Happiness Update – Week 9

Here’s last week’s happiness update. I’m sure you guys know the drill by now so without much ado here’s what made me happy.

1.The Husband coming back home after almost a week

Such happiness.. I do need my jousting partner around.

2…. laden with boxes of special Lakhnawi mithai..

There was a box ONLY for me with this…

That’s Sohan halwa for the uninitiated. How I love love it but it has so much ghee that you can actually see a white layer when you bite into it. I was sent just two pieces so I don’t overindulge. I swear the parents keep tabs on my weight from across hundreds of kms! Of course I refused to share.

3. A non birthday present from the sister

Aren’t they gorgeous?

4. Becoming redundant bit by bit

This one is relief, pride, happiness all rolled into one. It’s so great to watch the kids grow independent.

4. Chaste Urdu from an autowallah

This sure made my day. As I was handing out change to the autowallah ‘Shukriya’ said he in such perfect diction and so politely that I was transported back home right away. No offence against the local Marathi but no language in the world can parallel the sweetness, grace or the elegance of Urdu.

5. A late night cup of tea with The Husband.

This used to be a ritual before he joined the gym and started crashing with the kids. Now it’s a rare thing to be cherished.

6. A big tight hug

Umm… nothing beats this.

The picture is an old one but the hug was just as warm

C is for Clock Towers

That’s the clock tower in my hometown Lucknow. Isn’t it magnificent?

In Lucknow we call it the Ghantaghar. Literally translated it means hour (Ghanta) house (ghar).. pretty apt, I say. Ghanta also means a ‘big bell’ in Hindi and that fits in well too, bell-house, since it must have tolled to tell time.

A few facts..
Height:  67 meters – It is the tallest tower in India.
Built in: 1887
By: Nawab Nasir Ud Din Haider
To: mark the arrival of Sir George Couper, the first Lieutenant General of the Awadh Province.

As a kid I remember the grounds around the tower where we’d accompany our dad for his morning walk. I love it’s old worldly feel and deep red colour. In case you want to read more about clock towers of Lucknow you can go to An Indian Muslim’s Blog.

Back then clocks and watches were a rarity so it must have been a structure of some importance, specially for calling out people for prayer. How lost we feel now without a clock! Come to think about it not being driven by time wouldn’t be such a bad idea, right? Of course only if you don’t have angry bosses waiting for you, or the school bus to catch each morning. Life would have been amazingly laid back and relaxed.

Linking to ABC Wednesday

Welcoming Winter

Winter it is.. finally. However here in this quiet Western part of India, it hardly comes to stay. Even so, I find myself disliking it more and more. I never was a winter person and have gotten worse over the years. Age is catching up, perhaps.

I go around shutting doors and windows, yet it makes sure to find that one window I forget to shut and comes rushing right in. I find myself shouting at the kids to wear chappals and jackets. I find myself secretly wishing they wouldn’t go down to play. I am reluctant to go down for my evening walk. I have to admit though, that when I do go, I quite like the little nip in the air which is all we can boast of here.

The kids don’t seem to mind the cold at all, don’t seem to even notice it. ‘Was I ever like this?’ I wonder. Like I said I never was a winter person but there are some things about it that I truly loved. Here are a few..

The bonfires

There’s nothing like a North Indian winter to teach you the fantastic camaraderie between a bonfire, roasted peanuts and hot chilie garlic chutney. That sounds just so Chinese – Let me put it this way – Lehsun aur mirch ki chutney. That’s more like it! What a cosy threesome that is! We’d sit around shelling peanuts, eating and chatting for ages by the light of the bonfire. How we loved watching the fire flare up when we threw in a bunch of peanut shells, to be half heartedly reprimanded by our mum or dad.

Makkhan malai

Then there was Lucknow’s own answer to the videshi souffle – the fluffy, frothy, light as air makkhan malai that would melt in your mouth. It was such a Sunday ritual for us. We’d wait for the bhaiyya to come around on lazy mornings. He’d weigh it out and hand it to us in earthenware plates. We’d compare for ages who’d got more, not believing for a moment that 100 gms had to be the same on each plate. One of my more enterprising cousins would shamelessly ask the bhaiyya for an additional dollop and, to the chagrin of the rest of us, he was never disappointed.

The sunshine

And of course there’s the sunshine. Winter in Lucknow came with the warmest sunshine ever. We’d lay out a rug on the grass in our garden and settle down with a book for long hours of lazy reading. The asparagus creeper would be in full bloom and it gave out a sweet sickly scent that seemed to be a huge hit with the flies. They came in hordes and hung around the creeper all through the time it bloomed. Their buzzing had an oddly soporific effect. That and the warm sun would make sure the book fell aside within the hour and we were lulled into the most delicious sleep ever.

And there were other pleasures..

Snuggling into huge heavy cotton quilts with a hot water bottle when temperatures fell.

The thrill of waking up in the morning and wondering whether it was still night. How grown up I felt!

The delicious smell of fog.. quite like that of the first rain showers.

Coming from school and mum handing over freshly ironed still warm clothes to wear. Bliss!

Blowing ‘smoke’ from imaginary cigarettes. We would try for hours to form rings like we’d seen the villain doing in the 70s flicks. The rings never came but the ‘smoke’ was fun enough.

I do miss all of that. Maybe winter wouldn’t be such a bad idea if I stopped trying to shut it out. I’ll go now fish out my woollens, dress up to the T, and go to meet winter in all it’s glory.

Sepia tones of Lucknow

That’s Lucknow’s magnificent Rumi Darwaza
Old this certainly is .. dating back to 1784. This 60ft tall Rumi Darwaza was built by Nawab Asaf-Ud-Daulah as an entrance to the city. It was modelled on Istanbul’s Sublime Porte.
In fact most of Lucknow’s monuments were made under the reign of this nawab. From what little I’ve read of him he had little more to his credit than the beautification of Lucknow and his generosity that bordered on the eccentric.
The monuments sure are beautiful and when you’re as rich and spoilt as the nawabs are believed to be, some eccentricity is in order.
Linking to Thursday Challenge : “MONOCHROME” (Black and White, Sepia, Old Looking,…)

Blog-Prompt Day 2 – Thirst

I blogged about Lucknow’s Bara Mangal last year . One year later.. it’s same place same time and the blog prompt for the day is Thirst. That’s just so appropriate.

For the record the festival is in honour of Lord Hanuman and was started off my a muslim ruler of Awadh, Nawab Shuja Ud Daulah. It’s one of my favourite ‘Lucknow’ stories and of course a favourite Lucknow festival too. The roads are dotted with cheery pandals, some huge ones and some just as large as a table holding a pot of water and glasses. Bhajans blare out at crossings and the roads wear a festive look. Water and sherbet are the most popular fare on offer, a blessing in the Lucknow heat. That’s not all though. Some stalls have the yummiest ever aaoloo, puri, chhole, halwa and boondi. Our surly but rather enterprising man Friday also claimed to have treated himself to some free kadhi-chawal. The menu’s getting more eclectic by the year. The bottomline is that no one in Lucknow goes thirsty or hungry on Bara Mangal.

That’s the huge Sahara India stall

Could do without the littering!

The heat this year (We were at 43.9 degrees yesterday) seemed to have dampened the fervour a bit. There were fewer stalls and the mela seemed a bit thanda. That’s not to say I didn’t manage my bit of puri aaloo and it was as delicious as it is every year, a flavour I just cannot replicate in my kitchen much as I try.