Food colouring additives

I don't know if you followed the recent story of the recall of the chilli powder in the UK. You can read about it here and here.

Have you noticed colouring agents used in the restaurants in India? I've eaten paneer butter masala in restaurants and most times my fingers end up looking like I was playing with oil paints (now that sounds like fun). It even happens with tandoori chicken, or gobi manchurian (a popular "side" dish). Really RED. Take notice when pass by the numerous "kabab" shops on sale.

I think it's cool to use whatever additives you want--as long as they are SAFE. Think about this the next time you lick your fingers after that kabab or gobi manchurian, and find your fingers RED. Hey, maybe you can even write to the Indian Spices Board about it.

The price of progress

You can't miss the trees in Bangalore. Lately though, you've probably started to notice some missing. Here are the remains of three such trees (if can we call them that) on the Viveknagar main road.





Yes, I know Bangalore's progressing. Really, I know.

Naxalites with AK-47s

One question came to mind when I saw the newspaper on Saturday. Where did the Naxalites get the AK-47s from?

In case you were on vacation, Karnataka now has a Naxalite problem. Naxalites gunned down a few policemen in Tumkur and got away. Apparently, they used AK-47s.

Are these guns available so easily? Maybe Tehelka can try to buy one and figure it out for us.

As an aside, more buses were burned--this time in Koramangala. That's a mature response for sure. Whatever happened to that predominantly non-violent way in which we won our independence from the British?