Healthy Spinach Pakodas...

Today I came up with a great idea of making delicious healthy spinach pakoda like edibles - I would like to call as 'pakodala'. Why so? As a biologist, we term anything similar to something as 'like' and hence pakoda like becomes 'pakodala'. Anyways, lets get to the preparation of the pakodalas.

If you are too concious about your health and at the same savor pakodas and know that you need to eat more spinaches but can't do that because of the yucky taste, this recipe is for you.

Ingredients: 1 cup of gram flour, 1 bunch of spinach, 3-4 tea spoon oil, salt, chilli powder
Cooking time: 4-5 minutes

Procedure:
Add 1/2 cup water into 1 cup of gram flour(besan). If it gets thicker then add little more water, so as you can make a smear if you dip anything into it. Then add salt to you taste and also little chilli powder if you like. Wash a bunch of spinach thoroughly and stack approximately 8-10 leaves one above the other. Pour little bit of oil in a pan and heat it up (depending on the size of the pan, make sure the level of oil is not more than 0.5 cms. Dip the spinach stack(8-10) at a time into the gram flour so that there is a film of gram flour on both the sides of the stack(Now the stack is externally bound by gram flour mix). Then put the stack on the oil. You can cook 5-6 stacks at a time in a pan depending on the size of the pan. Let the bottom side get cooked then carefully turn it over. Now you have hot delicious spinach pakodalas for snacks. Enjoy eating. Pictures are coming....

Mandatory CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)??!!

India has seen a surge in number of millionaires; if not billionaires. But yes, both the classes are on a rise. Now, how many of them are really involved in any kind of philanthropic activitivity? I would say almost NONE. Except for TATAs and Infosys and to some extent Wipros, none of Indians super-rich are in favor of giving away the hard earned money. So, what are they going to do with the money after all? Since everybody only lasts for a certain number of years and after that no one knows what happens to them. With body gone, who knows if the soul exists. Even if it does, and it has a re-incarnation, no one remembers anything about the past life. So, what is the use of leaving lots of wealth for your children to sit and enjoy and reap the benefits of your hard work?? So, all that super rich could do is invest good amounts in inculcating values/education into their children and leave everything else back to the society...
This is exactly what Bill Gates and Warren Buffets are now here in India for... Although received with luke warm response, people are generally against CSR ( corportae social responsibility)... I hope some of the richest are convinced to give away their wealth after they pass. Melinda Gates is pretty upbeat about this saying most of the self made wealthy are more willing to give away than the dynastic wealthy. Lets see... I guess, it is a tradition and a culture that stops people from giving away. The tradition of feeling insecure. Well, this is completely my perception. I personally feel that people should give most of the wealth they generated through their life time. The benefits could be immeasurable. The first foreseable positive change I can think of is fall in real estate prices. Second, people will learn to respect work and will not worship the rich. That will bring about a huge socio-cultural positive change that is so much required.
My perception is; wealthy should invariably spend on infrastructure that is so much the need of the hour for our country. Personally, I feel Indian citizens have food, clothes but there is a serious need for housing projects in urban areas, since India is seeing a complete demographic shift now - from villages to cities. Another area to look upon may be safe sanitation and renewable energy sources and good transportation means. This is what I dream for India if Indian need to stand up...  

Lamarckism does not hold true in caste system too...

Often times in Indian newspaper and elsewhere there is a frequent mention of caste system in India. As obnoxious as it gets with time, I would like to argue in favor of it for a change!

Well read on:

They say: Casteism is common in India and people are discriminated for their caste.
I say: Which society does not have caste? Go to any developed/semi-developed/under-developed society, people are usually classified on the basis of their wealth, culture, education etc. Humans as social animals can't simply live without it!! Having said that, I am not saying caste related discrimination should be there. Now as I was raised in a small town, I did not see anyone "discriminating" against anyone on the basis of their caste. May be in the villages it is still the practise, but it is vanishing slowly and for good...

They say: Hindus alone practice caste.
I say: Completely wrong!! The other day I was speaking with one of my Japanese colleagues and he said, during matrimony, people from Japan do hire private detectives to find about the "Caste" of the prospective bride/groom. Even, in christian, Muslim and Sikh societies there is a prevalent caste system. You will find Christan churches having segments such as African American churches, chinese churches, Vietnamese churches so on and so forth. In predominantly muslim societies like Pakistan, they still have caste based classification. So why blame hindus alone...

They say: Caste divides society.
I say: Without caste also there will be always a division in society.

Now following are my arguments in favor of casteism:

During marriages, people frequently see caste and I see no problem with that. Reason - Marriage unites two different families. If both families practice different social rules, then one of the families has to adopt the culture of the other family else, there will be a disaster. I am not kidding... From my own experience, I have seen this plenty of times. In our house, both my husband and I belong to the same caste and our native places are just few miles from each other. But I still feel we have so much difference in our food habbits, in our culture in dealing with guests in conducting social celebrations like marriage etc. We often criticize each other for the practices we follow. Just imagine what would happen if we belong to completely different worlds. It may be fine initially, and it may be fine if one completely accepts the other's culture, but imagine, if that is not the case... If both bride and groom belong to the same caste, then most likely they have same customs, traditions to follow and hence less of conflict and a smooth sailing.

People tend to adopt the profession of their forefathers(Basically that is what gave rise to caste system in the first place). There is a lot of advantage to it. For example, if a child sees his parents following a particular profession throughout their childhood, then they tend to learn it better. For example, in Indian context, lets talk about politics or acting. How many of our present day politicians or actors are from non-political or acting families? Very few... Those who join in and become successful actors or politicians can be safely considered a case of "joining a new caste". After all this is what the Vedas say about the caste. We only mis-interpret things.

In a plural society, there has to be some kind of distinction and we as humans are hard wired to live that way. So, no amount of government pressure can subjugate it - lets accept this as a fact. Now, reservation in the name of caste is completely wrong from the perspective that, we are making it easy for people who need to really struggle to get into the position they so want to be in. This is something like reserving seats for people from non-political families in elections or giving acting job to non-actor families. It simply makes no sense. With this, I say YES to caste system and at the same time, I believe Caste should be an acquired character not inherited one. In other words, caste as an acquired character should not be passed on to the future generation rather should be left as one of the choices for the offspring to decide, whether he/she is comfortable in identifying himself/herself with the parental caste...

Scientific warfare!!

As amused I was at the Asilomar conference to say the least; reason - scientific warfare! Well, there is this group X that says phospholipids do bind certain motif of effector proteins that aids in effective translocation into the host cells. This seems to be a big deal since, according to group X, without it, there will be no cell entry of effectors and hence no disease. Phospholipids are predominant on the surface of any living cell. If this were true(I am certain it is!!), then this may lead to major drug discoveries in targeting this molecule alone in preventing infectious diseases. However, this story does not end here. Group X with a young grad student as the first author publishes this in one of the most prestigious journals available in biological sciences. Now this does not go well with group A....W,Y,Z - you know why. Now they are trying to repeat this experiment and the experiment that was published by group X seem to be un-repeatable. So, this is where war begins. Now all other groups are constantly pulling group X on the validity of the published results. Some even threaten retraction of paper(?!!). I am not certain , but I am watching all these through twitter war of words. I am not directly involved with this, but I am a part of group X and reputation of group X is important to me. So, lets see where and how this controversy dies...

Here is a nice Joke on Indian National Congress

sonia gandhi died and went to heaven. as she stood in front of saint peter at the pearly gates, she saw a huge wall of clocks behind him. she asked, "what are all those clocks?"

saint peter answered, "those are corruption-clocks. every organization on earth has a corruption-clock.
every time a member of organization does corruption, his/her organization clock will move.

"oh," said sonia, "whose clock is that?"

"that's salvtion army's. the hands have not moved indicating that they have done no corrupt act."

"and whose clock is that next to it?"

"that's nun teresa's missionary of charity's clock. the hands have only moved just a few notches telling us that they have done it a few times ."

"where's the congress clock?" sonia asked.

"congress clock is very special. in the old days of mahatma gandhi we used to keep here and it would not move. since your family took over we took it to jesus' office."

sonia, feling touched: really? why?

he's using it as a ceiling fan."

Subramnyam Swamy's letters to Prime minister.

Here is the sensational letter written by SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY of BJP directly to Prime minister Manmohan Singh. After reading this letter we will understand why Manmohan Singh had kept silent and not opening his mouth regarding 2G scam.


Dr. Manmohan Singh,
Prime Minister of India,
South Block,
New Delhi.

Dear Prime Minister:

You may by now have realized that the 2G Spectrum scandal is not only bad for the country in the dimension of corruption, but now it emerges that there is a national security dimension too. The RAW, IB, CBI, ED all have enough material which they may have placed before you regarding the dubious aspects of the principal player in this scam.

According to my information two sisters, Anushka and Nadia, of Ms Sonia Gandhi had received sixty percent of the kickbacks in this deal i.e. Rs.18,000 crores each. The frequent travel of Sonia Gandhi and her immediate family to Malaysia, Hongkong, Dubai and parts of Europe including London requires to be probed under the law. What requires your special attention is the mode of the travel, not by commercial airliners, but by jets provided by the corporate sector which itself is illegal under the DGCA Rules. I find that often Ms. Sonia Gandhi and family have traveled to Dubai and then traveled onwards on private jets provided by dubious Arab business interests to Europe. It is not clear on what passport they have traveled. In Dubai they were facilitated by agencies of countries which are hostile to India including that of Pakistan.

You can no more not take a stand when evil is permeating in the country in the form of terrorism, religious conversion and demographic infiltration. The ill-gotten money in billions of dollars equivalent, the money laundering and Participatory Notes have all undermined our national integrity. The time is come for you to take a stand.

I am familiar with the information and data with our intelligent agencies. I also know that you can seek cooperation of other countries especially the United States in pooling information especially from inter Intelligence interaction that take place regularly. I hope therefore you will rise to the need of the hour and take effective steps to set right the sorry state of affairs in the country caused by overtly and covertly resident foreigners. In this connection I would like to meet you at the earliest. My Secretary will be in touch with your Secretariat to fix a time.

Yours sincerely,

(Sd SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY)

Sonia Gandhi to be implicated in 2G scam

Not so long ago, through internet news medium, I came to know the genius of Subramnyam Swamy, who was earlier slammed by media as a "mad person". Ask him about it and he will be quick to reply that he is indeed crazy - and crazy people only bring about changes to the society - how true!! Only for few news agencies, I came to know 2G scam was unearthed by Dr.Swamy. Not only that none of his allegations about Sonia Gandhi has ever been challenged. Ask why... Another interesting feature of Dr. Swamy is - If you like to offer him bribe, he will take it but not do it for you - he will do exactly what he thinks is right!! With this I will forever remain a fan of Dr. Swamy. Here is a detailed version of his views on 2G scam, Sonia Gandhi from rediff news. Enjoy reading...

"Just wait and see. Halfway through 2-G spectrum case I will bring in Sonia Gandhi into it. Nothing is going to go wrong in this case. This case is going to make a modern, new and clean India," claims Janata Party president Dr Subramanian Swamy, one of the petitioners in the 2G spectrum scam, which is being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation under the Supreme Court's supervision.

As the Supreme Court's pressure on the CBI mounts, Dr Swamy feels the thrill of success.

After former telecom minister A Raja's arrest, Swamy is now targeting Raja's mentor and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Karunanidhi.

Swamy claimed to rediff.com that Karunanidhi is a worried man now.

Swami and now even the CBI's case is that Raja favoured Swan Telecom to get the 2-G spectrum at a low price. Businessman Shahid Balwa, who was arrested on Wednesday, was a promoter of Swan. Etisalat Dynamix Balwa, which purchased shares of Swan, is also the front company of Balwa. He also launched another company which reportedly gave a loan to a television company ran by Karunanidhi's family. This nexus and sequence of money passing hands is being established by the CBI. The sceptic may find this complex transaction difficult to prove but Swamy is oozing with confidence. He says, "I will not leave the case half-way. I will ensure that Raja goes to jail for 21 years."

He alleges that Raja gave that licence to Swan Telecom and as a result of this the Karunanidhi family firm got a loan.

Swamy's main contention is that Raja changed 'the cut off date' in the process of allotting spectrum and helped Anil Ambani's Reliance which had a 9.97 percent stake in Swan and the Tata group, which eventually sold shares to Docomo and made profits.

Swan has now been renamed as Etisalat DB and Unitech, which also got cheap spectrum, sold it to Telinor, which now operates in India under the name Uninor.

Once Swamy got the above facts and related papers he took up the case.

In November, 2008, Dr Swamy wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and followed it up with four more letters seeking sanction to prosecute Raja.

When the prime minister didn't take any decision, Swamy went to Supreme Court and the rest is history. Even advocate Prashant Bhushan filed another petition to create a monitoring mechanism to supervise CBI's investigation of the 2G case.

Swami's worry is that Swan's shares have been sold to people with connections to Pakistan and Chinese investors, raising security concerns.

Swamy has strong reservations about Balwa and his connections in Mumbai but he says, "I may disagree with Ratan Tata's judgment but I don't doubt his patriotism."

Swamy is an odd one out on a mission to hit the UPA government. The maverick's scheming activism is creating headlines these days. His motives are always difficult to grasp because he acts with vengeance against his political opponents.

But there is no one like Dr Swami in Luyten's Delhi.

He first shot to fame during and after the Emergency in 1975 when he became one of the founder members of the Janata Party under the leadership of Jayaprakash Narayan. He heads the almost-defunct party even now.

He has 52 years of experience teaching economics at Harvard University in the US. Even experts stop and take notice when he writes on the economy of China. He is familiar with Mandarin. He has studied the Gita and many other Hindu granthas and has written many books including Hindus Under Siege. He has been always supporter of the market economy and since last few years has been a supporter of Hindutva.
He abhors today's politicians and is a rare political animal who is not afraid of the media. His political adversaries have every reason to be afraid of him.

When he fell-out with former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha, she ordered his arrest in Chennai. But Swamy boarded a flight and once inside argued that aircraft comes under the central government's domain.

His greatest strength is his grasp of the law and its bold interpretations.

A very few in New Delhi can match his tenacity in taking on his enemies in a court of law. He is a rare public figure taking on Sonia Gandhi relentlessly. He is not a regular politician with a retinue of chamchas around him round the clock.

He is a one-man party but he reads signals from the grassroots well and knows what pinches the common man.

He says, "The problem with these ancient politicians is that they think they are big if they go around with a big crowd, so 200 people should follow them all the time. I don't believe that. I am in the 21st century and my large network is on the internet/phone."

"There is no part in India where I can't pick up the phone and ask what's going on in your town. You won't see me at a cocktail party or a new year bash."
Swamy is 72 but looks much younger and has been very bullish on India and its future. He says he left a job at Harvard to become part of the 'India story'.

He believes a glorious future lies ahead for India. He lives in a comfortable house in New Delhi's Nizamuddin Colony. Roxna, his soft-spoken lawyer wife, is his strength and carries his briefs to various courts. She works hard maintaining papers of cases Swamy wants to fight. She diligently files petition after petition.

With a 40-year career behind him, Swamy knows what he is doing and talking. His talking, in fact, distinguishes him from other politicians. He is never restrained in expressing his views. Since he speaks only in extreme terms it affects his credibility in the long run but he will bombard you with the very same extreme arguments if you try to tell him so.

He never tampers ideas before he speaks and he is just not afraid of his enemies or their might. His drive to carry on his mission has helped him.

He can't be ignored because if you look closely he does not actually lose many legal battles. From the Islamic bank case to one concerning gold-plating of the Tirupati temple to the issue of Ram Sethu his activism brings the results he strives for.
There are scores of such issues where Dr Swamy has been ahead of all in raising it and taking it to its logical conclusion.

Dr Swamy, in fact, is a complex politician carrying too many secrets in his long, chequered career. Once he was close to government in Libya and Iraq, at another time he was influential enough to get one-on-one meet with Premier Deng Xiopang in Beijing and even got Chinese government to open up Mansarovar for Hindu pilgrims.

In 40 years he has been twice minister at the Centre and five times he has been elected to Parliament.

Since the last ten years his target is Sonia Gandhi against whom he has filed a case of smuggling of Indian antiques. He also took up the issue of his foreign origin and the issue of a foreign-born person's eligibility to become prime minister.

Swamy has umpteen times made allegations that Sonia's real name is Antonia and her family background is not what she claims to be. He has spoken so many things against her but he has never been challenged.

His favourite line is: "You journalists are ignorant."
He tells us, "There is no defamation law for a public person. I have won all the cases filed against me. Most people in political life are ignorant they don't know anything they just sit in drawing rooms and make guesses they go to cocktail parties and gossip when Jayalalitha filed hundreds of defamation cases against me, I came to the Supreme Court and read the law. The United States Supreme Court in 1964 has given a judgment that if a person in public life decides to sue for defamation then the onus is on him to prove that the charges levelled are false. Normally, if you are not in public life the defamer has to prove that charges are true. Here the burden is reversed. Recently, Karunanidhi issued me a notice I tore it up his notice in public before the cameras and threw it in dustbin."

He adds, "The law protects me. This is in the public domain out of ignorance people keep giving opinions and discourage you. I speak bluntly. I get irritated to see people's ignorance. I don't speak diplomatically."

When asked, "Do you know people sometime say you are crazy?' Dr Swamy says, 'That's a fact! Only crazy people bring change. I don't want among the sane who are stooges of people in authority today. If that is sanity, I don't want that kind of sanity."

When rediff.com asked him, "Was there any pressure on you to not move forward in the 2G spectrum case?" Swamy's reply was astounding.
"See, there is a general impression amongst all crooks that if you offer Swamy money, he will take the money and still continue, so no use giving him money!"

Then, giving a playful look, he says, "Since, I am Brahmin getting dakshina is my birthright. If anyone gives me money I will take it. But I will not do their work. I do exactly what I think is right. I play a role of an ancient Brahmin. Today Brahmins are connected to birth. It's nonsense. It has nothing to do with birth. You have to have vidya (knowledge) and you have to have courage. You should not have any personal wealth. I don't have any personal wealth."

He adds, "Ask Roxna. She is constantly complaining that I don't care for money.

She being a good Parsi keeps account of every penny spent. Anyway, I will not take any money for consideration. That's why in these 40 years nobody has charged me with anything."

Swamy's political operations and legal activism is too intertwined making it complex and cunning.

In the 2G spectrum case he wants to protect Prime Minister Singh but wants to see Sonia Gandhi implicated. He speaks ill of the Bhartiya Janata Party and its leaders but he enjoys backing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
When asked about his feelings for Dr Singh, he gave a political answer.

"I have said clearly that Manmohan Singh is like Bhishmacharya who watched Draupadi being disrobed. That was unforgivable. This man is also without a spine. But I will not do anything or remove him because a vacancy created will not be filled by the people of India but by Sonia Gandhi."

In 2004, Swamy went to court and even to then President A P J Abdul Kalam to prevent Sonia Gandhi from becoming prime minister.

He is of the view that, "She herself can't become prime minister because of legal bar but she will make her son or someone else who will be worse than Dr Singh."

He says, "I am playing for removal of UPA and in the process Dr Singh will also be removed but I won't be party to anything under which only Dr Singh gets removed."

When asked why he has a soft corner for Dr Singh, he says, "He is a man of integrity. He has personal integrity. He is not the man fit for this job. He has no political backing so he is totally dependent on Sonia Gandhi. You can't have throne of India occupied by a boneless wonder. No matter how good you are its not enough. You must be a person who is able to take risks and make decisions. A man should not look over someone's shoulder. From day one we know he is not an independent person. His background is bureaucratic. It's not political. I know him for so many years. In the present UPA system, I know of no gutsy, no decent or no political person who can be prime minister. They have to be a rubber stamp of Sonia Gandhi."When asked what nailed Raja, Dr Swami says, "That press conference of January 10, 2008 when Raja allotted spectrum on first come, first serve basis. That was his unbecoming. If he had done it with little bit finesse he would have got away with it. It was so crude. He gave one hour for the companies to get demand drafts for Rs 1,650 crore. He gave advance information to those whom he wanted to give spectrum. So those people came with pre-dated cheques. I had a press release of that press conference. Some officers gave it to me."

Swamy claims that his case saw legal success because the Supreme Court could not ignore two things.

"One, why the prime minister did not reply my letter. And, two, he could not say yes or no about my plea to charge Raja for corruption. Obviously, he could not say yes so he kept quiet because he can't even say no."

While ending the interview, he said, "Raja was assured by the Congress and the DMK that he will be protected. Their alliance won't break because both are partners in crime. But Raja was let down by Karunanidhi and Sonia Gandhi because Dr Singh showed individuality in arresting Raja."

Then, giving a mischievous look, he said, "You can't ask Sonia Gandhi any question on Raja because she would never give that interview."