by Aanandika Sood

Last time we talked about spices and their historical importance. We saw how spices were one of the main finds of the Age of Discovery.

We also saw how two great men of that time were joined by destiny through an unseen thread woven along continents they sailed across looking for spices.

Today, let us talk about herbs, which are a close cousin of spices. The array of herbs is as varied as that of spices, and both of them are added to enhance the flavour of the dish and induce me-dicinal properties.

A basic difference between herbs and spices is that spices, as you know, are derived from the roots, bark, stem, seed or fruit of a plant; whereas herbs are the leaves of a plant which are used fresh or dried.

Another contrast between herbs and spices lies in their flavour. Herbs are subtle whereas spices have a pronounced flavour. Fresh herbs are great for garnish-ing your dish whereas spic-es are hardly used in their fresh form. They are usually roasted and then used in cooking. Also herbs are not as expensive as the spices which often have to be imported and require to be kept in certain tem-perature conditions for their growth.

Many herbs are also known for their usage in many religions around the world. For e x a m p l e tulsi is a revered h e r b here in

India. It is worshipped in Hinduism alongside many gods and goddesses. Tulsi is known to have a calming effect and according to Gandharva Tantra a lawn overgrown with tulsi is a pre-req-uisite for meditation and worship. The herb also finds use in ayurveda. The roots, seeds and leaves of the plant are used to treat various ailments. It has been found to be an effective antidote in cases of scorpion and snake bites. Diabetic patients are often advised to regularly chew on tulsi leaves as the phytonutrients in them help lower blood sugar. Tulsi has been known for its anti-spasmodic properties and since time immemorial has been given to young children who suffer from colic pain. It forms an important ingredient

of many ayurvedic cough syrups and expectorants. In

days gone by tulsi was used to treat tu-berclosis or TB. Ac-

cording to In-dian mythology,

goddess Tulsi is dear to Krishna and Vishnu. Married Indian women pray to Tulsi for longevity and happiness. Tul-si vivah — when the tulsi plant is mar-

ried to Vishnu annually — this sets off the marriage season in India.

Polish folklore is full of uses of various herbs. Some have been praised for warding off the evil eye whereas oth-ers have been hailed for their medici-

nal value.There are herbs like mint or pu-

dina that are universally renowned. This healing herb is, and was, com-

monly used as an aid for digestion. The leaf, either used fresh or in its dried form, is widely used in beverages, jel-lies, candies and ice creams among other things. Menthol and the essential oils derived from mint are used in mouth freshners, rinses and tooth

pastes. It has a cool, tingling taste which is known to be extremely refreshing. In a popular tea consumed in African and Arab countries, mint is an essential in-gredient. It is also used to treat insect bites and at times as a decongestant.

Herbs have also been used in the Chi-nese medicinal system. A mythical fig-ure, Shennong is the first recognised herbalist who it is said tasted innumer-able herbs and imparted his knowledge of different medicinal and poisonous plants to farmers.

So you see, nature around us is boun-tiful. All that we may need is right here amongst us. We just need to recognise it and respect it.

4 THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESSCHENNAI FRIDAY 18 JANUARY 2013

MYTHOLOGY CAULDRON

Theseus and the MINOTAUR

by Reeja Radhakrishnan

A Greek Myth

Poseidon, the God of the Sea, had gifted a white bull to Minos, the King of Crete. But instead of sacrificing it, the King

chose to keep the

bull, rather fascinated by the creature. Poseidon was not amused though and sent Aphrodite, the goddess of love, to take revenge.

As a result Pasiphae, Minos’s Queen, fell in love with the bull (stranger things are known to happen in Greek myths!) and soon a baby was born to her — half

man, half bull — who came to be known as the Minotaur. King

Minos, deeply embar-rassed by this sordid

episode, chose to hide the creature,

who soon de-veloped a

t a s t e

for human flesh. The King asked his master craftsman Daedalus to build a complicated labyrinth to house the Mi-notaur. Now that the monster was safe-ly locked away, the king could forget about him. There were his meals to worry about but that problem soon solved itself.

After a victory at war with King Ae-geus of Athens, Minos demanded that every year, Athens send seven young boys and seven young girls to Crete to feed the Minotaur. Aegeus had no choice but agree and thus the food problems of the monster were taken care of.

Not a happy situation for everyone. Every year, the entire city of Athens wept as they sent off their children to be fodder. Their king was helpless and could only sigh in despair. Now the king

had a young son by the name of The-seus who was growing up to be hero

material. He came up to his fa-ther and said “Father! We can’t

let our children be fed to someone’s monster. It is

time you took the matter in your hands and saved your people!”

“But how?” asked his father, “We had a deal with Crete! You may not remember it but we lost to them miserably.”

“Well, let me go with these children to be on the Minotaur menu. I’ll put an end to this all by killing the creature!” said Prince Theseus who

promptly set sail for Crete. The ship car-rying them had black sails and as they left the shore, our hero called to his fa-ther, “Do not be worried. I’ll come back victorious. And when we return, we’ll change our sails to white!”

When they arrived at Crete, they were received by King Minos himself. His beautiful daughter Araidne who was with him saw young Theseus and soon fell in love with him. (This is what one would call love at first sight.) That night, the young people from Athens were al-lowed to rest. The monster feeding was to be done the next day. Late that night, Araidne came to meet Theseus. “I can help you,” she told him.

She handed him a ball of golden thread. “You’ll never be able to find your way out of that labyrinth where the Mi-notaur is kept. Mark your path as you go along with this thread so that you can follow it all the way back.”

“Oh, thanks Princess. You are very kind!” replied Theseus who had not ex-pected help from the enemy country.

“Happy to help,” smiled Ariadne shyly as she handed him a sword. “You know what to do with this of course!”

As he put away the ball of thread and the sword for the mission the next day, Ariadne put a hand on his arm and whis-pered, “And when you leave here after killing the Minotaur, for I know you will, will you take me away with you?”

“Surely, if that’s your wish,” replied Theseus, a little surprised. As you can see he hadn’t noticed anything unusual about her offer to help.

To be continued…

Squaring of numbers ending in 5In the last column we saw the squaring of

two-digit numbers in general. Now we look at a very simple method to square any number with 5 in the

units place.

MAT

H

MAGIC

KUMUDHAKRISHNANVedic Math exponent

www.catalyzecenter.com

PURSUITS

Let us look at the steps with an example:252

Step 1: Multiply part 1 (2) by its consecutive numberStep 2: Square part 2 (5)

Step 1: Multiply 2 by the next consecutive number (2 + 1 = 3). 2 X 3 = 6 This is the first part of our answerStep 2: Square 5 5 X 5 = 25

This is the second part of our answerPutting the two parts together we get 625Answer: 625Let us try some more:1.) 552 = 5 5

( 5 X 6 ) ( 52 )

30 25

Answer is 3025

2.) 752 = 7 5

( 7 X 8 ) ( 52 )

56 25

Answer is 5625

CODING AND DECODING

Chicken salad with herbs

Ans

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A. 1

. (d)

2.

(a)

3. (a

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(b)

5. (e

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. (d)

C

. (c)

Theof Herbs

FOOD

PICS: MCT INTERNATIONAL

Pasta with herbs

Mint

Tulsi

ILLUSTRATION: TAPAS RANJAN

A. If GOAHEAD is coded as JRDKHDG, and STOP is coded as VWRS, how will you code the following?1. FIREa) URIV b) IUJG c) LUHI d) ILUH e) NONE2. SHOOTa) VKRRW b) UMSSX c) JJWUK d) HJSWL e) HUWOK3.RETURN a) UHWXUQ b) HJKWER c) HUELUE d) UHWKAL 4. HEADa) UHGD b) KHKL c) UJDG d) HULA e) NONEHow will you decode this?5. VWDUWa) STAIN b) STEPS c) SPORT d) STAND e) STARTB. If HJSM means GIRL, what does TPGU mean?a) BOYS b) COWS c) TOYS d) SOFT e) BILLC. If CENTURION is coded as 325791465, and RANK is coded as 18510, what will the figure 78510 represent?a. BANK b. SANK c TANK d. TALK

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