A gastronomical journey...

Ideally one should eat to live but reverse is true for me and it shows on my waist line.I am grateful to my Ma and Baba, I still appear slim to their myopic eyes.Food is often on my mind and I try to recreate magic of the past(in food matters).One such magical comfort food that comes to my mind distinctly is Khichudi(with a dollop of ghee) with hot alu bhaja or begun bhaja or potol bhaja.Khichudi was synonymous with rain, during my childhood.If it was raining, then we had hot khichudi with deep fried vegetables.But it never tastes the same...as it did once upon a time.
Durga Puja meant luchi and alur dom and bonde for breakfast.Lunch was again a spread of pulao, cholar dal, tomato chatney,chanar dalna,kaanch kolar chop, chaler payesh etc. etc....havent had so many varieties of food at one go, since ages.Anything festive in a bengali household would mean consuming mishti doi..it surely is a piece of heaven.I have some how perfected the art of making mishti doi and hence dont miss it, no matter where I am and also got my daughter hooked to this very bengali delicacy.
I distinctly remember a puja at one of our relative's home,sometime in the month of November and waited for it all year round as the Natai Chondi pujo meant pati shapta,narkoler pithe, puli pithe among other dishes.Janmashtami meant gokul pithe.Winters meant lots of notun gurer payesh and i just can't get over the aroma of it.
The Sunday breakfast, lunch and dinners were something to look forward to.Breakfast would consist of kochuri or singada or dosa but soon I'd be famished, on hearing the pressure cooker whistle to emanate the aroma of kosha mangsho...aahhhh....mutton with potatoes and loads of oily gravy on steamed rice, nothing like it on planet earth.I craved and dreamt about kumdo fuler bhaja, during my pregnancy as dear hubby scoured many parts of Mumbai but all efforts were futile.I did more than make up for it on my next visit home.Food needs no reason-pregnant or not, binge.
The every day food that we had at home, now seem rare treats, courtesy lethargy,my impaired culinary skills,unavailability of raw materials and my yo-yo calorie consciousness.Food, now is more of improvisation of things available, thinly lined with home grown tastes.Ma's day to day recipes are to be tried, tasted(often disastrous versions of the original) on weekends.I have picked up new recipes, tried and liked new dishes but always yearn for the very ordinary yet delectable diet of a quintessential bengali.

A ray of light...

Last night when i was nearly dozing off to sleep, my 3 year old daughter fanned my face with her story book...a distinct sense of deja vu prevailed and my mind slipped down the memory lane into the bylanes of my childhood.The summer evenings coupled with power cuts or load shedding as they are known wasn't as murkier as they ought to be.
I remember Ma, kaki(my aunt) finishing off with cooking dinner and getting ready with bhajabhuji and mudi to be munched on during the power cuts, on the terrace.The cool breeze on the terrace did bring some respite but what was really apealling was the munchies and being a part of the gossip that my Ma and kaki had about their work places, about their in-laws(most interesting!!!), their friends, grand mothers, price of vegetables and weaving matrimonial alliances between children of their aqcuaintences.Some evenings, I was spending this "power cut" time with my Baba's camp-Baba and kakus(uncles).Their agenda for discussion was entirely different-Mohan bagan, East Bengal, European soccer,Kapil Dev, Gavaskar and the futility of all political parties(somethings never change!).
I actually looked forward to the power cuts because they meant a one and half to two hour hiatus from studies.Well, I could study with light from battery operated lamps or lanterns but i did not on the pretext that it hurt my eyes and my Ma gave in.As the power would be back, everyone got back to their mundane tasks of late evening, primarily watching TV and us kids had to get back to studies.If I still lingered on the terrace Ma would go ballistic about how I was wasting time, what would become of me, admonish that kids from middle class bengali families have only one route to rise in the rung than their predecessors-study!
The candescent memories of power cuts are cocooned in my heart and maybe my kid grows up to think that I belong to the dark ages, cherishing memories of power cuts!!!Never mind...

Still single?!!

It is a question that plagues S big time.S is any girl next door, hails from a middle class family, educated, working, on the wrong side of 20, horizontally challenged(read fat) and is waiting for love or marraige(whichever is earliest) to happen.Meanwhile S's parents are busy bribing the Gods(of various religious sects) and running from one astrologer to another...just one wish-getting S married and peace shall prevail on earth.
S seems to have a perfect mellange of the criteria required in matrimonial ads (fair,slim,beautiful,educated and from good family)except the slim factor.This alone is a mamoth problem.S being the youngest in the family, pampered to the hilt, has never touched base with reality.S, like Alice in wonderland, is under the impression that prince charming shall woo her off her feet as he is going to overlook the outer appearance.He should connect with the soul.But alas, that does not fit into the arranged marraige scenario, prince charming will never get a chance to connect to the soul as he decides the fate of poor women after having a dekko at a lifeless pice of paper called photograph.Why is it so....is a different issue and lets not get into that.
Ideally in a scenario like this S should get moving, pump iron and loose those extra kilos but S is so diligently lethargic, nothing gets her motivated not even the fact that time is running out and she could step into 30s and still be a single.What a sin!S blissfully, beleives that she is always right and so pays no heed to the advice of her well wishers.If only, she was right and prince charming does come knocking at her door, oblivious of her girth.S does go on crash diets only to come crashing (with a vengeance) on samosa, chat, chole bhature, biryani , rasgulla and food of similar ilk.
S is (in)famous for her mood swings and at times decides to remain a spinster because she is not convinced how looks come into a marraige and why should she suck up to some guy.True but this is how it is!S has been living in a big city and getting acquainted to the corporate world, not wanting to lag behind in the rat race, splurges money on wardrobe and accessories.In abysmally low situations(Zero bank balance)as this, S makes up her mind to do what it needs to get a husband.
While S blows hot and cold over whether to be married or not and zeroes in on her reason to get married, I hope and pray she does find the love of her life.God(who, I guess, is a man,has inflicted all misery on women) should take notice of her plight!!

Tangent!

The name of the post has nothing to do with geometry or trigonometry.It's about some weird people I have crossed paths with and there was never a common ground that connected us.I found them so fascinating,anyways,they are firmly etched on my mind like the stone sculptures of yore.Memory is defined as the persistent effect of an emotion experienced in the past and if the experience was funny....I let it linger on my mind.Let's get into the act....

#Character1-She was paranoid of gaining weight.And this had affected her to such an extent that every time there was food within her sight, she broke it down to the minutest level.Like the ingredients at the back of a package.Or maybe even more..to the atomic level.I believe, it was not a conscious effort but something automatised due to constant repetition.If she caught me having a grape she would specify the glucose and fructose content in it and what effects would it have on me...there's more...whether the kidney would process the glucose or it would be stored as adipose tissue making my circumference grow by leaps and bounds.She inspired dread in me(in her presence ONLY) for food.If a grape was so guilty in the accretion of my waistline..imagine what a jalebi did-I gobbled it before she could react!I, being a complete foodie and fighting the battle of the bulge...I do remember her words, when I cant button my jeans!

#Character2-She was always dolled up like a character out of Ekta Kapoor's serial-coiffured hair, a curl in place, captivating(due to innovation,everytime) bindi, red hot lipstick(seemed as though one prick & her lips would bleed),sparkling bangles and gaudy sarees.Of course she looked ravishing(if you turned a blind eye to her weight, i.e.)!She is an absolute darling, very endearing.But her idiosyncrasies are outlandish.Her interest in her neighbours, her knowledge about all their possessions(ranging from their car\flat\furniture to their sandals), relationships, maids and bills was commendable.Whenever i visited her(not often), I was made privy to classified information about friends, neighbours and strangers.She was like "sansani" from aaj tak news channel!

#Character3-A minor irritant...She was one lady who was so charmed by me(atleast it felt good to believe so)she had to plagiarize my sense of clothing,hairstyle,career aspirations,hobbies and what not.There were times when we were dressed in exactly the same t-shirt, jeans, shoes,bag and hair style, too.Like identical twins(Sita aur Gita), we could never get lost in Kumbh Mela.The similarity in every aspect was uncanny and visible to every one else, not involved.Our kids have names that rhyme- a lifelong reminder that I influenced someone, so much.

#Character4- This person is interesting to a fault.She is intelligence, knowledge,tradition,modernity,spiritualism personified....& I'm just kidding!She impersonates to be at the zenith of everything that is percieved to be good and respectable.I kind of know her reaction to every situation but still i verify...& BINGO!A true epitome of flatulence and paradigm of gasconade.

The above people were not the only one of their kind.They are just specimen copies and everyone comes accross multiple clones of them.They spice up our lives and are fodder for a hearty laughter.More such dissections of characters will be continued...

A Birthday party!

This piece of literatur bears no resemblance to any person living or dead...but events & happenings are not fictitious.

Venue: Home or Mac D's or a restaurant or terrace

Centre of attraction: Birthday kid? Naaaaah...it's the mother and most of the other female guests!

Why: Look at their recession defying attire. loaded with gold and zardozi saris and layers of make up.

I empathise with the guys and completely understand why they look so lost. The wives' sartorial exuberance has burnt a gaping hole in their wallets and after every such birthday party the hole gets bigger as there will be comparisions drawn about what Mrs Sharma has and what Mrs Verma lacks and the best has to be owned, to be flaunted at the next such get together.
Aah the kids...they are blissfully unaware of the undercurrents till one kid starts a nursery rhyme all the rest of the poor kids are prompted to join in or maybe lead. Kids are bribed too..if he\she can recite so and so rhyme then he'll be lucky enough to visit Mac D the following weekend.Kids are kids and some don't fall prey to such bribes, they are taken care of after getting home(spanked for having ruined the parent's reputation).
Just when you are engrossed in the kids play (I can't find where else to rest my eyes..not able to withstand all the glitter from the gold) you could hear a female falseto alarm....move closer and eveasdrop....sounds like unnecessary bantering to the point of worthlessness. All members are alert and it's like the swiss knife syndrome-armed with as many tools (examples in this case) for maximum number of undefined situations. One member starts talking about her relatives abroad and the rest pitch in -they have several more kith and kin, abroad. No matter what, everyone else has also been there and done that, usually in a much bigger way. The men are enjoying the boniferous party, discussing work, shares, politics and everything that's important under sun. They are men...god's gift to (Wo)mankind.
I always wanted to run away from the spot because I couldn't fit in with the women-naah I'm too snobbish to break ice with them, the men....naah-it is not considered good to bond with the opposite gender, the kids...yes maybe but not to the point they are climbing all over me. But, now when i think in retrospect, it was a lot of fun..just be a silent spectator to all the drama around and enjoy! Looking forward to many such birth day parties....hope i get invited, though.