Mizoram, full of meat-enthusiastic Mizos, is once again threatened by 'Food and Mouth' disease. Our locality, for one, had to go without beef on our Christmas and New Year feasts. It was just two meals but I did miss the beef. H does not take it, so an opportunity to have the dish is always looked forward to.
Food Safety While the FMD virus may be present in the uncooked meat and some types of milk products from contaminated animals, it would be destroyed when these products are cooked. The virus does not affect humans and the primary risk of raw products is transmission of the virus to susceptible animals.
So we could merely be overreacting to the epidemic, although obviously the butchers and the meat-handlers could be at some risk.
Anywhichway, it's a new year, and most of us haven't gotten used to writing the date yet. The future is full of hope, and it's a mystery what this year is going to bring us. I hope the happy times will far outweigh the sad ones, and that you'll spend more time laughing than worrying.
Read this little speech by Chetan Bhagat, who is currently big in the news for mostly the wrong reasons.
Speech by Chetan Bhagat at Symbiosis
Don't just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give you a balanced, successful life. I use the word balanced before successful. Balanced means ensuring your health, relationships, mental peace are all in good order.
There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your breakup. There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts. Shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions.
"Life is one of those races in nursery school where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point coming first. Same is with life where health and relationships are the marble. Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being excited and alive, will start to die. ....................
One thing about nurturing the spark - don't take life seriously. Life is not meant to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here. We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up? ................
It's ok, bunk a few classes, scoring low in couple of papers, goof up a few interviews, take leave from work, fall in love, little fights with your spouse. We are people, not programmed devices........." :)
"Don't be serious, be sincere."!!
6 comments:
Maybe we should call ourselves Meatzos. Or maybe we all ought to turn vegetarian.
That's a nice speech from Chetan Bhagat. Makes sense really, at the end of the day it's all about having a good time.
Happy New Year, by the way.
It's hard to have meat-less meals more than twice in a row. And if you're the cook you almost feel guilty about it. We could definitely call ourselves meatzos :)
Happy New year to you too, Aduh
Hehhhhh. Chetan Bhagat... got so much to say but won't say coz you seem to be one of his fans :)
Ah beef. Yeah I've been reading the news about this disease. Sad... :( But I think this will pass quickly and before you know it, we'll be back to our yummmm beef hogfest.
Not a fan, really. Five point someone was okay, but not really a life-changing book :P
God knows about the meat-disease. The world is so super-informed these days, which is a good thing, but also blows everything out of proportion sometimes is all.
When there was bird-flu outbreak for example, the Central govt made every effort to educate ppl that eating chicken and eggs was not a health hazard. But here in Mizoram, the vety dept seem determined to hype up the beef issue. Maybe its their 15 mins of fame, my personal opinion, NOI.
Thought I'd left my pug marks here already, silly me. Happy new year, dear diary. I just finished the latest Bhagat today, good light read as always. I'm definitely a fan, have all four of his books. And I like that pre-paid card with limited validity metaphor.
Happy New Year, Calliopia.
I've only read 'Five point someone', and I am so literally challenged, esp after motherhood-I barely read the newspaper now :P
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