Happy Birthday, Lord Krishna

Lord Krishna

Yesterday, 30 August 2021, it was Janamashtami, Lord Krishna’s birthday, a big festival in India. People kept fasts and offered prayers at the temples. It wasn’t a public holiday, but out of professional courtesy, a lot of organizations gave an off to their employees.

A few years ago, when life was slower and more leisurely, little children dressed as Krishna and his gopis (female companions) decorated their verandahs with dolls, toys, colored ribbons, etc.

But things are changing now because of modern technology and Covid. Children now spend more time on their electronic devices and their parents are also similarly engrossed under far more challenging circumstances.

The pic you see on the top is from the little temple just three houses away from mine.

While I gazed at this Baby Krishna looking up from His cradle, this was the prayer I murmured,”Oh God Krishna, please protect us all and make the entire world safe for everyone, free of guns, rockets, missiles, and bombs.”

I hope He heard me.

Like Jesus Christ, Baby Lord Krishna too was born under traumatic conditions. His parents Vasudev and Devki were imprisoned by his cruel uncle King Kansa, who was determined to not let any of his sister Devki’s children stay alive. An astrologer prophesied that he was destined to die at the hands of one of Devki’s offsprings.

Devki had seven children before Krishna. Kansa killed all of them. Krishna was lucky. His foster father Nand whisked him away as soon as he was born and placed his newborn daughter in his cradle. Kansa was told that Devki gave birth to a daughter. Kansa tried to kill this little girl too, but she slipped away from his hands and vanished.

Just before disappearing, she screamed, “Oh Kansa, your killer has taken birth already and is safe somewhere else!” To safeguard himself, Kansa had all the children born around this time murdered, but his fate was sealed already.

Krishna is a much loved Hindu god and stands for everything that a human being aspires for; love, creativity, rhythm, harmony, beauty, strength, wisdom, intellect, justice, freedom, etc. In Mahabharata, he plays a prominent role as a Political Advisor.

Organizations like ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) continue to play a big role in spreading his message of love and peace worldwide.

Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, hare, hare… that’s what the ISKCON people sing with their melodious voices, accompanied with soulful music and dancing during their gatherings.

Do visit one of their temples. A strange kind of bliss will descend over you and you will want to visit again. You don’t have to be a Hindu. You can be anything and everything, yet believe in the power of Lord Krishna. Don’t forget to eat their prasad. It’s always so delicious and oozes with the love of His disciples.

Growing Peppers

Peppers from my terrace garden

Now that big peppers have started appearing in my garden, growing them seems to be so easy now. These two that you see in the pic above are from today’s harvest. They are now part of a green mint chutney I made today with chopped apple, onion, and lemon juice. Here is its pic below.

Chutney with green peppers, mint leaves, apple, onion, and lemon juice

My Little Green Haven

My balcony garden

After two years of patient, hard work, my balcony is finally turning into what I always wanted it to be, a little jungle.

One more pic here from closeup of the fast expanding Malabar spinach.

Spinach (in pot & over railing)

Dancing away to glory

Dancing peacock

With his swirling skirt of feathers, this peacock whirled around before my mesmerized eyes…and then my gaze fell on his bent feather, about to fall off.

Well, if dancing is in your blood you just forget about everything and keep dancing.

Obituaries and memories

Until 2019, when Covid hadn’t ruined our world so much, I always looked at death as natural and inevitable; a mere extension of life. That was how I looked at newspaper obituaries too. They were as per a prescribed format. With a passing glance and a sigh, I would move on to other sections.

Cut to May 2021 in Delhi. Covid worked overtime to kill as many as it could. A gory massacre was in progress, and no one could do anything about it. Fear, chaos, and uncertainty were everywhere. Everyone had a scary story to tell. Some stories were more horrifying than the others. Several close family members perished around the same time.

The obituary columns of the daily newspapers were full and had some additional pages too with glowing, confident faces looking back at the readers. It was obvious that their deaths were shocking, unexpected, and hard to accept. They still had so many productive years ahead of them. What a terrible loss!

Despite my best possible efforts, I just couldn’t stop myself from imagining what their loved ones must go through now in this dark hour. They reminded me of the day my mother died four years ago and filled me with a torrent of emotions that I just couldn’t fight back.

I could now detect a change in the format of the newspaper obituaries too. The words used were special; they showed how much thought, creativity, love, and care the grief-struck relatives had put in them.

Far more heartbreaking obituaries were of close relations (parents, children, husbands, and wives, etc.) whose deaths occurred within a brief gap; just a few hours sometimes! The idea of being together for eternity that poets and writers put so much feeling and emotions into was now in recurrent use.

See below for some examples of obituaries in the Hindustan Times from May 2021 onwards. Brace yourself for the tumult of emotions that might erupt inside you as you scroll down.

Let’s hope the pandemic ends soon and obituaries like these stop appearing. Amen!

Peppers & Adeniums

Peppers and Adeniums together

We consider ourselves really fortunate to have peacocks hanging around on our terraces here in West Delhi. But they can be real pests, when you grow vegetables that they relish, such as chillies, tomatoes, bitter gourds, etc.

This year, however, I grew some pepper plants specially for the peacocks. I threw some dried pepper seeds near the big Adenium plant growing in the soil on the terrace floor. The chillies have started appearing now. They are growing bigger and bigger, but the peacocks are not plucking them! Quite surprising indeed! Maybe because they are fussy and prefer to eat the hotter varieties!

Birdie, our peacock visitor

Love thy gifts

Rejected Pakistani Mangoes

On 13 June 2021, the social media and the newspapers screamed, “No takers for Pakistan’s mango diplomacy; USA, China return consignments.”

The consignments in question were 20 kg-packets of Chaunsa mangoes sent to 32 countries. These countries included the USA, Canada, China, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.

When I first read this headline, I thought it had something to with Pakistan’s support for homegrown terrorism. But no, that wasn’t the case.

After reading further, I learned it was because of their new Covid-19 rules. Well, that’s something that you can’t crib about. No matter how much you try, Covid keeps outsmarting us and kills us indiscriminately.

But I did feel bad about it, even though I am not a Pakistani. All they needed to have done is keep those mangoes in a big container of water with cooking soda dissolved in it for some time. That would have killed all the viruses.

In our Indian culture, we consider food sacred and believe that if we treat food with disrespect, Goddess Annapurna will inflict severe punishment on us. Who will want to take that risk? No one, I am sure.

A gift is a gift. Something you must receive with humility. The act of giving a gift is an expression of love and should be accepted, if not reciprocated. That’s the way God likes it and anything that goes against His wishes boomerangs and hits us badly with full force.

When you give a gift to someone, you do it without any expectations whatsoever. It is upto the recipient to decide how they’re going to use it. Sell it, trash it, exchange it, keep it, hide it, pass it on, or whatever; that’s as per the new owner’s wishes.

But when that person reciprocates and treats you with respect, you feel good.

Just imagine if every gift got the appreciation it deserved, wouldn’t this world be such a wonderful place?

So next time, when you receive a gift, especially if it’s eatable, I strongly recommend that you accept it and take all the necessary precautions.

Gifting, a Godly act

Remember to let the giver know how much you appreciate it.

Cooking with watermelon

Watermelon leftovers

Cooking with watermelon? I can already imagine you asking this question with raised eyebrows while reading the title.
Well, what I mean here is the leftover part, the white portion, which you can either grate or cut into pieces, depending on the dish you want to make.

Chopped watermelon whites

Grated watermelon whites

Most people discard the watermelon leftovers without giving them a second thought. What they don’t realize is how nutritious and versatile they can be.

I made this lucky discovery recently in May 2021 when I didn’t have any veggies left in my refrigerator. Going to the local market to purchase them was not possible for me, as I couldn’t leave my ailing father alone at home. All I had were the watermelon rinds, which I had kept aside for a while.

I took the plunge and used them to make a lightly spiced dish, which, to my pleasant surprise, Daddy ate with great enthusiasm.
Inspired by my success in this experiment, I used these leftovers later for many other dishes, such as kheer, raita, kadhi-pakodas, and kofta curry, as per their standard recipes used with other ingredients like lauki, kaddoo, etc.

I was amazed to find them all so tasty. See the photos below and you will understand what I mean.

Raita with watermelon whites

Well, what are you waiting for? Buy a watermelon today. Let your creative juices flow inside you and your nerves tingle with excitement as you go on a culinary adventure ride with the leftover whites. You will love it.

Apart from saving money, you will get the chance to do your bit for our troubled planet by minimizing food wastage. You needn’t make all the dishes in one go. You can keep the leftovers in the refrigerator for 2-3 days and use them later as per your convenience.

Happy cooking!

How to make delicious drinks with sour fruits

Plum (alu bukhara) juice

I began making juices with sour fruits at home in May 2021. Each and every experiment turned out to be a wonderful miracle. I wish I had started this much earlier. It’s so simple. All you need is sugar, water, fruit pulp, and a blender to blend them all together into a healthy juice. The refreshing taste combined with the bright color of these juices give you a heady experience indeed!

My latest creation was this month, August 2021, with alu bukharas (plums). See the steps below with photos.

Removed the seeds

Churned the fruit pulp in a blender with water and sugar as per taste

Poured the juice into glasses

You can repeat these steps for apples or any other fleshy fruits too.

To read about the other fruit juices, here are the links. Do try out these recipes and let me know how they turn out for you. I look forward to reading your comments.

Mangoes: https://www.womansera.com/sour-fruits-will-brighten-up-your-summers-check-out-to-know-more/

Jamuns (Indian blackberries): https://jasbirchatterjeephotoblog.wordpress.com/2021/07/22/be-in-the-pink-with-jamuns-heres-how/.

Olympic Friendships and rivalries

Soon after winning her second Olympic medal, a bronze, in Tokyo 2020, our Badminton player P.V. Sindhu fielded questions from probing journalists in a press conference. One of these questions was whether Saina Nehwal (her longtime rival) had also congratulated her. Her reply was, “We don’t talk much, so…”

What it implied was, “We’re not on speaking terms, so…”

Nothing could have been more childish and unsporting than this! Sports is not just about winning medals. It is also about camaraderie and human values.

A better answer would have been perhaps this: “Oh, I’ve been off social media and I still haven’t read all the messages. I can’t say anything about that now.”

It would have defused the hot speculation about their rivalry and saved Saina from appearing in a bad light.

The last time I saw Saina in person was in 2018 at a Volkswagen event in Mumbai. She was the chief guest and was called upon on stage to give a speech. Read more about this event here. https://jasbirchatterjeephotoblog.wordpress.com/2019/01/19/an-uprising/

Saina Nehwal

She talked about her struggle and hard work that helped her reach where she was at that time. She appeared to be the girl next door and the way she expressed her thoughts was really inspiring.

One thing that I clearly remember her saying was that we should all play some kind of sport. The attitude we develop overflows into everything else we do and nothing ever feels impossible.

In March 2021, a movie based on Saina’s life was released. It didn’t do well at the box-office. Later on, because of injuries and cancellation of several tournaments, she couldn’t qualify for the Tokyo Olympics 2020 held in July 2021.

Only God knows what state she is in now. Covid has already destroyed so many careers and I hope she emerges stronger in the next Olympics.

One of the most heartwarming stories from Tokyo Olympics 2020 was about the tie between Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi and Quatar’s Mutaz Etaz Barshim in the high-jump event. Tamberi didn’t make the third attempt and Barshim couldn’t. Barshim asked if they could share the gold medal. When the officials said they could, they leaped with joy and tears in their eyes. See their pic below.

Barshim and Tamberi, gold medal winners, Tokyo 2020

Another touching story from the Olympics is about Shuhei Nishida and Sueo Oe in the pole vault event in 1936 at Berlin. There was a tie for the silver and bronze medals between the two and the American athlete Bill Sefton. Bill was eliminated, but the question that remained was who gets the silver. Nishida and Oe didn’t want to compete because of their deep friendship and respect for each other.

The organizers ultimately decided as per the Japanese team’s advice. They gave the silver to Nishida, as he was the Senpai (Guru), and bronze to Oe, an apprentice.

Their story didn’t end here. After returning to Japan, they got their medals cut into half and welded together into a hybrid silver-bronze medal to reflect their everlasting friendship and the real outcome of their competition. Isn’t that great? Here are their photos.

Nishida & Oe, their hybrid gold and silver medals

Now back to Sindhu. India’s hopes are pinned on her. She needs to grow up, not only as an athlete, but also as a human being.

All the best, Sindhu. If you and any of the other Indian athletes are reading this, always remember this quotation from Nietzsche: In your friend you should possess your best enemy.