RUSKIN BOND SAYS...

"I have come to believe that the best kind of walk, or journey,
is the one in which you have no particular destination
when you set out."

II | September 03, 2020

THE EDITOR'S NOTE

Greetings, fellow sojourners!

We're immensely humbled and excited with the response to Portmanteau I. Portmanteau, as the name suggests, is a collection of everything we love and care about that's happening around the world, and we're continuing in the same spirit with Portmanteau II.

In this edition, we introduce a new column, The Elysian, where we interview two sparky young ecopreneurs. Our food for thought section talks about the origins of the immensely popular peri-peri powder, including a recipe for you to try at home yourself. Explore the quaint little island country of Tuvalu, the majestic Virunga Gorillas, and how you've missed out on meeting them in 'person'!

Of course, all this along with our classic Travel Record that features 10 new tracks across RnB and rap. In The Reel we venture into the unknown with three sci-fi space movies.
We hope you enjoy this edition of Portmanteau as you did the last. As always, we welcome stories from you, our patron.

Sharing the mutual love for travel!
Ashish

01 Stories That Matter

A deep dive into a story that's arcane, thoughtful, and sometimes humorous!

Formula 1 

Sport Or Entertainment?

Ask any non follower what they think of Formula 1, and the response is unhinged and instant: Fast cars going around a track. How could that possibly be of any fun? Ask them whether they think it’s a sport, and the scoffs get larger. “There’s no sportsmanship in car races, there’s no discipline. How could you compare this rashness to a gentlemen’s game like cricket or a team sport like football?” 


Ask a maddened fan of the motorsport, however, and the answer will be a bit different. For every season, us petrolheads know what really happens at a track. Twenty of the world’s most insane drivers are shunted into cars with the most advanced fuelling and energy systems, and then have a battle of goliath proportions doing speeds of up to 300kmph in a straight line, and pulling 5Gs through a corner, the equivalent of some high precision aircraft.  

Formula 1 is undoubtedly one of the greatest events that take place in the sporting world, and it is most definitely a sport.
Let’s take the drivers. Right from the ages of 6 or 7, some even younger, most drivers get their start in karting races. Aryton Senna, one of the most iconic drivers, started his career at age 4. From the outset, a driver’s mind and body are tuned to nothing else but delivering the best possible result out of a race car. Drivers, on average, train 5-6 hours every single day, and that isn’t spent just confined to a treadmill run. Each session includes gruelling endurance, stamina and G-resistance training, so that drivers know how to cope with the G forces when driving. There’s also a vast number of hand-eye coordination and other reflex exercises because reflexes are what can often make or break a nasty incident on track.
There’s also something else that few people rarely realize about the sport; drivers are driving at their absolute physical and mental limit every single race, putting their lives on risk nearly every tenth of a second. You might argue that such a dangerous event has no business being a sport, especially after the tragic deaths of icons such as Jim Clark or Senna, and more recently Jules Bianchi and F2 driver Anthoine Hubert. But to give it their all has always been the modus operandi of motorsport drivers, who understand what they’re getting into all too well.

Let’s talk about cars next, because this is more often than not what will get criticized.

Motorsports is about vehicles, of course, and here too, F1 is the pinnacle. Running some of the most advanced technology that goes into 4 wheels. Each and every bolt and fin are mounted on with precision of a few millimeters. A millimeter’s change means an entirely different car setup, whether aerodynamics or engine. All cars go through extensive wind tunnel testing (if the team has the budget for it) and hours and hours of stress testing, followed by actual track testing every season.
Another popular misconception that contributes to the idea of F1 being entertainment is fuel consumption and pollution. While this may have a little logic to it, for the vast majority of motorsports, the amount of fuel spent is likely less than what you burn on your work commute every week. A 747 uses approximately one fuel load of all 20 cars, every single long haul flight. And considering F1 in 2020 is hybrid, there’s also a huge emphasis on electric usage. F1 cars now come with an ERS (Energy Recovery System) that harvests kinetic energy from engine braking and can deploy it at any given time in the race, both serving as a unique addition to race strategy as well as an insight into efficiency. If all this wasn’t enough, the motorsport also intends to go carbon neutral by 2030.

Finally, the true sports aspect of the motorsport: The sportsmanship, the teams, the points scoring. Every race is a journey, from getting there, setting up your garage in the pit lane, to gruelling practice sessions every Friday, an intense qualifying session on Saturday, and lights going out on race day every Sunday. Every lap is all about scoring points and staying relevant on the leaderboard, just like in other sports. Every lap involves a tussle between one car or the other, and there’s every chance of at least one car not finishing the race. Teammate rivalries and team politics abound here too, and in the end, F1 is a sport that encompasses the spirit of team playing, but also “every man for himself”.

02 What You Missed When Grounded?

Walks With Africa's Famed Silverbacks

Trek with Gorillas

Trek the jagged lava-flow slopes of Virunga Massif. Bushwhack your way through thick bamboo forests to join the Hirwa family. Consisting of 20 members, they are surprisingly bored to see you while you are amazed beyond words, even though you anticipated running into them.

One of the largest families of Gorilla in the Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda has visitors pour in from the world over, braving impossible odds to view these majestic creatures, painted like a black silhouette against the emerald green backdrop of the forest. 

Located at 8500 feet above the sea level, the Virunga Massif is a strenuous trek but well worth the effort to watch these 98% family of ours. 

Over the last few decades, the entry to these jungles are strictly moderated with costs of embarking on this WSJ Bucket-list trek multiplying manifold, so have the discerning visitors. What has come down are the poaching incidents!

If you do decide to walk amidst these giants, you know who to holler.

03 Let's Get Comical

Do you take a moment and stargaze?

04 The Reel

“To boldly go where no one has gone before” is the greatest quote from one of the finest science fiction franchises of all time, Star Trek. We resonate with that, and science fiction has always been a part of our lives. To believe in the unbelievable.
Keeping that spirit in mind, here are three movies from the science fiction genre that also talk about exploration and venturing into the unknown. 

The hit cinematic experience that started it all. From the words of Christopher Nolan, “2001 is pure cinema”. Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece is one that tells the story of humankind and life itself evolving throughout the ages, and the path we take while on that journey. With a mysterious presence watching our decisions throughout (serving as an allegory for the film itself), most of 2001 is rather slow-paced, albeit for very good reason. When things do happen throughout the film, they leave you with a sense of wonder and shock that will linger on for ages.

2001 is one of the best films ever made, for good reason that mere words cannot explain. Watch it to believe it! 

A slightly more dystopian take on sci-fi than “2001”, Gattaca is the wondrous tale of one man’s attempts to overcome genetic discrimination that occurs in a futuristic society, to become an astronaut. Eugenics has become a common belief system, and so the protagonist, played by Ethan Hawke, must figure out ways to cheat the system to get on board. What follows is a journey that’s part funny, part ingenious and has an overbearing theme of darkness to it: Like most dystopian works.

Gattaca is one of the most critically acclaimed films (that still does have a few faults) that people don’t talk much about, and should! 

It wouldn’t be a science fiction list without at least one Christopher Nolan film in the mix. While we would have loved to cover Interstellar or Inception here, we feel The Prestige doesn’t get its due credit. A magician going out of his way to meet with Nikola Tesla to add a world-changing device, just for his magic tricks: Outlandish isn’t enough to describe it. This is precisely the type of trope that The Prestige explores. As Tesla says in the film, “Man’s reach exceeds his grasp”, quoting the poet Robert Browning.

Nolan’s masterpiece is the perfect kind of science fiction: Using real physics and concepts and adding the perfect amount of fiction to it.  

05 Improbable Places

In the mighty pacific, there lies a small isle abound with coconut trees and coral reefs.

Tuvalu: A Magical Disappearing Act

Tuvalu, a coconut republic in the Pacific Ocean is a far cry from civilization as we know it. Wondering why we are calling it a coconut republic? Well, the country literally runs on coconuts. Copra, dried coconut shell is their only export.

A group of 9 islands, 5 of them being coral atolls and the other 4 are formed by the sea bed rising. But global warming threatens to raise sea levels faster than the rising land. A beautiful, tropical paradise with azure waters and white beaches, the only source of freshwater is the rains. 

A history dating back to the 14th century, when the Samoans, Tongans and settlers from other Polynesian islands migrated to the islands. Although the Spaniards sight the islands, they are left undisturbed as it made no colonial sense. Then came the English, claimed the islands and named them after an MP in the sailing party, calling the islands as Ellice Islands. Anglican appetite for changing names of perfectly well-named places has always befuddled the rest of the world.


‘Blackbirding’, kidnapping island dwellers for the slave trade, and European diseases reduced the population of these islands from 20,000 to 3,000 in the 1850s. The population never really recovered, with today only 11000 Tuvaluans living on the islands.

The cuisine here is dominated by, yup you guessed it, coconuts and of course, seafood. It could be an adventure trying the local dishes. Chinese restaurants have popped up even here serving some comfort food that we all have come to love. 

Tuvalu in the local language means ‘eight standing together’ referring to the eight inhabited atolls. Recent studies have shown that Tuvalu is probably the only set of islands that are growing with cyclones and more depositing landmass at an accelerated pace. 

Some curious facts of Tuvalu
Funafuti, the largest town here has the only airport which turns into a social place with people playing sports, pop-up food courts and more coming up on the runway every evening! Remember land is in short supply here.
Tuvalu is filled with UN workers and “country collectors”, world travellers hung up on getting a stamp of all countries on their passports!

The famed .tv suffix or domain is actually owned by Tuvalu, a shortening of the country name! The Tuvalu government has shown some ingenuity by leasing this to a Silicon Valley company and earning millions of dollars every year in recurring revenue!

Interestingly, Tuvalu becomes a Venice on a few occasions every year known as King Tides, when the whole island is inundated under a few inches of water and a local celebration marks the event.

06 The Thinking Owl

Being called weird is like being called Limited Edition. You are something people don't see that often. Remember that.

07 Food for Thought

The Spicy Story

The Spicy Story Behind

Peri-Peri Spice

When a certain fast-food chain introduced peri-peri fries to India during the IPL, people went berserk for the stuff, and rightly so. There was no other spice powder that was so perfectly spicy, sweet and tangy like peri-peri was. On popular demand, the spice instantly became a regular menu item in this franchise, and indeed, took over the country by storm. Today, commercial peri-peri is bought by the bottle, and added to nearly everything palatable: Meats, french fries, sauces, you name it!

But what do we know of this African spice, and can we make our own blend at home? 

Despite popular opinion, peri-peri is actually the name of chilli (or collection of chillies, rather) that are abundantly grown in many parts of Africa, particularly the Congo regions and South Africa. The chillies belong to the Capsicum frutescens family, that has ancient origins in South America and parts of Asia but made its way to Africa, where it became a staple product.

The chillies are dried out completely, then ground into a fine powder. This forms the base of the mix, to which various condiments are then added to balance out the heat. The usual culprits are sugar, salt, coriander powder, pepper powder, lime salt and a few other common ingredients.

Today, most peri-peri blends and sauces (especially in India) can be made from African Bird’s Eye, another chilli that isn’t exactly peri-peri but has a very similar flavour profile and growing conditions. 

the recipe...

So can you make your own peri-peri spice at home? 


The answer is a resounding YES! The only thing worth noting is that unless you can get your hands on dried bird’s eye chillies, you’ll have to dry them yourselves. You can get the fresh ones at most supermarkets. Once drying is done, all you have to do is ground them into a fine powder. We’ve found this recipe and it works best for us. 

Peri-Peri Spice Mix: 

2-3tbsp of your ground peri-peri chillies
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ginger powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
½ tsp sugar
½ tsp lemon crystals (you find these at most supermarkets in the baking section)

All you have to do is combine these well (in a blender, preferably).  

08 The Travel Record

This time it is RnB and Rap.

09 Puzzled?

Puzzles to get your neurons firing.
Email us a screenshot when done!

Crossword Puzzle Maker

10 The Elysian

Young Ecopreneurs talk about their wellness startup journey...

Changing The World,
One Shower At A Time

In today’s times, supporting small businesses that focus on improving the way we live is paramount to our future and that of our loved ones. Leisure Ways recently got together with Brunda Sreedhar and Ambica Gayathri, co-founders of Scentora, an eco-friendly startup that manufactures vegan wellness products with zero waste and minimal environmental impact.

“We never expected that we’d be running a sustainable wellness startup in 2020. We were both run-of-the-mill corporate professionals running our busy lives”, said Brunda, who currently juggles her time between Scentora and her job as a programmer.



  

“It was mere chance that we were experimenting with a DIY solution for wellness products at home; the eco-friendly factor was a mere idea at the time” quipped Ambica, who also balances work at Scentora with her other gig as a music producer.
“Eventually, we liked what we were making, and soon started sharing our lip balms and body butter products among friends. The reaction was a surprising one. Soon, there was considerable demand for a category of wellness products. The USP so far was that all these products were handmade and 100%  vegan, zero-waste, handmade, sustainable, and shipped plastic-free. And that was when we started thinking about sustainability!”

Soon, the business expanded. The girls also had some help from various sources, including their mothers, who provided a sizable number of recipes and suggestions for newer products. Says Brunda, “Veganism was an idea that we embraced based on customer feedback and our own personal experiences. The simplest of changes ensured a much healthier course of action for Scentora, and we’re proud of the fact that we’re 100% vegan.” Their lip balms, for example, used to use beeswax, a product whose usage was detrimental to honeybees in the long run. They quickly found a perfect alternative in the form of sunflower wax and achieved two end goals: Going vegan and supporting local sunflower farmers.

The duo eventually started appearing at pop-up stalls and ‘santhes’ to spread awareness about the brand, along with establishing a digital presence, and all of it led to their current story, being a small local business that has perfected their waste management and resource utilization.

Today, Scentora manufactures and sells wellness products all across the country, and their story is a perfect example of how small businesses can go sustainable and benefit from it in the long run!

@scentora

Meet Brunda and Ambika

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