Friday, April 30, 2010

Bhindi Gobhi the husband and me !! (priority wise)


Being a working wife is a very very very difficult choice i have made in life. On one hand i need to make sure that my office mails dont go unanswered and on the other hand i need to ensure the husbands lunch does not look dull. There are days when i am in the middle of a meeting and on the sides of my organizer i scribble"call plumber to look at the leaking tap", there have been instances when i am talking to his mother and make a mental reminder,not to call her during office hours since the conversation usually lasts for an hour..yes 45 minutes at the least..yes yes , with his mom.


Those of you wondering what i talk for an hour can email me, and i shall provide free consultation.

Once i reach home, i need to make some more important decisions, like should i scrub my face now, or should i do it before i sleep off. Choosing the latter , i get into the kitchen, and start doing what i love doing, cooking.

When i was a kid, vegetables looked threats to me, they were reminders of my puny, 3 feet tall existence and my mothers 5 feet 8 inches existence. Vegetables reminded me of the balcony, where i was usually asked to sit for half an hour if i dint eat vegetables. A s child i was a fussy eater, so sometimes when my father opened the magazine kept under the coffee table, a piece of chappati would fall out. There were instances where my mother would be puzzeled on seeing red ants marching towards the Tulsi plant, since thats where i would throw my Horlicks infused milk. I had also tried flushing a katori(bowl) of dal, but unfortunately the katori crash landed in the commode and the plumber had to be called. I sometimes feel i had a tormented childhood because of vegetables, horlicks and milk.

Today at 27, things look a little brighter, i am faced with a new challenge from my 6 foot tall fridge. You see, apart from all the ice cubes it supplies for the jack daniels, apart from the stock of chicken nuggets it freezes to feed us on Friday evenings, it has a big vegetable box. Every saturday morning , when G and i go to the nearby Reliance Fresh, i make a mental reminder of things we need to buy. There was a time when i used to write things on a post-it, which G would stick on the trolley, and in between picking up, Brittania Crackers and corriander, he would drop the post-it. So the plan dint work and we decided on mental reminders.

As we enter Reliance fresh , i head to the section of vegetables, praying to God, "please give me more options apart from gobhi and bhindi( cauliflower and Okra) " and as fate would have it, there lying in front of me, in bright red boxes, drizzeled with water i see a whole lot of happiness. I see cabbage, i see capsicum, carrots, turnip,bottle gourd,brinjal ohhh ...wow!! finally i will make "paanch meshalir torkari" ( five vegetables mixed with spices, super popular in bengali households)

With absolute eternal acknowledgement, i pick up one shiny,round gorgeous Brinjal "Baby why are you taking begun(brinjal in bengali) ?" the man asks. I turn around and smile and expalin my thoughts on paanchmeshalir torakri, to which i hear "ohhh nooo baby, i dont like bottle gourd"

As a good loving wife, i sacrifice my thoughts and march to pick up some French Beans, "Baby these are old, lets get some other vegetables" trying my best to hold back my tears i turn around and see whats staring into my face"gobhi and bhindi"

"ahhh these look good" and a KG each are taken.

Moving ahead, i cheer myself up and say, this time i will experiment with some new style of cooking. I will buy some paneer and probably Tuesday night could be mattar paneer. So smiling at teh though of the green round peas, i open the freezer and pull out a pack of "Safal Frozen Peas"

"ayii baby i dont like frozen peas, take the fresh ones"

With the look of a woman, who has been asked to rub some mustard oil on her hands, instead of the new Elizabeth Arden lotion, i pick up half a kilo of fresh peas. Mental reminder" give Bai an old kurti and ask her to peel the peas for me and keep on Tuesday morning"

Finally when we reach the billing section , we have a man who is very happy with his Brittania crackers, the crate of red Bull, the king prawns and the box of Mentos. While i sulk at the trolley filled with so many things that looked threatening to me, once again a deja vu of childhood..though i love the bunch of Broccoli smiling at me, i look back at the shiny tomatoes, i nearly kiss the carrots and capsicum, i will miss the others i left behind.

And i knew , tonight again i will dream of wearing a huge gown,making some peas soup, with 7 children screaming on the floor and G driving a tractor in the backyard. And all the while the cauliflower and Bhindi are watching the new movie sitting on the Brown leather couch !


42 comments:

Rià said...

lol!!Sulagna...u r jus too good at this darling. Love ur posts which mix the daily rants with humor so well! :)

Daipayan Banerjee said...

Wit n Way with words ..is something which can SPICE up ur Life as well as the lives of people around... Needless to say ... u r an expert with both...May the SPICE in ur life be Eternal...n u grow frm strength to strength in spreading JOY... Kudos..

Regards,
Daipayan Banerjee
http://randomstrokez.blogspot.com

Anwesa said...

An interesting read here.

Gobhi and Bhindi happen to be my favourite vegetables.

Killer Drama said...

LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL at the title, haven't read the post yet, will be back to read later. but lollllll at the title.

later

Lady Whispers said...

OMG ...u are just too good...so much spice in one shopping :)
Sigh...Gobhi and bindi are my guy' s favourite :P i could see myself in similar situation in the future :)
Loved the post :)

Readers Dais said...

Hi! Sulagna,

The pop out of chapatis from mag & the ants march was really coool...
uve got a witty style....
afterall cook anything with a pinch(u will add more,i know)of love and its delicious ...right? :)

Killer Drama said...

hheheheh read it

good fun as always, you must be such a fun wife to have! lucky G.

*makes a mental reminder to email you when my time of talking-to-ma in law after the marriage comes*

:>

Samarjit Roy said...

Oh dear! I realize how tough it's gonna be for my fiancee

Anonymous said...

Tooo good :D:D I jus loved this one too !!! And this time it was kinda "Sacrifices wifes make : in food " one :D:D:D

DiDo said...

I'm hungryy after readinggg thiss.. :P

wers ghobi bhindii for me sulagna???

Appiee said...

I cud definately relate to this one again ..he loves the gobi n d bhindi n v land up wit the same thing ..i alwys pick up n make wt he likes ..y do v wives need to b so gud to our men :)

एक बेहद साधारण पाठक said...

nice post :)

my favorite dish is the Bhindi Masala that's why i read this post:)

after reading your blog became one of my favorite blogs :)

Crazy Blogger said...

kya baat hai, sabzi bazaar laga diya!!! Ya I agree u mix rant and humor really well!! Which scrubber u use btw?

Freelancer said...

haha....poor u!

loved it

Suruchi said...

hey su...
loooooooooooooooved the last paragraph...hehe...

and yes that bit about talking to mom in law for an hour...next post...enlightment needed for all of us lesser mortals:/

n awwwwwww..poor u for that tormented childhood...a sexy youth more than made up, i guess;-)

keep up the mix n match that we get a peek into through your posts...u almost convince me that cooking can be fun:-)

Jack said...

Sulagna,

How about trying out Tomatoes and Oninons curry? May be with little garlic and ginger thrown in. You really have a way with words to keep us engrossed to read it till the end before bursting out laughing.

Take care

Varsha Vipins said...

He he he..Good one Su..I was a fussy eater too as a kid..mom n dad used to thrash me real bad for being so n sometimes I used to keep food as is in mouth without swallowing,so that I can spit out later..:P..ahem..now say,u r better no..:D..I have this same confusion as to what to cook all d time..mostly eggs come to my rescue..Me n hubby's tastes are veryyy different..but in 2 years I have kinda grown into it..sigh.:)

HaRy!! said...

so much to comment... yet the blend is crisp!... awesome

Luscious Sealed Lips said...

LOL. Thank god for all the beating screaming and glares that I got on the dining table from both my parents. It has made me less fussy about food (reference karela). My biggest fear is to land up cooking for somebody fussy. I like to experiment with all kinds of vegetables too. Else, I will end up behaving like my parents with my husband and children too. :P

Cute post. Such sacrifices for being a wonderful wife. :)

Kisses.

oRange* said...

Lol! I lub yeww.
Kudos to you guys! Woman powerrr!

Mads... said...

truly amazing write ya...u r jus too gudd at expressin..was a luvlyy read for me..thnx 4 sharing..:):)

Pesto Sauce said...

I don't know cooking, so can't relate much here

But please don't disturb the ice cubes for JD...they are essential

Vintage Obsession said...

Oh darling oh darling your the cutest and a lovely wife :-)
some of my strongest memories of childhood are the vegetables and the horlicks horror as well :)

Hats of to women like you who make this whole balancing sound soo much fun , i know for a fact that it isn't since i have seen my mom try really hard to balance work and home:)

mohit said...

you've done pretty well with this one :)

a) I always thought okra was baigun !
b) I hate okra (bhindi)
c) I love milk
d) Gobhi aalu is my fav sabzi
d) I want you to write more

Haddock said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Shriti said...

lol loved it :D
haha! xD
i like bhindi and gobhi :P

do you know you were awarded on my blog? O.o"

Dr. Tripat Mehta said...

lol...u r amazing...i always liked ur corelations!!!

Anonymous said...

I will happily eat whatever he is not eating..please don't stop yourself from picking what you want..because of him..

I will fall over all over for a taste of what you just described..Mouth full of water..and all that..

सूफ़ी आशीष/ ਸੂਫ਼ੀ ਆਸ਼ੀਸ਼ said...

It was an accident that I made it to your blog!
But it was worth it!
I loved it :-)
(Are all good girls taken?????!!!)
Ha ha ha

Haddock said...

Thats a colorful pic Sulagna.
As for Dhania patta, what I said before was not right. Mea Culpa.
Dhania seeds are required for growing Dhania patta. Take a handful of them and just rub them with very little force so that they split open to their natural two halves.
Sow these seeds in your ready pot and water them daily. You will see them sprouting soon.

Sid said...

Ha Ha drama mam drama :D

Fun read :)

Harini said...

Haha! You know Brinjal is one of my favorites. I love its bharta. But you know being a vegetarian i always loved vegetables, even when i was kid. And when i got shopping, i pick all of them, so none get left behind :P.

sm said...

excellent narration
enjoyed it reading
lol

Sh@s said...

Ha ha...had s good laugh on reading ur tryst with vegetables.

Queenmatrai said...

LOL
Great post...really needed to read something like that...

Men! What would we do without them???

Nupur said...

hahaah !! what a post Su :)

well with you on a tantrum child for food..even I did those tricks of throwing away food without parents noticing :P

Queenmatrai said...

Oye, where are u

Readers Dais said...

Helloooooooooooooooo

On exile ???

Manju said...

I am not sure how I found your blog..but am I glad I found it or what? :) loved reading some of your posts..will catch up on the rest soon..

Sorcerer said...

Good..good..
really appetizing post
nice to read your post after such a loooooooooooooooooong time

aritra the daydreamer said...

sulagni di onekdin por tomar blog visit korlam...was really having a bad time...
anyay sob baki postgulo porlam and really make me smiling...uff tumi eto humorous!!!

by the way parle amr blog e visit koro i have started scribbling again after a tormenting 3mons...

SG said...

As ususal very nice write up. Once in a while, surprise him by going to vegetable shop alone, buy the vegetables you like, cook them, and put them on the dining table. Once he tastes he would love these "new" vegetables. Because there were cooked by YOU.

 
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