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A whiff of a familiar smell can magically transport one to times that now exist in one's memories.
A whiff of a familiar smell can magically transport one to times that now exist in one’s memories.
Growing up, I always woke up to the gentle yet strong smell of the ‘Old Spice’ after shave lotion, which my father would use when he was getting ready for the day ahead. As I brushed my teeth, the house would be permeated with the smell of sandalwood incense, while my father offered his early morning prayers. This was followed by the strong aroma coming from the brewing of fresh Assam tea in the kitchen.
Although I had been raised in Assam, our family was well travelled. By the time I had reached high school, I had almost traversed most of India. Quite naturally, my parents brought the whole world home. While our parents raised us with a strong Assamese sentiment, it was not unusual for us to sometimes have paratha (flatbread) or noodles for breakfast, or Idli (rice cake) for light evening snacks. It is interesting to note that the smell of ‘Sambhar’, which is an almost foreign aroma for a woman from the north-east, reminds me of home.
Idli is a dish that finds no semblance with our culture. But still my evenings in a sleepy town in Assam was filled with memories that smell like idli and sambhar. My mother often prepared the sambhar powder from a scratch. I loved to watch how the batter was put into the steel idli maker and magically transform into soft and puffy idlis. Having idli was a celebration of sorts because of the exotic nature of the dish in those parts. As I hung around with my mother in the kitchen, the whole household smelt of freshly made Sambhar powder.
It was much later that I got to know that idli is usually prepared for breakfast traditionally in South Indian households.
Image Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idli#/media/File:Idli_-_A_Traditional_Indian_Food.JPG
A Social Media Content Writer by profession. A writer by heart. A genuine foodie. Simple by nature. Love to read, create paintings and cook. Have impossible dreams. At the moment, engaged in making those dreams read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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