Fish with Bak Choy

A favourite fish dish that is a family favourite:

Ingredients :
500 gms of White Fish fillet(not thick) - (Pagnacius- Cread Dori, Sole, Hammour, Bhetki)
10 Bak Choy Leaves including a bit of the stem (PAK SOI)
20 Garlic Cloves
10-15 Green Chillies
Soy Sauce
1-2 Onions
1 Capsicum (Green Peppet)
3 tsp Garlic Paste
Oil
Salt

Process:
Wash the fish fillets and cut them into small pieces and put them in a marinade bowl. Apply the garlic paste on all the pieces. Then mix them with about 3 tablespoons of Garlic Paste. Cover the bowl and keep aside for 2-3 hours.

In the meantime you could do any other household chores or watch TV. To save time you could also decide to get involved in the arrangement for the finale.

Peel the Garlic Cloves and chop them or cut them into longitudinal pieces(I prefer the second one). Peel onions, cut them into cubes and then separate each piece. Cut capsicum into large pieces. Wash the Bak Choy and keep. If they are too big just cut them into two.

You are almost ready now for the final plunge, assuming that 2-3 hours have elapsed. Place a wok on the flame and pour some oil(about 3-4 tablsepoons should be good). Take cornflour on a plate. Pick up each piece of fish and put them onto plate of cornflour ensuring that both sides are covered white. Then put it in the pan. You might have to do this in two or three cycles depending upon the size of the pan. Once both sides of the fish pieces are crispy fried, transfer them to a plate.

You are done with the frying. Now I assume that your wok has still some oil left. You need about 2-3 tablespoons of oil and if that is still there in the wok you have saved yourself from pouring some more.

Heat the oil full flame and throw in the garlic. Stir till brown and then put in the chillies. The aroma emanating is part of the pleasures of cooking. Keep stirring and then put in the fried fish. Stir once andput in the bak choy leaves and the capsicum. Reduce the flame to medium. Stir for 30 seconds and pour about 3-4 tablespoons of soys aauce. At this point of time I pick up a p[ece of fish and garlic to taste for salt(Soy sauce is very salty). If required I would throw in some salt now. Continue to stir for about 2 minutes and you are done. Serve with steamed of fried rice.

The outcome is pure bliss!!! Let me if know if you enjoyed it. Sphere: Related Content

Lungi

This piece was posted by Shantanu Aditya in our Yahoo Group. The source unknown. Do read It. Before you do that some terms would need explanations:

Kerala: A coastal province in the Southern Part of Indis
Lungi: The lungi, also known as a sarong , is a garment worn around the waist in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar (formerly Burma), Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Horn of Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula . It is particularly popular in regions where the heat and humidity create an unpleasant climate for trousers.
Mallu; Mallu is a person from Kerala, A person whose mother tongue is Malayalam.


Just as the national bird of Kerala is Mosquito, her national dress is 'Lungi'. Pronounced as 'Lu' as in loo and 'ngi ' as in 'mongey', a lungi can be identified by its floral or window-curtain pattern. 'Mundu' is the white variation of lungi and is worn on special occasions like hartal or bandh days, weddings and Onam.

Lungi is simple and 'down to earth' like the mallu wearing it. Lungi is the beginning and the end of evolution in its category. Wearing something on the top half of your body is optional when you are wearing a lungi. Lungi is a strategic dress. It's like a one-size-fits-all bottoms for Keralites.

The technique of wearing a lungi/mundu is passed on from generation to generation through word of mouth like the British Constitution. If you think it is an easy task wearing it, just try it once! It requires techniques like breath control and yoga that is a notch higher than sudarshan kriya of AOL. A lungi/mundu when perfectly worn won't come off even in a quake of 8 on the richter scale. A lungi is not attached to the waist using duct tape, staple, rope or velcro. It's a bit of mallu magic whose formula is a closely guarded secret like the Coca Cola chemicals.

A lungi can be worn 'Full Mast' or 'Half Mast' like a national flag. A 'Full Mast' lungi is when you are showing respect to an elderly or the dead. Wearing it at full mast has lots of disadvantages. A major disadvantage is when a dog runs after you. When you are wearing a lungi/mundu at full mast, the advantage is mainly for the female onlookers who are spared the ordeal of swooning at the sight of hairy legs.
Wearing a lungi 'Half Mast' is when you wear it exposing yourself like those C grade movie starlets. A mallu can play cricket, football or simbly run when the lungi is worn at half mast. A mallu can even climb a coconut tree wearing lungi in half mast. "It's not good manners, especially for ladies from decent families, to look up at a mallu climbing a coconut tree"- Confucius (or is it Abdul Kalam?)

Most mallus do the traditional dance kudiyattam. Kudi means drinking alcohol and yattam, spelled as aattam, means random movement of the male body. Note that 'y' is silent. When you are drinking, you drink, there is no 'y'. Any alcohol related "festival" can be enjoyed to the maximum when you are topless with lungi and a towel tied around the head. "Half mast lungi makes it easy to dance and shake legs" says Candelaria Amaranto, a Salsa teacher from Spain after watching 'kudiyaattam' .

The 'Lungi Wearing Mallu Union' [LUWMU, pronounced LOVE MU], an NGO which works towards the 'upliftment' of the lungi, strongly disapprove of the GenNext tendency of wearing Bermudas under the lungi. Bermudas under the lungi is a conspiracy by the CIA. It's a disgrace to see a person wearing burmuda with corporate logos under his lungi. What they don't know is how much these corporates are limiting their freedom of movement and ex-pression.

A mallu wears lungi round the year, all weather, all season. A mallu celebrates winter by wearing a colourful lungi with a floral pattern. Lungi provides good ventilation and brings down the heat between legs. A mallu is scared of global warming more than anyone else in the world.

A lungi/mundu can be worn any time of the day/night. It doubles as blanket at night. It also doubles up as a swing, swimwear, sleeping bag, parachute, facemask while entering/exiting toddy shops, shopping basket and water filter while fishing in ponds and rivers. It also has recreational uses like in 'Lungi/mundu pulling', a pastime in households having more than one male member. Lungi pulling competitions are held outside toddy shops all over Kerala during Onam and Vishu. When these lungis are decommissioned from service, they become table cloths.

Thus the humble lungi is a cradle to grave appendage Sphere: Related Content

Yo Sushi - 360 Degree Mall, Kuwait

Inspite of warnings we had gone to try out the food and experience the novel concept of serving. But prior to that let me first explain the experience. You are seated in these uncomfortable chairs, typically four to a table and there is a conveyor belt beside that run beside all the tables. So only two of us actually have access to pick up food from the belt. The sushis and variation come in plates of different colours that are priced differently.

Fist problem was that you just cannot fathom the contents of the plate when they arrive near you and we always in a dilemma as to whether we should pick the particular serving or not. Secondly even if you pick up any serving, you have no control over when it would reappear(given that you liked it). There is this menu card that have all the possibilities that could appear you on your belt, but before you are able to match up, forget remembering, the belt and the plate has moved on beyond reach. It is absolutely frustrating. It is also stressful. We did not enjoy the dinner since our mind was full time busy on trying to figure out what's coming and what;s going.

It was also noticed that the plates that were coming had no variety, in the sense, the same items were coming again and again. New items as per the menu possibilities were not appearing on the belt and I remember specially requesting for some "on the belt' items.

As far as food quality is concerned, given that I have spent some time in Japan and Korea, it's a "FAIL". Yo Sushi is absolute waste of time and I would advise you that visit some other Jap joints in Kuwait. If you ignore, you might risk losing some friends or get a mouthful of choice words from your family!! Sphere: Related Content

God's are Giving Up

Some random confused thoughts have been coming and as they come I am just recotding them. There is no logic or consistency in these and that's a forewarning for anybody who is willing to read this. You are safer if you don't.

I have this uncanny feeling that as a person I am utterly selfish. I am not talkng about material benefits or wants but rather about the more basic mental DNA. I always seem to search for happiness and I feel simce everything is life is an equation, if I am happy then somebody must have lost some happiness. We all know about the Win-Win concepts. I somehow feel that every outcome is a win or lose situation. In the jungle world we know that might is right, the natural chain of food are all part of a larger supply chain. Are'nt we as human beings also part of the same jungle.

Would you thibk that today;s business principles are based on selfish-ism? Competition more often than not is front faced rather than solid background detailing.

I tend to think that most business decisions are based on petty political considerations rather than since business understanding. The percentages speak for themselves. Most businesses fail, most projects over spend and are delivered late, most often than people bother about management process without thinking of an efficient delivery. Most often than not incompetent CEOs and stooges run businesses. Most often than not somebody is out there to con somebdoy else.

Have you ever been a genuine well wisher? Have you cared about people who suffer? Do we care? We don't, simply because there is no time for us. We are busy working for the faulty economic system (because we have to) to maintain our daily bread and the future bread. Under the pressures of economy, religion, society...I am lost. I am tired. I want to be happy and therefore I am selfish. Why should I care a damn!!

The ramblings can go on and on. But you would perhaps read this on your Personal Computer and in an air conditioned room on an bed and chuckling about the nonsensical words that I have put together, while as I speak a terrorist somewhere is planning to kill somebody else for salvation and somebody else perhaps is still lost in the floods. Too many things, Too many events. And I have this feeling that the Gods are giving up on us. Sphere: Related Content

Whisky and Pork

Three weeks is quite inadequate for a relaxed holiday. And when you land up in the UK it sound even shorter and believe me it is. There are many things to do and this without having to go to London!!

The first day I landed up in Guildford was a day after my family had reached due to a cocktail of my own mistake and some office work. The evening o1f course was all about barbecued meat and pork was the primary red. The other combination was a Pimms Punch while in the following weeks I shifted to Lager and Single Malt.

Kuwait does not have these two - The Pork and The Alcohol. Therefore the idea was to ensure that our planned quota needed to be consumed and with a vengeance.

Gammon Steak, Cumbria Sausage, et all were all lapped up. The Supply Chain for spirits were unbroken.

ALl in all a meaty spirited holiday.
Dubai Sphere: Related Content

Live a Life That Matters by M. Josephson - Courtesy - Mohor Sen

Ready or not,
someday it will all come to an end.

There will be no more sunrises,
no minutes, hours, or days.

All the things you collected,
whether treasured or forgotten,
will pass to someone else.

Your wealth,
fame and temporal power
will shrivel to irrelevance.

It will not matter what you owned
or what you were owed.

Your grudges, resentments, frustrations,
and jealousies will finally disappear.

So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans,
and to-do lists will expire.

The wins and losses
that once seemd so important
will fade away.

It won't matter where you came from,
or on what side of the tracks you lived,
at the end.

It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.

Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.

So what will matter?
How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you had bought,
but what you had built;
not what you had gotten,
but what you had given.

What will matter is not your success,
but your significance.

What will matter is not what you had learned,
but what you had taught.

What will matter is every act of integrity,
compassion,
courage or sacrifice that enriched,
empowered or encouraged others
to emulate your example.

What will matter is not your competence,
but your character.

What will matter is not how many people you knew,
but how many will feel a lasting loss when you're gone.

What will matter is not your memories,
but the memories that live in those who loved you.

What will matter is how long you will be remembered,
by whom,
and for what.

Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident,
nor is it a matter of circumstance.

Living a life that matters happens only by choice.

Choose to live a life that matters. Sphere: Related Content

India Going Forward!!

Kalyan(Disco)send this piece written by Sean Paul Kelley a travel writer I thought it does compel you to reflect. Though this talks just about problems, the solutions are for us to figure out. All yours.


If you are an Indian, or of Indian descent, I must preface this post with a clear warning: you are not going to like what I have to say. My criticisms may be very hard to stomach. But consider them as the hard words and loving advice of a good friend. Someone who’s being honest with you and wants nothing from you. These criticisms apply toall of India except Kerala and the places I didn’t visit, except that I have a feeling it applies to all of India, except as I mentioned before, Kerala. Lastly, before anyone accuses me of Western Cultural imperialism, let me say this: if this is what India and Indians want, then hey, who am I to tell them differently. Take what you like and leave the rest. In the end it doesn’t really matter, as I get the sense that Indians, at least many upper class Indians, don’t seem to care and the lower classes just don’t know any better, what with Indian culture being so intense and pervasive on the sub-continent. But here goes, nonetheless,

India is a mess. It’s that simple, but it’s also quite complicated. I’ll start with what I think are India’s four major problems–the four most preventing India from becoming a developing nation – and then move to some of the ancillary ones.

First, pollution. In my opinion the filth, squalor and all around pollution indicates a marked lack of respect for India by Indians. I don’t know how cultural the filth is, but it’s really beyond anything I have ever encountered. At times the smells, trash, refuse and excrement are like a garbage dump. Right next door to the Taj Mahal was a pile of trash that smelled so bad, was so foul as to almost ruin the entire Taj experience. Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai to a lesser degree were so very polluted as to make me physically ill Sinus infections, ear infection, bowels churning was an all too common experience in India. Dung, be it goat, cow or human fecal matter was common on the streets. In major tourist areas filth was everywhere, littering the sidewalks, the roadways, you name it. Toilets in the middle of the road, men urinating and defecating anywhere, in broad daylight. Whole villages are plastic bag wastelands. Roadsides are choked by it. Air quality that can hardly be called quality. Far too much coal and far to few unleaded vehicles on the road. The measure should be how dangerous the air is for one’s health, not how good it is. People casually throw trash in the streets, on the roads. The only two cities that could be considered sanitary in my journey were Trivandrum–the capital of Kerala–and Calicut. I don’t know why this is. But I can assure you that at some point this pollution will cut into India’s productivity, if it already hasn’t. The pollution will hobble India’s growth path, if that indeed is what the country wants. (Which I personally doubt, as India is far too conservative a country, in the small ‘c’ sense.)

The second issue, infrastructure, can be divided into four subcategories: roads, rails and ports and the electrical grid. The electrical grid is a joke. Load shedding is all too common, everywhere in India. Wide swaths of the country spend much of the day without the electricity they actually pay for. Without regular electricity, productivity, again, falls. The ports are a joke.
Antiquated, out of date, hardly even appropriate for the mechanized world of container ports, more in line with the days of longshoremen and the like. Roads are an equal disaster. I only saw one elevated highway that would be considered decent in Thailand, much less Western Europe or America. And I covered fully two thirds of the country during my visit. There are so few dual carriage way roads as to be laughable. There are no traffic laws to speak of, and if there
are, they are rarely obeyed, much less enforced. A drive that should take an hour takes three. A drive that should take three takes nine. The buses are at least thirty years old, if not older. Everyone in India, or who travels in India raves about the railway system. Rubbish. It’s awful. Now, when I was there in 2003 and then late 2004 it was decent. But in the last five years the traffic on the rails has grown so quickly that once again, it is threatening productivity.
Waiting in line just to ask a question now takes thirty minutes. Routes are routinely sold out three and four days in advance now, leaving travelers stranded with little option except to take the decrepit and dangerous buses. At least fifty million people use the trains a day in India. 50 million people! Not surprising that waitlists of 500 or more people are common now. The rails are affordable and comprehensive but they are overcrowded and what with budget airlines copping up in India like Sadhus in an ashram the middle and lowers classes are left to deal with the over utilized rails and quality suffers. No one seems to give a shit. Seriously, I just never have the impression that the Indian government really cares. Too interested in buying weapons from Russia, Israel and the US I guess.

The last major problem in India is an old problem and can be divided into two parts that’ve been two sides of the same coin since government was invented: bureaucracy and corruption. It take
triplicates to register into a hotel. To get a SIM card for one’s phone is like wading into a jungle of red-tape and photocopies one is not likely to emerge from in a good mood, much less satisfied with customer service. Getting train tickets is a terrible ordeal, first you have to find the train number, which takes 30 minutes, then you have to fill in the form, which is far from easy, then you have to wait in line to try and make a reservation, which takes 30 minutes at least and if you made a single mistake on the form back you go to the end of the queue, or what passes for a queue in India. The government is notoriously uninterested in the problems of the commoners, too busy fleecing the rich, or trying to get rich themselves in some way shape or form. Take the trash for example, civil rubbish collection authorities are too busy taking kickbacks from the wealthy to keep their areas clean that they don’t have the time, manpower, money or
interest in doing their job. Rural hospitals are perennially understaffed as doctors pocket the fees the government pays them, never show up at the rural hospitals and practice in the cities instead.

I could go on for quite some time about my perception of India and its problems, but in all seriousness, I don’t think anyone in India really cares. And that, to me, is the biggest problem. India is too conservative a society to want to change in any way. Mumbai, India’s financial capital is about as filthy, polluted and poor as the worst city imaginable in Vietnam, or Indonesia–and being more polluted than Medan, in Sumatra is no easy task. The biggest rats I have ever seen were in Medan!

One would expect a certain amount of, yes, I am going to use this word, backwardness, in a country that hasn’t produced so many Nobel Laureates, nuclear physicists, imminent economists and entrepreneurs. But India has all these things and what have they brought back to India with them? Nothing. The rich still have their servants, the lower castes are still there to do the dirty work and so the country remains in stasis. It’s a shame. Indians and India have many wonderful things to offer the world, but I’m far from sanguine that India will amount to much in my lifetime.

Now, have at it, call me a cultural imperialist, a spoiled child of the West and all that. But remember, I’ve been there. I’ve done it.. And I’ve seen 50 other countries on this planet and none, not even Ethiopia, have as long and gargantuan a laundry list of problems as India does. And the bottom line is, I don’t think India really cares. Too complacent and too conservative. Sphere: Related Content