you cant be cruel to someone so wonderful

When these horrific incidents of rape and violence happen, I feel ashamed to be a man who is  supposed always be in the role of a protector and even more so in India where there are festivals dedicated to it.

But I do search my soul and think `what if’.   I try to find if there is the same animal lurking somewhere inside me also.  What if I got tempted on a day when no one was looking and a certain girl looked helpless, and every thing looked easy.  If it looked like I would be able to get away with forcing myself on someone who could put up only a little resistance, would I do it?  Would I be able to scare the girl enough so that she would not have the courage to tell someone?  Would I be able to land a few blows and kicks on her before departing so that she would remain unable to speak  for some time till I made my escape. Mind you I have grown up in a very violent part of India.

After deep deep thinking, I think that the answer to all the above question is a loud `No’ . But mind you this ‘no’  has a rider. It is not that I am beyond temptation, It is also not that I am being scared of the law or not being able to live with the fact that one day I would be recognized somewhere, There are a billion people out there.  The search for the evil part of me in my heart does not pull a blank, it brings out memories of my twenties where I nearly did something wrong, thinking that a little indiscretion would be forgotten.

The real reason why I (and a million others) would never do such a thing is because, I have found the tender side of my whole being with the help of women. Right from the times when I was a child of 8 and used to play small games like `pithoo’ with a rubber ball( I think it is called `seven slates’ in English) with boys and girls of the same age, it was known that you couldn’t hit the girls too hard with the ball. Even when a boy hit another boy too hard, the first protest would come from a girl. Girls not only expect a bit of tenderness, they also know how to give loads of it.  You can see that the play of a mixed group of children is always less rowdy than a group which has only boys.

I had the good fortune of going to educational institutions where I could always learn a thing or two from the girls, a little more generous sharing of food, their streaks of protection of other younger girls, a little bit of nurturance, kindness, some thoughtful  appreciation and critique, I have no doubt that I would be  a lot poorer in my personal growth if I did not grow up in a Co-ed along with girls. 

There are reams written about understanding women but this much can be said quite clearly that in matters of her body, its either a `yes ‘ or a big NO  and those males who do not understand that `no’ have missed out on a life time of education.  If they cannot understand that women of all ages and nationalities and societies protect their personal space very fiercely, they have grown up knowing only half the story. They have not learnt that forcing  your way with a woman will only create hatred and no love.  There is so much more to be gained from being on the right side of these wonderful  people than to be on the wrong side

These clichéd  sentences are being written to drive home a very important point.  It is extremely important to make sure that your children learn to treat the opposite sex like equals.

DO NOT send your children to single sex schools and colleges, they never learn enough about the likes , dislikes, quirks, insecurities, fears, obsessions, in fact the entire world view of the other sex.  I am sure that if some of  these criminals  had gone to a co-ed  school from the beginning this violence wouldn’t have happened. I rest my case.

Do send me your comments on  paramjigyasu7@gmail.com.

Param Jigyasu

 

GIVE US OUR DAILY BREAD O’ LORD (without the chemicals if possible)

 We all eat bread fairly regularly.  We are all dependent on the local and not so local bakeries for it.

Making bread is fairly simple, yet we are somehow reluctant to make it at home. It is true that people, especially housewives are fairly stressed and overworked already but we all do make `Rotis’ don’t we.

There are plenty of things which are wrong with `Bazaar bread’. There are many good reasons why we should make bread at home. Just see the difference.

Bread bought from the Bazaar

The stuff is being sold under dozens of names, Sandwitch bread, breakfast bread, Atta bread, Multi-grain Bread,  brown bread,  milk bread,  sweet bread,  fruit bread etc.  Bad news is that all of it is more or less the same thing.

Selling Bread is one big example of widespread `Thugee’. It is a big racket and we are all getting cheated daily.  The following is a list of things which are wrong with mass produced bread.

1.       It has preservatives to increase shelf life. We buy in Dehradun bread which is made in Ludhiana, Chandigarh, and Delhi etc.  It doesn’t go bad for 5 to 6 days because of the excessive preservative chemicals in it

2.       The label itself tells you about how many chemicals it has. (namely preservative 282, acidity regulator 260, emulsifiers 481(i) and 471 and 472(a). antioxidant 300 and improver 1100,510,923,924(a) and 341(i)  ). All this is purposely made to sound like Greek  so that hapless consumers can’t understand it.

3.       The  brown bread is brown not because it has whole wheat flour  but because it has colour.

4.       The multigrain bread has some 1% grain  by weight which is essentially  pasted on the outside of the bread. Inside is the same bread.

5.       The whole exercise of making bread is the process of making a small amount of flour look like a huge loaf.  Some 60 to 70 % of the volume is of plain air.  If you flatten a slice of moist bread with a rolling pin (belan), it will become like paper, barely 1/4 th of its original size. In other words you buy a sponge.  The 500 gram bread looks the same size as a 800 gram bread used to look earlier.  The weight of flour that you get in a loaf of bread that cost  Rs.20 to Rs 25 is not more than 220 to 240 grams. If you add the cost the cost of sugar, salt, and oil, the value of the food in it is not more than Rs 5. When you add the cost of  manufacturing, chemicals, colour, wrapping, transport , marketing etc , it probably costs the manufacturer Rs 10/-. We buy it for Rs 22. I recently came across an every- day loaf at a bakery which cost Rs 50/- . Wonderful !  Isn’t it.  We are making progress.

6.       It is pure ‘maida’ (refined flour).  It has no fibre. The outside part of the grain of wheat which has the roughage has been removed. Some breads do have a miniscule amount of soya bean flour god knows how much maybe 2%.

 

So  you pay 2.5 to 3 times the cost price, get the bread in a printed plastic bag, get to eat chemicals, preservatives,  colour. Bread looks  and stretches like sponge, tastes yeasty. Most times it tastes bitter if you eat without any thing on it.  It doesn’t fill you up and leaves you wanting for more.  It has become so widespread that most young people don’t know the taste of good bread.

There are some old and reputed manufacturers who make good bread as well but their brown bread is also just coloured maida and has no whole wheat.

Good bread tastes a little bit like soft, moist roti but not chewy like `Roti’ . It should not smell of anything other than the sweet smell of baking. It should be a little crumbly  and not stretchy when it is a day old..  It usually has a crust which is a little bit more brown than the inside but the difference should not be like dark chocolate brown/ antiseptic white but a bit like biscuit brown/ off white. Good bread should get mould on it if left outside the fridge in just over two days. (from the date of manufacture)

Home made bread

Avoid being cheated, eating chemicals, using plastic and get used to the good ness of healthy bread which will eventually save you some hard work. Making bread for a whole week takes as much time as making four paranthas once. Try it.  Most people cannot find yeast. If you send a self addressed envelope to Garhwal post, (write yeast sample on top of the envelope) we will send you some yeast so that you can try making bread at home two times with the following method.

You will need to have an Oven with a temperature setting. You can make it in a pressure cooker but it takes a big pressure cooker and a lot of hit and trial

Here is how to make two loaves of simple enjoyable `Atta bread’. IT IS NOT rocket science.

You need  4 cups of atta (whole wheat flour) and 2 cups of maida, 15 ml (one table spoon) of any refined edible oil, one spoon of salt, two teaspoons of Sugar and 500 ml of luke warm water , one and a half teaspoons of yeast.

Take the  yeast in a small bowl, add two pinches of sugar, two pinches of maida and a table spoon of luke warm (not hot) water. Mix it , cover it and put it a dark place for ten minutes. This will start to rise ans smell a little foul.

Make the dough with the rest of ingredients. This will take ten minutes. Take the yeast from the dark place and mix it in the dough.  The dough should be slightly moister than what you make for `Rotis’.

Cover this and leave it in a large bowl/ `parant’ (twice the size of the dough) for two to three hours. The Dough will rise to twice its volume. Knead it once again and make it into the shape you want, rolls or use a  greased bread/cake mould. Leave it again in a dark place, (never in the fridge) . This is actually the tricky part. It takes ten minutes at breakfast  time,  five minutes at lunch time and the baking takes 40 minutes at tea time.

Preheat the oven at 220 degrees (will take 5 minutes). Put the bread ( which has again risen to twice the size) in the oven without , poking, checking, bouncing or touching  it.  Bake for 20 minutes and reduce temperature to 180 degrees for the next 10 to 15 minutes.  Time given is for two big loaves. (it doesn’t matter if you don’t have a mould Just oil the oven plate and make one big rectangular slab).  Presto !!!  Bread is made. It doesn’t look  rectangular and white but it should smell good. You can cut and eat this bread as it is. It  tastes like a fluffy `roti’. It tastes even better toasted with anything, Dal, cooked vegetables butter, even with just tea.  I urge the people to try this. Make a club of seven people and everyone make seven loaves of bread once a week , one for everyone. Its cheap, its healthy, its environment friendly  and really really tasty.

Of course once you are successful you can make lovely flavored variations of this at home. I will write more about it depending on how many people ask for the free yeast sample.  Actually dry yeast is also available on most good provision stores.

Param Jigyasu

published in Garhwal post on 3rd dec 2012