For the last couple of weeks, we (me and A) were spending our Sunday evening in a very traditional Bengali way….that is “jomiye-adda-on-a-Sunday-evening” with our Bengali friends around. I hope by next week I would introduce “Muri” (rice crispies)and “Beguni” (Brinjal fry) in Adda too.
Last Sunday, a major point of discussion in the Adda session involved “Layttya Mach”(“Lotte Mach” as some would prefer to call it).
Last Sunday, a major point of discussion in the Adda session involved “Layttya Mach”(“Lotte Mach” as some would prefer to call it).
(“Layttya Mach” is a phosphorus rich fish).
D, one of our friends was seemingly intimidated by the fact that the price of “Layttya” fish has taken an almost vertical rise these days in Calcutta, compared to its price 5-6 years back. He surmised that it is due to the fact that the "Ghatis"(Bengalis from West Bengal by origin) are now hooked to its taste unlike couple of years back when they would pass the "Layttya" fish sellers over in the market. At that time, it was consumed prevalently by Bangals(Bengalis of East Bengal origin) only.
I should mention here that both D and D’s wife are born and brought up in India, though D’s grand-parents are from East Bengal, Chittagong to be precise and his wife’s side are from West Bengal. So while kicking up the controversial issue of Ghatis-trying-Layttya-mach-these-days, D took a quick glance at his wife.
Anyway as I was saying, at the end of the day, D has learned a bitter truth about life from the "Layttya" episode that, you should not be a bigmouth about your recipes or your food in front of others who are not in your clan, let alone those who are not your countrymen; better you should try to veer people off your food by giving them away misleading recipes.
So, the other day when an English gentleman asked D at Tesco (Tesco is a supermarket chain in UK), seeing him buying Spinach bunches, “how you Indians eat spinach?” D straight away answered, “We, Indians take the spinach home, clean it and eat it raw”.
After all, you would not blame D for not disclosing recipes anymore, would you? The poor soul is acting out of his primal instinct of hoarding food for his clan.
The following bit is not at all related to the subject above except for that we had a good laugh on both occasions.
S, another friend of ours quipped in last Sunday’s adda that while Jurassic park was dubbed in Hindi, it was dubbed in Bangladesh too with the title “Khaise Dino Aise”.
Stay well and eat well. See you all in a few days.
2 comments:
hi boudi! gr8 1.keep it up.keep englighting us.....Mithu...tobe nijeke mashi keno baniye phelle....
@ Mithua: Thanks, and a warm welcome to my site. About the matter of enlightening you, not sure whether my blog could at all serve the purpose of en-LIGHTening or in-FUSEing of any sort.:)
Speaking of the name of the blog, it does not so much refer me as the Rannar Mashi as much as it refers my cryinh out for help of any rannar mashi(check out the post "Why this blog in the first place").
I would not mind being a rannar mashi myself though, because my Ma being a working lady, we(me and Didi)have grown a very special bond with our Rannar Mashi over the years . She in a way has become part of our family now and she boasts this fact very proudly to others that she has been with us since the day British left India.
:D
Post a Comment