Adhiti Devo Bhava

“Why are you preparing two different stuffings ?”

Harini who was turning the aloo parathas in the pan asked me quizzically. We both love spicy stuffing and the two parathas I made without any spice had baffled her. These two are for our morning guests.

“Why can’t they eat the regular parathas that we make? Again this is also from her.

“Last time  the mooli parathas were slightly spicy , they did not eat them and also refused to eat the plain rotis I served them the next day. I think they must have mistaken them too for a spicy paratha.”

“Fine, but why two parathas? ,two rotis and two dosas for them?sometimes I go one less for my dinner because of your benevolence.” she grumbled

See they have a big family not like us . What we give should be enough for all of them .” was my justification.

“Last week I gave them the sweet appam for breakfast ,without any etiquette they snatched them from my hands. Fortunately they didn’t peck at my hands” grumbled Harini.

“Tomorrow I am going to make sabudana kicchadi, they don’t eat pouha and sabudhana so better get them some bread.”

“What! your  darlings  are refusing to eat  plain bread . Make bread uppuma and serve them”

“That is because you got them the multigrain bread. They like only soft sweet bread or ordinary wheat bread soaked in water” I was also waiting to blame her for her indifferent attitude.

Harini showed her irritation on the parathas by pressing them hard.

“Stop. Dont make it hard they won’t be able to eat as kadak(hard) roti and dosa may hurt their palate.

“You know what happened when I was making bhajjis for Sunday evening snacks they smelled it and came ànd started demanding for it .Normally they dont come in the evenings ,God knows how they smelled the hot oil .”

” Yes whenever you fry bhajjis and pakkodey they are the first ones to smell and visit you.

Why dont you serve them for the next day’s breakfast?”told Harini.

“No no, they might become stiff and prick their palate” was my reply. I don’t know if they really have a palette.

What I know is that crows don’t eat rice ,upuma,pouha idli and anything white in colour and looks plain,but very fond of fried items .

“Wow! How blessed are they. At least in the guise of serving them I too will get to eat lot of fried items. May their clan multiply” blessed Harini.

“Caw.. caw”. I heard their call and went to serve them the parathas without spice.