Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Meat Lasagna

Ingredients

6 pasta sheets
1 small brinjal
3 tbsp butter
1/2 cup grated cheddar/mozarella cheese
Salt to taste

For the meat mix:
250 gram minced mutton
3 medium tomatoes
2 tsp tomato ketchup
1 finely chopped onion
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sugar
chopped parsley leaves
salt and chilly flakes to taste

For the white sauce:
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
1 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Place the pasta sheets individually in boiling water and simmer till soft. Heat 2 tbsp butter and add the brinjal in the pan. Sprinkle salt and fry till half-cooked. For the white sauce, mix molten butter and flour and mix well so that no lump are formed. Place it on the flame and add the milk. Stir continuously and add salt and pepper to taste. Cook till it comes to a boil.
For the meat mix, heat olive oil and the the chopped onion to it. Fry till it becomes translucent. Add the minced meat and cook for a while. Pour the tomato puree made out of the three tomatoes. Add salt, chilly flakes, sugar and tomato ketchup. Cook for 20 minutes. Add parsley leaves in the end.
Preheat the oven for ten minutes. Grease the baking dish with olive oil. Place 2 pasta sheets at the base of dish. Cover partially with meat mix, brinjal, white sauce and at last with cheese. Repeat the process twice and place it in the oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
Serve hot.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Everybody loves Gaga

My theory is that- everybody either already has or eventually will fall in love with Stefani "Lady Gaga" Germanotta. Lady Gaga known for her unconventionality, has horrendous fashion sense (Lady Gaga wearing her famous meat dress is stark evidence) and her music videos are plain outrageous. Also, she has been in the limelight for quite some time because of the controversial themes of her singles. Despite all this, she has been the apple of every young individual's eyes and just at 25, she's become more popular than Madonna or JLo. I guess, it's her bizarreness that make people go nutty as a fruitcake for her.

Since her very first single 'Poker Face', Gaga has been invincible. And though she's in second place among the most popular music artists on Facebook (Rihanna's on first), I like her more. All her songs have a very strong theme and many can relate to them. For example: 'Bad Romance' talks about her failed relationships. 'Just Dance' is a very happy song and is the ideal one to be played when you're having a hard day. 'Judas' hints about Lady Gaga being in love with someone who is/has been unfaithful to her, taking Judas, Jesus's disloyal disciple as reference.

My personal favorite is 'Born this way' because of the lyrics (Lady Gaga supposedly designs her clothes by herself and writes her lyrics on her own). It encourages everyone to be confident in who they are irrespective of their religion, race, physical appearance or orientation. I especially love the following lines:

"There's nothing' wrong with loving' who you are
She said, 'cause He made you perfect, babe
So hold your head up, girl and you'll go far
Listen to me when I say

I'm beautiful in my way
'Cause God makes no mistakes
I'm on the right track, baby
I was born this way!"

I don't know about others but I love Gaga!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Should Euthanasia be legalised?

Funny thing- In the past, when I wasn't aware of the term 'Euthanasia', I used to wonder why mercy killing is called 'Youth in Asia'. Funnier thing- I have observed that this phenomenon is most common among 'youth in Asia', so in a way, I was never really wrong. On a more serious note, should Euthanasia or mercy-killing be legalised?

On medical terms, euthanasia has been defined as the deliberate intervention undertaken with the express intention of ending a life, to relieve intractable suffering. So my verdict is that- only voluntary euthanasia should be decriminalised ie. only those individuals who themselves want to end their life should have the right to carry out such abnegation. E.g. A paralysed man who has lost all hopes of moving any part of his body except his head or a cancer patient with malignant carcinoma which is nowhere near recovery or an AIDs patient who has been condemned by the society and both pains-physical and mental, is unbearable, would rather prefer to die than to live.

Currently Euthanasia is considered as criminal homicide. It may be so for cases of non-voluntary euthanasia, namely child euthanasia or honour killing when two individuals in love are killed by their own family members if they are of different castes or same gotra of the same sub-caste. But for cases like those mentioned above, most certainly not!!