The Lowly Parantha

Every morning, I try and pick up my backside and ask it politely it to walk. I have now gone from asking it politely with minding my P’s and Q’s and now its been reduced to powerful expletives; but nothing works. It’s always tomorrow, pucca promise. And, then the day starts with deciding what to eat with the tea. It starts with the rusk and the customary 6 almonds, half a walnut (all dieticians swear by this; to kick start the metabolism). It is a miracle that the stomach starts rumbling and I start cooking up various gastronomic delights and fantasy of food.

I do try to control with the large precision, military lined up cereal boxes. Did you know that, if you took up the K challenge, you lose weight in 2 weeks and get a sexy die – to waist and perfect proportion body and that too draped in a Chandini type chiffon sari!  There is the miracle muesli, a mixture of dry fruit, rolled oats and all sort of dried cereals added to make you feel good, give you the right balance, energy and to kick start your day in the right way. Man, so boring. The bland, dried, shriveled , an excuse for raisins, dried up fruits, that look ,and chew like leather . It just doesn’t do anything for me.

The oats, Weetabix well they look like congealed stuff, so not good and then porridge. I grew up eating it as dahlia but its changed to the fancy porridge.

The society also dictates that it’s not fashionable to say that you eat roti or parantha. It’s very rustic and plebian to choose the lowly roti over the fancy schamncy pancake or the muffin. Also, you have arrived in the pseudo society we live in, if one says, no no I would never eat a parantha there are so many calories in this!

And , then being the pure Punjabi I am , my heart sings, smiles and dances a beat when it hears the word parantha. However times are changing, my age is catching up and as I enter the cardio – risk group, my doctor says to take it easy. But, what a lover’s sight it is, a stuffed parantha with what else potatoes, cooked slowly, made crisp served with fresh churned butter, a bowl of chilled curd, and some chili pickle. Tell me, truly doesn’t it make your mouth water?

However, Friends, Punjabis, Country men, here I come to bury the lowly parantha with my hands and with my stomach, its been diagnosed as unhealthy. Sadly, now we need to part ways with my doctor telling me how the slow cooking, in ghee is killing my arteries, sending me to a slow but sure death. I part with you not because I don’t love you but it’s killing me! I know I mascaraing Sir Shakespeare here , but time and tide wait for no one and I need to beg leave …  However , with a spring revolution on the cards in India , I might just join the AAP band wagon not for their ideas but the aam parantha and live life parantha size!!