Food for All - Is that possible??

The word "Hunger" quickly makes one think, well we are talking about poor and under-developed countries in Africa and Asia where people still find it hard to feed their kid to two square meals a day. But it was quite an eye opener for me when a few days back I hear in the news that one in seven people in United States is not sure of where and when his next meal is going to come. In a developed country which grows so much of food and even exports cannot meet the demand of its own people?

A few interesting facts made me think, that are definitely some serious reasons why some of these hungry and poor people within this country and beyond are not been provided with the excess food that grows in this planet.

- Americans waste more than $75 billion dollar worth of food each year as it moves from the farms to the trash bins.

- More than a quarter of the food grown here is thrown away without being used. 15% of all food is not even touched

- Growers plow their crop if the prices in the market drop beyond a certain point just to make sure that the demand supply balance maintains their margin.

- Dairy products and fresh fruits and vegetables accounted for half of retail losses.

With every pound of food wasted, we incur more cost to recycle or disposal. To add to this, addition to the green house gases (only if we think this matters). 

What still makes me think are

1. Can we think beyond profit margin and may be think of the human race who needs this excess food which does not get used by anyone?

2. Can we shop and consume wisely to minimize food loss that unknowingly goes through our refrigerators to the trash cans and then to the land fills?

3. Can sustainable farming be an answer to minimize farm losses?

4. Do we have the technology to pack this additional produce and supply it to ones who need it every minute and the kids who die from hunger and starvation?

Lots of thoughts and hope that we all do our own bit to at least make sure we are not wasting the most precious thing that is needed to live - FOOD... 

Aloha Hawaii – An unforgettable experience

Active volcano, deep gorges, towering waterfalls, bed of hard lava rock, black sand, dense vegetation and all this in a 4000 square mile area is what fascinated me for a whole week when I took the air, water and land to see this fascinating Big Island of Hawaii.

Nature and culture has always attracted me, so no wonder I was thinking of going for a vacation with my family and among various destinations, Hawaii was one of the options. Among the many islands, I decided on going to the most diverse and largest among the archipelago. A five-hour flight from Los Angeles to Kona was a smooth sail and we reached late in the evening. Walking down the air stairs from the flight and into an open and relaxed setting of the airport we were waiting for the Hawaiian agriculture official to scan all baggage to make sure no one is bringing in even a fruit from the mainland.

As we head to pick our rental vehicle, I was happy to see that the car rental company upgraded us to a nice Cadillac CTS V8. Couldn’t have asked for more. We drove down to Hilton Waikoloa Village resort, which will now become our home for the next week. “Kirin – the Chinese Restaurant” at the resort was our only option to get some food. It was amazing to see the warmth at 11pm from the restaurant manager and the server. While we finished our dinner, our baggage was in the room and the monorail going back and forth the resort took us to the ocean towers.

It has been a while when I was woken by chirping birds and not my alarm clock. What astonished me was the large number of avian species which nestled in the man made lagoons and flora around the resort. As I walked into the balcony my eyes got a treat of the blue pacific on one side and the giant Mauna Kea. Mauna Keu is apparently the tallest mountain if measured from the bottom of the ocean. It also provides an amazing view of the star for all who love the whole idea of stargazing. It is also referred to as the “white mountain” as its peak often receives snow standing at 13,500 plus feet.

Now with all the relaxed morning starting, we fed ourselves with some scrumptious breakfast. This has spread to cater the Japanese too, who flocked this place in large number of groups. The entire resort had Japanese script along side English. Most of the staff spoke both Japanese and English.

As we started to explore the resort and ventured out to surrounding area, we met some fabulous concierge folks at the resort. Not only did they talk to us about wonderful resort and what it offered but also what we could see in and around the island. They also helped us book the amazing Luau show that we absolutely enjoyed every moment of it.

In my quest to enjoy the beauty of this island, I started off by taking to the skies with the magnificent Eco-Star chopper and the super pilot Captain Scott from the Blue Hawaiian team. The morning sunrise and flying over the saddle between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa could not have been better. Suddenly we get to see the Pu’u O’o (pronounced as poo woo) where the cracking lava and smoke make you feel what Mother Nature can bring in the form of devastation. Even the lava has not been flowing into the sea since early this year; all the activity was just building up for another eruption. The volcano of Kilauea has been active since 1983 and lava flow has been increasing the coastline. The trip took me to Kohala valley, which took me with awe as we made some breath-taking maneuver to see the towering water falls and dense vegetation.

After this fantastic aerial tour we took to explore the various historic sites, beaches, and parks. The Volcanic national park just blew our minds away when we could feel the steam puffing out of the steam vents and experienced the lava tube walk.

Mauna Loa macadamia nut factory and plantation was our next destination where we could relish a variety of way this wonder nut was processed and used. This is the largest processing company of this highly priced nut. Could we forget the world famous Kona coffee? Off course not, this priced and valuable coffee is grown in an area of around 4,000 square acres by more than 500 registered small coffee growers. Greenwell coffee was our next destination. We enjoyed some fresh brewed coffee along with a wonderful tour of their processing plant.

As we were closing to our wonderful, fun filled week we decided to spend sometime with the dolphins of the dolphin quest lagoon. It was an amazing experience to be with the dolphins and touch them. At one end these experiences were making us happy and we were enjoying every bit of it, but at the same time we were soon going to miss this paradise on earth and head back to hustle and bustle of another Southern California life.

A view of the Big Island through my eyes can be seen @http://worldunfolded.smugmug.com/

NATIVE (Nutritional and Tasty Innovative Vegan Eatery)

Since the evolution of human beings, food has been eaten, served, prepared in a variety of ways. The ever increasing demand for food in the ever hungry world is building an immense pressure on what we can produce in a sustainable yet scalable manner.

We tend to depend on the plants and animals from land and water to meet our needs. Have we ever thought of how these are grown, nurtured and harvested? Possibly not. We care about getting the tastiest thing at the cheapest price. I was in the same situation a few years back, when slowly I realized that we need to know what we eat and how that reaches our plate. I started wondering if animal and dairy products were the only sources of essential proteins and nutrients required for the human body.

Being a foodie, I started to think if there were any alternatives to meat, fish or eggs. Off course it wasn’t easy to think of an alternative to non-vegetarian food that I had been so used to for years. Slowly I started to embrace organically and sustainable produced food, milk and vegetables.

Native foods cafe was a welcome change for Vegan lovers . You would never miss the taste of any of the meats that one had been eating for years. What amazes me is the simple, organic and naturally grown fresh produce can be so much tastier. It not only activates the taste buds but you crave for more and more. Since we have moved from our carnivorous habit to becoming a vegan lover, we have never missed anything, rather gained in terms of eating more healthier, enjoying some of the lesser known tastier morsels and more over supporting sustainable and organic farming.

I wish we had more innovative eateries like the Native Food Café which are committed to serving such amazingly tasty and meaty foods in a vegan way.

Food, Fun and Friends – Fantastic weekend

A couple of weeks back, we got an invitation from an amazing couple to comeover and spend the long weekend with them along with some more friends, it brought in all questions into my mind along with the excitement of visiting a new place.

Nestled in the middle of the Californian arrid and hot desert landscape, Ridgecrest is about 170 miles from my house. The few things one would notice during this three hour drive is empty roads as you move from the busy freeways of the southern california major cities, raising temperatures and thinly population small towns.

As we arrived on the hot late afternoon, the warm welcome from the hosts and home like atmosphere turned on my relaxed vacation mode.

As the evening set in, other invited friends joined and the atmosphere became more vibrant with kids having their playful moments, non stop conversation and delicious food. Time flew and suddenly I realized it was 1 am in the morning.

At the end of the first evening, I wanted to think and note, what all did I eat or was prepared. After all being a foodie, the must be part of this blog has to be food and a lot of it.

Menu for the first day

• -          Kachoris (Fried dumplings with special filling)
• -          Chicken cutlets (Minced chicken seasoned wth spices and then fried to perfection)
• -          Amchur Chutney
• -    Pani Poori
• -          Special Bengali Sweet

Can fried food ever be bad… my mouth is watering as I write these.

With the above, just for the snacks, an extensive dinner was definitely on the cards.

Now the dinner menu

• -          Fish Curry
• -          Chicken Curry
• -          Rice
• -          Dokhar Dalna
• -          Mochar Ghanta
• -          Lebu pata diye daal
• -          Aamer chatni
• -          Kamola Bhog Sweets

The next day started with some several rounds of tea along with muchies. As everyone came to life, we started with a yummy and heavy breakfast

• -          Fulcopir Singara / Samosa
• -          Boiled eggs
• -          Fruits
• -          Chicken Sausage
• -          Jelebis

With this the entire gang hits the pool. Kids had their time on floats and the adults had few hours of water  volley ball. It was lots of fun and we were exhausted at the end.

Lunch was a must after all this

• -          Baigan Bharta
• -          Dal Makhani
• -          Peas and Keema
• -          Rice
• -          Roti
• -          Salad
• -          Misti Doi
• -          Pantua

Tired gang took to the bed after this happy and fulfilling lunch. As the evening set in, we played cricket and badminton. As this was on, the preparation for an elaborate barbeque session was working behind the scene.

The barbeque started with Tandoori and Teriyaki chicken, fresh roasted sweet corn, chicken sausages and not to forget the paneer and veggie skewers.. my favorite…

You would think this would be all, but wait we had shrimp biriyani and kulfi to follow this. Well I was about to miss the pumpkin raita, which was just amazing. Can anything better happen for a nice evening.

As the night set, we were close to the end of an amazing weekend. Thinking of starting in the morning from Ridgecrest in order to make it here by noon, the departure time got pushed to afternoon after another elaborate lunch which included Mutton curry, Cholar daal, Luchi, Alu Dam, Rice and Boondi. With all this good food, the challenge was to keep eyes open and drive back.

I know a lot of this blog sounds like a menu list or all about food. The intent was to share my experience of how I spent a weekend with family and friends. This will be in my mind for a while now and I did cherish each moment of this.

Thank you again to the hosts who were just amazing.

Changing relationships over time?

Since the start of the human civilization, humans have been social animals and love to be in groups and lived as groups, possibly this is the behavior we all got from our ancestor the Apes.

As humans started to grow their own food and domesticate animals, they wanted support and help from each other. The families were large and they all lived together under the same roof.

I definitely did not want to sound like I am taking back everyone into times and giving a lecture on how humans started living and other historical events. Relationships and culture has always fascinated me and I wondered what it meant in the past and how this is changing with time.

So what is relationship? It could be just connection between two or more individuals and objects. English dictionaries have so many definitions about this word “Relationship”. I wanted to understand what human relationships meant yesterday, today and tomorrow. In this understanding I wanted to just take three key relationships, family, friends and firm or workplace. My observations, experiences and learning from the last many years is what I have tried to put in this blog.

Family –

Brother, sister, parents, grand parents, uncles, aunts and cousins form the closest network or relationship in a person’s life as he/she comes into this world. In the yester years all these relationships were under one roof as they were dependent on each other to earn, work, cook, protect and grow from generation to the other. As time passed by we started becoming nuclear and everyone moved out the unit in search of work, food and newer relationship. Today’s family mostly consists of a man, a woman and may be kids (as long as they are not ready for a boarding school or a teenager). Saying that ,I know there are a good number of families where generations stay together, but this is on a decline. Members of the family meet when there is a vacation, or someone is need. The physical distances between them have been minimized by technology like phone, skype, facebook or other social connections. Kids spend most of their time with outsiders than family members as they grow up in daycares, then boarding schools and then colleges. Similarly elderly have moved from homes to old age homes or elderly supported communities. What is likely to happen in the future is only one of the two things. People will start to get closer and dependency on one another for mental happiness will be the essence. Family may just be entities, that are connected through each other by technology and warmth, feelings, care and love will be transmitted through words and emotions.

Friends –

Friends are family that we choose. A friend is one who tells you what you truly portray as an individual and what you are not. He/she is not biased and always there for you during your thick and thin. This is how I would define a friend and what friendship to me has been.

Since times, people who assisted you, been with you, helped you beyond the family members have been regarded as extended family or friends. Even today there are places in the world where smaller colonies of people stay together where everyone knows everyone by name, and are there for one another during thick and thin.

As time moved in friends were people that one got associated at work or around ones home. As education got formalized, friends were individuals who studied with you or helped you during the time you spent at the educational institute. Colleague became friends too and soon people with you met once or may be never became the electronic form of friends, thanks to social networking options which helps you to keep in touch with them as an when needed.

So has the definition of friendship changed with time or are we in the race to just make sure we have added long list of friends to our social profiles and then call it “Networking”.

Has the essence of “Friend in need is a friend indeed” got diminished?

As I look into the future, the friend space of relationship seems be again headed towards electronic way where friends will be made based on common interests and professional growth.

Firm/Workplace –

“Work is worship” is how I was always told during my tender growing up days. I was fascinated by the fact that people spend their whole life in one firm or workplace with sincerity and integrity. At the beginning of my career, I had come across people who had generations serving and working for the same firm. As times changed and opportunities grew, people moved from one opportunity to another i.e. one firm to another. Individuals moved up on the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs chart, creating many more firms and so increasing more and more opportunities around the globe.

As I see in the future, the association between an individual and firm is likely to shorten and it will just be so much harder to contain individual’s aspirations and needs. What is to be seen is how the firms will be able to hold on to talented and much needed skilled resources? Also will machines or automated systems replace skilled human resources?

These aspects of relationships have been always been the toughest and most intricate. I am writing this blog to generate comments and thoughts from folks who have other experiences and share some of these thoughts or may be different.

How do we inculcate "The Good" from others?

It is we individuals who make up a family, an organization, a society and finally a nation. You all would imagine what I am upto now and what am I trying to convey.  Recently I had been on a trip to Singapore and there were so many things that we all can learn from that nation of 4 million people.

An island nation no more than the Los Angeles County in terms of area, can boast to be one of the most prosperous at nations of the modern times. The moment I landed at the Changi International Airport, I started to compare this fabulous airport with the ones that I have seen in the US, Dubai, Kuala Lampur etc. Unfortunately I could not compare this to any US airport.

When I reached the immigration center, it was delightful to see that place, a huge area with a giant statue. Even better, when you are greeted so politely by the immigration officer welcoming you to the country and a big smile at 3:00am in the morning. This shows how much they care for the visitors.

My week passed by with work and still I was trying to find out issues, limitations and again I was comparing it to the more developed countries of the west.

There were taxi stands along with bus stands, where people queued up to wait for their change to hop on the nicely maintained cabs. The best part, the charges were based on the meter, no tipping or any extras. The rates changes based on the time of the day, how may toll roads did your drive take and which part of the country are your heading to. Another interesting fact that I learned from my friend and folks I met, the whole country discourages on tipping which is a huge thing in the west and now catching up rapidly in India. So you pay what is billed.

Interestingly the only part of the country that was not well kept up and possibly seems chaotic was a place called “Little India”. This houses all sorts of Indian stores, eateries, not to forget the jewelry stores. People crossed the street anyplace they like, honking cars, over crowed streets, shopkeepers calling out load to pull in the customers.

This is where you can find Indian origin tourist from through the globe flocking to do their shopping and the favorite among them is “Mustafa”. This is an enormous store which practically keeps everything that one can ask for.

Thinking through the 18 hour long flight back home, I was happy to learn so much from this place, the people and the policies. Can we model these in any other developing countries, even states, even cities? Are we open to accept something good, way and means which improves everyone’s life and living standard. 

What is $11.50?

Changing economies and global currency fluctuations have made most commodities or food items dearer. There aren’t many things which we could say have become cheaper. Have we ever realized what is the value of USD 11.5 or what can we buy with this. The answer can be many a burger with a drink and fries at a burger joint, two and a half gallon of gasoline or a few gallons of milk and so on.

But now you might be thinking, why I am trying to say the obvious or something as trivial as this. Interestingly did we know that this 11.50 USD can feed a child one meal a day for a year. Yes and you heard it right.

I was fascinated how people like you and me can make such a big difference in someone’s life.  When I heard about this, I started to think what is hunger? When did I have to think about my next meal? How many kids in this world suffer from hunger? And list went on.

Here are some interesting facts that I learnt during my research around some of the questions that came to my mind

Hunger as defined by Oxford dictionary 1971 is “the uneasy or painful sensation caused by want of food; craving appetite. Also the exhausted condition caused by want of food”.

Based on Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations 2010 report

•          925 million people in this world are hungry
•          Nearly 578 millions are in Asia and Pacific area, followed by the Africa at 266 millions
•          It was interesting that 19 million people in developed nations were reported to be hungry

Would we say that this is due to any shortage of food produced in the world? The answer is no. The world produces enough food to feed everyone. The principal problem is that many people in the world do not have sufficient land to grow, or income to purchase, enough food. World Bank once estimated that there were an estimated 1.345 billion poor people in developing countries who live on USD 1.25 a day or less.

I wanted to know more about the hunger situation in India, were luckily I never realized what was hunger during my growing up days. Based on report published by the International Food Policy Research Institute, here are some key finding, which was interesting to know

• India ranks 66 out of 88 countries on the 2008 Global Hunger Index (GHI).
• Like the GHI, the 2008 India State Hunger Index (ISHI) is calculated using three equally-weighted indicators: the proportion of the population that is calorie deficient, the prevalence of underweight children under the age of five, and the under-five mortality rate.
• The ISHI calculates hunger levels for 17 major states in India, representing more than 95 percent of the population.
• India is home to the world’s largest food insecure population, with more than 200 million people who are hungry.
• When compared to countries in the GHI, Indian states’ rankings would range from 34th (Punjab) to 82nd (Madhya Pradesh). This indicates substantial variability among states.
• All Indian states have at least a “serious” level of hunger; there is not a single state with low or even moderate levels.
• Twelve states fall into the “alarming” category and one (Madhya Pradesh) is considered to have an “extremely alarming” level of hunger.
• India’s poor performance on the GHI is primarily due to its relatively high levels of child malnutrition and undernourishment resulting from calorie deficient diets.
• ISHI scores are closely aligned with poverty, but there is little association with state-level economic growth; high levels of hunger are seen even in states that are performing well economically.
• Improving child nutrition is of utmost urgency in most Indian states because of its large contribution to the ISHI scores. All states also need to improve strategies to facilitate inclusive economic growth, ensure food sufficiency, and reduce child mortality.

Interestingly there is a organization which is working on trying to help some of these millions of hungry children and at the same time providing them with education. Akshaya Patra is now serving mid day meal to almost 1.2 million children everyday. It could not be a better initiatives where young children are served food and they are expected to study. Atleast they can become better and strong individuals tomorrow.

Many of these will never then need to think about their next meal and can extend their support to one day eradicate the menace called Hunger. I support this cause and hope that many will join this movement.

More information www.foodforeducation.org

Flying birds are aging? How safe are we flying in them?

As we move to a fast tomorrow, mode of transportation is one of the biggest questions we have in our minds. How can we move faster from point A to B spending least possible and in the least possible time? Hence our answer is the aircraft – Our flying birds, which has bridged the time zone and distances making everyone’s life hassle free.

Do we ever think what it takes to maintain these giants running and flying for thousand of miles? Are these birds in pristine condition when this is still possibly the safest mode of transportation? There are so many operators and ever ones claim’s to be better than the other. Which one is better than the other?

In the last few years I have flown most of the airlines operating in the continental US for work or pleasure and wondered which airlines does really take care of its fleet? I have come across so many instances where, the aircraft has made me feel that “hope everything is fine”. I have seen minor to some not so minor cosmetic issues.

So I decided to do some research on trying to find the age of some of the major airlines operating in the US. My search was for the following

-       American Airlines

-       United Airways

-       Continental Airlines

-       Delta Airlines

-       Southwest Airlines

-       US Airways

-       Alaska Airlines

-       JetBlue

Airlines	Aircraft Type	Number in Service	Average Age (Years)
American Airlines	Boeing 737 Next Gen	243	7
	Boeing 757	124	16.7
	Boeing 767	73	18.5
	Boeing 777	47	10.4
	McDonnell Douglas MD-80/90	221	19.8
	TOTAL	708	14.1
United Airlines	Airbus A319	55	11.3
	Airbus A320	97	13
	Boeing 737	8	15.4
	Boeing 737 Next Gen	47	6
	Boeing 747	24	16
	Boeing 757	134	17.4
	Boeing 767	38	15.4
	Boeing 777	62	12.3
	TOTAL	465	13.7
Continental Airlines	Boeing 737	20	15.3
	Boeing 737 Next Gen	258	9.7
	Boeing 757	25	10.8
	Boeing 767	23	9.8
	Boeing 777	12	9.8
	TOTAL	338	10.1
Delta Airlines	Airbus A319	57	9.2
	Airbus A320	69	16.1
	Airbus A330	32	5.8
	Boeing 737 Next Gen	109	8.9
	Boeing 747	16	17.6
	Boeing 757	186	17.4
	Boeing 767	93	14.8
	Boeing 777	18	6.2
	McDonnell Douglas MD-80/90	149	19.5
	TOTAL	729	14.7
Southwest	Boeing 737	197	19.6
	Boeing 737 Next Gen	493	12.2
	TOTAL	690	14.3
US Airways	Airbus A319	93	10.6
	Airbus A320	72	12.3
	Airbus A321	51	6.3
	Airbus A330	16	6.7
	Boeing 737	59	21.8
	Boeing 757	24	17.8
	Boeing 767	10	21.8
	Embraer 190/195	15	3.6
	TOTAL	340	12.6
Alaska Airlines	Boeing 737	30	15.8
	Boeing 737 Next Gen	105	6.3
	TOTAL	135	8.4
JetBlue	Airbus A320	118	6.4
	Embraer 190/195	46	3.8
	TOTAL	164	5.7

There is an effort across the board where the airlines are trying to replace the old birds with the newer models, however the newer airlines certainly have a modern fleet and top of the line navigation devices.

However based on the type of birds which you are flying in is what could potentially tell what you can expect.

My experience with JetBlue and Continental has been mostly great with very little complaints mainly from the aircraft maintenance point of view.

When I wanted to compare the above analysis with some other international airlines, here is what I could find

Airlines	Average Age (Years)
Air India	9.8
British Airways	12.2
Lufthansa	13.2
Swiss	13.3
Emirates	6.6
Air France	9.2
Qantas	11.7
Japan Airlines	10.6
KLM	10.3
Air Canada	10.9
Singapore Airlines	6.9

During this analysis, I wanted to see which are the oldest serving birds and who is operating them

Airlines	Aircraft Type	Age (Years)
Mahan Air (Iran)	A300	33.2
Aerounion (Mexico)	A300	32.1
Air France	A320	22.2
Air India	A320	22.1
Virgin Atlantic	A340	19.3
Top Fly (Spain)	ATR 42/72	26
Airphil Express (Philippines)	Boeing – 737	42.4
Pace Airlines (USA)	Boeing – 737	41.6
Kabo Air (Nigeria)	Boeing – 747	40.2
EAT Leipzig (Germany)	Boeing – 757	28.5
Delta Airlines	Boeing – 757	26.8

With air traffic increasing day by day are the skies not getting clogged with some of these ailing birds which needs to be grounded and reduce potential accidents caused due to metal fatigue and old wiring systems.

Under current economic situations, the airlines are unable to replace older aircrafts with new ones, however it is important to pass all these aircrafts under strict safety checks to prevent any issues that can mean severe loss to life.