By Geeta Padmanabhan

The media have been calling it the Election Festival. What we saw yesterday, the first phase of polling, was far from one. Naxal attacks left 17 dead in the polling areas.

Of course, Indian elections are a huge, enviable exercise in democracy with a mind-boggling 700 million official voters on the rolls. That should come as a lesson for a lot of countries. But it has several serious shortcomings in the very nature of its party system, its parliamentary form of governance. Ironically, the glimmer of hope comes from these very ills that seem to pull the system into a morass.

Take the case of the “party leaper“. There are some who have sided with every shade of ideology over the years that it is impossible to vote for them on the basis of party affiliation. For the first time, you hear “We will align with like-minded candidates after the elections” being said openly.

There are charge-sheeted criminals who have been given tickets under the argument that their claim can be rejected only when they are finally convicted. In India that is 25 years into the future, if at all.

When there is a proliferation of political parties, how is the voter supposed to keep track of their performance overall? Since ideology has been safely dropped in the rubbish bin (ideology has no place when aligning with regional parties to form a government in the centre), how is he expected to vote a party because of what it stands for, in some abstract terms?

Our young voters – 10 crores – are not swayed by the “We fought for freedom” spiel. They are definitely not bothered about hindutva and the Ram temple. What is one more or less temple? After the Supreme Court’s embarrassing questions on the issue, they are disgusted with the reservation policy. The ground reality is reservation does not necessarily fetch them jobs or promotions. Merit does.

Increasingly elections – even national ones – are about local issues. People want roads, safety in the streets, uninterrupted electricity and water supply, a good transport system, schools and jobs. They want to be alive and working and raising families and traveling in reasonable comfort.

A lot of them are also thinking how politicians manage to amass wealth. I get asked this question often in my classes.

So whom will the votes go to?

At the lowest level, to those who can give them cash, biryani and liquor. One of the homes in Thirumangalam (elected an MLA) had a board saying “12 votes here”.

Second, to an extent, the party. “The party gives me contracts, turns its head away when I quarry sand illegally, awards me precious broadband citing some long-lost rule. My family has always voted this party in. It is smart enough to win.”

Third, the candidate.

[a] The candidate is a movie God. Every voter asked in Thirupati said he would vote Chiranjeevi.

[b] The candidate has won from this constituency for ever, his/her name is associated with this place. They have brought in changes, have poured money for improving facilities, never mind where it came from or what they did as union ministers responsible for the entire country. Which is why Sharad Pawar need not campaign in his constituency of Baramati in Maharashtra though the Vidharba region saw all those farmers’ deaths while he was union agri minister. That is why Renuka Choudhry is confident of winning her Khammam seat though safety of women and children has never been so bad as it is now. She was union minister for Women and Child welfare. That is why Arjun Singh won again and again while national education levels have remained abysmally low. That is why. … Their constituencies are safe, even if the country is not.

Then come the independents, dismissed as “spoilers” by Dr. Manmohan Singh in his new aggressive avatar. He may have a point. Independents stand for elections for nefarious reasons. But he should have gone through the list this time.

The current list includes: Meera Sanyal, Captain Gopinath, Sarath Babu, NS Venkatraman, Dr Tirumala Raya Halemane, Dr Mona Shah (Professionals Party)…  This augers well. Good, solid citizens may now feel emboldened to try to clear the murky waters of Indian politics and governance. If the campaigning styles are any indication, what these candidates say sounds like a blessing. Not having to please the party bosses, not having to wait for the high-command must make them free to do what they have set out to.

What do they want? As Meera Sanyal said, “I am not standing against Milind or Rawale. I am standing for Mumbai. All I say is demand the same standards of our political leaders that we are demanding of leaders in other fields… corporate, sports or films.”

These “spoilers” hope to provide that leadership.

By Piya Mitra

Some of my most cherished childhood memories are those of my grandmother’s tea estates, in the Dooars (foothills of Darjeeling) region of W.Bengal, sipping tea on the porch of the beautiful bungalow with a picture postcard view. Lush green tea shrubs cover the landscape, dotted with women workers picking tea leaves“ two leaves, a bud” with their nimble fingers and tossing them into the basket on their backs. I consider myself very lucky to have had the opportunity of tasting the freshness of that tea, and breathing that beautiful aroma.

Another unforgettable memory is of a cold winter night, waking up to the jolt of the train stopping at a small non-descript train station and to the ever familiar strain of “Chai Chai, Chai Chai.” Sipping hot chai out of an earthen cup on a cold winter night was pure delight.

Lastly I remember myself as a preteen, peeking into our drawing room(Living room or parlor) to admire all the lovely ladies in their chiffon sarees  playing taash     (cards)/mahjong and sipping  tea in my mother’s fine bone china cups, the teapot covered in a tea cozy to keep the tea warm. The servants served cucumber and mint sandwiches, fresh baked Nankhatai biscuits(cookies), pastries and other mouthwatering snacks. Oh how I wished to grow up and take their place one day.

Chai is an intergral part of our Indian identity like, dal, chawal  roti or Bollywood. After all the   rags to riches story of the life of a poor “Slumdog” chai wala in a Mumbai call center just won an Oscar!

While the British may have their prim and proper “High Tea” we Indians have our version too and it’s a lot more fun and informal.

Alas! The Indian tea or chai party is a lost art here in the US. Our busy lives hardly permit us the luxury of sipping a cup of leisurely tea with our friends.

If you are a tea lover like me, why not throw a tea party? It’s a lot easier than cooking an elaborate dinner or lunch. A ladies tea and gossip session may be a fun way to relax and catch up with your friends, or a Karaoke and chai party promises to be a lot of fun.

There are two basic ways of serving chai. The Masala Chai  or elachi  Chai  is served on informal occasions. It is prepared in a pan with milk added while cooking  and poured directly into cups or mugs. The more formal tea is brewed in a tea pot and served along with sugar and milk.

Masala Chai
Ingredients:

* 2 tsp loose CTC tea
* 1 piece of dry ginger
* 3 cardamom pods, crushed
* 3 whole cloves
* 1 piece of cinnamon stick
* Milk and sugar to taste
* 2 cups of water

Method:
Chop up ginger into fine pieces, and break up the cinnamon stick. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil and then add tea leaves and all the spices. Let everything brew at boiling for 30 to 45 seconds. Remove from heat, then let steep at room temperature for another minute.

Strain out the tea and pieces of spice. Serve hot and fragrant, with only a touch of milk or sugar.

This kind of chai goes very well with Samosas, Pakodas, Chaats, Jalebis  etc.

Hot Darjeeling Tea

The best Darjeeling tea according to me is Makaibari http://www.makaibari.org. So try it if you can find it. Of course any other brand will do too.

Take fresh water from the cold tap and boil preferably in a kettle, (electric kettles are really convenient as they boil water really fast and to the right temperature). Warm the teapot by rinsing out with hot water. Put one teaspoonful of tea leaf for each cup into teapot. Pour boiling water into it. Cover and wait for three minutes. Pour liquid tea from the teapot into cup through a strainer. Add milk / sugar to taste

Here are some recipes from my mother’s tea parties that go perfectly with the Darjeeling tea.
Nan Khatai biscuits (egg less Indian cookies)

Ingredients:

All purpose flour 1 cup
Baking powder 1 tsp
Vanilla essence 1/4 tsp
Ghee/butter 1/2 cup
Powdered sugar 1/2 cup
Chopped cashews 2 tsps
Cardamom powder 1 tsp
Saffron 1/4 tsp ( soaked in 1 tbsp hot ) (optional)

Method:
Sieve flour and baking powder together. Add vanilla essence. Mix ghee and sugar till creamy. Add the flour mixture, the saffron and cardamom . Knead well and make into small balls. Flatten and place on greased tray. Dip a fingertip in water and dab on the centre of each ball of dough. Now press a few cashew bits on top of each circle of dough. Bake in a preheated oven for about 20-25 mins at 375 degrees.

Veg Club Sandwich

Ingredients:
3 Sandwich Bread Slices
1tbsp butter
1tbsp mint chutney
1tbsp mustard
1tbsp tomato ketchup
Few cucumbers and tomato rounds
Few lettuce leaves
One potato boiled and cut into slices
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cheese slice or grated cheese
Shredded cabbage and beetroot for garnishing

Method:
Bread slices can be lightly toasted or used as it is. Spread butter and mint chutney on two slices. On another slice, spread mustard on one side and tomato ketchup on the other. On the bread and mint chutney slice arrange lettuce leaves and over it arrange tomato, potato and cucumber slices. Sprinkle salt and pepper. Over this place the mustard/ketchup bread slice. Over this place the cheese slice and arrange lettuce leaves over it and sprinkle salt and pepper. Cover this with the other butter/mint slice. Press the sandwich and cut the brown edges and cut into desired shapes. Arrange the sandwich in a serving plate and garnish with cabbage and beetroot shreds.

Hope I have inspired you to have a few friends over for some hot chai (Hot tea). The teapot is starting to whistle I am off to sip my next cup of tea.
Piya Mitra is a Bay Area event organizer. She can be reached at emailpiya@gmail.com or through her website Elegant Eventz . She also blogs her favorite recipes and party ideas at http://celebratingeveryday.blogspot.com/

By Geeta Padmanabhan

If there’s one thing that is predictable about the 15th Lok Sabha elections, it is that it is unpredictable. Even those psephologists who consider their analyses incontestable are talking in terms of “if”.
The bookies are of course making a lot of hay in the unpredictable sunshine. The ruling coalition UPA is expected to get 150-160 seats and so the odds are 1: 70 paise. That is, if you put Re. 1 on UPA (led by Congress), you’ll get 70 paise if it bags 150-160 seats. If NDA (led by BJP) gets 110-120 seats your share will be Re. 1.50.
If the Third Front gets 100 seats, your return will jump to Re. 3/-
No one is betting on that. The odds will keep changing as the polls get near, and that is the charm of the game. Note that no one is sure either of the two groups will have enough seats to form the government. Is that a hung parliament? Not necessarily.

As alliances are made and unmade, one figure is emerging as the eventual tipper of the scale. It is the Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati. I would have said “Kingmaker” but Mayawati may not be satisfied with that. But her caveat in the early stages of negotiations that she be declared the potential PM did not find many takers (imagine the Tamil Amma accepting that!) among the members of the Third Front. So she changed the rules of the game.

Look at this scenario: In the event of either UPA or the NDA falling short of a majority (which is quite likely), and Mayawati getting around 50 seats, all roads will lead to her door, post election. Which is exactly why she has ruled out seat adjustment with any party in the Lok Sabha polls. She has also declared that the issue of the prime ministerial candidate of the Third Front would be decided after the elections. Mayawati’s BSP is contesting 80 seats.

At a dinner she hosted for members of the Third Front she said, “All our allies are contesting the elections separately and after the elections, together we will prevent the UPA and NDA from coming to power,” adding that the way the Front was being targeted showed that its detractors were “panicky.” It was the “heartfelt desire” of party founder Kanshi Ram that BSP captured power at the Centre and in all the states.

What does she promise the voters? Security? Jobs? Infrastructure? Water and Electricity? Runaway prices? Mayawati released the BSP’s “appeal” for the elections in which she says, if her party came to power at the Centre, her government would provide reservation for upper castes. “My party’s policy is not confined to the welfare of Dalits alone,” she said.

Mayawati says her party is the only alternative to the two biggies. National ambition is ok, but how this will work is to be seen. She is in a coalition that will become one only after the elections.
Asked about her becoming PM in the event of a big win for her candidates, Cho Ramaswamy said, “That is a joke.”
Still, the fortunes of the BSP and Mayawati will be interesting to follow.

Highlights and Sidelights
Now everyone’s sort of resigned to the fact that the election will be won – not on ideology, performance, popularity of the contestant or his clean record. It will be the freebies offered pre and post elections. Free or low-priced rice is the major attraction now. Bharatiya Janata Party is promising free cell phones to the people and cheap laptops to the students,

Check out the manifestos. Congress is offering rice at Rs. 3 a kilo. This with the other freebies is giving economists a scare. In a poor economy how is this expected to be fulfilled? Why isn’t anyone learning from DMK’s 2-rupees-a-kilo rice fiasco? Large quantities of this ration rice were routinely transported to neighbouring Kerala. The rice could be used only for idlis and dosas and people had to buy rice in the open market for regular use. Another freebie, the colour television sets is another unpalatable story. A girl in my apartment building earning around 15 k a month has one of those. She said she got it from her grandmother who lives in a small town in Tamil Nadu. A couple of village workers told me that they have bought these TV sets at a cheap price from the villagers. They already own better sets and were selling these free ones off.

A developing story is the one about Varun Gandhi. A murder charge has been slapped on him. The case is getting curiouser and curiouser. BJP first tried to distance itself from his alleged fiery speech against Muslims, but now has decided to back his candidature. Is that how they understand the voters’ mood? As things stand, it looks like he may not be able to campaign at all. If he wins his Philibit seat, it will not be the first time a candidate wins sitting in a prison cell.

Given the profusion of dance forms that thrive in India, it would not be a stretch to say that Indians are born with a sense of rhythm. No one exemplifies the love affair that we have with movement better than Selvi Pragasam, the founder of the Indian Fusion Dance Academy (IFDA) in San Jose.

A graduate of the Master of Fine Arts program in India, Selvi traveled abroad extensively as a professional dancer, even managing to perform in front of the Pope. Like many Indian American immigrants, Selvi put up her dancing shoes when she came to the US pursuing a career in technology.

Life took a serious turn when her newborn son Aidan was diagnosed with a rare illness called Propionic Acidemia. She devoted herself to caring for his special needs for several years. Eventually she joined Jeena, the support organization for parents of kids with special needs and started choreographing dances for them. Her  involvement with community groups like the Bay Area Telegu and Kannada Associations also kept her busy organizing and choreographing dances for their functions.

Friends suggested she set up a dance school and the Indian Fusion Dance Academy was formed. She started it as an evening and weekend program in the beginning, but it proved to be so successful that the Academy became a full time enterprise within 3 months.

Today Selvi runs the IFDA with the help of a dancer friend who also has a special needs child. The Academy has about 150 students, a number that Selvi wants to limit herself to be able to do justice to her pupils.

The school prides itself on the creativity of its offerings. “Bharatanatyam is a lovely art form, but it does have its fixed set of rules,” says Selvi, “and artists like Shobana who have tried to experiment with it have been heavily criticized. I would rather keep its purity and experiment outside the format.” She and her partner Lavanya Gopal experiment with incorporating belly dance, jazz, salsa and many other forms of dance into their performances.

“I want to have the full freedom to do what I want to do,” adds Selvi. “We have classical classes as well as classes that offer half an hour of Bollywood or folk. Our combo classes are never boring. We have semi-classical pieces which incorporate western influences like ballet, jazz and salsa. My advanced class is doing a bit of Mediterranean dance. Sometimes we structure our dance around a theme.”  The academy offers its own certification to the dancers apart from the formal arangetrams that the Bharatanatyam dancers train for.

IFDA is not limited to teaching Bharatanatyam and fusion dance classes. Because of her background with special needs, Selvi puts up shows as fundraisers for Jeena and the Propionic Acidemia foundation, among other worthy causes. The academy also makes it possible for  middle and high-school students volunteer at her special needs dance classes as part of their community service requirements through Selvi’s connection with Jeena.

The Indian Fusion Dance Academy just began its spring session a few days ago and registrations are mostly closed. “We have just found a fantastic bhangra instructor,” says Selvi. That is a new class being offered by the school that is still open. “I want to add yoga classes and develop this into a full fledged fine arts mecca for Indian Americans.” IFDA also offers Carnatic music classes.

IFDA students will perform at the upcoming Jeena Yahaan. Jhalak Dreams, the academy’s annual fundraiser is scheduled for June 6. 2009.

The Indian Fusion Dance Academy
2847 S. White Road , Suite 207 San Jose CA 94148