Banz

Read a quote on Facebook today that said: "Corona didn't break the system, it exposed the broken system." On the pandemic side of things lots of things have failed together. Successive governments (centre and state) have shirked away most of their responsibility to the private players, the govt's largest "health" scheme is literally just insurance, the country's main epidimeology institute stopped working in early March, which means it is not doing the very job it was created for. There are not enough testing institutes (only 64 in Maharashtra and 500+ across India) or test kits. Response of authorities has been laggy and they have only been playing catch-up since the start. Lockdowns were implemented to ensure disease does not spread, but enforcement has been lax. Runaway property rates and lack of good public housing (along with politicians farming for hafta and votes) have led to formation of large slums which have become perfect incubators for the disease. District borders should have been strictly sealed, but many essential workers in big cities still cross them daily because they can't afford homes there (especially an issue in Mumbai) which means they keep bringing the disease to Thane, Vasai and Panvel. It is even worse on the socioeconomic side. The poorest have run out of savings, and many must have had to borrow from moneylenders at exhorbitantly high interest rates. Many businesses don't seem to be resilient enough to even survive a few weeks without revenue, and have stopped paying their employees. Lot of middle class people seem to lost their jobs, or had their pay reduced or held back. Government has so far looked totally unprepared for the pandemic, the lockdown and the economic effects of it. Even if the virus were to disappear tomorrow, it will take a very long time for things to go back to normalcy.

I would like to try such a recipe sometime. How do the vegetables taste with meat?

So essentially keema pav, except that keema is of chicken instead of mutton. ?

Actually in that link it says franchise fee is Rs 30 lakh, and total investment reuired is Rs 6.6 Cr~Rs 14 Cr and liquid cash of Rs 5 crore. This is a ghate ki deal from the start. For that money you can start a real restaurant (even more than one; probably even owning the commercial space depending on city).

I found a recipe on Facebook. If you'd like, you can give it a try. Disclaimer: This is not my recipe and I haven't tried it. Someone else posted it in a Foodies group on FB and I have copy pasted the whole thing here. Credit goes to Mr. Ankur C. from Desi Foodies FB group. Take 400-500 grams of boneless chicken. I had taken breast of a single chicken (two breast pieces)- which are roughly 450 grams. All the other ingredients taken are as per that measurement. If you are taking less or more chicken, then alter the quantities of other ingredients accordingly. Now slice the chicken into medium pieces. If you are taking chicken breast, make sure to slice it horizontally first, to make two fillets from a single breast piece, and then cut the fillets in medium pieces by keeping the knife at a 45 degree angle (there are ample videos on YouTube describing how to cut chicken breasts). The chicken pieces should not be too thick, otherwise the coating will be cooked but the chicken would be semi-cooked. This step will take approximately five minutes. Now take the chicken pieces in a bowl and pour salt (as per taste, approx.. one tablespoon), black pepper* (one tablespoon), red chilli powder (one tablespoon), coriander powder (one tablespoon), garam masala powder (half tablespoon), ginger-garlic paste (two to three tablespoons), cornflour (three tablespoons), maida (1.5 tablespoon), vinegar** (two teaspoons), and then mix all the spices with chicken well. Whisk an egg in a separate bowl, and pour the whisked egg onto the chicken and again mix well. This step will take at max. 5 minutes. Now, let the chicken marinate for 15 minutes. Now, while the chicken is getting marinated, chop 8 to 10 bulbs of garlic finely, and slit 4-5 green chillies (you can increase or decrease the amount of green chillies according to your taste). After marinating the chickens, heat oil in a pan, and fry the chicken pieces. Keep gap between the pieces, or they will be mixed. You should fry it in 2 to 3 batches. It will not take much time to fry the chicken pieces. One batch will take 2 to 3 minutes (in medium flame). In between, flip the pieces. If you fry the chicken in 2 to 3 batches, then also this step will take max. 10 minutes. Now our chicken pieces are fried. You can just have this fried chicken also as a snack. This is also quite tasty. Now, take a clean pan and heat two tablespoons of white oil. When the oil is lukewarm, add half tablespoon of cumin seeds, and the chopped garlics. Stir fry for 30-40 seconds. Now, add 3-4 red chillies, and the slit green chillies into the pan. Also add around fifteen curry leaves. It was my bad lack that I didn’t have curry leaves that day. Without curry leaves, the typical taste of chicken-65 will not be there. Now, add two tablespoons of Red Chilli Sauce, and little water to the pan. Stir and fry the masala for a minute. Add the fried chicken pieces now, and mix well with the masala. Cook till the water is absorbed. This whole step (from heating the oil to here) will take approximately 5 minutes. Now pour the contents of the pan in a serving bowl. Plate it with onion rings atop, You can also add chopped spring onions (green part) too. That’s it. The dish is ready. Plating will take hardly 2 to 5 minutes.

Why are people from Mumbai (or anywhere outside) being allowed to cross multiple district and state borders in personal vehicles?

https://www.inquest.org.in/what-modi-got-wrong-on-covid19-and-how-he-can-fix-it-by-ramachandra-guha Some very valid points raised by Ramchandra Guha here. Time is not lost and we can still turn this around.

If you have a straight stretch of 5-7 metres or more in your home or building terrace, you can do brisk walking, jogging or running. A woman in Britain recently ran a whole marathon in her backyard and it was not more than 5-6 metres long. Skipping is not that hard to learn. Do single jumps with the rope to get your jump timing right. You only need to twist your wrists and make tiny jumps (3-5 cm). Start with a very slow pace (50-60 jumps per minute) and only concentrate on rhythm first. Then build up to 100/min within a day. With practice and improved stamina you can do close to 200 jumps per minute. Other then that you can do many body weight exercises at home like pushups and squats.

Nothing wrong with MSG. It is simply a salt of sodium+ and glutamic acid (an amino acid). It also contains much less sodium than common salt, so if you are watching your sodium intake (due to high BP, etc) you are still better off with MSG than NaCl. The reports of MSG causing headaches was due to racism, and has no basis in reality. Only Chinese eateries were targetted, even though MSG is a major component in Italian and French food too. You can safely eat MSG in every meal. Just like salt, you should be aware of how much you are eating, which is not very difficult because if you overuse MSG by a tiny bit (just like salt, again) the food will not taste good.

If those labour laws are suspended, then it should mean that workers will have less income and less employment. So who exactly will the 'economic growth' benefit? Economic growth is not the end, it is the means to an end. Economic growth means we should have higher incomes and a better standard of living. If incomes don't grow, or instead reduce, then such economic growth is useless.

https://www.mid-day.com/articles/the-exodus-continues-i-could-just-die-right/22767237 Words of a handicapped migrant who was trying to walk from Thane to UP - "Aise bhi mar jaate kyon ki khaane ke liye kuch nahi hai. Us se behtar hai jahan tak chal saku wahan tak jaun, is umeed se ke ghar pohochunga. Jyada se jyada kya hoga? Mar hi jaunga na chalte chalte?"

They are walking long distances along the railway line. It is nearly impossible to do so via roads as there are police blockades. So when they get tired, they sleep on or near the tracks. Maybe on that section there was no place to get down from the tracks.

They are walking long distances along the railway line. It is nearly impossible to do so via roads as there are police blockades. So when they get tired, they sleep on or near the tracks. Maybe on that section there was no place to get down from the tracks.

As bad as BMC road infrastructure is, atleast we have railways. PMC-PCMC are barely getting around to completing their first toy train project.

As long as the state provides them the support needed until economy begins fully functioning, that wouldn't be so bad. But then if the state had done that in the first place, the workers wouldn't have wanted to go back home. On the brighter side, UP has opened most kinds of shops on a rotational basis. Hopefully same will be done in other states where it is safe. 3 days wages every week will be better than nothing. People should be able to scrape by.

People have paid from their own pockets. Railways paid 85% is as real as I received 15 lakhs in my account.

Worst part was charging for trains after giving free flights to people who could more or less afford them. This is some next level class discrimination.

https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/kochi/2020/may/04/railways-collected-rs-32-lakh-from-ticket-fares-from-migrant-workers-in-ernakulam-2138773.html Why were people stranded in foreign countries flown in for free, but the poorest have to pay extra for going home, that too for a train that was specially started for them? How out of touch with reality do you have to be to stoop to this?

You should stall until the 8th. After that you can claim that you can no longer come to work as the district border would be sealed.

Looks like Mumbai will be fully sealed to all outsiders. Read a KDMC notice earlier that BMC will be making temporary stay arrangements for all hospital and government staff and private essential workers who work in Mumbai. All up-down commuting will be stopped from 8th May onwards. This is what should have been done far earlier. Some people from Kalyan-Dombivli that work in Mumbai tested positive a couple of days ago, which is why they must have done this.

They may be hoarding for themselves. For the last month or so, there was black marketing going on and buyers had to pay 3-4 times the usual selling price (which is already above MRP). Most black market guys I know cleared all their stock 2 days ago itself because of reports that wine shops would be opening. There is too much risk in buying huge stocks for selling now because there is no guarantee the demand will be as high again soon. Customers are buying huge stocks to avoid paying high prices if shops close again. Also if there is opportunity to sell again, they can simply buy from wine shops and bars in black, like they have been doing in the past month or so.

We harvested some kairis (raw mangoes) from our farm and now my family is ruining every meal by adding large pieces of kairi into every dish. Dals, vegetables, fish, everything.

By salary has been frozen, I meant it will stay the same for an extended period (ie no raise). No arrears will be paid for this, so this money is permanently lost. I understand times are tough (even though rolling back what was already announced and then stopping 2 DA rises rightaway is too much) which is why I didn't complain much. But the news about this stupid stunt has made me angry. How can you squeeze money out of your employees and then waste it like this?

DA/DR has been frozen for all central govt. employees and pensioners. This will not apply if you work at a private company or any state government. As for your mum's (if she was a central govt. employee for requisite number of years) pension, it will stay the same over the next year and a half. DA is the most important part of salary growth as annual increment is only 3%, whereas DA grows by around 7-8%. By freezing all DA until July 2021, every employee will lose an amount equivalent to 1-1.5 months salary until next July.

Why is the government wasting public money with this flower petals stunt? Is this why they have frozen government salaries and pension for almost 2 f**king years? So they can use that money to engage in this chutyagiri? Atleast with the clapping and diwali ideas, government money wasn't being wasted. People do not need anymore entertainment. But then what can you expect with such showbaaz leaders? Good event management and PR, zero administration.