My younger daughter was counting the number of days for her birthday. While we were having a conversation she said “My birthday is 12 days after yours”. I said, ” First let me enjoy my birthday”. She didn’t expect that answer from me! I usually don’t make any grand plans for my birthday.
This time I decided to celebrate my birthday, not for a day but an entire weekend! Why not? Yeah…
It all started with a video that came along that Friday. This was on how to make Pazham Kanji a fermented rice porridge that has long been the working man’s favourite, Pazhan Kanji is deeply embedded in the culinary landscape of Kerala. Known for its simplicity and nutritional value, it comes with an assortment of sides that make each mouthful different. So Saturday morning I got into the kitchen act of making this dish. Except for my younger daughter, everyone liked the dish.
I decided to venture out to my favourite book store on Church Street. I was looking forward to buying this book for some time. Interestingly Preetam had kept it for me. He initially couldn’t locate it as it seems it was in a secured place. I liked the way he went about locating that book. My idea was to only get hold of “Ultra Learning” and leave the place. He persuaded me to look at some of the other latest releases and I ended up buying 4 more books. In that, two books were thanks to my wife as she asked me to have a look. I liked it because it was about humour in speaking. After all who doesn’t like a get good at cracking jokes and create lighter moments. As it was raining we were held up. In order to not buy more books, I decided to take pictures of those books and store it for checking their ranking and rating. I liked some of these book titles, ” The Socrates Express, A manual for being human and Delta of Venus“. I like the smell of books. My wife glanced through some titles and picked up” Radical Awakening!”
Finally, as the rains slowed down we decided to take a chance and step into the rain. The drizzle turned into a downpour and we were pulled by the aroma of wood-fired pizza into a restaurant. I am a big fan of Mediterranean food and so that was it as they say, ” There is nothing more romantic than Italian Food”. I cannot resist the smell of a wood-fired pizza oven and that is something that I have acquired during my stay in Rome. Ever since I have become a big fan of thin-sliced pizza. As I read in this link on Authentic Italian Pizza, “True Italian pizza is a mouth-watering and robust entity all its own and is incomparable to any ideas or preconceptions of the meal you may have”. I enjoyed the pizza and that was a nice experience. I had just enough space for a little pasta. As Federico Fellini says, ” Life is a combination of magic and Pasta” and my go-to dish during travel has been Pasta. I saw somewhere ” Life is about exploring Pasta-bilities.
The next day I decided to take kids out for the first time after wave 2. It was to Magnolia and Taco Bell. I am not a big fan of sweets but I indulged and out of guilt walked a lot on that day to burn those calories.
That night it was time for some Kolkatta rolls. I am a big fan of Kolkatta Rolls again thanks to my stay in Kolkatta for a year in the mid-’90s. Here’s what Wikipedia says about Kati roll:
Traditionally, a Kati roll is a Kati kebab wrapped in a piece of layered paratha bread. Paratha is dough that is kneaded into a rope, then coiled into a round patty. It is then flattened with a rolling pin and partially fried in oil on a Tawa (griddle). These semi-cooked parathas are then kept aside until needed, at which time they’re put back on the Tawa and cooked through. If an egg is to be added, it is usually cracked into the Tawa and the paratha put on top of the egg; they both cook together and the paratha gets coated on one side with the egg.
That night I listened to most of Rafi’s old songs till 12 AM and my younger daughter was more than happy to wish me first.
My sister asked me jokingly that is your weekend journey of food ending with Biryani? So I didn’t want to disappoint her. On my birthday I ended up having my favourite Biriyani. My wife made sure I ate bitter gourd as well!. Apart from eating food and that is quite a bit of experimentation I also parallelly extended my daily walking miles many notches just to catch up with my birthday bumper food plans.
On my birthday I had the opportunity to catch up with my engineering friends. I got a video message from one of my lifelong friends. It was nice speaking to my coaches and a whole host of friends. It was a surprise to receive two cakes on the day.
I want to thank all my friends who had wished me on my birthday. We only live once. One for Passion, Two for Love and Three for friendship.
Last week my wife told me, ” I understood that you like “NO-DULL-MOMENTS”. So I took a shot at Nostalgia. We know that we cannot say “No” to stalling our age. That’s my take on nostalgia.
As one more year passes by, here is a nice way to say “YEAH” and roll.
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