The English Papers III

www.cookingwithegg.com

Ingredients:

Raw green vegetables, red pumpkin, all sliced and cut to fine pieces, preferably of the same size. Starchy vegetables like potatoes, sweet or otherwise, may be cut and cooked separately.

Method: Place a thick pan on the fire. Add a spoonful of butter or oil. Allow to heat. Add half a teaspoon of cumin seeds into the butter and allow it to fry till it lets out a flavour. Gently pour in the vegetables and turn down the fire to extreme low. Turn the vegetables in the pan upside down for a bit. Add, salt to taste, a little turmeric powder, a spoonful of garam masala and place a lid over the pan and allow the vegetables to cook in their own juices on a slow fire. Do not add water at this stage. Keep an eye on the pan by occasionally turning the vegetables, this way and that. Once, it is partially cooked, put off the gas and allow the vegetables to cook in the steam, inside the pan. The flavours will marry gently and leave a lasting, effect on your palate, long after the meal is over.

When you are ready to eat, add a little coconut milk to the mixture or cream, in your bowl. Or just plain, warm or boiling water, so you have the liquid effect, just in case you like it that way. Or just eat it, without the additions.

This is a no garlic, no onion vegetable curry, delicate on the taste buds and smooth for your stomach. But if you are one of those, who like it a little strong, then, avoid the cumin seeds seasoning in the pan and replace with crushed garlic and finely chopped onions, fried until brown, before you let the vegetables in, into the pan.

NOT all marriages are as delicate and smooth like the vegetable curry the recipe of which is given above. Clearly, if one starts with a lot of raw and rough smelly flavours, the marriage may be indigestible.

“Indian marriages last forever. They are stable and strong. You certainly do not have that many divorces.”

“This is news to me,” I said, a trifle doubtful about the BIG FAT Indian marriages, ‘at least in Kolkata, I know, divorces have become an epidemic!’

The stability of the old, traditional marriages has given way to adventure. Besides, when both partners are economically independent, there is no need to carry on with a long dead marriage, and be adventurous and embrace the new, which promises a volatile, hot and simmering love, flavoured with passion and non-lasting promises.

When I looked at a generation, in England, which is 65 and above, I saw stability and happiness for having stood their ground and stayed in a marriage, no matter what. But when I looked at the generation which is 25 – 30 years younger, I saw people have been more adventurous with their lives and have been able to weather many changes and have taken risks in their lives for which they have no regrets.

I am not sure whether it is the security of living in a country, where, to love and procreate, without having to marry, gives a person, a freedom, dear to the soul, or is it just that marriage is still an important institution, but one does not have to marry to have children.

I am not sure that our society in India will ever change to accommodate the freedom of the soul, to love, without questioning, gender, caste, creed, education, profession and mother’s family line details before we hope to tie the knot.

Looking back, I am reluctant to make a judgement, as to whether, we are moving fast forward, or rewinding backward.

I have a taste for a delicately flavoured Indian curry, which lingers in my taste buds and does not bring up a strong smelling garlic onion burp that can shatter a good night’s sleep.

I think Jill will agree with me totally. We always finished a night’s meal with the Indian curry and packaged ready to eat, steamed fish or chicken, topped with a cuppa and dark chocolate.

Splendid! I say, splendid!

                                       Watch video: What is the Big Fat Indian Wedding, today.

The English Papers II

Suzie with Elise

Suzie is a store house of energy, just like her mother, my friend Jill, about whom you have read in The English Letter I. Suzie is sprightly, tall, very slim and trim and almost a replica of Princess Diana,

She has been totally adventurous and has lived and run businesses in England, Spain and perhaps many other countries.

When the dating agency came across her and her now, going to be her legally wedded husband, Mark, they immediately put the two together, because, they thought Suzie and Mark made such a good pair. Both have been married before and both have children from previous marriages. The delightful, teenagers, are bonded in a family they share with both their parents.

But, Suzie and Mark have Elise, who is now preparing to be married, on the same day as her parents. And I have seen Elise, take to the toilet paper spine and deck it up with a long veil, made of toilet paper. Such an amusing dear!

Of course Mark and Suzie argue about everything, from UKIP, to French Front National and if you enter their home, you will see the symbols one on top of the other, to show, who is in power at home. Let me explain this frequently changes as the argument reaches a hilt and little Elise must come in between and order – “Stop Arguing!”

Mark, who has lived and worked in Australia, once again running a surfing school, is very sporty and he along with Suzie will be bringing in children from Spain, to learn surfing in the sea. Wow!

Mark’s parents are the dear couple who live at Hereford, on your way to The Lakes, on the A30.I loved them both, Mike whom I call an MCP and Ann Eley, are unforgettable to me. Ann is quiet and meditative and very tender and sweet, while Mike never spares a moment to poke a joke like an MCP (Male Chauvinistic Pig, pardon the use of terrible language!) I don't think he means it at all, but it was wonderful to re-visit my youthful days and place my hands on my waist and reprimand - Now, Now Mark, watch your step! But, I can tell you he was a fine gentleman himself and very chivalrous. Like a good old gentleman from the old days, he chaperoned the two lost ladies, which is me and Jill and drove almost 45 minutes to get us to the The Malvern Flower Show! Now that counts, big time!

At The Lakes, squeezed inside the car, my not so slim bottoms, edged to the door, at the back. I said, quite enthusiastically to Suzie, “I think Mark is a lovely man! I wish you both a very happy wedded life.”

Gracious as she is, she said thank you and then whispered, “Mum doesn't like him as much as I do!”

“Oh bugger! She is only jealous!” I laughed. The first of her three children, Suzie means a lot to Jill.

We laughed and she added, “But they get along well together, if I am not there!”

There! I said to myself. Mothers are always fond of their son-in-laws, behind the daughter’s back!

That is cheating, isn't it?

But Mark is a darling and both he and Suzie are very busy people. I can say that for sure, the British are very hard working people and their day may start at 7 am and end not before 10 pm. That is a lot! 

After the little gossip, she turned to me and said, “So how are you and Kanchi?”

It was a defining moment in my life and I knew that Suzie would always have a special place in my heart, just because, she touched a very intimate part of my life – my life with my partner, whom she called by her pet name. 

I am absolutely in awe with Suzie's courage and conviction in herself, the man she loved devotedly and the way they have both made space for all their children, his and hers, to bond and stay together.

It really is an amazing quality, I most admire.

A very international family, Suzie with kids:

And here is the very adventurous couple, Mark and Suzie

The English Papers I

In the right spirit

The English Papers I

On 28^th April, an address I had been writing to in England came alive. It was an address, way out in Cornwall, at the Southern tip of England, where a lady I met in 1989 at the Osho Commune, Pune, lived. She and I had become friends instantly, while she was visiting India, both of us having common friends through whom we met. It is hard to bring back all the little things – and the big things we did for each other, during her stay in India. It is also impossible to describe the bonding we have between the two of us.

“I was probably the Maharaja of Kanker, married to an outrageous English lady, from the far west…” I had said once, ‘although you look much better in your own country than you look in mine!’

She had fallen into deep depression, there upon. India is so dear to her!

Jill Cadman and I are family. Over the seas and the air, the lands that part us, essentially we are deeply tied together as if we are sisters. The years between us, have never allowed the spirit that binds us, to come in between.

A little anxiety prone these days, she had waited long at the Heathrow Airport to pick me up, but was thrown in a fuzzy state of mind when she did not see me emerge even after half an hour had passed. I had walk out of the green channel, having nothing to declare, but got lost among the conveyer belts causing a delay in walking out of the airport. By the time we met, our nerves were a wreck but the sight of each other threw us both into each other’s arms and there we were off on the Underground, chatting away, as if there had not been a full ten years between us, when we had not met at all. We changed over to a bus, at some point and then, once again, we chatted and laughed so much, we missed our stop and had to walk back quite a distance, to arrive at Fiona’s where we were to spend two nights before we left for Cornwall. I had touched London in its raw at around 10 pm, that night of April, 25, 2014.

Jill’s life in Cornwall, is a busy one. Between her home, her children and her grandchildren, not to forget her friends, she has a hectic day, running around everywhere in her two-seater SMART Mercedes Benz. And in between she spends huge amount of time in what she calls her lifeline, her beautiful garden. 

Every one living in the countryside has a garden and this surely is the beauty of living where she does. As you enter, the garden smiles at you and the occasional guard at the garden, the lovely orange cat may throw herself over at your feet for a little scratch on the tummy.  

Our day ran like this: I woke at 5 am, did my meditation and had my coffee. Then I stared at nothing out of her window for long hours, till she woke, had a shower and a cuppa. By then, it was time for her daughter Suzie to call. A long conversation ensued, ending in a laugh and then a glutten free breakfast was on its way. I lay the table, while she prepared the protein rich breakfast, after which we set off sight seeing and meeting friends on the way. Sometimes we shopped at Tescos.

And on Wednesdays, we did something very special – we baby sat Elise, her youngest grand child.

I am so grateful for this time with Elise, who cried a little bit on her father’s shoulders, when she first met me, but soon overcame her shyness sharing with me games and stories we read together. Just four, delicate and pretty, she is now preparing to join in at the wedding of her parents, this September! 

“She too is getting married!” Suzie quipped, while I swallowed a laugh, well nigh a burst.

Indeed, three generations of women, one I had already met in India and followed to her country, the other two, the delightful little Elise, and her mother. I am so happy I went, because if I had not, I would not have met Suzie, about whom you will read in the soon to be published, The English Papers II.  

Some pictures from Windermere, Lake District

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/+JuliaDutta/albums/6014055339534497329

Some pictures from Jill’s garden

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos?pid=6009295846412850434&oid=118112130944380341626

Goodbye England!

Goodbye England!

Across the seven seas

You influenced my thoughts

Even as a little girl in school.

Slightly built,

The prim and proper Head Mistress, Miss Thompson

Taught me first what discipline means

To human life

That strives to achieve goals

Within a lifetime,

Begotten, only once, in His image.

(Although, I have changed my mind since)

The little fables from her England

Stayed with me, until

I caught the wind to arrive

To her homeland.

And oh! What beauty

Steeped in history, culture

Music and dance, sweet England is!

And laughter smiles on every lip

Despite a moody sky!

Dear, dear England

It is hard to say goodbye!

But this life I chose

To be among people

Who find a way to laugh

Despite the empty basket of food.

Where there is abundance

Not in coins

That jingles in pockets.

I wanted to know a path

That goes beyond the material

And control coexists with chaos.

My spirit had longed

For a land whose peoples

Would be hospitable and willing to share

Even the bare minimum they had.

I wanted to know a hot and humid

Weather that burns the skin

Causing emotions to erupt without control

I wanted a land that promises me

Life, after life

Rebirth and Enlightenment.

Hence, goodbye England!

Across the seven seas

I take with me

Memories of your cheerful and chatty people

Your green stretches of desolate land

Which speak volumes in their silence;

Your flowers that play gaily on canvas

To paint pictures I will treasure

For the rest of my days.

And if we meet not again

Know this; I have taken you in my heart

As I have left behind

A little bit of my self in yours.

In your children, who will grow up to be you!

Live on! Thrive, England!

©Julia Dutta, May 2014

This poem is dedicated to the memory of my aunt, Dr Pratima Konar who left her body on 16th May, 2014.

Film Review: Ganashotru by Satyajit Ray

 “There is nothing quite so useless, as doing with great efficiency, something that should not be done at all.” - Peter Drucker

One of Satyajit Ray’s lesser known films was made after he had a heart attack on the sets of a hugely successful film, Ghare-Baire. One his doctor’s advice, the renowned film maker, was forced to make the film totally in the Studio.

The film is an adaptation of a play by Henrik Ibsen: An Enemy of the People. Set in a small Bengali town, Dr. Ashoke Gupta (Soumitra Chatterjee) who heads the town hospital finds that he is flooded by patients with jaundice. All these patients have been to the town’s largest temple and participated is drinking the holy water, called charanamitra, which is contaminated water from the river on which the temple stands. Dr Gupta's younger brother, Nisith (Dhritiman Chatterjee), is the head of the committees running the hospital and the temple, both of which were built by a local Industrialist. The temple is a big tourist attraction and quite naturally a cash-cow for the industrialist.

Convinced, after proper water testing, Dr. Gupta believes that the holy water of the temple is contaminated due to faulty pipe-laying, which is now causing an epidemic in the town. He warns his brother Nisith. However, Nisith and the Industrialist and other town officials reject the idea that holy water might be the cause of the epidemic. They refuse to close the temple to carry out the repairs, with the fear that if the public came to know about water contamination, the crowds may thin out. 

Obsessed with the town’s heath, Dr. Gupta wants to write an article in the newspaper to warn people. The enthusiastic Editor of the newspaper, however also comes under pressure and the article goes unpublished.

Left with no alternative, Dr. Gupta organises a public meeting that is also sabotaged. He is proclaimed a Ganashotru, enemy of the people.

The film moves on to show, how, one by one, the doctor’s wings are cut off – first, he is suspended from work, then his daughter loses her job and finally, his landlord asks him to leave his house. Left with little choice, the Doctor is preparing to leave, when finally from far, he hears the people’s voice, shouting slogans in support of him. The lone, crusader has won his battle against the industrialist and those who tried to malign his effort to save people.

Highly unlikely, a lone doctor’s fight against a money-spinning industry like a temple, the film is saved from utter rubbish, when one looks carefully at some other layers that intertwine to make it a watchable film.

First, it brings out the stark difference between religious beliefs and what is scientific. For example, the water report on the charanamitra, proves it is contaminated but the industrialist, tries to drill into the doctor’s mind, how a mere presence of the tulsi leaf in the charanamitra makes the liquid ‘pure’, free of all contamination.

Second, although it may have had no relevance then, when it was made, the clash of objectives between the religious bigots and the scientifically objective can at least be the central take-away from the film, now in India, especially if you consider that Satyajit Ray, is an Indian born international figure and film maker, unmatched so far. It is a film that warns public against religious bigot and the rise of people’s power to overthrow blind belief, against scientific evidence.

Third, who is the real enemy of the people, blind belief, religion or science? 

Indeed, as the film ends, with a bottle of charnamrita and a stethoscope lying side by side, we get the message loud and clear – blind belief of religion and science lie side by side and it is for us to choose what we want – one, or both, either/or. Whatever.

As for me, I am with Peter Ducker - “There is nothing quite so useless, as doing with great efficiency, something that should not be done at all.”

Film: Ganashatru  

Producer: NFDC, National Film Development Corporation of India

Screenplay & Direction: Satyajit Ray; Adapted from the play: 'An Enemy of the People' by Henrik Ibsen.

Cinematography: Barun Raha

Editing: Dulal Dutta

Art Direction: Ashoke Bose

Sound: Sujit Sarkar

Music: Satyajit Ray

Cast   

Character: Performer

Dr. Ashoke Gupta:Soumitra Chatterjee

Maya, Dr. Gupta's wife: Ruma Guha Thakurta

Indrani, Dr. Gupta's daughter: Mamata Shankar

Nisith: Dhritiman Chatterjee

Haridas Bagchi: Dipankar Dey

Biresh: Subhendu Chatterjee

Adhir:  Manoj Mitra

Ref: http://www.satyajitray.org/films/ganasha.htm