I Take My Dinner

 

I Take My Dinner 

"The dinner hour is a sacred, happy time

when everyone should be together and relaxed."  

Julia Child 

“Show me another pleasure like dinner

which comes every day and lasts an hour.”

 Charles Maurice de Talleyrand 

“You make every Vegetable, even an tastiest one a “Dal”, even “Paneer” is Dal  for you ”, my Bride said to me in a sarcastic tone, when I visited my in-laws second or third time after marriage way back in 1973: fact is every meal Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and even Supper is “Roti” for Punjabis although “Lassi”, “Gur” and raw “Onions” are integral part of most meals: one thing is great about Punjabis they like to take meals in  a family that was the culture with my parents and in-laws too and Dal was and is the most common dish – Dal Makhani-Black whole Urad Dal or Dal Shagama wali Green whole Moong Dal, cooked fresh, on low flame for hours, with lot of garlic, ginger, onion, green chilies and tomato Tadka in good dose of crystallized butter and asafoetida  served with freshly cooked Chapatis of wheat Flour Atta  richly buttered with Desi Ghee right  from Chulha to mouth roasted by mother, sister or wife with love – what a taste difficult to explain everything pure and fresh in the company of your owns loved ones and such a simple meal. Everything heavenly. 

Time has passed & changed fast, more than fifty years back; internet has come with Artificial Intelligence much away from the reality, so is the Swiggy, Blinkit, Zomato Delivery Systems & many more and have brought with them Pizza, Burger, Noodles, Sandwiches at click of finger on one’s lap top, even a cell phone is handy, any time anywhere, day and night: every time is eating time even Two on the clock at night is good enough for a bite by hungry stomach, full of fine wheat flour 100% Maida with yeast not even natural fomentation , cooked whom we do not know, no question of love, everything commercial for money, may contain lot of preservatives, with the toppings of vegetables and so called cheese made tastier by toppings of cheese slice, ketchups, mayonnaise, crushed cheese and vegetables unknown in India like black olives always available packed in preservatives nobody knows when plucked and sprinkled over Pizza for a fancy price and dusted with chili flakes and oregano seasoning that has a little oregano  and so called farm fresh vegetable ingredients: net result is stale every ingredients tasty enough for the taste buds at odd hours packed in card board boxes and Black plastic crockery without any marked hygienic standards. 

Dinner the sumptuous, full meal of the day exists in seldom seen pages of the Dictionary, time has changed it is not eight O’clock, nor ten O’clock, some do not take, some take half heartedly, some when needed others what they like vegetarian or non-vegetarian, nuts or sandwiches; seldom family dinner has become a celebration. Intermittent fasting, desire to be slim, losing weight are the fashions of the day irrespective of balanced diet. Dinner has become “I take my dinner as I like”.   

Thank God, You are great, in our family we have grand children who still prefer, “Sarson Ka Saag and Makki ki Roti” and “Dal Arhar Tadka” and eat “Malai” with great liking.

 "After a good dinner one can forgive anybody,

5even one's own relations."

Oscar Wilde