Souls Fiddling on the Roof

One morning a couple of days back i received a carpe diem kind of message from my younger sister. This is how it appeared on my phone screen.

*हो सकता है हर दिन अच्छा ना हो, लेकिन हर दिन में कुछ न कुछ अच्छा होता है।*

    *सुप्रभात*

सुप्रभात in English means 'good morning'. About the rest of the Hindi words that preceded the good morning i discovered it to be a great quote from Alice Morse Earle. " Every day may not be good, but there's something good in every day".

Thanks to my sister not only did i learn something of Alice Morse Earle but also got the exact words to express my feelings. 

Just like everyone i do get insufferable at times. The creeping heat, and most importantly the absence of helping assisting hands can be enlightening on good days but utterly depressing on a daily basis. Being used to having people who would do jobs or run errands for us is like addiction and i guess dealing with all the chores for a few days is as exciting as joining a gym the sole purpose being weight loss. Now it feels like being in an addiction rehab and the withdrawal symptoms are killing. Chores that are never-ending, tiresome and monotonous. In fact some chores are happily bundled and thrown out of mind for 'laters' but much to my chagrin they do remain in sight.

i wouldn't have realized the importance of the wonderful whattsaap message what to talk of using it to express until grumbling under my breath i walked into the already heating up terrace to feed 1500 or more babies in their beds. Yes i am talking about my plants in their pots. Pots of all sizes ranging from three inches to one and a half feet. With daily temperatures now creeping and nearing 40 degrees they need to be watered twice. 

It was then when i saw what was there to see did i actually recall the words again. *हो सकता है हर दिन अच्छा ना हो, लेकिन हर दिन में कुछ न कुछ अच्छा होता है।*

    *सुप्रभात* 

The tree which these days is a cynosure of eyes had been flowering for a few days now but today it seemed to radiate flashes of whites in a random manner. Walking close to it and breathing in the mild fragrance i could make out not only flashes of white but even more. The pretty thing was a venue for ' Party Time'. Different kinds of bees, insects and butterflies going berserk dipping into one flower then next then again returning to the first but hurriedly flying off to take a sip from another.

Citharexylum spinosum or the fiddlewood tree. A graceful tree with fragrant, creamy white, tiny flowers. The wood perhaps is used to make stringed instruments hence the name 'Fiddlewood' but which ones i still have to know. It is not used for violin that much i know. Why i bought the plant not knowing anything what to talk of it being a tree was the instant attraction to the glossy bright green color of the leaves. Also i was quite taken with the color of the leaf stalk. A juicy orange. The seller did not bother telling me anything about it having blooms because i did not ask anything either. This was seven years earlier. The plant cried out for help outgrowing the twelve inch pot into which it was initially planted only then did i learn of it being a tree. Learning has been happening ever since but in bits. First the fact that the beautiful bright green foliage turns orange in early spring and finally falls off . Hence perhaps it is a deciduous tree. 

It left me wide-eyed the day i saw flower buds. Some elegance and grace in how they hung. Clusters that arched like fountains. Finally the flowering and the mild fragrance of the clusters. 

It was that first flowering day when i stayed awake till late that night and sought 'Google' to help me know it's name. Slept somewhat content and somewhat in wonder later after discovering not only the name or how to pronounce the name but quite a lot more. Funny facts that native birds don't nest on this tree and hence the local name 'Sitaranjan' . i have wondered if native birds have after all started nesting on sith-uh-REKS-il-um spy-NO-sum after being renamed Sita Ranjan or Sitaranjan. For now it suffices that butterflies and bees have taken quite a fancy to it.

Today it made my day special indeed when slightly irritated with unfinished chores i walked to the terrace to hydrate my babies. Seven years does not feel long when i stood close breathing in the gentle and mild aroma. After reaching maturity it has flowered regularly on time. i have captured photographs earlier too with the lone cute Lineblue. This butterfly which thought-to-have-gone-extinct reappeared much to the delight of lepidoterists. https://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi-news/butterfly-spotted-in-delhi-in-2018-was-last-seen-in-1962-researchers/story-zwdFFokFUUMZ4pt6x76ebJ.html

The celebrity butterfly resting on it made that day super-learning-special too. That day the learning centered more on the lil angel with tiny moving legs and glittering orange dot on the wings (Lineblue). 
Today not one or two but many butterflies hovering around it made it extra special even when the butterfly is commonly seen. At one time i counted and there were eight common Indian Pioneer butterflies. Some white with black, others having yellow quite pronounced and yet some who did have mist sprays of subdued yellow. It was magical. 

My friend would've felt the same magic i guess when she sent me a mobile picture of many white butterflies over a Moringa (Drumstick) tree. What kind of whites i would't know but many whites over a tree indeed can be a great sight.

The entire scenario refreshed the mind and body. After indulging later when i returned to my chores i was cheery and raring to go. Nature indeed has the power to renew and refresh. Couldn't agree with this Helen Keller quote more. Not only did i unplug from all the botheration i felt recharged too. i returned to my chores feeling the 'runner high' and completed most remembering to have enough time at my disposal to relax and do absolutely nothing.
Finally i would love to add to what i started with. Do one thing everyday that makes your heart sing for that would make your day the most beautiful day.   

   

Cravings Change with Age

This morning i received a forwarded whattsapp message from a friend who is enjoying her current posting in Myanmar. It had the ever so popular Ekla Chalo Re composition sung by Ms Shreya Ghosal. And as the music played the immortal words of Guru Rabindranath Tagore flashed by. Few if not all meaningful eternally relevant words by Tagore flashing on the screen as the song played. Jodi tor dak shune kyu na ashe tobe ekla cholo re
Currently i am wanting to focus on one of those words.
'' The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence. "
The week that was had many special dates. 7th May being one. It is celebrated by one and all and there are simple gatherings where the birthday of Guru Rabindranath Tagore is celebrated and his compositions sung.  
So here i am listening to'' Jodi tor dak shune kyu na ashe tobe ekla cholo re...'' Translation: If nobody responds to your call, then you move forward. My blogging may or may not be consistent with Guru's immortal words but this is what i have to say today. My mind having flashes of it's own of this peaceful nestled amidst forest, a region in the Doars of India called Alipurduar.

Some of us have the habit of making sweeping generalized statements. Like this one that if ever there was a food crisis the Chinese as a race will emerge because they would survive. They can eat anything and everything that moves. There is no scientific validity about that 'if' barring the fact that nature has a way of dealing with things and in nature either the species evolve or get obliterated. After all it is a survival of the fittest planet, this earth. i suppose that nature has a way of maintaining balance or for even providing if things go haywire.
For quite sometime now i have had strange food cravings. This was way before the lockdown. i remember telling my friends about my strange cravings. Biological Science has an explanation to 'Senior Citizen' cravings.
i don't know if that science has explanation for what i am having. Cravings that are not only sudden but also consistent. Most of us are quite familiar about expectant woman cravings and maybe science has research papers to explain that too. For those women who are 'expecting' the cravings might not only be for sweets but it could differ. Some crave sweets, some have cravings for salty or that which is sour. Talking about craving reminds me of that particular scene in the Bollywood movie 'Salaam Namastey' where pregnant Amber/ Amby Malhotra (Preity Zinta) has a sudden craving in the middle of the night to have nothing but Ben &Jerry's Belgian Dark Chocolate icecream. i have known friends who have wanted to eat Paani Puri or Chaat items all of a sudden when they were pregnant. When i was expectant with my first i craved crisp Jalebis and warm Gulab Jamuns.
Past one year or so i have realized these sudden cravings to have returned with vengeance and now as in today cravings are quite frequent for primitive and simple foods. Some that don't involve cooking at all but just mixing the available ingredients. Adding this and that and food is all ready to fulfill. Really don't know if Biological Sciences can explain post menopausal strange food cravings.
One thing i request for whosoever reading this is to understand that my cravings are not for what society has labelled as 'poor man's food'. Food is survival and it is none of our business to brand food as 'rich' or 'poor'. Hunger cows men and can make us eat whatever.
i was not born of pauper, begging parents nor am i lacking anything now. It's just that i am myself nonplussed as to how my mouth salivates at the thought of what i don't see but have known in fragments. A memory here and an experience there. Primitive because i don't see anyone talking about those foods what to talk of making them or eating them. Although there is not much making involved only assembling things and custom mixing them to suit the taste buds just as it is of so many delicious Indian snacks for example Bhelpuri. Primitive foods because my understanding so far of pre gas stove era or any stove era for that matter is that getting the cooking fires lit itself was a major task which was accomplished eventually nonetheless for all that must involve cooking ( frying, boiling...). Food for breakfast generally then were the initial fast foods, mostly leftovers from the previous night eaten with a ready made pickle or onion or perhaps even jaggery if the need arose.
During this period of lockdown people are forced for reasons best known to us and them of making do with whatever is available and there is a sudden boom of food videos be it on instagram or facebook or even whattsaap apart from very-depressing-to-me workout videos. But strange it may sound i wouldn't be interested in any of those food videos. Needless to say then that i delete the work out videos even without seeing them. i have urges of my own and who knows the universe might get the vibrations generated by my urges and provide me with videos that i seek. These days i roam the internet lapping in all the information about all the hitherto overlooked edible leaves and flowers that exist around us and just a few days back i was amazed to God's glory to read about Edible Dandelions. Yesterday i felt thrilled to forage edible purslane called noniya (Hindi) which had appeared naturally in my flower pots. Also enjoyed cooking it with Bengal lentils called Chana Dal . Decided to make a simple dry veggie dish mixing potato if more Noniya Saag appeared naturally in my flower pots.
i once called up a friend just to know what she was cooking because i had exhausted my own ideas and wanted easy vegetarian recipes. Secretly i wished my folks at home to mirror my own cravings and i think an epiphany of sorts was constantly happening regarding food.
Just like every other thing food is so personal and tastes undergo evolution too.
One cannot force one's tastes on another.
Everybody has their own cravings which could be based on their own memories of food that once was and is no longer easily available.
Only little babies, the old and sick eat without fussing and shaming food... .
Yeah more truths emerged. i have listed just a few.

Kumhror phool : Pumpkin Flower

i have waited for just Saag &Bhaat  posts and posts showing Maand Bhaat & Aloo Chokha.
Taste buds have undergone massive changes too and i think just like my Bitmoji avatar on my phone whatever we come across as healthy eating feels somewhat like a Bitmoji avatar. i did not come across what in the village i had once, a potpourri of sorts of the leftover cooked rice of the previous night. The leftover rice that remained in the container in which it was cooked and doused with some fresh water as if to soak the already cooked rice !
Early morning that rice mixed with ingredients like mango pickle spices, green chillies and raw onions !  My original first indigenous fast food breakfast. No cooking shooking just some chopping of raw ingredients and mixing them happily with the same amount of affection as one would happily cook.
Eating this eating that also has a fashionable status associated so much i have experienced. Chinese, Thai, Lebanese, Mexican and of late Sushi....then things have gone further and even more complicated. There are vegans and probably more 'ans' quite justifiably so. From oats to olive oil to exotic multi grained breads, red rice, black rice and recently quinoa pronounced keen-wa...
Not surprising when Gods could be in and out of fashion then why not food. First Natraj, then Ganesh and these days Buddha in all possible postures. Be it Food or Gods who are supposed to provide food, both can't escape 'trending now' status.

Simple stir fried mixed greens

My cravings being consistent i eagerly look for veggies that i could forage. Eating all kinds of edible greens with plain boiled white rice and freshly cut onion quarters. Not a salad which is a mix of cucumber, onion, carrots, tomatoes, radish and whatever one possesses... just plain onion quarters.
It forces me to think however that everything happens for a purpose and in order to satisfy my cravings, the cosmic forces in nature created situations which took me to a place where foraging for food is a common sight. West Bengal. Maybe not in the metro cities but small towns far from metros, not heard of generally foraging in the wilderness even, is indeed a common sight. That is if the food to be cooked is not to be found in the makeshift kitchen garden or nearby pond. Most individual homes have an area where vegetables or a couple of fruit trees grow, Banana clump a must and maybe guava or mango or any other and every few houses share a pond where one could forage for all kinds of the much loved fish.

Dhekia:

Diplazium esculentum the edible fern

My learning regarding healthy and sustainable eating reached new frontiers and i could acknowledge the amount of wasteful consumption that i have been indulging into all along. Bengali cooking has a perfect recipe to use the discards effectively. Delicious simple recipes for Cauliflower stalks, potato/bottle gourd peels, the thick stalks of greens that generally go to the dustbin, leaves of vegetables, flowers and buds of certain vegetables, even the tendrils you name it and all can be cooked into one yummy treat that not only satisfies the craving for primitive food palate but also indulges the soul. It's a feeling i can't describe. Eating and imagining all the vitamins, minerals, roughage reaching the various parts of the body which is famished for those providing not only nourishment but healing too. The essentials reaching even the brain which has a mind. The mind feeling blessed, feeling joy of yet another kind. Awe mixed with the thrill of discovering foods that exist all around us and will help us survive if only we cared enough to know them.
Food taken care of by nature and indeed not planted by humans but others. Birds/bees/ insects/animals all playing interconnected parts in that. From pollination to germination to seed dispersal and finally as being organic fertilizers that enrich the earth again. No wonder then i was healed from much of the pain i was suffering from. i felt healed inside out.
Today as i foraged and found flowers of pumpkin to make as fritter, a special treat for my craving palate i am posting a borrowed from you tube video which will not only show the recipe but also tell about the foraging for food sight i talked about.

It tugs my heart when i recollect the images. The 'Mothers' in taant sarees some wearing pola shakha bangles and others without picking 'stuff' from the green patches by the sides of the road, lurking and looking around near the boundary walls/fences searching and picking up the choicest leaves, collecting them in the makeshift pouch made in the overlapping folds of the taant saree ....
True it is when they say that when it has to happen things will automatically happen. We have no way of controlling what we need or when we need. Thanks to my husbands' posting in that particular region which falls under West Bengal i was in the right place at the right time to know that during one such occasion and i am forgetting if it was Bengal Nobo Borsho (New Year) or Bashonto Utsab (Spring Festival) a potpourri of 21 greens is prepared with the most simple ingredients easily available in any Indian kitchen. All one needs is, to raid the local vegetable market for most and perhaps forage for the rest. This special dish for the day apart from many other special dishes like crispy fritters made from edible flowers and a delicious paayesh ( pudding) made from aromatic small grained rice and nolen gur ( Date palm jaggery) .
Twenty one types of  greens and although i can't remember the names of all than what i already know of spinach, chenopodium, fenugreek, dill, purslane, amaranth- red and green, mustard, drumstick...! Sensing bliss through the palate with plain white boiled rice a bowl full of all kinds of edible greens from nature. Patua saag (Jute) and Dhekia saag (Fern) in that bowl of edible greens, my craving reaching fulfillment and satisfaction. Plain rice with nutritious greens and onion quarters.
What i crave of my village that i once visited as a child was something special too because i remember pickled spices scooped from mango pickle jars also added to this what West Bengal calls Panta Bhaat.
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/pantabhat--well-slept-rice-13162
i am sure most rice producing regions might be having their own versions of Panta Bhaat or Baasi  Bhaat.
Not really knowing the real reasons for such cravings to happen has nevertheless not stopped me from having theories of my own validated by my own experience.
a) It is also genetic and,
b) history repeats itself.
i recall my Ma who would cry out in her sleep and crave in her awakened state for Paeda ( Sweet fudge made from thickened milk). i remember being in the final year of graduation then. i also remember Papa taking care of that earnest request when she wanted the Amber-of-Salaam-Namastey-type Paeda and obliging her by getting special Kesariya Paeda ( Sweet fudge having real saffron strands for flavor and color) from Banaras. She is in heaven now perhaps not needing anything and experiencing what saints and seers describe as true BLISS land where one actually is 'wantless' or 'craveless' so as to speak.
Not that i don't miss her otherwise but in this too i can't help but regret not understanding her craving then and all of us poking fun at her. i wish i could go back in time and change that.
From craving Orange Marmalade to craving soupy noodles to the indigenous Bihari Baasi Bhaat, i told you it is getting weirder and weirder!!
Want to say more but i think i must refrain from making more sweeping generalized statements of my own. Will return soon to share my own recipe which took care of my craving. Not many but one which perhaps should be consistent with my own narration of foraging and eating happily.
Also the second Sunday of May i received Mother's Day messages too which instead of uplifting me made me miserable. i missed my Ma not especially on this day or when i have my cravings but always because in all that i do or all that is happening around me i know i have seen before when Ma was physically around.

Paintings that Flutter By

It would be more than interesting to know why it is called The Painted Lady although it was helpful to know much more apart from the fact that it has other names too. Courtesy https://www.thoughtco.com/facts-about-painted-lady-butterflies-1968172
i wouldn't be sure if it is a common butterfly simply because commonality too is very personal and depends on apart from the frequency of sighting to one's interest in them. i can't say then that The Painted Lady is as common as a crow. i was seeing them first time.
When i was a kid growing in Bihar i loved trying to catch butterflies only because it was thrilling to tiptoe, holding in the breath and missing them always but nevertheless going at it at the mere sight of one. The thrill of a challenging feat and it didn't really matter if i caught one but feeling super elated at the attempt itself. Those colorful butterflies of childhood days seen everywhere, in school gardens or in the deserted patches near home where thistles and other wildflowers grew are not seen anymore. It is heartening to know however that they are still around.Thanks to the field guide compiled by none other than the Butterfly Man of India Mr Issac Kehimkar.
As a kid i knew them just as a butterfly that one needs to catch and had no questions not even as to why it was called a butter although it did fly. Now thanks to the book i know that they are commonly called Jezebels. The Jezebel i mostly miss of my childhood is also having the prefix painted too. Painted Jezebel a white with black branching in a pattern stripes and having yellow, orange... if i remember them correctly. Today i have a question. Why are they called Jezebels !?.
The meaning of the name which "Often not capitalised : an impudent, shameless or morally unrestrained woman'' or " an immoral woman who deceives people in order to get what she wants."

Watching one now as a piece of live art i did not feel the thrill of childhood but curiosity mixed with awe as it probed to feed, my thoughts glued to the art which could be a clever mix of abstract and geometry. The mind seeking creativity most times started imagining a huge canvas with those patterns in it. Shades/hues of browns interspersed with white, powdery orange and salmon pink if i am describing the colors correctly.

Should i be marveling the artist Master Creator or the fact that science has explanation for everything be it the fusion art on the wings of the butterfly or the strange color combinations used to create unique masterpieces !
''The patterns on the wings can help protect butterflies from predators through camouflage, or warn predators that the butterfly's body is toxic, or help attract potential mates.''
Presently i want to believe that there is a Master Artist preparing yet another set of patterns using unique color combinations to blow my mind off and leave me yet again with one or more questions. 

Thirsty Mind is the Lucky Mind

Concerns are getting scarier especially when it is about the malaise that has struck the globe with no respite other than staying where you are and taking preventive/precautionary measures.
All around there is a feverish concern about lockdown but here i am beginning to feel greater than before. Some saying this and some saying that. Some doing this and some doing that to remain sane and calm during lockdown. Some using phrases like ‘burning a house to kill the rat’ and others using words like hell, curfew, detention, clampdown, confinement and what not to describe their feelings and i am beginning to wonder if it is crazy or mean of me to feel very fortunate especially now.

Nothing much has changed for me barring the frequent ordering of special takeaways online through the usual aggregators. i have more than enough to live well and do whatever i want to without having an iota of doubt if it is the correct thing to do during ‘trying times’.  

i continue to live each day as before doing chores that i must do and when i want to be entertained i have plenty to pick and choose. i can’t complain about anything but the usual. For example calling up the Chief Health Inspector and requesting him ‘fogging’ for the entire colony as there is a sudden influx of both Dengue and Malarial mosquitoes.

i deal with my health issues by diverting my mind and most importantly exercising the mind. i can’t help feeling blessed here too because i can.
Each first time encounter makes me smile like a cat who has just polished off a jar of fresh cream and is so certain that the next meal would be Ben & Jerry's Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream.  

The painful joints cease to exist when i am into my self-induced projects. The projects not only obliterate the unwanted but also give purpose to my mundane existence. Pre or post lockdown i have always been like that and feel thankful that my life has not been thrown off gear. The perfect formula for dealing with any kind of lows/blues or even boredom be it during this (lockdown) or any other is to create something to look forward to depending on what one is really passionate about. Never comparing or competing with others as to what they were doing but doing just for the love of it.

Among the so many things that i enjoy doing is arriving at my own discoveries while executing those mindful projects. Not that i am a committed- to -the -cause explorer but it is just that lady luck shines on me delivering me golden opportunities to quench my ever curious thirsty mind.

The picture of the beautiful exotic flower is that of a clover. Of course when my eyes chanced upon the tiny specks of delicious pink i did not know it's human nomenclature. Living in what the world is experiencing as ‘trying times’ and yet having at my disposal a vast seemingly endless resource called the internet at my disposal to satisfy the important and urgent needs, it took me less than ten minutes to know what it is.
Clover- Apart from pink there is a white flower and yellow flower clover too and they are great nitrogen fixers for the soil. So many new knowledge did i find https://momprepares.com/red-clover-an-edible-plant-that-packs-a-punch/

Not knowing what the beauty is would've left me in a state of tiresome restlessness just like how the ever so busy ever so moving world is facing during this scary lockdown. 

So not only the pink clover but all that the’ trying times’ are adding to my kitty will be featuring in my next blogs. But let me confess the treasures that add sparkle to my bored -with- everything mind are definitely not induced by lockdown. i have for a long time now attended classrooms without walls and have been content. i was urge free to share or blog. Absorbing the importance of each addition felt like the start of a fresh new episode of a binge worthy show and finding time to write/blog felt wearisome if not worrisome.

Last evening when i spoke to my Mother in law she was echoing the same contagious excitement of extreme gratefulness. She said she was eating better because the vegetable vendors were delivering straight -from- the- farm- to -home fresh fruits and vegetables. It felt even greater to analyze over a long warm chat without getting bored/snappy with each other as to why it could be so.

They say that a four leaf clover is hard to find but one who does is considered lucky. But this is what Ms Oprah Winfrey said about luck. She said that luck is what happens when preparedness meets opportunity. One must be prepared when opportunity came along. i believe not only me but there would be so many of us who would second that.