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When I met Gary and George

Our writer had a ringside view of Masterchef Australia’s Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris doing the judging – in Mumbai!
by Pooja Palani

“Indian food has still not made that niche that it deserves in Australia as yet. Indians should come up with more variety in their cooking internationally. There are very few famous Indian restaurants in Australia,” he said. Then he added, “I love the flavours in Indian food, I love the spices that dominate Indian recipes.  The only thing I miss in the Indian food we get in Australia is the ethnicity.”

I was speaking to Gary Mehigan. And George Calombaris. Of Masterchef Australia. In person. In Mumbai.

I was at an event where Gary and George were judges for food cooked by the Kohinoor International Management Institute’s School of Hospitality Management students, for the Oz fest conducted by the Australian consulate General Mumbai at Hotel Kohinoor Elite. The popular duo was more than friendly, and very encouraging of the food presented to them.

Admitting that they were “amazed” with the food put up for their judging, they spent a long while telling the students how to improve on certain aspects of their cooking. Given George’s track record of breaking into a big sweat when eating anything spicy, I waited to see how he would react to the tandoori chicken. But surprisingly, he was very happy with it, and when I suggested that he was probably ‘bazzled’ (his favourite word, that he uses freely on Masterchef Australia), he broke into laughter. “You’ve been watching the show!” he exclaimed.

When asked about their judging style on Masterchef, Gary said, “We don’t believe in de-motivating students by shouting and demoralising them, unlike other celebrity chefs like Gordon Ramsey.” Ouch.

The two also tried their hand at making naan in the hotel’s tandoor, apart from being very impressed with jalebis and rabri, which the students served for dessert. George even said he would include the dishes in his restaurant in Australia. I asked him about Matt Preston, the third portly component of their famous trio, and who is very familiar with Mumbai street food. “Yeah, I really miss him in today’s food fest,” he said.

A student asked about international audiences’ expectations of Indian food and how it should be presented. Gary simply said, “Be aesthetic and traditional. The food should be served and eaten the way it is traditionally done at home. There is no need to add frills and fancy to the dish if it doesn’t demand it,” here he picked up a drumstick wrapped in foil, considerately served that way so nobody would get their hands dirty. “The recipe should do the talking,” he said.

I wanted to know more about Indian influences on Australian food – which, curiously, is not an identifiable cuisine but a mix of several cultures – having been in Australia myself for a year. “India is an important trading partner for Australia, and there are many Indians living in Australia for several generations,” Gary explained. “But Australia is a multicultural country, it has a bit of an Indian influence in the cooking style. For example, the barbeque is very widely used to cook in Australia, as well as in India, but here you just call it a tandoor.” Both the men spoke at length about how Masterchef Australia had been a stepping stone for many of the Indian contestants who were in the show.

“It’s great, how we get to taste various cuisines. But Indian food should get more publicised in Australia, like the other Asian cuisines like Thai, Chinese and Vietnamese food. We want Indian street food to go international. I am a big fan of south Indian food and I wish they start dosa bars in my country,” said Gary. George, on the other hand, loves the buttery garlic naans and parathas.

George could barely contain his glee as he explained his tour itinerary. “We are very excited to try the street food of Mumbai and Delhi. I am waiting to have the chicken bhuna masala and the mutton seekh kebabs from Bademiya and Khan Baba’s,” he grinned. The media asked if they would be visiting again, to which both men said they would come whenever invited. “Follow us on Twitter, you can suggest great foodie joints for us!”George said. After Mumbai, the duo were set for a tour comprising Delhi and Bangalore as well.

Overall, I had the greatest time. And it was made all the more better when I smiled at George, and he winked at me!

(Pictures by Pooja Palani)

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Corporate Mumbai is sick of its bosses

A majority of employees are quitting their jobs because of bad bosses; workers from 18 sectors participate in national survey.
by The Diarist | thediarist@themetrognome.in

You’re not overreacting if you’re thinking of doing your boss a grievous injury. Or at the very least, thinking of quitting your current job for another, where the boss won’t be an ogre. You can take heart in knowing that many in the country agree with you on this.

In a nationwide survey conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce (ASSOCHAM) in the Indian metros of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai, and other major cities like Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Pune, Chandigarh and Dehradun, and with over 200 employees from the corporate sector interviewed from each survey centre, it emerged that “69 per cent of corporate employees who quit their jobs complained about the indifferent attitude of their bosses or immediate supervisor while the remaining moved to a new position in the same company.” The survey was released to coincide with Boss Day on October 12.

As per a release from ASSOCHAM, the survey targeted corporate employees from 18 broad sectors, with the maximum share contributed by employees from the IT/ITes sector (17 per cent).

Employees working in engineering and telecom sector contributed 9 per cent and 8 per cent respectively in the questionnaire. Nearly 6 per cent of the employees belonged from market research/KPO and media background each.

Around 42 per cent of the employees surveyed claimed to have been a victim of workplace bullying, and almost 56 per cent said that they were currently being bullied by their bosses. The survey also found public sector workers were most likely to experience workplace bullying (48 per cent), followed by PSU (37 per cent) and others (15 per cent). Around 62 per cent of the respondents said that they have an abusive boss, who indulges in such behaviours as humiliating and insulting employees or isolating them from co-workers.

The survey also revealed that bad bosses also led to employees’ health problems. Most of the respondents said they were moving jobs because of management, supervisors or the general work environment of the company (56 per cent), career advancement or promotional opportunities (24 per cent), while 12 per cent said that they “felt like a misfit” in their current organisation. Much smaller percentages of respondents claimed to have quit because of flexibility or scheduling (6 per cent) or job security (2 per cent).

(Picture courtesy www.mensfitness.com)

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My friend in Pakistan

Second leg of Indo-Pakistan school-level project kicks off in both countries today, two Mumbai schools participate in the year-long initiative.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Nobody has pen friends any more. A pity, considering that the value of a word written on a sheet of paper, and read in another country, is much, much higher than a tweet or a post on your friend’s Facebook wall. And if your friend is in Pakistan, and is a person you have never seen before – you may not even know his name – receiving a letter from across the border, and sending your own, in turn, must make the effort extra special.

Children in five Delhi and Mumbai schools experienced this thrill last year, when they wrote to (and received) letters from unknown friends from Pakistan. Letters soon gave way to scrapbooks, scrapbooks made way for video recordings of elders who remembered pre-partition India and Pakistan and spoke lovingly of old friends and relatives now lost to geographical and political boundaries. All of these activities were undertaken by two NGOs – Routes-to-Roots from Delhi and Citizens Archive of Pakistan (CAP) – which coordinated the children’s efforts and ensured that material reached both countries seamlessly.

Mumbai kicks off the second leg of the programme, titled ‘Exchange for Change’ today at Malabar Hill, where actor Juhi Chawla formally inaugurates the programme. This time, the programme is designed around four projects – ‘Letters to the past’, under which children from both countries will speak to their grandparents to understand what life was like before 1947, a ‘Photography series’, under which students will exchange postcards depicting what their lives are like in their countries, ‘Oral history’, under which students share DVDs and create scrapbooks of their perception of life across the border, and finally, ‘Videos’, which will be shot before and after the project to record the students’ expectations of the project; select videos will also be combined and shared across the border.

The participating schools from Mumbai are Adarsha Vidyalaya from Chembur, and Amulak Amichand Bhimji Vividhlakshi Vidyalaya from Matunga. This time around, teachers will also participate in the activity, especially in ‘Letters to the past’, where they will write to Pakistani teachers.

Said Routes-to-Roots founder Tina Vachani, “With a positive response to our first programme (last year), we look forward to Exchange For Change 2012-2013 which will connect many more children, schools and cities this time. We endeavour to spread peace and friendship between the two nations through this project where 3,500 school children with their families and friends shall be involved. We are also creating alumni for the participatory schools from last project, so that students and teachers are still part of it.”

Exchange for Change is a 12-month information exchange programme between Karachi-Mumbai, Lahore-Delhi and Chandigarh-Rawalpindi that involves secondary school children who study in two low-income schools and two medium-income schools. Students in Delhi, Chandigarh and Mumbai who rarely have a connection with those in Pakistan will be encouraged to develop a relationship with their counterparts in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Karachi through sustained exchanges, while building an alternate sense of identity and awareness, as well as have a better understanding of their shared history and culture.

The programme aims for children from both countries to interact with each other through sustained dialogue and frequent exchange of informative material. Tina adds, “The next generation of Indians and Pakistanis increasingly view each other enemies. With barely any citizen-to-citizen contact it is easy to fall prey to the propaganda that is preached on either side. This project is designed to make students understand that there is little or no difference between their lives and the lives of those across the border. We hope that by the end of the project, there will be a marked difference in the way students approach India-Pakistan ties.”

(Picture courtesy: www.timesofummah.com)

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More breast cancer cases in Mumbai

…as compared to the rest of Maharashtra, say city-based doctors. But awareness of the disease has also gone up significantly.
by The Diarist | thediarist@themetrognome.in

A survey commissioned by a private firm in Mumbai to understand breast cancer symptoms and treatment awareness among women has revealed some interesting results – and put Mumbai in a spot. For, while just a small sample size of women was tested in Powai, doctors reflecting on the survey findings reveal that Mumbai women are increasingly under risk of developing breast cancers, sometimes in both breasts.

Said Dr Dinesh Pendharkar, consultant medical oncologist, SL Raheja Hospital, Mahim, “In Indian metros, breast cancer has already tops the list of women cancers. Breast cancer is three times higher in urban areas compared to rural. If the age-adjusted rates of breast cancer incidence in Mumbai are estimated to be around 29.3 per 1,00,000 population, then in rural Barshi district of Maharashtra, the same figure stands at a low value of 9.4 per 1,00,000. This clearly tells about the impact of life style change on the incidence of cancer.”

The survey methodology was simple: 375 women in the Hiranandani Gardens area of Powai, Mumbai, participated in the survey conducted by International Oncology Services Pvt. Ltd from January to February this year. The participating women had to fill out a questionnaire and give written consent of their participation. Questions ranged from ‘Have you ever visited a breast specialist?’, to ‘Have you got your mammography done within a year?’, and from ‘Do you know at what age breast cancer is more common?’ to ‘Do you think you are at risk?’ There was also a risk factor analysis done for each of the participants.

The results were startling, to say the least: about 79 per cent of women surveyed had never visited a breast specialist. Nearly 33 per cent had not undergone a mammography in a year, but a big 51 per cent were aware that having breast cancer did not always necessitate removal of the breast(s). Meanwhile, 71 respondents qualified for a consultation with a breast doctor on the basis of their risk factor analyses, and six of these women turned out to be candidates for surgery.

Said Dr Neeraj Mehta, business head, International Oncology Services Pvt. Ltd, “One of the major problems is the delay in diagnosing breast cancer. Only if you take regular breast cancer examination will you be able to get it rectified quickly.” He added that breast cancer has been rapidly increasing in urban women, compared to women in rural areas. “Late marriages, stress, irregular lifestyle, diet and pollution can lead to breast cancer, and all of these abound in the urban areas,” he said.

Dr Sanjay Sharma, President of the Breast Cancer Foundation of India, and Surgical Oncology at Bombay and Lilavati Hospitals, said, “The incidence of breast cancer is rising in every country of the world, but especially in developing countries such as India. The incidence of breast cancer varies between urban and rural women; in Mumbai it is about 27 new cases per 1,00,000 women per year, while in rural Maharashtra it is only eight per 1,00,000. Also, the age-group of cancer affected patients is shifting from the late 40s to early 30s.” He added that about five per cent of breast cancers were hereditary; typically, these families had many members fall victim to the disease, which tends to occur at a relatively young age and often affects both breasts.

Doctors advise that apart from regular check-ups with a doctor, women can self-examine their breasts for lumps or any hardness, or an unusual discharge.

 

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Malnourished in Mumbai

Severely underweight children in the city’s slum pockets in Shivajinagar, Dharavi and Mankhurd add to the already dismal malnourishment figures.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

For long, we’ve considered malnutrition to be a rural problem, far removed from the complexities of urban life. So it comes as a bit of a shock to know that, despite the government’s assurances of working on curbing malnutrition, an urban centre like Mumbai has over 4,500 children falling under the malnourished category. What’s more, Mumbai ranks higher than other urban centres in the state with regards to percentage of malnourished children.

As per the latest government figures for June 2012, released by the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme, which is set up under the Women and Child Welfare Development, Government of Maharashtra, out of a total 2,50,662 children weighed across the ICDS’ aanganwadi network in Mumbai, 4,648 children are severely underweight. The highest numbers come from Shivajinagar, where 511 out of a total 19,152 children surveyed were severely underweight, followed by Kanjurmarg (236 out of 12,122), Mahim, (277 out of 15,456), Andheri-3 (225 out of 12,398) and Mankhurd (192 out of 15,119).

It must be noted that the ICDS has not yet achieved 100 per cent coverage in Mumbai, and the figures disclosed through the June 2012 report may be only a part of the actual figures. Naturally, this means that these figures are indicative of only those children enrolled in the government outreach programme.

The ICDS’ main aim is to improve the health status of children in the age group of zero to 6 years. The aanganwadis are set up in slum pockets to monitor children as well as expectant and new mothers. A report is compiled for all aanganwadi reach and results, apart from data culled from local NGOs. An official from the Women and Child Welfare Department, Government of Maharashtra, said that there was actually an improvement in the figures. “If you compare the figures for June 2011 with the figures culled in June this year, you will see that there is a 10 per cent improvement, in the sense that there is a 10 per cent increase in the numbers of ‘normal’ children weighed,” he told The Metrognome.

Meanwhile, an official from the Rajmata Jijau Mother-Child Health and Nutrition Mission, which takes stock of the ICDS figures and monitors the progress in the affected areas, told The Metrognome, “We visited the Shivajinagar area because the maximum number of severely underweight children were found there. There are a number of reasons for the high incidence in this category – the slums are in the worst condition, there is inadequate sanitation, the water lines are adjacent to gutters, there is no system to remove wastes. Plus, there is a huge migrant population residing there, with their own set of problems – no documentation and little awareness of health and hygiene. We did a micro-project there for five days to determine how to tackle the issue better,” he said.

A major roadblock to immediately treating the children in the moderately underweight to the more ‘dangerous’ severely underweight category, he added, is that the Centre’s funds for malnourished children are earmarked for rural areas and not urban pockets. “However, we have approached private companies who have agreed to help certain pockets which require intervention. Also, we will be setting up centres at Shivajinagar, Dharavi and Mankhurd, the training for which has already taken place. Also, after April 1 next year, the Centre has decided to release funds for urban areas as well, so that should make things easier.”

What do you think the government should do to reduce and eliminate malnutrition from the city? Write in with your views to the editor@themetrognome.in and we will forward them to the Women and Child Welfare Department, Government of Maharashtra.

(Picture courtesy: www.footprintsworld.com)

 

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Train man

Ketan Goradia plans to decongest the Railways and save lives. Good news is, the Railways are receptive to his ideas.
by Vrushali Lad | vrushali@themetrognome.in

Ketan Goradia (38) is not a railway engineer, he has had no formal training in how the Indian Railways work, and up till now, he had no idea of the level of persistence one requires to pursue government officials. But the Vile Parle resident, a civil engineer, has drawn up a set of comprehensive, workable plans to decongest the Western, Central and Harbour railway lines, which will save lives, prevent access to freeloaders and increase the capacity of all three lines by 100 per cent. What is heartening for him, is that the state’s chief minister is willing to let him make a 30-minute presentation, explaining the plans and their costs, to the Railway Board this week.

“Two years ago, I was travelling by train to Kalamboli, when a man fell out of the crowded train after Kurla and died on the tracks. I will never forget that sight,” Ketan recalls, adding that the incident shook him out of the complacency that most Mumbaikars are cursed with – that of thinking, ‘Bad things happen to other people’. “I wondered – what if it was me, who fell out of the crowded train and died? The Railways say that at least eight lives are lost due to train-related deaths every day. I thought I should study the problem and see if there was any solution.”

A voracious reader, Ketan set about studying the Railways’ existing plans and how tracks were laid, apart from commuters’ usage patterns. “Within a few months, I drew up a plan to decongest Churchgate and CST stations. The idea was to connect the Central and Western railways by a tunnelled network. We studied the timetables and which stations had the most congestion in peak hours. There was also a proposal to have a circular elevated Harbour line. All of these measures would reduce commuter congestion and most importantly, prevent deaths while crossing tracks.”

He contends that people cross tracks as “a matter of convenience” to get from one line to another, or to access another platform quickly. “Hence, it is necessary to prevent access to the tracks in the first place. We showed the proposal to the then Railways minister Dinesh Trivedi and railway board member (for Traffic) KK Shrivastav, who both said the plan was workable. I was sent to local railway engineers. But throughout, the feedback I got was that the Maharashtra government would have to pitch in with some percentage of the funds for the project. So I met then Chief Secretary Ratnakar Gaikwad, who said that the state would chip in with 50 per cent of the funds but that the proposal would have to come through the Indian Railways,” Ketan says.

Then Mamata Banerjee replaced Trivedi and the plan fell by the wayside. “But I was still studying the issue, still meeting with officials in Delhi and Maharashtra. I was lucky that I knew people who could connect me with the top officials in both governments and the Railways, or else I may not have been granted a meeting also. If I had gone from the bottom to the top of the hierarchy, I would have been stonewalled at each step,” he says.

Ketan also met a lot of ex-Railwaymen, who gave him inputs and shared their delight that somebody was doing the things that the Railways should have been doing. “I studied world Railway systems, especially the one at Hong Kong, which has the capacity of carrying 80,000 people per hour, per line coming and going. In our context, this was possible only with a metro line. The present trains were not up to the mark, even the signalling was not perfect. A few motormen told me that they literally cry every time they run over a person, but what could they do? At present, the train can stop only after 180 metres once the brakes are applied. If a person suddenly appears in front  of the train and the brakes are immediately applied, they are still going to run over the person,” he explains.

He came up with two solutions to the problem – one, isolate the system in such a way that people cannot get on to the tracks, and two, the platforms should be designed in such a way that they don’t feel the need to cross from one to the other. “We drew plans where the trains were unidirectional, and not going from fast to slow tracks, which disturbs the overall efficiency. In all, we drew up plans for 20 new lines for all of Mumbai, which would make the city the largest metro system in the world, greater even that Shanghai. This would necessitate the creation of underground stations and new stations, as well as a complete overhaul of some parts of the system.” (See ‘What some of the proposals say’ below for some of the proposals).

His other findings were that the Central Railway suburban services were functioning at a maximum 23 per cent capacity, the Western at 32 per cent and the Harbour at 27 per cent. “Unless these peak efficiencies were increased, we would continue to grapple with problems of congestion,” he explains.

“I have met the Chief Minister, finance minister Jayant Patil and Supriya Sule, several officials of MRVC, the Railway Board, and all of this was possible due to the efforts of legistlator Vidya Chavan, who got me meetings with politicians. The CM has said that he will let me make a 30-minute presentation when the Railway Board visits the state on Monday (October 15). He is very receptive to the idea, and so is MMRDA, which granted me two hours for a presentation last week, so I am hopeful that the plans will be put into operation.”

He says that he is not looking for credit, and he doesn’t mind that his plans had to be formally proposed by the Railways. “As long as somebody – anybody – takes up the matter and tries their best to increase the efficiency of the system, we will not lose precious lives and time while using the Railways,” he says.

What some of the proposals say:

– Phase I will increase capacity of all three lines by 100 per cent. This will take two to three years.

– Phase II will allow metro and local train services to increase connectivity to the new areas of Thane district like Kaman Road, Kharbao and Bhiwandi, and areas in Raigad district around Nhava Sheva, Uran, Panvel on Panvel-Kalamboli-Diva route, etc. The Railways will coordinate with the state government, BMC, MMRDA and CIDCO, to create an integrated road-rail-metro system to ensure that the need for at least 15 years of integrated mass transport requirement is taken care of.

– Station upgradation with modern facilities and aesthetics.

– One wholesale-cum-retail market to be added to each station for each category of goods to leverage Mumbai’s present strength as a wholesale market.

– Creating a new world-class common terminus near Kaman road station for out-station trains, which will allow trains of WR, CR, Konkan Railway and south-bound trains to leave from this common terminus and provide greater efficiency.

– Hydraulic train doors and air-conditioning.

(Train picture courtesy mumbai.jbss.in)

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