“Hold fast to dreams
for if dreams die
life is a broken-winged bird
that can not fly”. – Langston Hughes.
I’ve believed in this quote since I was a child. Call it
Mind Control.
Gratitude.
Manifesting.
Aboriginal DreamTime.
Shakespeare once said “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet.”
Just a simple but strong Desire for something – a state, a situation..
My love to read, teach, write, do music, feed and a host of other things. Social media has given me the opportunity to showcase all this in a somewhat mediocre way, not its fault but mine, for I cook what I selfishly want to consume or in a rare selfless state, I churn dishes for family and friends. I take non exotic photos, add some music I like and post them.
And so when I was recently asked to showcase some food unique to my upbringing and culture, I was ecstatic.
I’d mentioned before in an older post that my sisters and I had launched a book of Mum’s much loved recipes on her 80th birthday. What better way to showcase my heritage than by selecting a couple of recipes from her book. I added a Malaysian twist to one as I am a mixed breed of Sri Lankan Indian Malaysian.
Will not spoil the surprise as the show will only air later this week.
The hostess Swastika Ganguly is a lovely young exuberant engineer and an award winning actress, following her passion in theatre, writing and the arts too while managing her own engineering consultancy. A role model for our young women.
Why do I cook?
When I cook, I feel the truth of this quote by Laurie Colwin,
“No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice, and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers”.
I am grateful that through Mum’s food, I am able to step back to beautiful moments in time, my childhood, when all things were bright and beautiful, when we didn’t think that we’d have to grow up.
I cook because I want others to feel the essence of what this food means to me and what it will mean for them.
And the best mode of cooking is to cook from a place of love, with no fear and no expectations, from the heart.
I believe that if you do this with anything and everything you Cook, Paint, Dance, Sing,
Dreams will come true.
Draped a kanjivaram Handloom silk purplish magenta with bottle green and gold borders and pallu. An easy drape and a favourite of mine. Got husband to click a few shots after the cook but I looked a bedraggled mess so am sharing a click of me with the hostess in my kitchen, and the rest in comments.
A huge thank you to Katyayni Jha Thakur
and Anshoo Kashyap Sharma for their invaluable advice😍.
Bavani’s Happy Place 