The Sunday evening was charming . A brisk cool wind was blowing and making the tall trees dance to its rhythm.I opened our living room window for the wind to seep in . Sitting on the couch with my i pad ,i did not remain untouched by the the breeze.It was an opportune time to have some hot tea and maybe pakodas and maybe Paneer Pakodaas. Me , Ruby on Rails(ROR) on Ipad, tea in hand and pakoddas in mouth ,would be ambrosial.So with the intention of the above, I looked at her making the eyes of a lost puppy.She did not raise her eyes from the book she was reading.I thought it was time to come clean and speak from the heart otherwise dream of the pakoddaas will remain unfulfilled . ''Feel like having tea and pakodaas'', I said sheepishly. She finally raised her head from the book and said '' You just had tea one hour before and you just had lunch three hours back.What is the need for another cup of tea '',she chided me. ''Of course ,one hour back tea, 3 hours back lunch , 12 hour back dinner , does that mean I am not entitled to any more eating pleasures ,I thought to myslf . Then suddenly as if after a change of heart she said ''Accha , I will make it ''. A wave of happiness surged in me and I can say with the song Kuch kuch hota hai surmised my feeling about the pakoddas at the moment .
Tearing herself from her book , she and went to the kitchen . She opened the packet of besan and started putting water in it . I saw her from the corner of my eye felt satisfied seeing things going in right direction or so I thought.With her hands smudged totally in the wet besan, she beckoned me . ''My hands are all soaked now , can you pour oil in the pan.You can leave after that',she said . Alarm bells started ringing in my head giving me a warning that the call in the kitchen for pouring of oil is a pretext and there is more to come. Everyone knows , how Sita was cajoled to step out of the laxman rekha . Hindu Mythology is witness to what happened after that.Me stepping out of the Laxman rekha of the living room looked ominous to me . Despite the warnings going in my head I went and put a pan with oil on the burner. ''Now that you are here , why don't you also make the tea.You make so much better tea than me,''she said matter of factly while she cut the paneer delicately in cubes,in same breath chopping my lazy afternoon .Yes,the warning had come true.
So here I was in kitchen making tea and she on the other burner was frying the pakoddas.When about five or so were done, suddenly the phone bell rang. It was her friend whom she had not spoken for a long time. I have my suspicions , she might have tweeted or chatted or facebooked her friend to call her in the time of her need.While on the phone , she gestured and then whispered to me ''take care of the pakkoddas,slowly take them out from the oil ''.So now she was siting on the couch babbling away on the phone, putting her feet up waiting for tea and Pakodaas which I was preparing . Finally it was she , her phone , tea in her hand and pakoddas in her mouth .
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