Of dog pee and yellow bag in Devdungri

Two months ago, a dog at Devdungri chose my brand new yellow backpack* to pee on.Today I finally got around to dropping it off at the drycleaners.

What? I washed it. Sprayed it with deodorant too. And the constant use made the pungent smell disappear eventually. I need my backpack, okay?

Usually, when confronted with urine I'm various versions of pissed off (haha). When I held up the sodden backpack I only laughed though. I guess when the skies privilege you with sights of atleast 5 shooting stars every night, one can't help but be mellow.

I'm sure there's a reason why the skies above Jawaja, Devdungri and surrounding areas are so generous with celestial spectacles. Generosity of human spirit and sheer human goodness are not above Newton's Third Law after all...

*Did you know that Samsonite owns American Tourister? That AT makes pretty awesome backpacks for a fraction of the price and provides a 1.5 year warranty? I didn't.

On ignoring Ramdev officially or why that reaction was not employed

How hard is it to ignore Baba Ramdev?

Why didn’t the government ignore Ramdev? Was the drama engineered to shift attention away from the Lokpal Drafting Committee. Say what we will, the point remains that this is for the first time (?) that there is direct participation of a section of civil society, backed by a not insignificant amount of mass support, in the drafting of a legislation on an issue that has received significant reaction from various sections of population-that of corruption. There are a few things that stand out in the situation that has been unfolding over the past several weeks, starting with Anna Hazare. 

One, that the government has attained new depths of trust deficit, not just from local struggles in far away forest lands, but even in the cities of privilege. We may and should debate and critique the nature and sociology of this particular anti-corruption movement, but we cannot and should not discount the issue and movement that aroused significant numbers of city dwellers in cities. After all, our major political parties like to pretend that India begins and ends with the likes of Delhi and Bombay.

Two, that this anti-corruption movement has managed to force a negotiation with the government (which speaks volumes about the radical nature of the demands of the movement-or lack thereof) that which led to a concession to the demands of the movement. Even this small concession is already being regretted by the Government it seems- so habituated has it become in its UPA II avatar of being unchallenged in the mainstream political sphere of its arrogance and violent neo-liberalism. This is a government, after all, that feels confident enough of its power and the support to its policies by the visible and elite populace of India to have its Planning Commission declare that Rs. 20 is the cut-off point for poverty. 

Conflicts in the Lokpal drafting committee are different from conflicts in the NAC; the latter can be- and is being- sidelined owing to the fact that it is an extra-constitutional (?) body with only advisory powers. It seems to me that one way for the government to draw attention away from the emerging problems of this small concession to democracy is by engaging in the bizarre Ramdev drama. Who stands to gain from the mid-night crackdown? The Congress does. The multi-ministerial reception and consequent police excesses gives the entire Ramdev tamasha a gravitas that it would otherwise have never gained. Ramdev, I strongly suspect, is not and does not have the support base of Hazare. The former had to install coolers, purified water and other comforts at the Ramlila Maiden to ensure participation. (Based on what I read about Hazare’s camp, I don’t think similar luxuries were included) His Hardwar fast/camp today was a big fail, only populated by members of his peeth/yoga hospital.  The role played by Ramdev for the Congress Government is over. And now in Delhi, the Second Act begins, as the Congress and BJP accuse each other of various things, while the LokPal standoff continues. 

My thoughts on this are very much fluid and will remain so till the drama ends. The conspiracy theorist in me is equally ready to believe that the BJP made the first move in this political game by tricking a reaction out of Congress. Or they could both be in collusion: political bargains and exchanges made for the larger neo-lib agenda. 

Three, that genuine people’s uprisings, as is evident from history, cannot be orchestrated and planned. It would be arrogant of us to predict the outcome of a movement that starts out as anti-corruption of a certain kind. We can’t know what limbs Hazare’s mobilisation will sprout, or even the Ramdev mobilisation. We may wish that like Spain, France and England, or Wisconsin, our uprisings and protests start with being about cut backs in State expenditure, and attacks on labour rights and education, but if wishes were horses...

I crave, yes I crave,

Not to crave.

Homemade Cheesecake minus the expensive ingredients

Mango Cheesecake

I've always wanted to try and make a cheesecake: unfortunately all the recipes required cream cheese (which is not Amul cheese spread...I think!) and gelatin/agar agar. And then I found this recipe at a blog called divinetaste which not only substitutes cream cheese with good old dahi and paneer, but also provides the vegetarian alternative to gelatin (for those who find the thought of stewed animal bones in their cheesecake a wee bit distasteful). Unfortunately, while my neighbourhood grocery keeps gelatin, agar agar will have to be located some other time.

Without further ado, here is the recipe from DivineTaste, with the changes inflected by my lazy, novice baker self. It really does taste amazingly light and flavourful, and almost like a professional cheesecake (a couple more attempts, and I'm going to do away with the 'almost' :) ).

(I'm doing a cut-paste job from the blog-apologies!)
Ingredients:


For Crust:
160 gm (1 1/2 cups) digestive biscuits or any other fairly plain sweet biscuits, crushed  (I used Brittania Digestive)
100 gm (1/2 cup)  butter (preferably salted butter), chopped  (I used Mother Dairy butter)

For Filling:
160 gm (1 cup) fine sugar or powdered sugar
800 gm (3 cups) thick full cream Yogurt (I used two 400gm containers of Mother Dairy dahi) 
400 gm (2 cups) paneer
60 ml water
1 heaped teaspoon gelatin  (the cheesecake retains its shape after a bit of freezing, so I think next time I will up it to 2 teaspoon gelatin)

2 mangoes (1 cup), peeled, chopped and pureed  (The mangoes I used were Safeda- those big happy yellow ones with a gentle but persistant fragrance)

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

For the Mango Glaze:
1 mango (1/2 cup), peeled, chopped and pureed
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp lime juice

Method:

Place the yogurt in a cheesecloth lined colander over a container and allow to drain overnight to get half the quantity ( 400 gm or 1 1/2 cups) thick yogurt.

If you're in a hurry, you could also squeeze and massage the cheesecloth to dehydrate the dahi faster. It's much quicker and equally effective.

Prepare the crust:

Crush all the biscuits: you could beat it in a ziplock or use your fingers: although be warned, blisters might result from latter method.

Rub the butter well into the crushed biscuits bits in a mixing bowl and line your dish with the crumbs (maintain as thick a layer as you would like your crust to be) and refrigerate (freezer) for upwards of 15 minutes. I let mine lie till my filling was ready to be poured over it.

By the way, it helps if you have a springform pan because you cannot ease out a cheesecake like you ease out other cake, and cutting it is much harder if the sides aren't free.


Prepare the filling:

Use a food processor or your (well washed) hands to blend together the hung curd and paneer and transfer to a mixing bowl.

Dissolve your gelatin crystals into the measured amount of water and let it stand for ten minutes. Heat up some water in a saucepan, let it simmer, and after the required 10 t=minutes standing time, hold the bowl of gelatin over the simmering water, stirring constantly to melt the gelatin. Remove and let it cool to room temparature.
 
In a sauce pan, heat the mango puree over a medium flame. Do not allow this to boil.


Slowly stir in the gelatin mix into the mango puree, stirring constantly with a spoon.

Slowly add the mango mixture into the yogurt and cheese mixture, stir in the sugar and vanilla extract and beat well with a wire whisk until well blended.

Pour this mixture over the prepared crust, level with a spoon and chill in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 hours.

For the Mango Glaze:

Place all the ingredients for the glaze in a saucepan and cook over medium heat. When it begins to boil, reduce the flame and cook for 3 to 4 minutes more. Allow to come to room temperature and then spread the glaze over the cheesecake with a spoon. Allow the glaze to set over the cheesecake for 2 to 3 hours or more before slicing it.  Allow the cheesecake to set for an hour or so before spreading the glaze over it.

Those chocolate chips really aren't necessary: I had used them to spell out 'happy birthday', but it messes with the mango-ey taste.

Take a deep breath, Rani.

That's right. Do you feel the glow?

There is a luminescence about your solar plexus, glowing and pulsing, like a little ball of energy. Expand that, my dear. Let it grow until it has taken over the hollow shell of your body.

Your consciousness lies above: can you see me waving?

In the laboratory you weigh the measures and weight the raw ingredients. You want to be a scientist, but your consciousness is on a yatra with me. We'll be back soon, you just keep breathing.

Summer

The 7 o’clock glow of an orange summer evening. After twenty four cycles, I’m beginning to not notice them. The hot loo has not yet made its entry; not really. There is a hint of a fresh breeze and a slight coolness of air that draws you out, and pokes your cheeks till they relax into a smile. 

A caterpillar train of children line up within the car park, one behind the other. They are not organised by height, it’s evident that schools are on holiday. They have wheels on their feet, protective gear on their heads and knees: most of the girls have long pigtails beginning where the helmets end. Roller-skating became a non-television reality for me in the auditorium in school. The church-like aura of the big hall temporarily gave way to a spectacular event: juniors, classmates and seniors giving a roller-skating display in the square between the stage and us. I got my own pair of wheels at eight: my brother and I shared one each, and the refrigerator at home bears the marks of our (my) attempts on it. The car-park is as yet empty of cars, and at the coach’s signal, the train rolls, the helmeted heads negotiate the gentle slope that leads towards the park. One boy pauses and calls out to the coach that he’s going to stop and help his sister down. Five minutes later a little girl’s wheels speed out from under her as she stands and she lands on her bottom, looking up with an unapologetic open-mouthed smile. Oops.       

The back-gate is open, and Kedar is lining his cart with today’s stock of fruits and vegetables. The cart looks different, smaller, and sorrier; his competitor now has the large, well-stocked cart that used to be his. It has been almost half a year since all vendors were removed from the service lanes by the main road. Hidden at the back, he’s lost a large chunk of his clientele and is in heavy debt. Fortunes turn, cruelly. Honestly, even if there were to be traffic jams on the service lanes because of vendors (there weren’t) would it have cost the stalled cars thirty six thousand rupees in debt?