Mom's Whistling Kettle and tea-time chats

When you are quiet and sombre, but carrying out your worldly duties, it is often that your mind is disobedient and never intends to slow down or keep quiet. The spiritual leaders or motivational speakers often call it the chattering Monkey climbing up and down poles and branches of mind, mindlessly. So while I was contemplating starting this new series in 2020, I have been discussing(read preaching / advising) similar minded friends and family as well on this concept. A close friend of mine was the first to be motivated and jumped into my boat of #putting self first. She celebrated her 50th birthday all by herself through the day. She took the day off from work, bid a quick goodbye to the hubby going to office and sat on her beautiful sundeck cum balcony and knitting her crochet shrug. For lunch, she made herself her favourite pasta with tricolour bell peppers, mushroom and cherry tomatoes, baked  herself a birthday special coffee flavoured tea cake and cooked the most ess

It is three weeks since we touched the magic year 2020, yet my blogposts were neither planned nor published. Successfully I drew yet another blank. At 50+ introspection is an easy excuse to justify lethargy, lack of planning and just 'did not feel like it' condition. So officially, Welcome to a Mom's Whistling Kettle and Teatime Chats once again and once again I have finally rolled up my sleeves, and all set to commit myself to Goal Setting 2020. At 50, all of a sudden your vision and approach to life demands a relook.. When you are past the median age mark in life you feel strongly that it is #You who needs your attention. So when 50 years were spent in perfecting your roles as son/ daughter, partner/ spouse, parent, colleague, friend, it's time to be the Best Pal to #You, the inner person and respond to your own needs, love, passion, wants and fantasies. While I have decided to put myself first in 2020, and listen to and pamper my thoughts, passion and drea

Apologies for vanishing once again. But I am sure, you will understand and will need no explanation. I had lost my Mom last year around this time, hence battling loss and memories and slipping into the grief  spiral was a priority this month. And I was not doing this just for myself, was there with my Dad who is slowly recovering from the pain of losing his wife of 54 yrs. I am thankful to relatives, friends and acquaintances who kept calling and had filled our day, leaving not much hollow to sulk and sink. Hence as always I insist family and circle of friends matter. That one small sentence has a healing touch But life goes on...and will. I have cooked and cleaned, smiled and shopped but all on a slower pace.I did not click photos, and thought this period be our own private time. Hope you will understand me So take care and till I come back next munch on the choco chip cookies 

Every day is not equal, neither does your brain and body work in same pace and efficiency on each fine day. We can be happy, sad, emotional, upset on any day without us having any control over it. But, come what may, the tea-time ritual is a discipline. My kettle whistled late today as we were running late. But, now we are sipping into our afternoon/ evening tea, we are busy enjoying our recent goodie bag from Netherlands. Koffiekoeks, stroopwaffels are adding a new dimension to our tea-time chat. Missing the Dutch summer, the Tulip festival at Keukenhoff, the Tulip fields by the highway in Bollywood Silsila style.  Stroopwaffels are typical Dutch goodies, where in, two thin layers of waffels are sandwiched with very sticky caramel sauce and come in circular shapes, stacked and packed for convenient gifting and carrying on travel. Koffiekoeks on the other hand are one type of caramel and coffee flavored cookies that Dutch would often bite into with their fragran

Hi All, My kettle is whistling again. So why are you waiting? Join me for a cup of steaming Makaibari or Margaret’s Hope Tea Gardens. By the way this tea kettle from pepperfry is a recent gift. But ,What do you serve with tea? Honestly, it varies from region to region. British tea as a concept was elaborate, cookies, crackers or the heavier scones, and tea cakes and savoury tidbits make teatime a well set celebration. This is a recent addition to my crockery...waiting eagerly to get filled up, when you join me for tea-time adda. In Kolkata, tea always comes with a plate of biscuits at the least. Biscuits come in plenty of forms, taste and structure. But it always makes us so nostalgic to remember the lero biscuit. The low grade local bakery product available in the tiniest of the local tea or grocery shops. Even today, Kolkata can proudly boast of the best cake shops and now baking studios. Today’s new gen bakers are doing wonders with cupcakes and macarons, cake

My tea kettle has whistled, and fragrant Darjeeling second flush tea leaves are being brewed, and I am all set with my tea-time adda. Catching up with friends is always fun. You can start off anytime from where you had left it the last time you met up. So let me start off with our story of life as expats. Last 4 years we were in the beautiful country of Netherlands, in Utrecht region. Our apartment looked over the Amsterdam Rijn Canal and the Hoge Brug(High Bridge). It would have been great if I could take you through a house-tour, but somehow it did not happen that way. We stayed in this furnished Dutch apartment and enjoyed every minute of it in spite of all grief and loss that we had to go through at home in India. These 4 years have taught me a lot. First and foremost staying away from home country, family and relatives was not easy, more so when my Mom was unwell, fighting Cancer in India. The short grey wet winter days were exciting initially, but depressing