Friday 7 September 2012

Of Being Zen & Creating Muffin (Tops)...


To understand simplicity, there must be chaos. And in simplicity, we find hilarity…  And I think that holds true for everything in life, from relationships to food.

I’m sure I don’t have anything more to add to what has already been said (about a million and one times) about “life in Bombay” (oops…Mumbai). The traffic, the pollution, the ever burgeoning population, the incessant rains, the omnipresent potholes…blah blah blah… But living in Bombay will make you realise how effortless everything becomes after a point of time (usually about a year and a half, which includes a lot of whining, cursing – from your luck to everything about the city, occasional bouts of crying, frequent trips back home – or at least trying to recreate home food to help you feel nested…)

I just returned home from our little Friday night date (masala chai and oatmeal biscuits – not home baked so no recipe for that tonight, listening to some great music in our car and enjoying the breeze at Bandstand. Simple, romantic and inexpensive!) (And believe it or not, I’m listening to the Backstreet Boys right now…*sheepish laughter*…I mean don’t let that be the yardstick to measure my taste in music…It’s just that I happen to be from that generation. We all grew up listening to & loving that sort of music – don’t deny it! Was feeling a little nostalgic, and figured there’s no better way to transport myself back to the 90s than a little dose of some sappy music.)

Anyway, the point I wanted to make (before I got sidetracked)…is something I’m trying hard to remember right now (damn the music!) Hmm… Oh yes, got it. With the right perspective, living in Bombay can be like being in a constant state of meditation. Being Zen, if you will. You just need to ignore everything that bothers you (and there’s a lot that will bother you), simplify things and look at the bigger picture. Once you are able to achieve that, life becomes pretty darn easy.

When I think of it, if I wasn’t surrounded by all this chaos, I would not have been able to appreciate the simpler things, the simpler times…and strive to keep things simple to create more fond memories for the future.

I had been thinking of the good old days of bunking college and yet somehow still managing to pass our exams, of hanging out and gorging on junk food and yet not putting on even an iota of weight (damn you, slowing metabolism), of crude jokes and heartfelt laughter… Beautiful memories. And for me somehow, thinking about the good times also evokes a yearning in my heart (ok, my tummy) for the food we shared that made those moments even more special. Like the yummy (& pocket-friendly) samosas we would gorge on at our college canteen with piping hot coffee on freezing cold Delhi mornings. And on days when we were feeling a little more extravagant (we were just a bunch college students living on meagre pocket money after all) and would head out to a respectable coffee shop, there would even be muffins!

And while there are no winters in Bombay (and alas, there’ll never be) there are few things that can match a good muffin with coffee (or tea) in the morning. And that’s exactly what I’m planning to do in the morning- bake a batch of muffins (ok, probably a little later in the day. I do have yoga in the morning… to sweat out like a pig and then come back home and hog like one…tehaha…talk about irony!) I was originally planning of baking plain muffins, but since I will be visiting MIL in the evening (yep, my turn now) I would probably be doing apple & raisin ones. I will surely be sharing the recipe and the pictures, depending on the outcome of course.

To eat muffins and then wonder how to ever get rid of that muffin top!

Here’s to all the simplicity and hilarity in our lives!