Metropolitan, Cosmopolitan and Twenty Something

While coming back from office today I was introspecting. Tomorrow is a holiday on the occasion of Eid. And being a cook I was thinking what can I cook, special, for tomorrow. It can be an Eid special. And I laughed at the idea. My granny would have taken a holy bath on this idea of mine. My aunts still raise a brow. My mom has kind of accepted it as part of my life, cooking Christmas dinner and Eid Lunch apart from all other festivals.
I was just wondering from where and when such thinking came into mind. I came to a point. I am one of the 20 something Indian, with a Job, away from family and with a life of my own independent of all. My own society, i.e. Assamese, is far away to look at anything in my life. My live in society is too busy or reluctant to be bothered about us. We are neither here nor there.
That's part of comopolitan India. And life in a metro is as cosmpolitan as metropilitan. We get up and rush to office. Wait desperately for the week end and never realise when it is Monday again. And weekends are packed with a big time cleaning and re stocking job along with other commitments. Than as a new age couple, sharing quality time is also of concern to us. We need to look at our partner for his or her comfort. I wonder if my mother ever had such problem. Did she ever complain to my dad about not giving enough attention? I do not think so. To her, Love and care was enough. No fuss about any of the new age terms like space etc. My granny was happier, she used to get good food, good cloths, took care of her seven children and a small discussion, rather a FYI, from my grand father on major issue. And I do not remember seeing them ever fighting or complaining against eaxh other.
Now we live in a Metro and think of all possible occasions to celebrate. I mean, think of rathere having a good time with good food :D.

MTR, Ashirwad etc and my Kitchen

It was I think some time in 2001 when I was introduced to ready to eat. It was a room mate of mine whose some relative used to work for defence reasearch or something and she got hold of a few packets of ready to eat. So we had a treat! And than it was only Daal Fry, Upma and something more. Was not upto our mark of taste. I do not even remember if it had any brand. And I was informed that this was made for our defence guys who work on impossible territories for years.
Now whenever I go out to a deppartmenal shop, there I find a hwole section full of READY TO EAT. I some times wonder do I have to give up cooking some time soon. Will there be people left who would know home made food or for that matter " once upon a time there used to be kitchen in each Indian house". I wonder! However, this has a positive side, there will be no more Dowry Killings where the woman burns to death due to some kitchen accident. Not bad! But thant that's something out of my crazzy brain. Which keep producing funny thoughts and inspires me for trying different recipies.

Down the Memory Lane

We, me and my husband, some times talk about our child hood beyond sharing.. It's kind of good. He shares his part of child hood. Here are a few small little incidents of his time.
He had a bunch of friends in school. And a chana wala at the school gate, as all schools in Assam has. So one friend of his and he always used to discuss and share the same deep feeling of being able to eat "sab misal" chana from the chana wala. ( BTW the time line is when he was in first or second standard). As he says" One day that friend of mine came rushing to me with a cone of their much wanted chana. And I was really impressed with him and happy to the core. We are going to have chana today.WOW. I went ahead and asked my friend how did he manage to get it? He said," I was standing at the same crowd around the chana wala and the chana wala looked at me,I said, give me my cone. He asked where is the money. I said I just gave you and than he asked how much? I replied ten paisa" That's how we managed to get chana that day."
A ten paisa was so important and could buy his heart full happiness for that day.

Pete's Wallet

I have recently joined a new organization with happy people. And till now I am enjoying it.
I have a very senior colleague, we call him Pete. As he says himself that he ends up leaving things all across. Surely his personal things; as I never saw him to be that disorganized in the office.
Well now the story part. One morning when I reached office I learn about a commotion. Something to do with Pete. And I am sure you know HR people. They feel that they have the right to all people related news in the office. So here it goes, Pete has lost his wallet. He seems to have had a bad day. Got banged by a so typical Hyderabadi auto wala, and left his wallet in the ATM. That's early morning. When contacted with the bank for help; they seem to be more help less than Pete.

So what does he do now. Pete was seriously upset. The good news came in towards the evening. Some one calls him to tell him that Pete's wallet is with that unknown angel. And we get to know that Pete got the wallet back in solid ! Well that's a small drama in real life! And may be a good side of human being! The honesty still lives. And I feel good to get it re confirmed at times.

10 Rupees Note

My father is a banker. And he has literally grown from the scratch . After tenth class he was sure to become a farmer as there was no money for him to study further. And may be his roots has taught him to be careful. When we were young and school going, we were allowed some monthly allowances. It used to include our daily rickshaw fare, to and fro school and some more money for miscellaneous work. But for anything major we need to tell him during the last week of the month so that we are allowed for it by the next month. On top, he always insisted on a written account of all the money spent and saved, of course he never asked for the saving back. We could do anything with that saving. We used to save it mainly for the annual book fare and when I grew up a bit than for my parents anniversary, birthday etc. One big chunk of my savings used to be for my sister's surprise birthday gift. Guess how much? It started with Rs10/- . That I am talking about my first sister. When I was in hostel the Rs10/- reduced to the value of one evening snack from the local bakery or Momo wala. I have one more sister who is much younger to me. I some times feel she is more like a daughter. That Rs10/- note was so important for me. I had to save for a year for that one note. And whenever I ended at a count of ten rupees collection of various smaller currency notes, I would ask my mother to give me a ten rupees note and take my changes in return. And she happily did that. Now I think she did that because that was the only way she actually knew how much money I had and what am I doing with it.
Now after years of that time. And being able to spend a lot of such ten rupees, I no more feel the same attraction to that note as I did before. And when I look at our youngest sister, I feel such a big gap. Now her allowances are in Rs500/- or more. Than there would be top up from both of her elder ones. Some times I feel that may be we are spoiling her. Or may be already spoiled. But than, I myself do not feel the attraction for the Rs10/-. She recently gave a comment saying "he is that poor type you know" ( about one of her studious class mates). Well, are we affluent? I do not think so. Still I cannot do what I want at any point of time. But her statement got into my head. May be still there is a lot of value of the ten rupees note to the people who struggles for two time meals. She surely knows that ten rupees still can do lot, if she feels she is well off at five hundred bucks! That's time ! That's probably growing up! And I think I need to re look at myself once more!
This post is in fond memory of the Rs10/- (black, old design) note.