Window
Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee | 9.7.23
Biryani
I did not know that the first Sunday
of July was celebrated as World Biryani Day, till Musa Bhai told me. I’ll tell
you about Musa Bhai later, first about biryani.
Biryani is one of the most popular dishes in South and Middle Asia, as well as among the diaspora from the region. Biryani is the single most-ordered dish on Indian online food ordering and delivery services, and has been labeled as the most popular dish overall in India. Consider this: every year Indians gobble up biryani worth Rs 7 crores.
Different food historians have
different versions regarding the origin of this delicious rice and meat based
dish.
Some say it originated in Persia
(modern day Iran). The word originated from birinj, the Persian word for
rice or from biryan or beriyan, which means "to fry" or
"to roast" or bereshtan which also means "to roast
(onions)", as the dish is often prepared by flavouring rice with fried
onions and meat, besides mild spices. It arrived in India with the Mughals and
was patronized by them. Some food historians believe that there were other,
similar rice dishes prior to the Mughal invasion. There is mention of a rice
dish known as Oon Soru in Tamil as early as the year 2 A.D. Oon Soru
was prepared of rice, ghee, meat, turmeric, coriander, pepper, and bay leaf,
and was used to feed military warriors.
Whatever the origin may have been,
one thing is sure: biryani has won over us. There are several regional
variations of biryani. There is Hyderabadi and Lucknowvi and also a Kolkata
variety which has a big piece of potato in it- a sacrilege of sorts in other
styles of Biryani.
There are several restaurants, all
over the country- famous for its biryani. There is Arsalan and Oudh 1890 in
Kolkata, Lala’s Biryani in Lucknow, Al-Jawahar in Delhi, Paradise in Hyderabad
(Secundarabad), and so on and so forth.
In Dhenkanal, a small Central Odisha
town, where I live, we have one roadside joint and it serves the best biryani
of the town: Musa Bhai's Biryani. He rang me to offer greetings on World
Biryani Day.
Satya
Ram Gopal Varma directed cult gangster movie Satya
celebrates its 25th anniversary this month. A quarter century after its rather
lack-luster release, it remains the most influential crime drama in the
history of Hindi cinema, and is easily one of the most enduring Bollywood
classics.
Written by Anurag Kashyap and Saurav Sukla ‘Satya’
is the story of a calm, unemployed man who is sucked into the world of gangsters
by fateful circumstances. It shows the savage side of humanity, the dark
truth of underworld where deception and betrayal lurk in the lanes of the crime
world. If Coppola struck gold with his directorial venture – The Godfather,
‘Satya’ made the audience take notice of Ram Gopal Verma’s powerful
direction. But Satya was no Godfather. It is darker and
closer to the real Mumbai underbelly.
Satya changed the cinematic image of
the Mumbai underworld for good. Though it did not get a good business initially,
it picked up pace and with time became a craze across the country, especially
among the youth. In several colleges, young students followed the Viku Mahtra
dance steps in college functions, and wore their beard like Satya and Viku did.
Through the character of Viku Bollywood discovered Manoj Bajpayee the actor.
Miya Malhar
Come the rains, classical music
lovers long for Malhar, a Hindustani
classical raga, associated with torrential rains.
This raga is also referred as Miya Malhar, since it was a creation of Miya
Tansen (1500-1586/87), the renowned singer, musician and one of the jewels of
the darbar of the Mughal king Akbar.
Several songs on rain have been
composed in this raga in different languages, especially in Hindi and Urdu and
have been used in films. Listen to them as it pours outside and feel the rain
pouring down on you.
Dark days for Print Journalism
Vienna’s
Weiner Jeitung, one of the world’s oldest surviving newspapers, closed down its
print edition, after 320 years of continuous publication. “320 years, 12
presidents, 10 emperors, 2 republics, 1 newspaper,” the print edition's final
front page read.
More than a century after it was first
published, National Geographic magazine has laid off its last remaining staff
writers after a decade-long struggle to keep up with the challenges of digital
publishing. Also It will no longer be sold on US newsstands.
Weiner Jeitung was first published under the name
Wiennerisches Diarium. It set out to provide a sober account of the news
“without any oratory or poetic gloss” when it was launched on August 8, 1703.
It will, however, continue to operate online and plans a monthly print edition.
National Geographic Magazine started
publication in October 1888 as the official journal of the National Geographic
Society, a nonprofit dedicated to funding science and exploration across the
planet. Since then, National Geographic has grown to become one of the most
iconic brands in the world.
As the iconic print editions shut/scale down,
somehow I feel sad- probably because of my long association with print media as
a journalist.
Sports Journalism
Meanwhile, sports journalism in
Assam turned 100 on 1 July 2023.
The first sports news appeared in
the newspaper ‘Asomiya’ on July 1, 1923, regarding a three-day soccer
competition in the Sivasagar district.
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