The BASIC EGG BURJI
A well made Egg Burji is the minimal need of a Malayali in a happy meal. So was I, being unbeatable a Malayali at heart, which goes to the extend of providing dedicated correction service to everyone who calls us mallus. Running behind and catching hold to correct someone, yes the Malayali detector in me could afford doing that too. Every Malayali kid would have undoubtedly opened even the most quickly cooked school day lunch box with the minimal hope of having an Egg Burji, medium hope of having a hidden fish fry in the rice, and maximum hope of having a piece of chicken fry.
Toddy n Banana chips are not all we have, we also have this intense sense of being a pure non-vegetarian. Yes, from Appam with chicken stew for breakfast, and Rice with fish curry for dinner, we make sure that our protein intake is well enough for minimum of two generations to stay healthy. As we say, our ancestors also earn gold through calculative marriage deals which would suffice to provide the above mentioned protein intake for minimum two generations. So in a nutshell, we are self-sufficient.
Roles in my family are well defined too. Though Amma(mom) is whom we scream to, to find anything missing, I have seen Ammamma (Grand mother) overpowering the skillsets of Amma in finding lost pairs of socks, vests, bank passbook, etc, while all men (forget the age) helplessly excel in screaming for their services. This derives me into a conclusion that, age and gender are directly proportional to the quickness in discovery of existing essentials at home. As I say, the efficiency of female gender is better than male, stays relevant here too.
Coming back to this Malayali house of mine, with my Ammamma, Amma, dad, my elder brother, and younger sisters with job efficiencies in decreasing order from left. Well, I find myself located at all levels depending on the situations, but never above Amma even at my highest efficiency period. Forget reaching Ammamma any day. (Her stories of climbing hill with pots of water everyday at the age of 16, seems little too much to believe though🙄)
I remember the day when I was left alone with my brother, after an hour of advice by Ammamma, which I listened in sleep and mimicked later to myself, without giving my mind to what the lecture was about. All I saw was her antique Jhumka which I wanted to make sure that it would come to me, and not to my brother’s wife. Ah!! Forget it, I will tell u that someday later. Stories !! Yea, from the words repeated hundred times, making sure every turn was louder than the last, and breaking my sleep clearly, I think the lecture could be on how important it is to feed the men of the family. Obviously ‘women and no food’ is still an acceptable combination for a day, “Shiva Shiva”(noises we make to call our Gods!) not a man without food when a woman is at home. Be it a pregnant woman, ill, tired (forget i said tired, that’s like not even a word), or busy (ehh.. forget that one too).
Men, yea my brother who had that smile of pride, having given that right for no reason, for no great work done, just for being shameless in accepting the so called, “yea we deserve food, cooked by women” feeling.
I decided to cook.
My brother being non-tolerant to tastes rap-mixed (that’s what he calls if the dish doesn’t reach its authenticity), slept like a log feeling heavy with the undeserving pride. I called up Amma, who says this. “For him, just put egg in tawa, a lil coconut oil, add lil salt and strictly nothing else. stir it” ehh!! Is that the owner of huge pride all needs?? Well, that was the basic Egg Burji!
Anyways. I just turned on the kitchen radio which played “Jimki kammal”, and did what mom said. I prayed so much and opened the lid that covered the mud bowl that stored boiled rice everyday. Yes, making rice is not easy for a fresher, Ammamma knew that! Now the gravy. “Oh the black mud vessel, pls have the red thick gravy of yesterday’s fish curry!!” And the lunch was sorted until he came n sat for food.
“Haven’t u made papad yet!! “
Turning my braided hair to almost as accurate as 180 degree angle from left to right, I walked off, unnecessarily over-moving my hip!
Though I overheard him saying secretly over phone to my mom “Amma it’s exactly like how u make it. So she can manage one day meal!!”, and I heard him scream for neighbours to listen, “I think our dog will get an upset stomach today eating this”!!
Inspiration: That feeling of being unnecessarily happy, to pull legs of your siblings 😀 In real life, I have not met a better cook than my brother. My brother-set (a set of 4 )and the villain Grandma as seen below 😀
