Tuesday, May 3, 2011

No small change !!!

I had an uncle, who had a very expensive Swiss watch. And one day, while he was taking his afternoon nap, his watch slipped off his wrist, and fell on the floor. Then, while me and my cousins were fighting over who would look cool wearing it, we dropped it on the floor. Again. When we picked it up, we found that the watch was not working any more. Terrified, we hid it in a place where our uncle would have never looked. Behind a tall and fiery looking idol of Lord Hanuman, the monkey-god, in the family's shrine room.  My uncle would worship Hanuman-ji every single morning, rather devoutly. And, he would never think of looking for his watch there, as the gods, were definitely above suspicion.

However, my uncle paid me and my cousins a hefty amount of  pocket-money. Every week. Our job, was to look for my uncle's lost watch. No, this was not like putting the fox in charge of the hen-house. This was like asking the fox to look for the hen it killed and buried, and rewarding it with many more hens, for just looking.  Of course, one day, my uncle found his watch while cleaning up the shrine room. Luckily for us, he looked at this discovery as the divine intervention of Lord Hanuman himself.  The hard part was, that our weekly allowance suddenly stopped, since the watch, that we hid, was finally found. No thanks to us.

Oh, that reminds me. Osama bin Laden was finally discovered by the Americans and killed this week. Deep inside Pakistan. To be precise, about a hundred meters from the principle military academy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, which, like my uncle's shrine room, and Cesar's wife, was above suspicion. And, just like my uncle, Uncle Sam, was paying Pakistan, a nice and hefty allowance during the last decade to look for Osama bin Laden. Since September 11, 2001, which is when Pakistan found out that it broke its uncle's watch by hobnobbing with Osama bin Laden, it has received about eighteen billion dollars as pocket-money. That is their entire military's budget for three whole years. And, something tells me that all that money is about to disappear. Now that the watch has been found by the uncle!

"Aw, come on. Do you think Pakistan was hiding Osama behind its military school deliberately? Just to get the big money from the Americans, whose economy is bleeding due to two wars and a domestic financial crisis? Is that the way a trusted friend treats another? I don't think Pakistan can ever do that."

I knew it. I just knew that that was precisely what you were going to say. And that is why, I told you the story of my uncle and his favorite Swiss watch.

What did we do with the money that our uncle gave us, for breaking and hiding his watch, and, pretending to look for it -- for weeks? Well, we had Jalebis for starters. Delicious and mouthwatering hot Jalebis, with steaming glasses of milk. When you chew on them a little and wash them down with the warm, thick and sugary milk, the guilt is automatically washed down. To your guts.

It is pretty enjoyable. You should try it some time.

5 comments:

  1. Desi Babu,

    I have been a passive reader for a few weeks now. Your writing style is quite unique in which you draw parallels so well for a common man to understand.

    I agree that Jalebis with warm milk (dipped, especially) is awesome. I used to eat that even when I was in US :)

    Best,
    AN

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  2. Dear AN,

    Thanks for your kind words. I hope we will see many more visits and comments from you in the coming days.

    Your style of eating milk with jalebis is my favorite too. Absolutely nothing compares to dunking...

    peace!

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  3. There's something very odd about the whole Osama episode- your theory sounds quite believable!
    This is the first time that I have come across the combination of jalebis & milk...doesn't sound too good to me. Since two of you vouch for it, I'm quite tempted to try!!!

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  4. My friends, I am shocked. I was trying to talk about international terrorism, and all you can think about are Milk and Jalebis ?!!!

    All right, all right, I started it. So, it is entirely my fault, isn't it? :-)

    Soumya: Doodh-Jalebi is a favorite small-town breakfast in North India, and if you can get to your local halwai early in the morning, you get fresh and crunchy jalebis to dip in the milk. I will see if I can find a place in Bangalore (I am assuming that you live close by) that has authentic Doodh-Jalebi, and will let you know. I have heard that now, you can even get this stuff in the bay area!! .. not sure exactly where though..

    Peace!

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  5. Great post. You surely hold a unique style of writing...
    I agree with some of the comments. The whole ordeal of Osama seems fishy. Only the Obama Administration knows the whole truth...and oh yeah 'The SEAL's'... Let's see when they'll spill the beans! :)
    http://divyavirmani.blogspot.com/

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