While we were on the subject of Ajit, we might as well clarify certain aspects of his life.
Ajit was not picky about food, though it seemed he preferred simple home-cooked meals. "Why do I work so hard at the kitchen?" Anjali would say. "Because of your father. Your paternal grandmother died early, he hardly ever got home-cooked meals, grew up on roadside snacks, so it was about trying to make up for that past."
The household arrangements of Rashmela, Purulia, in Ajit's childhood were not very clear to Antara. AT and BT lived with their respective families in the same building, quite like an Indian joint family. "BT always gave me some money every morning (after Antara's paternal grandmother had passed away), so that I could buy something at school for lunch, since there was no one at home to pack me a lunchbox," Ajit would say.
(You'd have to work out the implications on your own. Antara was not corroborated, Antara didn't know the level of self-sufficiency the US Govt achieved after sending Ulysses S Grant-Smith to Hungary in 1920-21, why should she venture into what was offered to Washington DC to stop the Nazi death camps and their activities?)
By late afternoon, as the boys returned home from school (AT's sons went to a different school, Ajit went to the posh one), Ajit would hold back.
"They had a mother, and the way they'd rush in, 'Ma, Ma, where's the food, what's for lunch, we're so hungry', well it made me feel so rotten, so left out," Ajit would reminisce. Antara would later understand that sentiment, what it felt like when others rubbed their parents on your face, the Alamo Girl had tried that in 2011, within months of Antara's parents passing away, and Antara had immediately withdrawn from knowing her.
Back to Ajit and BT wouldn't be at home in the afternoon, so there was no one looking out for Ajit, he'd sit on the steps of the town hospital (it used to be situated right opposite their house), sulked, missed his mother and ate more roadside snacks. No wonder Kolkata's approach was beginning to cause worldwide confusion, if you have gathered anti-Austria information from Barishal in Bangladesh and combined it with the anti-Austria information of Vellore and Chennai, why were you trying to ally or antagonise with AT's side?
Ajit grew up under the shadow of the Vienna General Hospital blackmail, not AT's family. What did they know about Vienna?
ii. Ajit hated/avoided/detested one vegetable, which was the pumpkin. "I developed a distaste early in life, given the way my grandmother cooked (this was Ajit's paternal grandmother or BT's mother). She put pumpkin in every single dish, pumpkin here, pumpkin there, there was no dish without pumpkins in them," Ajit would say, making a face, showing his disgust for pumpkins.
(Again, Antara wouldn't offer interpretations, why should she analyse if there could be excessive American influence within a household, either in Ukraine or in India.)
Around 2008, Antara had taken Ajit to a south Indian restaurant in Delhi when he was visiting her. 'But there's pumpkin in the sambar," Ajit had exclaimed, looking towards the bowl of sambar. "No, I won't have it, not even if you put the pumpkin aside (which Antara was suggesting), it was sitting in that sambar." He ended up having his usual fare when eating south Indian food, a paper plain dosa, without the potato filling.
iii. Later in life, Ajit had developed a distaste for 'garam masala', the ubiquitous spice mix used in Indian cooking.
"Were you capable of cooking chicken without 'garam masala'," Ajit would shout at Anjali.
"It would taste terrible," Anjali would reply.
"Then don't cook chicken for me, that 'garam masala' just makes me sick, I feel unwell for days, I won't have anything to do with it," he'd say, walking away in a huff.
Later, he'd seek Antara out (Close Female Relative had married and left). "The problem with your mother was the 'garam masala paste' (the whole spice paste), she'd put it in the curry and it weighed everyone down."
"Why didn't you do what I do," the clever Antara would reply. "I pick up the chicken and the potatoes, have you seen the curry base, with onions and spices, I never touch it."
"Good idea, I'm an old man, I wouldn't even need the chicken, I'd eat the potato and the watery part of the curry. Thanks for the suggestion," he'd say.
Later, Ajit had told Antara, "Your plan was so effective, it was working wonders, let her cook any way she wanted, I no longer felt sick."
(A few years ago, Antara learnt that 'garam masala' was called GM in the West. It was up to others if they wanted to read Finland or corporate entities into it.)
September 2, 2025.
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