Scars on the face of sky.

Airplanes in the sky and me share a unique rapport. From the time when we used to think that the places flying at high altitudes leaving a trail of white smoke were rockets to the time when a friend of mine described night time planes as "blink blink...blink blink...there it goes again".


My daily walk acclimatized me to many things both in nature and nurture. I love the "shankasur"  and red, orange, yellow, green and violet mini "ghaneri" flowers that dot the rental communities.  I look up and I always see the morning "rockets" that dot the sky. Sometimes their tracks crisscrossing each other. the tracks creating temporary scars on cloudless blue summer sky. Creating their temporary footprints that get wiped up slowly by the rarified air up.


Scars on beautiful blue sky lady indeed.

My daily walk

Thanks to our rental community's initiative, our gym is in renovation and a few of the regulars are in the sun (ok winter sun) trying hard to do some semblance of exercise to keep from putting on more weight.


This motivated me to form a path my self. This path is complete around my community, an O that forms. I start by leaving my pilla with the bus and then starting off, almost wistfully looking at the warm gym and putting hoodie on my ears I start off. I reach the main road and start off. There is a community of self owned homes that starts just after our rental community. My eyes mentally start doing the usual searching and mental check as I find it. There is a house that some times emanates delicious indian smells (more on that later). A house later that house that has near ripe sweet limes, then the house that has wind chimes and weirdly painted tattooed moon hanging. I turn right then and forge a bit uphill ahead. The community still continues and then there is a park at the other side of the road. a science academy passes me and I run the three roads leading in and out of it as there are cars reaching and exiting the academy. Then another community starts. The road now starts getting calmer and soon I see the sign for school zone end . I walk for new more minutes to find another sign stating school ahead. I see a house that had pomegranates hanging from a corner tree (they are extremely sour...I had picked one outside for experimental purpose) soon another school starts, this one an international school. I reach a corner from where I take a right again. I meet an aged volunteer (who would surely pass as Santa clause in Christmas) who shouts a hearty good morning to me. I shout back smilingly as I forge ahead.  after this school ends, another one is already in the horizon. I meet an aged Greta Garbo volunteer sitting on the chair who gives a robust good morning and makes me instantly give a warm smile. I meet a few of my path friends (!!) like a rather handsome mouchtached and bearded person in shorts and goggles or  a bespectacled Robin Williams replica in a bit weird cycle ( he carries his kid in the carrier behind him) who smiles and waves . sometimes a Chinese old woman who smiles back at me. I pass the school's ground where preschoolers are playing and creating a cute ruckus a few parents in groups and gossiping.
 I reach my place to take the D track and again walk the same track but in opposite direction. Since this path is more down hill, I finish my calls then. the path by now had become silent due the schools starting their daily curriculum by now. I pass the park again and decide to come one day on my own with a coffee and snack and sit on one of the benches and enjoy. But even my self knows that this wont happen. I reach my place. Cold from outside the jacket but my tee sticking to me. I remove my shoes slowly and start a tea before I head to shower. Days workout over.

A lazy saturday morning

With khichuri bubbling away in oven and my blank spot just not ready to go. I know that I am not a travelogue person. I am a foodie but not a recipe writing and clicking person. I love to write experiences but don't know.


My recent obsessions are none as lady of leisure is still getting adjusted in managing the home and kid front without an ounce of help from better (definitely ?????) half . Nah...ranting is also not my cup of tea.


So as mickey mouse buzzing in background, having no audience ok, a silent one tapping away and for whom its put up is exploring the world carelessly knowing that the mother hen is distracted.

Music so brings nostalgia

Have you ever had that ringing in ears long after you have crossed the sound frequency of a particular song? no...not hearing the song in your mind but more hearing the pulse in your ears.


It happened today with me. I had taken my pilla to our daily walks in and around dog shite perfumed (our noses and eyes have got adjusted to this real long ago...yes it happens in US too and not only India...maybe Vegas smells like this...just like shite) tracks near our community. We have a set road which we either start from one end or another. Today was the usual route. 1/2 of journey done, we started walking a curve in our community. This route is like a caps D or more like a double C, one inside another. As I started this route, a few steps. A strangely haunting but very delightful to the ears tune was heard. My pilla was busy blabbering something from school.


The song sounded more like a practice of classical dance. I could hear it till quite a few steps ahead, mostly because there are no buildings in between. I took a return journey for hearing the song again. I couldn't understand the words which I am sure were chakali kadboli (at my place we called south indian languages as that ...since I cannot understand them at all) but it surely made my mood.


I just so wished to have a cuppa ginger tea  or hot filter coffee and listen to this song from afar, my thoughts taking me mostly to south indian corners of Mumbai where there were tirupati temples, stalls selling kudukudu (south indian language script) magazines and news papers or snacks .


I came home, a smile on my lips to make my self tea, the song ghost playing in my ears long after I had heard it.

Now and then

Life was simpler then and safer too. When I was 4-5 years old which now seems like eons away.

I was discussing on kid safety with my best friend on her recent visit and topic came to that incident that is still etched in my mind.

I used to travel by a school bus to and from school. The bus subcontractor was a trio of three Nair brothers. The drivers and cleaners varied. Once in a while our drivers and cleaners changed along with the bus. This was one such day. My absent mindedness had started then. they had announced that the bus that ran on our route had changed. something that I had conveniently not heard and climbed our prior bus. I didn't realize that the kids are different . The bus was same and so was bus driver (a stout short mustached one ) and cleaner (a Mohammedan , in his late teens, thin, fair skinned and serious  cat eyes with the common name like Javed or Rafique). As they went through the new route, I started getting alarmed and till they dropped the last kid, I was lost, completely and almost in tears. "where will you get down beta.." the cleaner asked. Somehow I managed to tell them that this is not the route, but the earlier route the bus took. The driver wordlessly took me through the earlier route . When my stop came, I gleefully told them to stop and the cleaner held my hand and left me till our society gate. He smiled at me and left.  I came home happily, least knowing that my worried mother had gone to school to unsuccessfully find me.

Things became more complicated slowly and now the situations are so bad that except parents maybe no one can be trusted but can parents also be trusted?? (?) 

Definitely life was simpler then.

The hourglass

My best friend had come to stay with us after a lot of pleading from me. The duration which  at that time seemed nice and good, as the time neared an end felt just so small and passing away just so quickly. Just like an hourglass, the initial and middle time felt like passing nice and slowly and felt as if I had all the time of the world. Just as it neared the end and the sand started just pouring so soon, I realized so many things that we had not done and postponed because we had lots of time or so we thought. we still managed to squeeze in most of stuff including a weekday evening and not a sunday morning for her ultimate matar pattice or one afternoon she made rava besan laddoos or chiwda back to back.

And then the time for her to leave came, just a bit soon. she left a big hole in my life. There would no more be endless chatter and ddiscussions on anything and everything. There would never be "shall I make tea for you " questions. My lone multicolored mug standing mute, waiting for my twice a day  microwave green tea sessions. Her cup and saucepan for indian style milk tea esconced away from my soapy hands. The comedy shows that wesaw, laughed and commented would be mutely seen my me, my thoughts running near her in India.

Now my lone weekday marathon will start and my heart will wait eagerly wait for one more meeting with her.

Au revoir aai

Some lost songs from chitrahaar

Memories are just like butterflies, they flit in the brain and then they take us to the paths so long from the start point. It happens with me many times even while blogging, then after a while and after lot of digressions, and luckily after reading some earlier senses I catch the main thread but with memories you cant do that always.

In gym for an hour without the WiFi made me real frustrated, otherwise 60 minutes pass like 60 seconds, doing elliptical to the tune of chalia chalia. But that was not to happen. some stray thoughts took me to this song. this is a counterpart of the song sau baar janam lenge from ustadon ke ustaad in terms of haunting melody. I am actually attracted to such songs and earlier when only visual exposure to music was only though chitrahaar, these and such songs etched in the memory.

Like ooi ooi, I remembered bits and pieces of the song. I remembered though that it was sung by Lata mangeshkar. and so I turned to my trusted friend google. But it ended up giving me weird results. couldnt blame him as I had just typed something haphazard. then I hummed in mind (another person was exercising...remember I was in gym at the time) and typed jee ghabraye...jee jal jaye...and I got some results. and then I found the song 'jee ghabaraye dil jal jaye bedardi ab to aa ja', I got to hear it in fleeting and lots of buffering. reminding my self to hear it at home, I finished my gym and headed home. and finally I got it. it was the same song. I didn't get the video though (I remember it was usha kiran who was singing this song though)

The movie name was Badshah (1959) starring mala sinha , Pradeep kumar and Usha kiran. Music was given my shankar jaikishan. honestly all other songs related to movie, I found (and opinions differ) were not that worth remembering, except ofcourse rula kar chal diye sung by hemant kumar (a melancholic treat but not very black...plain melodious).

Another a bit lost song now found its way in my blog. this calls for a treat...icecream anyone??

Headache inducing Sunday afternoon with fb

Facebook. I shared a neutral relation with it. A strictly ok way to keep in touch with friends. I always liked whatsapp better. It was easily accessible and more, shall I say near... 

 This Sunday with of course nothing better to do than watch crazy frog with pilla, I logged in to Facebook . I was agape. Maybe I was completely out of sync . Was I that out of touch with friends or so called friends, since the ones who really are, are accessible on whatsapp. Then who were these? Some were college ' mates' others office 'mates' and still others aquaintances from the various classes (ok..take your pick, multifaceted or plain confused as in what to do with life...I mean I am a professional photographer, fashion designer who has a post graduate degree in psychology and a bachelors in law and having in depth knowledge of two foreign languages. One was my college subject, another went on to become my profession). I didn't know that brackets could become so fatty thanks to my digressions. Anyways. So I was scrolling and getting entangled in web of photos and updates. Had lunch here...there...who the hec wants to know it...but still that had quite a bit liked and few comments. Pouty ( or pitiable..I am born cynic) photos, selfies with poses and false smiles and intimacies. 

Slowly I started enveloping a royal headache. My eyes are absolutely not used to so much assault with such stuff. I whatsapp twice a day and my messages (most of the time forwards) go in lots (huge at times). And then my phone is found mostly out of battery in a secluded cool corner of pillow on the bed as the day's battery goes off as well. I had to write my heartfelt ( somehow my head never aches then, when I am writing...maybe my grey cells dance in joy of doing something good and circulation in my pea brain increases ;))  before I would go to grab a combiflam or maybe something cool...I will let my short journey to kitchen decid that. Meanwhile I am seriously contemplating to suspend they'd damn fb account. The cause of this rucus...maybe I need a neat vodka now ;p

My love affair with palm jaggery

Palm jaggery is quite common in india. Atleast we knew of it. Aai used to get it wrapped in newspaper. I should again thank my sister since, she used to eat the jaggery with such gusto, that I developed my undying love for it as well. Coming to palm jaggery. These were like  big coins, their borders having thin casing.Obviously it must have been molded in log shape and later thinly sliced. coming to think of it, it must have been palm leaves used together to shape the jaggery. This casing when removed, gave way to a thin spiral ribbon and one of the sweetest thing in the world. Palm jaggery.
 I have never eaten notun gur or nolen gur (date palm jaggery. Very common in winters in Bengal). But I can surely understand their euphoria. My case is the same in case of palm jaggery. I guess that must have also been the reason that I am attracted to natural taste, without chemicals in name of beautification. I like raw jaggery and not one with sulphur and I love jaggery instead of sugar, organic sugar instead of polished one. The list goes on. I also love kakvi/liquid jaggery (which has cooling properties according to Ayurveda and so does jaggery) with hot chapatti.

But like most things in life, change made me lose out the sources for palm jaggery. Just like it did for sharkara upperi (jaggery coated banana chips). Though sharkara uperi is available but not that much since most tamilian shantys near the station, which also had bananas, some typical foods like tapioca chips, boondi laddu and some magazines with kudukudu chakli kadboli (Tamil) script.but when these shops closed, one by one due to advent of machine made lays, we lost on the stuff which we otherwise took for granted. so sharkara uperi which was once available throughout the year is now available only in onam (kerala festival). Though some brands did offer them in packets, the taste was just not same, maybe because of stinging on jaggery.

Then my mother ( obviously only one who remembers my likes now...I remember my pilla's) found some in mangalore store near our place. Though the  smell, look and taste was same, still the slight synthetic taste giveaway. Till I found some in an Indian store. These were mounds and color and smell apart, didn't look like the circular coins that I had come to love. I tried some but it had so much of supposed added impurities in name of raw that my initial excitement faded and they remained abandoned in an old bournvita box for a while ( which was a real feat, considering, I don't spare my weaknesses for that long...dark chocolates are finished in two days, and some sweets lesser than that).
Then I read about a South Indian recipe and it struck to me. I cannot eat ethers mounds but surely I can drink them. It was more to finish off ( I swear ;) than to enjoy.
So I kept these mounds in some water overnight. Next day I got lovely dark liquid that I strained in fine mesh. Then I cooled it in the fridge. And forgot about it (again). The next day in need of a quick fix coolant for hot Nevada heated gym exhausted  body, I came across this liquid. I had read that in earlier days, when people came home from hot summers outside, they were offered jaggery water, where jaggery acted as natural coolant. Inspired, I mixed the thick liquid in equal parts of water. And experienced instant rejunivation. I tasted past in those sips. Past of easy life and simple stuff, of palms and 'tadgola' in each one of sip. Needless to say, the syrup/liquid got over in bit too soon.

A few books I would love to have

No. these are not recently read. These are so old from memory that I had to write them down before they just fizzed away.

It started one lazy afternoon. Starting today. I have actually exhausted my search engines on ipad, iPhone and new Samsung with all such things. something that I am thinking of, searching, reading and promptly forgetting. Some of them food blogs (explains my recent blogs on food??? I thrive on them), some of them movie stories, old actors, some actors who vanished without a trace, home solutions and remedies etc etc...the list goes on. ( see my multi faceted personality?? or rather reading habits).

I was actually reading something...now my brain fails to remember that and I thought of it...all of a ssudden. a book that dada had brought for me way back when I was in first grade. he could obtain such exotic stuff ( didn't know pasta then...we wondered why the fryums didn't fry that well , the chile sauce I spoke of and list will go on) since he worked at churchgate then. churchgate is that part of Mumbai, where way back in 80s, anything exotic could bee obtained. Foreign chocolates being one of them. my kaju vadi habituated mouth tasted Jordan almonds at one such occasion. as usual I am digressing and that too on food...

So on one such occasion he got two books. one for my sister, one for me. I don't know what my sister got. but I got something titled sipsick...I loved the book to the core. the illustrations and stories inside. I heard of pancakes for the first time in that storybook. I read and re read and re re read....the book lost its clothes (read cover) as it was a paperback workbook type of book and I was not a good book user then. Then it lost a few of its limbs ( read pages) dog eared and stained one day it got lost in the monthly newspaper 'raddi' and got lost forever. slowly it faded from the memory as well. the reading world was never found that interesting beyond text books and monthly tinkles till I reached 8th or 9th grade where my 'kaka' (eldest atya's husband)(I prefer to use indian vocabulary...English is just so unsuitable at times) initiated me to the love of reading by giving me my first readers digest. later I started reading Marathi literature in my college days. that's another thing altogether. Sipsick got lost almost perpetually in memory until today. Google again came to my rescue and I put sipsick in the search engine. I saw different results. most of them Estonian books. something however prompted me to see images (I see them mostly when I am completely at loss) and after a few scrolls I saw it. there it was. my memory instantly acknowleged the cover of the book. a painting of a rag doll sitting on the roof, with a striped cat looking at it...there were a few more stories where the rag doll. and the name of the book was "The adventures of  SipSik" by Estonian author Eno Raud. the book was published around 1984 and I am sure it is out of print, since amazon is selling a used one for approximately 50$. I so wish I had a worn out version of this book. (I have some real old books. a wren and martin. but nothing would beat this one.)

 (one of the stories in SipSik that I remember in which SipSik makes a TV out of cardboard box and presents a programme. my sister has thought but never really replicated the act with the refrigerator box that we got later. it was used as my toy read trash box)

Another book I had got on my birthday by a childhood friend of mine. this book was commented on a lot since this friend gave similar book to every of my friend's birthday. "got in bulk" one of my friends had said conspirationally. This book was a hardback. its name was Bread and dew by Russian author Grigore Vieru.  The same friend had gifted me a book called "Telesik " which was Ukrainian folktale. I am sure her parents had strange affinity to Russia.

Lastly a Marathi book. Made of thin cheap paper, with a magician flying behind three kids on a flying carpet drawing. a yellow, black , white and orange drawing. The name of the book was " om phat swaha" author unknown. Taken on newspaper stand on the way to long painful bus journey to goa. stained from behind by blue ink splatters. I don't know if I still have it. I hope I do. all the others have either become roast peanut holders or already recycled. Hopefully material for some good book.
I so miss you all. Especially you Sipsik.

The rare exotic Sunday breakfast.

My mother cooked really well. And she managed to do that with her job, two kids and a house. Dada worked till late and left early. She got up at 5.15 am to cook up a storm of chapattis, a sabji and a wholesome breakfast of pavachi bhaji, sabudana khichdi, dosa, toast , upma , poha and dosa / idli , sometimes multigrain puris with coconut chutney from Monday to Saturday in that order every week, without once getting exhausted. Sunday breakfasts hence were not something special as she cooked specials throughout the week. Sunday was more bread affair as earlier written. Or mostly batate pohe ( a staple in most maharastrian homes)

Winters was however a different story. When green peas were abundant and lesser than their usual high rates, aai would bring green peas by kilos. They then found their way in poha, upma, lip smacking curries and the piece de resistance matar pattice.

A hectic affair and with two growing children and a husband with voracious appetite, matar pattice was reserved for once in a while weekend affairs. I used to get up to the smell of the pattice sizzling, it's smell emanating and spreading in whole home. We would hurry our selves to teeth brushing and would rush to have hot piping bites of pattices with slice bread and ketchup ( I never liked it). The yellowish potato cover hid spicy green peas, the cover dark grown and crisp by fine semolina coating. I always reserved these for last, gulping the melt in mouth potato and green peas first. I never seemed to have enough. Definitely when I had matar pattice, that Sunday was definitely extra special.

One of my lost favourite Sunday breakfasts

No.. Not idlis or dosas.. My  breakfast from memory is related to bread and its avatars. Crisp rava toasted cheese sandwich, yellow (with onions) and white (without onions) bread up a or at my place pavachi bhaji. Bread was never in vanilla at my place but decked up in some avatar or other ( egg, kheema and chicken accompaniments included). Aai made a real good omelette with onions, green chilies and coriander , a full fry with/without chilly and turmeric. A half fry, a scrambled egg ( eggs I sadly never liked and never do even now) and bread toasted buttered or plain always accompanied them. My otherwise kitchen disoriented sister ( who is incidentally a good cook now if she actually decides to cook something than usual dal chawal) made a lovely bread roll with potato filling and flattened bread encasing. Aai makes a mean paovada which had bread,potatoes and green goodness of green chilies and coriender and cumin seeds, the small rounds were then shallow fried in oil. Bread actually ruled our kitchen because of availability (we had a bread loaf a week) and versatility.

These were actually never as Sunday breakfasts. Pavachi bhaji was on week day breakfast menu, mostly on Mondays as on Sunday dada got a good real loaf from the bakery. Bread roles were rarely made by my busy sister and paovada were made for guests. The simpler sundaybreakfast one that gave my mother a respite from cooking once in a while. Maybe because we're had so much availability, we were spoilt for choice. Along with ubiquitous slice bread from 'haria nana ( local baniya's name by my dada) we had paos ( a type of roll) from ahura bakery, loaf which was soft and sweetish with an awesome crust ( which was used  for pavachi bhaji), the paos came in two forms  naram paos ( soft rolls used mostly for flavourful  pao bhaji,  a mean missal pao , fiery vada pao or moping the juices of kheema or chicken gravy ( my sis favourite on Sunday evening)) and then there was the pao " kadak pao". A lot like French baguette, it was loved by  sis and she passed on the love to me. Just like dark chocolate, cheese and spicy red banana wafers.
But ahura was a bit far off and Sunday morning made my dada extra lazy. But he had a solution to it. Lucky. That is not an expression but name of the nearby bakery. Which was more for Sunday breakfast ware than usuals which were at ahura. There was no special something but more convenience for dada, who went there in his Kurta / shirt and lungi.  It was  nothing special. Rather, one could actually see bakers caked in dough  rather than ahura which was more shopfront and one rarely saw bakers. We had lots of other stuff from ahura as well like toasts (taste awesome in tea), kharis and their truly good elaichi fragrant masa cakes. Lucky was not not lucky that way as it was used for Sunday breakfast bread only. So dada used to slowly trod to the bakery where they would still be baking bread.  Sometimes, he would get the newspaper covered bread ( it's called ladi pao as in bread cluster if translated crudely) , the moisture making the Urdu news paper a bit soggy. When we hungrily slit the pao and slathered salty amul butter, it melted right in the  holes and crevices. It was always naram pao for me. But one day the then hidden foodie in me asked for a taste of kadak pao. I instantly fell in love with the way the pao crackled at a bite, the way the crumbs messily fell in the plate. The way the salty butter tasted with the bread and best, when amul cheese bits found your tongue. Naram pao was soon forgotten and it was always kadak pao, maska (salted butter) and chees (amul preferred) for me. Sometimes dada would get hot batata vadas from nearby shanty. They tasted equally good sandwiched flat between the hot bread. After this breakfast, tv would start and that would be just one glorious start to a Sunday.

Tinkle tinkle little star

I was reading a few blogs (my recent obsession...I mean timepass), out of which one I hold very dear to heart. its called the bongmom's cookbook. its special because, I like the way she writes. a bit funny, a bit poignant. One of her posts were on the time when the children's magazines were a rarety, something to be cherished.
Me coming from that generation. we in schools, had Saturday and sunday holiday. This was cherished by getting up late, enjoying a lovely breakfast ( more on that in the next blog) and sitting open mouthed in front of television. We saw any and every serial. The advertisements were counted and divided, whose ads came most ( we divided all products into me and my sister, who slyly chose popular products like catburys and thumbs up, and counted numb of ads per person. Needless to say, she always won🤐😜).
One of these memories which I hold very dear was arrival of monthly kids magazine called tinkle. ( chandoba was in Marathi, which my mother made me read on my own once. There was no looking back after that). Once a month, mostly on a Saturday, say by 9.00 am, there used to be a soft plop of paper falling in the safety door of our s cond floor apartment. My sister and I would rush to it. Survival of the fittest, which got it first...always. I waited for my chance desperately to read it once she is done. Tinkle was more of comics, and I read it from A to Z, including see and smile, a non word joke.
Along with readers digest, tinkle became my initiation to the lov y vast world of reading and imagination. I just so wish, that just like me my pilla gets a kick out of reading a book or re and rereading a favourite book.

CG sauce I found you..well at least partially.

My taste buds are wired. Wierd as in I rarely eat spice. It does not go well with me. Especially a spicy gravy, garam masala paste in food... Green or red chilly powder...

There are exceptions though. I love fiery green chutney or red garlic chutney with my piping hot batata vada or vada pav. Or toast sandwich. I love my pao bhaji fiery and I hate tomato ketchup but love the indo chinese green and red chilly sauce.
 Since I stayed near a wholesale market, where anything and everything was and still available, I got my dose of these sauces, which were incidentally in big glass "roohafza" bottles. I remember this red chilly sauce way before, when I was probably 7 or 8 and dada ( my dad) had got one small experimental bottle. I enjoyed the semi dried sauce ( expiry dates are checked now) with a slice of white ( not my favourite anymore...not health reasons, it's plain gummy..maybe made of gum.. Lots of it...just kidding) bread. It tasted like fireworks on the mouth, with the hot air emanating from mouth, nose, and ears. I fell in love with this sauce and never liked tomato sauce again.
We frequently stocked these sauces at home. I had them with anything.but mostly with piping hot all parathas that aai made. She added fresh coriander, green chilies and long sliced onions to boiled potatos and added that to dough as filling. They tasted too good. The weird part here was that I hated green chilies in it. I slathered this sauce on piping hot paratha and ate it bit by bit. The hot onion ring hitting my mouth hard and the sauce created a sizzle in the mouth.

For many years then I forgot about the sauce and en I asked aai, she said that sadly they stopped selling it. I didn't know how to procure it. As I still simply hate tomato sauce. I searched  and tried and failed at some lolu sauces in Walmart in name of chilly garlic.
Once I was searching the Asian section of Walmart when I came across a simple transperant bottle with green lid and white lettering saying "chauchau " ( I can't read mandarin or whatever it is) just understood that it's a chilly garlic sauce. I took the smallest bottle I could find and muttered  "trial basis" to my better (?) half's raised eyebrow. I put the groceries to their destinations when this bottle came in my view. Pursing my lips, I opened the foil seal of the bottle. A small spoon, and the fireworks brought my memories back. An extra all paratha and the sauce, and the memory was complete. Just that it's not smooth.. More thechasque. But taste is just so identical. Of course, I cook the paratha filling for my husband's liking but taste is still there.

I also came across something called gochujang  sauce uce when I was reading an article  by Sam Sifton in eat section of New York  times ( that is the only thing I read in it) . when I came across this sauce. A bit of googly and wiki helped me find it as a Korean chilly sauce. As you know chilly sauces are my favourites, this one also found it self in our shopping cart. I liked this one as well, though the Vietnamese chauchau sauce is top of my list. My next try..sriracha sauce...will surely tell you how I fared.

Tum mile yuh laga...talat aziz or...Jaswant Singh...

haha...song from memory. This I never heard whole. It was in the film and music album promo programme of vividhbharti...the one I heard in vacations after aai left for work . Some songs I absolutely seem to recollect from this promo section . "Dil ke jharoke mein Aja" from the movie dil ke jharoke mein...a really floppety flop movie of Manisha koirala in absolute fatso sweaty mode. Then there was "dil mein kuch" from the movie army a lady sholay version. But unfortunately poorly made. Dil mein kuch was incidentally copied from the english  song " she's got the look".

So as usual after much digression I am coming to Jaswant Singh ( no not the defense minister in AB vajpayee tenure). I heard this song quite a bit in the promo section. " tum mile..yuh laga". It's really a good song and nicely sung. Don't know, maybe talat aziz was also coming up with an album at that time ( khoobsurat hai aakhein teri raat ko jaagna chor de song was from this totally forgettable album). I remembered this song because of it's nice music, words and of course pleasant typical gazalisque voice.

Slowly college, friends, classes took its toll and I stopped being at home  beyond 8.00 am. Many years later I remembered this song. My brain cells really worked over time as I tried to recollect lyrics. But as much as I tried, I couldn't find any tum mile by talat aziz...I found a tum mile from movie tum mile. Tum kya mile ( really nice song) from saatwa aasman..later tum mile yuh laga by talat aziz yielded me weirder  results and with my digressing, I ended up reading and finding something different. Google groaned with my digressing. Then the bulb lighted. I just searched with tum mile yuh laga. And And And...tad a ...I got relevant results. A seemingly  innocuous Jaswant Singh popped up.. I played the song disinterestedly on YouTube...and voila...I found another song from memory.. Thanks to google's googly again...

The piyo man

Our building was one of the few in the area at that time. We could see the western train passing or chugging by and that was a favourite pass time whenever I got access on the rickety stool (which I strangely loved to play horse on..the noise it made...chikichiki still rings in my ears). Life was simpler then. We used to sleep at 9.30 pm even the , a habit that is a bit hard to break even now. After maximum 10.00 pm I am zoned out. Or I still find 10.00 pm late. God again I am digressing.
At such times when we used to have lights off and the suburb of the city that never sleeps used to go in quiet lull just like glowing embers of long gone fire, I used to hear loud but not shrill voice of ' piyo'. Even now I am amazed at how our brains understand the voice direction even if eyes are closed. I still remember my fuzzy brains registering the sound coming from far to near very near then far and farthest. My brain imagining the road the person taking to seek his piyo...( which I later understood was kulphiyo or kulfi for sale)

The same with " ram Narayan samosewala". Our building walls housed some illegal shantys. And like many poor who thrive on street ware not more than 5 INR at that time, they survived on popo ( mobile idli seller) and the ramnarayan samosewala. Now that was no name. But my ears initially heard it as ram Narayan...it was actually garmagaram..

Many years later, much to my mother's annoyance...I had ramnarayan samosas...at 10 INR, 3 small crispy ramnarayan samosas...with just a fried salted green chilly was simply out of the world. About the popo man. That I was initiated by my guy just foodie friend, on way to library. 5 INR for 3 fluffy softest idl is, 2 tasty chutneys and a sambhar like something. Sometimes 2 idl is and a dal vada. That was our morning fiesta after we finished 2 hours of cramming environment law and human rights.  This friend also initiated me to ber, tamarind and such ware on a 'thela'.
Life was definitely simpler then.

A small packet of delight and comfort

My love affair with Maggie has almost crossed quarter decade. It was a love hate relationship. I met Maggie when I decided to go vegetarian in a family of fish eaters. No there was no PETAsque agenda in my mind but I was one of the wierdos who just didn't like fish, mother and baby and baaa. Yes, give me anything and I will say sorry.
 This habit of mine has become a problem wherever I went. I ate green veggies where others ate tangadis. Wherever you go out of town, and a stall with meager means to serve you, you are left with one and only option. Eggs, scrambled ( read bhurji) or omelette style with bread. At such times Maggie, hanging along with chips and mini packets of gems came to my rescue. ( real incident happened with me @ Kashid beach, Alibaug).

But I had had so much of Maggie in my growing up years that after a while, especially after I learned to cook, I would cook some kind of one pot meal, even a cheese toast would do along with packeted soup powders than Maggie. For a real long patch, I didn't eat Maggie.

Then one fine day we had gone to Indian store ( a place where you got a lot of Indian stuff at 4 times price but where you went for emergencies like turmeric getting over at home, as a reasonable priced store was quite far off).we had to buy something for the cost to reach a desired limit for us to use our credit card. And a 2$ (Gulp)  Maggie helped us do that .
I came home and cooked it, plain. Just to finish the packet. The first bite and I was hooked. It brought so much . The lazy Sunday afternoon , coming to a cold kitchen , famished not exactly since the time I came was almost time for tea. The making of Maggie, between freshening up. The Alibaug experience where, my better (?) half and I sat at plastic table and slurped, he his hot egg bhurji even and me my Maggie, these a whispering at a distance. As I finished it, my kiddo came for a taste was hooked up as well, so much that next time we got Maggie, he took it and indicated me to cook it.
Comfort food for me has always been bread where I liked even a plain unadorned toast and now I found old mate Maggie. It may not be frequent as it only will loose its allure and due to health scare of contains processed flour, but it's my comfort buddy. Though 2$ for an emanciated packet is difficult to shell out.
 Let me end  with an old jingle ofmaggie that still stays in my head " dekho maggie kare kamaal, peela packet ho  ya laal, bacchon ko jab bhook lage to Maggie Maggie Maggie".

Ps: I come from that era when Maggie came in 3 forms, masala, chicken ( red packet) and capsicum. It has long come to healthier avtar of atta and multigrain noodles. But for me the mantra is still yellow packet.

Have you fallen in love...with a villain???

Lady of leisure never has work and who warms the sofa besides watching reruns of an old superseded film part by part  in two days. The reason being to have something to look forward to.
 She fell in love with one of the actors in the films. Who had a rather unsavory reputation in films ( but a real kind hearted in real life). Big menacing eyes and voice to pair it off with. The more she saw him the more she fell in love with him. She read about home. She saw a lot of his movies and seem to like him more. He acted as final villain but even a small character would be alive with him.
  There was Parichay, Amitabh Bacchan's Don, Bade dilwala , Gaddar, Amar akbar Anthony..etc etc.
The man who could kill you with his eyes, but who could talk through them. Show pain in them. The man was Pran who put " Pran " in characters he played and the lady was me.😍😘💕❤️👺

Ooie ooie

Surely the titles can be fairly misleading if this title is anything to be that. What is ooie ooie you may ask. It's is that something that ate my brain for a real long time after I started abusing Google for freezing my memory before nuggets get away.

I heard a lot of vividhbharti at home. Coming from a family, especially a father who was an old Hindi film music lover, and mother who almost mimicked whole song while making rotis, our home used our second hand radio (my aunt's "gift" (read castaway) rigorously. Not that the television had much to offer anyways besides an occasional chitrahaar.
Our day stared with Marathi bhajans and old Hindi songs, before dada ( my father) left for office. The radio switched off before upcoming film promos and time aai too left for work. Evenings started again with Marathi and then semi old and then a bit old Hindi songs. Later cable entered and ruined this radio beauty.
Honestly I still miss it sometimes. The reason I had to digress so much is that it is through these radio songs that my song guan (read trivial pursuit) started. I am happy ( honestly, embarrassed) that I know and enjoy a lot of black and white movie music along with current 'Sheila ki jawani ' along with trivial details like movie name, who has acted in it and story if I have seen it. And at times status like flop or hit movie.

So about this ooie ooie you may ask. I am coming to it, I am almost these. So in between two music programmes or if one has got over early, a filler used to be added. And no it was not a song. It was instrumental  version of one, till a minute or two got over and was time for next programme was there. It was not that often but yes, I did hear it. There was instrumental of "Hume tumse pyar  hai kitna" from kudrat , "boom boom" from a flop movie star, which had a real emanciated and stone faced "dagad " kumar gaurav  in lead role. The movie incidentally sported songs from hit album "boom boom" by the brother sister duo "Hassan's " aka Nazia and Zoaib Hassan. The title song boom boom, which was later remixed by the musician Biddu, keeping Nazia Hassan's voice sam good and her voice especially a bit haunting.
 I also used to hear a different tune as well sometimes. And once I hummed it to aai, who said there was a song called "ek.. Do...something something". I tried to find the song using same key words and Google very kindly gave me "ek do teen..." (Aargh😐) Google is a reliable search engine and gives bulls eye results most of the times, but what if the search it self is flawed. I tried my memory and remembered it had kumar gaurav in a 70's outfit singing on stage and people dancing. So my next search went to his limited filmography. I read the storylines ( no I didn't like the dagad still.. Lucky star kid though of another hit dagad, Rajendra kumar). I then zeroed on single movie 'Star". I had heard the songs earlier in fast forward mode ( except boom boom which like both old and remixed and music video of remix as well) all the others were too.. Too dunno what to say but I did find Zoaib  Hassan out of tune or was that music?? But couldn't tolerate him ( just like Sharada who sang my favourite song o mere dil from gumnaam, I hear it only for the winery drugging voice of Rafi).some singers who you just can't like.
Now for the ultimate sacrifice, hearing all of Star songs. I did slow fast forward as in, on you tube, I took the scroll slowly to the end. The first in line was " dheere dheere " half the song later I realized that this is not the one. The next in line was something similar. But a few minutes later I heard it" ek do kehne bhi do, teen char ho gaya pyar, main to gaya, jaise bahaaar.. Ooie ooie". That's it. My search finally got over. The reason I couldn't find this song was that this nugget was hidden just before and the song was put as ooie ooie..

Finally a search over. Another one to go. But don't know when I will find it. That song, I just know the music. No actor, actress, film, singer. I just hope the song crosses the path with me some time.

For now " jai Google maharaj"

A new favourite of an old film: gumnaam

I always prefer old movies to new. Routine to new. Same old to something different. Only two things are exempt from it, one is food in which I am actually a daring vegetarian, ready to try new, unknown veggies, exotic cheeses, different desserts which don't have any mixes of chick, moo, fishy and if they have baby of chick then I don't know of it. The other adventure is music. I tend to like music of any origin, language provided it has good music. I had never heard Luke Bryan but now he is one of my favourites ( and no..his handsomeness has nothing to do with it..his grainy voice does)

Digress..digress..I pref b/w movies if they are nicely made ( mostly they are).  I prefer old comedies..as they were truly best. Which had good plot, classy and timely dialogues and a sense of clean innocence in acting.
Now a days I am preferring suspense also the old style. One such movie is gumnaam which even if I have seen say 10 times in past two weeks, I still have an urge to see it.

Of course I won't say the story. It's easily found on YouTube. The movie I mean if you have not seen it and story on wiki.

There are absolutely so many things things that I have liked in the movie that I see the movie for those aspects. The first is the plot. If you see the movie for the first time, you absolutely have no clue who the killer is. The plot flows seamlessly and very fast. Songs are rightly placed and don't look out of place. There are romantic songs, peppy numbers, jazz number which have been given music by THE Shankar jaikishan duo. And though I am partial to kiss ore kumar, I have started to like mohd Rafi and for right reasons. I couldn't imagine he could actually sing Ajax tune with so much ease as a sexy rainy romantic song. Wow...

Then there are villains. A multitude of them. Who have acted in such a way that they have individually shone but didn't overshadow others.. There is Dhumal, a simpleton villain, absolutely human ( who can forget his small but significant role in wo kaun thi). Then there is my dada'sfavourite real rogue Manmohan, an absolutely villain's right hand. There is to put in dada's words 'Mutton' aka Madan puri, who took   Villainousless to a classy level by playing mind games and making good parties feud. There is Tarun Bose. A wonderful actor in his own right. And lastly there is Pran. My favourite. Devil incarnate.if eyes could kill..his would take you to hell and back. Pure chameleonsque,mocking the overactor Manoj kumar ( who somehow looks good and controlled in this movie). Then there is mehmood and his antics. Pretty and demure Nanda and the femme fatale Helen. I never knew that Helen could act so well without going overboard. She has played her butterfly role so well with carefree abandon. Of staying happy even in grim scenarios. When the villains get killed one by one on a lonely but pretty island..the characters can trust no one. U never know whose turn is next. What becomes spooky besides the ruins of ancient church, pristine beach and rocky landscape with no human contact except the characters themselves is the song which they hear suddenly out of no where..gumnaam hai koi..it startles you surely..

I liked that as compared to modern movies which are full of blood and gore..here except the bodies and coldness shown in the eyes of the dead ( especially Manmohan as Kishan and Magan puri as dr. acharya) is more chilling than absolutely revoulting blood,gore and innards out type. I especially liked the extended scene when Helen's character Kitty is killed. U just say "shit..shit..help her someone".this is the only murder scenes guess that is shown, rest all are just bodies discovered.

Then the is absolutely laugh a riot but a it sinister as well butler aka Mehmood, who has some secrets to hide.
Lastly, the lead couple of pretty Nanda ( who I really liked as one of real pretty actresses) and surprisingly Manoj kumar who looks so cute and lovable at one time and serious and thoughtful at the next instance...the way he puts 2 and 2 together slowly uncovering the mysterious murders...

For me this movie has become like a key to search more such movies...and if not anything..watch this movie a few more times...I don't think so I will be getting tired of this that easily.

A surprise like ''Aiyaa"

Browsing through the usual repeated and forgettable movies on three movie channels on a bored saturday evening, we chanced upon "aiyaa". Starring Rani Mukherjee ( my favorite) and Prithviraj (more than drool worthy... he knows to act...just like Surya), this movie was given a nasty review, and performed average on box office.

Some movies, I never seem to understand why are they not liked that much. I liked the movie, and it came in my list of time pass movies..

The movie starts with Ms. Mukherjee in a totally hilarious dream sequence. Later with  a neutrally funny father, a funny mother, a rib ticklingly funny grandmother and a zoned out but innocently funny brother and later a weirdo but funny colleague and fiance and a serious hero...the way Rani's character Meenakshi, follows the hero every where ( including loos, can you believe that) entranced and mesmerized by the smell he carried. It follows a sweet suspense which is revealed in the end.

This movie's story is taken from a marathi movie called "Gandha" having 3 stories , one of the stories, has same line.

If I can forget the irritating songs, except "mahek bhi" by shreya ghoshal, which incidentally has a whistle piece, which repeats in the smallest romantic moment, the movie is nice, not rib tickling funny, but laughter results are achieved.

I can definitely see this movie again.

HNY to me and my blog

Never I have wished my self and my blog or rather blog is just like my own personal diary, that few people have access to...

With new year come new resolutions that I hope like PMD (annual appraisal report) I manage to achieve by end of the year:

- become more positive towards life
-take up and accomplish new crafts and craft projects
-write more on blog
-bake and cook more
-learn driving (depends on few other factors)
-Try to learn a new musical instrument
-lose a few more kgs

A few more desires...n hope for the best but if these castles fall down, without faltering just forge ahead...