April — The month of food
This month is an ode to food.
“Every evening I hear the bells
Like a baton being passed along the mountain-side
I keep waiting everyday
an arpeggio”
I never realized how much I took food for granted. Of all the things I thought would affect me during the lock-down — food was not high on the list. But it turns out I really really enjoy eating! I need to come to terms with the special place food has in my heart — other than than the literal butter that is clogging up my arteries.
I had to come to terms with the fact that I ate out a lot, the occasional plate of momos or pani puris or chicken 65 or Gobi Manchurian on my way back from somewhere, or cream buns or samosas or egg puffs — add up. So, That is mostly what i am missing.
Ever since i sobered up to some arid dessert like state- one of the few releases (read addictions) I have is food and so I cooked a lot this month. I have a tiny ill stocked shared kitchen, so it has been an exercise in both innovating and patience.
I realized most of the food I was craving was because of some memory it evoked and of course my inability to cook along with the aforementioned state of kitchen made the food I did end up cooking, pale replicas of the place they hold in my memory.
I made sundal (albeit without கறிவேப்பிலை or தேங்காய்) because it reminded me of my grandmothers walks in the evening to the temple when she would come back with பிரசாதம். I made custard and fruit salad which was the staple during my childhood before fancier desserts started making their way into the country and vying for a place in my heart.I made bombay sandwiches with chutney, and lemon rice. These are things I have not eaten since I was in school. I found some chaat masala and I put it on everything now.
There are of course hurdles: no fresh coconuts, no karuvapillai, no nice mangoes, no ovens of any sort, but that is okay. I will survive.
Recently, the bakery close to home reopened fueling my addiction for cake. And now she has also started making lovely, aromatic, fresh bread.
There are two women living in this homestay and they share the kitchen with us. One is a young monk from Taiwan and the other a young woman from the Philippines. Both of them are stranded here because of the virus. I am truly grateful they are both there. Both of them are very kind and very generous. When any of us cook anything we keep a little aside for the others to taste. In the mornings we (mostly Steven) make masala chai for everyone and they in turn share their noodles, bitter gourd curry, chicken soup, and fruits with us. It has been an absolute delight to get to taste their food.
Other than food this month has been about some small hikes, a lot of work, and minimal exercise.
I am hoping May will see me completing the Triund trail — this will mean starting the hike much earlier than I have been -which means waking up earlier than I have been.
I have also been working on writing grants, working on public health expenditure data as well as analyzing the Tripura budget and trying to find some insights into the Himachal Pradesh COVID-19 related spending.
I am also trying to keep up with my writing in sciences course and auditing a course on Data and health indicators in Public Health Practice and slowly inching toward completing my assignment- creating a simple text predictor. I do not have time during the week to go on hikes, so I try to make the most of the weekends with the hikes.
I recently downloaded Zerodha and I am testing the waters on investments now. I have been doing this for a month now and I have lost lots of money already so bring on the cocaine (credit: neena).
This month I have been trying to keep to an exercise routine. It has been difficult given my proclivity for non-exercise (and crisps). I have only been working out 3–4 times a week and for 15–20 minutes each time. I use youtube, primarily Emi Wong’s exercise videos, I think they are easy to follow- she is not very intense like most trainers on the interwebs. The videos are short and her content (read suffering) seems more relatable. Next month, I am going to attempt the makefatcry challenge, the instructor seems very excitable, i hope it does not intimidate me.
Books being read this month
Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst — Robert Sapolsky
