Time flies like an arrow...

First it was Ionesco's The Bald Soprano, then there was a concert and then we began auditions for Bangalore Love Story.... rehearsals, sets, costumes, sound checks, shows, lights, shows, rehearsals, guitar strings, sound check, sound check, sound check, house guests, love stories, sad stories, stories of yearning, of loss, of love.....God knows how it all went down.

We haven't been to Infinite Souls in so long that Prudence, just thinking of her, brings me wet eyes and guilt. And now we're off! Yippeeeeeee! All of October we're doing actor's workshops there. Harvest of pleasure. Actors in two rehearsal spaces...kalaripayattu for those with willing knees, treks and biomechanics for everyone. Music for sure. And dancing. My cup runneth over.

...fruit flies like a banana.

Green Mango Rice

I said I was going to do it before the season was over... so here I am, bearing the gift of my mother's Green Mango Rice recipe. The mango carts are now covered with Neelams (pretty and sweet, yet harbouring those black beetles) that mark the end, so I just about made it.

Amma's Green Mango Rice
Look, this entire thing depends on how many are eating, how sour you like your food, how much you have and so on. So don't take any of it seriously, just play - it's a forgiving recipe.

1. Approximately 2 cups of cooked rice
2. Perhaps 1 large green mango - grated
3. A little bit of finely chopped coriander leaves

Grind together till fine the following: About 1/2 coconut, a tablespoon of raw mustard seeds, 4 green chillies (or 8, depending on who's eating), 1 teaspoon of jeera seeds, salt to taste.

Mix the whole shebang (i.e. Items 1, 2 and 3 as well as the ground mixture) together, check for salt. Then season with the following:

- Hot oil, into which goes
- A teaspoon of mustard seeds
- A teensy pinch of hing
- A handful of curry leaves (I love them and therefore add plenty, you can add less if you like)
- 2-4 red chillies
- 2 tablespoons of ground nuts
Easy-peasy and it's yummy - so try it before the last mango vanishes!

While on the subject of the much-beloved and seriously good-for-you curry leaves, here is something I make when I am cooking ridge gourd (which, my Ayurvedic doctor assures me, is exactly what one should be cooking in Aashada. "Cook and eat all the gourds - haagalkai, sorekai, heerekai. But NO badhnekai!")

Ridge Gourd Peel & Curry Leaf Chutney


This is fantastic with hot rice and clearly what the doctor orders in this windy season of no dals, channa or rajma. I'm not kidding! Vayu, apparently, is on the rise in Aashada, so one must desist from legumes which cause seasonal aches, pains and lumbago.

1. Scrape the peel off your ridge gourds (I dunno...maybe 2 - 4 ridge gourds)
2. 1 tablespoon urad dhal
3. 8 red chillies
4. 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
5. 1 small pinch of hing
6. 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
7. Salt to taste
8. Wash about 1 cup of curry leaves
9. A lime sized ball of tamarind

Roast all ingredients except the salt, tamarind and curry leaves. When the urad dhal is golden brown, take off the heat. Grind together with salt, tamarind and curry leaves - till fine. Transfer into a dish. I sometimes add a little more oil to the chutney, you can decide if you want to. Mush into piping hot rice and, well, wallop it!

Zui was down with a cold and fever and I felt so sorry for the poor mite, all a-sniffing and a-groaning, that I thought I might bake something to cheer her up. What inspiration do my shelves offer? A well scraped (empty) jar of Nutella and some Peanut Butter. Alles klaar! Chocolate-peanut butter brownies it shall be!

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Brownies (or, Nutella-Peanut Butter Brownies) aka There's No Losing Brownies

1 cup salted butter, melted
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
I cup peanut butter (or, 1/2 PB and 1/2 Nutella)


Combine the dry ingredients well. Then combine melted butter, sugar, peanut butter (or PB & Nutella) over a low heat. Take off heat. Mix in the beaten eggs and vanilla extract. Fold in the dry mixture. Pour batter into a greased and floured dish (mine was an 8 inch square dish) and bake in a hot oven for approximately 20-30 mins or till the top starts to feel firm to the touch. Leave for about 10 minutes before cutting. The moistest brownies imaginable with minimal effort. Zui's cold was somewhat appeased :)

Other Folks' Blogs

There are so many fantastic blogs out there by young Indian women I'm grinning widely for the sheer spunk of it. It's a whole new art form, this blogospere, and Indian women have taken to it like, well, like folks who have been offered up a chance to mess with our heads, expand our horizons and challenge any remaining Luddite views we might have on New Media. Expression, opinion, photographs, video, widgets and if one so chooses, anonymity via avatars. Hmmm...diarists never had it so good before. Besides, ain't no nitpicking sub-editor gonna aim at homogenization and complain about punctuation. 

I discovered Third World Ghetto Vampire by Kuzhali Manickavel and it's really bloody fantastic. 

If you come today, you're too early, if you come tomorrow, you're to la-a-ate!

The Dr.Rajkumar byline coupled with her lippy style and  bang-on observations make it eminently readable. http://thirdworldghettovampire.blogspot.com/ 

Here's a sample for those of you who can't be bothered to click on the link above: 

"And now I am going to talk about SlutWalks because this just wouldn’t be a chickblog if I didn’t talk about SlutWalks yougaiz. The SlutWalk in Delhi had interesting and completely predictable effects on certain sections of our illustrious society. Some people who had hitherto been trying to wrap their heads around the novel idea that one should not call women sluts suddenly became superconfused and excited because the word ‘slut’ is very exciting. Other sections of society made the exceedingly clever observation that if women themselves are parading themselves as sluts, then why won’t they be treated as sluts? The aforementioned superconfused contingency took a great deal of comfort from this observation and now these two sections of society are like bee eff effs yougaiz.  The ‘SlutWalk joke’ was born and quickly distinguished itself as a very unique breed of humor where peeps got extremely emo and upset if you did not laugh at these jokes, even if they were mind-blowingly unfunny." 

This is not an isolated case. There are also blogs by...

- Meena Kandaswamy - "A blog by a 26-year-old tamil woman obsessed with dr.ambedkar's dream of caste annihilation" - with her poetry, prose and opinion. meenu.wordpress.com

- Shilo Shiv Subramaniam - A stunningly beautiful blog, named for the Beatles song - Across the Universe.

For loveliness alone, this should win every blog award hands down. I dunno where this changeling popped out from with her dreamy vision, pastiche/collage story telling but she is the original "butterflies and rainbows and fairy tales" girl. Don't be lazy, click on this link now, you'll be so glad you did!  http://bonifisheii.blogspot.com/ Oh, and yeah, she's a Bangalore girl :))))

- Anindita Sengupta - She has her own blog dedicated to her poetry and also edits the Indian feminsit blog - Ultra Violet. 
Click here http://aninditasengupta.com/tag/blog-award/ and you'll see that she was awarded a prestigious Orange Jammy! I would give you the link to Ultra Violet except it's been compromised. 

- Toto Funds the Arts - This blog, in a strange way, could be the mother of many other blogs as it supports young Indian writers, photographers and musicians thus paving the way for more funky blogs. http://totofundsthearts.blogspot.com/

- Then there is http://madnessmandali.blogspot.com/. Not saying anything, you check it out :)


- Itisha Peerbhoy - While I'm plugging Bangalore Girls, here's one who is a relative of sorts. She is the Muggle-grandmother of Mushroom, being the Muggle-mother of Paris and so on. Ok, if that is too obtuse, her blog is not. It's awesomely honest and funny. Except that you now have to be an invited reader to access it, but try your luck: http://itishapeerbhoy.blogspot.com/


- Aliyeh Rizvi - And another... If you want to read about a Bangalore that only a Bangalorean could reveal, click on Aliyeh's affectionate homage to a Bangalore that is fragile and on the verge of extinction. http://aturquoisecloud.wordpress.com/about/ I love reading the cantonment names (Cash Bazaar, Madras Bank Road, )and looking at pictures of places that I grew up with and that may not see the light of tomorrow thanks to that anachronism that is development. When she writes about Koshy's that one can "Sit there with a good book, count raindrops trickling down the window and  discover how easy it is to make time stand still." I know the feeling.

- Sharanya Manivanam - Another super articulate blog by a Madras girl. I claim her as sister, being myself the sum of infinite Brindavan journeys from Parent's Home in Bangalore to Grandmother's Home in Madras. I also had a, hitherto undisclosed, summer addiction to the softies at Aavin Milk Bar and an altar boy in the Theosophical Society chapel.

Click here for her take on the Slut Walk: 
http://sharanyamanivannan.wordpress.com/


- Er... this is not strictly by a woman. And it's not strictly a blog...But the author is Indian, young and it's a veritable treasure trove. If you love music and are intrigued by what went down with western music in India in the early part of the 20th century, your search can rest here a while. Naresh Fernandes is coming out with a book about the jazz age in Bombay in October. The website is full of little gems about the then-scene (who was Louise Pacheco?) and archival recordings. Even an homage to Mina Kava, the composer of Bombay Meri Hai. http://www.tajmahalfoxtrot.com/

I could go on. It's a brave new world and young women are doing plenty to hold up the cyber-sky. And, it has to be said, unlike the print media with its images of yawningly boring celebrities and vacuousness à la mode, these girls are all so damned gorgeous. Original, multi-coloured and non-conforming. 

Go for it. Click. Click. And click. Get into it already!

Drama Production Workshop

Tom Cowan, DOP of Samskara, IMAX cinematographer and director of such cult Australian films as Journey Among Women, was at Infinite Souls last weekend. He facilitated a drama production workshop with a group of 12 participants.

The weather was drizzly, blowing hard and the light, blue. "Aashada has started" said Huli Chandru. We have two new young cows on the farm - Gowri and Sarasvati. Zui had also brought the puppies along. So there were 3 dogs and 6 puppies underfoot. The cows got in nobody's way, except when Mushroom danced up a storm around their hooves and they jumped about. "Did they jump over the moon?" asked Kai when I told him this story.

Saturday morning, we all headed to the round rehearsal space. First question to the group from Tom "Think of a character who desires something greatly."

Amjad - Someone desperate for a cigarette and in a place where he can't have one. 

Chandru - A man who desires to put an end to corruption through any means possible

Lekha - A person unfairly in jail who desires freedom

Abhishek - A boy who wants to find his father

Divya - A character who desires magic in her life

Madhuri - An artist who simply can't paint. She desires expression

Etc

Tom picks two stories and the group has 90 minutes to flesh the stories out and crystallize a 3 act structure for each. They will shoot The Artist on Day 1 and The Lost Father on Day 2. The films are cast, art directors get moving, Lekha is DOP for Day 1 and so on. They improv. the 3 act structure of The Artist once, with Madhuri and Tanvee acting. Then Tom says "Let's shoot." 

Shock! 

....but...but..I can't act (Tom:You don't need to)...can we rehearse again? (Tom: No)...how should I react? (Tom: You'll find a way)...ca...can we speak? (Tom: No)..then how...??? (Tom: Let's see)

Here is Tom's process for Day 1:-

1. Shoot a single shot of the whole film (it can be done with proper planning)

2. Review and assess the footage

3. Create a story board for a multi-shot based on the above

4. Shoot the multi-shot keeping in mind light/action/costume continuity (just in case you want to use some of the single shot in the edit

5. Edit

6. Music and titles as need be

By 7.30pm, they wrap the shoot and Tanvee and Madhuri start editing. 

Ashvin had brought in a veritable banquet of food the night before, so the wood-fire oven burns on and some of us party till late in the Magadi night. Some are so terrified of the dark (and perceived leopards, bears and ghosts) that they won't, as Lekha says, "step outside their pool of torchlight" to challenge Ashvin, the source of all their fear. 

Who's scared of the Big Bad Wolf, huh? Huh?

Day 2. In contrast to the Day 1 process, the group along with Tom decide to shoot 2 master takes (from opposite angles) and edit from that material. Abhishek, Zui, Ashvin and Lekha will be acting. As it is a road film, Gypsy the Jeep is to star in it. Folks get ready to rip off its roof for "additional light".

Kuki poignantly beseeches "Whoever takes the goddamn roof off had better put the bloody thing back before it rains." He also says "Zui, let me drive the jeep down the mud road, you won't be able to turn her around." "Dada you have no faith in me!!" protests Zui as she whirls around, Ashvin in tow, and drives the jeep away down said mud road. The rest of us, hats on heads, take position, ready to shoot. Chandru regales us with stories of other shoots as we wait. Of how his tiger got away while shooting Huli Banthu Huli, of how we got chased by a tusker on a narrow trail to Doddasampige during the Devarakadu shoot. 

20 minutes later, no signs of Zui and the Jeep. I call Ashvin. "...er..Kirtana..ummm... there's been a ...well, a bit of a thing. Noworrieswe'llbethereinaminute."

10 minutes later. No, Zui, no jeep, no Ashvin. Second phone call "Er...Kirtana, do you have a small mumtee?"

So we head off to find them.

Around the corner, along the bend - the jeep balancing a foot off the ground on two mud embankments. Ashvin trying to rev it out. Zui hiding behind a lantana bush.

Nagraj the Indomitable (along with mumtee and ghatapara) is summoned. Soon his shadow looms on us as he places his foot on the embankment and thrusts his ghatapara into the mud. At that very moment, our  neighbour, Huchappa, and his herd of goats and 4 cows choose to pass by. Taking stock of the situation, Huchappa flings himself beneath the jeep and begins scooping earth out with his hands. Fortunately, Lekha kept shooting through all this so Zui is immortalized in the Making of The Lost Father uttering those words made famous by millions of teenagers "My dad's going to kill me." 

After the drama of the jeep, the rest of the shoot was anti-climactic but nonetheless rendered some quality acting and a timely coughing fit by Divya the DOP. Editing began thereafter. In this case, the choices were largely about point of view. 

By 6pm, the group had 2 short films with music and titles ready to be screened. A small audience viewed them. It was interesting to see what the audience got from the films, how the individual's pursuit of a single thing (the named desire at the start of the workshop) can provide a framework for intersecting stories. And finally - how liberating to be able to tell stories, make feature films without that old fashioned dependence on funds, stars, equipment rental, studios, producers and the million things that perpetuate the myth that the individual is nothing without an army of support. Some participants said they learned more in these two days than in three years of back-benching it in college. Hmmm...

PS - For those who feel for Konarak, folks didn't put the roof back in time, it rained buckets that afternoon and the jeep did in fact get soaked. 

Cooking for the Season

June is the month for mangoes and mango eating. My grandfather would say that we should eat nothing but mangoes during this season, accompanied by glasses of milk. Eww...I can't handle the milk part. But mangoes! Green mango rice with ground mustard and green chillies, mango panna with cardamom and jaggery, mango lassi, mango sasimi, mango kulfi, mango rasayana with fresh coconut, mango gojju...

My mother's family adore the early Raspuris (first to come and first to leave), my father likes Malgoas, Konarak will not be without his Banganpallis (dat old Andhra blood) and our daughter thinks the sun rises and sets with Alphonsoes. But we try not to argue (it's bad enough playing Pictionary in this family) and just get all the mangoes we can and eat them through the season.

We collected two sacks full of huge mangoes from the farm this year. They are perhaps a cross between Raspuri and Badami. Many other plants came to fruit this season as well and the farm was a rhapsody in green. The lemon tree from Arunachal Pradesh that Minam brought to plant at Laddu's grave. The rosemary was in full bloom, perfuming jeans and dogs and anything else that brushed against it. But there were also pomegranates, mosambis, sapotas, papayas, guavas, passion fruit. And my first ever precious avocado! The muse of future salads, guacamoles and prawn cocktails.

Lemon Tree from Arunachal Pradesh

Passionfruit (captured before the cows eat them off the fence)

At least I think they're Mosambis

Guavas

My Solitary Avocado

Rosemary Blossoms

I had so many mangoes at one point that I made a quart of mango ice cream that is serving us well. But the season's hit has been our Ground Coffee Bean and Walnut Cake. On a rainy afternoon, nothing hit the spot quite like a warm slice of this pretty, speckled brown cake with toasty flecks of walnut. I was also aided in pleasure and delight by a book I ask that you all read - "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver, Steven.L.Hopp & Camille Kingsolver   http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/

It has inspired me to:

- Shop for local vegetables and ignore those Dragon Fruits and artichokes that I strictly do not need

- Try and grow more edible produce (how hard can it be to grow a tomato?)

- Make mozzarella at home  

- Be determined to raise some chickens (only for eggs, I'm not that brave) before the year is out

- Try to shop at Foodworld less

- Be aware of indigenous produce/ products (see www.vanastree.org/)

Now to the cake...

The beans I used are from Rainforest Retreat in Coorg. http://www.rainforestours.com/ In the spirit of the season and of cooking, I share the recipe with you! Note: The ground beans add a mild crunch to the cake.

Ground Coffee Bean & Walnut Cake

8 oz Whole wheat flour

8 oz Sugar or jaggery

8 oz Butter

4 Eggs

2 teaspoons Baking Powder

A pinch of salt

2 tablespoons Ground Coffee Beans

100 grams Walnuts broken into small pieces

1-2 tablespoons curd (you may or may not need this)

Whip together the butter and sugar/jaggery till light and fluffy. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Add the eggs to the butter mixture, one at a time, adding a little flour mix each time. Keep beating well till all the eggs and flour are done. Stir in the ground beans and the walnuts. If the mixture is too thick, add a little curd till you have a nice batter. Pour into a greased and floured tin and bake at 250 degrees centigrade until it has risen and a toothpick dipped in the centre comes out clean (about 25-30 minutes). Leave to cool. Or don't! My daughter likes this cake fresh from the oven with a mug of milk on the side. (She doesn't have her mother's problem with milk) Tell me how you'd like it?