Maggie took
all the trouble to cook Shahi Paneer because I mentioned some time ago that I
missed the dish which used to be a weekly delicacy at the school where we taught
in Delhi. Since it was a residential school, the teachers also had their meals
with the students. More than 400 people would be seated in the cavernous dining
hall, called Mess, and served by waiters attired in clean white livery. The
food was delicious most of the time and Shahi Paneer was arguably the queen on
the menu.
As I relished chapattis
with Shahi Paneer yesterday after a gap of a few years, I realised that it was
not the culinary delicacy that I really missed but certain memories which they
evoked. Sawan Pubic School in Delhi was the first place where I tasted Shahi
Paneer and the dish would always remind me of that school, the institution
where I enjoyed working more than anywhere else. The school was killed by a
religious cult and the details are given in my latest book, Autumn
Shadows.
Certain
memories refuse to die. I mentioned my book above because it carries quite many
memories even from my nondescript adolescence. There is more than one place in the book where
certain movie songs appear like phantoms from a buried past. Let me quote one
passage: “Whenever I heard this song again, rarely though it
was, I have paused to listen. Recently I
downloaded it for listening to while driving.
It has merged into a few other love songs which I have gathered in a
single folder. I am trying to mellow the
pain of that lost love by merging it with other loves or love songs. But I have not understood why songs about
lost loves bewitch me insanely. I never
loved a woman until I married at the age of 35, twenty years after the death of
Vayalar Ramavarma.”
As Haruki Murakami said, “Memories warm you up from inside. But they
also tear you apart.” I like the warmth part of memories. You can’t get the
warmth alone, however; the tearing up is a necessary accompaniment. Time makes
you immune to the pains of the tearing up, however.
That's so true. Memories can affect you unexpectedly.
ReplyDeleteBtw didn't know that your new boom is out
Hope you will read it and review too 😏
DeleteSame happens with me.
ReplyDeletebut its not paneer.
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