Monthly Archives: January 2009

Ineffible Hunger II: Ted’s Grill For Lunch

Did You Know?, Food, Home, , ,

Save me! Every time I  take a bite of anything these days, I wonder about the resources that went into it.

I normally don’t eat beef. I did recently. A burger and fries at Ted’s Grill. Did you know Ted Turner owns Ted’s Grill? Did you know Ted Turner owns 80% of all the Bison? As we walk into Ted’s Grill, I notice a huge Bison head mounted on the wall. It looked like a giant. There must have been 10 feet from one tip of it’s horns to the other. Impressive! It was huge! Needless to say, I set with my back to that wall and didn’t order bison from the menu…remembering the glass glare from the bison held on the wall.

When Ted Turner was asked what is it that you like about bison?

“I just, I really love them. I’m a naturalist and an environmentalist, and I was touched by the tragedy that occurred with the bison. There were 30 million of ’em on the Great Plains when the white man landed in North America. In the 1880s, there were only about 200 of ’em. I wanted to do everything I could during my life to bring them back. In order to do that you have to be able to monetize the surplus.”

What I didn’t know

about Ted Turner was that he is a huge experimentalist! In 1997 Ted Turner and his family established the Turner Endangered Species Fund as a response to the mass extinction of the world’s plants and animals. Thanks Ted.

Anyway, when the server brought my plate, I commented that the food on the plate could feed three people; and asked for a take-home-box at the beginning of my meal. I cut my burger in half and put half the burger and 3/4 of my fries in the box. Continue reading Ineffible Hunger II: Ted’s Grill For Lunch →

Jackey: Dog of India

Canines

In Pune India, about 160 kilometers southeast of the state capital, Mumbai, Suman, a widowed wife and a mother of three children, supports herself and her family by working as house help and also works in a bricklin (a place that bakes bricks).

About 25 years back her brother got her a little brown puppy to keep away thieves. The entry of the little puppy brought so much joy into their lives. They named him ”Jackey”.

Jackey Had Great Responsibility

Jackey was a puppy with a lot of responsibility. Every morning he used to follow Suman’s children to school; escort them to the gate and also escort them back from school. The children say he used to come and wait near the school gate at 6pm and time to go back home. They wonder how he knew the correct time; Jackey never came by the school at odd hours.

This was his regular duty inspite of being troubled by the stray dogs in that locality. Jackey also knew the time Suman left from the bricklin, he call on  her too. Everybody there including Suman’s master used to say ”Your joker has come to call on you.” After his dinner he used to go and wait for the arrival of Suman’s brother.

Home Cooking Feeds The Soul

He used to eat one big brown home-cooked bread with a bowl of milk and on days when Suman could not afford milk she used to give him water with sugar; he never complained. She says he ate only once during the day and if you try to feed him more, he would not eat.

Next he comes by around 6.30 for his fill and he needs to eat hot food always. As soon as he listens to the ice cream man ringing the bells he’ll pull Suman towards the van to eat ice-cream his favourite treat. Everytime he got hungry he use to open his mouth indicating that he was hungry. Continue reading Jackey: Dog of India →

Wild Horses

Animals, Horses

Wild HorsesWild Horses

“My face up against the glass. I’m looking out. Is this my life I’m wondering. It happened so fast. How do I turn this thing around. Is this the bed I chose to make. Its greener pastures I’m thinking about. Wide open spaces far away. All I want is the wind in my hair to face the fear but, not feel scared. Wild horses I wanna be like you. Throwing caution to the wind. I’ll run free too. Wish I could recklessly love, like I’m longing to. I want to run with the wild horses, run with the wild horses!

I see the girl I wanna be. Riding bare back, care free along the shore If only that someone was me. Jumping head first head long without a thought. To act and damn the consequence. How I wish it could be that easy. But fear surrounds me like a fence. I wanna break free. All I want is the wind in my hair. To face the fear but, not feel scared.

Wild horses I wanna be like you. Throwing caution to the wind, I’ll run free too. Wish I could recklessly love, like I’m longing to. I wanna run with the wild horses, run with the wild horses!

I wanna run too. Breathlessly abandoning my self before you. I wanna open up my heart tell him how I feel. Wild horses I wanna be like you
Throwing caution to the wind. I’ll run free too. Wish I could recklessly love, like I’m longing to. I wanna run with the wild horses, run with the wild horses!

I wanna run with the wild horses.”

– Natasha Bedingfield Lyrics


Ineffable Hunger: Starving for Purpose

Food, Home

There is an ineffable hunger in each of us that food just doesn’t reach. Yet we keep stuffing ourselves: we live in a nation of obesity; 32% of United States children are overweight; 60% of the Australia population is overweight; making the Aussies the number one obese country and the U.S. a close second.

Starving for Purpose

Why do we eat and eat and never seem to fill our hunger? My answer may be a bit hard to swallow. I believe the human species, with our ability to think, has an inexplicable purpose. How can the unexplainable be explained? How can the indescribable be described? What does purpose have to do with starving?

Wolves On The Run

I believe we are ‘Starving for Purpose’; looking for any and all morsels of food to fill this emptiness. The answer to this ‘ineffable hunger’, came to me in the early morning hours. I lay unable to sleep; images of wolves running through the tundra of Alaska to escape aerial hunters kept filling my mind. How can I stop the images? The cruelty?How can a woman, the Governor of Alaska, condemn these angel beasts to die?

Then my mind is filled with images of wild horses being killed and slaughtered to make room for more beef cattle; the United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM) believes this is necessary; as if we need more burgers!

Continue reading Ineffable Hunger: Starving for Purpose →