time out

a longish break..
yes in these days of thriller on cricket front esp in non-cricketing areas, and so many 'interesting' events happening in political side, I need to give a break..
lotsa things to catch up, cluttered errands, tight and tangy personal issues, etc..
and ofcourse a long travel (farm visits)immediately to Madurai and around.

all put together- 'as iam suffering from...' kindly bear with this break..the blog shall resume with a bang soon..

Wine, women, weeds..

Hmm..smack smack, eh?
Did any of u guess am going to talk cricket here?
No chance, even if modi were to rig this survey..

Are you so naive to think the good old gentleman’s game is still benignly associated with beer & chips..sorry then u better don’t read further..

Post Azhar, one wud be tempted to suspect anything in cricket..so much that Azhar, prabakar, Cronje et al casted on cricket..Azhar was so bad and dirty that Cong even rewarded him with an MP seat. What better prize for this betting scam and other underworld dealings. Great, eh..
But evolution is norm aint?
So this beautiful game slowly moves towards growth..and enter Modi – now we know he is so capable that he can commit all crimes single handedly- from weeds to women to betting to rigging to political maneuvering to tax evasion to ..phew, am tired..
So whats ur doubt about crickets growth in the above said mode?
Modi is linked to so many scams, gossips around its going to be very tuff to separate truth from rumours (esp the vendetta ones!)..I guess he has rubbed too many people on the wrong side.
I still cannot fathom private jet and all these sudden wealthy strides. What gumption, eh?
Some how iam reminded of Telgi fella and I thinks its as murky and deep as that and he has to be saved as well as culled by the politicos to save their rear end..so lets watch this closely.This is really getting better, far better than most matches in IPL.

PS: hey,by any chance are these games reminding you guys of WWF? or am I alone there?

moi on Radio- 105.6 FM

Through my good friend and blogger(oops, is it ex-blogger nos going by the frequency at which he blogs these days) Thennavan, I was called by Gyanvani- a community FM radio channel under the All India Radio. This is being broadcast today, saturday, april 10th at 7.35pm. There is a repeat 2moro, sunday morning at 7.40am.
This was free wheeling interview on Organic farm, farmer, produce etc..
It was nice interview..
Those of u who can, try and listen..
ofcourse give me a feedback of what should I have included or changed or not said..
otherwise, it was a fun experience for me and so just to share my fun, u listen.

BTW they gave me an envelope when I left and I was so eager to see that, which I could only after I was out of their campus. It was a cheque for Rs.400/-!!!! my only earning since I returned back to india 4 years back! nice feeling, eh!

Moi @ Chepauk

I was there @ Chepauk for the Chennai Vs Jaipur match. My op about T20 is still the same..its tamasha and doesn’t excite me much..and as I pointed out long back, these fellas (be it BBCI or IPL) are never going to learn nor improve the facilities. As long as the people just don’t care and still throng..thats precisely why I didn’t want to go to the stadium, but this time it was big pressure from nephews, niece and a friend from UK.. But the facilities are same- bad. Stinking toilet..no water facility. People have to buy bottles at atrocious price. Needless to say the price of other cool drinks, snax etc.
Luckily a masterful innings by Vijay of CSK..far too straight without any false stroke esp for a T20!
But Its not like before, the grounds charm is all gone. The checks, water bottles being rejected is new and a bore. How we all used to carry so much food for lunch and snacks in to the ground. Not to forget the bugles and all sound manufacturing items, hmmm… But now the sound pollution is manufactured differently. So many speakers all around the ground and always on full blast. So one can come home only with head ache. So it’s all a new scene out there in this cortisone cricket mela.
Or am I getting old??
But one thing that shud hurt all eyes- young or old is the advertisement boards (esp the electronic ones) every where..actually after coming home, I searched myself fully if I was etched with some ad/product..its such a sham..even the huge e-displays are full of ads than meaningful replays or stats. This is pure perversion and cant last long..
This over kill needs to die soon, if cricket has to survive..But, but let cricket die..soon enof that is..let the productivity of this country improve. Iam saying this inspite of me being inflicted by this national disease for so long.

Jaggery

That 1000km and Rishi valley trip was more than educative in many ways.
But one of the main agendas was to see the jaggery extraction at RV.
Its such a simple and sweet process!
For the uninitiated, sugarcane is a perennial (grass) crop. If left behind after harvest it can fetch u canes for next 10 years even. It is a long duration crop (10-18 months). It needs lotsa water (flood irrigation) and its yield is generally high (100 tonnes per hectare).
Sugarcane is crushed to yield juice, which is then boiled in huge wooden (or iron) containers for 2-3 hours and then cooled in big wooden flat pan. While the juice is being heated small quantity of Chunna (lime – in powder form) is added. This is then made in to balls or beaten with wooden hammers in to powders as it cools.
Efficiency is close to 10% 10-11 kgs of jaggery is produced from 100kg of sugarcane.
The sugarcane needs to be fresh. The canes shud be used within (maximum) of 2 days from cutting. With one man, 3 levels of boilers and one flat pan 1.5 to 2 tones can be produced in a day. (typical 8-10 hours of work a day)




Polluters?
If one were to consider the chemically grown and sinned sugarcanes..lets see few of the chemicals used in sugarcane cultivation and ofcourse jaggery production!
Firstly there is so much chemical (poison) added in the form of fertilizers and pesticides. Some 50 different pesticides are being used right from Chloropyrifos to endosulfan (yes, the same endosulfan that’s banned world wide and known for so many after effects!) to
What more? Even the Institute of sugarcane research website endorses use of endosulfan even today!
Sodium hydro sulphite is used to whiten (lighten the color) the jaggery! The packet that is sold in the agri chemicals shop is not for agri use; only for textile industry as a bleaching agent.Infact those packets ironically will have a sugarcane picture with an "X" mark to convey this:-) and still this is highly used to bleach jaggery during the production.
But do you know why? Simply to make the jaggery white! Yes to address our ‘white disease’..like rice, wheat(maida), teeth and what not? Here too our white paranoia is addressed and hence these bleaching agents are used. Infact P&G benefits highly from chemical (non-organic) jaggery manufacture! To make it ‘whiter than white’, Ariel (the washing powder!) is extensively used!
Now you know what you consume, esp if you are seeking for the pale yellow jaggery.

So go organic! it is the best bet.

Wait! We only discussed Jaggery here. If Jaggery which is so simply produced organically with just an ounce of lime(chunna – natural calcium source), is being raided with so many chemicals, one knows what to expect out of sugar.

Jaggery Vs Sugar:

Sugar is always produced with chemically grown sugarcanes (bcos they just don’t care!) for which we know the huge list of chemicals – ferti & pesticides used. So once the environment is screwed enough they focus on us- the consumers.
Then what? if the brown (dark) looking sugarcane juice has to become white crystals!!

Jaggery, esp if you were to source the organic ones, is a big winner. It retains all the minerals that sugarcane was born with. As we saw only water was lost to evaporation.
Jaggery has many minerals and is such a nutrition packed natural product that it needs quite some perverse brain to ‘refine’ and make sugar out of it. Jaggery is a good source of iron and proteins and has many minerals like calcium, phosphorus, iron, magnesium, manganese, carotene, thiamine, riboflavin and niacin.

Against this sugar has 99% carbohydrate and nothing else! So with only sucrose and hence so much energy what are we going to do to expend it? Esp in these days of sedentary life style? Obviously the excess is converted to triglycerates and stays as fat. So more health hazards.

In Ayurveda, Jaggery was a source to treat lung and throat infections.

All nutrients and life (like in refined oil or in maida) is extracted to get this hopeless white crystal. In the process many chemicals like sulphur (sulphides too) and ofcourse Bone char is used. so it fails to be a vegetarian too! Crystallisation happens with aid of lots of chemicals.

Another stealer is that Jaggery aids digestion where as Sugar is tough to digest and takes longer. Normally it’s the last to digest. Jaggery breaks down finally to alkaline where as sugar becomes acidic.

Oh yeah! Jaggery absorbs moisture and too much bacterial and enzyme activity thrives then on. Ofcourse add benzene (and such like) and u avoid this problem:-(
Hmm, what a sweet mess we keep creating, hmm?
Most times these are problems only for big players who want to process in huge quantities, pack, store, burn fossil fuel and transport and so hold a big market share. But why shud we care? Simple solution is try and identify local source and keep buying in smaller quantities. This way the moisture, shelf life etc is no more a problem. Here just take care you don’t give in to that white mania and so buy the dark looking ones.

Jaggery, due its rustic manufacturing process and the fact that it’s a small cottage industry most times, can have dirt or mud. That’s the only flaw I can think of..
Navadarshanam’s tip: To eliminate any mud or dirt that may be a part of it: it is recommended that the jaggery be made into syrup. The syrup should be made every 2 / 3 days as it will get spoilt if left unused thereafter unless refrigerated. To make a syrup, mix 1 cup of water with 500g of Jaggery. Dissolve and heat gently till the solution boils. Strain and cool. If refrigerated, the syrup will last weeks.

so rush to restore! the best source for organic Jaggery in Chennai and for lotsa other organic produce too.
(whats life without some marketing for restore, eh?)

PS: There are some quiet rules that persist around India..some just out of dadagiri and some others - enforced dadagiri by industries. One such regarding jaggery making is: In some parts of TN, farmers weren’t allowed to extract without license/permission. Police come to raid if they do extract on their own! I was surprised to note that. This is prevalent in areas where sugar industries are prominent. So it could be that the police is just foisted by the corporates/industries so that the farmers give the sugarcane to them and don’t process themselves. This way these farmers are also forced to buy sugar from them.

Update: for photos on RV farm and the jaggery extraction see here.

update2: thanks to Meera for pointing out. The powdered jaggery is not different from Jaggery balls. Just that the extraction is at a different heat level and time. While the jaggery sap(juice) is poured out on flat pans to cool, its made in to balls (by hand, with gloves ofcourse) or beaten to powder with huge wooden hammer.