I'd think eggplant (Solanum melongena)/aubergine/brinjal and go bwaaack. The Hindi name 'baingan' somehow translated into 'be-gun' (without merit) in my head so that I shied and kicked at the idea of eating it. Then one day I tasted the Punjabi bharta (pronounced BHURRR-taah) and I fell in love. Bharta (mash) may be prepared with several vegetables ( Read more... )

That’s what my long suffering Mum said when I first told her I wanted to be a veterinarian. I was six and had just spent the most enchanting day in the trailer of a visiting Danish veterinarian couple. They had halted at the EME Base Workshop, Pathankot, enroute to Srinagar. The trailer was blue and white and wore a blue cross. I was acutely ( Read more... )

The minutiae of my life ( Read more... )

DVV couldn’t be straitlaced into political jackets-the fervent fanatic/the collaborator/the rabble rouser/the bystander-he was merely following orders. A day after I gave birth to his second daughter; he headed to the local temple to pray. Back home, he fiddled with the Murphy transistor. The unrest in East Pakistan was growing. From the Race ( Read more... )

Rajasthan has always held me in thrall. So whether it is the chance to regale an audience of a thousand plus girls with my elephant talk or learn to cook the Marwari 'daal-baati-choorma,' I rush there first chance I get. Feeling overwhelmed lately, I just had to make Jaipur happen.

Day 1: Quiet time at Gurgaon ( Read more... )

Recipe modified from "Curry: A biography, Lizzie Collingham."

Ingredients: 4 tbsp vegetable oil, 1 Kg mutton mince, 4 onions (medium) sliced, 2 tsp cumin seeds, 1 bayleaf, 2 tsp coriander powder, 8 cloves, 1 inch cinnamon stick, 2 tsp black peppercorns, 8 green cardamoms, 4 dried red chillies, 1/2 cup masoor daal (I used the conventional channa ( Read more... )

PIZZA!


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"I love you, Frangipani girl," he said ( Read more... )

Try this: “Like magic, she felt him getting nearer, felt it like a pull in the pit of her stomach. It felt like hunger but deeper, heavier. Like the best kind of expectation. Ice cream expectation. Chocolate expectation.” ― Sarah Addison Allen, The Sugar Queen. Or that: “She had two lips like strawberries, and the seeds gave her kisses texture. I ( Read more... )