My World of Food and Travel

…..the husband was at play! With birds. Birds with wings, I mean. He had come to drop us at the airport and pulled a sad face, saying how much he will miss the baby and me and how empty the house will seem. It is another thing that I never received a phone call from him after I reached Guwahati, my maternal home. Instead, whenever I called him, he would be out somewhere busy clicking birds. I would further get rattled when he reported spotting birds that I was dying to catch a glimpse of.  So, in other words, the husband had a gala time while I was busy working at home for office and looking after a cranky kid. He had gallivanted all around our favourite birding spots in Bangalore and driven as far as Maidenahalli/ Jayamangali Blackbuck Sanctuary as well. Around Bangalore, he visited: Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary, Galibore, Mavathur lake, Valley School, Hoskote lake, Hessarghatta, Ragihalli, Hulimangala, Rampura lake and TG Halli. He had also gone to Manchanbele Dam and Thatteker...

Ah, those wonder years when we used to be a motley bunch of toothsome, giggly cousins, taking the world in our fast strides! We were a close-knit gang, we were then. While our ages varied from one corner to the other, nothing mattered when we were together. I was (and still am) especially thick with Mainoo Ba, a few years older than me. We used to chatter nineteen to a dozen, oblivious of everything around us. Steffi Graf and Boris Becker used to be our favourite point of conversation. She would tell us stories of Evil Dead at the dead of night, acting out the scenes lucidly, while jackals howled outside. As I and another of my younger cousins listened to her, a thought would creep to our minds. We would observe her curly hair covering half her face, the canine teeth...  “ Maybe Mainoo Ba is a vampire... ” She was also the original fashionista to my impressionable mind. What she did not know about fashion, was not fashion. Period. But tell that to the guys, the male cousins of...

And so, I am on vacation. Here, at my parents’ house in Guwahati. Let’s skip the part where I am super tensed about an upcoming report that I am currently working on. Yes, office work. Oh, did I just say that I am on vacation? Boo-hahaha.  Anyways, what I have decided is that whatever comes up, I shall NOT miss out on all that I had planned these long months. I will NOT go home regretting that I did not do this or go there or eat that. In fact, I am just back from Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary which is located in Mayong, the epicentre of (black) magic and I had a very good mind to cast an amazing spell over my boss for making me go through this difficult time. Oops I said that aloud. Okay, I think I feel a bit better after letting this out. So, ask me what I have been gorging on these days. Home grown fresh vegetables and luscious winter greens! My dad’s kitchen garden is stock full of my favourite leafy greens – mustard greens or lai xaak (in Assamese), to be precise. In fa...

I had come across this recipe in a favourite TV show of mine on Fox Traveller channel – ‘Food Safari’. The husband frequently asks me why I watch it, even the repeat telecasts of episodes. “I love knowing about different countries, their food culture and cuisines,” I reply stoically, keeping my eyes fixed on the TV. He would give up and go back to the comforts of his own laptop. Sometimes I could hear him mutter things like I-thought-I-was-lucky-to-have-a-wife-who-doesn’t-watch-serials-and-now-I-have-one-who-watches-food-shows.  One such day, I was engrossed in watching an episode on Indian cuisine when he walked past the TV with a grimace and then stopped. The chef was making Hyderabadi Chicken. Later, that weekend, as I was about to prepare lunch, he asked me  sotto voce if I would cook that chicken from that show.  “What chicken, what show?” I asked him, enjoying my position every bit. “You know, that show you watch, where someone keeps cooking and everyo...