So it’s February 14th today, the first day of the year of the Tiger. It also happens to be the traditional greeting card company celebration of St Valentine’s day.

Valentines day is generally the day when men out there demonstrate their undying love for the lady in their life. Apparently,  the rest of the year is not good enough to demonstrate this consumer driven emotion called love. So while we are feeling so generous on this day, perhaps I should take the opportunity of highlighting some other ladies who need some love directed their way.

I ofcourse am talking about girls and women in poor communities who are invisible to their societies and don’t get any opportunity thanks to good old fashioned oppression.

Here’s the breaking news – the overall role of women in society is very underrated. They perhaps perform more miracles on a daily basis than any other genius would. So why then do we choose to push women down in society? Why is it that the male HAS to be the alpha species?

Greg Mortenson [tweeted] a couple of days ago, about the [Girl Effect]; this is an initiative to help girls in poor communities gain education and necessary skills, which will help them raise the standard of living in their communities. You see – a woman essentially knits the community together. Traditionally she is the person to manage the household and manage the family; that would mean she is a central point to everyone from her husband, kids, parents, in-laws, and neighbours. If you could measure hard work on some scale, I think almost every woman with be on a level far superior to any equivalent male.

Perhaps this is why more than 95% of Grameen Bank’s borrowers are women [read this article]. Grameen Bank is a microfinance organisation in Bangladesh,and their business is based around disbursing loans of about USD300 on average. The reason why more loans are given to women compared to men is because under the former leadership in the country, huge emphasis was put on improving socio-economic conditions in Bangladesh, and the main driver for this was educating women in the rural or poor communities. As a result, the women have an improved belief in improving the community around them. The key driver here – education provided to the women!

After the recent earthquake in Haiti, a lot of food programs were encouraged to distribute specifically to women because they are more responsible in terms of managing, and distributing food supplies in the stricken communities. You can read more [here].

So, as you sit in front of your computer of phone screen, think about what you have done for Valentine’s day, and think about the greater good that you can do in the less fortunate communities. You can do something to help improve the situation in these communities by committing yourselves in some form to education projects, and how about starting off with Girl Effect.

Everyone in any community deserves to be loved; how about we show this by helping these folk stand side by side with each of us?!

This is a very interesting and unique point every year, when two major powers celebrate their independence day within a day of each other. Both these countries (and Bangladesh) existed as one nation under British rule, however they ended up being partitioned in 1947, initially as two and then a third state. [read more here]

Independence is achieved thanks to the visionaries, and the freedom fighters and strugglers who help establish, and govern and stabilise a nation which is going through drastic change. Once independent, there are three groups who help remain a nation maintain its independence.

First, there are the leaders; the folk who make the laws, and make sure the nation is moving forward as smooth as possible. They run the show, and call the shots.

The second group of people, are well, the people who elect the leaders generally elect the leaders into power. Their presence is immense in determining the rise and fall of the nation as a whole.

The third group of people, are the forgotten ones; they are those for whom we see unmarked graves around the world, they give their lives at every point in a nation’s history to make sure it maintains it’s sovereignty.

Very few remember OUR soldiers when independence is celebrated – let’s take this moment to change that.

Our soldiers are the pride and joy of our nation. Their numbers are not important, their bravery IS. At this point let me clarify ‘our nation’. My family hail from India; however, my heritage extends across borders through to Afghanistan. As for me – I am British.

So, my interest in ‘our nation’ extends to all three nations (Britain, India and Pakistan), and a lot of you readers know the role which our soldiers play to maintain the well being of our nations. Our soldiers are not only helping to protect our borders, but are pushing boundaries to help protect the independence of other nations too. Their role is not to fight wars, but help spread peace in volatile regions, build infrastructures, and help the ‘locals’ develop, to govern themselves.

But it all comes at a cost. A colossal cost.

How many soldiers do we sacrifice, to give peace a chance?
How many soldiers have to return in boxes, to justify a worthy cause?
They battle, they lead, they protect us though land, air and sea;
Their loved ones, with concerns in their hearts,
in every moment that they breathe

How many nations do we help build, before we look at our own?
How many soldiers have to come back and live,with prosthetics to move them on?
Our soldiers, our pride, our nation's joy,
let us decorate their achievements for each man;
Let's raise them high, for what they do, they protect us in this land;

How many of you will celebrate the independence, during these two days?
How many of you will think about even one soldier,
and their contribution to your nation while you celebrate?
The families of those who have given their lives,
will celebrate these days with their grief;
Knowing well, their children have done them proud,
the soldiers of our nations working to protect our peace.

This post is a dedication to the Mother, Father, Wife, Husband, Daughter, Son, and family members of our soldiers who are out there protecting our sovereignty and maintaining our independence. My thoughts and prayers are with you always.

I also want to dedicate this post to a special tweeter who brightens my day, everyday – her name is Callie, and is the mother to boys who are soldiers in the making. Her efforts in tweeting the support for our soldiers has definitely raised my awareness to what they do for this nation of ours.

When asked to write an article about ‘change’, the last thing I wanted to do was write something that was obvious – or had the word ‘change’ repeatedly in the first sentence. (A moot point now)

Anyhow, with everyone excited with the change of hands in the US administration and the overall feel-good that comes with the start of the year, there’s a feeling the this year will be different. Somehow. For the better. In my opinion, I do get a little irritated that the well-being of the world depends on the well-being of America. But hey – doesn’t matter if everyone ends up feeling all happy and content.

But will things really change for the better? There’s a saying I read on a mat of a cool vegetarian restaurant I ate at recently:
” An optimist sees the glass half-full. A pessimist sees the glass as half-empty. A realist knows that someone will have to wash the glass.”
As most people can see where I’m getting at, I agree with the realist. Regardless of whether this year will be better or worse, it’s up to us to make it work – ‘wash the glass’. All the crap of last year can truly be a thing of the past if we take it upon ourselves to fix the mess we got ourselves into in the first place.

But I don’t want to continue on a lecture about responsibility – I’m sure there’s enough on the web if you search hard enough. I like light and fluffy things – sounds either like food or a soft toy. I’m generally very frivolous in my posts and articles and I like it that way – although the darkness creeps in from time to time. This post might ramble on and have no meaning. That’s fine by me too. That’s how I write and think. No human being thinks like a well-written essay. That’s why you can’t write in one go. You stop, think, edit and plan your way through the word limit given. Being the nerd/geek that I am, I actually enjoyed my English exams – gave me the chance to speak my mind in an essay. No straight-lace stuff about “My Pet” or “How I Spent my Summer Vacations…”. I’d always pick the essay which had something on the lines of “Insert the following phrase into your essay”, followed by some weird sentence. Those were fun to write. My one regret was the school not letting me sit for English as a First Language and instead made me give English as a Second Language. I aced that of course – but I knew I would have aced the First Language one too. Their reasoning was: “The Cambridge examination board does not expect foreigners to pass that paper”. What BS.

I promised TJ/Cookie Monster/biscuitinabasket (take your pick) that I might include a recipe in my post. I’m a foodie and I generally add recipes on my blog from time to time (shameless plug to my blog). So, I’ll hand over a recipe (which I will re-publish on my blog after the 7PI7D is over – sorry TJ) which has ‘evolved’ over time and is a popular comfort food/weekend brunch dish in my house – well mostly just me:

• 1 pkt of hotdogs (about 10)
• 3 large potatoes, chopped into 1cm cubes
• a condiment of your choice – generally a smoky sauce like BBQ or thai chili sauce does well
• olive oil
• salt/pepper to taste
• crumbly cheese (optional)

Heat a non-stick pan and add 1-2tbs of olive oil to the pan. Add potatoes and cook until somewhat crispy and golden on the outside and is mostly cooked. While sauteing the potatoes, cut the hotdogs while frozen into very thin slices. It’s easier doing it while frozen. Once the potatoes are sauteed, add hotdogs and cook for about 5 minutes, when the hotdogs have browned somewhat and are cooked. Add about 1-2tbs of the sauce of your choice, along with salt and pepper. If using a salty cheese later, omit the salt. Cook for another minute and add cheese. Blend quickly and take pan off the heat. Serve hot with eggs or eat plain.

Now about the cheese used, this was a recent modification. I never used cheese before but got a really yummy, salty fresh cottage cheese from Dhaka. It was in a ball and had small holes, like Swiss. The consistency was that if heated, it would melt slightly, giving it a stringy appearance, but retained its shape. That’s the type of cheese I would advise to use. If you use cheddar and/or mozzarella or the melty stuff, I’d advise to add it after you take the pan off the heat. This recipe makes enough for about 4-6 people, depending on appetites and if its added as a part of big weekend brunch. It will stretch to 8 people if used in a big brunch.

My name is Mars, and my mind is ticking on The Inner Workings Of A Media Junkie