For Tony

-


8 JUNE 2018

4.57 PM: It's Friday, and I am looking at my to-do list and hoping the day gets done soon. That I get to go home and enjoy the start of another weekend. One of the WhatsApp groups buzzed.

"Anthony Bourdain is dead. Shite."

I was the first to reply.

"NO".

"WHAT?"

And then I started to Google with a strange mix of anxiety and sadness. Say it wasn't true.

Bourdain was gone. 61 years young. It was surreal. 

I pinged D but knew he would be asleep as he was working the night shift. Gawd, D will be devastated to wake up to this news. My mind was racing. Bourdain would feature in our conversations often over the years and I didn't know anyone who was a bigger fan of the chef-turned-storyteller. Still can’t believe it.

People were shocked but I was in another zone. My hands had turned cold and my brain was blank. What the hell had just happened? That it was by suicide was equally perplexing. And very very very heartbreaking. 

Here are some random conversations (with typos et al) with D and L which mentioned Bourdain and our love for him.

25 SEPTEMBER 2014


j: My life toh is upside down here. No orientation of time or day. Plus my parents arrived on Tuesday morning.... just like that. No notice. Nothing. Surprise, it seems. But I was actually relieved to see them.

d: oh nice. Ull get nice food

j: SIL's birthday today 
Kori roti and chicken curry 
And pork 
Yummy

d: wow

j: Yeah
But I reached after everyone finished dinner and were singing Happy Birthday
Sigh
Life

d: thats ok as long as u got the food

j: Lol

d: im eating rubbish here

j: At least I reached earlier than my own birthday

d: craving for a nice plate of food and im watching masterchef so that makes things worse

d: what is the last episode on star world ?

j: Sheesh I haven't watched since two days
Last one was the team challenge
Red vs Blue after Laura's immunity challenge

d: what was the challenge ?

j: Some restaurant challenge under Marco Pierre White
I saw only the end

d: ahhhhh Marco week I loved Marco week !!!!
I love him

j: You should marry him LOL
Yeah, I like him too

d: no 
My first love is Bourdain

j: That we all know :P

d: hahaha. You do ?

j: Yeah 
You keep tweeting about him

d: hahha :) parts unknown new season stars next week first stop : China :)

    

12 JULY 2014

d: seriously think i am in the wrong line of work
i want anthony bourdain's job

j: Hmmm You just need to be disciplined about the blogging/writing

d: i write horribly no grammar no spell check nothing lol
but i like to eat

j: Then create a YouTube show Don't write
I would love to be on the road...and eat and travel.
But I don't think I am disciplined enough People have told me to take up writing more seriously... but zero dedication I have


6 SEPTEMBER 2011

l: btw u know what i cooked for easter this year?
prawn biryani, pimento styled egss, tongue, mutton chops fried and of course salad

j: Woahhhhhhhhh
All by yourself? And you eat tongue?

l: yup

j: I have never had tongue

l: i had an off so i cooked :) my fav

j: I've heard of tongue sandwiches

l: actuallty mom had sent the tongue so i can't take credit for it but i did heat it... everything else i prepared from scratch

j: Imagine if a vegetarian was reading this conversation... how grossed how s/he would be reading "tongue" as food
I'd like to try it some day

l: hahaha i know
and to think we eat ox tail, and goat feet

j: That's one of the few reasons I'm glad to be born a Catlick :P

l: i don't eat brain, lover, heart and pig feet hahahaha

j: I've had pig's intestines As in... cooked like a sorpotel

l: urrghhhhhhhh

j: But differnt

l: not my thing
are u sure it was pig and not cow's

j: It doesn't look like intestines

l: i've heard of cow's intestine

j: And is cut into tiny pieces And cleaned very well

l: i know... imagine

j: My uncle is an expert in it

l: btw the tongue is sliced up so u don't really know

j: Called "rakhti" because it involves cooking with pig's blood

l: i see

j: But when it's made her now... we don't add blood

l: my aunt puts pig's blood in sorpotel

j: Anthony Bourdain would like us very much :P
Screengrab courtesy: explorepartsunknown.com

Yes, Tony... what we'd have given to have met you even once! You inspired us to look at and beyond food in our personal journeys. You opened our minds and hearts to a world that wasn't always Instagram-worthy, yet it was meaningful and far more interesting. We lived and learned and loved the world through your eyes. Thank you for the stories. I am sure you're rocking the heavens too!





Till we meet again,
~j~ 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

postcard from j: blog, sweat and tears

-
A storm is brewing in the Indian blogosphere. And the winds have finally got my brain out of the freezer. Its no longer JAM Magazine versus IIPM. Its Bloggers versus IIPM. Much like the Super Series between Australia and ICC World XI. However, this promises to be a much more exciting affair. At the heart of the controversy is JAM 's expose on IIPM's tall claims in their ads. When Gaurav Sabnis blogged about it, he got slapped with a legal notice for allegedly defaming the Arindham Chaudhari-run institute. Meanwhile, Rashmi 's blogpost was inundated with obscene comments about her sexual preferences. Gaurav, on the other hand, took a courageous stand to defend his opinion and quit his job at IBM when he learnt that IIPM students had threatened to burn laptops supplied by IBM. He did not want his employer to be dragged into murky waters. All this has not gone down too well with the blogging community who view this as a violation of our fundamental right to speech . And...
Read more

Postcard from Pune: Ladh, Jhagadh, Aage Badh...

-
Image
Wow, I haven't posted in over two months and I'm wondering if there has been anything interesting to blog about since that last post. Well, I had a lovely Diwali weekend (three days!) in Pune visiting a close friend who's in the family way. And a mad cousin accompanied me, so it was just fun-fun-fun. Aside from lining up outside Kayani Bakery at 7.30 AM for mawa cakes/Shrewsbury biscuits (and some more goodies) and battling a Diwali crowd at Chitale Bandhu for their famed bakharwadi , I had the opportunity to visit Fort Jadhavgadh . An erstwhile Maratha fort now converted into a heritage hotel, this almost-impromptu trip turned out to be a super break from the urban landscape of Pune and of course, Mumbai. The steps leading up to the fort's main entrance The story in short Shahu, the grandson of Chhatrapati Shivaji (the great Maratha warrior king) was imprisoned for 21 years by the Mughals and later released. One of his prominent army commanders, Pila...
Read more

Massage Raju

-
Image
Walking around Bombay certainly has its rewards. Like this little gem we found on the sidewalk of a badly traffucked (Twitter term for being stuck in terrible traffic) lane of Bandra last weekend: Massage Raju! Was that a title? Or a sentence where "massage" is a verb? Ewww... And then S used G's phone to call the advertiser in question who said something about doing "chest massages" which left us in splits. Maybe madame can update us on the actual conversation sometime soon...?
Read more