Art of eating Sadhya

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If having noodles using chop sticks need practice, so does having Sadhya in a banana leaf using ur fingers!

Sadhya is a full fledged malayali vegetarian meals with approx. 25-30 types of dishes. Its had during special occasions like Onam (the harvest festival of Kerala), weddings, family functions, e.t.c.

Now, traditionaly Sadhya is had sitting on the floor wid ur legs crossed. But now the conservatists are more liberal n offers Sadhya on a long table with chairs on one side. But that doesnt completely erase off the difficulty in having this complicated meal. First they spread an approx. 45 cm long banana leaf in front of u along wid the others having the meals( 4 to 100s of co_eaters) . then ppl serve the diff. side dishes on the top portion of the leaf. These side dishes vary from simple items like salt, banana, banana chips, pickles, e.t.c. to complicated dishes like Avial, sambar, e.t.c. After the side dishes r served, they serve rice. Now unless u can hog(in which case they serve rice n other dishes again n again.), the ideal thing wud b to divide the rice they serve first into 4 equal sessions, so that u can use each portion of rice for the diff. types of gravy they bring… like parippu ( a gravy made using dal/pulse) , Sambar ( a gravy with many vegetables), moru( beaten curd with salt n chilli), rasam( spicy soup with tomatoes) , e.t.c. Now u need to hog n b a quick hogger to cope up with the speed of serving. Coz nobody is gonna wait for u to finish wat ur eating b4 serving the next dish, considering the huge no. of other ppl who’ll b eating with u. Now after u hav stuffed urself wid all those vegies comes the awaited “payasams” …. They r the most tastey part of the Sadhya coz of its sweet splendor! Its the hope of having payasam that actually drives u till the end of the stranious sadhya eating process. But even that splendor doesnt come to u easy! This sweet viscous solution is also poured onto the banana leaf. Yep thats rite….. not in a glass… nor r u provided wid a spoon…. the only weapons u hav to conquer those tempting liquids are ur fingers!

Why tell me why!! How…. how can I have the payasam without a spoon?…. i tried taking it with my hands… but it wud jus drip down through the gap b/w my fingers bak to where I took it from.. Long, slender fingers may b an asset to pretty women.. but not for having sadhyas. I thought of licking the payasam out from the banana leaf…. but Id already attracted the attention of many a co_eaters, n my dignity wudnt lemme do such a disgraceful act! Tried lifting the banana leaf so I kud splash the payasam into my hands then reach it to my mouth… but b4 it reached my mouth, the payasam wud drip again n all i kud taste were a few drops of those delicious treat! But where there is a will, there is a way… n i got my hands on “boli” ( a yellow, sweet, chapathi kinda thing thats had with payasam) . I tore that boli into 2 n made a spoon( a lil craft work I learned as a kid using paper! But never imagined it kud work with boli too n also that it wud help eat payasam!) outta that semi circular miracle I sweeped out the payasam n finished the whole thing! With a satisfied look I got my eyes off the food n realized that I had quite a number of spectator entertaining themselves watching me struggle with the payasam n finally succeding wid the process in my own unique manner! Giving a silly grin to them all, I rose from my seat n left the place with a bulky stomach…

Surprisingly I liked the experience! I never thought Id like veg. curries much… but was o.k. Mom claims it to b a well balanced diet with carbohydrates( rice), protein ( dal) , vitamins( all those vegetables, banana) ,minerals ( some vegetables hav them too it seems! I dunno..) ,fat( payasam, curd) , n everything essential. Even the natural plate( banana leaf) has its advantages over metal n plastic plates. Balanced diet ? may be true! but the quantity is too much! Olden days ppl had a lotta hard work for their muscles. So burning all those calories wasnt that hard. But not now wen hard work means staring into computers for long hours or attenting phone calls or watever with minimal movement! So hav fun eatin Sadhya or watever… but work out n burn those excess calories n look awesome!

hav a gr8 day!

God Bless you.

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