Sindhis – Ramana's Musings

Another Treat.

My regular readers will remember my pre Covid partner in crime Ramesh, with whom I used to go to the movies regularly. During almost the whole of last year we did not meet but were in regular telephone touch with each other. This year too we have not met personally yet, though we have seen and spoken to each other on a few occasions, with a fence separating us.

Ramesh rang me up last night to announce that a treat will be delivered to me at home for lunch today. It came just before lunch time and my day was made.

This is Sai Bhaji a dish popular among Sindhis and which Ramesh knows I like very much.

We had made idlies and onion chutney to go with it and the unusual combination was simply sensational.

I over ate and had a blissful siesta and as I write this am full of gratitude for Ramesh and our country’s varieties of cuisines.

Have you experimented with mixing up different cuisines during a single meal?

Simplicity.

Dada Vaswani is a much in demand person for the Sindhi diaspora. He is therefore a much travelled man who has seen more of the world than most of his followers would in a lifetime. He was once asked by a follower as to which in his opinion is the best city in the world and without a moment’s hesitation replied “Simplicity.”

Is there such a city anywhere? I doubt it. But we can make ourselves live in simplicity which as Da Vinci points out is the ultimate sophistication.

Let me share with you my idea of the ultimate simple man. He is Jack Reacher. He does not have a home and lives in the clothes that he wears changing them every few days in a supermarket. He sleeps in motels and in whatever mode of conveyance that he uses to drift. He just carries a toothbrush in his pocket. I have written about him earlier and in that post had also introduced a great simplicist blogger Tammy. I had also mentioned my own regrets in the following words.

“My one regret in life is my physical limitation that prevents me from taking to the life of a Sadhu. Indian Sadhus are somewhat like Reacher except that they do not get into the kind of adventures that the latter gets into, nor are they likely to be retired Military Police officers. These are the people who have successfully broken out of houses as Wilder suggests most would like to. I would dearly love to and take to a life of wandering not quite begging to survive but like Reacher living on the move with no baggage.”

This topic was suggested by Padmum for the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where currently nine of us write on the same topic every Friday. I hope that you enjoyed my contribution to that effort. The seven other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order, Ashok, gaelikaa, Lin, Maxi, Padmum, Pravin, Shackman and The Old Fossil. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, or not at all this week, do give some allowance for that too!

Let It Be.

“Faith is a place of mystery, where we find the courage to believe in what we cannot see and the strength to let go of our fear of uncertainty.” Brene Brown in The Gifts Of Imperfection.

All the religions of the world have a closing word or phrase or invocation after a prayer or a hymn or a discourse. Amen, Ameen, Aymeen in the Abrahamic religions and Thathaasthu and Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu, or Shanti, Shanti, Shanti in the case of Buddhists and Hindus respectively.

Those endings are what I had in mind when I suggested this topic for this week’s Loose Bloggers Consortium where five of us currently write a post with the same topic every Friday.

The four other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order; Ashok, gaelikaa, Maxi, and Shackman. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, do give some allowance for that too! Ashok too is having prohlems with his blog being down and may or not participate this week.

I use Thathaasthu often. Thathaasthu directly means “Let it be.” This is to agree with someone, usually after a blessing or a statement of import. Just this morning I sent a mail to some friends, some of who are among the readers here, reading as follows.

The Taliban in Karachi

There has already been a lot of turf wars between the Mohajirs and the Pashtuns in Karachi and this news item gives me more cause for alarm due to the sheer numbers involved.

And a much earlier piece.

Sind is already a volatile place and the Mohajirs who do not speak Sindhi are not exactly popular. Westward, the Balochis do not like either the Mohajirs or the Pashtuns. And all of them dislike the army which is predominantly Punjabi.

Things are getting from bad to worse in Pakistan with the government / army constantly under attack from the Taliban and local nitwits like the LeT and its offshoots besides the very large presence of Al Quida there. The drug cartels are all jockeying for position and that too will be a problem on this side of the border with Punjab already a major drug problem state. The Mohajirs have roots on this side of the border. I have been predicting that we will have a massive refugee problem sooner or later and the climate in India will simply be devastating to the refugees and their relatives on this side of the border. American withdrawal will speed up the process. What a world we live in!

I got a cryptic response from a friend within five minutes of sending that mail. “Thathaasthu”.

In this case, he agrees that the nightmarish scenario presented by me is inevitable and so says, don’t fret, let it be. It will all work out! He has faith and wants me to keep faith too!

What do you think about that cryptic message? Do you agree? Will you let it be?