Month: March 2016

Of Easter Eggs And Hot Cross Bunnies

Once again, it was Lin who suggested this topic for this week’s LBC Friday post when a few of us write blog posts on the same topic. I marvel at the synchronicity of it all when I think back to her list without any dates, and the topic just neatly fitting into Good Friday!

buns

Before I come to write about Easter Eggs, let me address Hot Cross Buns. In India, due to our colonial English connection we call them buns and it is for the first time that I have come across them being called bunnies. Bunnies here would mean rabbits! So, please indulge me while I talk about buns rather than bunnies.

It was in Montessori School that I first heard of Hot Cross Buns. The school was run run by Christians and I wouldn’t be surprised if we were taught this during Easter. We were taught to sing the nursery rhyme there and not ever having seen or eaten one, I was quite confused about what it meant. At home, my parents decided to show me what it was and some buns were procured but to the best of my recollection they were neither hot nor did they have the crosses on them. It was much later when I was much older that I was able to see and eat a genuine hot cross bun. In India, it is still extremely rare to come across hot cross buns except during Easter time, though cold buns without the cross on them are available in just about every grocery shop. Most grocers even sell buns for making hamburgers at home, but again, without the crosses on them.

The song that got me interested in Hot Cross Buns is this one.

egg1

Strangely enough, my son Ranjan had brought some easter eggs just last week from a friend of his who runs a patisserie in one of our neighbourhood shopping centers. I thoroughly enjoyed the marzipan shell and not so much the toffees inside.

Easter eggs again were totally unknown to me till my early thirties. I had imagined that easter eggs were some kind of pastry made to look like eggs till then. When I was posted to a small  town in Kerala in the mid seventies, the local baker had made easter eggs for easter and that was the first time that I understood what they meant.

Ring Those Bells.

This week’s Friday LBC topic has been suggested by Lin who has already written the post well in advance. Her take on the subject is very different from what mine will be, due primarily to cultural differences.

Bicycle-Bell-1

My earliest recollection of ringing those bells was of ringing a bell attached to the handlebar of a tricycle. As I grew up larger bells with different tones came into play just as small bicycle replaced the tricycle and larger bicycles kept pace with my growth. Our mother would wait eagrely for the sound of those bicycle bells to announce our return from school, Boy Scout meets etc and since those days, there were so few automobiles around that the bells really were useful but now I don’t remember having heard one in the last fifteen years or so.

Ernest Hemingway too came into my life at a later stage with his For Whom The Bell Tolls, but, I don’t think that this post should go anywhere near it.

In India, the phrase is used in many contexts and different meanings can be attributed depending on each context.

For instance, in Tamil, when we say, “He rings his bell”, we mean that he is boasting. In Hindi when we say “His bell has rung”, it would indicate that either he is in some deep trouble or that he is dead.

There are also other sayings like when we want to say that the school bell has rung to indicate that the neighbourhood school has begun its classes and it would also indicate a time.

ice cream van

Other uses are common with the West, like when the ice cream vendor comes along ringing his bell or other vendors do too. Each has a distinct tone and regular customers immediately recognise who has come with what.

You would have seen how different my post is from Lin’s and I hope that Shackman’s take will be totally different too.

Neerja, The Movie.

Neerja

This Hindi movie was released in our theaters about a month ago but due to various unavoidable reasons, I was unable to see it despite great reviews and recommendations from my film going critical friends. Luckily, it is still running and when my friend Ramesh suggested we go, that is what I did with him earlier this evening, and I am glad that I did.

The central character for whom this movie is named was a real life person who gave her life up to save passengers from hijackers of a Pan Am airplane in Karachi in 1986. You can read all about the real life person here at Wikipedia.

The movie has stayed very close to the real life story but for obvious reasons has focussed mostly on the hijack. Technically superbly made and with excellent photography, direction and acting from all concerned, the movie is gripping and at the same time very disturbing. The latter because the helplessness of the innocent passengers, the cruelty and fanaticism of the hijackers and the tense situation have all been portrayed so tautly that one cannot but be disturbed.  It did not help that there were just eight viewers in the hall and the air conditioning was too cold for comfort!

Despite knowing the storyline in advance, the movie is a very watchable experience, particularly to see Sonam Kapoor in action in the lead role.I recommend it highly for those of my readers who have not seen it,

Paisa Vasool II.

I was reminded of a post that I wrote on Paisa Vasool some years ago when I came across this story of Mulla Nasrudin.

Merry-go-round

Taking his friend and his family along, Mulla Nasrudin went to the local amusement park. Foregoing all the other rides, Mulla hopped on the merry-go-round and kept riding it over and over again. Whenever the ride stopped, Mulla would get off dizzily, drink a glass of water and get back on. This went on for a good one hour.
“Wow, Mulla! I never knew you loved the merry-go-round so much,” said his friend.
“Love? I absolutely hate it!” Mulla replied. “I’m feeling sick and could throw up any moment.”
“Then why are you riding it?” his friend asked.
“The owner of this swing owes me 50 dollars, and the only way I will ever collect it from him is to take it out in trade.”

A typical paisa vasool foolishness indeed!