His Holiness Dalma’s Highhandedness!
His excellency Mr Dalma!
Allow me to be the Devil’s Advocate today. I will be harsh. But, this sort of civil disobedience was in the offing, simmering for a while. You, the flagbearer of Odia food nepotism! You have been pooh-poohing about you and your partners in crime —Ghanta, Kaanika, Mahura, Besara, Rasabali, and all those aristocratic, snobbish sounding stuff, so much so that Odia food has an image issue now. People feel that ‘Odia food’, your parent genre is all about ‘Brahminical’ food, a term under scrutiny these days. I hope you are aware of it. It has been reduced to a platter that always come with a big placard written ‘temple’. In all caps and bold. You have created an image that Odia food originated in a 12th century temple, smelling of only desi cow ghee, camphor, cinnamon, cardamom, asafetida, sugar and raisins. You have usurped the #foodgasm in your favor. You and your mates immediately reach anywhere there is scope for Odia food. From temples, to fine dining to Griha Pravesh, somewhat like a freeloader. People even name their restaurants after you. You have a profound influence.
Has your privileged Brahmanical self ever peeped into family kitchens that cook a variety of wild mushrooms, fish cooked with bamboo shoots, game meat packed into a bamboo cylinder and smoked over wood fire, the red ant eggs crushed on a stone slab with hot green chilies and sea salt, served with a bowl of fermented rice. Have you seen how a poor farmer finishes off his mound of steaming hot rice with hot Kolatha dali or biri dali tempered with garlic and red chili? Go elsewhere and see how people wouldn’t bargain over you. They wouldn’t even recognize you. They would snob you over a plate of slurpy Ambil. Come out of that shell and see the world.
Make new friends now. Change your snooty self or just abandon your patrons who want to limit you to temples and Mondays and build an image of purity. You are just a tiny drop in a huge ocean. Give others a chance. Don’t be that upper caste man taking pride in lineage. Nobody bothers except your own.
You are forever boasting about yourself, appearing in shiny brass utensils, or on glistening green banana leaf and being savored by your patrons when they want to observe a holy month. You would snigger at people who eat onion, garlic. Have you seen how people are now misusing you? They have made you a mere spectator now by putting prawns and mutton to your pious self. Onion and garlic can’t suppress their wicked laughter and showing you a middle finger already. Hope you noticed.
Do you have any idea how Mandia aka Raagi aka Nachni is threatening your presence globally! Yes, you heard that right. The food of the poor tribal people in your state of origin. Do you know how Kolatha Dali, Sajana Saga, Kodo millet, Foxtail millet, are too making waves in superfood store. And Nachni Roti (Mandia ruti) is Priyanka Chopra and her ilk’s health & beauty secret. Is anyone taking any interest in you? Has any hotel made a ready to eat version of you like they have done to Daal Makhni and Shahi Paneer or Pindi Chana? Even Dhokla, Poha, Upma are readymade now. And you are still acting pricey. Your hired writers are writing astounding, uncorroborated facts. That one of your gang members Ghanta was cooked in Asoka’s kitchen! Or at Nalanda’s canteen. I am just a little sarcastic about the entire circus surrounding you. You are good, but you aren’t the only one. That’s what I want to say.
