The day that dawned differently

The phone was vibrating. It was past midnight. A flood alert has been issued.

Winds were howling outside and there were flashes of thunder.

It is a big day for Lil S and us as well. S was going to start his day care. I looked at him, sleeping peacefully in his crib next to us. P was in his night shift, he was supposed to get back home by 800 AM. I felt a little uneasy. Houston gets water logged very quickly, will he be able to make home safe, I thought and drifted back to sleep.


As the dawn broke, there were series of weather alerts in my phone. I called up the daycare, automated voice message told me due to inclement weather the day care is closed.
I felt like a little girl, who said "yay, rains"!

Outside the windows, trees were swaying with the downpour.There was watery silence everywhere - the steady drift of water on the bark of pine trees next to our balcony, the swimming pool brim almost overflowing. Raindrops seemed to have kissed the Kalanchoes and Jasmines.

P called back from work and asked if we are going to  have Khichuri for lunch!

The best thing about rainy day is to eat comfort food. Nothing quite compares the joy of having piping hot khichuri and spicy fries on a rainy day.
A Khichuri is a hearty meal made up of rice, lentils and veggies, served with a dollop of ghee (clarified butter).
Our lunch plates looked like this : Khichuri, dim bhaja (omelette), potol bhaja (pointed gourd fries), tomato chutney. I also made a drink of green mangoes!

I meant to share the recipe of green  mango juice or aam pana. Ideally a green mango is roasted in open fire. Pulp is extracted, mixed with spices to create the drink. But I don't have a ready access to open fire, I had to resort to simple boiling .

Recipe for aam pana /green mango drink  ( serves 2)

1 green mango
1/2 teaspoon of grated ginger
Roasted spices :2 teaspoon  (1 teaspoon cumin, 1 teaspoon coriander and 1 dried red chilly slightly roasted, crushed to powder)
Rock salt : as you need
Sugar as you need
Water to boil

Method:

• Wash the mango and chop it into big chunks
• Bring water to boil. Add the grated ginger. Add a pinch of rock salt and sugar
• Add the mango pieces, cover it and let it boil until the pulp becomes tender
• Once it is soft, turn off heat and let it cool completely
• Scoop out the mango pulp. Add the roasted spices, rock salt and sugar. Your concentrate is ready.

For serving : take generous scoop of the mixed pulp and add to cold water. Add more rock salt and sugar and enjoy!

Half tone

The other morning, I was feeling a bit feverish . Baby S was up all the night and so was I.

Early in the morning I fell asleep for sometime, but when I woke up, I didn't feel fresh. I was dragging myself. Maa could feel that am feeling heavy and feverish. When she came back from market, she presented me a box of oil pastels!

 As I opened the box, I could recollect the familiar smell of childhood, when a box of oil pastel would accompany me on quiet summer afternoons. I haven't picked up oil pastels for a long time and I was not sure what am going to draw. The box had 50 shades of pastel and a scraping tool inside. As I was looking at the box, I saw at the back of it there is a small list of possibilities that could be achieved with the pastels! And somewhere it did mention "scraping".It did capture my attention!

So I tinkered in oil pastel for the next couple of days and am happy that my Maa had urged me to try colors!

The art of scratching or sgraffito is an old technique, but I had never tried it before. I had no expectations of the final outcome when I picked up the scratching tool. Essentially, one keeps on covering a surface with layers of color ( ideally from light shades to darker shades). Once sufficient number of layers are done, it's time to scrape off  ( it could be anything : knife/bamboo skewer or any other pointed object) to expose the texture and shape of an image.

 As I kept on scraping, I felt like sharp rays of light emanating against dark background. I felt like I was liberating an image beneath the layers of darkness.

The box of Camlin Kokuyo Oil Pastels was almost of buttery consistency, the pastel sticks did slide on the paper effortlessly.

Here is my work! The inspiration for these sketches are drawn from various sources on the internet.

Stages of layering

Image inspiration : Art work of Shri Sudhi Ranjan Mukherjee, Shantiniketan.

One can add more variation by doing a mix media project : instead of using a normal art paper, use a pastel board ( clay added to induce more grainyness/friction). For beginners, another tip would be to use stencils, instead of sketching from scratch.

There are loads of inspirational projects available on internet. Read more about this from here:sgraffito

Travelogue - 2016 short spring break

I spent a lot in lands afar
I've gone to see the mountains
The oceans I have been to view
But I haven't seen with these eyes
Just two steps from my home lies
On a sheaf of a paddy grain
A glistening drop of a dew

As a family we always have enjoyed traveling to historic sites and we always had the notion that in order to visit history we need to have a train/plane ride . Couple of years back I first read about Chandraketugarh in one of the local newspaper. A site in North 24 parganas , where historical relics dating back to Maurya age have been excavated. I was  surprised realizing that the site is not afar from our residence in Kolkata. This spring, we decided to visit Chandraketugarh.
 The GPS showed that it is a fairly straightforward route, via Taki road and our destination is only 40kms away.
It was Good Friday weekend, the city roads were fairly quiet.
As we drove past Madhyamgram, the cityscape was replaced by greenery. Maa and Pupu had packed grilled sandwiches and sondesh, we savoured them enroute.

At Chandraketugarh there are two prominent look outs- the mound of Baraha-Mihir and the ancient fort of Chandraketugarh.The mound of Baraha-Mihir lies close to present day Berachampa. Archaeological digs were carried out in 1956-57 and it revealed the remains of a polygonal brick temple.

A 5 mins drive from this place leads to the second look out, unexcavated mound of ancient fort city Chandraketugarh. This site is covered with trees and on a first glance it looks more like a park than a fort.

Chandraketugarh was important city 2500 years ago. Being at the close proximity of the rivers Ganga and Padma, Chandraketugarh was an important port town of past. It has yielded silver and copper coins, terracotta figurines, beaded jewelery, various objects of metals and bones.

Many archeological remains were discovered by the Ashutosh Museum of Calcutta University. A significant amount of old relics have been collected by Shri Dilip Kumar Maite, who is a native of the place and also an avid history enthusiast. His residence has a small mueum which is open to all. The humble museum has impressive displays of various kinds of artefacts. We didn't get a chance to meet him, but his son was kind enough to show and explain the significance of the exhibits.
History enthusiasts may also go through his books on the history of Chandraketugarh: "Itihashe Deganga" and " Chandraketugarh ".


Apart from historical significance of the area, there are more earthly pleasures. We took a casual stroll in the adjoining village. Lovely morning light came filtering through the bamboo forests. An elderly lady was on the process of boiling parboiled rice. Unhusked rice was being boiled in an open stove top.

 Flocks of ducks were wading a quiet pond.

My niece and I collected green mangoes which had fallen off from branches.

The stillness of the morning was often getting punctuated from hammering sounds coming from local metalsmith's shop.


Chandraketugarh is not the most evocative of all the Maurya era relics, but still is delightful.


The sun was almost over head. Before heading back we savoured a bit more the greenery around us and the wonderful feeling of long lost Maurya age air on the skin!