'Living in the Now' | Weekly column | 9.6.23 .

 

Living in the Now 9.6.23 | Mrinal Chatterjee

Golgappa

Golgappa has many names across the country. In northern states of India people call it panipuri. Bengalis and Odias like to call it phuchka or puchuka. Odias call it puchuka or gupchup. It is also called Pani ka Bataasha or Patasha. In parts of Bihar it is called phulki or pakodi. But I like the word golgappa. Pronounce it slowly and you will feel its fragile rounded shape, and will have the urge of putting a couple in your mouth post haste.

Any Indian recipe book will tell you that it is a common street snack in several regions of the Indian subcontinent. It consists of a round, hollow puri, fried crisp and filled with a mixture of flavored water, tamarind chutney, chili, chaat masala, potato, onion or chickpeas.

Origin of golgappa is ancient and interesting. According to a legend, Draupadi (of Mahabharata fame) invented the Pani Puri. When the Pandava brothers, Draupadi, and their mother Kunti were in exile after losing their kingdom in a game of dice, Kunti threw Draupadi a challenge. She gave her some leftover aloo sabzi and a small amount of dough and asked her to cook something that would satisfy all five brothers. The reason why she presented this challenge is unconfirmed. Some say it was to gauge if Draupadi would be a good housewife. Others say it was to see if Draupadi would favour one brother over the others. In response to Kunti’s challenge, Draupadi invented Pani Puri. Impressed by her daughter-in-law’s resourcefulness, Kunti blessed the dish with immortality.

Culinary researchers say that it first came into existence somewhere in the ancient Indian kingdom of Magadha. One of the sixteen mahajanapadas, or ‘great kingdoms’, of ancient India, the Kingdom of Magadha corresponded to what is now Southern Bihar. While the exact time frame of its existence is unclear, it reportedly existed prior to 600 BCE.

History apart, golgappa is no ordinary street food. You don’t order a plateful of golgappa and eat alone in a fancy restaurant. That is not the way you should have it. There is an elaborate ritual before you eat golgappa. You join a group, standing in a circle around the golgappawala and eat in a group in sessions.

Golgappa is age-defying. I had a session last evening. In the circle were a three and half year old girl, her mother and grandmother, me and Anita, my wife and a tough looking bearded young man of 26. The little girl beat us all. I can proudly say I discovered a golgappa-gulping prodigy.
Come to think of it, golgappa is the most democratic of snacks. Prepared with humble ingredients and much less fuss- it is inexpensive and it fills you up.
It is a great leveler too. Whoever you may be, you'll have to stand in a circle around the golgappawala with katora/leaf plate at hand and wait for your turn. It is one place, nobody jumps the queue.

It also teaches life lessons. You talk about stress. You don’t know real stress until you have a panipuri in your mouth, a panipuri in your hand, a panipuri in your bowl and the panipuri wala is standing in front of you with another ready panipuri.

It also shows you a short trailer of Moksha- bliss that the yogis and preachers talk about. Moksha is the feeling of bliss, when the soft shell of the golgappa breaks in your mouth and the masalawala sour tamarind water floods your mouth as your tongue finds the soft massed potato with smattering of fried ground nuts, green grams and many other ingredients that tickles your taste buds.

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Commemorative Coin and Stamp

It seems there is some confusion in the minds of some people, including my wife about the status of commemorative coins and stamps: can they be really used as other coins and stamps. Can we use these stamps to post letters? Or, use these coins to buy a bar chocolate?

I did some reading, searched some sites and found out. Here are the answers. Commemorative coin/stamp is a coin/stamp issued to commemorate particular event or issue with a distinct design with reference to the occasion on which they were issued. The objective is to remind one of the origin and significance of the event. It has ceremonial and archival value.

Commemorative stamps can be used alongside ordinary stamps. Unlike definitive stamps that are often reprinted and sold over a prolonged period of time for general usage, commemorative stamps are usually printed in limited quantities and sold for a much shorter period of time, usually, until supplies run out.

Similarly, though commemorative coins are considered legal tender, they are not released for general circulation. Since these coins are not intended for general circulation, these are not used for transactions.

RBI says that, “The coins issued by Government of India under Section 6 of The Coinage Act, 2011, shall be legal tender in payment or on account provided that a coin has not been defaced and has not lost weight so as to be less than such weight as may be prescribed in its case.”

Traffic Jam on the Himalayas

29 May 2023 marked a historic occasion. It was on this day at around 11.30 am in 1953 that Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary assented on Mount Everest for the first time in human history.

Author academician Subir Ghosh reminiscences: I was a student of Class IV, enjoying my summer vacation. Sometime in the afternoon, a howl of jubilation went up in our close - knit North Kolkata locality. The news spread like wildfire. Somebody had heard of their radio (a rarity and a prized possession in those days) that the hitherto invincible Everest has been conquered by an Indian and New Zealander two days back.

Since the day Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay set their feet on the top of Mount Everest, it had been a dream of all mountaineers across the world to emulate the feat. Over time and advancement of technology, climbing mountains became comparatively easy and less risky. In the last seven decades, as per official record close to seven thousand people scaled the peak. Several thousands more attempted and failed. Despite the cost and risk, more and more people are trying to scale the top. It has resulted in augmented income for the government of Nepal (It adds 300 million US dollar each year to Nepal’s economy ) and enormous damage to the environment of the Himalayas. Consider this: According to estimates there is some 50 tons of human-caused trash on Mount Everest. Not just that, there is some 26,000 pounds of human waste lying as well causing enormous amount of pollution and risk of epidemic in the region.

And the risk to human lives while attempting to ascent to the peak is increasing because of the increasing human traffic, crass commercialization of the expedition to the peak, which include allowing non-trained people to join the expedition and deteriorating weather and ground condition. The clear window period for final ascent to the top is just about 4-5 days. And hundreds of people line up to go up there, often resulting in terrible human traffic jam on a narrow and dangerous path some seven miles above the mean sea level with ice cold winds blowing and blurring one’s vision. Till 2019 over 300 people have died while attempting to scale the peak.

It seems it is prudent to restrict human incursion to Mount Everest for the sake of its fragile environment and saving human lives.

Jamai Sasthi

In Bengal there is an interesting festival called 'Jamai Sasthi', which centers around the son-in-law/s. This year it was celebrated on 25 May.

On this day the mother-in-law prays for the long life and prosperity of the son-in-law and feeds him like there is no tomorrow or/and every son-in-law has an appetite like a demon.

Carton by Anirban Bora

Why is this festival so very prevalent in Bengal? Author, public intellectual former bureaucrat and present MP from Bengal Jawahar Sircar has an answer. As he says, in the 19th century polygamy and early marriage of girls- both were rampant in Bengal. It resulted in the widowed brides in large numbers. Lives of widows were miserable to say the least. Therefore, mothers prayed for the long life of the son-in-law.

Sasthi is the deity of long and healthy life in several states including Odisha. But 'Jamai Sasthi' probably is only celebrated in Bengal. Days of polygamy are long over. The custom of early marriage of girls is illegal. The widows today hardly ever suffer the miseries of yesteryear. But the 'Jamail Sasthi' festival is there and growing in Bengal. In fact son-in-laws look forward to it, for a sumptuous meal and gifts from the mother-in-law.

Tailpiece: Management Gyan

In the just concluded IPL final CSK needed 13 runs in the last over with Shivam Dubey and Jadeja at the crease.

Mohit Sharma came out to bowl. He bowled one of the best last overs ever with first four balls giving away only 3 runs. He bowled good length which gave no room for the batter to lift their bat to slog.

CSK needed a four and six of last two balls.

And, suddenly GT skipper Hardik Pandya came running into the scene.

He stopped the momentum, gave some "gyaan" to bowler and motioned him to bowl.

The result was a disaster.

Mohit bowled a half volley and Jadeja hit him for a six.

Aain came Hardik, imparted some pearls of wisdom. He stopped the match got the bowler to drink and made him and then urged him to bowl.

Mohit bowled on the legs and Jadeja flicked it over the 3rd man for 4 and won the IPL 2023 for this team.

Mohit who could have been the hero of the match ended up a big Zero, courtesy his over jealous captain, who intervened and interrupted the rhythm.

Moral of the story:

Too much micromanagement causes too much stress leading to bad performance.

Let your team handle their own as they are also are professionals athletes and know their job.

And, give them "gyaan" only if they ask for it.

(Courtesy: Mrityunjoy Chatterjee)

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Living in the Now | Weekly Column | 2.6.23

Living in the Now 2.6.23 | Mrinal Chatterjee

The Sun rose and how!

Four out of the top five largest circulated newspapers in India presently is in Hindi, with a combined circulation of over 14 crores. It all started on 30 May 1826 with the publication of Oodhund Martand, (or Udant Martand  in some documents, which means rising sun), a weekly Hindi newspaper from Calcutta (now Kolkata). Incidentally it was the day of Narada Jayanti. Narada, a mythical wandering sage is widely considered to be the guru of the journalists.

Pandit Jugal Kishore Shukla (Jooghol Kishore Sookool- in some documents) edited and published it from AmarTalla Lane, Kolutola in the Bada Bazar area of Calcutta (now Kolkata)  ‘in the interest of Hindustanis’. The print order for the first issue was 500. Udant Martand used a mix of Hindi dialects- Khari Boli and Braj Bhasa in Devnagari script. This weekly newspaper reached readers every week on Tuesday.

Pandit Jugal Kishore Shukla 

By the early 1820s, newspapers in few Indian languages had been published including Bengali, Urdu and Persian. Samachar Darpan, 1818 was the first Bengali newspaper followed by Jam-e-Jahan Numa in Urdu (27 March 1822) and Mirat-ul-Akhbar (12 April 1822) in Persian.

Jugal Kishore Shukla hailed from Kanpur, but made Calcutta his workplace. He was a lawyer.  He wanted to talk about the rights of indigenous Indians in British ruled India. For this, he started publishing 'Udanta Martand'. In his papers, he raised the issue of equality of status of the Indians vis a vie the Europeans. He also raised issues of social inequality, besides publishing local news and news from Hindi speaking areas.

However, the paper could not get many readers, as there were not many Hindi speaking and Devanagari script reading people in Kolkata and Eastern India. He tried to send the paper to Hindi speaking states in North India. In that time he could only send the newspapers by post. It became very costly and economically unviable because of the high postal rates. Shukla requested the government to give some concession in postal rates so that newspapers could be sent to readers in Hindi speaking regions, but the British government did not agree to it. He requested postal fee exemption for eight newspapers to be posted to North India. That was also denied. Besides, no government department agreed to buy even a single copy of 'Udanta Martand'.

Thus, mainly due to financial constraints, 'Udanta Martand' could not be published for a long time, and finally, on 4 December 1826, it stopped publication. 

Years later, in 1850- Jugal Kishore Shukla made an attempt to start another paper called Samyadani Martand. But that also failed.

Udanta Martand as an individual newspaper failed to live long. However, it marked the beginning of journalism in Hindi.

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https://www.odisha.plus/2023/06/the-sun-rose-and-how/