Back to "the punjabi choolha" with love ...

Ali peter john

I have a strange and strong feeling, no, i am sure there is some kind of an undescribable bond between that lovely place called "the punjabi choolha" where i landed one evening , little knowing that it would be a little heaven on earth for me .

it was only a few minutes after i made myself comfortable in this little heaven that i realised that it was also a home for the most delicious home made punjabi food and one look at the menu made me wish that i was young again and had the kind of appetite i was once known for during that first evening, i found the kind of food that i had last tasted when my mother cooked and that was more than 55 years ago.

The rotis were something to live and even die for and go to heaven which was the kitchen where i saw young men preparing all the heavenly dishes and i wondered why people of the world believe that only women were the best cooks the two rotis and the sabzi i had that night was all that i needed to remember the punjabi choolha as long as i lived and as long as i had the ability to know the difference between what was heavenly food and what was not, and what was most important for me was the love and care with which the young couple, garry and aman preet took special care of all the lovers of good home made food ... and only last evening, i found myself in my little heaven again.

My eyes kept looking for heaven like they had not looked for anything or anyone in years and danced when they saw heaven my tongue sang, my taste buds danced to the tunes of the names of the delicacies mentioned in the tastefully done up menu card and my heart which has always been in a turmoil found peace when the two hot rotis arrived in a basket together with the vegetarian dishes my two friends had ordered.

Again it was only the two rotis that filled up my heart more than my stomach and i was lucky to meet that lovable couple garry and aman preet and tell them about the heavenly experience i had in the heaven they had created for hungry and lonely souls like me who miss the food their mothers, wives, sisters, daughters ans even their grandmothers made for them with all their love once i reached home and asked my caretaker, a woman from the hills to have a taste of the dish i had brouht with me from heaven and she coundnt resist saying, " urri baba , aisa khaana bambai mein milta hai kya"?

And i told her, " ye bambai ka khana nahi hai, swarg ka khaana hai" and she had no words to describe her delight which i could only know when i saw her licking all her fingers thank you garry and thank you aman preet, not only because of the food you serve in the heaven you have created, but also your care, and i know that if i taste two more of your sabzis and four more of your rotis, i will stop hoping for the heaven all the priests, saints and maulanas keep promising me and others like me.