Bisi bele bhaath of thoughts- new recipe

Bisibele bhaat of thoughts

What to do with the leftover rice? It is a trait passed on in my genes that I can’t tolerate wasting cooked rice. But my family has an unpredictable appetite. Some days their appetite for rice matches Bakasura's whereas on other days they just fill up their tummies with few morsels. The rice left over is so much that I can’t hog it alone. My husband hates to eat left over rice. I have come up with a novel idea to use it. Cook some fresh dal with vegetables, mix it with the leftover rice, bisibele bhaath masala, tamarind juice and little jaggery. Garnish it with tadka and a tasty tangy ‘Bisi bele bhaath’ is ready. I am an heir to few more such recipes and I am the inventor of quite some.

I take pride in nurturing this art of conjuring up all available things and formulating a new one altogether. This flair of mine applies the most to my thoughts. I try to connect invisible distant dots and visualise them as a comprehensible picture.

For instance, I reread the first chapter of the book, ‘Parva’ by the renowned author Sri S L Bhyrappa. It is critically acclaimed by many of his own fans.  It is a ‘humanized’ version and not the ‘divine’ version of Mahabharata. That is one of my favourite books. The excerpt of the first chapter is that the predominant purpose of life is procreation; a concept which was very well necessary during that era. It is impressed upon in the story of that particular chapter that every menstrual flow of a girl brings disgrace to the ancestors, because they must see to it that her fertility is entirely utilised by finding her a suitable partner at the right age. Every menstrual flow is a presage of a failed conception and waste of her fecundity.

I watched two new kannada movies in the last week. In one movie- Dia, the heroine is supposed to be an introvert who fails to express her feelings to the hero for nearly 5 yrs. Just when they realise it and are about to marry each other, they meet with an unfortunate accident and the hero supposedly dies. In this depression, the heroine attempts a suicide and is rescued by another hero. She falls in love with him within a few days. I was confounded by the mere fact that though she took years to express her first love, she readily moved on to the next one which is quite bewildering. That may be a directorial disaster, yet movies are a reflection of the current society. Aren't they?

Another movie I watched yesterday was- Mundina Nildana where a kannada movie has easily adopted live-in relationships, has favourably accepted instability of relationships and lack of commitment to marriage, let alone children. Many movies in all languages have started to promulgate the idea of self importance, nonchalant attitude towards everything in life to the extent that I wonder whether being serious towards our responsibilities  is a mark of meekness. Getting married, having children, being social are no more the standard norms of the society. The new equation is, ‘Being happy = being single and whimsical’.

I was reading one more book yesterday.’ Phantoms in the brain’- by an eminent neurosurgeon.  In one of the chapters, he has talked about evolutionary psychology. As I understand, the thought process of a species is modulated by natural selection. Those with a favourable psychology for survival in a given environment, survive. Let me connect the above ideas by evolutionary psychology.

Now, connecting the pro-procreative Sri S L Bhairappa’s chapter of Mahabharata and self centered Mundina Nildana, they seem to be the opposite ends of a spectrum. Mahabharata was about the struggle of the human race to dominate the earth by outnumbering other species. The main aim of life was- procreation then. The epic was set in the initial ages of civilization where man was gradually evolving from hunter gatherer to an agriculturist. The era was that of struggle for monopoly, showing off the alpha component of the alpha, much similar to the earlier primates.

The predicament of humans and other species is reversed today. Overpopulation is no more a weapon for survival of the species today, but it is a harbinger of doom.  We need to curb the human population rather than contribute to its explosion.

That’s when evolutionary psychology comes into picture. The psychology and life style of today’s generation is such that no children will be created in near future. People will be so much engrossed in their self interests that they won’t find the need to produce progeny and take responsibility of them. Probably that is the need of the hour ecologically. This thought process is hence pro-survival at this instant.  But will this eventually lead to extinction of human species or will there be a balance attained after few more centuries? The earth exploits and modulates our psychology to sustain itself. God doesn’t curb us with natural calamities alone. We are his creation afterall. He plays with our psychology too.  The population with a psychology towards controlling the population may get naturally selected in the present day over those with the opposite goal. Whereas in the earlier era, population with inclination towards procreation was selected over those with opposite views.

Whether we want it or not, the creator has his own way of planning and executing his plans according to his will. His creation, his coding, his program; he may introduce a virus or debug the system as he likes it.

Now, this is definitely a bisibele bhaat with the ingredients of Parva, Diya, Mundina Nildana and Phantoms in the brain.

 

06/06/2020