Sweet Nothings

Twenty hours of total flight time couldn’t take RR senior far enough that we couldn’t sit across each other and chat for hours. Thanks to technology (skype) family can’t be kept at bay, you are answerable for every minute of your time. A snippet from the conversation-
RRJ: Achcha what do you do when you are not talking to me?
RRS: Ahem, I do some important things ….. and after work for some time I sleep.
Conversation takes a detour and sometime later.
RRS: And what do you do when you are not talking to me?
RRJ: I think about you.
Oooh what a shot, score two-love, junior leading…… the audience in raptures, they absolutely love it!

No-Frills Biryani

On a break from steaming hot Chennai, it has been the most relaxing time in months. At parent’s in Bangalore, the kid busy with visiting mama, husband away in Brazil and parents busy hosting the hulla-gulla, has given me ample time for everything including an attempt at the food for the soul: chicken biryani. While biryani recipes get as elaborate as one wants but the one that works for me is one with minimum frills. Things you need:

• 1 kg chicken or 8 chicken drumsticks
• 2 onions (finely chopped)
• 6 pods of garlic (grated)
• 1 tablespoon of ginger (grated)
• 4-5 peppercorns (ground)
• 1 tomato (chopped)
• 1 green chilli (chopped)
• 1.5 level teaspoon garam masala
• 1 level teaspoon turmeric
• 1.5 teaspoon dhaniya powder
• 0.5 teaspoon chilli powder
• 1 bayleaf
• 4 cloves
• 1 stick of cinnamon
• 2 cardamoms
• salt for taste
• juice of 1 lime

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• 3 cups of rice
• 3 pods of garlic (chopped)
• 0.5 cup pudina leaves (finely chopped)
• 0.5 cup dhaniya leaves (finely chopped)
• 0.5 teaspoon garam masala
• 2 teaspoon salt

Take a liberal amount of oil ( around 5-6 tablespoons) in a large frying pan or wok/kadhai on medium heat. When the oil is reasonably hot put the chopped onion and let it fry till it looses it’s shape and crunchiness (say for around 10 mins). Put the grated ginger garlic, green chilli and pepper corn (wait 2 mins). Add the bayleaf, cloves, cinnamon and cardamoms. In another couple of minutes add the tomato, the powders, lime juice and salt and cover the pan so that the paste doesn’t become too dry. Once the tomatoes become part of the paste add the chicken and cook fully covered for 20 minutes on medium heat and 20 more minutes on low heat. In another pan heat 2 tablespoons of oil and fry the garlic. Add the rice and stir for a couple of minutes before adding 6 cups of water and garam masala and salt. Let it come to a boil and cover until cooked. Mix mint and coriander leaves in the rice. In a big pan put half of the chicken in a layer then put half of the rice and spread it over the chicken. Layer the remaining chicken and put the final layer of rice. Now with a big serving spoon toss the biryani a few times without making it too homogeneous. It is ready to be eaten and any mild raita makes an ideal accompaniment.

O Mentor Where Art Thou

A meeting with one of my favourite students has given me the rudest of shocks. There I was, a little smug of my ability to connect as a normal human being with the students specially a few of the under graduates and there he was telling me what a false idea that was. Just three years ago this bright little kid had his eyes sparkling with enthusiasm for anything challenging about mechanics and asking questions which made me learn and relearn. Unquestionable ability, the desire to learn and discuss being right there, all that we, the teachers, had to do was to expose him to the wonderful world of mechanical engineering. Now graduating, not a kid anymore, the student is convinced that mechanical engineering: academia or industry is just not for him. While I respect the growth of a person and their quest for their calling in life, but I can’t deny the sense of deflation I feel. There is something hugely wrong in our academic system, instead of inspiring a few who don’t even want to consider engineering as an option we are managing to do exactly the opposite. And I come to know of this transition in one of my favourite students after three years!

Seeing parallels between parenthood and being a teacher comes naturally to me perhaps because both happened to me around the same time. The under graduate student is like a newly arrived who slowly picks up the basic skills and the language of his/her profession for survival in the later life. We the teachers like parents must provide the infrastructure, we must convey the passion for our subject, but more importantly we have to spend some quality time. Even when the student wants to run to his/her peers we must want to share their joys as well as anxieties of these growing years. In this mad rush to satisfy all the demands of academia and self-growth perhaps it is easy to forget these are young minds who come to an academic institution with hope and aspirations. We cannot let them come and go without ever being involved with them.

Bumps and Nicks

The sight of myself behind the steering wheel driving out of our neat little campus into the sea of vehicles jostling for space right outside hadn’t been witnessed by many or one should say any. One could sense that there was a general consensus amongst the family members that my expertise should be reserved for rare occasions and it was a mere coincidence that such occasions never materialized.

The moment arrived while RR senior(S) and junior(J) were away for vacation to grandparent’s. RRJ’s school books needed a pick up from his school before 12 noon on a specific day. Being alone and free from family I had been going for frequent outings with my female friends. Impressed by their carefree driving my emancipated self was eager to give our car a much needed run on the city roads and what better time than when it is not under the protective care of RRS. I set out pretty confidently and 10:30 not being the peak hour for traffic, managed my way reasonably well till I reached just a few blocks from the school. To get off the main road into the by-lane I needed to cut across the road. I was waiting for that little gap in traffic when a giant scorpio van came in the reverse traffic and stopped wanting to make a U-turn. With a giant waiting for me to clear some space and time ticking by the feeling of being under the spotlight was getting ever stronger. I am not too sure what made me decide that the right thing to do was to step on the accelerator. The traffic not being visible behind the scorpio, it turned out not to be the wisest of moves after all. A lot of brakes screeched while I drove on into the by-lane almost running over an on coming motor-cyclist. Whizzing past the sudden confluence of many vehicles I was a bit dazed by the glares from all sides. There have been many instances when I have been known to misread people’s intent in their eyes but I was fairly convinced it wasn’t the case this time. Parking the car near the school I found only a black mark all across the left side of the car the as the tell tale signs of my near miss. The top millimeter of the bumper of a fellow car deposited on ours is not something to lose one’s sleep over, after all what is so bad about a little bit of give and take between road mates.

I could see the pile of books waiting for me but the teachers were not ready to let me come anywhere near without seeing proof of money deposited for fees. So there I was, it was just not the way back home that had to be negotiated but surprisingly I was all for it. I took a few deep breaths and made my way back without much to write about and got the all important little piece of paper. Back in the car, a little pep-talk was need of the hour. “Take it easy, don’t get pressurized into doing any thing, drive confidently” I repeated after myself. A few puffs of deep breaths later I was on my way, a picture of cool calm confidence. The pep talk seemed to have done a world of good as nothing could flutter me. The motorcyclists wanting to quantify the probability of survival against all odds, the buses asserting their space or the autos making last minute decisions on the direction of their path, absolutely nothing could stir me. Happy with the effect I repeated my little mantra one more time but by the time I was reminding myself to drive confidently I realized that very confidently I had driven a good 10 meters past the turn I was supposed to take. My immediate reaction was to come to a halt and put emergency lights on and do some thinking. I did. Not confident of making my way back any other way I started to reverse back with emergency lights announcing to the world to keep away from me for good reason. The people sitting on the road side did there bit by controlling the traffic and I did my bit controlling the car and together we managed to circumvent the little digression and I was back on track humming to the tune on radio.

Do our parents choose jobs for us?

Being the daughter of an academic, having both brothers in academics and being married to an academic is reason enough to not be in academics, and yet the fact is, I am. So is it our parents who choose our careers?

It is hard to deny the influence that parents have on the choices we make. Point of interest being careers, a simple dimensional analysis can be tried to narrow down the important parameters in the game. If we feel that our parents are reasonable and balanced people who are quite aware of what are jobs all about, it is going to be harder to discredit their projection of our future. Specially if the emotional bond is strong and the expectations, however subtle they maybe, are absolutely clear. Now, if there are other strong influences such as teachers in the school or an uncle or aunt it can actually create a second opinion forcing the child at least to consider more than one option and start thinking on their own. Finally, the more dominating the parent is and the more submissive the child is, the decisions are going to be largely parent's wish-centric. Putting these ideas as a questionnaire:

1) strong emotional relation with the parent?
2) high regard for the parent and parent's understanding of the reality?
3) clear expectations?
4) indirect statement of expectations?
5) parents are the only strong influences?
6) strong personality of parent?
7) meek personality of child?

Assuming the ability to meet parent's wishes exist, the more number of yeses we get the more likely it is that we follow the career path that our parents want us to. The inferences that one can make is that as a child if you wish to choose your own path spend a lot of time away from home in the formative years. Listen to inspiring people in various fields, read lot of books. On the other hand if you are a parent encourage child to think on their own starting as early as possible. While have high expectations don't make them very specific: be good and sincere is a non-pressurising expectation rather than be an engineer/doctor. I score pretty much 6 yeses and inspite of all my initial resistances without doubt I have let my parent's wish be my wish. Time to work on the next generation.........