Volleyball fever

Just back after watching the thrilling India-Belgium match. India won the 5 setter! The atmosphere in the indoor stadium was electric - the crowd exploding after each Indian point.

The FIVB men's junior championship is on and with the matches happening just 6 kms from where we live, its been a treat for us.

From Pune

Food (and drink) in ancient India

Here is a dump of stuff collected from HCIP

The periods mentioned in some sections only indicate the volume of HCIP from where I got the stuff - it does not mean people in other ages did not eat the mentioned food items.

Food:

Around 1000 BC - 400 BC (Vedic age):

  • Milk and its products - especially ghrita (ghee) formed the principal ingredients
  • Grain was ground into flour and them mixed with grain and butter, and finally made into cakes
  • Vegetables and fruits


Around 400 BC - 200 AD (Age of Imperial Unity):

  • Rice, barley and wheat were chief foodgrains
  • Rich people and Kshaitriyas ate rice mixed with meat
  • Udyoyga Parva (of the Mahabharat) has an interesting verse: Food of the rich consists of flesh, that of the middle class, of milk and its products, and that of the poor, of oil preparations
  • Large number of dainties and sweetmeats were known.
  • Vinaya Pitaka refer to: rice, beans, tila seeds, fresh honey, rice-milk, curries, salt, molasses, oil, pot-herbs, fruits, fish, meat
  • Five products of cow: milk, curd, ghee, buttermilk, butter


Around 200 AD - 600 AD (Classical Age):

  • Pulses, chapati
  • Fa-Hein: Killing animals, drinking wine, eating onions and garlic were unknown in Madhyadesha
  • Huien-Tsang: Cakes, parched grain, milk and sugar, mustard oil, fish, flesh of goats. Onion and garlic looked down upon.


In general, Smriti texts have various rules related to lawful and forbidden food and drink. About meat eating - there is a distinct tendency towards abstention.

Drink:
In the Vedic age,

  • Soma - invigorating drink - related to sacrifices
  • Sura - popular and extremely intoxicating. Probably distilled from grain. It is condemned as "leading people to crime and godlessness".


Age of Imperial Unity,
  • Grape juice, syrups made from various fruits, sugarcane juice


Classical Age,
  • In contemporary dramas, queens and high-born ladies are described as drinking wine


Arthashastra mentions: rice beer (medaka), a sort of spiced beer made of flour (prasanna), wood-apple wine (asava), a liquor made of raw sugar, bark of mesasringa tree and pepper (maireya), mango wine (sahakarasura)

The Black Album




Just finished watching a one hour program on the History channel about Metallica's Black Album.
Man! It took me back... all those years. This album was the first rock album I had heard (Ketan gave it to me. It was a tape - we weren't into CDs yet). And initially, I was simply blown away by the lyrics. Slowly I came to love the music and Hetfield's voice and Ulrich's magical drums.

Now after listening to it - after maybe 2-3 years - I felt that energy - that magic again. Things were simply too right with that album - the songs are just perfect. You feel like screaming along - miming the drums - shaking your head. The songs fill you and possess you. You dance.

The first time I heard it, I must have been in 11th standard - that's ummm... 1993. Its been 16 years. Some things have changed. Some things have remained the same.

Beauty in stone

A short trip to the Bhuleshwar Shiv temple with Shweta and Nishu. Around 40 kms from Hadapsar, off Solapur road. A very nice drive. The temple is on a small hill. There is a road which goes to the top - so we went up in the car.

I was not prepared for what awaited me. Absolutely beautiful sculptures. The stone pillars near the sanctum are so beautiful - one can spend hours admiring them. And then there is a gallery of apsaras - dancing and with instruments - intoxicating.

If you live in Pune, you should absolutely visit this place.

From Bhuleshwar


From Bhuleshwar


How to go? Google Map Route