Start with the words of the last watsapp message your wrote, and go on to a 500 word monologue, a piece to camera. Sarcasm and kindness must both shimmer through, like in a dhoop-chaaon sari.
500 words and a title. Deadline: 5.30 p.m.
Tagging Gouri Dange, Mathangi Krish, Paromita Vohra.
500 words and a title. Deadline: 5.30 p.m.
Tagging Gouri Dange, Mathangi Krish, Paromita Vohra.
The Senior Citizens' Quinoa Tales
The last WhatsApp message I sent, before seeing this post, was “Please send the recipe’, to a friend who had posted a picture of her dinner, quinoa upma and peanut chutney. I love quinoa upma, which I have eaten a few times at my favourite Café Lota, but have never made. I also love the quinoa salad that my older son makes, with all kinds of exotic ingredients like avocado and mint sauce that I am not likely to get in Covid times. I love quinoa for various reasons. It tastes good. It also has a very low glycemic index, which is excellent news for diabetic me. I also know that it is rather expensive in India, so the last time I went to the US, in 2017, I bought packets of black quinoa and white quinoa, which have been sitting in my freezer ever since. And then my son was on a sabbatical in Delhi for most of 2018, accompanied by his family. (That was a wonderful time, being able to spend time with the grandchildren, but I digress). When he left I inherited some groceries from his house, including, of course, more quinoa. I did make something with some of it, once, but I forget what it was. It was edible and it was eaten, is all I can say.
Some more facts about my life, which are germane to the non-consumption of my extant stocks of quinoa. For most of the past couple of years, at least, our two-person household now has major spaces in its togetherness. Spouse ji travels for 3-4 days most weeks, so we have an either 3 or 4 day weekend, in which we do many things together, like banking chores. No, we are not net savvy enough to do online banking. We like our local bank branch. We also physically deposit our credit card cheques in another bank. We are senior citizens, and entitled to be dinosaurs. We sometimes treat ourselves to a Chinese meal post banking! Of course I cook good nutritious meals at home, for poor Spouse ji, who has to eat out when he travels. Now, I find it really hard to cook very small quantities of food, even though I try. So, once the spouse is out for the week, I end up consuming leftovers until it’s time for him to come home again. So when does the bechaara quinoa get a chance? The spouse is not terribly adventurous with food, and is not a quinoa fan either. I have, today, made a karela salad from a recipe on a Facebook post, which I know he will not touch. There is also sabut urad, aka maa ki daal for lunch, and yesterday’s lauki koftas, which I made after years and years, so he will be well fed. I need to plan a meal which has some decent leftovers for him and yummy quinoa for me, because I don’t want to generate extra washing up for my dishpan hands.
Some more facts about my life, which are germane to the non-consumption of my extant stocks of quinoa. For most of the past couple of years, at least, our two-person household now has major spaces in its togetherness. Spouse ji travels for 3-4 days most weeks, so we have an either 3 or 4 day weekend, in which we do many things together, like banking chores. No, we are not net savvy enough to do online banking. We like our local bank branch. We also physically deposit our credit card cheques in another bank. We are senior citizens, and entitled to be dinosaurs. We sometimes treat ourselves to a Chinese meal post banking! Of course I cook good nutritious meals at home, for poor Spouse ji, who has to eat out when he travels. Now, I find it really hard to cook very small quantities of food, even though I try. So, once the spouse is out for the week, I end up consuming leftovers until it’s time for him to come home again. So when does the bechaara quinoa get a chance? The spouse is not terribly adventurous with food, and is not a quinoa fan either. I have, today, made a karela salad from a recipe on a Facebook post, which I know he will not touch. There is also sabut urad, aka maa ki daal for lunch, and yesterday’s lauki koftas, which I made after years and years, so he will be well fed. I need to plan a meal which has some decent leftovers for him and yummy quinoa for me, because I don’t want to generate extra washing up for my dishpan hands.
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