The pretty
young thing in the photo wore heavy makeup, Indian gold jewellery, and nothing else.
The text said, "This Holi, I am not going to wear a saree and a choli."
Now we all
know that photography is an art and when we talk about good art, we do not talk
about morality.
Certainly
not when it is around the time of the Holi festival.
The festival
has a reputation for people behaving appropriately inappropriately.
(Is the above
statement allowed grammatically? Who cares? It’s Holi!)
This photo
of the pretty young thing, by the way, somehow found its way into my WhatsApp
messages – forwarded by a group called ‘Naughty at Forty’. There were also
other nice pictures from friends – colourful palms arranged in a circle, a burst
of colours, and yes, Puran polis!
We had
always enjoyed Puran polis during this festival of colours.
In Muscat,
however, we would have to make them ourselves. The only difficulty was that I
had never learnt to make them.
...
“Mama, what
have you done today for the first time in your life?” asked my daughter as I
drove her home from school.
“I don’t know”
I replied, my eyes fixed on the road ahead.
“Is there
anything you would like to do for the first time in your life today?”
“Yes, Puranpolis!”
...
I looked up
a few recipes and compiled this simple one.
Ingredients:
1 cup channa
dal
1 cup
jaggery
1 cup wheat
flour
1 tsp
cardamom powder
1/2 cup
water
3 tsp oil
Salt to
taste
Ghee, if
preferred.
Method:
Soak dal in
water for about 3 hours. Cook till soft. Drain. Mash.
Mix dal,
jaggery, and cardamom powder in a pan and stir on low heat till the mixture is
evenly roasted. This is our ‘puran’.
In a bowl
mix wheat flour with water, oil and salt. Knead to make the dough.
Make equal-sized
balls of the puran and the dough.
Roll out the
dough ball and put the puran ball into it. Enclose like a dumpling. Then roll
out again to make a ‘poli’.
Roast on
both sides.
Spread a
teaspoonful of ghee on each poli.
Happy Holi!
