It is not everyday that you stumble upon things. You come across a YouTube video in your recommendation and you found the best troll video of the decade. You are browsing through your Netflix account (Of course, we exist, who have their own Netflix account. Not all of us are Parasite ;)). You walk around the supermall isle and randomly find interesting stuff that changes your home? It did happen to me the other day. My brother wanted cereals for his breakfast (I get it. Its lockdown. He doesn't want to end up breaking the door to go out once this is done). I decide to get ragi flakes for him. Why? I am evil. But none us liked the taste of it. That was when we found some soggy fried chana. What followed was a beautiful symphony (at least in my mind) as I moved across the kitchen, gracefully messing the kitchen counter with peels and ends off the chopped vegetables, sprinkle of the salt and masalas on the floor, umpteen number of vessels all for the sake of preparing a humble salad.
Any salad, for me, starts with onion and tomato. Then goes the fresh herbs (coriander! pudina!) that you can lay your hands on. Add a kick to it with either fresh green chilli or ground pepper or chilli flakes. I added a sad-looking carrot from the bottom of the tundra because it too deserves a proper send-off (might trouble the stomach later). Now as for the acidity, we went for lemon, because we found a half of it in our fridge door. My mother's grandmother used to say "uppila sappadu kupayile" which means any food without salt deserves to be in the trash (sassy granny!). Add salt. Now go for salsa or waltz or kathak with the mixture. You really need to mix up the things you know ;). Done. Not yet. Do a chef's kiss. Now done. Go ahead and serve. Patiently wait for the criticism to come up as you feed that hungry stomach and salivating mouth.