Chilgozay...

Last Friday, I 'discovered' the 1 Kg of pine seeds [wiki] or chilgozay my mother had sent to me through Omer early January. Breaking shell after shell of these chilgozay takes me to a very peaceful time in my oh-so-eventful life. Of course, that would be my childhood. I can picture myself seated in my grandparents' lounge in a comfortable sofa near the heater, watching TV or some nice family movie in the company of my then close-knit family, while my mother or grandmother would keep cracking open each of these pine seeds with such speed that by the time I would take out one chilgoza, I would have five waiting for me to gobble up. Every now and then I'd turn around to ask them if they were even having some themselves.

So during these past three days - the beginning of a short, Chinese New Year, mid-semester vacation, all I've done is consuming large quantities of dry fruits, such as cashew nuts, peanuts or pine seeds and watching some good old TV shows like "The Three Stooges", "Three's Company" and the original British "Whose Line Is It Anyway?". Isn't it funny that they're called "chill-gozay" and are ideal for chilling?

I believe when life becomes too fast-paced, one must make an effort to slow it down before it goes-by so fast that it goes out of control. It helps to give yourself some time to think and plan for the future. I don't know if I felt the need to do this just because I had missed winter this past year or because I wanted to take an opportunity to reminisce and cherish the good times before they were forgotten again in the hustle bustle of life.

So I've finished three packets of cashew nuts, one packet of peanuts, and 1 Kg of chilgozay [the shells you see filling the mug above are like 50 grams only], and I guess I've spent enough time reminiscing and chilling. It's time to do what I had planned to use this one-week vacation for.