Ghee Podi Idli
Youngsters across the world go on grad trips, holidays taken right after graduation, to embrace a new phase of life. Unsurprisingly, my grad trips have all been with family, mainly because I didn’t get the required permissions (cue Indian parent staredown). On one such grad trip, right before I started college, is when I flew down to Singapore for the first time. I wanted to try so much food – local hawker fare, Thai noodles, Japanese bento, and Korean snacks – but no. My parents would either eat at our relative’s home or drag us to the Komala Vilas in Little India for idli, dosa and rice.
“We came all the way from Kochi to eat the same food??”
My cousin pacified me, saying once you cross a certain age you can’t put your digestive system through an adventure. My parents were being cautious, and as an unemployed teenager, all I could do was sulk. Even this time when I flew down to work here, I would wonder why my fellow Indians always ate Indian food. When we went to NYC for training, why did the Singaporean grads keep eating Asian food? Clearly, your native cuisine is prepared much better in your hometown and won’t be half as expensive. When you are in a new place, shouldn’t you live like a local and enjoy what that place has to offer? That was the principle I abided by – until this month.
The meals you consume everyday don’t just nourish your body, they nourish your mind and soul too. A person who’s spent their whole childhood eating rice will not feel like they’ve had a single meal if they switch to a keto diet. Not only is your body genetically built to match where you’re ethnically from (and thus the cuisine and nutrition of that place), your mind is used to it too. So, even though I loved my almost daily serving of Thai Pad See Ew, I didn’t really feel like I’d eaten a wholesome meal. I’ve just consumed.
No one likes to have a lifelong belief questioned. As my friends and I grow older though, we realize a lot of adulting is just questioning what we thought we knew for sure. Is it really boring or is it something we’re afraid we’d be terrible at? Is that really a difficult colleague or did we expect too much? Do I really need that overpriced coffee – oh well, that is still a need. Is everyone else just not getting you or did you not communicate what you want in the first place?
I believe in manifesting dreams. No, not in some mantra or crystal stone process or whatever it is Instagram will have you believe. I believe in manifestation like that SRK speech in Om Shanti Om. If you want something truly, badly, then the whole Universe conspires to make it happen. Of course, you can’t just sit in your house and truly want something. I think how it works is, whatever you’re passionate about, it’s in the back of your head. It’s in front of your eyes, it’s running in your veins at all times. Anything and everything that can bring you one step closer, you’ll notice immediately. The whole Universe includes everything within you, every effort you can humanly take to get where you want to get.
My mom has classmates who went to school in worn out slippers as thin as paper and uniforms they had outgrown but couldn’t afford to replace, who are surgeons and lead engineers today. Every single schoolteacher of mine would wake up before dawn, cook for their family and do all household chores (yay gender roles) before cheerily coming to work and educating generations of impressionable young minds. I had it a lot easier than these folks, but I remember the feeling of being passionate – I breathed IIMA for seven years before I got anywhere close.
With that random gastronomical and philosophical journey behind us, here I was on a random Tuesday night sitting at Murugan Idli shop. That’s right, voluntarily standing in line and paying to eat idli. I can see another teenager roll her eyes in the corner. Yes, it was pricey. Yes, it wasn’t that good. Did I still enjoy it with the strong filter coffee that’s going to keep me up all night and make me late for work? Also, yes.
