Mishti Doi

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'Geeta... Geeta... what are you doing inside the kitchen?' Anuradha's voice echoed inside the house as she saw her little daughter escaping narrowly towards the kitchen. Geeta, panic striken,  dropped the spoon made of stainless steel on the floor with a clank as soon as she heard her mother's stern voice admonishing her from the bedroom. She had just taken it from the shelf but could not make proper use of it.

Anuradha knew her daughter's fetish for the 'mishti doi'. She had many times caught her stealthily creeping downstairs towards the fridge. Today was no exception. Geeta's affinity towards this dessert had developed when for the first time she was fed rice, 'mukher bhat' - the rice eating ceremony. She was about 6 months old. Her grandma had tasted it to her  with the silver spoon gifted by herself to Geeta as a custom. Geeta would cry incessantly during her toddler days for this sweet dish that the sweet seller was once summoned at the wee hours on a winter night to bring it to their home.

Ashim's love for Geeta would make him fulfill her insane demands. When she got her first periods, she was to follow the traditional rituals as instructed by the old lady of the house, which made her to stay only with female relatives and fast for first three days only by consuming fruits. But how could she survive without her favourite confection? Ashim, without letting anybody know, had supplied Geeta her favourite delicacy via a maid who was paid extra to shut her mouth. Anuradha, did knew this childish conspiracy of Ashim going around her but never confronted this as nothing would work for this unfathomable father's love for his only child. 

There were instances, when Geeta would do badly in exams or a breakup of her loved filled heart. She would cry for long hours and would  keep this dessert as her antidote. The sweet seller was instructed by Ashim to supply Geeta the 'mishti doi' whenever she wanted on credit and the amount due was to be calculated at the month's end.

Things changed when Geeta was married to some far place. Initially, Govind would buy her favourite delicacy everday. But slowly it got reduced as it pinched his wallet. Her first child was born; priority changed. She hardly ate 'mishti doi'. Only when occasionally Govind would buy it for some special guests or if Ashim and Anuradha would visit Geeta. Ashim would bring it in excessive amount for his daughter which her in-laws would share for next few days, sometimes finishing it, without Geeta even having a single spoon of it. She would not demand neither complained.

Nowadays, whenever someone inquired her favourite dish, she would say with a smile, 'whatever my family loves to eat'.


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