I am not terribly sure what the roots are, but for as long as I can remember, the Christmas lunch in the Roy household has been a bit of an unusual feature in America. It is one of those “one doctor out of ten doctors approve” kind of diets – “luchi” (deep fried, puffed bread), “aloor dum” (potato curry) and “payas” (milk-based, sweet rice pudding). And then from time to time, there is the occasional “begun bhaja” (fried eggplant) or “dim-er curry” (egg curry).

Basically, it is a phantasmagoria of your LDL-inducing, BP-raising, sugar-heightening, but delectable-to-the-tongue sort of lunch. In short, a traditional Bengali lunch. Sans the “golda chingri” (jumbo shrimp), I guess!!

It used to be Sharmila who would do the honors. Then the girls took over the kitchen from her. And for the last two years, the nephew has joined forces to make a distinctly young-adult event of “moida makha” (making the dough), “luchi bela” (rolling the dough), and “luchi bhaja” (frying the dough).

Sitting on my sofa, I could count the number of “luchis” swelling to their fullest potential by the “Yippees” emanating from the kitchen end of the house.

Later, I was narrating a similar event to my nephew from over four decades ago. The competition among my siblings and me that day was to see who could roll the “luchi” with the rolling pin into a perfect circle like Mom would. My brother (my audience’s dad) fared the worst with the “luchi,” which looked dangerously close to the map of Africa. Undeterred, he showed up with the compass from his geometry box!!