Ekhono ghurche (translated into English it means "still turning"

B wanted to go one up on his son....his son a grade 8 student was already running around his father when it came to a computer. After all B was a mechanical engineer from the IIT and he was a Sr Manager of the design department of Disco - a famous name which also makes steel....

So B came to A and said he wanted a computer....A was a sales guy who had till that date sold nothing and constantly his boss would say " ebar earn your salary please or else like bad furniture we will have to toss you out". So A fresh from engineering college was all ears.... Unlike a Bollywood movie there was no chants from heaven or any blessings for Lakshmi...but to A, B was a God send....

B managed to buy and A managed to sell him a top of the line Pentium computer, the highlight being , B asking A " Ami Kintu Pentium chai amar chele school e AMD use kore ( I want Pentium as my son uses a AMD in school).... A different time and a management degree later A would surely have got into B's head to figure out " why this kolaveri on his dear son".

Soon B received his spanking new Pentium machine along with installation services and a host of pirated software being provided by A...those were the days when "windows" symbolized a part of the architecture of a house and "word" was associated with a Hindi film dialog like " Maine tumhe juban diya hai". All was well and then one day he'll broke loose...

It was a day in the life and after finishing the daily chore of wiping his table clean ( In those days A performed all services in his office or as the Bengalis put it colorfully...he did " juto selai theke chondi paath") he was just about to surreptitiously start one of the dos based computer games, when suddenly his desk phone rang.... On a given day A received at best 1 call a day when his mum called at lunchtime to ask "Babuta khabar khe cho" and then subsequently a call in the evening when his father in his baritone asked " Badite kokhon phirbi".... But this was different....

To cut a long story short, it was B and B had a problem with his brand new Pentium PC....the problem was that for the last 2 days his windows 98 machine was frozen aka in B's own language " machine ta kichu bolche na"....

B: A amar machine ta kichu bolche na
A: Aapni screen e ki dekhte parchen....
B: Acha Aapni screen Kaun jinish ta ke bolchen
A : Oi computer er TV ta ke
B: Acha Ekta Halka neel screen are tate Ekta damrur moton jinish
A: Feeling he understands this as this is nothing but a hung computer suggests the universal response B da aapni control alt are del tipun tar pore amake bolun ki dekhte parchein
B: Acha

After a gap of a couple of minutes B says : A ekhono ghurche.....
Hearing this A barely controlling his laughter now says ... Aapni machine take off kore din
After a split second B says ...Ei Toh off kore dilam.... The A says... B da ebar machine take abar on korun.... In a split second B is back and says .... Acha on hoe geche....A who is well versed with the trails and tribulations of turning on and off a windows device is suspicious...he asks aapni machine ta kothai off korchen....to this B says ami Toh TV take off kore abar on korlam.... Now A is at his wits end and says : B da machine omni kore off hoe na aapni niche CPU r switch take off korun... After a couple of minutes, he hears B upto something and then B gives the gem " Acha switch ta koto jore tipbo" A is now uncontrollable ...he says B da jor lagiye tipun are tokhon porjonto tipun joto Khon na monitor ta off how jai....

This time the machine truly turned off....so B said Ei Toh screen ta puro kalo hoe geche...A breathes a sigh of relief and says " ebar B da machine ta ke on korun are botam take to to Khon tipun jate monitor ta abar start hoe jai....B does it and then after a 5 minutes A asks...B da ebar ki dekhte parchein......

To this B says " Ekta blue screen are dot dot dot dot....." It's the blue screen of death for the uninitiated,....


Well after some trials and tribulations B did manage to get his machine up and running and thanked A with his heart for the remote help...A left the company and the town where DISCO company was based....but A learnt an important lesson that day....if you want something to be universally used, you have got to make it simple and ...till this date the guys in Seattle are still trying to do that....

The art of grilling

Grilling...a new passion which has been growing as i continue watching those mouthwatering grills and roasts that Robert Rainford comes up with in Asia Food Channel.....The concept of the grill is an ancient and very basic way of cooking and over the ages it has got supplemented by modernisation of the grilling equipment and the availability of spices....

So that brings me to think...what is essentially a grill...In my personal opinion it is what u do with food components as u do with khichdi and the cereals and the contents that go into it....A good grill is a function of the chef's creativity, the raw material and of course the skill associated with orchestrating the fire.....

So then is just just plain bespoke low skilled activity or is this the high science of fusion art or molecular gastronomy.....I think it is indeed art as the quality of a grilled dish is imagination and raw materials.....

For tonight this art form takes the form of some olive oil, garlic, lemon grass, methi leaves, nutmeg, oregano and chicken....toss them together...throw in the chicken...plonk it into the grill and viola after 1 hour or so...a work of edible art emerges.....

PS : This is a post after a long time as i wanted to just write something and keep this blog going...i think i should get more organised and should have some recency associated with the blog

"Kancha Aam" transformed

Kancha Aam(kanchi Kairi to my non-bengali friends)...To a bengali it translates into hot afternoons, surreptitiously going up the mango tree watching up for the mali bhaiya...and then finally plucking out the beauty.....using a quick mixture of coarse grained salt and chilly powder...a quick dip and nirvana.....I am sure so many of you are licking your lips.....

So what happens when Kancha Aam is mixed with oyster sauce, sauteed peanuts, green and red chillies and lime...the end result....a Thai beauty (not of the Sukhomvit variety)....Thai raw mango salad.....

One of the freshest and most lip smacking delicacies in SE Asia.....try it to belive it....

Between a "Cooks Tour" and "No Reservations"

It's been a year of travel and food...It started with my one month sojourn to Africa and out of Africa came my appreciation of "Fu Fu", "Kenke", Apapransha (though it was the holy mackarel that i remember more ) etc....

Since i moved to new business role, my suitcase has always been packed (for travel) and my stomach has been ready for adventure...Over the last 7 months, I have had the occasion to travel to Malaysia, Singapore,Vietnam,Indonesia, Thailand, China and of course India.....I have seen the sights and tasted the food....

Inspired by a friend, i thought that why not start once again on the blog but this time base it on food and travel...2 things that I seem to be enjoying a lot these days....

Let me devote some air time to the best dining experience that I had over the last 7 months and I will mention 3 of them.....

Chinese food served French Style : The Da Dong Duck restaurant is Beijing is by far the most superior Chinese restaurant that I have ever been to....Was privileged to have participated ina gastronomic delight that started with venison and ended with the ubiquitous Peking deck...However this experience also brough about some truth and busted some myths......

Myth 1: Duckmeat is suppossed to be had...Naaah...In the Da Dong restaurant they serve it like the emperors of the Ming Dynasty had it....they just slice off crispy portions of the golden skin and the meat is actually taken away.....The meat is later used as a base for soup if u choose to have it......

Myth No.2 : Chinese food is oily and typically the presentation element is missing completely...I would recommend a visit to this restaurant...The serving is done in the highest class of a French Restaurant in term of optical appeal...but the food tastes much better than standard French Food....... In fact they served a beef dish over a piece of hot stone...exotic presentation....

I give a definite thumbs up to this gastronomic experience.....

Vietnamese Food :

The Pho Ho' on Pasteur Road is a decrypt restaurant but it probably serves one of the best seasoned portions of the Vietnamese national dish Pho....A noodle broth in which you get boiled beef, pork balls, checken...it's a cook your own meal kind of thing...You put in lime, sauces, leaves, chillies and use your chopsticks to just slurp up the beauty of your own concoction.....Another special is Vietnames spring rolls which are not fried but is a exquisite presentation of different things wrapped in a rice paper....For anyone who travels to Siagon, it's a must do......

Cantonese Yee Mee ...as they make it at Fat Fat (Lorong Rahim Kajai- KL, MY)....The Cantonese Yee Mee can be described as one of my favourite foods when i am at KL....It is health (essentially soup based) and tasty...giving a blow to the philosophy that healthy food is necessarily not tasty....chuck in some chilli padi and u have heaven......

Before signing off...I must talk about my last experience in our own Delhi......Rajinder ka Dhaba somewhere close to the Hyatt in New Delhi...is God's gift to Tandoori food....Mutton Tikka, Chicken Tikka...Tandoori Chicken....Ma ki Daal, Paneer Tikka....coupled with a bottle of Teachers and wonderful company in the form of Sanjeev, Prashant, Rajeev and Goutam was the icing in my cake over the last 7 months.....

The end result ....ek khali bottle, haddiyon ki dher...aur ek behosh bengali.....

Watch out for my Korean Experiences...coming soon.....

The Indian Government.....It surely has changed

Recently i had the fortune of witnessing the huge transformation that different departments in the Indian Government have undergone.....I had to get some documents stamped by the General Administration department of the Maharastra government...Everybody told me it would be a pain....I would have to pay 500Rs. / document...but gues what I decided to do it by myself and it got done in 2 minutes and with great professionalism.....Thank you govt of India....and for all you naysayers...next time you need something dont listen to others...just go and do it yourself....

The Week that was...My African Safari

The Week That was....01st March-08th March, 2009

For a change it was a 5 day week :-) with Friday the 6th of March being a holiday to celebrate the National Day of Ghana...Their 52nd National day.... The week was mixed for me...some great results at one organisation and not so great progress for the other organisation that we are providing consultancy services to....However culturally it was brilliant....

Some interesting cultural things that happened in the week was a business negotiation that we attended...it took almost 45 minutes for the two parties to come to a point and it was interesting to see how well European folks have adapted to the African style of negotiation....On the whole a great learning experience and a move forward for one of our clients...as their European suppliers decided to continue supplies at upon 20% payment as oppossed to the full payment that they were asking for earlier.... Another interesting aspect of this day was the fact that most Ghanians wore traditional clothing with a message of some kind for Ghana stitched into it...Eg. Our host had a shirt which produly proclaimed that "Ghana- 50 years of Independance".....

Apart from standard work, we also had a chance to spend Rosa's birthday....She is our Italian colleague and her birthday was celebrated with great fun at a restaurant called "The Lite Bite"....The owner Rosemont also shares her birthday with Rosa and she was very pleased to have us with her at her restaurant.....

The Lite Bite is our preferred lunch destination in Takoradi....and it has served up almost all the delicacies to us starting from Fufu to various soups, kebabs and Ampesi (boiled plaintains or yams)....The meal was excellent for Rosa's birthday dinner and it was rounded up by Cake and ice cream provided by the owner Rosemont....Incidentally Rosemont, apart from running a successfull restaurant also is a great golfer.....

And that brings us to golf.....Takoradi has a quaint club known as the sports club....Probably started during the colonial times, it has an old world charm to the club house and a 9 hole golf course....One one side you have the greens and on the other side, you have the ocean....On the whole a very soothing experience....And let me say I am getting introduced to golf and have had many of my "convinctions" challenged especially those that stated that it is an easy game....
My current learnings are restricted to the fact that conditions, timing and the swing play a major part in this game and ..... lets just say that I am learning and have lost just one ball till date....The great thing is that all of us go for golfing and it's fun as well as a nice outing for most of us ......

So here comes the last and the most interesting part of the blog....As part of our one month experience in Ghana, our Partners, CDC (Citizens Development Corporation) alongwith the Western Region tourism board planned an exquisite trip for us ...... a visit to a 600 year old setllement which is floating on stilts at NZulezo and a trek through virgin equatorial rain forests in West Africa.....

The trip was on Saturday and after an interesting bus journey where enroute we stopped to see the birthplace of Dr. Kwame NKrumah the founder of Ghana and the first president...For those of you who are fond of history, he was a contemporary of Jawahar Lal Nehru and Nasser and was one of the movers of the Non- Alingned Movement....After a great stopover, we reached Beyin Beach....The Beyin Beach is unlike any Beach I have ever seen....You cannot see people on the beach even if you try to ...It is truly secluded and virgin and has only one good quality resort .... The Beyin Beach Resort.....

Owned by Nina and Patrick Sarpong they rent out their rooms between USD 20- USD 50 per night and they serve cheap but tasty food and very good South African wine.....But the real strength of their offer is the beach itself....Unspoilt and secluded, it offers you the amazing sight of watching Olive Ridley turtles come and lay their eggs...They are also in Turtle conservation and ecotourism in a very big way....If you wish to visit this area , please take a look at their web site www.beyinbechresort.com.....It's exquisite....

From the Beyin Beach Resort, we travelled a short distance by bus before moving onto to Canoes to row through marchy land to the NZulezo village.....Nzulezo village is made up of inhabitants who were originally from Mali, but who settled here as they fled war and other problems in their homeland....They have been living here in houses on water ----on stilts and do farming, fishing and other such agricultural activities for their sustenance...They now call themselves Ghanian and it was truly interesting to see that they had contentment even though they were living in such difficult circumstances.....

After lunch at the Beyin Beach resort, we got onto the bus and started for Ankasa one of the largest protected rain forests in Western Region of Ghana... In these forests there are more that 300 varieties of trees and the major fauna include Monkeys oif various kinds, Leopards, forest elephants and various animal species.....We first took a short trek to vists what is known as the "Bamboo Cathedral"....The Bamboo cathedral is formed by the bamboo shrubs as they arch over each other creating a cathedral type of ambience and feeling....In fact the silence of the place almost makes it feel that you are close to God....

And then finally we went for a trek through the dense equatorial forest....it was dark inside almost like it was night and it felt eerie that we were surrounded by equatorial trees which dwarfed us in their presence....We saw trees which were mangrove like in their appearance (known as arrogant trees) and the classical equatorial trees which tower above you and are as thick as a apartment block....

And finally before I sign off, something hilarious happened....As we were reaching towards the end of our trek....I think someone stepped on a ant hill and by God... they just attacked us from all directions....I had ants up all over my body and got bitten in most places including several "inappropriate" places....I am laughing as i write this but Carolyn very aptly stated...."This gives a new meaning to the saying "Ants in your Pants" "....Anyway as we reach to the last part of our one month long tryst with Ghana....hoping for more exciting events and some great contribution to the client for whom we are working....

Ciao for now.....

My African Safari----The Week that was

The Week That was....23rd Feb-28th Feb, 2009

For those of you who have never visited Africa.....dont go by what TV suggests...slow country where people do not have work to do and not enough businesses....to say the least , it's been an invigorating week.... We have been working almost 10-11 hour days everyday...

The IBM Corporate Service Team - Ghana 3 is also known as Team TAADI and our motto is One month One dream....We are assisting via CDC (Corporate Development Corps) two business organisations in Ghana , The Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GNCCI) AND THE Association of Ghanian Industry (AGI)....We are located in Sekondi-Takoradi which is the part of the Western Region in Ghana, West Africa....

One team which is Kacie (USA), Carolyn (SA), Prasad (India), Volker (Germany) and Yaw (USA) is helping GNCCI redefine their business especially their alternative channels strategy (via their website). The other team which is myself, Tasha (USA) and Rosa (Italy) is helping two of AGI's clients - A established business Multiwall paper sacks (WA) Ltd. and a start up West-West Agro Processing.....

The introduction is important so as to set a baseline in terms of the work that we are doing....Our work for AGI is as different as chalk and cheese and yet they converge in a pretty unique manner....We are helping a established business, Multi-Wall restructure financially and organisationally so that they improve their current business condition and also face the future better....On the other end we have West-West which has got smart management thinkers who have got business and need supply chain help.....

I last touched financial re-structuring and supply chain when I was in Xavier Institute of Managment, doing my MBA in 1999-2001 and I never thought that I would have to filter through the cobwebs of my mind and get some of that knowledge to work for me once again....
Since we are helping two concerns .,..I cannot disclose much in a public forum...but just to let you know....In my working Life I have worked on behalf of IBM to enable Bank's to automate their operations including loan origination and here I was on the other side of the very system that I helped design ....I appeared on behalf of my clients to various bank's in Takoradi including a bank for which I had helped design their loan origination system to propose a financial restructuring plan for their financial portfolio system....It was exciting and least to say a tremendous learning experience....We are close to seeing light at the end of the tunnel and are hopefully adding value to our clients....

The other interesting thing in the week was the first travel to West-West Agro which is situated in village Ayiem (45 minutes drive from Takoradi)....Upon visiting Ayiem, I felt that I was trasnported to Jharkand and West Bengal (where I was born)...because the rural setting was just the same....Our office in West-West has a little village for company and when we visited the village , it was probably a riot there as children ran out of their houses (very much like an Indian village) to run after us and pose for photos....Our office overlooks intensely dense equatorial forest land which almost climbs onto the road that we drive on....Sadly for me, this was also our first brush with bush meat....which is any creature in the wild that gets killed and the meat sold so that the villagers can get some money for the same....being a person interested in wildlife...it was not the bets thing for me.....

Now to some other interesting things that we did during the week which did not have a work element involved in it....

As is usual , let me start with the culinary commentary....We have tried various kinds of Ghanian food and the stand out items (in terms of my preference) has been

Groundnut Soup with chicken alongwith Kenke.... The dish is amazing because it is afusion of Indian, African and the West....Kenke is made by boiling maize (corn) and then steaming it post mashing it with a man sized pestle....I think it is also fermented....I would like to call it like a maize idli....Eaten with hand, it is usually mixed with a dip made of tomato, hot red pepper, onions hand blended together and a soup (similar to gravy in the Indian context) made of groundnut, spices and grilled chicken....The only thing I can say about it is that, it is exquisite and heavenly....I just love it everytime I have it....The other interesting thing to eat is the same soup but with Fufu (pounded steamed cassava and plaintain) mixed with the soup....In this case you have to dig for your soup and fufu and the whole experience is just great....

However once u have kenke and fufu alongwith groundnut soup....the most appropriate action is to take a nap...However work prevented us from doing that.....

The second item on our list are the people....Ghanians are fiendly, go out of the way to help you and are very much like Indian....I would take this occassion to let you know about two interesting spectrums of Ghanian people in terms of the people whom I have met....

We met a gentleman by the name of Dr. J.A. Addison who is the Chairman and MD of Multiwall and is 90 years old....He would put all of us to shame as he walks without help and runs the company as if he is not a day older than 50....Educated in Harvard, he has been a true visionary in Ghanian Industry and had even run for the Ghanian presidency at one point of time....Evrytime, I meet him I am amazed at his abilities and vision....

On the other spectrum, we met a young guy called Richard who is just like us...young and raring to go...Richard introduced us to the young part of life in Ghana...which is similar to life in India....Thank you Richard for taking us out on Friday night and showing us the sights of Takoradi...When I talk to Richard, I am reminded of the fact that here is someone who can bring about change is truly righ way to Ghana....He believes that even before schooling one must worry about healt and he is trying his bit by distributing mosquito nets whenever he can.....Way to go Richard......

Also on an interesting side note, we attended the naming ceremony of a 2 month old child....It was interesting because , it was pretty similar to the "Annaprashan" ceremony that we do back in India for our children....The grandparents invoke the blessing of their ancestors and they make the child taste water and schnapps ....water representing what is positive to life and schnapps representing what is not so positive in life :-))....The child is also given a name which is from the family and is a choice of the father / grandfather....This is followed by the Father thanking the mother for the child and she is given great respect and given traditional gifts ...including a goat....This was followed by some tribal dancing of the Fanti region of Ghana....I was again reminded of the famous Chaw dance practices in the Purulia region bordering Bengal and Jharkhand...The drums, leaps were exotic and out colleague Volker also did a war dance alongwith them....The important thing was that...They dances tell stories in a extremely artistic form....

Last but not the least....The music is just awesome....There are 2 popular types of music...Hi Life and Hip Life....The beat is infectious and you just start grooving to it...even gospel music is amzing and fast paced....looking forward to putting in some CD's to my iPod.....Carrying on with music, celebrated AR Rehman's Oscars by listening to Slumdog Millionairres tracks on my iPod and thanked Steve Jobs for this great device that he gave to the world.....

Finally before I sign off....here is a collection of Fanti words that I have picked and if any of you come to west AFrica especially Ghana, they can open doors for you...where none existed....

Akwaba....Welcome

Midasi...Thank You

Mindasi....Response to Thank you...equivalent to Welcome...means "It's nothing"E

te san....How are you ?

Aeeyaaa----I am fine....

BTW my Ghanian name is Kwabena means I am male and I as born on Tuesday.....Thats all for me about the week that was.....Adios for now.....