How to learn 'cook'ing !!

I was shopping for a book , a Puja gift for my mother, at Ananda Publisher's outlet on RB Avenue the other day.

While I was browsing through the racks, I was noting how the other buyers were going the selection process and also enjoying the chit-chat around.

The most remarkable comments were from a father .The conversation between him and the Sales Executive was like this :

Father : Can you please suggest a good book on cooking? My daughter is going abroad and she knows no cooking.
SE : You can try xyz book. It has such good recipes of dishes like 'lau-chingri' and other typical bengali dishes.
Father : Oh no ! She will not be able to manage such complicated dishes.
SE : What kind of dishes you think your daughter will be interested in?
Father : Elementary dishes. Like, mutton curry, 'dal', may be one or two vegetarian dishes.
A lady buyer butts in : You may please try abc book....it is wonderful.Also , very useful.
Father : (after a few minutes of browsing ) It is heavy and complex. Any other suggestion please.
SE : Please try mno book. You will surely find it useful and handy too.
Father : (after another few minutes of browsing ) Ok, I shall take this one. Hope my daughter can manage this.

When I completed my selection and went through the ritual of gift-wrapping, payment etc.,
I asked the SE how many such queries he face and added that my sons have learnt cooking without cookbooks !. SE , smiled diplomatically.The proud father and most of the buyers who were around when this selection process of a cookbook was going on had left. But , a lady from one corner overheard me and commented that this situation is a negative development of woman's lib !
:-))

I was about to leave the shop without delay as my wife was waiting in another shop with some selection problem ( I received three calls in my mobile) but this lady was very interested in sharing her life-story with me. Earlier, I would have left the shop without prolonging the discussion , but, now-a-days, after retirement , I have learnt to be more patient in social situations.

Well , I was told that :

• she is a non-bengali.
• she can read bengali without problem.Her schoolmates ' jeer prompted her to pick up the language.
• her mother used to run a business in the neighbouring area.Jyoti Basu and other luminaries used to visit their place for 'adda'.
  
• she now stays in a building near Lake Market which is 75 years old.
• she is a science student and is a 'consultant' in Hazard Management .
• she works not for money as she is from a very rich background.

SO, she spent 10 minutes with me to come to the last line of th dialogue.
:-))

Damodar temple @ Bahirgarh,West Bengal (India)

Restoration of Damodar temple , dt: Hooghly, WB

During 18th and 19th centuries, a no of terracotta temples were built in Bengal (currently West Bengal state of India and Bangla Desh) some of which are quite beautiful. Not only that the terracotta panels have artistic value and religious importance, but also they portray slices of social life of those days. Some of these temples have been restored through Archeological dept of Government.... you can see a panel from one of these temples among my posts : http://www.flickr.com/photos/cshyamal/389912490/ .Yet there are many more temples which need restoration and each monsoon eats into the life of these temples, heritage of our state.

A few days' ago , I visited the Archeological Museum of Bengal, located in Calcutta in connection with some work I am doing on terracotta when I learnt from Mrs Sumita Guha Sarkar ,an Executive of this Museum , that she is a member of a NGO named 'Aishee' which is engaged in restoration of a terracotta temple ( Damodar temple @ Bahirgarh, district Hooghly, West Bengal) built in the 18th century. The cost of restoration , estimated by a professional colleague of hers is Rs 200000/- which is approximately $5000/-.

On learning about my interest in terracotta, she and other members of 'Aishee' have requested me to appeal to persons who are intersted in this form of art for suport for their endeavour. I write this blog on behalf of members of 'Aishee' addressing to persons interested in this form of art.. I shall seek the Reader's help in two counts :

#Can you please help 'Aishee' through your like-minded friends , associates and colleagues ? Even if only 20 persons contribute $20/- this 'cause',the contribution add to the local support for the budget for restoration of this temple.

#Can you please help by suggesting other avenues for raising support for restoration of this temple? Please view my page @ Orkut (http://www.orkut.com/Album.aspx?uid=6316116344674143096)
to go through 'Aishe's brochure.

THE STORY OF BEHULA

I requested the administrator of a group @ Flickr to publish the following collage of Behula.




He normally does not allow a collage but said he can make an exception if he finds the story interesting. I sent the following note ... which is quite long... and told him that I can shorten the note if he agrees to my publishing the collage.

Here is the story :

It is a story from Indian folklore - a story of human courage against celestial wrath.Behula is the daughter-in-law of Chand 'saudagar' ( = merchant).Chand , a devotee of Shiva , refuses to offer his prayer to godess Manasa and thus earns her wrath.He loses all his merchandise and wealth during his return trip home after a very successful business trip.But, he does not yield.Godess Manasa , with her control over the snakes, strikes next by killing his son Lakhinder on the night of his marriage with Behula by a snake bite.Behula was a very courageous woman.She places the dead body of Lakhinder on a raft and starts for the heaven .On her way, she faces lots of problems but she reaches her destination without being cowered down .She manages an entrance to the court of god Indra ( Zeus of Indian mythology) and pleases all the gods by her song and dance. She earns back the life of Lakhinder and persuades Chand to offer godess Manasa a half-hearted prayer .Chand complies reluctantly and gets back all his wealth. Goddess Manasa gets her recognition as the deity only after Chand 'd offering the 'prayer'.As a footnote , I shall add that Indra and Shiva were the gods of Aryans' mythology and Manasa was a goddess of the aboriginals.Snake was their 'totem'.

A NEW TURN .... A NEW LEAF

New path ahead of me.

towards a new vista.........

New rhythm . new friends.
New revelation... a 'chetana'.
A God's gift.

I dream again... new dreams !

A VIEW OF LIFE ....... THREE MONTHS AFTER RETIREMENT

Well, I was told that life will be very boring if one does not go to Office.
But , I knew that family and hobbies are what support you when suddenly office-going stops !!

Flickr, camera, the work for Subrata Chanda and most importantly , ttob project have helped me a lot. I hardly felt the void . And ... the family has given wonderful support.

And , I feel great that I do not have to work with people like DB ,BD or PG .

Only thing I feel bad about is that : I cannot make my outstation trips with my camera now because of the heat of March2August sun. Certainly , a visit to Bankura and Birbhum is not in my agenda now. But, my writing can progress.

A great thing will be brush up my knowledge of : Photoshop, MS Project, MINITAB & Six Sigma and learn a bit of : Coreldraw/Pagemaker, HTML (Elementary) & Web hosting,PRIMAVERA
during April and September,'07.

I hope , by year end, I shall be a content writer too.It requires a lot of brushing up . While I am writing messages and mail, as well as prose in ttob, I have lost a bit of my flair and vocabulary.

A QUOTE FROM THE PROFILE PAGE OF 'JUMPING JACK',FLICKR

" Now, Flickr itself - there's a phenomenon, I'm not sure I love or hate - since it consumes all of my free time and more. Not to mention it makes me astonished, bewildered, envious but also quite furious on daily basis (even when it doesn't act up :) ).

Well, this (minutely altered) Natalie Merchant's lyrics very much describe how I feel about it:

I've walked these streams
In a spectacle of wealth and poverty
In the diamond markets
The scarlet welcome carpet
That they just rolled out for me

And I've walked these streams
In the madhouse asylum they can be
Where a wild-eyed misfit prophet
On a traffic island stopped and he raved of saving me

Have I been blind, have I been lost
Inside myself and my own mind?
Hypnotized, mesmerized by what my eyes have seen?
What they have seen...

Have I been blind, have I been lost?
Have I been wrong, have I been wise?
Have I been strong?
Have I been hipnotized, mesmerized, by what my eyes have found
In that stream carnival?
In that carnival..."

Changes - 11/27/2006 : my article for "OUR STORY"

THE TOPIC WAS :

How did the world change, in reality or in your perception, during your young adult years?

The world changes. Every day . Imperceptibly.

At other times , it changes extremely quickly , much more rapidly than human psyche can stand.When we have a war, a holocaust, a sunami, people affected are devastated.

The reverse can happen too. A leader transforms the society beyond recognition . A new nation is born , with new ways and meanings of life .

A man is a small part of this flow. A turbulent flow.

He starts his life with some ideas and a lot of dreams. The reality teaches him at every curve of life . The process of maturing . If he migrates to another society , he absorbs other habits and ... more importantly , different sets of values.

That is the general background. I faced no sunami and I traveled a lot in India and visited other countries , I have remained in my state for a long period too.But , even as viewed through my 'small window' ,the world changed a lot during my lifetime while my view points changed too.

West Bengal of 50s and 60s did not touch me much. 70s .... I was conscious of the political events. But , social structure did not change perceptibly. But, I saw India changing , surging ahead of us.

I used to read a lot ....and in the eighties , I worked in a MNC , visited Europe and saw how they think and perform.Money started changing Indians and middle-class started rising. But , terrorism was still uncommon except for in border areas.

Nineties changed us totally. Rise ( and fall of ) share-market, rise and rise of commodity price , inflation, aspiration, migration for academic and economic reasons, hard work .... greed, rotting corruption pushing up cost of living and judicial activism .... I saw it all.

I faced VRS and the process of survival thereafter . I noted : Americans retreat from Afghanistan and the meaningless genocide in Iraq . Politicians looking at the market economics like the proverbial one-eyed deer, thinking Chinese model of growth and suppression are the best way out for the developing nations.

The good thing : Indian professionals are earning respect across the continents .... they are growing in wealth and influence wherever they are established.

What have not changed : the season changes are as beautiful, as it used be in 50s and 60s.Poverty and ignorance and greed ( both individual and collective) are still our greatest enemies.

ALL THAT I WANTED

I wanted someone to take me to the roof,

Of a tall building,

A clear navy blue sky, stars shining,

Show me the constellations one-by-one...

Down below,cars whizzing past,

Tail lamps glowing in the distance...

I wanted someone to accompany me to a lake,

A winter morning,crisp , clear sky,

Birds chirping,swirls on the water,

We glued to our binoculars,

Tell me about the birds I have never seen earlier,

Romance of the distance the birds carry in their relentless wings.....

I wanted someone to play her violin,

A quiet afternoon,

Play a cheerful raga ,and then another,

Tell me how to tune my ears.

In turn,

I shall tell her to read the unknown poems

Of Jibananda,Shankha Ghosh,

Explain the imagery,

Flavour of words,

Spreading throu' ether..............

... yet

.................... it is autumn of my life,
no more looking back
no more hesitation

yet, so many tastes to be savoured,
so many 'tasks' to be completed.
imagery, poetry,
applause, just being lazy.........

NATIONAL LIBRARY, CALCUTTA

The National Library came into being in 1948 with the passing of the Imperial Library (Change of Name) Act,1948.In the same year, it was shifted to Belverdre Estate,its present location which was the former Viceregal palace.

The stately mansion with its varied facade evolved from out of the fancies of a no distinguished owners whose names have made history.

the earliest name associated with this building is that of Mir Jaffar Ali Khan,the Nawab Nazim of Murshidabad.It was only natural that Alipore was named after him.Reportedly, Belvedre Estate was favourite residence of Warren Hastings.

Not a pure form of architecture ...Italian renaissance overlaid on an ordinary Anglo-Indian building,it is pleasing to the eye with the setting of lawns, trees ans a nice garden at its front.





Source : Information Brochure of the National Library.

BLOG OF Mr SHAHSHIDHAR

'My experiments with words'... blog of Mr Shashidhar. His pseudonym is VIRTUAL . But, he is a very real person with his sensuality . A quote from his poem :

.............
Rain Rain
Wash out the lust in me

And cleanse my soul

With desire-less

Wetness

Between entwined legs

And writhing souls

Fighting for a space

In the chaos

That is mind.

I remember a person with whom I developed a kind of friendship in NITIE Campus. It was 1984 0r 85. We both were between 35 and 39 years . He told me, while sitting on the bank of a lake in the night, he was getting drawn towards sattwik bhaba , giving up non-veg food habits , but was disappointed that his wife was not falling in line with him and that he was still sexually attracted towards his wife . I told him that he could explain the merits of his beliefs to his wife , but, cannot force his ways on her ( I always believed that life would be less interesting if all the people were alike ) and told him as explicitly as possible ( menfolks are shy about discussing intimate sexual details) that his wife had right of expecting sex from her husband . I felt that my friend was unhappy because his sexual urge which was very natural at that age !!

After a long time , I came across similar feeling in Shashidhar's poems! Read this one :

"................

A rock solid thought
Plunged deeper
Calming with its force
The waves, the water, the earth
And the fire

Lake opened itself
Felt the rock submerged within
Unlocked the deep-set desire
And merged with the consciousness
The space within the thought
Lake
Water
earth
Fire
and its own deepest desire."

IN SEARCH OF A NEW PATH

I thought of getting associated with Heritage structures of Bengal when I would become free from my professional life.

Now that my contract with DCIPS will not be extended , I shall have time before I settle down to a new routine.

Three weeks ago, when I came to Kala Mandir with Ruby to attend to the function of physically-challenged boys and girls organised by Syoumen's wife, I noticed the small signpost of West Bengal Heritage Commission in a building opposite to Kala Mandir.

I went there on 6/12/06 to explore the set-up , found out an office-room and couple of chambers housed on the first-floor of the State Archive building and met the two officials available . I expressed my interest in this area and was advised to come on any Thursday afternoon to meet their Chairman to discuss any possibility. Chairman of WBHC is an eminent person.... Dr Pratap Chandra Chunder . He is an old man , but , his background does invite respect. LF government of WB , reportedly, is the first State government in India to enact an Act for Heritage and chose a non-Left person as the Chairman.

The meeting went off fine , with the prospect of getting assignments in two areas from WBHC.First is the documentation of an identified building, when one will take photographs, find out old building plan or prepare a new plan by taking fresh measurements and write a submission stating why that particular building will be tagged a 'heritage building'.

Second area is monitoring the progress and quality of wok of restoration , which is normally done by panchayats.

I believe that I can be of use in other areas too. I can prepare POWERPOINT presentations to be made to Industrialists for fund and contact IIT-Alumnis for help.

I shall be truly happy if things progress in the right direction .It will be the plan Ruby and I are drafting for her paintings and boutique.

REVISITING MY WISHLIST

When I was young.... just a college pass-out ..... I would think about my future .... just like any other friend of mine. I shall now revisit some of the scenarios I built as a young man.Strangely, the packages around the fulfilled wishes look less appealing.

I shall take two innocuous wishes of my younger days. Not any of the heavier ones.

One of the scenarios was that I would stay close to my place of work, a few kilometers from my residence . This will be a small town ....... I would drive home for lunch. Daily travel would be around 10 Km and we would stay away from a crowded town and a marketplace.

Well, I did enjoy this situation for quite a few years in my life. For ten years in the seventies , whenI was posted in several construction sites. I also enjoyed similar situation once more when I was with ABL , Durgapur during 1996-2003.

Neither of these two situations gave me the satifaction I dreamt of. The reasons were professional as well as situational.Construction sites offered quite a rough working environment but not stimulating enough. I lost interest in the details of the professional side of my work after a few years and looked for an opportunity to move out to a city-based Head Office as soon as my bond with my Employer would end. This wa sbefore Babai was born.

The second time, when I was staying quite close to my place of work , the situation matched my 'dream' of my younger days to a tee . On the other side , there were many 'ifs and buts'.

I did enjoy the bungalow and its garden alloted to me and several perks the job brought . The colony was well-maintained and we lived in a pollution-free and peaceful atmosphere.Nature offered us abundant flowers and fruits and a living condition that we shall never get in my life once more.

But , Durgapur was the back-water of WB , life was dull and the advantage of the proximity to the place of work could not compensate all that we missed. The children left for Pune while we stayed back at Durgapur , going through the routine and looking forward to the days when I would be out of Durgapur after retirement. On the whole , the Company and business were going through a downturn. The spirit was , thus, always low.

And ... an office location at Park Street ! Any Calcuttan would look forward to such a situation. I thought it would be great to be functioning out of Park Street. WOW - PARK STREET !!

DCIPS office , where I have spent nearly 3 years till date , is at 119 Park Street. Did I enjoy the location?' Rarely ' is the right answer. I am left with little spare cash , after paying the installment for our new car. So shopping is out. And the location is the most unintereting corner of Park Sreet. 5 minutes walk this side or that side are equally dull !!

So... what does these show .

• You look forward to a situation , reach it and are not happy. The mental framework has changed.
• The situation ,when viewed among the clutterings surrounding it, is not what it could have been or was expected to be.

Reminds us of a famous line of Tagore ... but I shall not quote it here , because there is a fine difference what the poet said and what I have tried to convey.

Today I have joined esnips

Who visits our Blog sites?

Not many persons whom we do not know!

So , it is like a diary of ours. Our thoughts, joys and sorrows. An electronc diary, it is unlikely that that we shall lose the diary.

Over the years, the diary takes shape ,provided we have the tenacity and discipline to come back regularly.

A RING and A LOSS

I LOST MY FAVOURITE RING YESTERDAY!!

It had an 'S' inscribed on it. At least 8gms in weight costing at least Rs 8000/- if purchased now. I lost it , God knows where.

Insurance would have paid Rs5000/-, but the requirement is a 'constructed' FIR. Eventualy , I decided against the idea.

My younger son would have loved to wear it. But, I turned down his request a few days ago. It was loose in the 4th finger of my left hand. It was quite loose on his 3rd finger .

Now I am in league with Sujash ( mobile phone lost during his Canada trip ) and Surath ( silver bracelet+ watch + mobile phone) .

Next question : how and when I get another similar ring?

SHE WALKED PAST

I was waiting for her,
She knew that I would be waiting.
I waited ... hours past the time agreed.
I waited ...my heels dug in the hot sands of tomorrow.

The only crane of the lake across came and asked me:
Would I care for a couple of fishes.
May be he was moved by my patience and yearn.

I smiled. But, I declined.

The only sparrow around sat on my shoulder.
He found it steadier than a branch of a tree.
He asked me : why I have not moved an inch in hours .

I smiled .But, I did not reply.

And..... then she walked past me.
She was in a hurry.
Is anyone waiting for her at the end of this road?
Someone who waited for longer than I have?
Or she wanted to meet God before He melts away .

The only ant around crept to my side ,
He told me :I have wasted my time;
Now I should go away.

I wiped a tear.
A loser's tear.
And ... then I started my walk back .
Into the shadow of the eastern sky.

The poem I wanted to post on 23/06/2006

I came across a few lines on forgetfulness in an issue of ' DESH' quite a few weeks ago. This isue was not available among the copies I have at Parnasree . Fortunately, with Suman's help , I could get those few lines . The poet , Utpal Kumar Basu , has captured the relationship between age and forgetfulness without any negative expression. Please read on :

from SUKHER DUKHER SATHEE,Utpal Kumar Basu

I have translated these lines -- what can be termed as ' bhabanubad' :

Cannot recollect which song you sang, what was the tune.
Now Forgetfulness , like a dear housekeeper keeps my household clean

My clothes are stacked in the cupboard
With a little help from her, surroundings get filled up with sunset (colours).*

The alternatives of the lastline catches the meaning as well : Twilight fills up all four sides OR Sunset colours all four sides.

What a Task !! - to add a photo of mine

Adding a photo was a task that I could not complete in one session. I tried to come through the
Yahoo!-->photos route. But , two attempts failed.Finally , I uploaded another photo in this blog and continued as advised in the "HELP' page.

This photo is a part of the photos an outsider took when we went to Nainital in 2003, hence carry a fond memory of the sunlit days of the last holiday package of last three-four years.

Well ... one should understand the first principles of "html' if he wants to jazz up his blog. And ... one should go for more vacations.

Death of Arjun Chakrabarty

Arjun was dead quite a few months before before he actually passed away.


Arjun joined DCIPS , Calcutta -- my current employer-- thanks to his brother Bidhan's clout in the company. He did not work hard. Was not good at work. Drank a lot when he was at Ramagundam site ( when I was transferred in June ,04 to head the team Palash Majumder left behind ) . When back home , he continued to have the problem of addiction. His bloated physique invited aversion. He progressed towards death slowly and surely. But , the recognition of the harsh reality was not there.


I do not know how his family faced this downhill journey of Arjun. I feel sad for them. His only son was in classX when he was admitted to hospital for failed liver. His studies and the tug-of-war with death continued through this crucial year of this boy's academic life. More than a Lakh was spent by the family and the Company to bring him out of danger. His liver was in a very bad condition and and could be partly 'repaired' with a 'shunt'. He came back to office for a few days.He was so weak that he used go around with a 'chadar' over his shoulder to combat the airconditioning of our Office.


His immediate family will now have to struggle for survival. It will be an uphill task for the widow and the teen-age boy. With Bidhan around, some help will probably be organised. But , nothing can fill up the void left behind by Arjun .


And the plight of the mother who is still alive!! The worst curse in a person's life to survive his or her child -- whatever be the age.


I pray for Arjun's family. And hope others with deadly habit of alcoholism will avert the grim end through good sense --- for their own and families' sake.