Mera Piya – Pyaaz and Doodh
It is a night, where I wait for the moon to come out patiently,
eagerly, with reverence so that my husband has a long life. I wish and pray for
his life, a healthy wealthy one. As always, the moon plays hide and seek and doesn’t
even confirm to the times so declared. I stand on the rooftop, clad in a
Kareena Kapoor Khan sari with a channani ‘ to look at my piya! I am dressed to
kill, with make up, hair rebounded, nails painted, mehendi applied, faint with hunger
thinking about the lavish meal prepared by Basanti. I also did my prayers with
the rest of the women on Whatsapp ‘ in tandem with women all over the friend.
Maybe, with this fast I might have lost weight and I
have certainly learnt loads of patience. What, happened though is the unique
bond and camaderie that has sprung up between all of us. In fact, what
surprised me more was the gift I received, it transported me to the Asterix and
Obelix comics I read as a little young girl smiling away to eternity and to my
own special world. Imagine my surprise, I get the most precious gift which
every housewife in India dreams of onions and mother dairy milk. India, as
Arnab Goswami says is facing a doodh crisis; so my pati parmeshwar gave me a
sack full of onions that are worth its weight not in gold but petrol. Imagine
something so basic is being equated with petrol! And milk, how am I going to
survive without my umpteen cups of chai and coffee..
Just imagine, drinking tea and coffee with a drop of
milk just like the Britishers! Ah, the joys of milky tea and coffee, so in my
Punjabi genes.
This karva chauth has been extraordinary for me, a
wonderful group I belong to, and exchanging sorrows, happiness and the assured
unlimited supply of onions and my ration of milk. Other women , boast of smart
phones, and diamonds, designer clothes and bags well I am in culinary heaven.
Can’t eat the diamonds, can I?
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