Baishey Srabon. The death anniversary of the bard. Yes I am talking about Rabindranath Tagore. It goes without saying that even after 150 years he still holds a very special place in our hearts and mind.
My growing up, my sense of music, of poetry is all His being. His doing. I have grown up listening to Baba singing his songs, Maa humming them. Then there were poems and short stories and movies made out of them.
Not to mention “Him” staring at me from the “Amar kuthi” produced “hand batiked wall hanging”, which was another cliché in the Bengali household. And during the daily puja at home, my grandmom used to make rounds before him with incense sticks like she did to the other deities in the house. Such was His relevance in my house
No one can take away the relevance of Tagore from a Bengali. We are sad we sing Tagore, we are happy we recite him. No one has ever been able to take away the glory from him in all these years. His excellence truly unmatched.
The first song that Baba made me learn was “ay tobe sahachori”. His music and lyrics have always fascinated me.
Music as he wanted it to become the lokegeeti of the Bengali has truly attained its stature. Today we see huge experiments with his music. Whether its Amitabh Bachaan singing loudly through the loud speakers at the traffic signals of the all-girl band in the movie Bedroom, Tagore truly has come a long way. Yes purists do not definitely like this. But for Tagore change was the only thing constant. In his approach for everything in life he had done remixes.
So was it in case of food. I had read somewhere that Tagore used to bring back the recipes of the world and tried it in the Jorasakho kitchen.
My growing up, my sense of music, of poetry is all His being. His doing. I have grown up listening to Baba singing his songs, Maa humming them. Then there were poems and short stories and movies made out of them.
Not to mention “Him” staring at me from the “Amar kuthi” produced “hand batiked wall hanging”, which was another cliché in the Bengali household. And during the daily puja at home, my grandmom used to make rounds before him with incense sticks like she did to the other deities in the house. Such was His relevance in my house
No one can take away the relevance of Tagore from a Bengali. We are sad we sing Tagore, we are happy we recite him. No one has ever been able to take away the glory from him in all these years. His excellence truly unmatched.
The first song that Baba made me learn was “ay tobe sahachori”. His music and lyrics have always fascinated me.
Music as he wanted it to become the lokegeeti of the Bengali has truly attained its stature. Today we see huge experiments with his music. Whether its Amitabh Bachaan singing loudly through the loud speakers at the traffic signals of the all-girl band in the movie Bedroom, Tagore truly has come a long way. Yes purists do not definitely like this. But for Tagore change was the only thing constant. In his approach for everything in life he had done remixes.
So was it in case of food. I had read somewhere that Tagore used to bring back the recipes of the world and tried it in the Jorasakho kitchen.
"He was such a foodie that he would often bring back recipes with him so that these could be tried out at the Jorasanko kitchen. For instance, he loved kebabs, some extremely offbeat, and they started making a regular appearance at the family's dining table,", says RK Basu, who has set up Café The at ICCR in Ho Chi Minh Sarani, Kolkata, that serves dishes relished by him. "His love for exotic kebabs and new prawn preparations resulted in surti meetha kebab, Hindustani turki kebab,chicken kebab nosi and a Bengaliversion of the Italian prawn thermidor,a dish with beaten prawn stuffed with mustard and poppy seeds."
Lets today try remaking the Prawn Termidor in his style
1. Big Lobster boiled cleaned – flesh chopped and shell separated.
2. Deep Fry the shell – and watch it turn orange. Keep aside
3. In a frying pan sauté 2 tsp of ginger and garlic roughly chopped till they turn pale
4. Add chopped Lobster pieces
5. Add chopped mushrooms
6. Add 2 tsp of Posto (poppy Seeds) paste (posto seeds soaked overnight in warm water can be put in the blender for a smooth creamy grind)
7. Add 2 tsp of Mustard paste
8. Add 2-3 tsp of fresh cream - optional
9. Cook on slow flame
10. Add sugar and salt to taste.
11. When the mix looks creamy and rich…fill up the fried lobster shell…garnish and serve
