FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Hmm, Eid, Dassehra, Diwali wow! Festivity is at its best. I’m sure all of us have enjoyed the jalebis, laddus, halwa puris and yum! What not. Although thanks to my naratri fast, I should be away from sumptuous stuffs, I am permitted to fantasize about food. What happened today, well it is ashtami in which Hindu families invite kiddie girls called “kumaris” (relating them to Goddess Durga) and feed them with puris, halwa and chana. I have been seeing this since childhood and today was no different. There were kids in my house who were yelling at the top of their voices and were happy, generally happy, maybe coz they are back from school, maybe coz they are socializing (yea we did that too and now we go doping @ BOMBAY 72 East). I wonder when I was so happy or rather noisy! Anyways, two posts away in OCTOBER SKY, I spoke of the joy of kids. This post is definitely not about it. Its about Food...for thought.

Even after so many years of cherishing the puri, I never really thought how it is prepared. But as the wise man with grey hair once said, “Its only when the situation calls that the army runs”, I learnt to make puris. And what I learnt was something more than mere swelling of puris. I learnt a small aspect of life which I would call. Layers of Life.

As the neighbourhood aunt who always helps my mum was away, I was the only available option for help (trust me, mom wouldn’t have bothered to let me enter kitchen otherwise). So me enters the kitchen and walla what I get as instructions from mom is:- Heres the dough, theres the oil on flame and theres the rolling pin(belan). “Okiedokie” said the Sanjeev Kapoor in me and thanks to my common sense I start rolling the dough and make small balls out of it and flatten it. Then add flour to it on top and place it in the boiling oil. Wow, turn it around in the pan and what you get is the puri. I make a few of them in reluctance; my mom is disgusted and asks me to serve it to the kids. Without realizing, I gave it to the smartest kid of the lot. The kid truns to me and says “Bhaiya I don’t want this. Give me a good one!” Huh said the chef in me (read ego) and I told him to eat it silently. He said give me a good one and not a better one..either its grammar sucked or my puris were really bad. But thanks to mythology, I had to treat the kids like God. As usual, the real me gets ready for the challenge and I move towards the battleground (kitchen).



By then my mom, realised the fact that outsourcing the task to a loser like me just incurs additional costs (time and energy) and she better do the bit herself. A bit of reassurance and she permits me to take charge once again. Now the Sanjeev Kapoor in me says bingo, I learn the art of it as if my life depends on it. So I thought to myself, thats my customer- an 8 year old, if I cant satisfy him, forget the AIDA model and SPANCO model of selling. Armed with a rolling pin, and few consulting tips from my mom I understood that you have to layer the puris and thats when 2 layers are formed out of it when fried. Wow! I exclaimed, I might have eaten a zillion puris since childhood but never really thought how come out there are two layers in a single puri. Then the first one goes in for a deep fry, I twist it a coupla time, and then bring it out. It was fun really – well you know if a retired man had to clean the cobvebs, thats challenge for him too, isn’t it! I take it to the same kid and place it on the plate. And look at the li’l one with pride. It (almost forgotten that it was the one who challenged me) tears a piece and relishes into the chana. And finally the kid smiles. Yessss said me and the chef in me gets encouraged all the more. I got back to the kitchen and make around 20 more puris and boy I had fun.

Huh, you know what, at times life is about being naive. You just cant be the smartass SWOTing and PESTing every damn thing on earth right!! As the last kid leaves my mom turns to me and says “Good Job!” I say “Thanks Ma, If it wasn’t for crisis, I would have never known the culinary skills in me”