Mom's Whistling Kettle and tea-time chats

When my Grandmother was active, and of course, undoubtedly,the in-charge of kitchen, Dhokar Dalna, Chhanaar dalna(Please note it was not Paneer, those days, enchorer dalna or mochaar ghanto etc etc were part of the regular veg. (niramish) menu planner. Even though we drool over the names of the above dishes, the effort and pain behind those dishes have made them very special, part of a traditional meal cooked with love and care. But, life is always about 'customisation', and 'improvisation'. For today's generation of homemakers, there are many many solutions to realisation of gluttonic dreams of a true Bong family, living away from Kolkata. Thanks to the enterpreneural skills of spice Giants in Kolkata, we have the liberty of deciding to have Dhokaar Dalna for dinner at 8pm after a nasty frustrating day in office. Among many known and unknown packets and brands available in Kolkata, one is available in my Supermarket in Gurgaon as well. This is a staple in my pantry...

I am ashamed. I am guilty of not touching on my blog for months. My daily interaction with internet got badly truncated to surfing, emails, chats, and work and work. But, never mind, as the saying goes, Better late than Never.... so here I am at my confession box. All the above were just because of my technical incompetence and laziness.With a job switch, I changed my laptop. So all my old stock of photographs etc took six long months and a trip to Ranthambhor, to get transferred to the new laptop. But finally I am done, ready to get going. This year, the winter was very different in Delhi NCR. It did not touch the magic numbers of 0 or 1 degrees, but tormented everyone with a prolonged presence and a very low maximum temperature. Every morning, as we wake up, a curtain of white fog waits outside the glass window panes. On one of the clearer days, I managed to click the next apartment complex as in this photo. Good news now... as winter finally seems ready to bid a good bye for this ye...

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.