Culinary Grand Slam: Master Chef Australia

Much like the grand slam tournaments for tennis in a calendar year, the culinary majors/grand slams for this calendar year have begun with the show Master Chef Australia. The show, Master Chef Australia, is aired from Monday to Friday, 9 -10 pm IST on Star World channel and this year's season has gotten off to a brilliant start. The top 24 contestants form a highly capable lot and they churn out wonders in entree, main course and dessert categories, day after day. Three eliminations - that of Kevin, Lydia and Matt occurred over last three weeks. After Master Chef Australia, Master Chef USA and our own - Master Chef India awaits eager audience. 

Master Chef Australia has the same familiar, friendly trio for its judges - Matt Preston, Gary and George. All of them are extremely supportive, appreciative of sincere efforts and never too critical. However, my favorite  is Matt, an internationally acclaimed food critic,most balanced and impartial in delivering judgement, he forms a crisp opinion with relevant, grounded reasons and possesses taste buds that are sensitive to wide variety of tastes and cuisines. Gary has a terrible weakness for anything sweet - pies with apples and berries, lemon cheese cakes, deconstructed tarts, burnt meringue, ganache, anglaise, granita-  all have him sinking down on his knees and he gets tilted in favor of contestants who seek pride in dessert making. Matt Moran is another judge, more a mentor, who helps contestants during immunity challenges without airs. 

I began watching Master chef Australia intently from the last season. Various techniques contestants use for cutting, cooking and plating are impressive. Recipes for baked dishes and desserts appeal to me largely. This year has already offered many interesting episodes - reinventing a basic sandwich, identifying/making different pastas and preparing a magical 8-textured mousse cake. Team challenges, too,  have been equally exciting. 

My favorites in the show are Audra, Mindy, Amina, Ben and Andy. I pray they go a long way and remain till the end. The ladies are all exceptional in producing clean; lip smacking flavors and innovate with ease. Ben works with extreme patience and precision in the kitchen; qualities that his job as a teacher too demands. Andy is terribly calm and composed, well organised and these qualities along with his poise and confidence impress audience just as much as his cooking skills.

Dalvinder, with Indian roots (advertisements of Master Chef Australia aired in India project her as a representative/ambassador of the nation, much like an athlete representing the nation in Olympics event), Kylie, Alice, Tregan (three of them form a cheerful, happy go lucky gang), Emma (the soft and kind hearted cry baby), Filippo (an expert at bread baking and wood fire oven baked pizzas), TK, Beau, Andrew, Julia (dessert queen) form the next rung of my personal favorites on the show. 

Debra, the oldest contestant on the show has always won accolades from all judges for her expertise in cooking and producing clean, impeccable flavors. To me, she fell from her promising position, only seemed a typical oldie, always ready to complain/incriminate younger folks around for failure after the Yum Cha team challenge at the Chinese Garden of Friendship, Sydney. Now I would love to bid her bye ASAP.

There are many more action packed episodes - a multitude of masterclasses, immunity/team/elimination challenges lined up before an immensely talented one wins the title and trophy of culinary excellence. 
And , definitely there will be tears and emotions, much like Roger Federer.

Some Dumbo Kids with Over ambitious Fathers

There are awards for best actors/actresses, awards for sports persons and their teachers. Recognition is meted out in field of arts, literature, press, journalism, photography, environment protection (despite calamitous damage done to it by humans), try naming any field and a bag full of awards, trophies and medallions bestow honor and appreciation.

Parenting too, is an art and this seems to be a department where I have not heard of awards or accolades. There are days or occasions celebrated across the world to mark its importance like Father's day and Mother's day but no particular trophy is given out to a chosen few.

If there was an award for the most doting, caring, supremely dedicated father (in India, keeping focus on some star kids) it would go to Amitabh Bachchan, undoubtedly.

With a dumbo - Abhishek Bachchan, for a son, Big B's efforts as a father to shape his son's career, future as an actor, to elevate him to a larger than life image have been relentless. From Bunty Aur Babli to the recent take - Bol Bachchan, the father has shouldered all responsibilities in an unimaginably excessive fashion leaving no stone unturned. In a ripe old age, he sings, dances, emotes, shouts, delivers crisp dialogues in his baritone voice and pulls along Baby B to stardom. Be it interviews or KBC shows or personally upclose moments, as a father he constantly swears by his son, stands by his son and is an immovable Rock of Gibraltar to him. The son, though now a father himself, no doubt, loves the cozy, warm zone of protection , has not shown enough mettle to prove his capabilities. In fact, the million dollar question is if he is capable at all? Or toning down the quotient of sarcasm, is he fit/suited for the field of cinema? Barring the movie Guru, where Mani Ratnam fiercely extracted some expressions from this rock faced star child, Abhishek has proved disastrous in all his other movies in all departments. When he dances, he makes only Tapori like/Dappan koothu moves, biting and rolling his tongue, making dodo like expressions on his already awkwardly shaped face. However, the father still believes his son who turned to stone in one of his earlier births by a stare from Medusa, will turn victorious some day.

Though Big B and Aby baby make the most outstanding example of best dumbo son, over ambitious father combination the world can ever witness, there are other examples from the film industry itself. Rishi Kapoor and Ranbir Kapoor (recent histrionics in IIFA awards) is an example that hits my head directly; the son is not a failure in all departments but looks a complete dodo and definitely delivers incomprehensible dialogues. When Ranbir sings "Jo bhi mein kehna chaahoon, barbaad kare, alfaaz mere" in Rockstar movie, you cannot refrain from nodding in appeal.  

Moving from these examples and changing domain from films to sports, recent newspaper and TV reports have made me conclude that though the kid is not a dumbo here and the father has not done anything overtly to push the kid into limelight, this nosy father and an arrogant kid combination has wreaked havoc to true sportsmanship spirit. Leander Paes and Vece Paes form this unexpected example. The father features in all press reports like a spokesperson, brokers deals and bargains, asks for written assurance from Sania Mirza that she will partner with her son in mixed doubles format on the pretext of which he claims his son will play along with Vishnu Vardhan in men's doubles format at London Olympics (2012), all of this has gone awfully irksome and weird. Leander too,  throwing his weight around, quoted preposterously - " The only one I need to worry about is Vishnu, the poor boy is 307 in the world and I don't even know if he has grass court shoes. So it is like a bit of tough one." Such a gibe from an Olympic Bronze medalist, Commonwealth Games bronze medalist, winner of men's and mixed doubles in 1999 Wimbledon is a real shocker.

Personal frustration, ego, superiority complex and professional vendetta have ripped Leander off true sportsmanship and his father, an ace hockey player himself, has forgotten to drive lessons to get his son grounded. Paes will need to pick cues from other sports figures in India - Tendulkar and Vishwanathan Anand for instance, who are GODS in their respective games; yet haven't roped in their families/fathers to speak on their behalf, their likes and dislikes. 

True, we all admit - Like Father, Like Son; a son always looks up to his father for emulation. However, it is true that each one of us has a distinct talent, an area of super specialization which can quite be different from that of the father. Leander took this lesson to his head and chose tennis, not hockey; but few lessons of humility went starkly amiss and his over ambitious father failed to reinstate them. 

Finally, some music stuff on MTV

The channel MTV or Music Television, in India, for little less than a decade, has been known for Roadies, Splitsvilla and like reality shows. These reality shows have featured the same scheme of dumping ground, vote out mechanisms, politics vs performance quotients, excessive bitching and wild card entries over these years, making it all clearly trite. 

A welcome change ushered in the form of a music show Desi Beats/Rock ON, the first season of which was judged by Ram Sampath and Kailash Kher, who in my opinion, have actually contributed something original to music - from colorful Bollywood music to advertisement jingles. The second season of this music show featuring Pritam (Hindi music director with maximum hits to his name and an equal number of plagiarism charges) and Indian Ocean's Rahul Ram (whose only standing credit till day remains the Kandisa song, a prayer in Aramaic uttered in Sryian Orthodox Churches) did not pack the required punch. 

There was a strange lull after this when it came to airing music related shows. Now, the breather comes in the form of a new show - Sound Trippin aired on the channel every Saturday from 8-9 pm. The show features Sneha Kanwalkhar, a young and chirpy,  budding Hindi film music director who travels to different parts of India, captures many sounds specific to that region, picks up some impressive local/folk tunes and creates a song out of it all. Sounds and music strips collected from locals in these places on her gizmo - an Intel notebook are taken back to the studio where she and her proficient team of music technicians carefully compose a song. The song comes along with a befitting video and is first shown to people of the town/region who really contributed to it and to us too at the end of the show. 

Six episodes of this show have been aired till now with the first five shows taking Sneha to Punjab (fun filled, bold music), Benares (mystic with sounds of bells and hymns), Yellapur (a village in coastal Karnataka where a tribe called Siddhis live and perform),  Goa (sounds of church gong with generous amount of English thrown in) and Kanpur (sounds of leather factory set the background for some whacky, mischievous lyrics). The last (sixth) episode was a summary of all these travels, primarily focusing on efforts put in by sound technicians and accounts of their experiences with sounds of various kinds.  

I would rate this show with a 7 on scale of 10 - Reasons? 

Finally, something related to music and making music appears on MTV. There are no money tasks/immunity tasks, battle ground/dumping ground rows in this show.

Two excellent songs out of 5 composed until now on the show - one in Punjab in episode 1 and another in Yellapur in episode 3. 

One can check out the videos of these brilliant music pieces from the links below - 

1. Tung Tung (from Punjab) - http://mtv.in.com/soundtrippin/videos/tung-tung-full-song-episode-1-intel-mtv-sound-trippin-8099-1.html 

2. Yere (from Yellapur, lyrics and primary rhythm provided by Siddhi tribe who have their roots in Africa but have made India their home for long)  - http://mtv.in.com/soundtrippin/videos/yere-full-song-episode-3-intel-mtv-sound-trippin-8359-1.html 

Truly, remarkable efforts go in to make a song and this is shown convincingly to the audience through this show. 

Why not more than a 7 on 10? Reasons - 

2 out of 5 songs stand out, call for repeated hearing with fitting videos. So that's ony 40% excellence. 

There are many more episodes, more sounds to be captured - so it is a wait and watch before the show gets an upgraded rating. 

However, on an ending note, this is a show I look forward to on MTV, turn to for respite from livid auditions, excessive foul mouthing, roadies journey and bitching splitsvillians. 

60 years of Parliament

Seldom a newspaper like Times of India presents collection of facts, some serious and sensible stuff for readers. All and most other times, it is full of advertisements which come in bigger doses on special days like Mother's day, Friendship's day and Akshaya Trithiya etc.

I have always expressed displeasure at reading TOI. The Hindu, Bangalore edition fails to impress me, being nowhere close to the Chennai edition I grew up reading. Both Deccan Chronicle and Deccan Herald cover national news in a myopic manner. Given the junk that gets published in a well pronounced fashion in TOI, Bangalore in form of Bangalore Times and many glossy supplements, I think the decision to resort to other options is just around the corner.

Anyways, May 13, 2012 saw completion of 60 years of Indian Parliament and there was some information to take back from page 16 of the day's print - Sunday Times, Bangalore.

Ramachandra Guha, in his book - India after Gandhi describes how many felt India would never work as parliamentary democracy given differences were wide and occurred in many categories than similarities that actually could bind a nation together, that too a nation fresh from severe partition woes. If we were to argue on whether we have succeeded as a democracy and squashed many wrong notions, whether we really deserve to be applauded as the world's largest democracy etc - it would take publishing many more books; more analyses from historians like Guha and daily debates on news channels for years together.

There are many times where you feel the country has failed miserably as a democracy, it is only a banana republic. There are very few occasions where you may concede to believing that the scenario is not so bleak. I am writing this post on my blog only to make an entry of some important facts I garnered from reading the newspaper Times of India, Bangalore, dated May 13, 2012.

The House Story  

Parliament house was originally known as Council House. 

It was planned initially to be a part of Rashtrapati Bhavan. 

It was decided that this building will be the Indian Parliament in 1919 Montague-Chelmsford Reforms. 

The building was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and Sir Herbert Baker, various designs - from triangular to colosseum Rome like were thought over before finalizing upon the circular design. 

The Parliament has 200 pillars, foundation stone laid in 1921 by Prince Arthur, it uses black marble in columns of chambers brought from Gaya, white marble for lining walls in the library from Makrana, teak for doors from Assam and Burma, rosewood from South India and pale and red Dholpur sandstone. 

The building was inaugurated on Jan 18, 1927 and it was on May 13, 1952 that the Parliament had its first sitting. 

What's special for 60 years of Parliament? 

Release of a stamp and a coin to commemorate the day. 

Joint sitting of the house in Central Hall at 5 pm. 

Veteran parliamentarians honoring ceremony presided over by President Prathiba Patil where - Rishang Keishing (92 yrs) stands out as the oldest Rajya Sabha member, the only sitting MP until day, a veteran Naga leader, he was elected to the first Lok Sabha (1952-57). 

Also, Reshamlal Jhange from Bilaspur (Chattisgarh), aged 88 years will be honored. 

Other important points discussed in the article in TOI 

The first LS has 22 lady members. 

The Parlimentary proceedings were televised for the first time during 1991-96 with Shivraj Patil as the speaker. 

The Parliament faces a terrorist attack on Dec 13, 2001. 

Many low points in parliamentary proceedings are also discussed in the newspaper in this article, many of these lows occuring during the tenure of Indira Gandhi as the PM - the time when corruption brewed in legislation without adulteration and in no dilution. 

Truth alone Triumphs

A show on television with Aamir Khan as the host, a trailer that shows him traveling to different places in India, from Kochi to Ladakh meeting people there, a song written and composed brilliantly well as an earmark of the show, the many ads and promos, all in a way that instill interest; there were, I must admit, more than ample reasons to wait for 11 am, May 6, 2012 and tune into Star Plus channel. 

When one has huge expectations, reality's bound to fall short and going along that line, personally, I was left little disappointed when I saw Aamir Khan walk into a chic, air conditioned studio with audience seated in a  gallery around him. May be it was the snippet of the show aired repeatedly that made me think Aamir will travel places, gather information about local problems of people, highlight them and treat them wisely, with a difference and garner public support in favor of solving them. I grew little upset when Aamir called out few names and talked to these selected few on a one on one basis, it only brought back memories of the once very popular Aap Ki Adalat show by Rajat Sharma and Aap ki Kacheri show by Kiran Bedi. The formats do not match exactly since Aamir keeps repeating during the show that individual cases discussed are under judicial question and he is none to judge/provide opinion but somewhere, there's a meek prayer that this new initiative by the perfectionist of the film industry must not fall into the same league as shows that have been aired before. 

The disappointment did not abate as the issue discussed was female foeticide, an issue so pernicious in our country that it is too difficult to address it on TV and in one episode. Aamir questions different people, from a not so well educated lady to a doctor by practice about their personal grievances in this subject; we get to know that irrespective of where they hail from, their social, literary and economic background they all have been meted out the same treatment and have faced brutal discrimination; they have been both a criminal and a victim. Aamir fervently tries to impart knowledge by telling that the mother in no way determines the sex of an unborn child in a few sentences, even then I cannot applaud this effort. Reasons - literacy does not help, economic well being does not also help, even passage of time and generations does not help, nothing appears to eradicate this evil. 

I am sure a few hundreds listened to Aamir when he said Athithi Devo Bhava and stopped spitting and throwing trash on the streets, may be even stopped stalking foreign visitors in crowded markets. But for the message sent out last Sunday afternoon, I cannot believe even a 0.001 % change will ensue in the positive direction for no domestic, national or international voice has ever been able to batter this evil notion. 

Aamir chose to end the first episode with some light moments when he interviewed a group of men in a village in Haryana, all above 35 years of age and yet unmarried, unmarried due to dearth of girls in their community. These men requested Aamir to solve their problem and cheerfully said they would even nominate Salman Khan as their team captain. There were ripples of laughter but the bleak truth was lying barren in front of us all. 

It is said that the website dedicated to this show crashed the same day due to heavy online traffic, there were thousands of tweets congratulating the show and its makers, true and well deserved, I am very happy for it. But there is something amiss as far as I am concerned, few more Sundays would be required for me to conclude if TRUTH REALLY TRIUMPHS.