The Sunday that was..

Sundays that are usually spent sleeping, eating and sleeping again was spent with +Supriya . From morning till evening (literally), we were making this card....

It's packed and ready to be shipped! :D
*lovely feeling*

"Serving you the Love"

Aroma- serving you the love

Walking through the lane with motor mechanics on one side and a gutter flowing on the other, the idea of finding a 'nice' restaurant seemed to be getting blurred!

A right turn and I found myself standing in front of a tall three storeyed building with the restaurant's name shining bright- "Aroma- Multicuisine Family Restaurant." Climbing up the stairs you enter into a pink and yellow lit foyer, beautifully decorated with paintings and clay statues.
The courteous staff led me to a neatly done table. The one in the corner of the restaurant. Over here you could also see paintings by anonymous artists over the walls. Right across the room, the wall held a magnificent painting of the Eiffel Tower beautifully lit by dim incandescent lamps.
Because I already knew what I wanted, deciding on the menu wasn't difficult. "Nundru and naan" it was. Being in Jammu for the first time, the traditional dish is what I wanted to try. Nundru is the lotus stem. It is also known as kamal kakdi and bhein across India.

Nundru and naan. 

Nundru is one of the main vegetables used in the Kashmiri cuisine. In fact, it is known to be the heart of their food. By the time my dish was getting ready I caught up with the manager of the restaurant, Mr. Vijaya Kumar Menen. A middle aged man with saffron teeka welcomed me warmly. A self taught cook, and now manager of Aroma, was eager to have a tête-à-tête about his enterprise. It has been only five months to the establishment of this highly successful restaurant. The manager of 22 staff members, was tea stall chotu as a kid in Mumbai. An entrepreneur who does not believe in competition, compares his work with the growth of a coconut tree, he believes in making the roots stronger. the fruits would eventually follow. And with this, I could see my food coming. Leaving me to enjoy the food, he wished me all the best.  

Nundru was a vegetable, called a chutney here, made in curd. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say the food was to-die-for. So much so, I also got it packed for my friends at the hostel. 

The food was indeed served with Love, just as its tag line says! 

Venue: Aroma, Opp. Bahu Plaza, Gandhi Nagar, Jammu. 

Government for the people! Really?

It was the celebration of Eid that ended with the fire of communalism.

Which religion can save them???   

Kishtwar, a town with a history of communal harmony, stood still under curfew for 12 days starting from August 9, 2013. Ironically, Eid along with Dusshehra was historically being celebrated in the common Chowgan ground, and at other times Hindu farmers offered their first harvest at the shrine of Shah Asraruddin Wali, a revered Muslim saint.

The town with a harmonious history couldn't possibly indulge in acts of pelting stones, torching houses and shops, looting etc. overnight. The escalation of a small frenzied demonstration into a massive riot seems to be a sustained move towards communal polarisation on the part of some political parties, aiming to make it in the forthcoming elections. The issue of communalism, one that the nation has experienced in 1947, was politicised. Political parties who gain from this polarisation seem to perpetrate the same. The blame game came into picture with the CM accusing the opposition of being ‘hypocrites’ when condemned for not being able to control the violence. When senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj urged the CM to look into the matter of Kishtwar, the CM’s response was quite strange, “injuries and damage has taken place on both the sides.” The reply was such even when Swaraj never mentioned anything of this sort.

Law and order collapsed, giving an opportunity to the communal elements to spread violence because of inaction of the police, for almost seven hours. Yet, the government claims to have responded right away, by summoning the Indian Army. The Army responded immediately, but the local administration took seven hours to order its deployment. Moreover, there were no arrests made for two days.

Damage has been done. To restore communal harmony that existed in Kishtwar, blame game has to stop and constructive steps to build communal harmony should be the forward march. Peace marches alone won’t help the cause of building peace, but a lot else needs to be done. Primary among these should be to immediately arrest the culprits, compensate those who have suffered losses and the proposed judicial commission’s report should be totally unbiased.

The link between the riots and forthcoming elections cannot be ignored. It’s time we wake up to the harsh realities of power, politics and anti-peace marches. 

Let's make peace!

‘Beautiful music is the art of the prophets that can calm the agitations of the soul; it is one of the most magnificent and delightful presents God has given us.’ – Martin Luther

Zubin Mehta

On September 7, Zubin Mehta’s orchestra would drown the cacophony created by the politics in Kashmir. 

The politicians seem too worried about Jahangir ‘turning in his grave’ on the sound of pianos and violins instead of sitars. They seem to have never listened to, leave aside, enjoying music. The whole fuss about an artist performing in the Valley is targeted in just the wrong direction. 

The people in Kashmir have been protesting against AFSPA. The protests have been large. But the protests against Zubin Mehta’s show have been larger. The unity seen in the AFSPA agitation is less, as compared to the unity against the concert. The attacks against the show have become a war in itself. Each politician condemning the concert wants his sword mightier than the other. The protest against violence is justified. But protest against peace? Well that’s new!

In the fight for independence, the protestors seem to have deviated from their target. The separatists have made a non-issue into a main political issue for no rhyme or reason. All in all, the conversations of parties, in parties and between parties are mere noises that no one cares about. The show will happen and the world will listen. The others might consider just resting in peace!