Swayambhus and Self-made people!

Dear AC,
You have amply proved that you do not browse my recipes!
Oats turning a brown lump?
Please do remember that there is a long list of us in IL, giving recipes & encouraging you to cook the right dishes, the right way !
Do not imagine that you are "self made" & mess up with recipes in the kitchen.
Nobody is a Swayambhu cook - did you "invent" how to cook raw rice or dhal?
The same way, learn to cook oats & kollu into delicious dishes!!
Love,
Who Else??

Dear Chithra
Well I really did think I was a swayambhu cook!
And heres how I'm going to prove it to u;
First I did not know the differences between tuvar dhal and channa dhal. so knowing some dhal is used my very first attempt at making rasam was with channa dhal.. and then I knew I had to add tamarind and salt and that was it. Only when I tasted did I realise a LOT of items/ingredients were missing.. So the next time I improvised and added more and reduced some and so I learnt to cook.. so tell me now am I not swayambhu atleast as far as cooking is concerned..
I am sure in no time at all I'll figure out how to turn the "oats" into a rich inviting miracle food..all I need is LUCk!

Dear Swayambhu,
My pity goes to Anand - I cannot help mentioning !!
All said & done you are no swayambu - did you invent a recipe called rasam? Just like somebody invented oats idli & kollu sambar?
Love,
Who Else?

Dear Chithra
Are you now claiming to have invented "Oats Idli" and "kollu sambhar"?
I will wait for Sri's opinion on this hightech matter!

Dear Sri,

Entharo mahanubhavulu andharikki vandanamulu.....well you ended your blog with this. but i wish to start with this...without these people I would not have come this long..so my fisrt vandanams for all.

Regarding bho shambho...it is one of the favorites at home..FIL just is mad about revathi raagam..And he will not sing in his bajan mandali, this popular song..reason out of the 15 people (all senior citizens)..each has a own style and sruthi and he complains that by the time he goes to the middle of the song, he loses interest because of the multiple interest from others..believe me it is not a rendition for your ears..(I had the pleasure??? of hearing it..)
Thank God for small mercies, he does not ask me to sing for others, but others who come home are forced to sing..

Swayambhus, have not seen this pillaiyars...on the itinerary during veda's visit. I have respect for swayambhus, as long as it is an pillaiyar or lingam or a mountain due to volcanic activity sprouting out amidst a corn field.

Self made man who is at fault for this word that is misused properly....I think even the dictionary has this term. I understand the mythical self made means that a person can make do things out of the power of being themselves....The sort of person has created himself using the inputs of many other people as a starting point.

I feel the people who tell that they made themselves without help are not telling the whole truth. A person who has become a successful business man..self made or whatever would always contribute the success to people around him without whom he could not have made it to the top...if he does not..he cannot be on the top for long....that is the ironical truth...

BTW have you read Norah Vincent's Self Made Man...where she goes undercover as a man to find what it is to be a man.. a very thought provoking book..an eye opener on lot of things on the subject of gender and gender differences...and also to look at the 21st century male.

Cheeniya Sir,
Good post....
Bho shambho is my favourite too...

Regarding the temples you had listed I had visited the Kedarnath temple during my college years with my parents...it was really awesome....

Regarding 'self-made' people, they cannot claim because they are not developed internally to claim as such. They must be aware of the fact that we people as a whole are inter-connected with each other either directly or indirectly, either in person or behind the screen...

AC, which sri you are referring to...

I am on your side AC--kitchen is a place for experiments where at the end we emerge as successful cook...forget about the taste or shape...atleast it will be edible, isn't it!

sriniketan

Originally Posted by anandchitra

Dear Sri
Its very interesting that you bring in "luck".. and mention that it plays a major role .. hmm.. come to think of it when I make a dish with "oats" for some reason it just turns out to be a mass of brown lump.. Now it can be said I think that when a dish looks appetizing and inviting to eat and tastes excellent.. many factors have gone into play. As a cook I can hardly say I am self made nor are my dishes self made. For example I recently bought a frozen pizza and had to just place it in the oven at said temp and for said time and to remove to get the most appetizing pizza that was displayed in the cover. But as luck would have it I browned certain areas and it did not resemble any from the cover picture.. Certainly many factors had a part to play.. I am not sure why I should be reminded of "oats" and "cooking" in a seemingly innocent write of self made people!!! Can you??

Dear AC
I see that you have become such a strong votary of oats that you should be henceforth called Oatarian( with due apologies to Rotarians!). Anything made out of oats is bound to be lumpy until you feel a lump in your throat at your own helplessness in taming it. Thereafter oats behaves as you want and that is the stage you feel an emotional bondage with that much maligned cereal.

I am afraid that no one can clain ownership for oats iddly. For your information, Nala, the renowned king and a chef and incidentally the hubby of Damayanthi, hes recorded in his recipe book that anything could be made out of anything. I agree that he has not specified oats in particular. Maybe he did and I did not notice it because of some tongue twisting name given to the stuff.

Knowledgeable people tell me that it is far more difficult to cook a frozen food in the oven than making something fresh and original. It goes to your credit that it went brown only in selected areas which goes to show that you have had your share of luck in the kitchen. Successful cooking can be only by trial and error methods. As you may know, Nala's theorem is ' The number of errors is inversely proportional to the number of trials'
Sri

Originally Posted by Chitvish

Dear AC,
You have amply proved that you do not browse my recipes!
Oats turning a brown lump?
Please do remember that there is a long list of us in IL, giving recipes & encouraging you to cook the right dishes, the right way !
Do not imagine that you are "self made" & mess up with recipes in the kitchen.
Nobody is a Swayambhu cook - did you "invent" how to cook raw rice or dhal?
The same way, learn to cook oats & kollu into delicious dishes!!
Love,
Who Else??

Dear Chithra
Why are you making faces at the mention of Oats turning lumpy? I am sure that oats has as much right to become lumpy as any other ingredient. If not treated properly, even mustards can get lumpy!

Except the first person( Note: I did not say man or woman) who created fire by rubbing two 'Chikki mukki' stones against each other, no one can claim to be a svayambhu in anything that requires fire to complete.

I think it is unfair that you should blow your Panchajanya against innocent people who find things like oats a bit tough to cope with!
Sri

Dear Shanthi
First things first. I have not read Norah Vincent's Self Made Man. Will make it a point to read it asap.

As a senior citizen myself, I can tell you authoritatively that there is more 'one upmanship' amongst us than among younger people. The reason is that we get hardly any chance to establish our versatality except in Senile Forums! A Bhajana Mandali is a place where we get an ample opportunity to score over others. In the process of achieving that, voices tend to get raised beyond the natural capability of the contestants and as a result, the two things that suffer most are the Sruthi and Tala. I can certainly empathise with your FIL when he gives up his pursuit midway!

The term 'self made' is perhaps used only to refer to the first generation entrepreneurs. But even there, it is not justifiable because no human growth is possible without drawing nourishment from other resources. Calling oneself as Self made is the height of conceit. I love your words
'A person who has become a successful business man..self made or whatever would always contribute the success to people around him without whom he could not have made it to the top...if he does not..he cannot be on the top for long....that is the ironical truth...'
Sri

Originally Posted by Sriniketan

Cheeniya Sir,
Good post....
Bho shambho is my favourite too...

Regarding the temples you had listed I had visited the Kedarnath temple during my college years with my parents...it was really awesome....

Regarding 'self-made' people, they cannot claim because they are not developed internally to claim as such. They must be aware of the fact that we people as a whole are inter-connected with each other either directly or indirectly, either in person or behind the screen...

AC, which sri you are referring to...

I am on your side AC--kitchen is a place for experiments where at the end we emerge as successful cook...forget about the taste or shape...atleast it will be edible, isn't it!

sriniketan

Dear Sri
I have visited Badri and Kedar twice in my life and that I think is my greatest achievement! I went with a group called Delhi Bhajana Samaj for the first time and the second time with Delhi KR Sankaran. They made our trip memorable and I think of it even today after 20 years. They fed us with Vathal Kuzhambhu in a horse stable where we stayed overnight on our way to the foot of Kedar called Gowrikund. Thanks a lot for mentioning Kedar !

I used to practise Transcedental Meditation in the Maharshi Institute in Chennai where as part of our course we used to have a session in a group. I have found that the group meditation has a lot more effect than individual sessions. They explained it as due to a common ground that we all shared as living beings. The more I think about these things, the more I denounce the concept of self made people!
Sri