Originally written in the diary-cum-book by Ruskin Bond – Words from the Hills on 5th March, 2018. Every morning while preparing breakfast I stand in front of the kitchen window for a couple of minutes to look at the mango tree in our neighbour’s yard. Since I have come to live here, I had only seen dusty green leaves or […]
Book Musings: Underland
Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert Macfarlane I had bought this e-book in a sale a couple of years back but I deferred reading it because I don’t like reading longer books (more than 350 pages) in Kindle (I love holding fatter paperbacks, highlighting passages and placing post-it notes/page markers as I read along). But, now my unread list […]
Beautiful, yummy Roselle
In my hometown, Ranchi, the flower of Roselle or locally called “kudrum” is a local delicacy which is used to make achaar (pickle). It has a tangy flavour when bitten into and is apt for pickles with a lot of spicy chilies and earthy garlic. In Bangalore, I’ve tried the saag of leaves of Roselle called gongura pachadi (sorrel chutney). […]
Taro – A comfort food and a beautiful plant
Taro or locally called “Kacchu” in Jharkhand is one of my favourite vegetables. In fact, now that I think about it, I like all kinds of corm, tuber or rhizome vegetables. This particular vegetable is a winter comfort food for me alongside sweet winter carrots, potatoes, radishes etc. When I was young I loved slurping the jharkhandi delicacy of daal […]
75th Year of Independence of India
I recently finished reading the first book of Partition Trilogy by Manreet Sodhi Someshwar, Lahore. While I did not like the book for certain reasons (maybe I should write a review? Ah well…), with our 75th Independence Day coming in just a couple of weeks, I am glad I picked up this book (definitely not realising its connection to the […]
Precious Sunlight
Whenever I see an empty balcony, devoid of plants, or a plot of land lying waste or overgrown with nothing but grasses, I can’t help but feel how such precious sunlight is wasted on those places where there is no one to grow a plant or two. I positively feel depressed some times seeing such beautiful golden sunshine falling on […]