"Mamon taratari kor, khub khide peyeche''(Finish it fast, am very hungry)...were her words when I last cooked this dish. I was trying to focus on the oil floating on the fish while she not so patiently waited on the dining table with her steaming plate of rice.
This was a regular scene during winter, when she would be in Kolkata for her work and around late morning she will want me to cook and learn something new. While the husband would bring home all the ingredients he fancied we would choose and fuss over which recipe to cook that day. Then she will clean the veggies and fish and will sit on the adjoining dining table and watch over like a hawk while I cooked.
These last two winters I avoided all the dishes that we cooked together. I haven't made boris, cooked shutki (dried fish) or made her famous dhonepatar pickle. But then the sonny boy just the other day reminded me how much he misses Didu's black sauce, his name for Maa's dhonepata pickle. And then again while doing our Sunday fish shopping he exclaimed with joy 'mumma oi dyakho Didur sei gache otha machgulo"...he is not yet 9 and lost her 2 years back still he remembers so much of her. This made me realise that I should keep doing the things she used to do with them or for them. That way she would live forever in their mind. so I have started doing gardening and painting projects with them like she did and also prepped for the black sauce and gache otha mach...while the pickle will be simmered tonight you note down maa's Tel Koi recipe. The way she cooked and loved it.
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