ROSHUN KANCHALANKA O GONDHORAJ LEBU DIYE MURGI

I do not know where to start from; yesterday morning time 6:30 am I could talk for half a minute with the brother, thereafter until now I cannot connect anyone of the total of six handphones the family own. I only know they are alive but their trees & floral tubs are gutted down perhaps; the garage gate has broken. I believe in the almighty you know! I wanted to ask why He or She or them got so angry with the human kind, the nature's fury on us is still understandable. I was contained after talking to my brother for a while, okay they did not face any physical harm. Thereafter, I am not getting through them. Watching the amount of devastation, I felt broken by night. This morning it feels what might have happened that all of their phones are switched off? The man could talk to his sister yesterday night and his father called sometime back.

All my anxiety got channelised towards the father who is no more. He had always listened to people except his own family. So ardently we told going backwards to Barrackpore would be an absurd idea. What is so wrong living in a flat, back in 1995 the flat culture was already in operation. Moreover, in the interiors of DumDum, plots were available; not every neighbourhood had wagon breakers! He paid no heed to our request, he spoilt his hard earned money in all wrong ventures, "buying led machine er karkhana in Kanchrapara to picnic er bagan bari in Hoogly district to investing all of the amount he retired with in chit funds", he did blunders. If the mother or brother told anything; he retorted "amar taka ami ja khushi korbo." He was a good human being but that traces of family patriarchy has to work, na. The mother was not too wrong to say, "bongsher dhara jabey kothai; sudhu jhuri jhuri aam aar maacher golpo; na kono porashonar chol, na bishoi shompotti baranor cheshta." So many times the maternal grandfather told "we are bankers, why should we invest in fraudulent organisations?" T told "you open a consultancy if you so dislike sitting idle after retirement." He listened to none. I am pretty sure what he is saying sitting up there, "Barrackpore e ki keu thakena?" "Thakbena keno? Kolkatai ato bochor theke keu pichoi?"

This morning, I woke up to this; they are offered to my God Family whenever they show up. Not in a mental state to share an elaborate recipe, I decide on this easy, Bengali, light chicken curry ROSHUN KANCHALANKA O GONDHORAJ LEBU DIYE MURGI.

I can so feel how our mother must be going through, all her beloved babies lie scattered now. She will almost alone bring them together now and the brother will get angry with her. They will not understand her point of view; what amount of labour one has to give to maintain that amount of cleanliness & hygiene. This part I absolutely agree with her, personal & household hygiene is a necessity. Not that I indulge her, I keep telling " 25 bochor to thakley gaach pala, jhumri mashir goyal, drain porishkar, teler ghanir tel, atta koler atta kheye. Shomoyer sangey pa miliye choltey shekho na ektu; barita bechey amader flat er kachey ekta flat nao; Baguiatir bhetortao to ghoroa poribesh, ekdom DumDum er moto! Na toder odikey living cost onek beshi. Tachara ekta ektola bari holeo jetey pari. Arey ekta bari ekhon kothai pabey, ek kotir nichey hobena dam, bhai oto chap keno nebey? Oder ekta jibon achey, tumi nijer jed ta charo ektu. Na, oder to bolechi tora flat kiney choley ja, ami shiprar maa der niye thakbo. Come on, the brother cannot, he could not all these years; can't you respect this rare quality in him?" Every week, this is our conversation. That you have lived your life, let them live. Then all three of them starts saying "P r smriti jorano barita."

I can understand their dilemma; they being skeptical about living in a flat. I fear  they are not in the mentality to pay a fat amount as maintenance charge per month, fat amount towards cultural activities or pay high fees to the maids, pay some extra to the maintenance guards. Hence, they want individual home. Even I was exactly like this, the simplistic self. When I earned 1200 rupees giving tuitions, or earned 500 rupees teaching in a school in the early 90's, the father got me a savings account and trust me, I saved a good amount, used to buy small gifts for the family, T. Marrying T led me to a vision to raise the living standard, yet I could not traverse beyond a point. You will know this if you compare my home with those of our friends. "Amar poribar shoukhinotar mormo bojhena." So, you will get a chicken curry served in the   simplest of bowls at this home. This ROSHUN KANCHALANKA O GONDHORAJ LEBU DIYE MURGI is a curry with chicken I saw flooding the Bengali food groups I was part of few years back. They do not share recipes as such, few Bengali speaking food bloggers might have the recipe too, but I did it on my own.

INGREDIENTS :

CHICKEN : 1KG MEDIUM CUT [using fresh, country chicken gives the best result]
LIME LEAF : 4-5 [I used kaffir lime leaves available here]
LEMON RING : 4-5 [I used Bengal special Gondhoraj Lebu available here in the 
Bangladeshi shops]
SLICED ONION : 1 MEDIUM TEA CUP [of 2 medium sized]
GARLIC PASTE : 11/2TBSP [of 1 normal sized Indian variety]
GREEN CHILLI PASTE : 2TBSP [of 7-8-10]
TURMERIC POWDER : 1/2TSP + 1/2TSP
FRESHLY GROUND BLACK PEPPER POWDER : 1 TSP
LEMON / LIME JUICE : 1/2 SMALL TEA CUP
BAYLEAF : 1
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL - 4TBSP


PROCEDURE :

I prefer country chicken, whilst the men the fleshy, hi-breed ones. Because, I can eat only country chicken, they compromise. They even want the skin on chicken, but I cannot cook it, [shobetei ga ghulai amar.]

Anyway, wash the chicken pieces and marinate with salt, 1/2 tsp turmeric and the lemon juice. Keep aside for 1hour, I even keep it standing for 2 hours in normal temperature.

Meanwhile, we will get in hand everything else required. We will mix together the garlic+green chilli pastes+1/2tsp turmeric+salt.

Heat oil in a wok and temper with a bay leaf. Add the sliced onion and fry till golden brown.

Add the spice paste and stir fry at low heat for 2-3 minutes. Add the marinated chicken and fold in well.

Cover cook at minimal heat for 15-20 minutes. Check in between, we will not let it burn.

We will add the ground black pepper, washed lime or lemon leaves, stir for a minute and add 2 coffee mugs of water.

We will cover cook at low heat for 12-13 minutes, open cover and add the lime / lemon rings.

We will cook uncovered, at low heat for 3-4 minutes. We will switch off gas and discard the lemon / lime rings after 2-3 minutes; else the curry may turn bitter.

We had it with piping hot steamed rice with the freshly cooked chicken curry & the next day with hot chapatis. You can see, we also had "kola shaak begun diye, lau diye choto chingrir jhol, peyaz diye mushurir dal, peyaz shaak o aloo bhaja on that day."