The "K" Factor

What is entertainment? If someone was to ask me this, I would say, entertainment is that which relaxes the body, makes you laugh, makes you forget about your whole day with its tensions and challenges, something in which you can immerse yourself but not to a degree where you have to use your brains, that’s entertainment for me. So how can I possibly get my daily dose of entertainment from the Indian Television Industry?

I know I am a minority in this matter, almost every Indian that I know is addicted to some or the other TV show and love to get into lively discussion about the contents of the program. Will she marry him or run away? Will he kick her out of the house or fall in love with her? And the best question of all, also the most common; when will the inevitable consummation scene take place? I mean c’mon people, if a lady actually went through half of what the television heroines are made to go through then they would either kill themselves or kill everyone around them. But common sense is not appreciated by the Indian television buffs as experienced by me in school and in college where my logical explanations were squashed by my friends.

But my problem with the shows is not mainly of common sense, but more about how the characters are a paradox of themselves. The lead heroine is shown to be a strong, confident woman who goes out to work to be independent and support her family (which is usually poor) and meets her future husband (immensely rich) as a boss and then turns into a submissive house wife cowering under her husband or some in law usually in the name of family honour and respect. My point is that if the character is as strong as shown in the first episode then why does she take all the crap thrown at her? An independent woman would retaliate and stand up to her new family, not simper and wonder how to bring the broken family together.

I have never been able to watch a single scene of an Indian show without commenting so obviously I am not the perfect person to have beside you as you clutch your heart and moan about the injustice done to Seeta, Geeta or any such character. In fact I have gone to India, stayed for a month, not switched on the telly and come back happily oblivious to the drama surrounding a fictitious character. I call it a proud achievement; my friends on the other hand, call it a sad thing.

But on the rare occasion, in the throes of extreme boredom, I have sat down with my elder sister, Tanvee, switched the telly to a random channel and commented and laughed on the show going on. Trust me, it’s the best comedy show you will ever experience, well unless you are a fan of the show, then you will just want to kill me and my sister.

So what are you? A fan or a cynic? 

I make PETA proud

For those of you confused about what I am talking about, PETA are People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Now, how do I make them proud? Well I am never cruel to animals, the thought of even touching fur makes me shudder and meat has never touched my lips.

Vegetarianism is a very cool concept nowadays. There are so many types of vegetarians that it simply boggles the mind; vegans, vegetarians, vegetarians who eat fish etc. Frankly speaking the people who claim to be vegetarians but then add that they eat fish or bacon as an afterthought irritates the crap out of me. Why? Well simply coz it gets harder and harder to explain to people what kind of vegetarian I am. Life was much simpler when there were only two options – veg or non-veg.

In the past it has not been much of a problem simply because people in India grasp the concept of being a vegetarian and where the majority of the population is vegetarian or knows somebody who is. In Australia it is a hot topic and a moment of wide eyed surprise when you mention that you are a vegetarian. But it does not stop there, and then you have to explain what kind of vegetarian you are. Some Australians still don’t fully comprehend the meaning of vegetarian, like for Qantas, a turkey sandwich is a vegetarian meal and the air hostess is unable to grasp why I would not want to eat it when it says vegetarian. When I related this to my father, he joked that maybe she meant that the meal was vegetarian as the turkey in the sandwich was a non-meat eating animal and thus vegetarian.

My sister has her own way of telling people, she simply starts listing all the animals and types of meat available in the world. This leads to a very lengthy conversation and nowadays she simply says that “If cut open, it bleeds, then I don’t eat it”. Not something you want to picture, but I find it stops the questions or maybe people are just trying to clear their heads.

Recently I met up with some of my friends who make up an oriental mix (Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese). When the time came for lunch, they all converged at KFC while I looked around for veggie options. My status as a vegetarian came as quite a shock to all them and for the next hour I was grilled like never before on my eating choice. Since when was I a vegetarian? Why was I one? What would happen if I ate meat? What if I got a sudden desire to eat chicken? Questions that I have never pondered on before were thrown at me amidst disbelief. It was then I realized that to the meat eaters, we vegetarians look like a stupid bunch, people who forsake yummy food for roots and vegetables. I guess it’s hard for a person who eats meat 4 times a day to understand that food without meat can also be just as tasty if not more.

So, although I won’t be participating in any of their wacky promotions and protests on the streets anytime soon, PETA would be proud to know that I remain a vegetarian (hopefully for life) despite the gasps, disbelief, questions and temptations of chicken nuggets (apparently soul food according to my oriental friends). 

The Brownie Conqueror

 

I love fiddling in the kitchen, be it following recipes or trying to create a new gastronomic dish. Thanks to exams and all the midnight snacking, I have a very varied list of odd but yummy dishes to fulfil any palate. It’s also not very difficult to see why, since I have immense culinary talents from both sides of the family. My mom and dad are masters in the kitchen and they have generously passed this talent to all three of their children. Well more to me and my sister, my brother has yet to showcase any culinary skill other than mixing and stirring, and not to forget reheating.

I still remember the first thing I ever made. It was a chocolate cake, I was 14 and I messed it up bad. By messed it up I mean I forgot to add baking powder in it and the cake was somewhat flat and lumpy. It still tasted ok to me; I mean it had chocolate in it, so I forgot the baking powder, so what? But that was the extent of my disasters in the kitchen. I put the lumpy chocolate cake fiasco behind me and started afresh. Soon I was making all kinds of stuff, I forayed into different cuisines. Italian, Chinese, Mexican, Japanese, but my real joy was making desserts. Be it cakes, muffins, cupcakes, pies, you name it, I wanted to bake it. Whenever I saw a new dessert recipe I had to try it out, and luckily it used to come out quite good, except for one; BROWNIES.

Brownies were like a red mark on my culinary degree. Whenever I tried to make a brownie, it would end in disaster. They would come out black, burned, soggy, oily and so hard one could play football with them. I tried every damn recipe of brownie that there was, be it Nigella Lawson’s, Rachel Allen’s, Sanjeev Kapoor’s, Tarla Dalal’s, none worked. I got so frustrated I eventually gave up on them a year back, until my sister saw a new recipe and asked me to make them a couple of days back. I was hesitant and unwilling but my stubborn side (which is 90% or maybe even more) won and I put on my apron, wielded my whisk like a sword and went into battle.

First melt all the ingredients into submission

 

Then whisk them until they cry

Sieve the dry ones with an evil laugh

 

Spray the container to prepare them for the casualties

Use the last of your muscle power

 

And pop it in the oven at 180⁰ C

 

And viola the brownie is conquered

So how about you, conquered any desserts lately?