RAJNIGANDHA

RAJNIGANDHA 

 " Rajnigandha phool tumhari mehke anuragi man mein..........

This beautiful bollywood classic song explains the beauty of this fragrant Rajnigandha flower and how it strirs heart strings. 

Let's go down to my memory lane. 

I am taking you all today to a beautiful Bengali marriage reception.

My father's close associate, friend, brother what not was he. Our dear Kaku and Kaki Maa.

Our Kaku used to stay in a remote village of Bengal. How he came in contact with Acchan I really don't know as I was a small kid then. My Acchan as I have described to you all before, was  hell bound in helping anyone. And he did so in a graduer manner too. So when our Kaku( Kayal Uncle) was getting married. Acchan arranged his reception in Kolkata and his wedding night in our home. 

Acchan wanted Kaku's wife to be received as a Bahu or Bau Maa in a grand manner and that, she should also see the beauty of the Kolkata city. Thus he arranged everything. Our house was decorated beautifully with lights all over and beautiful flowers malas. The entrance to our building too was very beautifully decorated

I have a very vague picture of all this. I remember, the house bustling with noise and children running around I think people might have come along with the groom and bride. Amma as usual was busy in kitchen and attending guests. 

Now coming to the part of my story.  As a child what I remembered the most is the fully decorated bed for the couple. The bed was decorated beautifully with Rajnigandha flowers nettted beautifully into a cover hanging from the top to bottom as a pardha( curtain) with rose flowers in between propping up. The fragrance of Rajnigandha was mesmerizing.I cannot exactly pen down the beauty. There were small diyaas all over lit up beautifully. And room was smoked with Chandan incense sticks. The room was really beautifully decorated as I have seen in movies  for the newly wedded couple, and I was fascinated by it. I wanted to touch it, wanted to climb on to the bed, I wanted to experience the feel of a new bed cover. But wasn't allowed to even go nearby I was cautioned by Amma every now and then.

A small Pandal too was set up in our terrace for the dinner, I suppose, for I remembered having dinner sitting there on a bench and it being difficult for me to reach the table. 

Now the time to receive the Bau Maa arrived all ladies qued up with Aarti trays blowing conch, and sprinkling rose water and making ululation sounds.  The bride was taken to her decorated room. She (Kaki) was sitting her head covered in beautiful red saree) I could only see gold bangles adorned hands and her alta painted feet. So beautiful it was. Wanted to peek into her face too bit wasn't allowed by the elders. The crowd crowding there was disbursed off and the bride waited for the bride groom.

Next morning I waited eagerly to watch the bride. Kaki was very sweet she called us all children to come near her we all rounded up around her and was quietly watching her beautiful face, her jwellery, her saree so beautiful she was. 

They thanked Acchan for the beautiful arrangements and they still do, till date. They remember it as the best part of their life. 

We siblings had met them three years before in Kolkata what a warm welcome they gave us siblings. The warmth and affection was very heart felt. They miss Acchan a lot and remember him always.

Rajnigandha has always been a favourite of my Acchan. Acchan always used to keep up his commitments  even in his busy schedules. He would be sending a bouquet of Rajnigandha flowers ,on birthdays, wedding anniversaries, etc. to his friends and near ones without fail. His small gestures had always spread the fragrance of love and warmth in everyone's heart.

Which is remembered by our family and friends even today. It's been a long twenty two years now since Acchan left for his heavenly abode. But the gesture he showed is swaying and spreading its fragrance like the Rajnigandha flowers.

A vase full of Rajnigandha flowers used to adorn a corner of our hall always.

And it's still our favourite. Some is blooming in my terrace garden.

Pic courtesy: Google images 

Vishwakarma Puja

VISHWAKARMA PUJA 

 It's been a very very long time since I have penned down something on my blog page.

Sometimes you simply lost the way of expressing your thoughts and penning it down. 

A memory flashed back and am penning it down 👇 

Once again taking you all down my memory lane.

Going through my old posts you all must have come to know about my family and my Acchan's profession. My Acchan had started a business after working for a decade and a half in the early 70's. 

Kolkata as we all know,  though a heaven of Bengalees, was mostly inhabited by the business class people, called Marwaris. They were mostly the cloth merchants wholesalers, goldsmith and jwellery shop owners all flourishing well and occupying almost 45% of Kolkata and Kolkata people.

As coming to my part of the story my school friends were mainly Marwari kids who would be showcasing their valuable things and would be posing as richi rich kids always boasting about their father's business.

Now since my Acchan too had turned into doing business and had set up quiet  a large factory outlet. I too was feeling wealthy and rich. I had a very narrow mindset then. I looked upon the people working for us in a very bad manner, feeling no gratitude or humbleness towards them. I just considered them as paid workers working for us, and  felt  what's so great about them? I was just flying high in that state of mind. This attitude of mine was further hyped by my Bollywood films who showcaseses the rich in a very rich manner exploiting the poor.

I wait the whole year to set myself into my princess role on the occasion of Vishwakarma Puja in front of the factory workers.

Vishwakarma Puja comes in the month of September on 17th. Vishwakarma Puja was a Puja done for the prosperity of yourself and your business and to all the employees working with you and who all help you to achieve your success. Thus it's a festival mainly of the workers. They take a great pride in setting up the Pandal and to do the Puja with a grand feast. The focus was mainly on the feast. Bengal and Bengali festival is nothing without a grand decoration and a sumptuous feast. So a week planning is all set to make the occasion grand. I used to love the ambience and also the feast.

As my Acchan was the owner, he and his family is called specifically to honour the occasion and is greeted in a special way. We all used to reach the factory in my Acchan's car by 11am. I would be dressed in my fine attire all bloomed up with pride, waiting for the car door to be opend by someone, and lol, I will zoom out in a filmy heroine manner, without giving a glance to those people and would rush to the office cabin of my Acchan. We all would sit around Acchan and people will bring the welcome drink sweets and what not. They would be so perplexed on what to be served and how to please us and how nicely to greet. These all honour felt to me like I being treated as a princess.

I felt pride when they called my Acchan Bade Babu and us all Didi ra... I will be on cloud nine. There would be lot of entertainment programs and music would be played the whole day in the Pandal. All workers would gather around to have a glimpse of their Bade Babu's family all would politely greet us with gesture. I loved the feast a lot . They put all their efforts to make it very tasty and sumptuous. But what was the most  important to me was the attention gained and a day being honoured as princess. This felt somehow very nice to me and I used to feel like some big shot. I would eagerly be waiting for the next day in school to tell my tale to my class mates in an exaggerated way. 

The wait continues for the next year Vishwakarma Puja, for we family members visited the factory only once in a year.

As I grew up and when I started doing job in a different state around different people, thus could I make out diffrence of being humble and modest and the value of workers. For now, I myself was placed in their shoes and was myself a small employee under the threshold of somebody and my co- workers.

I am a changed person now with lots of gratitude to all those workers who had put down their efforts to gain their bread and butter and worked day and night to our progress and prosperity. My Acchan was a godily figure to them he was the most humble and a good caretaker.

I am focusing here how the surroundings of school and school friends, their talks, effects a child and how their thinking changes entirely. The thirst for attention and hype is what mattered most to them, due to their ignorance as a child. 

My Amma and Acchan were a epitome of sympathy care and humbleness which I started understanding when I was into my late teens. I learnt a lot from them and am blessed to be their daughter.

...............x...............x..............x..............x...........

Pic courtesy: Google images 

Please readers do give your valuable comments in the comment box below 👇 

"HOLI" The festival of clours

HOLI

Holi is the festival of colours which is celebrated mostly in the northern parts of India, and the other parts of the world. It's a festival of love and warmth and is addressed as the "festival of colours". It comes, just, after the month of Basant, in Phalguni month. Basant is the month of Spring as per the Hindu Calendar, when flowers blooms spreading its fragrance in the air making it a best anecdotes for love and romance; and the whole atmosphere becomes full of passion and fervor. Thus, as believed, this marks the passion of love for Lord Krishna by Radha Rani. In Barsana, ( a town in Uttarpradesh )which is also the birth place of Radha Rani, an entire month, is dedicated (spent) to Holi celebration and is celebrated, honouring Radha Rani and Lord Krishna's pure love for eachother. The atmosphere being coloured thus, becomes beautiful  like a rainbow.

All said, I would now, take you all down my memory lane where I was just a little girl of 13yrs.

I am talking about the era of 70s-80s.  

As I had mentioned many times in my earlier posts about my house and it's surroundings, and about the main Market place, I would be focusing on it, and telling you all about it.

Due to the Holi festival the Market was crowded with hustle bustle and noise all around. The shops were adorned with colourful packets of colours, and "PICHKARI" ( it is a pump to fill coloured water to spray on each other as an ordeal of playing Holi). The other method of spraying coloured water is by filling balloons either with plain water or coloured water. People with little children would flock  the market place to buy colours, pichkari and balloons. I loved to watch all this from my balcony. 

On the day of Holi the streets would be full of "Maston ki toli " means group of people singing and dancing and throwing colours on eachother they will be just roaming around  with dholak baja, and bhajiya. And to sooth themselves, as well as their throats, they will be having thandai( Thandai is a sweetened milk made with almond and melon seeds paste,,). But, during Holi to make the festival more funny and humourous they add an addictive called "Bhang" It's learnt that this Bhang is such an addictive that if you laugh while sipping it down you will keep on laughing and if you're crying then you will cry your heart out. So mostly people being in festive mood just to play pranks, would be adding this in drink and passing on  to each other, all would be dancing and swaying in addiction, unknown  of the actual situation and their surroundings.

Now coming to my story, as penned down in my earlier posts, it's was, those, time when my home was filled with many people mostly my cousins all pranksters. The building opposite to ours were families with children who were mostly boys and all hardcore pranksters waiting for an opportunity to play pranks. The building was taller than ours, and thus their aim in throwing colours on us was very much easier and their sole intentions was to hurt us. Our terrace too would be filled with boys ( my cousins, and the only exception we three sis) no one could be recognised with the coloured faces and they all looked like jokers or zombies. We used to laugh our heart out throwing colours, singing  laughing loudly and playing Holi in a joyful way. But the people on the opposite building was creating nuisance by aiming us, and throwing balloons, filled with water. It's was really hurting. They were just enjoying our embarassment.

The flaw of this festival is that people with coloured faces unable to be recognised takes undue advantage of everything, eve teasing, and  bullying,  girls, if ,they are out, on the roads or at market places. They, then becomes, a true victim, to these assaults. So girls often do not go out to avoid the mishappenings. There is a saying too which is most popular and is commonly used by these road Romeos.(The sadak Chaps) ,"BURA NA MANO HOLI HAI" which means "please do not mind it's HOLI" . Taking this shield they harass girls. The same was happening with us from the other parties, on the terrace of the opposite building. Now my cousin brothers were fury with anger and they were in a mood to fight it though. First they started flying the balloons filled with water with good aims. It was hitting them but they started ducking now. Since the building was in height, their hideouts couldn't be seen.

My brothers were planning what to do next how to aim them properly, wherein my Amma (mother) came to us with eatables. She had bought a plate full of ripened jackfruit. We washed our hands and started hogging. Just at that moment seeing our silence, heads from the opposite building started popping out and lo! My cousin brothers got a lot of jackfruit peels and aiming a good aim they started throwing the peels just like gun shots. They  threw the hard skin of jackfruit on to their faces and what a good aim. Their faces were smeared with jackfruit pulp. And here my brothers started shouting " BURA NA MANO HOLI HAI" we too joined in making funny faces, what a "Holi" it was, how well we all played till afternoon in the festival mood.

My cousin brothers now decided to go to their office colleagues place for celebrations and masti. And guess what happened....

Most of  them returned laughing and mostly crying ......

 "BHANG KA NASHA CHAD CHUKA THA"

The "BHANG" had played it's tricks. ......

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

        "HOLI HAI "

Pic courtesy: Google Images 

Pic courtesy : Kasturi restaurant Kolkata 

" HELP "

HELP

Today on this International Women's Day, I dedicate my post to all those "HELP" around us who help us out to smoothen our day to day life.

The most important one being the House Maid or the Nanny.

Here I will  pen down about my daughter's Nanny BASANTI. I had written earlier, in my older post, "Chutki", about me, being a Govt. Servant and also, about an additional help, I will be referring her in this post.Since, I was hesitant to leave my child in a creche or daycare, I had taken an year long leave, along with my maternity leave, to look after my little baby, until I could find a good caretaker. As luck would have it, my distant relative arranged it for us. Basanti was a house help working for them. She used to work in many household to maintain her family of six children. Thus she insisted that she should be paid a good amount, as, from now on, she would have to leave all the rest of the  household jobs.  Since she was trustworthy and has been working at my cousin's house for a long time, we agreed to her demand.

Basanti came to our home to care for my little angel. She was an eight month's old baby just learning to sit. We kept an additional help to do the mopping, dusting, washing,and  cleaning the utensils. I had asked Basanti not to do any other house hold work . She was advised, to just, focus, on my Chutki. I was at ease when I handed over my baby to her. I joined my duty with a peaceful  mind. I was sure my baby is in safe hands. 

Basanti looked after my child well. I missed out most of my child's earlier years of growing up. She tackled her teething, her first step, her babbling, all missed out by me. Now the time had arrived for my baby 's admission to the kindergarten. Here too Basanti was a great help. She would come early and would accompany my little angel to her Kindergarten in her school bus and would wait outside till the school gets over. 

We never give a heed to these things, we often take them ( people like Basanti) for granted,  " oh so what they are paid na", without realising the value of those moments and the sacrifices they have done to protect our child's well being. I am really greatful to God to have send this good soul to us to help us out in the need of the hour.

Basanti was with us till my daughter started going to college. She took immense care in her adolescence her higher studies, tensions, mood swings, carrying her to her tution classes her extra caricular activities. All she carried out well.

She had to leave due to her health conditions and plus her son's too were now working and her financial conditions improved so they too didn't wanted her to work any more. 

She is still in touch with us,me, and my daughter, makes an effort, to visit,  her place, once a year, to checkout on her whereabouts, and well being.

Like her there are so many out there, helping us out. Like the Jadu Pocha wali, Koodawali, Dhoban, Sweeper, ........so many.

God bless them all without their help we all would have been in a chaotic situation and our back would have been bend under the overburdened work. 

They are our unsung heroes who play a vital role in our life.

A big salute🙋‍♀️ to these women who help us out unconditionally.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Label: Tribute 

Pic courtesy: Google Images 

"NB": Readers please put down 👇 your valuable comments in the comment box below 👇

Chembu kootaan( Taro roots curry)

 

TARO ROOTS 

Ingredients 

1. Taro roots   : 1/2 kg

2.  Turmeric powder: 1/2 teaspoon 

3. Chilli powder: 1 teaspoon 

4. Shallots or small onions chopped ( 1/2 cup)

5. Curry leaves a few

6. Coconut oil for tampering : 2 table spoon

7. Salt to taste

8. Water : for boiling 

Method:

Clean the Taro roots well. Remove the skin. Cut it into small pieces. Mom used to make this in ( kal chetti) black stone vessel. You can try out in clay pots too or the easy way in cooker. Add the washed cleaned and cut Taro roots in the vessel add turmeric powder, chilli powder, salt and water. Water should be  1 inch above the taro. It should be well soaked. Now boil the whole thing until it's soft and mushy. Check the salt. Add curry leaves and remove from fire.

If you are making in a cooker add the taro roots cut into pieces chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt with two cups water and boil until four whistle. Cool it down open the lid and add curry leaves.

Now for the tempering, heat a small pan add two table spoon coconut oil when hot add the chopped onions or shallots, fry until brown. Add this tempering to the boiled taro mixture. Mix well and your curry is ready to be eaten with steamed rice.

Best accompaniment is lemon pickle.

Cherish this curry with hot steamed rice, roasted papad and lemon pickle.

Pic courtesy: Google images 

Label: Mom's Delight