Dal Khichdi

Of all the fantasies that I might have had, working late into the night never qualified as one. I am just not made that way. Even two years worth of MBA education could not inculcate the virtues of this discipline. Of late, an influential client decided to stick to the task mentioned above.

There were many things that I missed: a ride back home with the evening sun, hanging out with friends in cafes on weekdays (weekends are always too crowded for cafes... sometimes I felt as if my sole purpose was to occupy this seat till someone else came along ..), 9 hour 'shavaasans' (beauty sleep, if you may want to call it that!) , getting up really early in the morning, etc etc. But nothing mattered more than missing a simple home-cooked dinner at home.

A famous marketing / strategy guru had once said that to be successful, any organisation should stick to its core competencies. Every night at dinner I vehemently agreed! My cook, Au-mulya, is one prime example. Look at him! When he smiles, you see patterns of 'paan' red and 'toothy' white in equal and random proportions! When he bunks 'office' at times, his excuses are as one-dimensional as the 'my-cycle-got-puncured' we offered regularly in school as kids. When he speaks, he sounds as clear as your windscreen on a foggy,rainy day at Panchmarhi (to remove the clouds for some, its a nice hill station in MP - worth a visit!).

But when he cooks! When he cooks, things seem to all fall into a plan. Multiple items to be cooked follow an impromptu project plan, share constrained resources and none of the action items on the critical path miss their timelines! The process is synchronized, and optimized for time- 15 mins and he is ready to serve! And the food is delicious, especially his Baigan ka bharta, his Cabbage, and the Dal that he prepares are just awesome!!
Now I had to survive on pizzas, sa(n)d-wiches, and other oily, cheesy restaurant grub! One such day, we were sitting at Konark on Residency Road (decent place I say!). As we ordered the usual fares, I got stuck on to Dal Khichdi ... the name sounded plain homely, and yet very attractive... reminded me of "mess-y" days at the engineering college, where this used to be our favorite dish! :)

I was prepared for a simple no-spices-charred 'healthy' food. I was even half prepared for a Punjabi version of Pongal Bath, replete with mustard seeds and a sabre-shaped red chilli to make it look spicy! Fortunately, I was wrong! It looked more as if basmati rice and dal tadka were mixed together. The basic yellow color of the dish was spiced up with the green of capsicum and a dash of red whole chilli. Veg raita as a side dish made the combo complete. Umm.... and what taste!!! Rather than the drab, syrupy, "bland but nutritious" taste khichdi is associated with, this was spiced up with tadka and masala- and if I were you , I would add a touch of lemon to make it even more fiesty!!
Soon everyone was on to it! The next time we went dining, and that was very soon, I again ordered Dal khichdi. And so did five of my colleagues! The trend caught on, and soon Modelytics collectively was suffering from a 'Dal Khichdi' fad...
The bearers gave us a knowing smile everytime we landed up in Konark. Whenever we ordered Dal khichdi, which was nearly everytime, they seemed to puff up and grin, as if they had prepared the dish, and we had praised their cooking skills. Once, when they had already exhausted their day's supply they seemed to feel sad for us, as if they had let us down.

It began as a 'different' choice, and caught on the fancy of the whole group . Anybody who ate it, became a fan.

I wonder what is so special about "Dal Khichdi".