PDC-3: Evolution of the Fish Curry for the common man

PDC-3: Evolution of the Fish Curry for the common man

Long time ago, making a fish curry was not a science, but an art, practiced and perfected by our ammachi's. This was the time when we did not have any packaged masala powders. The ingredients were hand picked, powdered, carefully mixed and cooked with the fish to make up the mouth watering fish curry.

As years passed by, the packaged powdered masalas came into existence. The availability of packets of chili powder, coriander powder and other masalas made the art of making fish curry within the reach of the common household mothers. More people mastered the art of making fish curry by just learning to mix the right amount of each powder.

As time passed by, the choices increased. The maker of the fish curry could get a packaged fish curry masala powder that had the right amount of all the needed powders mixed at the factory. The person making the fish curry only had to know the quantity of the fish curry powder to mix with the fish. This easiness made it within the reach of the super moms even if she was an unseasoned cook.

As time passed on, the instant fish curry gravy packs appeared. This breakthrough enabled the average Joe to make a fish curry :) All he had to do was to follow the instruction on the pack.

Over the course of time, making of the fish curry has evolved making it easier for the common man. The changes have provided the common man more choices and the power to make it. This easiness has enabled the more and more people to be fish curry makers rather than being just fish curry tasters.

Let's get away from the kitchen and get on the internet. Let's look at the evolution of the creation of web pages. Web pages once upon a time, were considered a craft of a highly skilled software engineer. The availability of the HTML WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors made it easier to build web pages. It became so easy that jokes started appearing that said "will code HTML for food" (picturing a person begging on the sides of a road). As time went by, blogs appeared and the extremely user friendly nature enabled people to put their contents on the web with ease.

The climax of the easiness evolution would happen at the crossroads when the ammachi who we started the story with can create her blog and the craftsman software engineer who was the web page design expert can make the fish curry.

When many such fields have made things easy for the common man, has the charity arena gone through such an evolution? How easy is it for the common man to create, customize, cooperate and influence the charity arena?

As part of the PDC series, we will try to understand if such an evolution has occurred in the charity arena. If it has not occurred, the series looks at the challenges and the steps towards achieving this goal.

To be continued...

Th next two topics:
PDC-4: The Empowered Compassionate Common Man
PDC-5: The PDC Series: The Bird's Eye View - 1

Thanks,
Rajesh Vargheese
St. Gregorios Orthodox Church, Austin, TX