I met Madhushree about two years back on a trip to Kolkata when she and Anindya, left two kids back home without a nanny, and made time to come and meet us. Since then, they have made sure that we meet everytime any one of us are in each other’s town. It doesn’t matter how…
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Continue ReadingFrugality can be a great teacher. It forces us to think on our feet. Forces it to improvise. And kitchens across the world are best examples of rising to the challenge of frugality. A big part of what we throw away in kitchens are the stalks and peels of vegetables. Most of them pack a…
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Continue ReadingWhen I started the series, the super gorgeous Meenakshi messaged me to ask if a cookie would be too extravagant in these circumstances. I assured her, it wouldn’t be. It wouldn’t be because we need to keep celebrating life, especially in difficult times. And what better than an easy cookie! For a lot of you…
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Continue ReadingBetween my last post in March 10 and today, it seems like we are in a whole different world! Social connect, essentials, entertainment – everything that defines life has taken on a different meaning. We are in a world that needs, more than ever before, for us to be empathetic, generous, nourished and positive. Using…
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Continue ReadingWhen I floated the idea of starting a series called ‘Frugal Kitchen’, my idea was not just to bring together a collection of recipes, but use it as a medium to bring people together as a community. When I tagged a few people yesterday, I just wanted to make sure I get a few responses.…
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Continue ReadingMussoorie; October 28, 2019, Monday It is unbelievable how much the temperature and air quality can change at the end of a six hour drive. Mussoorie looked, smelled and felt like another part of the planet, far removed from the almost sepia-tinted, dusty Delhi air. The owner of the cottage Desna Sharma had warned me…
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Continue Reading‘Aashine randhe, kartike khay Je bor mange, shey bor paey’ The above limerick translates into, ‘One who cooks in the month of Aashin and eats it in the month of Kartik is blessed with all the boons she asks for…’ When Ma all of a sudden mentioned that today is aat anaaj, it brought back…
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Continue ReadingRice, especially our heirloom rice varieties, has been a passion for a long time now. The passion led to two and a half years of research on tracing the antiquity of rice through our Vedic era texts and folk lores; and following the work of a few rice conservationists who have been doing remarkable work…
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Continue ReadingA day that almost sneaks past in the shadows of Naba Barsha is Chaitra Sankranti, the last day of the Bengali calendar and infinitely more interesting in symbolism than today’s gluttony-infected celebrations of Naba Barsha. Since childhood, Chaitra Sankranti was personal and comforting. It is the last day of Chaitra, the last month of…
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Continue ReadingBeyond all religious and cultural significance, festivals and food are personal diaries for most of us. We script our memories, likes and dislikes in them and revisit the well-thumbed pages year after year, while adding new pages to them. While growing up in Assam, we had no clue about any religious ritual that might…