Amritsari Dal

-Brian Mendonça

Dal Amritsari is made of urad dal or whole black lentils, with channa dal sometimes. It was served in a brass bucket which sat proudly on the table. It can be eaten with plain rice or naan. Garnished with coriander and simmered in a welter of garam masala, it is served steaming. On lonely evenings the delicious dal in Delhi chases away the winter blues as night envelops the ancient city.

The last time we had Amritsari Dal was in memory of Sarabjit Singh. Sarabjit was attacked by prisoners in a jail in Lahore and succumbed on the night of 2 May 2013. His body was brought by special Air India flight to Amritsar. He had already spent 21 years in jail after being convicted of being a spy.

In a Mantoesque turn of events, Sarabjit claimed he was a drunk farmer who had strayed across the border village into Pakistan. Saadat Hasan Manto (1912-55) was a Pakistani writer born in Ludhiana in Punjab. His short story ‘Toba Tek Singh’ (1955) is about Bishan Singh who cannot comprehend the partition of India and Pakistan. Amritsar, in Punjab to Lahore in Pakistan is a distance of merely 42 kms.

The train accident in Amritsar highlights the fact that despite being a live track, people happily endanger their lives tempting fate. It is the same with drivers who jump the red signal or scooterists who furiously come at you on the wrong side of the road. When an accident does happen, this chronic disdain for traffic rules is conveniently forgotten. As media updates show, people continue to stroll along the tracks at the accident site despite the fact that a disaster has just taken place.

Panj-ab
Land of the Five Rivers

-Brian Mendonça

Silver and gold 
Holiest of holies
Thrice the Qutub
refuse at 1680 feet
Varjit Shetra
A lady knits at Nangal
Panch-sheel
at the Satluj Sadan
Canals irrigate
the fields of Panjab
3 rotis of jowar
langar at Anandpur Sahib
Panch pyaare, Punj-ab
Keertan near Anandpur fort
Sohni-Mahliwal
Ranjit Singh
3 sardar school boys
gulp down golgappas.

(Nangal-Anandpur Sahib

Panjab, 8 Oct 2008)

Glossary
silver and gold: The gurudwaras of Anandpur Sahib, Nangal and 'Golden Temple' Amritsar in Punjab; thrice the Qutub: The Bhakra dam is the largest concrete dam in the world and is of a height which is 3 times that of the Qutub Minar, Delhi; varjit shetra: (Hindi) 'Prohibited Area'; Panch-sheel: Chou En Lai and Indira Gandhi signed the Panchsheel agreement at the Satluj Sadan, Nangal; Panch-pyare: In 1699 at Anandpur Sahib, Guru Gobind Singh constituted the Khalsa by asking for volunteers to join him. When one by one, 5 persons did, he took each into his tent and emerged to the crowd with a bloodied sword. This was to test the fealty of the volunteers; Sohni-Mahliwal: legend of Panjab wherein Sohni a potter's daughter falls in love with Mirza Baig a wealthy trader. Reduced to poverty buying pots, simply to be able to see Sohni's face, Mirza becomes a 'mahliwal' (cowherd).

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Published in Gomantak Times, Weekender, St. Inez,  Goa on Sunday, 28 October 2018. Pic of Amritsari dal, courtesy aajkyabanaye(dot)com