Month: May 2018

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Joshua in Addis Ababa

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Well,well,well from Minneapolis, Joshua went to Portugal for a conference,that lasted two days in all and in between his sister, who is currently interning at a hospital in Addis Ababa called him there, as she was ill and she needed him to be there to take care of her as her husband was out of town for a week. So he went there. After a day there, he suddenly got a call from his company sub division in Morocco, that if he could come down from the states to Morocco, to help them in a trifling matter.

Joshua informed them that he was in Ethiopia. Listening to this bit of news the company officials were crying with happiness, as they were in a deep fried soup of trouble.Apparently, they had locked themselves out of main company system and were unable to report back any work to the headquarters and any further delay would mean, either pay cut or their bonuses cut. So they started pleading with Joshua to come down to Morocco and they even promised him a big incentive if he came there. The job there required two days time, so Joshua nearly agreed to it.He told them that he would let them know, whether he was coming or not.

His sister, is taking her medicines and Joshua tells her-“Sis, I need to go to  Morocco for three days.”

“Why do you need to go to Morocco?”.

“The company in which I freelance, their sub divisional office in Morocco is in a big trouble and they badly need my help!”

“Go where ever you want, but never come back here, nor do you show me your face ever again!”

“Sis,I am sorry, but they are offering me a big incentive also.”

“Get out.”

“All right, all right”.

Now,Joshua has his bags packed for Morocco and is looking for his passport and can’t find it anywhere. He calls out to his sister and asks that whether she has seen his passport or not.

She replies-“Yeah, I saw it.It was lying deep in hell.”

Joshua trying to keep his calm-“Sis,I am not joking.I can’t find it anywhere.”

His sister-“Maybe you didn’t bring it here.Maybe it went straight to Morocco to prepare for a red carpet to welcome you there.”

Joshua gritting his teeth-“Sorry,I asked”.

His sister-“I am sorry that you are my greedy “incentive” brother, who goes running after jobs, instead of taking care of his ill sis and her small child.”

Joshua kept quiet.After an hour, he received a phone from the sub divisional office in Morocco, stating that their problem was solved and he needn’t come and saying only this much, they disconnected the phone.

Joshua felt angry, but he knew he couldn’t do anything about it. So, he went to fridge and took out a Hersheys chocolate bar and started munching it. His sister was surprised to see him do so and asked him, why was he munching the chocolate bar.

He replied-“My Morocco freelance work is cancelled.”

His sister-“Excellent.Serves you right.” Saying so she went to the drawing room and Joshua went to the bedroom to have a short nap.

In the evening ,he woke up  and unpacked his bags and then he suddenly remembered about his passport which was missing.

He went to the drawing room to find it.There his two years old nephew was watching on television, wearing a hat, which was gifted by Joshua, when his nephew had gone to the states a year before.That time the hat was too big for him and now also it was big for him, still he wore it playfully.

His little nephew’s name was Jeremy. He picked up Jeremy on his lap and started playing with him.

Joshua had carefully looked around and in the drawing room, searching for his passport and he knew his passport was not there.

So, in a playful voice, he asked Jeremy-“Jeremy, have you seen my passport?I have lost it and can’t find it anywhere.”

Jeremy coolly took off his hat and fished out the passport, from the inside of the hat and gave it to Joshua.

“Madeline, Madeline (his sister), come quickly. I have found out my passport”.

Madeline was busy cooking the dinner at that time and she replied-“good, now go wherever you want to go.”

Joshua-“I am not going anywhere.I am here to take care of you and Jeremy and I will stay atleast a month, provided you cook well.”

Madeline-“not a word more about my cooking or you will have only broccoli for dinner, everyday”.

Joshua-“Sis, you are the best cook in the whole world” and he gave Jeremy a big kiss on his cheeks for returning him his passport and promised him a big gift the next day.

Jeremy is now expecting a remote control Ferrari toy car from his uncle.

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Banana pie with Maple Syrup.

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That is what we had for for dinner yesterday. A big and famous bakery is there near our home and they are very famous world wide. They keep on experimenting with new food items and yesterday they had banana pie on sale.

Banana pie, to get it ready made is very rare.Rarer than the blue moon, but this bakery keeps on making different banana items.

As, we were passing that bakery’s counter, we spotted the huge banana pie on the display shelf.

To tell you the truth, the pie was really attractive and under the golden light, it was shining more brightly.

So, faster than the speed of light, I went to the counter and bought us two banana pies.

They asked me whether it was take away? I replied to them-“No, we would have it here”.

Fast enough, they quickly microwaved it for a minute and served us the banana pies.

After serving it, they told us to hold on for a minute, as they were getting something else for us.

  • We were kept waiting for about two minutes and we kept looking at the waiter, who had asked us to wait and we kept looking at our pies with our big greedy eyes, as big as the new moon.We were really and truly very hungry.

After two and a half minute, believe it or not, they brought us a big jar of Canadian maple syrup for us and told us -“It’s complimentary”.

I can’t tell you all, how nice the banana pie tasted and after adding the maple syrup over it, the pie simply melted in our mouths and we kept digging and eating until the last crumb was deep inside our stomach and resting there peacefully and contentedly .

After that, I left out a large and magnanimous belch. We wanted to have coffee after it, but decided against it.

The taste and smell of the banana pie and the maple syrup is something, which I wanted to keep with me till I was sleeping and having sweet and good dreams.

It is rare for such banana pies to made.Kudos and cheers to the chefs and makers of such beautiful and understated pie.

It felt like the pie, which comes out of Ma’s oven and even Ma felt it too.My Ma is the greatest cook in the universe and her Ma is the super greatest cook in all the universes.  Beyond that no other chefs exist.

Have banana pie with maple syrup and if you like it, then don’t forget to belch either loudly or politely.

honey on white bowl

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Jhaalmuri Wala.

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Esplanade in Central Kolkata, was a place which I would visit everyday. Ma would bring me home from school via that route.

My whole fascination about Esplanade, was not it’s grandeur, but the “jhaalmuri wala”, who used to stand near the Esplanade bus stop and sell mouth ravishing, tantalizing and mind boggling jhaalmuri.

Jhaalmuri is a mouth watering Bengali delicacy snack, made of puffed rice,coconut pieces, mustard oil, mixed sweet and spicy chanachur (a type of sweet,salty and sour,crunchy fried snack) ,peanuts, onions and green chilies, chat masala and black salt.

The “jhaalmuri wala” was nearly aged eighty years.Still he used to stand at the same place without fail everyday and would sell jhaalmuri there whether it be summer or rains or the biting winter.

After spending four and half hours in school, when I used to go and stand there in front of the jhaalmuri wala, I would feel that, I have reached the most peaceful place on earth.

Ma and me, we used to call him-“dadu”.

In bengali, Ma would say to him -“Dadu,du khana, du takar jhaalmuri deben.”

It means-“Dadu,give us two jhaalmuris, worth rupees two each.”

Smilingly, he would start preparing the jhaalmuri. He would take a newspaper thonga and then add puffed rice, chanachur,coconut pieces,mustard oil,peanuts,onions and green chilies,chat masala and black salt, respectively and start mixing and churning them nicely in an big utensil and then fill the thongas (newspapar packets) with jhaalmuri

He was more than a master, more than a master chef at preparing jhaalmuri. All the utensil units were extremely clean and he was a man of big heart.

He would give us jhaalmuri worth rupees four and would charge us two rupees instead and if Ma, asked him for bit more, then he would add a bit more jhaalmuri.

“Thonga” in bengali means a packet, made from newspaper or brown paper.

One “thonga” of jhaalmuri was sufficient for both of us, but we used to take two thongas of jhaalmuri, and have one thonga right then and there shared between Ma and me and the another one, Ma would put the other one inside my bag, so that we could have it afterwards.

One fine day, we had purchased two thongas of jhaalmuri from him and we found out that he had added very few peanuts in it and Ma pointed it out to him and like a chef in troubled waters, he very nicely garnished the jhaalmuri with bright and fried brown peanuts.

Simply, a packet of it and a glug of water from my water bottle was enough to super fill my stomach and the instant we would sit in the bus for going home, I would doze off.

After many years, we went to that place and found out that he was not there.

Some other jhaalmuri wala had taken his place and that jhaalmuri wala didn’t know anything about him.

While,I was writing this blog,I felt like crying because those wonderful days have gone by and nothing can replace them.

 

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Sand Surfing with ice cream in one hand.

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Have you ever gone sand surfing? Well it is one of the most difficult game to play.You have to surf on highly volatile sand and if wind blows @ 20km/ph, you will have sand in your eyes, your clothes and you will be a complete mess. It is one of the sports where the players with great sports aptitude are seen struggling. The heat becomes too much to bear and at the end, one can be seen perspiring like a melting lolly.

So, to make it more difficult, take an ice cream ( a lolly/ a bar/ a cone) in any one of your hands and then go sand surfing and while surfing, try to eat that ice cream.I am hundred percent sure that the ice cream will either fall off or it will be covered with sand particles, making it ineligible to eat or while trying to eat it, you will fall off the surf and the ice cream will be smashed all over your face or clothes.

Despite all this, if your ice cream survives the sand surfing and if you have even eaten it once, then simply go and buy yourself a big gift, for your excellence.