Friday, May 15, 2009

Tomorrow it is voting day here in Kuwait, while it is the vote counting day in India. Hubby is all set to wake up early, while I am hoping his excitement wont catch up with me. I still remember those days as children when my Father's excitement would catch up with the entire house hold. In those TV less days, the radio was the only source. My parents and in-laws have voted this year too and have been voting faithfully every election day. The other day while speaking to a girl on the phone, she suddenly asked me from which state I came from. When I told her my state, she said she is from West Bengal and it is their voting day. This is the first time she has missed her voting rights since she just came to Kuwait. I could sense her disappointment.

Yes, we are all waiting and whoever comes to power, do they really have anything diferent to offer for the coming years? Is there going to be any CHANGE?

Monday, April 27, 2009

Biodegradable dish ware..

...sounds sophisticated?

....trendy?

..... a new entrant?





It is nothing else but the palm leaves (sheaths) that have been used since ages for various purposes in parts of India and I believe in most Asian countries. It is from the Areca Palm or the Betel tree as it is widely known in India whose nuts are used by betel/pan chewers. In Malayalam the sheath is known as “pala”. The same material is also used to make those umbrella like hats used by farmers that are now almost extinct. As children we used to sit on the palm leaves and be dragged along and even toppled! It was pure fun.


But it is this photo feature on Time that caught my attention and I was amused by the trendy name being given to it. Most of us have used the plantain leaves for our “sadhyas” and for those yummy “pothi choru” during train journeys. I have seen even these sheaths being used for such purposes but it now delights me to know that mass production of it is taking place (I read that it has been there since year 2006) in India and picnic goers in US will now use these instead of plastic plates.

Wonder why we in India discarded these for the plastic plates.

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