Open Letter - To London Diary - 2013-12-25-10-01

My dear London-Dairy,

There was a time when someone asked me, (they were going to visit from the States), “What would you like from here?”  And I was in India at at that time, and I had had chocolates with hazelnuts, and I loved that, so I told them, “Please bring me hazelnuts.  Just the plain type, so I can see what it is like…”.

And when she arrived, she told me, “Bibi, we tried and tried, but we couldn’t get plain hazelnuts.  We could only get chocolate with hazelnuts…”.

That was decades back….

Well, just the other day, a week or so back, I was visiting my sister, and dropped in for lunch.  I hadn’t phoned her in advance, and I arrived late, so they had finished and the lunch was just being cleared away.  I said, “Hey, have you got any leftovers”, so she was thrilled that I was there for lunch, and told them not to take the covers away.  So I said that too….  Ya, I was glad too …

Then I sat down, and ate.  I felt sort of full.  But I always used to eat a lot.  So I ate some more, and I finished up each dish.

Then my mother came, (we were visiting together), and then my sister’s cook came in too.  And I said “Patchi (that’s her name), put something….  Anything…”.  And she said, “Amma, the chicken is over”.  I said, “Oh, do you only make fresh for a day, I mean, a meal”.  And she said, “Yes”, and I approved.

So I pushed harder.  “Put something, Patxhi.  Maybe cheera (cooked salad-greens, which I’d finished at the table – maybe there was more in the kitchen…), maybe cauliflower (same case)”. 

And she thought and thought, and she said, “How about some ice-cream?”  So I said, “Okay, that sounds good”.

And she went away, and returned with a large cup of ice-cream.  I read the label and it was “Chocolate – Hazelnut”.  Oh my!!!!!  Hazelnuts at last.

I said, “Patxhi, Spoon please”.  And a box of home-made ice-cream from someone else was also on the table, but that had been finished as well, by those who ate before me…  And the scoop was lying in it.

And she said, “I’ll microwave the ice-cream.  It’s really frozen hard”.

And I said, “Just bring me boiling hot water.  I’ll dip the scoop in it, and scoop out the ice-cream”.

So she went and returned with a saucepan of just-boiled water.  I dipped the ice-cream scoop in it and scooped out Chocolate-Hazelnut icecream. 

I tried it, and it had actual pieces of Hazelnut in it – just pure, un-processed Hazelnuts.  Oh I was So Glad!!!!

I ate half-the-contents-of-the-cup…..

I really appreciate it, London Dairy. 

And I blessed the Lord…. For I had eaten and was full.

Regards,

Ms. Ann Abraham.

2013-12-25.

Chennai, India.