Today I remember spending my Christmas in Bangalore.
The year was 1992.
Someone I knew, knew someone who brewed wine at home.
We all pooled in money and bought 12 bottles of wine.
I baked cakes, cookies and my sister made Achappam.
We even had a Christmas tree!
My baby sister was too young the last time we had a Christmas tree at home and didn’t remember it at all. So it was all the more special to feel that I gave my sister something good to remember.
Liza and I along with our friends decorated the house with crepe paper and balloons. We didn’t have a ladder and every time someone had to lift us on their shoulder so we could stick the paper to the ceiling.
Bruce Springsteen was singing and I remember dancing as though there was no tomorrow.
We were singing Born in the USA at the top of our voice, till someone who surely had less wine than us reminded us that we were not in Born in USA, so We sang Born in India. ( technically it wasn’t true in my case, but I really didn’t mind)
Since we were having a grand Christmas dinner, we decided to save our appetite and everyone voted for Rice and Rasam. That certainly was the best Rasam I ever made and to this day I can’t replicate the recipe.
It was the best Christmas of my life
Carefree days…
uncomplicated life..
Future was a distant dream…
But that moment I had my friends, my sisters, my mother and my home…
And now……