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.