A collection of my Instagram posts from the day after our first Covishield jab. Incidentally, the Holy Family Hospital, where we got our jabs yesterday was out of vaccines today! It’s 2 pm now. We watched Pagglaiyat at Netflix tonight. I am perspiring now and have switched on the aircon so no fever shever. K has been better in the evening barring the odd headache.
Breakfast:
I was suddenly very tired at 9pm last night after taking our first jab in the afternoon and felt cold and got the shivers at 11pm. As if we were in Darjeeling, I thought. A quick paracetamol fixed things and I watched a third of the Asif Kapadia Maradona docu on Netflix after that. As I quipped to K, thanks to the pandemic, my travel fantasies are about places that don’t require passports!
Day 2 is tricky, many warned us though my doc friend said everyone reacts differently.
We both woke up with body-ache and mild temperatures. Dragged myself to the kitchen to make breakfast with Nimki spurring me on. The idea was to eat so that we could take our meds.
Well once I had my bagel with cream cheese and leftover #noorbanucooks chicken kebabs with espresso and K had toast and jam, we both felt fresher. That’s the power of the kitchen!
Will be resting it out now after a shower. Managed to give our morning house help a talk on the need for taking a vaccine and to tell us if she needs any help.
Loaf and Nimki were good boys and polished off their breakfasts. Big thanks to all checking on us through messages.
Lunch:
Felt a lot better post breakfast, paracetamol & a shower. Banu came to work and I’d prepped by then by soaking rice and dal and gave her precise recipe instructions and spices to land a soulful Bengali lunch of bhaat, sheddo moong dal & kumro peyaj kolir kalo jeere chhechki. Pumpkin and spring onions tossed in nigella seeds in mustard oil with minimal spices. Added Jharna ghee to the rice & took some of the Himachali hari mirch meethi achar from Maa’s pickles. A nap is warranted now
Dinner:
An ode to murgir jhol bhaat.
While I felt better by lunch, I woke up to body ache and mild fever after my afternoon nap. And the shivers too.
Heating on a tava and having the alu paratha our cook Banu had made earlier, with ketchup, helped & I felt better as the evening progressed.
The idea of having murgir jhol bhaat for dinner further perked me up. I had micro-managed the cooking of the chicken curry by Banu. It had hardly any chilli powder or garam masala but yet look at the colour. Made on a kadhai. Dinner was #byapok (stellar). We go easy on alu these days but today was about nourishment and starchy carby love.
When I was new to Mumbai, I’d gone to a doc suggested by my PG aunty when I had fever. He gave me coloured pills and no prescriptions, a Bombay thing I learnt, and stumped me by saying ‘no non-veg.’
Back home in Kolkata murgir jhol & chicken stew were trusted aids of our mothers when we were under the weather. Twenty years in Mumbai haven’t changed who I am.
K loved the curry too. Let’s see how the night goes.
Dessert:
I rarely have desserts these days. Half a spoon at the most if I need to taste something. I am on a no dessert track otherwise till 10th May.
Our friend & neighbour, Gia @dining_with_mao , had dropped off a mango key lime tart today. The tart reminded me of a syrupy baclava, the mango cream of the mango orchards of Ratnagiri, with the lime adding a balance of zest. I kept a generous slice to have after dinner and relished every bite.
This girl is as talented as she is big hearted. No, before you ask, she does not take orders.
