Day 1 of Lock-down

It's Gudi padwa in Maharashtra today, the ushering of a brand new year.

Yesterday, I was thinking about the Covid situation and wondering that what kind of Padwa will the people of Maharashtra usher in this time? Everywhere there were news of distress, increasing count, increasing fear, careless people and helpless strays. Wherever I looked be it media, or social media nothing could spell misery in more capital letters. A major part of Maharashtra was already under lock-down so we were already aware that there is chances of the situation getting extended. And in the evening our PM declared a 21 day lock down. Much needed and very much anticipated move. The moment I heard it, I told myself this is it. Either this will consume you or you consume these 21 days to make a better version of yourself.

I thought of ordering some essentials from the popular delivery apps only to realize all the online market suppliers were cancelling the orders. There was an acute panic as more people realized this. And then there was news that the society was being put under lock-down as well – no exit, no entry beyond stipulated hours. There was panic and we went out to check if anything was open.

This was the first time I came out of home in a week. And the look of my area had changed. It looked like a dead town- the one we see in apocalypse movies. The sun beating down, a few police on the road, a few bikes and even few essential stores open. One realizes the proportion of the situation only after looking at these empty streets. I came back with two bags of essentials, exhausted, derailed, still panicked thinking what will happen if I don’t get food or essentials later on. I had decided in the morning that I am going to cut down on the amount of food consumed, be aware of how much water I am using, unnecessary electricity usage to be cut and so on. When I was out on the road to get some medicine, a young shopkeeper at the store told me, “we now need to eat one less chapati than we did, eat less portion of rice than we did. In Italy people are already eating food once a day”. I couldn’t agree more with him while thinking if this guy who is not highly educated understands the need of the hour, what part of it does the higher educated class not understand? His words touched me.

The meal was already planned for today. I had parwal at home which had to be cooked. And with the onset of the hot days a light meal would be good. Especially after running around for the essentials under the fiery sun, the exhaustion was evident. So made potol posto which is light on the tummy and is a feel good factor for me.


Preparation Time: 15 minutes

• Parwal - 250 gm 
• Potato - 2 medium
• Poshto (Poppy seed) - 50 gm
• Methi (Fenugreek) seeds- 1/4th tsp
• Fresh Coconut - 1/4th cup
• Green chilli - 2
• Mustard Oil 
• Salt and Sugar as per taste

Procedure:

After a beautiful winter the summers are finally here full on. And this time it promises to be intense with the mercury touching 39 degree centigrade at the beginning of April. Pune has a very dry summer unlike the humid summer of Mumbai. You feel the heat but it doesn’t leave you drained. The apartment where we are currently staying is in the outskirts of the city for which after sun down the evening breeze coming down from the surrounding hills creates a pleasant weather.

The best part of Summer is waking up to the sweet cooing of the cuckoo in the morning.  I had almost forgotten what it’s like waking up to the song of a cuckoo once I left Kharagpur for attending college a decade ago. The city lifestyle had taken over from there on. The beauty of living among nature, summers bursting with the fiery blossoms of Palash , monsoon bringing in an array of colorful critters and petite white lilies, autumn ringing in the tall Kash Phool hedges , winters with the classical chilly evenings and spring coloring the landscape with golden Radhachuda.

We stayed in a huge B-type  quarter in the IIT campus, specially allocated to professors.  The quarter was bigger than 15000 sq. ft pent houses of today. And we had a lawn like a football ground surrounding our quarter with huge tall trees as boundary lines between two adjacent quarters. Summers would be pretty intense in the campus. And the hollow brick house would heat up quickly in the day. During summer vacations as soon as the sun went down behind the trees me and ma would set up a small table and a few chairs in the red stone paved area before the lawns.  With sun down the temperature would come down and a nice breeze would start. As the evening progressed the air would become heavy with the smell of Madhabilatas.  We settled down in the chairs with some snacks and summer special drinks like lassi, bel er shorbot etc.  I would study in advance for the next class and she would sit engrossed in some book. As the evening set in ma would light the Hurricane lantern or a few candles (Emergency light was still uncommon back then). It was difficult to read and write in that flickering flame but it had become such a natural thing for us that we never felt at
unease. Now-a-days Hurricane Lantern are only used as décor for rustic themed restro-bars, but back then it was a way of life. There would be evenings when it was breeze less, we would then bring out our brand new table fan.   My cats would play around us, sometimes one of them would curl up on our laps or lie down on one corner of the table to enjoy the fan. Dad would come home late from the institute almost by 7:30 PM. He would sometimes join us outside after that. There would be long hours of mother-daughter talks once I was done studying.  I believe those were the evenings over which the two of us bonded as friends.  I remember this one particular evening when I was studying for my entrance exams into the new school. Ma was as usual engrossed in some book. The Hurricane lantern would only light the top of the table. Down under it was all dark. I suddenly felt some things slither over my feet and jumped in alarm. First we thought it was one of my cats but then we heard something rustle over the fallen leaves and saw a snake run away. It gave us quite a fright but snakes and living in the IIT campus was synonymous.  There were snakes everywhere you could imagine. So even though we were scared and took precaution to light up more Hurricane lanterns and set on the ground all around us, we didn’t refrain from enjoying our evening sit-outs.

Summer would also mean endless hours of watching children program on DD1 throughout the morning as there would be no school. Chandrakanta, Potli Baba, Dino Danasur, Duck Tales, Shaktiman, Aladin all these would be studiously devoured. My dad would also buy me many story books to spend my summer. I was a vivid reader and books always made me super happy. Covering the new class books and copies with brown papers and smelling the crisp pages was another of my favorite activity. As ma would cover the books I would meticulously select the fancy label to be put up on each book – a mermaid one for the science book, goofy for geography and so on. Ah the joys of childhood!

Another thing that I remember from the Summer months is the cooing of the cuckoos in the wee hours of the morning. They would start cooing even before the first ray’s of the sun hit the earth. And it would be a powerful orchestra as dozens of them would sing in unison. You see we never needed a rooster to wake us up back then. We were used to it so it didn’t mess up with our sleep. But once my grand pa was visiting us and all this cooing made him wake up. He complained throughout the day about the Cuckoos. The cuckoos of IT were fabled for their early morning choir even till day.

Compared to all those cuckoos here we have only a lone cuckoo singing in the morning and afternoon. Sometimes it is joined by its mate. But these two loners really ring in all the beautiful childhood memories for me. I have never seen them but I have heard them every single day.  I have a lot of pigeon friend though for whom I keep boiled rice on the terrace every night. By day break they are all polished off.  And with the onset of summer I have made it a practice to keep a bucket of water outside in the patio so that thirsty birds can have a drink anytime. I would urge all my readers to also do the same. Think for the earth, and you will not go unrewarded. As I witness the enormous speed at which the concrete jungles are encroaching the nature I just wish that somewhere some cuckoos are still there to regale the children in the days to come. 

During the summer days you don’t prefer to have spicy and heavy stuffs. The heart craves for soothing light food. The Bengali household would almost discard the usage of onions in their gravies during this time of the year. And you would find all the high water content rich summer vegetables like potol (pointed gourd), kacha pepe (green papaya), jhinge (ridge gourd), kach kola (raw banana),  sojne data (drumsticks), begun(brinjal), kumro (pumpkin) etc made into very light gravy in every household. We usually call such gravies as “patla jhol” or “thin gravy”.  The recipe that I am going to write about today is a soupy gravy of fish and vegetable. It’s ideal for the hot summer afternoons and easy on the stomach too. I used two types of fish for the gravy, you can just use Rohu if you want.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes 

Marination Time: 30 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Serves:4


Ingredients:

Its Bengali new years eve. Every big and small festival for the Bengalis is marked by special preparations. New years eve is just another such occasion for indulgence. 'Chingri macher malaikari', 'Potoler dolma', 'Echorer Dalna','Kochi pathar kosha mangsho', 'Ful-kopir shingara', 'Rosho-malai','Malpoa' and the infamous 'Rashogolla' ....the list is never ending and so is a Bong's appetite.

The summer months bring with is an array of fresh vegetables which are unavailable in winter. Most of the summer vegetables are of my liking like the Potol (parwal), Jackfruit, Raw mango etc. In Kolkata the list goes longer but in the western part of the country its limited to a few only.

I am not too fond of ripe Jackfruit but I go totally ga-ga over the unripe version of it. Raw Jackfruit or Echor is also known as 'Gach Patha' in Bengal the literal translation of which means tree goat. Echor is actually cooked with the same spices as we would use to cook mutton and the curry also tastes like meat only. So vegetarians who want to enjoy the taste of mutton without actually having it can have this curry.

The cleaning process is bit messy and tedious. But the aftertaste of the curry is totally worth the effort.

  Before cutting the raw Jackfruit, place a newspaper below, oil the knife and your  hands with mustard oil. Even oil the back of your hands. The Jackfruit secretes a sap which does not wash off easily and makes your hands black. Putting oil prevents these and also makes the cutting process easier. Also keep a lime slice handy. Cut the Jackfruit into horizontal circles and rub the lime where the sap starts coming out. This will liquify the sap and it will no longer be sticky. Then place the cut circles in water to avoid blackening. Now take the circles one by one and remove the outside skin and chop into small pieces and put back into the water.

Preparation Time: 30 minutes (Includes cutting time)

Cooking Time: 40 minutes

Serves:2



Ingredients: 

• Raw Jackfruit - 1/2 Kg weight 
• Bay Leaf - 2
• Green Cardamom Whole -3
• Cinnamon Stick - 2"
• Clove -3
• Black Peppercorn - 4
• Onion - 1 big chopped
• Tomato - 1 big chopped
• Ginger - 2-3" piece finely grated
• Garlic - 5-6 cloves finely grated
• Green chillies - 1 or 2 depending on your spice tolerance level
• Ghee - 2 tsp
• Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
• Cumin powder - 1 tsp
•  Coriander powder
• Yogurt - 1/2 cup (whisked)
• Water - 2 cups (warm)
• Salt to taste
• Sugar to taste
• Mustard oil -2 tbsp
• Potatoes - 2 medium (diced)

1. Clean and cut the Jackfruit.  Pressure cook with a pinch of turmeric. Keep aside.