Bibimbap baap re baap

 An excellent bibimbap, prepared to perfection, by my endlessly talented friend, @tanima_creative (IG handle).

Love how she seasoned all the ingredients to perfection so that the gochujang and soya sauce shone through, without detracting from the actual taste and texture of each and every ingredient composing this beautifully balanced and flavourful  fiesta of veggies, protein and carbs. 

My apprehension about the nori proved to be baseless as it just added an undertone of the sea without overwhelming key components of the namul. The sticky rice was the perfect foil to each and every ingredient, with the rice vinegar making just the right kind of statement in every bite. 

Encöre, please!

Birds and babes

Of late, I notice that I reflect more often. Not because I am sad or lonely or unwell but because things I did not notice earlier I have now grown to observe and listen to carefully and they mellow the perceptive side of me that I had unconsciously suppressed over the years.

I am excited about the sunrise each day and the misty morning coolness, burst of birdsong and fresh flowers it brings along with it. I look forward to watering the plants on the terrace and hoping the newest arrival, the bulbul couple, will take advantage of the slightly extra water the pots hold and drink daintily. Our daily visitors are the chirpy starlings who make short but sudden appearances and even take the odd bath on a particularly hot day, fluffing themselves up and then startling us by a loud, sharp trill followed by an unseemly swift take off.

The kites and the crows have become familar neighbours too, the former dignified in their long, lofty and regal statuesque stations on top floor terraces of apartment buildings while the latter greet you with a raucous cackle, not trusting enough to come too close but acquainted enough to sit and stare at you with interest. Don't be surprised though if they jump off brusquely, should you attempt to address them or stride into some smalltalk. 

The funniest but unfortunately also the most annoying avian neighbours however happen to be the pigeons. Shoo them away a million times but they do not seem to get the message that all clean surfaces are not meant to be toilet territory. Not only that, I've seen birds of a feather indeed flock together (pun certainly intended) but defecate together?! Well, that one has to be a first. I assure you, I was both amused and repulsed by my first hand observation of this utterly scandalous conduct. They also remind me of the street dogs who wait till the eleventh hour to remove their furry girth from the middle of the road. I've always wondered, do they think they can will the nervous driver into changing tracks with some hitherto undiscovered form of canine voodoo?

Last but not least today, let us come back to the bulbuls. A particular persistent couple tried their best to conceptualise the upper base of our verandah fan as full of nesting possibilities. After we cleared off the straw and associated debris, they gave up the idea and switches to the first floor verandah instead of our neighbours, who returned from a week's trip to find some unexpected additions to their ranks. However, I was thrilled beyond measure to hear a sharp trilling one dawn a couple of months ago and a red flecked black hooded creature eyeing me warily from, once again, the upper base of our verandah fan. The bamboo curtains (chik) needed to be downed several times a day thereafter to convey the message that we were amiable humans but not ready yet to foster bulbul babies in our cherished tiny slice of verdant heaven.

(To be continued...)

Monsoon madness

Above is the crow that was actually a pigeon.

I got drenched twice today morning trying unsuccessfully to dry out two buckets of laundry on the terrace. The first time, while blissfully in the bathroom, I had no idea that the clothes wrung dry by the washing machine were now being brutally battered by big bursts of monsoon moisture. The second time, I was plain defiant despite gloomy grey skies and my energetic arrangement of clothes and clips were sent into utter disarray within 15 mins by another gigantic grey abandon of whimsical waterborne clouds.

Resigned and resentful, I dumped the overloaded bucket by the terrace door and panted perilously down the stairs to shut yet another lot of windows against the onslaught of the moody monsoons.

Then this sombre sight met my eyes. Junior joined me and after much consideration, he overruled my identification of the avian species under observation and airily identified it as an extremely miserable-at-the-moment specimen of the pigeon species. He pompously explained that my error was natural as its bedraggled feathers rendered its colouring darker than usual what with the falling light etc. I was duly chastened. Not just by my mistake in identification but by the realisation that there were certainly other living creatures in a more pitiable plight than me at that point.

Talk about relativity!

উদাসী

রবি ঠাকুরের গান নিয়ে একবার রোজ বিকেলে বসি। গলা ভেঙে যায়, তাই ৩-৪ টের বেশী গাই না। কিন্তু এই গান গাওয়া আমার সঙ্গীত চর্চা শুধু নয়। আমার সাধনাও। গাইতে গাইতে কবির কথা হয়ে ওঠে আমার আত্মার আত্মীয়, এক অদ্ভুত ঔদাসীন্য মনকে ঘিরে দেওয়াল তুলে দেয়। পৃথিবীর সব দৈন্য, মালিন্য, ক্লান্তি, কঠোরতা আর আমাকে ছুঁতে পারে না। ঈশ্বর সাধনার মতোই তাই এই গান নিয়ে বসি রোজ বিকেলে। আড়ম্বর হীন, আতিশয্য হীন, অলঙ্কার হীন এই সুরের সাত্ত্বিকতাই হল ঈশ্বরের কাছে আমার পুজোর নৈবেদ্য। 

Rueing the road ahead

 It terrifies me what a world we are leaving behind as a legacy for our generation next. Is it even worth living in any more?

At any given point, I cannot pick up a newspaper and turn its pages without encountering global warming, deforestation, wars, rape, violence, communal disharmony or road rage. If you scoff at me and say that these are commonplace, well let me remind you all that they were not what we grew up with as collateral damage of a globalised lifestyle.

I am still teaching my son values like honesty, compassion and simplicity, all the time wondering whether these ethics still hold any relevance whatsoever in this disturbed, angst ridden, mindlessly materialistic era where I often wonder whether people like me are an endangered species. I am not saintly or special, though. What I am is a human being who still doesn't see through dishonesty, manipulation, amorality and perversion. I am still surprised and shocked when people waste water, buy stuff which isn't ecofriendly, spend millions on a marriage, push or slight or bully the less privileged or the differently abled, manipulate the masses for illgotten gains which won't accompany them after death or cut down yet more trees in a world where we are now struggling to bring down endless urban lifestyle induced illnesses.

Every time I scroll through my Instagram feed though, I regain the courage to navigate the mired mess of our microcosm. IAS officers who turn discarded clothes into recycled bags offered free of cost to hawkers, enterprising compatriots who organise clean ups in the wake of irresponsible tourists in the mountains, highly educated young businessmen who give up their highly paid jobs to enhance consumer awareness and even legally confront powerful MNCs in the process, teachers who change lives by tiny acts of unforgettable compassion...I am touched by these countless stories of relentless positivity and effort. Maybe these are the stories we need to propagate. Surely these are the tales our future generations shall listen to with wide eyed awe and wonder?

Moving On

 So I move on, professionally, yet again. Life has always been a panorama for me and I have responded variously to its fleeting glimpses, mostly with excitement and a little bit of trepidation. Would that make me a true blue Gemini? The duality in me has always been thus, the buccaneer in me, always eager to chase the proverbial pot of gold under the rainbow vs the dowager countess in me, unwilling to step out of my comfort zone. 

Following the pandemic however and exposure to some wondrous stories of first time entrepreneurs, paralympic participants and geriatric genii on Instagram, I think I might have finally made up my mind to live my life the way I want, without looking back at 70 on my middle aged younger self with condescension and contempt. The one thing in life I dread is the stagnation of routine. It seems a slow poison that seeps into our veins surreptitiously, smothering us with the illusion of a facade that only seems satisfaction.

I've always loved writing. It came to me as spontaneously as breathing. Maybe it's time I awoke to its embrace and put my 'behind in the past' (Lion King Pumba style) to reclaim my calling as a writer of some possibility. Beware of my Gemini duality, however!

What colour is your emotion?

 While taking my usual morning stroll and doing my daily stretching routine on the west facing upper terrace of our apartment today, I casually looked at, in passing, the clothes that had been put out to dry in the unpredictable early morning monsoon sunshine. An interesting fact of physics that we had read in school crossed my mind, reinforced by the science syllabus of my son at school. The colour of an object that we see around us is in fact, the only colour that it cannot absorb. The rest of the other colours are absorbed by it.

Pondering this fact, I was intrigued by a slightly different albeit related chain of thought. Could it be that our moods consist of one emotion which dominates the others by suppressing them? In short, the other emotions are there but not sensed because of that one prevailing, all consuming autocratic one? For example, anger. When we are angry with someone, is it not true that our other or past emotions towards that person get suppressed by the all consuming current passion of anger?

I'm going to hold onto this train of thought for a bit. Does it not imply that if we allow ourselves some physical and temporal distance, maybe our other emotions towards that person will abate and be diluted/conditioned by emotions evoked by previous circumstances? That would be a useful psychological self-help tool to calm ourselves and mellow the intensity of our negative feelings in generally most circumstances, maybe.

United at home

Common to most of us is our current recognition that what can't be controlled can at least be capitalised on to do what we've often yearned to but never found time in our routine-ridden lives for.

It's been so heartening to find fistfuls of friends rediscovering talents they knew they had but never could explore for lack of time or opportunity. Leisure had almost always been conquered by the need to be useful or to ensure all was done that could ease the routine of the next day. Whereas now that the deadlines are still there (maybe) but less looming on the immediate horizon, we do have 'time to stop and stare'.

Maybe then, although at the tragic expense of almost 3 lakh deaths worldwide (till date), this was an overdue break for humanity, suffering from an unmitigable fever of materialism. By this time, we have probably realised that food and sanitising supplies are worth more than their weight in gold (even literally). Endless weekend trips to stores selling branded clothes, toiletries and electronics have been replaced by once-in-a-while visits to the closest (geographically speaking) supermarket/grocery store just to purchase essentials that would justify queueing up for quite a few minutes at the entrance.

Technology, however we rue the toll it takes on our eyes and spine, has definitely proved more than a mere point here. If our sanity is intact, then the former has surely contributed considerably to preserving it. In an era of abruptly terminated real-time library services, Audible and Kindle and Netflix have made the transition to the stay-at-home phase painless and plausible. My son has been able to access school learning meaningfully through sites like Education City, My Maths, TT Rockstars and BBC Bitesize. Our lack of too many books on foreign shores have been compensated for by friends and family pitching in with links to scanned books, fiction and non-fiction, via email or Whatsapp.

Between happiness and justice

 Watched this beautiful film yesterday, which had a sobering introspective effect on me.

What awed me was how a single action can irrevocably trigger off an entire series of events that can drastically alter one's life. It actually scared me how marriage might redefine your dreams and desires, without enabling you to opt out if there were irreconcilable moral differences.

Seen and heard nearby

 It was hilarious watching four street dogs bark incessantly at a loudspeaker secured atop an auto parked in a quiet residential corner nearby, yesterday. Every time a pre recorded female voice spoke, the critters ventured into a voluble crescendo of concern. They paused, uncertain, every time the voice paused. Again it spoke. Again, the fourlegged furies let rip their fierce avatars. It was a curious spectacle, although I am quite intimidated by a gang of street dogs at any time of day or night.

The other interesting sight was that of a little child, barely four years old, holding two lightweight plastic bags in each hand, filled with some groceries. He was trudging along, a tiny thing compared to his tall, bespectacled father who was trying to slow his steps consciously so as not to outpace his son. I beamed at him as I sped past, on the last leg of my morning walk, with a thumbs up and a 'well done'! That probably made his day, judging from the shy sunshine that gradually streaked across his chubby cheeks.

Life!

Random Reading Project Day 10

 And here goes: 

It is a pity that in a country of a billion plus, we cannot see the simplicity of the above. We are trained from school days to polarise our thoughts and are judged as uncertain and vacillating if we actually have the audacity to declare that we do not choose to take any side as they both seem fairly credible/ convincing to us.

Human thoughts are vast and varied as are the variety of ways in which we think, feel and act. When will that moment finally occur when we realise that there is no truth, just facts and that one person's reality is always another person's uncertainty?

Random Reading Project: Day 9

 After yet another unintended hiatus, I'm back!

Now, I'm mentally making a list of those 5 people.

Mother, husband, best friend, son, tuition students. Hmmm.

I should be good ;-)

Random Reading Project: Day 8

 So, this was the best bedtime message I could have read!

Random Reading Project: Day 7

 This one is from Enola Holmes 2 and encapsulates the spirit of the film, really.

It’s remarkable what can be done when people underestimate you. -Mira Troy

Hmm. I quite like the sound of that, I must say. Especially in the context of the Football World Cup!

Random Reading Project: Day 6

 So this is from a reel by Thera.find whom I follow on Instagram.

It made me think that this is one of the lessons we all have to learn in life, sooner or later.

Random Reading Project: Day 5

 This one is from Dhar Mann, whom I follow on Facebook:

"If you find yourself trying to prove to someone that you're enough, it sounds like the person that really needs convincing is you! When you recognize your own self-worth, you won't ever need to prove it to anyone else."

Fact. I have spent most of my adult life seeking validation from others. Thank goodness I have exited gracefully (ok, maybe not gracefully all the time!) from that unholy mental phase of my life. Now, every night, I reflect on my thoughts and actions for a few minutes before bed and assess whether I have been kind and just to myself. If not, tomorrow is a new day. 

Better late than never.

Random Reading Project: Day 4

 So, today's bit is from Jack London's 'The Call of the Wild', the much loved and acclaimed classic.

This raises a fundamental question about the relativity of values in a given matrix. Are they the right values if they do not help us prosper or even survive? What use would our principles and codes of conduct be if the demands of time and place weaken and even, to some extent, render our very existence futile?

Given the current sociopolitical milieu, the fundamental questions raised by London's timeless text cannot but haunt us. Again and again.

Random Reading Project: Day 3

 Today, I refer to a dialogue from a Disney web series, The Mysterious Benedict Society that my son and I are absolutely in love with:

'To be a parent is a constant state of worry. But I'm learning that worrying is not a form of preparation. It doesn't make anything less likely to happen, nor armour you if it does.'

So true. Once a parent, always a parent. However, good parenting is not about feeling mindlessly responsible, guilty and stern round the clock. It is more about exposing your child to the vagaries of the macrocosm and knowing that you have spent enough time, arming him/her with the correct values, strengths and perceptive skills that should surely stand him/her in good stead. Well, generally!

Random Reading Project: Day 2

 'They say that when just before we die we see the images of our life passing quickly by, like flashes of our existence. The things we've done and those that are still left to do, slowly being swallowed by mist. Maybe that is what dying is. The fading of memories. Allowing them to erase you.' 

(Season 1, Episode 7 of 'La Cocinera de Castamar' on Netflix.)

This reminded me of Coco, Disney's brilliant film, that gives memorable context to the Mexican tradition of Dia de Muertos.

New Project!

 After months of being utterly incommunicado on the blog front, I've resurfaced. To break the lethargy I tend to sink into from time to time when trapped by the banality of routine, I thought I'd embark on a new project that might make writing seem less of a task and more of an adventure.100 Days of Reading.

Yes, I know people have done sarees and happiness and books and films but I wanted to do something slightly different.

So what would I write about?

Anything interesting (a line, a paragraph, an article, a caption, a quote...) that might arrest my attention and help me focus on the fact that the world is still an intriguing place to live in, one event/ thought/ adventure/ mystery etc at a time. I'm not completely sure what trajectory this idea is going to shape up into but hey, that's the plan, right?

Here goes Day 1: