Nerve Endings Firing Away

RD set sail for India today and she was generous enough to take a load of chocolates for my folks back home. But I rather think that she was just returning the favor when I had brought back an equally heavy load for her this past winter. Folks back home ask the now common question “what do you want?” whenever someone remotely known to my parents from the Indian subcontinent sets off towards the Americas. I don’t like to rattle off the list of the things that I “want” to my parents, but instead I opt for the things that I “need”. Books, which for some reason are exorbitantly priced on this side of the Atlantic are always on my “I need” list. Thanks to Quizman, India Unbound is on its way. Money, of course is the thing that I need and want but I let my ego rule over my conscience by refusing to ask for it, although I think I am not in dire straits compared to some friends I know. That doesn’t stop my dad from asking me each time though. Foodstuff is the next ever-so popular number on the mosted wanted list. Kaaju katli, farsan, chakkli, shankar-paale, bhaakar-wadi, chikki (sorry..untranslatable) readily come to mind. I send back mostly chocolates, which my mom relishes (Hersheys are her fave. especially the red ones) and she loves to distribute them to the kids in her kindergarten.

This constant hawala of stuff is archetypical of different ethnicities from India. Gultees literally pack in tons of pickles (the best in the world, I dare say), Gujjus bring in the dokla and the khakras, Tamilians don’t forget their Bru instant coffee and Punjabis usually eat anything namkeen. My fiancee loves to send theplas (kind of maharashtrian methi paratha) and puranpolis (rotis packed with jaggery). Though I love puranpolis frankly I don’t relish the theplas but so far haven’t had the heart to tell her no when she offers to send them (if she reads this, I will be slaughtered and packed into a roti, inventing another kind).

Recently another family friend was kind enough to bring another consignment of desi goods. unfortunately she fell ill when she landed in Atlanta, an increasing phenomenon that I have been observing lately instead of the other way around. I did not have the heart to suggest the recent health-scare on the Asian continent caused by a certain disease as the likely reason. She said that maybe she got it from her mother-in-law who was sick when they were in India. I asked her if she was mad at her. “Nah !” she said, “the lady pampered us with tons of Indian food“. I smiled in agreement. Why? Kyonki SARS bhi kabhi bahu thi.