Agraa Trip - A Wonderful Meal

I had a lovely meal during my recent trip to Agraa, with colleagues and friends. After a long wait was enjoying this meal where the process of cooking is as much, if not more, joyous as partaking the food itself. Meal, for me here, consists of not only the food but also the location and people giving company.

The cheerful mood was amplified by the first rains of the season. Mobile phones went busy informing ones dear in villages near of the boisterous advent. I got wondering how differently rains were looked upon in Saiha and recalled a conversation with Manuna where he told me (seeing my love for walking in rains) he was tired of rains and clouds for unlike me had been seeing them since he was born. Rains had us shift from our original plans of having dal, bati and churma (ladu) and we replaced bati with the less effort driven but comparably delicious tikkad. 

Roshan began the action with the process of churma. He was insistent on covering himself while working and held on to his umbrella as well! One of us, part of the 'sub-group' working on tikkad, got dough ready. Other put it in shape and passed it on for cooking to the person sitting adjacent to the chula while the last in line applied ghee prior to stacking them neatly on 2 plates. Two 'honest' appointees kept track that the dry fruits (kaju - kismis) were not siphoned off while they were being readied to be mixed with churma in its penultimate stage. 

Dal was to be cooked in the kitchen. Ummed had agreed to the idea after initially displaying signs of reluctance to allow usage of his gas cylinder which he feared would be half empty by the time we were done ! Premium attached to these cylinders is a commonality between Agraa and Saiha : Agraa we had to go 22 kms to Vijaypur to fetch one while in Saiha we got one for 750/-! No wonder people use firewood. Dayakishen our 'dal-specialist' had not turned up but others had 'inputs' all ready for him. When I caught up with him, a while later, he said he only guided colleagues now and did not make it himself ~ ab main senior ho gaya hoon ~

The process went for about 3 hours during which I enjoyed chatting with all those around, on Saiha - Agraa and more.