Those Damn Curry Leaves!
As a kid who grew up in a South Indian home in Mumbai, the curry leaf was everywhere. In the sambar and the chutney. The Pongal and the upma. And in the dal and buttermilk too. And as a kid, even as I grappled with my studies and never became as good as I wanted to be at cricket, I had become an expert at finding the curry leaf in my food by the time I was nine. I would pick out every bit of the curry leaf from wherever it was hiding and keep it aside, out of harm's way. Admit it, you did that too, didn't you? In my mind, curry leaves were these bitter, hard-to-swallow little things in the food, and I often wondered why mom - and the city's best chefs ? insisted on adding curry leaves to, well, everything.
You might have known the curry leaf by its vernacular name - Kadipatta, or Karivappalai, or some such - but it's only further proof of what the bard said several years ago: a curry leaf by any other name would taste just the same. I was convinced the world could be divided into two groups. Those who disliked curry leaves. And those who hated them.
And it stayed that way for many years, until there came a sudden change in my life. A change I could have bet would never, never happen. Yes, hate to say it, but I started to eat the damn curry leaves. Haven't been able to put a finger on what prompted the change, but whatever the reason, the unthinkable happened. I stopped picking out the curry leaves and started to just eat them.
And surprise, surprise. They were pretty easy on the mouth. No bitter after taste as I might have feared. No getting stuck in the throat as my worst nightmare might have imagined. I just ate it. And all those stories of the medicinal properties of curry leaves - and how they were good for health - began to pop up in my head. It made me feel good.
And that got me thinking. Maybe there are several of these curry leaves lurking around us in our lives. Things, people, notions - even advice perhaps - that we have detested, dismissed as useless, without a fair chance. Just like the curry leaves. I reckon now is as good a time as any to give the curry leaves a second chance.
Go have a cup of coffee today with that colleague in the office you've always avoided saying hello to. Yeah, the one you are are convinced holds a grudge against you and you've never quite understood why. Say hello to that perceived demon, and you might discover that behind that perception is a pleasant, likable new friend, waiting to help you. Today's a good day to listen to that one piece of advice mom has been giving you all these years - and you've been dismissing as 'not-for-me'. Take a second look at that startup opportunity you've been saying no to. And maybe that young fellow who has been wooing you all these years and you've classified as 'not-my-type' - maybe he deserves a rethink too.
So what's the curry leaf in your life? What have you been detesting, hating, putting aside? Whatever it is, you know what to do now, right? Just eat it.
