The Gift Of Life.....: Simple wisdom, simple food :Panta Bhat

I am not a coach. I am not a philosopher either.

But being Indian, of a reasonably 'mature' age and the mother of a eleven-yr old, somehow coaching and philosophizing (if there is such a word) just comes naturally these days.
May be it is in the blood.

If I add to that a dash of nodding head, I (and the person infront of me) almost feel that I really know what I am talking about.
;-)

This post is not about coaching or philosophy. This is about life's lessons, which in turn does have an element of coaching and philosophy embedded in it.
But these are not mine.

This post is dedicated to a man I admire and respect.

Over the years, priorities change dramatically. Energy levels fall, the hair loses its natural colour, the eyelids are quite a rough journey for the eyeliner brush, the back experiences frequent aches, the patience fails more often and birthdays are not interesting anymore.

Facing all of the above gracefully while still managing to keep the mind young and fresh is something a few people can do.

He is one of them.
Last week I attended his farewell at work.

A Russian by birth, an American by passport, an European by residence permit, and a global person by his travel record and information database, he is undoubtedly a very interesting person. He is also one of the most intelligent and witty human beings I have come across in my professional life. He is a senior scientist in the field of materials. He inspired me, encouraged me, loved me, respected me and taught me many things not only professionally but also about life in general.

He is not a person who can boast of his diplomacy. He says what he wants to say and usually gets away with it by pretending that his English is bad (very conveniently using his Russian card). He is known for his blunt comments which made working with him very difficult at times.
....Till he starts to respect you for whatever reason.

;-)

Extremely active and passionate about many things in life including work, he sometimes made the younger folk in the team tired with his enthusiasm and energy. Retirement is difficult for such a man. He looked sad. After all the farewell speeches from the team members were done, it was his turn to speak. I already knew he will speak only little but those few words will have a lot to say.

His farewell speech began with,

"We are all born from one ugly smelly sticky thing and end in another ugly grey useless thing...both equally bad.

Therefore what we do in between these two ugly things is very important ...that defines us as a human being."

People applauded. I am sure we all understood the truth behind the words.

He continued,

" I do not have a long speech but I have three tips to share with you.

1. Love what you do or at least fool yourself to make believe that you love what you do...Otherwise it is a disaster.

2. Keep changing. Change job, change lifestyle, change drink, change dress, change hairstyle, change wife .....(audience clapped ;-)

3. Live for today and at the most for tomorrow but definitely not for day after tomorrow."

Some words can linger for a very long time after being spoken....these did.
Thank you Mark for everything.

Now, let's eat something. Because life's lessons do not have much of a meaning on a hungry stomach.
In lieu of the simplistic lessons we just learnt, we will eat something simple today. So simple that we do not have to cook what we eat today because it has already been cooked. (!!)

Panta Bhat ( Fermented rice: Poor Google struggled to translate)

I will not go into the history of this rice dish. The way I remember it is in summer, when we had leftover rice from the night before, Ma used to put water and keep it overnight.

Next morning, she fried onions and thinly sliced potatoes and green chillis, mixed it with the rice and served. The rice, a bit fermented due to heat had a faint sour taste. It was supposed to keep one's body cool and protect from the heat waves. Although my mom did not make this frequently, for me it was love at first bite. It is actually the combination of the fried things that made the rice taste super delicious. This fermented rice is called "Panta bhat".

After a long break from it (hostel, japan etc), I got to enjoy the taste of panta bhat again after my marriage when my mother inlaw mixed all the fried ingredients and even added some mustard oil to the mixture....sheer bliss...heaven on a plate.

After that we moved to the Netherlands. Panta bhat was nowhere on our radar till I met this foodie friend (yet-another-A) who claimed to have mastered the art of making panta bhat even in the cold climate of Holland.
When he described the process of how he keeps the rice in a warm pre-heated oven before going to sleep and even wakes up in the middle of the night to switch off the oven so as to achieve the exact fermentation....I was amazed!!
Bengalis are known for their food passion.....hats off to such a bengali person who "creates" panta bhat even in Holland! I know he is smiling while reading the post!
I have to admit I tried it too......
Delicious!

1. Soak the cooked rice in water overnight
2. Fry some thinly sliced onions, potatoes and chillis, preferably in mustard oil.
3. Mix nicely. The texture should be a bit watery. Garnish with chopped raw onions.