Today is a good day ! - Akshaya Trithiya

 *இந்த நாள்!  இனிய நாள்!!* எங்கோ படித்தது !  - உங்கள் வாழ்க்கையை பிரதிபலித்தால் கம்பெனி பொறுப்பாகாது !!  

புதிதாக திருமணம் ஆனவன் !  - சமீப நாட்களாக தினமும் மனைவிக்கும் அம்மாவுக்கும் நடக்கும் சண்டையில் தலையிட முயற்சி செய்து, இருவருமே கோபமடைந்து - ஒரே ரணகளம்.  நேற்று சற்று பலத்த மோதல் !  

இரவு சரியான தூக்கமில்லை ! பற்பல கனவுகள் .. .. வெவ்வேறு கோணங்கள் .. என்ன செய்யலாம் என சிந்திப்பு !  

பொழுது புலர்ந்தது !  காலையில் காபி தர கூட ஆளில்லை |! - என்ன ஆயிற்று !  அம்மா எங்கே !!  மனைவி எங்கே !!  

மனக்கலக்கம் - என்ன நடந்து இருக்கும் ?  -  காலண்டரில் விடை கிடைத்தது.  காரில் அந்த இடத்துக்கு சென்றால் பெரிய வரிசை - மிக ஒழுங்காக கடையில் வரிசையில் - இருவருமே ! 

இன்று 3.5.2022 அக்ஷய த்ரிதியை - தங்கம் வாங்க நல்ல நாள் ! 

முக்கிய குறிப்பு :  சொந்த கதையும் இல்லை, சொந்தமாக யோசித்த கதையும்  இல்லை !!

Covid in Shanghai .. . .. lockdown and life of delivery boys !!

As you travel on a city road, you find so many on two-wheeler hopping hither and thither – the delivery boys of Dunzo, Swiggy, Dehlivery and more ! (not boys and there are women too!) -so many are ordering food, buying vegetables online and more .. .. and advts claim to deliver them in a jiffy ! – wonder what their life is like !!

In 1935, the Protagonist, survives a murder attempt by Lao Che, a crime boss in Shanghai who has hired him to retrieve the remains of Emperor Nurhaci. With his young orphaned Chinese sidekick, Short Round, and the nightclub singer, Willie Scott, in tow, Indy flees Shanghai on a cargo aircraft. … .. that was ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’  action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg released in 1984.  

Shanghai  is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China, located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowing through it. With a population of 24.89 million as of 2021, Shanghai is the most populous urban area in China and the most populous city proper in the world.  Shanghai has been one of the world's major centers for finance, business and economics, research, education, science and technology, manufacturing, tourism, culture, dining, art, fashion, sports, and transportation, and the Port of Shanghai is the world's busiest container port. In 2019, the Shanghai Pudong International Airport was one of the world's 10 busiest airports by passenger traffic.

Originally a fishing village and market town, Shanghai grew in importance in the 19th century due to both domestic and foreign trade and its favorable port location. The city was one of five treaty ports forced to open to European trade after the First Opium War. After the war, with the communists takeover of the mainland in 1949, trade was limited to other socialist countries and the city's global influence declined. By the 1990s, economic reforms introduced by Deng Xiaoping a decade earlier resulted in an intense redevelopment of the city, especially the Pudong New Area, aiding the return of finance and foreign investment.  Shanghai has been described as the "showpiece" of the booming economy of China. Featuring several architectural styles such as Art Deco and shikumen, the city is renowned for its Lujiazui skyline, museums and historic buildings. 

Shanghai is in news ! for wrong reasons as some 25 million people in Shanghai have lived under strict lockdown since the beginning of April, amid a surge in Omicron cases.

It's the first time Shanghai has imposed such strict restrictions - until the latest move, it had taken a more relaxed approach than other Chinese cities. People in the city are confined to their homes, and most have to order in food and water and wait for government deliveries of vegetables, meat and eggs. Videos are being  shared on social media show complaints by angry residents about food shortages and inadequate medical supplies. It's Shanghai's first experience of a city-wide lockdown. It previously tackled growing infection rates through smaller localised lockdowns. This typically meant individual residential complexes - each housing several hundred people - were locked down instead of the entire city. And for a while, it looked like this method was working. Even when case numbers rose to nearly 1,800 in March 2021, Shanghai did not impose a full lockdown. By comparison, Xi'an, which is home to nearly 13 million people, sealed the entire city after less than 100 cases in December 2021. But in late March, Shanghai began seeing huge numbers - with more than 2,500 cases recorded on 27 March alone.

The city decided to announce a phased lockdown, firstly in its eastern district, and then its western district days later. But as cases continued growing, Shanghai officials abandoned the idea of keeping half the city open. A city-wide lockdown followed on 3 April. The woes of its residents are manifold.

The main reason  for lockdown news is its importance for the Chinese economy. Shanghai is responsible for more than 3% of China's GDP, and more than 10% of China's total trade since 2018. Airports in Shanghai have also been responsible for bringing in nearly half of the protective equipment and medicine that China needed in the early days of the pandemic, according to local news outlet Caixin.

“Snatch groceries first, then get a covid test” has quickly become an anthem for the lockdown that started suddenly in Shanghai in the early hours of March 28th. Media reports and videos describe scenes of panic buying—qiang cai, or snatching groceries—and the threat of being locked out of one’s home amid a frenzied bid to control an outbreak of covid-19 in China’s main business and finance hub. One lyric hints that residents can grow vegetables in the small patches of land outside their apartments or scavenge for edible plants. The song attracted hundreds of thousands of views online in less than a day, bringing cheer to an otherwise grim situation. China is currently facing its worst outbreak since the pandemic started in the city of Wuhan in 2020. Thousands of new cases of the highly transmissible Omicron variant are being discovered each day.

The protracted lockdown in Shanghai, China's financial hub, is slowing the nation's normally booming meat trade, with stringent Covid-19 measures causing logistics logjams across the food industry in a sign of the broadening disruptions to business. The challenge of moving food in and around Shanghai, whose residents are into a month-long stressful home isolation, highlights similar problems in many other Chinese cities as Beijing persists with its controversial zero-Covid strategy despite growing risks to its economy.

China is the world's biggest buyer of meat, bringing in more than 9 million tonnes last year, worth about $32 billion, and the financial hub with a thriving dining scene accounts for the largest chunk of imports. Traders rely on Shanghai's ideal location for distributing product around the country, but since an outbreak of Covid-19 cases forced a lockdown in the city at the end of March, moving chilled or frozen products has become a costly headache. Frequent Covid tests, lengthy quarantines and long clearance times to enter Shanghai have kept many drivers away, while fewer refrigerated trucks are available because of special licensing requirements.

Other food products, including dairy and edible oils, have also been stuck in the Shanghai port, while beef imports into the city have dropped 23% year-on-year in March.  The Shanghai port congestion has also impacted customers elsewhere in China. For now, the sharply weaker consumption due to Covid restrictions is keeping a lid on prices, though it could become a problem the longer the lockdowns persist… obviously, the logistics issues are adding cost into the supply chain, which ultimately leads to food inflation.   

Weeks into a strict lockdown, most of Shanghai's 25 million population continue to rely on delivery riders to bring them food and supplies. But this largely invisible workforce of 20,000 faces a lack of shelter and safety. Two delivery riders told the BBC their stories. I've been so busy. So many people need supplies. I make deliveries all day long, then when it's approaching midnight, I look for a place to sleep. I left my apartment on 8 April and haven't been back since. The Shanghai government allows delivery riders to leave and enter their residential compounds. But the compounds insist on enforcing their own policies, and most don't allow riders to return to their own homes. There are hotels that are open, but not many are open to us. There was a tent in front of my compound. You know, those blue ones set up for Covid testing. When I left home, the compound managers asked me to help them buy supplies and in exchange they offered me the blue tent to sleep at night. I left all my stuff in there.  But one day the tent was gone. I couldn't find my stuff. The managers said it wasn't their business. Security guards there said they didn't know where my stuff went.

So I had to look for a new place to sleep. Sleeping under a bridge just comes naturally to us delivery riders - it can block out the wind and rain. I usually fall asleep immediately after lying down - I feel so tired by then! One day I forgot to pay attention to the weather forecast. It was raining heavily and all the space under the bridge had been taken. I found an ATM room to sleep. It was quite a good place, no-one else was around. My only hope was that the police wouldn't show up and kick me out.

Another added -  in the beginning I survived on dry instant noodles. Later a group of delivery riders found a restaurant that opened secretly and now we go there to buy takeaways. The police usually just ignore it. We do need a place to eat, right? Some shops also have an outdoor space where there are electrical sockets. We sneak over to charge our phones.  If I get into an accident in a remote area, it would be extremely dangerous. The biggest problem is if your scooter breaks down and there is no place to fix it. You can't work any more.

Many people saw news reports saying delivery riders can earn up to 10,000 yuan per day ($1,500; £1,200). Since then many have asked me how to become one. My advice is usually: "Don't become a rider."  The streets of Shanghai have been mostly empty during the lockdown, apart from delivery riders. People told me Shanghai is a developed city, better than my hometown. Now even my family is asking me to go home. They've all heard about the situation here. It's unimaginable that people can starve in Shanghai nowadays. Orders with small quantities of food won't get delivered now. Fruit shops won't sell individual pieces of fruit any more - you have to buy in bulk now. If someone wants 20 yuan worth of vegetables, I'll end up spending half a day looking for that and get nothing, as only bulk vegetable packages are available and each costs over 100 yuan.

Many Shanghai residents have been doing group purchases of food in bulk, which they then split among themselves Now we have no food and no water, and sleep on the streets. I know at least 40 riders in the same situation as me. There are delivery riders who work for companies which provide hotel rooms for them. But there are those who take online orders from customers, like us, and the local government has done nothing to help us find a place to stay. What's the point of resting at home anyway? The first week of the lockdown, I only got two cabbages. The second week I only received a box of medicine. Who can survive on that? What do I eat? It's better to be outside - at least I can still find some food.

Life in Shanghai is certainly not worthy any longer .. .. and the woes of Chinese though big is generally confined and not publicized in the media.

 
With regards – S. Sampathkumar
2^nd May 2022. 

Fried foods ! - will Ukraine war change Indian eating habits ?!?

Do you know that all ration card holders receive one litre of palm oil along with their monthly quota of other food commodities !! 

Miles away in the war-torn land – dozens of civilians have been evacuated from Mariupol to both Russia-controlled and Ukraine-controlled territory after weeks under siege. Some have left the Azovstal steelworks, the last hold-out of Ukrainian troops in the strategically significant city. Russia said dozens of civilians have arrived in a village it controls. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a large group is also on its way to Zaporizhzhia, which Ukraine maintains control of.  In every war, it is the truth that is the first victim ! – the  United Nations confirmed that a "safe passage operation" had begun to evacuate the citizens.

As you go to pantry, the item most sought after is the ‘fried one’ – may be chips, pappads or other items, deep fried.  Anything floating in oil appeals to the taste buds [though most jump to say that they are not good for health !] – in the simplest of cooking process, the method of submerging the food in hot fat, be it in any vegetable oil, or ghee or dalda [so popular earlier and not heard these days at all]. For some, food items, however tasty or well made they be, will not roll down in the mouth unless you have some fried items as accompaniments.    The best oil for deep frying is any oil that has a high smoke point. Oils such as peanut oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil naturally fall in this category.  On a casual talk with a caterer, learnt that they use - ….brand of Rice bran oil !

As the highest ranks of the world’s palm oil industry gathered in a virtual conference recently,  it became clear they were anxious about the same issue: The oil has a severe image problem in India. India, home to more than $5 billion in palm sales a year and the top export market, is no longer enthralled with the oil. Demand, mostly driven by the service sector, has dried up due to the Covid-19 lockdowns, and households just don’t want it.  The hurdle is that palm is viewed as a cheaper, less healthy option, and households prefer oils made from soy, sunflowers and mustard seed. With restaurants, hotels and school cafeterias — the largest buyers — unlikely to return to normalcy any time soon, the industry needs to find a way to change people’s minds.

Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of the oil palms, primarily the African oil palm Elaeis guineensis, and to a lesser extent from the American oil palm Elaeis oleifera and the maripa palm Attalea maripa.  Palm oil is naturally reddish in color because of a high beta-carotene content. Along with coconut oil, palm oil is one of the few highly saturated vegetable fats and is semisolid at room temperature.  Palm oil is a common cooking ingredient in the tropical belt of Africa, Southeast Asia and parts of Brazil.  In India, we have a different one – the ‘palmolein’.  The fad for this oil was so high a couple of decades ago, that the Govt. was importing them in bulk tankers and redistributing to households, who were using this oil moving away from dalda vanaspathi, groundnut oil, gingelly oil, bran oil and other cooking oils. Now refined oils like sunflower, olive, safflower, avocado have all taken over.  There were concerns that at any point time, the palmolein available in the market far exceed the quantity of oil that had been importing, hinting that there was heavy adulteration in this brand.

Now read this interesting report in BBC titled – ‘Ukraine war: A wake-up call for India - the world's biggest cooking oil importer’ !  (with a disclaimer, never be under the mistaken impression that what appears in BBC needs to be taken on its face value)

India is the world's second largest consumer and largest importer of cooking oil. Indonesia, the world's biggest producer of palm oil, announced last week that it would halt exports to stabilise spiking prices at home, which it blamed on the war in Ukraine and the pandemic. Cooking oil is an integral part of the Indian diet. So much so that India is the world's second-largest consumer and largest importer of vegetable oils. Some 56% of its requirements are imported from more than seven countries.

Indians mainly cook with palm, soybean and sunflower oils. For palm oil, the country imports 90% of its requirement from Indonesia and Malaysia. Nearly half of that comes from Indonesia alone. If this was not enough, half of India's sunflower oil requirements come from Russia and Ukraine, which account for 80% of global exports. The war in Ukraine is likely to lead to a 25% cut in supplies of sunflower oil in the next fiscal year, according to a report. Palm oil inventories in Malaysia, the second-largest producer, are also tight.  This year, India will end up spending about $20bn (£16bn) in importing cooking oil, double of what it spent two years ago. "No country can depend so much on imports. We are bleeding now. This is a big crisis. We need to learn from this war to reduce our dependence on imports," says BV Mehta, executive director of the Solvent Extractors Association, a vegetable oil trade organisation.

India has cut tariffs on cooking oil to calm prices. But rising prices since 2020 and now the disruption in supplies due to the war in Ukraine have made things difficult. There has been a more than 300% rise in two years in global prices of palm oil - the cheapest oil preferred by Indian households, hotels, restaurants and bakeries. Not surprisingly, cooking oil prices have surged more than 20% in less than a month. There have been reports of people stocking up on supplies. Much of the country's fabled cheap street food is deep fried in oil. Along with rice, wheat and salt, cooking oil is a staple for the poorest Indians. "The rise in cooking oil prices is definitely hurting," a food official is quoted as saying.

It also easily fuels food inflation, which hit a 16-month-high of 7.68% in March. Di Yang, a food economist with UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (UNFAO), says that if prices continue to hover around such high levels, India might need to ration supplies as "there is almost no alternative to compensate for import shortages in the short term".  To partially compensate for the shortages, India is pinning its hopes on a good crop of mustard and soybean this year. But palm is also a water guzzling crop, and new plantations will require slashing down of vast swathes of forests. The government has proposed that a third of the new oil palm plantations can come up in India's hilly-north east.

Traditionally, Indians have cooked with aromatic and strongly flavoured oils like mustard, groundnut, coconut and sesame depending on which part of the country they lived in. The move to foreign vegetable and seed oils like palm and sunflower has possibly something to do with rising urbanisation and cosmopolitanism.  Many believe that with more people moving into cities - and migrating within the country - a lot of urban cooking is done with colourless and odourless oils like palm and sunflower to make the food friendly for families and guests with different regional palettes.

The BBC report tries to picture a gloomy situation of price-rise and problems and that oils would hurt India – it projects as if it would impact cooking practices and   could even nudge people to use cooking oil wisely !! – but most of these would remain on elite media, not understood and not impacting common man.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
2^nd May 2o22.
  

In Madipakkam, Chennai 12000SFT of road goes missing ! the Athipatti village way !!!

Remember Áthipatti’village ?   

There is a village in Aruppukottai in Virudhunagar by this name.   A slight variant Áthipattu’exists in Thiruvalluvar district having a Railway station too.   Maravan Atapattu played 90 Tests for Sri Lanka, scoring 5502 runs with 16 tons; in ODIs – in 268 he made 8529 runs and he played two T20s too. He had a forgettable debut in Nov 1990 at Chandigarh out for duck in both innings;  his next chance came in Aug 1992 at Colombo against  Australia-  he made 0 & 1;  in Feb 1994 at Ahmedabad, he bagged a pair again.  After that he next played  in 1997 at Dunedin, where he made 25 & 22 and back home in Apr 97 at Colombo, he made another duck and 25.

A district collector, a judge, and a police official are all kidnapped in broad daylight ~the kidnapper tries to avenge the society for the death of his kin.  It is the storyline of  Ajith starrer  Çitizen’released in 2001 and ran packed houses.  Vasundharadass was the heroine.  The fictional coastal fishing hamlet Áthipatti’goes missing and its close to 700 odd inhabitants all killed, decades back – surprisingly, the village disappears from the official gazette and maps.  Ajit, the father and the son lived there.  The son tries to take revenge of all the officials who were involved in that mass massacre.

If you ever thought that it was totally filmy stuff, here is something that occurred in the city suburb of Madipakkam and reported in Times of India titled ‘Road disappears from corpn map’:

Land Sharks Grab 12,000 Sqft Of 30-Foot-Wide Madipakkam Thoroughfare !

Were it not for the fact it involves Corporation of Chennai, a civic body singularly lacking in mind, this case would have been worthy of an investigation by Sherlock Holmes.

A 30-foot-wide road in Madipakkam has mysteriously vanished from the corporation's map and its officials vehemently deny that it ever existed. It's another matter that residents of the locality say whatever's left of the road, most of which has been encroached upon by land sharks, is still in use or that maps of Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority clearly mark the road. Residents say some individuals encroached upon Twelfth Street, in Karthikeya Nagar, Madipakkam, and constructed concrete structures right on the carriageway . According to a complaint by social activist M Mahentheran, these individuals have grabbed at least 12,000sqft of the road, now worth crores of rupees, after the corporation took over the locality during its expansion in 2011.

A reply by Corporation of Chennai zonal officer (Zone 14) in response to an RTI query by Madipakkam resident Madhan Mohan proved to be flabbergasting for the petitioner and his neighbours. No such road exists or is marked on our maps, the official said in his reply, citing the Sholinganallur tahsildar.

“He said the corporation has no role to play in connection with the road or encroached land and that if any body is responsible, the revenue department major role in it,“ Madhan Mohan quoted the official as saying. He said the Chitlapakkam block development officer (BDO) maintained the road till its transfer to Zone 14 of Corporation of Chennai in 2011, when the civic body annexed the locality . “We were responsible for maintenance of the road till 2011. As of now, its maintenance and further development is the corporation's job.“

Mahentheran had been fighting to retrieve the land from encroachers since 2009.“It's a tough job,“ he said.“Revenue officials are hand in glove with the land sharks. Madipakkam resident S Balaji has filed a civil suit in an Alandur court regarding the encroachments, but the case is still pending in court.

Strange are the ways of people

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

6^th Apr 2015

Source : Times of India, Chennai edition : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Road-disappears-from-corporation-map/articleshow/46801512.cms