Non-consensus and Dal Tadka

With the 40's, the eye liner came into my life.  A new addition to the almost-non-existent make-up kit ! Remember how my mom mistook the dark lines so carefully drawn on my eyelids as "dark circles due to some liver problem"?. Shocking!

The journey from one end to the other was initially very smooth but as time went by, the motion of the eyeliner brush on the eyelids became more jerky....do not ask me why....bad people call them wrinkles. I do not care. Apparently.

Anyway, this is not a post to talk about eyeliners or wrinkles or age. But it will definitely talk about wisdom....which somehow deserted me when I volunteered as a group leader for the school trip. What was I thinking?

11 yr old boys....off for a day trip in a theme park....ME volunteering to lead a group!!

I had also volunteered for a school trip few years back. It was difficult at that time as well, but this time when I came back from the trip, I was totally "kaput"!

Ah, then I realized, this time I went with the eyeliner on!! [No need to calculate anything!!]

Being in charge of five such boys (including my own) can be quite challenging. No matter how much wisdom you have, challenges can come in from any corner and every corner.

The trip started off very well. The bus was ready. We, the volunteer mothers were given some basic instructions and off we went, kids happily waving good bye to the parents who came to see them off. The ones with the "wisdom" of not volunteering (shhhh;-)

The theme park, Efteling is about 1.5 hrs drive from the school. Clearly the patience span of a 11-yr old is nowhere near that number. So after the first 30 mins, when the 'yeaaaahhh school trip' euphoria passed over, one persistent question popped up almost every 5 mins "when do we reach? , How long?,  How far?" ....

We, mothers tried our best to maintain a straight face, a calm mind and a cool head and kept on answering, "an hour left.....55 mins.....50 mins..... so on". Wisdom helped a bit.

On reaching the park, within the first 5 mins I realized that I needed a strategy. Immediately after the entrance, at the very first crossing, two of them said 'left', the other three said  'right'. 
I said (smiling strategy), let's take the right, look at the park map first and decide which rides to take. Two faces became unhappy already.
As soon as we reached the map,

Two  said 'roller coaster first'!

One said 'boat ride'!

Two said ' we want to eat first'!

No consensus . 

I managed somehow (change-the-topic-strategy) and went to the first ride that I saw with the belief that if I can put them in that, I can get atleast 4-5 mins of thinking time to plan my next move (buy-some-time-strategy).

It was a ride on a medium sized Dolphin shaped thing.

One said 'Too childish'

Two said 'Cool'

One said ' I have motion sickness'

One said ' I told you I am hungry'

I shuddered at the thought of what the next few hours  would be like. 
I used my interpersonal skills (negotiation strategy) to the maximum and finally could get all the boys on that ride, including me! As soon as the spin started, kids (as we know they are) immediately shrieked with delight forgetting all disagreements they had! Phew.......

We moved on to the next. However, being the peak season for school trips in the country, each of the rides had a waiting time of 45 mins on average. Just stand and wait. Not easy for 11-yr olds!

By then, one of them had also started eating candies to solve his hunger problem. I have never seen a kid eat so much candy. The mother-in-me started off by trying to reason with him to which he seriously said "it's ok"! My face must have changed contours and my voice must have gone up by a few decibels ...A-junior hurriedly came up to me and said in Bengali "ma tumi jeno abar oke boko na" [Mom don't scold him like you scold me!]

Good reminder A-junior. I am sure at that moment he was thinking, "why did MY mom have to volunteer?"

;-)

Lunch time.
Two said, " french fries".
One said," chocolate waffle"
Two said, "Not now, we are full".
The school lunch coupon which allowed only french fries saved me this time to establish consensus.
After lunch, I was offered this innocent looking white candy. I vaguely remember A-junior shaking his head may be to warn me not to accept it. I should also have been aware since the white thing was called "fireball". But I was in a fun (trying-to-be-a-cool-mom-strategy) mode so I accepted it graciously and ate the candy with a smile on my face. It was so sour that first it killed all my taste buds, threatened to bring out the acids from my small intestine and within moments the interior of my mouth was robin blue. I hid my shock and laughed (hide-your-feelings-strategy). It definitely helped in the bonding. While the boys laughed with me and walked ahead, I desperately searched for a garbage bin.

One in the group was very confident about the park from the very start. He kept on saying "I have been here many times, this is my 12th time so I know all about this park". I appointed him as our tour guide only to realize within a few minutes that he had no sense of direction! We walked around the same ride twice, our tour guide completely oblivious to the fact that we were going round and round. He also refused to take any ride because of " I have already done it so many times!". At one point of time, one of his friends challenged him...and poor boy ....he finally said, he does not like doing these rides because he is not comfortable. Clearly not the 12-times-done-the-roller-coaster-guy!

I bought some chips and waffles to dilute the situation. We both sat and chatted over Minecraft while the other four waited in the line for a super roller coaster ride...everything was under control again.

Okay, so with the lack of  consensus, we ended up doing a limited number of rides ...but the boys were super tired.

Cannot describe the mother's tiredness!!...My vocabulary is not adequate to describe how "kaput" I was feeling.  The eyeliner had definitely vanished!
However, I have to admit that it was big fun too...to become a part of the "cool gang" with weird candies, unlimited hunger and limitless energy!   The gift of life!!

;-))

Dal Tadka

Today's food will be simple.  A simple dal tadka that my family loves, specially my mother- in-law.

I used:

1 cup whole red lentils

1 cup black urad dal

1 large onion chopped

2 large tomatoes chopped 

2 green chilli

2 tbsp Ginger-Garlic paste

1 bay leaves

2 tsp garam masala powder

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp whole cumin seeds

1 cup chopped coriander

2 tbsp cream

Cooking oil /Butter/Ghee

Ready steady cook:

• Mix and soak the two types of dal overnight.
• In a pan/pressure cooker, boil the dal with half the tomatoes, half the onions, 1 chilli, 1 tsp ginger garlic paste and one spoon coriander powder.
• Heat ghee/butter in a heavy bottom pan and add the bay leaves and whole cumin.  
• When the flavours hit your nose, add the chopped onions and the garlic ginger paste. Saute for a while till onions become light brown and then add the tomatoes. Add the coriander powder and garam masala powder .
• Add the boiled dal and bring the whole mixture to a boil. Add salt to taste.
• Mix 2 tsp of cream. This is optional. But C'mon, a little bit of cream and ghee once in a while will not harm you.
• Switch off the heat and add a spoon of ghee. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.