Kurma

The concluding day of our first three-part cookery seminar went exceptionally well. The feedback has been exclusively positive: everyone enjoyed the course and learned a lot.

The team was quite proficient and efficient by the last day. Here they are, hands-a-blur with the sweet potatoes, and a multitude of other mis-en-place.

Our calzone, soft yeasted breads filled with fresh ricotta, spinach, red peppers, kalamata olives and three types of mature cheese were spectacular. Almost 100 disappeared in record time at lunch.

The fennel-scented malpoura doughnuts floating in fresh strawberry yogurt were a highlight. There were a lot of happy punters on campus after lunch.

We pose for a group photo on the lawns behind the kitchens. Soon we begin another 3-day course, on specialty cookery entitled Spices, Breads and More.

The first thing that struck me here in Kwazulu-Natal is how hard people work. Commuter traffic is roaring from extremely early in the morning. And thousands of Africans on foot, almost exclusively of Zulu origin and many of them women, swarm past the compound from pre-dawn on their way to work.

But working hard to support the family is not the exclusive domain of humans. There is an abundance of bird life here on the hilly ridge where I am staying in Durban. They are also diligently ever-responsible home owners.

I recognise the nests from my stay in Belgium. At least I think I do. And I seem to recognise their distinctive swooping style of flight, and the way they construct their nests early in the mornings, entering the intriguingly shaped globular nest from a hole in its base.

I saw European swallows (Hirundo spilodera) building their nests in the eves of the Chateau where I was staying. And here, these South African Swallows (Hirundo rustica) are nesting in the palms. If you look carefully in the picture above, you'll see some hanging underneath their nests, off loading their building materials momentarily before flitting off at frenetic pace.

The African variety of swallows differ from their European counterpart in that they do not have the distinctive forked rear plumage. Correct me, anyone out there ornithologically inclined.

This leads me seamlessly to share this nonsense from the past. Gosh, my mind wanders ever so. Talk about a flow of consciousness!

The Swallows, from Monty Python and the Holy Grail

{Kurma notes: Actually, this is wrong. By comparing the European Swallow with bird species of similar body mass, we can estimate that the swallow beats its wings 18 times a second with an amplitude of 18 cm. Even the tiny Zebra Finch flaps its wings no more than 27 times a second while cruising.}

While here in Durban I received an interesting letter from a Mr Natrajan, who wrote:

"Namaskar Kurma Ji !

I am turning 70 in September and I am delighted to read your articles and the quotations of intelligent humans in this world. The Brahmins of South India are considered clever in many respects because they are mostly vegetarians? Am I right.

Om bhur bhuvah svaha
Tat savitur varenyam
Bhargo devasya dhimahi
Dhiyo yo nah pracodayat

What a beautiful Sanskrit Prayer. Om sound is because of the rotations of the globe and other planets in the universe, yes?"

My reply, in part:

Dear Natrajan,

Regarding Brahmins being clever because they are vegetarians, yes and no. Monkeys are also vegetarians, does this make them noble? No, actually the real clever Brahmins are the Krishna Bhaktas. It is devotional love, bhakti that is the most dear thing to God.

In this connection, and commenting on your appreciation of aum, {omkara, om} actually aum sound is God himself.

In the Rig-veda we find the following information:

"One who chants om, which is the closest form of Brahman, approaches Brahman. This liberates one from the fear of the material world, therefore it is known as tarak brahman."

"O Vishnu your self-manifest name, om, is the eternal form of cognizance. Even if my knowledge about the glories of reciting this name is incomplete, still, by the practice of reciting this name I will achieve that perfect knowledge."

"He who has unmanifested potencies and is fully independent, manifests the vibration omkara, which indicates Himself. Brahman, Paramatma, and Bhagavan are the three forms He manifests."

"Aum takes the form of Gayatri, then Veda and Vedanta sutra; then it takes the shape of Srimad Bhagavatam and the lila, the divine pastimes, of the Lord."

Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita, 7.8 and 9.17, "I am Om", and that one must chant Om thinking of Him in order to attain Him personally ('mam anusmaran', 8.13).

Also from Bhagavad-gita:

"From the beginning of creation, the three words om tat sat were used to indicate the Supreme Absolute Truth. These three symbolic representations were used by brahmanas while chanting the hymns of the Vedas and during sacrifices for the satisfaction of the Supreme." (Bhagavad-gita 17.23)

And from Srimad Bhagavatam:

"Just as a spider brings forth from its heart its web and emits it through its mouth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead manifests Himself as the reverberating primeval vital air, comprising all sacred Vedic meters and full of transcendental pleasure. Thus the Lord, from the ethereal sky of His heart, creates the great and limitless Vedic sound by the agency of His mind, which conceives of variegated sounds such as the sparsas.

The Vedic sound branches out in thousands of directions, adorned with the different letters expanded from the syllable om: the consonants, vowels, sibilants and semivowels. The Veda is then elaborated by many verbal varieties, expressed in different meters, each having four more syllables than the previous one. Ultimately the Lord again withdraws His manifestation of Vedic sound within Himself." (Bhagavata Purana 11.21.38-40)

Hope this finds you well, Kurma.