OBOC - Nigeria

Before I embarked on this project, the only things I knew of Nigeria were from Fela Kuti’s music. So all I knew was civil war, corrupt Governments and Oil and to me that looked like almost all of Africa (the danger of a single story). I had heard of Chinua Achebe but never got around to reading any of his work. So as part of OBOC I picked up “Arrow of God” and I absolutely loved it!! It is very different from the Nigeria I hear in Fela Kuti’s music as it dates to the early 1900s when the Colonizers were just starting their colonization process in Nigeria. So it gave me a whole new insight into the Igbo people and their culture.
As I read this book I could not help but imagine many of the rituals that were described, a testimony to Achebe’s narrative skills. The importance of yam, the kola nut, the various masks, musical instruments, their market festivals were all finely detailed. I was also pleasantly surprised to see a very balanced book on colonial conflicts - tribal life was not idealized, colonizers were not demonized - so in that sense i found the book very refreshing.
The book appealed to me on many levels and raised more questions that it would’ve been wonderful to be part of a book club or a class and read the book together and have a discussion around it. Is it a story of conflict? If so conflict between whom? God (Ulu) and Priest (Ezeulu), one God over the other (Christianity Vs Ulu), Colonizers Vs Colonized, Father Vs Son, Power groups within the tribe, Men Vs Women, Tradition Vs Change? Was Ezeulu just being an arrow of God or was it his ego/anger at his own people that led to the downfall of their tribal group? Also, the status of women in the tribe was much more subservient of women than I would’ve imagined of tribal cultures. Is this an impact of colonization, other changes? Something that happened in the 19th century?
As I said a thoroughly fascinating read, and if I didn’t have another 190 odd countries to go through I would’ve stayed with Nigeria and Achebe for a long time!

After the long silence...."One Book One Country"

Let's face it, i really don't have much to say, not even rambles! Writing is hard work, and writing about nothing at all is much harder. So I took a break from writing and realized that it is much more difficult to get back on the horse. And then i stumbled upon this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg

An excellent talk by Chimamanda Adichie, which resonated with me so much. Some of her experiences growing up on British books just brought back so many memories to me. For e.g my fascination with scones! That was one of the first things i tried when i set foot in the UK... why? i've read so much about having scones with Tea!

But of late i've been grappling with what kind of books i should expose my pre-schooler too. I've been looking for a variety that exposes her to a number of cultures. Nope i didnt want a book which just had a few people of color thrown in as your "token diversity" representations. I wanted books that expose her to different cultures, including her own.

So I made a list of children's books that I thought will be a good sample and here is my list

1) Lights for Gita
2) I love my hair
3) Jalapeno Bagels
4) Old Turtle
5) Seventh Spot
6) Dona Flor
7) The first strawberries
8) Peach Heaven

Lights for Gita especially proved to be handy as we celebrated our first Diwali with her.

This led me to a project for myself which I am calling "One Book One Country". My aim is to read one book from an author from each country of the world, something that will give me some perspective about the country outside of what I see in the news (if they indeed make the news) or in wikipedia. Of course since i can read only English I have to make do with translations in some cases.

And this gives me a great way to keep blogging and keep writing about my experiences as i get exposed to maybe one other story about each country and its culture.

First I started doing this in an adhoc manner - done with South Africa, Nigeria, and right now reading Sweden. Since then have made it more orderly - will start from the A's and work my way down to the Z's. So its been a month of Afghanistan, Albania and Algeria for me.

So from now on the blog will focus on my reviews and rambles on the books i read from each country.

That's a wrap!

Where are the women's magazines/issues?

I don’t believe there is any such thing as a true women’s magazine. I know I know, there are at least a 100 magazines out there targeting women, but that doesn’t make them a women’s magazine. Let me explain. I did a google search to find the top 10 women’s magazines and here is the list that turned up
(http://www.allyoucanread.com/top-10-womens-magazines/)


1)Allure: Cover indicates how I can get a sexy summer look, a humidity-proof hair and a better night’s sleep!
2)Better Homes and Garden: 7 recipes with strawberries (BTW if I did eat what is show on this cover, there is no way I’m going to look like the girl on the cover of Allure!)
3)Cooking light: "Cook better, look better and feel better”
4)Cosmo (of course): A cover from cosmo should mention “Sex” at least once
5)Elle: Fashion, beauty and entertainment
6)Everyday: guide to "smart entertaining"
7)O: do I need to say more?
8)Prevention: Lose weight because it is healthy
9)Vogue: Fashion, hair & skin care
10)W:Fashion magazine for the “deserving women”

As per this definition women are a species that loves to shop, dress, stay abreast of fashion trends, obsess about hair, nails and weight, cook, entertain, follow celebrities, and aim to be size zeros with a fantabulous sex life. Now doesn't that sound like a script straight out of the sitcom “Friends”? (Since when did out-of work waitresses dress like that and have it all!)Where are the "real women's" issues here? and when i say "real", I'm not using it as an euphemism for women who weigh more than a 100 pounds!

I now realize that I am not asking the right question. What are women's issues anyway? Most traditional "women's issues" have been hijacked by men. Case in point - the abortion debate. When Dr.Tiller was murdered recently, most of the debates in the media were between rich, white men (with the obligatory rich, white woman in the panel) telling us women how we should feel/react to the abortion debate


So it is high time that women claimed more issues if we are losing our "traditional" issues to men. Health care reform, domestic workers rights, financial markets regulation, industrialization of food, climate change, immigration debate, growing digital divide, the north-south divide, wars - who said these are all not women's issues? The further you analyze these issues you realize women have the most to lose if these are mishandled ("manhandled")

If I am looking for coverage on these issues by women's magazines - i dont think I am going to find any. The best sources for these appear to be Democracy Now, Grist TV, or even the BBC Woman's Hour (by far the best exclusive women's issues show on the radio that i've come across - despite some of their pieces about getting fabulous arms like Mrs.Obama. A great model for some of the above mentioned popular magazines to follow - combine tips for frizz free hair with a primer on single payor healthcare)

I hope traditional women's magazines start covering these issues instead of giving us a tour of Michael Jackson's home - despite all the market research they have, women do care about other things besides nails, hair and celebrity cribs! What do you think?

That's a wrap!

The case of the Blue Potato

We were at the Farmer's Market the other day, and we stumbled upon these. Yes these are locally grown Blue potatoes, and yes my daughter who is fascinated with Blue and Purple colors immediately decided she wanted those.


I didn't know these were for real. I have a phobia when it comes to food especially ones that occur in colors that i've never seen before! (I learned that this is actually a good instinct to possess as humans - neophobia, w.r.t food i mean) . The only time I have seen those were in packaged foods like Terra Blue chips and me being the suspicious me, felt those must be some GM chips or ones that used artificial colors. (In case I get sued for libel - let me clarify that they do say "From Natural Blue potatoes")


So I was happy to see these real Blue potatoes. Once you peel the skin the inside is almost purple and the taste was awesome!

This made me wonder about the varieties of potatoes. How many varieties do you think there are in total?

Answer ......


The most recent World Catalog of Potato Varieties documents 4500 varieties of cultivated and 1900 wild potato varieties and species around the world. So how come you rarely see anything beyond the Russett, Yukon Gold, White and Rose colored ones at the store or even at the Farmer's Market?

Answer ......


Monoculture! 70% of the cultivated land for potatoes is devoted to just 4 varieties, and the Blue one is not even one of the "endangered" ones.

So if you thought we had too many choices at the supermarket, think again!

A "farmer groupie"?

Upon declaring myself a "born-again foodie", I was asked to join the church of CSA by a friend, and am i glad i did it! So in keeping with the zeal of a convert I wanted to write about CSA so that folks who chance to (forced to) read my blog may also undergo their initiation rites!

So a CSA is Community Supported Agriculture. Google the term and you will find everything you wanted to know. In short, it is an easy way to buy and consume local, seasonal, fresh produce directly from the farmer. The farmer offers "shares" to the public in the form of a box of produce weekly and consumers purchase "shares" (subscriptions) to receive this box during the farming season.

I've been part of a local organic CSA farm for two quarters now, and so far the experience has been fabulous! (Disclaimer: I don't get all my produce from the CSA only. I do supplement it with produce from the farmers market - again local). Here are some reasons to consider joining one.

1) If you like surprise packages, you will love the CSA box! Every week it is a mystery box as you don't know what you are getting. So opening the box and saying "ta,da" is a weekly ritual at our home.

2)Say Bye Bye to Club cards (do remember you are paying a privacy tax, every time you use one of those)and post-it notes, shopping lists and long lines at checkout counters! And hey, since when did Supermarkets convince us, that we doing all the work (including checking out) epitomizes customer service!!!

3)If you didn't do well in Botany in high school, don't despair, this is the less-humiliating way to make up for it. Every week there is at least one item in the box which makes me look up wikipedia (Thank Heavens, my CSA posts the list of box contents every week on the web, so i at least know what to look up!)

4)Creative juices flow...they better... once you see 4 heads of lettuce in the box you need to innovate ...how does lettuce sambar and chutney sound? Let me tell you, it tastes better than it sounds! And who ever thought that chard and bread and garlic can make a fun snack!

5)How many times have you heard "all that glitters is not gold"? The CSA makes you realize that "all that shines (on a veggie) is just polish". You really want to eat that?

6)Your taste-buds will thank you (not to mention your kids!)! Until I joined the CSA, buying fruit from the super market was more or less a lottery for me! I have seen folks examining the cantaloupe from all sides, picking some, discarding the other and i've mimicked those actions without knowing what to look for! Now, I am saved from these pretensions. Sweet juicy fruits just appear in my box and I bite into those without thinking twice

7) Then there all the other reasons that do good to your self-esteem and get you an entry into the granola-eating green clique(except this is now morphing into a greens-eating green group) - local produce lowers carbon footprint, organic - good for you and the environment, fair trade with farmers, and the list goes on...

8)There is the tour of the farm, which we did for the first time this weekend. Wholesome family fun, getting to know our farmer, an insight into his work, family, the land and what it takes to grow our food .... it doesn't get better than that!

9) Makes you want to take up farming...nope that's a stretch... let's call it horticulture...throw seeds into a pot of soil, water it and watch it grow outside your kitchen window, and the sense of accomplishment when you reap your first "harvest"

10)I realized that my 4year old might turn into a "farmer groupie". She thinks she is a farmer because of point #9 and when she met our Farmer Joe seemed to believe they were two of a kind and wouldn't leave his side! But at this point I think we are equipped to handle a "farmer groupie", much more than a "Dora or ScoobyDoo groupie". At least my farmer doesn't sell accessories and other merchandise, just wholesome, fresh food!

That's a wrap!

Food on my mind

Food is on my mind these days (Nope not because I am trying to get back into my jeans from 2004 …although that would be a bonus). Next to spending time with my family, culinary activities occupy most of time at home. These days even the books I’ve been reading all tie in to food somehow. Blame it on self selection, but even as I am listening to Joe Campbell’s lectures on mythology, I find myself fascinated by the plant mythologies and the rituals associated with food! Looking back on growing up in India, all that I remember of the festivals is the food my mom prepared which were specific to the celebration... back to JC’s point about how the mere act of eating is actually participating in a timeless ritual!

Of course all of this new found appreciation for food began with trying to feed wholesome, nutritious yet tasty meals to our pre-schooler. I am one of those dying breeds that still home cooks 2 fresh meals everyday. I believe that the freezer in a refrigerator is just a waste of space! Open the freezer at our home and what you will see is an eclectic mix of things – Indian spices and mixes, maybe a few “emergency” foods (all organic of course), a couple of pressure cooker gaskets (don’t ask why!) and the odd science experiment cups from my daughter which holds frozen water, milk, soup….!!!

To some members of my extended family eating is nothing more than a metabolic activity that one has to do to sustain life and to others it is a sensory pleasure. (You could almost tell to which category one belonged just by the size of ther waistline!) I am now convinced it is far greater than that. The what, when, why and hows of food has cultural, political, ethical, moral and spiritual implications which are all interconnected and these days I am trying to unravel a few of these complicated relationships with a few experiments of my own.

Many thanks to all my friends who introduced me to the joys of shopping at a farmer’s market, participating in a CSA and trying my hand at container gardening. I hope to write about these “experiments” and their progress here.

Until next time, enjoy your meal and "Blueberries" by Robert Frost

That's a wrap! (pun intended :))

Blueberries

"You ought to have seen what I saw on my way
To the village, through Mortenson's pasture to-day
Blueberries as big as the end of your thumb
Real sky-blue, and heavy and ready to drum
In the cavernous pail of the first one to come
And all ripe together not some of them green
And some of them ripe! You ought to have seen!"

Mother's Day or Mothers' Day

I was never "aware" of Mother’s Day until my daughter first went to pre-school. Since then I’ve been the happy recipient of trinkets from her (school) with cute cards and cliched statements like “you are the best mother in the whole world”.

Don’t get me wrong, I am quite thrilled to receive these trinkets (mainly because they are hand-made trinkets, and not some gifts from the mall) and I have them all stored away like a treasure, but on many levels I am not a big “Mother’s Day” person .

What is supposed to be a sentimental expression celebrating all mothers and their service to the community has completely morphed into a for-profit commercialized rigmarole mainly celebrating the domestic service rendered by moms! A day in the spa to make up for all the time you were covered in poop and vomit, or a diamond ring for all the time you did the laundry. Case in point: As i am typing this, Google thought it relevant to present me with ads like "Mother's Day Coupons", "Mother's Day Flags", "Hot Gardening Gifts"... and I don't even have a garden, which i should, to qualify for the "Super mom" points.

While "Mom" is the most perfect descriptor of myself these days, I still remember my pre-mom days and the social pressure both obvious and sublime on "old maids" like myself who at the grand old age of 30 still did not get to celebrate "Mother's Day" **sigh**. To me one of the unintended consequences of Mother's Day is one more source of social pressure on women everywhere, seeming to remind them one more time, the reason they were put on earth - to go forth and procreate!

With all the media circus around the octo-mom, celebrity moms who look sexier than ever even after the birth of twins, women in 40s delivering babies and being successful at the careers, super nannies on Television telling you how to be a better mom, Breast-feeding evangelists who can make you feel inadequate with just one look for choosing the bottle, and the emerging class of "green moms"who can give you 25 reasons in 5 seconds on why you should not use disposable diapers..... hey, that Spa certificate doesn't look all that bad right now!

So this mother's day while I will still take pleasure in attending a breakfast celebration at my daughter's school I've also resolved to
1) not keep harping on the glory of motherhood at every occasion
2) stop feeling guilty about failing to be a supermom. (It's OK if she ate Mac&Cheese one night for dinner!)
3) Stop offering free parenting advice to moms who don't want any (especially on breast feeding and being green!)
4) Appreciate my mom more on regular days
5) take part in more community activities instead of blaming everything on my domestic duties in the true spirit of Mother's Day

That's a wrap!