Ice wise

Back from a trip to Albany visiting my cousin Vidya and her husband Kiruba.Few observations in random:
-- Pongal is beginning of the tamil new year.Similar to Lohri or Sankranti.As is custom tamil households make jaggery rice called sakkarai pongal( and its more palatable cousin venpongal or khichidi) V and SIL tried a pongalopongal( porridge Oh porridge, plenty of porridge)as gruel boils over.So far away from home, in a different time zone..as folks back home retire from SunTV broadcast and washing pongal pots we hash together a goulash assortment of Indian condiment,not great , but hell we did it didnt we; and celebrate a togetherness if not a festival...away from the alien loneliness thats so much a part of life for many in this country.And when its time to go home, feel sad about it.

---My first sighting of ice, as it frosts over your car, forms from the dew over the leaves and grass turning them into a ghostly obelisks shorn of all life ...all over a translucent gray and gloomy cloud cover to add to the surreal mileu. Walking on ice is as unpleasant a task.It is motion that keeps the rivers from frrzing over.And there's so little to see otherwise.Spent most of the time indoors with our hosts.

---You can either have your own life or have a kid.

---Tiramisu is a bitter sweet Italian dessert made of cocoa, coffee espresso, cheese(with a fancy sounding name- Mascarpone), rum, wine and Lady fingers!!!Last ingredient I tried to locate in the dish unsuccesfully believeing it as you might have now , to be Lady's fingers or bhindi.But the small twist in the spelling is almost unnoticable aint it?Ladyfingers are a sweet spnge cakes shaped like a fat finger( lady?).Its literal meaning is 'pick me up'in Italian. Slutty name probably originates from the theory that Venetian females fed this unholy concoction to their worse halves to charge em up ( coffee, wine, cocoa...whaddya exoect?!Prolly the fat finger was a similar invocation to Aphrodite)Leaves a doughy aftertaste.Not bitter sweet but rather salty...maybe the masca-whatever cheese.Feed me Tiramisu again and I wont be able to recognise it unless told.Slept peacefully after tiramisu. So much for Italian men.

Au revoir!