The Iyer's Kitchen is buzzing with activity and it is one of those busy Monday mornings.It is an electrified environment .The Coffee maker and the kettle bring cheer,the mixer lends the much needed spice and the silent wet table top grinder is a gourmet's delight.The latest addition to the family is the induction stove and Nayaki's competitor in speed.As the milk cooker whistles the daily tune ,the pressure cooker blows its top and screeches to a halt.With four hot hobs and a warm family around her a dancing Nayaki is amused......her mind racing back to the bygones as the blogging Tambong dreams of setting up an Iyer culinary school at Rash Behari Avenue in south Calcutta.
Rashbehari Avenue is one of the most prestigious and important avenues of Kolkata.A major portion of this road commonly referred to as Gariahat , is the prime shopping and aristocratic residential neighbourhood of south Kolkata. Rashbehari Avenue falls in the posh residential neighbourhood of Ballygunge.It was destined and Nayaki considers herself very lucky to have spent her childhood in the heart of a commercial hub in the City Of Joy.The princess lived in Yashoda Bhavan with the finest of sweetmeat shops and saree boutiques such as Adi Dhakeswari Bastralaya and Traders Assembly for neighbours.
She was a teenager when the family shifted to the new house on the third floor.......a landmark on Gariahat junction.The sprawling balconies overlooked the Gariahat junction.She would roam....wander around.The place was mayhem and she guesses it still is....with people shoving and pushing one another,making a bid for the best buy at the craziest prices and purportedly believing in having clinched the best deal.The hawkers with makeshift shops that crowded the sidewalks were lively men waiting to pounce upon the prospective buyers...and once in, the gullible buyer had no way out.A tactical move on the part of the buyer had the hawkers going, and it just needed a simple bargaining to begin the process.Often the bid started at less than half the price quoted by the paan chewing seller and he would lure the tolerant buyer in his inimitable style of refusing and finally relenting.
It is during these days that Nayaki was to come across her first love and the first rush of love holds a special place in her heart.She didn't need a reason to love.She was destined to.It marked the beginning of a beautiful relationship.Phases of the moon ,the radiant rim of the sun and the colours of nature started fascinating her.She was blindly in love.As the drapes embraced her, she loved the snug hugs...the cottony feel of the Tangail,the silky touch of the Baluchuri and the light smoothness of the Dhakai Jamdanis.Nayaki was a sweet sixteen and it was love at first sight,a love that had the approval of her parents........the love that was to linger on and stay with her forever........
