Individual Liberty, vyaktigat svatantrata

पिछले कुछ वर्षों से भारत में अन्ना हजारे और लोकपाल बिल के कारण राजनैतिक परिवर्तन की एक लहर चल उठी है। सम्पूर्ण रूप से भ्रष्ट सरकार से अब सब तंग आ चुके हैं। अरविन्द केजरीवाल ने आम आदमी पार्टी स्थापित करी है और हम सभी आशा करते हैं की सच्चे इमानदार लोग हमारे नए नेता बनकर पतन और भ्रष्टाचार से हमे आजाद करेंगे।  कहने के लिए हमारा देश "आजाद देश" है पर क्या हम सच में आज़ाद हैं? आख़िर आज़ादी का मतलब क्या है? अपने देश से विदेशी सत्ता को हटा कर अपने देशवासियों की बनी हुई संसद बैठा लेना, अपने आप को संवैधानिक तौर से मत का अधिकार देना, चुनाव बहुमत से सरकार बना लेना, क्या इतना काफ़ी है? अपने आप को लोक्तन्त्र, गणराज्या घोषित कर लेना, जैसा की हुँने ६५ साल पहले किया, क्या यही आज़ादी है? मेरा कहना ये नहीं की विदेशी सरकार को भारत से निकालना कोई आसन कार्य था। पर हम वहीँ क्यों रुक गए? उसके बाद जब स्वतन्त्र रूप से अपना निर्माण करने का समय आया तो हम चूक क्यों गए? हमारे स्वतन्त्र होने का प्रयास अंग्रेजों को निकाल कर क्यों समाप्त हो गया? सदियों से शायद हम यही भूल करते आ रहे हैं की हम अपनी देख-रख कुशल-मंगल की बागडोर किसी और के हाथ में दे देते हैं। चाहे वो शेहेंशाह अकबर हो, या पंडित नेहरु, या फिर नरेन्द्र मोदी या अरविन्द केजरीवाल, हम अपने नेताओं पर अँधा विश्वास करते हैं। हम सोचते हैं की कोई नेता या कोई पार्टी हमारे हित के लिए कुछ करेगी। हमारा अच्छा बुरा अब इन्ही के हाथ में है। इस तरह की सोच ही पराधीनता की पहली निशानी है।

 अवश्य आप यही सोच रहे होंगे कि किसी राजा महाराजा, विदेशी सत्ता, तानाशाही से, या फिर अपने पडोसी देशों जैसे मिलिटरी या कम्युनिस्ट राज्य से तो हम अच्छे ही है और उनकी तुलना मे हम आज़ाद भी हैं। परंतु यदि  व्यक्तिगत स्तर पे, या जिसे हम इंग्लीश मे कहें कि "individual level" पे - परिवार, देश, समाज सबसे परे हट कर, केवल और केवल एक अकेले व्यक्ति के सन्दर्भ मे देखा जाए  - तो इस राष्ट्रीय स्तर की आज़ादी की परिभाषा क्या मायने रखती है? 

हम स्वतंत्र, स्वराज, स्वदेश की बातें करते हैं पर हम आज़ादी के मूलतम रूप को, व्यक्तिगत स्वाधीनता, व्यक्तिगत स्वत्व, individual liberty के बारे मे क्यों नही सोचते? क्या हम अपने आप को इतना महत्व भी नही देते की हम अपनी खुद कीआज़ादी के बारे मे सोचें? इस सरल और साधारण विषय को समझना कठिन नही पर अक्सर ही हम विचारों को सरल रूप मे ना देख कर क्लिष्ठ उत्तरों की खोज मे लग जाते हैं और किसी छोटी सी बात को पेचीदा बना लेते हैं।व्यक्तिगत स्वतंत्रता भी ऐसा ही एक विषय है। हम अपनी व्यक्तिगत स्वतंत्रता को त्याग कर समाज देश दुनिया की समस्यों मे लीन हो जाते हैं। हम सोचते हैं की अगर हमारा देश स्वतंत्र हो, अगर हमारे समाज मे बुराइयाँ ना हों, अगर हम सब मिलकर एक उत्तम समाज का निर्माण करें तो हम सुखी रहेंगे। लेकिन अगर हम इसका ठीक विपरीत करें - हम समाज और देश को कुछ देर त्याग कर अपनी स्वतंत्रता और अपने सुख समृधि के बारे मे सोचें, और अगर हम ऐसी स्वतंत्रता को प्राप्त कर लें तो बाकी की समस्याएँ स्वयं ही छोटी और सरल हो जाती हैं।

यह लेख और आने वाले कुछ और लेख individual liberty, व्यक्तिगत स्वतंत्रता के बारे में मेरी समझ व्यक्त करने का तुच्छ प्रयास है। आशा है इसे पढ़ कर आप, और इसे लिख कर मै इस विषय के बारे में चिंतन मनन करेंगे, और ये भी देखेंगे की किस प्रकार हम अपने शासन अनुशासन में इस सहज विचार को ध्यान में रख कर अपूर्व सुधर ला सकते हैं।

Back to Food!

"And so after more than a year long hiatus the master chef is back with a richer repertoire and new savories in her bag of delectable recipes". Or thus would have been the opening line of this post if I were a Martha Stewart or a Tarla Dalal. Master chef or not, its certainly been a 12 months + hiatus, and during this time there certainly is a new set of recipes that I am ready to share with the world - namely, baby food recipes!! Yup, the boiled, pureed, bland kind of food available in solid colors in little jars like in the picture.

Starting 6 months my little one (the younger little one) was ready to move to a diet comprising of light solid foods. Doctor's advice - start any new food in the morning or around noon in order to monitor any reaction or intolerance to it. Avoid introducing new foods at night.

We started with a gentle meal of 2tsp rice cereal mixed with roughly 60ml of water to make a very liquidy consistency. This routine went on for a few days, twice a day. This is standard stuff, there really isn't much to write home (or blog) about it. I do so just to keep a journal.
After 3 days of only cereal, it was time to start vegetables. Started out with carrots and sweet potatoes from Gerber. I really wanted to get an organic brand but they didn't seem to have anything in Stage 1 foods. So Gerber it was. However, given how hard it is to trust what goes onto the shelves in the name of food these days, I decided to start preparing baby food at home, as I had also done with the older little one. Again, a lot of moms do this so no big deal here either.

What I do want to do is share are details of the tools and methods of preparing the perfect food that works (for my baby at least). So here goes.
At the grocery store: if you are the chemical-herbicide-pesticide-GMO aware type of person, you probably want to browse the organic vegetables aisle. Pick small amounts of a variety of vegetables. My stage 1 favorites were carrots, squash and sweet potatoes. Beans and peas did not go very well with my baby. Neither the jars, nor the home-made ones.
Ready to cook? Thumb rule for Stage 1 baby food cooking - food needs to be pureed smoothly to make it easy to swallow. Thumb rule for making good purees - food needs to be really well done to make it soft. Thumb rule for softening the hardest foods? Use a pressure cooker! Sing with me -

हाव्किंस की सीटी बजी
 खुशबु ही खुशबु उडी
मज़ेदार लज्ज़तदार
खाना है तैयार
हांजी खाना है तैयार

This 2 litre pressure cooker from Hawkins is the most useful tool in terms of size and ease of use and cleaning. Of course if you have a 1.5 l one it would be even more handy, but I've had the 2 l one forever as it works well for a family of 2-3 adults for day to day cooking. Now it doubles as the baby food cooker!
So with this cooker at hand: Step 1: as with any food, wash well and peel. Chop the vegetable, doesn't have to be finely chopped as its going to get cooked and mashed anyhow. Add baby water or clean drinking water for boiling, I wouldn't use tap water. Let cook for 8-10 or maybe more whistles to ensure that the food is very well done. Let off the steam and open to proceed to next step.

Regarding quantity, for the 2 l cooker I started with 2 medium sized carrots at a time in Stage 1, moved on to 3 for Stage 2 (starts when the baby starts sitting). This works for 2 servings of carrots.
For sweet potato, usually boil half a sweet potato at a time and use the remaining later.
Peas and beans - not easy to prepare as the skin gets in the way of making a smooth puree.
Squash - really depends on the size of the squash. 1 yellow squash at a time is good.
Stage 2 onward the vegetables can be mixed and daal (lentils) can be included in the diet. So things become easier because now you can prepare khichdis (mish mash of grain, lentil and veggies for those who don't know). Throw in rice, daal (in a 1:2 ratio) and an assortment of vegetables from carrots, broccoli, pumpkin, gourd, squash, beans, potatoes and spinach into the cooker. Add some turmeric and a hint of garlic (supposed to have miraculous health benefits), more than 2x the amount of water and let cook.
Stage 2 is also the time to start fruits. Apples and pears can be boiled and pureed. Bananas can be mashed raw and mixed with water and served. Citrus fruits only after 1 year.

Step 2: Puree. Important to note, Up until Stage 3 (crawling), make smooth purees. Stage 3 on blend coarsely and let the gums do some work.
My favorite tool for Step 2? This 1.5 cup sized small and handy chopper.

http://www.amazon.com/Proctor-Silex-72500RY-2-Cup-Chopper/dp/B00006IUX0/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1349230952&sr=1-1&keywords=proctor+silex+chopper
With my older one, I always used a hand blender and it was ok but not great. This chopper on the other hand is really great for baby food pureeing and meets all the criteria of a useful tool for the busy mom - small, portable, easy to clean, and functional. Its supposed to be a chopper but for boiled soft foods it works as a blender and whipper.
Once the food is boiled, pour the contents of the pressure cooker (along with the water as that is where the nutrients are) into the chopper/blender. Whip for 15-20 seconds. Add 2-3 tbsp water, stir and whip some more till you get a creamy consistency which is important for Stage 1. Once done, pour into glass jars or containers to store some, and let the lil one chomp away some!
Storage: Anything prepared today can be stored in the refrigerator and safely used till day after tomorrow.

Important: For Stage 1, use only single grain cereals. Start simple, with white rice cereal. There is no need to  try brown rice or oatmeal on day 1. Let the light stuff go in first and then after a week or so you can try brown rice or oatmeal or barley. Rice and brown rice both caused constipation for my baby so I switched to organic oatmeal which is working out well. Mixed grains can be started in Stage 2
Same rule for Stage 1 veggies - no mixing, only single ingredient vegetables.
Proteins should be started in Stage 2 but so far I have been reluctant to give meats. I am hoping that daal will  serve as the source of protein, although its not nearly as rich as meats. Still thinking about it.
Stage 2 is really where the mixing starts - mix veggies and grains, fruit and grain, veggie and protein  grain and protein. (fruit and protein would kinda suck but you could try)
Repeat - Doctor's advice - start any new food in the morning or around noon in order to monitor any reaction or intolerance to it. Avoid introducing new foods at night

Anyhow, that't that for now. If anyone has any advice or tips to offer, please do so. Happy to answer any questions while I am still at the task of preparing and serving baby food.
And BTW, I did recently find time to make a dinner of kathi rolls amongst the baby food cooking. Recipe to follow in next post.
Until then, happy meals!

Pictures and links - courtesy amazon.

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Why I didn't like ZNMD

I recently had the chance to watch the much hyped and universally loved flick called Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (that's the official name so I wonder why its been shortened as ZMND instead of ZNMD). I have to confess that unlike everyone and their mother, I did not love the movie. In fact I ended up wondering WHY on earth are people going gaga about this one? There is nothing great about the movie. Its not bad to watch but somewhere it starts feeling like a drag and gets so boringly predictable that one wonders what reasons people could have to be raving so madly about it. Maybe there is something more than what met my eye that I couldn't see. Oh well, maybe I am a non-intellectual dud after all who couldn't appreciate the "meaning" or the depth of the movie. So here I am, writing on why I didn't like the movie.
After DCH, Rock On and ZNMD it is now an established fact that the Farhan-Zoya Akhtar house of films is exploiting the formula of "friendship" and "living your dream" the way "Love and Romance in Switzerland" was used and abused by Yash Chopra. They are doling out pop versions of  "finding the inner truth" philosophy to Indian audiences which has hitherto been exposed only to masala, romance and good-wins-over-evil type of films. While DCH and Rock on were great, ZNMD just seems like a juvenile attempt at recreating the magic of DCH with its overdone concept of a topsy-turvy bittersweet bond between 3 male friends riding convertible cars on scenic road trips. One with a nagging fiance (Abhay/Saif and Natasha/Priya from DCH), one arty philosopher (Farhan/Akshay Khanna) and one too engrossed in his own life (Hrithik/Aamir) to understand life and love till true love comes along (Katrina/Preity Zinta). They are richer this time and don't hesitate to show it off with 12K Euro handbags. They are not in college any more but they act sillier than their DCH counterparts with the bways and "the plurals" jokes (which we used to crack up on in 12th grade). They are not in college any more but they can still drop everything to go holiday in Spain (good choice of location BTW), and this exotic locale becomes part of what is wrong with the movie.
From the minute they enter Spain the entire movie seems like one long tourism advertisement or a spiced up documentary on Spain. It is undoubtedly beautifully shot but there needs to be more than just that to a good movie. A lot of people tell me that I should have watched this movie on a big screen to really appreciate it. I disagree. A good movie should transcend screen size. Consider this. There was a Sanjay Dutt, Akshay Kumar action thriller called "Blue" which had fantastic underwater camerawork. In fact it offered spectacular, never before seen footage of the world beneath the brilliant blue Bahamas seas. It wasn't blessed by Javed Akhtar's poetry though, and at the end of the day it was just another masala action movie. So it didn't really matter whether you saw it on a big screen or on your ipod. The movie sucked regardless. Of course ZMND isn't quite as bad as Blue but, I repeat, it didn't engage or impress me despite the great camerawork so no, I won't make the effort to watch it on a big screen.
There is no real plot or story. The story, if you want to call it that, is so predictable, boring and lacks originality. Most of the story is woven to accommodate the Spain tourism agenda. Get Hrithik and Katrina close in a Tomatina festival, throw in an Indian artist living in Spain (really?) to show the interiors of a Spanish artist's villa (reminded me of Javier Bandem's pad in Vicky Christina Barcelona), the useless Senorita song to educate us on Spanish music and dance forms, and not to miss the finale - the confessions, promises and culmination of the movie at the must-see bull run in Pamplona. Then there is the slow song in the top-down convertible car where the actors try to act really cool by lying back in silence and absorbing the sights and sounds of their scenic road trip. How many times have we seen that since DCH? The wedding song with the credits in the end is a entirely copied from Hitch. This is another irritating Bollywood fad - replace colorful shaadis with classic white weddings. Oh whatever!
More predictable scenes - Abhay Deol's idiotic "maine tumhare bare me kuch suna hai" prank and people getting freaked out by it. Abhay Deol's oops moment carrying Katrina (post Tomatina) to be predictably caught by surprise by smoldering fiance. Abhay Deol exchanging SUV for vintage car for Farhan Akhtar. Hrithik Roshan's idiotic video chat with a Japanese big shot, etc etc - all lackluster, irrelevant, even embarrassing and predictable. Let me clarify that there are two types of predictable - one where you fear what's going but find it hard to accept if what you thought actually happened, and one where you know what's going to happen and you hope that they come up with something better but they fail to meet your expectation and do the predictable. The former grasps you, engages your imagination and entertains. The latter leads to one place - boredom . In my (not so humble on this topic) opinion, this entire movie falls into the second category.
The cast is strong and performances are just okay but Farhan Akhtar needs to accept that he cannot act, he is not great looking and he especially cannot do the funny boy role with his stoical expressions and bland dialogue delivery. I sincerely hope he stops acting and sticks only to filmmaking. I know I've made all you Farhan Akhtar fans' blood boil but not everything that FA does is cool. Let's accept that.
Finally, the movie supposedly has a message - live your life, follow your heart etc - but the way the message is conveyed is likely to inspire dangerous acts of foolishness by those who blindly follow the way the characters execute their dream of finding their inner self. (and trust me there is no dearth of blind followers and believers of Bollywood stupidity in our populous country). An example is the ridiculous Tomatina festival that was planned and prepared for in Bangalore a few months ago. Good sense prevailed and the event was called off. Not sure if it was for the movie's publicity or if Bangaloreans were really going to take to Palace Grounds with tomatoes, gulaal and water pipes. There will be those who will try to find themselves and their dreams in handbags, accessories and luxury goods worth12 thousand Euros. Almost every dreamy eyed guy and his friends will set out on road trips to celebrate their bachelorhood before their weddings. The married ones will reunite with their long lost friends in Europe or Bali or somewhere exotic and boast about their careers and personal lives. Well there is nothing wrong with that. In that sense perhaps the Akhtars have done some good by allowing us to think beyond the mundaneness of our lives, by telling us to unwind, recharge, explore the world etc, because after all, you do only live once. So as long as people don't fail on important commitments of life to "live the moment" its all good. My worry is for those who are not so mature. But then why am I being the worrier for the rest of the world?
This has been a long pending post written in bits and parts over the past several days. The intent is definitely not to start the new year on a negative note. I can sense a lot of hate mail coming my way from all those who worship the movie :)
But what can I say, I have to find my inner self and speak my mind as the movie preaches. Happy New Year everyone!! :)

Letter to the Fat Corrupt Politicians

Dear politicians, if you have an ounce of conscience and even a tiny bit of a soul in you, you should die of shame today! But of course, you've already sold your souls to the devil and you never had a conscience so the bomb blasts don't mean anything to you. You will just humiliate your people once again with a "compensation", tell them how courageous they are (of course, to be able to tolerate morons like you) and expect them to "bounce back" to life as if nothing happened while you conveniently move on to the next scam. 
Here are a few things you should know. In fact, these are things that we the people should also know but we are so overloaded with the task of surviving in this extreme jungle of chaos and corruption that you have created that we never get the opportunity to ponder over these basic facts. We don't even know what our fundamental rights are because if we have to struggle so hard to achieve it, then it cant really be a right now can it? So, here are the facts - 
- We vote for YOU. meaning we appoint you, we employ you at our command, to perform some administrative tasks for us. That means that YOU work for US, and not the other way round.
- We pay taxes so you can utilize the money and provide us some basic facilities. Nothing fancy here, just regular stuff like good roads, parks, schools, electricity, water, a transportation system, and above all a safe and secure environment where we can live fearlessly.. Whatever is left after this can go towards your salary. 
- We expect to receive these facilities at no extra cost on top of the taxes we pay.


Now lets look at how you operate.
- roads - pathetic, and its a well known fact that the PWD is an easy way to loot the government coffers paid for by our money
- government schools - sad story. Nobody wants to send their kids there because they are so low quality. Teachers are not motivated because they dont get paid well
- water - its a struggle for majority of the population to even get clean drinking water. If a poor man wants a hand pump or well installed he has to spend all his savings in bribing everyone from top to bottom
- security and intelligence - non-existent as is proved yet again by the blasts in Mumbai , the perpetrators of which run scott free and you haven't the courage to either arrest, try or execute (as Kasab)


So where is all the money that we pay you going? Let's look at some more facts.
Jaya amma is getting fatter by the year and tales of her mythological wealth are well known
Mayawati donned a garland of 5cr rupees on her birthday
Mayawati also sets a target for all her MLAs etc to raise funds for her birthday celebrations each year. Meaning the MLAs have to go and collect bribes from wherever possible to meet their astronomical targets. Of course they can't say "balls to you" to Mayawati cos she is their behenji after all.
YSR Reddy's son amassed hundreds of crores between 2004-2009
Every day there is a new scam worth not hundreds but lakhs of crores of rupees. Its hard to keep up with the scame stories but each scam has a similar theme - funds intended for a particular section of the society ended up in one of your personal Swiss accounts.
Kasab is partying in jail and you are spending 5lakhs on his "security" per day? What could be more insulting to us than to see our money being wasted on protecting a mass murderer who should be stripped naked and flogged to death in public!!! Can you not feel our intense ire?


This is just a small portion of the endless list. But we hope you get the point. The point is, you suck at what you do. Please. Stop. Step down. Surely you are incapable of feeling any embarrassment for having constantly failed at your job, but we cannot take this any more.


Take a look at history, the 1857 mutiny, the non-cooperation movement, Quit India movement - you are bringing it upon yourselves again. The last time it was for foreigners, this time its going to be true Indians against the corrupt, tyrant internal enemies of India.  And this time we will skip the mutiny and non-cooperation and force you to Quit India. Gundon, Chor badmashon, Bharat chhoro. 


Take this as a warning. 


And yes, please stop insulting us with your paltry compensations and false condolences. Stop talking about the "spirit of bouncing back". We don't bounce back, we just carry on with the rigmarole of surviving in this crazy system you have created for us. Its hardly a "spirit". Its a "majboori". We have no choice. So stop saying that, and stop taking us for granted. Also, stop saying that we need to be "united" at this time. If we unite and resolve to have our revenge, we will make sure that you suffer!!!

No OBL pics please!

Osama Bin Laden is dead, that's great news. Its a relief. Victory of good over evil.
Much as it is a reason to celebrate, it is also reason to be on high alert because the breed of terrorists that Osama created will continue to live on and seek revenge. They might be enraged, shaken and extremely full of hate at this point. The nation should unify and focus on its security at this time.
But once again, Fox News, Republicans, Birthers etc fail to see what the priority of the country should be. They continue to question the credibility of their President. They doubt the purpose of the operation that brought the most Wanted terrorist down. They continue to humiliate the valor of the brave men who put everything at stake and went all out to finish what started on 9/11/2001. Why? Because they didn't get to see the pictures....oooooh poor cry babies..."I want to see the pictures mommy, he wont show me the pictures"..boohoo

Republicans and others, this was your chance to show some dignity and solidarity. You could have gracefully accepted the fact the Obama administration brought home what the Bush administration pursued for 8 years. You could have congratulated yourselves for having started it and Obama for completing it. Instead you continue to maliciously politicize any and everything that Obama does. If you showed some dignity and stopped making a big deal about the dead OBL's pictures you would probably have gained some points in the popularity polls. WHY do you need to see those pictures? He was shot in the HEAD! Do you really want those pictures to be made public? The day Osama's new came out I too was curious to see the pictures, but that was just for curiosity's sake. As more details started to come in, I realized that not releasing the pictures is the sensible thing to do for many reasons  -
a) It was a headshot
b) The pictures would be extremely graphic
c) It will only aggravate the followers of Bin Laden's ideology, and jeopardize national security.
(and I am just an ordinary immigrant. One would expect the citizens and politicos of a country to know better)

More on the last point - they are saying that when Saddam's sons were killed we released the pictures. That was done to ensure the people of Iraq that the sons were really dead, to bring them a sense of relief. I don't think anyone in Iraq or elsewhere idolized Saddam's sons. Releasing those pictures would not have offended, aggravated or ired a large section of young radicalized Islamists across the world. Releasing OBL's pictures will.
Also, this is not something to gloat about. Killing OBL is a milestone but not an end to the fight against terrorism. The villains that Osama created are still out there. Releasing those graphic pictures will only add fuel to their fire.

And what if the pictures were released? Wouldn't you still question the credibility of those pictures? He was shot in the head. The face and body must be mutilated beyond recognition. You wouldn't be able to make out a thing. And you would still doubt the authenticity of those pictures. Nothing will stop your evil ways and malicious attacks on the President. In fact, in political terms killing Osama is such a big thing for Obama that no matter what he does now, you will only resort to cheap, below the belt attacks. Obama administration is doing the sensible thing by ignoring you.
So dear skeptics, please shut up, sit down and let the President and the nation move on the other important things - like National Security, the economy, etc, and stop cluttering up the news with non-issues and controversies because these resources could be used for more constructive purposes!!!