Click here to read my Slice of Life column in Mail Today for India Today for March 21, 2020. Or read below.
Corona: An Untoward Journey Towards Life
Every slice of life has been touched by the Corona virus in some way, shape or form. We are in the grips of a pivotal moment in the history of mankind. A strange time, a scary time, a viscerally disruptive time. Mob mentality as important to question as the mistruths about mob immunity. China was the beginning, and China might also be the nation that is most connected to the virus until the very end.
Any doubt that East and West couldn’t really meet is brought to quick closure with the Corona journey. A journey that has also dispelled any feeling of invincibility that the 1% or the politically powerful might have had. The virus is hitting the haves as hard or more so, than those who would be its most vulnerable victims due to lack of access and a far from level playing field. It has neighboring states behaving friendly and also issuing threats to each other. Enemies are willing to extend an olive branch, as the UAE has to Iran, while the US and Canada are ready to seal their borders.
Pivotal times like this bring out the best and worst of humanity. Empathy, generosity, decency and humanity shine as brightly as the actions of petty thieves and self-serving politicos. When the dust settles though, the world we know today will tomorrow be a very different place. That is almost a certainty.
The forced quarantining and social separation will perhaps reverse some of the distance we have traveled in another journey we’ve been taking towards a lone existence, or at least one where we try to function most happily alone, without much interaction with others. We are racing to distance ourselves from one another today, and tomorrow we might find magnified the desire to be connected to another more closely. We might find the post-Corona world instills in us a desire for in-person encounters.
Self-reliance and self-sufficiency have been the efficiencies we have chased for a while now. But appreciation of all we live around and with, and the lives we affect, the people we rely upon, work with, and whose lives we touch in some way or another may now become of greater importance and relevance. Our parents and kids, our cousins and neighbors, our neighborhood shopkeepers, our uber drivers and our fellow man in general, will have more consequence and importance in our lives.
Solitary reapers that we must be now, tomorrow we might find ourselves making history. Churning out ideas, recipes, art, poetry and digital diaries of rudimentary brilliance and celebrated worthiness. The greatest of art and ideas have been incubated in the most trying of times. Harrowing experiences of separation and isolation might end up finally making us global citizens who banish the ideas of walls at borders and tear down those that exist.
Rich or poor, Abrahamic, Hindu, Buddhist, Atheist, Agnostic or Universalist – since we were all affected by the virus and its reach, we will connect beyond racial, socio-religious and geo-political divides. We will bond as humans with common humanity as our joining link.
I hope we are not harmed much by the virus, but that it becomes a teacher of sorts that helps us better understand our place in the larger scope of the world that we inhabit together on this planet. It is my hope that we honor the responsibility we have individually and collectively as humans to value the gift we are given on planet Earth. It is my wish to see us create through our vision, creativity, actions and sweat, a world that is a fairer place for all humanity, and a place where there are fewer isms that divide and more that unite us.
In our happily and safely thriving plurality, our appreciation of our common humanity despite our individual diversity, and our protection, support and advancement of the least fortunate amongst and around us, may we find, appreciate and discover the gift this virus will leave us in our new beginning.
The Setting Sun Will Rise Again. Will We Rise With It?
As I saw the fiery red in the dusky sky, I couldn’t help but think of the same colours that I shall enjoy in the dawn tomorrow. There is something precious about dawn and dusk, sunset and sunrise, night and day, day and night. It is the cyclical nature of their occurrence, the passage of time, that makes them similar and unique, at once.
This is a special time for sure, but it is also just the passage of time. We are of little consequence to time, yet this particular time rattles us in big ways. Small is our place in the larger scheme of things, grand are the challenges and questions that this moment poses for us.
There will be a tomorrow, there will be life beyond Corona. What it will be, who might live to see that life, are questions we have no answers to, nothing we can spend our time worrying about. All we can do today is live with respect for our life and that of all we know. We can be smart and savvy, safe and careful, wise and caring, loving and generous.
As the sun sets over Delhi in this difficult time, my hope is that we will rise to our greatest heights and shine in ways that cause our humanity to sparkle, our magnanimity to show its face, and our soul to make itself known.
Penne with Popped Tomatoes and Bacon
Serves 4
A bumper crop of cherry tomatoes, a slab of bacon from Jason Huck’s Huckleberry Hill Farm in Mount Holly, Vermont, and our good friend and food novelist Kim Sunee, author of Trail of Crumbs, provided all the inspiration needed to create this decadent, mouth-watering summer pasta dish. One summer Kim spent nearly a month on the farm while she taught at the Battenkill Kitchen, and she and Charlie turned our kitchen into a seasonal country test lab, cooking up a storm everyday using beautiful peak-season ingredients gathered from our garden and local farms and farm stands. While Charlie and I try to keep our cooking as light on animal protein and fat as possible, we are happy to splurge when it makes sense. The addition of thick-cut slab bacon to this dish brings pleasure that is beyond words! This is truly food fit for gods.
14.5-ounce/500 g box whole-grain, multi-grain, or nutrient-enriched penne pasta
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon/15 g extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 pound slab bacon cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh rosemary
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh basil
1 large red onion, quartered and sliced crosswise
1 1/2 pounds/680 g cherry tomatoes, halved if large
Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of salt and the pasta and cook following the package instructions until the pasta is al dente. Drain through a colander and set aside.
While the pasta is cooking, heat the oil and black pepper in a large skillet over medium heat until the pepper is fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the bacon and cook until it starts to render some fat, about 1 minute. Stir in the onions and cook until they begin to soften, about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the salt and cook until the onions wilt the and bacon takes on a bit of color around the edges, about 5 minutes.
Add the tomatoes, cover the pan, and cook until the tomatoes are starting to shrivel and shrink (but aren’t mushy), 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the pasta and divide among bowls. Serve with lots of freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.
Variation: Winter Penne with Bacon and Cream
Substitute 1/2 cup/120 ml store-bought or homemade crème frâiche (page 00) and 1/4 cup/60 ml cream or milk for the tomatoes. Once the crème frâiche and cream comes to a simmer, add the pasta, toss to coat and turn off the heat. Serve with lots of freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.
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