This is a conversation, a ‘chat’ if you prefer, that happened between two friends.

Friend 1: Oh, by the way, I tried the recipe you suggested.

Friend 2: And?

Friend 1: …but found it too dry

Friend 2: (puzzled) Dry? Do you mean ‘bland’?

Friend 1: No. It was dry.

Friend 2: (puzzled still) How could it be dry?

Friend 1: I put oats, coconut and salt, just like you said and added boiled chana (chickpea) too, the way you suggested.

Friend 2: (scratching head) And it was dry?

Friend 1: Yeah, no liquid.

Friend 2: (amazed) No liquid?!! How can that be?

Friend 1: It tasted like flour.

Friend 2: (literally saying it out aloud before typing) What??!!!!!!

Friend 1: Yeah..like flour. You really have it everyday? Must be an acquired taste!

Friend 2: (restraining herself from calling Friend 1 by the name of a now extinct bird) HELLO!

Friend 1: Yes?

Friend 2: How do you make oats my dear Friend 1?

Friend 1: With milk.

Friend 2: Either with milk or in this case, without, you BOIL it first.

Friend 1: No, I didn’t boil it.

Friend 2: (falls off her chair laughing, gets up, dusts herself and starts typing again) So let me get this straight: You had raw oats with freshly grated coconut and salt sprinkled over it, and yeah not to forget, the boiled chana too.

Friend 1: Yes. And my wife was surprised too.

Friend 2: Naturally…!

Friend 1: She asked, ‘Are you sure this is what your friend said?’ and I told her, ‘Of course!’

Friend 2: (alarmed, dives under the table trying to recall where her protective armor is and how soon she can catch that flight)

 

Added from some little known place in Timbuktu:

I am still in hiding because I am worried that Friend 1’s wife will bop me one on the head for making her husband eat raw oats! The worst part is that I might be found out pretty soon as I cannot stop laughing from wherever I am! 😉

Pssst. The picture above is of the dish I made the way Friend 1 had understood it to be, to know what exactly the poor man had eaten. Phoooooey. It did taste all flour-y. 😛