quidnovis61

People who know me will know and understand :-) that ONE day I would be compelled to write a blog about B&B...no, not Bed n Breakfast but Baingan & Bhindi....i.e aubergine and okra in English ...but I prefer to call them by their Indian names......

 

Since 1965....(I think....It is in any case my earliest memory...) B&B and my taste buds have had an undying love affair. Of course it is all Mummy's fault! I was a very fussy eater in those days (hmmm, looking at me now no one will ever guess that!) and I would not eat a "proper" breakfast (= Britannia bread, Paulson's butter, Robertson's jam, eggs and milk with Cadbury's Drinking Chocolate ...) before the Army bus came in the (early!) morning to take me to school. My poor Mum was in tears! How can one send ones darling (albeit fussy!) little child to  school on an empty stomach?

 

And so it transpired that every morning she and our cook would make me breakfast!
It was the ultimate Bongo (Bengali) solution... and it worked! ... Rice with melting butter, thin watery masoor daal (red lentils) and of course: Begun Bhaja... fried aubergine......Ooooh! Can there be any better food than this?? I would eat a hearty "Mum's Bongo Brekky" and go happily off to Loreto C...leaving a delighted Mum waving on the doorstep all the way until the bus disappeared from view at the bottom of our spacious Cosmos strewn garden...

 

(The Britannia bread with Paulson's butter and liberal helping of Robertson's jam was neatly packed in a tiffin box in my satchel for lunch at school!... where I loved and enjoyed it immensely with all the other little girls and remains even today, yet another of my favo-foods)

 

All the years in India the B&B were daily regular unfailing features of any mealtime... be it accompanied by rice or chapattis. The variations of these humble veggies were endless..... In all my childhood travels, Mum and our varied regional cooks the B&B dishes they served were all delicious. My favourites however remain - Bongo style stir fried Bhindi and Begun bhaja and baingan ka bharta (roasted aubergine)... all quintessentially simple homely Indian fare.

 

And then I came to Sweden....

 

Hahh! Of all the myriad things I missed most  ....were astonishingly - B&B!

 

They were rarely available in the mid 80's and one had to travel to special markets in Gothenburg or Stockholm...and they cost almost half my monthly wage for a kilo...to the bewilderment of friends and family back in India! It even prompted my parents to want to start a B&B export business and my Aunt to smuggle Baingan in her suitcase past the watchful customs at Frankfurt and Gothenburg...!!! But of course things have vastly improved in Sweden since... Baingan/aubergine is  AVAILABLE now a days... at a price... hmmmm....

 

Well.... so now you know...

                                                                 

And then! three weeks ago one of the shops advertised Baingan!! O M G! It was so cheap... so cheap.... cheaper than in INDIA!!  And huge (that's why I have my glasses in the picture...) . And nearly seedless. And the Deep Purple hue I remember so well.....O m g again... how could that happen? What a pleasant shock...The vegetable rack was literally inundated with aubergines from Italy, Israel and Spain... I was transported to Baingan-paradiso! What joy...

 

And as if that wasn't enough... for the very first time in my thirty years in Sweden I saw BHINDI (okra) in tiny 150 gm packets from INDIA...!!! - costing the earth, of course...but oh such double joy!! After ALL these years of B&B starvation....

 

I am, as you can understand, simply compelled to write my ode to this glorious joy ...hehehee....

 

I have in the last few weeks thoroughly enjoyed my B&Bs in all the various ways as I know how and returned in my heart to my childhood food heaven....and smiled with inner joy.

 

Signing off for now.

C.S!
(Cresat Scientia)

 

 

A pictoral ode to the country lanes around my tiny village ...taken mostly on my way to town to do my shopping ...

Enjoy my slice of Scandinavian Summer....

Signing off for now.

C.S!
(Cresat Scientia)

 

 

 

 

 

I read somewhere that famous people were once asked what they thought was the saddest word....

Oscar Hammerstein II said: But

Writer John Dos Passos chose: Forlorn

Harry Truman said: It might have been....

 

Yes they are all certainly very sad and totally devoid of life and hope... Pearl S Buck once wrote: When hope is taken away from the people, moral degeneration follows swiftly after...

 

But to me, the saddest word I can think of is ABANDONED

ALL its synonyms go through my heart like a spear making it bleed....

Discarded... tossed away... forsaken... deserted....renounced... disowned...forsaken...

In each of these words is a such a profound sense of hurt, hopelessness, loneliness and despair that it is soul-shattering.

 

Its not just about derelict houses .... they too make me horribly sad... all the blood sweat and tears that went into building it...the memories etched into every plank, the sounds and smells that once permeated its walls, the garden left to grow wild where once there might have been flowers, shrubs, potatoes and carrots, the bench where they might have sat on balmy summer evenings.....all abandoned.

 

What saddens me the most are children all over the world - who are just abandoned... by the devastation of war, by the careless heartlessness of adults, by poverty and other socioeconomic causes, by drug abusers unable to care for their children .....and a plethora of other scenarios that paint such heart wrenching pictures in my mind. There is within this act, not just words such as illegal or criminal or malum in se but also such pure malicious evil. Although abandonment has been there in many cultures and tales and legends (Oedipus, Snow White to name just two) it is nevertheless the cruelest of acts....

 

Abandoned Children is the saddest "phrase" I can imagine....

Signing off for now.

C.S!
(Cresat Scientia)

 

 

This needs NO WORDS...the photos truly speak for themselves....

It is the SAME Mr & Mrs Swan as last summer...... and this summer they had two li'll uns!  

 

It is MIDSUMMER'S DAY in Sweden today...what better way to celebrate in my blog but with these photos?

Signing off for now.

C.S!
(Cresat Scientia)

                                                        

 

 

 

 

 

 

My wild sunflower...

I THINK!!!

I am not a 100% sure yet... but still ...

 

All winter I have been feeding the birds with sunflower seeds in the bird house...

These tiny creatures are the sweetest...but have no table manners what so ever....

 

Well, I must say, 4 weeks ago I was (am...) rather pleased at their lack of table manners... One of the thousands of seeds that I have fed them with scattered away while they were eating. It found its way under the snow and into the soft soil beneath - just a metre and a half from the birdhouse...

 

One day - in early June - I was out in the back garden and I found this sturdy green shoot ...

Is it a SUNFLOWER?? I thought.

It did look like one and I hope it is...

 

Nevertheless I built a "fence" around it (with grill-sticks) and tied it with string as a support......so that our landlord will see it and not mow it down with his lawnmower... I told him that and he shook his head and had a hearty laugh!

 

I made a sort of moat around it with more soil so the water wouldn't run down...and it is growing growing growing. Next week I will get it a better stronger support...

 

We just have to wait and see if a sunflower will bloom by mid-August or if it is...... hmm....

Signing off for now.

C.S!
(Cresat Scientia)