The Wonderful Memories of “Mangsher Jhol” at Sundays in a bong’s mundane life…

Today as I returned to my all-girls’ paid accommodation before lunchtime, the weather was hot and humid outside and I was feeling extremely unwashed and stinky. Moreover, I caught cold and having a little bit of sore throat so I decided that it is going to be my feeling –blue day from hereafter. But then I remembered that today is Sunday and my “home delivery” kaku will be serving chicken with rice as Sunday-special menu and this very thought instantly lit up my mind. Though what he serves at every Sunday is what can best be called as remnants of chicken with mandatory 1 piece of aloo, floating in insipid “Jhol” or broth but when we (i.e. all my mess-mates including me) put it into mouth with hot rice, it tastes like something out-of-this-world. All the girls here starve themselves off from Sunday morning to hog it up later during noon.

                                                                So this same thought led to me thinking the quintessential role “manghser jhol” has played to shape up the lives of Bengalis across the country or I can say beyond- boundaries during Sundays, over the years. Well, I can perfectly remember what it did to my sister and me when we were mere Childs. Our household is devoid of mutton for years for the sake of health fad. So in every Sunday morning, when Baba came from bazaar, declaring loudly the ample quantity of chicken he had brought so that it can cover up for both lunch and dinner for that day, with a hint of pride in his tone- it used to make me very happy.

While Didi was considerably big girl then (at least from my point of view), I later asked her what she used to think of eating chicken with rice during her childhood (and before I was born) at Sundays. She assured me by saying that she just felt the same and it was a mini celebration in the house on weekly basis by having steaming rice with chicken curry, followed by a glassful of thumbs-up for ma,baba and didi each.

 Anyways, looking back to my childhood days, when after much anticipation, ma served us with hot rice, followd by shukto (that was almost mandatory) daal, some form of bhaja and then “mangsher jhol”- cooked in simple, traditional Bengali gastronomy which our mothers-and-aunts habituated to cook for years with lots of onions, garlic, and grin chilies – it seemed like a masterpiece in itself in my otherwise bhat-machher jhol fed taste bud during weekdays. The chicken legs were and still are meant for us two sisters to eat. We have coaxed our parents to have the leg pieces many a times for a change but according to them those are the best parts of meat in the body of a chicken so the minors of the house deserve them. Such an unselfish gesture which only parents can offer because I am crazy about chicken legs – be it cooked in Biriyani or curry and I am very doubtful about my ability that whether I would be able share them with anybody- well even with my kids (err… maybe I should buy two chicken so everybody in the home can have one leg each)..

                                       Well, back to today- as I was having my stingy chicken-rice meal and it was raining outside, I was deeply pondering over the importance of “Robibarer mangsher jhol-bhat”( be it chicken or for the serious meat eaters -“only mutton” )in Bengali families and its effects on generations for years. It’s almost symbolic to other cult characteristics of Bengali way of life, like- “Mohisasurmordini” in Mohaloya , new clothes during Durgapujo, the wait for next issue of Anondomela, taking smells from the pages of our new set of books when we got promoted in the next class- hmm…Life is not that bad actually.

P.S. - As I don’t know how to cook so there is no way I can share the recipe of manghser jhol with appetizing photos here in the blog as it would have been the norm. But I promised to myself that whenever I learn cooking (hoping that would be soon. I mean I will try to make it happen soon or else it will be included in my next year resolution list) I will make this dish first and foremost along with finding out how to boil rice.