Things that will incense people*

1. Anything that smells Left ("Bloody commies they oppose EVERYTHING!"). Which leaves me with the STRONG urge to go up to random people, state some very obvious Redness- 'So. The workers of the world should unite, huh' and observe the various states of outrage on their faces. It should be very amusing. I anticipate much giggling-in-the-head.

2. Reservations. They go blue in the face sputtering about merit.

3. Trade Unions. "Them useless, good for nothing, lazy freeloaders who scream about their rights and forget the Greater Good.'

I've been doing a bit of calm listening to conversations and opinions that would earlier have left me blue in the face but impotent to intervene effectively. I picked up this very useful tool of learning and argument during the summer school on Philosophy for the Social Sciences, Manipal. Today I actually enjoyed myself, listening to people talk about and argue about the following.

a) Trade unions and why they suck.
b) How the Muslims have no one but themselves to blame for their poor socio-economic indicators (apparently because they have no middle class and their upper classes do not let the lower classes progress). 
c) How the RSS is dismantling caste structures on the ground (this was interesting. I'd like to do some reading on the chaddiwallas)
d) An argument between right wing people about the merits and demerits of reservation.

The calmer I am, the more I realise how categories can be so misleading. I would have earlier dismissed the (religious, more than economic (even though they overlap)- ) Right Wing as a monolithic block of people with minor variations in opinion. But I have been surprised too many times in the past couple of months to hold on to that image anymore. Yes, the right wing IS the right wing, but the tag, like all tags, ought to be used only for the sake of convenience and not as a definition. That would  be dangerous, and silly. And counter-productive for anyone who wants to bury the Right so deep in the ground that they emerge in outer space across the spherical diameter.  

Some people feel anger is an important tool for empowerment and socio-economic change. It has been argued that anger is the first step to change. I'm increasingly inclined to disagree with that. As mentioned above, I think it is counter-productive and it binds one and limits the effectiveness of the counter action. I think we need to draw a distinction between the recognition of and refusal to accept injustice- and anger. The Gandhians probably got that right.


*I'm referring to a particular type of people, ofcourse.

'Healthy' Brownies*

Brownies are by definition UN-healthy; take away the sin, and you take away the brownie.

However, for those times when you really shouldn't be ingesting daily doses of dark chocolate and butter, this is a fairly good recipe. It is also vegan (*shudder*) friendly.

Acknowledgements to my friend Google, and Annie B. Bond from 'Care2 make a difference'. 
My modifications in random, coloured font.

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour (I used ordinary low grade atta; the lower the grade, the more the roughage, the better it is for health *virtuous smile* )
1/2 cup natural granulated sugar (Next time I will go for brown sugar. I'm just prejudiced towards it)
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Depends on how rabid you are about the cocoa content in your cakes/brownies. I like mine pretty dark, so I'm going to double, maybe triple the cocoa content next time)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons ground flaxseeds, optional (Haha. As if.)
1 cup vanilla low-fat yogurt or soy yogurt (Home-made curd)
2 tablespoons safflower oil (The only oil at home was mustard oil. Can you tell which part of the country I am from. Hence I used butter-but it didn't add anything to the final product.)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used double the amount since I used atta)
1/4 cup low-fat milk, rice milk, or soy milk, as needed
1/2 cup chocolate chips, preferably cane-juice sweetened

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Lightly oil a 9×9-inch baking pan.
2. Combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and flaxseeds, if using, in a mixing bowl and stir together.
3. Make a well in the center and pour in the yogurt, oil, vanilla, and enough milk to make a smooth and slightly stiff batter. Stir until completely mixed, then stir in the chocolate chips.
4. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until the sides of the cake begin to pull away from the pan, and a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean (with the exception of the melted chocolate chips). Allow to cool in the pan until just warm, then cut into squares to serve.(If you have a tiny Oven-Toaster-Grill like me, it bakes in 10 minutes flat)
Makes 12 or 16 squares.



P.S.- Curd is really a magic ingredient; this is the first time I tried it in a cake/brownie and it does give it the 'It' factor.

*Haha, I'm guessing I just pushed up my chances of attracting traffic atleast as much as if I would have used THOSE words. 

Ghonra'r Deem

Aaj train mein ek drunk mosquito aur ek stalker backpack thha.

The Abominable Snowman and I

(Petticoat out*)

You know that mythical thing that you know has no proof of existence, but you still believe all the stories (proof of existence? You're above all that anyway!)...

I have a particular penchant for Abominable Snowman Beings. And the Being that I shall, doubtless, spend all my life waiting for is the Person Who Will Tell Me All. PWWTMA makes for a horrible acronym, so let me not even go there. This Person will be a one stop shop for whatever I want to know, and more. He/She shall share searingly intelligent thoughts on topics ranging from labour movements to daantmanjan. Encyclopaedic knowledge and original opinions that are politically on the same plane as mine. Vah vah.

And then I wonder if I should wonder why I want to hang upside down by my feet from the fan (or conveniently placed beam) frustrated by my inability to think original thoughts and the complete inability of my brain to deal with strategy (this is where the Calcutta boys and girls with their weekend Chess Clubs smirk in the hypothetical situation where they actually read the above lines).

(Petticoat in)

*The petticoat concept as used by K as used by her friends. Tweaked to suit my blogging needs. Also likened to armpit film-making. Also known as stuff that nobody other than you cares two hoots about :)

Attempts at getting those katbiralis!

Q: What do you do when you are unable to get THAT shot you've been planning in your head?
A: Blame the katbiralis, ofcourse :D