Most of us are afraid of adversity; we want life to be comfortable and easy, and not have to grapple with tough situations or stumbling blocks.

I think the same is true of a relationship too. It’s when you have faced obstacles together that friendship, or love, gets strengthened, and starts having a long-lasting quality. Our true friends are those who have stood by us in bad times.

But it’s adversity which makes us evolve, which makes us adapt. It tempers us and if we utilize adversity effectively, we can become better human beings. The couch potato who leads an easy life is soft and flabby; it’s the person who walks in all weathers who is fit.

So I try to accept difficult times as much as I welcome good times.

…But I can’t help wishing, each time, that adversity would pass a little more quickly!

Meanwhile, if you want to eat a chicken chop, make sure you can identify it here…

The “chop” is a favourite Bengali dish; the meat, fish or veg is shaped into a patty-like shape, rolled in semolina or breadcrumbs, and shallow-fried. (I was typing, shallow-friend.) It’s eaten with tomato sauce…what in the world did we do in the days before ketchup arrived here? Was mint chutney, or date-and-jaggery chuntney, enough for us then?