Coming Back to the Earth

What is the quintessential comfort food for Indians? Especially after a hard days of work, after a hard night of partying or even after a spending a lazy day at home! Especially what would you eat after you reach home after a second show movie, or a disco at 3 AM.
After talking to a lot of my friends, the following have turned up, Khichdi, Dal and rice, Curd rice, Rasam rice, Rajma chawal, Roti and Butter Chicken, Roti and Dal Fry, Biryani and even hot Idlies sold on the road side...some of the others have not made it to the list as they are in a minority. It seems the body needs a good dose of carbs, carbs and more carbs...

So the other day we had a chance to go overboard with the alcohol and low on food. And the choice we had was driving down quiet a distance to eat midnight buffet at this popular restaurant or check out the local bandi.
And believe me the sizzling tawa, the steaming Idli cooker and the smell of the Sambar was heavenly. But the immediate vision that followed was sheer torture, the scenes from 'Delhi Belly'. The man selling Tandoori Chicken!
Oh man....not again, not again...why am I cursed with this vivid imagination. But this one time I did not give in to temptation and remind my friends about the Delhi Belly! :)
Forgotten was the car we were driving, forgotten were the expensive togs we were wearing, forgotten were all fancy-shmancy things, for once the sizzling tawa had more power than anything else...Delhi Belly be damned....this is how the following poem came into existence.

Coming back to the earth

Vodka on ice and chilled beer

and a hundred other spirits

in a dark noisy hole.

A mad DJ and the floor

becomes livid with grooving bodies

and crazy laughter.

And come midnight,

the cavern spews out a crowd

into the unforgiving darkness.

More laughter as I try to

open my car, and a friend

chucks out her guts.

Weaving through the empty

roads with wine in our veins,

we seem like heroes for the night.

Only to come back home with

hungry stomachs, to realize

that the balm for our soul

lies in plain old rice and dal.