Shubho Bijoya (a trifle late, but I'm not fond enough of worms to be the early bird).
The spammers have found me. Apologies, but this blog has no option. Spam-protection in the form of word verification is now enabled here.
A wonderful, restful week at home, with home food and dogs and peaceful afternoons and my room filled with green leaf sunshine. That particular shade of sunshine. This is what I know, I kept thinking, a city I can negotiate in my sleep, old hangouts and friends and conversation that range over the impossibly important and to the completely inane. Cups and cups of coffee and tea; phuchka (distinct from and far superior to both gol gappas and pani puris) from the phuchka-walla outside my house who greets me fondly each time I return. Pujor abhawa - a sense of mild festivity and goodwill towards all in the air, and children in spanking new clothes walking down the road, foodstalls selling fish fry and kochuri and radhabollobi and ghugni on street corners and in parks, ferris wheels and hurdy-gurdies and Chicken a la Kiev at Mocambo with catching-up conversation glinting in the lamplight, and warm doggie fur against my leg as I sleep, and warm breath on my face as one of the doggies tries to stare me into waking at 5 in the morning.
No wonder, then, that email and blogging were ignored and put aside for later while I wallowed in peace.
But we're back now, and making resolutions and doing things. This blog will come to those, in due time. For now, though, the rutted roads and darn traffic of Bangalore are already driving this blog to road rage. And this blog has some paperwork to do as well.
Ah'll be beck.
4 comments:
gosh it all sounds lovely. especially the bits i don't know the meanings of.
Here's the key then:
Phuchka: a typical Calcutta snack (or meal, depending on how much you eat) of fried hollow shells (possibly made of flour and something else), stuffed with masala potato (as hot and khatta (sour) as you want) and topped up with khaata pani. When I was a kid, they were 10 to the Rupee. Now I believe they're 1 to the rupee, or thereabouts. But inflation be damned, they're scrumptious.
Gol gappa, pani puri - spurious imitations available in Delhi and Bombay respectively. Don't go for pirated goods - buy original.
Pujor abhawa: literally, atmosphere during pujo. See line immediately after occurrence in text for a feel of the thing.
Kochuri - typically Bengali snack available at most sweet shops. Batter fried, with filling (be fish, or mashed peas, or a number of other things). Bongs wax lyrical about them.
Ghugni - succulent concoction of chick peas and potatoes with lots of garnishing. Available in saal leaf plates at the book fair, and other fairs in Calcutta, during pujo at pandals and parks... or home-made.
Mouth watering now?
Mouth IS watering. And I haven't had lunch. Waaaa :(
Poppet, you have no idea! Spurious pirated versions like gol gappa and pani puri can't hold a candle to the real McCoy - phuchka... and churmur... (drool).
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