Confession of a born-again Odia: Without any prejudice towards anybody I
state:
Till I became 33 years old I had an aversion toward Pakhala. During childhood it was almost pathological. I thought it- Pakhala- was a sign of Barbarism! I could not stand the very smell of it, much less to talk of tasting it.
The rest of the family members were either neutral or fond of this typical Odia
staple diet. Those days the leftover rice used to go to the Pakhala Handi and
usually it smelled. In fact, the people who loved it, loved this fermented brew
for this smell, which was a sign of the existence of alcohol perhaps! And for
the exact same reason I hated it.
Then it all changed and I became a fan of Pakhala!
But, the moot question is: These days do we eat the same type of Pakhala that I
detested? Certainly not. Gone are those smelly brews and now the Pakhala is
made of freshly cooked rice. Badi ( a typical Odia preparation from black gram),
Dahi (Curd) and Lemon are a must and then the flavor is so nice. Now, whenever
we eat Pakhala, I demand an extra serving of the torani ( watery part of
Pakhala) and I guess I do not have to explain why! My mother is puzzled but
happy with the development!
So, dear Odia friends, if you are yet to realize the beauty of Pakhala, I’d
say, wait your turn is also coming :)
Inspiration for the above confession came from a
forum discussion in facebook, where, Ms Laxmipriya and a good number of Odiya
participants proved that if there would be a contest for Odia National food,
Pakhala would win hands down!
For me it was a revelation and hope in the form of a blog post this would keep
our enthusiasm alive and someday we'd raise Pakhala to its rightful place to
sit besides Sattu Paratha of Bihar, Rajma chawal of Delhi, Tandoori roti of
Punjab, Idli Sambhar of Tamil Nadu, Bajri no Rotlo of Gujrat and Ilsi Macher
Jhol of our neighboring state West Bengal; won’t we?
Hope we'd continue to debate and then the synthesis would be to everybody's
advantage, including the government! For, if they could rechristen our state,
they can also pass a bill to anoint Pakhala as the National food of Odisha;
can't they?
One of the many modern-day variants:
Take
fresh cooked rice, add ice cool water and then squeeze half a lemon into it and
add a pinch of salt. You get a fantastic Pakhala. It appeals to both, your nose
and also to your palate. Badi chura with Garlic and onion, with or without
green chili, will make fantastic accompaniment. Especially if you are a
diabetic, you cannot ask for a better wholesome lunch; for rice is gluten free
and Pakhala consumption entails a lot of drinking of water and hence
consumption of rice should be moderate.
A good
diet during summer:
Pakhala is ideal
during summer. In the past, summer months used to be a punishing time. Fomented Pakhala,
which contained alcohol due to the process of fomentation, helped idle
agriculturists doze off during summers when they had little else to do, after
consuming pakhala, and thereby made Odia summers, where temperatures often
hovered around 40 degree Celsius, somewhat bearable. As monsoon sets in,
the farmers become active and Pakhala loses its charm. So, go and have your
bowlful of Pakhala before the monsoon starts its dancing! Wait, now when does
the summer go? Even in the peak of monsoon we are reeling under severe heat
waves. So, I guess, the reign of Pakhala has prolonged.
Last words:
Well, well, well :) You always take Pakhala with a pinch of salt; so, wherever
you wish, take these submissions with a pinch of salt and then you'll see
it actually makes sense :) Does it? Now the ball is in your court.
(Word count = 650 (appx.))
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