Food for Thought!

satchitananda · Apr 6, 2014

Warning: What follows is written in very light vein and should be taken in a very light spirit. I do not mean to hurt anyone's religious sentiments.

Food! Yes, again! I can't help myself. If I am to live, I can't NOT talk about food. Maybe you could get me to stop if you sealed my mouth with a tape (on second thoughts, could you make it something nice and yummy into my mouth? - you just might, but no guarantees about that). So I am back to talking about food not because I am getting an excess of it these days, but because I am starved for food. No, the BH has not turned into a tormentor of any sort, depriving me of food, nor has my cook deserted me. We are not exactly strapped of means for a decent meal either. The fact is that I am having to atone for past sins of having eaten too much! (If anyone is a tormentor, I am guilty of being one - how can I be on a diet without pushing the BH to stand by me through "thick and thin" - quite literally? Not that he will listen, but that is another matter all together).

So is it any surprise that when anyone mentions vada malais and Hanuman my mind just jumps to the unfairness of it all? Imagine the guy just wears chains (yes, plural, not singular) of Ram knows how many vadais every day and keeps snacking at it from morning to night. He acts as mediator to anyone who will be weak enough to bribe him with a chain of the said brown goodies! As if that is not bad enough, the guy does not gain an ounce of weight! Is that fair, I ask you? I believe (since I have never bribed him) that the vadas are crisp and remain crisp forever. How can he eat such dry ones, someone asked. Oh, if he is capable of bringing an entire mountain to save Lakshman, he is surely capable of getting himself some sambar or chutney or water from somewhere to make them wet enough to eat. Or maybe he drools so much over them, that none of these is essential!

In that respect, my sympathies lie more with Ganesha. He eats his share of modaks / kozhakattais but then he pays for it in terms of his ample middle! So much so that he derives some unfair advantages over his younger sib Murugan when it comes to racing by claiming to be more devoted to his parents. Of course, can't blame him, because the terms of the race were skewed unfairly, just as the one between the hare and the tortoise. So I don't blame him if he used his brain over his brawn.

Talk of my favourite Krishna! That charmer with the million watt smile and mischievous twinkle in his eyes. Now he and I share a common weakness - butter. But what kind of justice is it when he can steal butter from hundreds (I presume it is not thousands given that the population in his time in a village could not have been anywhere close to a thousand) and eat it all and still remain a charmer; whereas I keep making butter, looking at it with a gleam of delight in my eyes, turn it into ghee, drool over it (no, Kelly, not into the bottle!) and then pass it onto friends who are kind enough to get it off my hands and still have to atone for the sins of just having ogled at and smelt the ghee?

OK, they are all Gods while I am a measly human being. But then how do you explain why my fil who used to sit with a dabba of nick nacks by his side and have a go at it all day long never gained an ounce of weight, while it all piled up on me just to look at him?

Sigh!!! Life is so unfair. And on that note, I shall go back to dreaming of all the goodies that I would have eaten if my name was not Satchi.

bhucat · Apr 6, 2014

When i read your post i remember my friend at my college days, though i was not bubbly bubbly at that time when i see my thinny friend i always ask her "The food you eat is going where?" because she used to have lots of food, chats, ice creams etc with non stop and non sense...but she seems to be so slim....For that her reply is "since i am a good soul i can digest it in a better way" with a huge proud....

But my another friend used to reply back her in a sarcastic manner "These are all because of your 'vinnai'" (do not know exact english word)....

It is in an another angle, not at all good....because if our body shows our excess fat storage or something which is abnormal then it is like a warning sign for which we can take necessary action on that, but if it is not at all showing anything, and if the inner storage is not visible then it can harm us in the future....

So being a normal human being with all possible changes if we eat abnormal is weel and good Satchi, always!

After a long time i am reading your posts, again i admire the way you writes things, the way you describe, the english you use are amazing. Hatsoff Satchi!

satchitananda · Apr 6, 2014

Hi Bhucat, thanks for the FB. Yes, there is always another way of looking at things. We are well-fed, well-nourished, contented people! Right? :-D Fat people are also said to be jolly. Whether it is true or false, I certainly would love to believe that.

Thanks so much Bhucat. :-D

Srama · Apr 6, 2014

Dear Satchi,

as I see it, there is all this different food and there are all these Gods for thought - if they remain, slim strong, chubby, mischievous what not! So there certainly is soem 'food for thought' there Personally not sure of favorite Gods or not but those vadamalai surely brought back memories of Hanuman temple in Mahalaxmi layout and I can almost taste the vadas in my mouth - they always always taste so different and divine. Perhaps time to visit the temple this time and if you have not seen it, I will be happy to be your tour guide, what say?

satchitananda · Apr 6, 2014

Sure Sabitha, I shall make sure that the calorie balance is in the negative before I visit that place and if there is any vadas to be obtained, Satchi is certainly coming! :-D

Viswamitra · Apr 6, 2014

Dear Satchi,

Vadamalai, Modak and Butter! What a set to drool about! You reminded me of Jawar Sitaraman's story "Minnal Mazai Mohini" in which a rich man is very fond of eating many things but could not do so because of his bad health. Therefore, he decides to prepare feast every day and make a person to come and eat all he prepares at home. Your FIL is very blessed to eat all he wants and yet remain lean.

The secret of health of all those Gods is they get what they want in the form of prayers and worship but they distribute all they get to people who worship and pray. I am so glad to know that is what you do with your ghee. You are perfectly aligned with the Gods.

Viswa

satchitananda · Apr 6, 2014

Wow Vishwamitra, what an alignment! I am really floating in heaven now! :rotfl Thanks so much for the feedback. Yes, it never occurred to me that that was why they remained slim and trim. I guess Ganesha looks at the modaks like I look at the butter and just the satisfaction and joy make him as rotund as he is! Well, now I sympathize with him even more. :-D

Manjureddy · Apr 6, 2014

LOL ! ..
laugh1smiley..
.ooops ! Forgive me for laughing like a jackass when poor Satchi is so downcast, droopy eyed and sighing the heart out over the frustrating unfairness if it all. Poor, poor dear ! what misery ! when , leave alone the Gods, even the elderly gent right over there makes merry with endless supplies of snacks without any lamentable consequences !

Karma, Satchi , just Karma . Also known as Genetics, in another language. Good old Brahma doesnt write on the forehead , as the old propaganda claimed, but writes on the Genes and it is this indelible writing that sticks with us through Thick and Thin, for Better or for Worse, through Sickness and Health , making us "US " and not Hanuman, Ganesha ,Krishna or Deepika Padukone .Or your FIL ( god bless him).

But grieve not Little Sister . You are in the Majority with strength in Numbers, take heart. You think it is tragic that you 'gain in stature ' just by looking at food and foodies ? What would you call my Fate ( = genetic makeup) which makes me get " expansive" just thinking of ghee and chocolates ? But I stopped losing sleep or weight over it long ago.
What cannot be changed must be endured or forgotten. I decided , instead of enduring and hallucinating in misery, its more fun to forget and forge ahead .

Did I tell you my most fav. movie star is Kushboo ?
Bye now, just heading to the neighbourhood halwaii . Laughing all the way, to be sure !

yumsmiley

satchitananda · Apr 6, 2014

LOL Manju, good to know that you are a genetic sister of mine! At least I have the consolation that I am in good company. Going by the sheer number of threads in the weight loss section, I have reason to believe that we indeed are strong at least by virtue of numbers! :-D

Good to see you heading off to the nearest halwai. Hope you get something really good and think of me when you eat it! :rotfl

knbg · Apr 6, 2014

Hi Sats baby,
Food.....I know the wavelength of your broad,colorful food spectrum....from healthy rainbow salad , mulagootal to vadas,bondas,samosas,bajjis( thanks to kkrish ma'am for her ready reconer post.....) and a 'food for thought' post by you.....mmmm....would I miss it......

I remember my aunts( during the 'only DD' days) who used to concentrate on news readers' sarees and jewelery while they would read important news.......
We always look for what we love....( you know, when our dear buddy shared pics of her housewarming, I flipped the pics one by one, while anticipating to see the lunch spread.....it is not entirely my fault ,you know, have heard a lot about her cooking and drooled a lot seeing the food pics she would post in FB...)

That said, Anjaneyar's vadas are delicious and tasty and the crisp,crunchy texture with occasional bit of crushed pepper makes it very special to munch on ....was a regular in our hometown Anjaneyar temple and before my board exam we did thirumanjanam with vada malais....have you seen Anjaneyar in 'butter kappu?'....

Well when it comes to neivedhyams, I follow 'ekaakra chintha'........:crazy

Tasty post.....that made me remember Anjaneyar temple....which I keep postponing to visit and hope to do so by SriRamnavami ...