Yesterday, I opened the refrigerator to put something in, and immediately went “Ayyo!”

[For those not familiar with the expression: Ayyo is an interjection in Malayalam, used to express a wide range of emotions. The word does not have a direct translation in English but is best understood as an exclamation similar to “Oh no!”, “Alas!”, “Oops!”, or “Oh dear!” in English.]

“What?!!!” said the L&M, who was also in the kitchen at the time. He sounded pretty rattled.

“I was about to keep the murukku packet inside the fridge instead of the half-cooked chapatis packet” I explained.

A word, on the murukku would be in order at this point.

It is a savoury, crunchy and totally yummy south Indian snack made from a dough of rice flour and black gram flour. The dough is spiced up with the likes red chilli powder, asafoetida, sesame seeds et al, shaped into spirals and deep fried. That of course is the traditional way. Now murukku comes in all kinds of new avatars, the deep red ones with beetroot added, the green ones with spinach as the key ingredient, the tomato ‘flavoured’ ones (I doubt tomato is ever mixed in the dough, but one never knows!), the very garlicky, peppery, and onion-y ones…. you name it.

The packet of murukkus that I was about to put inside the fridge had ‘masala’ murukku’ written on the cover. Well, masala means spice, so it could have been a combination of any of the above. Or even something I haven’t mentioned. Suffice to say it was something very appealing to my taste buds. Not that the L&M was lagging behind in appreciation.

Getting back to the nub of the matter, namely the fact that I was going to put it away in the refrigerator, I have only this to say: Goof ups have become a way of life with me in recent times. Why else would I pour two cups of water to make tea into a bowl, and not the saucepan, and then stand there staring at it, trying to figure out what it was for? I even went so far as to take out the medications meant for the night from their bubble wraps in the morning, and then stood there frowning at the colourful thingamabobs lying innocently in my palm, feeling in my bones that something was terribly wrong.

Of course I know what’s wrong. There are too many things vying for attention in my brain, that’s what’s wrong! Do I do this or do I do that? Or maybe not this this, but that that? Sigh. I gotta admit I am interested in way too many things. I am that Jill Of All Trades who cannot let go of some and focus only on one or two things. I have to do them all. Anyway, getting back to the story I was trying to say when once again I got sidetracked.

“You narrowly escaped having to eat crisp but ice clod murukkus!” I joked to the L&M.

“I actually thought you had seen a lizard!” His tone was accusatory.

I bet he had had visions of sweeping in and rescuing his damsel-in-distress from a miniature dragon aka lizard. The times that he has done so is too many to count on the fingers of both your hands plus the toes of both your feet. And then some more.

Only recently had I called out to him urgently from the balcony, interrupting his morning walk, to come and deal with a specimen that had sauntered into the bedroom —with the express aim of scaring me to death—while I lay there minding my own business, not scaring anyone, mind you! So, fair enough that his thinking had been it was a lizard that got me in a tizz.

Right now, the chapatis are in the fridge, and the murukkus —or what’s left of it—is in an airtight container in the cupboard, and with no lizards anywhere in sight, all’s right with the world. My world. 😉

©️ Shail Mohan 2026