Griddle Stories

Preferring an Onion Uthappam to the weight conscious dosais, is like preferring Katherine Hepburn to Angelina Jolie, or  a Waheeda Rehman to a Kareena Kapoor.

One, redolent with tradition, richly constituted, made just so, and the other,  like a side shoot, made from diluted batter, using up all the hangers on.

My blogfriend Magiceye, must have had a hard time restraining himself from deciding to eat first.

You see this photo , which he posted here  , simply because, he photographed it first, possibly, in its golden age on the hot griddle.

Smooth and black as in ebony
her weight
greatly enhanced
through the ages,
she spends her nights
face down,
resting in the kitchen,
mobilizing for an early day.

An early morning
hot assignment
on the gas burner,
in the shadow of
The Lady of the House,
and she remembers
how fashions change.

Light and quick spreads
aching to reach her edges
forming
a white lace dosai,
stiff in formality.

No.

Some a bit more pliable,
brown spotted
but bending in friendship
with
the spatula in steel.

No.

And then
there are the size zero
featherlite
Neer Dosais,
now you feel them, now you don't.

No.

But not for her
these new fangled fashions,
obsessed with weight,
or the
opportunistic
cheeses, chillies, tomatoes and paneer
acting pushy
wanting to crowd her.

Life is all about
being uniformly hot and welcoming
in a cream kanjeevaram,
embroidered in gold
translucent light diamonds
embellishing the occasion;

Or a thick
round  of batter,
breathing and browning
on her,
the well cut onions
adorning the face
in a design in gold,
and then landing
ever so carefully on a plate,
a proper traditional
hefty Utthappa,
waiting respectfully
for the two Chutneys of his life.....