The calling…

Once every year it happens to me. Its happening to me again. The average starting age is around 18-21 in developed countries. Not being one to conform to normal statistics, this condition began for me at the tender age of three and in a not so developed country.

I'm usually a good girl, I work hard and make my parents proud. People tell me I'm kind and considerate and fun to talk to. But when this thing grips me, it doesn't let go. It just doesn't. And I feel obliged to indulge it. It doesn't always come at a convenient time and the affect it has on my life is rapid. Above average rapid. For most people I know it takes 3-6 months before it hits them. For me its usually 3 days to 5 weeks- tops. I blame my parents.

First Incident:

Three years old. Living in a rather large British colonial-style terrace house above a busy mall in a city in India. By busy I mean, besides your general cars, bicycles and people, there are cows. Cows pulling carts, or just wondering about in their own lazy haphazard ways doing their "business" along the way. Actually everything goes their own haphazard way. Also dogs, pigs, cats, mice, monkeys, pigeons, eagles, sparrows…There are also colourful rickshaws with hundreds of school kids, pigtails and red ribbons bunched together anywhere where there is a space big enough for their buttocks. If there isn't, they'll sit on top of someone else, it doesn't really matter. At least they are getting to school.

Sometimes there are holy men, with their long black matted hair and beards and saffron robes congregating outside your door with their begging bowls and their blessings. Other times there are hinjiras, or eunuchs in bright saris, singing birth songs in their masculine voices to greet a new born baby into this world.  

Everyone once in a while there is a very loud wedding procession with a groom alight a horse, his face veiled with flowers. He is usually surrounded by men in uniform carrying blinking lights, men with drums and other musical intruments and lots of people dancing and drinking down the street. People make room in case you're wondering.

Sometimes its the opposite. A mournful, loudly tearful crowd slowly make their way down the street, shouting or singing songs and words of sorrow. This time they're all in white. They usually carry the deceased above their heads, lying on a bed of flowers with marigolds for eyes. People make room. So do the cows.

Sometimes its even more exciting: people walk down, selling their toys, balloons or even ice-cream! Sometimes its this dish called "Malai makhan", a treat specific to that city. Its frothed cream, lightly spiced and strongly sugared. Yummy.

If this was happening in your street..wouldn't you want to join them? Wouldn't you? I would. I did. It scared my mum and dad. They were not able to find me for ages. Eventually they found me on my red tricycle chatting to a "dahi wallah." To my dismay, they put me and my tricycle on the rickshaw and took me home.     

One year later..

I was looking at a book. It had koalas, kangaroos and wombats and my favourite - the platypus. Me and my monkey (plush) Malloo liked it alot. Kids in the picture had white skin and yellow hair. They caught things called "yabbies" from the local creek and ate lamingtons and pavlova and meat pies. I told my mother that I wanted to do that and see those things. I was lucky, it happened. We moved to Australia. Malloo had to stay and look after my Daadi.

From then on, it became a normal thing in my life, every so often and with very little planning, we'd get up and go somewhere, sometimes for good, sometimes for a few days or a couple of months, sometimes for a year. If my parents didn't take me, I found my own adventure.

21 years later..

Last year and towards the end of 2004, I made a trip around Thailand, Laos and India on my own. The excuse was to teach English in Thailand and to see Daadi in India.

I'm going again. This time for 7 months to Thailand, my other home. As per Tanu Tradition, I only have 4 weeks to plan. Who knows what adventure awaits me as I get on that plane, but I will be sure to keep you informed.

Sawadee kaa. 

chocolate explosion!

As a vegetarian, I often get worried looks about the lack of protein and taste in my life. I usually look back at these people worrying about the amount of second-hand nutrition in their lives. Truth be told…I love food and I love cooking. I am very healthy and have absolutely no problems with iron, protein or any other nutritional deficiencies. Neither do any of my vegetarian friends. The irony (haha) is that many of my non vegetarian pals do have iron deficiencies. Its kind of because without the vegetables, herbs and spices in your food, the meat is a little useless. It kind of makes you hmm.  

There are many reasons and benefits to be vegetarian for many people but rather than getting into that I will start a section on cooking. I will aim in general to stick to healthy, balanced recipes and will only put the ones that make me go wow. I will even put little stars next to the ones that are low fat and low carb like this: ** ok?

I had planned to put my first recipe for "mock chicken" as a response to a friend who was worried about what kind of things go into mock meat to make it taste like meat. It usually doesn't taste anything like meat, but rather it has a meaty texture and is usually very light and fat free..and it has no weird additives! But as luck would have it, it has to wait–  I experimented with the most tastiest chocolate explosion of a cake today. I'm not vegan (I eat eggs and milk products) but this recipe is completely egg and milk free…and its delicious!!! I can't begin to tell you how impressed I am at this moist heavenly pudding. Those of you who are my friends, come over now! This is seriously YUM!

Note: This is not healthy but its healthier than the more conventional egg, butter and milk.

The recipe is from www.theppk.com (The Post Punk Kitchen by quirky vegan queen Isa Chandra Moskowitz) but I have edited it into the more universal metric version:

CHOCOLATE BOMB PUDDING CAKE by Isa.  Equipment:  20cm springform pan 2 mixing bowls blender Ingredients For the cake: 1 cup plain flour 1/3 cups unsweetened cocoa powder 3/4 teaspoon salt 3/4 teaspoon baking powder 1 cup sugar 170g extra firm silken tofu (Woolworths, in 300g packs) 6 tablespoons canola oil 1/2 cup plain soymilk 2 teaspoons vanilla For the pudding layer: 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 100g good quality bittersweet chocolate (I used Nestle Dark cooking Chocolate)  3/4 cups sugar 1 1/3 cups boiling water Directions Preheat oven to 175C. Start boiling the water for the brownie layer. Chop the bittersweet chocolate. Sift together flour, salt, baking powder and 1/3 cup cocoa powder. In a blender combine the tofu, soymilk, canola oil, 1 cup sugar and vanilla. Blend until smooth. Pour the tofu mixture into the flour mixture and combine. Spread the batter into an ungreased 20cm springform pan. In a bowl, whisk together 1/3 cup cocoa powder, 3/4 cup sugar, bittersweet chocolate and boiling water. When chocolate has dissolved, pour over the top of the batter. Bake 45 – 50 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool just until the pan is at a temperature you can handle (cake should still be hot). Move cake to a serving plate, release springform pan. Chocolate will ooze all over the cake. It's now ready to serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

magazine cover

This is a cover I designed for the Hindi Samaj of Western Australia's annual mag – Bharat Bharati

Hindi Samaj is a friendly club dedicated to the expression and culture surrounding Hindi, Urdu and related dialects. 

I'm not a professional, just volunteered myself for a not for profit organisation.

If you live in Perth, Australia and would like a copy (cost is a hefty $2) let me know.

Lemme know what you think!!!!

—–

Due to subtle prompting by a good friend and fellow idiot savante, I have been convinced that an explanation needs to be put here about this cover.

*Girl is Radha, the symbolic lover of Lord Krishna (Krishna is love and learning and Radha is yearning and devotion). It has been taken out of a well known North Indian folk painting (Rajasthani/ Mogul school of art). She was actually painting a picture of her beloved Krishna which I took out and now she is painting a letter from her beloved language, the first sound "a" in the Devnagri script

*When kids in India first start learning Hindi, they are always taught– "a" for anaar– (pomegranate) so Hindi speakers will immediately recognise that and might find it endearing (or so I hope.)

*Devnagri is the character set used to write Hindi, Sanskrit and various related languages.

*Behind her is subtle writing- couplets by Kabir (a famous medieval poet from India).

*Lotus – is the symbol of enlightenment and spiritual blossoming in all Hindu, Buddhist and related traditions

*Henna Designs are employed in the background for the sake of creating Indian-ness

*The whole design of Radha and the patterns around her create a subtle "aamiya" or paisely shape as per Traditional Indian design.

*The border is a grungy, crooked version of the traditional border that goes around Rajasthani Miniture paintings. 

*I wanted to to make it rustic and old but graceful…let me know if you think I succeeded. )

-Tanushree

thicker than water

My cousin, Shikha, is a professional writer living in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is also the editor and founder of the reputable South Asian arts e-magazine, "Monsoon Magazine." 

She is in the process of writing a novel. I recently stumbled upon her blog and a piece of writing of hers I enjoyed reading.

My big sister's blog: Sugar on your Tongue

Excerpt – Silver Bangles

She hands me silver bangles and says, Don't forget

yourself.

–since then my heart has uttered a subliminal

chanting between each breath, shrieking like a

dog's silent high-pitch whistle: forget-me-not forget-me-not

forget-me-not forget-me-not

of bread and (wo)men

There are two types of people, as I have discovered recently, with regards to slicing bead.

I was at a friend's place and garlic bread was on the agenda. I was asked to slice the bread when it occured to me that there are definitely two paths you can take.

In the first, you slice the bread vertically as per tradition. The knife goes through, it may be difficult due to the uneven terrain, but it gets there. The slice comes out a little bumpy, a little jagged, a little crumbly. A small mess is left on the counter due to falling crumbs– but its bread, right? Still tastes good. Once you put the butter on, the garlic and sprinkle the parsely, the effort makes the reward all the more tastier. And its just so Right. Plus your get compliments for all that effort. How did you get it so even?

"Its no biggy," you gush, though you're secretely basking in the glory of being elevated in your guests' eyes. It could even be said there is a glow around you…a halo if you like.

The other way and the route I unfortunately took, claiming "I like to make things easy as possible for myself." Firstly, I received an accusing You're Such a Slacker look. I thought I was smart? Obviously not. You need to take societal values into account, girl. Suck it all you can, so the God of Worldly Politics is on your side. This is not just a mere cooking lesson, but an all encompassing philosophy. You better know it. Let this be a lesson to you. Now listen carefully- this is what you don't do.

Look at the breadly terrain. If it's diagonal, cut diagonally. If it's straight, cut straight. If it's horizontal, for the love of God, go horizontal – you can make them smaller by cutting them in half or thirds later.

I cut it diagonally. Big deal, it was easy. It comes out even, with minimal damage, no crumbly avalanches here. Obviously there was no effort required. Put the butter, garlic and parsley in a small bowl and smear it on. When it's done, people eat it. That's all. Not something to talk about. Forget the praise. Its just garlic bread and it was easy.

Now you can make an analogy of something higher or deeper out of this if you like. But I really just wanted to tell you about the garlic bread.

my attempts to spread art literacy

Marcus Wills The Archibald Prize Winner 2006 " The Paul Juraszek monolith (after Marcus Gheeraerts).

Its  dark and monstrous…yet I congratulate the judges of the most prestigious portraiture prize in Australia on making the right choice.

What I like about it:

* It definitely captures your attention

*Its dark and moody, and active like the inner workings of one's mind

* Its 3 dimensional approach to the subject. Its not just a painting of a face, its a statement on Juraszek as a person; his mind, his work, his constant reformation and the people who contribute to that.

*Intriguing — you can look at it for hours inhaling not only the texture, the technique and the artistry– but also the activity that is taking place and what it all means. What do you think it means? What is it trying to show? What statment is he trying to make? Why did he choose this particular approach? What does it say about the person?

Who is Paul Juraszek and why did Wills choose this creative (controversial) way to portray him? ie Why on God's brown earth would you choose to hollow out a contemporary man's head, multiply the poor man 29 times in the portrait and place him in medieval clothing? Why is the whole mood medieval? What is it with the fable connotations? (sorry I didn't didn't realise you hadn't analysed it that far)

Perhaps a little background lesson will help…

 "Juraszek is a Melbourne-based sculptor, who makes mostly animals from myths and legends. "As it turned out he suited the subject even better than I could possibly have imagined," says Wills.

"Juraszek appears in the painting 29 times and in most cases the sculptures featured are his. The original etching is an allegory about the reformation. At the bottom of the painting there are iconoclasts smashing up relics, bones and bibles and tossing them into a pit. Behind are clerics and, one assumes, their congregation collecting the relics and taking them away. All over the head, little religious ceremonies are taking place with monkeys involved in several of them - Gheeraerts' dig at Catholicism one imagines. In Wills' version it is Juraszek's sculptures that are being smashed and then rescued by others. "In most of the little scenes the people are doing similar things to those in the original painting though I don't see my version as a religious comment," says Wills. Instead he sees it as "a kind of an allegory about the artist." (The Archibald Prize Website, 2006)"

Don't forget to check out the other entries and finalists in the Prize… http://www.thearchibaldprize.com.au