I'm sure all of us remember this dialogue from some or the other Amitabh Bachchan movie aired on Doordarshan on some Sunday afternoon, back in our childhood. This dialogue, along with another along similar lines, i.e., "Beta, aaj maine aloo ke parathe banaye hain" epitomised the selfless love and devotion of the long suffering mother of Indian cinema in the 1980s and earlier (played either by Nirupa Roy or Reema Lagoo) towards her son, the angry young man fighting evil society and its even more evil scum, the leering ganglord/ rich arrogant industrialist/ corrupt policeman (insert as applicable).
But this post is not about Hindi cinema of yore, or even about the angry young man or his wronged mother who brought him up single handedly and groomed him to avenge the wrong inflicted upon her. This post is about the other, often overlooked star, the gajar ka halwa.
For no matter how cliched this sounds, there can be no denying that gajar ka halwa at home meant indulgence of the motherly kind, and any announcement of the intention of the Mother to make gajar ka halwa was promptly followed by yours truly falling all over self in excitement and promptly offering to help her (which help, the Mother mostly refused with a benign smile and strict instructions to go study, or sometimes indulged by allowing me to grate carrots using the handheld grater). In fact, gentle reader, such was my love for this delicate Indian dessert, that I had to physically restrain myself from rubbing my hands in glee and ensure that the silly grin which automatically found its place on my face was firmly kept in control, often by indulging in other activities such as talking thirty eight to the dozen, if it were possible, which often had the Mother ready to drop whatever she was doing and bolt out of the house until I had calmed down somewhat...
With the passage of time, I moved out of home to go to college and thenceforth, to Mumbai, but whenever I met the parents during the winter months at the college hostel when they came to visit, or back home, or at our house in Kolkata when the parents were in town, the Mother always ensured that there was a bowlful of gajar ka halwa for me.
This year, during the Holi weekend, I was sitting at home after having cancelled out last minute on some friends who were going out of town because of the possibility of me being required in office during the wekeend, and having a merry pity party, missing home and familiar surroundings (compounded by the festive atmosphere and the near complete absence of friends in town, who had all headed off to various places in the wake of the rare three day weekend), when suddenly I decided that I wanted to do something which would, at least in part, recreate the feeling of home. Ergo, I decided to make gajar ka halwa.
A quick call to the Mother followed, resulting in what seemed like a laughably easy recipe for gajar-ka-halwa-in-a-jiffy. A quick trip to the grocers and an hour of peeling, grating and following vague instructions and instinct later, I found myself staring at a kadahi full of some yummy looking gajar ka halwa (even if I say so myself).
Now, it was time for the acid test...the tasting of said yummy looking gajar ka halwa. Having grown up surrounded by mouthwatering food, what with the Mother being a cook par excellence, it was with trepidation that I took a spoonful of the halwa to taste, and then felt the corners of my lips twitch into a silly grin, reminiscent of the silly grins ages ago when I finally got to taste the halwa made by Ma. The halwa tasted perfect, just like the ones I had had right through childhood. The Mother was duly informed of said accomplishment accompanied by appropriate delighted squealing, and the smile on my friend T's face when she tasted some of the bowlful that I had taken along when I went to meet her for Holi in the evening confirmed my initial delight.
And that is how, I managed to recreate some more of home in my adopted city, in the process of making this city home as well. Of course, the fact that I played Holi with my neighbours for the first time, and participated in the Holi puja along with the other members of the society also deepened the feeling of settling down and being accepted by the city at last, and need I say it, it sure feels good to come home to a home away from home :)
