Sep 02

The Taste and Smell of Culture – Cooking with Rinku

By Missy Gluckmann India, International Education Tools, International Education Week, Multicultural Lives, Uncategorized No Comments »

Guest Blogger, Rinku Bhattacharya

Today’s guest posting is by Rinku Bhattacharya.  I met Rinku several years ago when I signed up for one of her Indian cooking classes.  We had a marvelous time and learned some terrific recipes, however the best gift from that class is that Rinku and I stayed in touch over the years and have had some very interesting conversations about culture.  I recently asked Rinku if she would write about how she teaches her 2 beautiful children about her Indian culture while living in New York.  (Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of this posting for one of her delicious recipes!)

Can your memories have a scent? Can your culture and childhood have a taste? It is a matter of perspective, if you are like me, where your world and memories are composed of a heritage of food, a heritage of tastes and flavors that link your past to your children’s flavors you would say – yes! Like me, you would remember childhood cures for a cold and your mother’s nurturing touch in a pot of simmering soup spiced with ginger and tomatoes, you would crave traditional rice pudding on your birthday and your Thanksgiving meal would need some cranberry chutney to complete the all day long feast before it made it to the table.

Two decades ago, I made the US my home. It really was a more evolved rather than consciously planned decision. There is a lot of truth to the saying “home is where the heart is!’ Actually in my case, “home is where the “hearth is.”  I also do think you can have more than one home, I do not feel out of place when I go back to India, but also feel very much at sync in New York. Like most people with a foot in two cultures, there is a need not to want lose the richness of heritage and identity. In some ways this becomes more an issue when you are raising children. Our household does not even have a common language outside of English, since my husband speaks Hindi and I Bengali, but we do share a love of food both Indian and Global.

This is not surprising since this is the most basic element of heritage. My earliest memories and my most vivid ones of my childhood are of chatting with my grandmother while she ground spices carefully, used the freshest of ingredients and carefully created simple delicacies that graced our table every time we visited. People often ask me whether I learned to cook from my mother or grandmother – this is a tricky question because while my memories of shadowing them and observing them in the kitchen are deep and very profound, I never actually cooked when they were around. I never needed to. It was only after I left home that I missed home cooking and my own culinary adventures began.

It is to keep this sense of creativity and wonder, I started Cooking With Rinku, a personalized set of cooking classes designed to teach the interested learner a true taste of Indian cooking, in a practical and personalized way. I have been offering classes for groups and couples. We use the freshest of ingredient and students learn how to grind spices and season and flavor food the way I remember it being done growing up. The kitchen is a place of solace, wonder and creation for me. When I cook with my students, it is a very personal connection, the classes are very home style and designed to replicate flavors of simple and pure home cooking.

My classes also help me meet people from so many different walks of life and also allows me to learn the many ways people relate to India. I have students who have visited and lived in the country as curious travelers, others who have embraced the nuances of eastern religion and surprise and teach me the depth of traditional Ayurvedic cooking and other fellow kindred spirits who learn to savor and smell India through my spice box. Indian cooking is so much more accessible today; it never ceases to amaze me how close the world really is.

This is also how my children learn about the richness of India – spice by spice. Their high chairs were in my kitchen and from very early on, their memories of interacting with me are watching me cook and work with spices. My five year son, today calls me “the best cooker!” It is amazing how some things never change, like my grandmother, it is very important for me to both cook and feed my friends and family in a very personal way.

My husband and I also have a deep love of nature and try to grow our own produce, especially in summer. This is why I also like to think that I often cook Indian food with a New York accent; my summer zucchini is seasoned with cumin and turmeric, cherry tomatoes get tossed into a yogurt based salad and my beet greens are tossed and seasoned with almost any imaginable combination of spice. My recipes and food experiences are also shared in by blog – Cooking In Westchester. Keeping the blog has allowed me to also track my life as it relates to food. It often brightens a mundane day to look back and realize the first time you cooked a recipe was when your daughter took her first steps. I also think it helps me provide a real life medium to a food legacy that was passed on as an heirloom by my grandmother.

Recipe:

This recipe is an adaptation of my mother’s tomato chutney recipe. It is from the eastern part of India and is tempered with the classic 5 spice seasoning called panch (5) phoron. This is a mixture of cumin seeds, mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, nigella seeds and fennel seeds. Most India stores sell the blend pre-mixed, it is used in small amounts and is supposed to bring the entire complement of tastes to the recipe. This recipe is a great use of summer tomatoes that are so plentiful these days.

Bengali Tomato Chutney

Cook Time: 25 minutes
Makes 1 cup chutney

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon oil
1.5 teaspoons panch phoron
1 tablespoon diced ginger
1-2 dried red chili
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 small can diced tomato
1/3 cup raisins
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
Papads or pappadums for serving

Method of Preparations:

1. Heat the oil and add the panch phoron and wait till the mixture crackles.
2. Add in the ginger and the red chili and saute lightly.
3. Add in the salt and the canned tomato mixture.
4. Add in the raisins and the sugar and simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes, till the mixture is thick and fairly sticky.
5. While the chutney is cooking, cook the papads by microwaving on  for 1.5 minutes.
6. Cool the chutney slightly and serve with the papads.

About the Author: Rinku Bhattacharya was born in Kolkatta, India and has had a life that has taken her traveling extensively to most places in the world. Rinku has been passionate about food from a very early age and loves to talk and work with food and people. She started teaching Indian cooking in New York about 5 years back to share her love for food and cooking. Her classes can be found at Cooking With Rinku. Rinku shares her food and life experience at her blog at Cooking in Westchester. Rinku live in Westchester County, NY with her children Deepta and Aadi, husband Anshul and her cat Benji. Rinku is trained as a financial professional and specializes with non-profit organizations. She has masters degrees in areas of finance and non-profit management. She is currently working on a cookbook – The Contemporary Indian Table – to be published by the Bryant Park Press.

Jul 14

Response to Joel Stein’s piece on India in Time Magazine: My Own Selective Xenophobia

By Missy Gluckmann India, Multicultural Lives 4 Comments »

Rick Zimmerman, Guest Blogger

Today’s guest post was written by Rick Zimmerman.  I had the pleasure of meeting Rick through our work at ICMIS (International Center for Management and India Studies – formerly known as the Centre for American Education) in Bangalore, India.  When I read Joel Stein’s controversial piece in Time magazine recently, I asked myself to look at it through an Indian lens and then an American lens.  Needless to say, I can see why there was such an uproar. While Time magazine and Mr. Stein both apologized about the piece, I was curious to hear Rick’s thoughts about it. I asked Rick to serve as a guest blogger, as he has extensive experience in India, and like me, a true passion for this phenomenal country and its people.

I was asked a few weeks back by a friend of mine if I had read a certain piece in Time magazine by Joel Stein. The article was entitled “My Own Private India” and was about Stein’s hometown of Edison, N.J. and the Indian immigrants that lived there. I had not. So he asked me to read it and tell him what I thought about it. Stein laments in his article that Edison, which was “mostly white” when he left in 1989, is now one of the largest Indian communities in the United States. I was born in New Jersey too, in Hoboken, not too far from Stein. Hoboken, unlike Edison, was like the United Nations.
Edison is now unrecognizable to him. The place where he and his drunken friends would steal pizzas is now an Indian sweet shop and the A&P was replaced by a grocery that sells Indian foodstuffs. The restaurants and cinema, horror upon horrors, caters largely to Indian tastes.
Now, in his defense, Stein was writing what he called a humorous piece. His style is purportedly tongue-in-cheek. The problem with ethnic humor, which can be hysterical, is that the teller has to be inclusive in his delivery. Stein goes on to claim that the Indian immigrants that first came to Edison were brilliant but were replaced by merchants and their mentally challenged cousins in the 90s. “We started to understand why India is so damn poor.”
LOL! LOL! Right? I get it. Indians do not read Time.
Then there is “dot-heads,” and driving down the street yelling for its new residents to “go home to India.” Indians eat very spicy foods and their “gods have multiple arms and an elephant nose.” Stein also feels a sense of loss like people in Arizona. Brilliant!
He does cite the American-born as being more assimilated. They’re called Guidians because “while the population seems at least half Indian, a lot of them look like the Italian Guidos.” See, he is being inclusive here.
Please do not misunderstand me. In this country (the U.S.), being stupid is not illegal; nor is saying stupid things. You’re even allowed to dislike people for whatever reason you choose. But this also means you can be called out for it.
I, personally, feel that political correctness is equally stupid and offensive, but this just seemed plain mean-spirited. That is the real offense here. I am surprised that the ever-so-benign Time magazine published it. Perhaps offending Indian-Americans is fair game.
I used to go to Edison and neighboring Iselin all the time for the sole purpose of eating, shopping and meeting with friends. My significant former used to get “threaded” there (Google it). It is this very Indian-ness that draws me and countless others. But growing up amongst immigrants from all over the place probably made it easier for me than for those who grew up in a mono-ethnic society. Who can say? Some people just aren’t interested in getting out of their own backyard.
I haven’t been to Edison for almost 3 years. One of the reasons is because I moved back to Bangalore (that’s in India) for a job. After a stint in Florida, I am India bound next month and my friends there are pretty excited about it. The guy who originally hooked me up with this gig is the same one who mentioned Stein’s article. Well, this friend just taken the oath of citizenship and celebrated his first 4th of July as an American citizen. He was born in India.

Photo of Joel Stein from Time magazine article about Indians in Edison, New Jersey, USA

About the Author: Rick Zimmerman is a consultant, trainer/facilitator and educator. He began his international career as a military journalist and public affairs specialist and has lived and worked across Asia, Latin America and Africa. With a degree in Diplomacy and International Relations from Seton Hall’s Whitehead School, he traveled to India to do research and took a consulting/teaching job at the Centre for American Education (now known as ICMIS). This led to his work there as a corporate trainer in communications and crossing the cultural divide. He believes that curiosity is both a blessing and a curse, but it is also absolutely essential for those who dare to attempt addressing the bridge.

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May 11

Scholarships for Indian PIOs and NRIs

By Missy Gluckmann India No Comments »

An Indian University in Hyderabad

I discovered this scholarship opportunity today on the Indian Consulate (NYC) website. Please note that the application deadline is June 10, 2010:

The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs announces 100 scholarships under the “Scholarship Program for Diaspora Children” (SPDC) for Persons of Indian Origins (PIO’s) and Non-Resident Indians ( NRI’s) to pursue under graduate courses in Indian Universities.

Highlights of the SPDC 2010 – 11 are:

  • 100 scholarships in disciplines such as Engineering/Architecture/Technology, Humanities/Liberal Arts, Science, BBA/BBM, Commerce, Journalism, Hotel Management, Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, and Law.
  • 50% of the scholarships are reserved for PIOs. In the event of their non availability, the unfilled slots would be assigned to NRI candidates. NRI candidates whose total family income per month does not exceed an amount equivalent to US $ 2, 250 ( US Dollars two thousand two hundred and fifty only) are eligible.
  • Children of NRI candidates  should have pursued at least three years of education  inclusive of 11th and 12th or equivalent ( not beyond) in a foreign country during the last six years and should have passed the qualifying examination abroad.
  • The last date for receipt of duly filled in application forms in the prescribed format by Ed.CIL is 10th June, 2010.
  • PIO/NRI students , already studying in India ,will not be eligible under this scheme.
    The amount of scholarship admissible is 75% of the total Institutional Economic Cost [tuition, books, etc] or US $3,600 (US dollars three thousand six hundred) per annum, whichever is less.

For details of terms and conditions, including application form, please log on to:

http://www.moia.gov.in/services.aspx?ID1=337&id=m5&idp=45&mainid=23

It can also be down loaded from the www.edcilindia.co.in.

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Jan 12

Dreaming in Hindi – Landmarks in Progress

By Missy Gluckmann ESL, India, Multicultural Lives, Research, Uncategorized 1 Comment »


See larger image

Dreaming in Hindi (Hardcover)

By (author) Katherine Russell Rich

I have finally finished one of my new favorite reads, a delightful book entitled “Dreaming in Hindi: Coming Awake in Another Language” by Katherine Russell Rich.  Why do I love this book?  Probably because it would be my dream to be able to take off to India and study Hindi for a year. This is exactly what the author did and it resulted in a book that is part journal and reflection, yet loaded with recent research in second language acquisition.  Ms. Rich writes about her intensive Hindi program, politics in the region, her cultural informants, travel experiences, homestays, her classmates, and the idea of who do you become in another language/culture.  There is much to digest when reading this book, but she writes with intent, seriousness and a dash of witty humor.

There was so much that struck a chord with me in this book.  Ms. Rich writes about her early days in India, when she is living with a large family of Jains. (Jainism is an ancient religion in India that emphasizes non-violence to all beings in the world.) She writes about her early days of speaking in Hindi and how the family all sits down for dinner and asks her very simple, polite questions about the food, night after night.  Rich writes:

“Dinners go like this till one day, playing badminton in the drive, I give an automatic high-five.  The gesture startles everyone, shuts down the action. From then on, I high-five often. Did I like the soup? High-five! Did I like the lentils? High-five me more! They laugh so hard when they slap my palm, it ends all further discussion.”

This had me in tears, as I can completely relate to the American automatic need to high-five occasionally.  I recall an experience recently, despite all  of my years in the field of International Education, where I attempted to high-five a student who had recently arrived in the US  for university study.  I put my hand up, awaiting an enthusiastic hand slap in return, only to have the student continue with her remarks as if nothing was happening.  I caught myself quickly and instead moved my hand into my hair, as if to move it out of my eyes or something rather unnecessary. Ms. Rich’s description of the automatic American high-five had me in stitches, especially because it became a bonding moment for her and her Jain family, one that eventually allowed them to move past the basic “how is your dinner” kind of questions that we all get when we’re abroad and attempting to practice another language.

Ms. Rich’s humor shines through when she writes about her orientation to the language school which took place in Hindi – with the occasional warning coming through in English. Ms. Rich writes:

“The orientation leader, Vidhu, states: ‘If you see a group of sacred cows, we ask that you not disturb or frighten them as that can make them rush this way and that and possibly brush you. Last year cows strained a girl’s leg. She was a dancer.’ Vidhu warned, and then I was desperate to know what else they’d said.”

This had me laughing out loud and seriously wondering what I’ve covered in orientation to the US that has had my students mystified, horrified or hysterical!  (I’m guessing that the US health care system is the section of orientation that sends most of my students over the edge – it seems so very ridiculous to them when I describe how much a visit to the hospital can cost.  Come to think of it, it seems most ridiculous to me also!)

Much of this book with Ms. Rich’s personal experience as an intensive language student with fascinating research on language acquisition.  One simple statement that deeply resonated with me referred to the landmark of progress in language acquisition.  Ms. Rich writes:

“Some people say you’ve turned a corner when you can make jokes,” the linguist Ellen Bailystok says.’Some say it’s once they’re translating , others when they dream in the language. People put up landmarks of progress.’ ”

While I am not fluent in another language, I have studied Spanish, Italian and French and have taught ESL for several years.  I have seen my students’ joy when something “connects.”  And as a language student, I recall those landmarks of progress.  While living in Switzerland during graduate school, I had to navigate through the local food market every few days. I really wanted to order turkey from the deli counter, but didn’t know how.  After several weeks, a friend taught me the phrase in Italian and I practiced it daily, awaiting my big moment at the market.  One of those landmark moments, for me in Italian, was successfully ordering some turkey at the market.

Today, I pose the question:  What are YOUR landmarks of progress?

Take a moment to enjoy this playful video by Ms. Rich.  Note the high-five at the end! YouTube Preview Image
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Nov 29

Culture Clash: Repatriation to India

By Missy Gluckmann India, Repatriation 11 Comments »
Dr Shiva Aayadurai (from the NY Times article)

Dr Shiva Ayyadurai (from the NY Times article)

The New York Times ran an interesting article over the weekend entitled “Some Indians Find it Tough to Go Home Again.” This article reports that more than 34% of repats found it difficult to return to India. While I found this article illustrated some very useful cultural perspectives, I had some real challenges with the lead into the story.

The Times cites the case of Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai, an extremely talented scientist and entrepreneur who has a variety of impressive degrees from MIT in the US. He was offered a position at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), a government agency that reports to the Ministry of Science. Apparently, Dr. Ayyadurai left Mumbai at the age of 7 and vowed to “return to help his country.” The article does not state whether he had worked in India for any length of time prior to his position at CSIR, except for a Fulbright experience just prior to the CSIR offer.  The Times states that after 4 months of not receiving feedback or little response from his boss, he forwarded a copy of a proposed business plan/report with his recommendations and impressions of the CSIR to the Council’s scientists, presumably without seeking clearance from his boss to do so. Within days of this action, his email at work was shut down and he was soon told that the offer to hire him was no longer being extended.  The article claims that he then shared his report with journalists and wrote a letter of complaint about his situation to the Prime Minister.

This is where I begin to have a serious problem with this article.  I find it astonishing that Dr. Ayyadurai, such an incredibly brilliant man, approached his role at CSIR without an understanding of the importance of hierarchy in India.  He lived nearly his entire life in the US, was trained in top US universities and had little to no experience working in India, yet no one along the way informed him that India is an incredibly hierarchical society? Did he not realize that distributing a report to the organization that actually criticized the CSIR’s leadership would result in a tremendous backlash?  This immediately sounded a bit too “Jerry McGuire” for me. (“Jerry McGuire” is a film in which Tom Cruise plays a sports agent who writes and distributes a report about his industry that quickly gets him fired.)

I recognize that there are some deeply heated conversations on the internet about this case and the perception of inefficiency in the Indian government;  clearly I don’t know all of the facts. Different news sources state that Dr. Ayyadurai’s boss, Mr. Brahmachari, claims that he never offered a full-time position to Dr. Ayyadurai and that he was instead a contract worker who demanded much higher sum of money than CSIR would ultimately want to spend. He stated that Dr. Ayyadurai broke rules related to decision making in the organization and that resulted in the termination of his “consultancy.”

This case is an unique reminder of the importance of cross-cultural training. With some understanding of his “birth culture,” would it not have been possible for Dr. Ayyadurai to discuss the challenges of the lack of communication from his boss with a trusted local friend or colleague?  Could someone not have illustrated that the lack of a reply WAS indeed a reply? How many times have those of us who have worked in teams with Indian nationals and Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) experienced ‘the unspoken no’ either through avoidance, a verbal response of “maybe” or even a “yes” that is thrown out there to avoid the loss of face? Perhaps Dr. Ayyadurai considered these and still chose to move ahead and share his findings with the masses in an effort to stir up a dialogue about the perceived need to change?  I cannot say for sure.

Having searched the internet about this particular case, I think the best cultural advice comes from an anonymous person who simply stated on a blog, “…An individual cannot just do things his or her way (in India). That will not be acceptable even in the United States or Canada.  Dr. Ayyadurai cannot flash his MIT degrees and attempt to take over the functioning of the CSIR…(he) has to get in and learn the system, get established and find out how to make himself useful. Only then can he expect to do ‘earth shattering things’.”

The  tale of Dr. Ayyadurai reminded me of the language we hear from many Peace Corps volunteers in the early days of their assignments abroad:  I’m going to country X to “help”, I’m going to determine what needs to be “changed” to make things more efficient and “better.”  The way the NY Times positions Dr. Ayyadurai’s situation, I’m not at all surprised that he was part of the 34% that had a difficult time. Going to a country to set an agenda with the intention of “helping” is often a recipe for disaster. Nevertheless, had he been in the US and written a report  that deeply criticized his employing organization’s leadership and sent it to teams on the ground, he should have also expected to be deeply reprimanded, if not fired.

For me, this article was a strong reminder of the importance of observation before encouraging change in a “new, old culture”.  It speaks to the need for style switching and the value of finding a trusted cultural guide on the ground, even if the ground is your country of birth.  It reminds me of the need to carefully consider the desire to “help” and how that can be interpreted.

How do reader’s interpret this NY Times article?  I’m particularly curious about Indian perspectives.  I do hope to hear from you!

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