My tryst with tita-kerela (it's the Assamese word for bitter gourd/karela)...

Tita-kerela is a medium which can divide people into three groups...the first group eats it with adequate affection (I, too, fall in this category. I like to eat boiled tita-kerela, however am not very fond of the fry). The second group can not even think of taking a bite. Apart from these two, there is another category of people, who forcefully consume tita-kerela for the sake of good health. Though being a member of the first category, I had a bitter experience with tita-kerela once! I am sharing that in the following.

It was the year 2000, I was studying in standard IX. My experience in the kitchen was near zero, as I used to spend the leisure time in reading novels, books etc. Breakfast to Dinner, everything used to reach me on time, on my desk! My visits to the kitchen used to be restricted only to share the interesting stuffs, that I found in a book or in a newspaper, with mom. On one such day, after sharing something with mom, I sat on the bench in the kitchen, deeply immersed in some thought. Mom was busy in peeling and cutting a pile of tita-kerela for making tita-kerela fry. Suddenly my toddler brother started crying, hearing that Mom went out of the kitchen to see him. Before leaving, she asked me to throw the garbage (mainly the peels of onion and tita kerela) away. Rarely being assigned to a job in the kitchen, I proudly accomplished it and went back to my den. After half an hour, there came the smell of hot oil from the kitchen followed by a huge roar from mom. Before I could realize what's going on, she came in front of me with an empty plate in one hand and a bowl full of onion-tita kerela peels....

Yes, you have guessed it right! Immersed in deep thought, I managed to finish the job well! After throwing the tita-kerela pieces, neatly peeled and cut, in the dustbin, I carefully covered the onion-tita kerela peels in the bowl with a plate and went back to my room. Well, do I really need to write what happened next?.....

PS: Mom has not forgotten this incident, even after 15 years! She still thinks that I did it intentionally just because I did not like to eat tita-kerela fry!

Mumbai, Dilip Kumar etc............

(It was the end of July, 2009. Accompanied by my father, I headed to Mumbai to start my PhD. I was quite excited to be in Mumbai for the first time. It is said that Aamchi Mumbai, the dreamland to many, welcomes every newcomer graciously. Well, within the first few hours after stepping in Mumbai, I came across something interesting!)

The train arrived too late, and we landed in the C.S.T. terminus a couple of hours post midnight. Feeling very tired and weary, we decided to spend that night in the station retiring room instead of going to the institute at Colaba. Papa had a return ticket for the next day, so we could book a room very smoothly. A caretaker led us to the allocated room. On the way, he kept on asking many things to Papa, where we are from, the purpose of the visit etc. Having heard that we are from Assam, he spoke quite excitedly, "Wo to bahut achhi jagah hain, maine bahut saare film me dekha hain!" (Wow, that's an amazing place. I have seen it in many movies!) Then the discussion quickly turned towards movies. They discussed about some old movie (I don't remember the name, but the hero was Dilip Kumar), Papa figured out the name at once and that had made the caretaker speak enthusiastically, "Saab, aap bahut achhe log ho, aap bhi Dilip ji ke fan ho. Bahut achha kiya baby ji ko itna dur bhej diya padhai karne ke liye. Uski saare armaan pure ho!" (Sir, you are also a fan of Dilip ji, you are very good. It is so nice of you that you have sent your daughter so far to study. May all her wishes come true!) Then he turned to me and said, "Baby ji, bahut achhe se padhai karna. Jyada movies mat dekhna. Aaj kal ke saare hero ne to Dilip Ji ka copy karta hain. Yeh Shahrukh kuch bhi original nehi karta. Saab ji, inhe jyaada picture dekhne mat dena. Baby bigad jayegi"..(Study well, and don't watch movies. Now-a-days all the heros only copy Dilip Kumar. Even ShahRukh does not do any original action. Sir, please don't allow her to watch many movies, she will get spoiled)

P.S. Papa asked him what his name was. He replied with a proud smile...

...Dilip Kumar Bhujbal!