FEW GOOD MEN | hguy.blogspot.com

Corporate leaders are mostly thugs in a suit. They rise bcoz they are the chaallu types. Their whole career is a testimony of doing the wrong thing. 

Anyways.

I was working at HSBC BPO in Bangalore when, one day, I found myself with a gigantic lady in the lift. Not fat but tall. She smiled and nodded her head. I responded. Then she said I have never seen you here. I blinked. This was the maximum interaction I had with this American. BTW did I tell you she headed Bangalore?

But that’s not the story.

Right near our gate. Login time. Came this man in a bicycle. In a dhothi. And sold some of the most heavenly samosas ever made. The tedious journey to work was compensated by this one samosa. We had to stand in a queue to be served. I saw this big American once or twice standing in the queue.

Then the usual. Police come and harass the old man. You are blocking the traffic. One day right in front of all of us, the policeman kicks the fellow’s cycle and all the samosa fell into the gutter. All for 10 rupees mamul. 

The big lady didn’t take to this kindly. Three months later. Right next to the gate. Inside the compound was a cute new permanent structure and inside it was the old man selling his wares.

Not all corporate honchos are thugs.

STREET FOODS OF INDIA | hguy.blogspot.com

1. Paani Puri (also called Ghapchup or Gol Gappa)

It's a pan-India dish.  The puri is common everywhere. Made of atta or sooji. Flatbread fried till it puffs up. But it is the paani that makes the difference and this is what makes it mouth-watering.  Paani is the watery liquid added into the puri. Usually two kinds. One sweetish, the other green chili hot that should make you cry. 
So a hole is made in the puffed-up flat bread (simple thumb action no rocket science) and filled with mashed potato or peas or boondi mixed with chaat masala. This is then dipped in the liquid. Either one or both, depending on your taste.
You can take the dish one level higher if you add ice to the liquid.
Goes without saying, a very unhygienic dish.

2. Vada Pav

It's an east meets west dish. Pav is western for sure. English but most likely Portuguese. That's cut in half and a batata vada (potato bonda or bajji or pakoda) is placed in it. You add chutneys and powders to give it your special flavor but the best accompaniment is deep-fried green chilly whole.
A very Maharashtra dish.

3. Gobi Manchurian 

This is a created-in-India made-in-India Chinese dish. Cauliflower aka Gobi is chopped into bite-sized bits and soaked in a mixture of corn-starch, maida, and masalas and salt then fried to a nice crispy brown. From here it can take two paths. One dry, the other gravy. You saute it light to make it dry or wet it a little more for gravy. You have soy sauce, tomato ketchup, and chili sauce here to play with. 
We Bangaloreans had only this one dish for an evening outing for donkey's years. Now we have everything including momos and waffles.



4. Jalebi

More than what it contains, it's the tools and process that should be noted. First, you need a cloth pouch (1 ft by 1 ft) usually made of muslin with a hole in the center. Then you need a kadia that is special to jalebi making. It's flat bottom but low rise. Now you make the batter (all Indian batter is the same, almost) and keep it overnight. Place this semi-solid semi-liquid batter in the cloth and use the pressure of your palm to make small concentric circles in the flat bottom kadia now with hot oil. 
In another vessel make chasni.  Sugar syrup. Boil water and put sugar. It's that simple. Don't do rocket science here. But if you want to, learn about 1-tar 2-tar that's 1-string 2-string consistency.
Turn over the jalebi that is cooking in the aforementioned kadai and let it become sort of crispy brown. Remember the batter should start of white. If its not then artificial color has been added. beware. Now take it out, drain the oil and dip it in the sugar syrup. Not too long, 20 seconds at best - to preserves the crispy nature of jelebis. 
It's ready to serve. 
A yellow-orange, slightly transparent sweet.
We have cousins of jalebi called Imarti and Jhangeri. 




5. Bhel Puri

Take a handful of puffed rice (murmura), and mix it with tamarind juice, green chili juice, and chutneys. You get Bhel Puri with that sweet sour tangy taste that's so addictive. 

Did I mention it is low-calorie? Add onions and kothmir and top it with sev, boondi or ground nuts or small pieces of potatoes.

Its available all India and by god, tastes different everywhere. The best Bhel is from Mumbai.

6. Egg

Boiled egg, bread omelet, egg rice, egg roll, egg paratha, anda burger. This brings me to the fact that egg is the king of Indian street food.  You can add it any where. Maggi, biryani, half boiled, half fried, bull's eye, curry, or scrambled.

7. Butta

Corn on a cob sold either roasted or boiled. Add fresh lime juice to take it one level up.

8.    Samosa

Boil potatoes, and skin and mash them and add masalas and fry a little. Add peas, chole, carrots anything that gets you going. 

Then press down roti puri dough- small size, cut in half. In each half put some allo mash and fold to get a triangular pyramid. Now deep fry it and serve it with khatta chutney or ketchup.

You have the hyderabadi small samosa. Instead of allo (potato) you have pyaz (onion) fried here. These are crispier too. And with a totally different taste. Sold mostly in the Muslim areas and the Irani cafes.

Then you have halvai samosa. Big giants made richer with Kaju or Kismis. 

You can even make it non-veg by adding keema or small pieces of mutton or chicken.

9. Bajji aka Pakoda

Take big green mirchi (chillies) dipped in besan batter and deep fry it. Well, in the same batter you can dip sliced brinjal, spinach, capsicum, potato, bread, paneer and anything else you can think of including chicken. In the end, if nothing is left, the batter itself is deep fried to make boondi or plain fritters. 

There on you add accompaniment, chopped onions, and chutneys. 

A slight variation is masala or channa vada which is an entirely different animal.

You can value add to the samosa by dipping it in chasni aka sugar syrup or make samosa ragda with it.

Millions eke out a living selling these items roadside in India.

#streetfood #india

ABOUT BHARAT JODO | hguy.blogspot.com

Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra is actually a big thing. Yet it failed to set the Ganges on fire. And the reason is only one.

Corruption.

Not caste, creed, religion, sex, intellect, or eduction.

We have had SC, ST, BC, OBC, Brahmins, Kshatriya, and Vaishyas lead us and they are all the same. 

Corrupt.

Congress can get back to power in the blink of an eye. Take a genuine pledge to be corruption-free. But that's easier said than done. The so-called system is pro-corruption. Stones will be thrown at him. But if he stands true. We may have the greatest leader yet.

My eyes are on Arvind Kejriwal to make our country 'sone ki chidiya. 

Plus it showed the important fact that #Rahul and #Congress are still a force to reckon with.

#aap #cong #inc #bjps

TAKEN FOR A RIDE... | hguy.blogspot.com

This incident took place in Bangalore. 

I once went to a phone booth to make a call and as I finished I saw a beautiful lady next in line. She gave me a smile and it was as though I froze. She asked me my name and I literally blurted it out. 

She said,"I want to talk to you". 

Me why- anytime. I said, "Yes - what is it". 

She said, " I have a wonderful proposition for you". 

I then saw those multicolored stars people talk so much about. 

Me - Oh sure. "but I am busy now. Can I meet you at 2 o clock". 

I said, " sure". Same place then. And she got into her car and drove away. 

I came back to the phone place at 1 o clock and waited for her. There her car came at 2. She got down - beautiful and radiant. Asked me to get into the car. Oh my god. And in about 2 minutes we were at a building with a board "AMWAY".


So there punctured all my hopes. For the next 2 hrs, I was taken thru a presentation and told to become a member and have to pay 3k for it and bla bla. It was what we call multilevel marketing sales pitch.

Anyways, I didn't join them and I never saw that lady again.

HOW QUILTS ARE MADE | hguy.blogspot.com

I remember this scrap quilts made by the women folk where I stayed at Palam, Delhi. It was an intricate art and took days to complete.

Months before the biting Delhi winter, when the sun is long and warm, the women gathered in the  big common space. And were busy. As though preparing for a dance.

I had to investigate. I found heaps of old damaged clothes, a big macintosh, many sacks stitched into one big piece, a big tarpaulin and needles and thread. They were making Razais. Not the ones filled with cotton but a modification of the Jaipur Razai.

First they laid out the first layer working in three teams. So one had the tarpaulin, one the macintosh and third the sack. They laid it out in a rectangle the size of  double bed. Then laid a 3 inch wide cloth tape boundary to this. Then they laid out the torn pieces of cloth to cover the area within. It was actually the old clothes of their children. Then they rolled up the first layer enclosing all this.

Now comes the skillful part. They unroll it inch by inch and use the long needles and longer thread to stitch the whole damn thing up.

Later they use the big scissors, which look more like shears, to trim the edges off the pieces of cloth. Soon you have a multicolored spread of cloth. Stitch two such pieces together and lo you have a nice warm home-made razai.

This reminded me of something from my childhood. I must have been around 3-4 but its as clear as yesterday. Mom took me along to buy bed sheets. We went to this ladies home at Lower tank bund in an auto. Hell, I remember it so clearly. There she laid her eyes on this quilt made up of old clothes. The lady told mom that she cut her old clothes into squares and made it. And was willing to make mom one too, if mom could provide the clothes. We immediately ride back home, mom collects a bundle of old clothes and go back to give it to the lady. A fortnight or so later we have a beautiful bed spread and used it for years as a counterpane.

INDIAN PARENTING AND CORONA - hguy.blogspot.com

Indian parents do not plan much for their kids. Except that to be a doctor or an engineer. The rest is more of where the wind blows....

Where did your son join?
Nagarjuna Jr. college said the mother of the 42.12% student.
Ok, even I will put my son there, replied the mother of the 84.98% student.

That girl is not getting married.
Oh.
The entire Sanjeev Reddy Nagar Kamma community has rejected her.
Oh. Why?
She was seen talking to a Reddy boy at the bus stand.
Oh.
But her parents are giving her a bag of gold.
My son will marry her.

Today parenting is easy.

If your baby is not eating his food. Give him a mobile and feed him as much as you want. Earlier the mom had to walk the entire neighborhood just to feed the katora of mudda pappu and rice.
Your kid is naughty and noisy. No Probs, give him a mobile and see how silent he sits in a corner.
Well, when he gets addicted to it, the very same parent goes about town and complains how the mobile has spoilt their child.

This group of students went to Chennai. A college trip. This boy fought at home for permission to go on the trip. Later the parent went to meet the coordinator of the trip. He informed the parents that their son spent the entire trip stuck to his mobile playing PUBG. He refused to visit the Guindy Snake Park, IIT and Mahabalipuram. Was in his hotel room playing the game. Not like us. Come Sunday and we would have left home at 7AM only to return at 7PM. Lunch would be Jaamkay or mangoes from some random tree.


Anyways. What I wanted to say is that Covid-19 is not the great equalizer that it was supposed to be. It only came to show us how foolish our leaders are.

What do Indian do in America? - hguy.blogspot.com

WHAT IS POLITICS? - hguy.blogspot.com

Is it screaming at one another? Is it saying something but doing something else? Is it always disagreeing with someone? Is it whose planes fly over which country?

I have lots of questions here.

So I dug deeper. Only to realize, not many know what politics actually is. They mistake it for cheating, telling lies, corruption, and manipulation.

Well, here is my understanding of politics.

I see scores of kids learning “taekwondo". How come this unknown sport overtakes Kung Fu and Karate? Especially when Karate and Kung Fu movies are just so popular across the country. Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan have a cult following in India. The first foreign film to become a silver jubilee hit (run for 25 weeks) in India was Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon. But one has not ever heard of Taekwondo.

Simple. They formed an association and produced paperwork and hobnobbed with the right crowd and got Taekwondo accepted as an Olympic sport. This one recognition moved it miles ahead of its competitors.

Then we have Kareena Kapoor. I may face resistance here. But bear with me. She is so ugly that leave aside the movie camera; she shouldn’t be in front of a still camera. Yet she has conquered mindshare of the Indian psyche. How. Well, it's politics blended with some good PR. It was ensured she was bombarded on us nonstop despite dozens of excruciatingly bad performances - not to mention zero oomph factor. In many big budgeted movies. Till the silly Indian public - who is supposed to sab jaanta hai - accepted her as a rare beauty and a sex symbol who lights up the screen with her dazzling performance. Saif never had any great taste women, so she hooking up with him is no endorsement of her nonexistent charm. So much like Bryce Dallas Howard.

But the most mind-boggling example of politics is - how did Kumaraswamy become the CM of Karnataka; when he got only 15% of the seats. No wonder Sid has a long horse face these days. Technically, he owe his post to no one but Rahul Gandhi. Not even the voters.

I had a parrot named polly. It ate a clock and now politics.

#politics #news #kumaraswamy #kareena #kapoor #saif #kungfu #karate #movies #bollywood #bangalore

LOUIS VUITTON - THE INDIAN STORY - hguy.blogspot.com

When my new friend told me he once worked for LouisVuitton, I was like ‘wow.

So where were you based.... France? – I asked.

No, Pondicherry. – He answered.

Really. Never knew LV was in India. Well, it was and this is their Indian story.

They built a factory at Pondicherry. But it had problems from day one. They treated it like a step-child. They - the old guard at Paris - couldn’t wrap their head around the fact that their products were going to be built in third-world India. And with the same quality, if not better.

Anyways, our guy was invited to Paris for the annual meet. He talks of one incident. There is one LV store in Paris. Only for employees. The only one in the world. And has 90% off on products. So our guy goes gaga. And decided to buy everything on his next trip.  Sadly, that was never to happen.

LV was actually doing well in India. Production cost was brought down. Quality was acceptable. But you know the French. They never can let a good thing be.

That group in France didn’t allow the factory to flourish as it should have. One point they raised was who will buy Indian-made products. To answer that, India made 85% of the product and the final finishing and packing was done in France, thus they could label it ‘Made in France.

The Head of design and quality (both Indians) made it hell for the Head of LV India who’s main task was manufacturing. And was French. The two Indian were technically reporting to him but played the game of that powerful group. Anyways, the India Head ploughed alone and made wonderful products. Another drawback was leather. The powerful group ensured that the leather was to be procured by head office and sent to India. This was always delayed or sometimes reached Pondicherry damaged. India Head convinced his boss to allow him to source leather in India itself. This was a wild success and it brought down manufacturing cost dramatically with no compromise of quality.

The powerful group couldn’t stand this victory. Even if it made a tons of money for everyone. France couldn’t be defeated by India. So after four years in India the unit was closed down. The two henchmen immediately moved to France – only to find out they were no longer needed.

The India head stayed back and started his own venture.

Thus ended what could have been a great love story.


#louisvuitton
#outsourcing
#french #thefrench #france

Article by Hemant Singh

None of the products here are LV

SOMETHING YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT THE CENTRAL UNIVERSITY OF HYDERABAD

Insiders at the Central University of Hyderabad say that there was, in fact, interference by politicians in the campus that led to the sad death of a scholar. Smriti Irani and a few other BJP pests were poking their noses in the University. I understand. 10^th pass, feel a great pride hobnobbing with the intelligentsia.

I knew the university when it had 15 teachers and 20 students. And the biggest compound wall in the history of universities.

We blame the politicians for everything, but our academics are no better. The professors of this place had only one aim. To send their kids abroad. So they formed a club with a single motto – you scratch my back and I will scratch yours.

So one professor wrote a recommendation letter for an English university for the daughter of another professor. “The girl is bright beyond her years. The fact that she took five years to complete a three-year bachelor’s degree, shows how much she likes the subject. Not to mention her mastery over it now.

To reciprocate, this professor wrote a recommendation letter to a US university for the pompous fool son of that professor. “Please don’t be fooled by the 51% he scored in his bachelor degree. He is beyond bookish knowledge and bowled me over with the depth in the subject. And will be a worthy candidate in your MSc programme.

This boy now heads a medical research team in the USA. I have my doubts. 

#itchyprofessor
#centraluniversity

As I was...

Dear Deepika Padukone,

Your demand that we all Indians be offended coz foreign media mistook you for Priyanka Chopra got me thinking.

Of exactly how many Chinese I know. Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Jackie Chan. That's all. Out of 2 billion peeps, I can recognise only three. And if you put them in a line up then it will confuse me no end.

But girl, rather than be offended you should take it as a compliment. PC, as she wants to be called, is someone you can look up too. Despite a Miss Something she had to knock at producer’s doors and all that. Secondly you are not that fair. Yes yes you are fair by south-Indian standards, but you are not Priyanka fair.

Her body of work is far more exciting. Diverse roles. So next time someone mistakes you for a Vidya Balan or a Kangana Ranaut, please don’t get offended. If they mistake you for Rakhi Sawant, draw out all the dagger. But till then spare us Indians and fight you own battles.


#deepikapadukone
#priyankachopra
#vidyabalan
#kanganaranaut
#hemantsingh

SHORT STORIES I REMEMBER...

 I don't know how but I remember my kiddy class English stories as though yesterday. They must be as old as class I.

This one is about a simpleton who takes his sick granny to a doc. 

A week later they go back to doc - no relief to granny. 

Third week same story. Then the doc asks are you following all the instructions.

Simpleton says yes, doc. Its written shake well before use. 

and I do shake my granny well before giving her her medicine 3 times a day.

 So its 'shake well before use'. 


The next is about a group of - lets just say simpletons. 8 of them to be exact, on a trip or something. Now they have to cross a river.

Once they reach the other side, they want to see if all of them reached the other end safely. They count and find one missing. Another checks and finds one missing. Actually they are counting others and not self hence the discrepancy.

There is this passer-by who notices this comedy and intervenes. He taps each one with his knuckles and counts .. and all is fine now.

This act of taping knuckle made us kids quite excited and I, for one, practiced it on my friends for next few days.

The 3rd made me wonder and we shall soon see why.

It was about 2 frogs. Once a city dweller the other a villager. I believe they were cousins. Once both meet, half way between the city and village. They greet and chat and soon they start boasting about the place of residence. 

The villager says the village life is the best while the city boast about his.

To decide once and for all which is better. The decide to climb on each others back see where the other person stays.

This is the best i could draw

Now folks you have to do some visualising. City frog upon the village frog, who is facing the village. But as frogs see back, the city frog see the ciy while on the village frog. And vice versa.

So in the end they have not seen any thing new but their own area and conclude both are the same. Or something like that.

It made me wonder coz i didn't know the diff back then between a  village and a city. Anyway was stimulating.