last week, I tried my hands on the Baigan Bhartha recipe below:
http://www.veganwiz.com/2010/07/25/baingan-bharta/
It is an Indian curry made of roasted aubergines. It is best enjoyed with warm wheat/bajra rotis and cold weather!
The recipe was good but instead of adding pieces of onions and tomatoes, I suggest you make a paste of onions, tomatoes and garlic. It gives better consistency and enhances the taste.
Recipe Rating: 3 out of 5
Hey there!
I am back with another video!
Lasting relationships are based on transparency!
But, in arraigned marriages, are there really cases of transparency?
This advert is great for laughing, but this does happen when people are married off without knowing each other.
In life if this had happened, would the couple in question carry on with their engagement?
Or worse, what if these all factors come out after marriage?
Geet (TV series) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Hey! I’m back!
And this time with a serial on star one: Geet. Apparently it was a sensation when it was running (Pardon my lack of knowledge if it might still be running)
What I find wrong in this almost revered television show?
Firstly lets talk about the name. Indian girls and their parents are always told that they are ‘Paraya Dhan’ (i.e. somebody else’s wealth).
Why? Why can’t a girl child be reared like just a child? Why is she reared like she is a property that too which belongs to someone else.
Even in many traditional languages there are many traditional sayings which ‘praise’ girls for their ‘wonderful’ quality of being so parayi.
In Guajarati there is a saying ‘Dikri ne gay jya bandhe tya jay’ if translated in English it means that a daughter and a cow go wherever they are tied.
Erm..Are you still wonder why there is gender discrimination here?
Oh, I went out of topic for a while! Please do have mercy, these topics bring out the monster in me.. grrrrr
Back to Geet, the start of the show shows a girl running away from guys. A rape scene, you think! But noo.. turns out those guys are her dear elder brother and his friends!
You heave a sigh of relief..phew..”Kids these days play such different games from our time” you think!
Well you turns out, you are wrong. The elder brother wants to kill his sister. You see she must have done something terribly wrong….maybe she fell in love..Oh the horror! No wonder the guy feels it right to kill his sister (Do note the sarcasm here)
The girl is shown begging for mercy and saying sorry.
Why should she have to say sorry? What did she do that she deserved to die so?
Why is this big word of keeping a family’s honour lie on just the girl’s head. I bet my life if the elder brother had gone and fallen in love with some girl, the elders would have nodded their heads and said ‘Boys will be Boys’ Double standards anyone?
In the next scene, the mother is shown cooking in the kitchen (please note lack of our brave brawny men here). She says its OK if the spices are not up to the mark, but I take care that my daughter is completely up to the mark.
A comparison between spices and daughter…*Applauds* who would have thought!
And why is she so fixated on polishing her daughter’s qualities? Not because she could do well in that job interview and certainly not so that she can stand on her own two feet..
No, she wants her daughter to be perfect, so she can Get Married and Stay Married.
Also, the mother gets angry as the girl has gone to college, when people from Canada were coming to shop for her! Huh when she should be working on her sitting, standing, cooking, sweeping skills the stupid girl went to college.
On her way home, Geet meets her younger sister who is worried her mother will not let her study for upcoming tests as she has to help with the housework. And If she fails, she will have to leave school as few of her family’s elders do not like her going to school. Is the work so important or the education of the girl? The family looks wealth enough to get a maid and let a girl study in peace. And would someone please care to explain why would any elder have an objection to school?
We also see that when the men are not around, the eldest woman has the authority. The younger ones are not supposed to even move without the elder’s permission. Mind you by younger ones I mean adults who happened to be born in later years? Cannot elders ever be wrong? Osama Bin Laden was an elder in Indian traditional sense. Did his age made his thoughts right?
Then comes the entry of the much talked about grandpa, who is seen shaming other person as her girl had fallen in love. He blames the father for not ‘controlling’ his girl and advises him to use physical force so she falls out of love! Also the missing girl’s brother (also a part of the gang that killed her) said she is not his sister as he dishonored his family. I have no clue why love which was once so pure in our culture that Radha Krishna (who were in Love, not married) are praised for their eternal love and when our kids fall in love, we shame them and worse, kill them.
One more thing that comes out is Indian parents think it is right to physically abuse kids. It’s so normal, even in urban societies, that nobody even raises an eyebrow. Does that make it right? Do parents have a right to hurt other human?
Geet is then shown teaching her younger brother how to drive a scooter. There also she is worried about ‘what if somebody sees’. A girl is not supposed to be out of the house driving a vehicle or again the family’s honor gets disturbed! Sometimes I wonder how fickle this honor is that anything a girl does for herself seems to break it!
On top of that the girl’s dupatta gets blown away. She gets worried that grandpa will ‘rip her skin off for this’. So important is the dupatta for her that she even gets into an accident, hurts herself in pursuit of the dupatta. She somehow manages to hide her face in her town and reach home where she meets all men in her family on the gate who immediately notice her dupatta gone! Monster would like to question these honorable men why were they looking at places where the missing dupatta would be noticed? 😉
Geet gets caned for that missing piece of garment. I did not find anything vulgar in the dupatta-less dress. My simple mind just does not understand why such a big issue over a transparent white cloth which serves no purpose, except always coming in the way of the wearer!
But the grandfather kindly explains why he caned her. His family’s women are always covered from head to toe. Even in house! And this girl was in town dupatta less. Oh the horror! *Wide eyes**hands on face*
When her brother tells everyone it was not her fault, he is scolded saying as he is young he is not supposed to open his mouth. And as a girl it is her responsibility to know right from wrong.
WHY?
Also, kudos for ruining individuality and creativity in that younger brother of yours!!
Alright, my first foodie post!!
Recently I tried my hand at baking a dark chocolate and orange cake.
(Recipe: http://cmashlovestoread.com/2012/12/21/2013-challenges-3/)
It turned out great in looks and taste, so much so that I was told I should start baking professionally 😉
Not to brag or anything!
Coming back to recipe, I had added 2 tsp orange essence to the cake, but it still ended up lacking that orange taste. sigh.
No problemo! My search for that perfect orange n chocolate cake recipe continues.
Rating for this recipe: 4 out of 5
Enjoy the rest of your day!
I found this picture on Facebook.
With this picture following lines were written:
I found this photo on a friend’s wall..it has been written that:
Kahte hain.
Is ladki ka naam sushmita ha,
Isne fb me apna photo upload kiya tha,
Kisi ladke ne iska photo sev karke
google me iska profile dalke call girl
ka list me dal diya
ye ladki ache parivar ki thi aur bahut decent ladki thi…
Us ladke ne puri city me pehela diya
ke yeh call girl hai,
Jab yah baat ladki aur iske parivar
ko pata chala to is ladki ke sath pure
parivar ne suicide kar liya… ye hai face book ki duniya
(ab batao friends kya iske liye
raasta hai? Iske bad bhi nahi
sudarenge…
Its my humble request to my All
sisters and girls pls don’t upload Ur photos on Facebook…
(Its said that this girl’s name is Shushmita, she had uploaded her pic on Facebook, some guy saved her pic and made a Google profile out of it, she was of a good family and was very decent, the guy had spread the word around that she was a call girl, when the girl and the family came to know, she did and her family did suicide. Now you tell friends what could be done? Still people are not understanding, its my humble request to all sisters and girls, please don’t upload your photos on Facebook!)
I found this post extremely revolting!
Yes, what happened with the girl was wrong, but was it her fault, or was it the fault of the sick guy who used her picture in such a horrible way?
The writer of the above lines seems to think that the girl had to go through all this BECAUSE she uploaded her picture, not because some guy misused them!
It’s like saying that “Bloody hell, you got robbed! Its my humble request to you not to have any doors or windows in your house in future so no thieves can enter! or if a 16 year old boy gets murdered while sleeping on a terrace, all 16 year old boys should stop sleeping on terraces.
Seriously, when will this victim blaming ever stop?
There and Their 