Pondering over Pithe

Come every Poush Sankranti each year and most Bengalis either munch away or reminisce about the grand old dessert dish, pithe. Unfortunately, I belong to the latter category, cursed to have only just nostalgic memories about this awesome sweet dish and not have them. Hold on, it is not because I have developed any kind of diabetic tendency but simply because the making of this sweet requires special expertise and my mom doesn't have it. Well, she can make lovely prawn malaikari though :-)!

However, the memories of me devouring endless pithes at our neighbors' place back in Durgapur are still fresh in my mind. Latika mashi was a true expert at it. Pithe, majorly a winter affair, is generally prepared around Poush Sankranti (some time in mid Dec - mid Jan) to mark the new crop harvest festival. Christmas, or rather, cake celebrations would then be taken over by pithe festivities. Needless to say, my friends and I queued up at mashi's place to get going at the assortment of pithes - pati shapta (like stuffed pancakes), dudh puli (with concentrated milk), soru chakli, ranga alur pithe (made of sweet potato), and gokul pithe.

Made of rice flour, which forms the base of the pouch, pithes are generously stuffed with grated coconut, kheer or vegetables. Shapes of different kinds – crepe, round oval, etc waited on the tray to be devoured by us. I am exaggerating not in the least, the taste was heavenly. I can still breathe the sweetness of those steaming yummy pithes, I swear.

I was traveling in time and was almost in a reverie when my sister-in-law just helped me with a box full of equally tasty assorted pithes today right here, in my Kolkata home. Thanks a ton, boudi!

Auto Ban – Breathe Fresh

The sudden surge of the anti auto-rickshaw campaign, courtesy, Kolkata High Court, has given the city and its denizens another new issue to talk about. This subject, however, connects to the endangered welfare of the ecosystem and so deserves special mention and discussion as well.

Surprisingly, it took unexpectedly long to enforce the law of taking illegally running autos off from the city roads. Amidst clouds of polluted black air spewing out from the tailpipe of the three wheelers, thanks to the kaata tel funda, I feel my metabolic system being nastily overturned whenever I encounter one of those monster vehicles and what with older people of my parents' age! Myopics are gifted with several more layers of smoky dust, weak-hearts get blood pressure surges, chronic lung patients and dust allergies cough a lot more and even the most robust of mortals see a marked decline in their overall health system.

Had the West Bengal Government been a bit more cautious about their duties and responsibilities, there could have been much cleaner air to breathe in this city. Having abetted the plying of illegal autos (be it two stroke or five sitters or kaata tel feeders) for over two decades, the ruling party has encouraged outlawry, air pollution and a rise in physical maladies. This is an earnest plea to the government : wake up and take the blame on yourself and act accordingly to make the already dying city a better place to breathe in. Now!

Visit to the South City Mall

I know I should have visited this awesome shopping plaza named South City Mall at Anwar Shah Road, Kolkata, much earlier, but for my job, home and not to mention my famous lackadaisical me replicating the true spirit of my dear city held me from doing so for so long.

Well, thanks to my bro who had come down from London for a vacation, that I was literally pulled out of my room to this massive piece of extravagance. As I stepped into the mall I stammered to measure its hugeness, most of it lying in my blind spot. Getting into it was even breathtaking...Huge is a derogatory word perhaps - the ground floor spread across several square meters and the floors above held similar opulence to the core. The Christmas tree added zing to the scene as it was around the winter festival.

Having had rounds of the exclusive showrooms of Marks and Spencer, Next, Pantaloons, Shopper's Stop and many such houses of stunning salable items was really great. My bro even picked a bagful of goodies for me and we shared some good laughs over a cup of coffee and cake as well at the cafe upstairs. But while checking out of the mall the sorry faces of a few street urchins begging along the mall area was not all that entertaining. Wish the new year, 2009, strives towards a better effort on our part to narrow the gap between the rich and the broke.

Welcome 2009!

One more year gone and one to follow...resolutions to be made and broken...bads and goods to be faced anew...but one thing lives on and that is Hope. I am sorry to say that 2008 was a year of major lows, sprinkled here and there with some good times, however.

While Barack Obama's electoral win manifests a triumph over racism, the terror attack in Mumbai is a shame to mankind, politics and religion; while the Sensex dives down to abysmal depths, Abhinav Bindra wins his nation Olympic gold; while Nano rolls out of Singur, West Bengal, depriving the communist territory of a rise in the industrial arena, top cops of Mumbai lay slain for their beloved country and its people.

These incidents have had rippling effects as well. For example, the Sensex meltdown, possibly the worst of all blows, has mercilessly triggered job slashes, salary cuts, an overall downfall of the national as well as international economy and a series of psychological slumps as well. The Mumbai attacks have sacrificed the lives of hundreds of innocents and a number of dedicated professionals (cops and commandos) who laid their lives in defense of their countrymen. Not to mention the floods and famine across the world!

However, despite the loads of bads that people have witnessed in the bygone year, we are ready to hope for a better tomorrow. Natural calamities cannot be averted perhaps but, friends, let us pledge to try and wipe out the evils within us. Let us rise and shine. Welcome 2009.