Comments on: Food Monday ~ Mango Soufflé A la Ramana

By: Grannymar

Grannymar — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 20:58:37 +0000

Magpie - I heard of those Black pudding competitions. I suppose my grandmother fried over the fire. I tasted the haggis only once, for the experience! No desire to try it again.

By: Magpie11

Magpie11 — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 16:44:56 +0000

An evocative poem…bringing all sorts of images to mind….. and memories of sounds and people and places associated with them and emotions.

I have never tried Black pudding…and there are arguments as to how it should be cooked…mind you they even have international competitions for it!

There was a time when many people kept the house pig…… my cousin’s husband had the curing tray from his family hung in the outside shed…he swore that there would come a time when it would be needed again. Mind you he’s the one who dug out a nuclear shelter under his house without planning permission and let fly with his 12 bore when the inspectors came around.

As for haggis…well it was quite a toothsome morsel when I had some. I recently heard that the English invented it and not the Scots!

By: Grannymar

Grannymar — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:41:22 +0000

BHB - Black pudding is made from pigs’ blood. My paternal grandmother kept a few pigs, hens and geese. The killing of the pig was a busy time. My father often told us of how his mother made the puddings… not a story to be told at mealtimes, mind you that never stopped him!

By: bikehikebabe

bikehikebabe — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:35:44 +0000

I’m going to throw-up right now. You have black pudding in the frig? That’s made with blood—eeek. And I declined the Haggis at a Scottish (Country Dance) party.

By: Grannymar

Grannymar — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:24:07 +0000

Padmini - That poem is amazing, what a talent you have.

BHB - Ramana was playing the typical BIG brother with his birds’ nests et al. I have eaten Haggis and have black pudding in the fridge at the moment. You won’t find any snake or birds’ nests in there though.

By: bikehikebabe

bikehikebabe — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:32:45 +0000

Padmini, I knew you were a poet! Thank you.
Sorry, my love message was interrupted by rummuser telling about eating black pudding, haggis, snake meat & bird’s nest. lol

By: Rumuuser

Rumuuser — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:46:39 +0000

Magpie, I became a vegetarian for aesthetic reasons. Does that make sense to you? It is difficult to explain even to my father, who till today is a non vegetarian and enjoys even what is normally taboo for us - beef. His grand son indulges him and even I cook for him. But I am somehow put off by the thought. Mind you, I was a non vegetarian till eleven years ago. I too used to eat beef etc. In fact, black pudding, haggis name it I have had my share and when in the East, snake meat, birds’ nest and what else have you. But, not for religious reasons, or through the shrill propaganda of recent coverts, I am happy being a vegetarian, I repeat, for aesthetic reasons.

By: Padmini Natarajan

Padmini Natarajan — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:31:39 +0000

Thank you bikehikebabe! But that would be accepting a compliment under false pretences…

“traveling like a great wave through the living substance of mind…”
that is part of the quote from Dr Jean LeMee!

I do write poetry…I wrote this for a friend who has a site called ‘Alaivani’ that means ’sound waves’

This is for you

ALAIVANI

Waves, alai
That rise
From the vast
Expanse of ocean
Part of it
Yet struggling
To establish
Its own
Power
Surges with
Immense force
Recedes
To merge
To become
Part of the whole

Waves, vani
That spread
Invisibly
Through the air
Ether spreading
Sounds of creation
Soft, humming
The primordial OM
Rustling, sussurring
With the breeze
Rattling with stones
Treading steps
Of creatures, humans
Creating cacophony
Voices in Babel

Waves of sound
Alaivani
That need to be heard
Words, notes
Ideas, notions
Spiritual inspirations
Temple bells
Church peals
Call of the muezzin
That appeal
To goodness
Viciously twisted
Into shrieks of terror
Cries of pain, torture
Death and destruction

Waves of silence
Spreading
Solace, serenity
A touch of love
A feel of affection
A caring
A demand to listen
Voices of reason
Of conservation
Ecological preservation
Shunning
Sound pollution
Spreading ripples
Of devotion
Creating empathy

Listen to the waves
Let them envelop you
With their soothing
Reviving rejuvenating
Beats, rhythms
Of nature
Of creation
Of music, chants
Of prayers
Benedictions
Humming with belief
Paeans of glory
That is a blessing
A gift from
The Divine

Padmini Natarajan

By: bikehikebabe

bikehikebabe — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:36:30 +0000

“traveling like a great wave through the living substance of mind…”
Padmini, You’re a poet & Don’t know it. (Great poetry doesn’t rhyme.)

By: Padmini Natarajan

Padmini Natarajan — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 03:45:22 +0000

I am happy that I am not in the company of ‘The Red Fox’.

I totally agree with you that I hate the idea of being told or commanded to do something.

Our way of life is not prescriptive but suggestive, advisory not didactic. As you rightly said habits and customs have been adopted by observation and practice. Whatever works has been imbibed.

Change is also factored in to our way of life. What works today may be outdated or improbable in a few years time. So many truths and natural phenomenon has been recorded by our sages through observation of nature, the seasons and the behaviour of all creatures, plant life and astral bodies. It has all been passed down by word of mouth.

“Precious stones or durable materials - gold, silver, bronze, marble, onyx or granite - have been used by ancient people in an attempt to immortalize themselves. Not so however the ancient Vedic Aryans (Indians). They turned to what may seem the most volatile and insubstantial material of all - the spoken word …The pyramids have been eroded by the desert wind, the marble broken by earthquakes, and the gold stolen by robbers, while the Veda is recited daily by an unbroken chain of generations, traveling like a great wave through the living substance of mind…

~~~ Dr.Jean LeMee (French author)

There is no salvation or heaven or hell. There is only a total merging with the eternal truth that we all aspire for.

This desire to understand spirituality also comes with age. Ramana has gone way beyond me…I am only a raw beginner.