First things first. it is not our anniversary today. I though I will clarify this as this label created confusion this morning on Facebook. The ‘Decade of togetherness’ thought was sparked off by newspaper articles today on the decade of this and decade of that.
Cut to 1990. We were about to appear for our tenth exams. A classmate suddenly pointed out that the nineties would be the year of all our major academic exams… tenth, twelfth, college, post grad, doctorate ( we are Bongs after all) and that the rest of our lives would be shaped by this. We nodded profoundly in agreement. Oblivious to the fact that there could be more to life than academics. This was the era before 3 Idiots .
If the Nineties were the degrees of academic certificates than the Two Thousands was the decade when I moved away from the scholarly Bhramyachari ashram (bachelor) stage to togetherness and companionship. I met K in 2000. Or possibly a week or so before as I had joined the job where we met on 15th December 1999. Hence my label for the decade.
We relived the memory of the latest of our many lovely holidays last night. We took out the packaged Fondues that we bought in Migros at Zurich. We heated these in the microwave for dinner. Blasphemy? Tasted awesome though. Very rich cheese and a strong after taste of wine. As authentic as it gets. It almost seemed like we were sitting at Bebbie at Interlaken and not at Bandra. But then, if we were, how would we have got the fantastic baguette which I picked up from Candies, Bandra? K chopped the bread into tiny Fondue bits with our Ikea bread knife. We couldn’t stop praising the bread. It was so nice and soft. Better than the ones at Switzerland.
It was fortuitous that I thought of the fondue because of our sore throats. Turned out that today was the expiry date and they would gave gone waste otherwise.
I was not planning to do a post on this. But then the missus said ‘why not’ and asked me to get the camera. So here is last night’s dinner:
Today is the last day of the decade. I went to By The Way with my office group for lunch.
“I am hungry” “Give me a bite from your plate” “We should have ordered more fish fingers” ” I so want a good plum cake” (this was repeated thrice, a wish which got fulfilled later I believe) “The mutton is soooo soft and tender” “The roast chicken is nice” “I want sizzling brownie” “Two sizzling brownies” “Wait I want rabdi” ‘Chicken puffs’ “More chicken puffs” “Biriyanai..kheema matar…pao” “Do they have birthday cakes?” “The eggless truffles looks even better than the regular ones” “Anybody else for Pepsi?” “Cut me a slice of akoori” ‘”I was too hungry, couldn’t wait for a plate” “The Laganu custard is nice, not too sweet, just perfect” “Give me a bit of your laganu custard!”
Yes I work with a lovely set of people who love food too.
The hot mutton dhansak was just what I needed. A Parsi dish to finish off my first Parsi decade.
By the Way is run by a charitable trust. So one could earn some good Karma while eating and score brownie points before the year ended. I got a chance to meet the wonderful ladies who run the trust. I picked up some handmade Christmas cards too.
By the Way is a nice place to go especially on a crowded festive day. It is relatively empty. The food is homelike and not commercial. It exudes the sort of warmth which makes you feel at peace and count your blessings.
Dinner’s going to be at home. Curled up on the sofa. Our sore throats don’t leave us with much choice in food. Toying around with the idea of cold cuts, sushi and chocolate cheese cake from Sante, Spice and More’s gifts of cheese and Teachers with warm water.
Here’s wishing you a great new year. May your plates always be full. Cups overflow. Thoughts happy. And desserts never ending.
Cheers
