Delhi, food, winters...bas aur kya!

 I vividly remember the evenings in the slim lanes of the myriad residential colonies of Delhi. The darkness is just about getting comfortable after the sun's failed attempt to pierce through the winter haze all afternoon long. The mist and a slight fog is making its presence felt as I step into the open, shivering mildly at the quickly dipping temperature....too vain to zip up the loose jacket. 

"Delhi's winter makes one hungry" repeated my grandmother for the Nth time. 

"What is in dinner?" I asked dutifully. I think every delhi-ite loves to grapple with this question more times in a day than the actual no. of meals he or she eats. 

She smiled and said "Chhole and Puri". My eyes lit up. In one hour, I will be face to face with what I can only describe as foods of Gods. Yeah, I know that many of you are frowning at the typo..."it is Bhature and not Puri" you must be exclaiming! But no my friend. For me, it has always been Puri. 

The crisp, balloon like bread, spitting out steam as I poke a miserly hole...lest the crispiness withers too quickly...dipped in a bowl of mildly spiced chickpea curry, would always brings me a satisfaction that Gods wanted when they created the concept of food. 

"The chill of Delhi's winter is perhaps the missing essence... " I think aloud as I swallow the next bite of the same dish sitting in my Mumbai apartment. 

"Woh maza nahin aata..." I thought. 

"Kal breakfast mein kya hai?" Asked the delhi-ite in me to my Mumbaikar wife. She looks at me with disdain. "Yeh toh kha lo"...

"Life is simply what happens between meals"...replied the expression on my face.