golmirchi "goru"

Had always thought i will start writing about food and the numerous experiments i try out with various forms of it almost every weekend (especially now, since MTV pays me for 8 non-working days every month) But somehow have never gotten around to doing it...wonder why? (maybe becoz i am too busy cooking, and then too busy eating or making other people eat it..!!?)

So, to boil things down to the meat...oh! did i say meat..what a slip of the toungue my dear watson...what a slip indeed...since meat it was, in all its glorified form and timbre and resonance, in the sunday just gone by...specifically the 'cow', or as we bongs like to call it - 'goru' (and as the westerners like to say 'Beef') Its one object that has always eluded my grasp, more so becoz i feel its as obstinate as i am...tough and difficult to manipulate, by whatever means. And so, maybe it was sheer destiny that a mistake would finally put things in order (in the battle of Mukherjee vs Goru) and bring out the best beef dish that i have been able to cook so far.

More will come later...

Travelling Flute-bury

Sunday morning "ting tong" and there he was...in clean white cotton attire and a long thin black bag full of the most simplistic yet melodious instruments that man has invented so far. Arvind Kumar, one of the many wandering flautists of mumbai has finally found my place after getting lost (being misled by a miscreant maybe?) Hailing from UP, a place that goes by the name of Pilibheeth (strangely, couldn't help telling him about my association with the place, as papa did proficient business with lot of very loyal customers from that area...and that papa's childhood friend and support during his last days 'Pratap-uncle' also belonged to that same town) Arvind-ji's politeness was like a breath of fresh air, something that we urban people are so unaccostomed to nowadays, having been exposed to curt, professional, to-the-point responses, even from close acquaintences and friends at times (such is the infection of big metro cities I suppose...alas!)
To cut a long story short (maybe this one I would like to keep to myself only), after an hour or so, having sold the most magnificient piece of wood i have had the priviledge of holding in my two hands so far in life...he left with a smile on his face and a sliver of hope in his heart... and I watched him walk out through that door, hoping that this association is here to stay...for as long as the man in him remains the true self, uncorrupted and unhampered by the crooked ways of this city. Needless to say, i have a feeling i will be writing much more of this man again........

Daddy's little girl

Papa is gone. after a year long struggle. its been 3 months now. the daughter can't let go. the memories haunt her. every week. every day. every night. every good moment. in sadness. in happiness. so she wrote a small poem...

I saw that last breath slip you into peace,
The breath that took you far far away from me.
I touched your hand and all had stopped,
A deafening blank and you were relieved.
I must confess the same was true for me,
Daddy's little girl had put her papu to sleep.


And a FB post of hers on 7th Feb (a day before our Bareilly trip):

"Daddy's prayer meeting in bareilly on 10th sept...how it'll feel to go back home...to step down on bareilly station and not see papa cumin to pik up this spoilt daughter of his"

Tales of the dangerous EMI monster

Oh! my my...i dont believe i have not written for so long...so much has happened in all this while that its seriously not possible to put it all down...have gained, have lost, have been defeated and have yet come out a winner...or is it just my illusion...is the struggle still not over and what i think is "winning" is just rotten mango wrapped in shiny aluminium foil...in order to fool the ever-hungry and never-satiated buyer..?

There has been one development though...as an after effect of my April 19, 2008 post...yes, i have...i finally have bought a house in the so-called "manhattan of the east"...and so, finally its adieu to the movers n packers that used to haunt our lives every alternate year...finally its goodbye to the slimy brokers who would leave no stone unturned to sell u the worst flat at the highest price...finally its ciao to the nasty landlords who can never ever satisfy their greed for a fatter deposit and a higher rent..!!! But it also means welcoming the "EMI monster" with your hands spread out in obedience and ur head down on the ground...coz if u displease him then he shall spare no effort to put u back on to ur old bohemian life of L&L (Leave & License, for those of u not acquainted...the technical term for rent agreements) The funny part though, is even if u dont displease the 'EMI monster' he seems to be making ur life miserable anyway...just the thought of having to give out tens of thousands of hard-earned money every single month and for decades is certainly a scary thought... Question is: does it outweigh the comfort of ur own home...yes, not a house but a HOME SWEET HOME...does it make financial sense to not pay tens of thousands in rent every month on a property that will never be yours anyway...does it make sense to chain down ur very existence based solely on the pressure of having to pay that huge lumpsum every month, failing which all the years of effort will go down the drain!!!

A few of my friends will surely disagree to the idea of taming the 'EMI monster' becoz its just another way of clipping your angel wings and putting solid steel chains around ur feet...that prevents u form taking vacations...from shopping with a free mind...from buying that new SUV thats hit the road...from so many things and so much more. And then a few wud say NO, it makes perfect sense to buy a house and keep the 'EMI monster' as ur pet becoz the 'Rent monster' is of the most disloyal kind and will never be yours...so why put money on something that u can never possess? A very valid point i must say...especially when the amount of money is not a few hundred or a few thousand...but 25-30K every month...and coupled with that a 150-200K safety deposit...just to ensure that ur 'Rent monster' is not abused/harmed/damaged in anyway whatsoever...since it is given to u primarily for upkeep and to derive happiness from...for a year or two at the most!

Strangely, with time (as axactly a year has passed from the day i walked into the builder's office and became bankrupt) i have come to realize that the Questions are all insignificant really...yes, it doesnt make sense to pay huge rents when the money isnt bringing any returns...but yes, it also does make sense to have the freedom of a rent occupancy, with no decade long liabilities of having to satisfy the 'EMI monster' month after month...and so the arguements will go on and on and the contradictions will never cease to exist...afterall its our basic human nature to complicate a simple enuff life, isnt it? But essentially, it all comes down to - how and what u want to spend ur money on...is it on expensive perfumes and international vacations and designer shoes and boutique eateries...or a place that u can call ur own...a place that u can call 'Home'...a place where u make friends with ur neighbours and can call them for dinner...a place u can come back to at the end of a hard day's work, not being bothered about the fact that u might be driven out of it in a few month's time...a place that u know is urs to keep...forever...in which you & only you have the power to take decisions...not some chap who happened to have made enuff money to give u a shelter to stay in! And about the 'EMI monster'...well well, lets look at it this way...if the going gets tough the tough gets going...and if the tough still doesnt get going then sell the 'EMI monster' to some other 'tough' and go back to ur bohemian life of L&L...but not before taking a vacation in Santorini and Pompei coz that much money (or shud i say 'profits') after selling the 'EMI monster' will surely be difficult to keep/spend! So, the saying that "therz light at the end of the tunnel" is not entirely false...the trick is to enjoy the darkness if it ever falls on you (although, it almost always never does...in a very strange sort of a way!!?)

Euphoria in July...

The countdown has begun... to the 27th of June, when my elder brother, sis-in-law and my two darling nephews are coming down from USA... after almost 6 long years. I haven't yet seen one of my nephew and they haven't yet seen Nitika (my better half). Omigawd, what a union this will be... i am gonna forget everything in this bloody world for 2 whole weeks and take off for dear ol' Cal., doesnt really matter what i am in the middle of... but i will just leave evrything and go! And yes, we plan to paint the town red & considering that bro's elder son (all of 6yr old) is a big time foodie, we r gonna go on a gourmet ride thru park street, esplanade, and the works... peter cat, moulin rouge, nizaam's, crystal chopstix, arsalaan, shiraaz, nothing and nobody will be spared by our lashing tongues during those 2 weeks. But the most important point is: for once, the bigger intricacies of life will be overshadowed by the little joys of it, and that makes me "oh! so happy"
Will come back to post all details of what our salivating tongues lapped up in our gourmet ride of Cal... and the little joys that we discovered by the roadside in our 2 week journey :) till then, khuda haafiz!

Settling for less...

My search for a permamnent roof over my head in the 'Manhattan of the East' is getting hotter by the day (of course Mumbai's summer is complementing it in every possible way too) We have seen numerous places and liked quite a few too... but the eternal problem of the human race is cropping up time & again. The need for BBD, the bigger better deal. The house that i see is good, serves my purpose, fits into my budget... BUT... BUT... BUT... its not what i IDEALLY want, and if i do pick it up from the basket full of mangoes, then i know i will be settling for less!
Point is: how to beat this over-wanting / uncompromising / unsatisfied mind with that little bit less of joy??? I wish i had the answer, coz nobody i have come across has it yet. Its so very difficult to control one's desire... the desire to reach out to the next level, the desire to grow out of one's boots and touch the stars if one can. It doesn't matter if that comes at a crippling price, but the want is so great that its sometimes impossible to control the urge. Even if we dont need it in reality maybe. But then, who decides what u need and what u dont... its again ur innermost desires and there is no way u can squeeze it out like the pulp of an orange and live a peaceful life, can you? Naaah...

The Goa monsoon

I have never been quite fond of the infamous 'Fenny'... till i tasted the more uncommon Cashew fenny margarita! ohhhh... served with a bucket full of crushed ice, mint leaves and a dash of some sweet syrup... and its as close to heaven as you can possibly go in the land of GOA, the land of hippies, wierd no-logic techno-trance music, yummy cheap coastal seafood, the most curvacious females of the world, and a plethora of beaches right from those nestled in private/desolate coves to those thronging with tourists...!!!
But the point is (which most miss out on sadly) Goa is a lot more than all these frivolous things... it is about PEACE in a rain swept, storm ravaged land of unending beaches during the glorious INDIAN MONSOON (not to mention, u get hotel accomodation at the click of ur fingers and room charges that leave u more than enuff to feast on King's beer and golden fried kalamari for the rest of ur life!) My one visit during Aug.2006 made me sit back, watching those lashing rains on Baga beach and wonder - what is it that keeps people away from Goa in monsoon? The answer (sadly) was - the absence of shacks and in turn dancing till the wee hours of the night, which is to say, a typical commercial mumbai-driven night-life.
But is Goa all about drinking, dancing and smokin' up..? Or is it about a higher state of being, where one can run away from the maddening urban menace and nestle in a state that lives on its own and isn't affected by what's happening to the entire world around it? Is it about the cheap half-priced alcohol, the wild rave parties and daily shack parties, the cheap tattoo parlours, t-shirts with psychedelic designs, and the illegal substances that r readily available if u r willing to shell out a few grands of hard cash..??? If u ask me, NO. Goa is about the people, the food. Goa is about lying on the beach at night with a King's in hand, looking up at the clear sky and counting stars. Goa is about being leonardo di caprio on the tip of Titanic, spreading ur arms wide open on the empty Baga beach with lashing rains, and taking on the sensation of a thousand needles piercing ur being every fraction of a second. Goa is about sitting on top of Fort Aguada, well after all the tourists have left and u r all alone with the remnants of a history that is scarred yet so beautiful. Goa is about port wine picked up from a roadside wine shop and drowning ur sorrow in it, aptly helped by golden fried prawns/kalamari served straight out of the frying pan. And Goa is about bliss, unending bliss where u dont have to worry about paying off ur loans, or meeting deadlines in ur office, or managing ur finance so that u can retire with enuff money to make a 30-day trip to Europe and sleep under the Eiffel Tower with the choicest of white wine in ur right hand and a lovely wife, who's aged gracefully, on ur left!
And the only way to do all this is to visit Goa atleast once during the INDIAN MONSOON... trust me, there is nothing more heavenly than getting wet in the rain in Baga and coming back to sit in Brito's and feast on their enormous seafood platter. U really dont need anything or anyone by ur side (and my wife is gonna take offence to this i know, but thats the hard truth of life, might as well face it now) OR MAYBE U DO, on second thoughts... after all what is life without the people who make it so beautiful? And Goa without beautiful people is like Paris without aged wine, INCOMPLETE!!!