The greatest critic of my baking is my husband .. according to him I can never be consistent.... not even with baking a cake!! With due respects to my college professors... this is true! I can never bake the same cake! I really dont know the reason....even if I put the same ingredients and match each step.... I still dont repeat the same cake...!!
However... the person who encourages me the most with my baking is my 3 year old daughter. She is in a phase in life where bdays are incomplete without a cake .... so she ensures that I bake a cake for all the near (and not so near) ones) and dear ones. Recently... my nephew who stays in Pune celebrated his 14th bday.... so as the order was... a chocolate cake was promptly made at home in Chennai. My daughter couldnt even wait for the cake to cool... she ordered for a knife from poor old nani and cut the cake with her.. singing Happy Bday Anshul Bhaiya!! Till then things were very sweet... after eating her bit of cake and giving it to the rest of the people at home.. she came out with a wonderful line... "Oh ho Anshul Bhaiya kku kudukave illiye!!" (Oh ho we havent given it to Anshul Bhaiya!!). Thankfully poor old nani diverted her attention to something else and saved me from baking another cake (may be this time to either parcel it to Pune or parcel anshul Bhaiya to Chennai). Just a week before was my friends' bday. Promptly I was ordered by my daughter a day in advance to bake a cake for Yamuna Aunty. This time the order came with a small request too... "amma can I also bake it with you!!" I dint know how to react ... but I was probably the happiest person on earth when she said that..! Least did I think about the mess that was going to be created when she would help me to bake! Anyways... the sifting happened... with most of the flour mix falling out of the table and very less for baking...and so with great difficulty we managed to put the ingredients together and finally bake the cake. The moment she saw the cake.. she was thrilled... and overjoyed with the fact that she made a cake for Yamuna aunty. Her reaction overshadowed the mess that she created while baking the cake.
Anyways... while I may not like to bake cakes as often as my daughter wants (considering the fact that we Tamilians celebrate our Bdays twice in a year... one each as per the Gregorian Calendar and the Tamil Calender).... I have started enjoying baking more and more... not just because it has got my creative senses working all the time...more because it brings me to appreciate the innocence that children have in them. How I wish ... that as we grow up... we keep that little bit of childhood in ourselves and always stay positive in our thoughts....understand that things that bring us happiness will bring the same happiness to everyone.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Language... language and religion.... language and India!
Just yesterday I was reading this article in Indian Express on how one of the Islamic religious group in India considers Vande Mataram "unislamic" and how our poor dear home minister has taken it with a pinch of salt and how our opposition party in the Lok Sabha has condemned the same!
We Indians love the fact that we are a multicultural country and project ourselves a very tolerant country. It hurts me at times when I see a small island country like Sri Lanka taking a tough stand on their internal issues and giving it a full stop, but in India, we wont take a single such stand because thats not what India is about!! We would rather have few people being killed by the violence each day than many people losing their lives for that one last battle for lasting peace! Anyways....
Given the cultural diversity in our land, it is amazing how our constitution makers could come to conclusion on our national anthem ,national song and of course the national language - Hindi. My father was in the defense services and so I have travelled a lot mostly in the northern side of the Vindhyas. That is probably the reason why I discovered many languages and have come to respect the national language. I knew that down south, specially Tamil Nadu has never come to accept Hindi as our national language, for reasons that are best known to them. It was only after I settled down in Chennai, that it dawned onto me that the national language has no significance in this part of the country. One incident that shines in my mind almost instantly is the time when our former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee addressed the UN on global terrorism (at a point of time when India and Pakistan were not in any peace making mood and 9/11 had changed the face of terrorism internationally). The speech was great (he is a good orator anyways),but none of the fellow tamilians around me appreciated the speech... reason it was in Hindi.. that too a little "Shudh Hindi" which were bouncers for them! The discussion between us started with how no one will understand the speech to how effective the speech would be as a result of the language... to personal comments like how I do not know thirukkural being a tamilian! Well.... This discussion made me realise that I am talking to a generation which had studied (or may not have studied at all) hindi in their school days just because it was a part of the curriculum and not giving it the due importance of being the National Language of our country!
Well... I believe that just by singing national anthem or calling ourselves Indian just because we were born in India, doesnt make us Indian at heart. Of course neither does knowing Hindi and not appreciating the other languages in our country. However, when we give so much importance to our constitution and the creators of the constitution ..... cant we give them respect by simply accepting what they have together mentioned as national identities in our constitution.
I believe, irrespective of the faith you follow, the language you speak, the part of country you live in, these national identities bond us into being Indians. Imagine how shameful, it could be for us if a national leader on an international arena isnt able to sing the national anthem...!
For me the national language, the national anthem and national song ... all are as important as the colour of my passport, because that is my identity in the international shores!
We Indians love the fact that we are a multicultural country and project ourselves a very tolerant country. It hurts me at times when I see a small island country like Sri Lanka taking a tough stand on their internal issues and giving it a full stop, but in India, we wont take a single such stand because thats not what India is about!! We would rather have few people being killed by the violence each day than many people losing their lives for that one last battle for lasting peace! Anyways....
Given the cultural diversity in our land, it is amazing how our constitution makers could come to conclusion on our national anthem ,national song and of course the national language - Hindi. My father was in the defense services and so I have travelled a lot mostly in the northern side of the Vindhyas. That is probably the reason why I discovered many languages and have come to respect the national language. I knew that down south, specially Tamil Nadu has never come to accept Hindi as our national language, for reasons that are best known to them. It was only after I settled down in Chennai, that it dawned onto me that the national language has no significance in this part of the country. One incident that shines in my mind almost instantly is the time when our former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee addressed the UN on global terrorism (at a point of time when India and Pakistan were not in any peace making mood and 9/11 had changed the face of terrorism internationally). The speech was great (he is a good orator anyways),but none of the fellow tamilians around me appreciated the speech... reason it was in Hindi.. that too a little "Shudh Hindi" which were bouncers for them! The discussion between us started with how no one will understand the speech to how effective the speech would be as a result of the language... to personal comments like how I do not know thirukkural being a tamilian! Well.... This discussion made me realise that I am talking to a generation which had studied (or may not have studied at all) hindi in their school days just because it was a part of the curriculum and not giving it the due importance of being the National Language of our country!
Well... I believe that just by singing national anthem or calling ourselves Indian just because we were born in India, doesnt make us Indian at heart. Of course neither does knowing Hindi and not appreciating the other languages in our country. However, when we give so much importance to our constitution and the creators of the constitution ..... cant we give them respect by simply accepting what they have together mentioned as national identities in our constitution.
I believe, irrespective of the faith you follow, the language you speak, the part of country you live in, these national identities bond us into being Indians. Imagine how shameful, it could be for us if a national leader on an international arena isnt able to sing the national anthem...!
For me the national language, the national anthem and national song ... all are as important as the colour of my passport, because that is my identity in the international shores!
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Rage....
RAGE.... I really never understood this word all this while and had always considered this as a sophisticated name for anger...!However, in the past few days I have constantly been confronted with this word, to an extent that I thought I should really understand this word beyond its dictionary meaning.
I read a few articles on the net and this is what I have understood ....
To many of us anger and rage is same, rage is just the next step to anger. Yes, it is. But we all know what causes us to get angry.. simple things like "My daughter did not listen to me so I am angry with her". But rage is different. Rage is a behavior that every person exhibits in some form. Rage is often used to denote hostile/affective/reactive aggression (as distinct from predatory/instrumental/proactive aggression). It denotes aggression where there is anger present, that is motivated by causing harm to others, and that is characterized by impulsive thinking and a lack of planning. This is a behavioral side that many would not like others to see, but does often persist in extreme situations.Rage tends to be expressed when a person faces a threat to their pride, position, status or dignity. Anger is a feeling that we all encounter from time to time, and frequently we experience it as a response to frustration, hurt, disappointment, and threats (real or imagined).
Frequently the underlying anger is related to a perceived loss of control over factors affecting our integrity—our beliefs and how we feel about ourselves. In some cases, the anger has to do with the inability to meet unrealistic expectations (our own or those who ha ve e xpe c ta tions of u s ) . Rage is a shame based expression of that anger. Rage i s the accumulation of unexpressed anger and perceived disrespectful transactions that after multiple “stuffings” finally flow to the surface.
In short, all of us at some point in life get angry and many carry it in their hearts. When there is no more place in the heart to carry that anger or move on with it ... rage takes over. So rage takes over each one of us at some point in life .. frequency and intensity differs from person to person.
That brings me to my next question on how do we deal with ourselves when we are in rage .. or when we are considered to be in rage. That is when I went through this nice article on dealing with rage.... http://www.cyquest.com/pathway/rage.html. I found this article answering a lot of questions. It sums up that crying away your rage is the best way to let go off your fears and frustrations. As grown ups we feel... its so childish to cry, but psychologically crying seems to be a healer for all the fears and irritations we have in us. Its one of the most natural instincts that we posses as human beings, and probably that is why an infant cries.... in order to show its dissatisfaction or to get attention.
So... to all my friends and people who may read this.... next time you find yourself in not so good situations and want to let go off it and move on... cry!! and let your anger and rage move out!
I read a few articles on the net and this is what I have understood ....
To many of us anger and rage is same, rage is just the next step to anger. Yes, it is. But we all know what causes us to get angry.. simple things like "My daughter did not listen to me so I am angry with her". But rage is different. Rage is a behavior that every person exhibits in some form. Rage is often used to denote hostile/affective/reactive aggression (as distinct from predatory/instrumental/proactive aggression). It denotes aggression where there is anger present, that is motivated by causing harm to others, and that is characterized by impulsive thinking and a lack of planning. This is a behavioral side that many would not like others to see, but does often persist in extreme situations.Rage tends to be expressed when a person faces a threat to their pride, position, status or dignity. Anger is a feeling that we all encounter from time to time, and frequently we experience it as a response to frustration, hurt, disappointment, and threats (real or imagined).
Frequently the underlying anger is related to a perceived loss of control over factors affecting our integrity—our beliefs and how we feel about ourselves. In some cases, the anger has to do with the inability to meet unrealistic expectations (our own or those who ha ve e xpe c ta tions of u s ) . Rage is a shame based expression of that anger. Rage i s the accumulation of unexpressed anger and perceived disrespectful transactions that after multiple “stuffings” finally flow to the surface.
In short, all of us at some point in life get angry and many carry it in their hearts. When there is no more place in the heart to carry that anger or move on with it ... rage takes over. So rage takes over each one of us at some point in life .. frequency and intensity differs from person to person.
That brings me to my next question on how do we deal with ourselves when we are in rage .. or when we are considered to be in rage. That is when I went through this nice article on dealing with rage.... http://www.cyquest.com/pathway/rage.html. I found this article answering a lot of questions. It sums up that crying away your rage is the best way to let go off your fears and frustrations. As grown ups we feel... its so childish to cry, but psychologically crying seems to be a healer for all the fears and irritations we have in us. Its one of the most natural instincts that we posses as human beings, and probably that is why an infant cries.... in order to show its dissatisfaction or to get attention.
So... to all my friends and people who may read this.... next time you find yourself in not so good situations and want to let go off it and move on... cry!! and let your anger and rage move out!
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