100 Happy Days: Day 92 Mango Slices

Happiness is reviving childhood Memories

I remember the school days, while we waited for our school bus to arrive; we munched on raw mangoes, ripe tamarinds and sour berries. We never washed our hands before eating, just gobbled the food sold openly outside our school gates.

Not sure if the food was hygienic or not, but we never got sick after eating the street food.

Today, those memories came flooding back when I sprinkled red pepper and salt and ate the spicy snack of raw mangoes in the comfort of my home.

And yes, I washed the fruit first.

So here I am, with the project of ‘100 Happy Days’I am posting pictures each day here on my blog then sharing the link on my page on FB too. You can enjoy my work either here or on my page at FB at Pushee’s World

100 Happy Days: Day 80 Favorite Dhal

Happiness is cooking to revive childhood memories.

One of my favorite meals is 'Mah ki dhal with puffed buttered chapati.' The memories of enjoying this particular dhal traces back to childhood days, when my uncle used to enter the kitchen to churn out his favorite cuisine.

The word would spread around the house that nobody should enter the kitchen on that particular day; all the women of the house could attend to the other chores of the house and let uncle rule the kitchen. There were no pressure cookers and kitchen gadgets in those days, so the dhal would take hours to simmer on low charcoal fire. Everybody would wait anxiously for this special meal, and although it was just a simple dhal, it was cooked elegantly emitting rich flavors. At the end of the meal, everybody in the house would praise uncle profusely for having cooked a masterpiece.

Today, during lunch, I missed my uncle but had made the dhal following his recipe.

So here I am, with the project of ‘100 Happy Days’I am posting pictures each day here on my blog then sharing the link on my page on FB too. You can enjoy my work either here or on my page at FB at Pushee’s World

100 Happy Days: Day 29 Kullard Chai.

Happiness is ‘Sipping Kullard Chai on cold winter evenings’.

I remember those days when I used to make trips to Rajasthan by train. Somewhere at the stations, on cold winter early mornings; we used to drink hot tea in kullard (clay cups). It had its unique taste, maybe it was the clay or was it spices, I am not sure, but the memory of that tea lingered on for days.

That memory came alive during my recent trip to Jaipur. At the wedding celebration, the chaiwallah stood there, dressed up in traditional ethnic clothes, in the open lawn; with pot of tea steaming over the bed of coals and it was served to all in clay cups.

Was the taste same?

I am not sure. But the idea of having tea in clay cups on cold winter evenings did stir up the magical emotions.

One more reason to believe that going to Jaipur to experience and revive my childhood memories was all worth it.

So here I am, with the project of ‘100 Happy Days’I am posting pictures each day here on my blog then sharing the link on my page on FB too. You can enjoy my work either here or on my page at FB at Pushee’s World