Docile is Difficult

I have not been blogging a while and things have been quite on the rise. work has been quite a task to keep up with. While I sit back and get inspired by the going-ons around me and my favorite track playing on the radio, I take a few minutes To pen some occurrences and observations.

Diwali is coming, the festival of lights, laughter and family. It’s the time of the year when the working class gets an uppity push and business booms. It’s also the time of being at your philanthropic best and being generous to one and all.

I still remember many moons ago, when a fortnight before Diwali the ladies of the house would scurry around planning exquisite parties and bring out traditional recipes. The house would be scrubbed clean from top to bottom with an all round sprucing up.

The gardener would be under strict instructions to mow the lawn to a precise height just so it would be lush enough in time for the D-Day. Pixie lights, lanterns and flowers would adorn every counter and the table would be set with silverware and the best China possible. The powdery fragrance of freshly laid rangoli would infuse the interiors right from the main entrance all the way up to the other floors. The household had a lot to do and most of all, a lot of time ‘made’ to do it.

If you think the men were any way behind, well, then you are gladly mistaken. The holidays from work would be taken much in advance, the spirits and invites taken care off and new furnishings or paintings were either bought or polished. The men folk would partake in whatever little activity was sacrosanct with the festival and ensure the kids were kept busy. Bonus’ for the house-help were charted, all debts would be paid off, it was the time to start fresh, anew and with great gusto for a profitable year ahead. This was the time consciously or unconsciously taken to spend with the people in their life they had chosen to create and maintain, it was an ideal situation to look forward to and embrace.

When D-day arrived the parties would be in full-swing, the women folk had new clothes and sparkled with glitter and new baubles. The kitchen fires would be stoked to their maximum limit and best of all, every single person stepping into the doorstep was treated like royalty returned from exile.

In this entire melee, what was faintly noticeable (if you looked really close) were certain traits which would involuntarily materialize in a person; these were a sense of togetherness, belonging, calmness and utter docility amongst blood. This particular situation made up the essence of the festival, It was this sense that attracted the most number of actual well-wishers to your doorstep. This also brought in blessings, opened doors to divine intervention and a force which till date keeps certain lives alive, a force due to which its worth living for and make you what you are as a whole.

Unfortunately, what you see today is purely a reflection of any of the above senses in still water. It’s a narcissist view of what we perceive as togetherness, belonging, calmness and “docility”. Docility is a difficult trait to inculcate and generate as most of us are just not attuned to exude it naturally. In this day and age of quick fix situations where I hear of special agencies to clean your house from top to bottom while you are away, when traditional recipes are outsourced, when those who try and bring in any form of enlightenment to their sphere of life are cut short by fabricated time and worst of all the loss of docility towards the ones who try and bring it to the forefront. Its more showbiz and one-upmanship in most cases during such festivals.

This is purely a generalized view of what I perceive how most behavioral patterns today emit out of various observation platforms, be it media, reality or my immediate vision. The whole concept of buckling with docility is tarnished in the name of materialism and self entitlement. Most humans today think that being self sufficient and self reliant gives them the power to teach rather than absorb. I hope that some of us retain old traditional traits, especially those learnt from our forefathers and teach it to a docile audience which would eventually be the ideal way to surrender to these situations. A festival like this is the perfect time make amends and start afresh.

Speaking of docility, I did pick up a recipe my mother (and my grandmother) would unfailingly prepare every Diwali. The method involved a painstaking task of peeling almonds, drying them three days in the sun and then grinding them in an ancient hand cranked “nut grater” which would ‘grate’ rather than create an extraction of oil when nuts are whizzed on high in any powdering machines. The result would be pure, dry and a versatile almond powder which would be lovingly kneaded with pure rose water to make baked delights called Badaam Puri’s.

I, of course, in true nonchalant style add an interesting twist to this classic badam puri. This recipe is made with almonds, cashew-nut, a touch of saffron, honey and last but not the least rose water. These flourless cookies are healthy, tasty and will be a sure-fire hit with adults and children alike. Don’t forget to add that festive touch by sprinkling some rose petals when serving.

Almond Saffron Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup Almonds (soaked in water overnight, peeled and dried in the sun for 4 hours)
• 1 cup Cashew nut (plain)
• 1 tsp Saffron mixed with a little water
• 2 tablsp Saffron Honey (or sweet honey)
• 3 tablsp Rose Water
• 1 tsp Cardamom Powder
• ½ cup Powdered Sugar
• ½ tsp Baking Powder
• Water for binding
• Almonds sliced into half for garnish

Directions

• Preheat oven to 160C
• Powder the almonds and cashew separately in a blender. You will have to powder them on intermittent speeds (turn off and on in quick succession) as blending it on high speeds will release essential oils and make the nut powders lumpy. Mix the flours and keep aside
• In a large bowl, add the prepared nut powders, baking powder and sugar. Mix well and add the saffron honey, rose water, cardamom and start binding the ingredients together. You can use a little water and keep binding till you get a stiff dough.
• Take a ping-pong size ball from the dough, flatten it a little (shape into a mound shape) and press half an almond in the middle. Prepare more cookies into the same shape from the rest of the dough.
• Place these cookies on a baking sheet (with about an inch between each of them) and pop into the preheated oven. Bake till evenly browned on the top (this should take about 6 minutes or so). Remove, cool and serve warm or cold with some rose petals as decoration.
• These stay up to 7 days in an airtight container.

Have a superbly enlightening Diwali this year and learn to keep docile, it’s not that difficult.