Samosa – Our best and crunchiest companion!

                                                                   Pic: Freepik

How many of you start drooling when you think of India’s super snack, samosa’? A golden, crispy triangle stuffed with potato filling, served with tangy and spicy chutney. Of course, along with its best accompaniment - garam chai! The very thought of this humble combo gets us excited and brings a smile to our faces.  It’s a part of our culture we grew up with, our favourite childhood memory, a mandatory snack in our birthday parties, and all family gatherings.

With society now obsessed with calorie count and making a villain out of our samosa, with some also suggesting that it be blacklisted, I cannot but agree more with Rujuta Diwekar’s comment, “Samosa and Jalebi ne aapka kya bigada hai?”

The frenzy to incorporate superfoods into the diet, promising health benefits and hourglass figures, fueled by endless reels on Instagram and other social media, is driving people crazy. However, in all this madness, our big group of family friends happily chose the samosa.

For us, samosa is more than a snack; it’s an emotion that really binds us together. We love our meet-ups at our favourite ‘Muncherry’, which is a small café tucked in a corner of our apartment complex, but our big sanctuary of joy, where the samosa is the unofficial symbol of friendship. It has witnessed our loudest laughs, our silliest jokes, and our quiet moments. In fact, this blog’s inspiration is also from one of our recent meet-ups, when one of our friends who was craving hot samosas called on a Sunday evening. One call was enough to light a spark in our lazy Sunday, and we all rushed to Muncherry with childlike excitement. The chit chat, the laughter, the steaming cup of chai along with samosas, was just perfect.

We generally tend to be quite loud when we get together and forget that people are sitting around us and wilfully choose joy over decorum. Occasionally, we keep checking each other to behave a little more civilised. Our Gen Z children sometimes find us embarrassing and tend to drift away during such cheery gatherings. But we don’t really care, as all of us just want to soak in carefree happiness.

One of our friends, who shifted to Noida a year back, is dearly missed during these meet-ups because they are diehard fans of samosas. In fact, they sparked the tradition of samosas at Muncherry, which became a ritual for all of us. We click pictures of samosas and chai or samosa selfies and send it to them, just to let them know that though they are missed, they are still very much part of our chaos.

As many of us have hit 50 or are nearing it, we sometimes get worried about our weight and increasing waistlines. Of course, our brilliant minds have figured out a jugaad for it - to split the samosa into parts. This almost sounds criminal and a big injustice to the modest snack. However, it makes us feel a little less guilty. On most days, though, we happily choose to forget the calorie count and just relish it as a moment of joy.

Every such meet-up, every celebration and every shared samosa reminds us that happiness does not really need any grand plans or luxurious set-ups. Just good company and a plate of fried samosas is enough. Over the years, we have built so many beautiful memories together, and no matter how busy we are, we always find our way back to each other.

So, here’s to the snack that has never judged us, but only joined us. And to all my friends who make every bite better!