Well I thought i'll bid farewell to blogging till my exams are over, but i am wasting a lot of time as it is , so why not blog? ..I can survive another guilt pang.
well my mother is out of station and here is how things are going.
Some relatives call to console and offer help , acting on the presumption that my life has qualitatively deteriorated due to my mother's absence, but very often they are disappointed...let me give a small example:
aunt: " hiii what are you doing?"
me: " eating muri (puffed rice) with chola"
aunt: "see this is what happens when mums go away....."
me: " when mum is here i eat the same thing without the chola...this.. I bought"
aunt: "O"
(I guess she assumed everyday my mom had no job except cooking for 24 hours and preparing gourmet meals for me)
Shifting to slightly spiritual stuff now.
My mom has this puja corner where she devotes many hours doing things like reading thin books in a sing-song voice once a week (I am stating facts not disrespecting "the" gods.:P). Needless to say before going she instructed her husband, my dear father in an earnest tone "shokale thakur debe"...(hilarious literal translation is "giving god") ...err well that refers to the elaborate ritual of wiping all the photos of the divine beings and showering water over the shiva linga and laying out food (read three tiny cubes of sugar) and water for them.
In my childhood I was very fascinated by this process and took great pleasure in doing all this....not out of any religious feelings but because i saw it as an extension of my "rannabati khela"...or playing "ghar-ghar"....obviously such innocent charming perspectives do not exist now. My mother laid the important morning divine duties on my father's able shoulders and I was asked to light the incense sticks in the evening--talk about labour hierarchy. She left on wednesday. Yesterday (saturday)..... Dad and I, in a sublime moment, looked at that corner, ...it was covered in dust. Like remorseless beings we laughed and joked about this great fault. Waiting for retribution (trust me one month before my exam that is a brave act).
Another key area where I will shift my focus now is the kitchen. We have a huge problem there since I am a vegetarian and my parents are not. So today I made two veg dishes and this is what followed:
me to dad: I cooked....
dad: what?
me: panir and soyabean ka bhurji and baby corn
dad: --------------- (expression was as if I had stabbed him)
me (sheepishly) : uhhhh mashi (maid) has cooked fish for you
dad: (weak smile, recovering-from-a-near-death-experience type expression)
....
so yaah my dear well-wishers we are managing fine....nutritionally speaking of course...about the Gods..ahh they have a will of their own ...why bother !
tata !
me:
well my mother is out of station and here is how things are going.
Some relatives call to console and offer help , acting on the presumption that my life has qualitatively deteriorated due to my mother's absence, but very often they are disappointed...let me give a small example:
aunt: " hiii what are you doing?"
me: " eating muri (puffed rice) with chola"
aunt: "see this is what happens when mums go away....."
me: " when mum is here i eat the same thing without the chola...this.. I bought"
aunt: "O"
(I guess she assumed everyday my mom had no job except cooking for 24 hours and preparing gourmet meals for me)
Shifting to slightly spiritual stuff now.
My mom has this puja corner where she devotes many hours doing things like reading thin books in a sing-song voice once a week (I am stating facts not disrespecting "the" gods.:P). Needless to say before going she instructed her husband, my dear father in an earnest tone "shokale thakur debe"...(hilarious literal translation is "giving god") ...err well that refers to the elaborate ritual of wiping all the photos of the divine beings and showering water over the shiva linga and laying out food (read three tiny cubes of sugar) and water for them.
In my childhood I was very fascinated by this process and took great pleasure in doing all this....not out of any religious feelings but because i saw it as an extension of my "rannabati khela"...or playing "ghar-ghar"....obviously such innocent charming perspectives do not exist now. My mother laid the important morning divine duties on my father's able shoulders and I was asked to light the incense sticks in the evening--talk about labour hierarchy. She left on wednesday. Yesterday (saturday)..... Dad and I, in a sublime moment, looked at that corner, ...it was covered in dust. Like remorseless beings we laughed and joked about this great fault. Waiting for retribution (trust me one month before my exam that is a brave act).
Another key area where I will shift my focus now is the kitchen. We have a huge problem there since I am a vegetarian and my parents are not. So today I made two veg dishes and this is what followed:
me to dad: I cooked....
dad: what?
me: panir and soyabean ka bhurji and baby corn
dad: --------------- (expression was as if I had stabbed him)
me (sheepishly) : uhhhh mashi (maid) has cooked fish for you
dad: (weak smile, recovering-from-a-near-death-experience type expression)
....
so yaah my dear well-wishers we are managing fine....nutritionally speaking of course...about the Gods..ahh they have a will of their own ...why bother !
tata !
me:
