Why my parent told me that Santa's for real...

Childhood is possibly the most complicated phase in anybody's life. People talking , people preaching, aunties pulling cheeks... children observe it all, including the hypocrisy in the adults around them. From very early in life, we expose our children to lessons of righteousness and virtues such as honesty when we ourselves don't live up to what we preach. Examples such as "santa's for real", "storks delivering babies", "granny went and became a star in the sky" could be heard in most households. The reasons why parents choose to nurture these lies in their child's mind are many and mostly quite genuine but in the end, they still are lies.. So does this mean a lie is justified if we feel the reason for it is strong? If I want my child to have fun like other kids on Christmas or I want him to stop asking me how he was born or protect him from feeling sad about granny passing on, am I justified in throwing in a white lie here or there?

Let us look at this from a child's perspective. A child idolizes her parents. She waits for them to return home to take her out to the park or mall; she looks up to them for bringing beautiful stories to her every night. Does it matter to her if those stories are real or not? Not really, she will make them real in her dreams. Does it matter to her if those dreams are real or not? I don't think so, she enjoys the stories anyway. As she grows up, she will hear the stories of bravery, of victory of good over evil, of prevalence of truth over lies and she will try and emulate that in her life. She will falter at times- she will steal, lie, cheat... but if she trusts her parents, she will come back to them with a sorry and a promise of being good. So what is key here is to build "trust" in more ways than just always telling the truth. She might trust you more if you comfort her and make her smile and tell her granny's okay wherever she is than if you told her the sad truth. Because that sad truth would likely have been preceded by the false comfort that granny will be okay and nothing would happen to her. This would make you a liar in her eyes.

Bottomline - A little white lie never hurt anyone :)

When things go horribly wrong!

There are things that fail even though the best of precautions are taken and all efforts are put to make it a success. Those things are victims of unforeseen circumstances. The Titanic is a perfect example for the above stated. No one would've thought that the gigantic boat that is predicted to survive the biggest of calamities would crumble to the force of frozen water on her maiden voyage! Sad!

But then there are other things that are doomed to fail by the very virtue of their very presence, how they came to being and then God's wrath. Commonwealth 2010 can go down in history books as a solid example to this. The disaster that began with delayed-cancelled-more delayed tenders, expenses of over 28000 crores, corruption charges on most people even remotely associated with the games has now taken shape of a broken city which is not likely to be built back again, only patched up and cheaply whitewashed where the the wounds are screaming the loudest. A trip to Connaught place is enough to depress a true-blue Delhiite like me. Rubble everywhere, Shivaji Stadium declared not to be ready by CW, traffic and parking woes- this just doesn't seem like the Delhi I knew. And the wonder of wonders is that I didn't see a single official/laborer working in the entire CP area!! I guess they've already made peace with the fact that nothing will be done so why not enjoy the status quo.

Last week, I participated in the Delhi Family Rally to kick-off the 30 day countdown to Commonwealth. I was less than impressed with the Commonwealth building where the design posters are already peeling off even before the start of the games. Shera, the mascot too appeared a tad too plain jane to me. A country that produced one of the most beautiful currency symbols could've definitely done a better job with the CWG mascot. The food was dripping with oil, the toilets barely clean and the security seemed hassled even with just over a 100 families participating. I'm hoping against hope that this isn't an indicator of what's to come.

Now comes the worst part, Murphy's Law in action. When the politicians were praying to God that nothing (other than the corruption charges already exposed) should cloud the games, God decided he had different plans. Enter the heaviest monsoons in decades, destroying every cheaply built road, choking the city in peak hours and pouring in the Yamuna making the flood danger loom large on the CWG. Not just that, the numerous mini water bodies created all over the city served as the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes and viruses. Dengue, malaria and viral fever sent 11 of the 18 member cyclist team who came to Delhi to practice back to Patiala where they came from, unfit and unprepared! But wait, it doesn't stop there, members of the animal kingdom too wanted a piece of action. Monkeys have now started getting aggressive in East Delhi, close to the CW venue. They are entering people's homes, attacking and hurting people and killing a langoor that was brought to control them! It just keeps getting interesting.

By the looks of it, I think it'll make sense for someone to design a secure body suit/face mask for all the visiting athletes so they are protected from infections and monkey bites. We should also design a time travel machine so none of the athletes have to get stuck in traffic and they just vroom past the rest of us mortals. Oh and yes, we have to come up with high-tech pink sunglasses that just magically fix all the the broken building so no one sees a stripped down Delhi. Oh, and also stick a shock absorber in the athletes' spines so they don't feel the jerks of potholes on the roads. I mean how much more could it cost to design these gadgets, anyway! We are already the most expensive CWG in the history so it doesn't really matter, does it?

CommonWealth Tamasha

And Tamasha it is. The tamasha of potholed roads, the tamasha of leaking stadiums, the tamasha of government's denials, the tamasha of opposition's vocal protests and the tamasha of never-ending creepy scandals. On top of that, the sports minister has this to say in the Rajya Sabha - "What's there to examine? Nothing's ready!.. If the baraat is coming we'll welcome it with fanfare". I'm not sure who exactly he is trying to mock, because the joke is really on him. His comments seem to reflect the chalta hai attitude that our politicians find so much comfort in. I almost think they are feeling noble by trying to appear calm after having pocketed bori after bori of public money. In the midst of it all, the common man is facing his own dilemmas - whether he should be hopeful or practical and whether indeed, he should attend or boycott the games!

Indian Football star Baichung Bhutia today said that India should never have bid for the games in the first place. That's a big statement coming from the Indian captain who says he always knew that infrastructurally, India was not yet there. But he too is feeling that he has to go along with it, now since there's no looking back. It's sad to see the athletes, who the CWG is actually supposed to be about, are hardly getting any media coverage, thanks to the scams unfolding by the minute. Instead, what they are getting are tennis courts that are universally condemned for causing knee/ankle injury!! And what does Suresh Kalamadi have to say about it - Well he says that all the scams coming to light are with other committees like MCD, NDMC and so forth and that no one can raise a finger at the OC. I wonder what an "organizing" committee is supposed to be doing if it is unwilling to take responsibility for the show. He also said that the reason most of the work started after 2007 was because it's hard to get timely approvals by the government. This makes me think that Mr. Kalmadi was either new to Indian politics or was hopelessly hopeful to make things work despite his knowledge of the flaws in the system. No, it was really a third reason. I think he saw this as an opportunity of a lifetime to secure the future of his generations to come. I really hope that those found guilty are punished severely, at least more severely than just sacking them from their posts. And God save them if they as much as mutter a word about holding the 2019 Olympics!

Adulterated!

When I was younger, hearing stories about adulterated masalas was not uncommon. There were always suspicions that lal mirch is adulterated with red brick particles to increase quantity, or something even worse- dhania powder adulterated with dried dung! The other popular one was that the doodhwala mixes chalk powder in water to make it look milky. So what does the urban middle class do about it? We switch to packaged masalas and milk made by huge corporations and we just pray to God that these corporations have a conscience and obligation to act responsibly. There is very little beyond this that a common man can do. However, it seems like a lot of stupid people mistook this as the common man's weakness. They forgot that we the consumers still have the most powerful tool of asking the right questions and making the right choice. But for that we need to know the source of adulteration- it can be as easily identifiable as an injection or pesticide spray which we can find out about by paying a visit to the farm that the local sabziwala gets his produce from or something as conspicuous as a modified gene!


News and journals are full of food adulteration cases exposed. Use of cheap Oxytocin to increase milk production in cattle, calcium carbide to ripen mangoes, adulterated ghee, ketchup, sugar, turmeric and so on. The list is endless. So much so that we can't even satisfy our sweet tooth without putting our nervous systems at risk because the chandi ka wark on our mithai could well be sheets of thinly pressed aluminium! A part of my mind thinks that these could be concoctions of some very imaginative journalists' brains to scare the common man. But the other part knows that these scenarios are very much possibile and that the health of my family is in my hands. And if there are steps that I can take to ensure there is no "poison on our platters", I would do it and save myself the paranoia.

The most important step to eating healthy is to be mindful of what we eat. A lot of our snacking, especially in front of the idiot box is mindless eating. It's really important to know what we are eating and only then can we worry about where it's coming from. The next thing to think about is how real is the food that we're consuming. So cow's milk vs soy milk, eggs vs egg substitute, cane sugar vs aspartame laden sugar free substitute, fresh juice vs canned juice are some good examples of real vs fakes. I feel the real deal is always more nutritious, great in taste, cheaper to afford and much less likely to be adulterated since it is abundantly available in nature.

Another great way to eat healthy is to opt for local or organic food. Those who live in suburbs where farms are easily accessible can purchase their produce straight from the farm. It's a great way to ensure that your food is fresh and leaves minimal carbon footprint and it is also an opportunity to directly interact with the farmers and learn about their farming practices. For those who don't have this option, almost every metropolitan city in India has come up with some great organic stores selling certified organic grains, spices, produce and dairy. But I think the best option, if your resources allow, is to have your own kitchen garden and grow your own food!

Eat Real!

The IMPURE World

People say public speaking ranks as the numbe one fear that most people in the world have, even more fearsome than death. Me, well I think it can be pretty scary to stand up in front of a huge crowd and speak, but is even more petrifying is to stand in front of a huge crowd of you own family , loved ones and not being able to justify why we are giving them (and their generations to come) the gift of an impure world. All of us today are at that juncture where we are answerable to those around us for the mess that we are making. And what a mess it is!

Population is on an all time high. I quote some statistics from a website which says that India's population will exceed that of China by 2025! We are already a nation of 1.16 billion, up from 350 million at the time of independence. Just thinking of some of the problems that such high population creates in our day to day life -

a) Population -> Deforestation for habitation-> extinction of natural flora and fauna-> global warming->higher temperatures-> loss of crop -> farmer's suicides, death due to dehydration/excessive heat

b) Population -> More consumers of limited natural and man made resources-> More consumer waste dumped into natural resources like air and water -> consumption of contaminated natural resources -> death due to toxicity, congenital defects and rise in cancer

c) Population ->Global Warming -> Shorter/Weaker Monsoon -> failed crop yield -> multinationals pushing genetically modified crop under the guise of being more hardy -> untested GM food landing on our tables

d) Population ->Global Warming ->Sweltering heat -> Increased consumption of carbonated drinks -> Unnecessary and irregular spikes in body's sugar level -> decreased stamina -> Rise in Obesity

e) Population -> Lesser per capita resources available -> Need for more earning hands -> Education on backburner ->Self centered and egotistical behaviour -> corruption, 'honor' killings-> value for money and no value for life

Some might think that these are very far fetched consequences of the population rise but these are only the tip of the iceberg. We are creating a world for ourselves where what we see today will no longer exist for our future generations. My dad says he misses the chirping of sparrows in the morning now that there are so few left in Delhi. That is such a sad thing!

But really, as complicated as it might seem, the solution to this problem is rather simple steps that each of us can follow and make a difference -

a) Educate self and family on the need for family planning. If you have helpers at home, make sure you talk to them about educating women (and men too) in their houses about family planning. Need help - Just found out about http://www.fpaindia.org/

b) Educate people on valuing a girl child. There are still many families that are ready to produce a dozen children until they have a boy. A village in Bihar is setting a great example by celebrating the birth of girls in the village- An inspiring story http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10204759

c) Carpool when possible, grow a garden on the rooftop, grow your own food if possible, love a lot and live n let live (unlike what Axl Rose preaches :))
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No Honour in Killing!

Coming back to Dilli, I was prepared for some kind of a reverse culture shock, you know things that you grew up seeing but find odd once you've lived a different life. But I never even imagined I would be introduced to a term called Honour Killings in today's day and age. Simply put, some poeple who are outraged with their sons or daughters marrying/falling in love out of their caste or within the gotra (or whatever the hell it is) think the only way to protect their "honour" is to kill the lovers!



To me, the term "Honour Killing" is the perfect oxymoron. It is at best an absurd/medieval idea and at worst a gruesome crime worthy of the severest punishment possible. Where is the honour in killing?

To my dismay, Delhi seems to have become a city of crime- the newspapers and channels carry endless stories of theft, murders and what not. I've seen 2 big robberies in my own family in the last one year! Maybe the situation isn't all that bad, maybe there was always crime everywhere, it's just more in the news now. But crimes like these are universally condemned. Everyone knows it's bad to steal or cheat or kill someone, except for those handful of people who are misguided or do it out of desperation. But these so called honour killings are creating a grey area in the society and people's minds. If the perpetrators of these crimes aren't punished severely, more and more people will get encouraged to commit these horrible crimes which push us many years behind in civilization.



Why is there still no law to prevent these killings? If there is any, why is it so poorly implemented? We as a society need to ask these questions and make sure such attitudes are dealt with severely, lest people start fearing the prospect of falling in love!

Food Paradise

Yummm! Nothing like Indian Food! I just completed my second week back home and I've already feasted on so much food, I feel damn guilty. So I thought it'll a good idea to list the highlights here so I can actually gauge how I've been doing. Here goes-

First feast at Veepsa didi's new house- dahi bhalle for starters; chicken, bharta and kale chane (my all time favorite) for main course. DELISH! Next up - dhokla and bhel puri with dad; it's very hard to resist chaat like this, considering I pass Bikanerwala practically every day I step out of the house. Then I devoured Chole Kulche at Diksha's - another fav. Next I feasted on Malai Chicken wings courtesy Deepti's dad - probably one of the best male cooks I know. Followed by a simple but hearty meal of lentils and vegetables at Garima's. And of course that was after we completed our chhalli eating ritual :). Then yesterday, I self invited myself at Sanu's for dinner and I'm glad I did coz the chhole were well worth it! And today I wrapped up the dinner with chana jor garam which , my grad school friends can recall , is my favorite 2 minute snack!

Some other fun eats here and there were the Chicken Momos at Rajouri, Hot Chocolate fudge at Gianis, dahi papri and gol-gappe, chopsuey and noodles at Bercos and such! Phew! Probably a thousand dishes right there. And the number of times I hit the gym - 2!! DEPLORABLE!

Why do I tend to overeat in India? It's not like I was starved for food in the States but when I come back, I develop a cave-man'ish appetite where I want to eat like there's no tomorrow. Maybe it's because there is so much good food available all around us here that it's almost blasphemous not to eat. I don't think there's anything more diverse that Indian cuisine.

I was watching Chakh Le India on NDTV goodtimes today. The episode was on Ladakhi cuisine. After watching it, I have one more solid reason to visit this heaven on earth. The wholesome meals, the serene life, the breathtaking beauty and the smiles on the locals' faces. Wow. Someday!!