Brown Eyes

If yours locked into mine,

Two pairs of browns,

Would the silence talk

Of you and of me,

Safe

In a fragile safety,

Loved

With an inflamed hatred,

Destroyed

By a violent innocence?

If yours locked into mine,
Two pairs of browns,
Would you find me pretty
Burnt, broken and beaten
Alive in dead flesh
Dismantled
Disfigured
And Disillusioned?

If yours locked into mine,

Two pairs of browns,

For the space of a blink

Or of a century

Would you hear me plead,

Silent, tortured, hungry

To let me love you

Just one more time?

Was written for someone I haven't found yet. Hope I do. If I don't, oh well.

North Bengal Tour '12 - Flora

If all Riots were of Colours

 Tour to Lava, Loleygaon, Rishyap, Kalimpong in North Bengal. Images of flowers and a few trees. Very few though! Enjoy.

Cactus Flower

More Cactus Flower

Even More Cactus Flower

Not again Cactus Flower? Yes again.

Hydrangea Hill

The Half Bloom

Baby Strawberry. Nah, Raspberry

Wild Rose

Colonization

Tree Light

North Bengal Tour '12 - Beasts

All creatures great and small.....
Some animals and birds I captured during my recent tour to Lava, Loleygaon, Rishyap, Kalimpong in North Bengal. Enjoy, there is more to come :-)

Shera @ Kalimpong

Dragon-fly (wish I could remove the fly from the name)

Head first

Moth Tales

Hello Sparrow

Bow-Wow Cloud

Beetle Mania

Honey Assignment

Neigh

More bugs!

Bee-Eater

ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN

This one's by Robert Fulghum, from his book "All I really need to know  I learned in kindergarten." I personal favourite.


All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school.

These are the things I learned:

• Share everything.
• Play fair.
• Don't hit people.
• Put things back where you found them.
• Clean up your own mess.
• Don't take things that aren't yours.
• Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
• Wash your hands before you eat.
• Flush.
• Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
• Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
• Take a nap every afternoon.
• When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
• Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
• Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
• And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.

And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out in the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

[Source: "ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN" by Robert Fulghum.  See his web site at http://www.robertfulghum.com/  ]

Calcutta Foodie - I

Yes, I'm a Bong. Yes, I'm a foodie. Yes, I'm a Calcuttan. And yes, I don't stay in the city any more.

I come back, sometimes. As I was stepping out of the aero-bridge, I noticed one of the officials speaking urgently into his walkie-talkie, with a few others huddled around him. The question being asked with so much intent? "Score koto holo?" (What's the score?) I grinned. I was back in Cal.

A friend suggested I do a few posts on my favourite Bong food. Since the blog is a medley of so much, I thought, why not, maybe I can go beyond the typical phuchhka-rasgulla-illish line.

I propose to start with one of the humblest : the churmur. It's a byproduct of its more illustrious cousin, the phuchhka. You get it at any phuchhka-walas any where in the city. In fact, the previous statement was such a gospel truth for a thorough-bred Calcutta girl like me, that I made the mistake of asking for churmur from a panipuri seller even when I moved 3000kms away. He had never heard of it. D-oh! But then, there was also the moment of glory when I did find someone who not only knew what it was, but even proceeded to make it for me, the same 3000kms away. There is a God.

The name “churmur” is probably derived from the crunching sound made while eating it. Simply put, it's a generous helping of boiled potatoes (generous being defined by the generosity of your phuchhka-wala), some dry gol-gappas, chopped chillies, onions, boiled white peas all mashed together with chaat masala and the strongest tamarind juice you can find. 
So, the ingredients, listed out, would be :

• 2 medium size potatoes, boiled 
• Quarter cup white peas, soaked overnight and boiled 
• 1 small red onion, finely chopped 
• Handful of coriander, finely chopped 
• 4-5 green chilies, finely chopped 
• 1 tablespoon tamarind pulp 
• 2 teaspoons dry roasted cumin and coriander seeds, roughly crushed
• 1 teaspoon red chili powder 
• 1 teaspoon Chaat masala 
• Half teaspoon black salt 
• 8-10 readymade gol gappas 

There's a recipe coming up, but later.


I think, and my friends would agree, that this churmur probably made for at least half of our nutrition throughout our school days. It had definitely more matter in it , compared to the teeny amount of potato stuffing one could get for the same money's worth of anything else, including our beloved phuchhkas. Fancy stuff, which we gorge upon now, was way beyond the budget, with 20 rupees amounting to a veritable feast.  I remember we had Maths classes after school, 5-7pm again 7:30-9:30pm. It was an ordeal for the most dedicated. But we survived on that measly half an hour break, when we used to run two blocks away for a helping of churmur, laughing over our mad dash, eyes and ears streaming from the heat of the chillies, getting lock-jawed from the unbearably sour tamarind. 


There isn't really a very complex way of preparing the thing, anyway. Put all the dry things together, including the potatoes, but not the gol gappa-s, and mash it up. Squeeze out the juice from the tamarind pulp, adding water if you need to dilute it. Add to the mix, just so the whole thing keeps together, but is not runny. Crush the dry gol gappas, and toss the whole thing together. Top off with the coriander, and have before it gets soggy (remember the origins of the name!).


I got the singular soul who is enlightened in the way of churmur-making  in my university-town, to prepare it for one of my friends. My friend isn't one the most lily-livered ones when it comes to food, but the face he made on putting the first spoonful into his mouth, had me laughing at the fact that the heady mixture of tangy-and-spicy was probably a bit too much on the first go. Maybe it's an acquired taste. Oh well, maybe I can convert them all. After all, I am a Bong, a Calcuttan and a Foodie. And that is one heady mixture, I've been told!




photos : https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW2GsGlqXcgR6jVxM3DRVZzfUqK2EbK2tvYzBYqeZvbwFGOQA_HoNn_Ti8JJOkIcrMelw4BOeFaVQ6YyZDyDe4iax8NhsWDvw7Vb_HLQqcbGzyfnCbWBM60qA0wLZp0QMXp_ysa5ZmViQ/s1600/churmur7.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgckvABqIPy48VrOGwN2CDGePXvuvr_WGkmbpqW4N5ChyphenhyphendarCE6eWhSEKtaOYQ1hjU6HOYAGInd2uQjRHN4_pcVQYrc2s9svUp95DGjCxOKFOA22xKHpZjNHLJtmC0hxkA-45akiTzGqkzo/s1600/DSC07639.JPG

Get Out of Bed - by Diane Shore

A spot of humour for today. Everything around was turning too ominous, thought I should lighten the mood. This has been one of my favourite poems ever to giggle on. The first time I read it, the ending really had me rolling on the floor. And it still elicits laughter, after all these years. I won't give away a spoiler, if you haven't read it yet! And even if you have, go ahead and read it once more. Have a laugh, it doesn't hurt.

Get Out of Bed!

                                      ~ Diane Z. Shore

"Get out of bed, you silly fool!

Get up right now, it's time for school.

If you don't dress without a fuss,

I'll throw you naked on the bus!"

"Oh, Mom, don't make me go today.

I'm feeling worse than yesterday.

You don't know what I'm going through.

I've got a strange, rare case of flu.

"My body aches, my throat is sore. 

I'm sure I'm knocking on death's door.

You can't send me to school-achoo!-

'Cause everyone could get it, too.

"Besides, the kids despise me there.

They always tease and always stare.

And all the teachers know my name.

When something's wrong, it's me they blame."

"You faked a headache yesterday.

Don't pull that stuff on me today.

Stop acting like a silly fool-

The principal cannot skip school!"

Told you, it was a good one! Hope that brought a smile, and I'll see you around folks.

Text © Diane Z. Shore, reprinted from If Kids Ruled the School published by Meadowbrook Press.

Need to be Purred

At least once a day our old black cat comes to one us in a way that we've all come to see as a special request. It does not mean he wants to be fed or to be let out or anything of that sort. His need is for something very different. If you have a lap handy, he'll jump into it; if you don't, he's likely to stand there looking wistful until you make him one. Once in it, he begins to vibrate almost before you stroke his back, scratch his chin and tell him over and over what a good kitty he is. Then his motor really revs up; he squirms to get comfortable; he "makes big hands." Every once in a while one of his purrs gets out of control and turns into a snort. He looks at you with wide open eyes of adoration, and he gives you the cat's long slow blink of ultimate trust. After a while, little by little, he quiets down. If he senses that it's all right, he may stay in your lap for a cozy nap. But he is just as likely to hop down and stroll away about his business. Either way, he's all right. Our daughter puts it simply: "Blackie needs to be purred."


(from The Gentlest Need by Fred T. Wilhelms from Chicken Soup for the Soul, Copyright 1993 by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen.)


And so do we all. Purred, petted, loved. Sometimes to put chaotic minds to order. Sometimes to heal. And sometimes just to remind ourselves that everything is all right. 


A friend reminded me of a classic saying, "Love is the irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired." I happen to agree. But magic such as that is hard to come by in yours truly's ordinary life. Oh well, I'll settle for warmth and happiness instead of fireworks and ecstasy. Not really such a bad deal. And if I may use our Harry Potter lingo, it "Exceeds Expectations". 


Don't get me wrong, its just baby steps, long way to go as yet. I am not even half-way close to what I really want, that is to be perfectly comfortable with myself. And maybe, eventually, with other people too. One does dream, you know. But I believe they are steps in the right direction. Let's wait and watch, shall we?






 Photo courtesy: http://www.visualphotos.com/photo/1x5067785/Woman_petting_black_cat_6N6555.jpg, Copyright VisualPhotos.com