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Indian Blackberry (Jamun) and Spirulina Spread Recipe

By
Kanan AgnihotriGautam
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Jamun spread

Indian Blackberry (Jamun) and Spirulina Spread Recipe For Diabetes

Life and experimenting with ‘living’ had been my passion since childhood. I am a woman with conflicting interests. Though I always hated science (read Botany) but love to experiment with herbs and traditional practices related to plants and food. Despite of not really interested in cooking regular daily meals; I love to create healthy recipes which should look and taste interesting. In all humility I accept that I am a confused soul, who is not interested in any theories but practical aspects of everything. Be it life or food… Just a thought…. aren’t all Geminis like that? 

Hahaha… and yes I am a big time hoarder of natural foods in freezer. Of course, hoarding sucks especially of bad memories, clothes and things which hinder my efforts to adopt a minimalist lifestyle. Yet I love the hoarder in me when I create interesting smoothies and recipes using non-seasonal fruits and vegetables. I am going to share how to prepare and hoard Jamun in the form of a spread and that is my ‘First Recipe post on Not Your Old’. Jamun spread

Indian Blackberry (Jamun) and Spirulina Spread Recipe

This is the season of Indian Blackberry or Jamun. The name ‘Jamun’ makes me feel so proud of Hindi and India. We use the right word for the things very clearly. Here is a fruit which is purple (Jamuni) in colour and so we call it ‘Jamun’. On the other hand westerners call it ‘Indian Blackberry’… Hmmm! It hardly looks Black then why that name! Oh! they have their own berry called Blueberry so I understand their bias; but they could call it ‘Purpleberry’, Isn’t it? Well, hope no one is judging me for my meaningless thoughts. But still there is a point in that meaninglessness. 😛

Now coming to the point, the recipe….

Ingredients and benefits

  •  Jamun/Indian Blackberry/Black Plum —— 100 gm

Jamun is a wonderful fruit for diabetics. It helps to improve immunity, diabetes and heart health.

  • Spirulina powder —–1 tsp 

Spirulina is a plant-based source of protein which contains all essential amino acids our body needs but can not produce on its own.  It is a blue green algae with an ability to boost immunity, fight allergies, and reduce fatigue. A super food which is a great source of calcium, iron, magnesium, and vitamins A, E, and K. I use Spirulina because  it might be beneficial to me for my arthritis and its related iron deficiency. I feel good with its use since I shifted to almost vegan way of eating.

  • Black salt / Himalayan Pink Salt according to taste.
  • Black pepper according to taste.

Recipe

  1.  Wash and boil berries in half cup of water in a pan with lid. They can be pressure cooked too.Black berry Spirulina spread
  2. Let them cool down then mash them up with hands to take away all the seeds. By the way, Jamun seeds have medical properties  but that will be in a separate blog post.
  3. In a blender jar add Jamun pulp, Spirulina, Salts and pepper. Blend well with a little water added if required. Jamun Spirulina spread
  4. Adjust salt and pepper according to individual taste.
  5. Store in a small clean jar in refrigerator. If you decide to make a big batch, you can freeze it and store for future use.

Where to use Indian Blackberry (Jamun) and Spirulina Spread

  • As I mentioned earlier I love hoarding food in my freezer, so it is the best thing to make a big batch of this spread and freeze in the ice tray. These cubes can be easily used later on in various healthy shakes and smoothies. All one has to do is add a few cubes with dairy or non dairy milk, curd or butter milk.
  • If making this spread in a small batch for family, go for a nice and refreshing Jamun Raita.
  • Oh! So you are looking for a sweeter taste, add some Gur or Shakkar (Jaggery) and use this spread as home-made Jam for kids or may be as a dressing on their fruit cream or custard. I bet they will love the dash of purple on their bowl.

Fruit cream with yogurt That is my version of yogurt with fruits and Indian Blackberry (Jamun) and Spirulina Spread. It was an instant hit with the family which is really apprehensive of ‘my style of healthy cooking’.  😀

Do share your experience with me here in the comments section.

Mom, I Am Hungry!

By
Kanan AgnihotriGautam
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1
Must watch film on GMO

Mom, I Am Hungry!

“Mom, I am hungry”, these words had always been a very important part of my life. I have spent my childhood in a bungalow of sorts in Chamba, a small town of Himachal Pradesh. We had a big lawn with a peach tree and lots of space for kitchen gardening. I remember the gardener used to grow lots of tomatoes, mustard, spinach, sponge gourd, corn and radish in the garden. Every time, I called out, “Mom, I am hungry”, she used to pass on a tray of freshly picked peaches, a big red tomato with black salt and pepper or a coal roasted corncob. Nothing in the world could beat the taste of those fresh snacks because those were genuinely organic foods.

We entered the late eighties with a range of instant foods like two minute noodles, chips, corn puffs and soups. We stopped shouting, “Mom, I am hungry”, because life had became easier and self manageable.  No one then realized that it was the beginning of our physical as well as emotional end.

What is GMO

I had heard a lot about the GMO, Monsanto controversy and how GM mustard has become a legal issue in India. For the uninitiated, GMO is Genetically Modified Organism which is created for better chances of survival. I do not have any authority to comment on how good or bad is the idea of GMO.  One thing that is pretty evident from the online available material; it surely comes with a heavy price ‘human health’. I read about the controversy online how most of the GMO testing is done on animals. In the quest of protecting crops from pests, virus and insects, the seeds/organisms are genetically manipulated in the laboratories. It is a cause of immense damage to human beings as well as underground water. That explains the global outcry against GMO.

“Consumed”, Review of a film about GMO

It was nothing more than just a coincidence that I decided to watch the 2015 movie, ‘Consumed’ on Netflix recently. It is a film based on GMO controversy, made in documentary style.

‘Consumed’ earlier titled “Food” is an amazing learning experience for a lay man like me. It is a film that highlights GMO Monsanto controversy indirectly. That is why the Pro GMO Monsanto propagandists tried their best to bring this film down.

It is a 2015 American thriller directed by Daryl Wein, starring Anthony Edwards, Victor Garber, Danny Glover, Kunal Nayyar and  (Oh! so handsome) Taylor Kinney. The acting is great, and the story-line, meaningful.

The story line

It is the story of a single mom struggling with her son’s unexplained rashes which look like that from some allergy.  As she looks for answers she finds herself into the GMO controversy. Instead of backing out, the mother decides to fight out the answers.

The film gives a peep into the wrongdoings against the farmers, scientists and GMO research. It talks of corporate manipulation of food and their use of money power to control everything and everyone coming in their way.

There are interesting scenes which actually make you feel helpless thinking about your daily and so-called healthy food choices. The lady goes to a superstore to buy something healthy for her son who is on strong antibiotics but after checking labels, rushes out. Another great moment, which makes us rethink our foods is when she looks for food in her refrigerator and ends up dumping everything in garbage. That is the true story of every kitchen worldwide.

The film shakes you and wakes you up. It makes you question yourself. ‘Consumed’ beautifully expresses the helplessness of a mother. She realizes the power of concerned corporate house yet questions the labeling policy. The least that can be done is label the products so that the consumers can make aware choices regarding what they eat.

Rethink your food

By the end of the film I was doubting the health quotient of all those big potatoes, oversize fruits, the bags of popcorn and boxes of cereals. My doubts included the not so tasty green leafy vegetables, the extra long basmati rice, soya nuggets, coffee, dairy, poultry, meat anything and everything in my pantry list. Scary, isn’t it?

As I think of the times when I was lucky enough to have home grown organic vegetables. I get uncomfortable seeing the new generation enjoying the branded burgers, wafers, coffee, and those tubs of finger licking fried chicken.

What next? I imagine my grand kids calling out, “Mom, I am hungry….” I shudder at the thought, ‘what healthy snack can I offer them!’

If you wish to understand what GMO is all about, you need to watch  this Netflix mainstream movie “Consumed”.

‘Lust Stories’, A Trial Of Sexual Desires

By
Kanan AgnihotriGautam
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0

‘Lust Stories’, A Trial Of Sexual Desires

'Lust Stories', A Trial Of Sexual DesiresA boring summer afternoon led me to Netflix’s ‘Lust Stories’, a four stories package, directed by Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar, Dibakar Banerjee and Karan Johar individually.

‘Lust stories’ is undoubtedly a bold comment on our carnal desires. All the four directors deal with the age old guilt attached to lust and infidelity in their own way.
Divided into four parts, ‘Lust Stories’ is all about the display of each director’s handling of this sensitive topic.

Part 1 by Anurag Kashyap

As a story by itself there is hardly anything substantial in the first part. Kalindi (Radhika Apte) is as confused as any pseudo-intellectual. For her lusting is just an adventure. She is all the time justifying herself and making her sexual experience look like part of her so called exploration of honesty in dishonesty. Kalindi as an individual is fooling herself trying to live not a truth but a hypotheses about life and relationships.
She fears the repercussions of her sexual involvement with a much younger student. Sex with someone similar to her age doesn’t interest her as there is nothing exciting in it. Despite her age Kalindi is an immature woman who cannot handle lust the way Mihir her husband handles it. That is the issue with her. She is not comfortable about what she is doing but wants to feel as natural as Mihir. She is afraid of getting exposed thus making a frustrating effort to play a safe game. Her shallow emotions are exposed when she finds the word ‘fuck’ more comforting than ‘fornicate’. Lusting as an adventure also asks for a lot of maturity which Kalindi lacks. She is unknowingly looking for equality with Mihir, her partner and convincing herself about the worth of her flimsy sexual adventure under the garb of exploring life and feelings. When she can’t take it anymore, she leaves.
Part 2 by Zoya Akhtar
Lust and sex is the biggest equalizer. This time it is the lust story of a housemaid and her master. Lust doesn’t value emotions and can create smiles only in bed especially when it has socio-economic undertones.
Nothing very great about the predictable story line or it’s treatment by Zoya Akhtar. Of course the only two things worth a mention are
  • Bhumi Pednekar as a maid struggling the highs and lows of emotions in her sexual relationship.
  • The symbolism of torn ‘pure silk kurta with good embroidery’. The acceptance of the fact that howsoever beautiful it might make you feel, reality is that beauty of lustful relationship is just like the damaged and  torn kurta.

Part 3 by Dibakar Banerjee

Dibakar Banerjee is a gem and he proves that in his lust story too. Third story is about a mother (beautiful like the aged wine, Manisha Koirala) who wants to live her life with love but ends up fighting her guilt. The story is reality of the rich men and their social system.
Each character is natural and makes you feel for each one of them. Manisha Koirala as Reena is believable when she is torn between family, kids and herself. The dialogues are bang on, which would come to any mother in such conundrum.
“Sharm aati hai mujhe yaar. Bacche bhookhe hain … Main kya ban gayi hoon”. (Kids are hungry and husband is spying, what have I become.”)
There is a husband who is more interested in his business deals and can’t afford any deviation at any cost. It’s his realization that he is lacking something but what is it, he doesn’t know.
“Meri biwi tere ghar mein kitni sundar dikhti hai? (My wife looks beautiful in your house.”)
“Tum log cheezon ko open ended rakhte ho, mere liye ya black hai ya white. (You like keeping things open ended but I like black and white.”) that makes him decide to take his wife back without spoiling his relationship with his friend. Salman, the husband (Sanjay Kapoor) makes Reena accept two things. One that the affair must stop and Sudhir, his friend (Jaideep Ahlawat) should never come to know about his knowledge about the relationship.
Reena the wife decides to tell everything clearly to both the men in her life. To the husband she tells,”Tum biwi nahi ma dhoondh rahe ho. (You are looking for mother not wife.)” and that it was a peaceful day when she decided to meet Sudhir.
Reena reminds Sudhir, that while in college he could never dare to look at her. If she is in a relationship with him, that is because she wanted to be there. Enough to make Sudhir feel thankful and obliged about the relationship.

She comes out a winner, feeling relieved that she no longer will have to accept ‘allowances’ that her husband offers her. The last shot of this most effective film speaks volumes with Reena smiling and moving on with life. Lust or infidelity doesn’t require any reason to enter lives. It comes and goes while life carries on.

Part 4 by Karan Johar

The least said the better for the king of excess and his fake cinematic moments. Oh! he can make any normal thing look vulgarly abnormal. Doing justice to that, in his story a simple straight idea of a woman’s dissatisfaction in her married life looks pretty loud and vulgar.
Mr Karan Johar, believe me, there was no need to make the whole topic look like a vulgar porn experience. There could have been subtle moments instead of the garish ones.
The only saving grace was the acceptance,”Jo hua woh galat nahi tha, jahan hua woh jagah galat thi. (whatever happened was not wrong, where it happened, thatplace was wrong)
The only intelligent thing in the story was finally Megha, rightfully asking for her wish to have icecream.
Anyhow, Karan Johar must avoid handling such sensitive topics in future, unless he is planning to introduce X rated films under his film banner.

The last word…

There surely is a loud message conveyed through ‘Lust Stories’. Despite efforts to explore physical independence in every possible way, something is always wrong with our lust stories.

Never Too Old To Dream…

By
Kanan AgnihotriGautam
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0

Never Too Old To Dream…

Never too old to dream

Tick-Tock goes the clock….

Birthday for me always had been a ‘self appraisal day’. It is a day that nudges me towards an emotional roller-coaster ride.

As I turn 52 today, I check the clock ticking on the right panel of this blog. For the uninitiated, it was added by my daughter on the home page. I consider her not only my fiercest critic but also the one who gives me magical wings to fly. The count down over there makes me realize that time is running fast. It made me panic initially but kept me on my toes. There are latent dreams yet to be unfulfilled and Tick-Tock-Tick-Tock….goes on the clock.

Old but not your old….

This space has got me thinking. By the time we get past 50 most of us become compulsive hoarders of many bitter sweet experiences. Some of us give up and slip down on a guilt trip about the missed opportunities. Lost in the journey of life let us confess that remorse is the outcome of our own falterings. We become lazy, lose the zeal to live in an empty nest resulting in the lost track of beauty of our dreams.

The year that it was…

Recapitulating the previous year of my life has been a liberating process. It was emancipating from the bondage of guilt and longing.

New targets

Past fifty two years of present life, the only fact I have accepted unconditionally is that time is the only precious thing in life. Moments gone by can never be pulled out of the past but who can stop us from setting new targets! It is all about how to bring inner joy to our soul.

Self analysis

Writing this personal blog had been that new target for me. Each second invested on thoughts about writing my heart out has made me analyze my real self. Self analysis helps one come out of denial mode. It sets one free of all things unwarranted for an all engulfing peaceful life.

Finding your ‘Joy Quotient’

Living each moment for its ‘joy quotient’ made me relish hot samosa and tea despite a bleeding open deep wound while getting towed after the accident. The new mantra for my life is, ‘Do what gives you joy without hurting others’.

Life is full of sadness but it is up to us how we manage a few chinks to bring in smiles and make them a lifetime memory.

 Health matters the most…

A transition to a vegetarian way of life is what I call my biggest step towards a wholesome kind life. Finally, coming out of the denial I accepted that a healthy diet should mean a kind diet. A diet, true to your  nature which reflects kindness and love.

Life should not stop at the weighing scale only. Ideal weight without good health is not a good idea at all. ‘Eat mindfully and keep activity level up’…. that is the mantra to lead a good life after 50.

Connect with the subconscious…

If we are able to connect with our own soul, there is no need to look for any other connections for love and hope. The ultimate source of happiness in the previous year was my true connection with my subconscious mind.

Be shamelessly in love with yourself

We survive life not because we love others, but because we are in love with ourselves.

I survive everything because I am unabashedly, shamelessly in love with life and myself.

Cheers to my 52nd year of surviving this ruthless world with hope and faith. Hats off to all the 50+ fighters out there in the world. Keep fighting your weaknesses and come out a winner… Because That is how our stories are meant to end.

Belief, Subconscious And Conscious Reality

By
Kanan AgnihotriGautam
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0

Belief, Subconscious And Conscious Reality

Our personality is the result of our beliefs. These beliefs create our reality through our subconscious mind. We can say that our acts are linked to our belief, subconscious and conscious reality.
We see, feel and hear many things all through our childhood. All these experiences create our beliefs. These beliefs make us merge into our communities and peer groups. The question arises..

Are all our beliefs always right?

There are no right or wrong actions. Most of our acts are the result of our beliefs, which can be called conditioned thoughts. We grow up with certain beliefs which need not remain ‘our’ own as we grow up. Personal experiences or urge to question old beliefs result in a paradigm shift in our programmed mind.

Can we change our beliefs?

Programmed thoughts are beliefs. Thoughts are ingrained in our subconscious mind through repetition. We can change our beliefs anytime with a little intention led practice. Recognizing and accepting that we need to change is the first step.

How do our beliefs affect our reality?

Beliefs create fears and limits
Beliefs, subconscious and conscious reality

People have phobias, limitations and they feel powerless. All this is caused by what they believe about themselves. We can create our own realities. Really! So why must we not create something different to be all that we feel, we can never!

This is the truth that our beliefs create our reality.

“We believe, so we are.”

Other day, I was discussing with my daughter, the possibility of genes affecting our beliefs. I found an article quoting a book,’The Biology Of Belief’, by Dr Bruce Lipton. In this book, Dr. Lipton explores the biochemical effects of brain functioning. He  demonstrates how all the cells of human body are affected by thoughts. According to him, we can change our health and life by changing our thoughts.

How to change life by changing thoughts…

Our conscious mind acknowledges our positive and negative experiences. All those experiences become our thoughts and we store them in our subconscious mind. What we do consciously is based on those stored experiences.  To change our lives for better, we need to remove the old data from our subconscious mind and feed in the new data. The new data must come from the new experiences, lead to conscious mind after crossing the sub conscious one.

Subconscious mind is our ‘Habit mind’. It has more power than the conscious mind. Since it is habit mind and an extremely powerful one, so it is difficult to control or change it. There are three ways to bring about a change in our subconscious mind.

  • Self hypnosis ….

Using prerecorded affirmations or meditation sessions to control mind can work effectively for self hypnosis. This method works wonders when done at night just before sleeping. That is the time when our conscious mind switches off and subconscious one takes over.

  • Repetition….

Repeat the acts of change. Consciously make efforts to repeatedly tell yourself what beliefs you wish to change in your life. It is done just the way we learnt the basics of languages or basic maths tables, keep repeating till it becomes second nature.

  • Creating new habit…

To rewire brain for creating new beliefs, we must clear up the old beliefs and place new ones in their place. Constantly repeating the new belief helps to bring about a positive change in our lives.

To rewrite our new stories we must rewire the subconscious brain. Believe that you can do it. Make a conscious effort to practice and repeat. Over the period of time we will surely be able to win our mind.

“It is all about the power of our mind. A mind that can question prevailing beliefs, can create new reality through our subconscious mind.”

Then He Let It All Go 

By
Kanan AgnihotriGautam
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0

Then He Let It All Go

There is no bigger mystery than Life and death. One such was the death of my father, a very strong man, who lived life on his own terms and had always to be convinced well to change his viewpoints. We lost him to cancer in 2005 with many questions unanswered that he left behind when he finally let it all go.

Let it go
Prof. Ranjit Kumar Agnihotri

The worst thing in life is to see a person known for his physical and mental strength, weak and dying. That was my father, terminally ill and on his death bed. Every one known to him saw his physical weakness but none could imagine his never dying spirit. Most of the time he used to be under the influence of sedatives but the moment he woke up, he would vomit blood yet tell us, “Don’t worry. I will be fine. I will not go”.[the_ad id=”6742″]

What was holding him?

The atmosphere in his room was very stressful. Everyone was praying for him to leave his body, rather suffer in irrecoverable health conditions. Being Hindus, we were chanting all the mantras and chants, appropriate for the occasion. I and my sister used to sit next to him during nights to help him change sides so that he could get relief from bed sores’ pain.

Few days before his last breath, daddy started talking to his dead parents and aunt after midnight.

“I am very tired, Papaji. I can’t come to you. There is so much of the work to finish.”

“No, Amma, I have told you, I can’t climb all those stairs. I have become very weak. Those are too many stairs. I will come after a few days.”

“Tidah, (his nick name for his favorite Mitra aunty) why are you calling me. I told you, I am not going to come to you all.”

Seeing his unbearable pain we wondered, why wasn’t he leaving! Was he not able to disconnect with his family thus not ready to leave this mortal body! Was he finding himself emotionally too weak and tired to die or just gaining time and courage to move on!

When life sounded scarier than death…

Here were we, the daughters of a strong man scared of our own father. Were we afraid because he was not sounding like the man we had known all life or just pained to see his suffering! Was he looking for emotional healing before his last breath? There were unanswered questions and the one who could answer them was hanging between life and death.

We decided to convince our father to let go of us all. Our mother and we the sisters knew what he was worried about so decided to convince him that he need not worry. All that mattered to us was, relief from pain. Yes, we talked it out with our father’s subconscious mind for two consecutive nights.

On the third day, he again began mumbling but what we heard was…

“Amma, I am coming to you.”

“Papaji, come down a few stairs, hold my hand. I want to come to you both.”

Then he slept off. Once awake, he wished to be brought down on the floor (according to the Indian ritual). He mumbled, “Go, collect wood for my pyre. Help me get on the floor.”

Death awakens the souls

The same evening, my father breathed his last. I was outside when my mother called me, “Leave everything come inside. Daddy is gone.”

My aunt came to me crying, “He is gone.”

“No, he can’t die before meeting me.” Strangely, I didn’t cry. I knew, he would go  only after he touches me. I went inside. The doctor had already declared him dead. Sitting next to him, I touched his hand which was cold and on his chest. “Daddy, how could you leave without meeting me?” was all I could say closing his eyes. I saw his nostril twitch and a warm whiff of air touched my hand.

That was the end of my physical connect with my father. The spiritual connection is still there …. No one can ever take that away from me.

The unanswered questions…

It still bothers me when I think about my father who never believed in ‘religious rituals’. He was a non-conformist who had always laughed at the ‘Indian mythological stories’ related to death and the stairs leading to the doors of heaven.

  • How come he was seeing and talking about the stairs before dying?
  • In his last moments did he become a conformist and actually see those stairs to heaven?
  • Did he really see his dead parents and aunt before dying?

Some questions should better be left unanswered. They are just like my father,”not answerable to anyone.”

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