The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

The ending was beautiful. The words were poetry. Sentences evoking complex imagery. It was an artful ending that I am glad I stuck around for. I loved the funerals and the wedding. I loved the uniqueness and the craziness of Jamat Guest House. I thought it was the perfect place for Anjum. In the end, it was the perfect place for them all. Arundhati Roy created a tapestry of words. I am very glad I won The Ministry of Utmost Happiness from Goodreads.

What grabbed me in the story was Anjum and the Hijra. The discoveries and secrets of Anjum's mother were captivating. I needed to know what happened next in Anjum's life, every moment, every adventure, the sadness and happiness. I really enjoyed reading about the Hijra and how they all lived and loved. Though sometimes a bit crazy, Anjum's life captured my imagination. She suffers so much, yet comes out of it with a home. I still want to know if Anjum gets to live out the rest of her days in peace.

Tilo, the other main character, was also very interesting. She seemed too modern for modern India. She was irreverent about caste, class and etiquette. I liked Tilo. I thought she was unique, which is probably why she was loved by thee different men in the novel. I just felt we spent too much time on her story. I liked Garson Hobart, Naga and Musa. But my favourite part of their love square is towards the end with Tilo and Musa. They are some very interesting situations the three men find themselves in over the years. Tilo has a quality about her though, a grace that I connected with. Still, I felt her part of the story was too long. I wanted to get back to Anjum and Saddam and the baby. I wanted to know what was happening in the graveyard and how the blind Imam was.

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness was not an easy book to love, but I did. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Everything at the end, in the Jamat Guest House was wonderful and the characters went through a lot to get there.

The Satanic Verses

Wow. So, The Satanic Verses is a long, long book. It is not an easy read, especially the first half. By about the last third, I felt like the story picked up more and I was actually interested in finishing it. By the final third, all the twisting, complex storylines were being brought to completion. Some of the subplots I thought were interesting, but didn't need to go into such detail. My main interest was in what happened to the main characters, Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha. They fell, unharmed, from the sky. Why? What would they do with this gift of life? Though it wasn't easy, it was worth reading.

Should I address the controversy first? I always wondered what Salman Rushdie could have written that would have so incensed the leader of Iran to issue a fatwa calling for his death. Was the book blasphemous? Maybe. Was it making fun of Islam? After reading it, no, I don't think so. I think it was giving a different perspective or using certain events and the life of Prophet Mohammed (uwbp) to inspire a story, reflecting on the feelings of immigration and displacement. Also, within the context of the story, this is Gibreel's dream. In his dreams, he is the angel, watching the Prophet in these sequences. I don't think Rushdie was saying anything of what he wrote actually happened. Gibreel's mental state created this dream. I've read that Rushdie was surprised by this reaction. He thought some people might be angry, but he didn't think there would be so much violence surrounding it. Who would think their novel would create such vitriol? The amount of controversy it stirred, the bannings in so many countries, the burnings, of course this was something I would want to read. I could go deeper into the fatwa and whether it was actually used properly, the refutations by Islamic scholars, Human Rights violations, but I don't think that's necessary here. What I want to talk about is the story, the plot and the characters.

The entire novel had a dream-like quality to it. So much of what happens to Gibreel seems like a dream or vision. Saladin's experiences seem rooted in horror. Unlike Gibreel, Saladin has rejected his past, his roots. He has tried extremely hard to acclimate to his new country. He loves London and wants to be a Londoner. He wants to leave his youth behind. This is the opposite of Gibreel, who is a big part of Bollywood and life in India, though he too leaves, but he leaves for love. He meets Allie and she changes his whole world. There are a lot of things that change Gibreel, besides the fall. He's very reactionary, listening to others' voices instead of relying on his own, even though he dreams that he is the voice that speaks to the Prophet. Saladin goes through a lot of changes too, though many of his are physical. Is Saladin's ordeal reflective of what he goes through as an immigrant in a land that does not necessarily respect him? What about the people he meets who are like him? Are they also displaced migrants? There is so much beyond controversy in this novel. There are stories, allegories, emotion upheavals, mental breakdowns, and strange changes.

I don't think I can explain the complexities of this novel. There was a lot happening. There were a couple of times where I considered quitting, but I just had to know what happened. Like so many novels, it was the characters that kept me going. I wanted to know if Gibreel and Saladin would come together again and what the consequences of that would be. I wanted to know if Gibreel and Allie would stay together. I wanted to know what choices Saladin would end up making. Besides the main characters, I also wanted to know about Mishal, Baal, and Ayesha. I wanted to know about Saladin's father, Nasreen II, and Zeeny. So, maybe I took a couple breaks here and there, but knew I had to finish it. Of all the characters, Saladin's journey was the one that had me the most unsure. I didn't know if in the end I was going to like his character. A lot of bad things happened to him, but he did bad things too. I wasn't sure if I was going to like him in the end. I am still not sure if I like him, I just know he was a character I couldn't turn away from.

After all the ups and downs, and not knowing how it was all going to turn out, I liked The Satanic Verses. I don't think it's for everyone, definitely not a casual read, but it was worth every minute I spent with it.

Malai Kofta Kabab

As mentioned in a previous food post, I've been trying to make dinnertime more interesting for me and the Hubby (the kids would be happy with chicken nuggets and apples, they need to try new things).  I have loads of ground beef in the freezer, but wanted to make something besides pasta sauce or tacos (not that we don't enjoy those things).  I did a quick search online and came up with this recipe from Kraft Canada.  Their online recipe site has really expanded its "ethnic" offerings.  I looked at the ingredients list.  I had everything except the cooking creme*.  Since I was going shopping anyway, I picked it up.  I also added my own twist on a few of the ingredients. Below are pictures of my journey making Malai Kofta Kabab for the first time.

I enjoy toasting my own spices.  I use a regular steel pan, I think it does the job better than a non-stick pan.  In the pan I have cumin and coriander seeds.  I have burnt my seeds in the past, so I try to keep on top of them.  When they smell awesome, is usually when they are done.  Then I put them in my marble mortar bowl and then pestle them until they're ground up.

Here are all the ingredients, with my iPad shining in the background.  I think in this first attempt, I used too many breadcrumbs.

After the ingredients are mixed together, the slightly flattened meat balls goes in the oven.  FYI, that's how we tried to sell it to the kids, they're meatballs in a new sauce.

Time to start the sauce.  Sautéed onion smells so good!

Now it looks like a sauce.  It was my first time using the cooking creme.  It didn't melt as fast as I thought it would.  It worked out just fine.  All I needed was patience.

The "meatballs" are ready to go into the sauce.  It smelled so good.  I sneaked a taste of the meat before the sauce was done.  It's really a great combination of spices.

Okay, that picture is way smaller than one serving.  It smelled so good (and it made me and Hubby so hungry) that I totally forgot about taking a picture.  I also took the picture at the dinner table, which makes the sauce and rice look yellow for some reason.  It didn't look like that.  It did get a slight yellow tinge from the spices, but it looked more creamy.  Hubby and I were really happy. The kids ate the rice.  We made them taste the "meatballs".  I think they'll get to like them eventually.  I also made a cucumber salad to go on the side.  There are no vegetables in this dish, unless you count onions and cilantro.  Looking at the pictures makes me want to eat this again. I think I'd like to make this for a dinner party some time.... with people who are less picky than my kids.

*I tried to look up this recipe on other sites without the cooking creme, but it was too complicated for a weeknight meal, so I went with easy. I might try totally from scratch next time.