Mangsho ghooogni with buckwheat oats sourdough. The Bandra Bengali breakfast of champions was how I started my Sunday.
These days I am reading Ruskin Bond’s autobiography, Lone Fox Dancing, which Debjani gifted to my mum on her birthday and which I borrowed. I am in awe of how he remembers intricate details of his childhood and brings it alive for us.
Ghoogni to me speaks of bhai fota in Kolkata. Our neighbour P, who was younger than me and older than my brother, would give us bhai fota every year till we all flew away from our homes. After moving to the US she sends us an email on bhai fota without fail every year. She doesn’t have her ‘own brother’ and we don’t have our ‘own sister.’ We all have cousins of course.
Back in Calcutta in the 80s and 90s, her mum would make us ghoogni on the occasion. My mum would make noodles and chilli chicken. Gifts exchanged would be Chinese pens and Hardy Boys.
P lives in the US. I am a mama now. Her son turned 2 yesterday. He was thrilled to get books from his mom on the occasion.
Our mum and P’s mum share their birthdays and have been neighbours for around 35 years. Yesterday P’s mum gave mine fruits (aapni to mishti khan na) on her grandson’s birthday. My mum shared the sugar free cake ITC Royal Bengal baked on her birthday, with P’s mum a few days back.
The dinnerware you see was passed down to me by my didu who would usually come over for bhai fota and give it to us brothers.
P
The ghoogni was made by Sangeeta, whose husband Debanjan runs Bhutu’s Kitchen.
There was a soft fatty mutton piece left from the mangshor jhol they sent me which I added to the ghoogni to make it a mangsho ghoogni. The bread was from La Folie.
This post is my tribute to the OG diaryist, Ruskin Bond.
