Look up my friends! Don't miss the Quiche.....

Communication is important. 
It is the key to everything, especially in today's world......

Whether you are complimenting your 4-yr old son on his clean dinner plate, or explaining the 'rules' to your teenage daughter, or giving a 'push back' to your boss at work or asking your mother for her best recipe over phone, or calling customer service to complain about the broken microwave or wishing a belated birthday to your best friend or thanking the husband for the solitaire(??) or...whatever...

Everything is about communication.

Did the message land correctly?

Of late, I have started to think a lot on this topic.

No, nothing to do with age or grey hair or reflections! 
;-)

The question we need to ask:
Are we communicating?

I know, I know....what an absurd question! 
In today's world who is NOT COMMUNICATING?
Everyone is connected! 24/7 !!
But does being technically connected all the time ensure proper communication?
I doubt.

Over the years, the mode of communication has changed a lot. 
With the advent of technology, we have become faster in communication. 
The small device which has become our extended hand (and an integral part of our lives) has made the world a smaller place. 
It is 'smart' and allows us to communicate all the time and with the whole world.

My personal feel is that the smartphone has made communication 'easier and faster' but not necessarily 'better'!

(Totally my personal opinion)

On one hand it is the fun of getting connected to school friends after so many years, on the other, it is the disconnect with a person standing next to you.
One one hand it is the excitement of 'sharing' your vacation photos with people around the world instantly, on the other, it is missing the sunrise with your own eyes!
On one hand it is being more productive doing round-the-clock Skype meetings across the world, on the other, it is missing lunchtime with your favourite colleague!
On one hand it is playing a thrilling game with an unknown online friend, on the other, it is missing the thrill of breaking the neighbour's window in street cricket!
On one hand it is sending emoticons with all possible different expressions, on the other it is missing that one smile which no emoticon can express!
On one hand it is communicating 25 times a day, on the other, it is missing her handwritten 'love you' at the end of the letter.

I am not against any of these technologies. I am an avid user of these technologies myself and I struggle too with the balance.
I feel concerned about their "over use"! or even "ab-use"!

One scary effect I see nowadays is that we have become a lot more indifferent to our surroundings. 
On many occasions, I even feel that we do not care anymore.

How can we care about our surroundings?
We never look up anymore!! (No pun intended)

Whether it is at the airport or the dentist's waiting room or a lovely beach......we all have our heads bent over our phones.
We are apparently communicating!

pc:slideshare.net

I watch my 12-yr old son play with his friend. Both boys end up spending the entire time on their tablets playing online, sitting "side by side" in the same room without uttering a word to each other directly.

Keeping the young ones away from these 'smart' devices is also a struggle for the parents.
A mere 'NO' does not work. 
It has become very important to do something  "together"!
... the art of communicating  'smartly' without using 'smart' devices....
;-)

Time for some food now. Lets cook together.

Quiche Lorraine

A-junior loves to cook. He wanted to buy a cookbook (yet another!)last week.
....we never say 'NO' to books.
Hence the book was bought and put to use immediately.
The plan (at this moment)  is to cook atleast one recipe from the book every week. 

Yesterday we made Quiche.
I loved the Quiche. 
I could 'smartly communicate' some Broccoli florets into the original recipe and it kept the boy happily away from his 'smart' devices for 2 hours.
;-)

Although quiche is now a classic dish of French cuisine, quiche actually originated in Germany, in the medieval kingdom of Lothringen, under German rule, and which the French later renamed Lorraine. The word ‘quiche’ is from the German ‘Kuchen’, meaning cake. The original ‘quiche Lorraine’ was an open pie with a filling consisting of an egg and cream custard with smoked bacon. It was only later that cheese was added to the quiche Lorraine. [from the net]

For the dough:

• All purpose flour: 200 gms
• Salted butter: 100 gms
• cold water

For the filling:

• Butter: 15 gms
• Onion :  1 (finely chopped)
• Bacon cubes :  100 gms
• Broccoli:  small florets ( the mother's addition)
• Cheese : 60 gms (grated)
• Eggs : 2 
• Cooking cream : 200 ml
• Salt, black pepper : to taste

Ready steady cook:

Mix the flour and the butter with both your hands (to make it crumbly)
Apparently this step was really enjoyable according to A-junior...
Use cold water to make it into a tight dough. Preheat the over to 200 degC .
Roll out the dough into a large round shape and carefully place it on a ovenproof dish in such a way that it covers the sides as well. Press gently into the corners and cut off excess dough over the sides. Set it in the refrigerator till you use it.
Make it smile too.........

In a frying pan, heat the butter and add the onions. Cook for 2 mins.
Add the bacon and saute for a while till they are crisp and golden brown. Add the broccoli florets (keep saying how beautiful the green looks and what a fantastic idea it was to add them to the original recipe).
Add  black pepper and salt. Careful with the salt, bacon has a lot of salt already.

First bake the Quiche form in the oven for 10 mins till it turns a very light brown.
Take it out from the oven, pour in the filling and spread it evenly.
Add the grated cheese, the whipped eggs and the cream.
Bake it again at 190 degC for 20-25 mins, till it is golden brown.

Enjoy !!

The X-files with X-cellent Paturi

Some things never change.

"x" --Still as unknown as it was so many years ago.

No change.

pc: brilliant.org

Since last month, Algebra has come back into my life and with that, the "unknown x" has brought back memories from the depth of my childhood.

The pain, the struggle, the tears, the exams, the marks, the ......

One scene came back so vividly that it felt like 'just the other day".

[Present - Mom is sitting with A-junior and Algebra]

But Ma, why is the 'x' not known?

But Ma, why do we have 'a' here and not 'x'?

But Ma, you just said that x is not known.

But Ma, my teacher said that you have to write it on the left of the line....

[Flash back]

A small town in India. Durgapur. Evening time.

A father and his daughter are sitting on the bed. Algebra books scattered all around. 

Algebra & Geometry had just started at school.

Her face is scared and helpless. She is not very sure that she understands it all. She described her problem to her father, who had just returned from work.

He said, 'No worries, let me help you with the basics, it is not that hard...."

Little did he know what was coming...

Please note that the father has a patience level of infinity (Really!). He is one of the 'coolest' dads I have seen.

The daughter was not exactly a class topper but not a very dumb student either. So the session started with a basic hope that with her intelligence and his patience they will nail it.

The first few minutes were spent in turning the pages of the Algebra book and trying to figure out where to start, how to start. 

I told you, he is a very patient man.

"Dekhi kon chapter porache.."[show me which chapter they are teaching at school]
So far so good.

He begins, "Let the unknown be 'x' ".

Daughter: Why is it always 'x' ? Not other alphabets? Who chose that?

Father: It can be anything..any unknown. But for this sum let us assume it is 'x'.

Daughter:  [fidgets, not convinced.] : But if it can be anything why do you call it 'x'?

Father: It is not me calling it 'x', in general we all call it 'x'. But once the concept is clear, you can call it anything...

Daughter: Ok, if you say so...but it is not very clear.

[This went on and on and on and on for sometime]

Father (showing first flicker of irritation but still immensely cool): First try to understand the basics, we can call it whatever later, x, y, z, hathi, ghonra, pompi, tiklu......anything!

[hathi = elephant, ghora=horse, pompi,tiklu=our pet names]

He continued to explain.

She tried to understand but her nagging confusion with 'x' continued.  (don't you smile!)

At some point, even the infinitely-patient father could not take it anymore.

I clearly remember the scene.

I had tears in my eyes. I just could not handle x and its 'unknown-ness'.

He did not scold at all. Not a single angry word but surely a massive patience failure.

He (very cool, as if he had all the time in the world) took my book, my copy, my geometry box, the ruler, the rough book, piled them all together into one bunch, paused for a moment and just threw the whole bunch out of the window. 

Whoooossshhhhhhh.....They flew out like a frisbee and landed somewhere in the garden with a thud!

I kept on looking with tears in my eyes.

He said, "Ja, tor dara konodin Algebra hobe na' [You can never do Algebra]!!!

After a few sobs, I went out to look for my books and my father went out to get some Rosogolla for me.
Thankfully his prediction about my Algebra-future did not come true. Phew....

[Present - Mom is sitting with A-junior and Algebra]

Mom: First try to understand the basics, we can call it whatever later, x, y, z, hathi, ghonra, arno, ......anything!

;-)

Yes, we need to eat after such an Algebra session.

Paturi:

Paturi or 'Macher Paturi' is a very traditional Bengali dish. 

It is fish (marinated in Mustard paste and oil) wrapped in banana leaves and steamed. It goes best with plain steaming white rice. The taste is that of 'a piece of heaven in your mouth'. 
Algebra comes nowhere near to it...

Ingredients:  

• Fish fillet :  2 large (I used Sea baas)
• Mustard paste : 5 large teaspoonful
• Grated coconut: 2 large spoonful (Optional)
• Green chili: 4 (sliced)
• Salt, turmeric and mustard oil
• Banana leaves (for wrapping)
• Cocktail sticks

Ready steady go: 

• In a bowl mix the mustard paste, the grated coconut and 3 tbsp mustard oil, salt and turmeric.
• Take a banana leaf, clean it properly and then in the center put one tbsp of the paste.

• Clean and pat dry the fish with a dry kitchen towel. Place it on the paste on the leaf and nicely cover it with another tbsp of the paste. Drizzle few drops of mustard oil and some sliced green chillis on top.
• Carefully fold the leaf and pin it with a cocktail stick 

• Keep in the fridge for one hour.
• Take a nonstick pan and put just a few drops of mustard oil on it.  When the oil is hot, place the wrapped packets in the pan (one layer only). Reduce heat to a minimum and cover. Cook for 6-7 mins and then turn the paturi. Cook for another 5 minutes. The banana leaf should slightly turn brown. [It is also possible to cook in the oven]

• Serve with steaming hot white rice.
• Open the packs and enjoy the "piece of heaven in your mouth". I was so happy that I forgot to take a photo after opening it......

Fishy but 'heavenly'....

Life is currently hectic and 86400 secs per day are just not enough.
On top of everything else, there is the high school!

Not that I have to do much (or can do much because it is all in Dutch), but a bit of support (read push) here and there is necessary and am trying to do that. Yes, Indian mother!
Tough!

Never ever did I imagine, even in my wildest dreams that there will come a time in my life when I would need to read Biology in Dutch.

Our simple 'involuntary muscles' are called 'onwillekeurige spieren', can you believe it?

..and 'metamorphosis is ...gedaanteverwisseling!!!  

You get my struggle?

Yesterday, A-junior came back from school and mentioned that he had homework in Levensbeschouwing. This is a subject which is a mix of Philosophy, Moral science, Sociology......

So, nothing black and white, no formulas! 

One needs to think. One needs to ponder. One needs to scratch his head (or beard).
...even if he is a 12-yr old.

I asked what the homework was (brave me!).

He said, he has to write a page on what he hopes 'heaven' and 'hell' would be like.
Now, THAT is quite a question!

The enthusiastic mother immediately went into her 'support' mode and thought that a bit of dialogue may help the son with the thinking........

Mom: So what do you expect to be better in heaven?

"The Wi-fi connection" came the prompt answer!

My hopes of hearing 'people not telling lies, not being unkind to each other, loving everyone, etc" went down the drain........but I could not stop laughing.

O Father In Heaven, please do think about your wi-fi connection..priorities are fast changing down on Earth.

The definition of 'heaven' may have changed without your approval.
You better take some relevant steps to retain the "heaven" status!

With a wicked grin, A-junior went upstairs while the mother wondered what really will fill up that homework page.

She did not forget to take a sneak peek at the homework later.

He had put nice things in. I relaxed.
But somewhere deep down I wished he had put in the Wi-fi thing as well.  
....so that the teacher could have a laugh too....

While on the topic of heaven, I do hope they have fish-chops there. Ones which are rich in taste, deep fried but do not add to your waistline (I know, if in heaven already, who cares about waistline anyway?)

Heavenly Fish chops

Ingredients:

1. Fish : 4 fillet (I took Panga)
2. Potatoes: 1 (Boiled)
3. Onions chopped:  1 cup
4. Garlic Ginger paste: 2 tbsp
5. Coriander (chopped): 1 cup
6. Green chillis (chopped): 2 tbsp
7. Red chilli powder
8. Egg: 1
9. Bread crumbs

Ready steady cook:

• Boil the fish for 5 mins (take care that it does not become flaky)
• Mash it together with all the other ingredients. Add salt to taste.
• Roll them into balls, dip them in egg and roll them in bread crumbs.
• Now comes the bad news! Yes..they need to be deep fried!!!
• So keep aside your weighing machine, your gym instructor's phone number and your conscience!!
• Eat them...

Heaven cannot be better than this................my belief!

'Time'ly Tomato Temptation

Photo credits: 123rf.com

Only busy people have time.

A few years back I would have laughed at this. 
Today, I strongly believe in it.

This post about "time" was actually triggered by the information evening for parents at the school of A-junior.

Yes, he has moved on to high school and I have stopped writing about him on my blog (ya ya, privacy, teenager, moustache etc etc ). So this post is not about him.

;-)

The information evening set up by the school started at 8:30 PM. We, parents, (still a bit flustered at the idea of our children moving on to high school) sat there with flushed faces and nervous nods trying to figure out our role in the meeting. We missed the familiar faces that we were used to for the last eight years of elementary school. Here, in Holland, a massive segregation happens when the child finishes elementary school. Each child, based on his/her scores, is assigned to different levels of education and hence different high schools. Everything was so new, it was like starting all over again....

After the generic welcome speeches, we were led to the individual classes for more 'in-depth' information.

Believe me....LOTS of information.

Out of the whole lot, the thing that really caught my attention was the emphasis put on the use of an "agenda".

Even though the school has all sorts of apps to capture homework, routine, holidays etc online, a lot of importance was put on how the child should start learning the use of an agenda. It is absolutely mandatory for the students to have a hard bound agenda in their school bag. 
There is nothing new in the concept because I also grew up with a 'school diary' where we were supposed to note down our homework and our class routine.
However, the emphasis put on its use was absolutely new (compared to my times).
In between almost every sentence, the mentor mentioned the agenda and how important it is for the child to use it ..all the time!
"This is their first step towards learning the real meaning of 'responsibility' - how to 'plan' their own life". 
I realized, even though I had looked at my agenda for daily class routine and homework, I was never taught to 'plan' my school life. My diary (or agenda) did not teach me the 'value' of time. My agenda did not make ME responsible for planning, it just carried the information from others which I needed to follow.

This innocent agenda in my son's school bag made me think a lot. 

Respecting time is a concept, a mindset , a way of life. I learnt it much later in life. 

Here children learn it much earlier. The agenda is much more than the few pages of scribbles it appears to be. The high importance given to an agenda teaches a kid from a very early age;

• The importance of planning
• The importance of "me" time
• The importance of other's time and respecting it

During my initial days in Japan, I had even joked about the "agenda-culture". I found it quite funny when every small appointment found a place in the agenda, whether it was a coffee or a visit to the museum. I almost boasted of my 'Indian spontaneity" where we go with the flow and are not controlled by a mere agenda.  Within a few days, I quickly learned that an individual (and the society) can develop only when it starts to respect time.

I immediately bought a beautiful leather-bound agenda! -- never missed a single appointment after that ..and all ON TIME. (Let me tell you ON TIME in Japan meant something at a different level, which, for this poor Indian, was a culture shock!)

I also learned that having an agenda does not necessarily mean losing the 'spontaneity' I am so proud of.
"Being on time" really means that you know the importance of planning, the importance of your own 'me' time and the importance of respecting other's time.

When a child of eleven puts down "15:30 - 16:00 practice guitar, 16:30 -17:30: Screen time 19:00-20:00 doing homework" in his agenda , he is actually forced to think about time. He is 'taught' to pay attention to his me-time (in this case the screen) as well as plan his homework time. I agree, some parts of the agenda can be 'forced' by the mother, but that is another topic altogether (which we will not elaborate here ;-)). 
The mother also 'allows' the child to shuffle the sequence of activities if required, and adds a dialogue like "now that you are grown up, you are responsible enough to know which to do when, I completely leave that part to YOU". This pleases the (growing) child with a feeling of "I can make my own decisions" but also puts him in a' responsible planning' mode.
...may sound preplanned and manipulative ...
[note: I have no problem with being a manipulative mother!]
;-)

O my God! look at the time! I need to cook now. 
De-stress from all the time related learnings......
Breathe in, breathe out and cook!
Need to "be on time".

Tomato temptation

This recipe is too simple yet too beautiful...and healthy on top of that!!

Ingredients:

1. Tomatoes (not too ripe) : 6 
2. Eggs
3. Onions chopped
4. Garlic chopped
5. Coriander (chopped)
6. Green chillis (chopped)
7. Parmesan cheese

Ready steady cook:

• Cut the tomatoes in half and place them in a greased oven plate (Tip: Cut a small piece out of the tomato in such a way that it gets a flat bottom to stand firmly on the plate)
• Saute the garlic, onion and chillis. Add salt and black pepper. Also mix the fresh coriander. Put a spoonfull of this mixture in each tomato [Optional: I also used some orange paprika in the mix]
• Pour an egg into each tomato. (Tip: if it is too much, put the egg yolk and a bit of the egg white)
• Sprinkle some parmesan cheese and some black pepper on top
• Bake in a preheated oven for 20 mins ( 180 degC)
• Serve as a side dish (we served it with Shepherd's pie)

The moustache is here......

The latest addition to our family is a moustache.
...however faint it may be, only visible when the chin is held high against natural light, yet it  announces that someone has  "grown up". The super-faint-light-bluish moustache is even being flaunted infront of the existing grown ups in the house to establish the growing up. 
I smile as I write this post.
I am sure all mothers go through a "strange" feeling when the moustache appears.... happiness mingled with some oh-how-time-flies!!

Two other things happened last week which made the arrival of the moustache even more prominent. 

The class performed the end-of-elementary-school musical: 
Lot of rehearsals went into the success of the magical drama that A-junior's class performed.  Such a nice musical to mark the end of their elementary school! As the kids sang, danced and performed and the parents proudly tried to capture everything with their cameras....the school year came to an end. 8 years of elementary school starting from the day when I walked into the school with a toddler holding my hand to the 11 yr old who was dressed up in space suit on the stage trying to show his acting skills to impress the audience. ..and I am sure holding hands is nowhere on the radar anymore! Quite a journey, no doubt.
As a bonus, we had A-junior's grandparents in the audience this time, their first time at his school.
The drama was enacted in Dutch and I was initially a bit apprehensive about how they would feel like sitting in the audience without understanding a word of it. 
My mistake! 
Grandparents do not require "any" language when their grandchildren perform on stage. They watched with complete admiration,almost in a trance mode. Their eyes gleamed with pride as they said "what a performance by A-junior" at the end of the play.
Really , the whole play was in Dutch!
;-)
The kids cried at the end of the drama...uninhibited tears of grief rolled down their cheeks at the thought of separation. The girls hugged each other while the boys tried to put up a brave face.
I went back to my school days. The last day of school was very painful.  Since it was a girl's school, we all howled and cried at the thought of separation. We wrote farewell messages on our white school uniforms as tears rolled down our cheeks. We murmured promises of keeping in touch ..life long. Green cross, cross my heart....so many different ways of girly promises of not forgetting each other.
Nothing changed. History repeats itself, no matter which part of the world we are in.
Elementary school came to an end.

The school arranged a 'disco' for the outgoing class. 
It even had a theme. "Shining white". The boy-with-the-faint-moustache, dressed in a casual white shirt was dropped off at the disco at 7:00PM by the father.
The boy returned at 12:00. Yes, you heard it correct...12:00 o'clock!!
(he was dropped home by his friend's father)
The mother could not take her eyes off the clock from 10:00 PM onwards. She also checked her whatsapp couple of times. At 10:30, she received a picture of a bunch of 12 yr olds dancing. At 10:30, there was a selfie with few kids making weird faces. At 11:00, the photo was a bit blurred. The mom realised that it was her third glass of red wine.
The father pretended to be super cool all the time but you should have seen the smile on his face when the junior came back home.
The faint moustache is not something that one can ignore anymore.

We are in India. Foodwise, I am being pampered royally. So no recipes today.
I will be sharing some super tasty recipes soon. 
Let me  focus on the eating first.

Food in India is... so....so...so.......so vibrant, so colourful, so active! 
The vegetables are so fresh, they almost talk to me "Pick me, pick me!"
The vegetable vendor stared at us with surprised eyes as A-junior asked him if taking a photo of his stall is allowed.

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.

On the bowl, replace the "S" in Pasta with a "N".  Panta is ready to be served!!!!

Camp and Calories with Rabri

The son is going for a camp from school.

11 yr old going away for 4 days.

Without parents.

First time.

Lot of excitement at home.  

The Bengali mother, although extremely tired from the weekend's Bengali New Years program, decided to make "luchi" for the camp going son.

'Aha...Bhogoban jane camp e ki khabe na khabe' (poor boy, God knows what food he will get at the camp).

Haha!

No, these were NOT the thoughts that raced through her mind.

While rolling out each luchi, trying to make them as circular as possible, she realized that she HERSELF was actually craving for luchi for sometime. The camp-going son was an excuse.

The son, who is born and brought up  in Holland loves luchi with "alu-r torkari". He was therefore overjoyed with the "luchi" news.

A-senior, smiled (a broad one) when he heard the "luchi" plan.

A foodie family...no doubt about that.

After a happy luchi meal, mother and son focused on packing. A-senior parked himself on the sofa and appointed himself as the supervisor. The camping list which has been hanging on the refrigerator door for the last four weeks was spread on the table, carefully looked at, each item ticked off the list as it went into the camping bag. 

The sleeping bag, the raincoat, the walking shoes, the pillow, .....and THE TORCH!

The torch somehow got the maximum attention.

The mom tried to convince the boy to take the torch that was already there at home. It was quite a slick-looking small modern torch.

The offer got rejected....Apparently it did not look like a CAMPING torch!!

Learning 1: The torch is the most important thing for a first-time-camp-going 11-yr old.

Packing was almost done.

The last item was a pillow. The parents had really taken the pillow more seriously than the torch. So a "camping" pillow was bought. A very nice one which you can blow up into quite a reasonable size and softness without bursting your lungs. Amazingly handy. So small. So convenient. So exciting.

I remembered the one from my childhood.  Dark brown Duckback. One had to almost empty his lungs to get some decent air into the pillows. We always carried it on our overnight train journeys.

A-senior blew into it and showed off the soft pillow with utter pride. He did it twice to demonstrate what a good choice the parents had made. The mom narrated her childhood air pillow story and mentioned how much better and more camp-friendly this pillow was.

But the teacher had instructed them to take normal small pillows and nothing in the world (no matter what the camp-excited-parents said) could change that!!

Finally the "normal" pillow won.
Learning 2: Never try to impose your own camping wishes on your child.

The Mom asked while packing "Do you want to eat something special when you are back from camp?"
A-junior replied, "Sheddho bhat!! [Boiled rice with eggs and potatoes]"

Learning 3:  Bangaliyana is in the blood. 

The bus came. The boys lined up with excited faces. The parents lined up with excitement-mixed-with-concern faces. The fathers checked the luggage, the mothers huddled around their kids giving last minute instructions "Sleep well (as if camp is about sleeping), Enjoy well (as if they wouldn't if not told to),  listen to your teachers (of course!)"

The bus left. All the parents kept waving. 
The mom could not see the son through the dark window glasses......but kept waving too...sure that an excited boy in the bus was waving back.
Learning 4: When your boy goes camping for 4 days, he surely has grown up. Accept it.

Rabri  

If you are one of those people who count their calories everyday, then this is the right moment to leave the blog and go for a run. This recipe is laden with calories, thousands of them. It is also laden with taste (specially if you love sweets). 
I am not a sweet lover but realized that I wanted to make Rabdi because I love Malpoa. The two of them go together.....
The cooking part is pretty simple, but the main ingredient is patience!!
No, a diet-rabri does not exist, do not search the net!!!

Ingredients:

• 2 liters Full milk
• 3 spoon sugar
• 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
• Finely sliced almonds
• Few strands of saffron

Ready steady cook:

• Boil the milk at high heat in a heavy bottom pan.
• Wait till a layer of cream appears. Move the cream layer to the side of the pan with a spatula.
• Let the milk boil again and a fresh layer of cream appear.
• Move the cream layer to the sides again.
• Repeat this step till the milk is reduced to 1/3 the initial volume. [warned you about patience!!!]
• Add the sugar, the cardamom powder and the almonds.
• Now scrape the cream from the sides into the milk, mix well, cook for 2-3 minutes and then switch off the heat.
• Add a few strands of saffron.
• Let it cool down and then chill in the refrigerator.

I served it with warm Malpoa. HEAVEN!!