Melange of millet memories

BAJRA kahe main bada albela/Do moosal se ladoon akela/Jo koi meri khichri khaye/Phool-phool tagda ho jaye. Thus goes a Haryanvi saying, which means that the grains of millet face the might of a couple of pestles before being cooked as mush or stew, hence, they give strength to the eater.

Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar began 2023, the International Year of Millets, with a breakfast of bajra delicacies. Kisan leader and former CM Chaudhary Devi Lal, too, was fond of eating bajra for breakfast. Millers are the staple diet of people in the semi-arid zones of Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana. During my early childhood days, I used to feel morning shivers and would help myself to a second session of sleep, called jhur-jhuri in colloquial Haryanvi, while lying curled up in a quilt after partaking of ice-cold bajra and milk for breakfast during winter. It was the overnight salting of bajra that made it cold to taste in the morning. The scene during winter evenings was different since the delicacy used to be served hot with the addition of ghee.

Neoni was the local appellation for fresh butter in Haryanvi, which was churned out of curdled milk, kept night long in a cauldron called kadhoni. One then didn’t need to add salt to the delicacy.

Immediately after waking up, everyone in our house made a dash to the kitchen, which had soot deposits on its walls, since there was no chimney, and bajra and other delicacies had to be cooked on mild fire created with enough smoke, under the earthen pot called haandi. The cuisine had a natural smoky taste. The lazy among us returned to bed for catching a fresh round of forty winks induced by bajra stew.

Everyone had his or her preferred texture of the stuff, whether it was mushy paste of upper crust, or the middle wall-burnt crispy layer. We would then wait for the milk to arrive from the cattle-yard called gher.

We did not use spoons, nor was bajra khichdi prescribed to be eaten any other way, but only with fingers. The right amount of milk was needed to douse bajra adequately to make it yummy.

While eating, the slurps never bothered us. The foodies among us licked the interiors of the bowl clean, making the glistening utensil shine even more. Those who did not go back to bed after the bajra treat went out to sit in the sun to relieve themselves of the shivers caused by the cold delicacy.