No Dal For Mani

And that wretch of a doctor, I must forgive, no doubt, Now, when you have no dal, when your food is only vegetarian, dal is the very basis of your diet.

Dal makes a thousand different varieties of things, hot, spicy, salty, sweet, everything.

And some of my most favorite dishes were made out of chickpea, that means lentil dal, which you make into pakoras, what we call bhajiyas, you make sev, you make this, you make that, and you even make omelets.

Nacha used to make omelette out of the chickpea flour because no eggs could be used.

For years we didn't have fish, meat or eggs.

So then you put in the chilies and you put in the cauliflower and you put in the onion just like you do in an omelette and it's quite tasty.

I mean it's a good substitute.

I couldn't eat daal anymore.

So mine was made out of wheat flour.

Now the consistency of wheat flour is totally different.

It's sticky, it's puffy, but I was hungry.

I was young.

I would wait for the time when it would be time for lunch, when it was legitimate for me to go by the kitchen door and ask.

But still I would now and then go, get these smells, you know.

And Naja, knowing, she would make my wheat omelette first.

And then I would roll it up, put it in me, and poor, poor, my teeth were strong then.

And as I said, I was hungry, I could have digested anything.

So for quite some long time, oh yes, another thing the doctor said, my dear doctor told me, to eat boiled spinach.

Boiled spinach.

It was not even cut, so it had to be just put in a lot of water, and eat the spinach, and then drink that water of the spinach.

And Mara still remembers and she said, you know, we felt so sorry for you.

There was no furniture in Nassi.

We slept on the floor.

We sat on the veranda floor.

On the rugs and things, but on the floor.