Do you know how it feels to converse with people you have never met? especially when they share their heart and open up to you like an old friend. It feels like you are entrusted with love, faith and a blessing called friendship. 

And I am very thankful to my journey of blogging that often I have been blessed with such experience. 

A few days back when I posted the shim bichi die shol mach recipe a reader Mita commented with a mention of her mother's Macher muro die shim bichir dal recipe (Hyacinth beans curry with fishhead). The dish sounded so good that I messaged her back requesting for the recipe. Like a seasoned cook and a true foodie, She sent me the detailed recipe with how much the gravy should thicken and what to pair it with. 

According to her, this recipe belongs to Bangladesh, to the districts of Noakhali and Chattagram. 

It's amazing how smell can bring back much more than long lost memories. Often some scent on the road, fragrance of a specific flower or aroma of a dish makes us relive some old memory, it takes us right back to that moment. The feeling, the sound, the emotions just the way we felt at that very moment. 

Remember that movie three idiots where drunken Kareena says to Amir Khan, tum Gujarati logo ka khana itna khatarnak kyon hota hai???? Dhokla, Fafda, handva, thepla...aise lagta hai jaise koi missiles hai ..." (why does the name of Gujarati food sound like dangerous weapons? Dhokla, Fafda, Handva, Thepla...sounds not like food but missiles).

Exactly my thought. I love Gujarati food especially their elaborate platters but the names always bring a smile on my face. while we were growing up we only heard of Dhokla, that quintessential sweet shop staple for breakfast. Yellow spongy squares of steamed gram flour batter soaked with a salty sweet spicy syrup and sprinkled with coconut and not so fiery fried green chillies. Seriously I can survive on this snack with some hot tea. but now with the globe opening up and people being interested in various cuisines more of Gujarati food are coming into limelight and more such names are being familiar. and I don't see anyone complaining. 

Do you make resolutions? I sometimes do, but over the years the unkept promises had made me realise that am not a big on routine person, rather impromptu things suit me best.

 But 2016 was a different year, a very bad, a nightmarish one at that. But I dont want to talk about that here anymore rather lets highlight how that has changed me as a person. Am sure you have heard it thousand times that no one stays for ever...and am also sure that no one would realise it before the truth hits you hard on your face....Am not taking anyone, anything for granted anymore and I vouch to have a more relaxed, mindful life surrounded by loved ones. To spend more active time with the kids at home and to connect more with people who actually matters to me. While wwriting this I feel thankful for all that has been bestowed on me, deserving or not. At a time of so much unrest all over the World even a peaceful life is a gift and I truly want to find and highlight more of that in our daily lives.

Maa no matter how busy she was always made it sure that we eat well. Eating well for her not only meant balanced nutritious freshly made food but also food that creates memory. for a mother of three and a handicraft business owner this was not easy. So she had to wake up at the crack of dawn and then by some magic wand when Baba would help us with our studies, she would finish making 3 - fresh curries and something wholesome for our snack box ready by the 8.30. All three of us kids and baba used to leave by 9 and before that we were massaged with oil, bathed, dressed, fed and sent off to catch our school bus. Now that am living the same life I just wonder how she did it without chanting my mantra 'ar parina (can't do anymore)' several times a day.

Its always difficult to fall back in routine after a break. Its pointless whether the break is a small one or big but it always make getting back to the grind difficult, very very difficult. Last week we went to our in law's place, somewhere in western Midnapore for a couple of days. Though I must admit that I was a little tensed as the son had high fever just the previous day yet I looked forward to the long drive.It was a long deserved break from the usual surrounding and same old same old routine life.

My stay in Japan is memorable in many ways. Not only it gave me an insight into living life in a foreign country but also taught the real value of relationship. Near or far ,many times we just forget or to put it more appropriately...the daily rut consumes us so much that we dont think of how special, how blessed we are to belong to a family. but being away makes our heart ache for those familiar touch, caressing voice. for some people its never a home away from home if your family is not around. but then, that is what life is all about. Making adjustments, finding happiness in a distant land makes us stronger. and having good friends makes the task much more easier. They are family when you are away and provides the comfort of home away from home when you seek.

I was blessed to find such friends in Japan. Lets call them S and T. We lived in the same apartment and the fact that all of us had kids of almost same age helped the matter initially. With the onset of heavy cold winter our friendship became more cosier. Every evening we used to meet at one of our apartments to have our cup of tea or coffee. While the boys played, fought, screamed and patched up amongst themselves we used this time to unwind from the daily grind. We shared everything from life to jokes to annoying habits of our husbands and more often than not food. We tried to support each other with whatever way possible. If one was not well the other did the grocery or looked after the kids. 

There is something about lemon that always reminds me of summer or more precisely the very thought of refreshing, vibrant citrus gives me comfort in scorching, balmy weather. But like most other citrus fruits they actually are a fruit of winter...though they thrive only in the warmer climates and bring joy to us through out the year.