Echoes

DOSE- Girl Food trips and a cocktail of happiness boosting brain chemicals

It is not rocket science that food and mood are intrinsically related. Some foods such as chocolate make everyone across cultures happy, other food-mood connections may be local or even hyper local. For me, the anytime mood lifter is the simple Maharastrian meal of varan-bhaat-toop-limbo (dal, rice, ghee and a squeeze of a sliver of fresh lemon). Easy to make and easy to digest, this balanced meal protein+carbohydrates+fat+vitamin C is my go-to meal everytime I am feeling tired, blue, irritated, or even lazy.

Jan

Don't RIP My Quilt

The past couple of months have been disturbing. The country has erupted in student and civil society protests, with thousands of Indians taking to the streets. Indians of all hues – the young, the middle-aged, the elderly, gays, lesbians, transgenders, straight, the marginalised and the suppressed, the privileged and the urban, farmers, mothers, sisters, brothers, fathers.

And then we have people who oppose this opposition, this on-the-streets dissent.

Oct

I am 10-years old and sitting in my petticoat on a wooden paat laid in the small triangular space outside our bathroom. My paternal grandmother whom we call Aaji is doing ‘malish’ using scented utna (a mix of aromatics said to be good for the skin) and commenting how my legs are nice and long, just like my Aatya’s.

Flash and change of scene.

I am pressing hard holding the chakali patra in my small hands, trying to get my chakali to be at least 3 spirals before the dough breaks off.

Sep

Bowing to whims

"Get her here for the 3pm meeting."

My boss, a senior management level executive in a famous Indian company was ordered by the client.

Here being New Delhi. Her being me, who was in Mumbai on the said day. Time of statement: 10.30am.

The ludicrous suggestion of making a person fly 3000+ miles from one city in West of India to the capital in the North and reach the meeting place in 4.5 hours, might seem okay in times of a crisis; but this was certainly not one of it.

Sep

Dhirdha…sounds yuck. Get to taste one..then you are in luck

Recently my sister and my cousin took my mom and maushi (aunt) to task. They cornered them during a routine evening chat and accused them on their faces. The moms accepted the accusation and meekly submitted to improving the state of things in the coming future.

Dec

Arunachal Peri Nom Peri Nom

We hereby declare this day as Poka Day. It was only apt, for we had solemnly dedicated our beings to the glorious, unadulterated, ritualistic drinking of highly potent home-made rice beer. The ceremony began from 11am and went on till late into the night. It was to our merit that all of us, yes including yours truly, were still able to stand on our feet, albeit a bit shakily, and distinguish fork from spoon by dinner time…lest we poked ourselves.

Dec

Bhikoba Niwas

It was all there…the Pioneer School board, the 5-storey without lift bustling chawl, the long bus-stop on the opposite side of the road, Kitte Bhandari hall where low-key weddings were held and the milk stall on the corner of the road. But it was all awry.

Maybe I was awry. The perspective was all wrong.

Dec

Mechuka Day 2

It was a strange feeling of calm. The moving landscape from the window of our trusty Scorpio looked familiar and unfamiliar. Only we were rushing…everything else seemed to be moving in slow motion― humans, beasts, wind. People sat outside their houses and chatted or played cards while school children grinned at us merrily…oblivious to pressures of time.

We had just exited Assam and entered Arunachal Pradesh after showing our inner-liner permits to the authorities.

Nov

Hello fellow Mumbaikars,

Do Mumbaikars love Mumbai more than other citizens love their own cities?

I have been pondering over this question for last 4 days as I have sat glued to TV day and night...almost like keeping a vigil. Almost as if, I cannot switch off the TV because what if something more terrible happens and my city suffers more. It was compulsive viewing...at home and in office- where I continued via Internet live streaming TV.

Jun

Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary

This Sunday instead of lazing in bed for hours at end S and I decided to join Z and V two photographers on a shoot at Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary in Haryana around 1.5 hours from Delhi.

The fact that we chose to get up at 5 am on a Sunday morning proves our enthusiasm and we set off at 6.30 am on stomachs empty of food and full with enthusiasm. After picking up V near the airport we were truly off.