The sun, sea and the wobbly plank

The sun looked not quite lunch time yet. I stepped on the same old wobbly plank on the bridge that my father had built with love when I was a child and he still a robust man in thirties. I have never walked without stepping on it. That is an ominous pattern destined to happen telling my mother that I have arrived.

It was cold and placid outside and as I dragged my feet heavy on the plank, I realized that life has not been kind on me inspite of my desperation. Sometimes, I had even contemplated listening to my friend's amazing stories for hours. How miracles changed his life and how sometimes the luck fairy was extra kind to him. I tried hard to get out of that unhappy providence but it seemed that I had a thing for it. It seemed the whole world was conspiring against me and I was a lonely creature fighting a battle I had no idea of.

Soon I found myself standing on the shore. Just short of the waves, gazing at the vast mystifying beauty, startled and clueless I started walking with the waves into the burly, invincible sea. The white froth tickled my feet telling me to walk more into the deep. I kept walking into the sea. It seemed the sun sipped in all the blues and dispersed a vibrant orange love all over and as I looked into the sea I got engaged in an endless rendezvous that the 'lotus eaters' had once experienced.

Suddenly, I sensed an uncanny chill, a sudden numbness and realized that the orange yellow sea distanced into an uncanny austerity. It got dark by then. I was getting late and started walking through the piney shady trail. To my surprise, it started to smell intimate again. It smelled of Brazilian blueberries and squirrels. It smelled like my childhood.

The walk down to my house was full of memories. Memories of my childhood, the memories of the sea, sun, happy days and the squeaky plank on the bridge built by my father. Soon I reached my house. I walked over the bridge to the door which opened to my mother's startled look. This time I didn't step on the wobbly plank!


You may also like:

The year that was - A walk through 2016

Easiest ever Bengali machher jhol (fish curry) recipe - fantastically simple and delicious

Another day of blogging and I was tempted just about to write something relating to health again when I was reminded of my critic friend who has just begun to feel that My Numberless Dreams is but a health blog. Even with all the critiques that this blog has acquired over the years, I would just not accept this. So, categorically and deliberately, I digressed and so this food blog happened. Besides, this is the easiest thing to do when you have time constraints, an early next day work to catch and more.   

Today's recipe is yet another of fantastic Bengali fish curry recipes that you will be able to prepare very easily with ordinary kitchen ingredients. Bengali fish curry is all about lot of red and fresh green chilies, garam masala, onion-ginger-garlic paste, oriental spices and of course lots of love.

What you will need

Fish thoroughly cleaned, cut and marinated in turmeric power and salt

For the spicy curry - red chili paste/ powder, turmeric powder, garam masala dust, ginger-garlic-onion paste

For seasoning - oil preferable mustard oil, whole garam masala, whole jeera (cumin), green chili whole

That is just about everything you will require. Remember to clean the fish nicely and cut it into moderately sized pieces and put it aside after marination with salt and turmeric powder (haldi). In a skillet heat mustard oil till smoke comes off and then very carefully release the fish cubes. Turn sides when it gets golden on one side and strain them from the skillet. Now, for the gravy, in the left over oil sprinkle whole garam masala, cumin seeds (optional), sprigs of bay leaves, red chili whole and add the ginger-garlic-onion paste. Add little turmeric, red chili paste and salt and little bit of sugar to caramelize. Keep stirring in slow heat till the skillet starts to leave oil. Pour a cup full of water, add the fish and cook in slow fire. Turn off the oven till a thick consistency is formed and the gravy turns fantastically liquid orange.

Serve with steamed rice, green chili and freshly cut lemon (pati lebu or gondhhoraj lebu).

As much as this sounds simple, for the first timers the recipe can get messed up by inappropriate mix of spices or by overcooking. Bengali fish curry preparation is impeccably simple yet has an undefined check and balance that can be learned only through practice. That probably is the reason why the grand-mom's are the best cooks ever and the moms become one when they turn grand-moms.    

Photo credit ~ 3.bpblogspot

Why no selfies for me

'One word is too often profaned' and it is untaming, obsessive and addictive. It is the inane act of taking 'selfie'. Selfie is the buzz word that has taken over all other internet jargon in no time making it the most used and the most abused smartphone app.

I find this selfie thing very annoying. I hate people taking selfies all over the places, whenever, wherever and out of no where. They don't stop at it and go on to post it in social media for reasons best known to them. The falsehood that envelops the 'likes' from ghost friends in social media is something that gives us virtual pleasure. We are mystified by the unknownness of the internet little realizing that we are drifted far from what is real, what is beautiful and what is ours. I hate it when five to six and more people take a groupie ( a group selfie) when they can conveniently have a nice photograph done without much ado and very neatly too. People are so much obsessed with themselves being appreciated. (So what it is from some virtual user names - some even with funny alpha numeric prototypes). Every second the internet is congested with few thousands of selfies making it viral with unwanted fragmented data. It scares me to think about it all. Once we post a photo we just have had it! No way we can undo its footprints from the face of internet. As a result, ten years hence we just might have to bite our tongue for some duck face act years back. Who knows we may have to struggle to get weird excuses to convince our kids!

Having said that the usefulness of the art of selfie taking cannot and should not be ignored. Selfies are saviors in times of need. It can reach you to someone you badly need to instantly. Like to your doctor who just wants to see your not so nice face spots or your friend hair stylist who may come up with a brilliant suggestion on a bad hair day or your family geographically far apart. To add to it if you can master the art of taking selfies you can really have some confident photos to archive.

Selfies with celebrities have replaced the good ol' time sake's autographs. I wonder, how do the celebrities go through the ordeal of posing with the fans upclose and personal. I find this bizarre. Selfies, today, are all over the places and people post too many of them too often. Also, the celebrity selfies in the endeavour to reach out to the people are all over the social media making the art very shallow and abysmally misused.

Personally, I do take selfies at times when there is no one to take mine and when I may just need to send one to my family abroad. I think that makes sense since I am not posting them on social media just for the sake of it and waiting every moment to check the number of likes that I derive from it. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook are three top 'most selfie abused' places in the world wide web. The downside of this? Something that we are going to pay the penalty for in near future. The penalty for misusing the most beautiful and useful invention of the century - the internet. And the legacy that we are going to leave for our children would certainly not be a pleasant one. Something to ponder upon.

You may also like:

3 negative experiences on Facebook and the effects

Climbing Out of the Inbox

My content copied and plagiarized!!!

I was shocked to see an article on a networking site which had been copied verbatim by someone anonymous from a recent article that I had posted on a different forum. While my reactions range from disbelief to anger, I am wondering how to react to this!

I know, it's a vast world of internet where we can hardly check things and figure out about this kind of cheating. At the most, we can have the user banned but then what? He can pop us again with a different user name! With virtually ineffective cyber laws and little understanding and knowledge about the execution, we have to just wait for some well wisher who might just point out that you have been copied and plagiarised.

It feels bad to know that people are cowardly not to give credit and also not to have their own ideas expressed. We all are individuals with beautiful original ideas and it doesn't take much, does it! They not only do something unethical but also lose their original thoughts and creativity.

I have been lucky. the admin not only have removed the post but also have sufficiently warned the user. Sometimes, people do it out of ignorance as well. Anything on internet is free - that's what they think. I just wish they come of age and do not spoil the internet and try to write their original stuffs.

Good luck!

Welcome to mimpidreams

Mimpidreams is my dream come true. I decided to set this up so I could be in closer contact with all my loved ones! It gets to be more and more interesting as we get to share and interact.

It's quite a user friendly forum and the best way to start is to join the groups which are of interest to you. You could start a new topic under the group or read and comment on the existing topics.

Sharing photographs,videos and music is also very easy to do.

Join, participate, drop your suggestions here. Feel free to leave scathing censures and words of encouragement to improve this site.


Lots of huggles...

Welcome to My Numberless Dreams

Life is subtle
Life is sad, life is hurts
Life is plastering the wounds
Life is living the pains
Life is living the joys
Life is bliss
Life is life...

Here I lay unfold my numberless dreams.
Drop by, read, love, hate - do your mind. You are a joy to know...
Lots of huggles....



Image credit: Favim.com

30July 2009