It was a close friend, Nandini’s 50th birthday, and her family decided to celebrate it in Goa. A few of us joined them there. As one grows older, there is a special place in one’s heart for friends from one’s childhood or youth, or at least from long ago. Nandini’s childhood friend had made a video compilation, with many relatives and friends from her hometown in Nagaon, Assam, and elsewhere, wishing her, recalling incidents and shared pasts, that left her very moved. Then, her two teenage sons and I sang Bhupen Hazarika’s Buku hom hom kare, possibly the first song they sang in their mother tongue, Assamese. Popularly known in the Hindi version as Dil hoom hoom kare from the film Rudali, an aching love song, I discovered that the Assamese original, Buku hom hom kore mur aai.. (My mother [Asom], my heart weeps for you), is a patriotic song sung by an Assamese, in their battle against the British rulers.

I wanted to get Nandini a special cake, and my friend Vikram Doctor, brilliant food critic and food sociologist-philosopher, based in Goa, recommended a few delectable options: a Bolo Sans Rival—a Filipino cashew cake; but I couldn’t get it, so I got a Toucinho do Ceu (bacon from heaven), a rich, classic Portuguese cake, made by Marlene de Noronha Meneses, of Marlene’s Tasty Treats, in a no-bacon version made with eggs, almond and sugar.