Every so often, we are treated to the look that the parents reserve for the pitiable. There is no scorn, no anger, just a sense of deep feeling. Given that it is their children it is being directed at, the eyes also fill with an unspeakable sorrow. The first time this look was given was when we declared we like eating brown rice and actually went ahead with the montrosity of eating it in front of them. The mother thought it looked and tasted like a mixture of husk and bran and remarked that it is the kind of stuff they feed horses and cows in their village. She would stealthily boil some white rice on the side, and say, “This is for getting a good taste at the very end.”
Buffaloes, however queue up to take training from us, and we saunter on merely laughing at these jabs. In fact, I keep pushing different “healthy grains” just to see the reaction – both with the parents and the parents-in-law. This time, the grain of the day was Couscous. Couscous is easy to make and is absolutely bulging with fibre. I love Couscous and rasam.
To drive home the point, I require folks to carry out a simple test: ask a hard core South Indian, who has preferably not studied in one of the fancier schools and ask them to say 1-S-1-L (onu ess onu ellu) they’d say. In fact, they’d call you a loosu for that. You notice the subtle ‘u’ addition to the letters? Well, that can be a particularly trying thing when one is eating Cous Cous and teaching them to pronounce the thing.
“Kusu-Kusu-vaa?” (‘Kusu’ for the Tamil challenged is the word for the burp that lost its way and made it out through the rear of the body). Folks will agree with me here when I say that it is not one of the more pleasant things to be reminded of when wolfing down heavenly rasam and Cous-Cous.
This follows an argument about kusu-kusu being samba rava, and I think to myself that samba rava does not sound as unpalateable as kusu-kusu, and let things be. They are all a variant of wheat – why nitpick?
Nourish-n-Cherish 
That was insanely funny! Just after the photo of kusu kusu, I wsa wondering why the paragraph on 1-S-1-L came, seemed to go off in tangents until I got to the middle f the paragraph and started rolling on the floor!
Thanks Anand 🙂
You are a riot!
Now I can never have ‘this’ without thinking about you LOL!
If you can’t be famous, you might as well as be infamous – what?!
Whole blog was hilarious especially this part…
“Buffaloes, however queue up to take training from us, and we saunter on merely laughing at these jabs.”
You have way with words…keep writing…
Thanks Sri….though it was cringe-worthy I know !
You have a nice sense of humour and a unique way of presenting it! Keep at it!
That was hilarious.Keep writing.
Thanks Hema and Sherin 🙂
Hey Saumya, very nice and as usual funny post. Esp the part about the buffalo (Did you secretively imply sriks?).
One thing that I could be wrong about is that, CousCous is not really high in fiber. Its a refined semolina flour typically. So I suspect you are probably buying a whole grain version of it or something. Typically cous cous has <2g of fiber per 100 g.
REally? The traders joe version – the whole wheat one has 7g
http://www.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/trader-joes/whole-wheat-cous-cous
Nice.
Whole wheat couscous is available in all health stores. Try Mediterrenian couscous, which is refined ,but the taste is different from the regular khuskhus.
Stumbled upon your blog, you write really well. Just as Anand mentioned above, I was wondering where you were going with 1-S-1-L and then went, wow! Hilarious! Glad to have found you 🙂
Thanks A-kay for stopping by – hope you continue to read and give me feedback.
online health stores always give some promo and discounts that is why i always order from them *~,