For the last few months I have been waiting for today cos today is Onam!! No I have no inclined towards the Kerala tribe in Abbasiya but the thing is that I just love festivals with the colors and the chaos associated!! The general spirit of people going around happy and smiling dressing up in nice clothes!! Yes I know!! My inner child has woken up again but I can’t help it!!! And with festival comes food!! But this I was once instance I was not happy about the food but on what I was going to eat it on!! See I was sick and tired of eating in plastic disposables plates!! I wanted that disposable plates of India!! The ones made of leaves!! Anyways after I heard that I would be served on a banana leaf my excitement knew no bounds!! I was super duper happy and my Malu knowledge bank Vinod told me in Onam somehow they get hold of Banana leaves and serve food on them. So a week ago when Vinod told me about today I made absolutely no plans and decided to go thr for my Banana Leaf festival Onam!! Well it’s not exactly banana leaf festival but for me it represented that!! I told my Mom, my fiancé and tons of others people about my excitement to eat on a banana leaf!! So after work I got ready in the evening called Shine of our artists for Mandala Project!! He was also super excited about this!! We both had planned to make it an amazing culinary Onam!! Sending it psy style!! Anyways when I went to pick up Shin it was already late and he was no where to be seen and then I decided to visit his hostel!! Unfortunately after waiting for half an hour I got pissed and left cos the Banana leaf beckoned or rather called me in a very very sweet voice!! I had a bad feeling that I would even devour the banana leaf!! :P But once I reached the fucking traffic in Malu country (ABASSIYA) I was shocked by the number of people on the street !! And all dressed for Onam!! So me, Vinod and Noel his friend headed to Neema Hut cos Vinod had specifically booked three meals and paid in advance!! And then bomb fell on us!!
The FAT Seth said that “SAARI SAAR!! NO MORE BANANA LEAFS LEFT!!! “
My make belief world of banana leaves came crashing down!! Even Vinod saw the sadness in my eyes and said don’t worry Joe we can do it next year!! He didn’t realize how much I had actually waited for this!! So we had parathas and chicken on plates!!! NORMAL PLATES!! :( And the owner of the places actually tried to cheer me up with Lassi !! Any other given day this would have actually cheered me up!! After dinner me and Vinod devoured single serving tubs of Mango Ice cream!! I think he is the only guy who I have seen eating like an animal and coming back for more!! He actually once dipped Kaju Barfi in Fish Curry and ate it!! Yuck!! Anyways after the disappointing dinner I headed back to home but somehow I had a sense of fulfillment!! I really don’t know how to name it but somehow the whole ordeal left me happy with an inner glow I really can’t explain!! Maybe it was the whole process of chasing after the Banana Leaf which made this experience memorable!! All in all a good night which ended with an amazing chat with Soni!!
