The Lonesome Road

Today’s spur-of-the-moment dish was Dal wada (lentil puffs for those who do not follow hindi).

Unfortunately, in his enthusiasm, my roomie added a little too much water to the batter turning it from a thick paste to a watery mess. Ordinarily, we would have dumped this mess down the drain - but my roomie was adamant that he wanted to eat this today. So we put two brains - one engineering and one medical to work.

This is the solution we worked out - and it allowed us to eat some really well cooked (internally) and crunchy (externally) puffs. I do not claim that this is the best method to do it - nor that I am the first person with this idea. But if you do end up with runny frying batter, try this.

(1) Pour oil into a large wok-type vessel and let it heat up

(2) Take a serving spoon with wide base. Something like a soup ladle is perfect.

(3) Put a little oil in the cup and put in 1 - 1.5 spoons of batter.

(4) This is where it’s a little tricky. Dip the ladle in the oil and use a spatula to gently push oil into the cup.

(5) Do this until you see the edges turn light brown. Pull the ladle just above the surface of the oil. Insert a spoon into the cup and gently try to life the puff. Do not use force. If it resists, bathe it in oil a little longer.

(6) Once the base is cooked, it will yield to gentle pressure and a (almost) perfect puff will come off from the cup. Simply drop it into the oil, cook till golden brown.

(7) Drop the cooked puff on a cooling rack lined with absorbent paper. Voila!

There you go. One way to rescue watery batter.

Until next time - keep frying!

In my inbox, chain letters are dealt with harshly. They are summarily banished to the junk mail folder and then sent to the big deal mail box in the sky. The chain letter that came in today will have a slightly different fate. While I will not forward it, I’ll put it up here. It expresses the same ideas that Anshul’s post did. I see no point in repeating what has been said so well.

With no further intro - here’s the letter:

A letter from Mumbai

Dear Terrorist,

Even if you are not reading this we don’t care. Time and again you tried to disturb us and disrupt our life - killing innocent civilians by planting bombs in trains, buses and cars. You have tried hard to bring death and destruction, cause panic and fear and create communal disharmony. But every time you were disgustingly unsuccessful. Do you know how we pass our life in Mumbai? How much it takes for us to earn that single rupee? If you wanted to give us a shock, then we are sorry to say that you failed miserably in your ulterior motives. Better look elsewhere, not here.

We are not Hindus and Muslims or Gujaratis and Marathis or Punjabis and Bengaliies. Nor do we distinguish ourselves as owners or workers, govt. employees or private employees. WE ARE MUMBAIKERS (Bombay-ites, if you like). We will not allow you to disrupt our life like this. On the last few occassions when you struck (including the 7 deadly blasts in a single day killing over 250 people and injuring 500+ in 1993), we went to work next day in full strength. This time we cleared everything within a few hours and were back to normal - the vendors placing their next order, businessmen finalizing the next deals and the office workers rushing to catch the next train. (Yes the same train you targeted)

Fathom this: Within 3 hours of the blasts, long queues of blood donating volunteers were seen outside various hospitals, where most of the injured were admitted. By 12 midnight, the hospital had to issue a notification that blood banks were full and they didn’t require any more blood. The next day, attendance at schools and office was close to 100%, trains & buses were packed to the brim, and the crowds were back.

The city has simply dusted itself off and moved one - perhaps with greater vigour.

We are Mumbaikers and we live like brothers in times like this. So, do not dare to threaten us with your crackers. The spirit of Mumbai is very strong and can not be harmed.

With Love,
from the people of Mumbai (Bombay)

I love this city!

You know, I am a firm believer that the basic education system in India is one of the best (if not the best) in the world. Please note that I primarily speak about the “Delhi boards” i.e the ICSE and CBSE systems. I have no idea about the local boards as I have no personal experience of them. For those who do not know, every state in India has a local education board which sets the syllabus for students’ in the state.

Of course, in most states, the ICSE/CBSE system goes out of the window after the 10th standard (grade). Most students are absorbed into the state board system and only a few schools offer ICSE/CBSE till the 12th standard.

One thing I have seen throughout school is the fact that we were never (ever) allowed calculators. Even during the final grade 10 exams, calculators were not allowed. We were provided log tables in order to complete the problems that required them. The first time I ever used a calculator was in grade 11.

The whole point is that when you are doing a 100 mark math paper in 3 hours without a calcualtor, there are a whole bunch of tricks that you pick up in order to complete questions in time. The simplest example is the rounding off system. For example, if you are adding 76 and 55, simple add the closest multiple of 10 (80 and 60 in this case) and then subtract what’s left. So, 140 - 9 = 131. Of course, this is a very simple example. There are many ways in which lengthy calculations can be avoided using simple mathematics.

However, when everything that is to be done is done by a calculator, a certain amount of the brain just never develops. I know that the US education system delivers calculators to students at a small age. So most students’ use calculators to perform simple addition, subtraction, yada, yada. The problem with this is that the dependency on the calculating machine continues into adulthood.

Consider this small example. A friend of mine is going back home and wanted to purchase a few things to take back home. So we went to a large retail store (no, I am not naming names) and purchased a few of the items we required. Here’s how it went at the checkout.

Ch : (scans items)
Ch : That’s $34.35
Us : Ok. Here’s $50
Ch : (looking at screen) Your change is 15.65
Us : Hang on, we have 35c in change.
Ch : (looking confused) Your change is….
Us : (waiting patiently)
Ch : (looking hassled) Uh..
Ch : (30 sec later) $16!
Us : Thank you.

Give this problem, which is essentially 34.35 - 50 + 0.35, and any kid back home will tell you the answer is 16 (or -16 for purists). Really made my head spin.

Until next time - exercise your brain!

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