Lost in Translation

As much as I like the movie, this post is not about the movie 'Lost in Translation'. It is about little things that we never thought we need to know and are not taught in ESL classes or for that matter in schools.

A friend needed a ride to the halal store and dear hubby decided to oblige. Once there my friend asked me which daal was supposed to be split yellow lentils. She needed to shop for a recipe of daal palak (spinach with lentils) she had seen online. So we browsed through the rack of lentils in all colors. Is it daal masoor without skin, the one that looks orange/peach but turns yellow on cooking or is it daal moong without skin, the one that is yellow both before and after cooking. I suggested daal channa based on my interest in cooking. She picked daal masoor and returned home happy to cook for a few friends from across the globe. The cooking went well and the spinach lentil dish worked out fine. She later sent me a link to the online recipe and upon checking it I found it referred to 'yellow split gram lentils'. Now what on earth is that.

Upon googling the unfamiliar phrase for daal I discovered that gram lentils refers to daal channa. However, that is not the point. The point that I am vaguely alluding to is how many things need active translation and interpretation when you leave home and find abode in a place where rice has an expiration date. I grew up with the idea that the older the rice you cook the better it is.

The idea is that when you translate garam masala and achar it is not the same thing. When you use fry or saute for 'bhoonanaa' it is not the same thing and when you cook daal from walmart it is no where near the truck driver daal maash that you find at little shacks lined up around GT road. It is just never the same thing.

For fellow graduate students

Link exchange & Technoarti Fav

We blog and blog and then we sit back and wait for traffic. You write and the echoes of your words float in the cyber world. Is there any one out there?

Yes! There are many many people out there. Reaching them can be easier than you think. Here is an idea. Drive traffic to your blog through link exchange and technoarti fav exchange. Your ratings will jump up and you will have traffic coming in nice and quick.

Add my blog to your technoarti favs by clicking here and leave your blog's url in a comment. I shall gladly reciprocate. Also, you can do the same for link exchange. Do mention whether you want to opt for technoarti favs or link exchange or both.

P.S. link exchange => you link to my blog and I will link to yours.

Culture

The best definition of culture I could ever find was 'collective lifestyle'. It encompasses everything from achaar and biryani to chehlum and valima. However, what this definition does not convey is dissent of those existing within a culture: those who live on the edges and refuse to endorse the norms and customs they find senseless. Shall we label them individualistic and automatically malign them with the stigma of outcasts or shall we be brave enough to at least attempt to make sense of the dissent voiced by these pariahs.

Dissent within cultures is a voice that maintains the fluidity and survival of the aforementioned. It is disagreement with the current and reinterpretation of the past that paves the path towards the future. A culture of stagnation is akin to a recipe for self destruction. It brings its own doom upon itself. Yet we do not see and we hold on tight to our stubborn dispositions. Resultantly, the disgruntled depart and the culture is deprived of the very agents of change that are essential to its smooth progression through time and space.

Change happens, nonetheless, whether resisted or accepted. Only that the harbingers of this change are persecuted like false prophets and victimized for their ability to foreshadow the future.

Distance

The distance between two people is the depth of the void between them when they stare face to face. It is the vacuum that is evaded better with silence than words. It is the unsaid norm that is dictated by neither yet commanded by both.

What really is the distance between here and there, now and then, you and me...

It is just a tie

You think you have heard the most ridiculous thing ever yet there is always something better out there. Seriously, there is no end to the absurdity of human thought. Correction: lack of thought. Turns out that someone at a notable mosque in the DC area asked the imam a rather 'let's say interesting' question and the imam responded to the faithful seeker's query in today's Friday sermon'

The Question: Is it halal to wear a tie in Islam (because it imitates the the attire of non-Muslims!)?

I am not even bothering with an answer.

P.S. This mosque/sermon is attended by professionals with at least a college degree.

Little acts

You grow up learning about virtue at home and school. There is religious teaching and plain simple social norm. Also, there is learning by seeing. You watch your parents conduct their lives and try to follow to in their steps. But somewhere along the way a lot of us forget the goodness.

Last night I witnessed a little act of goodness and I thought I should share it here. My apt. mate and I went out for coffee with Anne and Amy. Amy is a dear friend I have known for a while now and Anne is Amy's friend. I have met Anne a couple of times before. However, my apt. mate was meeting Anne for the first time. My apt. mate has met Amy before and they are acquainted. So anyway, we had a nice evening out walking and talking and then sipping away at our tea/coffee at this nearby place.

The little act that brings a smile to my face even the next morning is my apt. mate's insistence upon paying for us all. She paid for all four of us despite protest. She did not have to and she did not need to but she wanted to and she did. This is a small gesture of kindness coming from a big generous heart. Back home it might not have been a big deal but here it is - a BIG deal. And it is such a joy to witness such small acts in the chaotic world we live in today.

Not happy with my bank

I just found a charge that I do not recognize on my credit card statement and called them up to ask what is going on. They said I need to talk to my bank because the charge is for a payment reversal and thus I have been fined . So i call up my bank and they give me the most ridiculous reason one can think of. Yes, seriously they did. I filed a complaint of course but I am so not optimistic about that.

The banking system in this country escapes me. And it is not the only thing. the health system is the real winner. There is no way for me to make sense of it ever. So yeah I am not happy with my bank. So not happy with my bank .

And now that I am here ranting about the health care system. You should watch 'Sicko'. You really should. It is informative to the point of being alarming and almost depressing. So if the health care system here escapes you watch 'Sicko' it will be like catharsis.