Morning Delight

On a Saturday morning, family still in bed.

"Mamma, I was thinking and now I want to tell you something"

Unhun, please do.

"You know I was thinking that God makes people and everything else. So when its time to make a baby, Mamma becomes God, so baby can be made, because you know people cannot make people, only God can make people and when the baby is ready to be born then God becomes mamma, because only mamma can take care of a baby perfectly"

And my saturday morning started with teary eyes and a big hug to this delightful 4 year old.

Revisiting School Memories

I have been close to bengali culture since childhood. My school used to get aid from the West bengal govt. and in turn they wanted the school to encourage bengali culture. Rabinidra sangeet was our school's forte'.  Most of our teachers as well as classmates were bengalis. Saraswati Puja was our biggest festival which is till today attended by the alumni as well. Every girl would dress up in her best clothes and it was like a red carpet event with seniors standing at the gate and giving a once over to each and every girl entering through the gate. "oh my, what a lovely sari, is it your mom's?" hey that lehanga looks nice and the more so called modern ones would go for trendy jeans and skirts which were otherwise banned in school!

"Bolo bolo saraswati mai ki, Jai" sounds would fill the ambiance from aarti pandal. Nostalgia :-)

Surprisingly I never got introduced to bengali food!! But yesterday, over at Asha's food blog , I read about Luchis and it being a bengali bread, brought back all memories from school. I recreated her recipes today and the biggest food snob, our 4 year old gave the verdict "Thumbs Up".

I did use haldi to make luchis yellow in color but surprisingly they turned pink, no one is complaining though! We love pink! I served those with Chana masala following Asha's recipe. Delicious!

Thank you Asha!

Happy Spring

Happy First day of spring mamma!!

Happy first day of spring to you as well sweety Saumya!!

Happy first day of spring Daddy!!

Daddy can barely open his eyes after working till 3 am.

Thank you Saumya. (sleepily)

Daddy, we don't say Thank you, we say Happy Spring to you too!! Kucch nahi aata aapko. (you don't know anything!)

Preschool Breakfast chit chat

Mamma, What are you doing ?

Packing your lunch.

But what are you doing ?!

But I am packing your lunch!!!

What part of lunch packing are you doing at this time??

I am making Rava Idli batter.

Oh, I like Idlis. What part of making the batter are you doing now?

I am doing the tarka of mustard, dal and cashews . ( why doesn't she just eat her breakfast?)

Why are you doing that?

What? What do you mean by that question? (Oh great, now she questions my cooking skills!! )

Why do we do tarka?

It gives nice flavor to idlis and you will like the bite when it brings sweet cashew and nutty mustard in your mouth!!

Yes, I think I will like that. Can you tell me the recipe??

Of????

Of Idli !

To you?

Yes, so I can make them whenever I want and you know I love to cook.

Peace Rose

What a beautiful day, with sunlight everywhere, a little warmth in the air and no snow on the ground. Days like this make me ask myself the reason for not moving out to a place which is like this year round. On days like this I go a few minutes earlier then pick up time so I can catch a glimpse of Saumya in the playground. And what did I see today? Saumya had a rose in her hand and was standing face to face with a six year old, D, and was saying something which I couldn't obviously hear. Then D took the rose and said something. And then Saumya took the rose back and went away. But there she is standing face to face another six year old girl, P. And the same thing goes again. IS this done? No, after P she went to C and there the whole thing took place again. What was going on there????
The rose Saumya had in her hand is called "Peace Rose" and it stays in her classroom. Whenever anyone comes up to the teacher with a complaint about another child, instead of jumping into the Q & A of who did it? etc etc., the teacher asks the complainer if she would like to use the peace rose. The grieving person (A) goes back to the person with whom (B) she had a tiff. Seeing the peace rose, both get ready for communication.

A (Holding the peace rose) : B, you did(fill with whatever she/he did) and it made me sad or angry or upset......

In the playground when I couldn't hear, It seems the older girls didn't want to play with 4 year old Saumya and shouted at her, so Saumya was saying D you shouted at me and that made me very very sad.


The peace rose goes to the other person now.

B(Holding the peace rose): I am sorry, I didn't know it will hurt you or make you sad....I will not do it again.
And the peace rose goes back to its place.

What purpose does this serve?
First of all, no one ever gets hurt by thinking that the teacher did not take their side. Kids, as young as 4 year old learn to tackle their own problems. They are not afraid to approach the older kid because they have a peace rose in hand, a symbol of patching up, of mellowing down, of letting go and most importantly of being friends again. Instead of answering back violently, they learn to solve their problems with communication. Which seriously, we all can use some!

pic. courtesy www.cctheo.org

Religion and God

What is my religion?

I have a God and have a very personal relationship with Him. The idea of a pundit, priest or a pujari to help me get to My God doesn't work with me. This is one place where the middlemen doesn't stand a chance with me. I don't need to wake my god with bells of a temple or by doing holy fires or by cooking the priest prescribed food for Him. I can talk to Him whenever I want and need to. For me, It's like picking up the phone and start talking to your buddy. To me He is always reachable. I share my happiness with Him and I do not forget to tell Him when he mess up.
My Religion
1. Doesn't empower me to judge the way others communicate with God. It's the way they find Him.
2. Does not depend on rituals. Once I was advised by well meaning aunt to start offering water to Shiva. The temple was very close to our house, the Almighty was just a few steps away! With all reluctance I began the process of going to the temple every Monday and offering water. While pouring water down the Deity, all I could see was water going down the drain and just kept on wondering who is getting benefited by this wasteful act of mine? Aunt said it would please the God. And my questioning self was not able to justify how an act of wasting a precious resource, for which, in most parts of India, people line up to fill their buckets but still go home empty handed, would make God happy? I could not find my God that way.
I am unable to reach my God when I have to follow directions set by others, whether it is covering my head, using only a stainless steel dish, throwing only "a pair" of cloves in fire, or a simple task of first sprinkling water and then offering mithai to the idol or taking off my slippers. In this labyrinth of directions and rules I just lose contact with the God, who is mine. When I do participate in such rituals to fit in the norms of society it seems a mockery on my part. I feel disconnected from Him and my mind just wanders off to other things and just wait in anticipation of getting to be done with it. The rites and rituals bother me, they offer no meaning to me, they put pressure on me, a pressure to perform and perform it right. It makes me feel small, smaller than the person who has decided for me these ways of connecting with God. I feel nearest to God when I get to celebrate festivals my way, I do not bother others, mind just my own business and do not poke in others lives and when I close my eyes I can ask Him, how are things for Him too!!
And in the eyes of others I become a non religious person. Really? Why? Is religion only valid if I follow the rituals?

Happy Holi

Holi is a festival of colors, it marks the arrival of spring with flowers blooming everywhere. It also marks the end of winter and also of the spirit of rejuvenation.
I have never been a big fan of Holi,that is the whole water throwing and color spraying, a tilak of gulal and I am done. Try more and you lose me as a friend! My Holi day was spent hiding inside the house watching TV and a knock on the door was enough to send me to the bathroom to stay away from the enthusiastic holi tolis. But I was the first one to request ma to make those pillows stuffed with yummies, yes I am talking about Gujiyas! Celebrations of holi always started with Gujiya's made by mom two days before Holi. Me and my elder brother would do anything to keep ma undisturbed while she is at this labor intensive work. The fruit of her labor was just too good. Bhaiya would start with one and then in 2 hours or so some family member was heard saying "Yes teri biswi hai, bus ker de ab!" (This is your twentieth, stop it already) Mum would find him loitering around the kitchen for "just one more" Ahh, childhood!
Here in States, I don't need to do any efforts to stay away from holi tolis. Infact, may a times its hard to find color and we end up using our daughters washable paint colors!Being in the northeast, Holi is hardly the end of winter(we are going a snow storm right this moment!) My husband, like me is a big fan of Gujiyas. So this year I decided to start the Gujiya making at home, just like ma. I don't like sweets with overpowering sweetness and that's why I keep my Gujiyas simple by not dipping them in sugar syrup.


Oh, in case you are salivating here's the recipe :-)
Ingredients for Filling
Khoya (Mawa) 400 gms
Suji 1/2 cup
Powdered Sugar 2 cups
Raisins a Handful
Cardamom Powder 1 tsp

Crumble or grate khoya. Take a heavy bottomed pan and roast khoya till it turns very light caramel color.You will need to keep stirring it continuously or it will burn! Keep it aside.
Roast Suji the same way. Suji will take much less time than khoya. Keep it aside.
Mix all the above ingredients and your filling is ready.

Tired? Make a cup of tea and relax by the window, enjoy the snow and pray for real spring to show up soon! hmmmmm

For the cover
Maida (All purpose flour) 4 cups
Ghee 3 Tbsp
Water as needed to make a stiff dough

Oil for frying

Melt ghee and rub it with the flour. Work the flour well with your hands so ghee gets mixed in. Take water and make a stiff dough, like you would make for puris and not like chapati dough, which is softer. Cover it with a wet cloth and leave aside for about 30 minutes.

Now go and see if the weather God needs any more pushing!

Work the dough again to make it smooth. Spend about 10 minutes doing this.
Make lemon size balls from the dough and cover them with wet cloth. Now take one ball and roll it like a puri, about 4 inches diameter.
Take 1 tbsp filling, put in the center of the puri.
Moisten the lower edge (the one of your side) of puri with water.
Bring the top edge to the lower edge, in other words fold over the top edge to seal the edges. I use the back of a fork to pinch two layers together which makes those lovely marks while sealing the edges as well.
Now do like this for all dough balls.

I roll out 10 puris at a time, fill them and cover them with wet cloth. And then roll out 10 again and so on....

Now take a heavy bottomed kadai, pour oil for frying. Heat oil, the flame should not be very high or you would get very stiff Gujiyas which have raw dough inside. Keep the flame somewhere between low to medium. Fry two to three gujiyas at a time and let them turn light brown by turning often. Take them out on a paper towel and let them cool. And there you go, Voila! Your Gujiyas are ready. Spring or not, taste from home brings back all the warm memories in every bite and makes all the effort worth.
Once Gujiyas cool down, they can be stored in an air tight container for about 10 days or so. But I don't think you will be able to save them for so long!
Happy Holi!!




image courtesy :holikerang.com

Let's talk business

Our 4 year old wakes up everyday for school with an alarm, we love the tranquility we have achieved with this. Every morning she comes to our bedroom with a big cheery smile and a loud "Hello Guys, time to wake up!!" I tell ya, it wakes us all up with lovely smiles and the house gets going for the day without much hassle. And then comes Sunday morning when we parents want to sleep in late, stay and cuddle under covers for as long as we can and catch up on the rest we have been craving for throughout the week. But a 4 year old is an absolute individual. Alarm or not, she wakes up at the same time and rushes to greet us with that big cheery HELLO GUYS and both of us go, nooo, go back to bed, sleep some more, I am sleepy, pick up a book and use your newly acquired reading skills ! Of course, all those meek requests get rejected and she keeps pulling us out of the bed. "Come sweety, why don't you join us and snuggle under covers??" Many of the times this offer works and she happily jumps in. Now do we all sleep some more? You would think so but she is a 4 and she is a girl. So once she is awake, she has the obligation to be chatty. "Mamma, I am thinking about a thing"
ummmmmm, ya?
"Ya, I am thinking about a thing that needs to be in stores for people to buy"
unhun
"I am thinking about flowers that we can eat"
oh
"You know a snack in the shape of flowers. But they will not be ready to eat flowers. They will be in a box which has three sections. One section will have the center of the flower in circle shape, another section will have its petals and one more section will have the stem. So the person who wants to eat that snack, will open the box and make a flower by putting all the given pieces together and then will have a flower snack ready to eat. It will be so much fun to eat the snack because you get to make it too"
Now that did bring me out of slumber and I thought wow I was never that creative!
"And you know, they will be edible flowers, so they will be safe to eat but very colorful like real flowers. Can you buy that snack for me next time we go to the supermarket?"
Well, I am not sure if they have any such thing in stores for us to buy.
"You can try mamma and if they don't have it then we will make it and put it on the grocery stores shelves. We will sell edible flowers" !!!!!
I am thinking we should all get up early on Sundays, who knows when we think of the next big idea.