Mysore, the foodie paradise

It’s been more than 2 yrs since I've left Mysore but I still feel like going back again and again.Apart from the beautiful city it is, it’s also home to quite a few unique food experiences which is possibly not available anywhere else in this world.I miss it a lot when I'm in Kolkata where I'm deprived of such gastronomic pleasures.Here’s a list of such uniqueness of food in Mysore.Feel free to add to this list if you feel so.

1. Masala and set dosas from Mylari.
2. Chicken Biryani from RRR and mysore sport’s club
3. Vegetarian meals again from RRR
4. Kachoris from Danavantari road.
5. Meals at Tegu mess in K D road
6. Alu and Gobi parathas from Bhattacharjee’s
7. Ghee rice from Vaibhav
8. Chicken stronganoff in red wine sauce in Planet X
9. Midnight Chai in R M C circle
10. Vanilla ice cream and chocobar in front of Joy Ice cream factory…yeah you might say Joy icecreams are available in other places too but vanilla ice cream never tasted that good any where else.
11. Fruit Juices and Egg-ma-puffs at Ami’s Bakery in Bannimantap
12. Cheese bionic burgers from Downtown, K.D. Road
13. Gobi manchurian from Gokul chats,Gokulam
14. Sizzlers at Jewel Rock
15. Chinese food at Shanghai Chinese Restaurant

its not an exhaustive list.just whatever came right on top of my head…I'm sure there are many more incredible things i failed to mention about food in Mysore

Patriotism,poverty and independence

The day before yesterday I was watching a movie called Peepli [live].It’s a dark comedy/satire on the farmer suicides,media circus and politicians in a backdrop of rural India.I couldn’t help think to myself that now we consider the poverty in our  country as a selling point to the west.We showcase to the west how poor our country is and how we need their money.Today we celebrate 63 yrs of independence and ironically we have more people living below the poverty line than 63yrs ago.Yes there has been an almost 4 fold increase in population from the 300 million then which would account for that increased no.But my point is what does independence mean to those 300-400 million who are below poverty line and have a  pathetic life to look forward to everyday.I doubt they even know that  we have gained independence because that knowledge does not feed them or their children.Why would these people even be patriotic towards a state which has shown just pure indifference for so many years.

At the other end of the spectrum we have the political class, bureaucrats, government officials and huge businessmen.These are people with unlimited incomes at their disposal and yet chose not invest it for their country at some level.The Commonwealth games fiasco does not come as a surprise to anybody.That for me is the worrying factor.The fact that we take corruption so granted that we are hardly overwhelmed  even when such a magnitude of money is being swindled from the the taxpayer’s (read our) pocket goes to show how deep rooted corruption is in our country.The costliest Commonwealth games ever which was initially pegged at Rs.655 crores in 2003 which considering inflation and further works should have cost a little more than Rs.2,500 crores on the upside has ended up at more than Rs.11,000 crores and yet we get to host the worst Commonwealth games ever.Come October and we will all hang our heads in shame not only at our dismal medal tally but also for the substandard training and event facilities.Really when you consider that Rs.11k crores have been wasted out of which 60-70pc have gone into the pockets of private parties ,with nearly 300 million Indians living below poverty line and probably more than 600million who are really poor could we afford such an extravagance and in hindsight where has it got us today other than being the laughing stock for the whole world.Couldn't we have used that much money for improving our country instead of showcasing us as a corrupt poverty stricken country that this commonwealth games is going to do.It is strange that we don't have the excitement that South Africa had during the football world cup or what China had during the Beijing Olympics.We really do not feel any sense of association with the Commonwealth games being hosted in our country.And the people responsible are our political and bureaucratic class.I sometimes wonder how they sleep at night without all these things affecting their mindsets.

Our sports culture is so awful that we have the lowest Olympic medal to population ratio.When a country like Uruguay with a total population of 3.4 million people can produce a football team which can reach the semi-final of the world cup while we don’t even have a half decent team which can even be among the top 100 there should be something worrisome.Our Hockey team did not even qualify for the 2008 Olympics and are in doubt for qualifying for the 2012 event and Hockey is supposed to be our national sport.Cricket is the only place where we have some respectability but who knows about cricket other than the commonwealth nations? who is responsible? the Athletes? these people who have staked their entire careers on an unsympathetic country who don’t even value their sporting heroes or the didactic sport officials running the sport because they have interest in it though no qualifications for it and intend to make profits from these?

We spend 10-12% of our annual budget for defence purposes to buy arms and bombs which may never be used.Yet the government spends less than 1 percent of the annual budget on health care.We spend less than 5 percent of our GDP on health and 80pc comes from the private sector.This figure is the lowest in southeast Asia.Even a country like Sri Lanka spends 16pc and Malaysia 32pc.Who is to explain such huge deficits?

Why is the Maoist problem reaching a head these days?The answer lies in the unequal distribution of wealth.When a poor farmer has nothing to eat,to survive and save his family he would be extremely willing to take up arms against his own country because for a hungry farmer patriotism has little value.When we see that more people are poor than rich we should be thankful that the Maoists are not ruling us already.This is how complex the naxalite problem is.

This brings me back to the movie i mentioned earlier where the protagonist Natha is a helpless man in this system.No matter how many programmes or the incredible amount of money being spent for the the poor in the country not a single rupee reaches the poor man like Natha.when the people with the highest power in the country(read politicians and bureaucrats) chose not to do anything what else is there to say.These are the issues that needs to be addressed first before I would be proud to call myself an Indian.Till then Independence day means little to most of the country and this day serves only to let the elite among us to wax eloquent about our achievements over so many years and discover some annual fake patriotism.Yes its true we have achieved a lot but if we willed we could have achieved a lot more.

 

15th August,2010                   Raghuraj S. Hegde

The pound of flesh

The Israelis drop bombs on Palestinians and the Palestinians return the favour.Americans did the same after 9/11 and did a lot more after that.Everywhere that feeling of revenge is utmost on everybody’s minds.This poem is inspired by that very emotion in war…

Retribution

You kill my man today.

I’ll kill yours tomorrow.

In these wars of retaliation and retribution.

How long before we lose count whose turn it is?

I have killed many in my lifetime,

So i know there is more than one kind of death.

The more I kill the more dead I feel.

Yet I obtain no sense of closure.

The enemy’s death is a momentary escape.

It couldn’t make a better person out of me.

But how strange that i didn’t realise the futility of it all.

Till I pulled the trigger!!

My enemy is somebody’s son, husband or father.

How so similar to me.

It just remains a matter of reference.

As to who is on the wrong side of humanity.

I sin and sin again and every time

I do it knowing that I have and am.

I remember so much that I have done.

Yet I have learned nothing at all.

The long gone memories keep notice.

All the bloody wars that we seldom forget.

The skies that are a darker colour of blood.

Our lifetimes fall short to wash them away.

24th July,2010        

                              Raghuraj S. Hegde