🍛 Butternut squash and Avarekalu

Did you also say Octomber as a kid? Welcome to Sunday Slant.

Hello friend,

How has this week been for you?

My newsletter goes to 70 readers and about 25-30 of them read every issue of Sunday Slant without fail; I don’t know what’s wrong with them. (Yes, you.) And I also have people write to me often and tell me how they enjoy my stupid and meandering updates. They don’t actually say stupid and meandering, because they are too nice. But hey, you can, if that’s the thing stopping you from writing to me. I love reading your thoughts. Even a “Hey this ‘issue’ was really terrible, you’ve truly outdone yourself” is enough. I don’t need much. I’m a simple man. In all seriousness, I am grateful that as many people even open these mails. Thank you for reading.

That’s that. Welcome to freakin’ October already.

I ate butternut squash last night—a ritual to welcome fall, I was told. I wasn’t a fan of its texture, although I remember enjoying it in the form of a soup two years ago. When I asked what the fuss was all about, Sara equated it to the renowned avarekalu (Hyacinth Beans) and I had a micro-seizure. Every winter, the entire city of Bangalore loses its shit because these famed beans come into existence. And you find it in every conceivable edible form. I have never been able to wrap my head around the mania that is avarekalu. I have never attended avarekai parishe, a festival dedicated to these beans, and I plan to maintain that streak. So butternut squash is to fall what avarekalu is to winter; I feel a new-found distaste.

But I’m going to give butternut squash many more chances before I write it off. (OK, raagi mudde and averaki saaru is freakin delicious, I begrudgingly admit. ugh.)

What else…

We hosted some friends and made egg curry (my dad’s mother’s recipe) along with chapatis, dal and jeera rice. That turned out OK, spicier than I expected. We both love to cook. We both enjoy cooking. We both love to enjoy to loving to cooking.

I’ve been rewatching The Office (UK), and god am I in love with this show. The ‘motivational speaker’ episode is one of the funniest and the scene where David Brent has his photo clicked for a business profile had me laughing so hard I almost choked. I had to pause, stop laughing and catch my breath. I am in awe of Ricky Gervais. It has been so long since I laughed that hard.

That’s it from me this week.

See you next Sunday,

Happy October!

Sumeru

It was fun to learn this song on the guitar. My guitar calluses are forming again, after so many years. I am very much excite, like when I was nineteen, when all I did was wake up and practice a song. I plan to keep the calluses, this time around.

I leave you with this tweet and video.