Horekmaaaal!!!!....Horekmaaal!!!!.....used to be a basket full of delight. A person carrying a 'tukri' or a big cane basket carrying on his head with all sorts of small to big articles like small colorful toys, cups, saucers, small bowls, strainers, playing cards, hair clips, hair band and etc, each costing 3 rupees then, is what we used to call Horekmal. Today it feels like as if that was a miniature china bazaar inside a basket. The best part was that everything used to be of the same price. We used to feel thrilled to look inside that basket and used to wait eagerly whenever they pass by. Though everyday afternoon they will definitely pass by calling out 'harekmaal 3 taka' but not everyday will the elders of the house allow them inside the house. So we used to wait eagerly for such days when my mother or grandmother will have some plan of small shopping and call them inside. Gradually from horekmaal 3 taka, it became horekmal 5 taka. Now today,I wont even wonder if they tell each costs 15/20 rupees. But surprisingly nowadays whenever I go home for a vcation I dont hear Horekmal any more. It might be due to inflation they are unable to cope up with the investment or people find it difficult to buy such small things with such big prices. As horekmal of Rs3/Rs5, each used to be really sweet. I MISS U HOREKMAAL!!!!
Another winter delight was sonpapdi....soft sugar candies. The person used to keep them in a glass box kept around the neck and on one hand he used to have the dugdugi .Dugdugi onomatopoeic name for percussion instrument shaped like an hourglass, with both ends covered with goatskin. A string with two small lead or iron balls is fastened around the narrow waist of the dugdugi. When the instrument is moved rapidly in one hand, the small balls hit the skin, making sounds like dugdug-dug dugdug dug. The dugdugi is also known as damvaru or damaru(*) and in the other he used to hold colorful packets of pink-colored sugar candies. We used to hear that tempting sound of dugdugi and start pleading to elders to give us money for buying sonpapdis. Each sonpapdi used to cost 50p in our time. They used to be round in shape and creamish white color and used to melt as soon as we put them inside our mouth. I think today Sonpapdi costing a huge which are available in famous sweet shops like Haldiram and etc also can't beat that taste.
SOURCE FOR THE COMPLETE MEANING:
(*)-.http://www.banglapedia.org/httpdocs/HT/D_0302.HTM
Another winter delight was sonpapdi....soft sugar candies. The person used to keep them in a glass box kept around the neck and on one hand he used to have the dugdugi .Dugdugi onomatopoeic name for percussion instrument shaped like an hourglass, with both ends covered with goatskin. A string with two small lead or iron balls is fastened around the narrow waist of the dugdugi. When the instrument is moved rapidly in one hand, the small balls hit the skin, making sounds like dugdug-dug dugdug dug. The dugdugi is also known as damvaru or damaru(*) and in the other he used to hold colorful packets of pink-colored sugar candies. We used to hear that tempting sound of dugdugi and start pleading to elders to give us money for buying sonpapdis. Each sonpapdi used to cost 50p in our time. They used to be round in shape and creamish white color and used to melt as soon as we put them inside our mouth. I think today Sonpapdi costing a huge which are available in famous sweet shops like Haldiram and etc also can't beat that taste.
SOURCE FOR THE COMPLETE MEANING:
(*)-.http://www.banglapedia.org/httpdocs/HT/D_0302.HTM
Dear Dona,
ReplyDeleteI am a ex student of Shuhu Bihar(99 batch).I chanced upon ur blog while searching for kheerer shondesh recipe in the net..and i liked ur blog so much that i ended up reading all the posts...keep writing..would like to read more such posts..