What’s so ‘humble’ about the khichdi?

Yup I remember the first time I fell irreversibly in love with Bombay two decades ago It was when I first walked in to a divequarterworkingclass bar which is an institution quite uniquely Bombay That I suspect is currently on the wane if not tragically getting gentrifiedI mean rows after rows for a tight seating plan similar to the local train with people by themselvesmdashneatly adjusted against each other mostly looking at nothing between their drinks studiously poured from a quartersized bottle one after another before they catch their evening train back from work No words exchangedThe stranger next to me casually pushes a plate of boiled eggs in my direction in the common tablemdashin case I might be interested in his lsquochaknarsquo Even his eyes on the TV set havenrsquot met mineIrsquoll pass thank you I nudge waiting for what he might order nextmdasha bowl of frickinrsquo dal khichdi Man were we in this together Irsquod never known anybody to order khichdi at a restaurant let alone bar but does it go well with whisky Hell yeahAnd it was a staple at Bombay dives I noticed thereafter For how wrong could you go with khichdi blended into a lightness of being in the tummy as if nothing had gone in to mess with all the guttural substances that hadAnd that is despite all that rice in it and dal which are to each other in desi homes what Jai and Veeru are to Sholay or Old Monk is to Thums Up or Jagermeister to Red Bull simply inseparableOnly that we take this relationship so much for granted no Leave aside the fact that there is a special kinda khichdi for most parts of the Indian subcontinentmdashthat apparently was the first to cultivate rice in human historymdashwhatrsquos the wheatloving Punjabisrsquo favourite comfort food Rajmachawal What is it if not in its own way rice and dal of sortsEven if you go down South and appreciate its greatest culinary contribution which is supplying the Great Indian Breakfastmdashwhat is the dosa and sambar if not quite simply rice and dal And since yoursquore going easier still and only having medu vada and idli isnrsquot it rice and dalmdashbasically khichdi in another form tooAs for the khichdi itself it wasnrsquot until I posted an image of it on Instagram for how that meal in my family inevitably means itrsquos Saturdaymdasha ritual passed on to my mother from her grandmothermdashdid I realise the same is true for so many Indians itrsquos a Sunday meal every week for many others tooThe caption to the image read ldquoKhichdi ke chaar yaar khichdirsquos four buddies ghee papad dahi achar I add the Bihari bachka in minerdquo Which is what nutritionists suggest makes it the wholesome meal with adequate carbohydrates proteins good fat all in oneAlthough in its semiliquid form surely like the dhansak the khichdi was invented for lazies like me who donrsquot wish to go through the elaboratetiring process of sitdown multicourse dinnerslunchesmdashI wish I could just drink up all my meals on most days haw blasphemy I knowThe khichdi in its more porridge form is the first proper adult food most Indians have had in their life in their infancy It might well have been the last meal many Indians had if they were sick Thatrsquos what the doctor orders especially if you have an upset tummymdashthe only organ in the body that gets upset with its owner and so you go scampering to pacify it with khichdi until it gets okayFascinating when you read about the history of khichdi then with its mentions in the Vedas the Mahabharata indeed among the Mughals even the AkbarBirbal fable down to accounts of travellers through the subcontinent the Moroccan Ibn Battuta 14th Century or the Russian Afanasy Nikitin 15th CenturyThe West it appears lately discovered khichdi when fitness enthusiast Tom Mills posted on Instagram an image of ldquochicken amp rice the ultimate bodybuilding staplerdquo Soon as desis jumped in to tell him what it really wasmdasharguably the oldest dish on the planet Hipsters into lsquokapha pitta vatarsquotype Ayurveda are obviously into the ldquokitchari cleanserdquo regimen alreadyAnd yet like you canrsquot read anything about Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan without the words ldquothespianrdquo and ldquobaritonerdquo in it I havenrsquot come across a single descriptive piece without the epithet ldquohumblerdquo attached to the khichdi Whatrsquos with this humility bestowed with success on this blockbuster itemMaybe that in its frugal version it gets associated with jail fasting or hospital food How is the simplest of Indian foods associated in metaphor with a messupmdashldquokya khichdi pakaya hairdquoIrsquom getting these thoughts devouring the legendary chicken dal khichdi at Wongrsquos a latenight Bombay dive bar reconfirming how well it goes with a beer realising how thankful everyone on my table should be for it the following nohangover dayFrankly if I was khichdi Irsquod sue the bloody biryanimdashjust a piece of rice that people go on and on about how HyderabadgtLucknowgtCalcutta or that biryani minus meatpulao etc etc Oh come off it Give this dalchawal its due firstMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper