AJATHA CHATHRU ADAI

The modern management philosophy lays more emphasis on team work rather than on individual brilliance. In fact, today workmen and managers are evaluated in terms of their effectiveness in a team and the team’s promised delivery and not mere solo performance.  Functioning as a team enhances the quality of performance. Of late, Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been demonstrating this. Decades earlier, our grandmothers realized this and their “adai” is an answer to the teamwork need.

Unlike Idli and Dosai, Adai has an endearing quality – adaptability. Adai goes well with Molagapodi, sambar, morekuzhambhu, vetta khuzhambhu, chutney ( thengai, paruppu or pudina variety). A few cannot think of Adai without jaggery or sugar. Some soak their adais in curd or ghee.  Gothsu. and adai are in back slapping intimacy. A few years back, in Mumbai’s Anand Bhuvan ( in the small lane off Phirozhah Mehta Road, Fort), Adai-Avial was proverbial. Adai is a sort of ajatha chathru in our kitchen. .

Unlike some other tiffin items, Adai does not suffer from regional restrictions. Adai is equally at home, in a Thanjavur Agraharam,  Palakkad Gramam or a Tirunelveli street.

Unlike Idli and Dosai, where Ulundu and rice are the major ingredients, adai has in its embrace almost all the grains under the Sun. If salt and chillies sustain it, asafoetida (perunkayam) provides it a flavour. As many ingredients go into it, adai has a thick size and hence is very sumptuous. During my younger days, I could take upto five adais (equivalent to 20 normal size idlis), and look for more, if available. There are veterans in my friends circle, who could effortlessly take a dozen adais at a time though they used to spend disturbed nights. Because of this heaviness, adai is not advisable as an early morning breakfast, unlike Idli. Adai can be enjoyed leisurely, as a brunch around 10 am, gulping down with a cup of hot Kumbakonam filter coffee. After three full-sized  adais,   you are ready to skip your lunch. Adai is also a welcome snack around 5 p.m. But one must take care to stop at two adais, else one may lose both his/her dinner and sleep. Adai has the tendency to keep us hydrated as we constantly take water after adai - a healthy habit indeed. .  Adai may not be prescribed, like Idli, by hospitals, and yet, Adai is nutritious because of various grains that go into the making of it.  A friend of mind had the audacity to suggest that Adai had propensities of a purgatory  - prescription yet to be tested in toilets. .  

Adai is anathema to Udipi hotels. One cannot find adai as an item in marriage contractors’ list.  Why this singling out adai for ill treatment as Dhoni did to Amit Mishra till a few days back? As I mentioned earlier, Anand Bhavan in Mumbai’s fort area, served adai and  avial  with great gusto. Ambi’s cafes in the south are known for their adais’ aromas. A few years back, I had adai, with Molagapodi spread and sesame oil in a small hut like hotel , sitting on a shaky bench at Srirangam near the temple and I was as much in ecstasy when I tasted the adai, as I was, when I had Darshanam of Lord Aranganathan. In fact, three of us had an adai each with a tumbler full of degree coffee, all for a total princely sum of Rs.40/-. Udipi restaurants all over India and even the well reputed Veera Kutti at Palakkad or  Anna poorna/.Gowrishankar at Coimbatore  do not serve adai. I do not know whether Saravana Bhavan chain hotels are adept in preparing adais. My appeal to Amma is to make adai available everywhere, not necessarily for Re.1/-.  Enlightened readers may throw light on the availability of Adai in Mumbai and other city hotels.

Adai, essentially is an agraharam item and as too many grains go into the making of it, adai  does not have a mass appeal. In Brahminical homes, Adai plays a role, though with increasing decline in its significance.  

The adai we prepare on the day of Karthikai deepam is full ulundu (with skin on) adai, and is dark in colour. I do not know the significance of preparing adai on this day. On the Nonbu day  two different species of adais are prepared – one sweet and the other salted. Though both types of adais are generally tasted with butter, I personally would prefer molagapodi. My appeal to readers is not to imitate me in taking these special adais with molagapodi and taint their colons with colitis. The ‘thalipeeth’ they prepare in Maharashtra comes closer to adai, though it belongs to a different specie.

   

Pizza is the modern day version of Adai, save the fact that pizza is well dressed up whereas adai appeals in its nakedness.  Pizza is a fair-skinned foreigner and adai is a coloured native. Pizza seduces you with its charm.  Adai appeals to you with its warmth. Pizza essentially consists of two units – the basic pizza bread with the dressing up super-imposed on it.  Adai does not need the superimposition of dressing up. I enjoy both pizza and adai, and while I admire pizza, I adore adai.

And finally, lovers of Adai, unite.  In marriage festivals, at 9 am, when idli is exhausted, upma is normally substituted. Lovers of adai can demand that adai be served instead. As adai is heavy and lunch would be followed within the next few hours, the number of adais may be capped at two.  This would be a relief to the organizers too. Why not make it mandatory to serve atleast one adai, instead of bonda, along with coffee at 5 p.m. in traditional marriage ceremonies and why not Adai be one of the optional items in the marriage dinners to enhance its reach to  wider appreciating groups in various communities?  Set up adai joints, on the pattern of Macdonald outfits and attract youngsters to your fold. Appeal to venture capitalists for angel capital, after serving them with hot adais on fresh plantain leaves.  Like Art of Living Schools, Art of enjoying and making adai classes may be conducted in every urban and rural centres.

An adai a day keeps all your palate related worries away, one is tempted to parody a well known proverb. .