ALTER IDEM

Some months ago, I had introduced you to N . Well... N is someone I run into quite often. Every time, our interaction is restricted to smiles - a benign one from my side, and a shy one from his. This morning, N 's dad dropped in and gave me these chillies - sent by N from the patch that he has been cultivating near his home. I was quite touched, and glad! There are exactly eight chillies.... enough for more than a week! And, anyone who has used chillies can tell - these are 'export-quality'! I must confess here.... even though I have been managing a couple of chilli plants in our kitchen garden, I end up harvesting what remains after the crows and the bulbuls have had their party. I guess, N has whatever it takes to make a good farmer. Maybe, I should encourage him by giving him some of the vegetable seeds that I have .................... and, then, hope and pray that he gives me some of the results!!

This book gave me my first nightmare in recent memory! And, no.... I'm not referring to the 933 pages!! So much has already been written about Shantaram - 'powerful', 'original', 'vivid', 'compassionate', 'impressive', 'publishing phenomenon', 'extraordinarily vivid', 'gigantic, jaw-dropping, grittily authentic saga', ..... the book is all of these! Many people out there feel that it is one of the better books written about Bombay - the city. Maybe, it is. In fact, people who are familiar with the Bombay of the '80s will be able to tell the facts from the fiction. They'll, perhaps, recognise some of the people in the book..... Shantaram was meant to be my 'monsoon-book'. But, I started reading it sometime in December. After the first 200 pages or so, things became a little hectic and I picked up the book again last week....and, read a major portion on a very lonely day. In the book, t...

Last month, as Alter Idem turned four, I realised that so far, I have not written anything about cooking. Maybe, I should count this one as a post with some cooking.... Actually, cooking is such an inexhaustible topic that I know what I'll do. Whenever I feel like writing a post, and can't think of something interesting, I'll share an indigenous recipe......  I'll begin with my all-time favourite dosa - the Tender Coconut Dosa. To serve about 2-3 people, you will need 3 cups of rice - washed and soaked for a couple of hours; 2 1/2 to 3 cups of tender coconut pieces - the kind that's too raw to be used in dishes and too fleshy to be eaten as it is; salt to taste. Grind all the ingredients to a fine batter. Add enough water to arrive at a paint-like consistency.    This batter shouldn't be allowed to ferment. In fact, the left-over batter should be immediately refridgerated.  Spread the batter evenly on a warm griddle. Cover with a li...

Yes!! Alter idem is four today! As usual, to celebrate, I'll share a short story. You know, normally, I share the first story that comes to my mind as I begin to write the 'anniversary-post'. This time, I decided to rack my brains to remember something unusual and less known.......  After some serious thinking, one of my favourite writers, Oscar Wilde, came to my rescue!  I had read this story about 5 years ago in an anthology of short stories written in the 19th century. Since I have forgotten the names of the characters, I'll call them X, Y & Z ('Maths-style'!). X, an idle aristocrat is snacking in one of Paris' street cafes when his friend Y joins him - with the complaint that he does not understand women. The sagely X tells Y that women are meant to be loved and not understood, and offers to solve Y's 'love - problem'....  At this, Y shows X a picture of Z and asks for his opinion. The expert that he is, X concludes that there i...

We have not yet seen the end of the monsoon here. Even though it has been raining everyday, there is some sunshine between showers. After a break of nearly four months, it is time for me to get back to gardening. Every year, after the heavy rains, the garden looks haggard and unkempt because of the lack of attention. With every passing year, it has been getting more and more difficult to find someone to pull out the weeds and do the other menial tasks. This year, as I was mulling over some  probable candidates, I thought of N . Though he looks to be about 15, N is 18 years old. I know that because about 2-3 years ago, I saw his date of birth on his marks card. Class 10 results were out and N was refusing to go to school to check his results. Someone told his dad that these days, one could check them online and he came to me with the register number, requesting me to check N 's 'pass-fail'. Of course, I wasn't expecting great marks, but I didn't think N wou...

One summer afternoon, we were returning home via the Tirthahalli- Agumbe road. Suddenly, we saw a signpost that said 'Kundadri - 7 kms'. Wonder how we had missed it during our previous journeys on this road!  Kundadri was one of the local places on our 'must-see-sometime' list. And, we decided to check it out this time. Kundadri is a small mountain belonging to the Western Ghats range. Until a few years ago, trekking was the only way to reach the top. In order to make the Basadi (Jain temple) at the top  accessible to all, a businessman from Mumbai spent a few crores to build a narrow, motorable road. One still has to cover the last few metres  on foot. See the 'Welcome' arch somewhere near the centre of this pic? That is how the diversion from the main road looks like from the top! Since the sun was shining down brightly upon us, we decided to bide some time at the empty, shady parking zone. The others divided the newspaper and I reclined the seat to hav...

Birds do not have ears .... but, I'm sure, they could hear each other.... the mother, and the baby-sunbird.... Let me explain.... Today, for the first time, I had to chase a bird from inside our home! I was cooking lunch and had to take a call at my home-office. On returning, I saw a tiny, panicky female sun-bird fluttering about in great confusion! It seemed like this little one had just learned how to fly... and, had somehow managed to give her mother the slip! It was quite disturbing to watch the confusion.... the cheeping bird inside and the cheeping bird outside. If only I could speak the bird language..... I was quite sure that the bird would be smart enough to catch wind movements, and opened all the windows. I was wrong!! Tired, after about twenty minutes of non-stop flying, she began to take tiny breaks on accessible (to me) ledges. That was when I decided to capture and release her.... You know, there is this plastic container in the kitchen that is a re...