Taking a hit at Technology is not the solution!

If you are part of any social networking group then you probably know what this is about. Either you received such a post or sent one :), Which post you ask? The one about the benefits if using a bucket of water to wash Vs. Using a washing machine, or a shower vs bucket bathing and the usage of machinery vs. manual labor for agriculture. Well you get the picture.
Now what is wrong with such posts? We all know what is right in them though :). It is a negative propaganda about "Technology". Like many things technology evolves and there is a generation gap in accepting this technology. I will explain it a little more. We did everything by hand the hard way, only then we discovered the stone tools.. evolved to iron age and then to the industrial revolution. This took eons not 2-3 generations... more like 2000 or more generations. There is no agriculture if not for tools, which was the new technology for its time. Technology made things cheaper and easier. What was once a luxury was made available for the masses.
But it does come at a price. Any new technology needs moulding, like a baby. It takes time but making it better will yield a greater good than avoiding it.  You want an example... instead of avoiding cars, make battery cars cheaper. Instead of blaming manmade plastic make organic plastic that is environmentally friendly. Use nature to build the technology and make it better.
The forwards themselves are not bad, but in addition to awareness it spreads negativeness. Instead we should be forwarding messages on the success stories..like coffee cups that are fully paper and how CA cities curbed plastic from its shops etc.  Happy networking!!

Kids Snacks! Ofcourse Fried !!

I recently saw an add for a new snack parlour near a school in Chennai. Their advertisement prompted me to write this. I wish they change their menu to have some good food instead of what I feel as 'junk' food. When the world is screaming to be organic, use less water, plastic and fertilizers and grow own plants on roof garden, conserve water and not to use plastic, the norm seems to be different. Other than the crazy few who seem to have a ton of time on their hands to clean up beaches and talk about saving the planet and the harmful nature of using refined oil and frying food in it twice, some parents seem to turn a blind eye to all this and let their kids consume food that's really unfit.

When you were young do you remember, when you had the luxury of eating sweets or savories? I remember eating them for Diwali mainly and may be for one or two other minor ethnic festivals like 'Krishna Jayanthi', 'New Year' and 'Pongal' if you really press it. So 4-5 times a year. And what were they? Home made ghee and sugar or jaggery based sweets which was done in limited quantity per person, shared with friends and neighbors and I got to taste a little bit of everything. It will not last longer than 2-3 days. If anything is left for after school I will have it but otherwise mostly after school snack was limited to idlis, boost, bonda, dosas, upma and all kinds of fruits, sathu maavu kanji etc., Sweets from shops was even rare 2-3 times a year, when someone comes to visit or you go to a new place.

A few generations back this was even different. My parents tell me the 'muruku' their parents made was from solam and kambu. Since 'refining' was not all that famous, most of the oil used was unrefined and home made. For sometime in my young age too I remember making coconut oil from the few coconut trees in our house. That was used in food and for hair mixed with herbs. They have had puttu and appam again made at home for their snacks.

Now to the present - What do kids have today? Let me guess kurkure, chips, potato wedges, cutlet, somosa, fried pakora, aloo bonda, pani poori and to top it all Maggie!!??!!. It is not wrong to indulge in invigorating the taste buds, but if we say using technology is not bad, lets use it to make our food even healthier and better than before. Make 'Kuzhi paniyaram with grated veggies' - grate the veggies before hand and freeze it. How about a little whole grain burger patties toasted in oven or on stove top. Chopped up fruits with honey on top and grated dark chocolate. If your kid just loves fried why not bake some veggies in the oven, the basic counter top ones are not very expensive. It is the crispiness they prefer not the oil. Homemade granola bars, nuts and dried fruit laddu, sesame seed balls, even some of those old time groundnut balls pack in lot of energy and health.

Yogurt parfait, soy milk mixed in with dark chocolate, mixed nuts, sundal are other possibilities that do not need a lot of preparation. For drinks definitely try the good old lemonade with a dash of mint/sabja, throw in some sabja seeds in their tender coconut water, watermelon juice with lemon/orange squeezed in, buttermilk (my favourite), chilled milk with some kumkum, Gulkand in milk, dates/apple milk shake, chilled green tea with lemon with tulsi leaves made at home,  You can even pack some for the next trip for the whole family!!!