Rannar Mashi

Found these drafts lying in the Posting section, unpublished...

2010-04-30T16:41:00.001-07:00

This post is dedicated to Gauri.
How very insignificant my blog may be, yet it always brings in a moment of secret pride whenever any friend says 'hey I miss your posts, why have you stopped writing your blog?'.Even though the speaker is well known in the friend's circle as one kind hearted soul who cares even for the most hopeless of all. :)

Draft 1:
So today we (myself and A) attended our first parentcraft session.
The group comprised of smug pregnant lady /casual couple/ lovey dovey/ teenage knocked up/ single mother (may be of east european origin) etc some such 10/11 first time moms and their partner and the last but not the least an over-energetic, hysterically supportive midwife. It has turned out that we are the least prepared couple of them all when it comes to buying baby gears at this stage of advanced pregnancy. Me and A have felt like back benchers as other couples smugly extolling the virtues of different brands of sterilisers, Moses basket, car seats etc. The only things we have hoarded up on till now are different baby lotions, nappy creams,shower gel, baby oil, powder, soaps etc. That too only because I am quitting my job with Johnson and Johnson so I have planned to avail the staff discount facility on these products before I leave.
So this huge stock of baby lotions/creams is our last chance to prove that we are responsible would-be parents too, we are one of them. We waited with baited breath for the midwife to talk about baby lotions. And she did. But only in the same breath, she given her verdict that members need not worry about buying baby lotions/creams at this stage. It is preferable not to put on anything on the baby during the first one month. The baby would be naturally moisturised till that point.
We saw our chance to regain some dignity as responsible parents quashed before our eyes.

Draft 2:

If there be a switch by turning on which you would know what is bothering you.
Switch on.... you hear a voice in your head........'YOU ARE HAVING TOO MUCH IDLE TIME TO THINK YOU ARE UNHAPPY...GET YOUR LAZY BUM TO WORK'...or may be a sympathetic voice would whisper.....'are you nuts, the chores are absolutely driving you crazy, take a Break and do some blogging . You simply deserve the break'...

Just as I am typing it, I guess things become suddenly clear and I get a hint about what is bothering me. It may be something related to the fact that I turned 36 last week. Aha...things are clearer now.
I am worried because, I am a middle aged mom who is getting panic attack because she does want to play some more with her daughter and does not want to go back to work again because she did not quite like her job, and is too scared to change her (almost non-existent) career. she thinks she is bright enough and the compassionate enough to change things, run a social enterprise and work to her heart's content....but too scared thinking that things would not go as well as contemplated, and people would laugh behind her back and say ...(well leave alone the say part, laughing behind her back is scary enough for her).
What shall she do?
Go back to a job that does not mean anything to her or take a leap into the abyss?
by the way, I just love the film Abyss..Abyss along with Mission to Mars and Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.

I simply am scared of having a routine life. Yes I know, that is the root cause of all my problems. Whenever, I see a fixed pattern in my life, I get scared. As a child, I somehow imagined that I would have a Larger than Life life. Don't get me wrong. I never meant that I wished for a mansion, ten bungalows, farmhouse, Yacht party or a personal banker.

All I wanted is richness in life. Variations.

2009-08-17T08:11:00.000-07:00

So I thought I can cook. What a joke!!!! My little girl is repeatedly making it a point that I CANNOT COOK.So far she has made verbal objections to the quality of the meal. But today she has taken the abuse a notch up and started splattering food all over her body and carpeting food all over the floor.I was so overwhelmed, I started to cry.It was not like whimpering or squirming but out and out full-on crying with snot coming out of my nose. All the tears just blurted out of the eye socket and I cannot stop it. It was such a serious blow to my cook's soul. Then after some time (read: 1.5 hrs), when the storm has passed and I regained my will power to clear up the mess, my cook's ego crawled back.There must be help somewhere in the net. It is too early to accept defeat.That too from a person not even a year and half old. So the search begins.....

Pregnancy Update

2008-04-22T14:59:00.001-07:00

Today I am slightly annoyed,a little scared,totally and utterly bored and big time lonely . So far pregnancy was allright. It did not change the way I go about my life, except for the growing bump which by the way A has named as Bampu Singh and me and my friends allegedly started to refer to my yet-to-be-born baby by that name to A's utter disgust.

I am slightly annoyed because of late my tiny bump has suddenly become massive and it is getting in my way all the time. And the lodger in this bump, let me tell you,is not easy at all. I can not so far as put my arms on the bump nowadays. First there would be ripples of mild protest which if I do not pay heed to, would soon turn into rather strong and offensive jerks. My position has relegated to that of the old and wary landlords in Calcutta who are always trying to make peace with their Bharates.

I am scared as I see Calcutta burning up day by day. Has the climate change already started to take its toll on the planet? Otherwise when was the last time the temperature was over forty degree celcious in Calcutta during mid April? Almost never. Couple this with the following scenerios.

In Egypt, most of the fertile delta of Nile is gradually becoming barren as with the rising sea level of Mediterranean, more and more salt is mixing up with the soil of once fertile Nile delta and making it unsuitable for the agriculture. So in no time millions of people of Egypt would become environmental regugees and would have severe food crisis.
Dubai is all geared up to build floating islands to deal with the rising levels of the sea in the imminent future.
Forecasters of the Oil giant Shell have predicted of Scramble scenerio by 2050, when the supply of oil would flatten out, demand would go up manifolds than the present times and people in general would scramble for whatever energy source they could put their hands on, rather than thinking out the alternative energy sources.
And yet, with all these informations in the back of my mind, all I am thinking about is my baby. May be we are only programmed to protect the essence of life as far as possible. My constant thinking about my baby is triggered by that inbuilt programming which we call primitive instinct.

Mr Poxy

2008-03-08T02:55:00.000-08:00

A(my husband) had Chicken pox from last Friday. He did not have Chicken Pox during his childhood. So finally there is sign that A is growing out of childhood. Letting apart the jokes, I was terribly stressed and depressed for the last 1 week. It is bad to have Chicken Pox yourself and it is ten times worse to see somebody else in your family having that. So much I wished I could take away his pain and irritation but could not help him either way. After 9 long days, A is much better now with most of the blisters are crusted over and I get a chance to take a breath of relief.

Things I learned unlearned and re-learned about Chicken Pox:-

It is the fluid from the blisters or sores which is really contagious and not the scabs or the dried out caps of the blisters. So Chicken Pox germs get mostly spread during the first 7-10 days of the infection when the blisters are full of fluid which is contrary to my earlier conception that it is mostly spread during 15-21 days of the disease, when the blisters are crusted over.

Chicken Pox blisters are nothing but chemical reaction of the excreta of the varicella-zoster virus on the skin. The chemical reaction of the Virus poop burns the skin and results in blisters. A is not very happy knowing that he has got virus poop all over his body.

Calamine lotion we are using now has a very runny texture ,it looks more like lime water. It is so very different from the thick gooey Lacto Calamine I had been applied to as a kid while having Chicken Pox myself. But gooey or runny Calamine is the best.

I learned that I could totally take care of Mr Poxy, a baby in my belly (yes you are right. I am pregnant with my first baby),the bereavement of someone closest to my heart, a job and home front all at the same time. I am finally growing up too. May be getting a bit stir crazy, but overall more confident to take on challenges life is throwing in my direction.

Finally good thing about the Chicken Pox episode. It surely has churned the creative juices in A. Being quarantined at home, he is getting all the time now to experiment with his photographic skills and having a blast with his camera. I have particularly found the following snap quite interesting and also being very aptly named as "Water Screw". This is a close-up shot of the water in our water filter.

Water Screw

Religion: Spiritual but not religious

2008-01-06T01:52:00.000-08:00

This post was drafted almost two months back.

After spending three decades (plus a few more years, to be honest) on this planet, all of a sudden, a surge of religiousness caught the better of me. Suddenly I felt that it is not enough to be spiritual only,being a bit religious would not hurt anybody.

Though I know, this decision would not make my father very happy. He is all about being "Atma Dipo, Atma Sharana, Ananya Sharana" which in a nutshell means, "guide yourself with your inner light and you would be rightly directed". As you would notice, this philosophy is bereft of any kind of religious overtones. So guided by this philosophy, we (me and my sister) grew up very spiritual but at the same time very unschooled when it comes to "Puja upachars".

Only "Upachar" we (me and Didi) perfected over the years is offering secret Namaskars to every Thakur Bari we pass by, with silent patronage from Ma.

So what is different now? I believe, the "Sthan". Over the last few months, while introspecting, I realized we (me and A) are not making any conscious efforts to retain our Bangaliana while going about our daily lives.

Our home décor does not make any particular impression about our origin. If you go to any of our neighbour's home, I presume it may be decorated with the same kind of modern lights, same pretentious decorative items, same indoor plants in the corner, same furniture, same kind of curtains etc. We do not have a Bangali calendar with the photo of a Lakkhi Thakur sitting on a gigantic owl and gold coins springing out of her right palm, hung in any of our walls as it does not go with the décor.We do not have any of our grand parents' Chandan smeared photos right on top of our main door. Again the same logic, it does not go with the décor. So we are staying in a house, about the décor of which we are very proud but which is uncharacteristic of the origin we belong to.

On the same note, the movies we see are not predominantly Bangali nor the books we read which are again world literature not predominantly Bangali. Also the radio channel I listen to everyday (Sunrise radio) while driving to office does not have remotest Bong connection. The songs it plays are very recently released Hindi film songs with intermittent message from the sponsors like, Shan Company promoting ovenable-Punjabi samosa, Malik Law Chamber soliciting advice to illegal immigrants, Dimple glazing providing UK's number one glazing services and most recently Anand Paan Bhandar which usually sells paan but on the Subh Afsar of Diwali has begun their new endeavour of selling firecrackers.

Now, I would not have noticed all these insignificant things if the "Sthan" we are living would be any place in Bengal, or Bharat as a matter of fact.

Because, then no matter how modern and non-Bangali our home décor be, every now and then, we would certainly visit one of our innumerable Kakas or Mashis or Mamas and come across sepia coloured photos of our forefathers or would stop by the neighborhood sweet shop which would invariably hang on its wall at least one Bangali calendar with the photo of "Narugopal" holding "Narus" and various other mouth- watering "Mishtanno" strewn about, (very apt advertising of the proprietor's items, I should admit).
Or if we be based in Calcutta and even if you grow up sans any "Pujo Upachars" like me, still Birendra Krishna Bhadra would be a name very close to your heart.

My point here is that, being Bangali would be next to your nature while you are in Bharat, but unless the efforts are made consciously, the same situation does not hold true here.

So in my humble attempt to retain some Bangaliana, I go for an all-day fast (not Nirjala though) and then Anjali on Kali pujo this year. I only hope that my father could, by some happy miracle, figure out (as he does not know about this blog) the rationale behind my sudden religiousness and does not despair thinking all his teachings are in vain.

I even took all the trouble to wear a "Tassar sari" (over synthetic leggings as it was freezing cold outside)and A drove us to the nearest Kali pujo which was 25 mile away from home. But it was worth all the bother when we see our Bangali friends and Bangalis in general milling around, the typical "Khoshkhosh" of "natun sari", kids playing around, fabulous "bhog" distributed by "Sechcha Sevaks", even a stall in the corner selling "Puja Barshiki" and Bangla cds and dvds.

The best part was the bhog. It had "Bhat","Dal", "Panchmishali Tarkari", "Pantha aka Lamb er jhol", "lyangcha".

I felt very content on my way home. No silly, it not the Bhog I felt content about. Though it was partly the reason of being content. I was content that I felt very much rooted to my origin in this Parobaas even though for a lone evening.

PS:
Two mildly funny incidents that happened on Kali pujo :

The gentleman who was performing the Puja adopted a very funny, ostentatious accent while saying the Mantras. As for the mantra "Kali, Kali, Maha Kali……" he was saying "Khali, Kwali, Maha Kwali….." I heard some of the ladies (who do not look like they are born and brought up in UK)also repeating after him "Khali, Kwali, Maha Kwali…..".

On the day of Kali Pujo, I came back from Office and lounged on the sofa for a while before getting up to get dressed for the Pujo and I caught a quick nap and dreamt that I am having a plate full of heavenly smelling Chicken Biriyani and Mutton ChNap. Not at all fit for fasting. Am I?

Amusing thing in bland office toilet

2007-11-06T12:24:00.000-08:00

Funny thing that repeteadly amuses me in our very bland and dreary office bathroom.

Check out Photo No 1 below, it is the snapshot of the Paper towel dispenser in our office toilet.

Photo No 1

One of our good friends once translated Paper towel in Bangla as "Hagoj" (Hagur kagoj= Hagoj).

Now look closely @ the next photo, Photo No 2. It is the same Hagoj Dispenser in close-up. And it has got the name on it "Hagleitner".

Photo No 2

Is not it a burning proof of the fact that German and Bangla both have same roots?

Fall Reflection

2007-11-06T12:11:00.000-08:00

My designer "Dust Brush and Pan"

2007-09-05T11:15:00.000-07:00

How shamelessly could you brag over your "Dust Brush and Pan" !!!
To my defence, I am totally won over by the arty side of this functional object as much as the functionality of this artistic brush.
Seriously, bristles of a 'Dust Brush' as the evening gown of a lady- how much pumped up could one get on creativity juice to come up with something as elegant as this.

So here is what I shopped for in my Paris trip.
Designer "Dust Brush and Pan".

Wait! before you start judging my shopping prefernces,please be informed that it took tremedous self-control on my part to stay away from snapping up another equally attractive Toilet Brush along with this Dust Brush.
The Toilet Brush was in the shape of a burly gentleman with bushy hair (the hair doubles for the bristles of the toilet brush).

Now,looking back, I reckon that it was indeed a good decision that I stayed away from the Toilet Brush.
Because,everytime I do the dusting these days with my new Designer Dust Brush, I actually factor in extra 15 minutes to finish the job.
The reason being that, once the dusting is done, I have to groom the Designer Brush carefully with my other non-designer brush, so that Ms Brush's gown could regain the original glory of its showroom days.
(This act of grooming prompted A [my husband] saying something under his breath which I wonder what).
Now,scraping dust from Ms Brush's gown is one thing but imagine how shitty the business would have been if I have to take out genuine shit from Mr Toilet Brush's hair.

Thank god,I did not get carried away and bring home Mr Toilet Brush too.

NB: Do you know Ms D Brush is accompanied by Mr D Pan? And have you noticed that if I take Ms D Brush away from Mr D Pan, it leaves a big hole in his heart. How cute is that?

And last but not the least, this is my non-designer brush, which has kinda lost its glory nowadays.

Korma Kalia!!!

2007-08-25T16:17:00.000-07:00

Easy peasy Recipes for Rui Macher Korma aarRui Macher Kalia!

Weekend er extra kaaj
Aansh Charanor-Rui mach

Rui Macher Korma

Ja Ja Lagbe:
Boro Rui Macher tukro :8-9
Holud : andaj moto
Nun: andaj moto
Doi: 100 gm
Pneaj Bata: 2to boro
Ada bata: andaj moto
Kismis bata: 2 tea spoon
Jire bata : andaj moto
Cooking oil: andaj moto
Cream (preferably fresh): 100 gm
Ghee: 2-3 tea spoon
Garam Masala : 1 tea spoon
Sugar : andaj moto
Mouri bata: 2-3 tea spoon
Lanka bata: andaj moto

Procedure:
Step 1: Mach nun holud diye bheje nite hobe.
Step 2: Oil e Pneaj bata+ada bata+kismish bata+jire bata+mouri bata+Lanka bata+ holud+nun diye koshte hobe.
Step 3: Bhalo kore masla kosha hole, doi fetiye kosha masla te dite hobe.
Step 4: Erpor er modhye bhaja mach gulo diye jol dite hobe. Aanch komiye dheke rekhe ranna korle sobtheke bhalo.
Step 5: Jol jokhon sukiye asbe aanch theke soriye ghee+gorom masla+cream dilei "Rui Macher Korma" ready.

Rui Macher Kalia

Ja Ja Lagbe:
Rui macher boro tukro
Lanka bata
Pneaj bata
Jire bata
Ada bata
Rosun bata
Gorom Masla
Tejpata
Tomato
Cooking oi
Tok Doi
Sugar
Alu

Procedure:
Step 1: Mach nun holud diye bheje nite hobe.
Step 2: Alu ektu boro size e kete nun holud diye bheje nite hobe.
Step 3: Tel e jire, tejpata phoron diye pneaj bata+ada bata+rosun bata+garam masla+lanka bata+ tomato diye bhalo kore koshte hobe.
Step 4: Bhalo kore masla kosha hole, doi fetiye kosha masla te dite hobe.
Step 5: Erpor er modhye bhaja mach gulo ar bhaja alu diye jol dite hobe ar andaj moto nun ar olpo ektu mishti dite hobe.
Step 6: Jhol ghono hoye ele namiye nite hobe

Photo blog Paris

2007-07-20T16:38:00.000-07:00

In some way there is a striking resemblance between Paris and Kolkata. North Kolkata to be precise. May be it is the similarity of the architecture of the buildings of the two cities that prompted me saying that, or it may be something else (is it the eccentricity of common people ???), which I have felt through but am not articulate enough to put together here in words.

As for instance, take a look at this building below,would you or would you not put this building from some place in Northern Kolkata, unless you are tipped off in advance of its postcode.

We set off for Paris on a busy Friday morning from London Waterloo. It was a typical Friday morning in London with people running around with a cup of coffee in one hand and bagel/sandwich in the other, newspaper tucked under their chins, slightly off-balanced owing to the laptop hanging from the shoulder and also when the mouth is not busy eating, it is holding either the Oyster Card (monthly ticket for Tube rail) or one of the innumerable plastic cards which are swiped countless number of times everyday to collect equally countless number of points for God-only-knows-what purposes.

The Eurostar ride (This is the rail service which shuttles between London and Paris under the English Channel and is said to be one of the twentieth century's engineering marvels)was quite uneventful, except that my mother half expected fishes would swim around the train and the waves would touch the bottom of the train as we would pass through the Euro tunnel. And it is needless to mention here that she was utterly disappointed with Eurostar. I witnessed how hard her hopes shattered.
We got down at Gare Du Nord station in Central Paris and as we came out of the station, suddenly it felt so wonderful. I fell instantly in love with the city. It was a very relaxed Friday afternoon here, so different from the city across the channel. People are spilling out from the restaurants and cafes, young and old alike hogging roadside tables of the cafés with their friends and family, merrily speaking with their companions and occasionally slurping their wine or coffee; heavenly smell of freshly baked croissants wafting from brassieres as we went past them. All in all,it's a very happy afternoon.
(it may or may not be contd.......)

A subject not at all related to food

2007-05-15T14:49:00.000-07:00

As a kid, I was completely bowled over, when I first learnt how to draw cubes. You know, what I mean, the cube everyone used to draw as a kid,starting with two squares, one square within the other and then connecting the corners of the squares.... etc, something quite like this...

It was the first 3-D drawing I came face to face with in my life and I don't know about other kids,but I used to get quite excited at my drawing skill.
That cube thing, still got me hooked in these quite grown-up days of my life. Most of the time, I scribble cubes on the paper, all sorts of it, small cube, large cube, cube within a cube, cube within a cube within a cube, black and white cube, cubes with patterns on the sides....... Ok, I am putting a stop here. I take that you already get the idea, I am a cube freak. Yes I am. And to reinforce that, I am sharing with you guys,this photo. I have taken this snap from our balcony, back in India. This swing would have looked all so very uncharacteristic in any other ordinary day. But not on this very day, when the light and the shadow started swinging in perfect co-ordination.
Enjoy!!!

Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's party!"

2007-04-06T15:42:00.000-07:00

Finally spring is in the air!
So we had our first impromptu(me and A started planning for it at about 11 pm the night before ) picnic here last weekend. The plan did work out quite well. So we had a classic " Jane Austen" styled "Picnic at Box hill" with our friends.

Bottle gourd Curry

2007-04-01T09:45:00.000-07:00

Ghontos should be called Ghontos and nothing else. So Lau Ghonto, in no possible way should be called Bottle Gourd Curry. My sincerest apologies for that.

This is a quintessential Bengali vegetarian dish. We grew up with Lau Ghonto popping up frequently in the weekly menu, specially in the summer months and to my amusement every time this dish is served, it comes with Ma’s perennial words “ Lau gorom er somoi khete hoi, pet thanda thake” .
I am looking forward to this summer Ma, when I would cook this dish and serve you with those tender and comforting words “Lau gorom e khete hoi……..”

Anyway, here is the recipe for Lau er Ghonto. And do you know where does this recipe come from? Yes,from the recipe book below. Its name is “Abhinabo Randhon Pronali”.

And you are right; it indeed is an old recipe book (kind of someone’s treasured possession). And do you know who entrusted me with that book? It’s A’s grandma, (I believe I have mentioned about her here before).

Whenever I glanced at the cover page, it reminds me of those “Sharodiya Ashabari”s which used to come in Hardbacks. The cover pages of those Sharodiyas have same kind of old-worldly visuals.

Anyway, as I was saying, the language used in this book is so different from the regular recipe books. I won’t be amazed if I find out that it had been published before independence. When A’s grandma handed it over to me, it already had a good many pages missing and over the years its pages are becoming more and more brittle.
But you know what, it always make me feel loved, when I browse through the “holud” smeared pages of this book.
So here is the recipe of Lau Ghonto straight from the book “Abhinabo Randhan Pronali"

The small changes I have made in my version of Lau er Ghonto recipe.

1) Peel off the Bottle Gourd, take out the seed and cut it down into considerable chunks.
2) To make life easier, instead of braving the ordeal of chopping the Bottle Gourd down into thin slices, put the Lau chunks in blender and gave it a coarse grind (since we are making Ghonto, ultimately it won’t matter whether you are cutting it down in small bits, or coarse grinding it)
3) Now add chilly powder, desiccated/fresh grated coconut, salt, milk, sugar to the Bottle Guard and mix properly.
(I did not use flour and sesame seeds though, as they are not in stock)
4) Now heat oil and temper it with cumin seeds and bay leaves and then add the mixture, we have prepared in step 3 to oil.
5) Stir the mixture for quite some time in medium flame till the bottle gourd is totally cooked.
6) Now mix Garam masala (cinnamon and small cardamom powder) with water and add it to your dish and serve with rice.
7) You may add fried “Bori” to the “Lau Ghonto”, to give the dish a crunchy twist.

Thank you fellow blogger for these wonderful recipes

2007-04-01T06:58:00.000-07:00

Below are the snaps of two wonderful dishes I tried the other day, following the recipes, I found in BongMom’s cookbook ( Thank you for sharing them, BongMom.) So for the recipes you have to visit her site. The links to the recipes are tagged with the recipe names.
Enjoy!!!

Orange Kheer

Spicy Egg Bake 

It's A Snowy Thursday Morning

2007-02-08T13:42:00.000-08:00

Whose woods these are I think I know,
His house is in the village though.
He will not see me stopping here,
To watch his woods fill up with snow...............(Robert Frost)

Laytta fish, Dino and Sunday Adda

2007-02-07T04:24:00.000-08:00

For the last couple of weeks, we (me and A) were spending our Sunday evening in a very traditional Bengali way….that is “jomiye-adda-on-a-Sunday-evening” with our Bengali friends around. I hope by next week I would introduce “Muri” (rice crispies)and “Beguni” (Brinjal fry) in Adda too.
Last Sunday, a major point of discussion in the Adda session involved “Layttya Mach”(“Lotte Mach” as some would prefer to call it).

(“Layttya Mach” is a phosphorus rich fish).

D, one of our friends was seemingly intimidated by the fact that the price of “Layttya” fish has taken an almost vertical rise these days in Calcutta, compared to its price 5-6 years back. He surmised that it is due to the fact that the "Ghatis"(Bengalis from West Bengal by origin) are now hooked to its taste unlike couple of years back when they would pass the "Layttya" fish sellers over in the market. At that time, it was consumed prevalently by Bangals(Bengalis of East Bengal origin) only.
I should mention here that both D and D’s wife are born and brought up in India, though D’s grand-parents are from East Bengal, Chittagong to be precise and his wife’s side are from West Bengal. So while kicking up the controversial issue of Ghatis-trying-Layttya-mach-these-days, D took a quick glance at his wife.
Anyway as I was saying, at the end of the day, D has learned a bitter truth about life from the "Layttya" episode that, you should not be a bigmouth about your recipes or your food in front of others who are not in your clan, let alone those who are not your countrymen; better you should try to veer people off your food by giving them away misleading recipes.
So, the other day when an English gentleman asked D at Tesco (Tesco is a supermarket chain in UK), seeing him buying Spinach bunches, “how you Indians eat spinach?” D straight away answered, “We, Indians take the spinach home, clean it and eat it raw”.
After all, you would not blame D for not disclosing recipes anymore, would you? The poor soul is acting out of his primal instinct of hoarding food for his clan.

The following bit is not at all related to the subject above except for that we had a good laugh on both occasions.
S, another friend of ours quipped in last Sunday’s adda that while Jurassic park was dubbed in Hindi, it was dubbed in Bangladesh too with the title “Khaise Dino Aise”.

Stay well and eat well. See you all in a few days.

CURRY FOR THE SOUL #2

2007-01-23T16:26:00.000-08:00

Don’t try to find any coherence in the following paragraphs. I could assure you beforehand there is not any. I don’t intend to write any coherent passages today. I am writing this post because
1) there is no new posts in this blog since new year’s eve and
2) today I feel like writing but I do not have anything on top of my head to write about and
3) I am big time depressed. Damn you English weather! You make me homesick so bad.

So here it goes:-

“Life is but a little holding, lent
To do a mighty labour. It is one
With heaven and stars when it is spent
To do God’s aim. Else die we with the sun.”

I’ve found these lines by George Meredith in a travel book I am reading this week (don’t ask me who George Meredith is though, no clues!). His grave is also engraved with these lines,( kinda his favourite lines,huh?).
The lines are really fascinating, don’t you think? Specially the last line, “Else die we with the sun”.
I may not find a purpose of my life or a true meaning of it while I would look back at the end of my days but somebody is there to say ‘That’s OK Kutus. Only that you have sat it out till the end of your days, is glorious enough of a purpose, meaningful enough of your existence in this universe’. So die I proudly and contently with the sun.

We (me and A) watched ‘Broke back Mountain’ yesterday. A, did not know what the movie is about, so as the movie progressed, couple of times I heard A saying under his breath – “ Oh…..spent 5 quid for a Gay movie, what a waste”.
Anyway he stuck it out till the end and I am pretty sure that by the end of the movie he has changed his mind that the money spent was not so much of a waste.
It is a nice love story, if you are okay with the gay thing though. It is more about the true companionship of two individuals than a cheesy gay movie, I would like to add here. Also the locations in the film are so outstanding, I particularly liked the bar with a handwritten BAR written on the outside wall.
I found the chemistry between the two heroes in the film (Ennis Del Mer and Jack Twist) more intense and more emotionally realistic than the normal heterosexual love scenes between John Abraham and Rani Mukherjee. Seriously, how could Janata still tolerate John Abraham as an actor! The only expression I found on his face is “ui ma! Pressure a gaya, toilet jana hai”. Anyway I am no director, so this is none of my business.

Aj Saraswati pujo. We don’t have any pujo nearby. So no pujo, no bhog, no khichuri and no Anjali. Hmmmm………..this may be the root cause of my depression. I may be craving for some bhog and Prasad in my sub-conscious mind and that leads to this depression thing.

The following conversation is going on in my brain :-
Left side of my brain: Don’t get depressed over Khichuri, Kutus. I would get you fish and chips from Hungry Horse pub tomorrow.
Right side of my brain: Hell with your fish and chips. I need Makha Sandesh ar Bhog er Khichuri.

Before things get worse in my brain, let me say bye to you.
Bye bye.

Twin Recipe #1

2006-12-20T18:16:00.000-08:00

I always get hooked to easy recipe ideas but I get really fired up by “Double Bill” kind of recipe ideas where you could finish up two different dishes putting in as much effort as needed to prepare a single dish only (or a little bit of extra effort , but only a little bit honestly!) and surely not twice as much.

I am a sucker for this type of recipes. There is practicality to it too. Such recipes truly save your skin whenever you have guests coming back to back on Saturdays and Sundays. I faced such situation time and again. Believe me, I know how bad it gets when I wake up on Sunday, red-eyed due to limited sleep (limited as I behave frighteningly crazy when it comes to show off my housekeeping skills to the guests and therefore soon after my guests leave on Saturday, I jump into the action to do away with all the stains and marks my Saturday shindig has caused and to jazz the rooms up again for my Sunday guests ).
Therefore, as I wake up on Sunday morning, with the marital discord from the previous night following on(which is having its source in the snide remark my husband had made at my crazy jazzig up endeavour the night before), all I want to do is curse myself to death on my stupid decision to invite guests two days in a row. These recipes come real handy in those situations. At least it works wonderful for me.

So today I bring to you guys my first of many more oncoming double whammy recipes.

What you are going to make:

Sorshe-narkol Chingri (Prawn with mustard and coconut paste) on Saturday
and
Prawn Korma on Sunday

Things you need:

For Sorshe-narkol Chingri (Prawn with mustard and coconut paste)
Tiger prawn de-veined (12-14)
Mustard paste (2-3 tablespoon according to taste)
Tomato paste (1 tomato medium)
Fine paste of coconut (1/2 cup)
Green chilli (whole 2-3)
Green chilli paste (if you like the curry really really hot)

For Prawn Korma
Tiger Prawn de-veined (10-15)
Cashew paste with water (of 5-6 cashews)
Ginger paste (2 teaspoon)
Garlic paste (1 teaspoon)
Poppy seed paste with water (in same proportion as cashew paste)
Yogurt 100gm (approximately)
Whole green chilli (5-6)
Turmeric powder (1/3 teaspoon)
Coriander powder (2 teaspoon approximately)
Oil
To ease up the workload on Sunday, try to arrange all the ingredients of both the dishes on Saturday itself.

N.B. Keep poppy seed paste and cashew paste refrigerated once prepared.

Procedure:

For Sorshe-narkol Chingri (Prawn with mustard and coconut paste)

Heat oil in a wok. Fry prawns for 1-2 minutes till it gets slightly golden. Keep them aside. Add coconut paste to the oil. Stir fry for 5 minutes or till the sweet smell of fried coconut wafts in, whichever is earlier. Then add mustard paste +salt+ turmeric powder to it. Stir fry for 1-2 min with sprinkles of water. Add tomato paste. Add water to it. Cook on low flame for 5-6 minutes. Add prawn to it. Cook for another 3-4 minutes and your dish is ready to serve.

For Prawn Korma:
Day 1
Mix together Prawn+ Ginger paste+ Garlic paste + Yogurt+ Turmeric powder +salt to taste and keep refrigerated till Sunday morning.
Day 2
Heat oil in a wok; add cashew paste, poppy seed paste and coriander powder to it. Stir till the mix turns golden brown. Sprinkle water to the spices if needed. Then add the Prawn and yogurt mix you prepared yesterday. Cook for 8-10 min on low flame and your Korma is ready to go.

Prawn Korma

TODAY’S MENU: GOROM BHAT AR SORSHE BATA DIYE ILLISH MACH (BOILED RICE AND HILSHA FISH-IN-MUSTARD-SAUCE)

2006-12-04T12:15:00.000-08:00

Its most likely that every Bengali knows the recipe of Hilsha in mustard sauce (though I did not till a few years back and used to leaf through the cook book), so I am not including any recipe here. Nevertheless if any of my visitors wishes for its recipe, please leave a note here. I would love to share it with you. Happy eating!!!

SUNDAY LUNCH ER NEMONTONNO

2006-11-23T16:23:00.000-08:00

We threw a party on Sunday - an advance celebration for our approaching anniversary.This photo was taken by A(my husband) ,that was how our kitchen looked like at 8 am on Sunday (party was scheduled at 12.30 pm). At that point, it seemed like everything is going out of control and the clock is on a mad dash as we have yet to prepare Gobi Manchurian from the scratch, finish off Chilli chicken, bake the garlic bread, jazz up the fried rice with all the goodies and the list goes on. @12’O clock, our first guest, Abhishek (who is also our next door neighbour) arrived and seeing us struggling with the last phase of the cooking, he took it upon himself to save us from the awkward situation and feigned some huge interest in bringing back the DVD we loaned to him and returned after whole 30 minutes (without any DVD of course), but sparing us just enough time to wind things up. It was a smooth sailing after that and the party was not a complete washout as we did fear before.

CURRY FOR THE SOUL

2006-11-06T15:51:00.000-08:00

“ Tor okhane jakhon khub thanda poreche, takhon dupurbela rode pith die komlalebu khaa r Sharodindu por.…….Kolkatai ekhon thanda porbo prbo korchhe, raate fan na chalalei bhalo hoy, bhorbela besh murisuri die shute hoy. R sondher dike ekta kuasha kuasha byapar o hochche.”

This is the excerpt of the mail I received couple of days back from Bu, my childhood friend. And from that point on, I could not think of any better way to spend a lazy winter afternoon otherwise.
Therefore to honour Bu’s advice, I am going to spend tomorrow just the way she suggested ie, no extra work, no cleaning, no cooking and most importantly no pointless worries about the fact that I may not be getting another job in this stupid country till I be 60 or the fact that until I reach 60, I have to dawdle off days taking tours in turn to the innumerable local museums and reading about the feudal lords and ladies most of whom by the way had extra-marital affairs with the sisters of their wives or brothers of their husbands respectively.
Anyway as I was saying-Tomorrow I am planning to have my lunch early, get myself a book (preferably a Bengali novel), cozy up in my favourite chair in the balcony, pull the mushy throw all over myself and soak in the sun. I may even go for an orange as she said. As I would peel the orange off, my hands would be smeared with the sweet smell of the orange. Cool wintry wind would leaf through my hair. By that time of the day the usual morning rush would be over, so the noise of the passing cars would die down and it would be more or less quiet except for the occasional gust of wind sweeping the fallen leaves across the courtyard.
I am hoping to while away quite a good many happy hours this way- sitting in the sun, reading, having an orange and occasionally looking at the leaves falling from the old tree by the wayside………until my thoughts would be seriously interrupted by the fact that I would not be feeling my nose anymore as it would be numb by that point due to the wind chill effect outside.

Jokes apart, as I read the line “ Tor okhane jakhon khub thanda poreche, takhon dupurbela rode pith die komlalebu khaa r Sharodindu por ……….” I felt so happy yet so lonely.
So many fond memories of the childhood winters kept flooding in. Thanks Bu.
These memories are neither significant nor memorable to recount though. But they are so dear to me. They are like sections of a huge collage where each section has no meaning of its own but together they make the collage so meaningful, so precious.
For example, one of such memories is of an old sugar cane vendor who used to come to our neighbourhood every winter. All through my kid years, I have seen him appearing as if from nowhere during the winter months. I have never seen him vending anything other than sugar cane and any season other than the winter months. Now as I reflect upon this subject, I reason that he might not have been a vendor in the first place, rather a sugar cane farmer who would come to the city each winter to sell out his excess produce. But at that time, he was like a Mystery Man, whom you may or may not see in the next winter.
My interaction with him never progressed any further than pointing to the particular sugar cane I wished for. But somehow he has become an indispensable part of my winter collage.
Compared to this, so many significant memories are completely washed out of my mind. I vaguely remember them as Ma brings them up time and again in context of one subject or other.
It’s as if the memory has a mind of its own, where she alone decides which incident is important enough to stay and which ones to go.

THE VICIOUS CYCLE OF LEFTOVER INGREDIENTS

2006-10-16T08:51:00.000-07:00

So Bijoya is over and so is Lakshmi Pujo. And I am left with lots of desiccated coconut, I have bought for those Naarus. If I don’t use them right away, pretty soon they’ll start smelling like “hair oil”.

Speaking of hair oil, childhood memory of those tin containers of “Shalimar Coconut Oil” with green labels showing half of a juicy coconut and a coconut tree in the background, came in. Was there any lion or tiger on the label too? I could not remember so well…… do you?

Anyway, here is a recipe to put those spare coconuts into use. This recipe is real simple and the great thing about it is that you don’t have to buy any new ingredients to put this dish together. So here is your real chance to get out of the vicious cycle of leftover ingredients.
This recipe has no pedigree as such. Simply Narkel Bhaja.

It was handed down from A’s (my husband) Didima, amar late Didi-shashuri. When we got married, she was already on the wrong side of eighty. Still she had all the energy and patience (mainly patience was all that’s needed to answer my questions on cooking that time) to show me these dishes over time.

And how wonderfully simple and delicious dishes they are!

All you need for this dish is
2 Dry Red Chilies
Kalo Jire
salt
Cooking oil (1-2 tsp)
Desiccated coconut (1-2 cup) (you may dry-grind it in a blender to medium coarse)
Procedure:
Put 1-2 tsp oil in a frying pan. When hot, add kalo jire and dry chilies. Now wait and watch till you cough your pancreas up.
Then add coconuts to it. And add salt according to your taste. Now stir and stir and stir and stir and stir some more. The coconut will change its colour and texture gradually. The white and dry coconut will turn brown and soggy first and then slowly deep brown/black and very crispy again.
And that’s it. You have got your dish ready.
Try to cook it just before serving. Or otherwise warm-up the dish right before serving so that you get the really crispy taste. Try it out with ‘gorom bhat’ and Ghee.
You may try a slightly different version of it by adding small pieces of fried brinjal to it and then you would get your Narkel-begun avtar.

SUBHO BIJOYA!

2006-10-06T06:33:00.000-07:00

It has been quite a while since my last post.
In the meantime, a lot of things happened…….I resigned from my job, we went to Kolkata, we relocated to uk, we stayed at a lodge for 3 weeks where chicken ticca masala is a starter and green salad is a main entrée, we moved in to our flat, we tried to unpack things and get settled down but finding it too backbreaking, we gave up…………….

So now you know why I did not get enough time to write.
NO, silly! “not-getting-enough-time-to-write” has nothing to do with relocation.
I meant ‘leaving office’. Leaving office has really taken its toll on me-having-enough-free-time-(to write this blog).
Anyway, I hope things will look up from now on as A(my husband) has no immediate plan to change job again soon and eventually we would be done with those unopened packing boxes which are strewn all over our place at the moment. Hopefully!!!
Meanwhile another Pujo passed me by. Quite a few Durga Pujas are held in and around London. We went to see one one on Oshtomi.
It was organized inside a Town hall. The ambience was very festive till the Dhakis (almost 5 or 6 of them) started drumming things up. It being a huge hall, the sound of 6 Dhaks reverberated profoundly which prompted most of the little kids cry out real loud. Have you ever heard the chorus of 6 dhaks and at least 50 crying kids? Within a few moments, all the senses of festivity got washed away and it felt like I am in the middle of a “Naroboli scene” being shot for a tacky “kapalkundala” remake.
Other than that, things were more or less uneventful during pujo.
Anyway, Subho Bijoya to you all.
Sending you all a real easy recipe for Narkel Naaru !!

Narkel Naru

Ingredients:
Evaporated milk/*Condensed milk 1 tin (400gm);
Water (as needed);
Desiccated coconut (2-3cups); Sugar (if needed);
* Do not use any sugar if you are using condensed milk .
Cardamom small (5-6).

Procedure:
1. Empty the evaporated/condensed milk in a non-stick pan. Add water only if you are using condensed milk. *Add sugar as per your taste. Simmer it for 5-8 minutes till the sugar dissolves.
* Do not use any sugar if you are using condensed milk which is in most cases sweetened.

2. Now add coconut and cardamom seeds in the milk and stir for approx 1-2 minutes till it turns into a thick consistent dough.

3. Put the dough in a microwave safe bowl and microwave it for 2 minutes maximum. It would take away the raw taste of the coconut and you would get a real cooked taste. If you do not have microwave,no worries, you may otherwise roast the coconut for a while in a pan and then add it to the milk.

4. Let the dough cool off a little. While still warm, roll it into Naaru.
5. Enjoy!!!

O VISITOR WHERE ART THOU!!!!!

2006-07-26T06:09:00.000-07:00

It is all about presentation I guess. Otherwise why I keep visiting my blog repeatedly – though I know for sure that it is populated by a solitary post which I already read up 71 times.

I feel that I am completely taken in by the polka dots and the beige background and the contrasting font colour and the side bar and all other goodies of the blog. Yesterday the urge to revisit the blog was so tremendous that I have to block my IP address so that the Stat Counter does not count in my visits (as the number on the counter kept on increasing very deceptively). And now I am upset because the counter does not have much counting to do after that.

WHY THIS BLOG IN THE FIRST PLACE

2006-07-23T22:17:00.000-07:00

It is not that I can’t write good Bangla, or that I express myself better in English than in Bangla but as I tried writing the first few lines of this post in Romanized Bengali, I did not find it very easy going. So I am starting my blog in English but as soon as I feel comfy I would turn to Bengali. Anyway ja bolchilam.

When I got married I know nothing about cooking except for “A La Maggi" dish. I guess many of you would discount it as even cooking. Nevertheless my father has been very proud of that fact. So much so that when my in-laws visited us for the first time (ours is an arranged marriage) , my father proudly declared that I could whip up Maggi quite well on being asked whether I could cook or not.
This family I am married into is a "Bangal" family (Bengali families who have migrated from Bangladesh). Bangals are widely reputed as foodies. Each and every member of my in-law family is a true "Bangal" in that sense. When they gather around on any occasion, they usually swap new recipes right after exchanging pleasantries.
So you could understand very well how shaken my mother-in-law was that time, imagining my prospective culinary capabilities. Anyway it is a long ride after that on the culinary express. The ride has been equally terrific and stressful.
Terrific in the sense that it gives me a sense of achievement after six long toiling years when my mum-in-law (particularly) and others (generally) relishes the Bengali meals I prepare these days.

Stressful it was in many respects.
Stressful because we (me and my husband) relocated to Delhi right after our marriage, far away from Kolkata, the sanctuary of plentiful “Rannar Mashis”.
Stressful because in those days “Dhone GNuro” (Corriander powder) and “Jire GNuro” (Cumin powder) played regular trick on me and the vegetables exploited every opportunity to burn themselves down to charcoal.
Stressful because we had to survive on our kind neighbour “Gupta Aunty’s Rajma” and “Celebration restaurant’s Tandoori Chiken” for weeks on end………
So as I found this medium of blogging, I thought it as an excellent way to document what I have learnt about Bengali Cuisine. It would help me recount those memories once more.
Who knows someday somewhere this blog may even cheer up another young naïve cooking-illiterate Bengali girl who has a bad day in kitchen with her burnt down vegetables and her over salted fish curry.