odzer's blog

This post is in response and in protest of Chandigarh Administration and its Department of Environment. I will continue to put updates periodically unless the notification to ban plastic bags is either withdrawn by the Administration or is struck down by the courts. It is now my intention to fight the government on this online because I see this as a mega downgrade in my quality of life. All of those who are affected by this ban in any way are requested to use the contact me form (opens in a new window) so that we can formulate strategy to fight this ban. Regular posts will continue on this blog as usual.

Are they blind to the obvious : The Answer is YES!

The Times of India Article Published on 25th of Nov, 2008

On the 25th of this month I found this article in the local supplement of the Times of India. It makes for an interesting read. It echoes what I have been writing about in this blog for a long time now. However I am amazed that instead of realizing the folly of this ban the local government is quite intent on seeing this ban implemented even more aggressively. Now they are actively intent on threatening people carrying plastic bags with trials. I have a question for them though. How will they be able to tell if the bag that the person is carrying is from before the ban? What about visitors from other cities? Isn’t it taking environmental fanaticism to a new high?

Now about handleless plastic bags that I have talked about in a previous post of mine. These are the only things we have now to carry leaky food. So perhaps a sweet shop owner needs such bags to perhaps sell Rasgullas or Gulab Jamuns. Perhaps a meat shop owner uses such a bag to sell his products. So on and so forth. The Administration seems to be blind to the concerns of everyday life. They have branded plastic is an evil and that is the end of it. People can all go to hell collectively. If you do not obey you can pay a hefty fine of hundreds of thousands of rupees or be jailed.

Coming now to Mr. Ishwar Singh, the Führer of the Chandigarh Environment Department, a person who I wrote to and who did not even bother replying and is now busy holding meetings with the high and the mighty of the government ‘apprising’ them of tactics used by the poor shopkeepers here I can only say I am appaled. Does he not even realise that he is representing a totalitarian government who does not even listen to the voice of reason? In any case who gave these bureaucrats a license to run our lives for us and choose for us how we want to live our lives. I say to you sir, Resign. You are not wanted. You have failed in the discharge of your responsibilities and you give two hoots to the people who live within your departments jurisdiction. You even refuse to read your emails  what can we expect from you in terms of governance.

I am demanding now an outright lifting of this draconian ban. As a person who has to put up with this nonsense every day I am saying enough is enough. I want our local government to focus on more serious problems instead of white washing our huge garbage problems. Of course I am not naïve enough to think that just by writing a blog post things will change immediately. I am in for the long haul over this. The only question is, is the government as well? They are already failing with their ban. Lets see.

When you pack your bags and lock up your house, you set out for the unknown. Just before you arrive in a strange land a bit of reassurance can be useful. Over the last ten years whenever I travel to a foreign country I always read travel advisories. It is a pity that the Ministry of External Affairs in India does not give out any. Mostly I have relied upon the advice given out by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the British government. In these troubling times in India I am sure that many foreigners who are planning visits to this country need the same reassurance and accurate information. What other governments are  saying also sets the mood for how the world views our local situation. Let start then with the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office :-

“Terrorism/Security

Since July 2006 there have been terrorist attacks in major cities including Mumbai, New Delhi, Jaipur and Hyderabad. Whilst no British nationals were among the casualties, some sites targeted are frequented by tourists.”

The Americans also have a useful website and this is what they have to say :

“SAFETY AND SECURITY:

Multiple, simultaneous bombings in crowded public places in India over the past three years represent an increasing threat to American citizens traveling in India.   While U.S. citizens are not being directly targeted by the perpetrators of such acts, the U.S. government is concerned that the risk of Americans becoming random victims of terrorism in India is rising.  Because the targets have included trains, train stations, markets, cinemas, mosques, and restaurants in large urban areas, it is becoming more difficult to modify one’s behavior to lessen the growing risk.”

I can read some broken dutch and I often also refer to the Dutch travel advice as well. Here are what they are saying :

“Terrorisme

Er is een verhoogde terrorismedreiging in India. De meest recente aanslagen (zie rubriek ‘Actualiteiten’) zijn gepleegd op drukke openbare plaatsen zoals markten en bij tempels. Plaatsen die tevens bezocht worden door toeristen en in India woonachtige buitenlanders.

In India zijn verschillende militante en terroristische bewegingen actief. Het gaat daarbij met name om de noordelijke deelstaat Jammu & Kasjmir en om de noordoostelijke deelstaten Manipur, Tripura, Assam en Nagaland waar militante separatistische bewegingen al tientallen jaren aanslagen plegen op Indiase overheidsgebouwen en veiligheidsinstanties (zie verder ‘Onveilige gebieden’).

Ook in de deelstaten Jharkhand, Chatthisgarh, Orissa en Bihar worden van tijd tot tijd aanslagen gepleegd op leger en politie door radicale extreemlinkse bewegingen (zogenaamde ‘Naxalieten’). Aanslagen door ‘Naxalieten’ hebben niet plaatsgevonden op westerlingen of toeristen, wel vinden af en toe activiteiten plaats tegen symbolische doelen zoals westerse bedrijven.”

The Dutch advise is basically similar to the British advice but as you can see from all the above sites the theme of the advice is quite similar. I believe these advices will soon be updated because after yesterdays attack one thing is pretty much clear. Foreigners in India are being targeted and are no longer safe. I am sure that the odds of being killed in a terrorist attack in India remain slim. However I would advise that anyone thinking of coming down in the near future do an analysis before they lock up their homes and set out. Terror that seemed to have been restricted to just a few pockets of this country has now reached main population centers and it is no longer safe to say which place is safe and which place is not safe. When the situation clears or settles down and there is a complete clarity of what new measures are being taken by the Government to protect the populace it may be wiser to make plans then. If you do have essential business it is not all that bad but leisure is something you should definitely think seriously about putting off for a while.

India has a long way to go when it comes to providing a secure and a non vulnerable environment for its own citizens and as such at that moment where even I do not feel safe any more I can not honestly advise any non Indian person to risk it.

I find coconut battery to be a useful tool for mac users.

I have had my laptop since around 2006 and it has always performed quite well. Last week I started facing this really curious problem. The computer would just shut itself off instead of going to sleep mode when the battery got exhausted. It would turn itself off around 2 minutes before the battery was due to be finished.Now one of the most annoying parts of this was that I would lose any work that was unsaved. I did a bit of research online and soon found out a problem that might have been the cause of this issue. A call to my local Apple dealer soon confirmed the problem. My battery needed to be calibrated.

The apple dealer explained to me that when the battery ages the computer often loses track of how much charge is stored in it. The way to fix it is actually quite simple and I will detail it below but it is rather time consuming. The good news is that it only needs to be done around once in six months or even longer. In fact since 2006 I had never ever calibrated my  macbook battery and it had no ill effects at all. So here is what you need to do:

Plug in the adapter and wait for the magsafe battery indicator to turn green from orange.

Disconnect the power adapter and wait till the battery is completely empty. In case your computer turns itself off as in my case before it goes to sleep just close the lid of the laptop before it happens. If if enters sleep mode its well and good.

Leave it alone for at least 5 hours without the adapter or overnight is even better.

Recharge the battery without removing the adapter and fully charge the battery again.

Your battery should be fully calibrated now. A good tool I have found is Coconut battery that can be downloaded from here. It gives detailed and useful information regarding the status of Apple portable batteries. Now my computer goes peacefully to sleep instead of turning off abruptly and I am happy again.

It was way back last year on Christmas that I did a roast chicken. There are many things that keep me from doing roasts here. One of the factors is the unavailability of quality meat. One day before I did my roast chicken this time I had to go to the Butchers and order a chicken with the skin still on. Luckily for me I am quite friendly with one of the Nepali boys who does the cuts for the butchers and I know him since his last employer. So today I picked up the bird brought it home. I cleaned it a bit and stuffed the cavity of the chicken with some oranges, some garlic and some shallots. I then basted the chicken with some butter mixed with some thyme and rosemary. I had salted and peppered the chicken before the basting.

It was a simple matter then of tossing the chicken in the oven with some potatoes for an hour or so. The smell was simply amazing and I enjoyed throughly the experience of watching it cook. I had purchased a bottle of wine to deglaze the drippings but I changed my mind at the last moment and I drank quite a bit of it. After the chicken was done I proceeded to carve it. Unfortunately I do not own a cleaver and all I have is a blunt kitchen knife. Not the best of implements but I managed to do my best. I was a bit distraught because the birds quality was not as fine but then I did not expect much. Some parts of it were reddish due to the congealed blood. In any case it was tasty enough. I had a nice salad with my favourite honey mustard dressing along with it. I have enough chicken now left over to make some nice chicken salad or chicken sandwiches for lunch. That is what you call killing two birds with one stone.

This post is in response and in protest of Chandigarh Administration and its Department of Environment. I will continue to put updates periodically unless the notification to ban plastic bags is either withdrawn by the Administration or is struck down by the courts. It is now my intention to fight the government on this online because I see this as a mega downgrade in my quality of life. All of those who are affected by this ban in any way are requested to use the contact me form (opens in a new window) so that we can formulate strategy to fight this ban. Regular posts will continue on this blog as usual.

Enter the recyclable bag!

Another packaging disaster, you see a regular handleless plastic bag with a paper bag inside which contains walnuts. Imagine the waste! Previously it would be just a plastic bag! Just behind you see the new expensive recyclable

How much are you willing to pay for a shopping bag? I am willing to pay nothing. Like all good things in life a shopping bag should come free. Why? Well the reason is simple enough. Shopping for a lot of people is a very impulsive activity and you have no idea what you will end up buying. So you basically should get a bag to carry your things home. Ever since our stupid government decided to ban plastic bags we have had strange issues. In the first weeks of this ban we had no bags at all to carry produce. In the second week we got plastic bags back but without any handles. Finally around the third week we finally saw some wonderful recyclable bags. What are these bags? How much do they cost? Are they available everywhere?

Well it seems at first sight that these bags are made out of some sort of synthetic fiber. As far as I remember my chemistry synthetic fibers do not biodegrade. So basically they are just fancier plastic bags. Secondly they cost an arm and a leg. You can expect to pay anywhere between Rupees 5 to 20 per bag at different stores. Actually at most stores they cost well above Rupees 10 per bag. So if you buy groceries for a week just keep Rs 40 or almost 1 US$ for shopping bags. Now lets just do the math, if we were to use these bags as conveniently as we used plastic bags :

40X4 = Rs. 120 per month
120X12= Rs. 1440 per year

Now I have assumed that it costs Rs. 10 per bag. Of course it might cost more or it might cost less. It may also be that you decide that you may carry one of these bags with you to prevent paying for them each time. However I can not imagine anyone carrying half a dozen ‘recyclable’ bags with them each time. I can’t even seem to remember to carry one and basically whenever you need a bag you do not have one. Rs. 1440 per year may not seem much but trust me it can buy you a lot in India, actually that might be around one and half weeks of groceries for a small family. So how much does it really cost the store owners? I can imagine a lot because these bags are only available at the higher end stores. Regular shop keepers and shop keepers that use push carts usually are now using handle less plastic bags to sell their wares. Some use paper bags. So basically the ban has led us no where and it is a complete and utter failure.

The availability of these so called recyclable bags is as good as being not available. So how is the world coping? The other day I went to a sports shop to buy some weights. It was a completely impulsive stop because I needed some lighter weights for the bar bell I own and I was just reminded of it when I saw the store. The guy gave me 2 Kg weights in a paper bag! He then advised me to be “careful” and told me that it will “tear”. The look on the store owners face was one of misery. Most people seem to be deeply unhappy with the government here and the problem is that we can not even get rid of this government. So all we can do is use mediums like these to express our unhappiness.

Photo Courtesy : Alex Bunjes

I encountered my first Tibetan when I was a kid in Nabha in Punjab. It was in a bazaar and there was an old Tibetan woman there selling spices on the road. I was scared of her. I asked my mother who she was and my mother told me “Oh she is a Tibetan”. She then showed me where Tibet was on a Map and I asked innocently, but it says “China”. Many years passed and I purchased a book about adventures of a young Ladakhi boy in a school book fair. I was so excited about what I read in the book that I decided there and then that I would travel to Ladakh and to Tibet. The only problem was that I was a kid and only in grade 6 of my school.

When I entered grade 11 and I was going to my new school on the very first day I met this school boy while at a traffic signal who was in the same uniform as I was. We started talking and it turned out that we both were headed not only to the same school but also the same class. He became my deskmate. The boy was from Ladakh. Slowly I learnt the Tibetan alphabet from him in Math class. I was never interested anyway in calculus. I gathered enough money and after giving my senior secondary exams I went to Ladakh in 1998. At that stage I had so many Ladakhi friends that I knew and I still know almost one person in most Ladakhi big villages. I am also kind of good at reading Tibetan/Ladakhi. Although I can speak quite passable Ladakhi my Tibetan has never improved mostly because I end up speaking Ladakhi.

My visit to Ladakh made my resolve even stronger to visit Tibet. So after having the chance to visit Bhutan in 2000, I could luckily go to Nepal and Tibet. This was to be one of the journeys of my lifetime that I will never forget. I am putting some photos of the Tibetan landscape today from that particular journey. These are some that I picked out which happen to be my favourite. As I was just a young student who had actually skipped his final year university economics exams to be on this journey and I did not have enough money in those days for a camera all these photos are courtesy of one of my friends who not only took these pictures but was also kind enough to digitalise hundreds of them after so many years. I know that one day I will be back in Tibet because it will be that way. Till then Bhey Gyalo!!

My experiments with Hedonists potato salad recipe

Off and on in the last few years I had gotten used to hedonist popping over to my place with a great bowl full of Potato Salad. Ever since she left I have really missed her starchy treat. So I begged, coaxed, poked and twisted her arm in to writing down the recipe for her salad on her blog. Okay I am kidding she did that gladly and thankfully I can now again enjoy her potato salad. Since I made it for the very first time using her method I did hit some setbacks but I must say they were minor. One problem was my discovery of the fact that I did not have any cream so I simply omitted it. The second problem was that there was far too much stock in my potatoes, a thing against which she warned in her recipe but I observed that after a night in the fridge the potatoes had absorbed the stock.

There are some other ways of doing this salad as well I guess but I like her way. Now that spring onions are available I am willing to do yet another version soon with those as well. I would highly recommend all of you to get German friends of your own so you can enjoy potato salad, that is the best and the easiest way to this dish. The second option would be to just use the link above and follow a recipe.

yakisoba or chowmein

I made some Yakisoba or Chowmein as it is popularly known in India. I have noticed that increasingly  buying egg noodles in Chandigarh is getting harder. Most of the supermarkets and stores are now stocked only with  instant noodle variety. Usually I buy handmade noodles made by Tibetans in Dehradun. However when the stock runs out finding new noodles can be quite difficult. There are a number of ways you can make Yakisoba but the one that I usually follow is keeping the vegetables a bit on the crunchier side and adding some oyster sauce, ketchup (yes) and chinese soy sauce. You can add any seasoning that you like. Usually Japanese Yakisoba has a japanese worcestershire sauce type base.

Adding a bit of chicken stock or other stock can also enhance the flavour of the noodles especially if they have nothing else in them except flour. Similar to Yakisoba is a dish called Yakiudon which is made with Udon noodles. If you can you should always buy egg noodles for Chinese or Tibetan style chowmein. Such type of yakisoba if reheated taste better somehow than when they are cooked on the same day. I have no qualms about adding some Monosodium Glutumate because I do not think it is dangerous for humans. East Asians seem to never die even after consuming copious amounts of it every day, however if you are more influenced by the western thinking on it you can skip it. Personally I think it adds a nice kick. Finally for the garnish I always like mine with Tomatoes but a fried egg can be nice as well.

This post is in response and in protest of Chandigarh Administration and its Department of Environment. I will continue to put updates periodically unless the notification to ban plastic bags is either withdrawn by the Administration or is struck down by the courts. It is now my intention to fight the government on this online because I see this as a mega downgrade in my quality of life. All of those who are affected by this ban in any way are requested to use the contact me form (opens in a new window) so that we can formulate strategy to fight this ban. Regular posts will continue on this blog as usual.

City Beautiful? Who are they kidding!!!!!

I must warn you that this is going to be a long post. I promised last week that I would be writing something about garbage ‘management’ in my city and well to be honest also to a large extent about this country. No one will dispute that India is a dirty and a filthy place. As a lot of countries it has its good sides and its bad sides but the piles of stinking garbage lying around in the open in our cities is definitely is a great put off. This week the Indian flag landed on the moon and we have made great progress in many fields over the last couple of decades. However we havent been able to solve the litter lining our streets in the 5000 years of our civilizations glorious existance. Now do not get me wrong I probably live in one of the cleanest of Indian cities if not the THE cleanest city. However it is not difficult to see how little effort they put in to managing the garbage. I am not going to oversimplify the problem a large part of the problem is the people themselves. The way they litter the cities is just dreadful. No one bothers to use the bins and people just throw their refuse anywhere they see. As for household trash no one separates their garbage here. Plastic, household kitchen waste, toxic waste all go in this one giant trash can which is usually not lined with any plastic bags. So you have really disgusting stinking and smelly trash cans. What really makes it worse is that people who deal with the trash or the bin men usually work without any equipment to handle the trash properly. The country that is planning to send men to the moon does not even provide its municipal workers with gloves or overalls! Does not matter if they die of diseases like hepatitis or cholera.

So how is the city that has banned plastic bags changed the way it manages garbage to protect the environment. The answer is that it has not. Instead of putting in money to educate people how  to dispose of trash properly or training staff they have taken this so called ban as be it and end it of the situation. When you have fixed basic sanitation you can have higher aims and do something about the environment etc but if you can not even manage the garbage and lets honestly ask ourselves is that not a municipal and local governments number one job you have no right to tell people about the virtues of using or not using a particular type of carry bag! The government is simply getting away by pulling off a publicity stunt while the people ignore the stink of the reality.  As you can see from the images in the gallery above the lies and untruths of our administration stink to high heavens. Shame on you Chandigarh Administration and Municipal Corporation, you are exposed for your incompetence. In fact all of these photos were taken in central Chandigarh! I can not even imagine what the condition must be in outer areas. I am reminded of a poem I once recited when I was a kid at school. I am posting it below :-

SARAH CYNTHIA SYLVIA STOUT
by Shel Silverstein

Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout
Would not take the garbage out.
She’d wash the dishes and scrub the pans
Cook the yams and spice the hams,
And though her parents would scream and shout,
She simply would not take the garbage out.
And so it piled up to the ceiling:
Coffee grounds, potato peelings,
Brown bananas and rotten peas,
Chunks of sour cottage cheese.
It filled the can, it covered the floor,
It cracked the windows and blocked the door,
With bacon rinds and chicken bones,
Drippy ends of ice cream cones,
Prune pits, peach pits, orange peels,
Gloppy glumps of cold oatmeal,
Pizza crusts and withered greens,
Soggy beans, and tangerines,
Crusts of black-burned buttered toast,
Grisly bits of beefy roast.
The garbage rolled on down the halls,
It raised the roof, it broke the walls,
I mean, greasy napkins, cookie crumbs,
Blobs of gooey bubble gum,
Cellophane from old bologna,
Rubbery, blubbery macaroni,
Peanut butter, caked and dry,
Curdled milk, and crusts of pie,
Rotting melons, dried-up mustard,
Eggshells mixed with lemon custard,
Cold French fries and rancid meat,
Yellow lumps of Cream of Wheat.
At last the garbage reached so high
That finally it touched the sky,
And none of her friends would come to play,
And all of her neighbors moved away;
And finally, Sarah Cynthia Stout
Said, “Okay, I’ll take the garbage out!”
But then, of course it was too late,
The garbage reached across the state,
From New York to the Golden Gate;
And there in the garbage she did hate
Poor Sarah met an awful fate
That I cannot right now relate
Because the hour is much too late
But children, remember Sarah Stout,
And always take the garbage out.

So all in all one thing that is pretty clear is that someone or the other is not doing their job as it should be done. The garbage pile reeks of incompetence. Now if the people who have banned plastic bags wake up from their dreamy slumber and confront the real problem? The problem of our filthy ways? If we just threw the trash in a proper manner surely we can even manage plastic bags? As a parting note though I would like to say something else. Garbage disposal is not free in Chandigarh, we have to pay bin men every 3 months although the amount we pay is a pittance around 120 INR or US$ 2.46 at today’s exchange rate. This money does not go to them but the local association that manages the area where you live. I had a chance to have a brief interview with my trash guy this week and I asked him some questions. He informs me that after they have picked the garbage from homes they seperate the garbage with their bare hands and pick out all the things that they can sell like cardboard etc. Previously they would also have the ragpickers take out the plastic bags which they can not do anymore. Most of Chandigarh’s poorest of the poor have been also deprived of their one source of living. I think it is time that environment enthusiasts wake up and take stock of some real problems instead of making new ones.

I have not had a pet in almost a decade. I like dogs and cats equally. While I can easily play with a dog and entertain them I have always fancied keeping a cat. I like cats for the reason that they do have a very interesting personality. Also I feel they are less fussy pets in the sense that you can just do your own thing and the cat will keep itself busy. Rather it will only come to you when it needs you. I guess that is what appeals to me. Cats also seem to have very interesting ways to express themselves. So in the last ten years or so I have had some feral cats visit my home. Some of them have been friendly and some have decidedly been wicked! It is a bit uncommon for Chandigarh’s cats to live long and I suspect most of them die within 2 or 3 years because I have seen many of them just disappear. Some days ago I saw a new one and it was definitely one of the more milder ones. It came and sat outside with us for a while when some of my friends and I were in my verandah. It actually did not seem to be so scared of humans.

Contrary to the feral cats in Japan that do not seem to be so feral at all Indian feral cats are not fond of human interaction. The Japanese stray cats are regularly fed by strangers and it seems if you call them they might even come and let you handle them. There seems to be something against cats in India that I do not see so many of them. When I visit pet stores with my friends who own dogs I often find no cat food at all. I wanted to buy a couple of cans to feed these wild cats so that they might survive longer but no such luck apparently. It also seems that cats get fed milk here and a lot of it! I am not sure if milk is suitable cat food. Although the cats do seem to drink it and I do not know what effect if any it does have on their health because they roam around. So occassionaly a cat might get a meaty treat from me but other than that I can not seem to feed them anything else. Sana of Pakistan tells me that there are some choices in that country for hungry cats though. Lets hope things get better for Indian cats as well then.