Locomotoring

Baba slipped away quietly, his sannyasam concluded (link). His ashes were scattered by the family in river Hooghly, by the ghat, where he would come by for evening snack of tea and jhal-muri (link), Goddess Durga visarjans, and small boat rides (link). I imagine his spirit swimming alongside swarms of Hilsa (Ilish), his favorite fish that come up the Hooghly to breed between Vijay Dashami (end-Oct) and Saraswati puja (end-Jan).

In life, he was vibrant, and laughed easily (link). He had bearings of an educator – straight as an arrow and fond of rules. In his personal life, his needs were simple – aside from his fondness for all things fish (link), and diverse plant based Bengali food (link), I don’t recall him wanting much. In his professional life, he was more accomplished than most. He had grown up in post-partition Bengal, born to impoverished migrant parents who were driven away from their home and belongings in Bangladesh. When I was growing up, he was part of what is now known as National Center for Disease Control, India’s version of CDC, formerly known as National Institute of Communicable Diseases (1963), and founded as Central Malaria Bureau (1909). He eventually rose up the ranks to direct NICD for several years. I remember growing up with vocabulary of communicable diseases like malaria, HIV and plague. In retirement, he moved to Kolkata and to my mom’s surprise became busier than ever. The last two decades of his active life he provided pro-bono services – he provided physician services to villagers, founded a shelter for the elderly and helped establish a new pharmaceutical university. The rest of his family could hardly keep up with his enthusiasm for service to humankind.

I have missed him for a while and will continue to miss him, he was my north star.

Slot canyons of Anza Borrego are perhaps one of the best attractions of the park. To get to it, you have to take the easy to miss Butte Pass. At places, the canyon is so narrow that you have to take off your backpack to pass through. It is always amazing to see nature’s artwork – what she does over a millenium or three. In human scale, perhaps Anselm Kiefer comes close. He works on his extra large works of art over years, sometimes over decades, adding little bits over time.

This is a photo collage inspired by JunoCam’s photos of Jupiter.

The tamarisk grove campground is at the intersection of two roads, S3 and Hwy 78, and shaded by large tamarisk trees, an invasive species. There are some nice short hikes in the vicinity including the Yaqui Wells trail. From the Bill Kenyon overlook, you can see the broad San Felipe wash by 78. The famous slot canyons are only 10 miles away.

…bleed? That is the question. This moment is dedicated to my sister-in-law who posits that Haldiram’s bhujia flows through our veins.

This was the year of attending a panjabi wedding, our cousin’s, the youngest in the cohort. Monsoon rain was falling outside and inside the home, we were being rained on by boxes of high quality sweets and namkeens. It would have been rude not to eat even if one could self control. There is no self control so we arrived at a compromise. First, I convinced myself that ethical and environmental impact of wasting all the good stuff far outweighed health hazards. Second, some good people on the internet suggested that sweets can be frozen and revived. So, we ate the namkeens and froze the sweets. If you have never tried a mathri chaat and egg for breakfast, I highly recommend that you do. We are now on a monthly ration of sweets. Typically on the first of the month, a rationally rationed vaccum sealed bag is being opened.

… that money can’t buy. I have a deep fondness for jamun (Syzygium cumini), also known as black plum, java plum, or Malabar plum. There is nothing plum like about it unless one is referring to the deep purple color. Last time I ate fresh jamun was during the monsoon of 2009 (link). I now believe that stars have to align to find fresh jamun.

The scales in the chatGPT image might be a bit awkward, but the rendering above is awfully close to what I see out the high rise balcony this morning. I was delighted to see the parrot colony that my mom-in-law has been painting.

Shukto is a non-alcoholic aperitif made with a medley of seasonal vegetables that is eaten as the first course. The list of ingredients would do Tim Spector proud. Traditional meal starters in Bengali households in a bitter but fortunately, not a shot of campari! The bitter ingredient in shukto might have been bitter leaves such as neem or bitter gourd leaves in the past, but modern cuisine uses the bitter gourd. The complexity of cooking a mixed vegetable dish comes from the different cooking times of the individual vegetable. In a prior version of the dish that I had learned to cook from mom, I didn’t parboil the vegetables. But this time, I chose to do so. It takes the worry out of cooking them to perfection and Bengalis are a bit pernickety when it comes to cooking the ingredients perfectly.

For 2-3 servings, you are looking at approximately 4-6 cups of vegetables in appropriate balance, 2-3 Tbs mustard oil, 1-2 bay leaf, 2-3 red chilis, 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds, 1/2 tsp of radhuni (wild celery), 1/4-1/3 cup milk. Sometimes, turmeric is not used in order to preserve the milky white color. But turmeric is good for you and the color of gold is equally appealing.