Palak Puri - Go Green

“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children” - How many of us get influenced by such inspiring quotes? Even if we are impressed, how many of us put extra efforts to reduce individual carbon foot prints?

I remember when I told everybody at home about the Earth Hour and expressed my desire to participate in it, I was ridiculed. Reactions seemed to be questioning my sanity. I remember a story which I had read as a child – “A king wanted to check the loyalty of his subjects towards him and declared that he would place a huge pot in front of his palace and asked each of his subjects to pour one cup of milk in it during mid night. The next morning, pot was found filled with water!” When we point a finger towards other people, we fail to notice that three fingers are pointing towards us. I don’t believe in preaching my ideas to folks coz it hardly works. After all you can only take the horse to water, but you cannot make it drink. I therefore, do my bit in everyday activities, which I’m glad my kids learn too.

I’m just expressing my thoughts and approach towards going green that I have imposed on myself. Coz I believe that even the smallest of actions can have lasting effects on the environment.

1. When I open a chocolate for my kids at home, I don’t simply dump it on the floor. I ensure the wrapper is in the dustbin. Why don’t I take the same care to not litter when I am outside home? I have made it a practice to keep all the litter in a small packet in my bag and throw in dustbin after reaching home. I feel elated to see my kids too, taking so much care to either clutch the wrappers in their hands or preserve in their pockets and fill the dustbin back home.
2. Recently saw a pic of electric bulb and a text besides it saying ‘How do you feel if someone turns you ON and leaves?’ This is a simple thing to do. Simply switch off the lights, fans or electric appliances if you don’t need them. At work, when we leave for the day harmonic motion of three fingers pressing Ctrl + Alt + Delete is what most of us do. Why can’t we shut our system down? Ok, if that is so difficult to do, can we at least shut it down while leaving on Fridays? If that is also not possible, then what is possible is we could switch off the monitor. Trivia: Turning off a 75-watt monitor outside 40 hours a week saves $4.38 a month (42 kwh). This saves 750 lb. of CO2 (greenhouse gas emissions) by burning 450 fewer pounds of coal each year! This is motivation enough for me switch the monitor even when I go for breaks or lunch! It does make me feel good.
3. I only take-print outs when it’s unavoidable. Even if I do, I use the ‘Print on both sides’ option. I also use Century Gothic font while printing coz this font in known as the Eco font as it consumes 30% less ink than Arial.

I religiously practice the above and am focusing on reducing polythene bag usage. They have become such an integral part of our lives that whether you like them or dislike them, you cannot avoid them. My dear readers please share with me your viewpoints and share ideas for going green, Also if a few people get inspired by this post and start practicing green habits, I would be even more content…

Here goes the recipe for Palak Puri:

Ingredients:

Spinach or Palak leaves – 1 cup

Wheat Flour – 1 Cup

Salt to taste

Sugar – ½ tsp

Baking soda – a pinch (optional)

Nigella seeds – ½ tsp

Water – 2 cups

Oil – for deep frying

Method:

1.      Blanch palak leaves, strain from water and cool. Do not throw away the water.

2.      Grind the blanched palak leaves into a fine puree.

3.      Mix together flour, salt, sugar, baking sods, nigella seeds, palak puree in a wide bowl. Use the water in which palak was boiled for kneading. (Use quantity as required)

4.      The dough has to be soft but firm.

5.      Divide the dough into balls and roll using rolling pin as we do the normal Puri.

6.      Deep fry in oil and serve with any side dish of your choice.