Bowling for Dharavi

A few days back as I flipped through TV channels I merely chanced upon Bowling for Columbine. I find it a rather brilliant and thought-provoking story. Imagine if there was no arm control in India. It is difficult to know what would have happened but the results would definitely been absurd.

This got me thinking about something else, we need monitoring. We have a law against child labor. But walk around any slum not just Dharavi and you will see children working. We have NGO's trying their best to stop the rot but it is not going to change until 'WE' stop.

I recently decided to stop going to a shop because he had a small boy doing the work and I made it a point to tell him too. There are thousands of small and big establishments in our country that are no different. Bombay according to me is also the land of chai tapris. How many of these do you know that where there is no chotu working?

But lets be real. There are a number of children who are doing this for money. Yes the government is feeding them to go to school but have you eaten what they serve? These kids need to be taught a trade not history. Those who want to become scientists and engineers should obviously be taught and nobody should be denied an opportunity but helping them learn a trade and setting up someway in which they can monetize that trade opportunity is more important.

This is what I feel. Your turn champ!

Souffle

This is not a recipe this is a story that revolves around the mentioned savory.

Growing up in a small town and always surrounded by doctors dinner parties were a norm. The usual thing was everyone would get one dish and dinner was usually followed by a old fashioned game of scrabble or a few rounds of pictionary.

In this whole group of people there was one gem of a person who was extremely clever and brilliant in her work and good bless her soul an amazing human being but she would always decide to make the dessert which would invariably be souffle which passeth all understanding. But it developed something in me the curiosity and love for food that is not necessarily Indian.

Many years later I went to the US as an exchange student and only real reason I was happy there and was able to adapt was the food. I loved the smell of cheese burgers and the sizzle of a steak on the grill it helped me bond with people helped me in making friends this thing continued in the UK but was oriented a lot to non-curry food. The chips-cheese-beans still make me feel like opening a kebab van. The whole reason people feel not at home is food according to me. The global village that we live in today has made it possible to get the popular food anywhere in the world but it is just not the same. I mean fish and chips looking out of window in Pune and seeing other buildings is not the same as fish and chips looking out of a window in Portsmouth and watching the huge ships go by.