Conquest by Khichdi

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Founder Kanhaiyalal Maneklal Munshi (1887-1971) in one of his messages made a brief reference to his life during student days. He disclosed that his major diet that sustained him for most part of the day was the humble Khichdi, adding that he prepared the dish himself with the remark that anybody could do it. Devotees visiting temples in Mysuru and elsewhere where early morning worship-related rituals are done invariably expect and also receive a handful of Pongal as prasada. Going by the view of the regularly temple-bound devotees who are also familiar with Khichdi’s recipe and ingredients, the dish of our region, with a few grains of pepper embedded in it and salted to taste is a distant cousin of the dish of other regions of the country as it were. Called as one-pot-meal, Khichdi is learnt to have gained wings by moving from Mumbai to Manhattan. America’s largest circulated newspaper, NYT (New York Times) has reportedly given wide publicity to Khichdi by publishing the recipe for it regularly.

Being a rice-pulse combo, both Pongal and Khichdi, despite their low-key presence in daily diet and life of people at large, the two major grains in the meals of majority in the population are rated high from the nutrition point of view as they mutually close the gap of deficiency in two important amino acids namely lysine and methionine. What the country’s generations of a distant past practised as a routine has been scientifically corroborated in our times.

The factors of acceptable taste, pleasing mouth feel, ease of preparation, availability of raw materials and more importantly cost seem to have weighed to a great extent in both conceiving the recipe for the two dishes and its popularity among all sections of society. If one wishes to know about India’s numerous foods that are consumed regularly, one may read the publication Illustrated Foods of India by Dr. K.T. Achaya (1923-2002), an eminent oil chemist, food scientist and nutritionist. Talking of Khichdi, this combo of carbs and lentils is now a star dish on restaurant menus of eateries in may cities of the US. Its claim to fame is traced to 2017 when an attempt to declare it as the national dish sparked off controversies. Thanks to the creativity of some foodies, Khichdi has currently umpteen regional variations.

Having focussed on Khichdi and its rich cousin Pongal, one is obliged not to forget another humble dish Chithraanna, an instant breakfast dish familiar to Kannadigas of the erstwhile Princely State of Mysore, invented by an anonymous grandma in the distant past. This dish may also take wings along with K&P to fly all over the globe in foreseeable future.