The Death of the Mallu Mess

I own a passable command over the Mallu language. If I am stuck in a forest full of Mallu cannibals, I might not be able to persuade them not to eat me up but if they want to fatten me up before dinner (their's) and so ask me what I would like to have for dinner(mine) I would be able to request for 'Oru Choru, oru Aila fry'- my standard order at the Mallu mess.

Which reminds me, the mallu mess is dead.

It's almost as if someone up there does not like my ambitions vis-a-vis good food. First it was the dabba-delivery-Sardar's minions who became convinced that I hate Palak Paneer, which I don't, and now my favourite eatery in the whole of Bangalore (pl.note, overstatement) is dead.

At least it is not really dead. It is kind of worse than death, if you don't know what I mean.

After shifting from the quiet murmurs of the 18th main to the hustle bustle of Airport road, Mallu mess is not a mess anymore, it is a restaurant.

They have bought new tables and chairs (The tables are so high I feel like Calvin sitting at them, with just about my neck and head above the mean-table-level). There are now pink tissue papers instead of the old newspaper cuttings (can't say this is an unwelcome change, but I will miss having all the news on my fingertips). The meals are now served in multi-compartment plates unlike the good old solid thali. The whole place is big, empty and impersonal.

The thug morsels of par-boiled red rice haven't changed nor has the turmeric-rich Aila fry, but somehow it's not the same any more.

Earlier the sambar and the tadka-buttermilk were kept in bowl and jug respectively on each table. I was able to take out as many veggies as I wanted out of the sambar. Now Sambar and buttermilk are served out of buckets by the mallu-waiter-boys. I would be reluctant to tell them to 'fish all the veggies out of that samabar and put them, here, on my plate' even if I knew how.

'Change is the only thing that is constant' they say. Quite an unnecessary and pompous and melodramatic statement but true.

P.S. By coincidence, the last post on this page now is my other post on the Mallu Mess.