Funny thing,,, i got some measuring spoons. Can you believe I follow paati’s shraanga and palm and finger-based measures? Sounds really funny when I actually say it. But while it works with the usual cooking, with baking, that does not always work because then we’ll have to depend on luck for things to turn out fine. Well, my luck has been so far so good. But who depends on luck, eh?
Anyway, I was quite devastated to find that a cup, a tablespoon, a teaspoon are all very different from what I imagined them to be. In my defense, I at least went by “measure” rather than the cups and teaspoons. Still, I felt the need to gift myself a measuring cups and spoons set and I am glad I did. Makes me feel much better, really. I feel quite posh now to measure out that half cup, 3/4 cup and teaspoon and whatnot. And yeah, before I know it, I am looking for equivalent things among our utensils to see which ones match. That brass measure is only a quarter cup, did you know? I was surprised. The heavy katori is half a cup. And so on.
Even if I won’t follow a recipe properly, at least I can get the measures right, no?
Hmm. By the way, I have four papayas. I am watching–waiting for them to ripen. I remember how I used to get worked up when I got a semi ripe one because sometimes they simply stayed green. Like that bunch of bananas that simply refused to ripen, remember? But now, that does not bother me. I just wrap them in newspaper or a brown paper bag and check every morning. I catch them when they are perfect and think of you when I enjoy my mega bowl of papaya. How much you loved the fruit! Sigh.
It is funny how I’ve never been a huge fan of apples. Sure they are diabetes-friendly and perhaps that is the only reason I eat them…but I am trying my best to make different things with them. Apple crumble, for one. Quite nice. I also try to make stuff that all three of us can eat. I really don’t like to separate my diet from everyone else’s. So the next best thing is to buddy up and make something healthy for all. After all, I really don’t have to go through some rigorous stringent thing, no? And it never hurts to eat healthy even if there’s no health issue, right? Ha ha.
Fruits and checking them reminds me of our beloved Nagamma mami and her packing! How she would spend the hours before leaving for the railway station unpacking, packing, doubting, worrying . . . and all the time, mama would make fun of her, saying that the raw-ish fruits he packed for her to take would ripen by the time she reached the railway station! We have such warm memories of her and her generosity.
The mega tumblers of coffee, the afternoons spent lazing at their place, the evenings when we walked to the temple and picked the magizham poo in the yard! Then we would come back home and weave the flowers onto garlands and she would work them into your long hair. Then we’d sit on the porch outside and gossip until dinner and make it an early night afterwards, listening to songs and sometimes talking late into the night. She was so fond of you, no? I do remember that we brought back those maghizam poo garlands and dried them as they would smell wonderful for months afterwards – pot pourri-ish. By the way, I wonder if you were aware that she sang and made a few cassettes, Mi. Most of all, I remember her for her total serenity.
When I think back, I realize how fortunate I am to be a child of the sixties. To have experienced no-internet days is a blessing. I would also hasten to say that yes-internet days are equally good – point is, being lucky enough to enjoy both. Ah, I referred to luck twice today. Perhaps it is important, no? To what else can we attribute happenings that are seemingly without reason? Luck is the easy way out in more ways than one.
Yes, smile away.
