Quid Pro Quo With The Gods

Morning songs

Hmm, Kannada? Some Karnataka dialect?
The pastoral visuals are endearing unlike the concrete jungle we are treated to these days in modern songs.

At one point in my childhood we stayed close to a shivalayam. (By the way, we shifted our residence couple of times, hence the varying account of my childhood home.)

Sharp at six o'clock in the morning, a stereo would burst out with shivaaradhana. There was a season in particular, sravana masa or punnami masa I cannot recall, when shiva devotees intensified their prayers. I was a toddler so I cannot recall much but that month was special for shiva devotees. I would be sleeping and kabaam! the music would reverberate in my ear. The first week I was annoyed, the second week I was piqued, by the end of the month it grew on me that I missed the early morning reveille when they folded up the musical sacrament.

 

On Foodies

I informed you in the beginning that I am the most under-sung foodie (& cook) in the world.

(1) My mom thinks that I am a windbag who just confects pictures and bluffs to cook.
(2) My friends suspect that I have employed an underling cook whose thunder I steal.
(3) For casual acquaintances, when I mention "cooking", they are in disbelief: You can cook?
(4) Only I know that I am the greatest cook (and foodie) in the world.

And now you also know.

 

On Movies

Sure, I will catch up with those movies. I love your recommendations. Keep them coming.

 

On Ageing

In our youth, we take it upon ourselves as a mission to discover the objective truth. We aspire to investigate the origin of the universe, the purpose of our life, the teleology of our existence. We indulge in all kinds of ontological and epistemological dialogues to uncover the ultimate truth about mankind. Again, this is all in our youth.

As we tend to age, we abandon the futile pursuit to seek outward truth and grapple to understand our inward truth. Who am I? This question takes precedence. We realise that we know so little about ourselves. We rue that we hardly listened to that little inner voice which was brutally smothered for conformity and conventional adherence. For me ageing is liberating as it allows me to talk to that little voice, hear its woes, and glorify it, and redeem its status as the custodian of my life. O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, there are no more societal norms or herd mentality or instituted propriety. Ageing is fantastic for it released me from the bondage of pedestrian thinking. Twenties is kowtowing to the popular thinking, but thirties is reclaiming one's life and riding high on self-fulfilment.

My family are already aware of my quirks. They won't be a least bit surprised if I tell them one day that I quit my job to pursue a paleontology course. As I told you, one should train one's families to withstand shock. I have trained them for twenty years now. Even if I were to tell them that I am taking off to Mars next month, they won't blink a tension.

I travelled abroad on a whim. I had no plans to travel or upset my comfortable and sweet life back in India. I travelled for a short assignment, then, I fell in love with Richard Attenborough and his documentaries and never left the land. It is strange when I think about it, here or there makes no difference to me for my life and aspirations would remain the same but these lovely documentaries have imprisoned me here. I so love them! There are many geo-blockers in India wherein accessibility is restricted on international documentaries. People find it funny when I say that I have settled here because I like the nonsensical documentaries here. I don't know why people think it is a ridiculous reason, all things being equal, it is a game changer. If I quit my field before I am 39, then I would immerse myself into motion arts and catch up with all the classic movies. I don't know how people can get bored of life when there is so much to do in life and it keeps accruing. May be nonsensical beings like us can never get bored as we are replete with recurring nonsensical dreams and aspirations that keep us buoyant in life.

 

Five reasons why QPQ is magical

1. QPQ is the only thread where the ramblers don't care to like each other's post.
2. QPQ never had any real-time interaction but has sustained for long with timed interaction — you write in your mornings, I write in my nights.
3. QPQ has no theme, no ambition, and no sense. Yet it thrives on passion to ramble away with no inhibitions.
4. QPQ is a thread with a God's title that an atheist has adopted as her fond thread.
5. QPQ is a sanctuary to voice the concerns of wild and varied animals — okapi's breeding habits, donkey's grazing habits, bird's singing habits, and lizard's creepy habits.

One reason why QPQ is a miracle

QPQ is the testimony of what a person who recovered from a stroke with one eye and one ear is capable of achieving with willed passion. You have no idea how instrumental you have been for me to rediscover and introspect my own life with that inspiration.

 

On Food

"Get ready by 7 am."
"7 am? That is like midnight."
"We have to hurry to escape the noon burn."
"Ok."

(The next day in the cruise liner)

"Where is breakfast served?"
"There there ..."



"I don't think I can step out after stuffing myself with this lavish spread."
"Hurry up ...hurry up .. we need to leave."
"Why did I even sign up for this tour? I just want to sit and eat."
"Hurry up ..."
"Wait, I am coming, I want to visit Young Tut"




The best memories are always the food I had in any tour, and well, there are rocks and relics and voids and pyramids. But, who cares when there's F-O-O-D!

 

On Nonsense

Ah! I see your point.

Christmas is around the corner, so I felt we must review our progress here whether we have uplifted ourselves from the original and ordinary nonsense to a more sublime nonsense. I had mistaken "absurd" for specialised nonsense. But, I get your point. Absurd is not a higher or supramundane emanation of nonsense but only a fleeting sidekick to our resident nonsense.

This should be encapsulated as the sutra of our QPQ enterprise. For a minute, I was swayed there to adopt an unsustainable form of nonsense. My doubts have been clarified. I swear, never again will I dissent from our purest form of nonsense that we have enshrined here. Aye.

 

That's a nice song with persuasive lyrics. I like that song.

Wow! I have never heard that. I was checking out the ingredients (/stuffing) and came across

The dish is prepared by mixing grated coconut with jaggery, placing it inside dumplings of rice flour, and steaming them. Ghee, cardamom, and finely ground roasted rice flour, etc. can be used to add taste to the filling.

... but,

Thennai Kozhakkattai is a sweet dish popular in South Tamil Nadu and Kerala. It is typically prepared on special occasions and involves significant work, usually involving the entire family. Thennai kozhakattai is made of the same ingredients as kozhakattai, but it is prepared by filling young palm leaves.

The addition of palm leaves calls for the entire family's involvement. This is interesting. May be palm leaf is a ruse for the foregathering of the family.

Kannav calls Satti.
Satti calls Raman.
Raman calls Ambika
Ambika calls Meenakshi
Meenaskhi calls Subramanyam
Subbu calls the grandfather who is an expert in chopping palm leaves.

Recently, I was searching for an alternative to deep-fry koftas. I read in a blog that paniyaram, used to steam unniappam, can also be used to fry/steam koftas with less oil. I was excited. I went to the nearest Indian store to buy a paniyaram. Alas! They were pricey with shabby models. Then, I preferred to buy one from India next time.



Your kozhakattai reminded me of unniappam. Funny names, eh?