Lila's journal

Why is my life so hard? Father is always drunk, and is always in debt. Every time he comes home, he reeks of alcohol, and always beats mother up. Mother is suffering so much, and I really want to help her, but against my father? I have no chance, so I just have to watch her suffer. Her health is deteriorating - how much more can she take?

At least Hari is more sensible now. He goes out to work everyday, and sometimes after work he goes fishing to catch fish for our dinner. He cannot make fishing his livelihood - Father sold the boat to pay some of his debts and we have no more money to buy one.

He talks of going off to Bombay to find work and earn more money. However, if he goes off, how would the family survive? Mother cannot work, Father will not work, my sisters Bela and Kemal are too young to work and I need to take care of the family. Why is my life so hard? But for my mother and my sisters, I must be strong.

Recipes

Chapati

Ingredients

• 2 cups wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon Ghee
• 1 tablespoon salt
• Water to knead dough

How to make chapati

• Mix ghee, salt, wheat flour and adequate amount of water to knead smooth dough.
• Leave it for an hour.
• Make equal sized balls, smear them with dry flour and roll them out on a rolling board.
• Heat a griddle. Put the chapati on it.
• Moderately roast both the sides of chapati on griddle.
• Chapati is ready to serve.

The main difference between chapati and roti prata is that chapati requires less Ghee or oil, which makes it healthier. Also, chapati is easier to prepare than roti prata.

Jalebi

Ingredients

• 2 cups of 'All Purpose flour'
• 1 to 1/2 tablespoon of rice flour
• 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
• 2 tablespoon of curd
• 3 cups of sugar
• 2 to 1/2 cups of water
• 1/2 teaspoon of powdered Cardamom
• Ghee or vegetable oil for frying

How to make jalebi

• Mix the flour, rice flour, baking powder, curd in a bowl.
• Mix well, add water and whisk until smooth.
• Set aside for about 2 hours to ferment.
• Whisk thoroughly before use.
• Prepare one string syrup by dissolving sugar in the water.
• Just before the syrup is ready add cardamom powder.
• Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan or kadhai.
• Pour the batter in a steady stream into the kadhai to form coils.
• Make 4-5 at a time.
• Deep fry them until they are golden and crisp all over but not brown.
• Remove from the kadhai and drain on kitchen paper and immerse in the sugar syrup.
• Leave for at least 4-5 minutes so that they soak the syrup.
• Take them out of syrup and serve hot.
• Jalebi is ready.

The main difference between jalebi and you tiao is that jalebi is a kind of sweet, while you tiao is made of fried dough. Jalebi requires more ingredients than you tiao, and the steps taken to prepare it is even more.

Person in a pose

http://www.indiashots.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/prayer.jpg

I chose this picture to represent Lila offering flowers to the sacred rock as after the offering, Lila prayed to the god. That is what the person in the picture is doing. Also, the setting is by the sea, as with the story.

http://cdn.sheknows.com/articles/worried-child-teddy-bear.jpg

I chose this picture to represent Lila when the medicine man came because even though her mother might be cured, but there was a chance that she might still be unwell. Also, she still needed to worry about how she was going to pay for the fees.

http://pak.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/crying_girl.jpg

I chose this picture to represent Lila when Pinto was poisoned as Pinto was very close to her, and she did not want Pinto to die.

Ambient Music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ViTXgAb-vo

The video, being 7 minutes, is quite long, I admit. However, the reason I chose this sound video is because it has the sounds of the sea. In the first chapter, Lila went to the sacred rock in the sea to pray. Thus, in that moment, there would definitely have the sound of waves. Also, the video shows fishing boats in the distance at the starting and some other parts of the video. I found this quite relevant to the book as Thul is a fishing village, so there would naturally be fishing boats there.