Oh dear!
Lets be candid,
I love you french fried
Potato is bangin and low-maintenance
Dont need no cheese no dips or sauces
Pav in the fridge, bless your taste buds as vada pav
No pav, add to your cheat day list as batata vada
Mom in the house, heaven on earth as Aloo-paratha
Without Mom, Zomato serves Burgers and sandwiches
I confess, I love Potato
Adds life to every vege- green, red or yellow
Makes every vege taste like heaven
Oh, Potato! You are amazing.
Let me confess my feelings to potato through this note. Potato was my big-time savior during COVID-19 lockdown. Thank you for blessing me with aloo paratha in breakfast, aloo-pyaaz amalgamation in lunch, and dum-aloo for dinner. Aloo, aloo everywhere and everything to eat, let me tell you how I developed such a close affinity with potato during lockdown.
15 August 2019, we (me and my family) got freedom from hustle and bustle of city life and shifted to a new, quiet, and close-to-nature place. Our mornings with birds eagerly waiting for their cordon bleu, created by my dad. Nights with dogs who were relatively modest and just barked for their nouvelle cuisine, designed by my mom. We realized the presence of these birds and dogs as part of our morning and night routines consciously from 24 March 2020. Indian Prime Minister announced nationwide lockdown of 21 days effective from 24 March 2020. Let me skip to the good part, soon we started facing supply shortages of all seasonal vegetables at our quiet and close-to-nature home. In vegetables, we had access to just potatoes and onions as our place was near to Indore city’s one of biggest sabzi mandi and lockdown caused its shutdown. Fortunately (only for my mom), we had a stock of 7 days of vegetables and my mother stretched it to 10 days. Early signals of the government-run vegetable vendor supplying just potatoes and onions added potatoes to our happy meal. I hereby declare that starting from 1 April 2020 till lockdown duration was our (me, dad, and bhai) freedom period from greens, yellows, and reds of vegetables. All three of us were elated with this that we willingly and joyfully started helping mom with all the household chores.
Days and nights, my mother spent thinking about potatoes and we (me, younger brother, and father) happily ate them. In the name of asking, mothers have a tendency to “declare” suitable menu for the day. Earlier, dinner menu declaration used to haunt us for the entire day- lauki for dinner. During the lockdown, one of the remarkable dishes was honey chili potato. Honey chili potato is our mutual favorite dish. Although it became soggy till we all dig into it but no worry when potato is here. I want to thank lockdown and potatoes for wonderful potatolicious memories.
“No matter, how many times potatoes are burnt to flames, they always rise tastier, crispier, and delicious.”
– Riya Wadhwani (Ph.D. Student, IIM U)