Benne Dose

It was a refreshing break for a couple of days from the city bustle.
off on an assignment, that took me to Davanegere - the home of the famed Benne Dose.

Having heard about the benne dose, we told the cab driver to take us to a genuine - not a star rated hotel - for authentic benne dose the first evening.
Sorry sir, no benne dose in the evening, he said.
makes sense, we thought, imagining oodles of butter on the Dosa that may be difficult to digest in the night.

so, we decided to get up early morning the next day and have BD for breakfast - so that we could still make it to our meeting in time.

we went to the Sagar Benne Dose eatery - that was also referred in wikipedia - with a lot of anticipation.

we were probably the first customers and the service was lethargic - somewhat like saying, why are you bothering us so early in the morning..

the place was very small, and if one looked at the way water was served, one would not want to eat there!
the cooking platform was very clean.

soon, we got our benne dose!
contrary to our expectation, the dose was not greasy - at least not as greasy as we thought it would be.

the taste was --- well, very good!
only half way through the dosa did i remember to take a picture.. what is missing in this is what i had eaten..

it was served with mashed potatoes, with a few onions sprinkled. no masala!
we topped it with a kali dosa [more like a set dosa] and another benne dose..

there was no wash basin, one had to wipe ones hands on pieces of old newspaper, that were cut in small rectangles and kept on the tables.

i guess it was the best way to take the grease out!

for all that, i was not feeling heavy - and had a normal appetite for lunch.

the next day, i wanted to try another variant of the benne dose - the open benne dose.. in a different place.

this also came with the mashed potato and thick coconut chutney.
there was a generous sprinkling of 'paruppu podi'.

again, the taste was yummy!

wish you had also been there :-)
p.s. as it was a rushed trip, we missed the 'chilli bhajji' that was made only in the late afternoons..
maybe next time.

Ganesha

Today is Pillayar Chaturthi - or, more widely known as Ganesha.
right from my school days, i had a fascination for ganesha.
from street corner temples to the one on BIG street [a very narrow street in triplicane, madras] to the huge 'mukkuruni' ganesha in the meenakshi temple in madurai, i am amazed at the multitude of ways of representing ganesha in graphical forms..
from simple modern strokes to traditional renderings, from simple sitting posture to riding a bike - one can find ganesha representations limited only by one's imagination.

i have always felt that ganesha is the first god of IT - with his own mouse!

our home also has a reasonable collection of ganeshas.

or the specialized forms - such as the one to ward off the 'evei eye'

or wall murals like

or

have you come across any special forms of Ganesha?

the water concern

Having grown up in Chennai - in the peak of the water shortage years, i have many memories of spending many hours a day - at odd hours, that too - on gathering water.


when water supply was limited to alternate days, we still needed to pump water as the pressure was very low.
i had to learn the mechanics of the pump - and associated techniques. 
for priming - when the water level went down, including taking out the washer and softening it, if it went dry etc, or replacing it with a new one, when the old one wore out.

then there came the more modern versions like this:

we also had to wait for the water tanker and a camaraderie developed among neighbors till the water tanker came and competition when the tanker arrived, to ensure that each family got sufficient water.

i notice that water is also important for politics, where i see that even 'emerging' slums get water supplied in tankers by the local politician towards the welfare of that colony.

recently, when i was looking at the finalists of the engineering contests organized by mondialogo - one of the interesting initiatives that i have been following for the last couple of years -  

noticed that the largest number of entries were related to - what else, water!

not only the Indian entries, but also from other countries!


Some of the smart investors in India have been investing in water. 
as one of the economic theories go, the next major conflicts in the world are likely to be over water!


what is your take on water?

Eclipsed Bangalore

i read how Thomas Friedman - the author of Hot, Flat and Crowded found a scene of an inaugural puja done for a flyover in Hyderabad, somewhat amazing.
his amazement was due to the fact that modernity and tradition co-existed without being felt as contradictions.

that is not only in hyderabad.
bangalore, for all the modernity and influence of foreign cultures - thanks to the IT boom - still has not forgotten old convictions.

i see this every time during an eclipse.
Bangaloreans love food. even on days of bandhs, the first establishments to open and do near normal business soon after.

but, eclipse days are different. not only are the food spots empty, so are the streets.
the fear of being exposed to harmful rays keeps people indoors.

the scenes on the 'mini forest' stretch, which is packed on other days, with morning walkers looked like this:

the stretch inside one of the segments that has many walkers looked like this.

the laughter club, very active and very regular also like this:

just reinforces the byline of an old documentary that India is a place where centuries co-exist!

Mukkani and Sidr Honey..

after a couple of years, got to eat jackfruit grown at home [in chennai].
the last of the fruits this season, was waiting when i went to chennai a couple of weeks ago.
thugh it looked small - it was ready for consumtption in a couple of days.

the day i cut it, we also had the last of the mangoes for the season.

the trio of Mango - jackfruit  - banana [Maa - pala - Vazhai] is called Mukkani [or three fruits].

my mom used to cook almost all parts of the jackfruit.
the fruit, of course - can be eaten by itself or with honey! though both are sweet, this combination is divine!
the seeds are also edible and make sambar taste better.

the skin - once the thorny outside and the stringy inside are removed - is still fleshy and can be used to make a gravy based 'koottu'.

that day was also special because i got to taste the 'sidr' honey - a speciality honey from yemen.
supposedly the most expensive honey - the consistency and aroma are really out of the world. [you might have guessed that i like honey :-)]

you can find some more details here.

Birds in the balcony

the last few weeks have been quite hectic, and have been away from this blog.
while i have a few topics that i want to write about, am waiting for the thoughts to organize themselves.
and some apt pictures :-)

it was a refreshing break this morning to see some mynahs in the balcony garden.

they have been coming regularly in the last few weeks - possibly after they located a source for some worms? in the home composting tower - called khamba.

a simple system of three sections that make compost out of kitchen and organic waste at home.

more recently, a small bird feed tray was added, though that could not have been the cause - as it gets too hot in the sun and the seeds get wet in the rain.

but, whatever was the reason, it is good to see emboldened birds that are not afraid of us and move about freely.

very relaxing.

(de)fenceless

the power availability today was pretty bad.
sunday. carpenters working at home.
trying to ignore the nail banging and sawing noises, i tried to drown myself in a book [on the origins of scientology and dianetics - more on that in some later post] sitting in the balcony among some plants..

so much for the preamble for the rambling thoughts this time..

first sight that caught my attention:

this is NOT one of the pictures from the recent trip to kabini. or any other wildlife park..
these are, i guess, domesticated cows and buffaloes, that have been left free to graze - encroaching on sn unprotected [in spite of the compound wall] BDA allotted plot.

so, the next thought was about other encroachments that i could spot around me..

This one, right next to where the buffaloes grazed - has been land under dispute between BDA and some other litigants.
the last court ruling was in favor of the BDA, and soon after they had also put up some fencing.
but soon after, the fences were tampered with first.
and segments began to disappear.
then, in one corder - quite a vantage point as it is on bannerghatta road and in a fairly heavy traffic spot, a small 'nursery' sprang up, with some potted plants for sale.
over a few months the business grew and occupied more and more space to cater to the increased volume.
diversification was the next step for growth - and got into selling Terra cota pots as well as cement pots.
backward integration, for this business meant making their own cement pots which needed more space.

the picture you see above shows the 'factory' and a portion of the road behind, if you look carefully.

with connections to the local councilor - who, i was told is also the supplier of water in tankers regularly, for this business, in addition to, i can extrapolate, of protection money, a couple of attempts to dislodge this activity have been unsuccessful.

talking of fences, at kabini, i saw a private farmhouse having an electrified fence. i guess the other extreme of being selfish, after encroaching on the wildlife territory.
howard hughes and michael jackson also fell in that category.

p.s. i watched the move slumdog millionaire on TV last night. i could relate to the comments made by some segments that the movie portrays some negative aspects of our society - but my comment is that we cannot ignore that under the guise of always being only politically correct.
we have our heritage as well as the successes in the modern world, but let us not simply wish away the negative aspects that need to be fixed as well.