Piyali Sekhar

04/05/2026

Happy Easter

03/24/2026

Basanti Durga Puja 2026 ~

যা দেবী সর্বভূতেষু শক্তিরূপেণ সংস্থিতা,
নমস্তস্যৈ নমস্তস্যৈ নমস্তস্যৈ নমো নমঃ॥

03/20/2026

Eid Al Fitr Mubarak

03/19/2026

Ugadi Subhakankshalu

03/17/2026

Happy St. Patrick’s Day 🍀

🍀One day. Every culture. All green.🍀

Pic 📸 1 ~ Irish Soda Bread
Pic 📸 2 ~ Irish Lamb Stew
Pic 📸 3 ~ Colcannon

03/16/2026

So much is spoken about Biriyani every single day. I feel the love that this dish gets, but somewhere in my heart I think it deserves a little more respect. Yes & I will put my views here. You don’t have to agree to them & that’s absolutely fine.

For me this dish stems from a heart full of warm nostalgia. Eyes lighting up, smiles traveling from one ear to the other. Distant voices of people who have traveled to the other realm still ring clear & the fondness of this dish to them is still palpable to me.

I therefore treat Biryani as a valuable connect to all things that have created my life story. A treasure of a dish which feels like my mother’s hug & my father’s hand holding mine. Yes it’s unreal how many emotions this dish evokes in me.

So when cooking Biriyani there can be no shortcuts, please if you are in a hurry, there are plenty of other dishes to cook, please don’t cook Biriyani. Biriyani & Dum cooking are totally inseparable. Please use proper dum techniques. Yes there are many different ways of cooking it, wrapped in a banana leaf or inside a purdah made of wheat, but that doesn’t allow you to do as you please with this dish.

I am no authority alright and yes cooking is evolution. As much as this is true that nothing remains constant in the culinary world & every dish has evolved over time. But for me till the last plate of Biriyani I savor, it has to evoke the same sense of ecstasy as the first one still in memory did.

The rice grains cannot be soggy but should bloom like flowers in spring. The rice type might change but not the way it looks. The aroma of desi ghee, woven with meetha attar, kewra, rose water with intermittent notes of saffron, sometimes green chillies, mint & coriander leaves dancing around should engulf me as soon as the plate is placed in front of me. The beresta should be golden & complement the cashews & resins. The meat should fall off the bone & the potato should melt at touch. The invisible duet of the spices & aromatics should take me to a crescendo of happiness, hearty sensations should wrap my tastebuds & olfactory sensors all at once.

So next time you eat Biriyani or cook please know it is just not another Dish.

03/08/2026

To the most gorgeous women in my life ~ you are my calm in crisis, my reality check in success and my favourite kind of magic. Happy Women’s Day.

03/03/2026

Happy Holi. Some Malpua Suzette & loads of colour…

02/14/2026

02/02/2026

Long before forecasts and apps, people looked to nature for signs.

On Feb 2, one groundhog carries that tradition forward.
Shadow or no shadow, winter’s fate is decided. 🐿️❄️


Where Groundhog Day came from

Groundhog Day is a very American looking tradition with very old European roots. Long before anyone was watching a groundhog, February 2 was already a major “winter checkpoint” on the calendar: Candlemas (a Christian feast day) was widely associated with weather lore, people believed the conditions on that day hinted at how winter would continue.

German speaking communities in Europe added an animal “weather prophet” to the story, often a badger (and in some places a bear or hedgehog). The idea was simple: if the animal encountered sun and cast a shadow, winter would hang on longer; if it was cloudy, spring would come sooner.

When German immigrants (the “Pennsylvania Dutch,” meaning “Deutsch”) brought this tradition to Pennsylvania, the local animal upgrade was obvious: groundhogs were plentiful, so the groundhog became the star.

When it was first celebrated

There are two firsts

• Earliest known U.S. reference (1840): A diary entry from February 2, 1840 records the belief in Pennsylvania German country that the groundhog comes out and if it sees its shadow, returns to its hole for a set period.

• First “official” public event (1887): The most famous organized celebration began in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where a group traveled to Gobbler’s K**b on February 2, 1887 to consult the groundhog what became the signature annual ceremony.

Continued in comments…..

01/26/2026

भारत

मिट्टी की ख़ुशबू में बसी है मेरी पहचान,
हर कण में गूंजे इतिहास का अभिमान।
कभी गंगा की लहरों में शांति का गीत,
कभी सीमाओं पर खड़ा जवान अडिग, अजीत।

यहाँ बोलियाँ कई, पर दिल एक धड़कन,
रंग अनेक, फिर भी एक ही चमन।
संविधान ने बाँधा हमें सूत्रों में ऐसा,
कि हर भेद मिटा, हर डर हुआ कैसा।

किसान की हथेली में है सूरज की तपिश,
मज़दूर के पसीने में है सपनों की लिखावट विश।
नारी की आँखों में भविष्य का उजाला,
बच्चों की हँसी में भारत का नया प्याला।

हम टूटते नहीं, चाहे आँधी हो या आग,
संघर्षों से निकलकर बनते हैं हम और भी जाग।
यह देश नहीं यह एक विश्वास है,
भारत मेरी आत्मा है, मेरी हर साँस है।

01/01/2026

Happy New Year from the little Venice of Texas San Antonio.

May we all shine this year

May this year be gentle on all of us

I feel blessed to have let go off 2025 on a sweet note, witnessed the penultimate sun rays of 2025 bidding adieu & as I rose on 01/01/2026 to greet the first rays of sun kissing the downtown skyline, I felt gratitude surge through my entire being