Monday, March 30, 2009

Onion Pakoda

"Yaar aaj to pakoda khaana hi padega!" Naeem, Nitin and I are sitting in our living room watching the rain pitter-patter outside. Rain. In my part of the world, that's rare. Nitin's the one who made the pakoda remark. That's how it is with him - most things are impulsive and based on parallels. This time it's the badiya mausam - ghar ki yaad - pakoda on a rainy evening parallel.

But this time everyone's enthusiastic. Somehow it does seem like a pakodi ka din. And so on the first weekend all of us have in almost a month, we decide to have a doing nothing - doing everything day. Naeem takes us in the morning to the local Pakistani Street which has the best aalo ke parathe I've had (prejudiced opinion because I'm in Saudi - but what the hell!).

But Nitin's right. The weather is awesome. The only time Saudi has actually looked romantic. The rain has cleared the air. The sky is dark but when you look out to the distance, you can almost touch the peace it casts on the ground. Sitting at the Corniche sea face, sipping at our coffees, we can see through to the Bahrain causeway miles away. Mornings have never been so lovely.

A drive and a movie later, we remember to end the day with what started it - Nitin's pakodi. At the little restaurant downtown, dabbing our onion pakodas in its red chutney and chana-dal, there're no worries of work, of people in distant lands, of money or relationships. Life feels momentarily peaceful.

9 comments:

H.S. said...

These moments of momentary peacefulness in far flung places...priceless.

Unknown said...

took the words outta my mouth :)

kochuthresiamma p .j said...

'Rain. In my part of the world, that's rare.'
WHAATTT !!!!!!!!!

Unknown said...

@ammai: LOL! meant saudi - that's "my part of the world" now!

Ashwadhy said...

Cheers to the romantic in you CJ!

BTW you have been awarded a special little award. Just click on the link to pick up your award.
http://ashwadhy.blogspot.com/2009/04/very-thoughtful-surprise-on-monday-morn.html

Soumya Sen said...

Well, I hate to break this to you, but you need to take this depressing advice too:
Beware of the calories!! :)

Unknown said...

@ashwadhy: cheers! :) and the award - graciously accepted!

@shomo: sigh! do i really have to?

Soumya Sen said...

I don't know how you look now- slender or pot-bellied, but I was giving the advice to you as a warning to myself :). I have lost some weight recently, but have an invitation to attend tonight, oh, this curse of calories is depressing! :)

Unknown said...

@shomo: not exactly fat but getting thr slowly :D and yea the curse of calories - tell me about it!