Idli Steamer

idli steamer- through ages

IDLIs

            The origin of the favourite breakfast item, ‘idli’ (sometimes spelt with a fancy ‘y’) is not known. The name is said to have its origin in the Tamil phrase ‘ittu avi’ (ittu-‘laid’ or ’kept’ and avi- ‘steam cook’ i.e.  ‘kept or laid steam cooked’)

 

             It is logical to surmise it is a simplified variant of the ‘Kanchipuram idli’

(or kudalai idli – name based on the  flower basket of bamboo thatch and leaves used to steam cook the dough). For centuries, the preparation was confined to temples, especially in North Tamil Nadu, where these idlis provided an all-time, any-time alternative to other offerings that were plain rice based and had an advantage in terms of some keeping qualities, remaining fresh up to another day, a boon for many pilgrims. Also the idlis were wholesome in terms of carbohydrates, proteins and fat content.

  

            The dough is a ground, wet- mix of rice, urad dhal kept fermented through over night storage. It is then spiced with jeera, pepper, salt, chopped dry ginger topped with a generous helping of pure ghee, This mixture, is poured to fill a few bamboo knit flower baskets- small cylinders of 4-5” dia and a foot long, open only at the top- These are kept hung inside a huge earthen pot that is filled with some water to generate the steam needed to cook the dough inside the porous baskets, The pot had a lid with holes that can be plugged or kept open to regulate the steam.

   

              To day’s idli is a simplified version for popular consumption, sumptuous enough and easy on the purse. Mass consumption, basically as a breakfast item happened as a result of commercial activity and urbanization in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries that encouraged the ‘tiffin’ ( fillers between meals) habit. Coupled with coffee drinking, promoted by many coffee- clubs (primitive restaurants) idlis were actively supported by the growing urban middle class. Politics or poetry, movies or music, career or counseling- every thing got lined up over a plate of steaming idlies and hot coffee. So much so that   idli habit got spread as an all time safe refreshment – a day long affair in Nandyal-AP ( ‘Idly Ramiah’ as the joint was fondly known) to a 24 hour mass ritual in the business areas of Madurai.

 

                 As the main item is an ever-green formula (some sanctity and respect got attached to this fluffy white entity), the sizes vary these days, from the ‘big brothers’ in Andhra to the ‘mini-idlis’ in some urban cities. The side dishes have also come a long way. Originally the fare was confined to a coconut-gram mix chutney, sambhar ( usually with onions) and some chilly-dhal in gingely oil paste, Now you get some variety of chutneys and powders– mint, coriander, tomato and dhal, you name it you get it!       

 

              The utensils varied in shape and make according to consumption. From earth pots to brass cauldrons and iron pans to cozy stainless steel containers. The vital unit, the trays with shallow, hemi-spherical pits with perforations/ holes to allow steam percolation have not changed in shape. Years ago, wet cloth was spread over the pits to facilitate easy removal, but now light greasing of the trays does the trick.

 

                 Left over idli dough, further fermented, needed dilution and hence got converted as ‘oothappams’. Further refinements in the dough led to the ‘dosas’ that have become  popular, so popular that a new genre of non-vegetarian fare has appeared, but that is another story altogether- a biography with more ‘masala’, one would tend to muse.   

references and acknowledgements:

>http://www.ifood.tv/recipe/idli_and_dosa_a_south_indian_treat_part_1

>http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/ET_Cetera/Idli_saga_A_study_into_the_origin_of_the_idly.Idli - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia>

> Mr. veera vijaya raghagavan and his mom from chennai who is a treasure trove of information

Pressure Cooker

One of the most commonly seen appliance seen in the Indian kitchen is the pressure cooker.It has brought about a radical change in the lives of homemakers and chefs since its introduction.The higher temperature causes the food to cook faster; e.g., cooking times can be reduced by 70 percent.Since pressure cooking depends on the production of steam, the process cannot easily be used for methods of cooking that produce little steam, such as roasting pan frying and deep frying. People claim that the pressure cooker is easy to cook with in comparison to other modern gadgets - it is certainly versatile. Pressure cookers can be used to prepare a wide variety of different recipes, covering most cooking styles and foods. Also more than one preparation can be done in it simultaneously. It is truly a boon in the kitchen.

Pressure cooking is a method of cooking in a sealed vessel that does not permit air or liquids to escape below a preset pressure. Because water's boiling point increases as the pressure increases, the pressure built up inside the cooker allows the liquid in the pot to rise to a higher temperature before boiling

DESIGN AND STRUCTURE
Pressure cookers are generally made from aluminium or stainless steel. A gasket forms an airtight seal which does not allow air or steam to escape between the pan and the lid; the only way the steam can escape is through a regulator on the lid when the pressure has built up
To seal the gasket, some pressure cookers have a breach lock with flanges that interlock when you turn and tighten the lid on the pot.Others, like Hawkins have slightly oval lids and openings. With these, you insert the lid at an angle, then turn the lid to fit the pot. A spring arrangement, in Hawkins' case the lid arm with a hook to the pot arm, holds the lid in the right place. When cooking, the pressurized steam inside keeps lids tightly on.
The food to be made is placed in the pressure cooker, along with some amount of water. The vessel is then sealed and placed on a heat source.When the water reaches boiling point at atmospheric pressure it begins to boil, but since the steam produced in the pressure cooker cannot escape the pressure rises, consequently raising the internal boiling point. Once the pressure increases to the designed amount above air pressure a relief valve opens , releasing steam and preventing the pressure from rising any further.
ADVANTAGES
Foods are cooked much faster than other methods,and with much less water than boiling, so dishes can be ready sooner. Less energy is required than when boiling, steaming or oven cooking, particularly if multiple foods are cooked at once. Since less water is necessary, the foods come to cooking temperature faster.The food is cooked above the boiling point of water, killing all germs and viruses.The pressure cooker can also be used as an effective sterilizer, for jam pots and glass baby bottles for example, or for water while camping.

With pressure cooking, heat is very evenly, deeply, and quickly distributed. Many pounds of vegetables or meat can be quickly cooked with just a cup of water - immersion of the food in boiling water is not necessary.

Since foods need not be immersed, vitamins and minerals are not leached(dissolved) away by water. Since steam surrounds the food, foods are not oxidised by air exposure at heat,so vegetables do not lose their colour and vitamins on heat.

IMPORTANCE ON HIGH ALTITUDES
The pressure cooker speeds cooking considerably at high altitudes, where the low atmospheric pressure otherwise reduces the boiling point of water and hence reduces water's effectiveness for cooking or preparing hot beverages. This is especially useful for mountain climbers at very high altitudes, reducing cooking time and fuel requirements.
Mountaineers and winter campers find the pressure cooker a very valuable tool for melting snow and ice. In an ordinary pot, melting snow is very slow because the water evaporates more than it melts. In a pressure cooker, not only is the steam kept in, it transfers heat to the rest of the snow and water very effectively.

DETOXIFICATION OF FOOD
Some food toxins can be reduced by pressure cooking. A Korean study of aflatoxins in rice showed that pressure cooking was capable of reducing aflatoxin concentrations to 12% to 22% of the level in the uncooked rice.

GROUP MEMBERS
Devika Singh
Deepti Khosla
Gaurang Nagre

Kitchen Knife

History of Knife

Knives are one of the oldest and most useful human tools. Our ancestors used sharp stones or wood pieces to do what knives today do. They were used to cut, prick and carve and stood as a symbol of bravery. With the invention of metal, there was an evolution of the most used human tool, knife. As civilization advanced, various types of metals used in making knives (through the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age) emerged.

With the advancement of the technology and the discovery of guns, however, the knife lost its place in battle fields. As time evolved, knives are adopted to be used in the kitchen.


Anatomy of Knife

A	Point:	The very end of the knife, which is used for piercing
B	Tip:	The first third of the blade (approximately), which is used for small or delicate work
C	Edge:	The cutting surface of the knife, which extends from the point to the heel
D	Heel:	The rear part of the blade, used for cutting activities that require more force
E	Spine:	The top, thicker portion of the blade, which adds weight and strength
F	Bolster:	The thick metal portion joining the handle and the blade, which adds weight and balance and keeps the cook's hand from slipping
G	Finger Guard:	The portion of the bolster that keeps the cook's hand from slipping onto the blade
H	Return:	The point where the heel meets the bolster
J	Tang:	The portion of the metal blade that extends into the handle, giving the knife stability and extra weight
K	Scales:	The two portions of handle material (wood, plastic, composite, etc) that are attached to either side of the tang
L	Rivets:	The metal pins (usually 3) that hold the scales to the tang
M	Handle Guard:	The lip below the butt of the handle, which gives the knife a better grip and prevents slipping
N	Butt:	The terminal end of the handle

Types of Knives

1. General knives
2. Meat knives
3. Small knives
4. Cheese knives
5. Japanese knives
6. Chines cleavers
7. Specialty knives

Group members:

Biswa Bikash Singh
Subash Chellamuthu
Tejesh Goregaonkar

Orange Juicer

Appliance: Orange juicer

Today, orange juicer is one of the most common forms of juicers found in every other Indian household. Citrus juice is easiest to extract even without the help of manual equipment. For example, lemon juice can be extracted just by squeezing it with fingers. But then, over the centuries technology has been improving every day and now, hundreds of different citrus juice extractors or simply, juicers are available in the market. Ranging from manual lemon squeezer to electrical orange juicers, orange juice is now so easy to extract with great efficiency of extracting juice out of up to 70 oranges in a minute.

Above: you can see the photo of the orange juicer toy we got from Suchitra as a start up to be looked more into this product

I have still not been able to find when exactly was a real orange extractor invented, but i have come across a patented design of an orange juicer dated 1944 in America (http://www.google.co.in/patents?id=GQ9kAAAAEBAJ&pg=PA1&dq=citrus+juicers+commercial&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=0_1#PPA2,M1)

It has details of the product, supplemented with drawings. It would be nice to have a look at it as it is a real bulky design as compared to the sleek designs of modern world, for example one designed by Philip Starck (can be seen in the photo below).

My next post would be about the information we gather at the Vessels Museum, Ahmedabad. I hope to get some information about a orange juice extractor there.

Following areas shall be looked into for our research:

1. · Product function
2. · Product history: invention and evolution of the product through ages
3. · Product form in today’s kitchens
4. · Fads
5. · Designer products

For this assignment we’ll be following the methodologies mentioned below:

1. · Data collection through web search
2. · Data collection from books, journals, etc.
3. · Vessel museum at Vishala, Ahmedabad
4. · Interviewing the kitchen appliances shopkeepers
5. · Interviewing orange juice vendors about their experience with the juicer.
6. · Interviewing old grannies about their experience with orange extraction during earlier times.
7. · Interviewing professional juice makers such as in restaurants, hotels, and other food outlets.
8. · Photographic analysis of the various forms of the juicer.

Group members:

Gunveen Kaur

Manjari Chaudhary

Swetal Khaire

Microwave Oven

Appliance:- Microwave Oven.

Group Members:

Animesh Shrivastava

Rohan Jadhav

Gopal K Pai

Darshan Patil

Write Up:

"Microwave Oven " ,a new innovation in the field of cooking .In hindi what you call it as " TANDOOR".Its an appliances that can be found in most of the modern day kitchen.Another alternate that existed before was a "simple oven" that was either kept on LPG gas stove for heating ex Dal Batti oven and or one was an Electric one,which works on electricity ex cake oven.Microwave oven is a fast,reliable,power saving device that has a tendency to cook variety of cusines via different methods.One can use it for Boiling or Baking or Tandoor or cooking daily vegetable.

In my home I remember when microwave came my mother started using it more then the conventional LPG stove.The reason i asked her why? she told me its fast and better and its easy to use and helpful.She even uses it to boil milk.

When you go to some Desi Dhabba along side the high way you find there a big hollow struture made of mud or clay.They call it as Tandoor used for either preparing Tandoori Roti or Tandoori Chicken.So the name Tandoor itself has given birth to a special class of food.

Submitted by:

Animesh Shrivastava

TAD

Chakla Baran - Notes and references so far

'Chakla' is a small round platform usually made of marble or wood, the 'belan' is a wooden rolling pin; the two are used to roll out the dough to make various Indian breads such as chapattis, paratha, bhatura, poori and roti.
The above dough based staples make the chakla belan indispensible in an Indian kitchen. Modern electronic versions are available, one known as a Roti Maker, which combine the chakla, belan and tava (used to cook the breads). However most households still use the traditional utensils of chakla and baran.

When doing this research (so far) the lack of information is rather strange. Past a basic definition there is hardly any publicly accessible information on the origins of these kitchen utensils. So below is a compilation of notes and further references to continue with.

History of related food types:
Chapatti:
Chapatti is so common throughout South Asia and parts of Africa that in first internet searching I can filter very little useful information, except that they are related to many languages (Hindi, local dialects and Urdu; Urdu suggests the ancient origins of the utensils).
Paratha:
"The paratha was conceived in ancient north India but it is unclear which particular north Indian cuisines actually inspired it. Its origin is likely to have been a result of several influences (Sindhi, Punjabi, Garhwali, Bihari, Bengali and so on)." [http://www.answers.com/topic/paratha-1]
Bhatura
Poori
Roti

Origins of Chakla Baran
Within history (www.harrapa.com) state utensils fall into a category of "important and virtually unknown archaeological remains of the Indus Valley civilization (2600-1900 B.C.). The ancient technologies of Harrapan culture are different to other civilisations of the time(Egypt etc). "These differences can be attributed to the fact that each civilization evolved from local cultures which have roots extending back to the earliest Neolithic farming and pastoral communities, dating in Pakistan and India to around 6500B.C." [http://www.harappa.com/indus/industext.html].

According to the Infinity Foundation the chakla belan originated in the Harrapan era, or even before. Harrappa existed around 3300BC lasting until 1600BC within what now is Punjab and was part of the Indus Valley and Cemetery H civilisations [wikipedia]. This civilisations were highly organised and were centred in regional cities and towns around crossroads and rich agricultural areas. Farmers were cultivating wheat and barley as early as 6500BC which suggests that these were staple food items and would have had to be prepared in some manner that may have included early forms of the Chakla Baran. The spread of the technology would have been helped by the large trade networks within the Indus Valley civilisation and later with Aryans (to the rest of India).

Problems of History
The Infitinity Foundation are a group who are looking to create an encyclopedia of Indian Science & Technology in response to a belief that "intellectual repositioning has not yet been achieved for India, which is still depicted based on the “caste, cows and curry” images too often. Indian culture is frequently depicted as being mystical in the sense of being irrational, and in lacking a sense of advancement in the material plane of society." [http://www.infinityfoundation.com/mandala/t_pr/t_pr_book_projects.htm]
This lack of a formulated history of culture, objects, methods, changes and consistencies really does present a problem within this project. The greater implications are the impact on identity and culture today, particularly in the age of globalisation and a rapidly changing face of India.

Further references to look up are:
Kenoyer, J.M., 1997, Trade and Technology of the Indus Valley: New insights from Harrappa Pakistan, World Archaeology, 29(2), pp. 260-280, High definition archaeology
Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark (1991). "The Indus Valley tradition of Pakistan and Western India". Journal of World Prehistory 5: 1–64. doi:10.1007/BF00978474.
Library of Congress: Country Studies. 1995. Harrappan Culture. Retrieved 13 January 2006.
Rau, Santha Rama and the Editors of Time-Life Books. 1969. The Cooking of India. Time-Life Books, New York. TIME-LIFE BOOKS, New York.
Barer-Stein, Thelma. 1999. You EatWhat You Are. A FireFly Book, [GT 2850 .B371 1999]

Museum of Everyday Art

It may also be useful for you to look at the collections of the Museum of Everyday Art. The website address is http://www.sanskritifoundation.org/
This museum is in Delhi and was established in 1984. Objects of everyday life connected with the manners and customs, beliefs and practices of the urban and rural populations of India are displayed in the Sanskriti Museum of Everyday Art. There is a catalogue of the collections written by Jyotindra Jain in the library.

INVESTIGATING KITCHEN IMPLEMENTS - GETTING STARTED

Researching Indian products through published material is invariably difficult because Indian products are not documented and written about much. So this is why what this batch of students is attempting is very important. I don't think any of them has realizes this yet! So other methods of collecting information need to be used. Ahmedabad is fortunate to have a museum of vessels (http://www.vechaar.com/metal_utensils.html) and a visit to this museum good could be a good start. The bulk of the information would really come from oral testimonies - from senior product designers, from the older generation, from professional cooks, owners of shops selling kitchen ware, hotel owners and the like. The internet would also throw up something, especially from websites of companies manufacturing kitchen equipment. Also old magazines which product advertisements - the NID library has bound volumes of the Illustrated Weekly of India for instance. Find out what the object you have chosen to study is called in different Indian languages and that might give a clue (for instances see if the word is Arabic, or Persian, or indigenous - that will give you something to follow up). See if the kind of food related to the object is eaten in other cultures - for instance roti, tortilla, pancake - check what implements are used in those cultures.

Record all the information along with all available visuals. MENTION SOURCES FROM WHERE INFORMATION WAS ACCESSED - For oral testimonies mention person, date and time of interview and place of interview. For websites - mention url and date it was accessed. For books - author, title, publisher, date of publishing and place of publishing. Make a start on this and see how it goes.

KITCHEN IMPLEMENTS IN INDIA TODAY

To explore the idea of continuity and change in the design of products we are going to investigate implements used in Indian kitchens – to see where they came from, how they are adapted to Indian food and cooking methods and how they have changed in response to changes in taste and lifestyle.

We have brought into the classroom a toy kitchen set – a set quite appropriately called INDIA TODAY! Working in groups of three and four, we will be studying the pressure cooker, idli steamer, knives and other cutting implements, chakla-belan, oven, gas stove, tiffin box, refrigerator, orange juicer, cup and saucer, food processor and toaster.

SYNTHESIS, CONTINUITY AND CHANGE

History is often seen as a catalogue of changes over time. Yet, most cultures have living traditions which go back millennia and while a study of the history of design looks at how things changed over time, we also need to account for how some objects, images, symbols and rituals persist – often with little change.

In groups, participants investigated ancient cultures from different parts of the world – Mesopotamia, Egypt, Rome, Greece, Indus Valley, China, Central America – to explore their cultural achievements, their contact with each other and the synthesis and sharing that this led to and elements that persist to this day.

HOMO FABER, HOMO LUDENS, HOMO SYMBOLICUS - HOMO DESIGNER?

What were the first acts of design? The course participants looked at ways in which early humans used elements from their environment to fashion tools made of bone and stone, shelters from wood, leaves and hide, clothing from bark and hide, visual expression in cave paintings and through hand gestures and ways in which these transformed human societies. Central to this investigation was the role of fire - the security it offered, the possibility of cooking food and its implications for hunting and leisure, gathering around the fire and its impact in the development of song, dance and storytelling and so on. There was also discussion on how 19^th century archeologists, anthropologists and adventurers investigated, uncovered and deciphered this aspect of human achievement and transformed our knowledge of human history. And in the process our understanding of Homo Designer.

The Forgotten Map

Due to the decisions humanity has taken in the past have to lead us to a place of global crisis.
Life is an understanding sequence of bifurcations. The Decisions in the life are very important. The understanding of Life holds for individual as well as for Community is the same.
` The world described in the 12th century was and felt was a world where love was not only possible but made sense and had a universal meaning. For the centuries there are always, two worlds representing the route we navigated, and the other the route which we still have to navigate. We and Nature, the observer and observed are separate entities. Science is the supreme Manifestation of reason, and reason is the supreme attribute of the human being.
A discipline where mathematics has become an end in itself instead of a tool, and where only that which can be measured is important, has generated models and interpretations that are theoretically attractive but totally divorced from reality. All of a sudden in the last century we found ourselves in the world of confusion; in a world where progress becomes so incomprehensible that we desperately seek refuge in a technology that offers us an escape into virtual realities.
We have never in all of our existence accumulated more knowledge than during the last 100 years. We are celebrating the apotheosis of reason, but in the midst of such a splendid celebration we suddenly have the feeling that something is missing. The result will be that we will know everything that van be known about love. But once we achieve that complete knowledge, we will sooner or later discover that we will never understand love unless we fall in love.
We have learnt that knowledge is not enough, and that we have to learn how to attain understanding in order to achieve the completeness of our being and the completeness of our science. We are, perhaps, beginning to realize that knowledge without understanding is hollow, and that understanding without knowledge is incomplete. ‘Knowledge is not the road that leads to understanding but understanding is the result of integration, while knowledge has been the result of detachment.’ Language influences our perceptions and hence shapes our actions. In the past there was nobody who was in hurry. After all they were constructing for eternity, and eternity in Timelessness. The language dominating the 19th century was basically that of the consolidation of the nation-state. It was only in the 20th century that the dominant language became that of economics, especially during the second half.
We have a tendency to perceive ourselves as members of a successful culture. However, the truth is that no matter how far we extend the concept of success, we are still incomplete beings, materially overdeveloped and spiritually poor.
We need a new language that opens the door of understanding; not a language that may emerge from the depth of our self-discovery as an inseparable part of a whole that is the cradle of the miracle of life.
“If we would seek comfort in the whole, we must learn to discover the whole in the smallest detail that which she intends as a whole.”


Girish Wagh
girish_w@nid.edu
Product Design

RESPONSE TO FORGOTTON MAN

History of Design
Philippa Abbott
Reading: “The Forgotten MaN”
Manfred Max-Neef


This article is very interesting in terms of how we can look at the past to see how we are to move forward from our current point of global crisis. The idea of “paths not taken” as a starting point for interrogating how to move forward is wise and sad. Many great peoples voices have been lost over so many centuries in favour of “reductionist science” and because of this it is true that we “find ourselves in a world of confusion; a world of disenchantment where progress is paradoxical and absurd, and reality becomes so incomprehensible that we desperately seek refuge in a technology that offers us escape into virtual realities” (p8).

We have pillaged the earth and much of it’s people for the creation of industrialised society with an undying thirst for more and more products and more and more money. Social progress and individual success is too often gauged in monetary terms and the translation of this into objects beyond necessity. Each object in this system has an integrated cost which is not financial. It is social. It is environmental. These other costs are invisible to the eye of gleaming consumerists, like monkies with shiny objects we want without consideration of the input of every object - the transportation, the embodied energy, the human disempowerment and poverty creation; the self destructive character of societies that allows this in the name of “neoliberal globalisation”. We have simultaneously constructed the delusion of searching for happiness and the attachment of this too material wealth, and many other social myths to displace the guilt of our ways and where we have come to.

Each man listed spent a life interrogating what was the meaning of life - what ideas could be used for an individual and society to live. Francis of Assisi believed that love is embodied in nature and is the path to universal meaning. Machiavellian thought created a dark world of fear as an effective means to control society. Mirandola believed that the reconciliation of different philosophies/religions and the respect and understanding of them was the key to social harmony; society constructed many truths rather than truth being static and immoveable in meaning. Bacon believed truth was absolute - inferring there was one right and by consequence everything else was wrong. Effectively creating a policy of inclusion/exclusion creating the Other. This Other is a dichotomy that is interlaced through all Western social constructs today - one such example is the “haves” and the “have nots”.
Absolute truth creating one right answer meant creating an absolute system of power. Those who were right, or in other words, knew the absolute truth had power over all others. Those who believe in different truths were automatically outcasts and the target for harassment or worse.

This was underpinning society before Bacon however his association of absolute truth with extraction of “fact” from nature under the name of science became particularly poignant in view of the past few centuries; the industrial revolution, technological advancement, consumerism and global crisis.

The beliefs of Bacon or Descartes become the dominant belief systems when articulated and accepted publically by the majority, or for the majority by those in power. At these points we see bifurcation. We see a place to start looking for what other opportunities as societies and individuals we have. By looking at Mirandola’s views we can then see how the other avenue may have worked, critically analyse this in terms of modern day issues and find a way forth.

It is interesting to then think about how the social conditions of how the theories of Bacon, Descartes, Newton or Gallileo became the path creating such drastic implications. The growth of past societies in such a way that society as a whole desires these thinker’s theories as an acceptable path. When I read Descartes, “what I see through my window are hats and coats covering automatic machines”, I do not believe he meant for the “triumph of mechanism and reductionism”. To me it is a social comment on the lack of initiative among the people around him, a feeling of alienation within Descartes and his desire for creative thought and individualism within the world he lived in. I here a forewarning in this quote of mechanism & reductionism as negative and to be feared. This is not in my view a call to rapidly create a dysfunctional society obsessed with technology, Descartes is saying society needed to recognise itself to become human.

This in itself is an interpretation of truth. I do not absolutely believe Max-Neef or my own explanation. Each though, can be argued as an engagement with the past to construct a world view in the present. A way then, of perceiving reality and create the next path.

What then does the next path hold? What can be drawn from Francis, Mirandola, Bruno and Goethe? There is a pattern of characteristics throughout the fields, that of integrating notions of love, feeling, intuition and contemplation of the world around us into scientific and thus wider social discourses, as a part of multiple accepted truths. This would mean accepting Machiavelli, Bacon, Descartes, Galileo and Newton also. All paths are truths due to the nature of truth, tolerance of difference and enlightenment. They are a key perception at a point in history of the world and their ideas of the future.

Max-Neef comments on Goethe’s contemplation, “the arousal of the feeling of wonder through contemplative looking in which the scientist would come to see God in Nature and Nature in God”. (p6) Much has come from the minds and hearts of many great thinkers who were also greatly religious - there is no doubt of this. This seems to exclude those without religious faith as having any power to believe in that which cannot be proved by scientific method. Science is beautiful, the discoveries from within it are incredible and prove the awesome power of the universe itself. This is Goethe’s contemplation however without the absolute truth that is created of the believer’s God. This may be Christian, Muslim or Jewish. So I think it is not a fair comment of Max-Neef to say, “Feeling , intuition, consciousness and spirituality are still banished from the realm of science.” I think the scientific method is to prove or disprove a totality in practice; it still allows contemplation of ethereality in the findings of this method. So although I agree that we do need to bring other senses into our interpretation of the world on a mass scale; this is not to say it as been banished from all discourses and that this in itself is the cause of “virtues such as faith, hope and charity manifest themselves today metamorphosed as schitzophrenia, depression and narcissism“ (p 8).

There is a deeper quality within basic values of mankind no matter the God that is tied to the Earth and the way in which we interact with it and each other.
The plethora of knowledge created from science is a means of bringing us to the point of navigation to experience. Unfortunately at a historical point we chose to use this information to advance technologically and lose our connection with nature and other people.

Max-Neef’s explanation of the difference between knowledge and experience is very enlightening. We can know many things however the less we experience and involve ourselves the more disassociated we become, “understanding is holistic, while knowledge is fragmented”.
I think this is particularly pertinent within the West where the indirect channels of goods to bring the product to the user (completely unattached to it’s origins) to become a commodity in a supermarket. Children in Australia have no idea beef comes from a cow. Meat originates in a supermarket to them. Although children voice this more clearly, most adults have also chosen this path also. They are so inebriated with consumer culture, so disattached from the experience of a cow‘s death to satisfy their hunger. Instead it is a slice of meat, cut, packaged in plastic (with no though of what has gone into creating that plastic or the transportation of livestock) available on a shelf in a supermarket.
I wonder whether this is a culmination of guilt, deliberate disattachment due to a subconscious or underlying realisation that all is not quite right with the world and we may not have chosen the right path, that each person must change to make any change. This is as Max-Neef states:

“a period in which global poverty has increased dramatically, debt burden has crippled many national economies and generated brutal over expolitation of both people and natural resources; destruction of ecosystems and biodiversity have reached levels unknown in human history; and accumulation of financial wealth in ever fewer hands has reached obscene proportions”.

We as Westerners are locked within our self inflicted reality and too addicted to change. Consumerism is an addiction and one with drastic consequences as Max-neef describes well. This must change, we cannot live in bubbles with our things whilst others suffer. I differ from Max-Neef in believing knowledge is incredibly important factor in the experiencing of the world, we need to integrate this knowledge into the experience. Without knowledge we could not talk of Descartes or Goethe. Without knowledge we could not read this article or discuss possible paths. It is the importance of not justifying actions for the sake of knowledge, knowledge needs to be living and breathing. It would be incredibly “wise to unearth the alternative map of the route we did not navigate”. I think this map needs to be learnt from and experienced through the reformation of social systems in accordance with values that have been swept aside by the whirlwind that is the pursuit of knowledge. These values are a spirituality however do not need to be attached to a God, and if they are, this may again be their denial once again. The world is suffocated : there is no longer any bifurcations if we want to continue living upon this Earth.
Knowledge itself has to be deregulated and sustainability must be the key to experiencing the world once more as something outside ourselves and our absurdly short time frames. We need to see ourselves as part of the living system that has been for many eons before and hopefully will be for many after.

The Forgotten Map ??

Is it really our decisions that have landed us in the ‘crisis’ that is today?
May be it is time to navigate the alternative routes? Well, maybe not. It may be just another fabrication that doesn’t make much sense. Let’s examine.

Life is a sequence of bifurcations. Well, it’s not that simple. It is a sequence of events that take place and are all affected by a huge number of parameters, some of which depend upon the results of the first event, i.e. a chaos system. Of course, choice of one road is important but the event in the choice is a variable change. And it has to be accounted for. It’s non linear and it’s literally complex.

Background check on Francis of Assisi:
This person was actually a Saint in the Roman Catholic Church. And as all high up in the Church, life was a gift to them. They knew no vulgarities of nature, didn’t face the darker sides of life. They had to perform neither toil nor any hard work without their consent (slavery). The church took care that they lead a life like none other. And thus, all he had to do is preach. Preach. Preach.

Background check on Machiavelli:
This person was a practical, down to earth man. He did what his reason told him was right. He himself worked in his fields and did all that a common man would do. So, it may be said that he was in sync with the realities of the world back then. And whatever he claimed, he had actually put into practice or proved it. Hence, the masses accepted it.

Hence people followed Machiavelli and not the Francis of Assisi. That was the most logical thing to do in that context. I feel that it was the right thing that had been done then. Following the Francis of Assisi would have proved to be against the laws and order of nature, as it was imaginary.

Now about Giovanni Francesco Pico della Mirandola
This guy was a philosopher, who I would say, failed in actuating his real genius. A sorry tale for a person with such talents, but he had a right approach, though it was quit beyond the society of that time to understand.
One can go on questioning the people like the above believe or say or do. But the underlying principle is that a person and his beliefs are always a function of his intellect and the circumstances in which he is plus a small variable change (∂x) which is very critical in determining his entirety or completeness.

About Giordano Bruno
Bruno is known for his use and development of the art of memory, a mnemonic system based upon organized knowledge. He was also an early proponent of the idea of an infinite and homogeneous universe. It was for this reason that he was burnt at stake by the Roman Catholic Church. The official reason for the Roman Catholic Church was, of course, to retain the social order. But it was the fear of loss of authority that actually drove them to take such a step. Something we may claim to follow the principle of Machiavelli. Something which in later years was termed by scientists as “survival of the fittest” (NOTE – the term ‘pantheism’ was coined only after 1700s, long after Bruno’s execution)

Gothe’s science – well, it is more a philosophy, rather a great philosophy made to sound like science. More importantly, research (and hence, science) is still on in the fields related to feeling, intuition, consciousness etc. Research in these areas has partly led to the development of psychological warfare. A wrong application, but it’s the evidence that the fields are still of interest to the scientific community.

This world is now in confusion?? Is the universe or the nature ordered? These are all interlinked questions whose answer science is trying to work out – the Theory of Everything. Moreover, what we think is chaos is because we fail at the present point to understand the underlying pattern. Would there have been no confusion had we followed “the other/forgotten route”

“Knowledge is not the road to understanding.” Well, then what is?? Knowledge is formed from the innumerable steps we take with the view of attaining total understanding, some of which get a bit luckier and some get unlucky. So, it is always knowledge that is always the road to understanding; especially when the case is love. Can a person in love or who has been in love define it? More importantly, does he/she understand love; when it started and when it ended or may be quantify it?

There is nothing wrong in the dominant language if it copes up with the challenges of the period. And yes, it does shape the perception of the common man at the same time. But the phase transition from one language to another is a period in which several sub-languages emerge and try to come onto the main screen. It is in this phase when we are most likely to lose focus and control.

For example, the Wild Wild West or cow-boy type of culture that was once prevalent in US suddenly re-surfaced with Bush Junior taking up the reins at the White House and has made it clear that some privileged people can actually devastate the entire system. Changes like these are effected by the leaders of the masses, in which case, can it be said that Al Gore or the members of jury in the Supreme Court who ruled in favour of Bush Junior are to be blamed for failing?

The whole problem is with one new language coming over by replacing an old one. That, I dare say, led to all the problems in the first place. So, instead of actually trying to figure out and implement a completely new language, we should try to focus on the re-drawing of the perspectives and improvising or upgrading or optimizing the language. And, regrettably, this is no decision to make; it’s a path to be followed.

The Forgotten Map by Manfred Max-Neef: A Critique

The present is a reflection of the past. The state we are in today, whether good or bad, is a result of our actions of the past, the decisions that we made and the paths that we chose. Equally, the paths we choose today will determine our future.

The article is mainly concerned with the fact that the current state of spiritual vacuum and emotional turbidity that today’s generation finds itself in is a direct consequence of the ill-conceived decisions that were taken by the past generations. According to Max-Neef, human civillisation has chosen to bask in materialism and reason, while ignoring the spiritual. So while the world of brotherhood among all creations and nature introduced by St. Francis of Assisi was forgotten, we lapped up the principles of Machiavalli. Be it Pico Della Mirandola and Francis Bacon, or Giordano Bruno and Decartes, one point of view has always dominated, and shaped the perspective of people, the perspective of narrowness and mechanism.

In science, we have celebrated the doctrine of Galileo and Newton, who put reason and logic above all else. We have accepted mathematics and cold hard facts as the core of the so called scientific temperament. Goethe, at the same time had expressed the idea that the goal of science is spiritual enlightenment. That it is not possible to isolate the observer from the observed. That a spiritual dimension underlies everything physical. However his ideas have been obliterated by the sheer popularity of Galileo and Newton.

Thus, according to Max-Neef, our previous generations set humanity off on a downward spiral that has culminated in today’s world of unmitigated discontent and angst. As opposed to understanding, which is a holistic approach to learning, mankind has embraced knowledge, which is fragmented and incomplete. We are, therefore in a state of complete chaos, which is nothing but a result of the failure to take better decisions in the past.

The future, however does not have to be as hopeless. The decisions we will take today will present themselves in the future. We have to veer more towards harmony and true understanding as opposed to merely gathering knowledge. But for that to happen, a paradigm shift is required in the ‘language’ the governs this generation. According to the author, every generation has a dominant language the has to be consistent with the particular demands of that era. That was true until the present era, where ‘neo-liberalism’ has taken over the world. To change our approach to perception, we first need to change this language. Only then can the future generations escape the circle of spiritual poverty and detachment.

The article, although giving mostly one side of the argument, is not bereft of truth. Max-Neef feels quite strongly for the subject, as evident from his language and choice of words. It is true that for the most part, today’s generation is unsatisfied and frustrated. It can also be argued that such dissatisfaction is a result of the emotional bankruptcy and moral destituteness of present humanity as a whole. The decisions of the past, which included following the single-minded pursuit of knowledge leaving no room for spirituality has no doubt led to such a scenario.

Nevertheless, it is also true that such a pursuit has led to what we call progress. Perhaps if we had put more emphasis on spiritual upliftment, we would have been satisfied with whatever we had and not strived for a more convenient world. So while we can mourn all we want the loss of spiritual enlightenment, we have to accept that without the fruits of progress brought forth by the collective decisions that humanity took, living would have been a lot more difficult than it is today.

THE FORGOTTEN MAP

The article states that route taken by man all through these ages has led to the current global crisis. The author feels life would have been very different if man had taken the alternative route that had come across him though out his history. He tries to trace back in time, where man went terribly wrong in making decisions. He brings to notice few people from different periods of time whose ideas of love, spirituality, soul, hope are suppressed by ideas of fear, reasoning and mechanism and depression.

At first it feels like the author is trying to regret at whatever man has done. It feels like he is trying to convey that man has made some major blunders in making some major decisions, which is very true when we look back to history, but we don’t know under what circumstances those decisions were made. Sometimes situations have aroused in history like in wars where some decisions had to be made whether good or bad. The author tries to trace back an alternative route, by pointing at some decisive bifurcations which man can trace again to make the world a better place.

Man, through all the ages has always been selfish in all aspects. He feels it is safer to be feared than loved. People began to believe in only what they see, or was it people were brainwashed to believe only what they see. We see in history, how Christianism, during it upcoming shunned every other religious idea that was against it. Everything else was just suppressed or oppressed. Missionaries were sent all across the world to make people believe only on their ideals. As the author rightly points out the Christian virtues such as faith, hope and charity have metamorphosed into schizophrenia, depression and narcissism.

Man began to believe in reasoning and had the feeling that he was on his way to discover the truth which led to confusion on what was right and wrong. In this chaos, the ultimate truth of spirituality, god, love was lost somewhere. Man has progressed, but is it to just isolate himself from the society, lose his social identity and try to find virtual identities where he is someone else. Is it that man wants to escape from what is happening in the world or has he realized that some major blunders have been made in the past and its better not to indulge more. Or is he at just another bifurcation in life which he should not have taken.

I personally have always felt that we are in an age of ignorance because whatever is being done has no inner meaning or ultimate understanding. We are just happy in skimming through the surface and happy in collecting data and flaunting about it. Man has all the knowledge he wants about anything, all at the click of a button. The respect of value of knowledge is gone. Like the author says the journey in accumulations of knowledge has been great but where is all this leading to.

Every generations has its theme, the article says that man has been pretty good or successful in tackling the historical challenges prevalent in those periods by respective languages of those times. But isn’t this contradicting with earlier topics discussed in the article that man has failed in taking the decisions which could have led to a better world.

The author points out the emergence of neo-liberal discourse (a programme of methodical destruction) in the last three decades which has led to the doom and all the chaos. The result of which is a large gap between the rich and the poor. Money began making money. Rich became richer and poor became poorer. Bringing in a new theory that the rich are powerful and are the decision makers giving no place to huge mass of common people in any decision making. I sometimes wonder how the same man with money is so different from his counterparts with no money.

The article makes us realize we still have time to reflect back on what we have done and try to find an alternative map out of this confusion. The article is written in 1992, after which the map has gone much more complicated. One might feel how can an individual bring about a change or even think about bringing a change in this current world of chaos and confusion. But the problem is we begin to look at things largely and ignore all the small things. We’ll have to start out with bringing about changes in small things which sometimes can become a TIPPING POINT or may even become the new language of this period.

MUSHTAQ ANIS

mushtaq_a@nid.edu

TRANSPORTATION AND AUTOMOBILE DESIGN.

A Different World:

Why we ask questions at different phase of our lives?Why we remember our birthday? Why we remember dates? Why we remember accidents? It’s because something on that came into existence. Someone was born. Something happened that day which changed the way we live and think. The events that occur today will be a history of tomorrow. Today’s decision will certainly leave an impact on what we do tomorrow or in the near by future. The path we selected today will certainly lead us to a new direction tomorrow. A Direction, with its own thinking, lifestyle and challenges . But what if I do something today that will alter my direction tomorrow with the previous thought. We choose to be in love today that may give us a love tomorrow. But if we choose to stay away from love today then it will certainly be opposite to the one before.
So what is responsible for, what we really are now? The fact behind this is our behavior. Our thinking that is based on logic. Selection of what is right and what is wrong. Comparison of good and bad. And it is not only the single factor called “Conscious Mind” that determines our behavior. There are the ideologies, social thinking, education system etc. that leads and moulds us to accept, what has been accepted as truth and requirements in the past, in the history.We see all around us a web that has been confined within a thinking. A thinking, that was developed by some and which was accepted by all as a path to achieve social, political and economic growth and appreciation. We define our destiny at a point with two or many directions and we choose what we think is best considering all what we have have experienced in the past. But when something strange happens or something happens which was not expected to be, then we always think of what we had as an alternate path.
The thinking and theories of Giovanni Bernardone (Francis of Assisi), Giovanni Francesco Pico Della Mirandola, GiordanoBruno which were swept aside and now have become a history itself, explain the importance of existence of love and its meaning, spiritual renovation of humanity, life on earth. On the other hand , what we accepted were the behavior based on fear for love, hatred against nature , becoming automatic machines and the science of measuring that which can’t be measured.
Science is what that has defined and shaped us today.The way we walk, live, talk everything we measure in terms of science called technology, lifestyle. But when we look on the other side or better to say to the other path of science which we have swept aside then we see the knowledge we have to gain related to our existence, spirituality, our identity. The feeling like imagining god inside and outside. Science can help us to provide the knowledge of observing the other aspects of physical world.



When we talk about the knowledge, then we are not talking of this physical world but we are talking about the knowledge that has been taught to us through books, the daily practice of our society. The society which is far from what is reality. The habbits and learning of today’s world is influenced by the navigated route where we compare our success with success of others.Where we compare achievements of ours with what has been achieved earlier, with the same path followed as they did.But what happens when we come to a point where we have to compare our same level of success and achievements with two other unfamiliar paths.That point is what we called as the point where Confusion comes into action.This is the point where we ask ourselves and start believing on the virtual world that the science can take us into.
We read in the books and listen from outside the story of our past, like the story of our evolution but little we come to know about the same. Its because whatever has been told to us or written is based on the knowledge and facts that we have explored over some years. We take help of the same science to explore our story which in turn is again based on same theories. When we try to figure out the real reason of being then we cannot find a suitable answer to the query. Its where now the knowledge of real world comes into play. We have books, the theories, the sociological data, psychological data etc but still something we find is still missing. Its sooner or later we realize is the knowledge of love for that, which we want to understand .Knowledge is like an island for us , to reach we require a medium and that medium is love. Once we have love and we learn to fall in love, we will have the basic need. So what important to us is not the knowledge but how to attain it is what more important to have. This love can also be termed as understanding.
So now we realize that knowledge without understanding can’t be achieved.This understanding also has a medium we call as Language.Its the language through which our perception and hence our actions get shape.Evry ear , every age has its language as per the needs and perception.The language of 19th century was the language of nation considerations like political speeches by leaders.The language of 20th century was what have become the important domination of history, the language of war.And now is the 21st century having a language of economy.Whatever we think, do and write is in the terms of economic language.But also what came along was a mis conception, carelessness, disaster aginst nature, ecosystem etc.These are the disastrous effects of language.
So now what we need to really think about is what the various languages in histry has left for us which is still untouched.Its time to turn back the pages and search for what we called as true reality.What all we have discovered can now be used in other forms.The mathematics , science which have been used as tools for our development can also be used to discover the true value of being here.