Sansi, a better alternative to oven mits

Today, as I was pouring hot water over my ramen noodles with my fat oven mit, I poured some scalping hot water onto my other hand. Hah! What good is an oven mit if your hand is going to get boiled?

Then I thought back to that handy dandy utensil my mom had in her kitchen. You won't find it in the aisles of WalMart, nor will you get it in a kitchen department store in America. This helpful utensil is only sold in India and over the internet through several online stores.

What on earth am I talking about here? The utensil that would have saved my hand from becoming cooked is a Sansi. That's what my mom always called it. A sansi is a stainless steel picker upper, if you will, of hot items. Now how is this better than oven mits? Well the grip on a pot or pan is much better, especially for those pots and pans that are without handles. Sure oven mits are great for pulling cakes and cookies out of the oven, but a sansi ensures that contents of a hot pot will not be dumped on you.

If you are interested in obtaining one, just visit this site. Don't worry, they are not overly expensive. The most you will ever pay for one is 15 dollars (and I think that's an extreme scenario)

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Trying to find religion/culture

"Mom, why do we have to worship a thousand gods?"
"Beta, we don't have that many gods, they are just deities of Bhagvan."
"oh"

This conversation was typical every Sunday, when my parents would force me to go to Swadhiya school. Swadhiya, is basically the Indian version of Sunday school. I hated going because it meant getting up early, sitting for an hour and reciting prayers and discussing the significance of those prayers. I spent my years in high school trying to avoid my culture and religion. While my mom was adamant about me not forgetting my roots, I was determined on becoming uprooted and becoming my own person, whoever that was. I didn't like Indian food, (probably because my mom cooked it everyday) and all I wanted was a good old fashioned hamburger. I disliked going to Indian social parties, and I couldn't sit through an hour of Sunday School.

Currently, I regret my avoidance of my culture. During my freshman year of college, I published a three page auto-biography narrative which was published in our university's English test. The essay outlined my struggle living as an Indian and American. In high school, I was trying to be "American" while my parents tried to instill "Indian" values. The essay then went on to explain how I arrived in college and how I did not know who I was. Am I Indian, or am I American? I gave the essay a happy ending: I found both cultures, and I learned to hold onto my culture AND be American.

Oh, how I wish that happened. Sadly, I feel even more distanced from my culture than ever. With stress from living on my own, my financial aid from college falling through, my difficulty in finding a job, no car, and no social life, I feel as if I need culture/religion more than ever in my life.

I feel as if I need to establish some sort of an identity, because without it, I don't see what my purpose is.

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