Some of our best childhood memories are of eating Sundal.

Sundal at home. Sundal at the neighbors. Sundal at the Marina Beach in Chennai, Sundal in Chidambaram, Sundal in Pondicherry, Sundal in Vridhachalam, Sundal at the temple, Sundal everywhere.

More a snack than a main course, Sundal is not restricted to Tamil Nadu. In Karnataka, they have a version called Usli.

Tired of writing and reading about Indian dads in India raping their daughters or Indian dads in the U.S. shooting their children, we sought some relief from an old friend – Sundal.

Sundal comes in different forms. What we are enjoying today as we write this post is Black Channa Sundal.

Here’s our recipe for Black Channa Sundal:

1) 1 cup boiled Black Channa (if you are using raw channa, soak overnight and boil for 20 minutes)
2) 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
3) 1/4 cup finely chopped tomato
4) 5 to 6 curry leaves

We are watching the 2007 movie Next (Nicholas Cage, Julianne Moore, Jessica Biel, Thomas Kretschmann et al).

This time, instead of ordering the DVD we are watching via Netflix’ online instant play service through the Roku box.

New Zealand film maker Lee Tamahori directed the movie.

We’ll update this post after we finish watching the movie.

Update:

Next is not a bad movie but no great shakes either.

The fast-paced movie starts off well but loses steam in the last 30 minutes or so.

(inspired by what_if and an expanded version of our response)

What’s wrong with Indian Dadas oops Dads?

Horrific reports have come out recently that a growing number of Indian dads are going about raping their young daughters in India.

But what is less known is that there are disturbing incidents of Indian dads in the U.S. shooting young children.

The first shooting incident happened in October 2008 in the Los Angeles suburb of Porter Ranch. Karthik Rajaram shot and killed his three young sons (ages: 19, 12 and 7), wife and mother-in-law before finally turning the gun on himself.

Two days back, there came gruesome reports of another Indian dad

I am a law-abiding citizen

- Sanjay Dutt, the convict, former drug addict and Bollywood actor

(Source: Times of India)

To most desis, the name Atul Gawande would not ring a bell (how would it, you do have to pay for the New Yorker magazine. After all, it’s not free like the Redbox DVDs, NYT online edition or the SearchIndia.com blog).

But Atul Gawande is no stranger to the readers of this fine blog. The bloke is a doctor and currrently Associate Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School and General and Endocrine Surgeon at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Dr. Gawande has yet another fine piece in the latest issue of New Yorker (March 30, 2009).

This time, the focus of Atul Gawande’s article is the pernicious practice of solitary confinement of prisoners on a large scale in America.

Dr.Atul Gawande
(Pic: Brigham & Women’s Hospital)

Atul Gawande argues convincingly that extended solitary confinement of human beings in prison is nothing but torture because of the serious damage to the prisoners like brain impairment (as bad as in the case of traumatic head injury), slowing of brave waves, hallucinations, panic attacks, irrational anger, chronic depression and lethargy, difficulty in maintaining social interaction after release et al.

Gawande starts off his lengthy piece stating:

Human beings are social creatures. We are social not just in the trivial sense that we like company, and not just in the obvious sense that we each depend on others. We are social in a more elemental way: simply to exist as a normal human being requires interaction with other people. [P.36, New Yorker, March 30, 2009].

According to Gawande, 25,000 inmates are in isolation in supermax prisons in the U.S. and another 50,000-80,000 in restrictive segregation units, with many of them in isolation (P.42, New Yorker, March 30, 2009).

Just returned from Redbox having picked up Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead.

A favorite of the critics, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead features Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei and Albert Finney in key roles.

Sidney Lumet is the director.

Released in January 2008, the movie didn’t do that well at the box office. The movie brought in $25.61 million worldwide.

Wiki describes the movies as a crime-drama-thriller.

We’ll update this post, post-watching.

Update:
This is a lovely movie with top-notch acting and a story that holds your attention throughout.