A new section for this new year… Imaginary, culinary, sensory or cultural journeys… The landscape, the character, the context… it’s up to you to dream and imagine what happens next…

Arya is the weaver’s wife. She lives in the village of Bhinyasar near the town of – फलोदी- Phalodi. Bhinyasar is a small village in the heart of the Thar Desert, west of Rajasthan. The city of Phalodi or the city of salt belongs to the district of Jodhpur (the blue city already mentioned in this blog several times). Here life is harsh because the extreme climate can, at certain times of the year, reach temperatures above 50°.

Arya is the wife of the weaver and has many children. She likes to cook from dawn and is often the first awake in the small household. Every morning she also goes out to look after her only cow and her little calf. Arya has many friends who come and go every day to and from her stone and earthen house.

Arya is the weaver’s wife and you will often find her sitting in front of her little gas watching over the tchai tea for the guests or in front of the fireplace cooking the naans that will accompany the spicy thali for lunch.

Arya is the weaver’s wife. She likes to drape herself in bright orange or pink saree. She is sublime, has big eyes curious about everything and loves to laugh a lot. She wears an impressive amount of bracelets on her wrists and ankles, so you can hear her coming from far away when she moves around.

Arya is the weaver’s wife, she has a small mobile phone that rings regularly to help her find her way through time, to know which days are with or without school, which days are with or without work?

Arya is the weaver’s wife and makes a kheer like no other (rice pudding with cardamom). This is the rice pudding of the Maharajahs or खीर for connoisseurs. If she notices that you appreciate her kheer served with love in small katoris, she immediately gives you her most beautiful smile and waits for the ladle in her hand to serve you again.

Recipe from the kheer- खीर -from Arya :

Put 1 litre of milk (we like to make it with vanilla soya milk) in a saucepan. Add 100g of round rice, then 100g of sugar and finally about 5 to 8 cardamom pods (according to your taste), which you will have taken care to crush with a pestle. Leave to cook over a low heat until the milk has completely evaporated, stirring from time to time. Taste with Arya, the weaver’s wife in mind.

Par Nathalie

Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)