Made in India -a memoir. A book Review.

Life of sportsmen have often been full of excitement and raises your adrenaline. It is a struggle, crossing hurdles, testing limits both physical and mental. In my memory I heard the name of Milind Soman for the first time when he stirred the fashion and modelling world of India (and created a controversy) by posing nude for Tuff shoes on 1995. That ofcourse was silly and unnecessary move of our moral policing society that dragged those involved into legal cases lasting several decades on an alredy burdened judiciary).   Following that for the next couple of decades he remained a model in my memory and then lately as a long distance runner and Ironman and Ultraman a feat that is ultimate in human endeavour of physical fitness.

The memoir perhaps written by Roopa Pai, a professional writer, makes out an interesting reading and encourages you to "keep fit". The journey of his life starts in UK and at an early childhood moves to Bombay, until his modeling career takes him high he had remained confined to national level swimming (achieving highs in junior/school levels), which is not a quite popular sport in India. Modeling is a parishable career and so he moved back to sports in his late thirties with long distance running and gradually achieved pinnacle of the sport finishing as an Ultraman, an ultimate fitness test that very few have achieved, globally. Ultraman competition is split up over three days, the race totals, hold your breath, 515 km: 10 km of swimming, 421 km of cycling, and 84 km of running. 

As is usual with people who achieve celebrity status, he too was popular with young and attractive girls and got into several relationships, moving from one girl to the next, that is a common temptation that men fall into when young, attractive and with a celebrity. Something similar to what I read recently in another memoir of Kabir Bedi.. I think it is extremely tough for people of such status to remain what society calls "loyal", they keep searching something in relationship that never satisfies them. Finally after several sporting and entrepreneurial successes, he settles in a relationship at 53 and has remained united for the last four years.

The memoir documents his achiements and most exciting and inspiring part of it is the path that takes him from a half marathon runner, to a marathon runner to an Ironman to an Ultraman. His entrepreneurial ventures promoting long distance running especially for fitness leading to emancipation of women is worth lauding and so is his uncommon human efforts of ultra long distance running like the one from Delhi to Mumbai in 30 days for raising funds for a social cause. He truly comes out as a role model for us all.

With what he descibes in the book, his mother appears to be a remarkable person too, who raised him and his three siblings without mush of a support from her husband and believes in physical fitness and is also ambitious about competitive sport at 90+... quite inspirational!!

He has created a history as a sportsman and should be known as such, one can afford to forget his modeling and film career that he feels brought him to the prominance. The memoir often talks about himself as a celebrity and a star and I think that part should be left to the reader and the people who have seen him grow. This could also be due to the fact the Roopa, the co-author (or may be the the author), feels as such about this status of his.

We are gradually coming out of COVID/corona pandemic and life is slowly coming to pre-covid normalcy. That causes huge distractions to the focus on reading. I hope with some attention focusing exercises, I step up my reading levels back.

एक विचार (कविता)

first I wrote in Marathi (not my mother tongue) after watching a Marathi film there was a sudden flow in the language.

काल पु.लं च्या जीवनावर निर्मित केलेलं एक चित्रपट पाहिताना काही लिहावं असं वाटलं, म्हणून ही कविता:

शब्दांच्या पलिकडे काय असावं, 

ढगांच्या पुढे काय असावं,  

हे कोण ठरवतो?

जीवात श्वास किती असावा, 

स्वप्नांची वेळ किती असावी,  

हे कोण ठरवतो?

रागाचं रूप कसं असावं,

हसण्याचा जोर किती असावा,

हे कोण ठरवतो?

या प्रश्नांचं उत्तर काहीही असो,

आपण आपले असावं,

असा विचार कधी केलास का?

प्रदीप/जुलै २३,२०२२.

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not exact translation but the theme was thought through in English 😂😂

----

what's beyond words

what's beyond the clouds

who decides

who knows

how long will you breathe

when will your dreams end

who decides

who knows

how long will you sulk

how loud will you laugh

who decides

no one knows

whatever is the answer

have you ever bothered about yourself, your life, just yours?

pause and think.

Pradeep

July 24, 2022

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Paraveppu - malayali festival.

Para (paraveppu) is a malayali festival that I always saw coming in the month of August. Last two years COVID prevented any festivities, but I was surprised to get a call this morning that para procession from the guruvayur temple, mayur vihar is coming today, just in an hour. (Sunday, May 15, 2022). Unlike previous years this time the decorated elephants were not part of the procession, following a supreme court order to protect animals from "cruelty", nevertheless the decorated buggy (stagecoach) driven was horses was equally impressive.

We got ready and here is how the celebration went through.

Paraveppu is a ritual performed in Hindu homes in connection with the Uthralikavu Pooram Festival in Wadakkancherry. It is meant as an offering to the deity.

Uthralikavu near Wadakanchery is one of the most important Kavu temples in Kerala.

Kavu temples are located amidst paddy fields and in the midst of hills and forests. There may not be an idol as such. The deity is usually exposed to sun and rain and is believed to be the protector and nourisher of the fields.

Kavu temples are dedicated to the mother goddess in the form of Bhagawati, Lakshmi, Saraswathi or Bhadrakali.

The Goddesses of Kavu temples are believed to be powerful. Their anger will result in dreadful diseases, floods, droughts and such other natural calamities.

Within the Paraveppu ritual, a para (wooden/brass measure) full of paddy is normally arranged in front of the house along with the lighted lamps and other offerings such as fruits and jaggery.

The offering is made through the Velichappadu. He is regarded as the intermediary between the devotee and the deity. He is well comparable to the ancient Greek Oracle. Velichappads are an integral part in almost all the important Devi temples.

(with inputs from kerala culture website)

Gangubai Kathiawadi - a film review.

Three months after the release of the much publicised "Gangubai Kathiawadi", I got a chance to watch it on the 54" screen, thanks to Netflix. I was neither encouraged with the publicity nor was discouraged by criticism to watch it, usually don't really care unless it comes from people whose judgement I really respect or care for.

I have a mixed reactions to Sanjay Leela Bhansali's films, but I have great respect in his middle name "LEELA" that perhaps I saw for the first time some 30 years back. You may google to check the history of it. Beginning with "1942, a love story" (1994) for which he wrote the screen play, I went on to see a lot of his work and appreciated some.. even the blockbusters had some attraction in the unusual sets and loud but rythmatic misic and dances.. you may criticise him for those grand sets but they nevertheless had some attraction.. talking of "grand" we saw grand sets even in the "Mughal e Azam" that became a legend.  

Some of films that he produced like Black, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Devdas, Bajirao Mastani, Padmawat were all box office formula films but even for one who appreciates only "creative and purposeful" films can not deny that these films had some attraction at least in terms of entrainment. Film1942 that is indeed a different class produced by Vidhu Binod Chopra and had one of the best of RD's music, (ek ladki ko dekha to..) had shown Bhansali 's talent as a screen writer.. later one saw his talent as a music director in Bajirao Mastani with the dance sequence casting Deepika and Priyanka in "Bangari Pori".

Gangubai is a film based on a true story of a girl who is lured into attractive Bomay film industry but gets sold into prostitution by her suitor who she loved and trusted. The prostitution "industry"'s supply chain is full of such stories when the protectors of girl child push them into the trade. I don't have any official number but one can safely assume that over 90% of prostitutes are forced into it. around the world, plenty of films have been made on the subject not to talk about 100 times more books that have been written to highlight this. Even then, Gangubai has a different touch.. the real life character who is forced to adapt the trade but moves on to become someone who champions the cause of betterment of these "professionals" without asking for the eradication of the trade altogether.

Alia Bhat has done a wonderful job. My trip to Kamathipura as a curious student of our social structure in a decade that followed Gangubai's existence there, is fresh in my memory, what I could see nervously and hurriedly passing through  those streets is inked in my memory forever and I can relate the film from that scene which was many times worst than what was shown in the movie. The prostitutes of all ages were kept worst than in a menagerie. It was such a site that I wondered (and still do) how ever any man can think of having sex there... but well....

It's a moving story and I must stop to keep your interest alive well enough so that you watch it with interest. 

Out of form...what it means

 

Just finished reading Pride, Prejudice and Punditry by Shashi Tharoor. It's a book of collection of his own essays, some fictional work and some non fiction appeared elsewhere earlier with some modifications to make them more relevant with the current times. In some sense this is autobiographical work but not an autobiography. He has taken essays from numerous books he has written and also transcripts of some of his lectures delivered in various forums over decades. What makes the book interesting is that the subjects/topics covered are vast and numerous.. he has devoted chapters to Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Maulana, Bose, Frontier Gandhi and some other freedom fighters, the real and learned people who were responsible for ending centuries old colonial rule in the country to make India a free country. He has talked about the literary prowess of Nehru, all Nehru's critics must read this chapter to know who he was. Today's leadership appear completely illiterate infront of Nehru's knowledge of the country, that of religions and politics. He was indeed a visionary and a true democratic leader who put India on the global platform as a leader of non aligned movement, building friendships across and making India count, bringing it out of  the shadow of 200+ year of colonial rule, in just under two decades that he was at the helm of directing the path of progress.

He talks about his days in school, his days in St Stephen's , his literary activities that started from school days, his contribution to the then popular youth iconic magazine JS and untimely demise of that legendary youth magzine. He has talked about his days in the UN and his rise in the organisation to the level when only fate and global politics snatched the UN top job from him. His "accidental" entry into politics in India and making a mark there and also how he survived the fellow politicians who had little or no connection to literature/ literary activities (he didn't mention that, it's my reading between the lines).

Lots of interesting personal anecdotes from his childhood till now that makes the book interesting and readable.

However, I think reading his books whose excerpts are taken would be much more interesting, I read only  one of his recent books (the battle of belonging) and found that fascinating. But Pride, Prejudice and Punditry gives ideas about his other work and encourages you to read whatever he has written.. you love the description, style of story telling, language. Reading his work takes away your phobia of keeping a dictionary by your side.. even when you don't know a word, it doesn't take away the joy of reading and you learn the meaning and context.

The book has 556 pages, one may find it long, but the hardbound book makes reading a little easy especially when you are doing so not reading sitting in a chair.  

 It's been quite a while, almost six months, since I wrote anything on this blog. Somehow, the reading, writing, cooking all slowed down for me for some reasons... as they say in cricket when a player doesn't perform he is out of form, I never understood, why people in practice and with the same knowlege  and expertise don't perform and go "out of form", I got some idea now that something keeps your "mood" away from giving your best. I should have read twice as much and written about all the books , at least the ones in the picture and a couple of more that I read and enjoyed and wanted to share with you, but didn't. Not sure, if I got my form back and if it is so, I will soon be writing reviews of this pile and more.. all work of geniuses that teaches you lessons of life.

Till we meet again.

Pradeep/May 06, 2022.

Today in the kitchen - बेसन की चक्की / Besan Burfi.

It's Diwali today and what better day to start making a favourite sweet from childhood that is so popular in Malwa(region where Betma/Indore are..). In Malwa, no festivity is complete without this sweet, whehter Diwali or Holi or Rakhee or birthdays or weddings. We grew up watching it being made at home but most interesting was when halwais make it during weddings or at some large gatherings to celebrate something or other. They will keep churning various mixtures in a huge cauldron/kadhai and after hours of hard work they will put that mixtures into a large flat plate for "chakki" to cool and we couldn't wait for it to cool down and in hushed tones will request the "maharaj"(master chef) for some and our innocence will often please them and they will give us a "dona"/leaf bowl (a standard use and throw bowl for large gatherings) full of it and we will hide somewhere and eat it..lest anyone notice and reprimand not just us but also the chef.

I tried Besan Laddu a couple of times earlier but Besan Chakki (burfi) was my yet another first.. 

I used a recipe provided by my brother Praveen ( and took some.tips from the youtube chanel "rashmi in the kitchen"), whom we respectfully call Dadabhai. He has been making it often and I was tempted earlier too but he never documented the recipe without which I found it difficult to prepare, since I cook new items only when I have instructions to follow, preferably a video. He had made it just 2 days back and using those instructions I began my preparation to make this mithai on the eve of diwali to celebrate.

Preparation time:

(sans final cooling 90-110 minutes).

kneading dough 10-15 minutes,

frying dumplings 10-15 minutes 

allowing dumplings to cool 10 minutes 

grinding the fried dumplings 10 minutes 

cooling of grounded mixture 10 minutes 

baking/mixing ghee in the grounded mixture 15 -20 minutes 

adding Mawa/condensed milk and cooking 10 minutes

chashni preparation 10 minutes 

mixing fried, grounded and "baked" mixture in chashni - 5 minutes 

pouring and allowing mixture to cool 1 hour (minimum).

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So first the ingadients to make a kilogram of Besan ki chakki..

Besan/gram flour - 500 gm

desi ghee/clarified butter -  250 gm 

crystal sugar - 250 gm(against recommended quantity of 600 gm)

condensed milk - 200 gm (recommended was 250 gm of mawa/khoya/milk solid).

Preparation:

To make dough.

pour 500 gm besan into a large bowl and add about 50 gm ghee and mix well. 

Now take small quantities of lukewarm water and keep kneading till you get a hard dough like this 

you need to be careful with the quantity of water else dough will become soft and will be useless for our task.

Now make small size balls and pressing them in your palm , make dumplings like this. I made 9 but realised 12 would have been better. Make a dent in the middle as shown for uniform heating/frying.

Now take the rest of the ghee, about 200 gm, in a kadhai that can take half of the dumplings. Add more ghee should the quantity is not sufficient for deep frying. Deep fry the dumplings and rotate them so that they get fried from all sides. Keep frying them till they get almost dark brown. This will take about 10 minutes for each lot on medium to low heat.

Once fried, switch off the flame before you take the next lot (should you want to fry all in one lot this is not required but then you will need a large kadhai and more ghee. Now allow the fried dumplings/muthias to cool, you may break them in piece when they are not very hot, in order for fast cooling. After they come to room temp, it may take about 10 minutes, using a grinder-mixture make a coarse powder and using a sieve remove the large pieces that have not been grounded properly. 

Put the kadhai with ghee that was used to deep fry dumplings, remove impurities from the ghee occurred during frying, once ghee is simmering hot mix the powdered fried besan and keep mixing for about 15 minutes or till you see its colour changing to darker shade of brown, on low heat. Now add about 250-300 gm of condense milk (if you are not using mawa) and keep mixing for another 10 minutes will the mixture is uniform. Flame should always be low to medium. Now switch off the flame and keep the mixture to cool to room temperature, thisake take 15 minutes.

In the meanwhile, let's prepare chasni (chashni). Take a large Patila/flat and deep cooking utensil (a kind of stock pot or Dutch oven). big enough to take the entire mixture. Pour 250 gm sugar in it and add rom temperature water just sufficient to dip the sugar. Now switch on the flame to low and you will find in about 10-12 minutes the mixture is boiling. Keep checking the consistency, we need chashni of one string( एक तार की चासनी), neither thick, nor soft. Once it reaches the desired consistency, mix a spoon of elaichi powder, quickly mix it well and grasially add the cooked mixture and keep mixing it well.

it is advised that you remove half a cup chashni and add it later. also advised is to add a spoon of sugar in chashni just before you start mixing the cooked mixture to get a coarse texture. 

Switch off the flame. Pour the contents into a large flat a about 2" deep plate. Add desiccated coconut ( nariyal ka boora) if you like the taste or decorate it will warq /silver edible foil ( I used neither) and allow the mixture to cool for a couple of hours ( if you are not.in a hurry). I kept it overnight. 

Mine came out a bit hard due to incorrect chashni thickness, low quantity of sugar may have a role in that.. but doesn't matter, I am happy with the outcome of my FIRST attempt at it.

Now cut them in small pieces and enjoy.

Book Review - "The Joy of Dreaming" By NR Panicker.

A couple of hours after I finished reading this autobiographical work of my former colleague and friend of last over three decades, I was listening to an HBR Ideacast (podcast) that had the Associate Dean of Yale School of Management, Kyle Jensen as guest, with the title " when entrepreneurs distort the truth". The title of the podcast said all about the discussion that were to follow. The expert who had vast experience on the subject was saying that every successful (and not successful too) entrepreneur lies his way out to build an enterprise.. he lies to investors to get funding, he lies to professionals who he wants to work with/for him, he lies to customers by selling them an untrue dream. Everyone he lies to also knows this but still work with him and help him build a "successful" enterprise, because they all feel that no matter what he says or does should he succeed, they all will achieve their goals.

In my opinion, Kyle didn't know NR Panicker. Having known him for a long time, I can assure you that Panicker may never have lied to push his way to become a successful entrepreneur. I am not sure had he done that whether he would have been even a bigger entrepreneur or had just remained a professional in a corporate as an employee and long retired by now. He may never have succeeded, as by lying he would have presented himself as someone that he was not and when you do that, you fail.. perhaps, only people who succeed with that 'feku' personality are politicians.

I first met Panicker when we both went to attend a colleague's wedding in Tambaram a suburb of Chennai in Dec 1988. We worked in different offices of HCL and the colleague who was getting married was working with me at the time and had worked earlier with Panicker. Having recently come in HCL fold from Bombay I took PanicKAR for any other Maharashtrian like GavasKAR, TendulKAR etc and struck a  conversation in Marathi.. he kept responding in mono syllables and in hmmms, haans. After about five minutes when I asked him something, this decent fellow who never wanted to hurt me, apologetically said, "I haven't understood a word of what you said" and said although his last name ends with KAR, he is Malayalee and to educate me, he further said "it's a common surname in Kerala, haven't you heard of the famous poet Panicker?" .. I hadn't.

We reamined friends till date. But having come to Delhi office soon afterwards. Our interactions in those days when Internet was not around, remained far and few. However, I kept myself abreast of his entrepreneurial journey. Reading his autobiography had shown a far deeper and sincere person who I knew will succeed in whatever he did, but never thought that he will reach to this level. Humility, that I have seen as most important andcommon factor in most successful entrepreneurs (with exceptions like Steve Jobs) never left him.

The book talks about the difficult and poverty stricken childhood that he had and normally such circumstances will consume a person and they will never be known outside their immediate neighborhood. How he fought that and managed to graduate with fanfare, not just in academics but also as a singer that could have been his alternate career and which helped him make his success in initial life easier. An engineering degree, a dare venturing in far flung Delhi and later to trouble-torn Nigeria and eventually starting on his own putting aside all doubts and risking a well established job, even going against the advice of legendary Shiv Nadar (the founder and then CEO) who initially got annoyed with his decision, but as a matter of chance supported him after he shown the unstoppable will to succeed.

The book is inspiring, actually Panicker is inspiring and the book makes an interesting dreamworld like story that's a testimony of humilty, hardwork, ambition, risk taking ability, ability to fast forget failures and quickly learn to bounce back. But a person who has a good heart often is taken advantage of and inspite of being cautious, falls into the same trap and loses all he builds.. but a bit of luck and all that is needed to succeed kept putting him back on track.

Now on his second innings, after losing his dream to some "fraudsters", whom the world calls agressive professionals, he is on a different path to help build another world, that often times people his age would give up and relax on the Kovalam beach or in Mahabalipur or even in Ibiza. 

Overall the book makes a great reading and pumps up your adrenaline and fills you to have an ambitious journey for yourself.. for youngsters in their first innings and for people his or my age in their second or third or whichever game you want to start playing.