Fall colors

Today's painting

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School Days

Here at Texas , the summer vacations are over and the schools are reopening. Pretty late ha.. yes in India schools reopen by 1-2 July. Yesterday while we were out for a bit of groceries, we saw the huge shopping complex buzzing with children of all ages and their parents, all buying anything and everything remotely associated with school. There were "so-called" sales and discounts on all ACADEMICAL items. The scene made me smile and the memoirs of my school days came rushing into my thoughts.

The long summer vacation was always longed and welcomed. It started with the FINAL EXAMS and then the results. Either there was a month trip to my native or simply idling out. The mornings were cool , with cycling or morning walk listening to cooing of the koel. The afternoons were mainly a heart meal , and the doordarshan afternoon shows and some DIY projects of course. Evenings were either drawing classes or a visit to a friend's place(or vice versa) or games like "Hide and seek", "Land water", "Sithouli or pittuk" or simply "Pinky pinky what color" . Days flew away merrily.

 But soon enough the countdown for July started. The eagerness to meet old friends and make new ones flooded us. With the new class syllabus new books were bought, and with them came sets of new notebooks(or copies as we called them), pen pencils, geometry box and sometimes school bag. The books and notebooks were covered with brown paper and sometime polythene sheets. Oh it was such fun to select pretty name stickers (I loved the ones with Disney characters) , stick them on the notebooks and then write my name in the best calligraphic writing possible. Sometimes there were new uniforms as well. And just before the "school reopen" day, uniform was ironed , shoes polished , all the nail polish from nails removed, the bag was packed. Tomorrow would be a long exciting day, meeting old friends and teachers, finding who our class teacher and other subject teachers would be for this year, getting the time table, looking for the games and SUPW period in the timetable, sharing our lunches and stories of vacation during recess. Another year of studies and fun to embrace.

Oh!!! How much I miss my school days and my alma mater. Will miss you always St. Paul's School Gwalior and Christ Church Girls School Jabalpur.

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A few of the paints..

Latest paintings

poppies

With love

U n me in this beautiful world...

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Soiling my hand with B4,B6,B8..........

During the school days, when there was not much of assignments and home-works, and not much to do in the sleepy afternoon, hours were spent drawing and sketching.Soon Ma and Baba felt that I had a knack for the art, and drawing classes became my playground. Then I was more into sketching. Later I took to painting.

Its a long long time since I have sketched anything. Recently the dear hubby gifted me a set of colors and brushes. It fun again to play with colors. Hope I will sooner pick the pencils and charcoal as well.

Here is a collage of my sketches

Tagore or as we bengali lovingly call "Gurudev". My first portrait sketch was of Gurudev(no not this one, a more easier one). I love to sketch him. 

Cutie Pie

The Ever beautiful MadhuBala

The Gazal maestro

A snowy day

Hullabaloo in the berry orchard

A sunday at the church

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Miles apart

Sitting by the side of the pond , Amu was throwing pebbles in the water. She was in no mood of playing or climbing the trees to get ripe mangoes. Her friends had come to fetch her but she did not like their company right now. Her mind was travelling far far away into the distant unknown land , the land of luxuries , the land of freedom , the land where Priya belonged. Priya was the granddaughter of the erstwhile "Jamindar" (Zamindar) of their village. Although the Zamindari system had long been abolished , Roop Narayan Ray Chowdhuri was revered by all villagers. The Jamindar bari build on many many acres of land was magnificent, surrounded by jamun(gooseberry) and mango plantation. Roop Narayan's son Abhay Narayan Priya's father was working for an MNC(as told by Priya and Amu had no clue of what this was)and he , his family were living in Dilli. Priya had also told Amu that Dilli was the capital of Bharat but what exactly was a capital Amu could not understand. All she knew was the big town had buildings much much bigger than the magnificent Jamindar bari, and all people there were rich.



Every year Priya with her parents paid a visit to her dadu(grandfather) at Rampukur. The one month long vacation was always pure bliss. She loved the carefree , slaphappy village life. There were times when her parents stayed back at Kolkata, but she did not mind staying here. With no studies, just playing and wandering and her Dida's (grandma) recipes , she longed for this trip year long. She also longed for Amu. Amu's mother Sita was a helper(actually a servant) to Dida. Sita did almost all the household chores and helped Dida in the kitchen. Ma had told Priya that Amu was born the same day she was born. May be that was the reason why Priya and Amu had become best pals though they were from completely different societies. Priya had learnt a lot from Amu.. from swimming to climbing trees to making baskets from twigs and dried palm leaves to "how to read and write bengali". They spent their days picking the mangoes and jamun, swimming in the ponds, listening to the songs of koel, swinging on the banyan branch by the riverside. Sometimes Priya would steal some savories or delicacies for Amu, while at times Amu would bring aachar or jhaal muri(puffed rice) for her. They would get drenched in the rains or lie under the star studded sky locating constellations.


For Amu life would be wonderful during the sweaty summer days when Priya came to her Dadu's home. Although they were very rich and affluent, their doors were somehow never closed for Amu. Amu had many times crept into Priya's room .While others took their afternoon nap, she would amazingly peer into Priya's picturesque story books.Priya had taught her english alphabets so she could read the stories, but could not understand the meaning. Priya translated the stories to bengali for her. Priya would also bring gifts for her. Sometimes a story book, sometimes a sketchpen set or sometimes a doll. But what she(Amu) loved the most were the stories of the distant land, the tales of Priya's school, her friends and teachers, the fables of her tutions and dancing and drawing classes. She would be mystified to see the photos which Priya bought for her. The photos and the stories were her eyes to see Priya's wonderland. She wished one day she could see those with her own eyes.
.......
Priya was blankly gazing through the window of the Rajdhani Express. She with her family were heading for NewDelhi. From there they would leave for US in a week. Her father had got posted to the headoffice of his company. Her parents were very happy, but for Priya it was as if she was leaving a part of her at Rampukur. They said life at States was a lot busier with more of competition and more aristocracies. They would be moving to the land of Skyscrapers(as she had read in her GK book). Tears filled her eyes thinking she may never be back to enjoy the leisured life, with no studies and no classes and no competition.Life would be hell with no annual trip to her beloved village, no Dida - Dadu and above all no Amu. Oh how badly she envied Amu now, with all her(Amu's) freedom and a simple life.

Back at Rampukur, Amu was crying her heart out, her face hidden in her shabby cotton frock. Her only eyes to see the world outside Rampukur had left for a far distant land, a land which she would never see nor feel. A life which she enjoyed once a year, was taken away from her, a life full of stories and fairy tales , a life of knowledge and wisdom , a life which she did not have the right to live , that life would never be back. Now she felt jealous of Priya for the first time in her life.

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Frittata...

This is one another recipe which I have never tasted. I was just browsing through one of the recipe sites, when I happened to discover it. Since Mr Husband is a great egg -o -holic , I decided to give it a shot.Now the wiki says: "Frittata is an egg-based dish similar to an omelette or quiche, enriched with additional ingredients such as meats, cheeses, vegetables or pasta". The original recipe had sausages and bell peppers as ingredients , but since I didnt have either of them , I made my concoction.
Ingredients I used:
2 eggs
A small Tomato, A small onion, Green chilies
a slice of bread
grated cheese
A little oil and may be butter
To do:
Dice the tomatoes, chop the chilies and onion. Dice the slice of bread into very small squares. Heat a pan with a little oil. Add the onions. Saute till translucent. Now add the bread squares. You may add a little butter at this point. The bread soaks the butter which makes it yummy..(the bread was a substitute of sausage and believe me it tasted amazing with the buttered bread popping into your mouth now and then ) Now add the tomatoes and chilies. Season with salt.You can add veggies like pepper , mushroom. I had none with me today so had to keep with just these. Next time definitely. While the veggies get sauteed, beat the eggs vigorously with salt and black pepper, make sure the egg is fluffy . Spread the fried veggies evenly on the pan and now pour the beaten egg. Spread it evenly through out the pan. Cook on low flame. Once done, transfer it to a baking dish. Sprinkle grated cheese generously. Grill for 5 minutes in oven or till the cheese melts. Sprinkle chopped coriander, chilly flakes and oregano if you wish.
Raven with a cup of tea !!!!!!

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Dahi Baigan.. eggplant in curd gravy

During the good old doordarshan days, we had this afternoon children's program... It was a story of a kingdom , the kingdon of veggies and the king was our very own cute , plump "बैगन राजा".. donned in a beautiful green crown, then he ruled over the entire veg kingdom.. and he still does..

बैगन or বেগুন or eggplant or aubergine or melongene or guinea squash or  brinjal as it is lovingly called is many of our favorite. Be it Baigan ka Bharta or Bharwa Baigan or simple Begun Bhaja many of us can not say no to the humble vegetable. 

 I learnt this recipe from my most promising friend "THE INTERNET" , the site I have completely forgotten. I had never tasted the original recipe , but felt like giving it a shot. And it did turn out very well, tasty and refreshing specially in the hot parched summer.

For the recipe I used: 

A good chubby eggplant.. (can be substituted by the slender ones as well).

A cup of curd.

Few green chillies, fennel seeds (saunf) , asafoetida (heeng).

Cut the eggplant in long pieces. Smear salt and turmeric. Shallow fry the pieces. Dry excess oil in a kitchen towel. 

Keep the cup of curd ready.Add little salt, red chilli powder as per taste. You may add a little water in case the curd is thick. Make sure the mixture is smooth.

Now heat some oil in kadai. Temper with a pinch of heeng, 1-2 dry red chili , a few pods of cardamom, a teaspoon of  saunf, 2-3 slit green chillies. Now add the curd. Keep stirring for a few minutes so that no lumps are formed. Add the eggplant and simmer for another 5 minutes. Garnish with chopped coriander.

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