mourn the mangalore attack!!

what is this sri ram sena?
When did this moral brigade mushroom and become such a parasite to our society?
My mind is full of unanswered questions.
What right do these goons have that they lead themselves to believe that they have some superior indepth understanding of our culture to allow themselves such a demonstration of violence?
Im shocked, upset and I feel violated with the sheer presence of such people and thoughts.
Im growing towards indifference because despite every right that my country says it gives me, some stupid people who think they are "thekedaars" of this right dispense this freedom to us in the manner they desire.
After spending the 60th republic day in such shameful mourning, I don't know whether I should make the mistake of a being a hopeful fool in a country where people walk into public places and bomb it, ill treat women, stab men without the slightest fear of a higher authority or possible consequences(moral or judicial).
We talk of our resilient spirits …but im sorry the uncanny frequency of such accidents is corroding my faith, my thinking and my ability to believe in the ideals of my country.
I saw footage of this girl whose hair was being pulled and head was being rocked from side to side, another was being slapped, someone was stripped, many were humiliated and molested.
What is going on inside the heads of these people who perform such indecencies so freely in the name of tradition and culture??
Hinduism is meant to be a way of life and an assimilative one at that. Who ever gave them the right to distort a tolerant religion to make it so imposing?

Do they do this because they think they have the right to treat women they way they do?
These young girls will be doctors, engineers, capable citizens and shall contribute to the society in many more constructive ways than these illiterate guardians of a vague cause shall ever do.
This is what suprises me, the dormant violence that is in an essentially peaceful country.
Every day such incidents will happen and suddenly it will blow up in our faces and probably leave us disfigured for life.
Next we know, and people will be stoning women on the street for wearing heels or jeans which they might perceive as a symbol of moral degeneration.
Will we wait wait till then to voice our opinion or will we still let the silence engulf our fears because that's the safer roué to exit.
Why is no action being taken? There seems to be a state of anarchy and lawlessness. We are a regressive society with little respect for women, other human beings, with religious intolerance and mind numbing prejudices and we still manage to publish glossy cover pages hailing ourselves as "India shining" and "the next best thing".
Why will I not be pessimistic? and why should I have any faith on the democracy or government when it proves itself incompetent and unworthy at every testing ground?
It is very unfortunate that our response to this madness is indifference.
I do not write this because I have some bigger understanding of the way these things fuction, but I as a woman on the streets fear my own safety and I am writing this because im praying while I hold on to the last sliver of hope I have in my heart and yearn for it to be a great nation.

The choice was between Koshy’s and herbs and spices.

Immediately my memory darted to this time when had had lunch with a couple of friends. And then it was gourmet as I had gotten with something called walnut meringue. Well, Its still as fancy as it can get for me since I spend 6 out of 7 days in an industrial estate in bommasandra feeding my guts with spicy toast topped with oily onion something and supper straang kaapi or more often the sugary sweet milky Indian favourite- tea.

The memory of the taste teased me yet again into shamelessly jumping at the opportunity of going back to herbs and spices!

So come Sunday and I wore my Sunday best and waited by the road full of afternoon sun hoping that the knight in shining santro wouldn’t be too late.
P arrived and I hurriedly jumped into the car and a few quicks turns later we were at herbs and spices. No board, no announcing of arrival and there it was hidden away and yet crowded. Damn! yet another treasure trove discovered and looted before I had set foot!!!

A moment of panic and with the gentle aromas in the air and the sun filled central courtyard. All was forgiven .

I hate it when people talk to me when im studying my menu…cause I get very distracted and i feel im being diverted from the actual agenda…and thus I politly, whenever I can, ask my lunch mate to shut up and figure what they’d like to eat too!

P is predictale and so he picked what I almost expected him to…the beef stake!

I went for the fish with my new sea food fetish and I figured chicken makes for ordinary meat (don’t really talk me into foie gras and the likes…im going to be desi for long…..and I had to remind myself and stop P before he wolfed down his meal.so there was a temporaray interruption in the meal and the necessary documentation was done .
Thus the pictures of the half eaten fish and beef.

The fish was nice and packed .white and layered.shiny skin creased together at points giving in to the heat it had been grilled over. Thin, slimy skin tasting like mellow fire. Breaking softly layer by layer. And whenever I felt it was getting too bland for my palatte, I doused it with a (lemongrass??) sauce that accompanied it.
Contact P for more about his steak of well done beef and yummy green herbed potatoes!

Dessert was the difficult part…the meringue came in without much debate but then there is the usual chocolate fav…which I just had to have…and in this moment of massive confusion, I did what I should do…take both…yipppeeee…
Some choices in life are actually easy and I wish I cud do that with everything!!!

Also, lunch was paid for and I was dropped back. Almost felt like a date but only that it was with P and there were no flowers.

barbeque nation 100 ft road

BARBEQUE NATION BLISS*

Family lunches can be fun for some…..when you know there are fun loving uncles and humourous aunties, promiscuos cousins with a million tales and little kids you can bully.
I haven’t been on too many family lunches but whenever I have been on one, I have returned exhausted. Theres way too much drama, emotion and action coupled with plenty of laughs and lots of food for one unprepared person to handle!

So first lunch of the new year was with family. “Errr…….!!!!” Would have been my initial response but
The silver lining here was the choice of venue.
BARBEQUE NATION!
Considering most of my meals and outings happen in budget places almost everywhere….i was more than just excited to have lunch at the barbeque nation with lill green papers coasters which said “the world on a grill”
CLAP CLAP
So menu for lunch would be :
3 extremly dramatic and one moderately dramatic woman….coupled with a bunch of chilled out, I don’t care, rational and logical types and that my friends…….makes a new year lunch meal more interesting that “lasuni jhinga” on a skewer.
So we seated ourselves comfortably after the round of hugs and handshakes and new year greetings!!! we dived right into the menus……..(atleast me and Kay did !!!)
So there was the rum and gin for the men, wine for the ladies and fruit punch for the kids and ice tea for me…..(yes, I sit sit at the childrens table!!)
I loved barbeque nation, concept and food since I got introduced and treated to it by a big time small friend of mine. I love the unlimited starters on skewers, brush with which u can butter up ur meat chunks and sauces you can savour it with….i love the fact that u can fill urself up to the brim with starters and jump right to dessert with a little biriyani in between.
The starters were endless and the best…….tandoori aloos…yes! Lasuni prawns …yes! Chiken tikka, kheema kabab, mutton seekh kabab, fish peppered tikka, babycorn grill, bring it on babay!
And it keep it coming!!!!

Me and kay had to take breaks and sip our respective fruit punches and ice teas to not lose focus. There were a couple of breaks and re considerations but I guess we had to stop once the waiters started ignoring us…it was probably time for main course!!

The main course usually takes back seat at barbeque nation. I skipped past the butter chicken and alloo panneer blah and some white nonsense and some jeera rice to get to some picked baby mangoes….”hmmm…inter-essting! And we move on to adraki fish…eiww??maybe …and crab meat ahh-a!
This time…I let my adventurous self take over and ventured into the sea food section and walked back with a couple of crab legs. The rest of my excited family gave me running instructions on how to break into and make most of the crab legs. We are coastal people and my fish eating skills have always made my mum frown but here I had indeed redeemed myself in the choice of food I made and I had temporarily made her forget all that and my dirty shoes for the time I looked victorious with my crab leg. (here, I must mention that I imagined the crab meat to be very different in taste but it was similar to the salty fish meat off a bang(d)a

Desserts were confused. My sister had three helpings of the gauteux just to figure out the flavour…and my nephew polished off all his little spoons and bowls of dessert only to dismiss everything off as average. I made a gaudy choice out of nostalgia and heaped my dessert bowl with fruit and ice cream and topped it off with an obnoxious amount of strawberry jelly and green coloured gooey jelly!!!!
And there I was again…..in mangalore…..just a little above the table with my qutub minar of a sundae glass with strawberry and vanilla ice cream and custard embracing me…..keeping me away from the harsh realties of homewok (then ) and the boss man (now)

And ofcourse, if I did miss the masala on the grill …it was generously contributed by the family !
Lots of general emotion and discussions kept being passed around the table along with a super cute but cranky lill nephew and some cars to keep him happy!