Top Ten MumMums!

Disclaimer::

Coming close on the heels of my "unsucccesful GM Diet" stint is purely incidental and has no consequences therein to GM or to the word "Diet". All characters described in this write-up have been expressed in the way I saw them, do things. Any connection to any person, living or dead is true and is intended to be so.

My Top ten foodie moments:

10) On a recent visit to Singapore, I realised that finding a good Indian meal was a challenge. Luckily for me, the food god "Gobu" blessed Singapore with a few restaurants like Komala Vilas, Saravanna Bhavan. The moment you enter, after all the difficulties travelling via the trains/taxis.. there is exactly one or two moments of paradise. Something which is more than life saving and cant be explained!

9) Love for the parottas has always been etched in my memory since school days. Whenever a new restaurant comes to my locality, as sincere AUDITORS of food, I would team up with some of my buddies and we would be there, tasting it and making our assessments!! There is something called as "salna" - atleast thats how it is pronounced - man, this is the first cousin of history's elixir :)

8) The one rupee Samosa. At lunch, in my school days in the 80s, we used to get some samosas in the canteen. They were as distinct as two biological species would be. One was for 50p and was a small triangle. In fact, it used to be so accurate, you could use it for your geometry class. The other one was the bigger one and was twice the amount - priced at Re 1. (no taxes attached). Not just bigger, the freshness of the potato, the peas and the masala ingredients really made it something to fight for. If someone was to bet on what would be inside my lunch box, they can guess it 100% accurately all the time. It would be curd rice in the lower compartment and some pickle to go with it in the upper one. Add to the equation, the Re 1 Samosa and thats deadlier than any 5 star food :)

7) My sister, in her early days, setup a R&D division in the kitchen. The chief tools for research would be onion, tomato and chilli. God only knows, how many of their numbers she cooked off, in the name of "getting it rite". But every single day, she will make a slightly different but tasty dish and I - the official "tester" of the family - would be there to rate the food and also finish it at a quick rate, if good!! Her alu curry is one of the best, it had to be, for the many trial and tribulations the potato-ceae family had to go through, until she decided to stop. :)

6) Mom or super mom, was a great cook. The way she used to manage her office work, make breakfast and pack lunch - was of such great speed and precision, you could almost pass a 6 sigma certification. The precision of curd rice mixed with the right quality of milk and water and curd and how it all had to be properly mixed up, can only be explained when you have it for lunch at school. Luckily I had the chance to be there! Also of equal mention was her chappati - potato dish. A true memoire; I used to spend hours eating a few chappatis, enjoying every single bite!!

5) "Brinjal Sambar and Yam curry" at my grandpa's place was a common combination and quite deadly too. The sambar had the right amount of water added, the dhal proportions were on target and so would be the end result - the taste would hit you almost immediately, after you sip it. The Yam curry was made with some exquisite care and treatment. And it used to be so soft, you really didnt need any teeth for crushing it. Coming home from school for lunch, this combo would really be a great relish and something which comes to my memory years on.

4) After marriage, I learnt to admire a certain "fast cooking" style - needless to say, of my better half! The speed at which multiple dishes would be made and the taste and quality of it would really impress me a lot! This is not truly a moment, its a collection which is expanding even today. "Payasams" are her speciality and thats really when the heavens wish they were in earth.

3) Nair was a man of Biriyani. A malayalee by birth, his understanding of how the spices played with each other, what language they conversed in and the tone at which they would sing - was outstanding. He was the cook at my place for many years. Sporting a beedi during his off hours, he could be easily shrugged as yet another - but give him a kitchen and ask him to make biriyani - you might be tempted to build a "temple" for this man. Sundays used to be the day of Biriyani. He would start working at around 10 and by 12:30, irrespective of where you are in the home, you would have a stunning aroma chase you down. Thats the formal "silent" lunch bell - Nair has opened the cooker!!! The speciality would be the bread crust toppings which would be fried and added. The onion pacchadi helped one eat as much biriyani as one could! Years later, when I look back, the family lunch on Sundays would be a great occasion to enjoy a holiday and good food and share those simple moments of what really makes a true family - happiness!

2) At the age of 5, I used to go and pick up some tiffin from a nearby hotel - close to my grandpa's place in Pondicherry. "Konark Hotel" - that was the name then. One had to stand in the queue for sometime, get the attention of the waiter, pass on your wish list and wait for it all to be delivered. Once home, it was evenly distributed to everyone in the family and I always ended up relishing the one poori which I got. It was sufficient yet tasty to earn for another one! These incidents happened for many a time, during my single-digit age. No wonder, Poori Masala (numbers wary) is an essential tiffin item since then. 20 years on, I still cant erase the feeling of that one poori I got and the yearning for the second one.

1) Visiting Chennai, during my younger days, was a rare occasion. There was an event to it, all the time. Never really got too much time to spend there. One such occasion, I dont know what event it was, we were all sitting for lunch and my grandmother served us some sambar with appalam. In my home, appalam is a strict inclusion for all, and hence it used to be in a big container. The sambhar which I had that day, even today, after umpteen lunches at different places, different cities, I havent had anything even to come close to. The preparation was obviously a brahmin, palakkad type - what they call the "arracha" or in plain translation "ground" sambhar. Very few ppl on this planet know how to get this deadly mix right.

The freshness of the taste, the suttle balance between spice and salt, and the combination of good old appalam, make it a moment which I have frozen in my heart for ever!

(This occasion is also special because it remained a rarity and wasnt repeated. She eventually died when I was in college.)

Another Week in Utopia!!

If the world is a funny place, the stock market is where all the jokes are made!! This week - if a kid was taught alphabets, it would be like this:

A for American
B for Bailout
C for Credit (Crunch)
D for Depression
E for Emergency
F for Fannie Mae
H for Henry (Paulson)
...

The impact of the big American collapse was also felt in my study. I got to learn a lot about the sub-prime loans, how securitization processes worked and what kind of controls or the lack of it existed. This is really heavy duty stuff for the engineering (read IT) processors in my brain. ( I think I have it!!)

The scare reached some private banks in India too. Not sure how that would unfold in the months to come. Also in the limelight, in my country, the usual terror bombs, suspected terrorists arrested and communal violence. Sometimes I dont understand if they teach "National Integration" as a subject in schools anymore!

Cricket is again on the fore, thanks to the kangaroos who have come to the sub-continent to roost or roast (lets see what the series ends like). Its a relatively cooler period.. October - November.. but also to be noted that their famed squad is cut by more than 50%. Ageing bones or a lot of wrinkes are the typical characteristics of this team. Have to say, some of the younger players dont know clearly what their role is and how to go about it.

In the middle of a chaotic place called Chennai, neither do I. Have been putting on a lot of experience (read "weight") - its becoming difficult to recognize myself in the mirror at times. Blame it all on the lack of cricket or of any other sport like squash. If you are tied in to your laptop most of the hours in a day, where is the opportunity to play a game and slim down.

"GM Diet" suddenly became the mantra and I started it yesterday morning. The first day apparently has to do with fruits. For the swipe card in my mouth (my tongue) anything non-masala will not be permitted. It can come in any size shape or color, but the indian masala topping is essential, else it will be rejected. The programmed taste buds, instantly realised something was amiss and in entirety and umpteen escalations were needed to escort the fruits, safely inside. Day 1 was spent eating fruits (I dont quite like them even on a normal day when the moon rises in the morning) and somehow I heard myself say its all going to be great and fabulous, at the end of the dieting period!

I slept pretty early yesterday nite as I didnt quite have the energy to sustain. Woke up at mid night (5:30 AM) and wondered what to do! The whole family is sleeping and here I am.... fresh and most importantly "half dead"!! The idiot box came to my rescue. Soon the moon - I mean the sun - rose. Some horrible cooked vegetables entered my system. Again there was a distinct sense or lack of sense of energy in me for a second day. At nearly 50% battery, I couldnt really hold on too long. By 4 PM today, I called it quits. Went to Ratna Cafe and really ate like my usual self.

The funny thing in this whole episode was on day 1, when I was thinking of toasted bread, fresh from the toaster, right in front of my hands, some white butter to go with it - a slight touch of it spread unformingly - the time comes to bite it and when you do, the crust of the bread makes a very suttle pleasing sound. ( This kind of hallucination will indeed happen to anyone who suddenly realises that D is for Diet and not Dinner! ) Reminded me of the Disney cartoons when they would think of food and the mouth would be full of saliva waiting to work on the edible matter!!

With a profusely thankful tongue, I am slowly returning back to normalcy. Only two options remain to slim down now - Cricket "again" or Gym "For Once".
(Time to thank you for reading till here.)

This is all that has happened in the recent days in my Utopian world.
Until the next time, pls ensure that you respect your bread and butter, while you have it.
God knows, when YOUR turn to diet will come!