Not a drop less

More than a spoonful

The picture above is the amount of milk we have in our fridge everyday.  We are a family of five milk obsessed punjabis. Running out of milk is a crisis at our place. Panic sets in. We may be globalised but essentially we are very punjabi in our habits. All punjabis I think are obsessed with milk and milk products. 


We get milk from two sources. A milk agency guy comes in the morning to give us bottled milk. In the evening, a milkman comes and measures out 2 litres of milk for us. Think man on cycle, with milk containers clanging on his cycle. Also known as the gwala. 


We make our own ghee and paneer. Which is good, as it costs less than what is available in the market. Takes more effort, of course. Like a good punju girl I drink milk everyday. Twice. 


When I want to skip dinner and refuse to have even a morsel, this is the conversation I have.


"Kuch te khale!"
"Nahi bhuk"
"Acha chal doodh peele"


Loosely translated:


"Atleast eat a bit"
"I am not hungry."
"Alright, have some milk."

This is the mug I use if I am drinking warm milk

To make drinking milk more interesting my mother bought me cute mugs when I was younger. I remember I used to have a mug with an umbrella shaped lid. I miss that mug. 


When my dad is at home he has uncountable cups of tea. Why do I say uncountable? We are not allowed to count how many. 


We may run out of rice or flour and it will do. The fridge being devoid of milk just won't do! Milk will be bought from the neighborhood Mother Dairy booth. 


And we also have solutions for boredom with a plain and simple white liquid. Coffee. Bournvita. Rose syrup. Almond syrup. Mango shakes. (Which reminds me, we have not had mangoes yet!!) If these options still seem uninteresting and we refuse to drink  our customary two glasses, we are provided with porridge. And if we still don't have it, the milk is curdled; loads of sour curd is made which is later used to make curry.  Or a home made Mithai is made(very rare) And oh I forgot, the rest of the family has curd with dinner. 


The basic story line of this post is that my mom refuses to buy less milk than she does and all the milk will be used up in some way or the other. Did I mention we are obsessed?