In defense of Chhotu Tamateram Sangeetam...

Many years ago, I wrote a blog post called the Earth Gene.  Something about the  dominant tendencies of a "homing" gene in our DNA strands. The over-riding connection to the local earth.

This is what came to mind, when  one saw this photograph of Cherie Tomatoes from , my blogger friend Sangeeta Khanna's garden.   Tomatoes have come to India from other lands, Possibly Cherrie Tomatoes, more so.  Many varieties are actually imported and bred in various countries, to make them acceptable and attractive for the local cuisine.

But I am sure these cherrie tomatoes from her garden feel very comfortable in her kitchen. Possibly because their DNA carries a connection to the Delhi Earth...... (methinks Wikipedia needs a desperate update)

 Sangeeta is a trained and practicing plant scientist, microbial biotechnologist and an antioxidants researcher,   who has a very green thumb, and grows all kinds of wonderful vegetables and flowers in her garden. She also knows how to cook them in amazingly nutritious ways.

• Have a look at Sangeeta's Blogs

   

  http://healthfooddesivideshi.blogspot.com/ 

  http://banaraskakhana.blogspot.com/

  http://ayurvedaonmyplate.blogspot.com/

  http://sangeeta-homealone.blogspot.com/

---

Never found
idling
in proletarian heaps,
they have
their own
proud mitochondrial musings,
as they sit
nudging each other,
wondering where life takes them.

The Santorini variety,
celebrated and conferred about,
but always regretting
that they came to Greece
to live
much after Helen of Troy

Then there is the Tomaccio,
a wild
mafia type from Peru,
captured and lured
to Israel,
and rebreeded
into becoming
a special sudden sweet type....

Naturally,
The US Super Sweet 100,
sounds
like a football game,
but is actually
a sweet brave type
resistant to
evil fellows
named Fusarium, and Verticillium.

Many others
like Selke Biodynamic
which is not
a company
but a cherry tomato ....

But the best is
Chhotu Tamateram Sangeetam,
a spirited variety,
growing
in certain gardens in Delhi,
no misplaced prestige,
no narcissitic shows,
but
a living and mingling
amidst
the Great Indian Middleclass,
folks
like
Spinach Singh Palak,
Hare Dill-Wale,
Bok Choy Motay,
Jalapena Mirchi Kumar,
Capsibai Simla,
and the svelte
Celery Kumari Patte,
enjoying themselves immensely
nodding and cracking up
listening to
Coria Dhania, the stand-up comedienne....

Oye Wikipedia, yahan bhi dekh....

A Sab-ji(yo) morning

The most enjoyable season in New Delhi, in undoubtedly winter; particularly the onset. Misty mornings, clarifying sunlight, lovely breezes, small bonfires on their last legs on sidewalks, a wonderful nip in the air, kids in blazers, walking and being driven to school,  and the amazing crisp vegetables that are available in this season.

Blogger friend IHM posted recently on what it is about this season that she enjoys in Delhi.

One such picture , of a lady , lugging her supply of fresh veggies to the market , ensconced on top of the heap, and pulled by the ricksha driver, right there in the middle of the road traffic, touched something in the mind somewhere.

Winters,
a nip in the air,
and thoughts crowd
the mind
like traffic in Delhi.

For some,
an indulgent childhood,
dustless closed transport
sometimes for pointless learning;
sometimes conditioned by air,
sometimes by money,
designer lives,
and
a designer alliance
with a designer bidaai****.


And for some,
a green childhood
open to the sky,
anchored to the earth,
drenched in rains,
nodding in winter,
only to bloom and open up
in the Sun,
cared for by her,
but now en route
to a new life
in a sasuraal.*****

The cauliflowers,
and the spinach,
and the bhindi,*
and the tomatoes
huddle together one last time,
as the barat
reaches the mandi,**
the mother,
firmly holding them
all together,
as the man drives
to the venue,
the load,
more on his mind…..

A Bidaai of a different kind….


****Bidaai :  Bidding adieu to the bride as she leaves her maternal folks

*****sasuraal  : House of the in-laws

** Mandi :  vegetable market

*Bhindi : okra,ladyfingers

Tremors of the mind

In a gentle way, you can shake the world. - Mahatma Gandhi.

My friend Aativas blogs at Times Change. She recently experienced the earthquake (7.4 on the Richter Scale) that rocked parts of Pakistan and Northern India. It got her thinking , with great empathy, of the earth , as a person , and resulted in this amazing and wonderful post titled Quick Shake . Do check it out.

.........And it got me thinking.


A thousand million
hard years,
hurtling around,
the incandescent star,
bearing the
load
of greedy humanity,
mountainous excesses
and flowing and gushing
defiled water bodies,
she now wobbles a bit
at an odd angle
in her old age....



Sometimes
it gets too much,
and
she shakes her head,
and stretches,
grumbling,
and
coughing a bit
the skin clutching the bones
breaking
occasionally
in dryness,
amidst
deep surface wounds.

Unlike us
she is her own doctor,
and emerges
from the
short stretching rest,
energized again
like a Mother,
to
watch,tolerate, and wonder,
about
her wayward children,
again and again.....