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Goodbye 29 - July 11


This picture above is a shot from my old house in Singapore, can't remember what the situation was and why I needed to release stress or celebrate with a glass of wine, but I miss this couch and this house so much. Oh well, can't look back!

I am going to write a very short entry today - at least that is what I want to do. I have spent 7 hours in the kitchen trying to perfect a hara bhara kebab and an aalo tikki. And I know I am going to dream of grated potatoes tonight. In the effort to cut my coriander super fine, I also chopped off a small slice of my left middle finger. It bled for an hour straight until my balinese friend put some grated banana stem on it - trust the balinese to know everything about mother nature. The minute that stuff was on my finger, the bleeding immediately stopped. What an hour of ice cubes and pressure couldn't do, this smudge of a paste managed to do. When I took a short break for a cup of chai, my Chef friend said to me "I don't see why you can't find a different job" For a second I was baffled - everyone has accidents in the kitchen no? But I was so exhausted and what he said in his Italian accent sounded so very funny, my other friend and  I laughed. Those who know me, can identify me from a block away thanks to my cackling mad-woman laughter. My friends no longer come along to watch movies with me, they're too embarrassed they say. Just kidding. They still accompany me but sit in the opposite corner. Still kidding. ;)

A few failures with the supremely-easy-looking but awesomely-difficult-to-actually-do  aalo tikki had me bawling - there were many other reasons but when my tikki slumped, my spirits did too. i came back to my room, nursed my injured finger with some chinese medicine from my Chef friend (need to get myself more!) while listening to his unsolicited career advice - "these days people watch Chef's Table & think they can be a chef". I rolled myself as I blew over my cut finger and thought "Whatever happened to passion, sigh". And then i sat and stared at the stars and teared up and did what I do best messaged Adithya. Who knew it needed more than just messaging and promptly called me. For the last two days I've been trying various recipes, reading up blogs and not getting the result I've wanted. Immense consultation with my Delhi friend had me land on this aalo tikki idea for an event. And hence my obsession with it all day today. After an hour's counselling with Adi, I found the courage to live again (i typed that as "love" initially - which also could be true), and try the recipe again. An hour's break with a thorough release of emotions had me rejuvenated again. That, Adi's advice and a cup of adrak chai. And I went back to the kitchen and started to grate potatoes again.  while wondering how they make it all look so interesting on Chef's Table, maybe my Italian friend was right after all?. But I rubbished that thought and concentrated on grating potatoes to the best of my abilities.

 I tried two more different versions of the recipe and finally my creations started resembling the famous Dilli ki Aalo Tikki. After I finished both those versions (I'm still undecided on which one to follow for D-day tomorrow), I started making Saunth Chutney (God, it's so gorgeous). After I had done everything, i beat some yogurt, mashed a tikki, layered it with curd and spread some chutney on it with a sprinkle of chilli powder and chaat masala and sat in the dining room and ate, while watching some random football WC concert streaming live from Jakarta.  My dish was missing the green coriander chutney, but I can live with that for tonight. I shall make some nice spicy green chutney tomorrow. Overall the dish was quite good. Not dilli good, but still good.

Now that I have made everyone dream about aalo tikki as well, I need to go take care of my finger that has started to bleed with all this typing now. In the end, as always here's a song that i always play for inspiration and imagine myself to be a warrior (can't believe I am comparing my day in the kitchen to a war situation, now you know what kind of a day i had no?):

कन्धों से मिलते हैं कंधे
क़दमों से कदम मिलते हैं
हम चलते हैं जब ऐसे तो
दिल दुश्मन के हिलते हैं
अब  तोह हममे आगे बढ़ते हैं रहना
अब तोह हममे साथी हैं बस इतना ही कहना
अब जो भी हो शोला बांके पत्थर है पिघलना
अब जो भी हो बदल बांके  परबत पर  हैं छाना

kandhon se milte hain kandhe
~ Javed Akhtar, for Lakshya

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