Thursday, May 24, 2012

Griddle Stories


Preferring an Onion Uthappam to the weight conscious dosais, is like preferring Katherine Hepburn to Angelina Jolie, or  a Waheeda Rehman to a Kareena Kapoor.

One, redolent with tradition, richly constituted, made just so, and the other,  like a side shoot, made from diluted batter, using up all the hangers on.

My blogfriend Magiceye, must have had a hard time restraining himself from deciding to eat first.

You see this photo , which he posted here  , simply because, he photographed it first, possibly, in its golden age on the hot griddle.


Smooth and black as in ebony
her weight
greatly enhanced
through the ages,
she spends her nights
face down,
resting in the kitchen,
mobilizing for an early day.

An early morning
hot assignment
on the gas burner,
in the shadow of
The Lady of the House,
and she remembers
how fashions change.

Light and quick spreads
aching to reach her edges
forming
a white lace dosai,
stiff in formality.

No.

Some a bit more pliable,
brown spotted
but bending in friendship
with
the spatula in steel.

No.

And then
there are the size zero
featherlite
Neer Dosais,
now you feel them, now you don't.

No.

But not for her
these new fangled fashions,
obsessed with weight,
or the
opportunistic
cheeses, chillies, tomatoes and paneer
acting pushy
wanting to crowd her.

Life is all about
being uniformly hot and welcoming
in a cream kanjeevaram,
embroidered in gold
translucent light diamonds
embellishing the occasion;

Or a thick
round  of batter,
breathing and browning
on her,
the well cut onions
adorning the face
in a design in gold,
and then landing
ever so carefully on a plate,
a proper traditional
hefty Utthappa,
waiting respectfully
for the two Chutneys of his life.....



14 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thank you. Hope u read the poem after finishing the uthappam...:-))

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  2. Replies
    1. Sangeeta, once you are through with the Utthappam, could you post the mango cheesecake recipe...:-))

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  3. I already love uttappam and now....hmmmm!

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    Replies
    1. Sandhya, please go right ahead and make some...!

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  4. Who would've thought! An entire poem about uttapam!! Loved it!!! YUM!

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    Replies
    1. Shreya, Thank you, welcome here, and yes, have apiece of some great utthappam....:-))

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  5. Amme!!! This is perhaps the best poem I have read this week!!! Wow--how beautifully you are able to convert a simple dish that most of us don't even spend sufficient time to ponder on and release its fragrance through your lovely words!!! I am flabbergasted...you truly are a poet!

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    Replies
    1. Bhavana, Thank you! When you stay away from eating the stuff for calorific reasons, poems happen . people keep posting such appetising photos, i now have a huge collection of "eating" poems. :-)

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