Where Are You My Friends

Where are you my friends?

Those were the days the longing to learn how to bake a cake drove me to those houses who were planning to bake that day, giving them a hand in mixing taking turns, and to see all those ingredients going into the batter the laughter and joke and tears with all those skin eruptions, with all those manual contributions as there was no mixing units and blenders, but the wooden mathu or mashing ladle that we used to turn around and around in one direction they said. The large vessel for so many they made to be given away as this is the time of sharing and giving them they said.

During this time around the smell of cake baking emanating the atmosphere with different flavors and aroma, how the rose cookies and kulkuls which I joined to help out, there was fernandes aunty who wanted help for rose cookies and then there was Muriel to help out with kulkuls, then there was sulochana to help for her adirasam, the most active time of the year after diwali. I also took trouble making a cake asking the corner bakery fellow to bake it for me as I never owned an oven then, and all my friends were busy with their loads of work. I baked to give them something in return when they sent me those cookies and sweets and cakes, instead of only sugar wanted to add some fruits and a slice of home baked from my end.

There was more of give and take and all the children the same age around making a lot of noise on the road playing lagori and screaming with excitement, Hazel in Australia, Muriel her daughter with long hair Andrea around in some other land, no touch with them now, but they have left behind lots of memories for me to ache about. Their homemade wines were very red and intoxicating, which we shared and bought during these Christmas times.

The dresses and parties and different cooking altogether varied from ours was all exciting their bar-be-cues set me thinking of so many marinating and dips. There was a bond which I don’t see now, we are surrounded more by Muslim friends still those children and mixing was more than now, I miss them and the cake baking ceremony that was around October, pouring in lots of rums into nuts and fruits, savoring the bottled to be mixed later.

The small little cribs arranged on corrugated boxes with tiny baby in the stable with the three wise men and their camels, and the star hung on the houses informing the place of birth in every home, hay being collected from the local diary, and then spread out and share.

The streamers and tinsel, with different hues and colors, the Christmas trees being sprayed with white fizzy cream to make it look like snow and some place white fluffy cottons to decorate, the small little lightings flickering through the night.
The bonfire on the road as the New Year around, all carrying mrs. Fernandes in a chair all around and clapping and dancing and singing in chorus.

Running out on the road to wish all happy new year, yeah, to day I do miss them a lot, wherever they are let happiness follow them, who spread so much memories in me..sunkan

 

very true kamalji,
each one their own, they may have a nostalgic their style when they grow, and will come out with what they felt good, sharing music and reading at the same time, shaking away on the floor or bed or grass anything, sharing a oozing icecream, licking through the cone, or may be wonderful fizzy drink anything can take place, our days of rajesh khanna and shammi kapoor and sharmila, hema, all are gone but yes when the aradhana song comes up our mind beats the beat it did the first time when it heard, so we store them, we need to move away and never say worse or good, imagine saigal being appreciated and rajesh khanna hey a cheesy guy told by our parents, life moves on, with it the changing attitude, do you see any young girl responding here as fast as u or me, never we have those memories so we are able to share, but nowadays..what story yaar.is the word..happy u came by, sunkan

 

dear moon beam,
i have a daughter who will sit down with a pad and pencil the minute some channel start of foodies, and they love the old melodies, it is the atmosphere i think, where we do not emphasise but some how they get to like what we liked in those days.

lucky i must say they are a blend of both and i have a sis daughter who is like how you say, may be the later ones are going to appreciate these, especially when the mother is not around and working and the tv is ever on, unable to segregate the channel for them, and abroad? never ask, the parents having a tough time in show casing what india is all about.

it is a phase where each carry what they relished a lot, as there was not tv, there was bonding and misunderstanding too,nowadays no one has the time like how you say, untill one drops dead and the others feel, oh! she spent her life with tv, serials..sunkan

 

happy nivedi,
you join here, yes it is those days in our life nice to go refer back and turn those pages in mind and the same color jump at us with so vivid a picture u miss, that calm, no hurry burry and not so many traffic with those jhatkas if you want to travel with a small contirbution of vintage cars by the affordable.

the cycle rickshaws for the middle class the may flower used to burst in flames the street and time to go to school used to be like walking on a red carpet, the slight april shower always left you with longing for more, the misty morning where cloud walked down on roads, in december u need to be careful not to be run over, as u hurry for your morning classes at 7 and u only see the head lights..i could go on and on...the pages are colorful..sunkan

 

yes kamla,
those days of cantonment were only filled with retired anglo indian crowd, they had a diet all on their own, though never got to eat with them, as parents were very strict not to eat anywhere in anybody's house for that matter, i think we were the only brahmin family in that road till date, and so the environment kept changing, from french descendents to anglo and then now completely muslims, who dont mix easily or may be we are a little reserved, but,

chitra mingles with all, sometime fasts as her friends are fasting to give them company, make some thing nice like idli sambhar is a hit with Mr.Farooq family and adai is famous with shahani aunty she calls her, so the anglo crowd a british lady used to serve potato and gravy which i was never able to digest easily, in those days ground the masala in vinegar, so never used to frequent except during christmas where i offer help and to get to know how these things are done, so the labor is mine with funfilled atmosphere...

our films should not be the source to depict our old times, but keep the atmosphere alive in our homes too, especially when you are abroad one tends to hold back many things for reasons connected with the atmosphere where we stay..sunkan