This writer had once attempted finishing what was called a Dara Singh Thali at a Powai eatery. It involved a humongous steel plate filled with over 40 dishes, which you’d get for free if you polished it off in under an hour. The effort, to put it bluntly, had been an even bigger failure than the Australian team at the Gabba Test. We’d put our hands up way before the halfway mark, our insides ready to burst if we’d had another mouthful.

Somnath Pawar, the only person to have finished the thali