Moonlight

Today was repair day. The WC in the bathroom was leaking so called in the plumber to get it fixed and the washing machine repairman brought back my machine in working condition. So life is pretty stable now.

Plucked some mustard leaves (sarson ke saag) from the garden and cooked them for dinner.Actually they are to be eaten with chapatis made with cornmeal or makki ki roti.But for breakfast we will have the left over greens with chapatis made with whole-wheat flour mixed with black gram (channa) and millet (jowar) flour.It goes well with desi ghee or home-made butter.But we 've stopped using that because of health reasons otherwise our chapatis would be smeared with it. Now I use Amul butter or Nutralite cholesterol free butter.

In his childhood and later on too, my Dad was very fond of ghee (home-made butter) or rarefied butter. All their food was cooked in it.And when my grandma was busy elsewhere he used to sneak into the kitchen when he was a little boy of 4 or 5 years and scoop out a fist full of ghee to enjoy. Of course the thief would be caught when my grandma saw his face smeared with ghee.


Another story from my Dad 's childhood.

If we adhered to popular Indian religious beliefs , we would say that my Dad was blessed by a cobra.


Years ago it was quite common for people to sleep under the stars in the summer.We laid out our light cots with comfortable bedding and put on mosquito nets and stretched out under the stars.Now no one does that because of security reasons.Crime has increased so much that you could be killed,kidnapped or burgled if you slept out in your garden.

Anyway, when my Dad was a tiny infant my grandma laid him on a cot in the garden and went into the house to fetch something. When she returned she saw a king cobra coiled on my sleeping dad 's pillow.My grandma froze with fear and was too nervous to do anything. But the snake very graciously and silently slipped away and disappeared into the garden.All their Hindu neighbours were over-joyed and said the snake god had come to bless dad and he would be very lucky.
But the poor snakes were not very lucky as my dad grew up to be hunter and he shot several snakes with a gun, which is quite difficult as the reptiles move in a zig zag manner.

I tried to catch the moon above the neem trees tonight.