Category Archives: Asia
Going Local: An Insider’s Guide to Pakistan and India’s Film Industry
The Woods, they are a confusing place. Bollywood is just a player in India’s massive cinema scene. Get the low down on Bollywood, Mollywood, Tollywood, and yes, even Kollywood. I am also including Lollywood (you heard me right) even though it is based in Pakistan, because there is nothing that can beat the old school Punjabi classics coming out of there.
LOLLYWOOD
Lollywood is arguably the most underrated film industry in this part of the world. There has never been the sleekness, sex-appeal, string of “super-hits,” or the budget that Bollywood has had over the decades. But then again, it wasn’t funded by the Indian mafia either. During the 1960s, Indian entertainment in almost all forms were heavily censored, and in many cases, banned. This inevitably gave rise to blackmarket dvds, and radio programs playing bollywood dance numbers based out of Sri Lanka. These days, most Pakistanis (and Indians), as well as Desis the world over, get their hit of movies from Bollywood. But in its heyday, Lollywood made a string of the most awesome Punjabi films. Now Punjabi films are relegated to Sikhs from outside India, so you have a handful of Punjabi films with the same weepy storyline and the hero is a Punjabi singer with zero acting ability who is funding the production.
CHECK OUT:
Maula Jatt, which launched the careers of Sultan Rahi (the hero) and Mustafa Qureshi who plays the villain, Noori Natt. The storyline is simple. Maula Jatt is the hero. Noori Natt is the villain. He steals his woman. Maula Jatt kicks ass while wearing a loongi, carrying a gandasa, and gets his woman back with a lot of dishoon-dishoon, and some of the most awesome zingers in the world. There is also a lot of mustache tweaking. Here is the best fight scene you have ever seen:
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Video: The Karni Mata “Rat” Temple in Deshnoke, Rajasthan
Check out the video of our visit to the Karni Mata “Rat” Temple, home to 20,000 rats in Deshnoke, near Bikaner, Rajasthan in India. The rats are believed to be incarnations of tribesmen of the aesthetic Karni Mata (an incarnation of the Goddess Durga). People come to pay their respects from all over the world. We were one of them!
Musings: Independent Travel . . . With Children?
I finally got my computer in good enough shape to edit this video and the last bit made me smile. Watch it and you’ll see what I mean. We were staying at this coffee plantation in Madikeri, Karnataka, and took a side trip to see the Dubare Elephant Camp. On the ride there, we met Paul and Kirsten Thompson, a couple from New Zealand, who we instantly took a liking to because we thought they were absolutely bonkers in the best way possible.
They were on a 10 week holiday in India with not one kid, not two, but three. And the names of the children were just brilliant: Merlin, Felix, and Rumi. Merlin, the youngest, was 2, and looked like I’d imagine Merlin the magician to look like at that age, complete with long, wavy blonde hair. Rumi, the eldest was 7, with Felix smack in the middle at about 4! And I remember thinking that this is really encouraging. The spirit of independent travel need not be crushed just because you have children.
Rumi and Navdeep
I got on famously with the eldest kid, Rumi, who we got on camera hosting this video. He did a bang up job too in his cape! What I was really impressed by was how adaptable these kids were, and as cliched as it sounds, how worldly and intelligent Rumi and Felix were. Felix had this really funny way of asking questions. His mum and dad had told him to stop interrupting people and to say “Excuse me,” before speaking. So, armed with “excuse me,” he would interrupt every conversation by repeatedly saying, “Excuse me, ” followed by, “I have a question.” Some of the questions were really interesting, some were entertaining, but most went absolutely nowhere. Rumi was much more reserved and poignant in his observations, and asked really incisive questions. Merlin enjoyed just traipsing about in shoes much too big for him.
Sona was particularly fascinated with what the kids ate and we were both duly impressed that they ate plenty of Indian food, from dosas to dhokla, but stayed away from the usuals: street food using potentially unsanitary water. Although eating unsanitary street food is the most delicious part of India (or any country really), I can’t imagine traveling for a limited amount of time, with three kids who have dodgy tummies or worse! The reason Sona found it so interesting is a) unbeknownst to me, she was thinking about this baby business in “at least a year.” Notice my nervous laughter at the end of the video and the abrupt blank look on my face when Paul mentioned the word, “quantity.” That expression should be right next to a visual dictionary definition for the word “gobsmacked.” And b) Sona’s travels to India never involved street food. This rule about no street food, inflicted by her parents, extended from infancy all the way till past her twenties! Sona’s mother used to pack food like Macaroni and Cheese and cereal for Sona’s brother because he refused to eat Indian food in India. He was nine years old!
I, on the other hand, didn’t know any better. I didn’t know there was another option. I was 2 weeks old when we left England to go to Tanzania, and from there Nigeria, the U.A.E., and of course America. Having been raised in several different countries from such a young age, I thrive in being put into a situation I might not be familliar with. This made traveling in China and communicating with people for things like toilet paper, or cold water using dodgy sign language, not such a big deal. I am very adapatable to different food and customs. My sister, who was much more cognizant of how different the places were from “home,” likes to use the word “adventurous.”
Before travelling with Sona, it was something I’d taken for granted. I don’t get cravings for comfort food and I don’t get nostalgic for that sense of home.But these days, a sense of home is much easier to come by than it was even a few years ago. You’re constantly connected to some version of the familliar. There are bars in Tibet, discos in Nepal, Pizza Hut in China, upscale dining in India, and internet cafes (not to mention wireless cards) all over the world.
Sona and Navdeep Have a Baby!
As a father to a one-year-old, I often think of Paul and Kirsten, and about our next big adventure. Our six month backpacking adventure was a lot of fun, but it was much different to my solo travels. My solo travels were a lot more dangerous, although we did take a really sketchy 15 hour local bus ride in the middle of the night to Srinagar. Travelling with Sona, constantly being together day in and day out, really deepened our understanding of India, of each other, and much later we realized, of ourselves.
I always thought of getting married and having kids as an end to independent travel, exchanging that backpack for a nice carry-on, and being one of those geeky tourists that think they’ve travelled to a country because they booked a ten day tour to the “best” sites. But getting married certainly didn’t have that effect, and thanks to Paul and Kirsten and their trio of swashbucklers, neither will having kids. So, as to the question of quantity? Three sounds like a nice number.
Photo of the Week: Rani the Camel from Rajasthan Wishing You a Happy New Year!
Happy New Year From Rani, the Camel!
What better way to ring in the New Year than with a kiss from my favourite camel: Rani from Rajasthan!
Eat this Page: Aloo Paratha (whole wheat Indian flatbread)
Parathas are whole-wheat Indian flatbread that can be as healthy as you want them to be. You ca eat them plain, or stuffed, for breakfast or lunch. This recipe uses our favorite filling – aloo (potato) – with a much healthier adaptation from expert paratha maker, Binder Bhua, Navdeep’s aunt in Punjab. She is very Punjabi, so doesn’t understand the concept of “no ghee” and finds the idea of a dry parantha unfathomable, hence the glistening parantha in the photo above.
PREP COOK SERVES
30 minutes 20 minutes 6 parathas
POTATO STUFFING
2-3 medium potatoes (1 lb or so)
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and diced
1 or 2 cloves of smashed garlic, if desired
1 teaspoon ajwain (caroway seeds)
½ to 1 teaspoon lal mirch (cayenne powder)
½ teaspoon salt
1 or more green chillies, to taste
½ teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera), ground
½ teaspoon dhania (cilantro/coriander), ground
½ teaspoon anar dana, ground
DOUGH
4 cups of wheat flour, sifted
additional flour for dusting
water, as needed, to knead flour into a firm, but pliable dough
rolling pin
flat floured surface
EQUIPMENT
tava or griddle pan
ghee (clarified butter) for frying and topping; for a healthier option, use olive oil. You can also use butter.
Thick Indian style plain yogurt for dipping
aam ka achar (mango pickle)
INSTRUCTIONS
1. In a large bowl, mix sifted flour with water, adding a few drops at a time and kneading the mixture until a firm but pliable dough forms. When you have a large, smooth round, cover bowl with plastic and refrigerate for at least half an hour. This process can be done ahead of time as long as the dough is covered and refrigerated.
2. Peel and boil one pound of potatoes (2-3 medium sized) until soft but not mushy. Let cool.
3. Finely dice onion, chilies, and ginger. Add garlic if desired.
4. In a small pan, dry roast jeera (cumin seeds) until it turns black. Grind jeera, anar dana and dhania (cilantro/coriander) into a fine powder.
5. In a medium-sized bowl, mix pototoes, onions, chilies, ginger, garlic, salt, lal mirch (cayenne), jeera (cumin), anar dana, and dhania (cilantro/coriander) until well-blended and of smooth consistency.
6. Remove dough from fridge. Form pedas, which are small, two-inch rounds. Lightly flour each peda.
7. Take a peda and flatten edges with the palm of your hand, until a three-inch disc is formed. Flour both sides of disc, then lay on flat, floured surface. Roll out peda into a four-inch round disc.
8. Add two heaping teaspoons of potato stuffing to the center of the disc. Fold in edges to close around potato mixture, ensuring there are no leaks.
9. Using the rolling pin, carefully roll the stuffed peda out into a six inch round, dusting with flour on both sides to prevent sticking.
10. Heat tava or griddle pan to medium heat. Carefully flipped rolled six-inch parantha on to the hot pan. Cook for one minute, then flip and cook for one minute on the other side. Add a dollop of ghee or butter to the top of paranta, spreading over the surface of the bread. Flip again. Enjoy the sizzle as it browns. Add ghee or butter to the other side, spreading over surface. Flip and brown this side. When both sides are crispy and golden with brown spots, your parantha is ready.
Repeat process for each peda until you a have a hearty stack.
Serve hot off the tava with dahi (thick Indian yogurt) and aam ka achar (mango pickle) for dipping and wash it all down with Sona’s special adraki chai.
Eat This Page: Spicy Kickin’ Kaju (cashews)
Sona’s mum makes these spicy kaju (cashews) as an occasional indulgence—but they’re perfect on a dreary day with chai or a mellow whisky (depending on your mood). She fries the cashews till they’re golden brown, then seasons them up with a red-hot masala. This version is pretty spicy, so feel free to adjust the mix for less adventurous palates (zzzzz).
PREP COOK SERVES
2 minutes 7 minutes 6 for snacking
INGREDIENTS
1 lb raw white cashews—not roasted and not salted
2 to 3 cups oil for deep frying (canola works well)
MASALA:
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon kala namak
2 teaspoons jeera (cumin seeds), dry roasted and ground into powder
2 pinches hing (Asafetida)
2 teaspoons chaat masala
1 teaspoon lal mirch
INSTRUCTIONS
1. In a small pan, dry roast jeera until it turns black. Grind into a fine powder. In a medium-sized bowl, mix salt, kala namak, jeera, hing, chaat masala and lal mirch.
2. Heat oil on medium-heat in a deep frying pan or walk. Oil should be hot (around 400 degrees Fahrenheit) but not smoky.
3. Drop in one cashew to test oil. When hot, add cashews and fry two to four minutes, until the pale cashews go a light golden brown. Drain cashews on a few layers of paper towels, then toss while hot with the masala mixture, coating thoroughly. Add additional salt and lal mirch to taste.
Serve warm with Sona’s special adraki chai, or if you’re a real man, whiskey.
Eat This Page: Sona’s Special Adraki Chai Recipe
Everyone’s chai recipe is different—but I like to think mine is special. So here, without further ado, is my super-secret, much-coveted recipe. My Kadak Adraki Chai combines the kick of ginger with the mellow flavors of fennel and cardamom. And I like my tea strong (or kadak in Hindi)—so add more milk and less tea for a milder chai.
PREP COOK SERVES
2 minutes 5 minutes Makes two big mugs
INGREDIENTS
1 heaping teaspoon loose black Darjeeling tea
2 tea bags (Sona recommends Tetley)
1 two-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and smashed
½ teaspoon fresh cardamom seeds, gently smashed
1 teaspoon fennel seeds, lighted smashed
2 cups water
1 cup milk, at least 1 percent (for a creamy texture)
Optional: Cinnamon or cloves add a nice touch
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Peel and smash ginger, and light bruise fennel and cardamom seeds to release oils and bring out flavor.
2. Add ginger, fennel, and cardamom to saucepan with two cups water, loose black tea and tea bags. Bring to a rapid boil on medium-high heat.
While boiling, add one cup cold milk. Bring the liquid to second boil.
3. Strain the now-golden liquid into two large mugs, carefully keeping loose tea and other ingredients out of the cups.
Enjoy hot, preferably with pakoras or cookies.
Our Gear: India 2007
HARDCORE BACKPACKS
I’m carrying a One Polar 80 backpack I bought in China for $10. It’s been loyal to me so I’ll be loyal to it. Until it falls apart. Then I’ll get a new one. We got a great deal from Rei Outlet store on a pretty robust Victorinox backpack with removable daypack made by Swiss Army. Hopefully Sona doesn’t topple over with this one on!
It seemed like a good idea at the time. We ordered the Kelty Corona Double Capacity Sleeping Bag to keep us clean and warm in dodgy hotel rooms. As you can see, if we brought this along, there’d be nothing else for us to carry. We’re still keeping it though. We’ll bring it along next time we go on a camping trip, even if it is in the backgarden! We randomly stopped at a Big 5 in Fresno after doing a grocery run at Foodmaxx and found our replacement sleeping bags. While not as spacious and cushiony as our Kelty, these are also not as humongous. Two of these fleece Texsport sleeping bags can be zipped together and voila: double sleeping bag.
CANON 20D
I’ve had my Canon 20D for a couple years now and am thrilled with it. After our India trip, I upgraded to the full-frame Canon 5D which I am also thrilled with. As a professional wedding photographer (www.nsdphotography.com) the lenses I own are a reflection of my shooting style. I don’t do heavy lenses because that means I have to lug those mofos around. I have two flashes –the Canon 580EX and the 420EX along with the following lenses:
10-22 f/4 – Wide Angle (only works with the 20D)
50/f4 – Portrait Lens
35-135 f/4 Normal Lens
70-200 f/4 Telephoto
CANON ELPH
Sona’s nerdo brother and sister, both have the Canon ELPH. And now we do too! It’s reliable, looks sleek and takes crisp images. We have the 7.1 megapixel version and a 2GB memory card. The main draw is we can take self-portraits of the two of us without risking my fancy pants camera crashing to the ground.
SONY HDV-A1U KIT
While on the road, we didn’t want to draw attention to ourselves with a bulky video camera but we did want the image quality that a bulky video camera brings. So after lots and lots of research and deliberation, we decided to go with the super-tiny Sony HDV-A1U kit from B&H online (save the sales tax by shipping it outside of NYC). It’s perfect because its small size lets us pretend to be tourists or professionals when we feel like it. It has the gumption to mimic film by shooting HDV in 24p. The best bit is that you don’t need really expensive or hard to find tapes to shoot it on. It uses standard MiniDV! We’re using several standard ones and two Sony MiniDV tapes “designed for HDV.” We won’t get into everything brilliant about our kit here, but the lavalier mic is pretty spiffy and will come in handy for any interviews we wind up doing.
OLYMPUS DS-2300 DIGITAL VOICE RECORDER
Even though this stupidass device records in DSS format, it’s still a really handy gadget. It fits into Sona’s pocket and records pretty clearly. We use this for on the fly interviews when we don’t feel like hauling our lavalier mic with us.
MANFROTTO
For the most part, I like to run around with a camera in my hands, but every so often I’ll need a tripod for steady shots in low light or when I do family and bridal portraits. Manfrotto is the shiznit and it is for this reason we have so many of their products. The 3021 tripod and ball head are fantastic for steady shots. Sona bought a video head and monopod to attach her video-camera to so our footage doesn’t look like a crisp and professional shaky home video!
STORAGE
COMPUTER GEAR
We have two camera specific backpacks. Sona has the LowePro CompuTrekker and I have the Tamrac Cyberpack 8. Both of them can fit
our laptops too which works out well. We had to upgrade to a bigger sized bag to handle Navdeep’s super-sized 17-inch Dell, but Sona’s petite 12-inch PowerBook is very portable. Both computers are equipped with photo and video editing software, along with Final Draft in case Sona gets the urge to write. We also lug along a 500 GB hard drive for photo and video storage.
SECURITY
MONEYBELT/PASSPORT HOLDER
This is what we’re using to carry our valuables. No fannypacks or expensive leather made products for us. The orange one I bought in Nepal and the yellow one from Tibet.
MAGNA CART
Instead of paying $200 some bucks for a rolling backpack, we decided to just get a set of wheels. This can allegedly hold 150 lbs so this should do the trick to carry our camera bags at least.
LOCKS
We did look at one of those mesh net things offered by PacSafe but while it does look intimidating to the average crook, it also looks very enticing. A pair of pliers or a strong set of teeth and someone has an all access pass to our goods. Instead, we opted for a more subtle approach and are using a simple lock that came with the backpack.
INSURANCE
Initially we wanted to just add our equipment to my parents’ existing homeowners insurance but that didn’t give us a very secure feeling. They would cover it, but there were a lot of limitations. We felt like if anything did go wrong, there would be that fine print telling us that we weren’t covered. After scouring the internet, Sona and I finally decided on Safeware to insure our laptops and camera equipment. They cover everything from power surges to plain ole clumsiness, and you can decide if you want short term insurance or long term. We opted to get it for the year.
SOFTWARE
After briefly considering using template based content management systems like WordPress and Joomla, we decided to make our lives a lot more complicated by creating Ishqinabackpack.com from scratch, using Dreamweaver.
Travelogue India: It’s Almost that Time!
Sona’s list of places she’d like to see in three months, in addition to seeing her family and my family, is getting more erratic and more in lala land. And her reasons for wanting to go to places is getting more amusing. Last night, she decided she wanted to go to Dareeling because it had tea plantations and a toy train, but wanted to skip Calcutta. The spot directly before reaching this hill station is Amritsar, all the way in the North, a good 80 hour train journey. And then there’s the slight transportation issue of getting to Darjeeling directly from Amristar! Then from Darjeeling, we’re shooting off like a bullet to a houseboat in Kashmir. My hair is standing on end just thinking about it.
I’m looking forward to the trip. Three months is really not very much time to be on a trip like this, but it will be a nice way to get vagabonding into Sona’s bloodstream. There are loads of things to think about. The first and foremost is certainly where we go, and the second is how we end up traveling. I’m a true believer in the spirit of independent travel, where the mere act of being in a place does not constitute having been there. To truly experience a place involves chilling out and taking walks that can’t be included in any itinerary. But I also realize that we do have to make some form of an itinerary, or we’ll really frighten all of our family. “We’re off then. We don’t know where exactly, but we’re going to catch a train somewhere.” That would instill a lot of confidence in my qualifications as a husband!
I think we’ll end up carving out regions that we’d like to see, rather than specific places so that the trip won’t be so controlled with no margin for fun. Unless that’s also scheduled!
The one thing I am actually worried about though is this website. Time is very quickly running out, and the website sounds like a fun idea, but being on the road and having to update things using dreamweaver, editing photos, and videos while in India, also doesn’t sound fun. So hopefully, something magical will fix all of these problems in one swoop.
Many people might not want to take a year off to go backpacking and stay in hostels of varying degrees of comfort, but people like the idea of traveling. I’m excited at the prospect of travelling again, but it is taking me some time to realize it will be a very different experience. I can’t haggle down a room to 40 rupees because the bathroom is outside in a field. Or randomly decide to hop on a train because the ticket was cheap, or I liked the sound of the name “Chittangong.” When I’d get bored with the conversation or the person I was traveling with, I’d hop onto a different train or bus. I’m pretty sure Sona would not be pleased if I did that this time around! We’ve gone on short travels together. Never anything close to three months, so it’ll be an adventure seeing how we travel together as a couple, handle being grumpy on the road, manage our money, and how the different places we see and the people we meet change us.
Travelogue India: The Countdown Begins, So Much to Do and Only Three Weeks to Go!
When we booked our tickets, way back in June, this trip seemed ages away. And now, there’s less than a month left. It seems surreal to think that in three short weeks my life as I know it will end—at least for a short while. Right now, to me, the daily grind is pitching stories and interviewing the random celebrity, pretending to work on my writing, endless loads of laundry, the occasional episode of House Hunters on HGTV and making often-elaborate meals for my husband, who’s been working his ass off teaching endless English classes to make up for our time off.
In the meantime, we’ve also been doing the things that make this trip seem a bit more real. Tickets. Check. Camera. Check. Backpacks. They’ll be here any second now. And we finally ordered the sleeping bag, too. But really, it’s the slow build of this website, Navdeep painstakingly learning Dreamweaver and Flash, me dictating design and writing content, that’s making it seem real. Slowly but surely, we’re getting closer. And as we add pages, we mark off another day—or four—on the calendar. And now it’s almost time to flip the page.
For three months, it’ll be just be me and Navdeep, on the road, a different city every week, lots of new tastes, people, places to explore and absorb. It’s exhilarating, but at the moment, it still seems unreal. And though I’m really excited, it’s also kind of scary.
I keep second-guessing other goals. What if this is the right time to get that script out, as studios stockpile under the threat of a long, grueling writers’ strike? What if I should have taken that job opportunity in New York a little more seriously? What about the fact that I’m going to miss several birthdays, or a big reason to celebrate that we’ve all been waiting for? I’m stepping out of my life, but it will go charging full speed ahead without me. Britney will lose custody. Lindsay will end up in prison. (Hey, these things are breaking news when you’re in the celeb content trade.) But it’s also that Meena will move to L.A., my cousin Arun will start college (oh my God!) and my brother will get a new (fulltime, with benefits!) job. Those are the things I’ll really be missing.
But there’s something more to the fear. It’s that my world will never really be the same after this. Travel changes people—Navdeep is a vivid, shining example of that. And sure, I’ve been on a plane loads of times, seen lots of exotic countries. But I’ve never really traveled. I’ve lived a very sheltered life. And I’m sort of excited to see who this new incarnation of me is going to be. But I’m also a bit sad to be leaving the old one behind.
She was hardly perfect, but we had some good times.
And it’s also the first time Navdeep and I will really travel together besides our 10-day Puebla honeymoon. We obviously have very different styles—he’s a hardcore backpacker, while I prefer all-inclusive, if possible. Do we meet in the middle? We’re sure to have cranky moments—after all, I’m only allowed to carry two pairs of flip-flops! We’ll truly be tested by this adventure—bugs and all. But no matter what, this journey is sure to bond us together even more.
Neither of us are strangers to travel, but we are very different travelers. Navdeep can brush aside a cockroach from his food and continue eating. Sona flies into hysterics at any creepy-crawlies (real or imagined) within a ten mile radius. 
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