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| Upma with Madala chai |
‘Naam Vijay Dinanath Chauhan!’
‘Google Agneepath. The original one,’ I told little Nimki, our younger cat, who looked at me perplexed as I got up from bed and mouthed the words from the movie.
With the dip in night temperatures, post Diwali haze and in our case, renovation work dusk, like many in Mumbai, my voice too was raspy like Mr Bachchan’s in the movie.
It was 11 in the morning and #kayteecooks had waltzed in to work. K had a meeting to join but took the instructions from me and relayed it to her before I stepped out.
I requested for a steaming hot plate of upma. ‘Perhaps you can put carrots and cauliflowers?’
‘Upma main gajar, beans, matar, Seeng Dana jaata hain, gobi nahin,’ said the new creative director in the kitchen. Well what she cooked was just the bowl of warmth that my throat sought. We had carrots and peanuts at home.
Upma is one dish which is lovely when hot and an epic fail when not. A dish I came across in Mumbai first as semolina dishes in our house in Kolkata were sweet though I’ve come across Bengali food bloggers who talk of nonta shuji, a savoury version.
K suggested I have an adrak chai with it. We didn’t have milk at home. Nor loose tea. I gave Kalpana Tai an Assam teabag and she made me a hot magic potion of tea with ginger, cloves and cardamom added in. Tasted way better than ginger tea tea bags.
I doubt if Mr Bachchan was ‘chhatees saal’ (36) as he said he was in the movie. More for sure! I think I was 16 or 17 when I watched it. 30 years back, 36 seemed so old!
There's something about 36 for sure. Though I must confess that my 40s have been better than the fag end of my 30s. Tai makes sambar. Will check if she makes rassam.
I guess at every stage in life we can look back n evaluate how far we have come n if we are in a better place or not.
Rasam is very easy to make….as long as the trio of peppercorns, jeers and dhaniya is there and lots of garlic n curry leaves in ghee…you needn't put any dal at all….and can put tomatoes instead.