If you are searching hard for a food that tastes finer and finer as we trudge along the path of aging, there isn't anything to beat the curd rice. Believe me, there is a philosophy behind this.
As youngsters, we try to be idealistic and romantic. It is also a time when we develop a penchant for stronger tastes -chilies, masalas and some of the most exotic pickle varieties. However, as we grow older, we understand the realities of life and learn to appreciate things that are less explosive and more subtle.
As kids, we at home loathed even the sight of that wretched, white coloured, bland dish. Trying to feed us the curd rice was one of the worst moments my mother had to endure in her attempts to introduce us to food. I even wondered how my father and uncles could eat it. And they heaved praise on it as the real nectar; the “amrit” from the gods!
My hatred for the curd rice only grew as I entered my teens. While my fellow fifteen-year-olds would bring the curd rice with pickles for lunch to my school, I would instruct my mother not to try her luck with things like that, lest the food would go straight down our school’s drain. The hatred was more so because “Curd Rice” was the name with which other community fellows used to address the orthodox “Tambrams”.
At one stage, during family gatherings, when it was the custom to wait for the elders to finish their curd rice and rise to wash their hands, I would pretend not to know of that custom, skip the curd rice and rush to the washing area before anyone could see.
Now, well into my 30’s, I have been developing a fascination for the dish I once considered bland and uninspiring. Chiles and pickles, my one-time favourites, now breed a revolt in my stomach and, like a weak army holding aloft the white flag, I immediately resort to the curd rice to stop the rebellion spiralling out of control.
“How nice the curd rice tastes today with a good pickle to go by,” I once told a long-time friend, who at once accused me of hypocrisy. Perhaps my friend has forgotten that I am aging and have started abandoning the chivalrous, romantic idealist in me. Or, quite simply, started seeing the subtler side of life!