Thank God for Friends Who Fast!

Nine Days of Restraint, and a Feast of Temptations                                                                                                                                                                             - Anupama S Mani

Visibly hassled, she told me she was going to the market to get Navratri food items. And, just conversationally I asked what. Now, that should tell you how stupid I can be at times.

Off she prattled a long list. By the time she had rattled off about twenty items, her eyes had acquired a rather wild look. I was suddenly overcome with a great benevolent urge to be a good neighbour & offered to write the list down for her. Wisely enough, I took a long strip of paper.

She again listed those common nouns, stopping occasionally to ask if this would be enough for the four of them. Still feeling very kind but practical, I offered that she bring the items on her present list first.

“Bazaar band thode hee ho rahe hain, baad mein aur lete ayiyega. Akhir kitna dho kar layengi. (The markets are not closing, you can get more later. After all, how much can you lug?).”

She nodded, gulped down her tea, picked up her assortment of bags in different shapes and sizes, and left.

Now, Sharad Navratri begins tomorrow. It is a sacred and very auspicious time for most Hindus, particularly because it is an occasion to try to live the perfect sattvik (pure and righteous) life. Think of all the good things a human being ought to be, and the calendar gives us nine days to practise being that person. People pray, observe day-long fasts and, of course, follow several rituals every day, because no Indian special occasion is complete without rituals.

Theoretically, this is the period for eating clean, easily digestible meals. You give up cereals and grains, legumes and dals (lentils), onion and garlic, turmeric, heeng (asafoetida), mustard seeds and oil, non-vegetarian food, alcohol and sea salt for nine days.

Nobody knows who made these rules about food or when, but they are sacred. Disobey even one of them and not only is your fast broken, but you also become the target of derisive comments from ‘fast’ food snobs.

Those who fast, eat sabudana (sago pearls), kuttu (buckwheat) and singhara (water chestnut) flours, barnyard millet (samak ke chawal), rajgira (amaranth). Suddenly, these grain-like, considerably more expensive foods, which most people barely think about during the rest of the year, become extremely important.

Among vegetables, potatoes, sweet potatoes, bottle gourd, arbi (taro root), pumpkin, cucumbers, and lemons are allowed. Fruit includes all fresh fruits such as apples, bananas, pomegranates, papaya, along with nuts and makhana (fox nuts). Among spices sendha namak (rock salt), cumin, black pepper, green cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and fresh coriander make it to the precious list of foods.

Now you can guess that though I do not fast why the thought of food is always a temptation during Navratri to me.

A handful of people take things literally. They eat kuttu or singhara rotis, with boiled potatoes and bottle gourd. They eat fruits as nature intended, drink milk and let the calendar roll the dates.

Their kitchens are quiet, there is very little cooking.

The majority, however, are far more considerate. After all, this food is being offered to the goddess too, so why deprive her of taste and better choice? They are also providing occupation to the person ruling the kitchen. Inspired by this spirit of devotion, even restaurants are now offering vrat thalis (fasting platters) during Navratri.

You are not allowed to eat grains so what is stopping you from pulling the non-cereals out of obscurity? Let kuttu or singhara pooris be the nine-day wonder foods. After all, frying makes everything more delicious, and frying is not banned!

Sabudana need not live its modest existence. It can dress up as khichdi, tikki (flat patties), vada, papad, kheer and whatever else you can persuade it to become during these nine glorious days.  

Discover the excitement of eating kuttu flour as poori, pakora (fritters), cheela (savoury pancake), gulgule (sweet dumplings). Rajgira too can be made into chikki (brittle) or, why not have laddoos?

Samak ka chawal can be turned into vegetable pulao cooked in desi ghee. I am sure the goddess will appreciate that more.

Let the humble aloo (potato) be the star of the Navratri food universe. If you are short of time and patience, boil some and make them into chaat. Otherwise, roast or fry them, eat potato chips, make jeera aloo (boiled, and seasoned with cumin) or in sattvik gravy.

Arbi deserves similar attention.

You can elevate bottle gourd a rung up by making kheer or fritters, or using it in pancakes with permitted flours. And why not make carrot halwa or kheer on one of the nine days, with a thick layer of malai (thick rich layer that forms on top of boiled milk) as garnish?

Shallow fry fox nuts in desi ghee for those little bouts of hunger. But remember, they also make excellent kheer and laddoos. Meanwhile, eat as much coconut as you like- raw, in dry-roasted vegetable dishes, or as kheer, laddoos and barfi. Fried peanuts as a snack are okay, according to the rule-makers.

You can keep fruit the most uncomplicated part of the whole affair. Have sattvik fruit chaat (cut fruits with rock salt, pepper, a squeeze of lime) or, if you prefer, fresh fruit cream!

Tell me, why eat plain curd when you are permitted raita, promoting bottle gourd, pumpkin, cucumber or potato to the position of show-stoppers on your thali (platter)? 

All the milk products like lassi, paneer (cottage cheese), white butter, khoya (milk thickened to dry mass), desi ghee (clarified butter) are excellent sources of calcium, say the doctors. For the shahi paneer fans, yes, you can have the original version.

And what about kaju (cashews), badaam (almonds) and kishmish (raisins), packed with proteins and tons of other healthy nutrients? Eat them as they come, by the handful. You need energy when you are ‘fasting’, after all. Or disguise them as chikki, protein bars, halwa, kheer or milkshakes.

There is no argument about salt. Rock salt is the spiritual cousin of ultra-purified sea salt. Prestige level of sugar too goes up several notches and you can simply transfer your allegiance to it for the next nine days.

I suggest that, at the end of this simple meal, you sit down with a mug of fennel, ginger, cinnamon tea and thank the goddess for LPG stoves.

Navratri in my parents-in-laws’ house meant encountering the biggest saucepan imaginable containing several litres of milk, and a big bowl of dahi (curd) every time you opened the fridge. There was a mound of fruit in a daliya (basket) on the dining table, and nuts waiting in jars to be chewed and chomped by the two fasting members of the family.

There forever was something being kneaded or mixed, one karahi hobbling on a burner, and on the shelf-top sat a huge tin of desi ghee.

Seeing all this, I once asked my mother-in-law if I too could have vrat food.

The magnanimous soul that she was, she lovingly replied, “Why do you have to eat this simple food? You enjoy your normal food.”

And what gourmet foods did I get to enjoy? Arhar dal, which I am not particularly fond of, and watery bottle gourd, for dinner!  

No wonder, then, that I love my friends who fast!

Some are generous enough to share their vrat ka khana. Others, bidding a final farewell to Navratri on Ashtami or Navami (the eighth or ninth day), send me the regular must-haves - wheat flour pooris, boiled and spiced kala chana (black chick peas), and halwa, allowing me to enjoy the fruits of their nine days of restraint and devotion.

Thank God for caring friends!

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