New Year's and Khichdi Cake..

It was a ritual for me to celebrate new years at my cousins place in childhood.

We used to share status of being the only child of our parents and were horribly bored of the same.

So just to at once quarrel with someone for blanket at a cozy chilly night we had this pact of going to each other’s place in festivals or vacations.

So,this one New years night my cousin was down with flu and she was not allowed to come to my place so I decided to go instead.We were offered daliya for breakfast,soup and bread for lunch and khichdi was our midnight 12 a.m snack..chilly weather and sore throats you see.

As expected she wasn’t very happy with this year beginning to end and new days coming 

our way.So I tried to win her confidence in happy days back.

Her house had 2 floors and we would always end up being on the terrace celebrating with bon fire and music..just the trwo of us,happy safe and sound.Coming to the present I went downstairs,everybody was asleep,slowly searched in the kitchen drawers and vanity drawers..though I don’t know why I did that..but I searched in order to get few candles and matchbox.I was attaining the silence of pin drop because if I were to be caught I never had prepared for the questionnaire I would have gone through at that very moment.After a couple of minutes I did find 3 candles-bue,pink and again pink and a matchbox.

I rushed towards the stairs,reached the terrace,grabbed hold of my breath and looked at my beautiful,snoopy cousin…who was looking at me with “you dumbo”printed on her eyes since like..forever.

I smiled..took the casserole of khichdi away…placed it upside down on a plate and due to the freezing temperature,the grains had obviously hugged each other pretty close and it took a form of inverted cake into the plate.I placed the candles onto it,as soon as I slided the cover of the matchbox,it was empty!

I…turned back,gave  smile to her again and she gave me a “whatever” look again and in a matter of 20 seconds I was off to downstairs.This time to my amazement I found a new pack of matchboxes kept on the stairs,I looked with gazing eyes here and there but nobody was to be found.I quickly hopped onto the place where my sweet little sister was waiting for me and I took the plate from her,redesigned it,mounted candles on it,lightened them up and placed it infront of her.

She looked at me puzzled,”I don’t have my birthday today!”

“I know,its just a wish for a great start in life and goodbye to 2010..your flu too!”

She was a little pissed was with the addition of the word flu but managed to give me a smile for my efforts or maybe because she just loved me enough.

We cut the cake,ate it,danced,I tried to life her up and failed miserably,then we slept because I just remember dreams after that.

The next morning,however nobody asked me anything related to my entry into the rooms like a thief and sniffing around on things like a pro.It was all sorted in heads and we were fine with the idea of keeping it a secret and in turn I got the surprise of chokha batti on my plate for lunch.I had eaten it for the very first time in my life but the nutcracking savoury taste of it still resides within me,or maybe she just loved me more!After years now,what I or she holds onto is not the taste of the khichdi or her flu but the fact that I made her a khichdi cake just to make her feel better(ofcourse despite that cakes are eaten in forms of anything and everything) and the bond still continues,

the love still continues.But what actually measures love?

Just the fact that I put efforts to make her smile,or that the aunt didn’t scold me the other day,or the tasty dish that was kept in our plates the next day.Maybe,just maybe,all these things in totality.

Nevertheless,life gives you many emotions to experience and you have the ability to catch it,make it better or not.

Not every bad reason could be a reason bad enough to be stuck and not try to perceive,achieve and spread of what you gathered..Happinesz..it is!