Breaking Fast with Bhakarwadi!

My watch told me it was time to go home; I finished a mail and close my system when my phone rang. It was an unknown number and when I picked it, there was a hesitant but friendly voice confirming whether it was I who was answering. Yes sir, I said wondering who this was when he mentioned a friend of mine whom I had not met over two years. We agreed to meet an hour later and while traveling, I remembered the blog I had written about my friend but had not posted (really don’t know why!!)

So here’s the blog:

Love and affection we receive from friends is a blessing no less than what we get from our family. I count myself as a blessed being to have a loving group of friends. Wherever I am, god had always brought some really wonderful human beings into my life. We could be in touch constantly or we could go on for years without any contact, but the moment we reach out, we find that nothing in our friendship has changed, only that it has deepened even more. One such friend is my dearest friend K. I would forget her birthday, her wedding anniversary and not find time to call her when I go on vacation to my hometown, but every time I had reached out to her, she has always been there for me with a patient ear, a comforting shoulder, and sanest piece of advice I could ever get. Now that I think of it, I think it’s been at least a year since my last mail or conversation with her except for an occasional ‘like’ on each other’s seldom used FBs. We have known each other for over a dozen years and these gaps of not being in touch are quite normal for us. Now this blog is not about her but about another friend P whom I had known for a relatively short duration.

We had been colleagues and I had come to appreciate the man’s simplicity and down to earth disposition despite his tremendous technical knowledge. I had marveled at the way he would handle doubts and problems presented to him by others. He would make you realize that you already knew the answer just that you had to ask the right question; a method that makes the person seeking answers feel good about oneself - a born teacher. He would lavishly praise his subordinates with at most sincerity for the simplest of things. The love he had for his son, wife and parents can be felt clearly when you get to know him.

He went back to India last year and I had not been in regular touch with him since, so I was surprised when I received a message from him asking me if I could collect a parcel from a friend of his who was visiting SG. Due to my hectic schedules, I couldn’t meet with the friend over weekend and had to collect it the following Monday.

Mondays are my fasting days where I do not eat anything since morning but for a bit of fruit or milk (only if needed) and try to make do with just water until sunset. That particular Monday had been particularly hectic and by the time I had travelled to meet the friend I was having an unusually heavy head with painful throbbing behind my brows. The friend was a polite and genial man who enquired after my kids and talked about some general stuff before handing over the parcel and leaving. The bag was heavy and heavier still as I was feeling a bit weak. By the time the train reached my station, I had contemplated opening the parcel a million times, but the civic-minded person in my head wouldn’t hear a word of it. ‘It is against the law to eat on trains!’ I was sternly told. So I waited until I was safely out of ‘no-eating’ zone and was on the sidewalk to open the parcel which contained my favorite yummy bakarwadis. I yanked the packet open and popped one in my mouth greedily to enjoy the explosion of spices that assaulted my senses. These were just too good… just the way I remembered them.

I quickly gobbled two more and my thoughts flew to the day in office when someone who had returned from Pune had brought these strange looking rolls called bakarwadi. I had never tasted it before and was contending myself with the other sweets and savories when someone encouraged me to try one. When I took the first bite… yummmm…. it was love at first bite ;-) Since then I had always looked forward to people coming back to office from Pune ;-) I have tried bakarwadis from other places, but the ones from Pune are the ultimate.

My dear friend P had remembered how much I had enjoyed eating them and had taken the efforts to get them to me though we were not very regularly in touch. This, my dear friends, I consider a blessing… nope not the fact that people remember me through what I eat… but that god has blessed with me friends who show their affection with such simple yet sweet gestures.

I headed home knowing well that the parcel will not survive beyond a day…. for they were too good and my daughters, like me, love bakarwadis!

Now You guessed it right…. Yesterday also was a repeat of the same event and I received a packet of yummy bakarwadis with which I broke my Monday fast and today I am munching one as I type this ;-)

 

Thanks rgs for the appreciation and kind words