#DurgaPuja2015

Ya devi sarbabhuteshshu,

SAKTI rupena sanksthita

Namasteshwai Namasteshwai Namasteshwai

Namo Namaha

Very very soon, the radio is gonna go abuzz with these heavy words from an even heavier throat. That time of the year is here. The new clothes smell so good, so fresh and so pretty. We as a community are gearing up to welcome Ma Durga to come visit us for 5 days. Festivities would start. There will be songs and dances. There will be drama enactments. There will be a lot of nice things to eat. There will not be calorie consciousness. There will be 5 days of no flame in every bong household. This is pujo as we know. This is the pujo that we yearn for all year round.

A typical day during the pujo starts with Uposh/vrat/fast. We get up, bathe, don new day wear and off to the pandal to offer our prayers with utmost sincerity. Then comes pushpanjali. After the general prayer of wellbeing, we offer our deity fragrant flower and three leaves of wood apple tree, in hope that she blesses and accepts our prayers. Sheesh, even in prayers we offer bribes. But it’s a bribe that gives the nature a push to make it more beautiful. These plucked flowers and leaves, ensure that the tree produces more fragrance and more colour around us.

After pujo, the breakfast commences. Every pandal would host a couple of street food stalls from where, depending on the taste and temperament, we choose our breakfast. For me, my heart just desires a good plate of fresh puffy Radhaballabi with alur torkari (deep fried lentil stuffed flat breads with potato curry) or korai shutir kachori with alur torkari (deep fried green pea stuffed flat breads with potato curry). These fresh treats are really something of indulgence, but this is festive time, and it calls for indulgence. I did forget to mention that before breakfast, a simple proshad of fresh cut fruits which were offered to the deity, is passed around as well.

Pujo without mishti is pretty much unfathomable. And a mid-morning snack has to be a delectable plate of soft rasogulla or deep fried and dunked in sweet syrup kind khoja! Yes I know, oil is directly proportional to pujo, and you really can’t differentiate the 2 for these 5 days. If you fear about your arteries, it is now that you should start intense work out and eat salad between all the planning.

The lunch is just the bhog. That divine intervention in making that simple khichri just takes the dish to a new level of taste. Also its fun and frolic, you stand in a line with your friends, talking and chatting, while flaunting your beautiful day wear saree; that in itself is enough to notch up the taste parameters of a khichri which is made in bulk and served to everyone who comes in.

After lunch, it’s time to head home. The evening needs to be prepared for. The new night wear saree comes out. Home facials are done. Make up is selected. And off we go again in the finest of our glory. Everyone in the pandal would look party ready. It’s a beautiful place to be. The programmes start. The stalls light up. Friends catch up to a dinner of fish fry or Frankie’s with loads of cold drinks flowing about.

This is my fondest memory of pujo. All my life we have done this. And for the further years, we will continue to do this. Pujo is a celebration. A festival where we celebrate each of the five days. And today, we would love to tell you about it. A group of 4 bloggers have come together to make u feel at home in the festivities. 2 are coming straight from the heart of all merry festivities in Kolkata. I am trying to explore pujo in a new city- Gurgaon. And another blogger is coming all the way from Australia. We have planned many wonderful things for the coming days. So keep checking and keep clicking!! Cheers!! :) 

How to Tackle Fussy Eaters, My Way!!

Rant of a tired mommy...

I am a mommy of a 2 year old toddler. And somehow this designation goes hand in hand with being tormented and eating leftover for every meal. Kids these days are majorly fussy about anything that you wish to put in their mouth. And these fussy episodes last for more than an hour, 3 times a day. So what do you do in situations like this? Strictly follow your principles of no TV/videos during the meal time? Or give in to the lesser evils in the wake of nutrition for his growing years? Authoritarian principles of keeping them frightened of parents are a philosophy of the bygone era. And frankly with these little brats, I hardly think it will work as well. They understand our weaknesses even more clearly than us. They are smart, and all they like to play with are things that adults use, like vinegar in the kitchen; and petroleum jelly along with my vermillion powder in the bedroom. Imagine the mess Ansh created when he kept the bottle of vinegar in the place where we store bottled water; or when he mixed my petroleum jelly with vermilion powder and smeared it all along the bedroom walls. I can say that he really painted the town red with it. 

Now there are 2 approaches to tackling this. And none of it involves scolding, screaming and spanking frankly. In fact I was talking to a brother who was really naughty and had been beaten quite mercilessly when we were young. Now he is a grown up man of 23 years, and is still nursing many of those wounds in his heart. He despises many of my family members and cousins, and chooses to be an intoxicated introvert. After meeting him, I am more convinced than ever that it’s important to be a Buddy Parent than having a dictatorial reign in this era of complicated life stories. Fussiness and naughty play time is a part and parcel of growing life. And frankly it is what we as mothers get as a gift from our labour of love.

I don’t particularly scold him much. I instead punish him by closing him out in a planter balcony where ‘dinosaurs’ live. Or treat him when he does something extraordinarily well. Punishment without a treat is meaningless, and apart from giving him home-made goodies, I occasionally handout a few pieces of Kellogg’s chocos.  Somehow these kids have a way of understanding what mummy wants to feed, to what they don’t. And so keeping a few treats close to hand out to them during these episodes, really pays. My child is a fussy eater, and has days of not being interested in food at all. So for those days, I always keep a packet of mix grain baby food and Kellogg’s chocos to coax him into eating some fruits and veggies.  I have clearly surrendered rigid principles to lesser evils. After all, he is a child who needs to know the importance of eating and eating healthy at that. It’s his time to sit back and enjoy a few occasional treats. These little episodes of #KhushiKePal while eating really helps restore his faith back into food. After all that’s what the Bachpan is all about. And in fact, both of us are learning it together with each other!!

And oh before I end, and before someone starts judging me to be the worst mom in the world to be pumping copious amounts of cocoa and sugar in his tiny body, let me give you another trick I use on him. Now that I have realised that his little brain thinks that anything brown in colour with slight sweetness is chocolate, I trick him into believing Nachani ka aata is ‘choco’ for its colour. And a porridge made with it is cherished to the last spoon possible. I sweeten it ever so lightly with jaggery, and he is a happy child. He has never had a chocolate as a bar to be enjoyed. But instead, I give him chocos with whole wheat or a brownie made at home with properly sourced raw materials. I am no saint, and I don’t want to be one. It might be wrong to trick his little mind, but it works for me as nutrition is far more important to me in this day of fussy non eating kids.  

This is written as a part of the series- #KhuljayeBachpan by Kellog's.  https://www.facebook.com/mychocos 

If you are seeking recipes for these little guys, follow the below links.

Baby Steps: An Indian's Guide to Baby Food

Toddler Steps: An Indian's Guide to Toddler Food

And for a laugh- Conflicts for a New Mommy!!!

Cheers!!