Mom, I can Cook!!!!

Well waiting for your dream Company teaches you a lot of things, if Cognizant didn't delay our joining dates by an year, I would have never thought of cooking. We men generally do not enjoy cooking whenever there is a female around who can cook, this may sound like a stereotype, but this happens a lot in many homes, all over world. Men cook only if there's necessity, else we avoid it. Moreover, the best cooks throughout the world are men, who generally cook in Five star hotels, Exotic restaurants, or in a road-side dhabas, or in small outlets of food chain.

There's always a debate that which gender can cook better, Men v/s Women is considered as most favourite topic for time pass. But whether you ask a male or female, that whose cuisine do u like most? generally our answer is either mom or grand-mom, I mean a female in that answer, I have rarely seen a person saying that they like food cooked by their dad or grand-dad. But these are talks of old days. Today cooking is turning out as a necessity, people are learning it irrespective of their gender. We Men do enjoy cooking, but we are afraid of admitting it. Even my mom always tells me, "Never tell a girl that you can cook", but why is it so? Her reply is simple, " Do you want to spoil your Image? No Girl will like you that way". But I disagree completely, I have an opinion that, its not about the so called "Image", everyone must learn cooking, that's what they teach first thing in Military, If you can't cook,you can't survive in an operation. But, recently i read a Newspaper report in which few candidates who were aspiring to join Indian Army were rejected on the grounds that they can cook, and a Male who can cook generally do not have Officer qualities. Now, What the HELL is that, come on, don't these guys have a better explanation to reject that candidate, it was difficult for me to buy that crap. But as I mentioned it was a newspaper report in Hindustan Times, so I am not here to judge anything.

The first thing which I ever made on Gas Stove was Tea, long way back when i was in 6th Standard, since then I was able to make Tea,Coffee. Slowly I raised my standard and I attempted Kheer, Sewiyaan, mainly sweet dishes, and I must say that they were not bad at all, the right amount of sugar in right amount of milk, and the right amount of Taste. I am not praising myself, but I am writing all that on the kind of feedback which I got from my parents. Although, parent's reaction can be considered as Biased One, but they do criticise whenever it is required.

Wait for Cognizant was killing me, suddenly I asked one of my Orkut Friend, please tell me, how can I learn cooking, she said simple, open a website with loads of recipes and start attempting. But you guys must be wondering that why didn't I ask to my Mom? Actually, the truth is that I wanted to give her a surprise that I can cook, and a bit of hesitation didn't let me go to her for help, I feel more nervous if she's around and trying to guess the dish or to trying to tell me add this , add that, don't do like this, you will burn down the kitchen, get away from my kitchen, take care of your hands, don't cut like that, its a sharp knife, take care of your fingers, why are you following an Internet recipe? All these questions can fry your brain while you are trying to concentrate on cooking. But parents always care for us, and want us to stay safe, so they do it, its natural, we will understand all these things when we become a parent.

So slowly and slowly i started with basic vegetable curries and my first big attempt was Rajma for Diwali, and I must say it wasn't that bad, but my mom's Kadhi was so superb that everybody forgot about praising Rajma, even I got busy in praising Kadhi. After Rajma, I tried FISH, and I have made 4-5 varieties of fishes till now, they were all good as per feedback that I got. So, I think now can stay in any part of India without complaining about the food and enjoy a healthy home made food (I prefer less oil and fat).

In conclusion, I advise all the males and females who are reading it, please learn cooking, as it is a necessity these days, and keep the "male-ego" or "high-fi female attitude", out of the window while doing it.

CHEERS and Happy Cooking :)

The Politics of Uttar Pradesh

I remember Uttar Pradesh as a State which was considered as Power House for BJP (Bhartiya Janta Party), and they had strong hold in U.P. They won most number of seats in U.P. during 13th Lok Sabha Election, after that, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was chosen as Prime Minister of India and he ruled over a period of 5 years (1999-2004). Even Indian National Congress has a great history with U.P. From Govind Ballabh Pant to Narayan Dutt Tiwari, Congress Ruled in U.P. for more than three decades in Assembly Elections. Whether you call it a collapse or failure of National Parties in State which gave a room for the Regional Parties to come into the picture and participate in Assembly Elections.

Parties like Samajvadi Party (SP) led by Mulayam Singh or Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) led by Kaashi Ram and Mayawati brought a sudden change in the political environment of the State. Since 1937 till now, President Rule has been imposed for Eight times in State. The Assembly Elections of 2007 witnessed BSP emerged as the single largest party and was able to form Government without any coalition.

Uttar Pradesh has a history of giving the most number of Prime Minister to this country. Well, Uttar Pradesh has seen so many phases of politics and it became dirty too. But all is fair is in Love and Politics.

Mayawati's success is no doubt well achieved, infact, a new term called as Social-Engineering was used by media to describe the way Mayawati achieved enormous success in Assembly Elections. That all happened in 2007, then how come she couldn't do very well in 15th Lok Sabha Elections, although her Party won 20 seats in U.P., but people were expecting more. Even the SP lost considerable amount of seats in these Elections, they managed 23, that was way less than what they achieved in Last General Elections. But the question is that who ate away their share of seats? Is it Congress, who won 21 this time?

I believe yes, it is the Congress and Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka and Sonia Gandhi's wide Campaign that helped them win. You must be thinking, if its all about campaigning, then why SP didn't won, they had Sanjay Dutt with them, why Mayawati didn't manage more seats even she implemented National Security Act on Varun Gandhi for his objectionable speeches in Pilibhit. All's well that ends well, both Varun Gandhi and his mother Menaka Gandhi won their respective seats from Pilibhit and Amla (M.P.).

If it is not about hi-profile campaigning, then why did Congress win more seats in these General Elections in U.P.? The answer is right here, the kind of work which was done under Central Government Schemes like NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act-2005 ), its aim was to provide minimal employment to people below poverty line.

NREGA was implemented in most backward areas of U.P. which become a Trump Card for Congress, although they didn't use it as a political issue and we never even heard about that in any political speeches. Public knew the kind of work done in U.P. and they voted accordingly. Now as Rahul Gandhi has made it clear that he will be working hard for U.P. so that they can have strong hold on this State at Assembly level too. So, are we witnessing a change again, can we see a national party like Congress winning in the next Assembly Elections in U.P ? They still have a lot of time to make their roots stronger and show their presence in State.

I don't care which Government comes into the Power, I just care that they should work hard to make my U.P. more better.

Stable States mean stable Country.....Cheers for India And U.P.

The Kala Bandar (Black Monkey)

If you are a resident of Delhi, then you must have heard of a strange creature called as "Monkey Man" during the year 2001, which attacked many people for nothing. One more strange thing called "Muh-nochwa", was active in Kanpur during the year 2002, even I would have never believed on these strange things unless my cousin became a victim. My cousin was attacked by so called "Muh-nochwa", which burnt his face, and when he tried to remove this creature from his face, he burnt his hands too. He described it as a thing which had Red Light blinking at the centre of that object, and it could fly too. All of sudden Kanpur's hotest news was Muh-Nochwa, and I started reading more and more attacks by him to those people who were either sleeping or standing on their roof of house. Well we can never know whether these things are real or not, but after I saw half-burnt face of my cousin, I had no reason not to believe him.

Now I will come to The Kala Bandar, its literal translation is The Black Monkey, as described in Delhi-6. When the movie started I was wondering what is this Kala Bandar non-sense that the Director is referring again and again. People were attacked by a strange creature called as Kala Bandar, which of course looked black in colour, hairy and some people also claimed it to have an Electric Motherboard, few thought that it could jump high. Slowly and slowly as the movie progressed we see more number of incidents in which people used Kala Bandar as an excuse to hide their own mistake. A wife cheating on her husband started shouting "Kala Bandar, Kala Bandar", when her husband came home early and she was making out with her boyfriend, which helped her boyfriend to escape via the window, and later the attempt to rape was filed by her husband, and the accused was none other than Kala Bandar, it sounds strange right?

But what actually is Kala Bandar, Is it the real monkey? or Is it just a figment of imagination? Is it the Monkey Man of Delhi? or Muh-Nochwa of Kanpur?

Well Kala Bandar is described in Delhi-6 as an evil. I mean to say, we always have a choice to make, either we can listen to our evil part or the angel part. Angel part is described as a God, as all religion say that God resides within an individual, and we should listen to him, but since this is Kalyug, where Man has become less-human, and is listening to his Devil part while taking decisions of his life. So that is the place where Kala Bandar is dominating our lives, he has become an excuse for us to hide our own wrong-doings. We all have Kala Bandar residing in with our God part, now, it is our decision to whom should we listen? Should we listen to Kala Bandar,which is making us more evil by hiding our mistakes or should we listen to our God part and accept the fact that God is One, and it resides within.

Well the choice is yours......

The Ekta's Magic

Ekta Kapoor is like God to me, I have always admired the way she brought a revolution in Television Industry. Yes, it is the same industry which was once considered as a Waste of Time and a Launching Pad for the struggling actors.

I have followed Ekta's serials since my childhood, I remember HUM PAANCH of Zee TV, my first ever comedy show which I liked a lot, and without any complaints. My mom is fan of Hindi cinema's jumping jack Jeetendra a.k.a. Ravi Kapoor. When the name of Shobha Kapoor and Ekta Kapoor used to come under the credits of Hum Paanch, I asked my mom that who are they, she replied tht its her favourite actor's wife and daughter respectively.

Since then I came to know that Balaji Telefilms is run by Jeetendra and his daughter Ekta.

Ekta Kapoor created serials like ITIHAAS, which used to run on DD-1 during 1:00 PM, I saw this show during my school summer vacation for some time or so, and I became fan of Smita Bansal (currently she plays Mother-in-Law of Anandi in Balika Vadhu). I don't really remember that when did this serial go off-air, because I was too busy in praising my HUM PAANCH,in which for the first time Vidya Balan was seen on-screen as Radhika. Later on, this serial was taken off-air because Shri Adhikari Brothers launched their own comedy channel called as SAB TV, which ate away its TRP (Television Rating Points).

Then, a revolution came in Television Industry by the launch of Kaun Banega Crorepati and STAR PLUS became the number one channel.

During the same time, Ekta Kapoor started two new shows as a part of her experimentation which later become household names, of course , you know the names, Kyonki...Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, and Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki. During those days Tulsi and Parvati became like Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt of TV Industry. The thing that I like in Ekta's shows is the joint family system that she revived in Daily Soaps again. Infact she became the soap queen, her Shows were at top on charts and she earned huge amount of money.

Many Low Profile actors became huge names in few months.

I remember my favourite show Kasauti Zindagi Ki...., and I have always admired the character of Mr. BAJAJ, more than Prerna, I saw that show for Mr. Bajaj, which made Ronit Roy, Shahrukh Khan of TV Industry.

How can i not mention about Kutumb, a show on Sony which introduced the Best Jodi of TV, Hiten Tejwani and Gauri Pradhan, currently they are happily married couple and are a part of Balaji Telefilms.

I have always admired the positive things of her shows, I have seen Karan (Kyunki....) giving so much respect to Tulsi, that my mom always asks me to learn to respect your elders, and be a good boy like Karan, I always tell her, "Mom, its just a TV show", but somewhere deep in my heart I can't deny the fact that we should respect our elders, and they are showin it.

Ekta has seen many ups and downs in her career when her mega bugdet show MAHABHARATHA, didn't work out well, and the sudden termination of shows like Kyunki...and Kahani Ghar Ghar Ghar Ki after a long run for 8 years.But, Ekta is a women of strength, and she has always stressed on this fact via her shows that women are no longer weaker than men, and they can fight well and manage anything to save their family.

Currently, Ekta is back in action with her shows like Bandini, and Pavitra Rishta, which are non-K serials after a long time from her camp.

Ekta, I wish you all the best, please make more shows which will bring revolution in TV Industry again.

I am your Fan, and Thanks a lot for the awesome entertainment.