Okay, so, I’m obsessed with food. I love food, I love eating and I love talking about food and eating. Since #BlogchatterFoodFest is all about celebrating food, I thought this year, I’ll write odes to some of my favourite food items. Starting with: nariyal ki barfi.
We met when I was ten
It was an occasion of some sort
For you were and are reserved for festivals
A dessert, after all, cannot be special
If it’s eaten every day.
There you were, sitting demurely in a katori
Calling out to me with your siren song,
A golden-brown perfection
Smelling of ghee, sugar and roasted coconut.
My mouth watered, my hands itched
As I waited for the puja to complete
The bhog to be offered to the gods
Before I could choose a piece
Not too big, not too small
Just the right size to satiate the lust
And the saliva pooling in my mouth.
You had to be handled delicately
For even a little force could make you crumble
Just like adult-me at the end of a stressful week.
I picked you up and put you in my mouth
No finesse, no care in the world
Chomping away like if I didn’t finish you
Before mom turned up in the kitchen
The rest of the barfi would disappear.
The sugary, coconutty goodness
Exploded on my taste buds
Nariyal ki barfi, as my mother informed me.
It wasn’t that white nonsense that you see
Lined up as laddoos in sweet shops.
No, for the Agarwal family, there was
Only the family recipe where the barfi
Was roasted to a golden-brown perfection.
Even now, years later, whenever I see
That plate with nariyal ki barfi
Hand-patted down to look like a
Thin-sliced cake
My spirit dances
Much like the daffodils
And I cannot wait for the coast to clear
So I can enjoy you without prying eyes.
For I shall continue wolfing down this barfi,
As many pieces as it takes
To remind me of that ten-year-old
Who thought surely, this is what heaven tasted of.
I have zero control when it comes to nariyal ki barfi. I can finish an entire plateful of it, I am so addicted. Which is why, as a responsible adult, I take a piece in a katori, hide it from mom and run to my bedroom to escape the barfi’s siren song.
This post is a part of ‘Verse Wave Blog Hop’ hosted by Manali Desai and Sukaina Majeed under #EveryConversationMatters.
tales of Suchita 
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