Pinku-Enchanted Life

We Bengalis obsess over books, food, culture and the 'going downhill syndrome of the world' with equal fervour.  Evenings are when at least two of these things merge to make the ultimate of Bengaliness possible that is 'adda'.  Adda is the art of sitting at street corners or markets and munching on savouries while sharing, debating and proclaiming 'sob golaye jache' from time to time. Loosely translated it would mean everything is descending into chaos.  This chaos however doesn't stop the Bengali from paying grave attention to his evening snack and he deliberates on the merits (taste wise no other criteria is important enough) of a jhalmuri aloo kabli combo vs cutlet vs chop vs roll vs puchka vs tele Bhaaja vs mughlai paratha  and the list goes on.  As you can see it's no easy task and many minutes pass by before the person can take a decision and place his order.  Adda of course is also accompanied by endless cups of tea which the local chai wallah sup

A brief at work triggered memories from long ago. From pre liberalization days when a burger was a fancy dish you read about in an Archies magazine and a Cappuccino was to be had only in the lounge of a five star hotel. Growing up in the early eighties meant that our choices were limited and treats were meant for special occasions. A Cadbury’s Dairy Milk, Fruit & Nut, Uncle Chipps, Poppins, Gems, 5 Star and the occasional pack of Brittannia’s Bourbon biscuits were the highlights of our childhood days. The once a fortnight Gaylords or Kwality ice cream treat that dad took us out for were of course hallowed events. One of our summer vacation pastimes was to create treats for ourselves and then share the treat and trick with friends. Freezing roohafza and making red cubes, having chaat masala mixed with a little water, raw mangoes with sugar, salt and a lil chilly, making sandwich biscuits with good old marie and jam. And the most delicious of all, putting cubes of chilled butter into

There are highly promoted eateries at flashy destinations where on a weekend you are sure to spot a few known faces as well. The food there is good, so is the ambience and décor. You come away feeling 'arrived'. And then there are small little places with ho hum furniture, clean but not fancy crockery and an old friend’s home sort of ambience. Typically it would have a restricted menu, no alcohol, no nonsense owners and a small but loyal and frequent clientele. These are places you will frequent again and again to savor that unnamed pleasure of eating a good meal in peace without having to dress up for the occasion and remembering to not slouch over your plate while you try to lick up the last bit. One such place on my list has been Bernado’s the little Goan restaurant in Gurgaon which everyone from tripadvisor to zomato will tell you is a must visit and which over the years has shifted location many a time. With the faithful always sniffing them out and walking in for yet anot

Some places you visit and then yearn to go back to. Some places your friends in distant cities visit often, swear by and you keep oscillating between what the fuss is all about and wanting to go and check it out for yourself. Lings in Bombay which Knife from Finely Chopped visits quite often has been one such place for me. Since I live in Delhi this has not been an easy thing to accomplish then last year Knife came to Delhi NCR stayed for a few days and reviewed Canton Spice a restaurant at Cyber Hub which happens to be run by the Ling family. This had me excited, now was my chance to try out the Chinese food I have been swooning over long distance. One thing or the other prevented my visiting Canton Spice till the past Monday when I finally got a chance to walk in with a few friends for a on-a-whim dinner plan. The place had a pleasant ambience and it was very non chinese in its décor. What I mean is it didn’t  have red, dragons or frilly lamps. What it did have was a comfortable, w

Let me start with saying I hate bananas. Always have. Somehow its a fruit I can never get myself into eating in any form and that includes even with ice cream.   So when I said I want to bake a banana bread my household was in splits. Me and bananas just didnt match up. I was however adamant that bake the bread I will. The fact that it was whole wheat, no sugar and very little oil convinced me that try I must. As part of the plan I forbade anyone to eat up three bananas I had kept aside for ripening to the fullest. And on Sunday got down to baking this bread whose recipe I had found at Chef At Large from a fellow member whose name I have forgotten. Ingredients Milk ......................... 2 cup ( I used toned milk) Banana ................. ....... ..3 well ripened Flax seeds .................. 2 tbsp Pure vanilla extract....... 2 tsp Coconut oil ................. 4 tbsp Honey ....... ................. 6 tbsp Whole wheat flour....... 2 cup   Baking powder ............... 4 tsp Baking

Walking out of office for a quick lunch and a few laughs with a girlie gang is a complete life saver when you feel life isn’t taking you the places you were promised as part of the grown up deal.  And so it happened that four of us escaped for a quick lunch last week – the destination Dana Choga a restaurant with a long history of feeding Gurgaon people delicious, Punjabi food in a no nonsense straight to the tummy way. Accompanied by giggles and gossip we landed up at the Atul Kataria Chowk outlet and were lucky enough to grab the last empty table before the place completely filled up with the lunch crowd. The fact that the place was packed on a hot weekday said something good about the food. Now two of us are Non-Veg eaters with a vengeance, one sways in between and the fourth is a strict vegetarian and this means that we always end up ordering too much. After much asking around for each other’s preferences we settled on a crisp honey chilli lotus stem and some soft drinks as starter

Technology, potential, resources, youth we have it all and yet the joke is that ‘the Chinese grow because of their government and the Indian despite it’. How do we manage to gather so much ridicule as a people and as a nation when as individuals we are amazing? The world’s biggest democracy has elected its leaders and the world is watching with interest what it will do with itself. Having become the world’s 3 rd largest economy what happens in India has the potential to make or mar the fortunes of many across the globe. The energized questioning atmosphere has made me think about what I would really like our leaders to talk about and the direction we as a country ought to take to ensure that we develop truly and not just in the breadth of our roads. Here’s my wish list: 1.     Truly Secular : we need to learn to live with the Other in camaraderie and not just co-exist in the same space but in separate mental ghettos. For that to really work our only hope is to start