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The Lockdown Story

 Covid-19 pandemic led to national lockdown and multiple government restrictions for the safety of the public. You would agree to the fact that many of us took this lockdown as an opportunity and learned new skills, and many of us would curse the period since they were forced to do things that they usually don't do.

As I mentioned in my previous blog that my roots belong to Bengal. My father visited by Grandfather's place in early March. And when it was time to return back to Mccluskiegunj, to us; national lockdown was imposed all over India. He was stuck there!

Weeks passed, we applied for travel passes for both West Bengal and Jharkhand to bring my Dad back to Gunj. None worked! We waited for a month, thinking some restrictions on travel may be reduced by the Government in the weeks to come. On the contrary, instead of reducing the restrictions, imposed lockdown extended for another month. And this process went on until, the unlock phases began.  

Meanwhile, we continued to use all means to get the passes permitted. I continuously met with the Circle Officer of the block, explained him the scenario and requested him to help me my father bring back. Undoubtedly, he was a genuine person, he gave me a pass and asked me to visit the DTO office. Very next day, I hired the car with the same number mentioned in the pass (due to  security checking) and left for Ranchi. That day I couldn't get the work done, they asked me to wait for some period of time. On the very next day, I rushed to Ranchi again, since the pass had a validity for few more days and got the passes, understood the process and asked my father to hire a vehicle take due permission from the authorities of West Bengal as well and leave early morning. Plans were set and we safely brought our Father back home.

As per the Government procedures, we kept him in home quarantine for 14 days and on the 15th day; fun episodes of lockdown began. Since the lockdown prevailed, we were all at home and performed Work from Home. Every evening once our office hours were office, we made a menu of cooking recipes that we have never cooked at home and schedule to cook for the next day.

Since we hail from Bengal, we started off with something sweet. So, the first thing that we cooked was Jalebis. Undoubtedly, we had huge fun while cooking that on a traditional cook stove (mitti ka chulha) but Jalebis didn't turn out to be, the Punjab Sweet House type. (It was not that crunchy and crispy).

And the best part out of it, we gave Jalebis to our neighbors for tasting those, since we tried it for the first time, we wanted to some honest reviews and suggestions.

Next on the table, was vegetable cutlet with ketchup and mustard sauce and we double coated the cutlet with bread crumbs to make it even more crunchier than the Jalebis. It turned out to be amazing. (P.S; Check that out in the picture).



So, with every dish that we cooked, we have a beautiful story attached to it. The fun, the small fights that I had with my little brother while choosing the best pieces of cutlet or Jalebis are worth memorable. And we will pass these beautiful memories of Lockdown to the next generation. 

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