Uruli Puja Edition

Ingredients : For Gravy :
1 large Onion (Finely sliced)
For Kofta : 3-4 Green Chillies (Finely sliced)
200 gms boiled and boneless 8-10 Curry leaves
Bhokua Maas (Catla Fish) Black Mustard seeds
Ginger-Garlic paste
Two boiled Kaskol (Green Banana) 400ml Coconut Cream
Two boiled potatoes Garam Masala powder
GroundBhedailota(Skunk vine leaves) Cumin powder
Grated Carrot Salt to taste
Corn Flour
Gram Flour
Green Colour
Cumin Powder
Coriander Powder
Salt to taste
Butter Paper

Preparation:
1. Take a bowl and mash the boiled kaskol and potatoes to form a paste. To the paste add
one teaspoon of coriander powder, one teaspoon of cumin powder, salt to taste and
mix it well.
2. To the mixture, then add two big spoons of bhedailota chunks and mix it well to form
a perfect blend.
3. For the mixture to bind well, add one and half soup spoon of gram flour and for the
crispiness of the koftas add one and half soup spoon of corn flour.
4. Mix the ingredients well to form thick dough like mixture and then add two drops of
green colour to it and keep it aside.
5. Now to the boiled Bhokuamaas add half teaspoon of cumin powder, half soup spoon
of corn flour and salt to taste. Mix the ingredients well.
6. To assemble the open koftas, take a rectangular sheet of butter paper and grease it
more with two drops of oil on it.
7. Spread the Bhedailota-Kaskol mixture till the half of the butter paper. Above the spread
place the grated carrot horizontally on the top half of the spread. Over the carrot,
spread the Bhokuamaas mixture in the similar way. Lastly, cover the top layer once
again with the grated carrot.
8. Now roll the spread gently to form a perfect roll and keep it in the fridge for ten minutes
for the easy and firm shape of the koftas.
9. Take out the roll from the fridge and cut the roll into small halves forming open koftas
(appearing like the swiss-rolls). Shape well the open koftas with your hands.
10. Shallow fry the open koftas in a pan and keep the koftas aside.

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11. To the same pan add curry leaves, black mustard seeds. Allow both the ingredients to
pop.

12. Then add sliced green chillies, sliced onions and ginger-garlic paste into it and stir it till
the onions turn translucent and golden brown.

13. Once the onions turn golden, add one teaspoon of garam masala powder, one teaspoon
of cumin powder and salt to taste.

14. After all the ingredients are mixed, add coconut cream and allow it to boil to form
creamy gravy.

15. The koftas and the gravy are ready to be plated and garnished. Take a deep grooved
plate and pour the gravy and then place the koftas gently on top of the gravy and
finally garnish it with carrot strips and curry leaves.

Recipe Name : ANGOLI PITHA (RICE FINGERS)
Recipe by : Nazia Sultana
Category : Forgotten Recipes of North-East

Ingredients – For frying
Chopped onions - 2
For the AnguliPitha- Crushed Ginger - 1/2 tsp
Rice flour -250gms Crushed Garlic - 1tsp
Refined flour -3tbs Red chilli powder - 1/4th tsp
Water - 2cups /240ml Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt- 1tsp Salt - 1/2 tsp
Mustard oil - 2tbs
For garnishing - Coriander leaves –
Lemon juice - 1tsp
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PROCEDURE :
1) Heat 2 cups water in a pan and add 1tsp of salt to it. Once it starts boiling, reduce the flame
and add the rice flour along with the refined flour and mix them with a ladle thoroughly until
the dough comes together nicely.
2) Now, transfer the dough into a bowl and let it cool for sometime. Grease your palms with
some oil and knead the dough well until it becomes smooth and pliable..
3 ) Now, take a small portion of the dough and with the help of your palm roll it out 3 into a
long cylindrical strip. Take a sharp knife and cut the strip into smaller pieces of 1inch size.
4) Now, take the smaller portions and with the help of your palm roll them against the rolling
board one by one to get the desired shapes of AngoliPitha (rice finger).
5)Now, heat 4 cups of water in a pan and let it boil. Once the water boils add the AngoliPitha
one by one into it. The AngoliPithas will initially fall into the bottom of the pan. Once the
AngoliPithas start to rise up and float on top of the water level, remove them into a strainer
with the help of a straining spoon.
6) Now, heat a pan and add 3 tbs of mustard oil ( In Assam we mostly cook our food with
mustard oil ). Now add chopped onions, and crushed ginger-garlic, and saute for a minute.
Then, add salt, red chilli powder and turmeric.
7) Add the AangoliPithas and add some chopped capsicum ( which is completely optional and
doesn’t go in the original recipe, instead you can add chopped green chillies ) and saute for 3-
4 minutes.
8)Finally, sprinkle some freshly chopped coriander leaves and squeeze out a dash of lemon on
top and give a final toss and finish up the cooking process.
Serve this delicious delicacy of Assam in traditional “ban bati” and enjoy its awesome taste.

Recipe Name : BAKED PAYOXH
Recipe by : Nandana Hazarika
Category : Recipe Of Your Choice

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Ingredients and Others : For Sweet Boondi
1. Besan
For Payoxh 2. Sugar
1. Milk
2. Rice (any, my personal choice is basmati) Coconut Sauce
3. MTR BadamMix (optiona) 1. Coconut Milk
4. Condensed Milk 2. Sugar
5. Saffron 3. Cornstarch

For raisin/fig paste
1. Raisin
2. Dried Fig
3. Sugar
4. Lemon

Whole lychee (seed out)
Puff Pastry sheet
Tools:
Small and big round silicone moulds

Preparation :
Payoxh:

1. Boil milk in a saucepan for 10 mins to make it thick.
2. Soak rice for 20 mins. For 1 ltr of milk add 75 to 100 gms of rice.
3. Cook the rice for almost 40 to 45 mins until it starts to break apart.
4. Add 4 to 6 tbsp of condensed milk and 2 tbsp of readymade MTR BadamMix.Add these

ingredients according to your taste as these are the source of sweetness to the payoxh (kheer).
However , these are optional and you can replace them with sugar and some ground
cardamom.
5. Make sure the payoxh is not too liquid at the end.
6. Add a few strands of saffron

Raisin/fig sauce:
1. Add 50gms raisins and dried figs in a pan with half cup of water and sugar.
2. Boil the mixture until the raisin and figs are soft and water is reduced to make a thick paste
3. Make a paste of the mixture in a blender. Squeeze some lemon juice to make it sour.
4. Let it cool and put them in small moulds to freeze.

Note: Make sure these are small moulds of the size of a big lychee seed.
5. Put them in the freezer for an hour or so until it is completely frozen

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Boondi:
1. Take couple of tablespoons of besan and add equal amount of
water to make a smooth paste
2. Fry the boondis by dropping the paste through a hole surface into oil
3. Prepare a light sugar syrup and soak the boondis in the syrup

Coconut Sauce
1. Take ½ cup of coconut milk with ¼ cup of water.
2. Bring the mixture to a boil
3. Mix 1 tbsp of cornstarch with 2 tsp of cold water.
4. Add the cornstarch mixture into the boiling coconut milk,
stir continuously to make a tick and smooth sauce.
5. Add sugar according to your taste

Assembling
1. Get a big circle silicone mould . Put the payoxh or kheer into the mould.
2. Take one big seedless lychee. Squeeze in the fig/raisin frozen mould inside the lychee.
3. Squeeze the lychee now into the payoxh mould. Make sure to fill the mould nicely.
4. Now freeze the payoxh mould with lychee and the raisin/fig.
5. Take out the mould once frozen .
6. Wrap it with a puff pastry and bake it in an oven for 20 mins at 450F
7. Take out the payoxh balls from oven and it is ready for plating

Plating
1. Put some soggy boondi on the plate with some fresh pomegranate seeds.
2. Place the payoxh ball on top.
3. Pour the coconut sauce on top of the payoxh ball
4. Garnish with some cubed mangoes and saffron

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Book Review... BOOK
REVIEW

Saumer Phukan

My close friend Sushanta Sarma proposed writing a set of book reviews for Uruli.

Yes, I do like reading books (more than occasionally) across a spectrum of genres. I
went through the usual writer’s block – do I know the audience enough, are my reading
habits out of sync, how can I review some of the accomplished & recognized global
work. Yet, it was a worthwhile challenge to share my thoughts and address the unknown.
For those who know Sushanta – his perseverance stands out. With the current realities
around COVID-19 and geo-political environment below is an attempt to look at a few
books that has shaped my views and its situational contextualization. The views are
personal and in no way linked to the organizations I represent. It
is written through the lens of what I have read and
observed and can’t claim to be comprehensive.
Hopefully it provokes enough interest to question the
status quo in our future journey.

AI Super-Powers by Kai-Fu Lee has been profound

talking about the possible future thanks to

artificial intelligence. The author is an AI pioneer.

He held executive positions at Apple, SGI,

Microsoft and Google before founding

technology savvy investment firm Sinovation

Ventures in 2009.Lee speaks about four waves

of AI namely 1) Internet AI – largely about

using AI algorithms as recommendation

engines: systems that learn our personal PricAev:aHilaabrdlecoavte:rA-mRasz. o1n,5.i3n1/-
preferences that serve up content hand-

picked for us (think YouTube recommending the next video

you’ve got to check out before you get back to work). 2) Business AI – leverages

structured data existing in organizations (and associated historical decisions and

outcomes). It is about mining the huge datasets for hidden correlations that often

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escape the naked eye and human brain. Think about

financial services where individual healthcare

statistics, historical loan repayment rates, insurance

purchase and payout statistics could now be

correlated to define personal health insurance

products. 3) Perception AI – This is about digitizing

the world around us through the proliferation of

sensors and smart devices (e.g. Amazon Echo).

Physical worlds are being turned into digital data

by these smart devices which then get analyzed

and optimized by algorithms. Finally, 4)

Autonomous AI – This combines the previous

three waves where machines are able to

optimize from extremely complex data sets

with their newfound sensory powers. It is

PricAev:aHilaabrdlecoavte:rA-mRas.zo6n,4.i7n.30/- now about machines with superhuman
powers who don’t just understand the
world around them – they shape it.
Amazon’s warehouse is an early example

of how this could shape out. They are covered with bands of robots scurrying

around the factory floor with merchandize sitting on their back narrowly avoiding

one another and bringing a handful of items to stationary humans when they need

those goods. We could extrapolate this to visualize swarms of drones working together

to paint the exterior of your house in a few hours or perform search and rescue

operations post an earthquake or Tsunami. The book makes a strong argument why

US and China are significantly poised to be the AI superpowers and hence the new

world order. Key will be to accept and embrace the responsibilities that come with

great technology supremacy (we can already see different schools of thoughts and

debates around self-learning bots, their interactions). The shifts will have a devastating

impact across both blue and white collar jobs. Yet – if we step back and understand

the importance of AI as a tool for betterment of humanity and society, broader social

evolution would be benefited from this. Lee closes out with the call to humanity to

let machines be machines and let humans be humans. The free will is something that

will continue to be ours (and AI will lack) enabling us to step above and focus on the

power we have : the action of human beings will be the single most important factor

to shape the future of artificial intelligence. Today – if we sit back and observe the

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geo-political evolution in the world over the last couple of decades, what’s apparent

is the systematic growth of China compared to the continued entrepreneurial driven

growth in Americas. The Trade Conflict, COVID-19 or Taiwan; America-China elbowing

for hegemony seems to be a common thread across most pertinent current topics.

No wonder the technology leadership fueled by Data, Analytics and Artificial

Intelligence creates a perception of a digital divide. What does it mean for countries

like India – likely to be the 3rd or 2nd largest GDP globally by 2030 and that has one of

the most robust AI startup and developer ecosystem globally. We need to be guided

with in my personal opinion the basic thumb rule for Artificial Intelligence – broader

is the access to datasets, better is the insights. COVID-19 is a great testcase – could

we have done better if there had been even more transparent real-time sharing of

research data/outcomes. Going back to Kai-Fu Lee’s argument, we need to keep the

focus on global social evolution and betterment of society that

would enable us to harness the best of all available

tools and technologies.

This brings me to the second book I wanted to

talk about – The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek.It

focuses on one of the core tenets behind rise

of great societies and disruptive advancements

in science which I personally link to the ask

from AI Super-Powers – working with an

infinite, long-term view. The need to be

motivated to contribute something bigger

than ourselves that would last well beyond

our own lifetimes. Simon Sinek is the

bestselling author of Start with Why,

Leaders Eat Last, Together is Better and thePvriaAcevsat:ilPaabpleerabta:cAkm- Razso. 4n4.i9n/-
Find Yo ur Why. He calls himself an
optimist and working to build a world in which

majority of us will wake up inspired, feel safe at work and return home

fulfilled at the end of the day. Simon does a great job demystifying the limitations of

a finite mindset (think about Corporate CEO’s driven by quarterly results and

competition) and the inevitability of problems the most common of which include

the decline of trust, cooperation and innovation. It shouldn’t be a surprise if we

observe our everyday lives – that it’s a journey. Nobody gets declared as the winner

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of life irrespective of success, there is no such thing as coming first in marriage or
friendship for example. These work with infinite time horizons and the primary
objective remains to keep playing and perpetuate the game. Leadership is about
making decisions. We’ll never get to choose whether a particular game is finite or
infinite but we get to choose whether or not we want to join the game and if we do
– our mindset (preferably infinite). The book goes on to illustrate five essential
practices to adopt an infinite mindset: 1) Advance a Just Cause: A Just Cause is a
specific vision of a future state that does not yet exist; a future state so appealing
that people are willing to make sacrifices in order to help advance towards the vision.
A great example is when the Founding Fathers of the United States declared
independence from Great Britain and the famous 1776, “Declaration of
Independence”. The vision of a nation not only defined by borders but by an ideal
future state of liberty and equality for all inspired subsequent generations to carry
forward the cause 2) Building Trusting Teams:Trust is a feeling and for it to develop
we have to feel safe expressing ourselves first – being vulnerable. We need to feel
safe to raise our hands and admit making a mistake. Individual Performance (or
technical competence) vs. Trust may seem counter-intuitive but business examples
abound where highest performing organizations do not necessarily comprise the
highest performing individuals. However – I was surprised to learn that United States
Navy Sea, Air and Land teams, their primary special operations force and commonly
knowns as Navy SEALS (famous for multiple special operations like one responsible
for Osama bin Laden’s death) prioritizes trustworthiness over individual’s ability to
perform. Trust is about character – a sense of humility and personal accountability. It
is the difference between physical and psychological safety and the differentiator to
take the team through the long haul. As a leader, this is probably the most nuanced
of tasks but the good part is – once you are consistent with the intent, credibility
permeates through the organization and it evolves to build and attract the necessary
Trust. 3) Study Your Worthy Rivals: A Worthy Rival is another player in the game
worthy of comparison. There is something about them that reveals our weaknesses
and pushes us to constantly improve. It is about getting clearer on why we do it and
get better at what we do. Steve Jobs and Apple has set the benchmark of this
philosophy – non-better than when IBM introduced “PC” to the world in 1981. Apple
as the biggest market share holder had the most to lose. Yet – in August 1981, the
same month IBM’s PC went on sale, Apple ran a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal
with the headline: “Welcome IBM. Seriously”. The fine print spoke about “Over the

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next decade, the growth of the PC will continue its logarithmic leaps. We look forward
to responsible competition in the massive effort to distribute this American technology
to the world”. Signed “Welcome to the Task”. Apple had a Just Cause and IBM was
going to help them. By the way – when IBM dropped out of the PC game, Apple
quickly found a new Rival in Microsoft – a symbol of safe, stable, corporate-
mindedness. One can see Apple continue to pursue this legacy across the various
category introductions4) Prepare for Existential Flexibility: It is the capacity to initiate
an extreme disruption to a strategic course to more effectively advance a Just Cause.
A great example here is George Eastman and his organization Eastman Kodak. With
the just cause of simplifying photography for the masses – Kodak introduced camera
films and subsequently advances like color film, cartridge etc. for masses. Yet
subsequent finite minded leaders avoided the digital camera (inspite of it coming
from Eastman R&D – Yes!!) and the rest is history where Nikon and Fuji took over.
The market is getting further disrupted with smart phones. Kodak finally had to file
for bankruptcy in 2012. Finally the most important tenet5) Demonstrate the Courage
to Lead: Human beings are messy and imperfect. In reality, most infinitely focused
organizations can stray onto a finite mindset. And when this happens, it takes courage
of leadership to get back on course. Realize – the only common factor in all my failed
endeavors, my setbacks, my struggles – is “me”. It could be embarrassing and
humiliating to be part of the problem but equally empowering and inspiring to decide
to be part of the solution. I would close out with the realization that within our own
microcosms - as parents, citizens, neighbours (take your pick), we have the
opportunity. This begets the question in my view – at an individual, organization,
national and international level could we do better. Can we demonstrate courage to
rally around a Just Cause of economic prosperity &access to COVID-19 vaccine for
all; develop a Trust across nations, demonstrate an existential flexibility to set aside
our political differences for the Just Cause. There is a lot we can do – if we want to
create a better future.

While I was going through the above two books – one question that kept nagging me
though is – finite & infinite, good & bad – all these work with a particular frame of
reference and has strong dependence on the individual psyche. Rarely
somebodyconsciously decides to be finite-minded. How do we know we are working
with a correct reference frame? That’s when I chanced upon my third recommendation
Thinking Fast and Slow by Nobel Laureate, Economist Daniel Kahneman. Kahneman
is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology (interesting isn’t it that he won the

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Nobel for Economics) Emeritus at Princeton University and Emeritus Professor of
Public Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He
won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2002 for his pioneering work developed with
Amos Tversky, on decision-making and uncertainty. The primary focus of the book –
spans across the three phases of Prof. Kahneman’s work. It starts (first phase) with
the understanding of Human irrationality and existence of “cognitive biases” –
unconscious errors of reasoning that distort our judgement of the world. In 1974,
Science magazine – published Kahneman and Tversky’s seminal work “Judgement
under Uncertainty : Heuristics and Biases”. For the probability enthusiasts - it describes
three heuristics that are employed in making judgements under uncertainty (i)
representativeness (ii) availability and (iii) adjustment and anchoring. The heuristics
are highly economical and usually effective but lead to systematic and predictable
errors. A better understanding of these heuristics and the biases therein could improve
judgements and decisions in situations of uncertainty. In the second-phase, Kahneman
and Tversky challenged the traditional economic model of “maximize utility” and
developed an alternative account of decision making under uncertainty which they
called “prospect theory”, one probably more in tune with human psychology.It was
for this work Kahneman was awarded the Nobel prize. Bear with the authors when
they explain the distinction between a) experience value, the degree of pleasure or
pain in the experience of an outcome vs. b) decision value, the contribution of an
anticipated outcome to the overall attractiveness of an option. The fault lies in the
implicit assumption that the two values coincide whereas in reality most often it
doesn’t (unless you are likely an expert with tons of experience in that specific domain
– e.g. a chess grandmaster predicting a future outcome in observing a chess-game).
A psychophysical treatment is intriguing where the rationality baseline of invariance
is questioned by showcasing how preferences vary based on how the problem is
framed. It speaks to the difference of behaviors (risk aversion vs. risk seeking)
depending on loss vs. gains. In particular, the acceptability of an option depends on
whether the negative outcome is seen as a cost or uncompensated loss. A very simple
example is how common terminologies are framed in the credit card industry.
Lobbyists insisted that the price difference between cash and credit purchases is
labelled as a cash discount vs. a credit card surcharge. In simple terms – the baseline
was set at cost of purchase through a credit card. Innocuous isn’t it? However a
credit card surcharge is an uncompensated loss (paying something unnecessary for
the same transaction) vs. cash discount that is perceived as a gain for the consumer

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for paying cash.Research shows the impact it has had on global credit card adoption.This leads
up to the third phase of the work focusing on the science of happiness, its nature and causes.
Kahneman defines foundational concepts for hedonic psychology. The “remembering self”
along with its quirks of “peak-end rule(people remember experiences based on their best/
worst experience and the way it ends)” and “duration-neglect (doesn’t care about how long
the experience last)” far supersedes the “experiencing self (average experience over the entire
duration). The author argues that if one goes on a vacation, you are more likely to remember
it by your best & worst experience during the vacation and how it ended. People hardly judge
the vacation experience based on the totality of how it was across each and every moment/
experience. Two hypothetical systems explain the conflicting human behaviors: System 1 –
our intuitive, anticipatory response and System 2: deliberate , effortful analytical associated
with agency, choice and concentration. The key though is System 2 is often lazy and is content
accepting System 1 decisions vs. analyzing and slowing things down.

As an extension, the audience could also consider reading the bestseller Nudge by Thaler and
Sunstein. The book advocates a position of libertarian paternalism in which the states are
allowed to nudge people making decisions that serve their own long-term interests e.g. joining
a pension plan as a default option where the individual have to check a box to opt out. The
framing ensures that the default option (System 1) of signing up for the pension plan is seen as
the normal choice. Now an individual has to go through deliberate analysis (System 2) to
evaluate opting out.Our intuitive lazy response is to select the default. Question is – would the
signup rate had differed if the individual had to choose to opt for the pension plan (instead of
it being the default). The answer is likely yes.Libertarian paternalism is well recognized in UK
and South Korea and the Democratic Administration of Barack Obama.

How does it impact us? We could start by understanding that we have cognitive biases. Our
reactions to any geo-political conflict or any disruptive situation like COVID-19 is built on a
very small experience set that we have read or heard (often media). At an organization level –
it would be possible to apply checks and balances to weed out potential biases. Personally, a
recognition of existence of bias - would make us more empathetic, probably broadening our
intent for deliberate evaluation before jumping to conclusions. Empathy – hopefully helps us
focus on the Just Cause, the betterment of society and future generations and hence ability to
embrace tools like AI to accelerate the cause.

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