Khichdi - The Quintessential Indian Delicacy

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A plate full of hot, oily, juiced up khichdi served generously with a ladle-full of sabzi or a little pickle is sure to entice any discerning Indian straight to the dining feast. Such is the relish, enigma and the attraction of khichdi that a description of the Indian dishes is impossible to make without it. Across the length and breadth of the vast country, the khichdi, known in a variety of names is the numero uno choice of every Indian of all strata, race, color or background. Served whether in religious festivals or as a regular dish in households (in rainy, cold seasons usually) or in the daily meals of community kitchens, school messes etc., it remains the favourite of all without fail. It has an immense nutritional value along with its cultural importance and historical significance. Basically, it is fine rice cooked together with dal, vegetables like potato, brinjal, lentils etc. into a single dish and served hot usually with a spread of ghee and accompanied with mixed vegetables and/or a little pickle and papad. It is easy, fast to make as well as economical, tasty and provides for a stomach full.

It is a very easy and quickly cooked dish. Easily available rice (of even average quality) would create a delicious plate, mixed with readily available vegetables like potato, quick peas, radish, brinjal or carrot boiled and cooked together with dal (dry lentil,  moong, masur etc.) and a garnishing of spices of daily use like jeera (cumin), dhania (coriander), elaichi (cardamom), long (cloves) and coriander leaves cooked till boiling hot and stirred occasionally in preparing the dish. Quantities of these materials do change depending upon the number of people eating. By the way, the ingredients also change depending on place to place and the availability of the same. Sabudana khichdi, for instance, replaces rice with sabudana, a millet. It is usually taken during fasting on religious festivals. Khichdi is also given to patients in hospitals during treatment and recovery too. It not only provides a good nutritional value but also gives immunity to the body, is easily digestible besides being very tasteful. It is also served as a bhog during religious festivals like Durga Puja, the Kali Puja, Ganesh Chaturthi, Shiv Ratri etc., as an offering to the Gods and the Goddesses and is also distributed as prasada to the devotees. An afternoon family meal especially during the cold or rainy seasons becomes sumptuous with a dish of khichdi served with additions of salad (a mix of freshly cut carrot, radish, onions, cucumber slices and/or coriander leaves) with other sweet dishes. In the mid-day meals in schools or in community kitchens too, the khichdi is on the regular menu. Being quick to prepare and the easy availability of the ingredients, the khichdi is definitely the India's most preferred dish. Other dishes are neither that popular nor quick to prepare and nor that tasteful. The khichdi thus has been the most favourite of dishes in India since time immemorial.

Being the most popular of dishes readily available, the khichdi also firmly stands on the food standards rank. The calorific value of khichdi generally ranges between 200 to 350 calories for the vegetable khichdi. Other versions may be higher. But it gives a proper balance between the essential nutrients for a healthy food. A plateful of khichdi gives sufficient amount of protein from the vegetables like lentils and dal, the rice component provides the carbohydrates, amino acids present in ghee, haldi (turmeric), black pepper are a healthy stuff, the addition of a salad adds to its nutrition besides others. Being easily digestible it is healthy for all sections of people across all ages, health or status. Green leafy vegetables added to it as sabzi has around 480 kcal which provides a balanced nutrition. It is gluten free. It also provides sufficient carbohydrates, fat, calcium, iron, beta-carotene, omegas, B vitamins, folates etc. It is very helpful in preventing malnutrition. Ingredients of haldi(turmeric), jeera (cumin) have healing benefits. It also cleans up the gut and the stomach. But it also has a negative side too. Preparing with more oil or ghee and eating it every day can have adverse effects. It can harm digestion and increase the blood pressure. At the same time, it can lead to abnormal craving and hunger. It can also lead to a spike in blood-sugar levels that can hamper diabetic patients. In all, it has more positive effects than negative. It is often referred to as a superfood due to its balanced nutrient value. It is unofficially India's National Food due to its mass popularity, health and nutritional value as well as its aesthetic importance.

The Second Longest Serving Prime Minister of India-Narendra Modiji

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On the 17th of July, last our Prime Minister Sri. Narendra Modiji completed 4078 days in power creating a unique record of being the second longest serving Prime Minister in the history of the country. Elected in 2014, he has continuously, without a break, been serving the country from the chair. The election victory in 2014, after an arduous campaign put him in power winning 284 seats with a comfortable majority. Since then, the country has changed a lot. The iron-fisted rule not only provided a pro-active government at the centre but also brought about drastic, revolutionary changes in the laws, institutional setup and arrangements as well as formed a new debate on culture, polity and politics. The issues on public debate are no longer the same. Aggressive, uncouth and strict rule based on public unity, duty and development - defined in a new form - is the order of the day. After three consecutive wins in the parliamentary elections, his administration has become more imbibing and comprehensive in bringing the nation under one rhythm and tune of Indianness, historical pride as well as a promising future. On the plank of Viksit Bharat, the new model of an inclusive, advanced and a modern nation of self-pride is thus endeavored. Riding on high popularity and teamwork, he has been successful in implementing his programmes, policies for the progress, modernization in all spheres of development of the country.

He first served as the Chief Minister of Gujarat for 13 years guiding the state from the reconstruction and rebuilding after the devastating Bhuj earthquakes in 2001. His tenure was a remarkable one. Marked by a new model of governance - often epitomized - as the best model of development, he set new milestones in governance. He organized festivals like Vibrant Gujarat, encouraged private investments, rural electrification, encouraged water conservation projects, Tata Nano car projects, FDI investments, tax breaks for businesses, SEZs etc. However, the Gujarat riots in 2002, discrepancies in the development model owing to lower poverty relief measures, lower nutrition benefits, less development in education, low human development index, bad ranking in the State Hunger Index, poor immunization were the weak points. Nonetheless, owing to criticism of bad governance, corruption and less action on terrorism related matters, the BJP led NDA, put out a firm opposition to the then UPA government at the centre in the 2014 general elections. Modiji was elected the Prime Ministerial candidate in the tumultuous period and after an arduous campaign, his Party won a full majority in the Lok Sabha. Consequently, he was sworn in on the 26th of May 2014 as the 14th Prime Minister of India. Since then, a slew of programmes, policies and hard decisions have been taken. The first was the law on Black Money, to identify, confiscate and take punitive action on the perpetrators of black money. Later on, severe laws on Terrorism were enacted. The Demonetization in 2016 i.e. to abolish the ₹500 and ₹1000 notes then, suddenly at midnight and stringent laws on banking transactions were put in place, much to the surprise of all. On the other hand, terrorist attacks in the J&K state were severely dealt with resulting in surgical strikes across the border with Pakistan, the Balakot strikes and subsequently many treaties with the neighboring country were put in abeyance. Despite this, the BJP led NDA came out successfully in the 2019 general elections to the Lok Sabha five years later. This time, the BJP alone had a comfortable majority with 303 seats and the NDA a total of 343 seats. This time he came up with more drastic policies and programmes. Soon after being elected, in August 2019, the government revoked the Article 370 of the Constitution giving special powers to the state of Jammu and Kashmir and created the Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh. He passed the CAA act granting easy citizenship to non-Muslim refugees coming from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan to escape religious persecution. Three controversial Farm laws were passed by the Parliament resulting in massive farmer protests, leading to around 800 farmer's deaths and ultimately the withdrawal of the laws. Alongside that, the COVID-19 pandemic appeared which made the government announce nationwide lockdowns closing transport, air, train services, schools, colleges, markets, malls, hotels and restaurants etc. and provide for the treatment, safety and vaccinations of the people from the deadly virus. In 2024, the Lok Sabha elections were held for which he was made the Prime Ministerial candidate of the NDA for the third time. The BJP and the NDA won this time too but with a reduced margin. The BJP secured only 240 seats a little short of the simple majority. Nonetheless, the NDA government was formed with Modiji at the helm again. This time the government was less stern. Elections to J&K were held. The government announced a massive cut in the Income Tax slabs that enabled people having income up to ₹7.75 lacs to go tax free. The Angel tax levied on investments to startups was abolished. TDS was reduced in a lot of cases. Defence expenditure was largely increased. More so, in early 2025 a deadly terrorist attack in Pahalgam in J&K led to action at the Pakistan border that resulted in the Operation Sindoor with Pakistan attacking with drones all along the western border and India retaliating with missile and air strikes in Karachi, Rawalpindi, Bahawalpur and other places there. A ceasefire was ultimately announced to prevent further escalation. Till today, he has been leading astutely across all issues in a pro-active, aggressive and decisive manner. He has received several criticisms during his tenure with allegations of curtailing the Freedom of Speech, civil liberties, rampant economic inequalities, heightened communal divide, severe economic burdens, a cumbersome and complex GST, ethnic violence in Manipur, unemployment, nepotism and hypocrisy. Nevertheless, he has been providing a pro-active leadership (working 18 hours a day) and a fan-following, bhakts to carry out his vision.

Our country has seen such a leader of dynamism and spirit after a long-time having similarities to that of Smt. Indira Gandhiji whose tenure he surpassed. Although, both won elections several times, Modiji is a class of his own. His greater than life image, worshipped by many, has had a permanent impact on the lives of all Indians young, old, rich, poor, educated, illiterate etc. He has been honoured with globally as well as in the country starting from the highest civilian awards of Russia, Nigeria, Kuwait, Bhutan, Mauritius etc. He has been voted as the 100 Most Influential people of the world by the Time magazine, and many others. With a large part of his third term remaining, it would be worth seeing if he can make a long-lasting impression with his values, programmes, policies or vision in the future.

Free-up space in devices

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Now-a-days life is impossible without devices like - smartphones, laptops, desktops or tablet computers. These not only store vital information for our day-to day use but also for our professional and personal usage. With regular use, the internal memory of these gets filled up resulting in them getting slow and giving inadequate results. Generally, a mid-range smartphone (priced between ₹15,000 to ₹35,000) provides up to 128GB to 1TB of internal memory. This is used for installed apps, storing files, pictures, videos etc. This generally occupies approx. 45-50% of the memory. However, with the passage of time, this memory space shrinks as more files whether PDF, music, videos or pictures files taken from camera or downloaded, gets accumulated in them. Similar, is the case with tablet computers or laptops. Tablet computers, mid-sized, come with approximately 512GB to 1TB of storage while laptops come with memories and storages in the range of 512GB to 2TB. But both these get less storage space as files downloaded or created gets saved. As a result, the devices get slow in starting up, in saving newer files or in displaying necessary apps for use. Additionally, updates to either the Windows or Android, Mac or iOS and the apps get delayed or halted which also affects their performances. Thus, it becomes necessary to free up space in the devices in order to store newer files, pictures or install updates and apps. Here are some of the procedures-   

1) Inbuilt Apps for freeing up storage space - Most devices - smartphones, tablet computers or laptops have in-built tools or apps to help delete junk files taking up memory space. Samsung has apps like Device Care to optimize space and free up memory. Others have Store Manager or the Storage tools that help clear cache memory or junk to get more space. Similarly, Files by Google for Android also serves the same. For Windows laptop or tablet computers we have Disk Cleanup and Storage Sense to free space efficiently. Similarly, commands in the Run app like %temp%, c:\windows\system32\cleanmgr.exe, cleanmgr, Disk CleanUp, or hitting Ctrl+Shift+Del can help a lot.

2) Use of cloud apps like Google Drive, OneDrive etc. - The Google Drive app found in Android devices, OneDrive from Microsoft or the iCloud app for iOS etc. are the apps that provide large storage space ranging from 2GB, 15GB or 2TB to store data. We can simply locate the files - pictures, text, PDF or music files etc. - move them (not just copy/paste) and free-up storage. These have paid as well as free to use services. We have to log in or signup using Google or Microsoft accounts to access. These provide large free storage spaces for other apps or updates in our devices.

3) Move files to an external Hard Disk or SSD Drive: - External hard disk or SSD (Solid State Disk) drives are a wonderful means to free up storage space for laptops, tablet computers or even smartphones. With capacities ranging from 256GB to 12TB, these portable drives can be easily connected to laptops, tablet computers or even smartphones to free up space. Once connected these drives appear as external storage like F:\, G:\ drives etc. We can move files, folders of almost all types from our devices to them and make available free storage. With huge volumes like 1TB or 2TB, we can move a sizeable amount of data to the drives very fast and with ease. We can also connect them to retrieve such data (files, folder etc.) for use any time in the future. HDDs nowadays cost between ₹1500 to ₹12,000 while SSDs come in between ₹10,000 to ₹20,000 depending upon storage capacities.

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4) Addition or use of memory cards: - In laptops or desktops we can install additional RAM cards to enhance memory. RAM cards of 512GB, 1TB or more can be installed in devices to enhance memory space. Alternatively, we can replace old RAM cards with newer cards of more capacity of storage. In tablet computers, we can insert external memory cards in the memory card slots with an adaptor if needed, having capacities of 256GB to 2TB to enhance memory space. Similarly, memory cards can also be inserted in smartphones to enhance memory space. Described as external storage these can enhance space from usually 2GB to 1TB. This enhances memory space to store more data or files.  

5) Manual deletion of files, folders etc.: - One of the most laborious, time-consuming and traditional methods to free up memory space in devices is the manual deletion of files, folders etc. We can select files present in folders such as Picture Galleries, video folders, document folders or the app folders and delete any file or subfolder deemed unnecessary, garbage or occupying large memory space. Thus, we can free up necessary space. This process being laborious, time-consuming as well as probably the most primitive methods is a freedom on its own. We can select files/folders at our will and delete them according to our wish and necessity.

Since smartphones, laptops or tablet computers are ubiquitous nowadays for almost all purposes we cannot but store necessary files in them. Selecting and deleting files and the use of any of these methods can help reduce the memory shortages and give us the necessary memory space to add new files or apps on to the devices. My most preferable method is moving files to cloud apps viz. Google Drive, OneDrive etc. We can get a lot of extra storage, easily move files/folders and retrieve them, when necessary, through downloading from the respective apps.