Winter Comfort Food

Rich, bubbly tomato soup with crunchy toast and an old Shah Rukh blockbuster - a perfect combo to beat dreary winter evenings.

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Come Christmas time the stores are flooded with Scottish Shortbread Cookies. I don't like the ones with the granulated sugar sprinkled on top - but will take them when we run out of the plain ones. Sit in front of the blazing fire, with hot cups of tea to dip these delectable cookies into with a game of scrabble or monopoly.

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When I was a kid my mom used to make what I consider the best rajma I've ever eaten. The secret apparently is that she didn't really put any special spices into it. I came across this recipe - probably that's the way Mom used to make it. I'll have to check with her. Rajma and hot rotis make for a simple but delicious winter supper.

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Last but not the least - our very own erstwhile rasam! I love melagh or pepper rasam - followed by tomato rasam. We don't normally drink rasam like soup but prefer to mix rasam with hot rice and a dollop of ghee. Pure heaven!

(P.S. Is it my imagination or is my waist band getting a bit too snug?)

Down Memory Lane

I grew up in a small town, really beautiful, but isolated. Do you remember Maria in the "Hills are alive?" - well that town could easily replace the beautiful mountainside.

Being so small, there was just one little village shop - it's a wonder that he stocked everything from a pin to an elephant in those tiny premises. Grades 1 to 3 were in a tiny little convent school tucked away on a little cliff.

When I was about 5 or 6 the teacher wanted us to bring in a set of color pencils. Those days a brand called "Camlin" that comprised a dozen stubby pencils was all that you could get. All of us seethed in envy at one kid's magnificent metal "Steadler" box that someone had got him from abroad.

I told Dad he had to go to the little village store and get me a box of Camlin pencils. Unfortunately the store had run out and would only re-stock on their next trip to the nearest big town. I was totally disconsolate and devastated what was I going to tell Miss J and worse how would I bear the ridicule of my classmates?

The following morning had me weeping and wailing and being towed along to school by the maid. We walked through the roads of a big boarding school (where Dad was a teacher). Mrs. E, another teacher spotted me and when she found out all that despair was for a box of color pencils she promptly took me to her office and fished out a set of colour pencils and to my gratification - they were not the short, stubby pencils - but the longer 6 inch ones (like some folks say sometimes size does matter). My tears chased away and a smile on my face I set off for school again.

No doubt Mrs. E will not recollect this incident - but the fact I do remember this after so many years does show what an impression it must have made on my young mind.

Down Under and Rolling Pins

How many of you have rolled out "chappatis"?

I remember when we were kids our moms would call us into the kitchen and permit us to roll out the last 2 or 3 chappatis. We would brandish the rolling pin with great pride and carefully get them done.

Dads would accept the offerings with a show of great enthusiasm and joke about how they ate their way through Africa or Australia given the pathetic shapes of our chappatis. My dad the born school teacher he was, never lost an opportunity to educate. Out would come the dog eared atlas and the coincidence between our chappati shape and one of the continents would be pointed out as no mean feat of achivement, some fact and figures about the said continents would be sneaked in. Obscure jokes like small wonder the chapatthi was like Africa because it was as mostly dry like the Sahara would be bandied about.

Come a generation later - my offspring wants to try roll out a chappati. The proud mom hands over the dough and rolling pin and watches. (She has secretly downloaded Google Earth).

"EEEE--OWWWWW," goes the said offspring when he is done, "This looks like a gross underwear!"

New Year Resolution

The next time someone tries to be clever, and says something like "What part of 'do not step on the grass' did you not understand?" - I am going to reply, "All of it!"

Happy New Year folks.

Where do you keep your heart?

Do you remember this audacious song - with Madhuri in a backless choli?? Recollect the controversy it generated? Seems so tame and ludicrous compared to the stuff we see today...



However the song I really liked was this one:



A real pity the great showman Subash Ghai resorted to an insipid "Black and White". Should have stuck to the genre and style that he is best at.

Sticks and Stones and Alligators

When we were little kids we would play "Pat-A-Cake" to this song:

Miss Lucy had a baby
She named him Tiny Tim
She put him in the bathtub
To see if he could swim.
He drank up all the water
He ate up all the soap
He tried to eat the bathtub
But it wouldn't fit
Down his throat.
Miss Lucy called the doctor
The Doctor call the nurse
The Nurse called the lady
With the alligator purse.
In walked the doctor.
In walked the nurse
In walked the lady
With the alligator purse.
"Measles," said the doctor.
"Mumps," said the nurse.
"Nothing," said the lady
With the alligator purse.

Now - I always visualized this lady with a real alligator that she used as a purse! In my imagination the alligator had a pouch to keep the lady's stuff - but it's mouth was kept tightly belted up. (I know --- I know I should have been certified long ago). I always imagined how the lady had to be careful not to get the alligator near the baby...

For some strange reason we never sang the last part of the song - I just found it today when I googled for the song...

Miss Lucy kicked the doctor.
Miss Lucy kicked the nurse.
Miss Lucy paid the lady
With the alligator purse!

Another game we played was "Five Stones". You had five small smooth pebbles. They were scattered on the ground, then you picked up one pebble. That pebble was thrown in the air and you simultaneously picked up another pebble from the ground and then caught the pebble you had thrown in the air. You repeated this. There were a lot of additional complications as the game progressed. I was very bad at this game and always admired J as she deftly threw and caught the pebbles. Years later J tells me that she used to envy watching my "long, artistic fingers"!!

The boys on the other hand used to play "gilli-danda" - it's a wonder that no-one sustained any injuries - especially getting hit in the eye - with these lethal, sharpened sticks.

Another favourite - was "Seven Seas". A tennis ball was thrown against the wall and you caught it when it bounced back. You had to do this seven times. Six times- but allow the ball to bounce on the ground first, five bounces on the ground, four times with a clap, three times with a clap both in front and behind you, twice with touching the ground and once where you turned a full circle before catching the ball. I always fumbled with "5".

Now a days I see kids with all the professional equipment (basket ball hoops to name one) - or hunched over their I-pods or in front of the X-Box/Nintendo - and wonder... sure they are having fun ... but somehow not with quite the same magic...

Theme Music...

Some of my favourite pieces in no particular order...

This one continues to be a classic - hard to beat Henry Mancini ...



Kind of hard to associate - this essentially romantic piece with the Mafia - right?



Yes - I am a big fan of Henry Mancini - here's another iconic tune...Lara's theme from Doctor Zhivago...



And I really liked what they did with "Superman"



Last but not the least in keeping with the "Deathly Hallows"