wHen To dO oR nOt tO Do iS tHE QueSTioN!!

The transition from being a child to a grown up is complete when the decision of sharing the chocolate you have in hand doesn't bother you so much as the dilemma of whether you should say or do something.. somewhere.. infront of somebody.. in that situation... given the weather conditions..

..the lunch you ate... the dinner you are going to have ...and other mundane factors that must be taken into serious consideration before you end up doing something... somewhere... and the cycle continues!!

Have you ever been trapped in this cycle?? Then my dear friend you have come of age... Congratulations!! If you think that you can escape this ordeal of making the "right decision", then you are on the wrong side of the fence.  There's nothing called "right"!! Right has always been relative... It has always been playing safe avoiding anything thats absolute.. No matter what,you are going to be judged. Theres no escaping...You have to face it... Yeah one of the biggest cons of being a grown up!

People suddenly become so judgemental around you and so do you. People start giving internal grades irrespective of whether you talk or don't, you dance or sing, sleep or eat, run or laugh... nothing really matters..and the biggest problem being you are not even handed the report card. All you have to do is grind your head thinking if you really ended up offending or annoying someone. Yes you can bypass all these if you are least interested to what grades you are going to get from someone. But thats quite difficult because at a certain point of  time even you would be confused thinking what exactly do you want and what gives you peace of mind! As has been rightly said you can love or hate certain things but you can't ignore them.. neither can you decide what to do about them nor can you infer anything from them .. :D

a DeLicACy cALleD "DhOP eR cHoP"

"Dhoper Chop" is a common recipe with divine Bengali cuisine flavours. Chop is hindi means 'pakoda'. I am sure "dhoper chop" is quite famous in other places as well since the process of making it is universal. Just that it is known by different names according to its place of origin with some subtle differences which might have evolved over the years. Anyway my post today mainly focuses on the preparation of this famous dish and then you might be able to guess its name in your mother tongue. For Bengalis reading this post, theres no suspense left since the title suggests it all..but as you have already started reading it, sparing two more minutes might make a little more sense as opposed to the one minute already wasted in reading up to this point.


So before describing the recipe for "dhoper chop" in details let me give you all an analogy. I am sure most of us like to indulge in biriyani once in a while. But making biriyani is an art. You just can't come up with biriyani by putting rice and chicken together. The reason why we prefer fried rice over biriyani in a random restaurant (no offence to fried rice though!!). So you see just like biriyani, making dhoper chop is also an art. Most of the people are just average in making this. The problem with chop is that if you are not good at it, it might crack while deep frying it and the oil seeps inside. And the real problem starts when a gastronomically challenged person is forced to eat it.

"Dhoper chop" should ideally involve doing some small research about the topic on which your dhop revolves. Making dhops is far more diffucult than catching an imperfect one. And thinking that the person on the other side will not be able to see through your "dhop" is another big mistake. So if you dont have the time to do your homework (which is quite obvious considering how busy we are), refraining from making up any "dhops" is the best option. People who are blunt are actually the respected ones at the end of the day. But then if one lacks the expertise, will he/she just give up on making dhoper chop?? NO WAY...practice is waiting for its turn :D ....Practise making up your own small harmless dhops and serve it to your near and close ones. Check their reaction. If they are not able to make out..then come next day and tell them that you had made things up...so that next time they might become a little seasoned when you serve them "dhoper chop". In the end, you eventually train both your friend and yourself. Mutual benefit you see :D ...But then after a certain point of time they might stop believing you. So a little discretion is required from the chef's side.

Anyway the aim is to make the batter thick. A runny batter wouldn't give you a strong hold. Work on the batter. Even I am working on it :D . And refraining from serving people average dhoper chop and waiting till you master the art is a better option than you know what...