Masterchef Australia

MASTERCHEF Australia. Nowadays whenever I switch on TV, I find this show on telecast, be it 2 pm after my lunch, 6 pm while I have my evening snack or 9:30 pm after my dinner. And considering that there is not much on TV worth-watching, I settled to give an episode of this ornamented show a try, though I myself am not very interested in cooking.

But what I did get to watch was somehow hilarious. Two good people, (namely George and Gary I gathered) were dressed in white coats and presumably chefs, were preparing Indian flatbread with at-aa (means ‘atta’ – wheat flour), I thought this must be our dear Indian Roti.

Now for people reading this who are not aware how roti is made in Indian households, the following is a summary of the process.

Add water to the atta.

Knead the dough.

Make small balls from the dough.

Roll out each small ball into a circular disc.

Compress them on a hot pan.

Now I am coming to the funny part how the chefs on the show prepared them.

They used egg-milk mix instead of water to make the dough. Poor Indian vegetarians would get a heart-attack at that! Then, they used a knife to cut the balls from the dough! Now comes the part where they were most unsuccessful. Rolling out the balls were not made into circular discs but oval, oblong etc. shaped. Basically the shape tremendously looked like Ma Kali’s tongue… Now sesame seeds were sprinkled on them. And they were kind of tandoored on oiled pans. The flatbread actually went beyond the boundaries of the pan! Then I started thinking may be they actually were making Naan, but that is more of an Afghan dish than Indian. Moreover, naan is made from white flour not atta. So whatever it was they made was enjoyed by them. But I was rolling on the floor laughing. If Gary or George had been preparing these in front of a bunch of Indians (not NRIs) they would have got at least some FEEDBACK. A daughter in an Indian household would get her ear pinched very properly if she made roti/naan this way. But they are chefs, far away in Australia, so they are safe. :D

Jai Ho......

The first movie of 2009 to bring A.R.Rahman’s music is Delhi-6. May or may not remind one of chandni chowk, but the sleepy tunes seem to go with the characters and the situations. ‘Arziyan’ a more lively track , is a heart touching prayer song.
Another Deepa Mehta film after Water for which Rahman is scoring the music is Exclusion. It is a true tale of one of the most notorious ‘incidents’ in the history of exclusion laws in Canada, designed to keep out immigrants of Asian origin.
Also on Rahman’s 2009 list is Ashutosh Gowarikar’s comedy ‘Whats your rashee’ starring Harman Baweja and Priyanka Chopra; its story revolves around a young Gujrati man wanting to marry within 10 days!
Then there is Kajri based on the true and shameful incident of 4th February 2002.
Mani Ratnam’s next(s) and Rajnikanth’s next(s) are obviously in the pipeline.
Rahman has always been offering off-beat kind of music from time to time, be it Guru, Water or even Ghajini.
So, here is wishing dear A.R.Rahman all the VERY BEST not only for 2009 but also for Slumdog Millionaire at the Oscars. My vote however goes for the spunky number “O…Saya” where the drums are unbelievable and a sound reminding of a running train has become musical!