No big 'D(e)al'!

I remember a time in the years gone by, when as a child, i used to run to the grocery store at the end of the street and fetch provisions for my mother. I would ask for the staple dal of most households, the simple and essential "Arhar dal'. Without so much as a blink of the eye, the shopkeeper would deftly pick up a sheet of newspaper from the bundle lying on the side and would roll it into a cone. With the smooth move of a magician, he would scoop out the 'dal' from a big gunny sack and with a swooshing sound it would be transferred into the cone. He would quickly weigh it and smoothly pull on a jute string which would be hanging from the ceiling on an iron rod. A quick swirl of the hands and the jute string, and lo behold, the dal was secured in the newspaper cone and quickly handed over to my tiny hands. No plastic packets...no plastic bags..no foot-long bill, just a number scribbled on a small chit, the size of a token. Most probably it was an old calendar, that was cut up roughly into tiny slips, to give the bill on.

Fast forward to a few years later...i go to buy the same staple, 'Arhar dal'. This time around in a Mall, which is definitely not a walking or even a running distance from my home. Unless of course, i was a marathon runner or a great long-distance walker...anyway, i digress! It is hidden in the innumerable aisles that have products from floor to ceiling and are packed to the T in the huge hall. I can no longer just go and pick it up as simply as i did so many years ago. There are rows and rows of choices, a mind boggling variety and it can get quite baffling. All branded, all packaged differently...described differently. So there's the classic, the premium, the export quality, the organic, the polished, the unpolished, the oiled variety, the straight from the farm variety, phew! The choices are just overwhelming and picking the right dal for the family becomes my mission of the moment. And i do take it seriously, reading up the back labels as much as i can, assimilating it all in...getting almost exhausted in the process, because now, every product i pick up, every item i buy, has to go through this careful selection process.

And to think that in spite of my best efforts, when I cook the dal, it smells nowhere as delectable or tastes as good as it did when i was a child. I can close my eyes now and still recollect the delicious aroma of that dal of my childhood...But despite my careful selection process, the dal today no longer has the same quality or taste. So, what use are these choices...to what avail. I become despondent there, for a moment, as I contemplate the dal in the bowl in front of me. I swirl it with the spoon and shrug off the feeling.

Well, no big deal! Maybe, i selected the wrong variety ...tomorrow is another day! I'm sure, i will have another added option when I visit the Mall next. May even find a variety of 'dal' that will be described as "all the taste and aromas of your childhood encapsulated in it"! The marketing, advertising and the mind-boggling variety will no doubt come up with something like this...And i would happily pick it up...hoping for different...better results!