cha-muri, the perfect accompaniment to the perfect adda

first let me translate... cha is tea, muri is puffed rice (but here it means the mixture of wafer thin green chillis, mustard oil, onion, groundnut, and coriander leaves) and adda means aimless discussion on every possible thing -- from astronomy to the CERN experiment on the aftermath of the Big Bang to Singur to the Delhi blasts... it is discussion that has no results, but can engage an entire state...
so, as i was saying, cha-muri, at home used to be the accompaniment to adda that we had almost every evening at home... and the particiapnts could be just Mom and me, or when free, Dad and bro... on some occasions, my aunt (Mom's sis) or another (Dad's sis) or yet another (Mom or Dad'd bro's wives)... these were at the family level...
here of course, we rivetted apart everyone... from the neighbour to the Prime Minister... and the laughter could almost be heard from where the lane began...
Dad had his separate adda mates...it could be over a session of bridge... or plain talk... the topics were different... more serious, more to do with wider goals and less of rivetting...
when i my marriage was settled, my Mom's sis had said, "our sessions will miss you..."... i too missed them badly when i was on the Thane fast, virtually hanging out of the train...but made it a point to catch up whenever we went on annual trips...
so when R came along, Dad said, "here comes the newest gang-member of the ladies' adda session..."... there is one pic of baby R, with all of us having our cha-muri and yapping, with R peacefully asleep, used to the chatter from her womb days...