I’ll not forget this particular instance that occurred a few months back. We were having a company get-together and many of my colleagues had brought their families along. I was trying to play with one of my Colleague’s Kids. I stretched my hands towards the kid and called out, “Anna-kitta variyaa?”. My colleague was sitting nearby tending to his other kid. From that seated position, he just lifted his head, looked at me with a slightly amused-cum-mocking look and said “Anna-vaa?”

I realize that it’s not only me. I’ve seen many other guys who are about the same age as me, react in a similar way. On a more serious note, of course, all of us accept that we’re getting older. In fact, we rarely bother about it (We’re not that old, yet). But on a lighter vein, hearing someone introduce us as an ‘uncle’ give a slight prick One of my friends has taken to signing his name as ‘Youth’ in his personal mails to friends

Nowadays, age (or ‘youthfulness’) is a regular way of teasing others. The younger guys in our group will call themselves ‘kids’ and tease the older ones as grandpas, while the older guys will pretend that the younger ones are not old ‘enough’ to understand certain things . But as soon as a guy marries, this equation will automatically change. He will then become the ‘Big uncle’ or the ‘Grandpa’ of the group, even if he is much younger than the rest of us.

We are going through a transitional period of our lives – We’re getting older and moving out of the college (or fresh out of college) mentality; settling down in our respective careers; seeing so many fresh baby faces around in our workplace (against whom we seem older); hairlines receding (this is a very important one); and slowly each one is entering into marital relationships. I guess, all these are making us want to hold on to the image of “youth”, a little longer.

I would like to revisit this post when I make the next transition – from being an ‘Uncle’ to a ‘Thatha’ / ‘Grandpa’. I wonder how it’ll be then

Ever since the reporter threw his shoes at the president, they have become quite popular. A shoe maker from Turkey, Ramazan Baydan, claims to be maker of those shoes. The result – he’s now flooded with orders from around the world for that model of shoes. The shoe’s sudden popularity or that the president’s unpopularity is proving to be a gold rush for this cobbler.

Strange world …

Here’s the news article : ‘Bush shoe’ gives a Turk firm footing

Over the past 3 decades, China has taken up mass manufacturing at a scale not imagined by anyone before. There are millions of factories across China churning out products by the billions. Most of us would not have heard of any of these companies as most of these products are sold under popular home brands of the respective countries. This is in contrast to the development model of the Japanese or the South Koreans who, over the years, have built up a popular brand image and value. While the world would blindly trust a product from a popular company in Japan / Korea, we would think twice before purchasing a product marketed directly as “Made in China”. But in all probability, the entire product floated by the Japanese / Koreans would’ve been manufactured in China.

The massive scale of production in the Chinese territory, the ways & means of sourcing the raw materials to meet this production scale and the consequences of such massive production & dumping of products, while awe inspiring, also makes me uncomfortable and uneasy.For example, the Chinese city of Zhangjiagang is like the ‘wooden workshop of the world’ producing all sorts of stuff like plywood, wooden flooring, furniture etc. Seeing the effects of large scale deforestation on the Chinese forests, the government banned the felling of natural forests in the country. As a result, the wooden industry turned to the outside world for wood supply. Currently, China is said to be the largest importer of wood and a sizable percent of it is supposed to be illegal. Millions and Millions of acres of rain forests are being destroyed illegally and the wood is sent to the Chinese factories to be made into furniture to be sold to the affluent of the world. Forests of Africa, South America, Indonesia etc are rapidly diminishing due to this illegal trade.

The Chinese have a majority market share in almost every single product that you can imagine. There is a region in China,specializing in fake oil paintings that we see in hotels, shops and other public places. This place churns out thousands of fake Mona lisa, Marlyn Monroe and even Bush. There are huge markets selling plant herbs, animals parts and even human placentas to be used in traditional medicines.

The output of every product is in the Billions. I’m personally not in favor of this model of development which has produced millions of workers working around 100 hours a week, on the same monotonous job in an assembly line, for an extremely low wage. Some argue that this is better than the wretched life that these people would be living, if not for such factories. But I’m not comfortable with that thought. This model has produced millions of workers with steady, but low wages on one hand and a handful of rich factory owners, managers and industrialists on the other. The cities become divided into sections of huge overcrowded workers, interspersed with affluent homes and apartments.

This type of mass production is also building up clutter in this world. Everywhere we see huge warehouse style shops in our places such as Saravana stores or Big Bazaar in India or the ones like Walmart or target in the US. They have huge mounds of stuff at dirt cheap prices, all mass produced in such factories in China. We see people buying stuff by the cart loads. Most do not even care if they really need these items. They’re just cheap and attractive. I see a huge glut of materials among the affluent of the world. Each one has something like 2 televisions, 3 mobile phones, 2 laptops, 2 cars, 10 bags, 20 pens and 5 bundles of paper. The concept of buying just one of any item seems to be vanishing. Here in US, I don’t think I can buy a single pen or just 10 sheets of paper. I have to buy a pack of 10 pens or a whole bundle of paper.

The mass output of such factories have not yet covered the entire humanity. Imagine what will happen if the entire human population starts living like this. The production which is already in the billions would shoot up into the Trillions, Zillions or Pillions (I don’t know what such huge numbers are called). Where are we going to get the resources for these? What will be ecological footprint of these operations? How are we going to dispose the waste products? I don’t think, this mindless obsession for filling up our lives with endless cheap material possessions, augurs well for this planet.

1. Boil the pumpkin with around 3/4 cups of water along with salt and turmeric powder.
2. Fry the shredded coconut, red chillies and cumin (you can add a very small amount of oil) till the coconut is reddish. Grind this mixture into a thick paste.
3. Once the vegetable has cooked well, add the ground mixture to it. Add some water to it if required (take care not to make it too watery). Allow this mixture to boil well, letting the masala blend with the vegetables.
4. Fry some mustard seeds and curry leaves and add to the dish. You can also add some coconut oil to the dish to give it a nice flavour and smell.
5. The dish is ready to be served