pearls of wisdom

recently a supreme court bench passed down some nuggets of wisdom. and it came from their personal experiences as the honourable judges claimed. we have to seriously give a thought to what they said. to the effect that if your wife says that the sun rises in the west, say yes and buy peace. the wife is always right.

it is happiness rule no 1 for all married people. when a divorce case was being heard in the apex court, the judges observed that the only path to happiness lay in agreeing to whatever the wife says.

how many of us married folks will agree to the hon'ble bench's advice, i do not know. there is a hindi saying that "hum sab joru ka gulam hain"(we are all subservient to our wives). perhaps the judges both from the north had this in their minds.when the supreme court judges have given a stamp to this maxim,is there any point in trying to breach it?

obey your wife and rule the world.

the omnipresent mango

this is the season of mangoes.whether you are in mumbai or kolkata or even titilagarh in orissa, the versatile mango appears to be omnipresent. the king of fruits is dominating the fruits markets with its handsome appearance,delectable aroma and warm feel. when i was in kolkata last month there was a full blown campaign on the new pepsico mango drink called 'slice' with their brand ambassador,the lovely katrina kaif making you drop everything and go for the mango drink.

how blessed we are that we get so many varieties of mangoes in our country. maharashtra,goa,bihar,gujerat,karnataka,madhyapradesh,kerala,orissa,tamilnadu, west bengal,andhra pradesh are all mango producing states.alphonso grown in maharashtra and goa of course is the king of kings.but then there are so many other varieties too which unfortunately get overshadowed by the mighty aapus.i just got a list made of thirty-five varieties of mangoes that we grow. i am sure that there are many more.

bombaiya,malda,pairi,safdarpasand,suvarnarekha,langda,rajapuri,alampur,baneshaan,alphonso,
banglora,baiganpalli,dasahari,gulab khaas,jardaalu,roomani,samar bahisht,vanraaj,fazli,safeda
lucknow,neelam,imam pasand,malgoa,chousa,cherukuraasam,himayuddin,himsaagar,kishan
bhog,sukul,bathua,totapari,kesar sirki,aamrapaali,mallika.etc. frankly,i have lost count.they are
all different but great in taste.no wonder mango is so extensively used in chutney,papad,pickles,
daal,biryaani,icecream,kulfi etc.

of all the varieties above my favourites are alphonso,dasheri,imam pasand and beganpalli.interestingly,imam pasand comes from a very close relation's family stable.the tatachari's of srirangam.my cousin's father,a great horticulturist, had won a gold medal from the president of india in the early seventies for having developed such a tasty variety in his mango orchards at srirangam near trichy.thanks to them we used to get a regular quota of this delicious imam pasand.

the mutipurpose mango(all the parts of the tree are used for various health and medicinal requirements) is also used in pakistan by enemies when they want to make peace with each other.but then the mangoes have to be from your own farm if you are sending it to your enemy.only then the gesture gets accepted as a genuine attempt to break the ice.recently after the general election results were out,the pmk party which was routed were at the receiving end from their dmk brothers who squeezed mangoes and beat these mangoes with chappals to vent their anger at the pmk traitors who deserted them before the elections and joined the aiadmk. and in far off peru in latin america peasants refused to give up their mango farms even under intense pressure from powerful vested interests who wanted to mine for gold in the same place.love for mangoes know no barriers.

the great poet kalidas,the urdu poet amir khusro and mirza ghalib have all heaped praise over the mango fruit in their compositions. mango finds a place in indian culture and history from time immmemorial. even in the aapastamba sutra,valmiki ramayana and tulsidas's ramcharitmaanas and mahabharata mango has received unequivocal praise.

there is an hindi saying that there are two things that can never be replaced.the mango of hindustan and the taj mahal.
"do woh cheejain hain,jinka nahin hain badal
hind ka aam aur tajmahal."

the glittering golden day

this year akshaya tritiya was on monday 27th april.it is a very auspicious day.you don't have to see muhurtams or rahukalams.any time during this day is good time.whatever you do will be a success.akshaya means that it does not diminish. lord krishna in the mahbharata gives the famous akshaya patra to his cousins the pandavas who have no shortage of food in the forest because of lord krishna's unique gift. this is also the day when one of the avatars of lord vishnu,parashurama was born.

for the last few years i have been buying some gold on this auspicious day. on my own,i might not as i am not all that fascinated by the yellow metal.i don't wear a chain or a ring or anything in gold. gold for me is to be kept for a rainy day. with alternate investment opportunities having dried up due to the economic meltdown,i bought some gold driven more by emotion than any prudent investment decision.

kotak and icici are two banks who aggressively push the sales of gold during akshaya tritiya and deepavali. as a regular patron,i get some discount. the prices are also special to encourage potential buyers.a friend of mine tracks gold prices on a regular basis.he recommended that i buy and he also gave me a rosy forecast.some don't share his optimism.they say that as an investment it has more negatives than positives.they think it is a long term underperformer. they opine that once equity is back with a bang,gold will go on the backburner. i don't take any of these extreme views. in balance it is not a bad investment.i buy gold which is easily marketable, in the form of swiss made biscuits. i ended up the day with a big hole in my purse. the redeemimg feature was that it had found its way in a different form to my bank locker.

hona toh sona!

the zoozoos

my last post was on the mumbai jijamata zoo.this one goes one step further. this post is on zoozoos. what are zoozoos? they are human beings and nothing to do with animals or birds.they look as if they have arrived from an alien planet. they are the talk of the town.brilliantly conceived by o&m marketing agency,they appear in the vodafone ads.they are fun to watch and provide comic relief.

zoozoos are not animation,but small-bodied thin women under layers of white fabric.while watching the ipl matches, i came across these ads during the commercial breaks.the lovable big-headed creatures have already a huge fan following(thirtyfive thousand) in facebook and viewed 13,000 times last week on youtube.more fans than advani and manmohan singh.the girls shriek,"they are so cute'! unlike animation looking like real,this is the opposite. real people looking animated. stick-bodied creatures with egg like heads, they are a delight to watch. like the hutch dog ads this one too is a smashing success.

trick photography makes them look smaller than they really are.facial expressions were made out of rubber and pasted on the actors.their fast movements are made intentionally to make it look comical.the voices are also fast in gibberish multiplied several times.29 different zoozoo ads have been created especially for the ipl.merchandise like keychains,t-shirts and mugs and mobilephone stands are in huge demand.look at the zoozoos and enjoy the fun.more zoozoos and less cricket.o&m have achieved a bloodless coup for vodafone..