Blast To the Past

The other day I read three news items in the paper –

(i) Sweet shops are finding it difficult to price their wares based on the latest GST because of individual tax rates on different ingredients (cocoa powder, cashewnuts, saffron, pista etc), so sweets are likely to get very expensive.

(ii) The Railway Ministry is encouraging passengers to carry home-cooked food as of late, there have been a lot of complaints regarding the quality of food being served.  (iii) The Railway Ministry is considering doing away with bedding in AC coaches.

Now this has got me thinking .....It's BLAST TO THE PAST ……..

When we were young, very rarely did we buy sweets from the market; they were always prepared at home - and therefore, they were pure, they were delicious and they had the most important ingredient - love (grandmother's/mother's), although they were anything but fancy looking! I still crave for those unadulterated kaju barfis that my mother used to make, the golden brown pedas covered lightly with powdered sugar, coconut barfis and the-most-difficult-to -make-at-home Karachi Halwa!! Then there were rosogollas, puran poli, patisapta and sandesh...everything was home-made!

Train journeys were great fun because of the goodies that were packed in the food basket for those 'picnics on wheels'...for long journeys there was always something special for every meal! I marvel at my mother's innovative culinary ideas that made sure nothing got spoiled during these journeys!

The highlight of our train journey was of course the quintessential HOLDALL - a canvas rectangular roll with large pockets on either side that could hold pillows, bedsheets, blankets, footwear...anything and everything that couldn’t fit into our suitcases. This would then be rolled up and strapped with leather straps! Sometimes this roll would end up being so big that it required all of us siblings to sit on it to flatten it out a bit so the straps could be buckled. Oh, how much we used to laugh when Aloka, the eldest, being a little on the heavy side would make the final and successful attempt !

Now, thanks to the woes of sweet shops and the Railway Ministry, our children and grandchildren will finally get a taste of OUR golden years! 

PS: If one of my artistic friends can add a sketch of a holdall, it will complete this write-up!

The Challenge

Capacity Building of English Teachers in some remote villages of Rajasthan

 In March 2006, I was involved with a panel of eminent English language experts to develop textbooks for under-privileged children in some remote areas of Rajasthan and Gujarat. The project which took almost three years to complete, was the turning point of my career as a content developer, for it brought me face-to-face with the reality of English language teaching in India.

Most state governments in the country have decided to implement English from Class 1 without building the necessary infrastructure for its effective implementation. An alarming situation confronting most government schools especially in the remote areas is the non-availability of competent teachers to teach English. Some NGO’s operating in these states have therefore taken it upon themselves to conduct capacity building workshops for their teachers.

The NGO with whom I was involved works in the tribal villages of Udaipur and surrounding districts of Rajasthan. They run non-formal activity centers where they provide minimum levels of literacy in English to help children gain admission into Class 1 in the government run primary schools.

In order to have a firsthand understanding of the target population before settling down to preparing the manuscripts, my colleague and I decided to have an exploratory visit in the area where these activity centers were located. This would not only throw light on the potential of the teachers and the learners, but also facilitate greatly in developing appropriate texts for the target audience. During one of our visits, in addition to several things, this is what we experienced:

“We left the National highway leading to Mount Abu at a crossroad and took the narrower road to our first halt, a hamlet in Badgam block. Goats tied to posts and a few cows grazing nearby, greeted us. We parked our vehicle right in front of the hut that served as the NFE centre. A few children greeted us at the door with shy namastes, bending down to touch our feet in reverence. With expectant eyes and wide grins, they waited for us to begin.

We did not want to disturb their class, yet we had to complete our task. We made the children sit in a circle and asked them to name all the objects around them. We also showed them pictures that we had carried along, waiting expectantly for that magic English word that we were so eager to hear from them! Sure enough, very soon they named a few words as they had heard them before –firaak(frock), boll(ball), colour, diary, capy (copy), paper, boot, chaak (chalk), etc. Their vocabulary was good, eh!

I then said that I would give a few ‘commands’ in English which they had to repeat after me and follow. Every word that I said was rendered perfectly by the little ones and the actions done to perfection. I was amazed, for they seemed to enjoy the sounds of the new language and were able to repeat what they heard, as they heard it! Therefore, if English could be taught well, here we had a bunch of children who would benefit immensely! I was excited at the prospect of being able to prepare activities and modules for them. But how and who would be disseminating the language skills was something that bothered me. For, if we were to rely on the masterji, a young man of the same village who was a ‘9^th Class pass’, I feared all our effort would be wasted. It was therefore important to first train the masterji before proceeding further………”

 

Photographs - kind courtesy: The team at VBS, Udaipur

In due course of time, we conducted many workshops for the teachers of these activity centers. It was indeed a challenging task since the average academic qualification of most of the teachers was between Class 8 to Class 12. They had also not undergone any formal teacher training programmes. In the interior areas there was absolutely no scope to encounter English even on wrappers of soaps and biscuits and due to the lack of basic amenities, even radios were not available, a medium that could have helped greatly in exposing them to the English language (if they tuned in to cricket commentaries).

It was therefore left to me and my colleague to innovate novel methods to help them build their proficiency and in so doing, the foundation of our textbook series was laid.

In March 2010 the series was published by a leading publishing house and the latest feedback is that almost every school that has subscribed to it is appreciative of the content and the innovative exercises, an outcome of the exploratory visit we had one rainy morning in August!

Brown Sooji Ka Halwa

Well, a sooji-ka-halwa (semolina pudding) is a sooji-ka-halwa and it’s always brown, isn’t it? Then why a special mention of this halwa in a blog?

Read on…..for this is no ordinary halwa!

To begin with, this is the most yummm……..azing halwa that anyone has ever made and secondly, it’s a magic potion……a divine intervention between many an emotional outburst especially when my girls were growing up.

Yummazing?……..yes, absolutely fabulous…….miniature pearl-like semolina steeped in water and then doused in a mixture of caramelized sugar and oh-so-heavenly pure ghee, the three further being amalgamated into a perfectly gooey, rich halwa, with every spoonful biting into an assortment of cashew, raisins and almonds, to complete its royal legacy.

Food fit for the Gods……and of course for my two little chicklets!

Ok, now the name is a bit too long, so let’s just abbreviate it (like they do in Bollywood) to BSKH…….now, this is a recipe which I got by coincidence from a dear friend who's not very sure where she got it from. Anyway, after a lot of trial and tribulation, I finally managed to get it right, so much so that BSKH won the first prize in a Dessert Competition at the Ladies Club in Sri Ganganagar……much to the chagrin of many an envious member. 

“How can a simpleton like sooji-ka-halwa beat our exotic soufflés, mousse and tipsy’s?”, whisper many of them behind my back. Some even suggest I’ve added dalda instead of pure ghee……..but no, my BSKH emanates the most fragrant smell of pure ghee which the judges can sniff even from a distance! Other envious pigeons even have the audacity to call it ‘Ulta Halwa’!

Anyway, my BSKH wins hands down in every category……I told you she’s no ordinary halwa, didn’t I?

“I’m making BSKH for breakfast”, I shout from the kitchen door on a lazy Sunday morning….. a tornado’s just hit the house……….. my two chicklets jump out of their deep slumber……. brush, brush, brush…..wash, wash, wash…..my two beauties are already on the breakfast table……BSKH does that, you know!

My younger brat? Well, she’s a super-observant, sharp little chicklet especially when it comes to her favourite BSKH. You can’t fool this one by passing off an ordinary halwa as BSKH. No, you can’t!  I tried that once, and………. her cold, accusing stare haunted me for nights on end! Just the thought of that horrible morning sends a shiver down my spine!

Mother’s comrade in arms?

BSKH! Hip….Hip…..Hurrah!

Way to mom-in-law’s heart?

A bowl of piping hot BSKH!

Stressful day of math and physics tuitions?

BSKH, THE STRESS BUSTER

Board exams?      

Hard day at work? (in the busy newsroom of a TV channel)

BSKH, THE ENERGY BOOSTER

Sudden, unexpected guests for dinner?

BSKH, THE SAVIOUR DESSERT

Homesick?

BSKH, THE VIA DUCT

(bridging the gap between hostel and home…. sent to Chennai by air through close friends many times)

Married daughter visiting?

A BSKH WELCOME

Married daughter leaving?

A TEARFUL BSKH FAREWELL

Need I say more?

BSKH is a halwa-extraordinaire, isn’t it?

Now, a solemn pledge to be taken by all halwa enthusiasts before I part with my magic potion……

I solemnly pledge that I will:

• treat bskh with utmost reverence.  
• offer a short prayer before I put it together.  
• offer a prayer of thanksgiving after it is made. 
• use only pure ghee and not saturated fats or refined oil. 
• use pure ghee liberally. 
• be liberal with the use of dry fruits. 
• be calm and composed while preparing it. 
• not use un-parliamentary language should things go wrong. 
• never pass off ordinary halwa as bskh. 
• share bskh with family and friends.
• appreciate it, whatever may be the end result.     

Ingredients
Semolina (Sooji)                           1 cup
Sugar                                             1 1/2 cups
Ghee                                              1 cup
Water                                             about 1 cup, enough to cover sooji

Chopped dry fruits                        a liberal quantity

Method

1. Soak sooji in water and keep aside.
2. Heat ghee in a deep kadai -do not overheat.
3. Add sugar to the ghee and allow to caramelize to a golden brown. Take care, this is a tricky step as sugar caramalizes very fast. Don't take your eyes off the pan.
4. Turn heat to low.
5. Pour the soaked sooji with the water into the sugar-ghee mixture while simultaneously stirring briskly. This is the trickiest step as you may find lumps forming. Don't panic, the ghee's role now comes into play.
6. Keep stirring the mass of sooji while allowing the ghee to get incorporated well. Break lumps if any.
7. Add the chopped nuts and mix well.
8. Serve garnished with slivered almonds.