Love U lifeline

Jassi’s Lassi


The gentle grrring sound subtly overrides the rattle of the primitive fan as it laboriously orbits in a bid to dissipate the stifling heat that had laid siege to the farmhouse sitting on a bed of thriving green. Outside the tightly-shuttered windows, a mature noon slips into an amateur afternoon as a cloak of dust shrouds the sun-baked fields of western India, signaling the arrival a dust storm that would invariably lead the over-laden mango trees to abort their still-forming fruits.

The sound of the washing machine, especially after a series of morning runs, is both arresting and intriguing. Who washes what and why at such a maddening frequency? I decide to unravel the mystery and head towards the kitchen, the domain of my home-stay hostess Jasleen, whom everyone lovingly calls “Jassi”- a name as sweet as her diligently prepared pure-Punjabi Makkhaniya Lassi, a curd-based creamy cooling drink- the lifeline of Indian summers.

A proud mother of five, Jassi is busy with a bundle of vegetables, while behind her, the washing machine, like a stubborn student forced into studying, growls and groans.

On hearing my question, a smile slowly surfaces on Jassi’s freckled face. Then, like a seasoned connoisseur, she makes the machine pause, dips a steel jug into the core and filling it with the pearly-white froth, offers it to me.

I skeptically eye the contents only to realize that it is none other than what I have already drunk many times before- Lassi. The heat mixed with the aroma forms a heady cocktail and I heartily take a sip, the thick coat of cream camouflaging my lips.

The washing machine is at work again, churning the creamy curd into a yummy drink.

The people of Punjab, in the past few decades, have undergone immense uprooting and upheaval, but still believe in living life to the fullest, letting the sufferings settle at the bottom and the happy froth float to the top, which they wholeheartedly drink and dwell upon.