Twenty- five Seven

Personally speaking

Recent Posts

  • Banana & cream #FlavoursomeTuesday

    img_0062-2Believe it or not I’ve been thinking of nothing else but food these past few days. Actually I think about food most of the time because I am the chief menu planner and cook in my household. Now most of you do the same thing but why am I so different? Well that’s because we have 5 different palates with different dietary requirements on a daily basis to cater to. Add to this 2 grandsons every other day and you will understand why I have to think extra hard about what each one would like . And these past few days have been even more busy with me thinking up menus for three events lined up this month.

    Going bananas

    What is really driving me bananas is the search for a Banoffee Pie which I have to serve this weekend .

    I don’t particularly like bananas as a pudding having grown up on a steady diet of “shikran poli” . Now those who recognise this childhood treat will immediately conjure up an image of a warm, ghee laden Chapati scooping up a generous amount of mashed banana and milk.

    But for those of you who don’t this is what it is : mashed banana and milk with some added sugar to soften the tartness eaten. This is eaten with whole wheat flat bread or chapati.

    What’s in a name ?

    So you see , naming a dish is very important. Shikran-poli sounds so quotidian! Doesn’t wholewheat flat bread sound better than chapati? Therefore, when we went to aunty Vimal’s house for lunch my brother and I were warned NOT to make a fuss and eat up EVERYTHING served on our plates.

    Aunty Vimal, I think was in cahoots with my mum because when aunty asked us if we’d like some fried Aubergine along with the regular daal-chawal, we eagerly said yes.  Being unworldly and terribly unwise at age 10 and 8 respectively, we looked forward to savouring this exotic sounding dish. We could barely contain our disappointment when 2 slices of crisply fried ‘Baingan’ were served in the plate ! My mom couldn’t contain her glee when she saw us quietly eat the vegetable we had staunchly desisted from tasting for ever .

    So when aunty offered us Banana and Cream for dessert we looked forward to sliced banana topped with whipped cream and perhaps drizzled with chocolate shavings or crushed nuts . Imagine our horror when we got Shikran without the poli!

    Incidentally please do send me a recipe for Banoffee pie.

    Have you ever been conned into eating something that sounded more exotic and exciting than what it really was? 

    Do you have any  memories,  sweet and sour, revolving around food? If yes, then do share them with me and Shilpa, using the hashtag #FlavoursomeTuesdays, and have fun!

    In the meanwhile do enjoy the contributions from our guests at this week’s table :

    Alana Mautone

    Tulika Singh

    And hope to see you at our table next week!

    Image of Bellybytes

  • The Mahatma seen at Churchgate? #WordlessWednesday

    [bctt tweet=”Mumbai commuters will be shocked to see the Mahatma alighting from a train at Churchgate station! ” username=”via unishta”]

    Yes! Churchgate station one of the busiest stations on Mumbai’s suburban railway network  handles at least 5,50,000 passengers daily. This makes it the 5th busiest station in Mumbai with CST beating it to top post by 1,00,000 or so.

    The southernmost station on the network it  literally has  millions of people pouring in to work every day.

    Since November we’re seeing a new passenger hop off – Mahatma Gandhi the Father of the Nation stepping down from his preferred mode of travel . History books tell us  it was quite common to see him amidst the masses in the crowded third class compartment of an Indian train.

    You will find him on  a mural painted on canvas by Eduardo Kobra a Brazilian artist. It stands over 15 feet tall and will remain on show for the next 3 years. Do catch this stunning exhibit before the Mahatma boards the next train!

    Image of Bellybytes

    Sharing this with Esha on #WordlessWednesday

  • Goodbye Namaste #MondayMusings

    Image for Goodbye NamasteCall me old fashioned , out dated or crotchety but increasingly I am getting appalled at the lack of manners in today’s young people.

    The other day we were chatting in C’s living room when I’m walked her millennial darling . The girl had just come home from a hard day at work and strolled in with headphones stuffed in her ears  and her thumbs busy on the phone . She just about looked up from here frenetic texting, held her mother’s gaze for a mere  second before marching off to her room down the corridor.

    Hello! I wondered what happened to Hi aunty? After all I’d known this little one from the day she burped on my silk kurta as a colicky infant.

    And I realised that this was not an aberration but par for the course. Youngsters these days are getting increasingly self centric and self centered and social graces like hello have long been given the good bye!

    This kind of indifference is accepted even among those lower in the pecking order. With equality and respectful communication being the order of the day, servants are no longer called servants but helpers. No longer is it politically correct to address them by their first names/last names but they are called uncle or aunty or big brother (bhaiyya) or big sister (Didi)  even when they are all of 18 years old. But while we accord them respect, they don’t even address us as madam or memsahib. And as for a greeting of hello or Namaste – you can say Goodbye to Good Manners . They breeze past us with not so much as a nod of acknowledgement and plonk on your sofas with practiced ease.

    My own daughters tell me I’m being archaic and feudal but I only feel if I accord them the equality of sitting on my sofas, surely they can say hello when they meet me isn’t it?

    Do you think this is normal or am I over reacting ?

    Image of Bellybytes

    Sharing this post with Corinne on #MondayMusings

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