September 17, 2008

Anxiety Hotline!

I was surfing the website of IIT Kanpur, and found a link to the Anxiety Hotline. I felt puzzled as to why would you need a hotline for anxiety. We all know Suicide hotline or Depression hotlines, but anxiety is such a piddling little thing. Anxiety is natural; we all get it from time to time -- if it gets too bad, it's called panic.

However, a reading of the text on the link made it clear that the goal was to prevent suicides. Everyone who attended an IIT for a Bachelor degree and many those who did not are acutely aware of the tremendous stress that IIT undergraduates face; most of it arises from a huge amount of needless information that's shoved down their throats day in and day out. I knew several students who committed suicide; some were successful, some were not (they later dropped out). I remember that in the four years I was there, there was at least one suicide every calendar year.

Mental health is still taboo in India and many pretend mental disorders are genetic and signs of weakness. So, while the attempt has been made to help suicidal or depressed students cope with their C, D and F grades, the name is disingenuously benign. I am sure the intention was to make it sound less pejorative. I think you ought to call a spade a spade. Another weird aspect was that they list names of professors who can help. How many of them have been trained to deal with this? Do they know enough to identify how much help someone needs? Most Indian professors hold the view that effort succeeds. Obviously, that's often untrue.

There is too much unnecessary pressure to perform academically, and it is unhealthy. There is stress at MIT and Berkeley, but nothing compares to IITs: it's time they do something about it. MIT did something about it, and is now paying attention to how an applicant will handle the stress when on campus. The IITs should do something about it as well. Four or five suicides every year is just scandalous.

September 11, 2008

Chicken Fricassée


There is great joy in preparing food from scratch, without any artificial flavors and have it taste marvelous. One thing I cook reasonably frequently is Chicken Fricassée broadly based on the recipe by Julia Child in her seminal book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I tend to make my own tweaks, so I use black pepper because it tastes better, I use breast meat only because the thigh meat has a strong flavor that does not go well with the delicate sauce. Sometimes I add paprika for a pink dish, which is cute. I typically skip the mushroom garnish because it takes too much effort to fry mushrooms, and my kitchen is small, which means I have to fry them in batches in my largest pan, which cause a lot of spattering.

I have found it tastes best with somewhat sticky rice, like what is used for making Sushi. Even Jasmine rice is not suitable with this dish; Basmati is just too nutty. I have found that pasta does not go well with it. It is a favorite in our household, and I find it easy to make. It takes about 10 minutes to cut the vegetables and get everything ready, but from that point on, cooking continues in one pot. You have to be careful with the final egg yolk-heavy cream enrichment. If the egg yolks are heated suddenly, they curdle. That ruins the appearance of the sauce, though the taste is not affected.

For an Indian flavor, you can add clove powder, chopped almonds, raisins, cumin powder, fenugreek leaves, green cardamom and coriander in addition. Saffron strands are also something to consider, but they make the dish earthy. Please do not use curry powder, I hate recipes asking for curry powder.