Khayali Pulao

Famous novelist Adrian Brown was on a trip to the Himalayas when he visited India. For the past few months, he felt overwhelmed whenever he tried to pen down his thoughts; his mind was foggy. To vanquish writer’s block, he planned for an escape to the mountains.

The aura of the majestic Himalayan range can make you feel trivial on one hand but on the other hand, you meet the most amiable companions in the diverse terrains. Adrian came across a friendly guy who was also the cook and caretaker of the homestay in the remote village where he was staying.

The young cook was chatty and full of zest for life. All day long, he would buzz around with his ideas, questions, or even recipes and would keep Adrian busy with food for thought. But he had magic in his hands; his culinary skills were exceptional. Though he claimed to be a self-taught man with no chef background, one of the major attractions of the homestay was undoubtedly the food.

‘There are no rules to cooking,’ exclaimed the cook as he handed over one of the best dishes to Adrian on a chilly afternoon. It was Pulao served with spicy chicken. It was a one-pot rice dish cooked with vegetables and aromatic herbs. The beautiful fragrance of the food itself satisfied his gastronomic desires. Adrian was curious and inquired about the secret of the palatable dish. The delighted cook replied in a shy manner, ‘Khayali Pulao’; he continued that most of the food is first prepared in his mind and then manifested in reality. In the remote village where he stayed, electricity and the internet were scarce, so he mostly relied on his intuitions rather than referring to cooking shows, food magazines, or trending recipes on social media. After the food was perfectly cooked in his mind, he gathered all the items whatever was available in the nearby markets and manipulated a recipe out of it; in the innards of the mountain region, where there was a dearth of daily cooking items finding special ingredients was nonviable. He casually said that he would add a lump of happy emotion if he did not find any of the items to make the food mouth-watering.

A flash of light passed Adrian’s mind as he was enjoying his delicious meal. It struck him that maybe all these while he was burning his thoughts by overthinking, and whenever he felt something was missing in his writing, it was nothing but compassion for his own skill. The slowdown of his creativity was only in his head as he stopped enjoying cooking the stories in his mind.