Workshop: The Helpful Hand for Writing

“So today we are going to start our workshop. Are you all excited?” Miss Dayna started the Tuesday class reminding us about our workshop for our personal essays. I was little bit nervous when we all seated on a circle, and formally Miss Dayna handed over the discussion about our peer’s paper. I was tensed whether I could evaluate my peer’s paper effectively, or I could not. In the same time, I was thinking if they would feel bad when I would share her faults in front of the whole class.

However, likewise the other new things workshop seemed difficult to me, I could overcome it after few minutes. Since Miss Dayna teaching us so many new things, and they seemed difficult at first glance, but her efficient teaching style and helpful mind always help me to cope up the difficulties and find interest on those unknown topics which at last make me friendly with those new lessons or styles. Similarly, Miss Dayna’s supportive voice praised after the first peer review, “You guys are really doing a wonderful job. I am really proud of you.” The appreciation from Miss Dayna’s smiley face logged out the nervousness and tension from my mind to participate in the workshop more actively.

The workshop was not only about to help our peers and improve our writings. It also teaches us how to critic other people for their betterment. At first we have to mention the positive aspects of the paper then politely we can give suggestions for our peers which give us the sense how to act with people when we will bring out their mistakes. Besides, the workshop also shows that if we do not be critic this won’t be helpful for our peers at al. Therefore, we need to be specific to give valuable feedbacks for my peers’ paper so that my comment can help her to find her faults and improve her writing. Through this workshop we learn how to be specific and careful for our observation to find out to improve any situation.

I found that workshop is really a helpful guideline to improve our writing. While we were discussing about the papers, I found many different ideas about the improvement of the paper. In some cases I found that when one was giving one suggestion, then another idea was knocking in my mind to make the paper more effective. We discussed about tone, reflection, dialogues, explicit details, voice structure, and connection between stories, and different style. Through workshop I had a better sense about different writing style. Moreover, the discussion helped not only to give feedback for my peers’ paper but it also made me conscious about my own paper. The discussion about the papers will help me to find out the mistakes from my paper. Since different people’s idea made more clear idea about the required materials of a personal essay, I can improve my paper with a clear sense to my paper more strong with dialogues, structure, tones, reflection, and connection the theme in my essay.

Indeed, the workshop was helpful for all the students to get a clear idea about what to do in papers and also some idea of being a good critique. Still participating all students and without repeating the same ideas we may create a more interesting and successful workshop.

Hot Onion and Me

Drop of water was rolling down from my eyes. Oh! I was trying to stop it, but it did not stop. Along with the water of my eyes, water from my nose was also rushing to come out. Was it tears? No, I was cutting onions for the first time on that day. The hot onions turned my eyes red, and after cutting only two or three onions I had to leave them, and rushed to wash my eyes with water.

While splashing water on my face, my mom was smiling at me, and made fun of me saying, “Anu, have you finished cutting all onions?”

I answered her loudly as if the hot of onions was also in my voice, “Oh! Mom, how do you cut onions so easily? This onions are burning my eyes, mom.”

I added with a pessimistic voice, “Mom I cannot cut an onion, how I will cook food. I never can be a good cook like you.”

My mom came close to me, and put one side of her shari in her mouth to warm the soft cloth with the hot air of her mouth which she put on my eyes.  The warm soft veil of my mom’s shari started to remove that disturbing feelings from my eyes with the magic of her warm affection.

Then my mom’s adorable hand touch my face and whisper that, “Listen today I will tell you a secret of mine, and a spell to be expert to cut onions without having water and burning in your eyes.”

It seems mysterious and exhilarated to me, and I become impatient to listen to my mom’s spell and the hush-hush story. I followed her in the kitchen again where she was cooking fishes. The smell of fish and spices spread all over the kitchen.

My nose smelled the flavor, but someone was whispering in to my ears, “You won’t be able to cook such food that’s aroma will attract anyone to taste the food.” 

I looked at the onions in the plates that I left, and I felt as if the onions were smiling at me and castigated me, “Huh! Came to cut me, but ran away from me.” I turned my eyes from those hot onions, and I felt that I am afraid of them.

Then my mom’s nostalgic tone of her memories turned me to focus on her stories to get the enchantment of being a good cook.

My mom’s calm voice and slow description took me in the childhood of my mom. She was telling, “You know when I wanted to cut onions in my childhood, I used to lose waters from my eyes also, and it is common for all of us.”

“However, when you cut them again and again, you will be expert of cutting them.”

I nodded my head to respond her advices. And now I know what my mom told me that day is true, now I can cut onions without burning watery eyes. Now I do not run away leaving onions.

At present whenever I try to cook something I reflect on my mom’s special magic to be an expert cook. She told me that whenever I cook anything I will devote myself to try my best to make it good so that whoever eat that get full satisfaction.

However, it is really hard to be a good cook and satisfy people with good food. Still I am happy at least I can cut the onions now without rolling water from my eyes. The onions cannot smile at me now, and now often someone whispers into my ears, “One day I can also be a good cook.”

 

 

Magic of Food

During the cold afternoon, under the jujube tree two little girls were standing looking at the trembled green leaves and the ripen Jujube. Little basket holding in one hand, the little girls recite the rhyme to the birds, “dear bird, dear bird give us one and take you one.” Whenever I saw Jujubes I saw the conspicuous image of myself and my younger sister reciting the verse to the birds on the tree to fell down the jujubes from the tree. However, what is the significance about writing this story about food or describing the food?

Yes, this is pretty complicated to find why people write about their food experiences or about their relation with food. People may have thousand reasons to write about food, but for me foods are some special gift that is favorable to all, and linked with everyone’s life holding and creating various stories or memories of our lives which should be brought to the light.

We celebrate the best moments of our lives with special food, and similarly, writing about food makes merry in our writings and on the readers mind through the scrumptious description of food, or our diverse relationships with food.

Sometimes the writings about food reveal the sad stories which were frozen in the corner of one’s heart, or sometimes bring out the happy pleasant time of one’s life that was not being told anytime of our lives. Even sometimes the funny stories about food may feel you shy at your present matured age, and leave you to think how gradually you have changed, or can invent your love to others.

Often the story of a little innocent baby’s days of starvation not only appears as the printed words on a paper, rather it portrays the sorrows of having no food in stomach, and compel the world to feel the sufferings of million helpless people which may oblige you to think about at least one time about the wastage of food and turn back to remove the agony of hungry people.

Moreover, foods are one of the indicators of one’s own identity or culture. Writings about food occasionally open the door to be introduced to ones culture and tradition. The words about food pulls one back to get essence of own culture, and own tradition although being apart from own land.

Besides all of these writing about food reveals human’s creativity. Foods that were only considered to be eaten, but they have been the tools of literature that enhance the beauty of literature and significance of food in various sectors of our lives. Different writings about food have indicated that this is not only to praise “Hmm…Yummy!” right after tasting it, rather these foods have many relation with our lives which contain valuable short stories.

Since food can be represented in different recipes, foods can add new dimensions in writing which can be characterized in subtle, explicit, implicit, descriptive language through various writings. Indeed, foods are being used as different colors of a butterfly’s wings in the sector of writing which can be expressed in different tone, description, symbols, or metaphor in a piece of writing. 

 

Family + Food = Heaven

“Eating with family members is heavenly” my father says. Before coming at AUW, I could not understand why my father praises eating all together.  However, at present when I visit home, I feel that eating all together is indeed celestial where we all sit together, share our feelings, and get full satisfaction from the food.

Our busy lives and duties keep us apart from our near and dear ones. We hardly get time to pass time with each other. Still we find time to celebrate our time all together in our family and for this celebration the most common and prominent arrangement is savoring special food. While we all eat together, foods not only give us pleasure, but also it also works as the token of love and care.

Whenever I go home in any vacation, my parents always celebrate one day preparing special foods which I like the most. During the last vacation, when my elder sister and I were together in home, my parents were so happy, and to celebrate our happy moment, my mom prepared her scrumptious and divine dishes for us.

When my mom starts her cooking, the smell of the appetizing food drags me to come to the kitchen and asked for testing the food once. However, my mom always encourages me to have the meal with all of us. In that small dinner party my mom cooked oily rice (Polau), fried Hilsha fish, Beef curry, small fish with vegetables (chorchori), and carrot pudding.

When I see all the food menus on the table, my stomach started to dance, mouth filled with water, and smile started to bloom on my face. My mother called everyone to sit quickly and taste the hot food, and I was happy as I did not want to do any delay! We three sisters sat with our parents, and my younger brother sat with us to take a small amount of food from all of us.

I at first take my mom’s oily rice on my plate. My mom’s rice is special because it is boiled properly, and each grain will be separate from each other there is no stickiness. This oily rice is cooked with oil, salt, rice and some pieces of bay leaves, cinnamon, cardamom, and raisin. My mom served the smoky hot rice with ghee which flavors so appetizing. When I took rice, my father told, “My dear take more,” and later he served by himself in our three sisters’ plates. My mom knows that we three sisters like Hilsha fish and the crispy brown brackish fried Hilsha fish are ambrosial to us. She served our favorite fried fish in our plates. The flavor of Hilsha fish spell bounds me, and I cannot express in words how much I love this fish to eat. However, I think my mom can understand how much I like that, and so she always cooks the fish whenever I go home. My mom took another peace to serve me as she knows that at AUW dining hall I cannot eat my favorite fish. While we were eating, my father was telling us about his student life, and how he enjoyed the food of my grandmothers cooking. And he also lamenting that Hilsha fish is getting expensive, and are not available like before.  The taste was also far better than this. We three sister was lamenting, “Ah! We could not know the taste of those big, oily and delicious Hilsha fish and my parents are lucky as they did.” However, we are happy at least we get the fish to taste.

Next my mom took the dish of yellow oily chorchori which is cooked with onions, potatoes, green chili, and small fish (Mola). This small fish mixed with onions and oil creates a delectable smell which will insist any one to taste it again and again. My mom’s hands are special to cook my chorchori. I told her that I wish I could cook chorchori like you ma. My elder sister also wants to know the tips of cooking this as delicious as my mom. My mom suggested that “you do not need to use any spice for chorchori, use only a little bit turmeric spice and salt according to your needs. Oil must be shown after cooking, do not make it rough, and add more fishes than vegetables.” Chorchori are special because the little fishes mixed their juice and flavor with the vegetables which magically enhance the taste of potatoes.

With these all items my  stomach became almost full, but my tongue told me not to stop. But there also remained my mom’s special beef curry to taste. My father told me not to leave without tasting it because it was appetizing. Then my younger sister told me to taste the curry without rice and I felt that was a good idea. My elder sister served my some pieces of meat and I started to taste it. It is so spicy to taste, but all the spices cooked the beef in a way that you will not want to stop only taking some pieces. However, my mom forbade me to take more because I may feel bad and she consoled me to take it in the morning again. And my doctor elder sister also suggested me that, so I had to stop to take more.

When we all finish our dinner, we three sister helped my mom to clean the tables and dishes. After finishing our work, we all took the crimson carrot pudding which is dulcet. Milk, sugar, ghee, carrot, raisin, coconut juice, and nuts all together make this pudding heavenly which is creamy and sweet to taste. Oh no this all of my favorite items are making me extremely hungry, and I know my stomach and tongue will be so angry with me as they have to wait to get these all mouth watering foods made in my mom’s special magical hand. I noticed that no one cook as like my mom. Does my mom possess a real magical hand? Maybe it is the magic of love that helps her to cook foods this much tasty for us. And yes dad I understand now eating with family member is heavenly!

‘Jorda’: Special Attraction of Eid

Eid Mubarak! What is it? This is the greeting of the most special holiday of Muslims, the Eid day. We start the Eid day wishing everyone Eid Mubarak. Muslims celebrate Eid-ul Azha and Eid-ul Fitre. Eid-ul Fitre is most special to me. After fasting one month we celebrate the day as a reward of our patience in fasting the whole month. This is the day which we celebrate with new dresses, preparing lots of foods, and visiting neighbors, friends, and relatives’ house.

In each and every house they want to prepare something special on this day to celebrate the day warmly. In my home, most of the dishes are being prepared by my mom. And my elder sisster used to cook some sweet items on this occasion. However, the last Eid, at first I made something on that day!

I was so nervous thinking that today many guests would come to visit our house, and they all were going to taste my cooking. The heart was beating little bit faster thinking all these. However, in the morning of the Eid day, at first we all pray to Allah, and when my father comes from mosque, we all take sweet drinks and then some sweet deserts that are made by mom’s divine hand. We start with something sugary as this is considered to be something blissful. In this day my mom especially cook paesh, which is cooked with condense milk, sugar, rice, and two or three pieces of cinnamon and cardamom to get the flavor in it. Moreover, to decorate it we use raisins and nuts. However, in the last Eid I prepared another special syrupy dish named jorda. The main ingredients for this item are also rice, sugar, and three or four pieces of cinnamon and cardamom. However, I added milk powder, coconut juice, orange juice, and the slices of orange shells, some dry foods, and little soft black sweets to make it scrumptious. At last I served it with pouring ghee in it and spreading nuts on it. Another specialty of this item is the color, everyone one uses deep orange color (Jafran) to make it colorful. Orange jorda decorated with black sweets, white milk powder, and nuts was looking appealing. And when you will taste it first your mouth will watery with the flavor of ghee. Then the honeyed rice and the orange juice mixed with coconut juice create a creamy sweet and sour taste with the flavor of coconut.  While you are savoring it often the soft black sweets, dry foods will be chewed with it and that will add some more flavors and taste with it. Particularly, when the slices of orange shell will be chewed, your whole mouth will fill with the flavor of orange with a heavenly taste, which gustatory will remain ever fresh in your mind and whenever, you remember the taste your mouth will fill with water. Besides, you can eat jorda mixing with paesh which also tastes so delicious. The milky paesh mixed with different flavorsome fruity jarda tastes nectarous. My father at first tasted my cooking, and when he took one spoon, he said, “Hmm…it’s yummy.” I was so happy getting that nice compliment from my father. And then I became so confident about my cooking when all the guests praised my cooking!

The Eid became more special for my cooking. I never knew that how much satisfaction one might get if people get satisfaction from their cooking. I enjoyed the pleasant face of the visitors while they tasted my dishes. This Eid is really special, and like most of all special day people give importance on food on this celebration. I invent the hidden intention of the relationship of foods and any celebration very well getting the experience of cooking food and looking other to be pleased with foods. Indeed foods are special to celebrate any holiday.

Food Experience in a Restaurant

Restaurant! Whenever I hear the word, I cannot but stop my mind to remember that evening, the memorable experience having dinner with my family in the restaurant Zinzian at Dhaka. My father promised me that he would give us treat in a restaurant of Dhaka if I got Junior Scholarship. I got Scholarship, but my dad did not announce any exciting offer about the treat. I waited a few days and thought that my dad had forgotten his promise. And when I almost drowned all my expectation into the uncertainty, my father announced that we all were going to visit my aunt’s house and my dad was going to give us the treat in a restaurant of Dhaka. I was so excited hearing this surprising news. My dad come to me and said with a smile that I promised something to my little doll and I would not keep that! I thanked my dad and going to make plane to get the fullest content to this super offer. And next day we started our journey to visit my aunt’s house, where my cousins were eagerly waiting for us. Since I informed them about the treat, they were also very thrilled about our trip.

8 August 2006. I along with my two sisters, four cousins, my parents, my uncle and aunty came to enjoy this exclusive party, and among all of them I felt proud of myself as all this arrangement was for me, for my achievement. Everyone mock at me telling me the “chief guest.” We decided to take our dinner at the restaurant Zinzian situated at Dhanmondi, Dahka. Multicolored little lights were shining around the name of the restaurant. At the entrance, there was an aquarium on the floor, which was something new and interesting to me. While I stepped on that aquarium, I saw the blue water, and colorful fishes swimming in it. We selected a big table for us, and sat all together. The room was quiet, having soft music, and far from our table some couples were busy to have their meals. The melodious music and dimmed light made an ancient world there which was so comfortable and peaceful. My cousins who lived in Dhaka told me that they had experience of eating there, and they praised their cooking and services. The cooking of any restaurant of Dhaka is popular in my city, and I was overwhelmed thinking that I am going to taste it by myself. 

After a few minutes a waiter with a smiley face, dressed with a white shirt and blue tie came to know about our food menu. While my father was asked to give order, he requested my cousins, “Shanta and Shaon have much better idea about the foods of this restaurant, and so they are going to order the menus.” As dad gave the responsibility on them, they decided to have mutton biriani, chiken kabab, chatni, and faluda. I think around 30 minutes we had to wait for the foods. While we were waiting for foods, I was looking around the rooms. The color of the wall was off-white and the pink velvet curtain on those walls was looking so gorgeous. The table cloth was white; but for the dim blue lights, it seems very mysterious color as if the color of moonlight. I liked the white and pink gladiolus on our table. All the white clean cookeries were shinning on the table. When the waiter entered with the food, I was so hungry by that time. At the first look, the foods looked so appetite. The presentation of the items was really charming. On the top of mutton biriani they put some roses of tomato with coriander leaves. The hot smoke was flying with a tempting smell from the dish of mutton biriani. The smell touches my nose and then influenced me not to be late to taste the hot biriani. Mutton biriani is the combination of rice and mutton having lots of spices. I was so excited to taste those appealing food. When I tasted the food, I felt that this was just mouth-watering. Combination of spices was perfect, and oil was just the right amount. The pieces of mutton were delicious which was properly boiled and cooked with the right amount of spices to tickle water in mouth. I think my tongue tasted all the part of the meats and every corn of that mutton biriani. My mom told, “My dear add some chatni and some bite of chicken kabab with your meal to get the real test.” Chatni, which tastes sour, sweet, salty, and little bit hot. This chatni was made by ripen tomato, mixed with garlic, chilly, salt, lemon juice, sugar, and special mixture of five spices: fenugreek, nigella seed, cumin seed, radhuni, and fennel seed in equal parts. Besides, chicken kabab contains bread, chicken meat, salt, chilly, onion, ginger, testing salt, chili sauce, tomato sauce, lemon juice, garlic, coriander, cumin . However, these all spices work all together to make delicious chicken kabab, where it is really hard to find the entire ingredient’s different taste. These round shaped hot chicken kabab with hot smell was fried which made it flavorsome and crispy. When I added chicken kabab and chatni, I had to close my eyes as those add new tastes and The taste cells of my tongue may be savored those with full attention because whenever I remember those foods I feel as if I am enjoying that taste…that smell…!!

After finishing that yummy biriani, chiken kabab with chatni, I found that my stomach is totally full. Though my stomach was tired of tasting more, my tongue wanted to taste more. When we finished, the waiter again came with a smile and clean the table. After that he entered with faluda on his hand. When the waiter served the white creamy faluda in front of me, my greedy eyes looked at that, and my nerve ordered my hand not to wait anymore to keep one spoon of faluda in to my mouth where my test cells, teeth everyone was waiting to taste the milky faluda. It was decorated with ice-cream and different fruits: banana, apple, pomegranates, and orange. Mainly boiled grain of sago was mixed with sweet condense milk, and then mixed with ice-cream and fruits which was served with the pieces of ice. After finishing all those foods, we left the restaurant. I left the restaurant a long time ago, but the foods, the environment of the restaurant is still alive in my mind.

Magical Smokey Hot Steamed Rice Cake (Bhapa Pitha)

In this winter vacation, when I went to visit home; I experienced one of the most memorable days having steamed rice cake at home. One morning, my mom woke me up early and asked me to taste the hot steamed rice cake with my family. I was not so happy to be awoken so early, and so with my gloomy mind I sat beside my father to taste the hot cakes. My mom served the hot smoky white like snow and fluffy like cushion on our plates. Though I was drowsy, when the cake was served in my plates, my active hand rushed to touch the hot cakes like an impatient hunter. My hands were numb for the winter cold air, but when I touched the soft cake; my hands returned back being unable to clutch it and take a bite from it. My mom’s smiley face suggested me to wait for a while.

 

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May be I waited for few seconds, then again the expert fingers of my right hand lift the spongy fresh white cake and entered it into my mouth to take a bite of it. When I took the first bite my mouth fills with the Juicy date molasses, coconut, and steamed rice. My tongue was busy to take the tastes of each and every parts of the hot cake. While I was savoring the taste of the cake, the smell and the taste of the cake dragged me to open the door of my old memories. It took me ten years behind of my present. I could not say when I took the second bite of it as the taste was rushing in my old memories, I was listening the murmuring sound around me as if all my cousins and I were seating around my grandma. In the open yard, my grandma was serving these fluffy hot cakes and we all were enjoying the magical tastes of those cakes, and the cold winter breeze was trying to disturb us. However, we all sited so closely keeping the fire centre of us. And my grandma was enjoying our satisfied faces, and listening to the compliments from us- “mmm…yummy.” Though everyone had their own cakes, someone tried to take a bite from another and that built the sweet noise among us which ends sharing the cakes with each other. While I was busy to recollect all those sweet memories, I have already finished that same tasted cake.

When I lifted my fingers to give another bite of the cake, I erroneously bite on my fingers. The little pain on my fingers turned me back from that imaginary land. When I opened my eyes I found my family, but the vicissitudes of life takes all my cousins apart from each other being busy with lives. And most of all, I found one drop of water in the corner of my eyes, which anchored in my eyes from the agony of the lost of my grandma. My grandma has passed away this year which reminds me that I will not see the adorable face of my grandma any more. However, the tasty cake was served again by my mom. In fact, the smoky hot soft cake spreads the sweet smell in my old days with its fascinating tastes, and gives me a chance to visit my sweet memories.