bon appetit!

yesterday was vishu... which is the mallu new year ... it also happens to be the new year for tams... (if i don't mention this here, big boss will go 'hmmp' at me! :P )

like any other mallu festival, vishu is also just another excuse for mallus to go around wearing their crisp white shirts and starched dhotis and have a huge meal on a banana leaf...

no mallu festival is complete without a huge stomach-stretching meal! and its called a 'sadhya' and there's nothing sad about them except that we have only one stomach to stuff all the food into! these are literally mini-orgies where mountains (some might call them mounds, but that depends on which side of the vindhyas you are from!) of rice are polished off with almost a dozen other accompaniments... and you better not try say the names of the dishes to any hot-blooded north indian else he will bloody your crisp white shirt assuming you were saying rude things to him and his ancestors!

no mallu sadhya is complete without a few basic dishes including avial, olan or kalan, sambar, ingi-pulli, thoran, pachadi, papadam, payasam, banana chips, chakaraperati (sweetened banana chips)... trust me, all these dishes taste much better than they sound! :P

and then while i was recovering from a huge meal by wallowing all over the couch like a beached whale, i started thinking... which is what i do when i am full and satiated...
among other things i thought, i realised that its not only the mallu festivals which are about food...

most hindu festivals are gastronomical celebrations... and i think that's the single most important reason why kids love festivals and all of us have fond memories of festival celebrations... whether it is diwali or holi or vishu or pongal or navratri or teej or khojagiri or any other festival of any of the hundreds of communities in india always have some focus on the unique kind of food that is associated with that festival...

and somehow food plays an important part in these festivals because, i think, food generates a sense of well-being and prosperity and peace in the community... a well-fed person, like a well-fed lion, is always less likely to snap or growl or be a general nuisance to the soceity at large!

i'm all for all our festivals and i believe that they should be celebrated with all the elaborate ritual and gaiety... and on those days, keep aside your chronic concern for calories and just dig in... bon appetit! :)

delhi vs. mumbai - II

in my previous post i had started this series of comparisons between the national capital and the financial capital of india. i had identified some parameters including 'infrastructure', 'public transportation' and 'power'.

i had promised to cover 'work ethics', 'people', food', 'water', and 'academics'.

i got some mails/comments asking for some parameters to be included - real estate, girls, mms scandals, and the night life. well, i am not sure i would be able to do justice to these subjects but i will bravely attempt them.

4. work ethics - mumbai scores way over delhi on this parameter. mumbaikars are a far more professional bunch when it comes to work life. in fact you could call them professional to the extent of being 'cold'.

its a pleasure doing business with mumbaikars across all walks of professional life; be they people from a corporate, a public servant, a shop-keeper, a service-provider, an artist/entertainer, a laborer, a maid... almost whoever!

its quite a different story in delhi. and i'd rather not get into the details. most of the people i came across, especially in the government sector, ran some parallel business which obviously took priority over work. the most popular side-businesses omcluded travel agencies, car rentals and trading in tyres.

5. food - you can't beat the chaat that you get in delhi. and the sweets. the sheer variety and sinful taste are just unmatched. the options available in mumbai are but poor cousins. i love the hot 'gajar halwa', 'rabdi jalebi' and 'masala milk' you get during winter.

but for the carnivores, the choice of sea-food is far better in mumbai.

delhi also doesn't have the ubiquitous 'udupi' restaurant which you'll find on almost every street in mumbai. nor can you find a respectable 'vada pav' anywhere in delhi.

6. water - i don't know if you have noticed, but you just can't do without a bottle of mineral water in delhi. the regular 'potable tap water' is hard water in most places. and the mineral residue in the tap water creates havoc with the sanitary-ware in bathrooms and toilets.

and mumbai has the glorious sea. the beaches can be cleaner and less smelly. but then you can't beat the uolifting feeling when you are pass by marine drive, or worli sea-face or band-stand or any of those roads adjoining the sea-face and you can see the sea all the way to the horizon, in all it's glory.

7. academics - this is one area where i would humbly doff my hat off to delhi. students have far more and much better choices in terms of schools and colleges. and most schools in delhi have, what i consider very basic & essential, but sadly lacking in most mumbai schools, - playgrounds!

the quality of faculty and the academic rigor also happens to be far better in delhi than in mumbai. and i have noticed that students in delhi tend to be a lot more focused on education with most of them planning to do post-grad courses or research, etc.

but in mumbai, most students look at education as a chore to be completed so that they can get a job and start earning. i think more students in mumbai are working part-time jobs along with their education than their delhi counterparts.

------------------

i'll cover the last few parameters (including the most interesting one - people) in my next posting.

as always, please keep your comments and suggestions coming in.