Summers always make me miss my grandfather. My mother’s father. The smell of heat scorched earth or some sweet smelling flowers transports me back to that time when we were little and we used to spend the vacations with him. He was a jolly man, in love with music, good food and in turn – in love with life. He passed away at the age of 60 due to blood cancer. Too early. But then, I think even 100 would have been too early for him.

I was 10 and my cousin AJ was 9 when grandpa was diagnosed with cancer. But in those few years I have so many memories of him. He was a big man, with a bigger stomach and an even bigger appetite for delicious street food. We would take a train and go into the city to just to eat bhel from a famous bhelpuri-wala or go to another part of the city to eat some garma garam fafda jalebi. Or simply load ourselves with a few watermelons, go up on the terrace and dig into them while leaving red watermelony stains on our clothes. He also had a bank of chocolates. A glass jar, which held chocolates and candies of various colors and sizes. Each day Aj and I would get to put our hand in the jar and pull out one chocolate. Of course, whenever we bought some candies or were gifted some, they went straight into the jar. How I miss those colourful crinkly candies in the jar and also standing in front of grandpa and waiting to put my hand in that jar.

Grandpa had a huge collection of audio cassettes. And a notebook where he painstakingly indexed all the songs in his meticulous handwriting. He was like a living jukebox. Anyone could request a song and it would get played within minutes. And it was a time of the tape recorder where the cassette had to be rewinded or forwarded to find your song.When I got an ipod for mom from my first stipend, I ached for grandpa. He would have so loved this little thing which stored hundreds of songs, pre-indexed and could be played at a click. One of my favourite songs from that time is “Mere paas aao mere doston ek kissa sunno“. Kissa – stories. Life was all about stories then. Other people’s stories to help us build our own.

Grandpa believed in a funny concept. That there is less oxygen in a room which is full of people. So whenever everyone was gathered around the dining table and Aj and I ofcourse wanted to get in all the gossip, he would ask us to leave the room and go to an airier room. Or go out in the garden and play. We hated that and would find ways to stick around the adults and listen to who said what. But he was persistent. Many times he would come with us in the garden, just to ensure that we got more “oxygen”. Or perhaps he was simply shying away from my stubborn grand-mom with her defiant thoughts. That man cried at movies while we kids giggled at seeing a grown up man cry. But how essential it is to be able to cry. Now I know. And it came easily to him.

So you can see he was quite an emotional man. I love my grandmom and he did too. But sometimes I feel she was much stronger and practical than him. Just after he turned 60, my grandma went away to stay and work in an old-age home. They say, that broke my old man’s heart. And soon he was diagnosed with cancer and passed away in six months. This week it will be 19 years since he passed away. And I miss him more than I ever did. When I listen to a song he used to play or when I eat bhelpuri or simply when the scorched earth smells of itself when it rains.

*******       *******       *******

Triple Chocolate Iced Terrine

What you will need :

White Chocolate Layer –

• 50 gm white chocolate
• 1 teaspoon powdered gelatin
• 1 tablespoon water
• 150 ml whipping cream
• 20 gm sugar
• 20 ml water

Milk Chocolate Layer –

• 50 gm milk chocolate
• 1 teaspoon powdered gelatin
• 1 tablespoon water
• 150 ml whipping cream
• 20 gm sugar
• 20 ml water

Dark Chocolate layer –

• 150 ml whipping cream
• 60 gm dark chocolate

What to do :

1. Firstly chop white chocolate and melt it over double boiler or in a microwave.
2. Bloom or sprinkle geltain over the 1 tablespoon water and leave it aside fro 5 minutes.
3. Whisk cream and refrigerate.
4. Place sugar and water in a saucepan and swirl over low heat till sugar dissolves.
5. Bring it to a boil, take it off heat and add gelatin.
6. Pour into melted chocolate and whisk quickly. Carefully fold in the cream with a rubber spatula.
7. Pour it into a terrine pan or I used a loaf pan. Smooth the surface with a spatula and put it in the freezer.
8. Repeat the same procedure with milk chocolate and pour it over the white layer of terrine in the pan.
9. For the dark chocolate mousse, chop dark chocolate and melt it over a double boiler.
10. Whisk cream till firm and fold in the melted dark chocolate.
11. Pour this dark mousse over the milk chocolate layer and smoothen the top.
12. Put it in the freezer for atleast 3 hours for it to set.
13. Cut slices and serve or dip the loaf in hot water and upturn it over a plate.

Notes :

1. You can replace the gelatin with double amount of agar-agar and follow the same procedure.
2. I used Amul whipping cream. There was no problem in setting it because of the gelatin.