About PUNJAB

Before writing posts on how to prepare Punjabi cuisines, I wanted to write something on Punjab, its people and the cuisines. So you might have known by now that this post is about Punjab.

Vim, vigour and vibrancy qualify the state of Punjab and its energetic people. Called the granary of the nation. Punjab is a green vision of swaying wheat and maize fields. Situated just at the bottom of the foothills of the Himalayas, Punjab constitutes the valley of the five rivers, the Beas, the Jhelum, the Satlej, the Ravi and the Chenab. Abundant in water, Punjab produces huge and excellent crops of wheat.
In summer, the landscape is almost coppery in the heat haze. The winters are bracing and cold and swirling mists cover the ground almost all day.
The Punjabis are a vigorous people, fond of eating, working and merry-making. Their dances are powerfully active. Their songs are rhthmic and the men and women are energetic. The Punjabi harvest dance - Bhangra - is performed with the drums beating wild and loud to the joy of onlookers who sing along to encourage the dancers.
Punjabis are robust people with robust appetites. Their mornings begin with thick parathas stuffed with vegetables and eaten with butter or spicy chanas cooked in a clove and cardamom-flavoured curry. Huge tankards of lassi or creamy buttermilk are drunk to wash down hot jalebis dripping with sugar syrup.
Punjabi tandoori cooking is celebrated as one of the most popular cuisines throughout the world. Huge earthen ovens , half-buried in the ground, are made red hot with a coal fire lit at the bottom. Marinated meat, chicken, fish, paneer and rotis and naans of many types are cooked. Tandoori food is today featured on the menus of almost all five star hotels in India and reputed Indian restaurants abroad.
The winter is Punjab's great season. The harvests are in. The weather is clement. And the fields are full of mustard greens. It is in this season of mellow mists that Punjabis eat their national delicacy - makki ki roti and sarson ka saag. Huge spicy and hot with green chillies , ginger and garlic. Farm picnics around bonfires on the cold nights of autumn are a favourite feature of Punjabi life.
At the end of winter comes Holi and Baisakhi, both colourful festivals of dance and song. These are great community celebrations where rotis and spicy meat curries are shared by merry-makers under a dull April moon.
Punjabis, wherever they live, lead fun-filled lives. Their weddings are glittering feasts. Their parties are joyous and food and drink flow generously at their get-togethers.
Punjab, with its rivers and canals, is a rich state and its riches are evident in the lifestyle of the people. Chandigarh, the capital of the state is called "city beautiful" and is the most aesthetically designed city in India. It is the result of the creative genius of the world famous architech Le Corbusier who has brought Chandigarh internation acclaim. Inspite of being the capital, the city has a leisurely lifestyle with people living in beautiful houses surrounded by lush gardens.