This morning, I had my first experience of sukku kaapi.
I have heard of this weird sounding thingy before and finally I thought of having a go at it. And one of my saapattu goshtee members ordered it for me.
So, there I was waiting for this exotic sounding concoction to be served and the vendor handed over a steaming paper cup full of it.
The first thing that hit me was the color. It was WHITE. I like my coffee to be in the spectrum between dark brown and black. And the thing here was like white.
I was going to ask the vendor to add some more 'decoction' to get some color and thats when my sangam members intervened. Having seen quite a bewildered look on my face, they understood what I was looking for.
Then they started explaining the whole concept of sukku kaapi to me. I found out that in sukku kaapi one only gets sukku and absolutely no kaapi. Apparently, to make this liquid syrup, one just boils milk, adds sugar and a spoon or so of this sukku stuff. After this they leave it to the drinker's capacity to gulp it down (or keep staring at it like i did for some time).
I mean, if you are calling a beverage as some kaapi then why the bleep dont you add kaapi in it? I dont want to hear the 'there is no mysore in mysore bonda' story for this - at least there is no mysore but there is bonda. not the case in sukku kaapi, where you get sukku and no kaapi.
So after a long stare at the cup which didnt help bring in any form of caffeine in it, I decided to drink the damn thing, at least for its inherent medicinal benefits.
Needless to add, thats the only reason one must ever drink that potion.
I now wonder and hope that Neeluking clarifies, can I file a PIL for bringing in a name change for this beverage? Meaning, if they call something as 'something kaapi' i damn well expect to see kaapi in it. Same logic for other such food stuff with contradictory names.
2 comments:
In the days of yore when our ancestors graduated from wearing leaves to merely eating off leaves, they discovered that coffee was addictive. So they set up elaborate rehabilitation centers like the Hasthinapura empire, where they served the inmates Sukku Kapi. Since it was a copy of coffee, it was called so. Some scholars contest that the concoction was named so because drinking it induced the drinker to wail roughly in the raaga Kapi. But we will never know, as they all ate off the leaves in which these incidents were recorded, thereby smearing the records for future generations.
i am constantly amazed by your knowledge of historical events.
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