Allwyn

We reached home last sunday.

We were already late by 4 hours before reaching vizag...( my sis and myself had taken a bus from hyd)
Mom and dad were already tense and going crazy....and to add to that my cell also was low on battery and switched off.

So by the time we got home there was a lot of anxiety and cheer,and even though i had sent a message to dad via someone else's cell...it still was the talking point for a good 20 minutes!!!

Homecoming is such a wonderful feeling.
Back to my good old room, overlooking the bright blue sea called the Bay of Bengal.
The sea is just about 200 metres away from our building and makes for a pristine view!!!

I had a good refreshing bath.
And then walked into the pooja room. Over the years we at our home, refer to it as the God's Room!
And the divine fragance of the incense sticks is simply heavenly.

It transported me into a whole new world.
And the first words that came out as i sat in front of the Lord were, "Thank you Almighty"

I just thanked Him for everything......
I thanked Him for giving me a family....a home.....a faith...and for just everything else.

Then it was time for lunch.
It was Sankranti ( by the way...belated Pongal wishes to u too)

And mom had done an amazing job of cooking up numerous varieties.
There was the pongal. And some wonderful sweets.....oh i just cherished the feeling of the first bite.

Its only when we stay away from home do we realize the magic of a wonderful family lunch. Iam sure u would agree with me!

But right now I want to talk about our refridgerator!!!
This one device in our home is something that always excites me the first day i visit home!
I had lunch.
So I wasnt really hungry!

But i still proceeded to open the fridge!!
My mind travelled back to all the days during my previous visit.

Its amazing how the fridge keeps me tied to such pristine memory.

Ours is perhaps one of the most resilient refridgerators of modern india.
I dont think the model is available now...but its a good 16 years old now.

I was just 8 or 9 then i guess...and we were in mumbai.
Boy! this refridgerator has seen it all.
( Let me use the term "fridge" .Thats what my mom calls it...and thats what i thought it was called too,till i was enlightened in school with some elementary education! )

It s green coloured door has figured in almost all of our modern home photo albums!!!

However it wouldnt remember anything that any sane man would, after being a part of the family for almost 2 decades now.
Why??

Coz u dont know how we ve treated this fridge!!
So wonderfully.
It makes us remember everything instead!!

Mom is the prime and rather sole manager of the fridge.
Dad manages only a small section, a small sliding door in the fridge, to stock his purchase of fresh flowers, required for his pooja next morning.
And he invariably ends up hunting for space in that section too!!

Reason??- Mom!!

All moms are phDs in fridge space utilization.

The way the vegetables are stocked....well when u take them out for cooking, they are already cut for u!
When i had last seen the fridge, the bottom drawer that s supposed to stack leafy vegetables, was literally being punched into its place by mom.
And it remarkably went inside.....

On the inner side of the refrigerator door are the spacings to keep the neat little eggs that u bring home.
Thank god the designers made a provision for keeping eggs.
Had they left the decision to mom, i guess we would ve had to eat frozen omlettes everytime someone opened the fridge! ;-)

We dont eat eggs.
And that gives mom more ammunition, i mean space!

Ofcourse a few lemons have managed to find their way up from somewhere beneath the fridge racks onto the egg space!
Mom has some engineering brilliance right? The lemons fit beautifully.

Then there was an old or rather a semi used cone kept there. I wondered if it was a Cornetto Walls?
Upon trying hard i finally managed to make out that it was actually a mehendi refil. One that beautiful girls can neatly apply to their little hands and dance with joy! I got to know that my sister had used that earlier.
It wasnt finished.
Mom didnt want to throw it away.
She didnt want to bother abt it too.
So she transferred the burden onto the fridge!

Stacked amidst a heap of broken pieces of ginger and bits of cashew nut or something, i managed to dig out a small packet of chocolates.
When I asked mom who gave them, she replied that it was by a visit by one of Dad's friends. And then the talk went to that gentleman's sons, who were studying abroad, then onto my higher study plans.
And I had already finished two of those delicious chocolates by then.

As I investigated further, I chanced upon some packets of amul cheese.
They were not even opened.
I asked why?
Mom said cheese wasnt good for her or dad's health. She had stocked them for me and my sister when we would come home.
Then the talk went to how I must eat good food. On what i am eating now.....am i eating oily stuff after my jaundice attack 1 year back.

My little sister also wanted to practice being a mom.

She began her sermon on why chikoo was better than mango or strawberry, when I had only casually mentioned that I drink fruit juices in office.

Anyway...i was simply enjoying the process of discovery of the fridge.
There was some leafy kind of vegetable stacked inside. I enquired what it was........

Oh! Had i triggered a storm??
That reminded mom!!
That was supposed to be made into a slimy green paste and given to me along with a glass of milk in those old jaundice days some prehistoric months ago!!!
"Hey u have to take that,for immunity from jaundice"


I managed to convince mom that i dont need all that stuff now! That I was fit, hale and hearty.....
She agreed......!!!!
But asked me not to throw that vegetable away. "Will come handy in case u fall ill.....", she was already laughing ( a sign that u neednt take seriously what mom said)

I rummaged through the scores of vessels containing things. Didnt find anything interesting
When i am on a holiday at home, i give in to this crazy habit of mine, that i ve coined as "total food"!!

I keep munching something or the other the whole day.
A chocolate, a cheese slice....then a sip of Fanta, some other crazy things like wafers and nuts.....every 15 minutes or so.
So even now, just after lunch, i was hunting for something to bite upon.

Then my eyes fell on a packet of resins. And i popped some of them.
I also stocked them in a secret egg location on the fridge door, so that i can reach them for every day of this week, before they are used up in cooking by mom.

There were also some fruits........and wait......the entire vegetable market in the 2 and 3rd shelves of the fridge!!!

I dare not touch them!
I could trigger an avalanche!!!!!!!!!

Okay...i was more or less done.
I closed the fridge door.
And now scanned the top of the fridge.
This area has been converted to a mini museum by mom.
It stacks all the cards that we ve sent home over the last one year.........her birthday- 2 Cards: one that I had sent and one that my sister had sent.

I saw the card that my sister gave and made sure that my card was better.

Dad's birthday cards

Parent's wedding anniversary cards..
All of the last 2 years...they were all there.

And then the discussion veered off into which aunty gave which gift to mom during which wedding, and what mom gave to them. 

I was bored. The two ladies in the house were gossiping!

There were also some loaves of bread that were yet to be opened. They provided the "logistical" support to the cards that were stacked against them.
And the position of these cards keeps changing everyday...
No guessing why? We eat lots of bread for breakfast ;-)

Oh!!
I forgot to introduce you to Allwyn.
Well he is the refridgerator, i mean the fridge i was talking about!!!!

And just incase u were triggerred into suspense by the subject line, then a little more explanation follows!

Allwyn is or rather was a brand of refridgerators that seemed to rule the roost in the early 1990s.
It was a good brand.
However i guess its gone out of the market completely.

But it still remains at our home!!!!!!!!!
And what a way it does so ;-)

Cheers

KettleMaster!

LOL! What the hell!