Durga Puja-2013

  I came to know about the exact data of Mahalaya just two days before (Thanks to Facebook). Being married to a non-Bengali and being away from Kolkata for ten years, indeed make me forget about lots of Bengali cultures. No I am not complaining..just stating a fact. If you are in West Bengal,  you want or do not want ..advertisements, sales will make you aware of the biggest festival of State is coming. However, the changing weather of Boston only makes me aware of the fact, fall is approaching. U might be thinking I am snob..I am not .

   My Durga puja became less meaningful for me with time. May be I am getting old. However, I miss those moments of childhood................... I cannot remember exactly the time..but I had a Shiuli tree ( scientific name Nyctanthes arbor-tristis) in our Kolkata home. I think I might be 7-8 years old that time. Every day morning I would get up early, run under that Shiuli tree and get amazed by seeing those white flowers completely covering the ground below. I miss those days, the fragrance of Shiuli..the soft white petals and orange floral stems. Not so long before (may be five year down the lane), I was in Chennai at in-Laws place and those familiar scent floated in the air. I ran downstairs and found our neighbor had the same tree. That was the last time I saw her, felt her in my palm. Hence, my Durga Puja does not get complete without the smell of Shiuli and morning running to pick them, make garland out of them.

  The preparation of Durga Puja used to start at least one month before with the smell of new clothes and frequent trips to Tailor's shop (Tailor uncle made my dresses from the age 3 until I got married). ...fashionable frocks with different designs. I have a vague memory of soft clothes, nice patterns….mostly small floral prints. I think first time I selected my own dress when I was like sixteen years old. Still I had no complain and actually I kind of liked those dresses chose by my father. Now, after these many years and losing my mother, the expectation is reduced to sub zero level.  

      One more thing which made my Durga Puja memorable was the bunch of new books published in occasion of Durga Puja . Lots of my memories are attached to those books. I remember my father brought my first Anandamela Pujabarshiki (which is a special book still now gets released during Durga Puja) when I was six. I read that book like the bees get to know first time where is honey. After these many years I still cannot forget the feverish reading without getting up from bed . Most of the authors keep their best literary work to be published during the pious occasion of Durga Puja. So there would be lots of expectation among book-lovers . Here in united states ,I miss that spirit a lot. Indeed, one can get all the books that publish there in USA but the spirit of young mind waiting eagerly every day for the fresh new pages to smell, to hold in her hands and read and feeling is missing. I told you I am getting old..

 
     

Bye bye 2012

A year gone and gone with the wind…

Just thinking about the worries of mine at the beginning of the year…no…. those things do not scare me anymore; do not make me awake at night. The worries for future are there, but they have lost the intensity. The vulnerability of life is so pronounced that I do not worry for position, status or power fight any more. Two incidents of 2012 had shaken me from the core. One was Sandy Hook Elementary School incident and the other was the rape and unimaginable torture on a 23^rd year old girl. My faith on humanity is hanging on a thread. Yes, I know about war and death of children in war. But this is like the sudden full stop of the beautiful lives of 20 little children, their laughs and their dreams. After my mother’s death, I have not been shaken so much. The second incident was so brutal that I could not even think about that anymore. Even the word “animal behavior” is nothing to describe that crime. At one point of time, I thought,” let it be. Let the Mayans be true. The world is no longer a place to live anymore.”

   I am a mother and I play a very critical role in a person’s life. Now instead of raising a successful man, I want to raise a human being who should be compassionate and caring and who will value humanity more than anything else. That is the only think I hope for and breath to live for.

  Bye bye 2012. 

Learning With You....to Adi.

I thought I knew everything about ABCDs... and I can teach you in my finger touch. Little did I know that its as tough as solving a scientific problem ?

Ode to food-bloggers

  I like to cook and do not like to be disturbed during cooking. Cooking is a kind of meditation I choose. But when you have a pre-schooler sneaking in your kitchen all the time, its very hard to concentrate. Usually, I get up quite early in most days of week ( I hated that when I was kid). Early morning time is the best time for me to cook aka meditate. I enjoy and relish it. If I had to do the same thing after coming from office, I feel crazy and angry. So mind it, time and moment are crucial things for my tasty food.

    I never thought I would turn out to be a foodie,much to my parents' surprise. My love for food begun when I left home for higher studies. The difficulties to get home-made (aka home-taste) food were my driving point to get tasty food. Then after eight years of hostel-mess food, I really love any kind of home-made food from any part of the world. Still I did not get my hands-on experiments on food and solely dependent upon my cook, my mom and mom-in-law. But the real journey begun after coming to USA.
    When I crossed Atlantic and reached Boston, my culinary expertise was limited within rice(!), daal(lentil soup) and begun bhaja (fried egg-plant). Oh Oh I forgot the boiled egg. I fed plenty of bottled and ready made baby food to my son in his first few months staying in USA. But I was not happy eating the same recipe again and again. I started cooking some things else, long-distanced calls to India gave me the recipe of fish and chicken, but we know our moms. They will never able to tell you size and proportionality of ingredients. And the search for wonderful world of food-blogging left open to me. I really appreciate them. The amazing food-bloggers all over the world keep posted about their cooking and photographs. I learnt almost everything from them. And then something happened to me.
   I fell in love with cooking. The everyday chicken biriyani from Bongmom or coconut-steamed prawn from my friend's blog make me a cook, at least my husband and kid like it. Somewhere, I started believing that cooking is not only about food, recipe or eating. Especially displaying a well cooked food, the appeal of vision is very important. I feel I should give an example here. I never knew about the green, leafy chard in India. On first look, I thought its beet-root leaf, yes, though they belong to beet family but they are not same. And I avoided them for quite sometime. Then this post from ecurry made me to go to store and buy some chard. By now you might be doubting about my sanity. I admit i did not add pine nuts and recreated the same except I added poppy seeds( aka posto) end of that chard recipe, but it tasted awesome and fell in love with the chard.So the whole thing started from a particular blog-post.
   Here are my most favorite food blogs from where I read recipes and cook :
             1. Bongcookbook
             2. Bongcook
             3. ecurry
             4. Cooking and recipes 
             5. Peppermill
             6. Bakerella
             7. TheIndianSimmer
            8. veggiebelly
           
There are many more awesome blogs where I read recipes but these are my regular ones. I respect the time and efforts they put on their blogs. The whole point of creativity is to get mental satisfaction is very true. So I cook and so I think everybody cooks for.
Before I finish just want to quote this single word poem from Bob Raczka,
              "Creative i crave art".
Cooking is indeed a special kind of art.
    So happy blogging and cooking. Chao..
  

    

Uncertainties in Life

Life is full of uncertainties and  I think repeating this line again will not make it more cliche.
   I often think my life is really full of uncertainties and for last couple of years really it was. I keep my finger-crossed in daily basis and think that tomorrow gone be all-right and then tomorrow I will wait for another tomorrow.
   But when I listen about the mother waiting patiently for the miracle to be happened for her dear child or the son who is waiting eagerly near his father's ICU to be awaken for months, then I pray for them.
   God gives me lot of uncertainties but He knows he has given me the strength to fight also.
                      Hope everything is alright for all of us.