Hearty Repast

Those daal-puris were to kill for. Soft to the touch, perfectly cooked, spongy, neither drippy (with oil) nor dry, the daal smoothly blended to fine consistency and not spilling out either…

Preparing the plates

Mummy feeds Akshat

and when combined with equally sublime kheer, they simply melted in the mouth. Blessed were those who got the opportunity this morning to partake in this divine treat.
Neelam Choudhary had to wake up at the unearthly hour of two in the morning to turn out this magic for the sake of son Ajit. It was his wish to treat the Club today, though he himself wasn’t quite sure why. And as he must have also known, neither was it for us to question why – barring Ved Prakash Grover, the only human being among us to have the courtesy of thanking the Choudharys for the wonderful repast.
The rest of us shamelessly wolfed down the puris -- some even wrapping them in take-away ‘parcels’ for sharing with the family at home.

Ved Prakash Grover thanks the Choudharys

In normal circumstances, two puris would have sufficed for a heavy meal, but it was very unlikely that anybody had stopped at two today.

Neelam and Janardan Choudhary

The ‘blog monster’ himself was no exception and unwittingly lived up to his moniker (as monster) by tucking in five full puris and was still looking around hungrily for more. Those puris were just too good to refuse. And the best part: There was no wastage.
It is to Ajit Choudhary’s credit that nothing was found wanting – right from the paper plates and white plastic spoons (distributed by son Akshat), the endless cups for kheer, tissue wipes, the tea turning up on cue, arrangements for clearing up at the end… Nobody will know how many hundreds of puris and the kilos (or litres?) of kheer that were consumed this morning. Still, we shall make one request to the Choudharys: never again to arouse our greed. We had too much of a good thing today. Next time onward, the treat may be tempered to a relatively lighter scale.

Kiran Prakash:
I am still repenting why I had stopped at only three puris when I too could have stuffed myself with five puris. Not able to recollect if I have ever taken such delicious mouth-melting daal-puris. Thanks to Ajit, Janardan-ji, Neelam- ji and Amrita. At the risk of sounding discourteous, I will personally welcome a repetition -- of course, at their convenience.