Monday, February 8, 2010

Everything in black-white except the flower


How do you like this composition?


This is too bad. I am back after a long gap of almost 7 days. And I had planned to post one blog everyday!! Is this what Julia in Julie and Julia calls ADD??
You know, the title of my blog reminds me of an old pun, what is black and white and red all over?? .... the newspaper ofcourse!! (read!!!) well todays paper has many more colours too!!
Well, never mind! I want to write about a yellow daal that I prepared yesterday.
I cook arhar daal in a pressure cooker with some thin slices of onion, tomato and haldi. I keep a large pan to make the seasoning. A dollop of ghee goes into the pan. It swirls around melting gradually.
How could I do this? 'Behaving like a breathless teenager!! I mean this is so strange. We were sitting on the short wall inside Pragathi Maidan sipping hot coffee. This gentleman in a neat jacket walks up to the Costa coffee counter. Is it him? The grim dad of Taare zameen par? Wait let him turn around him once more. Yes it is! Shall we talk to him?
I have never done this before. I just walk up to him and hover close by till he turns around. I say ‘excuse me’… he gives us a sceptical look. He is suspicious of us.
I drop the mustard seeds into the hot oil and they go chit-chit-chit
Are you...errrr did you….errrr did we see you in Taare zameen par? His face clears. Aaah! They have not come asking for money...or favour!! Yes he says
I put in two spoons of udad daal and some chana-daal
We say ‘A very nice film. We saw it many times’. … ‘Yes many have seen it more than once’ he clarifies. How could I be so daft! Where do I go from here?? ‘Are you from the theatre?’ I ask. ‘Yes, from NSD’ he says brightly and adds hopefully ‘Are you?’ ‘No’ I reply. ‘Are you from Delhi?’ he asks. ‘No from Bangalore’ I tell him. He has a look of a puzzled ‘so’….. and I am desperately looking for an escape. By then some friends come up to him grabbing his attention. We hastily say our ‘byes’ and make an exit
Oops! The kari-patta in my hand goes soggy and the udad-dal is burnt.
I empty out the oil and start the seasoning process all over again. Actually what I want to say is
Think of the present, the now and let not the past or the future clutter the mind. We let the moment on hand go by, while we fret and fume about things done or not-done.
100% with the present .... else ... you burn the seasoning!

4 comments:

  1. it's a beautiful composition :) and the narration too, made the story engaging :) you should start writing your book soon :)

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  2. wah wah wah blog with a message!! cool! i had been checking ur page every day!! finally saw a new one today!
    :) nice story! and nice painting!!

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  3. It is very very nice. I would like to read many more. Congrats.

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  4. ashwini, I do have a book ready. wish me luck in finding a publisher for it.

    akhila, actually this time I thought of the picture composition first and wove a blog round that. glad u liked it.

    thankyou raju.

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