Jalebi Uncoiled: April 2018

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

42. LESS is MORE is LESS

Aren't technology and its gadgets a great leveler? Indeed these are, as my house help gives me an edge in breaking news of all kind. Be it 'mann ki baat' or 'padosan ki chat', she often chuckles to find me struggling to stay abreast. She seems no less excited to have whatsapp powering her to stay informed, even if most of those recycled tidbits do pretty little to ease her life, and her increasing workload. There is a sense of empowerment nonetheless, getting more by paying less for the second hand smart phone.

Little over a decade ago, a phone was just a phone. It could only help dial a number provided one could reach a phone. No more no less! It could neither act like an alarm nor a torch, it could neither click pictures nor convey written messages, and it could neither help you surf the virtual web nor assist the perverted mind to set off time bombs. Mobile phone is one among several gadgets that modernity has smartly milked to capacity, gifting the user more on each purchase. More of the world seems to have been squeezed into a small chip.

Aren't we getting more from less in all purchases? Buy a trouser and get a shirt free; buy a television and get a mixer grinder free; buy a car and get a refrigerator free; buy a house and get the swimming pool free are market manifestations of a growing culture of 'less for more'. Without doubt, less for more has enticed all and sundry into it without any aspersion being cast on how and who pays for the so-called more in our lives. That more mobiles in a home may mean less sparrows in the courtyard is just one manifestation of 'yeh dil maange more', for less.

Across almost all areas of human endeavor, less has created an illusion of more. A growing economy is generating less jobs; and never before has there been a more people suffering starvation, malnutrition, and general poverty. But I haven't found many who are complaining yet, unable to decide whether we are worse off or better off. My sense is that while numbing our senses, smart technology has nonetheless given us a semblance of equality, and a so-called good quality of life!

The question worth exploring is whether this so-called good quality of life makes us happy? Outwardly, it may seem so and most people do demonstrate such an exuberance. The reality is not only far from truth, but grossly painful and annoying too. Else, why would Indians rank 133 in the UN World Happiness Index out of 156 countries, dropping 11 spots from last year. An elderly neighbor sums it up saying that 'we are an insecure lot, seeking solace in acquiring gadgets' and feeling happy about what keeps us ahead of our neighbor.

No surprise we live in 'deficit' amidst so-called plenty. It is perhaps the greatest of all paradoxes as we plunge ourselves into seeking more from less.

First published in The Tribune on May 8, 2018.

The World of Jalebi

In 1870, Hobson-Jobson (a glossary of Anglo-Indian terms) specified that 'jelaubee' originates from the Arabic word zalabiya and the Persian word zalibiya and described it as 'a rich sweetmeat made of sugar and ghee, with a little flour, melted and trickled into a pan so as to form a kind of interlaced work, when baked.' Recipes for that original zalabiya have been found in West Asian cookbooks dating back to the 10th and 13th century, and ancient texts indicate that by the 15th century, the dish had made its journey from Persia to the tables of rich Indian merchants.

Meanwhile, this irresistible concoction seems to have travelled to other lands as well. In Lebanon, the sweetmeat is shaped like a finger rather than a swirl. In Afghanistan, it’s eaten alongside fish in the winter months. In Egypt, the Jewish community makes it to celebrate Hanukkah. It is a salutary reminder that food and language, arts and ideas, values and lifestyles are all products of give-and-take between the peoples of the world.

From The Golden Oldie by Shabnam Minwalla

Jalebi Management

Can the mouth-watering jalebi orchestrate global business? The uniform taste of the sweetmeat from its central form to its irregular extremities is worth imitating for any organisation's smooth functioning, says this book. "A jalebi connects at different fragile points to get bigger and bigger. The moral fibre in any country or any corporate culture can also grow when thought is not confined within the box,' writes Shombit Sengupta in Jalebi Management, a provocative out-of-the-box (sweet) management book based on critical social observation.