Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Made for each other


A moderately bright sunny day, a few sea breezes, a whiff of flowers from your balcony, and kadipatta tadka smells emanating from the kitchen.

Short of getting all kinds of excellent breakfast to eat, there is nothing more welcome than a photograph of idlis soaking in a bowl of sambhaar, suddenly aware of dollops of chutney.

Some folks , like my friend Magiceye,  do the eating, and some folks try researching Idli philosophy.


Some
with an exclusive childhood,
soaking
to imbibe and absorb,
and then
mixing with the  rice types,
confabulating in
areas of warmth and comfort.

Then,
almost like sitting in a sauna,
the young ones
cooking up stories,
sit and bloom
into adulthood,
now porous of mind,
all puffed up and light headed.

Only to learn
that
in  this world,
no one is an island,
even in sambhaar,
unto itself.

That
fair and white
gets lovelier
when immersed in
a
dark and spicy
lentil ocean
studded with  veggies,
and onions
with open
innocent transparent minds,
offer a
welcoming look
to 
so many chutney friends
simply itching to be part of the scene.

They all mix with
great alacrity
sharing secrets and friendship
in what remains
of their colorful life....

And
as the spoon said to
delicious  mixture
it carried
towards a slurping mouth
"Aiyyo ! It is better
to have
been eaten and lost,
than to have not been eaten at all, no ?..."



13 comments:

  1. Fantastic as always, Suranga! And it does look delicious! Guess I'll have to go to bed hungry now!!! Hope your week is going well!

    Sylvia

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    Replies
    1. Sylvia, Thank you. This stuff, Idlis with Saambaar and chutney (the Indian meaning, not the British chutney), is one of my favourite foods, and was actually declared by Unicef to be a nutritionally perfect meal food, many years ago. This is a dish native to South India.

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  2. Amazing reflections on humanity garbed as verses on idli. Wonder how many pause and ponder at your wisdom!

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    Replies
    1. USP, everyone is so busy eating the yummy stuff. Even I wouldnt pause and ponder at my own "wisdom", should I be presented with a dish of this, straight from a redolent kitchen....:-), but thanks for thinking of the possibility.....

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  3. Where from do you get such imagination, Suranga? Brilliant!

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    Replies
    1. Sandhya, thank you ! And to answer your question, maybe its all that hand pound, unpolished rice my mother used, to make idliees in our childhood, when idli rawa was simply not there.... I guess the DNA mutated from eater to poet, though remnants of eating till remain dominant :-))

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  4. 'Only to learn
    that
    in this world,
    no one is an island,
    even in sambhaar,
    unto itself' I love this angle of thought of yours!

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  5. Absolutely brilliant! I am smiling. :-)

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