Pithla (Besan Soup) and Everybody Hurts

There is a cloud in the sky and it is raining only above me.

[picture mine]

I’ve felt this before. 

It was a freezing night in the USofA and the unapologetic wind ripped through my unprepared jacket. My 2nd hand gloves had holes in them and my shoes sucked in the melted snow. 

I trudged along, wondering how I got myself into that place. 

Giving up an admission to the #1 university in my field to go to a lower ranked university, due to lack of funds, was not easy. (I did end up going to that #1 university, but let’s tell that story later). 

Coming to this lonely student township, right out of curtains and cage of home, I had to search for a campus job to pay for a roof and food. Most jobs were given to the timely smart indian students, and so I landed a job in a deli, in the far corner of the university campus. I was assigned to the sexiest job I could imagine. 

The dishwasher room.

Cluelessness is a mild sedation and hence the shock hit me gently. Since I refused to touch meat, the head washerman decided my job would be to restock clean dishes. I was given a uniform: A yellow tshirt tucked into jeans, a cap, and a pin up button with the name of the deli on it.

And so started my first job on a pay of $7/hr for 12 hrs/week. 

To watch life around you, when you’re insignificant, is amusing. Those undergraduate students, suddenly looked rich and privileged. One of them was an ABCD girl I knew, and she promptly looked away in horror, after she recognized me behind the garb of a cap. I found myself getting jealous of the students with better jobs, like the indian girl who used to vaccumn the carpet. 

Noticing people got boring, so I settled on a philosophy. When in deep $h1t, entertain yourself. 

My favourite activity was to restock the plastic cups. They made this uDOOP sort of noise when quickly stacked on another, and I used to time myself in a ‘quick restocking’ game, that I played with myself.

Cleaning glass doors was fun too, and I loved to watch the spray trickle down the glass, only to catch it with the cleaning cloth. 

I was allowed a break to drink soft drinks, so I’d mix fanta with coke and enjoy the 5 minutes I got with the mindlessly sizzling bubbles.  

Soon, the fun thinned away. 

Winter set in and the walk to the bus stand was long and dreadful. One day, I was walking home, head down, I heard a noise. I looked up and saw a cloud hovering right above me…….and it burst into rain. 

The cloud followed me into my room, and it rained even more. 

My room was small. My “desk” was a cardboard box, which I covered with a bedsheet that my mother had so fondly purchased from Tulsi Baug. My bed was cushions borrowed from the sofa, and I had a reclining pool chair for seating. I could hardly reach my cardboard desk from the chair, rendering it completely incompetent. 

While the cloud was thundering, and drenching my room, a thought struck me. My focus had moved away from the study of an academic disciple, to plain survival mode. The money I earned was just enough to cover the rent. To save, I ate little, so my grocery bill was around $16 a month. Roti-Kapda-Makaan became my goal, and I was always worried about my next meal. 

I knew I deserved better. I couldn’t chase the cloud away immediately, but in a matter of a few months, I moved to better shores. Got a transfer to the university of my choice and obtained a job counting tubelights and taking down meter readings. 🙂 It paid well at $10/hr. 

The cloud above me slowly vanished, and the sunlight seeped through. 

Pithla/Pitnu/Zhunka

This is a besan soup that is called by different names in Maharashtra. My mom calls it Pitnu and I remember having this on cold or rainy days. 

Ingredients

• 1 cup of besan (chickpea flour)
• 2-3 green chillies cut length wise. 
• Mustard seeds, Cumin, turmeric, red chilli powder, ginger. 
• Garlic and Onions are optional.
• 2-3 cups of water

Method (simplest recipie. I don’t have pictures, sorry!)

• Mix the besan into water. Ensure lumps are not formed. 
• Add oil to a kadhai. 
• Add green chillies and grated ginger. 
• Add mustard seeds and cumin seeds and let them pop. 
• Add your mixture of besan into the pan. 
• Add turmeric, red chilii powder and salt. 
• Continue to cook this mixture (and stir it of course), for 10 minutes? The raw odour of besan should vanish. The thickness can vary. 

Serve hot with chapattis.