Salad for Spouse

Did you read today’s Dainik Bhaskar? She asked.

Not yet, anything important?

DB now files stories on Odisha.

About the officer blamed for Naveen Patnaik’s defeat?

No, today’s story is about Raja festival.

I read the story. Raja (two short vowels, unlike two long ones as in Raja, meaning king) is a unique festival of eastern Odisha. There may be similar festivals in other parts of India, but I am not aware of it.

At the onset of monsoon, Mother Earth is believed to be Rajaswala, and her three-day period is celebrated by putting all women regardless of age on a pedestal, as it were, and giving them a good time. They are prohibited from cooking, a thoughtful respite from the never-ending grind of cooking three meals a day for the family; or even helping with chopping vegetables or seasoning the dal. Men do all the cooking, buy new sarees and dress (that’s compulsory) for ladies and girls, and tie swings on trees in the courtyard or in the village common grounds for the women to congregate and sing traditional Raja songs in chorus (banaste dakila gaja, barashake thare asichi Raja…, the elephant trumpets in the forest, Raja festival has arrived, let us enjoy. The elephant has no role in the festival, but gaja rhymes with raja!). Typical Odia sweetmeats are made and savoured – poda pitha, peda, arisa, kakra, khiri, etc. After the wholesome feast, the women are offered paan stuffed with fragrant spices.

Families who strictly adhere to the traditional way of celebrating this festival do not permit the women to touch Mother Earth with their bare feet; they must wear foot-wraps made of banana leaf. Not a laughable excess; there is a morning mantra in Sanskrit, expected to be chanted daily, where the person seeks forgiveness of Mahalakshmi before stepping out of bed upon the Earth, who is the Goddess incarnate. Vishnupatni namastuvyam, padasparsha kshymasvame.

Being not too dumb, I figured out why spouse wanted me to read the daily. Opened YONO and transferred to her account an amount enough to buy her a decent saree, in my opinion. Then I announced with a flourish, ‘You will not enter the kitchen for three days beginning today. Whenever you feel like, walk up to the terrace, and relax on the ancient swing (needs a paint job, and a little repair, but safe to swing gently). Don’t do a thing, please!’

What if the cook goes AWOL, she asked? Do you really expect me to sit at the swing in this sweltering heat?

Did you get a message from your bank, I asked?

She hadn’t checked. I’ll tell her about the fund transfer at a more opportune time.

I was serious about cooking, went to the kitchen, and made a salad for spouse.

Here is what I made and served. 

What do you think of it? Good, Very Good, Looks Appetising!? Come on, none of your applause would come even close.

No one has yet eaten this unique salad, except for my lucky spouse and self since I invented the recipe today, and made it for the first time. Can you list the ingredients? Easy-peasy? Go ahead, expand the photo all you want, and submit the answer; the reader who offers the best answer gets to savour this unique salad by Yours Truly.

Tomorrow, I’ll post the recipe. Watch out for my next blog.

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