Month: July 2018

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A man with a cart selling cooked Punjabi Chana Masala.

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Rain has been pouring down on the city of Mumbai non-stop. There is no respite even for a millisecond.Sometimes the wind blowing would be so strong, that it would bring the rains inside my house if I opened the windows. So the windows were tightly shut today and I was standing at the window still looking outside towards the main road.

Suddenly, I see that two men, (one of them I knew) were standing at the road just outside my house and they were having their lunch and do you know what was it? It was Punjabi Chole/ Chana masala that they were having. Now, chana masala is my favourite dish.Ma cooks the best chana masala in the whole universe. I have tasted thousands of chole/chana masala and they are extremely well made and cooked,but none of them come even near to ma’s chana masala and when she adds lemon over it, I feel that I have achieved everything in my life.

But where from did they get the chana masala? They had bought it from a man who was selling it on his small cart which had a shed. The chana masala was simmering and slowly people were coming to his cart to buy a bowl of chana masala and they were having it relishingly. One bowl full of chana masala, may not be the whole meal or lunch, but it is definitely power packed and a man can atleast sustain four hours on it. Those two men , whom I wrote about had it satisfyingly and after sometime few people came and they too had it. As it was raining heavily, a mother was taking her child home from school and while doing so they were trying to maneuver the incoming traffic and were running at a medium pace to save themselves from the rain, as neither the mother had an umbrella and nor had the kid worn a raincoat. The cart selling chana masala fell right infront of them and they halted there. The lady bought a container full of chana masala and promptly paid the man and again the mother and son went on to their way home. After a minute or so the rain started playing truant and the chana masala seller hopped inside his own cart and sat there with his legs crossed.

While all of this was happening, I was observing this from my window panes. From the first moment that I saw those two men eating something, I called out to ma.”Ma, see what these two men are eating.” Ma came and saw and told me that they were eating chana masala. As soon as I came to know that they were eating chana masala, I started pleading with ma to let me have some too.Ma said”Now, it is raining heavily.Someother day when the rains are not there, that day I would buy chana masala”. I said-“Alright ma.”Ma had a very valid point. Though I was asking her for it, but in my mind I knew that it wouldn’t be possible for me to buy chana masala as the road was muddy, full of small pools and it was incessantly raining.Hope to have chana masala some other day. Maybe Ma will make it for me very soon!

Adios and happy eating.

 

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Lemon Sherbet with Bread, Butter and Strawberry Jam.

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Tired in the evening after coming home from school, college, office, workouts etc.?

The age old recipe of lemon sherbet never ceases to surprise us. It works like a charm.

Take a juice shaker, open it’s lid and then add the juice of

two squeezed fresh lemons.It is best if you use the lemon squeezer, so that all the lime juice comes out and the seeds remain in the squeezer. Then add two spoonfulls of sugar or honey (if you avoid sugar). Then add four cubes of ice in it and add chilled water or plain water in it (750 ml) and add pinch of salt in it.You can even add a bit of black salt if you want to. Close the lid of the juice shaker and shake it nicely, up and down vigorously.

Take a slim, tall glass and in it pour all the contents of the shaker ( all 750 ml of it won’t fit inside one glass!) and your refreshing lemon sherbet is ready.

But as elders have always told us never to have any liquid food drink without having any solid food item.

So to go with the lemon sherbet, I propose bread, butter and strawberry jam.

Take four breads and make toasts of them.Than on those bread toasts add plentiful butter and on it add a good layer of strawberry jam. It simply tastes wonderful!.

Don’t drink all of the lemon sherbet in one go.Drink a bit of it at first and then enjoy the rest of it with bread toast, on which strawberry jam has been added.

Buon appetito!

 

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A Dadu Whom I Will Never Forget.

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Two days ago I was travelling by my car on a road which was near my old house. There I saw an old man, nearly the age of my late grandfather and he was walking down the street very carefully, clutching a cloth bag.In that cloth bag there was a Hilsa fish, a small cabbage, half kilo of tomatoes, six bananas and two big corn sticks. I was watching him very keenly.He was looking back towards something every few minutes and then would again regain his slow pace.The splashing water from the small mud pools on the road were disturbing him a lot, but he still kept his cool and went on.The rain was falling very heavily and that man couldn’t manage to keep his umbrella over his head. My driver was driving the car and at such a mega traffic jam, turtles do better than cars. I asked my driver to stop the car right infront of the old man. The driver did so and I asked him-“Uncle, where do you need to go?”

He replied-“To my house, which is at so and so locality.”

The place which he was mentioning was double the distance to the place where I was going.I told him that.

He-“Even if you drop me at the next cross road, it would be very kind of you.I would be able manage the rest of the way.”

“Uncle, please get inside the car”-I told him.

“Thank you, son.It was really raining very heavily.”-Him.

“Please, don’t say thank you, uncle.You remind me of my grandfather, whom I love a lot.”

“Driver, please take the car to uncle’s home.”- I told the driver.

“Baarish ka koi problem nahi tha beta.Woh toh roz hi girta hai.Par ek billi mujhe tang kar rahi thi aur mera picha kar rahi thi.Usko machhli ki khusbu mil gayi hogi aur woh mujhe mew mew kar rahi thi.Par jaise tumne gadi ko mera samne rukaya woh bhaag gayi”.

These above lines are in Hindi. These lines translate as- “Rain, is not much of a problem. It falls everyday. But a cat was troubling me and following me.She must have got the smell of the fish and started following me and mewing at me.But as soon as you stopped your car infront of me, she ran away.”

“Thank you, son, may God bless you.I would be able to reach home faster and hand over the fish and the vegetables to my wife, so that she can cook it.”

“Uncle a meal at four in the evening”?

“Yes, a few guests have come from my home town and they hadn’t informed me that they were coming.As there was nothing in the house to cook a meal for them, I came down to this bazaar, to buy the cooking ingredients.”

He showed me the contents of his cloth bag and that Hilsa fish was a truly beautiful looking fish.”

“Why this bazaar uncle? Your locality has a lot of bazaars.”

“But none of them have Hilsa fish in them.”

“Uncle do you like Hilsa fish a lot?”

“Yes, more than my own self. Without Hilsa, not a single big occasion is completed successfully in our household.”

“Are you a Bengali uncle?”

“Yes, I am a very proud Bengali!”

“Uncle, I am a Bengali too”.

Then we had a hearty conversation in Bengali.

Suddenly he tells me-“Do you know my daughter has come home after three years. That’s why I have bought a two kilo Hilsa fish and our platter is never complete without Hilsa fish.”

As he was saying this, we nearly reached his locality, where he lives.

Him-“By the way where were you going?”

I-“I was going to my work”.

Him-“Oh. Can you come to my house at nearly six thirty in the evening?”

I-“Sorry sir, but today my schedule is full.”

Him-“My wife would be cooking this fabulous Hilsa fish and I wanted you to join us at our meal.”

I was very happy to hear him say that.

I replied-“Uncle, thank you for inviting me.I would come by again at a later date and I will tell ma about your invitation and she would be very happy too, hearing it.”

We had reached his home now. As he got down from the car, he shook my hand and he blessed me saying-“May God always keep you and your parents happy.”

As I was writing this post, I remembered that after my own grandfather retired, one day he and ma had gone to the market. While coming back from the market, a storm had started blowing and suddenly my grandfather’s toe got twisted. He was in a lot of pain. Somehow, Ma managed to bring him home. After two hours he left for a place, where he used to freelance printing work.When he came back home in the evening, his leg was as  swollen as a child’s football. Ma and my grandmother rushed to him. He couldn’t walk anymore.Ma told him that a doctor was needed to be called immediately and a doctor was called.Later on somebody made him a wood base rubber strap for his injured toe and by using it his toe became quite alright.Till the date till which his legs were not feeble, he used to go to the market only for buying fish and vegetables were of  not that much importance.

Adios.

 

 

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WHAT DID WE ALL LEARN FROM THIS FOOTBALL WORLD CUP?

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On 15th July, as the football world cup concluded, many hopes, cheers, challenges either grew up or they got diminished. The final between Croatia and France was a true surprise for each and everybody, but nonetheless it was a final worth it’s every penny.

The more famous and big teams such as Brazil, England, Argentina, Portugal, Russia and Germany couldn’t break any ice in the competition except England, which reached the semi-finals and finished fourth in the over all tournament. Now the third place was held by a well deserving Belgium team and the Croatia team came second.It is not a matter of joke.The teams which are not expected to do much in any football tournament, did a hell lot more than the more efficient and famous ones. Starting from Japan to Belgium to South Korea to the true heroes of this world Cup Croatia, did a fabulous and exceptional job of breaking the age old perceptions and by marking their territory in this world cup.They showed us that with determination, ambition, courage, hard work and aspiration to achieve and overcome any difficulties anything is possible. These are not mere words, but truly they can happen. Otherwise these teams wouldn’t have reached the place that they have reached in this world cup.With God’s grace anything is possible and when you try to do something with all your dedication and sincerity, his light shines upon and miracles do happen. Which requires nothing else but all your true hard work from the core of your heart. These miracles are like a happening of a baby being born.After those tense moments, when you hear your little one’s cry is such miraculous feeling that at the moment your are truly God’s and God is yours.There is no else except you, your little one and His Highness The Almighty. So there is a lot of learning still left and these less popular teams have shown us all of that, especially Croatia. With the self belief that “yes, I can do it ” one can surge ahead and win milestones after milestones.

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Kiwi the Nutritious Fruit.

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The round green fruit which is known as kiwi is a highly nutritious fruit which is full of vitamins.

It is brown,green in colour and is a bit horny on it’s skin and tastes sweet and a bit tangy.

A few years back ma had decided that I should have the kiwi fruit regularly. So went to the local shops to buy kiwi, they were very hard to get.It was not at all available.Then a new and a big supermarket came to our relief and there we found dozens and dozens of kiwi imported from New Zealand, the States and other countries. We bought four-five kiwis and had them at home.

When I first tasted the kiwi fruit, it removed all my inhibitions about it’s taste and  and quality.Kiwis are a first class fruit. Those days kiwis used to cost a lot, nearly, Rs.100 a kilo, but now a days they are found at every local vegetable and fruit store and but they still cost a lot with their prices reaching nearly Rs.175 – 200 per kg.

It is an extremely nutritious and good fruit to have. It is very good for one’s health.

Happy Eating.