Father Xmas vs. St. Niklas

OMG, OMG!!

Did thou read the TOI (Times of India) 2day???
On a regular day i like the bizarre corner in the glossy blore extra
but today was so badly researched i felt like kicking the author
of this piece of dumb writting!

End of the day St. Niklas got blamed for bringing the christmas gifts in Germany and also in Austria. This is simply not true! St. Niklas brings small gifts, fruits and sweets in the night of 5th to 6th December to children which have put a shiny shoe outside their rooms.

Father Christmas in every shopping zone to give small sweets and ready to be photographed is an american marketing measure. As much as a flood of chinese plastic guys having chinese eyes mostly being sold cheaply and or in bulk is a pain in the bum to every true christmas arts and craft fair lover.

That much being clarified i need to refer to some magazine mentioning Vienna, Waltzes and Mozart in one go in the travel section. I almost through up! Waltzes are a very much 20th century phenomenon and a cpmposer named Strauss was very wellknown for those. The poor old Moyart composed Menuettes and Gavottes and knew nothing about later dance fashions.

Why throw facts around wrongly if not looked into carefully?

What else is the Internet good for if not that?

I strongly object!

So my dear friends, mention whatever you like, but if thou give a reference, please make sure before you post contents is reliable!

(Otherwise thou can only get employment with TOI!)

Indian obesity

My morning paper (TOI) has a big thing about obesity at the moment. No wonder as it was obesity day last week on tuesday. Bangalore is supposed to be the world obesity capital in 2030. On the weekend all of us readers got another lecture on animal fat and junk food. As the paper gives constant lectures on what to eat and what not i cannot help it anymore to pass some of my own comments.

It seems only fast food and non-veg eaters get the blame. Spell whoever eats at McDees, KFC or anywhere on the street in the invariable "sagars" is to be blamed and heads straight for a bypass operation and/or a failing pancreas.

The other side is the extreme advice to prefer apples to bananas as they are too calourious. Hello, hello and where are we going here?? Anorexia I hear thou knocking!

What i see all around me is overweight housewifes. Saris drabbed happily in XXXL style, and olive skinned hip-gold flowing in folds over expensive zari or zardosi borders. Sternfaced they walk in aged shalwars and worn sneakers in earnest rounds in the park believing the 15 minutes daily exercise will make up for their extended desi ghee consumption at mealtimes. I can see them at dinner table slapping themselves another overloaded tablespoon of ghee onto their unsuspecting basmati rice. I see them smiling and frying the spices in half liter of coconut oil. Beta, the taste won't come out if you take less! Apart from the grammatical error this is an error in perception aswell!

The pure amount of sugar and oil consumed in any normal household here daily makes my pancreas and heart feel shaken. I avoid any so called "tea" or "coffee" out off my own house. I usually find they are hot watery sugar brews which i am unable to consume at all (even if i asked for "less sugar" initially already). Oil dripping dosas come swinging their fatty borders like heavied, filled skirthems from homely kitchens all over the city.

Where this eating habits lead to is very obvious:

Diabetes and heart problems are not a hand clap away.

My heartfelt wish would be to give everyone better advice how to implement a reduction of oil and sugar into their daily diets. I feel there is nothing wrong in occasional visits at fast food stores say like once a month. Street side vendors serve great lean food aswell, Idli for example. Why is noone telling folks which are the harmful foods and which are perfectly ok, I wonder.

Anyway, enjoy your meal, whatever it is. But please make sure thou insert some fruit or fresh (sugarfree!) juices into your diet here and there!

So long farewell!

Joke

Q: What do you call a man in salt acid?

A: A solved problem!

Apples!

Disclaimer:
This is not a Government of India Promotion

Today I got apples from the market. And what apples I will tell you. Normally despise apples as most are imported from the US of A. Why should I pay a hell lot of money (spell 120 rs.) for something I don't even like. The street vendors press them unto me. Ma'm, they are from America. So what? What's the special thing in that? They don't taste even good, particularly not after sitting around in a board display next to a busy street but seriously I don't believe they ever taste good at all.

But today came a revelation to me:

SIMLA apples

Do I need to say more?

I picked them up and a fine sweet fragrance touched my nose. I lifted them up and I felt like smelling a new an wonderful perfume. I handed them on to my friend and promptly ended up buying the double amount of apples.

But smell is one thing and the real test is the taste. You have to peel them before eating (which I normally don't) as there might be traces of mould in the pip department. That spoils the taste if you eat the complete apple. When cut and peeled it is no problem.

So please guys and gals. Eat SIMLA apples, cook apple pudding, bake apple pies!
Now is the right time, go ahead!