Oct 21-22 - Firsts

The 24 hours following the Gariahat market experience were full of firsts!

1. My housekeeper, Anita, made her first real link with me...she helped me with advice on wearing the sari - letting me know how to care for the painted cotton fabric we'd purchased the night before. She also asked me, through pantomime & our limited common Bengali on my ipad apps, if I would consider buying the flat above me & staying here!
2. I wore my first sari! Ms. Dey & Titli came over to do the dressing...it really wasn't too complicated...though I had a pro doing the folding!
First you put on the under garments.
Then wrap the skirt part of the sari several times and tuck in with folds in front - the fabric comes from the press man with stiff folds I thought we'd have to iron out. Once it was wrapped correctly, I saw that they were in just the correct spot to form sharp creases that look so beautiful when contrasted with the folding fabric in other parts of the body. I asked Ms. Dey is she had someone help her. She adamantly declared she'd never had help, even as a young girl - she liked to get hers just perfect & trusted no one else to do that for her.

























































It's a bit scary to post these...I hope they don't seem too personal! The look on my face, fully dressed, makes me look quite nervous, but I remember thinking it was much more comfortable, & especially much cooler, than I thought it would be! They traipsed me off to the veranda for Mr. Dey & their college age son to see me, complete with applause & generous compliments about how pretty I looked as a proper West Bengali woman!

3. Rain was pending & flagging down taxis were very difficult - I had 26 pass me with riders already & only one stop...I was going too short of a distance in a holiday traffic jam so he refused to take me. Finally a non-English speaking young woman waiting in the taxi queue behind me overheard I needed to go to Tollygunge Bridge & started running for a bus, looking over her shoulder, calling Tollygunge, Tollygunge...come! So off I ran too, hopping on the bus just as it was passing! WOW - on public transportation! Going the correct direction. And the deluge began! It was the hardest rain I'd ever been out it, with the streets quickly water logging, bus patrons rolling up their pants over the knee & splashing into mid-calf "puddles" as they jumped off the bus. An older man said he was getting off the next stop, standing so I could have a seat, & the bus wallah, who rides in the middle of the bus, calling out stops & gathering fares, understood, thankfully, I was in way over my head & gestured to relax, he'd get me to Tollygunge metro stop. Another passenger entered who spoke English & confirmed my stop, how to get off...then I called Nandini to tell her I was heading her way.

"Oh GOD - how did you get on a bus?!" was her first reaction. Unfortunately, it turned out that the Tollygunge METRO stop was a 15 minute car ride from the Tollygunge BRIDGE, which was two blocks from her house. Worried I'd make us late, I said she should go on towards the soirée; my kind, calm friend smiled through the mobile call, said all would be ok, we'd have tea & change into the extra clothes I packed just in case I couldn't function in a sari, & head to the party eventually. Her husband & visiting friend were dispatched to the metro stop, as I sat watching my stiff sari folds melt in the pouring rain, in the exact spot a complete stranger told me to sit as he first eavesdropped on my call explaining my location, tapping me on the shoulder to ask if he could intercede, directing Ritwick & taxi friend toward me! The picture of dear, grinning Ritwick, in a handsome batik tunic & jeans rolled up with umbrella in tow will stay with my memory a long time!

4. The party was very fun! Several firsts racked up between our eventual 7:30 arrival, just a few minutes behind our planned entrance & our 11:30 departure, 90 minutes later than we planned to leave - a fashion show, US cover band playing truly impressive renditions of US music, West Bengalis partying with an open bar & at least ten new kinds of food from the over 40 food stations set up!




























































Parents of the Calcutta International School were the models. There were professional dancers hired - a group which mixes the traditional East (the woman) & modern West (the man)





























One of the dances had a mike on the floor...it was to capture the sound of hundred of bells on the woman's leg bands...they created a percussion like foundation for her movements.














The final ramp walk were teachers & the director, Dr. Das. A local jeweler had loaned real gold for the fashion show...a good friend, Piali, was one of the teacher models...we arrived with her mom...such an unique night of connection & seeing friends in a more casual setting than as colleagues during school visits!





























Piali & her mom...without all the gold she wore on stage!














Director Das





























Great cover band - all US 70s, 80s & 90s - The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Bon Jovi, Saturday Night Fever...I sang along with so many parents, dancing up a storm!































Dessert, almost ready for home.

5. The final first was getting locked out. The complex rules say the doors are locked at 11. Well, we left much later than I'd been told & I didn't arrange to be let back in. I eventually woke up Anita with a bit of calling..was getting a bit nervous!

So happy to be home...filled with such vivid memories!

Oct. 24 - Familiarity

Two short interactions brought a smile to my face today...& made me think...

There is a small store just one house down from me - many people in my neighborhood have a small space below their flat/house for retail. I was heading out to Spencers for groceries moments after the shop had been opened. The proprietor doesn't speak much English...yet he called out to me in Bengali some version of wait, wait. He pantomimed rain would be coming & I should go back & get an umbrella! I ended up making it to Spencers before the shower arrived; he grinned a wide smile when I came home, dry, thanks to his words of advice.

I also needed to head to the larger mall to recharge my mobile phone, hopping onto an auto rickshaw. The driver remembered me! He said, in broken English, yes, he remembered I would be getting off @ the Jadavpur Police Station stop & that I was a kind woman who recognized both wallah & manager of Spencers in the same way. Not sure if this reputation ingratiates me with the grocery management staff...very pleased to have the other employees feel like I'm showing them respect, though.

Both encounters made me realize how few times I "reach into" the lives of strangers in my neighborhood. Does the family across the street from me speak English? Are they feeling as disconnected to their true homes as I do sometimes? When did the shift to a garage society, pulling into our garages & shutting out the events swirling through our street, occur in the US? Distance provides challenges, I realize, in a city more spread out like Minneapolis...do similar vignettes occur in higher density cities likeChicago or New York City when obvious newcomers arrive? Or is it even hard to recognize newcomers because of our wide range of diversity?

Oct 21 - Humanities symposium

My apologies for the long delay in blog posts...it's been a busy later part of October & also have taken a couple of days each week to nestle into my flat, rest, process a bit on all that had already happened & what was in the future. I'd outline the days activities, sketch out what I'd write about later when I returned from a full day...then not get back to the blog, first for a few days, then a week & a half! Lesson learned...


I ventured out to one of my primary school connections on the 21st to participate in a Humanities symposium on Gender in the Writings of Tagore. It was fascinating to hear how these seminal West Bengali stories, dramas, song & art by Tagore translated so well into contemporary discussions on the role of women.





The symposium began with music, as many events do in Kolkata...a Tagore song by the music teacher & student. (The video isn't loading too well through the blog...you may access it, I hope, at Opening Song of Humanties Symposium, Calcutta International School on youtube.)







Dr. Das, the director of CIS, opened the symposium with a simple, yet powerful statement, "Any house is lacking if they don't have humanities included." She continued that Tagore is suitable for all times and all places & that globalization is the theme of our time, allowing a new lens to be applied to his work. The purpose of the symposium, was, ultimately, "to inculcate an interest in Tagore" amongst the students.

The panel was an impressive list of West Bengali change agents, including Ms. Krishna Bose, a current professor, former Indian parliamentarian and writer, whose memoir "An outsider in politics" dealt with many of the issues confronted during the symposium.






She started the discussion by paying homage to pioneering men who first helped with women empowerment - ending bride burning, stopping child brides, convincing others that girl children must also be educated and of course Tagore...how he radically spoke of the trials of women but also gave solutions, creating empathy and presenting ways in which they could realistically escape their plight so many faced during the early 20th century.

Three students presented papers in the theme
1. Historical position of woman during Tagores time with contemporary and Bengal lens
2. Feminism During the Times of Tagore - sati widow burning...he included women who could remarry in his stories, a controversial topic for the times
3. Examination of the times of confluence of religion, independence and social emergence...based on critical analysis of "Broken Nest", a famous West Bengali movie, comparing it to a Tagore poem.












There were several interesting points made during the three-hour panel discussion and question/answer session:

1. Tagore never took "ism" for granted. Tagore argued in essays that women are created by nature to create harmony but too often isolated or defined as harmony in domestic venue, leaving a vacuum in public domain of harmony since men who ran the world didn't carry a woman's skill set.

2. In other essays, written after traveling to US he asserted that the modern world was becoming too dehumanizing due to materialism, access to wealth and self advancement, reducing society to a "mechanical coldness", abandoning the more female side of human nature. (This was in 1915 - a fairly forward thinking idea!)

3. Tagore wrote during a metaphoric time & appropriately linked the self-awareness & bias against women by men to the colonized mindset of India under British rule. His feminism, then, became an extension of nationalism, moving across the country as interaction with the West increased. He cautioned that all should examine how the rapid change within colonized Modernity be examined both individually and throughout the layers of society.

4. A famous Bengali singer of traditional songs, focusing on Tagore, presented the youngest view point, both as an Indian who lived abroad in Canada growing up and as someone in his early twenties moved back to know his heritage more intimately. He noticed how the essays presented by the students spoke of emancipation while older generation spoke of more traditional roles which may still have a place. His statements were quite frank - Tagore wanted to represent a balance between the genders & the older panelist members were inaccurately relaying him in a more misogynistic, asexual manner, which Tagore would not have agreed with should he be here to defend his writings.








He ended the program with a song, asking the audience to join in...it was a traditional song of West Bengal, about empowerment for all.

Oct. 24 - Asphault

The nearby complexes pool their resources to pave the low areas in the roads...it was so fascinating to see the work done, all by hand, by the light of torch fires made from burning tires saturated with kerosene.




Bike wallahs arrived first with flat bed trailers of supplies: pick axes, shovels, wire, kerosene, a few old cement bags, jute string, & most intriguing, a stack of flat bicycle tires.







It didn't take long to find out what the cement bags & jute were for. This man wrapped both legs for extra protection against the hot asphalt, which arrived just as dusk began to show on the horizon.





By the time they were ready to work on the portion of the road directly beneath my flat it was very dark. The tires were twisted to form figure eight "bricks" of rubber, & soaked in kerosene. The resulting fire burned about 30 minutes, provided light to work by & also heated the shovels/pick axes so the asphalt didn't stick to them as easily.



It was getting quite late - near 9 pm - by the time the asphalt was shoveled off the flat bed truck & spread with rakes into a narrow band.


A diesel steam roller arrived magically, almost silently...I didn't see it at first, rolling down the rutted roads towards the cooling tar. Men worked dangerously close to the roller, shoving asphalt back under the pressure, forming a tight fit between the complex exits & newly formed road.

Oct. 21 - Gariahat Market

The director at Calcutta International School was thrilled I'd be joining Nandini at the school fundraiser on Saturday night - a "ramp walk", i.e. fashion show, dinner & open bar formal event. She also mentioned, as an aside, "Oh, Ann, yes, of course, you should were a sari!"

Well....I thought I may get around to wearing a sari sometime in India...but knew it would not be an easy endeavor + finding all the items in my size would be a challenge. (Saris, or sarees, are actually three piece outfits: the shai, or petticoat - a straight, floor length skirt that is made of light cotton - the blouse - an almost brazier like garment that snaps in the front - and the very long strip of fabric that is wrapped.)

The wonderful neighbors across from my veranda, the Deys, rode to the rescue. Off we went Gariahat market! I was worried about finding all we needed in less than 24 hours, with the blouse having to be larger...and I just heard "It's Gariahat!", meaning everything is available in Gariahat! Learned first thing - it's not a market, but an eight square block area of the city with nearly everything you truly could want to purchase - food, electronics, clothing, giftware...many of the shops & stands were either selling items for Diwali or decorated for Diwali.








Between Mrs. Dey and her sister we found everything I needed, including chudi, costume gold bangles women wear during Diwali & to show they are married, & a small set of bindi dots so I would be completely dressed like a Bengali woman entering the party. (We not only accomplished finding an outfit for me, but I also learned an interesting tidbit - they use inches in all their clothing sizes. Interesting, huh? When I asked why they didn't use metric they simply said "we use inches, naturally".)

Oct. 20 - Steps to Dress

I'm Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs personate, a humbling experience.





The past seven weeks have sped me through the first levels, thankfully, gratefully...allowing me to be ready to think about extending myself...& where, ironically, does my first step take me? To the tailors! Fashion usually doesn't interest me, true. But rotating the same five tops does - feels far too much like the last seven weeks in maternity clothing, an experience I promised myself I would endure ever again.

You can always but ready-made here, even for women larger like me. Prices range from 1700-5000 INR for a sawar kameez set - pants, tunic & coordinated scarf. Choices are limited & even though Indian woman are shorter than I, the pants always need hemming, so I'm traipsing off to all these swank locations with my pants rolled up. (I look, & more importantly, feel, like a suitcase tourist. Not the mindset required to move towards self-actualization!)

There are hundreds of places to buy fabric sets...then you just need a tailor. The holidays - first Durja Puja & now Diwali - had tailors I'd been recommended working 24/7 on orders & then collapsing into long holidays away until the end of October. Not too helpful. Yet, I decided to head out to the stores I knew about & buy a few items so I'd be ready, have them washed & preshrunk, as soon as they returned.

I walked out the door, called for the taxi & looked across the street...there, standing with a tape measure around his neck was a man working cutting fabric on the workbench used by construction workers to sleep, eat, look over plans & play cards after their days work. Turning to Anita I asked, " Is that a tailor". She smiled. Pantomimes followed, lots of nodding affirmations & today, less than 24 hours later, I placed an order for three new outfits & had seven other pieces altered!

Not sure how the fabric I purchased will look when they are made into outfits...I shopped at a mall which holds hand crafts from each of the 27 states of India - one for each state - hoping to keep with my goal of buying only items which have a touch of culture in them vs. the modern items friends here buy. I don't want to look antiquated, so I found colors I saw in the stores, with similar embroidery or designs, but, because I was purchasing them from a government supported system for artisans, I could be assured they were being sold at a fair cost & that the workers would also see a fair share of the profits. It's nearly impossible to select your choices from stacks of literally hundreds of patterns and colors - in each store! The clerks are thankfully very knowledgeable about what they have in stock...give them a color or a wish and off they run to pull out five or six that meet the criteria. Better yet, for a solo, usually indecisive shopper like me, they also are quite willing to give their opinions, respectfully. Prices for enough fabric to make pants, long tunic & coordinating scarf ranged between 600 INR ($12) to 1500 INR ($30). The cost to sew or tailor is shockingly low - 50 cents US to hem pants or take in a kameez (long tunic) and no more than 200 INR (about $5) to sew the personalized sized set of pants, top & scarf. I was able to select how I wanted the trim placed on the sleeves, length of sleeves, type of sleeves, type of neckline, type of pant cut, way in which scarf would be wrapped, how I wanted the design to move on the scarf &, I think, though we were reaching the limit of our minimal sewer's vocabulary of English/Bengali mix, whether I wanted a hook put on the back to hang on a coat rack type piece of furniture most women hang their daily clothes on or for a coat hanger.

Eager to get delivery before November 1st!

Oct. 23- Imagining the Backstory

I could take 20 pictures every day of items I find fascinating about this city, West Bengali culture. So wish I could speak Bengali well enough to stop & learn about what brought the people to the spot I catch them in during their daily lives. (There aren't any pictures...I'm trying to limit how many photos I take near my home so my neighbors don't feel like I'm a tourist & I respect their ability to live life without being part of my virtual scrap book!)

Today I saw:
• A man pedaling a cycle rickshaw - human power only - with a seven foot dining table laying on its back across the seat, & two other men using the table legs as seats, straddling them, legs waving back & forth as the rickshaw wallah stood, pushing so strongly on the pedals!

• A man perched in a tree along the canal, calling out to someone I couldn't see at first...then I noticed who he was calling out to...another man, perched in the next tree...with cable winding between them. Following the cable, tree to tree, there ended up being five men, all on their haunches on bending branches, peering out from thinly spaced tree crowns, stringing electrical lines from one patched pole to the next. Who needs a cherry picker when you have trees to climb!

• An Income Tax Cultural Conference - this was being held at a cultural mall near my home. I wanted to go in to watch the dancers & singers provided for the conference attendees, but everyone had on badges & guards were watching as folks entered the public area. Every sign said that the conference was being put on by the West Bengal Income Tax Department. Isn't that interesting?

• There are several press men in "sheds", small lean to buildings, along the canal I walk to home each day. One in particular is very nice, smiling & greeting me in Bengali as I pass. I watched early this morning as he lit a fire in pit in the ground, covered with a tall stove pipe, with a grill on top. He placed his iron - literal iron, like flat irons we see in a pioneer museum, with a worn wood handle - on the grill to heat & then push so hard onto garment after garment, steaming in the sharp creases everyone wears on their clothing here...enjoyed seeing the entire process..wish I could know what his background is, where he lives...I know I have looked into buying an ironing board - the market drives the price...it was 40$ US! Much easier, & cheaper, to hire a press man to iron your clothes...4 rupees, or eight cents - for an outfit.

Oct. 19 - A Coconut Account

Sprouting onions sent me to a new favorite Indian recipe website; coconut curry for dinner!

Coconuts here are smaller...obviously fresh; you get nearly a cup of water out of them, even though they are half the size of ones in the US & the flesh oozes coconut milk when you slice it, like an aloe does when you break off a piece.

I haven't invested in household tools...off to my resourceful housekeeper for help!

She smiled, pantomimed to stay put, & headed off to the neighbors. Look at the great gizmo she brought back! (There's actually two sizes, depending on how long the coconut is. They reminded me of the sauerkraut cutter my parents own...a bit rusty, water warped wood with edges worn smooth over the years.)






First she used her ancient marble rolling bar to crack it in half, capturing the water.

Then she stood on the wood & scrapped the flesh out with an up & down motion, twisting it every few strokes, working around the perimeter first, then deeper.












The final product was "grated" coconut like I'd never seen...small, granular pieces, about half the size of a grain of arborio rice.






And the machine really did its job well!

Here's the recipe...you can buy everything there except fresh curry leaves...don't substitute our yellow curry...they are completely different.


Coconut Curry

Ingredients:
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
1 cup sliced onions
2 cups coconut milk
1 tablespoon butter
4-5 curry leaves
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder and salt to taste

For the paste:
1/2 cup grated coconut
1 to 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
Red chilies - I used three tiny ones they sell here...the size of a large kitchen match - very hot!
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
15- 20 raisins (You could substitute 1/4 C dates or dried figs, too. Craisins would be delicious, & add a bright color, but not sure if they are moist enough to make the type of thick paste this recipe creates.)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 tablespoons coriander powder
1 inch ginger piece

Method:
Mix all the ingredients for the masala paste and blend into a fine paste.
(As I've mentioned, Indian spice grinders rock. I've never seen a machine that would replicate the product from them in the US. I think if you put spices in a mortar & pestle, or a dry spice grinder, & then food process that mixture with the finely ground fresh coconut & raisins you may be able to get the consistency pretty close.)

Heat butter and add masala paste, curry leaves to it.
Fry till the oil separates.
Add tomatoes, onions, turmeric, salt and coconut milk.
Mix well and simmer till onions are cooked.
Serve with rice.
(It makes a family size...I'll have yummy leftovers for the next two days at least!)

It is extremely delicious; the trick to Indian cooking is sautéing the spices in fairly high heat, either whole or in a paste. Let me know what you think...

Oct. 18 - "Near the Hogg Market"

Sun is setting as I share the day's adventure...conch shells calling out evening, colors swirling across the sky...they say the weather is changing by Thursday...I wonder if all Kolkatan autumn skies are this beautiful?











There's a early November, belated, housewarming in the works at my flat, thanks to the suggestion of a good friend. I set off with a list of ten items I'd not seen yet while shopping after pondering the food I might serve, mixing American fall flavors in Indian-like preparations - dips with breads & food that could be eaten easily without silverware:

Canned pumpkin, fresh sage & tahini for a pumpkin spice hummus
Tortellini or similar pasta for a chickpea & pasta salad
Caramel, melting chocolate & pretzels for sweet & salty caramel apples
Cheddar cheese, brie & cranberries for a cheese dip with a cranberry sauce

The grocery store nearest my flat is a branch of a much larger one at the South City Mall I've written about, so I headed that direction. Surprisingly, there wasn't an auto rickshaw at the stand. Odd...but...oh, well...it's only 5 km - I started walking. A taxi slowed down @ about the 2.5 km mark & I took him up on the fare...it's cooler now than when I moved, but wow...it does get warm when you're trying to get somewhere instead of an evening stroll! (I learned later, as the rickshaw stand nearest the mall was deserted, too, that the drivers from just this one stretch of Prince Anwar Shah Road were striking due to some unfair government action.)

It was really fun to take my time shopping in such a large store; the clerks at my neighborhood branch are positioned in each aisle, promoting a certain type of product for the day....they are helpful, but it keeps me moving to find the items on my list instead of perusing the shelves. The larger Spencers was so busy the clerks were all stocking, allowing me to really examine new products. There's also a huge "gourmet" section, i.e. imported foods, so I headed there once I determined my list wasn't going to be filled with traditionally available items in an Indian market.

I'd seen a very handsome, salt & pepper haired non-Indian shopping at the meat counter the last time I was there & he was there again today, with his wife, so I stepped up & asked if they had time for one quick question...he said, sure...we kind of stick out, don't we? We all laughed & then I asked them if they'd ever seen pretzels in Kolkata. His eyes lit up & he said he'd seen them for the first time today...& offered to take me to the right place. Well, they ended up being sweet crackers that looked like pretzels, so I thanked him & we split up. Five seconds later he tapped me on the shoulder & said, "You can always bake your own pretzels, you know....it's kind of hard to find bread yeast, but if you go the Hogg Market (one of the oldest markets in town...most call it New Market though, because it was new in 1867), and look at one of the stalls by the clock tower you can buy it in a tiny rectangular box for about 10 rup". I thanked him & continued shopping...

The final verdicts?

I can cook my own pumpkin which they sell very cheaply here fresh
Sage is not grown here
My salt & pepper baker gave me the idea of making homemade tahini & the internet had an easy recipe, so that I can do!
There were about a dozen fancy shaped pasta that will work in a pinch
Caramel & baking chocolate need to be located at a sweet shop I was told
Brie & cranberries don't exist here
Cheddar cheese - and about ten other varieties - are imported from the UK. A 300 gram hunk was 500 INR! That's 2/3 of a pound, so a pound of cheddar cheese would cost $15.11 US! We won't be having cheese dip!
My flat doesn't have an oven...many Indian kitchens don't. I good toaster oven is about $45.00 US...gonna have to think if that's worth pretzels once in awhile...I'm thinking not! Pizza, maybe, but not just for pretzels!

(Just for the record...Ragu spaghetti sauce is $5.15 US & Old El Paso standard size jar of medium heat salsa is $4.97 US. I think I'll stick to Indian, thank you!)

I got home later than expected & my housekeeper had friends visiting. The eldest granddaughter just kept staring at me...



She finally smiled when her baby sister got into the action...



Didn't accomplish much towards the party today, but did learn much. I thought about the couple as I started to walk home, looking for taxis due to the rickshaw strike. Was pretty sad for a few minutes, wishing I had someone here with me like they did, for each other, to share the experience. That lasted for about three blocks until I decided there wasn't much sense in going down that line of thinking! I'll never know what the past six weeks would've been like with someone else here with me. Only know I'm here, in a place where finding yeast is a culinary challenge, but mangoes grow outside your bedroom window, their flesh the color of the sky at sunset.

Oct. 17 - IFS - Integrated Farming Systems

Now that a certain sense of routine has been established the work I came to do - connect students with each other & new ideas - is easier to meld with my day-to-day interests & activities. Feeling more comfortable walking around my immediate neighborhood, knowing when folks are out, allows me to take pictures for the GlobalConnext wiki about the value of water here, for example, very early in the morning before anyone begins to queue up to fill their containers @ the public pump. It's been a rewarding past few days, starting to feel in the groove, spending time researching more about what I've already experienced & linking it to the learning labs I'm creating for students.

IFS were my main focus today, comparing the Indian "Integrated Farming System" to other sustainable food systems in the US, UK & Sweden. The organic farm we ate at in Santineketan was an IFS, so I picked up some literature about them there:

"Integration is achieved by placing one or more living elements from the following categories in the right proportion & at the right time & place -

1. Cultivated & self-growing perennials & semi-perennial plants
2. Cultivated & self-growing seasonal & annual plants
3. Domesticated & wild small & large animals
4. Cultivated, nurtured, & wild insects, micro-organisms, reptiles, etc.
5. Cultivated, trapped & self-growing aquatic organism & plants
6. Domesticated or nurtured wild birds

Conventional farms require more and more external inputs to produce less and less quantities of food, fodder, fibre, etc. A short dry spell or sudden heavy rain causes much loss to farmers.

Integrated farming systems are designed to increase productivity and reduce the vulnerability of gardens and farms.

Integrated farm management involves careful assembly of various productive elements in such proportion that waste from one element becomes input for the other and the natural character of the chosen bird/animal/insect/plant are mutually compatible. Most integrated systems have a bio reactor, such as a bio-gas plant or a pond, or a compost/vermicompost unit.

IFSs are especially appropriate for small farmers in tropical regions as the climate is variable, sizes of holdings are small and the investment capacity of farmers is low."

All this information was on the packaging of four postcards, made from recycled paper by artisans at a shop called Alcha in Santinketan, further extending the IFS connection to the local community & economy.












This image, taken from the USDA site, outlining a simulation currently being examined, holds the same basic model from India, albeit with more complex machinery pictured. (And less authentic integration with the surrounding environment)













Both examples reminded me of the tour we took of a dairy barn near Jordo, Sweden, where food, waste, milk, calving, crops & human interaction were all tracked & calibrated through a computer, sending, automatically, whatever was needed to optimize living conditions for all organisms within the system - from monitoring the temperature of the composting pile to assure best health for decomposers to milk consumption of the surrounding population so the farm could make cheese with the remaining milk.










The need for innovation & collaboration is clear in this concise examination on the global food reality & how a simple technology can make substantial difference.
http://ht.cdn.turner.com/cnn/big/world/2011/10/16/gps-what-world-food.cnn.ipad.qtref.mov



Now, for the real questions of the day. One - am I capable of finding enough folks who believe, as I do, that there is more in common with these three linked examples than most recognize and/or respect. Too often the commonality gets lost amidst how each culture's ideas & identities are perceived, rather than what insights may be gained from the other. And, two - if I can't find them, am I capable enough to convert them to the idea, even if it means setting aside long held stereotypes or misperceptions?

Oct. 15 - Global Pantry

Despite being a fairly experienced cook, the spice aisle @ Spencer's Grocer is truly foreign. At first I thought there were similar spices, with Indian names, but after standing for a very long while, trying to match smells & shapes I was only able to find cumin in seed form, cinnamon in stick & ground turmeric to match US spices. Indian cooks have a "mixer" in their kitchen as a staple appliance...it's a powerful spice grinder - you pop the whole spices called for in a recipe, turn it on, it make a gigantic racket and ta-da....perfect, fresh, aromatic spices each meal. Luscious! Recipes call for a 2" stick of cinnamon, or five whole cloves, or 20 peppercorns, so I know they must have the spices we traditionally use at some store. Slowly venturing into their spice selections, beyond the traditional marsala - difficult to make an entire recipe, with a tablespoon or two of spices you've never tasted, wondering how it will taste! (Fresh curry leaves have been the best find & easy to understand because they are called by their English name by all. They add a hard to describe flavor to curry dishes...not to be confused with the yellow, rather harsh spice blend we call curry in the US. They are fresh & very pungent, with an oily quality to the leaves...sort of bitter like lime zest mixed with basic & sage.)

I eventually put two & two together today after remembering that the cookbook packed in the microwave when I moved in had a spice chart! (Ah, like my dad always reminded me growing up - when in doubt follow the directions.) Cooking with confidence, here I come!














PS I have noticed that there are a few more tiny little ants & today only my third lizard now that the kitchen has been in working condition for over a month...any idea what human food this little critter may be searching for? I keep the kitchen very clean...just want to make sure I'm not inadvertently leaving out bananas, for instance, which he may find irresistible, no matter how scared he is to crawl through the open window, drawn by the aroma.