Mom's Whistling Kettle and tea-time chats

Life has moved on by a number of decades(who cares how many???) since I was a small child. Today in globalised India, we teach our kids about many many special days, beyond the Independence day, Republic day or Gandhi Jayanti. There's Environment Day, Earth Day, Water Day, etc etc etc....on one hand and the Valentine Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Friendship Day and many more such days which teach the nuclear family generation learn/ realise value of human relationships, even if it is for one particular day. Today they learn, the importance of saying aloud, 'I love you Mom for all you did/ are doing for me' or saying 'Thank you Dad, for being there when I need/needed you the most'. Our parents never thought it important to teach us to say that formal ' I love you' or the ' Thank you', which was never part of our culture, tradition earlier. How will they in fact, they were just the first generation of nuclear family parents raising kids inde

Me and hubby D have been married for over 13 years. Hold it! Don't panic.... We have passed 13 years and are in the 14th year, ready to celebrate Ramji's Vanbas. But thankfully, Mr D is blessed with usual dementia and hence mostly fails to keep a count of the years. Over and above we know each other for almost 17 years now, of which had a well planned courtship of 18 months, post his daring decision to propose 'marriage' to me. Placed at parity, we still are good friends, friendship has always remained a priority in our marriage. With our otherwise diametrically opposite character traits, food ,travel, and movies have continued to remain a passion for both, come what may. We travel on short and long weekends, travel on holidays at least once a year, and on work separately. While by design my work profile demand less frequent travel, he compensates for that with both domestic and mostly international travel, 20 days a month.But post my little R was born 12 years back, ne

While I struggle to eat down the refrigerator, or fix a menu for the week, the mini-God of my universe, my 'would be teenager' decides otherwise. Off late he relishes a 'thali', the Indian platter, North Indian or South Indian, preference slightly in favour of the North Indian one. Hence, we ended up treating ourselves to the 'Rajdhani Mahabhoj' to our stomach, sorry sorry heart's content. At the end we felt satiated, he was overthrilled for being charged half for all the goodies he got to lay his hands on. Could not control myself from clicking the huge spread/ thali. Hope you too salivate at the sight of the Mahabhoj

In an otherwise coccooned life on a highrise in Gurgaon, the only contact we enjoy with outside air is in the morning these days till the Sun decides to shine too bright, right over our head. Braving the sun, heat and dust, day in and day out, the sudden exposure to the somewhat cooled down air or a look at the setting sun or a sudden overcast sky makes you choke with emotion, fleeting memories, incidents, moments of life. A look at the sky on a quiet Sunday evening does a prompt overchurn of emotions. Nothing more apt to describe the feelings than the famous Sumon Chattopadhyay song...." Mon kharap koraa bikel maanei megh korechhe. Durey kothao du ek poshla brishti hochchhe....." While I enjoyed the sky over a tall cup of lemon tea and Sumon's songs pouring from my ipod, I dedicate this post to all Calcuttans missing the afternoon shower and Kalbaishakhi.

It is weeknight once again and once again I am dog tired as I drag my feet home, late into the evening. While I do the long forgotten 10-20-30-40,... or Ina Mina ....to decide whatz to have for the most important meal of our day, the last lap of the office work and concalls keep my ears and mouth busy. Yap-yap-yap.... I continue. My little sonny is already irritated with my ongoing calls as well as the 'mime show' of series of instructions to stand by. Hence the need to spike up the ' shadaa mataa' home-cooked dinner with a magic wand. The pre-boiled eggs in my refrigerator are too inviting in this moment of hurry. So, I decide, it is going to be a simple spread of bhaat(rice), dim er malaikari(Egg Curry with coconut milk) and roasted punjabi papad. And my almost 12 yrs old son finds the menu inviting enough to finally force an ear-to-ear grin. OK, while the 'almost teenager' finally settles down to complete his 'homework', I concentrate on the 'dime

Delhi weather is still beautiful, tolerable and we can do without AC. But for a silly mistake of mine spent the whole weekend sneezing, coughing, red rubbed nose and itchy eyes.....I ate two bites of a Chicken crepe, which had a handsome portion of mushrooms as well. I was callous and spared the waiter of my regular speech of "No Mushroom, No Crabs". Hence Sunday onwards I am busy with " allergic effects" Funnily, There are too many school holidays cluttering this week. Kid's school was off on 3rd for Ram Navami, will remain closed on 7th for Mahavira Jayanthi and 10th for Good Friday. Too many holidays means, too much junk food goes in, which is irritating. Since weekends are the only time I think and cook rather than handle it in firefighting mode during the week. While I am trying to be more conscious of the 'grocery purchased' and 'food wastage', I was quite touched with some blogs working on 'Eating out of refrigerator and cleaning up r

While cyclonic winds, pelting rain and loud thunder lashed on Delhi, the Delhiites observed an hour of darkness in search of sanity to save Mother Earth. Though 'conscience' and 'rising to the occasion' are not usually the most known traits of true Delhiites, the past few months of changes and surprises the country witnessed since 26/11 have brought in some changes. Yesterday therefore, the city along with its citizens reinforced the pledge to fight climate change and save Mother Earth. Be it the Resident Welfare Associations or the Corporate Houses, the Multiplexes or the ITDC Hotels, the lights went off completely or partially(non-essential ones)between 8:30 to 9:30pm on 28th March. A large number of Delhiites turned up at Dilli Haat, where WWF had organised an event. Hundreds of Delhiites braved the downpour and lit candles to join hands with fellow citizens from all over the world. What makes me write on this is the natural awareness that is being slowly seeded in t

This year Ma Saraswati decided to visit us on a weekend; Thank you Ma, else, being out of Kolkata, it is too great an effort to work out a visit to the Puja with son decked up Bangali style. Jan 31st, an usual Saturday morning for us in probaash. Hence no sound of conch shell or no smell of the auspicious aggarbatti or a puja yagna around us. On our first visit to the Community hall for a recce in the morning, we found 12 noon should be the puja/ anjali time and hence time for us to come back. Being an irregular visitor for the Saraswati Puja, I prepared a back up lunch of Khichuri, Beguni and kool-tomato r chutney at home. Since little sonny R would soon be moving to Grade 7, we are about to appear for the final(IInd Term) Exam for Grade 6.... hence, blessings of Ma Saraswati are little too critical at this point in time. In our true Bong upbringing, the prayer must boil down to " Bidya daao, budhdhi daao, porikshay jeno bhalo korte paari". We had good fun in giving anjali