are cases of Fusion.

Nowadays Indo-Mughlai cuisine is one of the most widespread highly proclaimed fusion food in India. It speaks for recipes right from the time of Babur which crossed countless borders and reached the heart of India- Delhi. ‘Khoresh Fesenjan’ is a legendary example of Indo-Mughlai fusion. This time-honoured Persian dish is basically glazed duck cooked with pomegranate juice. Sometimes for the purpose of fusion, the duck is replaced by chicken and served on saffron flavoured basmati rice, a typical Hyderabadi way to cook rice.

A very famous trend followed by India cooks is adding an Indian tadka to the traditional Italian and French cusine. Spaghetti and penne are cooked with garam masala and cumin seeds. Further the Cardamom crème Brulee is a classic example of Indo French fusion that has gained popularity in recent times.

The most sort after and consumed fusion falls in the category of Pizzas. It ranges from blending flavours from different regions of India, be it the infamous Punjabi Chicken Tandoori or the Awadh inspired Achari paneer pizzas to name a few.

Chocolate Samosa and Chocolate Paan have become favourite confections for many Indians. However the most amusing fusion can be seen these days near Oshiwara where panipuri are filled with neat vodka shots.

These days intermingling of different traditional cuisines have gained immense importance for chefs in India. They require vast amount of knowledge on various cuisines to come up with entirely different dishes which are however similar to the original recipes. They are required to bypass several defined rules of cooking and also need to keep their hands in every pot.

“Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.” But in today’s fusion culture, Rudyard Kipling’s analogy has been totally altered.