Welcome to the Holiday Season!

From Thanksgiving Day that falls towards the end of November, right up to the New Year is the most festive time in the Western World. In countries like the US, you feel the festivity in the air. “Welcome to the Holiday Season!” is the message everywhere! Malls and restaurants, bistros and cafes are packed with people. The pace at work slackens as people take their foot off the pedal. The first snowfall transforms the entire place to a fairytale world! In short, the joy of life or joie de vivre as it is termed, flows in abundance!

The euphoria is short lived. Once the New Year celebration is over, something snaps and everything goes into a nosedive. It starts with the weather. January and February are the bleakest months of winter when the sun is hardly seen. There is a distinct spike at the work-place to make up for the earlier loose schedule. It is like a ghost town everywhere and malls that thronged with people, now wear a deserted look. Christmas and New Year gave an incentive for people to enjoy. It will now be several months till the next celebration.

Contrast this with India. Once the New Year party is over, you feel no void. You gear up for the next festival- Pongal and Baisakhi. By the month end, you celebrate Republic Day. February is a short month and also the time when the weather is at its best. Now, you get ready for Holi. Before you know, school is over and summer vacation has begun. Children enjoy and their enthusiasm rubs off on the rest of us!

Once school starts, it is time for the monsoon to give that welcome break from the summer heat. And soon, it is time for the big festivals- Gokulashtami and Ganesh Chaturthi, Dasara and Deepavali! By the end of the year, you join hands with other communities to celebrate Christmas! As if this is not enough, urban India is embracing celebrations like “Halloween” that were unknown a few years ago! And once you throw in IPL’s annual Cricket circus, the fun never ends!

A person who has grown up in the West does not miss anything. The NRI’s case is different. He is like the tiger that has tasted human blood and thirsts for more! Having lived an earlier life in India, the NRI recalls festival time in India. He has to make a tough choice- should he choose the West and its ease of everyday life or should he embrace India and its convivial atmosphere. Meanwhile, India can also put out its slogan, “Welcome to the Holiday Season!” It can add a punchline- “The season extends throughout the year!”

 

 

The curd-rice craving!

Back in school, we were dubbed “The Curd-Rice Brigade” because the last layer of the tiffin-box was always filled with curd-rice! We wore the label like a badge of honor! Folks from other parts of the country wonder about this fixation for curd-rice among South Indians! The culinary preference is both cultural and influenced by South India’s geography. Most parts of the South are sweltering hot throughout the year. Only a person baked in an oven will know the solace found in a food that is cool and agreeable. It is here that curd-rice fits the bill like no other!

Curd-rice's appeal is its simplicity. All you need is rice and curd. That is enough for a complete meal that is filling, tasty and easy on the stomach. When it comes to add-ons with curd-rice, there is an entire platter. It can be as basic as a pinch of salt set aside on the plate. With each fistful of curd-rice, you dab a bit of salt, for that added relish!

Curd-rice with pickle is a South Indian’s comfort food! While some insist “lemon-pickle” goes best with curd-rice, others vote for “gongura”. And for some, they drool the moment they think of “Avakai”! How do you explain “vadu-maanga” to someone outside the country? May be, you can say, you marinate tiny raw-mangoes in a spicy syrup for months and what emerges is “vadu-maanga”! And when you take a bite of this raw-mango and top it with copious curd-rice, you will sport in seventh heaven!

Curd-rice is often dressed with a tempering of oil, mustard and slivers of chili. With a sprinkling of coriander, pomegranate and grapes, it is a sure shot success in any pot-luck event! When packed in lotus-leaf bowls, it gets an added aura and is called “Daddhyonnam”! You may have a gourmet meal in a 5-star restaurant. The South Indian’s meal is incomplete till he comes home and ends with his curd-rice!

The craving for curd-rice sometimes assumes extreme proportions. As students in the Western World, you struggled to find authentic curd-rice. The closest to curd was fruit-yogurt sold in tiny boxes in the college vending machine. On one occasion, I emptied a dozen yogurt boxes from the vending machine. Watching this spectacle, a lady could not contain her curiosity. “What are you trying to do?” she questioned, all puzzled! I mumbled, “This just happens to be my dinner!” and shot out of the place!

We have no doubt that curd-rice has its pride of place in world cuisine. It can hold its head high, compete and win many a culinary battle, pitted against the best delicacies of the world!

 

Everything is in the cloud!

Two IT professionals somehow manage to hold a conversation. But of late, conversation between an IT professional and a non-IT person has become impossible! It is as if, one is from Venus and the other from Mars. The IT industry has always had its unique jargon. That is understandable, but today, they are taking over words of everyday use and giving it an IT spin and thereby, completely confusing the rest of us. The most bandied about word in IT circles is “Cloud”.

Never make the mistake of asking an IT professional about the job he does. His typical reply is- “I am a Cloud Architect!” His response leaves you dumb-founded. You wonder if he builds castles in the air! A meteorologist appears the closest fit and you beat around the bush. You get more clouded when he says he works entirely from home. You try to steer the conversation to familiar terrain like Cricket and Bollywood. It is unsuccessful. Within a few sentences, he says, “These days, movies are also streamed from the cloud."

Seeing the conversation going nowhere, you finally pop the question, “What is cloud?” He stares at you incredulously as if asked to clarify the concept of addition in Arithmetic. He is at a total loss of words. He fumbles, “Well, cloud is cloud! All the data was co-located earlier isn’t it? It is all moving to the Cloud. These days, everything is in the cloud!”

You feel like telling him, “My dear friend, I have no clue what “data” is, leave alone it being co-located! The only cloud I know is the one in the sky. And presently, I am just as lost as Wordsworth, when he wrote, “I wandered lonely as a cloud!”

Unwittingly, you have now given your friend a free hand. “There is no technology company that can survive without a cloud story!” he says with an air of finality. You have half a mind to unleash your grandmother at him to continue this conversation! She is sure to grill him, “When we had cloud stories like "Meghaduta" written a 1000 years ago, what better cloud story are you going to write now?”

Wryly you joke, “Looks like we can solve world hunger with cloud. It is the solution for everything!” The friend is on cloud nine! “Exactly! How did you know?” In his excitement, he might even hug you! The writing is on the wall- IT and non-IT are as apart as East and West. And it is rightly said, East is East and West is West and the two shall never meet. Or maybe, they will meet! You guessed it right, in the cloud!