PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

           How long ago was that ? Ah ! Let me recollect. Sometime during 1991 or so.My toddler son was in first Grade or second .After long hours of pushing the office pen I would return home and sit down with my boy in an attempt to help him in his school work.This was followed by half an hour of physical excercise and workouts watching TV.My nice loving wife would be busy with housework.Aw ! aw ! I am beating about the bush a bit too much. Soon readers may lose interest to this story.

          It was Christmas time. Branded cakes were quite expensive. We had one during Christmas and one on New Year.One day while returning from work I spied an aluminium baking oven in a shop window. It worked on electricity. There was a circular glass top through which the progress of the bake could be seen.Fortunately I had some cash in my slim wallet and I bought it outright.That very evening we went to the grocers and fetched some white flour,sugar ,eggs,currants,peanuts,butter and a tiny phial of vanilla essence.

         The flour my wife mixed and beat with the eggs and butter with a beater. She then added the other ingredients and put it into the aluminium baking dish.The lid with the glass window was shut and the baking oven was switched on.All the three of us sat close by and every two minutes peeked through the glass window. The inside of the oven was now glowing in a merry red colour.The wait appeared to be for eternity.

         After what seemed like an hour a fragrant aroma wafted into our hungry nostrils."Ki shundor gondho beriyechhe!" (What a lovely aroma !) exclaimed my salivating son. "Khabo, khabo !" (I'll eat,I'll eat!!) By now the cake had a lovely brown crust on top and it was ceremoniously taken out from the oven and set to cool off. It was not yet fully cool when pieces were cut and all three of us bit into the warm fluffy cake. I think after that at least 100 more cakes were baked over the years in that oven.

         We now own a microwave oven which has replaced the aluminium one. The humble oven now lies in a forgotten niche somewhere in the house. Now we buy and even bake expensive cakes but the taste and aroma of the first home baked cake always evaded my senses.Even "Black Forest Cake" topped with real sweet cream icing and cherries do fail to solder the great divide between yesterday and today.