TASTE BUDS

When Shri suggested to Megna, my second daughter that we go to Kareem’s for dinner, I had little idea of the food that will be served that night. A ride in the Delhi Metro that we enjoyed took us to Chandini Chowk. “Karim’s” - Shri mentioned to the cycle rickshaw puller and I was a bit reluctant initially to climb on a pedestal that I did some years ago in Visakhapatnam. But this was a superb ride, enhancing my thoughts with the cool winter breeze waving past our faces. We passed through the narrow lanes rather roads that enriched life with business of printers along with the road side stalls engaged on making food that was aromatic. The queue of cycle rickshaws moved at ease like the Range Rovers move about as we climb up the hills to see the sun-rise in Kanjanjunga with horns and whistles that nestled a lovely scenario and backdrop. The small shops around sold silver and other spices and people crowded to buy and sell as well to eat. Wow, that drive in the cycle rickshaw is different from the one you can experience in Kolkota streets. In a jiffy we alighted at the dhaba, named Karim’s and the restaurant was conspicuous by its presence a bit inward from the gully we got alighted – “This is the place!” – Shri said. As I read the menu and the details on that, I was fascinated. Haji Zahiruddin comes from a family whose bloodline extends back to the chefs who conjured elaborate feasts in the courts of Mughal emperors. Generations of chefs honed their culinary wizardry in the nearby Red Fort until the last Mughal Ruler was toppled by the last British ruler in 1857. Returning to Delhi in 1911 after his family spent decades in exile, Haji Karimuddin, the grandfather of the present owner , setup shop in the same alleyway where his descendants now prepare their family recipes, each one a closely guarded secret. Secrets are worth keeping as they preserve the original tastes! Times of India wrote once –“Karim has stuck to the typical Mughlai menu....the mughlai dishes have resisted the onslaught of offbeat culinary skills. We ordered some dishes and as the aroma spread, the presentation attracted our taste buds even before we ventured to put our hands on the dishes. Let’s have one more portion of this and an “OK” came instant to support the need to fulfill our taste buds. Once we finished and paid the bill we knew “even paupers can eat like kings”. I have tasted mutton raan in a Karachi restaurant and rack of lamb and Firni in an Afghan restaurant in Jeddah – juicy and tasty are the minimum I can narrate. They belong to the Mughlai cuisine. As we returned and boarded the Metro back home to Dwaraka, I commenced and indulged in the thought of culinary skills and the surrounding scenarios that came up in mind. As my elder daughter Divya wanted to do her graduation, she chose to do it in Hospitality Management and I was not so thrilled initially. But then options and perspectives evolve on time and you grow in any chosen field doing your best to exceed excellence. Shri is a product of Dadar Catering College and had tested his skills in cooking. My mom and grand mom were experts and now wonder someone took the brand name –“Grand Mother’s” and extended to ready to eat packaged meals! That’s like the ready-to-eat gourmet cuisine “Kitchens of India” of ITC which my son-in-law markets. My wife’s cousin married a Chinese named Anu and their son Anoop Phalghun a Chef of International Acclaim and now work with Hilton, Melbourne. Recently Sandeep, from Mahe tested his recipe to win the first prize, at the Australia Cooking Standoff, in Mumbai. My own cooking skills come from within, with whatever is in store and fridge and given shape by creative skills as my mood exists each time – I call it “food in mood”! Creativity is an art and comes from within and with a desire to excel, one tend to supplement like in Karim’s or at any other restaurant. TV anchors takes you round the world to show case the different features and tastes that are cooked around the world. Indian-origin Chef Vikas Khanna, cooked for Barack Obama at a fund-raiser event, and is quoted "President Obama actually is a very big foodie. The President loves spicy food and I'm sure he enjoyed our creations, inspired by Himalayas." Taste buds are special structures that help detect tastes. We all have about 10,000 taste buds, mainly on the tongue with a few at the back of the throat and on the palate. They're replaced every two weeks or so. Taste buds surround pores within the protuberances on the tongue's surface and elsewhere. A taste bud is a taste receptor. There are four types of taste receptors, sweet, sour, salty and bitter. These receptors are on various locations of the tongue. As I age there are restrictions that add the four tastes and I slowly reduce my eating habits. An older person may only have 5,000 working taste buds and for some of us -the two white poisons, as someone called it Sugar and Salt in abnormal quantities can harm us. Where the taste buds reside is our tongue and that’s a tough worker. It is made up of groups of muscles and like the heart it is always working. It helps in the mixing process of foods. It binds and contorts itself to form letters. The tongue contains lingual tonsils that filter out germs. Even when a person sleeps, the tongue is constantly pushing saliva down the throat. Many consider the tongue to be the strongest muscle, at times talking tough and covered that only can SHUT by lips - that do the second best job after a KISS. Imagine the culinary journey of a morsel of food from cultivation, packaging, cooking and eating; it all ends as the chain of food traverse through the tongue for a flicker of seconds and we tend to live for those sumptuous moments of truth.

Before I conclude this BLOG on taste buds, it reminded me of my Mother Tongue! Hey, let me find out and write one on the same topic in Malayalam!

നാം എന്ന നമ്മുടെ ചിന്ത (It's our thought that makes us, what we want to be)

"നിർമ്മാണാത്മകമായ കർമങ്ങളിൽ ഉന്നതമായത് സ്വയം എന്ന നമ്മെ സർഗശക്തിയിൽ രൂപപ്പെടുത്തുക എന്നതാണ്" - ദീപക് ചോപ്ര. നമ്മുടെ സ്വന്തം ആശകളേയും സ്വപ്നങ്ങളെയും പറ്റി ഉള്ള അറിവാണ് ഇന്നിൽ നിന്നും നമ്മുടെ നാളെകൾ ചിട്ടപ്പെടുത്തുന്നത്. നാം ജീവിക്കുന്നത് എന്തിനാണ് എന്ന അറിവ് ഉപബോധ മനസ്സിൽ നിന്നും ഉരുത്തിരിൻഹു ബാഹ്യമണ്ടലത്തിൽ കാണുമ്പോൾ ജീവിതത്തിണ്ടേ അർത്ഥം ചായത്തിൽ പകരും. വ്യക്തമായ തീരുമാനങ്ങൾ ആസൂത്രണം ചെയ്യാൻ ഇത് അവശ്യം. ഈ ഇടത്തിൽ നിന്നും സ്വപ്‌നങ്ങൾ നെയ്തെടുത്ത ഭാവി കണ്ടെത്താൻ ഒരു കമ്പാസ് വേണം - അപ്പോൾ യാത്രക്കുള്ള വഴികാട്ടി ആയി നമ്മുടെ വടക്കെന്ന ഭാഗം കാഴ്ച്ചയിൽ വരും. ദൃഷ്ടി കേന്ദ്രീകരിക്കണം ദൂരങ്ങളിൽ ഉള്ള നമ്മുടെ സ്വപ്‌നങ്ങൾ കൈവരിക്കാൻ. മനസ്സ് ആ മാസ്മര ചിന്ദകൾക്ക് ചിറകുകൾ പിടിപ്പിക്കുമ്പോൾ നാം കര്മോൽസുകമായ പ്രവർത്തനങ്ങളിൽ വ്യപ്രിതരാവും. ചിന്ത ശക്തമാണ് - ആ ശക്തി പ്രവർത്തനത്തിലൂടെ പ്രത്യക്ഷമാവും - അവിടെ വെളിച്ചം വഴിയൊരുക്കും, വിജയത്തിന്ടെ നിർവഹണം ആഹ്ലാദിക്കാൻ, സംഗീതം പിന്നണി ഗാനം ഒരുക്കി കൂടെ ചേരും. അഥവാ പറ്റാതിരുന്നാൽ അതിൽ നിന്നും പഠിക്കുക വീണ്ടും ശ്രമിക്കുക അന്ധ്യം കാണും വരെ.

Thought takes speeds more than that of light – Get connected....

That was a winter morning and at the railway station, Shimla. Chill, yes but fine to enjoy. We had boarded the Toy Train from Shimla to Kalka and I walked out as usual to have a glimpse of the place and people. As I peeped in to that tiny compartment, I saw my wife, Usha speaking with Ms. Liloutee, who sat opposite her. They were in deep thoughts and I could see the smiles on both their faces. The train whistled and started its descent down the hills and Usha and I exchanged about our trip that just concluded. Walking around the woods in the hills every morning . The train whistled and moved ahead halting at all stations on the down ward journey. We felt we would have missed the pleasure of this rail journey if Ravinder Singh did not suggest and reserved our tickets. Ravi and Babli drove us up the hill from Amritsar where we stayed with my old friend and colleague. Liloutee got engrossed with her e-Book and read page by page as if the surroundings were of lesser interest than the content she was reading from Kindle note book. My curiosity grew and I asked Usha about her and where she belongs. Liloutee lives in London and with her was her adopted son who was being educated by her, on a cause of charity. I wondered how love and gratitude transcend and take shapes along the Himalayan hills. What made Liloutee provide a holiday for her adopted son coming all the way from UK? By the time we travelled about two thirds of the journey the e-Book was closed and my desire to open a conversation with Liloutee enhanced. I commenced a conversation that opens up in a train. Sooner the discussions went beyond the routine. It was as if we opened up subjects that had different colors and shapes on an architecture that was built by us. It looked as if I was and she did tilt the Kaleidoscope to get across perspectives that emerged with clarity of thoughts. The family probably migrated from India and was in Africa and she moved to UK. Studied psychology and taught this science there. My inquisitive silly question to her – “What do you say when I tell you our mind is like a monkey?” – She whispered in a jiffy – “good”. We went beyond the subject to reading and writing, effect of social media and digital world that encompass the direction of ours and the thoughts of younger generation etc. She quelled and displaced some of my mis-interpretations with logic and deep knowledge. I started correcting my perspectives and a learning process commenced at ease. We alighted at Kalka from where we were to board the same train to Delhi, departed as friends and agreed that we be in touch and with an open invite to visit her house in UK and with an extension for her to be with us in Kerala during her next year’s visit to India. Narrating the points that I appreciated during this very tiny stretch of our journey are interesting. The most interesting point is that a train journey is a better mode than a flight. I recalled my old friend George asking me in a flight from the then Madras to Bombay whether I enjoy the 3rd class sleeper berth vis-à-vis the just fit seat of a flight – we had agreed that it’s the train that makes you connect. The second point is all about communication and if I did not watch Usha opening up with Liloutee, I would not have waited patiently for the e-Book to get closed, oh no “SIGN OUT” - the new terminology. A smile ignites and you start up a chain that leads you to relationships that can last for long. “Learning” is a process that does not have a shelf life or an expiry date – you can initiate with a willingness and attitude that provide you with immense knowledge about people, places and concepts that tend to lead to action that’s worthwhile. In this world of Facebook and other social media or even an ATM, where you may not find real faces, a journey even in a toy train can give you the sense and sensitivity that link to feelings and love that may slowly blossom. Boarders and boundaries are illusions and names and cultures not limitations. My daughter Divya says in today’s world that is nearly a crucible, cultures melt and form new recipes that taste buds of the mind can capture easily to mend and form teams. One can start a new day every time Sun rises on the East and take it along and pursue your intent and couple it with intellect to build bridges. That takes us to unknown frontiers, unseen and not witnessed thus far. Begin with an end in mind - the steps are easier than we believe. The KEY is to START. Knowing that I write Blogs I intend to copy this BLOG to her and mail it to her. Where she is on the day she receives my e-mail, is not a matter, but she sure will get connected to the Shimla-Kalka toy train journey that sparked this topic that you just read.

At cross roads - Life goes on the same!

That was some time back when our friend Salma’s daughter Sharon asked me “Why you, ‘expiry dated’ speak about her?” The question had a meaning. I and Sharon’s father Suresh were talking about Aliath who is a colleague of my wife at the school. Aliath is much younger compared to Suresh and me. At cross roads in life we hear questions like this. Expiry is a milestone on time. Abraham Lincoln said – “In the end, it’s not the years in your LIFE that count. It’s the LIFE in your years”. Today 11th June Usha, my wife celebrates her birthday and I wrote a poem that mentioned “Ageless, Usha”. Age is a matter of time. Happiness is important for us, mortal beings. It’s all about harmony with creation. Harmony is all about accepting life as it unfolds and play with the orchestra. We need to change and Bernard Shaw said – “Those who cannot change their minds, cannot change anything “that includes being happy. Most of us seek happiness for ourselves and probably that’s the problem. It isn’t easy to find then. When we share happiness with others, happiness finds it ways back to us. Keshav, Attitudinal Consultant, told me once “When life changes to become harder, change your-self to become stronger”. Emotions are at play in our lives. We are, to a large extent, involved with emotions and those influence us both ways. Regret is one emotion that kills us more at times. Some of us may feel that we had the courage to live life on our own terms and not what others want us to be. Professionals may feel why they worked so hard so far? A few at least can think that they had the courage to express their feelings. About relationships some think that they should have kept those valuable ones alive as they moved on their path. A large number may feel that they should have let themselves happier. Happiness is making a choice by you, to be happy or not to be! “Contentment consists not in adding more fuel, but in taking away some fire.” - Thomas Fuller. When I see people with an urge to acquire I remember the words of Frances Burney – “A youthful mind is seldom totally free from ambition; to curb that, is the first step to contentment, since to diminish expectation is to increase enjoyment.” Isn’t it true that the gap between expectations and reality is the culprit for most of our sorrows? It was not so long that I attended a ceremony where bones of the deceased were collected after cremation. As many of the close relatives shed a tear from their eyes, I thought –“isn’t those bones like that of mine?” In fact we are that – part of earth panjaboothas. Arunima Sinha's journey from railway tracks to Mount Everest is a story that unfolded on May 21st 2013. After climbing Mount Everest she said – “There was a time when the gel in my leg had slipped out and there was blood but I could not dare to either remove my gloves or bare my leg as it could have led to severe frost bites. I took my time and fixed it up before starting to climb back again.” She achieved the world record feat of becoming the first woman amputee to conquer Mt. Everest. She was inspired also by Yuvraj Singh who fought with cancer some time ago. Adversity can, at times make changes in our lives … Julio a little Spanish boy had a dream. He wanted to play football for Real Madrid! He practiced hard and became a good goalkeeper but met with a terrible accident was paralyzed from the waist downwards. Doctors were sure he would never play football again! To lessen the pain, Julio took to writing poems at night, with a tear in his eye. A nurse gifted him a guitar. Soon Julio began strumming the guitar and also singing the songs that he wrote. He never played football again. But with a guitar in hand and a song on his lips, Julio Iglesias went on to become one of the top ten singers in the history of music, selling over 300 million albums. “imag-e-in” - if not for that accident, Julio Iglesias would have been a goalkeeper. What happened to Julio that evening in 1963 could happen to any of us. A setback or an accident or failure can often appear to be the end of the road. But if we really look at it we may be at cross roads. Learning to cope with failure is a critical step not regret – the way to happiness. Today as I pass through a cross road in our lives, I feel that we should focus on our own lives and enjoy the gifts of God and try less to satisfy others. We have only one life to live truly we should make the best of it, by living the way one feel. We can’t compare ourselves with others and if we do that we miss our train. Being ageless on time happens when we understand current – this moment that is precious and not regret on past or worry on what cannot be done tomorrow. “Many people lose the small joys in the hope for the big happiness.” - Pearl S. Buck. Swami Chinmayananda said “Don't put the key to your happiness in someone else's pocket” – Both these are words of wisdom. I wish Usha, my wife as she passes this step on her milestone, best wishes. She has always been simple, content and happy with what she has and moved on … including the testing times when she had a tubular pregnancy and I was in the hospital with transverse myelitis, cases that could have lost our lives. Her calm and composure illustrate at times, the way to look at life, patiently and move on, as life goes on the same, irrespective of the window through which you view it!

The breath we take; and limits & boundaries in between

26th February 2013, reflected in me as a close friend and a companion in deserts where we worked later. Mohan Mathew whom any one will like was at the terminal of his moment with destiny. A friend called to say this condition and one from Saudi sent a mail. As I traveled to meet him, memoirs continuously attacked me with the times we shared as college mates. Memories never fade - good ones for sure. His wife Santha had her smile slightly distorted, but brave when we witnessed his breath took longer with struggle. His eyes, closed, without food and water for a few days we are waiting in prayers for a miracle. Our breath also had silence in between. His children had come from US and from nearby. Pausing and engaged with thoughts in prayers we returned and on the way back, I thought of the limits and boundaries we have with destiny. There exists a “Lakshman Rekha” a very thin line between the limit and the boundary. This idea evolved from my past experiences and encounters and is food for thought set on your table - provoking and at the same time tempting. There are few things hemmed by boundaries. Boundaries do not bind rather they set limits. We imprison our minds and create a YOU that you are not. Thoughts have hardly any boundaries – they move around in the neighborhood as well beyond. Space and the outer-space have no set boundaries and are in balance. Cosmos is in existence is with attraction and repulsion forces but co-exist and move on. Friendships are love affairs to some extent. Limits are set by mind and not anything else. Between birth and death there exists a thin boundary called breath and between thought and speech there exists a thin line of silence? Our minds construct the world we live in. The perception and concepts we hold determine and create the way we see. Patterns of thought, limitations and boundaries in understanding influence how we interact with and shape reality. Such limits and boundaries define the parameters of friendships and existence. As a child we are dependent, we grow and become independent and in a social and professional concept become interdependent. Friendships are everlasting especially that incarnate during school and college times that makes us interdependent. As I traveled back, I went past my own history of an encounter with death with a disease named Transverse Myelitis about 12 years ago. I was invited to depart and pack my baggage to enter the world unknown. Transverse myelitis is a neurological disorder caused by inflammation of the spinal cord. The term myelitis refers to inflammation of the spinal cord; transverse simply describes the position of the inflammation that interrupts communications between the nerves in the spinal cord and the rest of the body. What began as a sudden lower back pain, rapidly progressed to more severe symptoms and I was paralyzed from below naval, urine retention, and loss of bowel control. The attack was on a fine Saturday afternoon with a heavy back pain and the resident doctor advised me to take pain killer for the night. My breath with death was that night. It was at Hinduja where I was diagnosed and I was in the MRI scanning machine for more than an hour and a half. Lucky I am to have come and tell this story, and live to see my friend Mohan Mathew. What I missed was my breath when the consulting mentioned that I may have a few days ahead to have continued breaths and as per statistics the case is so. When an alumni friend requested to know Mohan’s status with a sob in his heart, I felt the breath in him holding for a moment and I spoke on his terrible condition and his encounter with the “Lakshman Rekha”. Pain has limitations and his son told us he does not experience pain in his condition. But pain inflict in those in love with him. This afternoon I was with a doctor who explained a condition like that of mine that caused tragedy to his father in law recently. This is termed - Guillain-Barre (say "ghee-YAN bah-RAY") syndrome. This is a serious disorder that occurs when the body's defense (immune) system mistakenly attacks part of the nervous system. This leads to nerve inflammation that causes muscle weakness and other symptoms. This is an autoimmune disorder (the body's immune system attacks itself) and damages parts of nerves. This nerve damage causes tingling, muscle weakness, and paralysis. This can cause paralysis and lead to death. The doctor informed me that his father in law whom I met a few months back came back to life after stretched limits of encounters with destiny. We have beliefs and the times I had are experiences to seek from the ultimate to give chances. Those whom I informed about Mohan were in a spontaneous feeling for one another. We reached the zenith of our friendships in conversation – beyond the limits and boundaries that set apart positions, ideologies and beliefs. Love dominates at such instances. Lao Tzu make us think with his words – “Be content with what you have, rejoice in the way things are and when you realize nothing lacking, world belongs to you. When you are content, with what you have and become simply yourself - respect comes”. We then think differently about life and its manifestations, sufferings, pain and joy. The breath I lost in witnessing Mohan’s breath made me understand that death is a necessary phase that transgresses from one to the other. I learnt more within the thin limits of time existed on the 13th floor at Hinduja hospital twelve years ago and as my colleague Ravinder Singh said sitting close to me – ‘Amar, I am reminded of a joke and that will make you laugh and feel good’ – really so, I enjoyed his wits and fun more than the sympathetic looks I used to receive in the visiting hours those days. “Life is not about how many breaths you take but about how many moments in life that take your breath away”.

H A N D S

imag-e-in: Take a turn at right angle from your path . . .

imag-e-in: Take a turn at right angle from your path . . .: The fondness for nostalgia intimidate at times with thoughts that ignite, especially if such memoirs are familiar to failures and weaknesses...