Memorable Meal> :( Feast of Fasting!)by Sipra Roy
What a crazy prompt to some septuageneration,
To write about the' memorable meal? In this long
Way of journey lots of meal have been taken and forgotten!
Now for the sake of this prompt I need to walk in back gear,
And successfully dig the memory of 'memorable meal';
It was on the eve of winter vacation when I was in grade ten ,
Only Five friends of us decided to arrange a picnic
On the river bank which was not far from the school.
We overcome the biggest issue to get permit from parents.
"Picnic with only five friends?"moms commented:"so aberrant!"
"What is your menu ,who knows cooking among you?"
Raka answered "Simple menu of vegetables-KHICHURI
We will manage ourselves, don't worry!"
We collected rice, lentil, vegetables from our houses
Our excitement knows no bound before the day of feast !
On the early morning we set out with carry bags.
Renu's sister hailed "hey, wait!" came running to give us a match-box.
We joyfully kept the matchbox inside the bag, full of wood .
"Thank you. dear sister!"you are really cute .
We reached the white sand-y beach of the rivulet.
We began to sing and dance, releasing the bags from hands
Keya and Nina made a hearth with bricks collected nearby banks
I and Raka went with bucket to fetch water from the river.
We five bent to see our reflection on the bucket of crystal water!
Nina as the eldest of the siblings had to help her mother.
She was little better than us to manage household affair
She called us to wash and fetch the rice and food staff to her.
First she put the rice and lentils in the boiling water of the pot
While we were busy in cutting cauliflower peas and potato ;
We screamed together to notice the grains dancing in boiling water.
Pushing the rest of log in the hearth Nina informed worriedly,
She needed some more logs for preparing the KHICHURI edible.
"O not to worry! there are plenty of branches under the trees "
Keya, Raka and me started running to. bring the branches ;but those branches were not dry. So they gave only smoke to make us blind with running enough tears. The fire was about to extinguish; To re-ignite, all sticks of the match box except three were finished .
We went again in search of fuel . Finally Raka got a big and heavy log; We three girls brought it by dragging .
Raka declared : "this log would be enough to cook something more ."
Nina:"watched the log mindfully and asked"wherefrom you bring it ?"
Raka: "just near the bank of the river!"
Nina: "this log is from the 'burning Ghat'; it is used to push the dead body in the fire ;that's why one end of the log is burnt and black."
We all cried out ,"Phew, throw, throw away.! We have to take shower in this winter after going back home!"
Nina: " let us take our meal ,we are all hungry"
We washed our hands and feet well and sat surrounding the pot of khichuri.
Nina : 'Though. not fully cooked , but still edible ".
As Nina opened the lid, we exclaimed ,
"ah, the smell is exactly like Khichuri. Throwing hands upwards we sang "Khichuri, delicious Khichuri !....Three cheers for Nina the culinary goddess....
[perhaps Hestia, the virgin Greek goddess smirked for these naive girls]
...Nina's face became bright with pride . Keeping a big spoon in the pot. she declared, "let us start by self-service .".
....hmm.. but we forgot to bring our spoons. Next time we must add spoons for everybody in the list .
We were so hungry that we forgot completely our contempt about that eerie log used for dead body!
..Khichuri was steamy hot to eat by hand. We tried small gulp by picking little portion from the side of the plate ;small gulp .
Nina threw cryptic eyes to survey everyone's face, (after her first gulp!)
I whispered to Raka ,"it is tasty but salt is less,I need to add salt."
Raka replied outrageously "not 'less'! It is utterly saltless!
Hey Nina !you forget to add any salt, it is too tasteless for me to eat; when Renu proposed to include her sister who has cooking experience, you opposed her."
"Be cool"We searched all the bags for the packet of salt but not found in any bags.
Looking at our helpless faces Keya commented "In my house my mom uses less salt in all preparations for the high pressure of my grandfather. So I don't feel too bad to eat . Looking at Nina directly
she continued "after all we have some new experience ,isn't ," nudged Nina with elbow to bring back normal atmosphere,
Two stray dogs were loitering around us ;We ate very little ; as soon as we emptied left-over from the pot they rushed and finished the stuff.
They finished the food stuff in a way which gave me satisfaction. It was only 1:00pm. after pack up we started to return home. The dogs waged their tails joyfully to say us 'goodbye" .
Face of Raka was red in anger and hunger while Nina's face was red out of shame or guilt. All the way we tried to console both........
Raka grumbled : " I hate to confess at home that it was a feast of -fasting!"
Me: "Yes, that's the hardest part of the story for me too."
I slipped. into the house like a cat through backdoor; I heard the chat and lough of my mother and sister from the kitchen; I wished to hide myself in the drawing room .Before that I was. interrupted " who is it? Who is there? "
"me'.
"You? so early? did you eat or starved? Come,.. come here to share little of your picnic adventure!... We have still enough left over which you can take if you wish ."
I heard them to giggle .
"Nno I'm full,I tried to sound 'fake burp' and rushed into the bathroom, avoiding to confront them .
From bathroom I slipped under the quilt of my bed and pretended to sleep so that nobody could interrupt me further ; but it was hard to sleep as hunger was painfully kicking my empty stomach, and squeezing my intestines .......
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