A couple of years back, blog friend Maddy aka Madhavan, who dates back to the time I started blogging in 2006, called to say that he’d be coming to meet me. This was going to be our first face-to-face meeting though believe it or not, he had already met the L & M (who was at the time working in a different city), the year before, when Maddy made time to visit him at his office and leave a couple of books as gifts for me.

Though my instructions had been crystal clear, Maddy managed to lose his way in the labyrinthine streets that are the Trivandrum housing colonies. But, since all roads after all lead to Rome Shail’s house, he found himself at my doorstep eventually, being welcomed by the Colonel and his wife. After some chitchat I rose to do my duties,

“Tea or coffee, Maddy?” I asked, and then as a thought struck me,

“Did you have any breakfast?”

It turned out he hadn’t. So we insisted he have some.

“Shall I make you some pooris and ande ki bhujia?”

We had pooris for breakfast that morning. But the potato sabzi had hit the bottom. So rustling up ande ki bhujia seemed the best bet since Maddy had plans to meet yet another friend by lunchtime.

Anyways, Maddy said yes and accordingly I got cracking, the eggs I mean. Soon, the table was laid, and the guest invited to partake of the simple breakfast. Just as he was about to begin, something made me (and thank God it did) ask him,

“You eat eggs, don’t you?”

“No, I don’t,” he replied, shaking his head.

My jaw dropped.

“But, I asked you earlier and you said, yes!” I replied amazed.

“What did you ask me?”

“What did you think Ande ki bhujia is made of?!” Now I was amused.

“Oh that’s eggs? I didn’t know!”

Ye lo!

Poor man Maddy, he wasn’t familiar with Hindi. And as for me, I was under the impression that  ande ki bhujia is universal language, well if not universal, at least one spoken by all of India. I mean, is there anyone who doesn’t know anda is egg? Apparently there are quite a few and Maddy heads the list (Just pulling your leg, Maddy!). For the still clueless, ande ki bhujia is nothing else but the humble scrambled eggs, Indian style.

The guest was apologetic about the fiasco, the Colonel was even more apologetic, while I couldn’t stop laughing.

Anyway remedial measures had to be initiated right away. The ande ki bhujia was whisked back to the kitchen. What was left of the morning’s potato sabzi was scraped off the bottom of the dish and put into a more flattering smaller one, a pickle bottle was added to the setting with a flourish. I don’t remember what else, but I think there was some leftover vegetable curry from the fridge that also made it to the table that day. But what I most definitely remember is Maddy thinking ande ki bhujia was some sort of veggie dish.

Here is a picture from that day. That’s Maddy standing behind us.