Grand Mother’s Panjiri

 

Grand Mother’s Panjiri

 

Food taste, a wonder faculty bestowed on humans more than His other creations by the Lord, man has refined it      by love and affection apart from ingredients, while cooking, what a mother, wife or daughter can do is written nowhere, it is divine, spiritual, and moral: their dedication and devotion, and the person for whom it is cooked is seen in every second of the time spent standing, slow and low flame. Sometimes it is the song, prayer, hummed or sung and feeling of wait that adds their own flavours to the recipe. The hands and fingers that readies the utensils, cleans the pulses, cuts the veggies, churn the butter from fomented milk, prepare the dough,  roast chapattis, steams rice add something great, to food, silently, effectively, for wellbeing, according to me the genes and DNA wonders of biology to the food: so mother’s food is a nectar “Amrit” for healthy body, brilliant mind and thoughts positive and vibrant and mother’s milk enjoyed for months together has what no science has spelled, given with closest to the breast and chest, taken listening to the beats of heart. 

Food served direct from hearth to plate to stomach by the mother with eye contact, as if serving the Lord, in kitchen near fire place in cold winters makes it divine supreme and taste no words to spell: solace Godly. 

Mother’s love exceptional, when first child came to the family of my father; grandmother loved the first baby more than his mother, result was her breast yielded milk for her grand-son after more than twenty three years, a wonder perhaps common or uncommon I do not know, something memorable and great, a gift of nature, enjoyment for the baby continued for almost two years and the bond it created lasted till she merged with the Almighty.    

My mother after preparing the dough but before making chapattis would take a small bite size portion and would place at the top of the dough when asked she said it is for the Lord and would make food the “Prasad” of the Lord sumptuous, satisfying and fulfilling: ample for all in the family and also for the guest known or unknown: she would feel happy, if some unknown happens to share the food, some has the custom of giving some portion of their food to a religious place, contribution to community kitchen. Whenever she-mother prepared something sweet, “Kheer” “Halwa” “Savian” etc she would take a spoonful first of all and have it placed on branch of a tree nearby or at the highest place in the home, sharing with the Lord, nature, and their creations; this added, “Satvik” virtues of purity, honesty, obedience, gratefulness, transparency, reverence, sharing, fullness feeling and discipline to the food and with the best of flavors and fragrance divine: the reason for “Dropati” having fed many  saints when she had just one grain of rice in the cooking pot. 

Some tastes, may be of most ordinary homemade food-full blown Chapattis and simple Dal-pulses, are unforgettable simply because it has warm cozy intensity of love and feeling inexpressible. 

Imagine the pleasure of a grandmother when a young boy studying in US asks for homemade “Panjiri” – a north India health delicacy, from his grandmother in India and she prepares, roasting wheat flour with crystallized butter slowly on candle like flame hours together, add crushed “Makhana”, “Almonds”, “Desi Khand” and “Shakar”- lose dry jiggery coupled with love, affection, feeling so pure and purposeful and sent it him. 

Long Live The Love